Shiver Me Timbers Read online

  <()>^<()>

  The wolf shivered once the connection was cut. Damn the cat! And damn him for forcing him into that wretched marriage with Dab! The spotted hyena bitch was rough! She was also not his type—not at all! He'd barely survived getting out of her clutches before they'd shipped out. It had taken him and some cream the doc had given him weeks to heal so he could at least sit without whimpering.

  He forced his ears upright. It was hard, so hard but he had to do it. He had to project an aura of confidence even if he lacked it.

  His hope of remaining out of her clutches were dashed when they'd returned. And she'd sent a reminder in the form of Commander Ayud Bundi, a member of her clan and one of their best shipwrights, to inspect Black Death. His reminder that the XO's bride was eagerly waiting for a repeat of their nuptial visit had sent the XO into a panting fearful fit.

  At this rate he was going to lose status on the ship. And once he went down the ladder, he'd be at death's door in next to no time.

  Well, if he kept things going and then hid on the ship he might survive Black Death's time in her clutches. Hell, if he'd use his status with her to get more though. As much as he wanted to get out of her clutches as quickly as possible, he wasn't going to court getting torn up by her for anyone. The admiral could piss up a rope if he expected him to sacrifice himself for her amusement.

  <()>^<()>

  Tortuga

  Zumika grinned as he signed on to a ship. He finally had a posting. “Just let me get my space bag and I'll be at the lock,” he said with a tip of his finger to his hat.

  “See that you do,” the bosun said gruffly. “Step out of line and you'll walk the plank.”

  “Ar, I'm no fool. I'll do my best.”

  “Yeah, well, we'll see,” the bosun said with a shake of his head. The skipper had wanted people with experience. They were dredging the bottom of the barrel. Zumika at least had some experience. He also had helped him find two other ratings to fill their ranks.

  It seemed every ship in the ring around the asteroid was trying to man up and get underway. The press-gangs were out in force, not that they needed to be. Everyone wanted off the rock just in case the Feds showed up.

  <()>^<()>

  Jericho continued to cough and then snuffle. His mate had ordered him to the sickbay to find out what was wrong with him. She was right; he didn't want to pass it on to the rest of the pack or to the cubs.

  Whatever bug he'd gotten he hoped he got over it soon. It well and truly sucked. His chest muscles ached from the pain of coughing.

  He'd resisted going to the doc's though. A good dose of liquid meds, some cough syrup and a bottle of rotgut would knock his ass out and let him sleep. Normally his body fought off an infection while he slept it off. But he had barely gotten to “The Dives” open door when he'd felt the passageway swim a bit alarmingly.

  “I don't feel so good,” he said, reaching out to clutch at Ichy's arm.

  “You don't look so good either. But that's normal for you,” Ichy replied, shaking the arm off.

  “Shut up!” Jericho laughed but that triggered another coughing fit. Dizzy and light-headed he fell over retching.

  “Ah, shit. What crud did you get into? Did you drink something?” Itchy demanded, looking around them. “I warned you not to drink that rotgut Paco makes no matter how cheap it is! Most likely he did it with battery acid again!”

  “Shut up …,” Jericho coughed and then clutched at the pain in his chest that the coughs had caused. Green snot dripped out of his nose and onto the deck. Saliva slide from his open mouth as he panted. “I don't feel so good.”

  Itchy sighed and tried to help him up. When he got a hand under the other wolf's armpit, he felt how hot the other wolf was. Instinctively, his free hand went to the other's forehead. “Arrr, you're burning up matey. Tis not good. An ill wind we nigh not need now.”

  “Yeah. Got a co'd or sumin,” Jericho got out before he spat mucus. Val had been pissed when he'd come home sick. It had hit him hard and fast. It was something they were both aware of; working security put them on the front line of a lot of crud. But this was a bit different.

  Itchy swore as he helped his pack mate to a bench. “Shit, you really are sick. Whatever you've got, I don't want it.” He waited; fear finally giving way to concern over his own fate if the alphas realized he'd abandoned a mate. He forced himself to help Jericho to the medical clinic. He left him in the waiting room and fled.

