Jupiter Fleet 1: Werewolves Don't Purr (36 page)

“We choose to live.”

“Very well, tell your clan members to report to Deck Seven of the space station. They have two hours to be there. They are not to bring anything with them, other than the clothing that they wear. Anyone who does not comply or report to Deck Seven within the two-hour time frame will be hunted down and killed. Do you understand?”

One of the Supes went to the comm system console and broadcast the conditions of survival throughout the three ships. While O’Neil’s attention was focused on that Supe, the other one attempted to launch a lethal telepathic attack on him. However, the Alpha to be called Mergnot, and Ashley, were prepared for this. They reflected the attack back on the attacker and he died instantly.

The third Supe thought it was O’Neil who had casually swatted this attack away and killed his cousin. The Supe was nearly paralyzed with fear, and this broadcast out through the communication system to the other Supes. They did not know what could cause such fear in one of their leaders. None of them wanted to find out.

O’Neil looked at the last Supe and then he looked down at the two dead Supes.

“Which one of the dead was the squadron Master?” O’Neil thought to him.

The Supe pointed at the contemptuous alien that had been leading the negotiations—Mergnot’s tormentor.

“So then, congratulations on being the new clan Master.”

With that, O’Neil walked out of the room.

The first two Supe ships were taken under control of the Jupiter Fleet. The last Supe ship was stripped of anything valuable, including excess foodstuffs and cargo. Weapons and repair bots were at the top of the list.

The work teams also quickly found a host of mining bots, which the Supes had planned on using to take metals that they wanted from the moons of Jupiter. Admiral immediately set these bots to work on the moons, along with the shuttles required to set up and run the operation.

Ashley interviewed all the slaves on board the stripped ship. With all but a few exceptions, they decided to come onto the station. A small number of the slaves (especially a species that needed specialized food that the humans had no knowledge of) chose to remain on the ships, and no one was forced to leave against his, her, or its will.

Most of the slaves were not “expert” slaves, so they no longer had their memories or sense of initiative or self-direction. Despite them being rendered so helpless, the Supes had abused the slaves so badly that even the fright of joining a scary, unknown species like the humans was preferable to remaining on the stripped ship.

Ashley went away after those interviews to cry privately in her cabin. She emerged after a while with a freshly scrubbed face and reddened eyes. O’Neil and Thor did not ask her where she had been.

That was the time when the “Lullaby Time” command to the Supes’ honor guard and the “loyal” wolves on the three ships was reversed. When the werewolves awoke, covered by the barrels of weapons wielded by human and werewolf fighters wearing thought-helmets, their confusion was complete.

Swiftly, the converted Supe werewolves—who knew if they were criminals in Supe society—realized that they were vulnerable to the possibility of revenge at the fangs of the freed werewolves. Once made familiar with the situation, they all opted to join the Purple clan on board the stripped ship.

While that was going on, Admiral and Ashley were counting up the captured cargo and equipment.

“Ashley, please search the ship computers for a set of designs to build equipment that smelts the ore into usable metals,” Admiral requested.

Ashley set to work, and finally found some useful information on the subject.

“As it turns out, the station doesn’t have that kind of design info—but one of the Purple clan ships did. But there’s a problem, I guess,” thought Ashley.

“You
guess
?”

“Well, OK, I am pretty sure, just not one hundred percent sure. The problem is this; the design is there but not all the equipment to use it. We are going to have to get extra parts from somewhere.”

Ashley cleared her throat. She kept it close and private in her own brain, but she was still a little afraid of the giant werewolf.

“Extra parts? This is skilled work. Too bad the ‘infestation’ cannot be trusted to build the apparatus without trying to sabotage it. We will probably need help from Earth.”

“How will we get that?”

“I’ll have to discuss this with Leona,” thought Admiral.

Although the Supes and converted Supe werewolves showed up at the designated deck by the two-hour time limit, it was clear that it would take longer to strip the third ship. Admiral and Frosty made sure that all the human and wolf fighters guarding the captives wore thought-helmets, in order to prevent
intrusive
and empathic attacks.

Finally the third ship was stripped of most useful materials, and even items such as the Supes’ personal effects. The Alpha wolf called Mergnot made a count of the werewolves and humans going on and off the third ship to ensure that no one could be forgotten on board when it left. Such an error would be a death sentence for anyone inadvertently left aboard the stripped ship.

Admiral made sure that the Supes could still operate the engines and food systems. Frosty ensured that the wolves loyal to Mergnot left the
rach
and
aarach
life support system undisturbed—if only for honor’s sake. Then the former squadron Alpha wolf loaded all the Supes on board the stripped ship and it departed the solar system. The only communication system still working on the ship was for local ship-to-ship communications.

As Ashley was watching the ship leave, she looked toward where the
Space Dog
should be. A tiny dot projected on the window of the communications center showed the vessel’s position in space. She was thinking about her time on the
Space Dog
and missing Leona. That wonderful woman had rescued her and taught her how to survive this new life. She had her hand on the ship’s main communications console as she ruminated.

Then she heard a voice say, “Ashley?”

