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Delight and I were waiting just outside an airlock, when we felt the faint vibration of the docking mechanisms locking into place. Case had brought the ship in smooth, but the station operators weren’t quite so gentle. I could imagine the pilot cussing a streak at the jostling her charge was getting, and figured it was time to cycle the lock.
Delight laid a hand on my shoulder.
“Not yet,” she said. “Sensors will pick up the activity. Wait until Mack opens the cargo hold and passenger hatches.”
I waited, eyeing the airlock with only a small amount of apprehension. Going into it in an EVA suit made a shit ton of difference. Going into it with Delight? Yeah, well I had to admit that made a difference, as well.
“Glad to hear it,” she said. “Now, focus. Don’t go getting all sentimental on me.”
I focused. Going through the airlock was still difficult, but I didn’t have a meltdown like I’d feared, and we were out and moving swiftly along the belly of ship and station, while Mack was greeting the inspection team.
The walk across the station took a full hour, and I expected to be called out on it at any moment. It wasn’t until we reached the hatch outside the Corovan pharma’s section that I started to relax.
“See? Not so hard, was it?” Delight asked, as she manipulated the locks on the maintenance entry. “And in we go.”
I followed her through, feeling just a bit weirded out that I hadn’t had to open my own way in.
“Stop your bitching,” she said, cycling the airlock closed behind us. “Storeroom’s that way, and you’ll get your turn, soon enough.”
I wondered how Mack was going. He was supposed to be obtaining tourist visas for a hunting party... and Delight said the process might take a week. Mack said they only had around a day before the raid on the pharma had consequences, but Delight had laughed.
“Odyssey will be here, by then,” she said, “And the Feds won’t be far behind them, if I read my last communication correctly.”
Mack hadn’t been impressed.
“You don’t trust us?” he’d asked, and she’d shaken her head.
“I trust you to get the job done. It’s the rest of Odyssey you have to convince... or did you think Cutter was the only problem?”
Mack had gone very quiet at that, and Tens had looked worried. Pritchard had watched the exchange in his usual silent fashion, and added not a word. I wondered at that, but didn’t ask. I was guessing there were some things I just didn’t want to know. Delight’s voice brought me back to the present.
“You need to get the door, Cutter—and be quick. I don’t want to have to take anyone apart just yet. That would completely stuff any hope of stealth we might have been counting on.”
I didn’t question her, just sidestepped clumsily to reach the door, and then removed the gloves, tucking them into the waist band of the suit. Door didn’t take long. I just had to ride through the connections I’d already made into the security system, and hit a couple of buttons, and we were through—and none-too-soon, it seemed.
“Were those footsteps?” I asked, as Delight slipped past me, and I closed and locked the door behind us.
“No time for chit-chat,” she answered stripping out of the EVA suit and dumping it in a clear space in the center of the floor. “We set an alarm off on the outer hatch, and they’ll come here as soon as they’ve checked that.”
I got out of the suit in record-quick time, and dumped it beside the rapidly disintegrating mess that had been hers. The dust chomping nanites finished on hers, and started on mine, before I’d even applied my vial, and I had a thought.
While Delight cleared the way into the vents, I pulled out a vac extension, and blinded the security and maintenance systems to its usage.
“How long do these critters live for?” I asked.
“Maybe thirty seconds. No longer,” Delight answered, setting the access panel for the ventilation shaft to one side. “Why?”
And then she saw the vac extension in my hands.
“Oh.”
I really hoped that was not an ‘oh’ that meant she’d forgotten something important, like her dust-chompers were going to eat their way through the space-station hull.
“Nope, should be fine,” she said, and turned back to the vent.
There was something... ‘not right’ about her answer, but I didn’t have time to chase her for the truth. I could only hope I wasn’t about to destroy something important as I vacuumed the remains of our EVA suits into the station’s waste disposal system. I accessed the security cams to keep an eye on the corridor outside, and hastily followed Delight into the vents, stopping to pull the cover back in place once we were in.
“So, we’re really not coming back this way, right?”
“Right,” she said, “but we’re not going to get very far if you keep talking it to death.”
