Jupiter Fleet 1: Werewolves Don't Purr (34 page)

“Hey, daughter! When do I get to meet my grandkids without them freaking out?” thought her dad.

Leona turned her head and nodded at him, seated in the midsection. She shrugged and laughed a little nervously.

“Listen, I have something important to tell you, so hold on to your hats,” said Leona. “Your father and your grandfather were among those who have been changed into werewolves.”

“What?” yelped Young Will, while his sister gasped.

“They won’t eat us, will they?” cried Sarah.

“No, no, they are just really tall and furry, with teeth and claws—and they still love you. But they can’t talk with their mouths anymore, only telepathically or through a communications interface.”

“Telepathy? Like you and Dad do?”

“What? We didn’t do telepathy until we came up to the spaceship,” said Leona, raising her eyebrows.

“Yeah, you just tell yourself that,” said Sarah sarcastically. “Will and I have always known that you guys talked to each other in your heads. We could never get anything past either of you, because what one of you knew, the other parent knew too!”

“Oh?”

“So true, Mom,” nodded Will.

“Hmm, well.”

“Can I come over now? I’ll turn on the thought-amplifier thingy so they can hear me,” said Old Will.

“Yeah, sure, Dad,” said Leona aloud, turning and beckoning.

While the other werewolves and the human fighters watched with interest, Leona’s father undid his gravity harness and climbed out of his seat in the midsection of the shuttle. Young Will and Sarah both gasped when they saw how tall he was.

“Now don’t get uptight, young’uns—it’s just your grandpa in a wolf suit,” thought Leona’s father, his words coming through the communicator that he carried in one paw.

Old Will walked back toward the boat, and stood next to Leona with one furry arm around her shoulders. He had one ear up and the other down, and his tail was wagging slowly.

“Leona, they’re not going to shriek and run away, are they?” he “whispered” to his daughter. The thought-amplifier carried his words and tone of voice, revealing his anxiety about their reaction.

“Grandpa?” asked Sarah, looking on the verge of tears.

“It’s me, kiddo,” he answered. “Don’t let the fur fool you, I still love you and your brother. And your dad, Thor, does the same.”

“What about Grandma?” asked Young Will.

“She’s waiting for us on board the
Space Dog
,” thought Old Will.

“Leona,” said Hiroshi, “we’re over Antarctica now and will dock with the
Space Dog
in five minutes.”

CHAPTER 11

The Squadron

December 5, 2038, 11:15 a.m.

Admiral took the hood and thought-helmet off the head of the silver-furred Alpha from the other clan’s squadron of ships. Then the giant Alpha removed the shackles from the smaller squadron Alpha. The silver-furred werewolf stood up quickly; however, when he saw that he was surrounded by wolves, including two of the largest Alpha wolves he had ever seen, he sat back down again.

“How is it that there are two ancient Alphas in the room and no one is drawing blood?” thought the foreign Alpha.

“If you wish blood to be let, I can spill some of yours,” thought Admiral.

“I would ask what you want of me, before I decide to commence with fighting.”

“A wise wolf, something we need more of, right, Frosty?”

“That’s right, Admiral.”

“You have names? I cannot believe your Masters let you have names!”

“That is because we have no Masters. I am the commander of this ship and Frosty commands the station.”

“You are a Ship Master?”

The thought of this clearly stretched the imagination of the foreign Alpha. He couldn’t sit still, and his claws kept extending and retracting nervously.

“I think he gets it, Frosty.”

“How do you operate the ship?”

“Our human friends operate the ship. They also have a ship of their own. We are a team,” thought Frosty.

“We want you and your wolves to join us,” thought Admiral.

Admiral’s tail was wagging slowly and his fangs were slightly uncovered in an expression midway between a smile and a snarl.

“The honor guard that came with me are converted Masters with their original memories. They will not join. I think there are other wolves on our ships like that as well. However, the rest of the wolves on the three ships will follow me.”

“The status of your honor guard is already known to us. We are dealing with that.”

“How?”

“It is best that you not know that for now. We need your surprise to be real,” thought Admiral.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Just do what we ask you to do.”

The foreign Alpha’s ears pricked forward and his claws ceased their restless extension and retraction.

“Will I get a ship of my own, and a name?”

“Yes, to both of those questions.”

“Then I choose my original name of Mergnot.”

“You remember your original name? How extraordinary,” thought Frosty.

“The Master that is doing the negotiations is returning to the ship soon with his honor guard. You must exchange places with the wolves pretending to be you and your group—without the Masters becoming aware of the switch.”

“How
ever
did you manage to find a wolf that looked like me?”

“When we saw you, we knew we would have to find a wolf similar to you and quickly paint him silver. Poor Yellow Fang is the same height as you, so he was chosen to be painted. You should have heard the howling. No matter. Now then, you will help us screen the wolves to see who can be trusted,” thought Admiral.

“I will do as you ask, on one condition—I get to kill the Master who has made my life a living torture for two hundred ship years.”

“Oh, that can definitely be arranged,” thought Frosty.

Subsequently, the Alpha that called himself Mergnot watched on a monitor as the party of his Master and the fake honor guard walked into the same room they had used before. After a short time, the human soldiers and the honor guard came out of the negotiation room. One of the humans then ushered him into a room where the real honor guard was waiting.

They were all asleep. The Alpha that wished to be known as Mergnot walked in and started kicking wolves.

“How can you be sleeping when the Master’s safety is at stake? Get up and move! If the Master gets the idea that you were sleeping, you will all be flogged.”

The honor guard scrambled out of the room, having no idea how much actual time had passed. They formed up outside the door and waited for negotiations to conclude. Two hours later the Master called his Alpha wolf in.

