Jupiter Fleet 1: Werewolves Don't Purr (21 page)

Meanwhile, Commander Gupta and Captain O’Neal stood at a console that Ashley was controlling to allow them to communicate, planning what they were going to do with their now considerably larger army.

Four did not know what to do. There were sounds of dying wolves all around him, but these were
his
dying wolves. He tried to communicate with Two, but apparently there was no line of sight between them.

The Masters had cut him off. Twenty werewolves had died with the same tactic the Masters had used before. First, blast for confusion, and then hit with weapons. Now they had control of ten of his wolves and he could not spot the Masters responsible.

“Wolves retreat,” Four broadcast to his group. His wolves started running for the nearest stairway. Another mind-blast hit the pack. As seven wolves stood stunned, the ten wolves that were being controlled attacked them. The stunned wolves never had a chance.

“What should I do?” Four broadcast involuntarily.

“You should charge the alcove in the wall, twenty-five feet to your right,” said a voice.

“But…there is nothing there,” thought Four.

“I am showing seven Masters standing in a group, and one auto-cannon,” said the same voice.

“Who is this?” asked Four.

“This is Ashley on Deck Four. I was checking on our fighters and I heard your message.”

“How do I know you are a friend?”

Ashley sent Four a mental image of Yellow Fang purring and being patted by Captain O’Neil. Four did not say anything, but immediately turned to charge the area Ashley told him about. His wolves thought he was crazy, but they followed him anyway.

As soon as he got close to the alcove, the mental image of a blank wall disappeared, and he saw the Masters standing there. Rage overtook him as he attacked. The seven Masters didn’t stand a chance. He pounced into their midst, and killed two of the Masters with one swipe of his massive claws. Four was about to attack the rest of the Masters when his pack arrived and finished the job.

The auto-cannon turret had not been activated, so Ashley set about preparing to remotely activate it.

“Werewolf, please get some help carrying that turret.”

“Please? You humans really are different from the Masters.”

“Working together, we can use those monsters’ own weapons against them.”

“Ashley, I like how you think. You can call me Four.”

Four called his wolves into position to carry the heavy weapon.

“You: take the other side of this auto-turret, and you: pick up the back.”

The werewolves picked up the auto-turret, careful not to be in front of the firing mechanism’s rotational path. Ashley then told Four about her plan.

“There is a heavy concentration of Masters—we call them Supes—two hundred yards to your left after you get around the next corner.”

The pack ran in the direction indicated by Ashley. As soon as they were around the corner, the auto-turret started firing at the Masters, killing them in quick succession. The effect was deadly. The group of Masters controlling the ten wolves (that had been trying to chivvy Four’s group from behind) broke discipline and started to run. The ten controlled wolves stopped, confused.

Four let out an attack howl, and his wolves responded. They ran after the Masters, down the corridor. The Masters ran for the elevator, packing as many aboard as they could before the wolves arrived. The elevator doors closed and it moved away from the area.

The Masters left outside the elevator tried a mind-blast, but the wolves ignored it. The werewolves were snarling, teeth bared. The Masters started firing rapidly with their blasters, and a few wolves went down. But the rest of Four’s group continued to charge. There was nothing more those Masters could do, so they died.

Some of Four’s wolves wanted to stop and snack on the dead Masters, and Four’s nostrils twitched at the thought.

“Um, Four, your wolves have to wait until the end of the battle to eat and get a good meal of kibble then. You can’t stop fighting now,” said Ashley’s voice. “There are about fifty Masters still left on that deck. I’ll show you the rooms they are hiding in. Please try not to kill them. We’ll need them alive to keep the Supes in the Control Room from venting the atmosphere on your deck.”

“Ashley, you saved my life and the lives of my wolves. I think I’m in love,” thought Four.

Ashley felt Four’s emotions—he was happy, grateful, and yes, feeling a little mischievous.

“Oh, great, that’s what I need, puppy love!” she responded teasingly.

Four laughed harder than he could remember laughing in his werewolf life, the adrenaline of the victory still coursing in his veins.

“Thank you, Ashley, I really do owe you. If you ever need anything, I’m your wolf.”

Ashley broke the connection and saw Captain O’Neil walking up to her.

“Leona gave me a play-by-play of what you just did with wolf Four and his group. That was tactically brilliant. You took a group of wolves that were about to be routed and led them to victory!”

“Why, thank you. Plus, I stopped them from snacking on the dead slavers, too.”

Captain O’Neil gave her a long, admiring look. “You’re smart, pretty, have a smokin’ hot body, and you know how to fight with the best of them. If we get out of this alive I am going chase after your cute little ass.” The captain did a wolfish grin better than most of the werewolves.

Ashley stuck her nose in the air and answered with her best offended voice. “Forget it, jarhead, I don’t go for the tall, blond, handsome, charming, heroic type.” She turned back to her console and ignored him.

Charming? Handsome? Oh, I am so in with her!
he thought.

Ashley’s head snapped up and she said icily, “I don’t think so, bucko!”

Oh crap! I forgot she could read minds when attached to that thing. Oh…OK…I’ll send her something to think about.

O’Neil thought of racy images of them entwined in a romantic embrace. Ashley did not say anything more, but she was glowing crimson when he left.

CHAPTER 7

Would the Real Alpha Please Stand Up

November 13, 2038, 7:25 a.m.

On Board Alien Ship

“I have to report that our diversion to clear the Command Deck is not working,” said Leona to all the strike team leaders, including the Alpha wolf.

Ashley had found out how to rig the ship’s communication system to have a direct telepathic “conference call,” even with those people who weren’t telepathic. However, the non-telepathic participants had to be actually touching a communication console for it to work.