It was Leona’s voice. Ashley looked around and saw nothing. Then she realized that it was a thought-voice.

“Leona?”

“Where are you?” thought a very confused-sounding Leona.

“I’m in the communications center of the Jupiter Station. Where are you?”

“I am in the Command Deck of the
Space Dog
. I was recording a message for Thor when I heard you calling for me.”

“This is weird. How are we communicating telepathically over this distance—in real time?” Ashley thought.

“Maybe there is no speed restriction on telepathy,” thought Leona.

“You obviously never met some of my boyfriends!” Ashley grinned. “I always thought that the telepathic part of the communication was based on the electromagnetic spectrum somehow, but now—”

“Um, Ashley, I hate to interrupt your scientific musings, but do you think you could get Thor? I would
love
to talk with him.”

“Oh, sure, just a sec, I’ll call him.”

Ashley’s heart swelled with recognition of the love that carried through like a background tune behind Leona’s words. She called Thor where he was working in a distant part of the station.

“Hey, Thor, Leona wants to talk with you.”

“You mean, you have a message for me? Just send it to me.”

“No, I mean she wants to talk with you—in real time.”

“How is that possible? Aren’t they still forty-five light-minutes out?” thought Thor.

“Do you want a scientific explanation? ’Cause it’s gonna take me a while to figure this out. Or, do you want to talk to your wife?”

“OK, OK, I’ll be right there!”

It took Thor twenty minutes at full gallop and elevator time to get to the communication center. As he barreled past the other werewolves, he yipped excitedly, so that the other wolves stood aside to let him pass through the corridors.

One of those wolves was Arjun, the notch-eared COBRA adept. He started wagging his tail and grinning when he caught the excitement from fast-moving Thor.

When Thor got to the communications desk in the Command Deck, Leona was talking to a room full of humans and werewolves. Ashley was doing experiments with the long-distance telepathy.

It turned out that if she or Leona looked away from the position of the other vessel in the window, then the communication would fade out. If either woman took her hand off the communications console, the contact stopped being audible immediately. None of the werewolves could communicate with Leona without Ashley’s help. Ashley was trying to puzzle out whether this was a function of the machine or of the werewolf brain configuration.

Admiral (through the channel held open by Ashley) brought Leona up-to-date on the fact that they had captured two more ships from the Supes.

“One of the ships is pledged to Mergnot, the former squadron Alpha, for his help. The other ship should be for a human to command. I think it should be O’Neil that is made Ship Master,” Admiral thought.

“We call that position captain,” thought Leona.

“That’s perfect then, since he already is a captain.”

“Ah, that’s a different kind of—oh, you know what, great idea!” thought Hiroshi, who had joined Leona at the communication center of the
Space Dog
.

“Um…I just had a disturbing thought! If the Supes also can communicate over a large distance in real time this way, then we don’t have as much time to prepare before a large fleet arrives as we thought,” thought Leona.

Everyone started to discuss this idea at once. It was hard to pick out who was thinking what with all the information being transmitted.

Thor was trying to get into the conversation; however, it seemed that everyone wanted to continue talking. He let out an irritated growl. Ashley, of course, relayed the sound as part of her “communication center experience”—just like the babble of voices at a cocktail party can reveal snippets of conversation.

“I know that growl,” thought Leona. “Thor, come within range of the viewer. Everyone else, shoo.”

“I can’t shoo. I have to keep the comm channel open,” thought Ashley.

“What does ‘shoo’ mean?” thought Admiral.

“It means leave, everyone except for Ashley. Thor and I haven’t been able to talk in real time for so long—”

Leona’s eagerness to talk with Thor was like a blinding light, and all the werewolves exited quickly. The telepathic humans followed, and nontelepaths finally took the hint too.

“We’ll try not to embarrass you, Ashley,” thought Leona.

However, given the thought that flashed through Thor’s mind and the reddening of Ashley’s face, it was already too late for that.

The next day, a video message came in for Leona from Ambassador Gupta, down on Earth. His video wolf-face looked very cheery.

“Good morning, Leona, I hope you are well. We have been receiving offers from many countries for a shuttle and its design plans. The best offer is from China at two-point-five trillion yuan.”

Leona stopped the message and did some calculating. The yuan had been trading lately at about 1.55 yuan per US dollar. That meant that the offer was for 1.61 trillion dollars. That was a
lot
of money. Not as much as when she got married in 2004, when she could buy a loaf of bread for seventy-nine cents; now it was eleven dollars and fifty-five cents for a loaf. But still, it was a lot of money. She shifted in her chair and continued with the message.

“The Americans and British have told me they will have a better offer on the table in four or five days. They want to know if the offer can be in cash plus goods. I think that would be a good idea. Please let me know what you think.”

Leona started to put a list together of what food and equipment they would need. (And maybe some coffee, and chocolate, and clothes, and hair products too.) She shook her head and decided that the very first thing she would need was a good money manager—one that was willing to live on board the Jupiter Station.

She contacted Hiroshi in his quarters.

“Do any of the people still on board the
Space Dog
have MBAs, or are trained as bankers, fund managers, or other such professions?”