  He didn't realize that he was inadvertently spreading the contamination further.

  <()>^<()>

  Doctor White, the Neogorilla senior medic on Tortuga, was called in when the on-duty doctor in the medical clinic became alarmed by the outbreak. He walked in just as a Neowolf started a coughing fit. Mucus sprayed him. He flinched away but instantly realized he had most likely just been infected. “Frack! Well, so much for keeping a clean area,” he growled, brown eyes flashing.

  “Sorry, Doctor.”

  “Well, no helping it. What is it anyway?”

  “Symptoms are flulike. But we've got some inconsistencies. Whatever it is, it's spreading. Spreading fast,” the junior doctor said worriedly.

  “Frack.”

  “I hate to say it …”

  Brown eyes locked onto blue eyes. “Then don't,” the gorilla growled.

  “But we've got to face it. It could be the plague,” the human medic whispered.

  “Frack. Find out. I've got to make a call.” Doctor White thought about it and then shook his head. “Actually, a lot of calls,” he said, putting his first call into the port to order a lockdown. When he got stuck on hold, he went to his office and called in every medic and then switched to internal life support. After that he snarled at the wait as he pulled out a battered manual on what to do.

  Not that he expected it to do him or anyone else trapped in hell with him much good.

  <()>^<()>

  Black Death

  Admiral Ishmael had watched the video of the bitch's death before going to bed. It put a nice cap on his otherwise bad string of days.

  The yard module had been detached and moved out to where Black Death sat outside the rock. That had taken the annoyed gnolls a full shift. They were finally at work on his ship though. Since they couldn't work on Black Corsage at the same time, he'd authorized Captain Gutt to resupply his ship. He'd generously helped himself to parts and missiles but should be cleared for limited action within a few more shifts.

  And once Gutt was back out, he'd be assigned to ride herd on the mangy lot minding the Tau-1252 jump point. That should keep him busy and out of his mane for the time being.

  He'd just gotten comfortable in the nest of warm female bodies when the audio alert of an incoming call woke him. His good eye slitted in the dark as ears twitched around him. The girls weren't happy about the interruption to their slumber. He growled and took a playful swipe at one rump, careful to sheath his claws before the respondent moved to let his arm up.

  He sat up and hit the response key. “Yes? This better be good,” he growled a yawn as one of the girls started to purr and groom his arm. Another pinned his left arm while a tail playfully ran over his face. He snapped his teeth at it to get them to behave. They'd pay for it he thought in amused vexation. The tail slapped into his abdomen and then went south of it as he oofed softly.

  “Sir, we've got a situation,” Kix's stern voice said. “We need you here,” he said voice flat.

  “What sort of a situation?” the admiral asked in exasperation. Situation could be anything and everything. He knew his Neochimp subordinate didn't jump at shadows.

  Please, oh please don't let it be the feds, an errant corner of his mind thought as he realized something was seriously wrong. Kix's tone said it all. We're not ready!

  “Sir, I'm afraid we've got a situation on Tortuga. It's … the plague,” the Neochimp said.

  The admiral stiffened as the female felines around him sat up in alarm. The kinky rattle of chains, really for show than an
ything else made his ears twitch but his mind was on something else. “What did you just say?” he demanded as ears went flat in distress. “It can't be, can it?”

  Heads popped up in alarm around him. He shushed them silent.

  “It doesn't look good, sir. Whatever it is, it's spreading fast. The medics called a quarantine a short time ago.”

  “Source?” the admiral asked as he brushed past the females and rose out of their tangle of bodies without care. Adrenaline started to course through his tired mind, banishing the last cobwebs of Morpheus's web. He had to get on his feet and start thinking clearly. A lot was suddenly riding on his mind. He felt a brief caress from someone but ignored it. He heard the lionesses begin to murmur to each other, but he shushed them again.

  “We're looking into it now. But the oldest case is Jericho, one of the Neowolf guards sent to arrest that human bitch. He's got a high fever; he's delirious, coughing, and aggressive. Those are some of the symptoms of the plague.”

