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Chapter 8

It was still night when I was awoke by a slap to the muzzle. If it was the sound of my jaws clacking together that woke me, it was the sharp pain of a broken tooth that informed me I was not dreaming. I couldn't see anything-there was a hood over my head-but I knew I was outside from the scent of dirt and the sharp edge of rock under my tail I was forced to sit on. I couldn't say how late (or early) it was; the sun wasn't up yet. All four of my paws were bound together.

There were little sounds of activity around me; paw steps, distant conversations, what sounded like scraping metal. I dared not try to stand. I could hear heavy breathing nearby. After a painfully still moment my ears swiveled left to warn me of someone's approach, but the action must have triggered something angry in my guard because before I know it I was on my side, my skull throbbing. Huge paws, with long claws digging in deep, hauled me upright again only to knock me onto my back. I disguised a groan of pain with a growl of rage. My unseen captor laughed with a deep, throaty sort of snort and put his heavy boot directly onto my gun-wound. I bit my tongue but he applied weight until I couldn't keep from howling aloud.

A nearby, bellowing growl cork-screwed up my spine. The boot was pulled away and I was quickly lifted onto my haunches amid a storm of forceful alien phrases. The heavy pawsteps stopped in front of me, and a paw closed firmly around my muzzle. I growled, low in the chest. It was a farce: I was terrified.

"Silence," rumbled a deep voice. It was their leader. "You listen when I speak, wolf. Or you die."

My blood froze, not at his words but at his clear tone. It held in every syllable a promise and a bluntness that came with experience. I didn't make a sound. I didn't resist.

"What is your duty," he asked, and the paw moved from my muzzle. It was my turn to speak.

I moved my jaw around. I tasted blood. "Pilot," was all I said.

"What was your mission?"

I didn't answer. The leader spoke quickly, something sounding like "Roan stalal," and one of the bears rolled up my shirt sleeve. A cold piece of metal touched my left bicep. I jumped when something thin and sharp penetrated my skin and sunk deep into my bicep.

"Tur'eten."

Fire exploded up into my shoulder, my chest tightened, and my neck spasmed. The devise fell away. I was panting heavily, my head spinning.

"Mission."

In reply I growled, "Don't you know already? You have my ship!"

The paw clenched my snout again and pulled me upward until my knees were just barely in contact with the ground. I felt his breath against my whiskers, his putrid breath taunting my gag reflex.

"I don't play games, wolf. You will give me what I want, or I will cut it from you."

He dropped me. "Tur'eten." Cold steel on my arm and suddenly I was on my back, my legs quivering uncontrollably. When the Ursine took the devise away and my muscles relaxed, I screamed like a banshee.

"Mission."

I couldn't breath. I couldn't think straight, but when the bear shouted "Tur'eten" again I managed to grasp out a "No, wait!" even as the needle probe inserted into my flesh. I held my breath and the pain didn't come.

"Mission!"

"Cargo," I gasped. "We carry military cargo."

"To where?"

"The Gerald Station, quadrant two."

There was a long awful pause.

"Tur'eten!"

When the jolt ended I pitched forward and vomited on myself. Then a fist smashed into my jaw and my vision flashed white. I groaned and spit out blood, stomach acid, and a broken fang.

"Do not lie to me! Where were you going?"

I think I was on my chest, but I honestly didn't know which way was up. I couldn't feel my arm. My muzzle was burning. I tried to make my leg stop twitching but the effort only made it worse. Where were we going? Where?...I didn't remember. I thought, I tried to focus. Nuara...Captain Howard ...

"Ensign Nathaniel Hopewell...ILS freighter Nuara...Imperial Lupine Navy..." I was rambling by now. I couldn't make myself stop, because I feared that if I did I would tell the bastard everything he wanted to know. "...I am an officer of His Majesty's Royal Fleets...Honor is my guide...Duty is my drive...I am a leader of wolves and a model of loyalty...I will never-"

"Tur'eten!"

I screamed, I howled and kicked, my face in the dirt.

My head was jerked up violently. "What was your destination!"

I gasped. "Beta-Seven Outpost."

"Where is that?"

"Where...whe...what..." I was dizzy and confused, about to vomit again. "I don't know where it is," I said slowly. "The navigation computer tracks it."

I didn't get a warning before the next shock. I threw up again, but little if anything was left in my stomach and I dry heaved painfully for Gods know how long. One of the bears landed a sharp kick to my abdomen. I curled up on the ground, fighting for air, gasping helplessly. I couldn't breath! I started to panic and I gasped more for oxygen.

There was shouting. Paws grabbed at me from above; some holding me down, others trying to pull my body straight. I wanted to howl, my instinct telling me to lash out with tooth and claw, but I was growing more and more panicked. I felt myself lifted from the ground and swung through space just as I lost consciousness.

***

There was a pressure in my head that threatened to split my skull open. I was hot as hell. My shirt had been stripped off at some point while I was out and the sun was relentlessly beating down on my bare back. I couldn't say what time of day it was except to say that the sun couldn't have been much higher in the sky than it appeared to be. My throat was dry; my tongue was swollen.