She made a good point, so I shut my mouth, and followed her into the safety-lit shaft, although why the damn thing was big enough for us to crawl along was beyond me.
“You should read more history,” she said. “The smaller ducts were good for reducing human incursions, but there were a hundred different other things that got in and needed human intervention to remove, and the small ducts created more problems than they solved. This size was a good compromise, especially once security measures were adopted that could deal with anything big that got in.”
“Like that?” I asked, as a sound I remembered from her footage reached our ears.
“That’s a problem,” Delight said. “There’s a vent two feet behind you. Get it open, and get through it, and don’t bother with subtle. We’re blown.”
Great. We hadn’t even reached the first lab, and our mission was a bust. I wondered what Mack was going to say to that.
To my surprise, though, my abrupt entry into the passage just inside the Corovan pharma’s walls, wasn’t met with outcry and screams for Security. In fact, it was downright eerie. If something hadn’t gone very, very wrong, down here, I was in the quietest laboratory complex in existence. So much for stripping out of the combat suit to blend in with the civilians; I was keeping the damn thing on.
“Cutter, we have a problem,” Mack commed in, just as Delight dropped down beside me.
She was reaching for the cover to the ventilation shaft, when she froze, scanning the corridor.
“We need to be somewhere else,” she said, drawing a Glazer from one of her pouches and running for the nearest door.
I ran, too. I hadn’t been able to hear what she had, but I could now, and my skin was crawling with unseen fingers. That sound, low and agony-filled, curled up the back of my neck and trembled across my scalp. I shuddered. The last time I’d heard that, I’d been running for my life through Blaedergil’s mansion.
“We’ve got a problem, here, too, Mack,” I sent. I wanted to scroll through the security footage to see exactly what was coming our way. I’d been intending to do it, once we were closer to the lab, hadn’t thought I’d need to do it, sooner.
I remembered the visuals from the day before. The pharma’s security footage was linked to the station’s security system, something I figured Corovan wasn’t aware of. I wondered if any of its other security systems were similarly slaved. The only problem was that I was going to have to stop to work it out.
Delight hit the door, and turned the handle before I could stop her. Damn, now I couldn’t check to see if what was on the other side, might be worse than what was on this one. I hesitated, but Delight reached back, and hauled me through, slamming the door shut behind us.
“Get it locked!”
I followed my theory, moving from the cams to the other security systems, and finding the security for the doors. I liked this security company, very logical—it made everything easy to find. I scrambled the code between their controls and the pharma’s section. There was no point in me locking down the doors, if someone unlocked them when I wasn’t looking.
At the same time, I was worried. If something happened to me, folks were going to have a hard time helping anyone else who was stuck in here.
“I’ve got it,” Tens said. “You’ll be fine.”
Maybe there was something in having a party line in my head.
“Yeah, and I’ll remind you you said that,” Mack added, which was when I realized Delight had gone very, very quiet, and very, very still.
Maybe I should take a look at that. I chased down the door lock, and made sure it engaged, and then I turned around.
“What are those?” because I’d never seen a human so shaggy, before, nor one with a wolf’s head, or...
One of them snarled, and my legs went weak at the knees. I reached back for the door handle, but Delight grabbed my arm, and a chorus of moans sounded from the corridor. Using Delight as cover, I opened the pouch containing my Glazer.
A second snarl followed the first, and I froze, peering out from behind Delight to find that one of the creatures had moved closer. There were three in all, all bigger than either of us, and all as weaponized as a set of claws and teeth could make them.
“I thought you said we had to get out of the corridor,” I said, but Delight ignored me.
She was completely focused on the creatures in front of us.
“We could try talking,” I suggested, and the wolf-man-thing nearest curled its lip in what might have been amusement, so I added “or maybe feed them. They look hungry, and those claws would be no good for operating a replicator.”
I sidled out from behind Delight, and scanned the room. Of course, the replicator was on the other side. Of course, it was—but there was nothing else for me to do, except try, and see what happened.
“Don’t shoot,” I whispered, and stepped away from her side, dodging the hand she reached out to grab me with.
