Blue Horizon, PA1138

Captain's Journal

The Blue Horizon is approaching the world of Fyn. Almost as soon as we got back on board the ship following Alex's wedding on Tanthe, Cindy had a message waiting for us explaining that we had received an urgent request for the delivery of standard supplies to an out-of-the-way colony in the backcountry of Fyn. The supplies have already been ordered from Silvest, a nearby Tanthean city. I am not sure how a backwater colony would know we were in the vicinity of the very place where their supplies had been ordered from, but a job is a job.

Fyn is probably the least industrialized world of the Planetary Alignment, so it is not surprising that one of the colonies in the unexplored territories would call to another planet to replenish their supplies. Tanthe is a long way from Fyn, however. I would have thought Alexandrius would be a likelier place to get their supplies since the two worlds are in the same system and usually only a day away from one another by star freighter. Durant has shown me the manifest for the supplies we picked up in Silvest and there is nothing particularly special about them. Alexandrius could have provided them easily, but it is not my job to worry where a customer gets their goods.

The Chimera Colony is located just about as far from local civilization as it could be. Fyn does not yet have a global positioning satellite system, so Renny used the directions the customer provided and found the site on the topography maps in the southern hemisphere.  This place is located in the middle of the Kaisudon Mountain range, down in a deep canyon rift named the Valley of Bones. The map details show the region to be difficult to access. I would wager to guess the colonists got there by foot or pack animal, as a motorized vehicle would be unlikely to traverse the steep sides of the valley, and colonists usually are not wealthy enough to afford to be airlifted. The planet of Fyn does not have many tall mountains on its surface to begin with, so it is my guess that the colonists chose the location for its remoteness away from civilization. However, it does not look as if they planned well enough to be self-sufficient if they have to order supplies from a world in another solar system altogether.

Still, they paid our standard delivery fee in advance for the supplies, so I should not complain. We will arrive during the local evening hours, so navigating the narrow canyon pass with instruments in the dark may prove to be a challenge.

Speaking of challenges, Samantha has been busy working up a guest list for the invitations for our upcoming wedding. We have not done much more than announce our engagement to everyone since we left Tanthe, and we have not even set a date yet, but Sam is acting the part of a bride preparing for her wedding. She and Taro have been researching bridal companies on the StellarNet for dresses. Shannon has even been helping out by touring the local shops for her.

Lori wants to help out in any way she can, but Samantha is reluctant to trust her with any specific duties. To be expected, all the guys on board have given me good-natured ribbing about finally giving in to Samantha's charms, though Durant keeps muttering "It's about time," with a grin whenever I'm near. I have tried to remind everyone not to get too gung-ho until an actual date is set for the ceremony on Dennier.  I may as well have saved my breath, as everyone, especially the ladies, are acting like it's next month.

As for me, I have not tried to think about it too much beyond my proposal to Samantha. I am sure I will have my hand in on the preparations once we have a date to work towards, but for the time being, I have to keep the business in mind.

The company has been doing better than I anticipated. The girls at the home office have done a wonderful job promoting the company, and there are calls almost daily requesting our services. I never thought it would come to this, but after talking it over with Durant, I have started to think along the lines of buying a third freighter for Blue Horizon Freight. This would mean hiring another eight or ten people. The company account does have the capital to invest in another ship and crew, and I find it difficult to turn away customers who have been specifically requesting our services. With an expansion of the company like this, it could be harder to run my business out here in space. My brother-in-law has suggested turning the captaincy of the Blue Horizon over to someone else and settling down on Dennier to run things from the home office. While the thought has merit, I am not sure I am quite ready to give up my ship just yet. Personally, I think he is just trying to get me closer to Shannon and the kids.

The flight to Fyn has been quiet, without incident, and rather pleasant. Renny is now getting around without his crutches, but he is still walking rather slowly. With the type of wounds he had, it may be a while yet before he is back to his old self again. I overheard him make a comment to Durant that he has never had as many injuries, nor seen the inside of hospitals, as much as he has since joining the crew of the Blue Horizon. I suppose that is true, since life aboard a stellar freighter should be mundane, but it does seem as if we have seen our share of excitement in the past few years. I just hope he does not decide to tender his resignation with us. He is one of the best navigators I have ever worked with, and he is also a good friend. The rest of my crew gets along with him well, and even though he and Tanis often argue with one another, they're actually good friends.

Maximillian has been in constant contact with Clarence Duffy ever since we plotted our course toward Fyn, but we will be in a completely different part of the world from him to make any stops to visit. They seem to have become good friends in a short time, although a father-son relationship has not developed. Max has a good head on his shoulders, and seems to have handled the situation in a mature manner. I am really proud of him.

Taro is currently in the Blue Horizon's center seat, with Renny on the bridge at navigation. We entered the Fynian atmosphere fifteen minutes ago, and we are already en route toward the landing coordinates. The Chimera colony is transmitting a locator signal and we should be landing shortly. It is normally my duty to take over the landing procedures when there are dangerous conditions to fly into, but my first officer assured me that she could handle it, even in the air currents of this harsh mountain range.

Pockets has reported readings that the filters in atmosphere replenishing unit located between the double-hulls of the ship are getting dangerously clogged and will need to be cleaned out while we are down inside an atmosphere. We should be on the ground for little more than an hour, so I will excuse him and Max from cargo detail to take care of it while we are down.

Once we are finished here, we will be launching immediately to Pomen for our next pickup assignment. I hate to leave without allowing the crew our standard three days of shore leave, but since this was an unscheduled diversion, Cindy had to make excuses with the Toore Corporation for the six week delay in picking up their automobile parts for delivery to Earth. She gave them the option to cancel out of the contract legally, but Toore assured us their people could handle the delay.

Merlin Sinclair, Captain

Merlin capped his pen and set his journal on the office desk in front of him. Its cover was made of dyed Terran cowhide and it showed wear from excessive handling. It was the fifth such journal he had kept over the years and he knew he should order one with more pages in the future or learn to write smaller. Keeping a journal of his travels was a common tradition long held by ships' captains of all the worlds he had ever visited, whether they commanded ships that sailed the seas or the void between the stars. He was proud to uphold the custom, whether or not he planned to show them to anyone. He had long intended to transcribe them into electronic form for safer keeping, but despite all the free time he usually had during the voyages between worlds, he had never taken the time to do it. For the time being, he continued to put ink to paper just as it had been done in the days of the earliest explorers.

"Attention all hands," Taro's voice sounded from the ship-wide speakers, "We're approaching the Kaisudon Mountain Range, where there will be wind-shear turbulence as we pass over them. The Valley of Bones is in the middle of this range, so I would advise everyone to buckle up until we have landed. You have about three minutes of stability."

Merlin left his office quickly and made for the bridge next door. The navy blue panel with the golden image of a sailing ship's wheel moved aside for him quietly and he walked to the Com station. He sat down, buckled himself in, and then looked up at the grinning faces of his bridge team.

"Even when you aren't driving the boat," Renny said with a chuckle, "you can't stay off the bridge!"

"You want to drive?" Taro teased, knowing there would be no change in pilots once they had dropped inside an atmosphere. "You can have it now!"

"I just want to see," the wolf retorted. "You keep your seat, lady."

"Aye-Aye, Captain, sir!"

"Let's hope everybody's strapped in," Renny said after a quick glance at his navigational readings.

Merlin looked out the forward windows. The sun was at their backs as they flew eastward and the sky before them was already growing dim from the approaching dusk. The ground below was a mixture of green and brown, darkening with the approaching nightfall. Their course had taken them over low hills and sporadic forests, but directly ahead and below them were the jagged peaks of the Kaisudon Mountains, commonly called the Dragon's Teeth by local folk.

"What the devil is that?" Renny asked suddenly. Merlin's gaze moved from the mountain peaks to another ship approaching from the starboard at a lower altitude. It was long and cylindrical and seemed out of place flying above the ground. "Looks almost like a submarine," the navigator said with a smirk.