I didn't dare move a paw. There was activity all around me, though distant and indefinable, and as before I couldn't see anything through the hood. For all I knew I hadn't moved an inch from the previous night, and like the previous night someone was standing watch over me. He paced slowly in what must have been small, unhurried circuits in the dirt not more than a couple meters from my nose.

I was agonizingly aware of my entire body-or almost all of it-through a burning ache that seemed to radiate from my left hip and translate to every extent of myself, except my left arm. It was completely numb from the tips of my claws to the shoulder above where they had shocked me. I made an effort to feel it, to will it to life. I was lying on my chest, my wrists cuffed behind my back, just as I had been when I awoke during the night. I thought about pressing its elbow into my wound, just for the benefit of knowing I could. It remained paralyzed. I jerked suddenly, almost on impulse, my right paw closing around my left, claws digging into chapped pads. Where I should have felt pain I felt nothing at all.

My guard bellowed loudly, making me jump. There was a distant reply, to which my guard rested his boot on the small of my back. As the approaching boot steps brought an unknown horror closer I shook with blind dread. I was hauled to my footpaws and forced to walk. A big paw clapped firmly to the back of my neck guided me along, reminding me that I had no chance at escape. I couldn't see through the hood and hadn't the ability to raise a paw to remove it, even if I managed to break free and run long enough before being shot dead.

Perhaps it would be best if I were shot down while running. Better to go out running than endure their physical torture or endure the torture of waiting for torture. Maybe I had outlived my usefulness to them and they were marching me off to my death right now. It had been the Ursines' long-standing policy to avoid the burden of war prisoners. A bullet to the base of the skull would be a simple solution.

Something hard caught my right boot and I stumbled forward. The paw on my neck gripped my nape and lifted to stabilize me. The pain was tremendous, but I refused to cry out, to give them the satisfaction.

The dirt had given way to smooth metal under my boots, blistering sun giving way to welcome shade. Stale air greeted my nostrils, laced with a faint trace of burning chemicals and ozone. We were in a structure, probably a ship. Our steps echoed off cramped quarters and narrow corridors. I knew that I was in the Nuara, even before my paws had been freed and the hood removed.

I blinked against an assault of sunlight. It took a full thirty seconds for me to recognize my surroundings as the Nuara's cockpit. The seats had been removed, as with a good portion of the paneling to expose computer and electrical components, much of which had been stripped out already. Instinctively my attention wandered, a disgusted scowl baring my fangs at the Ursine leader. One of the bears behind me held my arms tightly.

"Navigations," he said, painting to his left. "Show me Beta-Seven Outpost."

I was shoved against the consul. I stared blankly down at it. If he didn't know where the Beta-Seven Outpost was, or even what it was, I certainly couldn't give him that now.

"The navigational computer was damaged in the crash," I said slowly, turning to him when something caught my eye. It was nothing more than a small flashing light on the communications terminal adjacent to the navigations computer. "...and I couldn't repair it when I tried."

He stepped close to me, his head brushing the ceiling. His size seemed completely out of place in the Lupine-designed craft. Bending down he looked me directly in the eye, breathing forcefully into my face, an attempt at asserting his dominance over me. I needed no reminding who the prisoner was, and who the interrogator. But I wouldn't roll over and submit. I couldn't...

"I am telling you the truth," I stammered. "The nav computer is operable, but the sensors were destroyed. I can't map anything without them." His eyes narrowed but a reserved hesitation gave me hope. "You're technicians should have told you that already," I snarled critically, and turned my attention to nursing my injured arm.

A furious howl shook the room and before I realized what was happening my head had been smashed against the consul, blood flowing from my nostrils.

"I do not enjoy being insulted!" It came as a shriek. Or maybe it was my ears ringing. I tried to lift my head from the cold metal, but he pushed me down harder. I felt his breath at my ear, irritating the sensitive guard hairs there. "Your life is mine, wolf. How much pain you do or do not feel is at my total control. I can and will make you scream for death before the night is out."

I growled, struggled, pushed against the consul with my good paw, all to no success against the more powerful alien. But it didn't matter. I had to keep him distracted, to keep his attention diverted.

"I don't know anything," I gasped, my eyes focused on the comms station less than half a meter from my nose. "I'm only a pilot! I don't know anything about tactics or movements or plans!" My paw brushed over the flashing light on the transmission controls. The display flashed and a security code appeared. It was a Lupine cipher. "I can't give you what I don't have, please don't hurt me!" I slammed the call button a moment before I was pulled from the station and thrown to the floor.

"You will access the database and show me your flight plan!"

I didn't move. Attempting to rise might anger him further. Then again, not attempting to rise might anger him. Gods, I didn't know! So I kept still, praying that if I did the rest of my environment would too; that everything-this ship, these beasts, the pain-would melt into ether and float away.

It didn't, of course.

"Get up."

I didn't move.

"Get up!"

