FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

And chapter 2. Once again, I hope that you enjoy it.

As always, comments are appreciated and requested.

---

Continued from 'A Deadly Game'...

11-12-3015

Time Index; 0356 hours GST

Colyon Prime station

Colyon system, Merxian space

Tyr waited outside the Stationmaster's office, his helmet in one hand, tapping it gently against his other palm. He still could hardly believe that someone would be stupid enough to pursue chemical weapons. So far, both sides had refrained from using chemical and biological weapons at all, and nukes only on rare occasions, and then only in space battles, never on planets. Although such weapons were frighteningly effective, there was a very good reason why they weren't used. If one side used something like RD-86A, even once, then all bets would be off and this war would become truly nasty. If that happened, then Tyr knew both sides would start targeting civilian populations, it being far easier to blanket a planet with the weapon then to try and target just military personnel. But that was just it. Neither side wanted to go that far, since the consequences would be truly terrible. No one in their right mind would want to go that far. Which begged the question, where had the RD-86A come from? It had been Larn who had suggested a way to find out, and after consulting the MP captain, Tyr had agreed to his XO's plan. Which was why he was standing there, in the corridor outside the stationmaster's office, wearing fully sealed body armor. That room was the only one on the station that had its own sealed environmental control system, which meant it could be sealed off from the rest of the station. And anyone who lived and worked on the station would have known that. Inside the office, the captain of the MPs was trying her hand at interrogating the leader of the black marketeers.

Tyr looked up when a shadow fell across him, finding Larn standing there, his helmet already on his head, his armor sealed, a hardened steel case held carefully in his great hands. Grinning at his XO, who had darkened his helmet's faceplate almost to black, hiding his face, Tyr slipped his own helmet onto his head, the familiar hiss signaling that the armor was sealed against the environment. Tyr left his visor transparent on purpose, the plan requiring that the target see him. A few moments later, the door to the office was opened and the MP officer waved them inside.

"Mr. Taran, I would like to introduce Colonel Queran, Alliance Special Forces." She said as Tyr came in and sat down opposite the civilian, who was cuffed to the only other chair in the room. He was a tiger, dressed in what might have been called a business suit, had it not been made out of the same material as a space suit. "Since you have refused to cooperate with me, the colonel here will be taking over your interrogation." With that, the captain left, allowing Major Tor'sek to close the door behind her. The civilian's eyes went wide upon seeing the gigantic canid, and a flicker of fear went into his gaze when he saw the case the huge wolf held.

"As I told that bitch," He began, snarling at Tyr with a bravado that was as impressive as it was false. "You won't get anything out of me."

"Now, now," Tyr said, making his tone as pleasant and smooth as he could. "There is no need for such language. There is no reason we can't be civilized about this."

"You wanna be civilized?" Taran shot back, leaning as far forward as the cuffs would allow, "Then uncuff me. I'll show you civilized."

"No, I don't think so." Tyr said, still sounding pleasant, which must have been unsettling to the criminal. "You are hardly in a position to ask such a thing anyway." With a wave, Tyr directed Larn to put the case down on the table. When the Major had backed up against the wall, out of the way, the Colonel opened the case and removed a sealed vial from inside it. The vial held a perfectly clear liquid, but the black marketeer shifted uncomfortably, sitting back in sudden fear when he saw the label on it. Tyr held the small container up to the light and turned it so the target could get a good long look at the label, knowing that Taran had made the connection between the vial and the sealed armor the two soldiers were wearing. "Do you know what this is? I am going to go out on a limb and say, since we found it in your quarters, that you do."

"I'm not gonna tell you anything." The criminal insisted, though there was now a quaver of fear in his voice.

"Looks pretty harmless, doesn't it?" Tyr continued, turning the vial of RD-86A this way and that, as if admiring its contents. "You know, I have heard that three drops of this is enough to permanently kill off the reasoning part of your brain. I wonder...what would happen if one were to inject an entire vial into someone? I don't think the results would be very pleasant, but then, we won't know until we try, will we?"

