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Wolf's Daughter - Ch. IV


Pakkrat

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Wolf's Daughter - Ch. IV
by Pakkrat

IV. Joo Li, now pretty much accepting the 'Julie' nickname by her wing of Defenders passed uncomfortably too close to a squadron of Sabine Sentinels. The sailed, red explorers were passing the time mining nearby asteroids and gas clouds. With all their communications in an ease, it seemed like the Sabine were waiting patiently but easily distracted by the resources of Asteroid Belt Gamma. Julie's wing had crossed the stargate from Saturn sector on a rumor that there might be some activity coming from the wefts in Jupiter sector and Asteroid Belt Beta. Knowing that an AWOL Defender would most likely avoid Jupiter, the ancestral home of the Jenquai, the Ken'shao chose to investigate Helios' Weft when she spotted the squadron of Sentinels.

As she passed the first field of mining Sabine, Julie saw the next field on her scanners. It too was occupied by more of the explorers. Then the third field repeated the first two. The Shinwa commander had never seen such a concentrated presence of Sabine Order in one sector. Always before, the Sabine had worked in groups of threes or sixes in one sector to sweep fully the resources in efficiency. But these three groups of miners appeared to not be aggressively harvesting as usual. They were taking their time with the asteroids and gas clouds. The low-to-middling ores and gasses should have been short work to the Sabine Order. It was then that Julie realized that they were hiding in plain sight. They wanted to appear to be mining in earnest, but were truly sitting there, observing the spacelanes.

In parallel to the Shinwa tactic of dropping a cloaked Defender every third or fourth nav in a sector, the Sabine were monitoring in force by appearing to be on just another mining operation. If the Sabine Order was monitoring by hiding in plain sight then there must be some alert they were observing. She flew onward casually as she could.

The Ken'shao thought about pulling up and communicating with the mining Sentinels then probing their thoughts with her psionics. But then, that might tip her hand in her search for Wolfsdottir. The sight of Detention Center Onorom off in the distance also discouraged her. The rumored brutality upon the penal station's inmates was a night terror to the ear. Thus, Julie flew onward and planted cloaked Defenders well away from the space station's 'wall'.

Turning with the rounding navs, the Shinwa commander made for the next sector's stargate.

* * *

Dr. Pakkratius had never before lied to a fellow Progen so successfully before today. As the Warden escorted the trio through the station to the cell blocks, the Sabine continued to expound layer upon layer of bullshit.

"Well, the girl has a term paper on Gate War history and the Explorer here wants to clear the air about the nasty rumors over Detention Center Onorom before returning to his people. Such interest naturally says 'scoop' to me as a Reporter for Net-7 News in that we are not forgetting our history lessons."

The banter with Warden Orphant was not very vocal but he listened as the Sentinel continued to explain their presence. In the end, the Warden bought the story, much to Pakkratius' hidden surprise, and he admitted the Reporter, the student, and the socialite. Further into the prison station the group walked.

Past many wards, checkpoints and cells they went as the hum of the station's power plant continued to backdrop the occasional vocal outburst of a prisoner or two. Minutes into the prison and the group arrived at the cell that Wolfsdottir had input into the prison registry.

Pakkratius held Vitaes back a way behind the girl to let her approach the cell door alone. Warden Orphant was many paces away at the last checkpoint. The Net-7 News Reporter watched as the Jenquai went slowly to the door. He could see nervousness in her step and gait as she peered in and spoke.

* * *

The cell was dimly lit but well enough that Wolfsdottir could see into it easily. A Progen man lay on a slab of metal. The steel door had only a viewport wide enough to slide a tray of food inside. She could see the man sleeping. Wanting to wake him gently, she spoke gently, "Soldier Wolf. Soldier Wolf, please wake up."

The Progen stirred and sat up with a start only to look around. Then he saw the girl at the door peeking in. He answered her, "No slder no more. Go away." The girl took note of the clipped inflection of the man's speech.