I tried. My muscles were so weak. My right paw was trembling as I shifted it under my chest and pushed against the corrugated decking beneath. I pushed against the weight of my body, against the weight of the world, and collapsed. There were tears streaming down my face.

"Brun'un itatra!"

I was brought to my knees, then to my paws. I was unsteady, so the Ursine guard behind me held me up as his leader, very calmly, very deliberately, reached down and jabbed my wound with a set of long claws. I hissed, clenched my jaws, and shut my eyes. His rough probing went deeper. I whined like a pup, biting my tongue so hard it bled. He pulled and jabbed until the shriek I had been holding inside could remain unheard no longer.

He extricated his digits from my side with a violent jerk. "The database. Now!"

I trembled, whimpering like a pup. With tremendous effort I lifted my head. My eyes were clouded. Streaks of sunset bathing the cockpit in orange and red, against which I saw those beady Ursine eyes glaring down at me. I can't begin to describe the hate that boiled up from within me. It was almost enough to drown the pain. I drew in a long breath, wheezed and coughed on bloody mucus. "Kill me, you son of a bitch," I muttered weakly. Anything to get rid of the pain. Oh Gods, just make it stop!

"What?" He leaned in closer.

"I said...fuck you, you son of a bitch. Fuck the bitch that spawned you."

I didn't hear his roar. I didn't see him reach to his belt, or even feel the blade slip between my ribs. What I did feel was a spark of despair, like suddenly falling from a great height. I grunted from the pressure. I saw a cold neutrality on his face, an expression that seemed to say "If I can't get what I want, I'll settle for this." It wasn't until he drew the knife out that I groaned, and not from any added pain either.

I looked down, half in fear, half in hope that that fear was unfounded. Bright crimson flowed down my bare chest, staining the off-white fur. I stared blankly at it, somehow unable to believe. I raised a shaking paw, its pads making tracks and smears in the hot fluid. I felt light headed. I wanted to panic. I closed my eyes. I wanted to sleep. I just...I wanted...

I jerked sharply. I felt like I was falling and opened my eyes. Bulkheads were flowing past me...I could count them...I was being dragged to...to...

I was lying on the ground. Two of the beasts were towering over me. It looked like they were having a loud argument between them. I turned my head left. The Ursine drop ship was lit up, frantic figures running to and fro. The sun was below the horizon now, the sky a deep, beautiful crimson. To my right the sky was deep blue, going on black. The stars were out, flashing and streaking across their inky backdrop with such energy that...

I squinted, confused. I tried to sit up, but couldn't. I was too tired, too woozy. It hurt to breath. There were brilliant flashes in the sky, a storm unlike anything I'd seen before. The bears began shouting urgently. I heard a heavy roar-or maybe it was more like a low scream-and from the blackening sky an even darker shape streaked across my field of vision, flying directly over me. The ground shook in its wake, the very air vibrating.

Where had I seen that shape before? It couldn't have been a...no, not a...

There was a second scream as the Lupine fighter craft banked sharply and turned my way again. The bears raised their rifles and lit up the twilight with gunfire. It did nothing. The dark shape didn't alter its course. As it passed over me the entire world exploded in light and fire. I screwed my eyes shut and a heat wave washed over me like hot liquid. I opened my muzzle to howl. I couldn't hear myself over the blast. When I opened my eyes, the Ursine drop ship was a field of flaming wreckage. The soldiers that had been standing above me were now sprawled on the ground, stunned and moaning.

I smelled burned hair, some of it mine, some not. I coughed. The heat was piercing. I rolled onto my chest, shutting out the pain and weakness, forcing myself onto my paws and knees. I crawled, slowly, pushing with my legs and dragging my paralyzed arm, using my right elbow to keep my nose out of the dirt. I was so tired. I was so awfully tired.

Suddenly I was moving, not forward, but backward. I looked behind me. A big paw was clasped around my boot; a wide face, half of it burned naked from the explosion, glared daggers at me. Fangs flashing, a rifle pointed at my head.

BANG!

He jerked suddenly. I was frozen stiff. The rifle fell to the ground and his paw loosened.

"Nate!"

A small orange and white figure fell beside me, its green eyes wide and frantic.

"Tatania," I whispered.

She looped the rifle strap around her shoulder and grabbed my paw, tugging urgently. "We need to get out of here, Nate! Come on, get up!"

I shook my head, slowly. "I don't think I can," I said with effort. "I don't have...don't have...tired."

The fox didn't quit. Pulling on my wrist she tried a couple times to drag me away. I did what I could but I was so tired. "No...just let me...let me take a nap...I'll be fine."

"No," she cried. There were tear tracks in her cheek fur. "You need to stay awake. Stay awake, Nate! Please!" Paws pressed against my chest and pushed. It hurt. "Don't go to sleep on me!"

I could see the stars above. They were beautiful. In harmony. I smiled. The pain was gone. I felt weightless among those dazzling pinpoints of light. I had no more burdens, no more guilt, no more suffering, no more hopeless longing.

'You've been through so much, Nate,' they seemed to say. 'Let it all go and you'll be happy again. Let go, Nate.'

Let go...

Let go...