"Hey, that's an old Altus-class cruiser," Merlin replied after studying its design. "I've only seen them in museums and ship catalogs, but it looks like someone got one flying. It's a dual-purpose vessel, designed for the vacuum of space as well as the pressures of a deep ocean – pretty solidly built, but their engines were rather unreliable, I seem to remember."

"Wow, you're full of information," Renny teased. "Where's it from?"

Merlin turned to give him a smirk as the vessel slipped beneath them and continued on its journey. "Well, I can't vouch for this one specifically," he said, "but the Altus cruisers were built for Fyn's first forays into deep space after they developed their own form of LightDrive technology using Fastar engines. They were in use for a couple decades, but I don't think they've been widely flown for the past thirty years."

"Imagine seeing one out here in the middle of nowhere," Renny remarked.

"Renny, we're nearing the mountains," Taro said in a quiet voice. "I need a navigator."

"Right," the cheetah said, instantly forgetting the sub-ship. He set to work on getting a good fix on the landing beacon and sent the coordinates to the center seat's console a moment later.

The Dragon's Teeth rose to seemingly impossible heights and resembled the bottom of a spike-filled pit trap from the sheer numbers of their pointed crests. The tree line was far below, and while there was not much snow in this region at this time of year, Merlin could see patches of white in areas of perpetual shadow.

The canyons between the crags seemed bottomless and forbidding, and the mountain range stretched on for unseen miles in both directions. Merlin wondered again how the colonists had originally traversed them to set up shop deep in their midst. He forgot his musing when the Blue Horizon banked to the starboard and then suddenly bucked upward. Taro compensated with the guidance shifts without a word, but he could see the concern in her eyes.

The ship slipped sideways and abruptly dropped altitude in an unexpected pocket of dead air. Renny's eyes widened considerably at the suddenly nearer peaks, and he gripped the armrests of his seat with a strength that would undoubtedly leave imprints in the material.

Merlin swallowed his own apprehension as he eyed one dark peak that jutted up at them almost as if it was growing on the spot. The Blue Horizon sped past it without a meeting and Taro calmly increased their altitude, much to the relief of her companions.

The vixen had not handled a flight such as this in a long while and the bucking ship tested her past experience. Fortunately for them all, she was a competent pilot and weathered the atmospheric roller coaster admirably, although with clenched teeth. The darkness made unexpected rock outcroppings near impossible to see, but Taro spent more of her time watching the instrument monitor on the console before her than she did looking out the forward windows.

The Horizon smoothed out suddenly and Merlin's face lit up in appreciation. They had cleared the tallest peaks and were now descending toward a dark chasm that was wider than it seemed it should be in this place. Even so, he doubted that the bottom saw more than just a few hours of direct sunlight due to the height of the surrounding mountains. Although the area was now shrouded in deep shadow, the wolf thought he could see a mixture of forest, plain, and a meandering river that gently reflected the weakening sunlight in soft shimmers. Encircling both sides of the valley were huge fingers of wind-carved rocks that were bone-white and shaped like some titanic ribcage. Merlin stared at it silently, musing that he had once seen a similar formation while vacationing on Sillon.

"The Valley of Bones," Renny announced. "Alter our course three degrees starboard and we'll be heading directly for it."

"Changing course, three degrees starboard," Taro repeated in a quiet voice. Merlin looked over and saw her rapidly blink several times, panting lightly as the ship passed beneath the stone rib formations. She caught him looking at her and swallowed in embarrassment. She managed a weak smile, but Merlin gave her a small nod to let her know that she had done okay.

"The beacon is five miles directly ahead," Renny reported. "It's near the starboard wall of the valley." He stretched his arms to ease the tension he had built in them and felt a small twinge of pain in his side. He lowered them with a frown and glanced back at the wolf. "We should probably give our contact a call to let him know we're on final approach," he suggested.

"Right," Merlin said as he turned to the Com console beside him. He picked up a headset microphone and put it around the back of his head so that one small flexible boom was near his ear and another near his lips. Once he had it in place, Merlin called up the contact information for their customer from the main computer, and then keyed in the calling code and frequency. A green light came on to indicate the Com unit was ready and he touched it briefly.

"This is Captain Sinclair of the SS Blue Horizon, PA1138, calling the Chimera Colony, ID 90125," he broadcast. There was no immediate reply, but Merlin waited patiently for a response. He was about to try again when a voice sounded in the earpiece of his Com headset.

"Blue Horizon, this is Pamiu Nechet of the Chimera Colony. Good evening to you, Captain. How was your flight?"

Merlin smiled at the aged voice and routed the signal to the overhead bridge speakers. "Good evening to you, too. Our flight went well, Mr. Nechet. We have just cleared the Dragon's Teeth and are descending into the Valley of Bones. We are on final approach to your position and the landing beacon is coming in clearly. We should be landing shortly."

"Blue Horizon, I'm afraid you won't be able land on the exact location of the beacon, which is here in our communication hut. We're surrounded by forest and have limited free space around our homes, which is taken up by freshly plowed fields that we would prefer you didn't land on."

"I understand, sir," Merlin replied. He glanced out the forward windows and frowned at the darkness. He made a motion to Renny to pull out local navigation charts. "If you will tell us where to set down, we'll gladly land there."

"As you home in on the beacon, you will find a large clearing a half-mile beyond our colony that should be large enough for your ship. You may set down there. We will meet you shortly with lamps and carts for our supplies."

"Aye, sir," Merlin replied. "We will see you there. Blue Horizon out."

"We'll be over their position in about a minute," Taro announced quietly.

Merlin activated the ship-wide intercom. "We'll be landing in two minutes," he announced, "but we have to set down a half-mile away from the Colony facilities. They will meet us there with carts and lights for their supplies and I want everyone but Engineering to help get everything off-loaded. Pockets and Max are to get started with the filter cleaning as soon as we are powered down. Assuming all goes well, we should be back in the air within two hours."

The wolf unbuckled his belt and moved to the Engineering console. Before he could sit down, Taro wrenched the ship to the starboard to avoid a tree taller than the rest. The inertial dampeners were active, but were set low inside the atmosphere. Merlin stumbled and lurched into the chair.

"Sorry about that," Taro murmured.

Merlin waved it off, buckled himself to the seat, and then tapped out a few commands on the terminal before him. He nodded to himself at the outside readings and then toggled a covered switch. Almost at once, the smell of plant life issued from the room ducts as fresh air from the outside began to vent throughout ship. By the time the cargo bay was unloaded and the hatches resealed for launch, the ship's environmental reserves would be replenished with fresh air.

"Mmm, smell that?" Renny said with his eyes closed. "It must have rained recently. I love the smell of fresh florence."

Taro and Merlin looked at one another with grins. "Florence?" the vixen asked in an amused tone. "You know someone here?"

"And you can smell her already?" Merlin added as he sniffed the air.

Renny opened his eyes and looked at them with a smirk. "Florence is a Fynian shrub that my captain used to grow in her quarters on the Argentina," he explained. "They give off a minty scent when they've been watered."

"Yeah, I can smell that," Merlin replied. "It's nice."

Renny tapped in a set of figures into the navigational computer and transmitted the coordinates to Taro's terminal. The vixen nodded without looking up and adjusted their course slightly. A heartbeat later, she moved the guidance shifts and then depressed a foot pedal gently. The ship slowed considerably and dropped to an altitude just above the tops of the trees below. There was a glow of torchlight ahead in the trees. A moment later, they could see nine wooden huts arranged in a loose circle around one larger one, all near a meandering stream. Several figures emerged from the buildings and waved as they passed overhead, and then were left behind as the Blue Horizon moved toward the desired landing site.

