PRECIOUS CARGO @Copyright 2000, Maureen. All rights reserved. Part 25 It was the last day of the week by Standard Reckoning, and Perion Founding Day as well. Instead of the usual sounds of mechanics and maintenance furs and their servo-robots, a great hush held the Spaceport in its grasp. The spacefaring vessels sat still and silent as vast monuments at their piers. Only occasional distant footsteps or voices broke the quiet as Fodessa's crew and cargo walked toward the Satisfaction. Fodessa was almost purring as Katie and Windrunner pushed the antigrav carts along the Port dock, Caitlin padding beside them. For the last two days of their stay on Perion, she'd gone on an extensive Southgate shopping trip, with Windrunner accompanying her -- naked except for his collar. In particular, she'd stopped at the famous LeRoy's and had him try out several dildos she'd selected, while the store helper watched and offered helpful comments. She wondered if she'd ever seen a wolf get that hard while being so deeply humiliated. A warm glow suffused her breasts just remembering it, making her nipples stiffen under her yellow silk blouse. As they ferried the luggage up to the ship, Dosh and Quong strode beside them, seeing them off. They turned onto Dock 117-A, where the Satisfaction was parked, and approached the ship. When they were less than twenty feet away, Dosh halted suddenly. So did Quong, followed by Fodessa. The Satisfaction's doorway was open. It had been securely locked when they left it. Caitlin and Katie stopped dead in their tracks with Fodessa. Caitlin drew his PW, round ears perked to the max, eyes fixed on that open doorway. Windrunner, preoccupied with his cart, wasn't as quick on the uptake. Fodessa grabbed his shoulder; he looked up and froze, then crouched behind the cart. Quong had pulled out her comm and was speaking softly into it, alerting Port Security. Fodessa, her own weapon now in paw, sniffed the air. She couldn't smell any strange furs, and that was more disturbing than if she had smelled an intruder's scent with a telltale overtone of nervousness. Her pulse thudded in her throat. Dosh moved in front of her, between her and the ship, protecting his clients. Quong had silently scampered down the dock, crouching low to avoid being seen, and now stood guard from the other side of the doorway, one of her throwing knives in her paw. Caitlin had pulled Katie down behind another antigrav cart, his PW raised and ready, yellow eyes watching the bodyguards' every move. Katie's eyes were huge and round as she crouched, peering over the top of the cart. The silence was pregnant with threat. They watched the Satisfaction, waiting for Port Security to arrive. Then it happened: a shadowy, skinny figure detached itself not from the Satisfaction but from the shadowy underside of a nearby ship. A burst of fiery light beamed out. Fodessa had a heartstopping flashback to Sidney's death, and her first thought was *Windrunner!* But the hasty shot had splashed harmlessly on another vessel on the other side of the pier, to the right. Alarms began to sound all across the docks, warning that there had been a PW discharge. The furry passed right in front of Quong, whose paw was a blur no one could have seen; the next moment, it was lying on the surface of the dock, clutching its chest. It slowly rolled over onto its back, going limp, but Fodessa had no time to look because another figure emerged from the doorway with its PW already blasting. The golden beam struck wide of them -- the intruder was shooting before he could aim. Simultaneously, Dosh fired back, with better aim. The form in the doorway was enveloped in hot golden light, and then it shimmered -- and collapsed. Dosh's PW, like Fodessa's, was set only to setting two -- to stun. When there was no further movement, Dosh padded slowly toward that open doorway, more softly than it seemed possible for a hoofed fur that large to move. Fodessa followed him. The fallen furry in the doorway was a male leopard, lying on his right side. His eyes were closed, tongue dangling from his half-parted jaws. His PW had rolled a few feet away, and Fodessa collected it while Dosh watched the dark entrance bay beyond for further surprises. The unconscious cat was dressed in white Port Maintenance overalls, but at first Fodessa thought he had no scent. On closer sniff, there was one: a faint chemical odor lingering very close to his fur. She recognized it as a high-quality odor suppressant. Her tail lashed. For once, she wished she didn't have the two bodyguards and that this wasn't an Open Planet. Otherwise, she could have taken the leopard prisoner, questioned him at her leisure in deep space, then tossed him out an airlock. She bent to search him, but Dosh lifted a hoof to prevent her. She glowered, but let the bull do it while she watched for further surprises. He came up with a little packet in black plastic and opened it for her to see. Inside were what she recognized as electronic lockpicking tools designed to gain access to a space vessel, but they looked subtly different from any she'd seen before -- more sophisticated, she suspected. A few moments of further searching turned up nothing -- not even faked Port papers. "I think we'd better let Security search your ship," Dosh rumbled. "There could still be someone else inside." Fodessa gave the leopard another burst in the head; he'd be unconscious for the next hour, at least. "Seal inner bay," she told the ship, and the portal between the entrance bay and the interior of the ship irised shut, sealing off the interior. They stepped back out onto the dock, rejoining the others. Caitlin and Quong stood by the body of the other fur. Katie, still cowering behind the antigrav cart, reeked of fear -- real fear, not sexfear. Her ears were flat back, tail clamped between her thighs, eyes wide as two planets. This was going to traumatize her, all right. Fodessa snarled with rage. Windrunner quickly trotted up to her. His scent was tinged with the adrenalin of controlled fear. "Are you all right?" he asked, his green eyes full of concern. "Fine," she answered, offering him a brief smile and a one- armed hug -- her other paw still held the PW. Then she released him to join Caitlin and Quong in inspecting the corpse. The body was of a female mink, also wearing Port overalls. Quong's knife was sunk to the hilt between her small breasts, creating a patch of bright blood on the fabric. She wore scent- suppressant, too. Her PW was still clutched in her right paw, set on three. Even as the distant footsteps of Port Security sounded, Quong stepped up to Fodessa, showing her something in one small paw. It was a round, dull metal object, perhaps two inches in diameter, with one side flat. Caitlin moved in to look at it as well. They exchanged long stares, the genet's huge orange eyes looking into the clouded leopard's amber ones, and then Fodessa and Caitlin looked at each other as recognition sank in. Their tails lashed like snakes. The device was a rare one, but any experienced spacefarer recognized it on sight. On many Federation planets, the punishment for merely possessing one, if you weren't in law enforcement, was the death penalty or brain-wiping. "Slaaneth, if we hadn't come just now . . . " Caitlin breathed. A small sob caught their ears, and they turned to look at Katie. The vixen made the antigrav cart squeak as she shook with fear, her muzzle buried in her paws. The panther immediately went to reassure her. Fodessa closed her eyes and shuddered. She knew she stank of fear. Windrunner pressed his flank against her comfortingly; she could feel his warm breath as he looked down into her face. Arriving footsteps on the dock interrupted her thoughts. Seven furs had appeared wearing the blue uniforms of Perion Port Security, smelling sharply of tension, their weapons drawn. Their leader, a big ibex morph, looked around, taking in the clustered furs, the dead mink. He holstered his weapon and walked up to her. "All right, what happened here?" he asked. As she explained, with the help of Quong and Dosh, Caitlin took the still-trembling Katie in his arms and comforted her. Direct comments and criticism to: maureen_lcn@yahoo.com .