"What do you want?" Taran asked, swallowing nervously. Tyr looked at him as if in surprise.

"I thought you said you weren't going to tell me anything. What is the point in knowing the question if you aren't going to provide any answers?" Tyr asked, then set the vial down on the table top. "Well, since you asked, I want to know where you got this case and the chemical inside it."

"Why would I tell you that?" Taran asked, a note of triumph in his voice, a small grin starting to creep across his lips, as if Tyr asking that question had been the ultimate victory for him. "I am a civilian, which means I can't be tried by the military. You can't do anything to me."

"Oh can't I?" Tyr questioned, his pleasant voice suddenly going as cold as ice. "You and your fellows made a very serious mistake when you kidnapped a General officer of the Merxian Marine Corps and threatened to kill her. You see, an act like that makes you enemy combatants, not civilians, not criminals and more, it makes you a traitor. In time of war, treason carries the penalty of death and with all of this evidence, the military tribunal would merely be a formality. And I doubt very much if anyone would care if I saved them the time." The tiger gulped and leaned away from the soldier, trying his best to remain defiant, despite the apparent truth of Tyr's words. "Now, I need to know what you know. I could of course, plead with you, try and make a deal with you, but since we both know there can only be one outcome to this, I couldn't very well trust anything you said. Alternatively, I could have one of my psychics come in here, and after hours and hours of excruciating pain and exhausting effort, he would rip the knowledge right out of your brain, leaving you a babbling fool, forever broken, for whom death would be the kindest fate. But I don't need to resort to such primitive means. You see, I have something far more effective than a psychic or a deal at my disposal, something that will take only seconds to accomplish the same effect. Thanks to you, I have this marvelous chemical." With that Tyr withdrew a pressurized injector from inside the case, holding it up so the man could see it.

"What are you going to do with that?" The man asked, his will obviously crumbling. Tyr simply smiled and unscrewed the cap of the vial that was resting on the table top. "You can't do that!!"

"Why not?" Tyr asked, putting the tip of the injector into the vial and watching with satisfaction as the entire volume of the container went up into the storage cell. "The only people in here are the three of us, and you are known to have in your possession this dangerous chemical. Who is to say that when you found you were about to be captured, you didn't inject yourself to keep what you know out of the hands of the military. Larn, hold him still." The huge wolf came close to the tiger, placing one hand on the tiger's shoulder, the other on his head, bending it to the side so that his neck was exposed. Taran struggled against his grip, but the huge wolf held him with appalling ease. When the tiger was finally still, his eyes wide, Tyr got up and walked around the table, leaning almost casually against its edge, looking down at the injector in his hands with a contemplative expression on his face. "You know, I honestly wonder what it's like. Do you think you will be aware that you are losing your mind, or will it just happen? It can't be painful, since the pain receptors are the first to go, but I imagine it isn't pleasant. Well, I guess it's time we find out."

"Wait!!" The tiger cried, panic in his voice as Tyr leaned in, the injector tip against his jugular vein. "Please!! Don't use that stuff on me!! I'll tell you what you want to know."

"You have got ten seconds." Tyr replied icily, not pulling the injector away from his neck, his thumb still poised on the button.

"It's a company on Sython called Tare Pharmaceuticals." He said quickly, his eyes wide with terror. "They got a hold of the formula somehow and have been trying to figure out how to manufacture it."

"For you?" Tyr demanded, jabbing the injector a little harder into his neck and the tiger shook his head. Sython was a Merxian core world, and though the coyote knew the criminal was far too scared to lie, he could scarely believe it.

"No, we just intercepted a case of it." Taran said, almost shaking with terror as Tyr pulled the injector away from his neck. "I have no idea who the buyer is. I do know that they have only made small batches of it. It would be too easy to identify if it was made on a large scale. We were lucky to find a single case. I thought it would be valuable."

"You're scum." Larn snarled, his deep voice making the criminal flinch. "I say we inject him anyway."