I didn’t dodge the sudden lunge the nearest wolf made, but no shot followed, and I tried to remember to breathe. If I’d had any doubts as to whether these creatures could understand Galbas, they were erased, as it dragged me over to the replicator, and set me down in front of it. I wanted to scream, but I bit down the urge.
Wolves, right? Hunters—and, if I remembered anything from the dogs in my old neighborhood, running and screaming only made them want to play... or eat you. One of the two, and I didn’t want to find out which one applied to these guys.
I stood in front of the replicator, breathing hard, as the monster stepped back, hearing Delight’s voice in my head.
“Are you fucking insane?
Not what I would call helpful. I looked over at the wolf... person, my fingers poised above the keypad.
“Just nod, when I say what you want created, got it?”
By now, I had the attention of all three of them, including the one that was giving Delight a hard-eyed stare. Lucky me. The wolf-critter nodded, and made a noise that sounded similar to a very short, gruff bark.
“Chicken... Fish... Steak...”
Three growfs on that last.
“Medium... Rare... Raw...”
Another three growfs on that last.
“And lots of it, right?” I asked, hitting buttons.
Three double-growfs answered that one, and they formed a semi-circle around me.
“You guys still want plates?” I asked. “Cos I feel kinda disrespectful putting this on the floor.”
This got me the wolfish equivalent of three glares, and I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat, trying to keep my fear at bay.
“Uh, you wanta tell me where?”
The wolf that had been giving Delight the eye, pointed to a cupboard above the replicator, so I opened the door, and pulled out the three largest plates I saw there. I set these on one of the lab benches, and then went back to get a fourth for the steak. The replicator pinged, so I loaded up the plate, guessed where the cutlery was, and stuck three forks in the three different steaks—and then I got the replicator to turn out another batch.
When it was done, I realized the wolves were looking at the steaks, and then back at Delight and me, and that the only word I could find for their expressions was embarrassment. I took the latest batch of steaks over to them, and then stepped back.
“You guys don’t want us watching while you eat?” I asked, and had their instant attention.
I held up my hands.
“Fine by us. We’re leaving.”
That received three instantaneous growls, and Delight’s Glazer snapped back up. She’d moved so that she had three lab benches between her and the closest wolf. I was still standing closest to the table.
I thought about pleading, or being reasonable, and discarded both ideas just as fast. Instead, I went for blunt and sassy, and made sure the safety was off on the Glazer, even if I didn’t pull it, yet.
“You kill us, and Odyssey won’t help you,” I said. “Lab accident like this? Your bosses are going to do everything they can to cover it up, and you are all screwed. You can’t hide what happened; it’s on camera,” and I patched into the nearest computer and connected the security feeds through.
And I didn’t stop talking.
“Also, what happened to you isn’t the biggest problem Corovan Chem has...” I let my voice trail off as the camera footage of the lab went live. “Well...”
I turned to look at the three wolves, not comforted when I found all but one of them had left their steaks on the table to come stand near me. That third one was holding the steak in one hand and taking casual bites out of it as he listened. I half-expected Delight to come join them, so she could see what was going on, but then I realized she was either accessing the feeds through her own implant, or piggybacking on what I could see via mine.
“Clever idea,” she said, as I wound the feed back, and we watched the three scientists inject themselves with what had to be pure werewolf blood... taken from the wolf they had in the stasis pod tucked in beside the refrigeration unit in one corner of the lab.
“You guys took a risk,” I said, having seen the first signs of plague on their faces fade shortly after they’d used the blood. I made a show of inspecting them closely for plague symptoms, and seeing none. “Looks like it worked.”
Delight looked over at me.
“It’s not an option for us,” she said, “and we need to wrap this up. You and I are both infected, and the station is—”
“We know!” Mack said. “Looks like our problem is directly related to yours... werewolves excluded.”
I stepped away from the computer, and faced up to the wolf that appeared to be the most dominant.
“You want Odyssey’s help?” I asked, and didn’t wait for it to reply. “Then you need to let us get on with our job.”
He growled, and I glared at him, feeling the vibration of that growl right down to my bones, and fighting the urge to run.
