PRECIOUS CARGO


@Copyright 1998, Maureen. All rights reserved.


Part 1


   Fodessa eyed the pier of LaGrange Orbital Port Five, cat-wary. 
Behind her on the dock, Sidney fingered his PW, the Personal 
Weapon that could send out a beam of vaporizing energy.
   "Where the hell are they?" the dhole muttered, his black, 
bushy tail clamped tightly to his thighs.
   The clouded leopard morph checked her watch.
   "Just relax, Sidney. They've still got ten minutes before 
they're late."
   Sidney glanced back at the open entrance of the sleek 
Satisfaction II, where the black panther Caitlin stood, his own 
PW ready. "I still wish we could wait inside."
   Fodessa turned and studied him. For all her short stature, her 
lack of expression or movement more threatening than a glower or 
curse could have been.
   "Are you questioning my orders, Sidney?" she asked softly.
   Sidney's ears went back flat. "Of course not, Mistress," he 
answered.
   She held him pinned in her amber stare a moment longer. 
"Good," she said, and returned her gaze to the dock around them. 
Behind them, Caitlin grinned.
   The Port reeked of fuel, metal, furs and a thousand nameless 
goods -- and their own anxiety.
   At last, keen furry ears picked up the sounds of footfalls 
approaching. A group of furries rounded a corner, coming into 
view from behind a big Stardancer V, and walked toward the pair. 
There were five of them, of differing species, and they looked 
almost as nervous as Sidney, glancing in all directions. Their 
progress was slowed by the two crates they were pushing on anti-
grav devices.
   "Took you long enough," Fodessa said, as the leader, a female 
skunk morph, came up to her. Instead of Fodessa's gold earrings, 
silver ones dangled from her left ear.
   The skunk grinned, eyes bright. "But worth it."
   "I hope so."
   "Now, let's see the cash -- " she began.
   "Wait," Fodessa said, lifting one paw. "I only deal in top-
quality merchandise. I want to see them."
   The skunk did a double-take, and her thick tail flicked. 
"Right here? The heat could be here any minute -- "
   "No. In my ship."
   "No way!"
   "Then I guess there'll be no deal. I'm sorry to have wasted 
your boss's time." Fodessa turned back toward the steps to the 
Satisfaction.
   "Wait!"
   Fodessa turned around, smiling. 
   The skunk looked and smelled extremely nervous. "What's to 
keep you from turning us over to the GBM once you've got us 
inside? You know we can't do business like that."
   New to the Underground, poor thing, Fodessa thought. Aloud, 
she only said: "And you should know I have no more interest in 
crossing Blackmuzzle than you do. My business depends on 
satisfaction all around, just like hers does." Even for the 
merchandise, she thought.
   The skunk seemed to consider for several moments, then sighed, 
nodded, her shoulders slumping.
   Fodessa smiled, the smile of a pleased cat. "Welcome to my 
ship."