They flew over freshly plowed fields, although in the darkness it was impossible to tell exactly how much of it had been newly planted. The fields and the lights of the colony were left behind as they passed over trees once again. There were no moons shining down into the deep recesses of the valley, and Renny had an eerie feeling. It was near pitch-black in this place. At least out in space the void was far from empty with starlight in every direction,

Suddenly, they were over a clearing that only the instruments could see and Taro toggled a switch beside her. The familiar clunk of the landing gear locking into place could be felt in the ship's deck plates and the vixen lowered the vessel gently to the ground. Once down, Renny and Taro began shutting down the flight systems. Merlin stood up with a stretch.

"Well done, Taro," he said with a smile. "You've earned your pay for the day."

"How about a raise?" asked the vixen.

The wolf grinned. "It wasn't that good," he replied. Taro protruded her bottom lip and then giggled when Merlin added, "Careful dragging that lower lip. You could get a sticker in it!"

"A sticker?" Taro asked with a laugh. "What's that?"

Merlin looked at her strangely. "A sticker is a small seed with spiny barbs that stick to anything that passes. My grandmother used to tell me I'd get a sticker in my lip if I pouted."

Renny snickered. "You're sure in a mood today, boss," he said lightly. "What's up?"

Merlin shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure," he admitted, "I woke up in a good frame of mind. I haven't had many of them lately, so I'm hoping nothing goes wrong to ruin the mood."

Durant filled his lungs with fresh air as soon as the bay doors began to open. He loved the smell of plants after a rain shower and preferred it to the stale air of the hold after a twenty-one day flight. He looked out into the darkness, but could see nothing beyond the glow of the internal lights. He looked back at the console beside the main airlock and flipped a large switch. Brilliant external lamps on each side of the bay door illuminated the area beyond the ship and made the wet grasses glisten. The cinnamon grizzly thumbed another control and the loading ramp began to extend toward the ground.

He turned back toward the supply crates cabled to the floor of the hold, but stopped when he suddenly felt light-headed. His neck and jaw began aching and he felt short of breath, despite the huge drafts of fresh air he had just taken into his lungs. He shuffled to the nearest crate and decided to wait there until the others arrived for cargo duty.

It was not the first time he had felt this way, but it had been a couple weeks since the last time he had felt discomfort in his chest. He looked up toward the ceiling of the cargo bay and his eyes watered from an increasing pain in his left arm. He massaged it mechanically and swallowed as he tried to relax. The feeling passed a moment later and he felt his breathing return to normal. He knew he should have Tanis take a look at him, but he was frightened of what he suspected the desert fox might find.

He heard the lift door open somewhere behind him and he composed himself for the task at hand. Samantha approached him a moment later and gave him a smile. "Smells good out there, doesn't it?" she asked.

"Aye to that," Durant answered in a hoarse voice. The Border collie looked at him strangely and he cleared his throat. "I'd like to bottle up the aroma and take it with us," he added in a voice closer to normal.

"Are the colonists here yet?" another voice asked. Samantha turned to see Lorelei settle down on the crate next to Durant.

"Not yet," the bear answered. He stood up slowly and grunted from the effort.

"You okay?" Samantha asked in concern when she saw the look in his eyes.

Durant grinned lopsidedly and kneaded a muscle in his side with a hand. "I'm getting old, girl," he said, "but I'll get over it."

"I have an herbal tea that does wonderful things for tired muscles," Lorelei offered with a smile.

"I may have to give it a try," Durant said. "Well, we need to get these crates unshackled. Sam, if you'd grab the lock codes from my desk, I'd be grateful."

"I'll get them," the canine replied.

He looked at Lorelei and asked, "Would you get out the work gloves for everyone?" The bunny nodded without a word and darted across the cargo deck to a storage locker. Normally, Durant would have already prepared these things by the time the crew reported for cargo duty, but he was moving slow today.

Tanis and Taro showed up together by the time all the cable locks were open and Lorelei handed out the gloves. Renny limped out of the lift and made his way to Durant's side. The bear was stowing the cables in a locker near the starboard side of the cargo arena.

"What can I do?" he asked with a pair of glove already on his hands.

Durant gnawed on his bottom lip and thought. "Since you're still not fit for heavy-lifting," he said, "you can man the overhead crane. There are a few crates too bulky to be lifted by hand. It's probably plowing equipment."

"I'll take care of them," the cheetah said with a nod. It would take a few minutes to uncouple the crane arm from its stowed position, but it would take some time to unload the rest of the cargo around the larger crates before he could get to them anyway.

Merlin was the last to appear. He had changed into a loose-fitting blue work shirt with long sleeves; His captain's hat was perched on its usual place between his ears. He took the gloves offered to him by Lorelei and then walked over to the load master.

"Any sign of our customer?" he asked. Durant looked up from the delivery paperwork and shook his head.

"Not as yet," the bear replied.

"Well, we're a half-mile from their homes, so—"

"Ahoy, the ship!"

Merlin looked up with a smile and he and Durant automatically walked to the edge of the cargo ramp. "Hello!" he called back.

A group of various feline men emerged from the darkness, some leading non-sentient workhorses pulling wooden carts. An aged jaguar walked forward with a smile. "Captain Sinclair?" he asked.

Merlin walked down the cargo ramp and extended a hand. The cat took it warmly. "I'm Sinclair," the wolf replied. "Merlin Sinclair and the Blue Horizon, at your service, sir." More cats came into the light, and a quick count by Durant numbered them at twenty-five.

"I'm Pamiu Nechet," the dark-furred jaguar replied. "Thank you for coming, Captain. I know it was such short notice, but our winter will be here in a few months and we need to start preparing even now in our planting season."

Merlin glanced at the grey cat standing just behind Nechet and the younger male looked up at him with nervous eyes. His tail twitched in agitation and he tried to mouth something to the wolf, but shut his lips when the jaguar turned to look at him.

"Ah yes, this is Nicholas Moran," Pamiu said, "my deputy at the colony."

The jaguar looked around at the Horizon's crew and motioned them forward. "I would like to meet each of your people," Pamiu said. "Because of our seclusion, we rarely get any visitors from the outside, and never from off-world. It would be an honor to meet you all before we start working."

"Of course." Merlin gave a slight nod to his people and each of them walked down the ramp to assemble at his side. He chanced another glance at the grey cat, but the fellow was looking at his feet in frustration. Merlin frowned and stepped toward him, but Pamiu grabbed his elbow lightly and steered him toward another cat.

The feline colonists gathered around them and introductions began. Renny was slow getting down the ramp, but as he neared the group with a friendly smile, others came close to meet with him. Another jaguar approached him through the crowd and the fur on the back of his neck suddenly began to rise. Lorelei saw his hesitation and gave him a gentle nudge in his side.

"Not all jaguars are out to hurt you," she reminded him in a whisper. Renny swallowed and nodded quietly to her. Only a portion of the felines in the colony was jaguar, while the rest were made up of other feline races. He cleared his throat as the black-furred jaguar stepped up to him.

"Hi there," the male said in a deep voice. "We're so glad to see you. My name is Bomani Aleson."

"I'm Lorelei," the rabbit replied with a cheerful smile, "and my friend is Renny."

Bomani looked at the cheetah and tilted his head. "I think my brother would like to meet you, Mr. Renny," he said.

"Oh?" the navigator asked hesitantly. "Why is that?"

"You two have met before, but he was not able to finish his business with you."

"W-what business is that?" Renny asked hoarsely. Another jaguar moved toward him out of the crowd and Renny felt the blood drain from his face.

"Let me introduce you to Zuberi Aleson, my brother…" The new arrival gave Renny a wide, toothy grin, but it was anything but friendly. The cheetah's eyes grew wide with recognition.

"You!" Renny exclaimed, lifting an arm up as if to protect himself.  The jaguar reached out and grabbed his wrist in a vise-like grip.

"Going somewhere, Mr. Thornton?" Zuberi growled at him, still maintaining his malicious grin. His yellow eyes were narrowed to slits.