“You can either help us, or Odyssey will put you down when they get here, instead of seeing what they can do to reverse it... or help you get on with life.”
A moan rose from outside the door, punctuated by a banging on the outside. I turned my head, directing the wolves’ attention to it.
“Right now, that is our job, along with trying to save the station. You going to let us do it? Or does she start shooting?”
I didn’t know how much these guys had researched their subjects, but I was betting they didn’t know every vulnerability a werewolf had. I figured Corovan had been getting ready to build an army, at the same time as he’d been getting ready to spread his plague off-world. That crazy bastard hadn’t just been going to hold Costral or the Hazernas to ransom; he’d been going for as much of known space as he could.
Corovan Chem, my sainted aunt’s backside! Crazy Lord Andreus had himself a whole new line in genetic modification, and it wasn’t going to fly. The guy with the steak, stuffed the last piece into his mouth, rolled his heavy shoulders in a shrug, and went back to the rest of the pile I’d set on the table. I kept my eyes focused on the most hostile of the three.
“Well?” I asked, just as the plague-ridden folk outside, rattled the door again.
“Stay away from the doors.” Tens voice came through the intercom, loud and clear. “I am activating secondary security measures.”
I was going to ask what those were, but I caught the hum of electrical current, the sudden crackle of discharge, and shrieks of agony from the corridor. The wolf looked from me, to the intercom, to the door, and then back again, clearly trying to work out what was happening.
“That was Odyssey,” I said, since, technically, it was true. We were Odyssey contractors. “You going to let us go, or what?”
I watched as the wolf laid back his ears, and snarled, but he went back to the table and pulled up a chair beside his subordinate. Picking up a steak between his clawed fingers, and ripping a savage bite out of it, he kept glaring at us. The third wolf followed shortly thereafter.
Delight slid out from behind her table, and walked the outside of the room to another door. The wolves watched her, ears pricked, but none of them left the table, or put down their steaks.
“Where does that one go?” she asked, looking at me, and indicating the door.
I noticed she didn’t touch it, so I pulled the blueprints from the Corovan database, now that I’d established a link to it. Honestly, it was easy, once you were inside the complex. This part of things, at least, reminded me of what it had been like inside Ghoul’s domain.
At least the Corovans hadn’t thought to partition the systems between each lab.
“Back-to-back storage with ventilation shared between them,” I said, and took a peek at what might be waiting for us.
I discovered I couldn’t see a thing, as the lights were turned off in the storage bays. The lab beyond was lit with emergency lighting, and empty, as far as I could tell. I pulled my head out of my files, and looked over at the wolves. After all, they had been scientists, once.
“You know what they were working on next door?” I asked, jerking a thumb in the general direction of the storage room.”
The wolf that had been stuffing his face frowned, shrugged, and went back to eating. The leader wolf shrugged. The third wolf, the quietest of the three looked from one to the other of them and back again, frowning.
“Don’t make me come over there,” Delight said, and they all swiveled their heads towards her, flattening their ears against their skulls.
I decided on a different approach. After all, dogs, wolves, guys... you just had to feed them, right?
“I’ll stay long enough to fix another tray of steak,” I said, and their ears flicked forward.
Steak-Boy looked at the quiet one, and nudged him, indicating he should go ahead. Boss-Boy nodded, too, so the quiet one licked his chops, and tried.
“Wurroof.” He stopped and frowned, and I watched his form ripple, the furred outline of his shoulders get less shaggy, and his snout melt back into his face.
He looked down at his, now, very human hands and his face lit up, just a little.
“Virus stuff,” he said, and then caught us all staring at him. “What?”
“I guess you shredded your clothes when you changed.” Delight pointed out, and we watched him blush.
A short, sharp bark from Boss Boy, made us look towards him, but the head werewolf wasn’t interested in us, just his quiet and very nude assistant. The man looked at him, and then back at himself, and then over at Delight and me.
“Back in a moment,” he said, and scurried over to a corner of the lab where a pile of clothes was draped over a chair.
He dressed fast, his face growing redder by the minute, until he had some clothing to put between his bare skin and the rest of us.
