Trying To Get By Ch. 03

She raised her hands a little, "I won't harm you. What is wrong, Yonyi?"

Some of the fear left the girl's face to be taken up with the look of pain which came back, but at least Yonyi could manage some better Yautja than she could, "My - my ankle is injured. I stepped in a trap!"

Tahnyal looked over and groaned, recognising the thing. A leg-hold type, too small by about half - which was a good thing in this case. It had been set and covered with snow recently by the way things looked to her and the tie-down chain could be seen to run off a little way to where it was anchored in some rocks.

She had more than a reasonable suspicion as to where it had come from, too.

"Well," she heard the chuckle from behind her, "Got myself a bitch to play with now - since she can't tell me no anymore..."

Tahnyal lengthened her stride and Yonyi recoiled as much as the trap's chain would allow.

"Calm please, Yonyi," she said trying not to allow the rising anger that she felt come into her voice, "Relax if you can. I have this." She reached down to grab the chain and ripped it out, metal stake and all.

Yonyi stared as she watched Tahnyal bend down so that she could reach in and pull open the jaws of the trap to hold it there, not wanting to trust in the catch to work. She watched the muscles ripple and rise in the she-wolf's arms for a moment as the trap slowly yawned open again.

"Pull your ankle out - if you can," Tahnyal hissed quietly with the effort, "I'll hold it open until you do. Please don't take too long, my fingers have a little of your blood on them and I worry about slipping."

Yonyi had trouble at first due to pain, but she knew what Tahnyal was doing for her and she got it done, using her hands to lift her injured leg free. Tahnyal eased the trap shut, slipping her fingers out before the end when the trap clacked shut.

She paused for a moment to pack a bit of snow around Yonyi's ankle and then she looked up, "Just rest it here and try not to mind the cold. I'll be back as quickly as I can to help you inside."

Yonyi nodded behind her grimace.

Tahnyal picked up the trap, chain and all, and ran just as the trap's idiot owner began to protest.

"That's my tr-"

Then he noticed that she ran straight for him and he turned, running back toward the rest with Tahnyal in pursuit, whipping him about the back of the head and shoulders with the chain. It was worth a smile from a few of them since he was larger than she was, but clearly didn't have the stones to do much beyond try to shield his head with his arms.

As far as Tahnyal was concerned the chase felt wonderfully therapeutic.

By the third time that she connected well enough to cause him to cry out, she looked at H'Yan-Ah as she was about to pass her, stopped him with a vicious yank of his tail and then she took a fistful of his mane.

"This one's a mindless mutt. He was only with us for muscle and because he was the nephew of the old boss."

She turned and snarled toward the fool, "The boss who's dead for being stupid enough to try to run from a Yautja ship, the dead boss who can't keep my teeth from his nephew's throat anymore."

Her gaze returned to H'Yan-Ah, "You actually don't need him for anything. My recommendation is to kill him before he gets around to killing you - which he WILL attempt, trust me."

H'Yan-Ah half-turned, the shooters rising up over her shoulders from their mounts. The Wolven stood absolutely still when he saw them pointed at him.

"Are you certain?" H'Yan-Ah asked quickly in Yautja, "He is not one of your kind?"

The male disappeared in a spray of blood and came to rest on the snowy ground an instant later.

When everyone looked, the largest of the quadrupeds stood across the clearing cradling a large weapon in her arms easily. The end of the barrel was sprouting a tendril of smoke.

No one saw Dana because nobody was looking, but she lowered her rifle, since she'd had much the same thought. She walked over to where Yonyi was sitting and helped her to her feet and they hobbled together back inside. When Yonyi looked over, Dana said only, "I'll take care of it."

Yonyi smiled and though she didn't do it, she really wanted to lean her head against Dana's shoulder. "If you are not too cold like this, please wait with me here. I want to see how this goes now."

Dana nodded and they stood leaning on each other.

The dead one's brother charged up to Rhisu, but he stood frozen into place with a pained look a moment later when she seized him and held him so that he was nearly standing on just his toes.

Rhisu held one of his ears tightly in her left hand while she pressed the hot muzzle of her heavy rifle hard against the middle of his chest and held it there with a smile for him as he whined in pain.

"Oh now, don't complain," she winked, "I'm giving you a free tattoo. I could put it on your arse instead if you'd like."