"Yarg!"  Renny grunted as the jaguar squeezed his wrist with enough strength to make the cheetah's eyes water from the pain. Lorelei's puzzlement at the exchange turned to shock as Zuberi punched Renny in the gut, precisely where he had shot him months before. Renny's air expelled forcefully from his lungs and he fell to his knees in pain.

Lori threw her hands up to her face in disbelief at what was happening. Shouts shattered the night from behind her and she whirled around to see Merlin throw a punch at Pamiu. A smaller jaguar jumped onto the wolf's back before his fist could connect, eliciting a cry of surprise. Merlin stumbled and his shirt ripped from his assailant's claws as he tried to throw the cat from his back. Unable to struggle away from the assault, Merlin was knocked to the ground by the older feline.

The chaos amplified around Lori. She saw Taro lift another jaguar over her head before throwing him over the crowd, even as another tried to tackle her. She heard more shouts and recognized the voice of Tanis, cut short by a silencing blow to the back of the head with a sock filled with sand. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Lori seemed to realize that of all the felines in the group, only the dark-furred jaguars were attacking her friends.

The fright of action paralyzed her, even as Bomani grabbed her ears and pulled the bunny around to face him.  She only managed a muffled squeak as he roughly shoved a handkerchief up to her nose. Her eyes went wide and she finally found strength to struggle, but it was too late.  The chloroform-soaked rag made her eyes roll back as it took her consciousness. She collapsed into his arms without a sound.

With the exception of Taro, who continued to fight everyone around her, the rest of the Horizon's crew went down to similar blows or doped rags. The Hestran fox made a valiant effort even as the horrible reality set in that the delivery had been a ruse to ambush them.  Even tired, her instincts were vicious, handing out broken limbs to anyone who tried to lay hands on her.  It was a while before the attackers realized that individual strength would not topple the fox.  They bore her to the ground from sheer numbers, piling on until they reached the threshold of her strength.  A blackjack found a spot behind her left ear and the vixen dropped heavily onto the wet grass.

Merlin opened his eyes and found he could not see anything. His head throbbed and he ached in numerous other places. He was blindfolded and bound with chains in a standing position with his arms outstretched between two poles, though he had slumped against his bonds. Some part of his brain noted that his ever-present hat was missing and his shirt felt as though it was hanging on him in shreds. Stinging cuts on his back reminded him why his shirt was in tatters. He tried to stand up, but his legs had trouble supporting him. He dropped back against his bonds with a grunt and then he heard someone get up from a creaking chair to his left.

"Merlin Sinclair…" an unfamiliar voice said near his left ear.  "It's about time you woke up. I'm tired of listening to you snore."

"Who… who are you?" the wolf said through swollen lips.

"I'm your mailman."

"My…."

There was a soft chuckle and Merlin could feel the speaker's hot breath against his ear. "I have sent you several letters over the past year and a half," the voice explained, "but you chose to ignore them."

"The threats!" Merlin said in sudden understanding.

"Threats? No... promises!" Another chuckle. "Some are as yet unfulfilled."

"Do I know you?" the wolf said with a swallow. "How have I wronged you?" Merlin could see a portion of the floor in front of him beneath the bottom of the blindfold. He saw a pair of jack-booted feet move into view and then his companion spoke again from the front.

"You and I have never met before now," his faceless enemy said, "but you have caused no limit of frustration to those I've served."

"Who do you serve?"

"No, I won't provide you with an answer, Sinclair, but you have met them. They know you very well and have followed your movements for some time."

"Do I get to see the face of my enemy?" Merlin asked uneasily.

"Careful, Sinclair," the voice said in a menacing tone, "to look upon the face of the basilisk is death!"

Merlin's mind raced. He had been in tough predicaments before, but never one such as this. From the sound of the menacing voice, he did not think he had long to live, but although he did not have a name, he now knew his enemy. "How should I address you," he pressed again, "if not by one of the names that immediately come to mind?"

A strong hand suddenly grabbed his throat and squeezed, but only as a brief warning. The hand relaxed, but the clawed fingers lingered on his neck for a heartbeat. Merlin swallowed involuntarily. There was another chuckle, very low. "Yes," his enemy said, "I will kill you, Sinclair. Of that, you can be certain. Soon, but not right away."

The individual stepped back from him and Merlin was glad to have the foul breath out of his face. "What about my crew?" Merlin asked in a low voice. It was difficult to talk with swollen lips. "What have you done wi—?"

"No more questions from you!" his captor snapped. "You will give only answers." He paced around the wolf and growled lowly. "Now…" he said in a calmer voice, "tell me where I can find your brother, Lucas Sinclair."

"Lucas? That's easy enough," Merlin growled. "I last saw him when I kicked him off my ship on Quet nearly two years go."

"Yes, we are aware of this," his captor said with a snort.

"If you've been following me as closely as you say you have," Merlin said thickly, "then you know that my brother and I have never been friends. I've not talked to him since Quet."

"We have reason to believe you have been in contact with the younger Sinclair. Where is he now?"

"Why are you so interested in him?" the wolf asked. "Does he owe you money like he does to most people in the PA? Go stand in line."

A fist slammed into his stomach and all the air went out of him. He coughed and tried to double over, but his arms were still bound to the poles; he could nothing more than hang against his chains. A hand grabbed the fur between his ears and pulled his head up sharply. Beneath the lower edge of his blindfold, he could see a black-furred chin. It was feline.

"Where is your brother?" the voice growled again. When Merlin did not answer, he kicked the wolf in the shin out of frustration. Merlin grunted from the pain, but otherwise did not cry out. "You are too stubborn for your well-being," he said. "That's your choice, Sinclair."

The man walked away and it was then that Merlin realized someone else was in the room. "Mr. Moran, tell the captain what happens next."

"No, p-please…" said a small voice.

"Tell him," growled the captor. Merlin heard a shuffle of feet as Mr. Moran was shoved over to stand in front of him. Beneath his blindfold, Merlin could make out a bare feline foot with grey fur.

"C-captain…" Moran said in a frightened voice, "They will t-torture someone in front of you… It – it's horrible! P-please… tell him what he w-wants to know…"

Merlin bit his bottom lip. This was the nervous grey cat that had tried to warn him just before the ambush, and the strain in his voice spoke volumes. Their captor had done something ghastly to the feline's people before the Blue Horizon had arrived. Merlin could think of no reply to give the cat. Despite the frustration that Lucas had caused he and their sister over the years, the younger Sinclair had already redeemed himself. Merlin had no intention of revealing the location of him and his new wife, nor did he intend to send hostiles anywhere near King Aris' ancient castle.

"Briggs, he's not going to talk," another voice said. Merlin tilted his head, but the name of his mysterious captor was not familiar to him.

"I think he will, Pamiu. Tell Bomani and Zuberi to bring in the cheetah."

"Yes, sir," the other replied

Merlin swallowed hard, his mind wrenched with the gravity of the situation. Renny had not yet fully recovered from his last encounter with assailants, and he had no doubts these were the ones responsible for nearly killing his friend. The thought of them doing anything to Renny gnawed at his stomach like the lingering punch.  It was unlikely the navigator would survive this time. 

Durant opened his eyes, but he saw nothing. He ached all over and discovered he could not move. Great Maker… he thought to himself, it's hit me really hard this time – I'm blind and paralyzed! The grizzly bear started to panic, but then he heard Renny groan from a place near his right ear. It was then the ursine accountant realized he was lying on his back on a wooden floor; his arms and legs cramping. He could also hear the sound of thunder rumbling overhead.

"Ohhh…" the cheetah groaned again.  "Just for once, I'd like to meet a black cat who doesn't want to beat the tar out of me."

"Tsarina doesn't want to hurt ya," said the voice of Tanis from the darkness. "She only wants to have yer kittens." Durant smiled to himself, but even that hurt.

"Tanis?" he said in a raspy voice. "I can't move and I can't see."

"Yer tied up as I am," replied the medic, "and it's just pitch dark in this room. I don't think the colonists liked Renny's cologne."

