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Chapter 7

I was stunned, almost in shock. The Ursine had come, to our planet, probably lured by my distress signal. They had found and captured the Nuara, and it would not at all be difficult to realize that a wolf was here with it, using supplies and activating distress beacons.

This was bad. This was really bad.

"Who are the Ursine? What are they doing here? Nate?"

My name, softly spoken, sent a chill down my back and my fur bristled. I turned to my companion, her eyes wide. I could feel her shaking against me, even hear her heart pounding in her chest...or maybe it was my own. I couldn't tell. I didn't hesitate to consider it as I grabbed the fox by the wrist and pulled her to her footpaws, only vaguely aware of her muffled yelp as I led her away. I didn't stop until we reached our discarded rucksacks and had dragged them into the shadows, disguised from the glare of the moons by a rocky outcrop.

I crouched on the ground and Tatania copied my motions.

"What's going on?"

"They're Ursine," I panted. I dumped the contents of my bag onto the ground and sifted through them until I found a knife and secured the sheath to my belt. "They've been at war with the Lupine Empire for three years now."

The fox's eyes widened. "The bear-giants," she gasped, her ears rising and falling in a single fluid motion.

I nodded. 'Giants' was the popular slang coined by the media. The assessment was a fair one: The average Ursine was two to three times larger than the largest wolf, and fearsome warriors. I had never been face to face with one before, but veteran Marines of the campaigns had told many vivid stories of their brutality in combat. They were partial to paw-to-paw fighting, and were not known for taking prisoners.

"I thought the war was over," she said.

I shook my head. "Temporary stand-down," I whispered. "They may not be looking for trouble," I said, failing miserably at sounding hopeful. I had only gotten a brief look at the ship and what was going on around it. I needed to know more. "I'm going to try and get a better look at them, okay?"

Tatania shook like a new-born pup. "No. I don't want to be alone. Please, Nate."

"I'll only be a minute, Tatania," I said soothingly, trying to bite down the fear in my own voice. "Only a minute, I promise."

The fox said nothing, nor moved a whisker as I picked up the pulse rifle in one paw, my pair of night-vision goggles in the other. I was about to dash off, but hesitated for a moment, my eyes holding Tatania's. They shined with the same hue that had filled me with terror once. Seeing the small creature crouched among a pile of jagged slate rock, so lowly and scared, almost made me change my mind about leaving her.

"Tatania, if any thing happens, I want you to run. Okay? Don't worry about me, just run as fast as you can with as many rations as you can carry."

She remained as silent as the rock around her as I got down on my knees and removed the knife from my belt, pressing it into her paws.

"If you get into trouble, slash at their ankles, okay? That's there weak spot. You fight like hell and then run like hell, do you understand that?"

I saw a new tremor course through her lithe little body, but I saw a brief nod and her paw curled around the weapon's hilt. An image of a dark phantom cracking me in the head with a pipe surfaced, and I had little doubt that she could do what was necessary when the situation called for it.

I turned and sprinted off toward the ship, sticking to the shadows, keeping my tail low and ears raised to the air. I made a wide arch around to the left, keeping to the lowlands between rises in the earth and stopped and listened after a brief jog to make sure I was alone. I was terribly alive at that moment, my senses overwhelming me. My trainers had called it 'madness,' an instinctual throwback to an earlier history when our ancestors partook of 'the hunt' in wild packs, with nothing but their fangs and senses as weapons. I should have felt a great pride in believing I was their legacy; a masterful hybrid between the old ways and the new, of senses and science.

I should have felt pride. What I truly felt was fear; and not of death or pain, but of doubt, of knowing what was not known. The terror of understanding the danger but of not knowing what to do about it. I reminded myself, crouched low behind a dirt berm, with the enemy ship only fifty meters away, that failure was fatal.

Through the NVGs I could see they had landed a small Striker-class drop ship less than twenty meters from the Nuara. It was about half the size of the Nuara, very rectangular in shape. There was an operations deck above for the pilot and crew, but the majority of the space below was reserved for a compliment of at least twenty infantry soldiers. That was bad news, but it wasn't the worst. This was only a drop ship; in no way suited for voyages longer than a few thousand kilometers. There was an entire battle carrier somewhere above me, probably floating in orbit above the planet.

I counted five large hulking figures lurking around the area-no, make that six-which begged the question: where were the other dozen or so? They walked with a characteristic hobble, creatures seemingly too large to be bipedal. All but one were armed. The only unarmed bear was yelling something to a couple of subordinates, making large exaggerated sweeps of his massive paws. I couldn't understand his Ursine language, punctuated often by angry snarls and jaw-snapping, but it was clear he was in charge, and wasn't happy.