  Doctor Goethe, you bitch, Leonidas thought in a spat of intuition. The Neolion closed his eye in pain as he realized what had most likely happened. And he hadn't taken that possible scenario into account, had he? Some strategist he was! Fool, he berated himself angrily as he hissed in anger. “And she didn't survive to get to me for further questioning,” the admiral observed.

  “No, she didn't. I'm looking into it now,” Captain Baker said as a tech came over to his side fearfully. He turned a glower on her. “What is it?”

  “Sir, you need to see this,” she said timidly, waving a tablet as the Neolion enabled the video camera in his chambers. To hell with it, he dressed despite the exposure.

  “Well? I can't see it if you wave it!” Kix snarled. She flinched and then handed him the device and stepped back.

  “What am I looking at?” the Neochimp demanded. He frowned as she came closer and reached over to dart a finger to hit the play button.

  He frowned as a quartet of images came to life. He realized they were cameras in the lab where the doctor had been. He snarled when he saw her stare at the syringe and then infect herself before the wolves got to her. She even kicked the thing under the counter so they wouldn't see it. It didn't make sense though. “What the hell did she do? Why'd she do that?”

  “She realized she was dead anyway so she got a last final act of revenge,” the admiral said, watching the partial view of the feed over Kix's shoulder. “We've got the plague. We need to quarantine those infected and do what we can before it spreads,” he said firmly as he continued to get dressed. “Rabies is one of the plagues. Have them look into that.”

  “Shit,” Kix muttered.

  “There goes the neighborhood,” a tech said.

  “And we need to keep people from panicking!” the admiral barked. “Lockdown. Quarantine! All ships are to go into lockdown now. No one in or out. We'll have to go through the records of each. No ship moves. Lock down internal compartments and quarantine those who arrived on the ship within the past twenty-four hours. We have got to keep this from spreading! And fear is just as big a killer as the damn plagues! So remember that!”

  “Aye aye, sir,” Kix replied with a nod as the admiral got his pants on. “Ships will want to run when word spreads, sir.”

  “Let them know the first to run will be shot down like the cowardly dogs they are. Hold position until we know more.”

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  “I'll be on the flag bridge in a few minutes,” the admiral said.

  “Aye, sir,” the Neochimp growled.

  “What about Nara?” one of the Neolionesses asked softly, voice rising in distress.

  “Nara? What about her?” Leonidas asked.

  “She … she's on the base. She went to visit someone.”

  The admiral stared at the girls and then nodded once. “I'll look into it,” he said as he finished getting dressed.

  Chapter 2

  Tortuga

  Zumika made it through the press of people to the lock and hefted his bag. There were a lot of panicked people, everyone suddenly wanted off. He'd heard rumors of the plague.

  When he got to the lock, he noted the shore patrol. He went to the lock and held up his bag and pointed to his face. “Bosun Cheny told me to get my gear! I'm here! Let me in!”

  A face on the other side of the stained glass just shook his head.

  “Why?”

  “Move along. Admiral Ishmael his own self-ordered a quarantine,” the guard said gruffly. Zumika turned to him in shock.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Aye. Be off with ye before I use you for batting practice,” the human guard growled, fingering his neural baton.

  Zumika flinched. He was well aware of what a prod could do from one of those things. “Aye, I be on my way. But I …”

  He stopped at the steel eye of the other man. Obviously there was no reasoning with him. “Aye,” he said, shoulders slumping as he turned and walked back the way he came slowly.

  He kicked himself for being a fool. If he'd had his bag packed, he would have been gone. And if he hadn't stopped for one last drink …

  Well, the good news was that if they did have the plague as a human he was immune he thought as he stomped back the way he'd come, brusquely shouldering smaller people out of his way as he did.

  “Hey! I know you! You're Zumika!” a voice said. He turned in annoyance and surprise.

  “Do I know you, matey?”