Tahnyal walked off, but she had to admit that she was smiling a little.

The cold air of the clearing stank of burnt fur for a short time, but the Wolven was finally able to glare at the Highlander hotly, "I'll kill you for this, you - "

"No you won't," Rhisu chuckled.

"I've killed more than a hundred," the angry wolf said, but the Highlander only laughed softly.

Her eyebrows rose, "Is that so?

"I've killed only about six hundred, the last year and some," she said pleasantly, "I was in the war before that and I averaged a little more than twelve and a half thousand a year for the previous five. Drops off a tad before that, since I wasn't flying before then.

Had to do my killing back then up-close-like."

She lifted him up and shook him a little, "Are you listening? Your dead friend - "

"He was my BROTHER," the Wolven growled.

"Oh, my sincere condolences then," Rhisu smiled, "to your mother for needing to have to bear, birth, and raise at least two mindless pricks as sons. Of course none of that's her own fault, I'd guess.

"Now as I recall, he was saying some spittle about a trap - not the noisy kind like the one in your face there. I'm taking it to mean that he set a trap for one of his own ship's crew. And it's done that girl who was there some pain and harm into the bargain as I'm thinking that I see things here. A strange way for members of a crew to get along, I must say."

She shook him again, "I resolved the issue - and now you're here to threaten me - because YOU think there was nothing wrong with what your brother did.

"I'm starting to grow an opinion of my own about your kind - or at least, your family, your fine, no-doubt grieving, temple-going mother notwithstanding."

She looked at H'Yan-Ah, "Look here, friend. You'd best decide if this fool's of any real use to you.

"Because if he's not, I'm thinking to rip one of his arms off and beat him about the head and shoulders with the wet end until he's dead if it's left up to me.

"I need the laugh and it'll not take long, I'll warrant."

During the interval that H'Yan-Ah was considering it, a maintenance hatch swung up and open on the top of the craft. A tall, well-built, hooded woman in close-fitting, light-toned tactical armour climbed out easily and shifted a long weapon to her other hand while she closed the hatch with enough care that no one out in the snow noticed anything.

She strode silently to a spot which gave her a commanding view over the scene below and knelt on one knee. Her armour was white and tan, but just visible at the edges of the hood was her dark blonde hair.

As she eased herself fully into the position, her left knee was up and she moved her weapon so that she held it easily to sight along the barrel. Satisfied, the kneecap guard on her left knee rose up two centimeters and she laid her left forearm across it, cradling the foregrip of the weapon.

She shifted slightly, raising the rear of the thing so that she was sighting it without actually aiming and she opened her comm channel, saying only three quiet words which carried a slight Russian accent.

"Sveta.

"In position."

On the ramp below, a young black-haired woman in a well-fitting, dark green flight suit had been silently watching the goings on.

She muttered "Fuck," to herself impatiently and strode forward quickly down the ramp from the ship. She asked a quiet question into a tiny boom microphone near her lips while drawing a match-grade semi-automatic pistol with a heavy barrel weight as she walked.

"Sveta?"

The flat-toned response came back to her earpiece. "Sveta."

"Hold on the one by the large quad," the woman said quietly.

The long barrel moved very slightly and in the tall woman's right eye, a red reticule appeared a little above and to the left of an orange dot as a display of ranges tumbled until they stopped, showing a solid number. Adjusting, she saw the reticule shift to stop in the center of the angry Wolven's chest. The dot slid over the center of the reticule and both the reticule and the dot turned yellow and flashed twice.

On the ground, the other woman's earpiece crackled, "Holding."

Several of the others noticed when the walking woman cocked her pistol and both Irianni and H'Yan-Ah were puzzled at the brief, clipped comment that they heard buzzing in a different voice as the woman passed them. Rhisu let go of the Wolven and stepped to the side in response to the woman's subtle hand motion as she came on, raising the weapon to point it at the his chest.

She stopped near him as he turned to grin at her. "Did you have something to do with this? What are you going to do with that toy?" he growled in Yautja.

The barrel of the sidearm didn't waver from where it was pointed at the center of his chest. As the woman stepped the last bit closer, she lunged and jammed the pistol under his jaw.

