Jupiter Fleet 1: Werewolves Don't Purr (29 page)

It had been thirteen days since the Jupiter Station victory. Ashley had just checked on Thor in the Med Bay. He was recuperating well and would be released tomorrow. It was amazing to her that he could have a hole through his leg the size of a softball and after two weeks in the Med Bay it was fixed. She had looked up the process on the
Victory
’s computer and discovered that the bone growth compound was the same one used in the werewolf conversion process.

Ashley smiled when she remembered how Thor had looked. His fur had grown in with different colors for each injury. He was becoming a calico werewolf. Very stylish.

She was walking near the entrance to the Command Deck. It was late in the
Victory
’s daytime/nighttime schedule—about 2:00 a.m. Why Admiral had requested a meeting at this time she had no idea. Suddenly she heard a noise behind her. Ashley whirled around, but nothing was there.

“Get a grip on yourself, Ashley, you’ll be telling yourself ghost stories next,” she said.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. So Ashley stopped and looked carefully around the deck. Even though she felt silly taking the precaution, she used her telepathy to sense any thoughts from people or wolves hiding near her.

Then she felt it—a thought pattern, of a kind that she had felt before. It was a pattern that a wolf had when it was being controlled by a Master. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she tried to locate the wolf.

There! She perceived it. Ashley looked toward the Command Deck door, and about fifteen feet from it, a wolf was being hidden in a recess.

When the werewolf realized that it was no longer being shielded from Ashley’s sight, it started to advance on her. She knew that she could not withstand even a single strike from the werewolf’s fangs or claws. She looked around for help but none was visible.

Arjun, where are you when I need you?
she thought.

The wolf was sixty feet away when it broke into a full charge. Ashley knew there was no point in trying to flee. Instead, she stood her ground and fired a mind-blast at the charging wolf. She had been trying to learn how to do that, with limited success. It worked for a moment; the wolf sat down looking confused.

Ashley reached out to the wolf’s mind, trying to calm it. That was when she realized there wasn’t anything left of the original wolf. The attacker was just running on programming that the Master had installed in his brain. Just like wiping out the original programming on a hard drive with a computer virus.

Arjun should know—those horrible Supes really are Mind-Breakers
, she thought.

Ashley also realized that she was in big trouble. There was not enough time to try to put something else into the controlled werewolf’s mind. All that was running through its mind right now was a command, repeating over and over:
Kill the yellow-haired human woman.
She didn’t know anyone on the ship that resembled that description but her. The Masters were trying to kill her, specifically.

The wolf regained some of its sense and began to charge at her again. Ashley stood there and focused on the thought of running. She could feel her feet flying down the hallway, away from the wolf. She then felt the wolf gaining on her; she could feel his hot breath on her neck. She felt the wolf lunge at her.

Oh no! This is it!

The wolf went through the image of Ashley, because she was not there. She was still standing at the same spot, now nearly two hundred feet behind. The wolf was very confused by how he could have chased Ashley down the hall, but it was just the image of Ashley.

The wolf was not the only one that was confused.

How the heck did I do that?
Ashley wondered.

She realised that this was not the time to ponder that. The controlled werewolf was on his feet and looking for her. She was sixty feet from the door to the Command Deck and the wolf was two hundred feet farther down the deck.

“You can make it,” Ashley said to herself.

She began to run as fast as she had ever run in her life. The werewolf noticed her and began to run after her. As Ashley neared the door, she was feeling the wolf gain on her. She was listening to his thoughts and realized that she was not fast enough. Still, she pressed on, and willed more speed from her feet.

She was thinking that she just might make it when she saw another wolf running toward her from the direction of the door.

Two wolves! This just isn’t fair!
she thought.

The other charging werewolf replied to her exclamation. “Ashley, shut up and duck.”

Ashley didn’t have time to question the new wolf. She hit the floor just as a wolf missing a chunk out of his ear went flying over her.

Arjun hit the controlled wolf in mid-stride. It was a tremendous collision of fur and fangs. Ashley did not wait to see the result. She ran inside the Command Deck and alerted all the werewolves on duty to what was happening in the hallway.

“A Master-controlled wolf just tried to kill me. He is fighting with Arjun just outside the door. Hurry and help him.”

Two of the guard wolves went flying past her and out the door. Ashley collapsed on the floor, her legs turning to rubber now that she was safe. She could hardly breathe and was shaking violently.

Admiral came over and picked her up gently. He carried her to a chair. He told his attending wolf to find a blanket and some coffee for her. Someone had told him about Leona buying coffee when she redeemed Commander Gupta’s commandos, and he had obtained a small supply.

“What are you doing out here so late?” asked Admiral.

“You sent for me?” replied Ashley, more as a question than a statement.

“I did not—it was probably a Master ruse to get you out there alone, late at night, with no help around,” thought Admiral. “The Master prisoners are becoming a serious problem,” Admiral continued. “This is the fifth hijacking they have done to one of my wolves, and I do not like it. I do not know which one it is or how they are doing it.” Admiral growled his deep bass rumble. “The wolves are not the same after being controlled by them. All they want to do is the Master-imposed task. They don’t eat or sleep—they just keep doing the task or die trying,” thought Admiral.