"Wolf, please," Wolfsdottir asked. "I want to speak to you."

"Dead Prgen in a meat lockr, I," he said.

"I am Wolfsdottir," said the girl. She had spoken the name slowly enough that it could have been heard as "Wolf's daughter".

"No girl o'mine. Wolf have no pups."

"My mother said a Progen Dog Sold-"

The Progen stood up and growled at the girl in the window. His slightly elongated canine teeth were bared. There was a feral look in his eyes at her. "Jenny, git from here!"

Wolfsdottir held her tongue for a moment and closed her eyes. She tried a different inflection and vernacular to her voice. "Reck'n you me pa, Wolf. Ma says so. You ken?" It was a slang used more than ten years ago and taught to her by her mother for this very day.

It seemed to have an effect on the Progen man in the cell. He answered with growing curiosity in his voice. "You. Girl of the Jen. You ma died in dat Gate War. Saw to it. None live from Dog Sldrs. The packs."

"Ma said you done did her and you wuz called away tho she near dead," said Wolfsdottir. She was getting through to the warrior. She wanted more as her eyes threatened to show emotion before this feral man.

"She were dead. I knowd it."

"Ma said she was part psi and doin' wytch stuff to stay 'live."

"Jenny wytch! Jenny wytch! Jenny wytch!" The Progen man stomped about his cell. Then he seemed to come back to the present in his fury.

"She lived. One of a few who did. Had me, she did."

"Lucky! Lucky I wuz called offa her. Not my fault she lived." He looked at her closely, slowly approaching.

Wolfsdottir's hand slid down to one of her twin knife sheaths only to discover that her weapons had been checked at the first checkpoint. She could only hope the cell door would hold. In order not to show fear, she stood at the door resolutely.

"Tell me, lil one," said the Progen man. "Do you feel it? The urge? To kill?" He was looking directly into her eyes, his feral and aged eyes burrowing into her through the view port.

Wolfsdottir's voice dropped to a whisper so the others, paces away, could not hear. "Yes. Every day," said Wolfsdottir, returning to present-day speech. She remembered the call of the Kaojin and their nihilistic mindset. How similar yet so distant were the two tendencies, Kaojin, the Destroyers and the Dog Soldier program.

The Progen prisoner stopped before the viewport. He nodded, "I can see now. You got the hung'r, do ya? Maybe you are mine. But you not my pack. No pack no more. Go. You not find your Alpha here. Go. Kill, lil one. No Alpha here. Your sire be dead with no Call Forwd. Go."

She could not stop the tears in her eyes from coming. Her shoulders sagged in defeat. This Progen man may have fathered her, but he was too far gone to be anything remotely a father. And she had wanted to meet a father, her father. This Progen was her progenitor but never meant to be one.

Wolfsdottir felt she was a fluke now. Turning from the cell, she stepped lightly to the others. Her ideal image of a father was crushed by the reality of the man she had just met. It was the Pakkratius who caught her from collapsing when she got to them. He gathered her up as she sobbed in a fetal position, crying all the way from the prison.

"Jenny wytch! Jenny wytch! Jenny wytch!" called Dog Soldier Wolf from his cell to the entire block. The calls were answered from various cells in the ward.

"There there," said the Pakkratius. He carried her all the way to the station hangar, shushing her gently as he could. Past checkpoints they went.

* * *

Ken'shao Julie spotted the trio first as her vessel's devices were top-of-the-line and expanded its scan range from far outside the artificial gravity well 'walls' of Detention Center Onorom. At the same time, the horde of mining Sentinels turned as one to converge upon the accelerator gate. The Ken'shao knew they would admit the Sentinels but not the Shinwa. It confirmed to her that they too were searching for the target, Wolfsdottir the AWOL Defender. It was up to her and the Shinwa to penetrate the gravity wells and intercept the trio of ships the hard way.