"Only two of you are fighters," she said quietly, "Rhasht and Tahnyal, they are good friends to me. I like very much how they are smart, strong, very brave. Good fighters anyone can work with and trust. Professional - a new word for you, fur shedder.

"You, this dead one, and that one back there ... you are not wolves like you think you are. You are all street dogs; low and sneaking, brave enough when you come from behind to bite ankles maybe."

He came to it as quickly as his mind would allow and then he growled at her, "Did you just call me -"

She slapped his face hard with the pistol and he snarled but made no move since he was looking down the bore of it by then.

"Shedder," she said in a low tone, "Not wolf, only shedding dog."

"Dog," she said with clear contempt, "I said to you before do not touch my things. I give to you one warning only."

She reached and took her machine pistol from his holster. Jamming it into a pocket of her flight suit, she reached again and pulled two pouches from his crude belt, each containing two magazines for the weapon.

"This," she smiled a little as she held up one of them, "was to keep your stupid eyes closed to everything else, the real magic here."

He tilted his head, "What fucking magic?"

"Release," she said quietly into the microphone as she stepped away and the Wolven flew backwards, landing on his back in the snow to slide a bit over the sprayed meat and gore which had been a part of him a few milliseconds before. The blast from a large-bore weapon cracked and thundered back from the rocks.

The woman spoke softly again into the mike a few seconds later, "Hold on the last one," and a curt reply came to her ear.

"Holding."

There had been eight wolfish creatures set free from the other vessel earlier. Now six were left, though they were of two different types. One of them was about to lunge, but the woman held up her pistol as she spun around.

"Please make the try," she said, "Sveta has your death ready for you. Gun is new one for her, big enough to make hole in any wheeled thing - and sneaking dogs."

The Wolven snapped his head toward the ship as did most of the others. He saw the woman sitting on top of the vessel with one knee propped up and her left hand against her kneecap to support the large-calibre sniper rifle.

She did not move, only waiting for one word over the radio from the dark-haired woman.

"Sit down slow," the woman advised, "before she makes mistake."

After a moment spent in grumbling to himself, he sat in the snow. His gaze followed her hotly until she noticed and looked at him, "And if you get up before I tell to you ..."

She left it there and walked over to H'Yan-Ah and Irianni.

"Excuse me please, "she said to H'Yan-Ah, "Where I was born, there is only one word for a thief in army - 'Out'. That is not possible here, so I change the word to 'Dead'.

"There is no place for a thief in a vessel's crew - any vessel.

"Do you speak anything but this clicky Yautja please? You look little small for one like that to me."

H'Yan-Ah nodded and unfastened her helmet. As she did, there were soft whines from the two shooters on her shoulders as they automatically retracted into their housings. Pulling off the helmet, she looked around at all of the quiet stares from the group.

"I am H'Yan-Ah," she said in English, "And this is Irianni. That is our vessel. Sorry for the way that we look, but I didn't know what to expect." She held out a bracelet to the woman in the flight suit, "Please put this on and you'll be able to understand what any of us here who is wearing one says.

"Who are you and why have you come late?"

"I am Oksanuchka Tupolev," the woman smiled and offered the barest little bow, now very pleased that there were no real Yautja in the crew, "Call me Ksana, please. I am from Russia."

Irianni beamed and they were speaking together in a second. "That one up there," Irianni motioned after a minute, "who is she?"

Ksana nodded toward the woman sitting on the ship, "Svetlana Zaratskaia is the one there, Russian too. She likes it to be called Sveta."

She pointed as the small security floater passed in the middle distance, "Veronika Vladnikov there, you have already met. She says not much until she knows you, but Nika is very professional soldier. All three, we come from military. I have tactical aviation background. I can fly anything. Sveta and Nika, they are ex-Spetnaz. Nika was in Spetnaz Alpha Group, from disbanded unit.

"We were in cosmonaut training program, but one day there was no money, our mission was cancelled. We were with no work, but we stayed together.

"One night, Yautja came and take us. We have some work with them, was quiet little war for them. In fifth or maybe sixth fight, Sveta, Nika, and me, we were hurt very bad, but we take the objective together. They find us, the Yautja. We crawling back together, blood everywhere and Sveta fainting, me fainting - lose so much blood."

She nodded with her chin, "Nika, she was dragging us both after that."

