Jupiter Fleet 1: Werewolves Don't Purr (6 page)

“The two Superiors you killed are supposed to send a werewolf to retrieve more conversion subjects. One of them is up for conversion and the other people are slated for
mental conversion adjustment therapy
. They are the family members that the werewolf is supposed to kill when he wakes,” said Leona.

Thor shuddered at the thought of what he himself had nearly done. He bared his fangs and growled. Leona paled at the thought she picked up from Thor’s mind, but relaxed when she perceived that his anger was at the aliens.

“So what do you want me to do?” asked Thor.

“Go get them, of course.”

“Of course? Are you nuts?”

“We have to go and get them. If we don’t, they’ll send someone large and furry to investigate. And they’ll find out about what we’re doing in here. I don’t know how long it’ll be before my dad is finished with the conversion,” said Leona.

“OK, fine. How do I get to the place where I pick them up?”

Leona was able to bring up a virtual map and walk-through showing the room where the captives were held. She made the system link telepathically to Thor’s mind. After it was done, Thor knew the route as if he went there every day of his life.

“Wow, that is a cool way of learning,” thought Thor.

“I know, right? That’s what I’m doing when I’m just staring out into space at the desk,” said Leona. “I’ve already learned more than during my entire four years at university.”

The two of them mused about how different university life would have been if they could have used a system like that to study for exams. The sharing was not in words so much as in images, and Leona and Thor were both smiling. But, back to work!

“That room that I pass on the second floor, the one where they keep all the stuff they take from the prisoners—I wonder if it has any weapons in it?” thought Thor.

“If you decide to take a look, be careful. A regular werewolf wouldn’t care about what’s in that room. If the Superiors find out that you’re not ‘normal,’ they’ll kill you.”

“You know, those other aliens were going to kill all of us,” thought Thor.

“I guess I shouldn’t be mad at you for killing them, then,” said Leona, blushing at the memory of her grabbing Thor by the chin.

“OK, right! Moving along…if you have nothing else to discuss, I’ll go now.”

“Just one more thing: give me a hug, you big rug, you,” said Leona, misting up a little.

Thor leaned down and hugged her awkwardly, careful not to squeeze too hard. Then Leona opened the door to the corridor and he left.

Thor stepped into the hall outside the lab. He saw two werewolves wearing green obedience collars far down the corridor, heading toward him. He freaked out inside at the sight of them.

“I have never been this close to a werewolf without a gun before,” he thought. “Well, except for
me
, that is. Of course, you can’t get away from yourself. Oh crap, oh crap.”

Thor looked at the two werewolves as they neared him.

“Those are the same kind of collars as I wore when I first awoke,” he thought.

To his surprise, one of the wolves replied to him.

“Yes, sir, we hope to be released from our collars someday too. We are on an errand—please don’t hit us!”

An image flashed in his mind of what they were supposed to be doing. Thor was stunned thoughtless by this. The wolves took this thoughtlessness as showing Thor trying to decide if he was going to beat them. They decided not to take any chances, and ran away down the hall. Thor was happy that the encounter had gone so well.

He considered the expectation held by the green-collared werewolves, that he would beat them if they displeased a leader-wolf. That could be useful. If he “talked” to them forcefully and snarled a bit…yes, he could probably carry that off in the future if he had to. On the other hand, if he messed up somehow with a higher leader, he might end up as the one being beaten. He sighed.

He knew that it was a fifteen-minute walk from the lab to the pickup location. He decided that it would be simpler to check out the storage room
before
he made the pickup of the humans.

Thor came upon a main hallway. Dozens of “Superior” aliens and hundreds of werewolves were walking in both directions. None of them seemed to notice him. He turned to walk in the direction of the room.

“Servant, what is your question?” A powerful and menacing voice sounded in his head.

Thor was confused—he didn’t have a question.

“You were looking at me, so you must have a question,” came the loud response.

More confusion. Thor realized that he had looked directly at one of the Superiors. He had not known that it was wrong to do so.

“What is your designation? Your training is severely lacking.”

More confusion on Thor’s part.

“Never mind, I have it right here. I feel that your tag is functioning properly. I see that you are a new wolf. You shouldn’t have been given your collar release so soon. Mixaucnnhet has become slack in his training. I am putting a reprimand on his record,” said the Superior.

Visions flooded to him from all the werewolves that stood around him—part sympathy, part dread on Thor’s behalf. Thor realized that they expected he would be tortured when he returned from his task. His ears and tail drooped.

“So you were sent on a task. That explains why you are wandering around. Well, go to it, then. If I ever saw a servant that needed a vigorous round of electro-training therapy, it is you.”