   Inside the cargo hold, Fodessa and the skunk watched while 
Sidney and Caitlin opened the big crates.
   One crate side fell away on its electronic seams to reveal a 
drowsing vixen, a gorgeous platinum female, about Fodessa's size, 
with pert small breasts shaved of fur and rounded white-furred 
buttocks large enough that they might have been enhanced. She'd 
been drugged to keep her sleeping through the danger of the 
transfer.  She was, of course, quite naked. 
   Fodessa assessed her with a professional eye. She checked the 
papers -- they all seemed in order. The vixen's name was 
Katherine.
   "Good," she finally said, nodding. "We'll accept her." Caitlin 
and Sidney opened the second crate.
   The clouded leopard felt her breath catch in her throat in a 
way it seldom did as she saw the second item. This was a real 
prize, surpassing even the vixen -- she seldom saw merchandise of 
this quality.
   The occupant was a male wolf, also naked. His coat was a thing 
of beauty, a glossy silvery-gray tipped with black guard hairs. 
Underneath that magnificent coat was an equally magnificent body, 
not too weak, not too muscular, lean and with fine bone 
structure. 
   Fodessa's eyes wandered to his nether regions and widened. 
This was an unusually well-equipped male. Like many but not  all 
furries, he had lost the sheath of his ancestors and now had a 
fully human-style penis pointing downward when at rest, as it was 
now.
   He slept as deeply as the platinum fox, kept under by the 
drug. The papers named him as Windrunner.
   She suppressed her reaction, turning to the skunk and the rest 
of her crew. "We'll take this one, too."
   The money changed paws, crisp vinyl Stellar Union bills. The 
crates were closed again and strapped safely into the hold.
   "It's a pleasure doing business with you," Fodessa purred, and 
walked them back to the entrance.
   The trouble began when they stepped out onto the dock. The 
skunk paused, caught in what looked like a ball of glowing 
molten-gold light. She shimmered a moment -- and vanished, 
replaced by a cloud of ashy particles that drifted down to the 
alloy-steel surface of the dock.
   Even as Fodessa yanked out her own PW, another beam of golden 
light caught Sidney. He, too, turned into ash before he could 
even scream.
   "Heat!" screamed a black vixen, as she dived for the scant 
cover of a discarded cargo container. The rest hit the deck or 
found what cover they could, their PW's in paw, and began firing 
back.
   "Shit!" Fodessa hissed, feeling rage boil in her. She jerked 
her head back at Caitlin. "Get this thing under way!"
   As he pelted back into the ship, she double-checked her PW, 
making sure it was set to three -- the same setting that had hit 
the skunk and Sidney.
   Five of their attackers came into view -- humans, not furs. 
Their uniforms were deep blue, with golden starburst emblems on 
their chests.
   This wasn't Port heat. It was the Galactic Bureau of Morality. 
Fodessa's ears went straight back, flattened.
   She dodged back behind the edge of the doorway as another 
golden beam shot by her nose, actually vaporizing the tip of a 
whisker, and splashed harmlessly against the opposite wall of the 
cargo hold.
   She knew she should just seal the door and run for the bridge, 
but these furless bastards had just killed Sidney. She took a 
chance, peeking out from the edge of the porthole, saw one clear 
shot, and took it. The GBM agent shimmered and was ash.
   Under her feet, the ship's floor rumbled, thrumming. Caitlin's 
deep voice growled over the com, "Belt up, Mistress!"
   She slapped the door button, and her feet pounded the deck, 
running for her quarters. 
   There was no time to reach the bridge now. "Mangy bastards!" 
she snarled. She could feel the Satisfaction beginning to lift 
off even as she dashed into her quarters, entered her bedroom and 
leaped onto the bed, yelling, "Belt!" The voice-activated 
restraints emerged and seized her, pinning her to the bed, itself 
firmly attached to the floor as it always was except in deep 
space. Not a moment too soon -- the ship was rising, heading for 
the dock exit, way too fast.
   She wondered what Port Authority would think of their hasty 
unauthorized exit.
   Gravity squatted on her chest like an obese mammoth, growing 
in pressure. A sudden swerve of the ship would have thrown her 
across the room and probably broken several of her bones in the 
intense G-forces, but the straps held her securely. Then Caitlin 
must have found the exit and passed through it, because now the 
ship's course was straight, accelerating like there was no 
tomorrow. Caitlin piloted like a madfur.
   Fodessa thought she would suffocate before the G-forces 
finally eased, the ship slowing.
   "You okay, Mistress?" Caitlin's voice asked over the com.
   "Yes," she said, her voice ragged. "I'm in my bedroom."
   "Good. Hyperspace in thirty seconds. We've got some pursuit, 
but it's too far away."
   Moments later, she felt the faint jarring sensation, the 
slight nausea, that signaled the Satisfaction's transition into 
the safety of hyperspace.
   "Unbelt," she told the restraints, and they retracted.
   She wanted to weep for the loss of Sidney, but checking the 
cargo came first. She walked back into the hold.
   The anti-inertia devices in the crates had done their job. 
Both furries were unharmed, but still under. Fodessa took a long, 
lingering look at that magnificent male wolf, finding training 
schemes already springing up in her mind, and her feelings 
stirred in a peculiar way even underneath her grief.
   "I hope you'll be worth it," she murmured.

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