The Sentinels' signals were blaring to each other, orders not to let the Jenquai Defender escape. There were orders to arrest the white Sentinel's pilot. And orders to shut down the Jenquai Explorer ship were given. Julie took all this in as her wing of Defenders quietly and under cloaking penetrate the defenses stealthily. She meant to catch the escaping trio as the Sabine were still funnelling their numbers through the accelerator gate.

A few minutes later of slowly traversing the warp-interdiction gravity wells, Julie and her squadron emerged just as she wanted. The Sentinel ships were already calling for the target vessels to heave to and prepare for boarding. The Explorer *Rocinante* was out front followed by the *Warchild*, Wolfsdottir's ship, then was followed by the white-sailed *Culler*. How simple-minded a name for a Progen exploration vessel. Julie would have expected such a moniker from the Centuriata Warriors, but not from a gene-hunting Sabine Order. She sniffed at the brazen white ship.

Julie could at least predict the load-outs of the Explorer and the wanted Defender. It was still confusing why a Sentinel was escorting Wolfsdottir when it as clear that the entire Sabine Order was also gunning for her. It was this Sentinel that was an unknown. Julie decided to analyze the white ship. In just two seconds the battle computer was warning her off. It was armed in classes that were nearly off the scale. What was that Progen using? Shields rating were beyond her normal expectations. The weapons were all different and some were alien. Since they had undocked from the prison, this Sentinel was surrounded by that backbiting and hated globe of retribution, the Repulsor Field. And curses upon him for extending two more fields around the Explorer and the Defender. This truly tied this white Sentinel as an accomplice of the rogue Wolfsdottir. Just who was this Progen?

There came more calls from the Sentinels. This time they seemingly were orders to that last ship. "Magister Magna Pakkratius, in the name of Magna Vinda, you are to power down and heave-to. Acknowledge!" The transmitting Progen was a swarthy and bulky male, cut to genetic cloning precision to Julie's eyes. "Do you read, Pakkratius? I said stand down. This is Magister Caius Hellstrom. Power down immediately."

The trio showed no signs of slowing as they flew onward, out the rear of the prison station. They were coming straight for Julie's wing. Julie gave silent orders via hand signals out the viewport of her cockpit to her immediate wingman. The hand sign was passed on and on and through the entire wing. The plan was simple. The entire wing of Defenders were stretched out over the sector, cloaked and waiting for the order to snatch the *Warchild*. Each would fold the space about the rogue Wolfsdottir, shunting her towards the next waiting Defender craft. The process would continue to shove the girl's vessel across the sector to the sector gate to Saturn. It was a timed and focused maneuver that the Ken'shao had practiced only a handful of times. It required that each did their job successfully in turn. The rogue only had to come a little closer within her own range. Gravity wells, gravity beams, interdictor and the like could not stop the folding of space. Just a little closer....

Then her ship rocked to a halt when a black and brown beam struck her ship. It stretched back all the way to the white Sentinel ship, the Pakkratius that Hellstrom had named. Her engines were paralyzed to move a vessel whose mass was too great. It meant that he had seen her, possibly all along!

Julie pounded her fists on her cockpit dashboard as the known next event occurred. She too was helpless before the mastery of the Sha'ha'dem Explorers. The *Rocinante*, faster than Julie had ever seen before, had been powering up his jump field to open a wormhole thus escaping with the rogue and the accomplice Sentinel from the 'walls' of the prison's compound space.

Even as the green mists shrouded the three ships, more black and brown gravity-mass beams struck them from behind. The rust-red Sabine had already opened up with their capture beams. These too were helpless to the galactic wormhole that swallowed the three ships.

Anger swelled within Julie, but it was this Hellstrom that cursed aloud over the communications. He chastised his subordinates. Such was his fury that Julie was calmed. She hand-signaled a general retreat from the area, through the gravity wells. Julie would have words with the Sha'ha'dem. She imagined that the Pakkratius was also going to be held accountable to the trio's escape by this new Sabine commander who was now her rival in capturing Wolfsdottir.
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