"Mmmm. Tempting." Tyr said, tossing the injector back onto the table, grinning evilly at the tiger. "But then, saline solution has never been particularly dangerous."

"What..?" the Tiger said, his eyes suddenly narrowing in confusion. Larn immediately released him, laughing heartily and the black marketeer's face twisted into a venomous snarl and he spluttered, incoherent noises of anger all he could manage in his outrage.

"Thank you, Mr. Taran, you have been so helpful." Tyr said, emptying the injector onto the floor, his own laughter welling up in his throat. Tapping the com unit in his armor he called the MP Captain in, the lioness' eyes wide in amazement at the ruse they had just pulled off. When the tiger was hauled away by the MPs, apoplectic with rage, the captain smiled.

"That worked way better than I thought it would." she said, smiling as Tyr tossed the injector and the fake bottle of RD-86A back into the empty case. The real RD-86A had been destroyed more than an hour ago, incinerated in the Adaron's medical lab. Larn removed his helmet and smiled down at the MP. "It's a good thing that he didn't know you were bluffing about the treason charges."

"Basic rule of interrogation." The wolf rumbled, "Better to let them fill in the blanks themselves then to spell it out. If you pretend to be willing to do the worst, their paranoia does the rest."

"I'll have to keep that in mind." The MP said, turning to leave. Tyr grinned at his XO and motioned for the wolf to lead the way back to the Adaron...

***

11-13-3015

Time Index; 0630 hours GST

Corallis 2, Planetary grid N17

Corallis system, Terran border space

Leaning back in a long stretch, I tried to work the kink out of my back, rolling my shoulders and neck as I did so. Katy and I had spent quite a lot of time over the last couple of days going through our data, compiling lists of conspirators and their value to the Conclave, based on the amount of activity each of them had done, as well as the resources each one had. So far, we had narrowed down the list of leaders to about a dozen individuals, but as we had been working, a feeling had been growing in my mind, a feeling that I couldn't seem to shake, no matter how hard I tried. It was a faint glimmer of wrongness, the eerie sort of feeling that psychics got when walking into an ambush, like a trickle of ice water down the spine. But I could sense no one anywhere near us, so it couldn't be that. But the more I thought about, the more I became convinced that it had something to do with the data we were looking at. It might just have been that it was incomplete; after all, this was still mostly guess work.

'I feel it too.' My mate's mental voice suddenly said, accompanying a faint echo of the feeling as she reached across our mental link. 'Do you think that maybe we are going about this the wrong way?'

'No, it doesn't feel that way to me.' I replied, looking over at Katy's nude form. Even sitting there cross-legged, a keyboard in her lap, she was beautiful to me. 'It's almost like we are missing something.'

'Like a member of the Conclave's leadership?' She asked and I nodded. 'Its possible. Even with all the data we have, I doubt we have even gotten a third of what is out there.'

'I guess so." I replied, typing a command into my own keyboard, bringing up a holographic list of conclave members, hovering in the air above the holographic projector. Scrolling the list down with my fingers, I tried to find the source of my discomfort. Finally, midway down the list of possible cell leaders, I paused, cocking my head to the side, my eyes tracking across the names. At my mate's questioning glance, I spun the display around so she could see it, highlighting a name.

'Jackson MacArthur.' She read, a look of puzzlement on her face. 'Isn't that your father's old business associate? What about him?'

'I don't know.' I said, gazing at the name for a moment in confusion. 'Its almost like he's in the wrong category or something. But he is just the owner of an interplanetary shipping company. It isn't like he could be of supreme value or anything.'

'How sure are you that your father's company was just a shipping company?' Katy asked and I considered it for a moment.