"Always the comedian," the cheetah retorted. Tanis chuckled and then heard Renny grumble under his breath. "They took my concealed pistol," the navigator complained.

"Is everybody else alright?" Durant asked.

"It's just the three of us, from what I can tell," the medic replied. "I don't know where the others are."

Durant sniffed the air. "I smell fertilizer," he said quietly, "and fresh dirt."

"I think we're in a storage shed," Tanis remarked. "I knocked over something a bit ago that almost hit me in the mouth. I think it was a rake."

"See if you can knock over another one and make it hit its target this time," Renny said sourly.

"Who put a thorn into yer tail?" Tanis replied. "I'm not the one who whooped up on ya!"

"I'm in a foul mood and you're handy."

"Quiet, you two," Durant whispered sharply. "Someone's coming."

A moment later, they heard the sound of a key in a padlock and then a click. Two flashlights blazed in their eyes and Durant could only see the silhouettes of two feline shapes as he blinked rapidly in the sudden brilliance. Lightning illuminated the sky behind them briefly and both flashlights centered upon the cheetah. One of the figures stepped inside, moving to Renny. He picked him up with a grunt and draped him across his shoulder. In the lamplight, Durant and Tanis could see just how much rope had been wrapped around their friend, and Tanis took a quick glance at Durant to confirm the realization. The colonists must have used every bit of rope they owned to bind the three of them.

The feline shadow turned and carried Renny out in the night.

Merlin felt fingers on the knot at the back of his blindfold and then the dirty white cloth was removed from his eyes. He blinked a few times and then looked around. The room took up the bulk of the hut he was in, likely the gathering place for the colonists during inclement weather, such as the rain that had started to fall outside. He stood between two wooden supports of the room, his arms in manacles, attached to the poles with light chains. His blue work shirt was in tatters, with the remnants of sleeves still attached to cuffs beneath his manacles, but the rest of it barely hung upon his body. The white fur of his chest and belly was matted and dirty, and although his trousers were in better shape than his shirt, there were tears along the outer seams, and both of his knees were exposed.

The floor and walls were made of wooden planks and the rafters in the ceiling were exposed. Light was provided by oil lamps attached to the building's supports, rather than by electrical means, and he could see cloth curtains blowing in the cold breeze that came in through open-air windows. Several folding chairs were scattered about the room, but there were brown stains on the floor beneath a solitary chair positioned directly in front of him – dried blood, Merlin's brain told him numbly.

From what he could see of the room, a box sat next to a wooden door, and a small folding table was near him with what appeared to be a rolled-up tool pouch. He saw crayon-drawn artwork on papers tacked up on one wall, likely from the colony children, and a few commercial scenic pictures adorning other walls. The cat with grey fur sat dejectedly in a chair against a far wall, his leg manacled to another support post. The two of them exchanged looks and Merlin could see the terror in the cat's eyes as he waited what was next to come.

"Yes, Mr. Moran knows what's about to happen," said a voice from behind the wolf. Merlin tried to turn his head to look at the one called Briggs, but the jaguar was out of his range of vision. "I would listen to him, Sinclair. You would save you and your friends a lot of grief if you just tell me what I want to know." Merlin thought he should probably say something witty in return, but the knot in his stomach prevented him from giving a reply. Instead, he just looked at the floor, unable to meet Moran's forlorn expression again.

The door opened and Merlin looked over to see two jaguars escort a bound cheetah into the room. Moran gasped and his ears flattened in disbelief. The spotted feline looked up, and it was then Merlin realized that the cheetah was not Renny Thornton, although he was about the same build. He was taken to the chair in front of Merlin and forced to sit down.

"Jerome!" Moran exclaimed. One of the jaguars tied the cheetah's ankles to the front legs of the chair while the other tied his wrists behind him. Moran looked frantically to Briggs. "No, please! Have mercy!"

Briggs chuckled. "Mercy, Mr. Moran? Only the captain can grant that now."

"Nick, what's going on?" the cheetah asked. Nicholas Moran swallowed deeply and tried to speak, but no words came out of his mouth for his best friend. The grey cat bent over so that his face was in his hands, resting on his knees. The cheetah looked at Merlin and swallowed. "Who are you?" he asked.

"He is Death," said the voice of Briggs. "Your death, as a matter of fact, Mr. Tippet."

"I don't understand."

"Tell him," Briggs said to the wolf. Merlin did not answer, so Briggs smacked the back of his head just hard enough for his head to rock. "Tell him," he repeated.

Merlin cleared his throat. "He's going to torture you… unless I give him some information," he said quietly. One of the jaguars that had brought in the cheetah moved to the man's side, brandishing a large serrated knife that glinted in the lamplights.

The cheetah gasped and tried to back away in his chair. "Tell him what he wants to know!" he exclaimed.

"I can't tell him what I don't know," Merlin lied, feeling sickened by his own words. A fist slammed the back of the wolf's head. Merlin saw stars for a moment and it took an effort to refocus his eyes.

"Zuberi," said Briggs, "put away the knife for now. I want you to start simple."

The jaguar beside Tippet grumbled in disappointment. "Simple, huh?" Zuberi used his knife to cut the cord binding the captive's wrists behind him. He then grabbed the cheetah's left arm roughly with both hands and unceremoniously broke it over his knee.

Moran's head jerked up at Jerome Tippet's shriek and Merlin jumped with moist eyes. Zuberi had done his deed with such a quiet calmness that announced just how experienced he was at this. He dropped the broken arm into the cheetah's lap and smiled as the action reduced the spotted feline to agonizing sobs. The lupine captain felt the blood drain from his face and he struggled vainly against the chains that held his arms. Tippet cradled his broken arm and rocked back and forth in his chair in whimpers.

Briggs' hot breath whispered near Merlin's right ear, "Where is Lucas Sinclair?" Merlin did not answer. He could not answer. He felt as if his heart were in his throat. Briggs took his silence as further defiance and he motioned toward the other jaguar that had brought in Tippet. "Bomani," he said.

The other cat cracked his knuckles with a feral grin and then slugged the right side of the cheetah's jaw. Merlin's own jaw muscles clenched when Tippet nearly fell over with his chair, his cries of agony now lower in his throat. Zuberi caught the chair and put it upright again. Tippet's cries of pain gurgled and he coughed up a tooth. Bomani then brought his boot down on the cheetah's bare left foot. There was an audible crunch followed by a hoarse sob of pain.

Moran cried out for his friend and looked over to Merlin with pleading eyes. Merlin could not help it. He closed his eyes and held them tight. He muttered a curse beneath his breath, which only elicited a chuckle from the unseen Briggs. He grabbed Merlin's head and forced him to look at the cheetah. "Where is Lucas?" he asked again, calmly.

Merlin knew it would do more harm than good, but he kicked backward with one leg and caught Briggs in the knee. The master jaguar fell backward and crashed into a chair amid curses in another language. Bomani rushed forward and hit Merlin in the stomach hard. He was about to belt him again in the face when Briggs stopped him with a hiss. Merlin gasped for air, but found it hard to draw in a breath.

Bomani returned to Tippet's side and Merlin heard Briggs struggle to stand up. He heard a limping footstep and then Briggs hit him hard in his right side. The wolf yelped and fell into his bonds, the chains tugging at his sore shoulders. Once again, he felt Briggs' hands on his head, which forced him to look at the cheetah.

"Again," he said. Bomani reached out, grabbed Tippet's right ear, and yanked hard. The cheetah yowled loudly and the jaguar then hit him in the jaw once more for his noise.

"This will continue," Briggs said quietly. "Tell me what I want to know."

The door opened and two more jaguars entered the room. One was laden with several weapons strapped to his arms and legs, and the other looked older than any other did in the ebony group. While attentions were momentarily distracted by their arrival, Merlin caught Briggs off guard again and jerked his head backward. The back of his skull struck the jaguar's nose hard. Briggs stumbled backward with another string of curses and then hit the wolf between the shoulder blades with a rock-hard fist. Merlin lost his footing and fell. Had he not been tethered to the poles by chains, he would have collapsed in a heap to the floor.

Briggs spat out some blood and then grabbed Merlin by the belt. He hauled him back into a standing position. "Zuberi," he said in a strained voice. "Do what you want with Mr. Tippet."

"S-stop…" Merlin gasped hoarsely. "Don't do any more…" Moran looked up in disbelief, but realized that Briggs would finally get the information he wanted and that Jerome Tippet would live. He could not have been more wrong.

"It's too late to stop now," Briggs spat in Merlin's ear as Zuberi drew out his cruel blade. "You had your chance to stop this, but now you will know that protecting your worthless brother's hide resulted in someone else's death!"

"Captain Sinclair," Zuberi said to the wolf in an icy voice, "have you ever seen an animal when it's been skinned alive?"

Mr. Moran fainted away at those words and fell to the floor with a thunk. Briggs gave a nervous chuckle and then said, "I'll leave you to it." Merlin heard him limp away and then exit through a door to another room.

The wolf coughed twice, still having trouble breathing after the hard punches to his middle. Zuberi laughed cruelly, unrolled a pouch of devilish cutting utensils on the table, and then looked to his brother. "Hold him," he said. Bomani grabbed the cheetah's undamaged arm and pulled it out straight as Zuberi put down his large blade and reached for the pouch.

Briggs sat back in his chair and gently rubbed his sore nose. He listened to the cheetah's pleading in the adjoining room for a moment and then leaned back against the wall with his eyes closed. He remembered stepping onto a lighted pad a fortnight earlier, a ring of blue-white light flashing alive at his feet. On a matching pad before him, an image had rezzed up before him; that of his Master cloaked in a draping white cowl. "Captain Briggs, at your command, sir," he said with a short bow.

The figure peered out at him with bright blue eyes, and through an artificially resonant voice, he replied, "Take your ship to Fyn and wait there. Your long-awaited vengeance will come to you in the Valley of Bones. I believe you are familiar with the place."

"We will destroy the Blue Horizon, sir?"

"No… I believe that Captain Sinclair may know the location of his brother, Lucas. Finding the traitor is of utmost importance to me now. The younger Lucas possesses much more than he ever knew he did, and it was my own oversight that allowed him to escape. As you are aware, my contacts throughout the PA have all failed at finding him, which I largely credit to his previous life as a drifter and his ability to make himself disappear. It will be your duty to extract, by whatever means necessary, his whereabouts from Sinclair… or from whomever among his crew you deem worthy of attention."

"That," Briggs hissed, "is no duty. It's my pleasure, sir."

"A word of caution, captain," his master added in a dangerous tone. "Don't kill Sinclair until he has divulged the information I need, and then only after you have reported it to me. I have others who will check the validity of his words before you dispose of him."

Briggs swallowed his anger, but managed to nod his acceptance of the warning. He knew just how short his lifespan would be if he disobeyed a direct order from the human. "I will see to it," he said with a short bow.

The communications channel de-rezzed and the Master's image faded to black.

A sudden long shriek from the next room startled Briggs and he opened his eyes wildly. He swallowed and exhaled quietly. Even by his own piratical standards, Var Briggs felt that Zuberi took a little too much pleasure administering grisly torture with as much pain as possible.

Renny was dumped unceremoniously to the wooden floor of another hut. A moment later, Tanis fell to his side, followed by Durant. The three of them looked up into the faces of the jaguars that had moved them from the storage shed. They had all been with the landing party. Renny clenched his teeth together and set his jaw tight as one of the jaguars grinned at him. The captors left them where they had been dropped, and then locked the door behind them. The cheetah was getting awfully tired of jaguars. He wanted nothing more than to get his claws into the one called Zuberi and rip him into shreds. He may not be fully recovered from getting shot, but the navigator resolved to have his revenge, even it if it was his last act in life.

"Are you guys okay?" said a new voice. A short bobcat bent down next to Durant and began to untie the ropes that bound him. A longhaired black and white cat knelt down next to Renny; a young cougar went to Tanis.

"We've all had a beating," Tanis replied, "but I don't think anything is broken."

The bobcat and a white cat helped set Durant into a sitting position so they could remove the coils of rope. "You guys should not have come here," the bobcat said somberly. "I don't think any of you will be leaving."

"What's going on?" Durant asked. "We were hired to bring your colony a shipment of supplies from Tanthe."

"Tanthe?" the black and white longhair repeated. "We didn't make the order. We get our supplies from Ramah, here on Fyn."

"Then, who…?"

The cougar helping Renny snorted. "That was your jaguar friends," he said. "They must have ordered the supplies to set a trap for you."

Samantha paced the floor of the hut that she shared with the colony females. She awoke an hour ago to find Lorelei drugged and still asleep in a corner; Taro was bound up with iron chains wrapped around her so tight that even the Hestran fox could not get out of them. None of the feline women had been able to help get her free, and Samantha did not have anything available to her to pick the lock. She did not have Pockets' skills as a locksmith, but she had learned well enough that she could do it if she had the proper tools. Even a hairpin would work, but no one in the room possessed one.

As she paced, she glanced around at the women, remembering what they had told her upon awakening. A dark ship had arrived a week ago with a crew made up entirely of black-furred jaguars. The colonists had gone out to greet them, having had no visitors in a long while, but the jaguars attacked them with neither warning nor provocation. Several of the colonists were killed and the rest were rounded up and then separated. The children were taken away from the families by a female and locked up in one of the huts on the perimeter of their encampment. The remaining adults were split up. The females were locked up in this hut without further distress, but the men were all beaten one by one until they submitted. Several resisted and tried to fight back, but those were summarily tortured for their trouble. The women had seen nothing more of the men or the children after that, and they were only given meager amounts of food and water once a day. When Samantha inquired into the reasons the dark ship had come, none of the women could give her an answer.

"Samantha?"

The Border collie turned to look at the cheetah named Christine standing beside her. "I found this piece of wire," she said. "Will it help get your friend's lock off?"

Samantha gave her a smile and took the offered bit of wire. It was about four inches long, but its metal was soft. "I don't know if this thing will hold a shape, but it's worth a try," she told the woman. She walked over to Taro and knelt down on the hard wooden floor beside the fox. Taro looked at her hopefully.

"My legs are going numb," the vixen muttered. "They made sure I couldn't wriggle out of these things."

Christine sat down on the floor next to them. "I'm sorry we got you into this mess," she said with lowered eyes. The dark cry-lines of her facial stripes made her look forlorn. Samantha put a hand on the cheetah's shoulder briefly before turning back to the lock.

"I think it's we who should apologize to you," she said. "These people are known to us and have caused us grief. It's unthinkable that they would use innocents as bait for us."

"Why are they so evil?" Christine asked. "They've taken our kits and our mates – we don't even know if any of them are still alive." She looked over at Taro with sad eyes. "We only know that some were killed and others were tortured horribly. Our captors tell us that much…"

"Yeah," added a Siamese cat named Jennifer who sat down next to Christine, "it's their own form of torture for us. They like to see how much misery they can cause us."

"Do you know how many of them there are?" Taro asked.

"Just ten," Jennifer replied, "but they were more than a match for the lot of us."

Samantha gritted her teeth and heaved a sigh. The wire was too soft to be of use on the lock. "We'll find a way out of here," she said, "and the Basilisk will pay for all they've done. I'm sorry your people have been drawn into this, but however long our conflict has lasted, I believe that it will end here, one way or another."

On board the Blue Horizon, a thick panel opened at the aft end of the cargo arena, near the open bay doors. Pockets emerged from the space between the double-hulls of the ship and took in a lungful of clean air. He moved out of the way to let Max through and set a large burlap sack on the floor beside him. Max shook his head as soon as he was out into the open room and then coughed several times. He set another bag next to the chief engineer's sack. They were both dusty and dirty all over; Max even had bits of stray fur clinging to his whiskers.

"Ugh," said the German shepherd. "It's cramped and dirty back in there."

"Don't tell Merlin how dirty it is," Pockets said with a grin, "or he'll have us back in there cleaning it!"

"Uh uh… I'm not saying a word. Cleaning out all this old fur from the reclamation filters was bad enough!"

The diminutive raccoon stretched his arms and arched his back with a yawn. "I wonder if I can get in a quick nap before we launch again," he mused aloud. He rubbed his face with one hand and then looked at the rainy night outside the ship with drowsy eyes.

"Pockets…" Max said in a hushed voice.

"Hmm?"

"None of the cargo has been unloaded."

Pockets stifled another yawn and noticed the octagonal crates as if seeing them for the first time. The cables to secure them in flight had been removed and stowed, but nothing else had been touched. He looked around the cargo bay, puzzled. "Durant?" he called. There was no reply. After a moment, he called again. "Anyone in here?"

Max frowned and walked to the nearest intercom terminal. He thumbed the switch for the bridge. "Hello?" he asked. As before, there was no reply. He exchanged puzzled looks with the chief engineer and then toggled the switch for ship-wide broadcast. "Pockets and Max are ready for cargo detail. We could use some assistance, folks."

The two of them waited a minute before they surmised there was no one on board the ship. "I'll try one of the DCs," Pockets suggested. "Maybe the colonists refused to pay for their cargo and they all went to the colony to hash it out."

"I thought Uncle Merlin said the cargo was paid for in advance, before we even left Tanthe," Max replied.

"I dunno," Pockets replied with a shrug. He walked around the cargo back to the Engine Room to get one of the hand-held DataCom units. While he was gone, Max shut the airlock to the inner-hull passage and secured the mechanism. He grabbed the ends of both sacks of fur and other debris they had removed from the air reclamation units and dragged them to a waste bin on the other end of the hold. Once they were stowed, he walked to the cargo ramp and peered out into the rain. He doubted that the rain would have left any footprints behind in the soil, but he noticed some muddy prints tracked up the ramp and into the cargo bay. From the distance each print was apart, it appeared their owner had been in a hurry. He followed them as best he could around the hold and saw them rove back and forth, as if searching for something.

The fading tracks led around the hold and then back out into the rain. He peered out into the lights left shining and saw a bit of color in the trodden grass. He darted out into the rain and splashed through puddles to retrieve the items he had seen. He picked them up quickly and then scrambled back to the rain-free safety of the cargo arena.

"I can't get anyone to answer on any of the frequencies," Pockets said. He held up a DC and shook his head. Then he noticed the wet canine. "What have you got there?" he asked.

Max wiped water from his face and then held up the two articles he had recovered. One was a torn shred of blue cloth. "It looks like part of Uncle Merlin's work shirt," he said, "but there's no mistaking this." He held up a muddy captain's hat, its brim creased in half and a boot print across the top.

Nicholas Moran stared at the wall beside him, but did not actually see it. He lay on the floor, curled up in a fetal position, unwilling to accept what he had been forced to watch. Not long after the start of his best friend's torture, Moran had mercifully fainted, but one of the wretched jaguars had pushed a foul smelling chemical beneath his nose that brought back alertness. The weapon-heavy jaguar he knew as Runihura had held his head so that he could not look away from the scene, while Bomani and Zuberi, the ones who enjoyed giving pain, had done horrible things to Jerome, his lifelong friend and the colony's doctor. The cheetah's screams of agony were burned into his mind and Moran was near comatose from shock.

Likewise, the aged Pamiu had forced Merlin to watch the horror that Bomani and Zuberi had presented for him, with no reprieve for any of the captives present in the room. He was queasy and panted steadily from the emotional exhaustion of what he had just witnessed. The jaguars had taken their time with Tippet and had worked their particular brand of torture slowly, but finally – mercifully – they had put an end to the cheetah. Merlin's brain was numb and he was afraid to think beyond the moment of who might be next.

After Tippet's voice had been silenced, Pamiu and Runihura grabbed the remnants of the lifeless body and dragged it out of the room into the rainy night. A moment later, the door at the back of the room opened and Briggs stepped inside. He scowled at the amount of blood decorating the floor in front of the wolf and then roughly grabbed the back of the lupine captain's head.

Briggs stuck his nose right up to Merlin's left ear. "Where is Lucas Sinclair?" he growled.

Merlin swallowed hard and tried to focus on the far wall through the moisture in his eyes. "I … don't know…" he whispered.

"Up until now, my Master has been merciful with your —"

"Merciful!" gasped the wolf. "How is what you've done merciful…?"

Briggs tightened his grip on Merlin's head and shook him violently to silence his captive. "We have been merciful with your company," he continued with a hiss. "You don't know how often I wanted to release the Taquit Fever Virus into your ship, Sinclair. I almost did – twice! I have it with me even now… However, my Master has continued to stay my hand."

Merlin was unable to suppress the shudder that went through him. The Taquit Fever Virus was the lethal agent Sagan had claimed developing after releasing it upon Taro's hometown on Hestra. Had it been let free inside his ship, the Blue Horizon would have arrived at its destination with everyone dead from a horrible, fast-acting disease. They had since hoped the pirate had not retained a stock of the killer virus, but the wolf now knew they could not have been that fortunate. He remembered the images on INN of the devastation in Taquit and his queasiness returned.

"It would have been so much easier to deal you that blow," Briggs continued in a malevolent voice, "than to track you all over the Planetary Alignment on your insignificant little deliveries." The jaguar changed position so that his nose now rested next to Merlin's other ear. "I am forbidden to kill you, Sinclair," he growled, "but you are the only one exempt from your crew."

Briggs pulled back away from Merlin in caution, lest the wolf kick back at him again, and then looked over at his bloodthirsty men. "Time to start again," he said to them. "Get one of the captain's friends."

The night was black save for the occasional lightning flashes high in the Dragon's Teeth above the valley. Muted thunder rolled with each burst of light, and two figures approached the perimeter of the colony dressed in dark cloaks that shed rainwater like the feathers of a duck.

"That's the Chimera Colony?" Max whispered to his companion. He shifted the heavy bundle in his hands to get a better grip on it, and he almost dropped it into the mud. Rain spattering on his hood made it hard to hear Pockets' reply.

"Looks like it," the raccoon answered. "Let's see what we can see." He shielded a small hand-held remote from the rain and moved a tiny joystick forward. There was a quiet whirring noise that was barely discernable against the rain and then Moss floated out of Max's arms, its sensor eyes glowing in the darkness.

"I thought Moss would only work within the confines of the ship," the German shepherd stated.

Pockets leaned closer to him as he adjusted the mobile sentry system's course toward the nearest of the wooden huts. "After our encounter with the Walkabout," he explained, "I modified Moss' operational range to a mile of the ship. This is the first chance I've had to use it. However, it will only operate inside a pressurized atmosphere, not out in space. I've not yet sealed it against a vacuum."

"If it gives out a meow, we'll announce ourselves," Max cautioned.

"I've already muted its speaker with a security protocol," Pockets assured him with a smile.

Max peered over the raccoon's shoulder at the remote's tiny video display and watched the greenish infrared image that was broadcast back to them. Pockets played with the controls and sent Moss to the edge of a window. A thin curtain wafted gently on the night breeze and Moss' primary eye focused into the room beyond the window covering's edge.

In the small viewer, Pockets and Max saw a room of feline children. Some were asleep on mats, but the majority of them were gathered around an adult female jaguar seated on a large pillow in their midst. There were nearly twenty children.

"Pockets…" Max said uneasily. "I've seen that woman before."

"Where?"

"On Alexandrius. I saw her watching the reconstruction of the Hidalgo Sun when you and I were there to help Captain Rezo's crew."

"There were a lot of gawkers there watching us. Are you sure she was one of them?"