“We have tried over the last twelve hours to assault Deck Thirty-five, Engineering Control, from Deck Thirty-four, Deck Thirty-six, the Main Drive Bay, and Deck Thirty-seven, the Docking Bay,” thought Commander Gupta.

“Not only have we not been able to penetrate Deck Thirty-five, in the counterattack we were driven back from Deck Thirty-seven,” said Captain O’Neil.

“I have two more bits of bad news,” said Leona. “One is that the other ship will dock with us in less than four hours. The other bad news is that none of the Supes’ forces have left Deck Seventy-five. That is the main thing we’ve been trying to accomplish.”

“Actually, I have one
more
piece of bad news,” Ashley added. “I think—yup, uh-huh, it’s for sure—the new Alpha has discovered the location of our Alpha wolf. He is moving, along with some were-troops, in your direction.”

“Two is coming here to assault me directly? That is very good news,” said their Alpha wolf.

“I’m confused—who is Two?” thought Thor.

“Two is my former second-in-command, the one who betrayed me to the Masters, the one who now calls himself Alpha,” thought their Alpha.

“Uh,” interjected Leona, “that is the former Supes’ Two, not our Alpha wolf’s Two, who died in our recent battle. Just to keep the Twos straight.” Her eyes seemed slightly crossed by the duplicative numerical naming of the werewolves.

“OK, still confused—why is that good news?” Thor’s mental voice sounded annoyed.

“It is good news because if we meet, then I can challenge him for pack leadership. He cannot refuse me because none of his werewolves will follow him if he does.”

“So to clarify,” thought Commander Gupta, sounding as bemused as Leona, “you are saying, the Mind-Breakers’ Two can challenge and fight you for the pack leadership, and if you win, then all the werewolves will follow you?”

“That is correct,” thought their Alpha.

“Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but…what happens if you lose?” asked Thor.

“The pack swears allegiance to the new Alpha, and then they all follow his lead. Any wolf that doesn’t obey is killed by the other wolves,” replied the Alpha wolf.

“That sounds a little risky! If you lose, we’ll have two thousand new enemies to deal with,” said Captain O’Neil.

“Well, except for me and the ‘human’ werewolves,” thought Thor. “We’d be in a pretty bad pickle.”

“I will not lose,” stated the Alpha with certainty.

“Well, whatever you’re going to do, you’re gonna have to do it right now. The new ship’s Alpha…er…I mean the ship’s Two, is going to be right on top of you very soon,” said Ashley.

Their Alpha wolf broke off communication, and pushed to open the wall that he and his wolves had rigged over the last day. He maneuvered himself out and moved until he was at the edge of the gravity field. He then dove down into gravity and signaled all his wolves to do the same, and to remove their thought-helmets.

The Alpha wolf then took off all his sword and knife belts, and dropped them to the floor. After that, the twenty-foot-tall werewolf stood there and calmly waited for his former second-in-command to arrive. Briefly he considered all that he knew of Two’s fighting style, then he switched to monitoring his surroundings. Around him, his guard wolves did the same, alert to prevent any possible interference from the dishonorable Masters.

“I don’t know about you, but I think we need a backup plan,” said Captain O’Neil to Commander Gupta, still using Ashley’s comm link after the Alpha had left the conversation.

“I could not agree with you more. That is why I have such a plan in mind,” replied Gupta.

“OK, then—care to share with the class?”

“The class? Oh, yes, one of your delightful expressions. Very well then: we will use the pack leader battle as the diversion that we have been trying to create against the Mind-Breakers. Then
our
forces, instead of being the diversion, become the main strike force.”

“I
like
it! That will mean that the wolves working with us will be in the middle of the battle and won’t hear who won the fight.”

“There is one wolf standing right here,” replied Gupta, his mental voice sounding miffed.

“Sorry, I meant, you know, the
other
wolves. The ‘nonhuman’ ones,” said O’Neil, turning a little red.

“I know what you meant. However, I do not think that most of ‘
our
’ werewolves will go back into the Mind-Breakers’ pack, after their much kinder treatment with us.”

“Let’s just hope the Alpha—
our
Alpha—wins and we don’t have to find out,” said O’Neil bleakly.

“Yes, quite true. On to another matter: how many humans were you able to equip with Mind-Breaker weapons?”

“Mind-Breaker…oh, yes, the Supes. We found five thousand of their energy weapons in the lockups on Deck Five. It’s lucky for us that the weapons are new, and imprint on the first person who turns them on.”

“That is very good indeed. Let us start to position troops immediately,” Commander Gupta thought, sounding businesslike and positive.

“Ashley, have you found a way to block our troop movements from the Supe sensors?” asked Captain O’Neil, knowing that Ashley was still monitoring the call.

“I think I have, but I can’t be sure until we start to move large numbers of fighters around. I saw them tracking our movements, and then I figured out what they were doing with the system. I saw that they were blocking us from various services as well,” she said, sounding a bit harried. “When I figured out how to stop them from blocking us, it was by using a predictive algorithm to unblock the blocked paths almost as soon as the Supes set up the blocks. I used a virus to keep my program moving around the system so they can’t erase it. I also figured out how to block
them
by using a Trojan to send the Supes a continuous stream of false messages about where our troops are—effectively doing a denial of service attack.”

“Uh, OK—you’re hacking their computer big-time. Let’s count that as a yes,” said O’Neil.

“That Ashley is a smart cookie,” commented Thor.

Ashley closed the conference, then did a little dance step.

“Oh yes, Ashley
is
a smart cookie!” she grinned fiercely, her blue eyes dancing.