“A lot of the labs do virus stuff,” he said. “It’s not our specialty, so we kind of ignore them—and then there was a shipment to 24B, and suddenly the management went into top gear, and not just with the viral testing, but with what they wanted us to do here, too.”
Two warning growls made him go wide-eyed as he looked at us, and then he shrugged, and glared at his colleagues.
“Well, they know, now,” he said, “and we’re going to need them to get ourselves out of this corner, so what does it matter?”
Boss Boy gave a grunting, whining huff, and sighed, and Quiet Guy continued.
“Two days ago, we were feeling a bit off, but we came in, anyway. We had timelines we had to meet, and the clan isn’t very understanding, if you fall behind. It was mid-afternoon when we noticed the lesions. We’d had a fever from about mid-morning, but we weren’t saying anything, in case we vanished.”
He paused, swallowed hard, and shook his head—and neither Delight nor I pushed him; vanishing scientists we could look into later. Right now, there were more important things to do. The scientist obviously thought the same, because he continued.
“Anyhow, the lesions really tipped us off that something wasn’t right, so we looked up the symptoms, and then narrowed down the diseases by where the latest packages had come from. The only weird one was the one that came from on-world, and by then we knew that only two diseases on record came anywhere close to the symptoms, and neither of them originated on Costral. We didn’t want to die, so we figured we’d take on the werewolf DNA, and hope we survived.”
“And you just happened to have a werewolf handy...” Delight let her tone of voice tell them just how unhappy she was with them having a werewolf in stasis. “I don’t suppose he volunteered.”
The scientist blushed even redder than before, and the two wolves at the table hung their heads.
“We were never told,” the man admitted, “but, given what we were doing...”
He sighed, looking hunted.
“We tried really hard not to think about it, because of what would happen to our families if we did.”
“Someone’s going to talk to you about that,” Delight said, “but, right now, you need to wake him up, and get him to help you with what you need to know about being a were. For instance, how to change between forms.”
I watched them process that piece of information, and look uncertainly towards the stasis pod. The scientist who’d lucked his way into human form gave Delight a pleading look.
“He might be mad,” he said, his voice a little over a whisper, and Delight bared her teeth at him.
“Then you’d better hurry,” she said, her tone like iron, her aim with the Glazer unwavering.
I watched the man’s Adam’s apple bob up and down as he looked back towards the pod, and then his shoulders sagged, and he moved over to set the process in reverse and open the box. Delight and I waited while the wolf inside went through the process of waking up, but we didn’t waste any time while we did.
I ran a keyword search through the pharma’s record’s systems using: ‘Blaedergil’, ‘Hazerna’ and ‘Melari’. None of those brought me any joy, so I tried ‘Skymander’ and hit gold.
“He’s calling it Operation Skymander,” I said, and Delight rolled her eyes.
“Sooo original,” she snarked. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Send that over,” Tens demanded, then added, “Delight, your people will be here in another six standard hours. They say to tell you they’re fast-jumping a quarantine boat in, and two cruisers.”
“Confirmed. Tell them we need Wolf Pack Liaison. There’s been an—”
A thunderous growl ripped through the lab, accompanied by two sets of yelps and a very human scream.
“—incident. Gotcha. Out,” and Tens was gone.
Delight and I looked over at where the fully awakened werewolf was raising a bloodied muzzle from the human-shaped scientist before him. It read the horror on our faces and smiled.
“Pack discipline,” it said, having mastered the art of making human sounds from a wolf-shaped mouth. “I will let him live.”
He narrowed his eyes, and studied Delight.
“Odyssey?” he asked, and I wanted to know where they had met before.
“Never you mind,” Delight snapped, inside my head. Out loud, she said, “Odyssey, but this was not our mission.”
The wolf nodded.
“I will see you in the debrief,” he said, and his lip curled when we continued to stare. “You will see us all in the debrief, although in what shape, will depend on how fast they learn.”
Delight bowed her head, and nodded towards the store-room. She hesitated as she reached for the door.
“Don’t leave this lab,” she said, “and stay away from the door; it’s electrified.”
The wolf dipped his chin in an abrupt nod, and then turned back to the man under his paw.
“Change,” he snarled.