“These humans want to scan each of the werewolves that we bring on board, in case of parasites that are dangerous to humans. Stay with them as they do the scanning to make sure nothing untoward happens. Send my honor guard back with me,” thought the Master.

“It is as you say, Master,” thought the Alpha, Mergnot.

Two of the squadron ships docked at Jupiter Station, while the third remained out in space on guard. Werewolves started coming on board to be tested. They were surprised that the squadron Alpha was on-site to watch the process.

Each “squadron” werewolf passed by Ashley. She passed a scanner over the werewolves and touched their foreheads. After the scan, she would send them into the main waiting area or into the “treatment room.”

In the “treatment room” were Arjun and ten of the best telepaths the free fleet had. They did an
intrusive
force-scan on each of the treated werewolves, implanting a deep command and erasing the memory of their visit—just like they had done with the honor guard.

The werewolves that were not loyal to the Supes funneled through the main waiting area and were guided to a larger room several decks down. There the trustable werewolves from the three ships were being gathered.

The squadron Alpha (that wished to be known as Mergnot) addressed the wolves when there were several hundred that had been scanned.

“All of you have been tested and have been found loyal to your fellow wolves and to me. I need you to wait here and fight when I tell you.”

“Who will we be fighting?” one wolf telepathically broadcast.

“You will be fighting the Masters,” thought the squadron Alpha.

Yelps of surprise and happiness could be heard throughout the hall.

“Are there any of you who do not want to fight the Masters?”

The telepathic roar of NO! and the accompanying growling almost made Mergnot’s head hurt. What a fortunate thing that the Masters and their converted-Master wolves were not in earshot or line of sight!

“How will we do this? We cannot operate the ships, so if we fight the Masters, we will all die,” the same wolf said.

“We are going to have help. Free wolves have already taken two ships and this station.”

The wolf that had asked the questions yipped with happiness.

With that, Mergnot the Alpha left the room and made his way back up to the scanning area.

When Leona had returned to the
Space Dog
from rescuing her son and daughter, she had ordered that the ship be moved to a safer orbit. Commander Gupta had chosen an orbit low over Antarctica as a stationary position. That was reasonably safe, since the nations still didn’t have very many working satellites in orbit. However, it required that the vessel use anti-grav to maintain its position.

It had the side bonus of allowing them to activate their solar particle collectors. Until the forward magnet array was repaired, that was the only way to collect fuel for the
Space Dog
’s drive.

Leona spent the rest of the day visiting with her family. Commander Gupta assigned personnel to help Isamu get the needed repairs going. He forbade Hiroshi to do anything but rest. Gunny took it on himself to safely stow the Stevenson family boat, and then consulted with Isamu as to who should learn the use of the
kitana
first.

In her quarters, Leona first hugged her son and daughter as if—well, truly—as if she had thought she would never see them again. Both Leona and Sarah kept blinking tears from their eyes, but Young Will was more stoic. Of course, his grandfather, Old Will, was there to joke with him and keep the mushiness from overwhelming the gathering.

“So, are you hungry? Look, here is how you get basic rations from the ship’s system,” said Leona, demonstrating.

“Ooh, it looks like kibble!” said Sarah.

“Well, it
is
kibble, but there are twenty-four varieties and they are made from
rach
and
aarach
, two alien foods that are farmed on the agricultural deck.”

“It’s not bad once you get used to it,” thought Will, through the thought-amplifier.

“Here, try some,” said Leona, getting dishes of food and containers of drinking water for the group.

Sarah and Young Will were hesitant at first, but after a few bites, they ate with all the enthusiasm of young adults anywhere.

When they had finished their snack, Leona showed them how to use the bathroom facilities, how to call a bed from the ship’s system, and how to access the ship’s computer consoles for information—all things she would have dearly loved to know that first day when Thor awoke.

“Now, likely in a day or so, a nice Japanese man called Isamu will work with you to familiarize you with the ship’s systems and help you find work that fits your talents,” said Leona.

“I want to fight the aliens,” said Young Will harshly.

“Me too!” said Sarah, nodding.

“Me three!” said Old Will.

“What, Dad, didn’t Commander Gupta get you settled into a werewolf unit yet?”

“No, I’ve been sitting with that Vihaan guy, the Indian yogi or adept or whatever, with your mother.”

“Well, that is the more important task, really,” said Leona.

“Sitting with Grandma? Was she hurt by the aliens?”

“No, Sare, she decided she wants to be a werewolf like me, and she has two weeks of shape-shifting going on in the conversion lab. So, during that time, telepaths like Vihaan and Arjun—they are some of Commander Gupta’s fighters from India—sit with her and talk with her while she is changing. It’s very important.”

“Why did she decide to change to a werewolf? Um, isn’t it scary, Grandpa? I mean, no offense, but the alien raiders…claws, and teeth! It’s like Red Riding Hood, isn’t it?”

“Well, it was hard at first, but then she realised that if she was a wolf, we could talk mind to mind without having to use a machine. Plus, I told her about how my arthritis pain all went away, and I feel even stronger and healthier than when I was your age!”

“So it’s like a fountain of youth?” Young Will struggled to understand what a young adult could barely imagine.

“Kinda,” said Old Will, grinning wolfishly, his tail wagging. “Why don’t we go to the conversion lab and you can see for yourself?”

The family group left Leona’s quarters and went to the Med Bay where Mary now lay on a conversion table. Leona pointed out to the kids how the silvery half tube enclosed their grandmother, and showed them the alien script on the information panel.

Sarah and Young Will kept looking from Leona to their grandpa, evidently trying to imagine what Mary would look like when she emerged from the conversion process.