“What happens if they are successful at their task?” asked Ashley.

“The last controlled werewolf just opened an air lock and walked out into the vacuum. Maybe that is where I should send the whole group of
them
.”

“No, please. While I’m sure the Supes deserve spacing, I could not live with myself if we did that. It goes against all the best traditions of the human civilization. Give me a day to come up with another plan, please,” said Ashley.

“Very well, you have a day,” replied Admiral.

At that moment, a human fighter brought Ashley the promised cup of coffee. It was even mixed with something resembling milk and sugar, like a “double double” from Canada! Bliss.

“I have heard that the Jupiter Station Alpha adopted the name Frosty. That was said as a joke by O’Neil. You might want to talk the Alpha out of that,” said Ashley, hugging the coffee mug.

Admiral started laughing with deep barks, wagging his tail. “You should have heard him when he found out! He is looking for O’Neil now. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t expect that he will suffer more than a few broken bones.”

“Why doesn’t he just adopt some other name?”

“What? And admit that O’Neil got him on a joke? Never! It is better to settle this like true Alphas.”

“But O’Neil is not an Alpha, or a werewolf!” said Ashley.

“Then you don’t know him very well, my small human friend,” replied Admiral.

Communication between the ships was becoming more difficult. The
Space Dog
and the
Victory
were communicating via a tightly focused laser beam. It was like a fiber optic cable without the cable. It was impossible for the Earth or the intruding Supe ship to intercept communications, or even to know that they were communicating.

However, there was now a fifteen-minute delay between sending and receiving. Conversations were limited to a series of video messages with long waits in between. It would be worse once they reached Earth, when there would be a forty-five-minute delay.

Leona had just received the latest message from Admiral.

“Leona, I hope you are well. I have decided what to do with the Masters we have captured. I’m giving them better choices than they have ever given any other species.” On the screen image, Admiral put his ears back. “We cannot keep them here—they are causing too much mischief and death with their ability to take over our people’s minds. So I am giving them three choices: they can become werewolves, with no memory of their former selves, but they will be free; they can choose to terminate themselves, and we will give them a blaster loaded for one shot; or they can be sold back to the next passing Master ship that we don’t capture, as slaves with no property but the clothes they are wearing. The image of Admiral bared his fangs. “The choices are running sixty percent for werewolf conversion and thirty-nine percent for termination. Only one percent are opting to be sold back. While they are waiting to be sold, the
Supes
will have to wear thought-helmets and red collars. If they try to remove the helmets and take over anyone’s mind, we are going to detonate the collars.” Admiral’s image became more “fangy” yet. “I thought more of them would want to be sold back to their people, but I guess they do not want to be slaves of their own kind. They already know how they would be treated. That just shows that the supposedly superior Masters are really cowards lacking any pretense of honor.”

Leona smiled grimly. Yes indeed, the “think they’re superior” Supes were a despicable bunch.

“I like your idea of forming a combined space fleet separate from Earth,” continued Admiral. “I propose that we form a command council. I have handed over command of the Jupiter Station to Frosty. He is a very old Alpha that I have known for quite a long time, although his choice of name is new. You can ask O’Neil about it when he gets out of the Med Bay. End of message.”

Heh
, thought Leona.
Frosty!

The next message was from Thor, which surprised Leona. She had not realized fourteen days had gone by so quickly.

In the image on the screen, Thor had drooping ears and calico tri-color chest fur, but otherwise he seemed all right.

“Hi, sweetie, I just wanted to say sorry for getting myself trapped on this other ship,
Victory
. I’m all better from getting shot by the auto-turret and blown up a little bit.”

Leona gulped. Blown up “a little bit”?

“Ashley, O’Neil, and I are working on strategies for your battle with the Supe ship attacking Earth. Ashley has found a way of running our scenarios on the battle computer. So far we have not found a strategy that doesn’t just involve shooting up the other ship. It will be very hard to do, as you want and capture it intact. We don’t think you have the element of surprise, so it’s hard to say. Whatever you do, don’t get yourself blown up. Love you. End of message.”

Leona smiled at the irony of Thor telling
her
not to get blown up, after the number of times in the last couple months that he’d wound up unconscious in the Med Bay.

The Jupiter space station had two main purposes when it was built. It was a refueling spot and trading center. The station was also designed to build new ships from the resources of the “Sol” solar system.

The station was teeming with robots for doing the myriad of things required for construction and maintenance. Even so, some of the items that a new ship would need when it was first put into service had to be built in more sophisticated facilities.

Such an item was the laser-cannon, like the one that had cooked the Earth’s laser facility when the Supes first arrived. The lasers required gems not found in the Sol system. So the Supes would trade for them with things that could be obtained in the system, like slaves. Many, many slaves.

The station had in its stores twenty-four large ship laser-cannons. These were designed for use on a ship like
Victory
. Normally there were only two cannons per ship. The cannons had their own fusion reactors to provide power. As a result of this, they took up a lot of room.