  “Aye, I thought so!” The guy pointed to Zumika, eyes hard in accusation. “That's the guy! He helped the Horathians! He met with that Captain Layafette! He helped them! He's one of them!” the voice said, practically rising in a bellow as heads turned.

  Zumika saw the angry sea of faces and bolted. When the ranks closed around him, he tried to swing his bag and use it as a battering ram to get through.

  He didn't get far. He whimpered as the pitiless hands and boots of the mob descended on him.

  <()>^<()>

  Doctor White snarled tiredly when he got the report he'd been expecting. He'd been going through the notes from the Horathians over the past twenty hours. There had been no mention of a cure or vaccine. Most of what was mentioned about a cure was how to prevent one.

  He closed his eyes in pain. He was tired, achy, and he felt a bit feverish. No doubt he had been infected. Medics always had the highest risk of infection; after all, they had to go and diagnose someone and sometimes went in blindly to do so. He was paying for his vocation.

  Paying dearly he thought as he shook his head to the worried looking guards and lab tech on the other end of the video chat. But he needed to keep up appearances for morale's sake. He needed to lead by example even though he wanted to curl up with a bottle of hot toddy and blow his brains out. He definitely didn't want to spend the next few hours coughing his lungs out as mucus filled them.

  “It's not your fault. Not any of our faults really. Well, if anyone's, mine, for not getting the damn cure! But that's over and done with now. We need to find out what we can. We need to know how deep this goes,” he said firmly. He felt the back of his throat tickle. He felt a cough rising and sternly suppressed it.

  It wouldn't be long though he knew. “Okay, I'm going to be sitting here working on the database to find what I can. I need you to run samples of that syringe,” he said firmly to the wide-eyed lab tech. The human tech was in hazmat gear. That was something at least. “I'm going to pass over medical command to Doctor Sho,” he said as he felt a presence loom behind him. He turned to the human doctor. “It's the plague,” he said by way of confirmation. “And I've got it. No doubt many of us do,” he said.

  Doctor Sho's eyes went wide briefly before his professionalism kicked in. He nodded once. “What do we do, sir?”

  “I'll wear a mask. I'm going to do a bit of research,” Doctor White said as he rummaged in his office for a sample kit. He coughed into his fist and then rubbed the mess onto a culture dish. He washed his hands and then leaned tiredly against the counter. “We'l
l need blood cultures too so we can get a timeline progression of the spread of the plagues.”

  “Understood.”

  “Get us a list of what's in that cocktail, Rob,” the Neogorilla doctor snarled, turning back to the video feed.

  “I'll try, sir, but I'm just a basic lab tech. I don't know how to recognize what I'm looking at,” the human said worriedly.

  “Just do your best. Keep the computer open and run an image comparison if you have to. Call Doctor Sho too.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Keep us posted. Now get to work. Use the lab there. The guards need to set up a perimeter and a decontamination system. I think there is one there.”

  “Yes, sir. It was broken though.”

  “Have someone fix it. And have that same someone figure out how it works so we can replicate it. Something tells me we're going to need to do so real soon.”

  “Yes, sir.” the image in the lab winked out.

  The gorilla turned tiredly and looked at the human doctor. “I'll stay on my feet and do what I can with the most infected. Find a damn cure.” His voice was leached of emotion. They both knew the chances of that. And they both knew the chances of a cure coming in time to help those who had been initially infected.

  Especially in a cocktail of biological weapons designed to be hard or impossible to stop.

  Doctor Sho nodded anyway. He knew he was in over his head, but he knew the proper response and so went with it anyway. “Yes, sir. I'll do my best.”

  “Hell with that, I've seen your best. Do better. We need a real miracle here.”

  <()>^<()>

  Rob looked worriedly over to the female wolf, the head of security with him. She shrugged. “Do what you can.”

  “Yeah,” he sighed with a shake of his head. “I'll just do that,” he said, unwilling to admit he really was in over his head. “See if you can find someone to look up the notes. Maybe there is an image of each virus in them. And let's see if we can find someone who can find out which viruses the bitch had access to.”