'Pretty darn. There is no evidence that there was anything else.' I replied. That was the truth as far as I could tell, though I couldn't shake the feeling that my father's old friend was of more importance than he seemed. Katy shrugged, setting the keyboard down before her, a brief flash of memory coming across our link as she did so. It was an image of us lying together in the cave on Arc 4, just after we had forged the mate bond, the image bringing an incredible warmth with it, banishing the after effects of the strange feeling. But the image vanished a moment later, replaced with more images of the data we had just finished going through. Grinning, I looked over at her to find a slight mischievous smile on her lips, like she was trying her hardest to suppress the image. 'We still have some data left to go through, love.'

'I know.' She replied, shifting herself forward onto all fours and stretching with a grace I would never be able to match. 'It's just difficult being so close to you and having to work.'

'I know what you mean.' I replied, unable to stop the naughty thoughts that surged through my mind while watching her stretch. 'But we have to get this done.'

'I don't disagree.' Katy said, coming out of her stretch and crawling towards me slowly, looking almost like she was stalking me. 'But what is the harm in taking a little break?'

'Well, 'little' breaks are rarely very little when I am with you.' I replied, trying to ignore the spicy notes of her arousal that were starting to permeate the tent, a task that soon proved impossible. It didn't help that even the barest whiff of that aroma set my blood on fire, my heart pounding out a jig in my chest. 'We only have a couple of days left.'

'Sounds like plenty of time to me.' Katy commented, now so close that I could reach out and grab her, and my hands were twitching without my input, desiring to do exactly that. With a gentle motion, she tugged the keyboard out of my grasp and put it over next to hers, my hands refusing my brain's half-hearted command to hold on to it.

'You're bad, you know that?' I asked as she nuzzled my neck, every breath I took filled with her delightful scent, my resistance crumbling away into nothing. I was powerless to resist her and blissfully unwilling to try. 'Absolutely evil.'

'But you love me anyway.' she teased, coming forward so she was sitting in my lap, her arms around my neck, our chests pressed together.

'With all my heart.' I confirmed and she grinned, pushing me over so I was laying on my back, my mate straddling my hips. Grinning, I wrapped her in my arms, tugging her close. 'Oh well...' I thought, eliciting a giggle from my mate, 'no point in resisting...'

***

11-13-3015

Time Index; 0900 hours GST

TFV Zephyr

Asgard system, Terran space

Major Dillinger walked into the technical workshop and looked around, trying to find the one man he was seeking among all the technicians who were working in the shop. Lieutenant Colonel Prydwen was here somewhere, as he had been all week and the lower ranked officer wanted to know what his fellow conspirator had found. Spying the familiar form of the other officer across the room, the Major hurried through the crowded work stations to his side. Spread across the table before the colonel was the dozens of components that had made up the relay device. The colonel was currently engrossed in the display of a small technician's computer that was attached to a collection of crystals that had once been the core memory of the device. When Dillinger cleared his throat to get his attention, Pride looked up, the expression on his face one of equal parts frustration and exhaustion. He looked as though he had hadn't shaved in days and his eyes had dark bags under them.

"Any progress sir?" Dillinger asked and the other officer shook his head.

"I have managed to isolate the record of what was relayed through the device, but I can't seem to get any further." He answered, sitting back and setting the computer onto the table top with a deep sigh. "The files are protected by several layers of high level encryption. I can't even make a dent in the first one."

"Is that all you have done in the last five days?" Dillinger asked and Pride glared at him.

"Would you like to try, Major?" He snapped, his tone rocking Dillinger back a little ways. Seeing that, the Celdanian held up a hand, shaking his head and taking a deep breath to calm himself. "Sorry. I'm just a little frustrated. The device had a half dozen fail safes that I have had to disable just to get this far, only to find out that I can't go any further. I'm going to need some help with this."

"I take it you have someone in mind?" the Major asked and Pride nodded, rubbing the stubble on his unshaven jaw.

"Yeah, an old acquaintance of mine." He replied, "Something of a computer genius. He is the only one I can think of who can break this sort of encryption quickly."

"Shouldn't we wait to ask the General if he can be trusted with this?" Dillinger asked, stepping back as Pride got to his feet, detaching the collection of crystals from the computer and tucking them into a small case. "I mean, can he be trusted?"