"Yautja don't care about their mercenaries. That is why they use them for dirty wars - what they say has no honour. To throw away.

"But us three ... they like us very much then. Fix what they can, everything. But many parts are ... polymer - plastic, carbon fibre and metal now. We ..."

Ksana sighed, "We are from this place - well, other side of this place. But we cannot go home anymore."

She shook her head as though to clear her thoughts and she looked at H'Yan-Ah, "I making ... was making ship to be ready.

"I am your pilot."

She smiled, "They said to me that you flew this alone." With a shrug and a laugh, she said, "I think it makes me second pilot, but I know how and where ship should be in a fight.

"If not flying, I am ground tactical coordinator. Sveta is ... " she smiled, "pilot protector. Is like co-pilot, but she does systems and gives me time for when I have to pee. On the ground, she is soldier, but she has specialties; recon, mapping ... removing threats. She is your long gun."

"What is Nika then?" Irianni asked as H'Yan-Ah listened with interest.

Ksana shrugged with a sad expression, "Nika had more family than us; had husband and ... little girl. She says nothing, but she misses them."

She seemed to gather herself together, squaring her shoulders and looking back with little emotion showing anymore, "We have pretty faces again, everything works for us - we are faster and stronger."

She looked at H'Yan-Ah and Iriani with a hint of friendliness to take the edge from her words, "We are your soldiers. Your killers.

"Nika there, she is the strongest, fastest. She is coldest one."

--

Rhasht stood talking with the three four legged newcomers, taking the time to introduce himself a little better than it had gone because of the violence.

Lelly was a little confused, "Zhizah and I were talking about how you and ... I've forgotten her name, the girl who was here ..."

Rhasht nodded, "Her name is Tahnyal."

"Right," Lelly nodded, feeling a bit foolish, "You two don't seem very friendly toward them at all."

Rhasht nodded again, "That's because we aren't.

"It might be a little hard to see, but we're not the same species. I've forgotten the name of the world they come from, but they're more of a development of whatever was like a wolf there. If you're not familiar, it's a predatory role that's taken on many worlds in the universe. The role is pretty much the same and the ones in it are almost always fur bearing mammalian types if mammals are possible there, but though the ones in it change from place to place.

Here, they're four-footed canids. Where that bunch is from, they've evolved into two-footed ones. They grew a bigger brain out of it, but they're not much brighter. They tend to think with their stomachs and their dicks.

Tahnyal and I, we're from a place that has something like that too, but some of them carry a virus. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes they'll bite a human and the victim becomes a werewolf."

He looked at them all, "I was born a Wolven, just like the others, but from the place I come from, so we're not the same thing, but close enough, I guess."

He smiled and chuckled softly, "Tahyal always says that I'm smarter than the average hundred of them. We've been friends since we were kids."

He looked at Lelly and thought that he saw something in her eyes. "So to make it a little clear, before you assume maybe the wrong thing, the one that's left there, Sotyan, he doesn't change ever. I think that what we've all seen here today is probably a bit of natural selection.

He was the smartest one of them, but he's a bit smaller and he's young. I can at least talk to him, so I'm hoping that he can leave the stupid behaviour that he learned from the others behind and find a useful place among us all."

He sighed, "Right here is where it gets a little ugly. I started out like this, a bipedal walking wolf. My family was contracted as security for the mines and the mills where I come from. I'm the only one left because Tahnyal told me that we needed to leave while we were still moving air. The people were not much brighter than the two dead Wolven over there in the snow and it got to where it was open season on my kind.

"Remember what I said about werewolves there."

He looked down for a moment. "Tahnyal and me were bitten. She's a human girl who carries the virus. I'm a Wolven who also carries it. She can turn into what you saw her as.

He drew a breath and let it out a little heavily, "And I can turn into something a lot larger.

"We know about ourselves and we don't bite anybody at all. We don't lose any IQ points when it happens either, though we do tend to have a little trouble speaking clearly if we're reciting fine prose then."

Lelly looked down, "I was gonna ask something really stupid about the moon."

Rhasht smiled a little, "Nope. That's a human bullshit story that came from this planet, I understand. Shows how little they know here. We don't howl at the moon just like real wolves here don't howl at the moon. They howl - just like we can - to communicate.