A pair of Ursine soldiers were at the mouth of the Nuara's jagged wound. One was tossing boxes of stuff onto the ground that a third unseen bear within the ship was passing to them; the other was sifting through everything, throwing equipment and cargo in all directions. They were exploiting their newest find. If their standard operating procedures were anything like ours, they would be looking for intelligence of immediate value first, then scraping the entire ship to salvage useful technology or document Lupine military doctrine afterward. I knew, because I had been involved in site exploitation before, sifting through captured Ursine equipment when I was an enlisted crewman aboard a battle cruiser, before entering the officer academy.

As the ship's officer it was my responsibility to make sure this didn't happen, to safeguard sensitive equipment and information. But there was little I could do about it. I was greatly outnumbered, I had no methods to destroy my ship (or the enemy ship for that matter), and they would likely be looking for the wolf that had recorded the signal.

"Gods damn it," I hissed. I had shot myself in the footpaw on that one.

A grating sound of rock on rock behind me made me jump. I spun around, ripping the NVGs off my face and raising my rifle in a single, fluid motion. I heard paw steps, an unmistakable noise of shale sliding under heavy boots. I saw a bright light around a bend, moving in rapid sweeps, like a flashlight. There were muffled voices.

A patrol. I looked around myself, quickly surveying my surroundings. I switched off the NVGs so they wouldn't glow, even a tiny bit, and crept painfully slow to my right and pressed my body against the ground, melding into the surrounding terrain, watching the light with shallow breath. A moment later a big bear came shuffling into view, his back toward me. I'd have to guess he was about three meters tall, a huge helmeted head and short lumbering legs. Their stature was deceptive, however; they were fast when they wanted to be. His partner came into view next, this one carrying the light, making broad sweeps with it, back and forth, as his companion grunted inaudibly.

I held my breath, my grip tightening on the rifle to keep my paw from shaking. I was sure they could hear my heart pounding against my ribcage. But they didn't come my way, and disappeared from my view.

I dispelled a low gasp. My legs were numb, my paws shaking uncontrollably for a minute before my senses calmed. I shut my eyes tightly for a brief moment. Then I gasped suddenly, forcefully, jumping to my paws and trotted quickly after the bears, remembering where the low path they were taking would lead them.

Tatania!

I trailed the pair of Ursines for a good length, keeping far enough behind to remain unheard and unseen. Just as I had feared, they kept to the bottom of the hills and slowly followed the small draw that I had traveled in reverse only a few minutes before. Were they tracking my scent? I didn't believe so. From what I understood, their sense of smell was considerably worse than mine.

One of the bears made a sharp snarl and the light shifted suddenly. I couldn't see what had caught their attention, but I had no difficulty hearing their angry shouts as the soldier without the light lurched forward. A shrill yelp cut through the silence, followed immediately by a loud howl. The bear stumbled backward, clutching at his arm. I rushed forward, quickly but quietly as the second bear dropped the flashlight and raised his rifle, bringing the stock down hard. Another shrill scream of pain. He raised it again, higher this time.

BANG!

The beast paused, his weapon hanging in mid air.

BANG!

The rifle dropped to the ground, the clatter of metal on rock echoed against the hillside, almost as loudly as my pulse rifle's shot. The huge creature's body collapsed beside the rifle.

If I could give his partner credit for one thing, it was that he was faster than I was. A pistol appeared from his belt and flashed twice. The first round hit the dirt at my left boot a fraction of a second before fire exploded above my left hip. I howled in pain, almost dropping my rifle as my paw fell to my side. I felt blood seeping through a tear in my shirt.

The Ursine bent to the ground and picked up a small form in his free paw. It was Tatania, the terrified fox thrashed and kicking as he squeezed her against his chest, her neck trapped by his muscled arm.

"Shtop," he yelled, his voice thickly accented. "Me shoot." He emphasized his point by placing the muzzle of his pistol against the fox's temple.

Tatania was crying openly, her eyes held tightly shut. When they opened, they stared pleadingly at me.

"Put her down," I growled, advancing on him slowly, my rifle aimed directly as his face.

A toothy sneer played across his face and he spit. "No."

"Drop her!"

He squeezed the fox's neck tighter until she gagged. I accepted this as his answer, sighted down the rifle, and squeezed the trigger.

The first thing I saw after the muzzle flash was the bear's eyes go wide and his arm suddenly go slack, the bullet through his throat most likely severing his spinal cord. I fired again, the bullet penetrating his eye socket and kicking his head backward, the momentum carrying the rest of him with it. I ran to his side but before I could make sure he was dead, Tatania had her arms around my chest, her muzzle buried in my shirt, yowling loudly.

I winced. "Hey, be careful," I hissed through gritted teeth.