"Well I trust him. He was a couple of years behind me at Silvermoon, but by the time I was graduating, he had already been preselected for Intel, something that is very rare. He was a good man, and I think he still is." Pride replied, tucking the case under his arm before leading the way out of the workshop. "Besides, it isn't like we have much of a choice."

"I still think we should wait until he can be screened." Dillinger persisted, waving off one of his assistants who had obviously been looking for the staff officer.

"Well, it will take him at least a couple of days to get here, and the General should be back by then." Pride replied, stepping into the lift at the end of the corridor, the adjutant following him, obviously about to argue some more. When the doors had shut,, the colonel spoke again. "Communications." When the lift was speeding off towards its destination, he continued, cutting off the Major. "Look Dillinger, Knight and I have been through a lot. He trusts my judgment and I trust my contact. Besides, last I heard, he was heading up Intel's code breaking branch, which means that not only does he specialize in this sort of thing, but he has access to practically every piece of information that Intel has. We need him on our side."

"Alright." Dillinger finally agreed, his reluctance clear in his tone of voice. "But every person we bring in increases the chance that it gets back to our Conclave what we are doing."

"True enough." Pride stated as the lift came to a stop. "Feel free to watch him when he arrives. I choose to trust him. As for myself, I am going to send a message to him and then get some sleep." Dillinger sighed as the other officer stepped off the lift and headed for the primary communications suite. Just as he was considering going after him, Major Chase turned the corner with his usual stack of pads in hand and spotted him.

"Major Dillinger, hold the lift!" He called and Dillinger resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. Even though Chase handled the vast majority of the red tape that came into the office, thus leaving the other members of the staff free to do their jobs, Dillinger shared the General's dislike for him. There was just something about him that annoyed practically everyone he came in contact with. But today at least, the Records officer was smiling, an unusual occurrence. When he stepped into the lift car and told it its destination, he held out a pad to the Adjutant. "You will be happy to know that the paperwork establishing the new fighter wing is finally done."

"Oh good." Dillinger replied, taking the pad. He was genuinely surprised by that announcement. "I thought you said it would take a few more days at least."

"It would have, but I managed to get around some of the usual hurdles. It wasn't actually that hard." He said and Dillinger flicked through the information on the pad. The new wing, dubbed the 227th Tactical Fighter Wing, wasn't due to go online until the end of the week, when the paperwork was supposed to be finished. "And the prototype squadron has chosen a new name as well. They are officially the 1281st Marine Fighter squadron, more commonly known as 'Phoenix flight'."

"How did you 'get around' official hurdles?" Dillinger asked. Chase was the last staff officer that he had expected to cut corners like that. He always came off as a by-the-book type, with a rule for everything that had to be followed no matter the circumstances.

"Well, most of the forms that HQ requires to create new units are required by our office." He replied, shuffling the stack of pads he held, looking for one in particular, "Since we are the ones who are creating it in the first place, we don't actually need them. Now all that is needed is the General's signature authorizing their creation and things will be all ready to go."

"You are a marvel of efficiency, Major." Dillinger commented, looking at him with an evaluating expression. "Seems I misjudged you."

"Thank you sir." Chase replied, then looked over at the Adjutant. "Sir, if I may ask, is there something else going on that I don't know about?"

"What do you mean?" Dillinger asked, a brief jolt of adrenalin hitting his blood at the other officer's question.

"Well, you, Colonel Prydwen and General Cramer are always meeting at odd hours, and a whole lot of information has crossed my desk that has nothing to do with running the fighter command." Chase explained. "And then there is General Cramer just flying off alone for a week. It doesn't take that long to test a new fighter, even an extreme range ship like the Tartarus. Putting all that together makes me wonder if there is something else going on, some other project you three are working on."

