A Fox in the Works
                   Pondering on Infinity

                             By

                         Fox Cutter

04/20/2000:

I sat a bit uncomfortably in my chair, glad to be back to
being a human again. Not that I didn't mind spending time as
a fox, in fact I rather enjoyed it, but I'd just had too
much fur lately.

My timing was good as well, as it seemed like we were
getting a crowd today. Samantha and Mallory were both in the
living room with me, as were Oria and our respective
bodyguards. We were just waiting for Jadith to arrive before
we could get down to business.

I folded my hands together and set them in my lap. I tried
to flick my tail in annoyance, but came up short when I
remembered I didn't have one. For a moment I envied Samantha
and her cloth tail that always stayed with her.

"You're fidgeting," my wife whispered in my ear.

"I'm trying to adjust my tail," I whispered in return.

She laughed and ran her paw down my back, stroking a finger
gently over the base of my spine. "It's a pity you don't
have one, it looks good on you," she said and gave my ear a
gentle kiss.

I chuckled and smiled up to her. "I've been able to get paws
in my human form, even if it's not easy. Maybe I could learn
to have a tail while human."

A smile crossed her muzzle as she leaned down a bit closer
to me. "That would be _very_ nice," she told me, then gave
me a kiss. I returned it with pleasure as I reached up and
ran my hand over the back of her neck.

Samantha laughed from across the room. "You two are
incorrigible," she said.

I smiled up to my wife as we separated. "We try to be," I
said, settling back in my chair. Oria returned my smile and
adjusted her top slightly as she stood upright.

Mallory reached out with one of his three fingered hands and
wrapped it around Samantha's shoulder, pulling her closer.
She responded by nuzzling against the small of his long
neck. She ran her fingers over the alien's chest. He
responded by wrapping his thick tail around her thighs.

"You two aren't much better," I told them as I shifted again
in my chair.

She smirked at me and flicked her cloth tail in my general
direction. "I've always learned my lessons well," she told
me. Then she must have done something with her telekinesis
because Mallory's eyes went wide and his segmented jaw
parted sightly. After a moment he relaxed and gave the young
woman a knowing smile.

I let out a sigh and scratched the back of my hand. "Where
is she? She was suppose to have been here an hour ago," I
said.

<<She's here,>> Rhea said as she walked into the room,
Jadith following a few paces behind.

The elf looked particularly annoyed as she dropped down on
the couch and looked around the room. "Is the room cleared
of bugs?" she asked.

"Of course it is," Ravindar said, pulling his arms tighter
over his chest.

She looked around at the rest of us and nodded her head.
"Good, at this point in time the OZG is looking into this
matter, and Fox, you're assigned to the investigation as a
CSC special agent."

Mallory smiled his oddly disjoined smile and nodded his
head. "It's about time that someone with authority looked
into this," he said. Samantha stayed beside him, now with a
few inches separating the two.

"I agree, your concerns shouldn't have been allowed to sit
unheard. That goes double once Aikl was killed. For obvious
reasons this investigation is classified, so no Elena or her
company at this time. The code name of the investigation is
'Bad Wolf'; I'm sure Fox is familiar with the protocols for
its use." Jadith said.

I nodded and folded my hands in my lap. "So what have you
found? You're phone call made it sound like it was
important."

The elf woman nodded her head as she handed me a PADD. "Last
night we cracked some interesting information on Aikl's
computer. It gave us information on two people: Morten
Keller and Morgan Clark." I felt Oria's paw on my shoulder
as the former second command of the HammerHeads was
mentioned.

Glancing down at the PADD I frowned at the text on it. "What
did you find?"

"Records of communication between Aikl and two who we
believe to be Keller and Clark. The messages were sent over
the planetary data network, but the contents of the messages
were destroyed on the system. We were able to retrieve some
of the routing data from the physical layer. It's not a lot
but we've been reconstructing it, and it leads us back to
the southern hemisphere. We are narrowing it down, and in
another week or two we should have the final locations
pinned down.

Samantha laughed softly. "They will be gone," she said.

The elf turned to look at the young women. "What makes you
believe that?"

She smiled a bit and flicked her cloth tail. "Because they
aren't stupid. Someone sent Aikl after me. Once I killed him
they took Stanz to ground. They will move as well, cover
their tracks and hide. You'll find where they were, but not
where they are."

Jadith nodded and sighed as she finally sat down in a chair.
"That's very true, but we can hope. Maybe something there
will lead us to where they are now. I suspect they want to
stay on Prid, so that limits where they can go."

I nodded and set the PADD down. "Who else is involved in the
investigation? I'm assuming the Prid police force for one,"
I asked.

"Of course, as well as an internal investigation at the
Office of Planetary Defense. We want to find out if Stanz
did anything to the systems," she replied.

Mallory smiled. "I don't think he did; I kept a record of
everything he did on the systems. It wasn't exactly what he
did that worried me, but what information he was getting,
quite a bit that he shouldn't have," he explained, motioning
with his three fingered hands.

"That's something, but the OPD wants to make their own
evaluation of what happened. They will probably be
contacting you about it soon," Jadith said.

He nodded and settled back on the couch, one hand resting on
Samantha's leg. She responded by grasping his upper arm.

"So what's next?" Oriana asked, leaning forward slightly
over my back.

Jadith smiled, "Try to track down Clark and Keller. We're
also hoping to find out more about Ms. Orange and Mr. Pink.
We know very little about them, only the species in the case
of Ms. