Authors: Casey Calouette
“Why did you stop?” Til asked.
“Watching the weather,” Denali replied. Then she bounded out and ran through the misty wake, hidden in the clouds of dust.
She came to the edge of the compartment and stared down into more material. This was where the unsorted salvage lay. It was even larger than the smelting chamber. Entire starships, aged and pitted, lay broken on the floor.
“Where now?”
“On your right, three hundred meters,” Til replied. “Don’t get caught.”
“Not likely.”
Denali focused on the spot. Cargo rails snake through the debris and exited the chamber. A loading robot gently stacked the salvage onto the carts. Ancient consoles, energy reactors, weapons systems, and energy cores.
She sprinted along the edge of the beams and leaped off. She grinned and landed on the nose of a starship. Her suit camouflaged perfectly against the stardust scarred hull. She watched a group of Engineers waddle past then darted the rest of the way down.
“Up we go!” Denali said and leaped in the back of a cargo car. It swayed from side to side and she tucked herself against the back. The car leaped forward and trundled along. She relaxed and waited.
The car halted abruptly. Denali poked her head up and saw row after row of sorting robots. Engineers paced and observed the disassembly.
“There!” she barked out. Canisters were stacked on the far side of the room.
Send out your scan.
Denali dropped down into the car and keyed the scanner. A wave of invisible red energy flowed through the room. Her heart raced in her chest, what if it was gone? She studied the readout, her entire body rigid.
A signal blared back, a hundred meters beyond.
“Got it!”
She leaped out and pushed herself against the side of the car.
An engineer stood a dozen meters away with his eyes focused on the assembly line. His tail wagged, stopped, and started again. He leaned forward and inspected something.
Denali sprinted and hid behind a crate of shredded electronics. So close! She tucked into the shadows behind crates and carts. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins and she was almost giddy with excitement. Like plucking rabbits!
The next room glowed a dim blue. From ceiling to floor was rack after rack of canisters. There were short, squat canisters, long skinny canisters and narrow canisters. Some were pristine and clean while others were covered in dirt and grime.
Denali ran down the row with her nose almost touching the racking. She knew she’d recognize it, she’d carried the damn thing long enough. Her eyes darted from front to back. Nothing in the first row.
She stopped at the back and eyed the door. No movement, still clear, and she was off again in the next row. She repeated it time after time, and still, nothing.
“Where are you?” Denali mumbled and stood on her hind legs. She caught sight of a bin in the corner of the room and raced over to it.
The bin glowed with broken and cracked canisters. She dug and thrust her paws into the mass. Canisters clanked and hummed, but she knew it was here. She could almost feel it. Or was it Cicero bursting with excitement?
“There you are...” She leaned down carefully and scooped the cracked canister into her mechanical maw. Her heart calmed, the adrenaline dropped away and she dropped back down onto the floor.
“Til, I’ve got it.” Denali said as she tucked the canister into a cargo pouch.
“Excellent! You’ve got some shafts about fifty meters to your left.”
A voice called behind Denali and she froze.
“What are you doing?”
Denali turned her head. Her heart thudded a steady beat.
An engineer blocked the door. His hind legs were a mass of hydraulics and piping, while his eyes were shrouded in metallic mesh. “Who are you?”
“Why aren’t you moving?” Til called.
Denali’s heart sped up. She breathed slow and picked out her options. Barge past? Run like hell? Fight? Then a memory hit her.
“Cassius,” she growled.
Denali charged. Monofilament blades slid out from her suit. She wanted to see his fear, see his pain, make him feel like she did.
Cassius fell backward into the edge of the door and yelped. His back legs clacked against the timeworn floor, but could gain no purchase.
She leaped and landed on his chest. She slashed the monofilament into his black fur, over and over.
Her eyes never left his. She watched the fear change to terror. Finally the life drifted from his eyes. She shook loose of the primal rage and saw the other Engineers closing.
Denali stumbled over Cassius’s corpse and flew rows of disassembly robots. Her own violence scared her. She’d never known that she was capable of anything like that.
Am I so different than Samus?
She sprinted past the engineers and avoided another fight.
“What the hell happened?” Captain Maya called.
“I killed someone,” Denali said, and it chilled her.
“Ninety meters, near the ceiling,” Til said.
Denali saw only a corner obscured behind a stamping machine. “Blocked.”
“Another sixty meters, floor mounted.”
Denali ran around the stamping machine and collided with an Engineer.
The engineer’s kinetic pod fired wildly. Rounds ricocheted off the ceiling and equipment. She kicked off of his chest and sprinted into the cover of the rows.
The animal instinct yearned for her to run, but she pushed it back and focused on the exit. She skidded to a stop and saw it. In a leap she was next to it and pounced her paws onto it once, twice, and then the grate collapsed.
Booming barks echoed through the room. A pair of Forge-born dogs rushed forward, neither in full armor but both deadly to her.
She tucked her paws and dived into the shaft. The darkness swallowed her. The floor rushed up and she crashed onto ancient grating and cried out.
Pain shot through her forelegs and she struggled to stand. She took a gentle step, the pain was mostly gone. Relief washed over her, the last thing she needed was a broken leg. She stumbled a few steps ahead.
The giant dogs above her bellowed out angrily. They slashed at the passage with their massive paws and stuck noses down into the hole.
Denali almost barked back, but the memory of slaying Cassius was still in her.
“It’s not a good run Denny, two hundred meters and you’ll drop into a main passage,” Til said, her voice excited, nervous.
Main passage, that was bad. A main passage meant dogs. Dogs meant security, and security meant trouble. She slowed her pace, just a touch, and tried to think of a solution. Back wasn’t an option, she’d have to try and fit in.
“Open your faceshield, no one walks inside with the faceshield sealed,” Captain Maya said.
Denali opened the faceshield and felt the cool air rush in. She tasted the air and smelled dogs and dust. The tint of the forge was almost gone.
She stopped at the exit hatch and took a deep breath. She pushed through calmly, like she belonged.
Dogs passed by in the passage. Some in armor, others not. None cast her a glance, all seemed to be absorbed in getting somewhere else.
Denali stepped out and closed the hatch gently behind her. She matched pace with a dog in front of her.
Every bit of her wanted to run, to race ahead, to dodge through the dogs and escape. But if she did that she knew they’d see her. Someone was hunting her, she could feel it.
Barks and howls sounded behind her. Denali didn’t spin to look until she saw others look. A group of ten dogs, half in armor half not, charged through the crowds.
“Look at that...” a dog with drooping eyelids said to her.
Denali pushed past him and walked towards a split in the passage. It was just ahead, she could make it, then she’d be gone. Her legs slapped the floor and she raced ahead, faster, quicker, the prey fear in her spine.
She snapped around and saw they were gaining, bowling over anyone in their path.
They snarled at everyone, barked at every dog in their path, violence written in their eyes.
Denali raced around the corner and slammed into a dog. She fell to the floor and looked up into the great brown eyes that hung above her. Her heart paused and she said his name, “Samson.”
“Dena-Denny?” Samson stared down with his head cocked.
Denali leaped to her feet and before she had a chance to speak the squad of dogs rounded the corner.
“You!” the sergeant growled at Denali.
The squad arrayed themselves around Denali. Only the sergeant focused on Denali, the rest eyed up everyone walking through.
“I-I—” Denali’s legs shook inside of her suit and she could feel her hips slipping, dropping her into a position of submission.
“Sergeant Vell sent me to look for her, she’s late for squad training,” Samson sneered. He growled down at Denali and barked twice, huge explosions of noise. “Asleep again? You have no shame.”
Denali nodded, unable to do anything else.
“Recruits, Sergeant, you know how they are,” Samson growled.
The sergeant glared at Denali and spun slowly around. “Spread out! Keep searching!” The squad split up and they were gone.
Denali watched. Her heart slammed in her chest and she finally took a breath. Samson. He, of all people.
“You looked like you needed a hand,” Samson said in his low rumble of a voice. “Walk with me.”
Denali could barely stand, the adrenaline pumped and she felt tingles on her neck. She couldn’t believe it. She never pictured Samson as her savior.
Samson led her around a corner and through a narrow hallway. They walked into a supply room and Samson nudged the door closed.
Denali sat down with a thump. “Why did you help me?”
Samson looked down and sighed. His great chest rumbled and he looked up at Denali over his snout. “I made a lot of mistakes back home.”
“You feel guilty?” Denali barked out. She blinked away the surprise and peered at Samson.
Samson chuckled once and nodded his head slowly.
Til crackled on the comms system. “Get moving, squads are spreading out.”
“I uh, I have to go, Samson. Thank you,” Denali said and laid her armored paw onto his fur.
Samson looked down to the paw and smiled at Denali. “What did you do anyhow?”
Denali trotted to the door and peaked out into the hallway. It was clear of security all the way to the main passage. “I repaid an old debt.”
“I still owe you for a few,” Samson replied. “You’re not in trouble, are you?”
Denali grinned and sprinted off down the hall.
“Y
ou ever do anything like that again,” Captain Maya growled, “and I’ll tear you apart myself.”
Denali gulped and locked her eyes ahead.
“It was selfish, stupid, and short-sighted. You’re petty vengeance could have cost us everything!” Captain Maya burst out. Her tail was razor straight, the hackles on her shoulders erect like porcupine quills and her eyes smoldered. “We have one real chance...”
“I’m sorry, Captain,” Denali whimpered.
“Your pain is nothing compared to the generations of dogs who have fought for Caesar, the millions upon millions who have died for him.” Captain Maya turned away. “We have a chance at our freedom, and you, Denali, are the essential one. None of us can do this—you, you are the critical piece.”
Denali stared ahead. She hunched her shoulders and tucked her tail low. She felt it in her heart, knew that she was wrong, but in that moment there was nothing she could do. Vengeance was the only thing she saw. It felt so right, but now looking back she just felt empty.
“You have two hours, get cleaned up. Til is checking out that canister.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Denali whispered. “What happens in two hours?”
Captain Maya locked eyes with Denali. “The marshals arrive.”
The first to arrive came alone, his gnarled frame old and worn. He stumbled over the threshold and sat down. Patches of skin poked out through gray thin fur. His eyes had a milky sheen, but his teeth were still the hard gray that all killers wore. He wore the rank of marshal with campaign stars almost beyond count.
The rest came in pairs, as if it was too difficult to come alone. The old marshal watched them all but said nothing. His ears twitched and flapped, he rolled back and used his hind leg to satisfy the itch.
Denali watched him and stifled a smile.
He turned to her and winked. “You get this old and you won’t care what anyone thinks either.”
A squad of armored dogs flanked the doors and watched out into the halls. Til manned a console with Garlan nearby. A deep bass hum thrummed through the flooring and everything in the room pulsed. The interference from the fusion drives prevented anyone from listening in.
Captain Maya walked through the room and stood next to Denali. “Are you ready?”
Denali eyed the old dog and nodded. “Who is he?”
Captain Maya glanced over, “Marshal Denoit, he commands the Second Legion.”
The room grew silent and a dog, the largest of them all, walked in. Captain Maya stiffened and her ears shot forward, alert. “Well...”
Denali noticed that all of the other marshals came from advanced worlds, they were all regular sized dogs. The newcomer wore the sigil of the planet Forge on his chest and was almost as huge as Grat.
“Captain?” Marshal Denoit asked in a creaky voice.
“Yes, Marshal?” Captain Maya responded.
“May we begin? I have a nap soon. I’d rather not do it next to the fusion drives.”
Captain Maya smiled back. “Right away, sir.”
Marshal Denoit closed his eyes and laid his head onto his paws.
Captain Maya walked to the center of the engine maintenance room. “Marshals of Caesar, today we come to speak of freedom.”
“Make it quick, Captain, you’ll have us all shot,” a female marshal snapped. Her eyes peeked out from beneath a mop of shaggy brown fur.
“We can kill Caesar,” Captain Maya stated.
The dogs in the room snarled and growled.
“This was not the plan! We were to petition for our freedom, they tried this route once before,” another marshal cried out.
“I know,” Captain Maya said. “I too agreed with that path, but now we have a way.”