She released me. There was blood on her arm. She sniffed it, her eyes shifting quickly from my side to my face, her brow furrowed. I appreciated her concern, but we had no time.

"We need to go, now."

Tatania shoved what she could into the rucksacks while I searched the bears' bodies for anything useful. I took the pistol (which was huge in my paw) and a magazine. Both had radios. Urgent Ursine voices growled over the comms. I didn't need a translator to understand it meant trouble. As I threw on my pack a glint of metal on the ground caught my eye. I picked up my knife, crimson blood staining the blade. I offered it to the fox, an approving smirk on my face. She took it.

"Let's go," I said, pointing in an arbitrary direction away from the ships.

Tatania nodded. Her ears perked up and her nose pointed behind us. "Someone's coming."

"Go!"

I pushed her forward, following closely behind her, my attention to our rear. Two more Ursines crested a hill, their lights falling on the bodies below them. There was more shouting, followed by three more of them appearing from the darkness.

When the landscape hid them from my view and they didn't follow, I was certain we hadn't been spotted.

"Keep running, Tatania. Don't look back."

***

"This doesn't look good," said Tatania. I was lying on my side, the fox bent over my back, appraising my wound. "It's still bleeding a little, and it needs stitches."

"It could have been worse," I muttered, then hissed as she set about cleaning it with a little water and picking hair out of it. After a few minutes she tied a strap of cloth over it. I was lucky it was only a cut. Any further to the right and it might have hit my kidney.

"I hope it doesn't become infected," she said, tying off the bandage. "Thank you, by the way. You could have let them take me. If you had they might have been convinced I was the only one here."

"The thought never crossed my mind," I said quietly.

A pair of soft paws enclosed mine and for the first time in a month I returned another being's intimate gesture. I slowly rolled onto my back. The fox was smiling gently, a little shyly.

I smiled too, sitting up with a groan. The run had been painfully long, but I had dared not stop until we were a good five kilometers from the ship, and I was sure we hadn't been followed. I knew it wouldn't make any difference in the long run. Their targeting computers would find us no matter how hard we tried to evade them. I didn't tell Tatania this fact, as it would only upset her. And if my theory about her was correct, she had double the reason to be afraid. I looked down at her stomach, at a light bulge that she had been so good at hiding before it grew too apparent.

"How long have you been pregnant," I asked quietly.

I half expected an immediate denial or an indignant scowl. Rather, she looked down at herself, a paw pressing to her abdomen. When she looked up again her expression had not hardened, but there was a sadness to it.

"About six weeks."

I nodded. "How long..."

"Three more weeks. Maybe four. I've kind of lost track."

Great merciful gods. How horrible it must be to carry a child on this gods-damned planet, knowing full-well there would soon be nothing to eat, that the child could not possibly survive this harsh environment, Ursine enemies notwithstanding. Or a Lupine brute, I realized suddenly. I had shocker her with that damn collar. Beaten her, too. I'd like to believe my actions would have been different had I known.

I shook my head, looking away. "I'm sorry, Tatania. Gods, I'm sorry. I understand why you didn't trust me."

She still held my paw, and squeezed it tighter. "I think I can now."

Her sincerity made me glad, but I couldn't convince myself that her trust in me was warranted. I wasn't sure I could save myself, much less both...the three of us.

Perhaps I could save them.

"Are you tired," I asked.

She nodded. "A little."

"Go ahead and lay down. I'll take first watch."

I watched her get as comfortable as possible on the hard ground, without any bedding. I had told her it was too dangerous to unpack anything, in case we had to leave immediately. But when she was finally asleep I took the bedroll from her pack and gently covered her so as not to wake her. I tucked my rifle under the blanket at her paws so she would know it was there when she awoke. I think she would know what it meant.

"Stay alive, Tatania," I whispered.

It was quiet out in the open, eerily so. Beginning at the point that I started walking to the time that I found what I was looking for, I must have considered changing my mind a thousand times. But when the white of searching lights flooded over me and I raised my paws, both to shield my eyes and prove my intentions, I didn't have the luxury of choice any longer.

Four of them surrounded me, their weapons raised to my chest. I could smell their putrid musk, see the hatred in their eyes and the flash of their fangs. I was sure they'd kill me on the spot, but a fifth bear pushed his way into the group, the bear that had been yelling near his ship.

"Who are you," he snarled, his Lupine peculiarly clear.

I breathed deeply, gulping down a knot in my throat. "My name is Ensign Nathanial Hopewell. I'm the executive officer of the ILS freighter Nuara. I surrender myself into your custody."

The Ursine's eyes narrowed as he regarded me for a long moment before barking harshly to his subordinates and walking away. There was movement to my right and before I could react a rifle butt cracked against my skull and everything went dark.