Thor moved away quickly, his heart racing. The other werewolves started walking again, too. He entered a dead-end hallway and stood in an alcove out of view of all passersby. Breathing deeply, he wondered if he had made an escape, or if doom was stalking him even now.

After a while, Thor regained his composure and started to walk down the hallway again.

“Who are you?” a voice thundered in his head.

“What?” Thor looked around but saw no one nearby, either wolf or Superior. But oops! He saw the lens of a camera over a doorway.

“It is a very simple question, sir. Who are you?” repeated the demanding voice.

Thor tried to think of the designation that the Superior had said to him before he died. He couldn’t remember it, but was about to try to fake it when the voice spoke again.

“I would like to suggest that, if someone asks you that question, you do not transmit an image of you killing your makers. That would be unwise, and would likely result in your immediate death.”

Thor’s thoughts were racing. How could he avoid broadcasting images? Who was this guy?

“Who I am is not important. What I want to know is, can you open that door in front of you?”

Thor tried the door that he stood near. He felt the same shocked feeling of image-overload as in the lab, and he jumped back.

“That is most unfortunate,” said the voice.

“Thor, what is going on?” said Leona.

Thor’s head was spinning with confusion. He spun around, his eyes searching for Leona, with fear and dread that she was wandering around the corridors in search of him.

“Relax, my dear, I’m still in the lab. I’ve figured out the communications system to communicate with my—”

“Servants, yes, I have heard the term,” thought Thor, an edge to his tone.

“Apparently, their telepathy is line of sight,” said Leona, “so they have a broadcast system to communicate directly with servants as required. As a result of the line of sight requirement, it’s a major insult for them to look at each other without getting permission first.”

“Good to know. How much damage have I done?” thought Thor.

“Well, Mixaucnnhet is supposed to punish you with electro-training therapy—but I could just give you a spanking instead,” said Leona in a flirtatious thought-voice.

“Who are you communicating with?” said that accented voice.

Thor felt the rising panic again and thought of Leona.

“A human able to operate their communication system? This is much better than I ever could have hoped for!”

Thor found himself smiling from the shared telepathic happiness of the voice.

“I can help you if you can ask your woman to open door three-three-four-four-five-six Nleox for me,” said the voice.

Thor relayed the message to Leona.

“Are you sure that you want to do this? Can you trust him?”

“I got a good feeling from him in our telepathic connection. I think he’s on our side,” thought Thor.

“OK, give me a minute to figure this out,” said Leona.

Meanwhile, Thor related to the voice that he was going to get the door opened. After a few moments, the door swung open without a sound. There was a huge werewolf standing there.

“Thank you for opening the door for me. It is my sad duty to tell you that you are under arrest and must be taken to electro-training therapy. Constables Bhatnagar and Saxena, go retrieve the humans that this one was supposed to find and bring them to Mixaucnnhet’s lab.”

They then put an arrest shackle on Thor and a half helmet on his head. The helmet immediately cut off all communication with Leona. The group of werewolves promptly set off for the lab, with no way for him to warn Leona.

What had he done? Why had he talked to the voice? Worst of all, why had he involved his wife? The werewolves gave no sign of hearing this interior monologue. But when they heard him faintly whining, some of them seemed to grin.

Leona felt a rising panic after she lost communication with Thor. She felt his fear and surprise, and then, suddenly, nothing. Was he dead?

She started to scan the security records, but saw nothing yet. No reports of any dead werewolves or arrests. There was an arrest certificate for Thor (something about looking at a Superior), but it was still unanswered.

“This is bad—this is really bad,” said Leona to herself.

“What’s bad, dear?” asked Mary.

Leona had not realized that her mother was standing there. She turned to Mary with a worried frown on her face.

“Mom, I’ve lost communication with Thor! He was talking with some werewolves about a door. Then suddenly he felt confusion, fear, and surprise. He could have been arrested or he could be dead.”

“I’m no expert on this telepathic stuff, but I am very sure that if Thor were dead, you would know it. So now you have to ask, where would they take him if he were arrested?”

Leona realized she didn’t know the answer to that. She sat down at the terminal and asked the system where conversion subject 35441113 would be taken, once arrested. It showed her a room just outside the lab where the torture would take place. Yikes! Torture! She rubbed her forehead, where a headache was starting to make itself known.

“They’re taking him to a room across the hallway from our door here. I think we’ll have to wait until they put him in the room, and then if there are any guards that stay around, we’ll open the door and blast them. You’ll have handle the blaster, Mom,” Leona continued. “I have configured it to your brain pattern. You just look at your target, think
fire
, or
shoot
, or
kill
, or
stun
—and the gun will do the rest. I’ll be dealing with all the other telepathic stuff.”

“Right!” said Mary. After her rest in the chair, she was looking a lot less grey, and a lot more determined. She picked up the blaster and went to stand near the door.