"Well Chase," Dillinger said, looking at the officer in surprise. Despite all the precautions the conspirators had taken, despite the heavy workload that was the norm for the S-1, Chase had noticed their meetings. None of the other officers seemed to have noticed a thing. "I don't know. I just do as I am told. If you are really curious, I would ask the General when he comes back. In the mean time, I wouldn't spread that sort of thing around. Ever since General Davenport was caught selling secrets, HQ has been looking for leaks. Now, we both know that General Cramer is the last person who would be a traitor, but..."

"I understand." Major Chase commented, nodding sagely. "Wouldn't want the General to get into trouble."

When the doors slid open, the staff officer stepped off the lift, heading for his office. When the doors were shut once more, Dillinger let out a long breath. This could be a serious problem if the General decided not to bring Chase in on the plan. Since the General had hand-selected each of his staff officers, there shouldn't be a reason not to trust Chase. But still... Shaking his head, he commanded the lift to take him to his own office. This whole thing was getting dangerous, even before they took any action against the Conclave...

***

11-13-3015

Time Index; 1400 hours GST

Corallis 2, Planetary grid N17

Corallis system, Terran border space

Standing up to her full height, Katy allowed the cold water of the river to trail from her body in exhilarating rivulets. She and her mate were thigh deep in the river near to their campsite, rinsing themselves clean. It was only barely after dawn and a faint mist was rising from the chilly surface of the water around her. She had to admit that her mate had been right. There was no such thing as a 'little' break when they were together. Their interlude had lasted for more than an hour, the time passing unnoticed in their intimate embrace. Then, they had snuggled up once more, drifting off into sleep without meaning to. But still, what she had said was true. They still had all of today as well as the evening to get through the last of the data before they had to pack up to leave.

"Whew..." Her mate exclaimed as he stood up in the heart of the river behind her. 'It's cold.'

'Well you were right, my love.' She replied, turning around and playfully splashing her lover. 'That lasted a lot longer than I thought it would.'

'I don't have any regrets.' Devin said, splashing her back before wading over to the side and climbing out, reaching for the folded towel he had left there. As he was drying off and Katy was climbing out of the water, his face assumed a sort of contemplative look. 'You know, there is something else I wanted to talk to you about.'

'What's that?' She inquired, accepting her towel from him. At her question, he sent a brief image across their link, an image that intrigued her. She saw the crest of the Merxian Alliance side by side with that of the Terran Federation and she regarded her mate thoughtfully.

'If this is going to work, we are going to have to find a way to coordinate our efforts more quickly.' He replied and she nodded, a sudden, rapid series of images came into her mind, images that sparked more thoughts in her own head. Communicating as fast as they could think, a plan came together in their minds, a wild, audacious plan that she would normally have said was impossible. But then and there, with her mate so close, it not only seemed possible, but almost easy. 'The only thing left is to find a place where we can meet, a headquarters for our movement, if you will.'

'But where?' She asked, casting out in her memories for possible locations. 'It would have to be somewhere that the Conclave isn't, and I can't think of one that qualifies. They seem to be everywhere.'

'Not everywhere.' her mate replied, a few new images appearing before fading away as they were discarded. 'I am sure we can find one. But first things first. We have to expand our numbers. I think the time has come to move beyond just collecting information. We need to start building a strike force.'

'I agree.' Katy replied, but doubt immediately came into her mind. 'But you have gone farther than I have on that score.'

'Maybe.' Devin replied, nodding. 'But you have more people around you that you can trust than just Tyr. I have seen them in your mind. I know the...incident made you lock everyone out, but...'

'You're right.' She admitted, managing a smile. 'I did block them out. It's hard to trust when something like that happens.'

'I sorry I brought it up.' Devin replied, embracing her tightly from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder. Her smile widening, she leaned her head against his and chuckled softly. 'Forgive me?'

'If anyone has the right to talk about it, it's you.' She said, smiling at the warmth having his arms around her brought. 'But let's not speak about parting just yet. We have hours and hours before we have to consider that.' At this, she turned around and kissed him, the mate bond making even the chill of the early morning seem warm to her. 'And I intend to enjoy every second we have left...'