"Positive."

Pockets grumbled something under his breath about all jaguars looking alike and studied the image. "What is she doing?" he asked.

"Reading them a bedtime story?" Max ventured to guess. As they watched, a small lynx cub tripped over his own feet and fell down. He started to yowl and the ebony woman reached forward and picked him up in her arms. She spoke to him with a smile and then cradled the child to her bosom. The cub calmed down, clinging to her as she settled back onto her pillow, and answered some question by another child.

"Let's try another hut," Max suggested. Almost as soon as he spoke, a red light flickered on the remote. Pockets rotated Moss on its axis and pointed its lens at the door to a nearby hut. Another of the jaguars stepped out into the rain, holding a soggy newspaper over his head to ward off the light raindrops. They watched him trot across the compound and then out toward the trees surrounding the colony.

"Max, you scout around to see if you can find the captain or the others. I'm going to take Moss and see what our dark friend is up to."

"Right," replied the young canine. "Be careful." Max moved stealthily toward the huts and Pockets recalled Moss back to him. He watched the jaguar disappear into the trees and then Pockets sent the sentry unit a few paces before him as he followed.

If it was difficult to see anything in the darkness of the compound, it was impossible in the forest. Pockets stumbled over tree roots and he slogged through wet leaves and overhanging branches. If it were not for Moss' seeker routine, Pockets would have never been able to track his quarry. He berated himself silently for losing his set of infrared goggles on their trek to the colony, but at least the rain felt like it was letting up.

He felt the ground rise slightly and the raccoon slipped getting to the top of the small hill. When he reached the top, he saw a dim light ahead. He dropped back behind and tree and then sent Moss forward to have a look.

As the sentry unit drew closer to the light from a higher vantage point in the branches above, Pockets recognized a large shape in the infrared image. It was a sleek vessel hidden in a large clearing, and the light came from its open airlock. The jaguar walked up a short ramp and then disappeared into the ship's interior. Pockets took a moment and sent Moss around the ship to look for others who might be guarding the vessel, but while doing so, a sudden chill coursed down his spine. He recognized the Manta-class Brandtian cruiser even before Moss found its nameplate near the hatch. It was the Basilisk.

Max set a box he had found next to the wall of a hut just under its solitary window. He thought he had heard sounds inside and he wanted to check them out. He wished that Pockets had left Moss with him to look over the colony, and did not know why the chief engineer felt he needed to take the floating sentry unit into the forest. Max could have made better use of it in the colony. It would have been safer than standing on a wet box to look into a window almost higher than he could reach.

He heard a sound to his right and quietly got off the box. He eased his nose around the corner of the building and saw two jaguars step inside the hut from where the other one had emerged. There were sounds of a commotion and then the felines emerged from the doorway dragging Tanis between them. They dropped him onto the wet grass and one of the cats kicked the tan fox in the side. Tanis clutched at his middle and the other jaguar kicked him from the opposite side.

It was all Max could do to remain out of sight, but if he gave his position away now, it would ruin any chances he and Pockets might have to help their friends. He found himself growling deeply in his throat, but forced himself to stop when one of the cats looked his direction.

They picked up Tanis again and then dragged him toward the largest hut in the compound. Max watched them go inside, resisting the urge to see where they had taken him. Instead, the young canine decided to reconnoiter the area to locate the rest of their friends. The hut where Tanis had been removed from would be a good place to start.

He did not see an ebony feline step outside of another hut and light up a cigarette.

Tanis looked up and the scent of fresh blood hit him when the door to the large hut opened. Bomani jerked on his arm and half-dragged him up the three wooden steps into the structure. The medic saw a box of weapons just inside the door and he recognized them as the Blue Horizon's Binfurr handguns. Despite this, he had no chance to grab one. Zuberi scowled at him and pushed him up the last step.

He was taken to the middle of the room, and in the dim lights, his jaw dropped in surprise. Merlin Sinclair stood wearily between two vertical poles, his arms suspended from chains attached to metal eyelets driven into the wooden supports. His shirt and breeches were in tatters and Merlin was filthy from dirt, mud and splatters of blood. His left eye was swollen nearly shut, but his right eye was open wide in apparent terror at the sight of Tanis.

The fennec fox was roughly seated on a wooden chair in the middle of the room and his ankles were shackled to its legs. His wrists were tied loosely behind his back and then the two jaguars took up stations on either side of him. He glanced down at his boots and saw fresh pools of blood around them that had not yet seeped between the floorboards. He looked up at Merlin in a panic and then noticed the yellow eyes of Briggs watching him from behind the lupine captain.

Merlin swallowed hard and felt Briggs' familiar hot breath on his left ear. "Now we shall start over," the feline said calmly. "Where is Lucas Sinclair?"

Merlin wet his lips and then replied in a hoarse voice, "He… Lucas was on Mainor…"

Briggs laughed and cuffed the wolf on the back of the head, almost playfully. "Good try, Sinclair," he said, "but you'll have to lie better than that. Your brother was in the care of my Master when the Kastans reduced Mainor to slag."

"I – don't know what to tell you," Merlin tried again. "I've not seen him since Quet."

Briggs exhaled loudly. "Take a look at your friend there," he said in a darker tone. "Picture what happened to poor Mr. Tippet being done to this fox. Imagine it well, because if you don't tell me what my Master wishes to know, your friend's carcass will decorate the ground next to Tippet's!"

"I don't know where my brother is," Merlin replied again. It was not exactly a lie, since he had not actually been able to find Lucas, but he had no intention of setting pirates loose onto the countryside of Tanthe to look for him. The royal house of Aris would not react kindly to having their heirs' seclusion threatened by murderers, whether or not the pirates were actually after the children.

Briggs was right, however. Protecting a brother that had done nothing but shame the family had resulted in the death of one of the colonists, but Lucas had also risked his own death to save countless others in the Siilv War.

"Alright," Briggs growled into his ear, "your silence will take another life. Zuberi, you may begin."

Merlin winched at the sound of the big jaguar's open hand slapping the fox's nose with enough force that Tanis' head rocked. Already weakened from an earlier beating, the medic's eyes rolled up in his head and he slumped down in the chair. That did not deter Zuberi from his job, however. He grabbed a small vial from the table full of sharp instruments and uncapped it. He waved it under Tanis' nose and the fox came to immediately.

Merlin's mind raced frantically. He had to do something, to act quickly in order to save Tanis, but he was helpless. He did not know what to do!

Bomani grabbed both of Tanis' ears and pulled his head back so that his throat was exposed. The fox found he could not easily swallow and his eyes went wide when Zuberi held up a wicked looking instrument with a curved, razor-sharp blade. "I'm going to carve pretty red pictures around your neck," the feline snarled with a sadistic grin.

There was a loud crash outside the window to the room and Briggs looked up in alarm. It sounded like a fistfight out in the compound amidst shouts and curses. He rushed to the window and whipped the curtain aside. It was dark, so he grabbed a flashlight from the floor and shined it out into the night. He saw two figures dancing around one another, one feline and one canine.

The canine, a German shepherd, used some kind of martial arts tactics against his aggressor and planted a kick into the jaguar's stomach. Briggs shouted over his shoulder, "One of Sinclair's men has gotten free. All of you get out there and help Sennedjem take him down!"

"But, the fox…!" Zuberi complained.

"He's tied to the chair, you idiot! He'll be here when you get back!"

"Right, boss!" Bomani scrambled across the room and burst out the door, but Zuberi hesitated just long enough to kick over Tanis' chair. The fox fell hard to the floor. Briggs looked back out the window and saw the runt land a fist against the canine's shoulder, but the cur twisted just in time and the punch was robbed of its power. Sennedjem did not waste time and kicked out with a leg that caught the young German shepherd off balance.

Briggs whirled on his lupine captive and grabbed the fur at the back of his neck. "I don't recognize that dog. How many more of your men are loose?" he demanded.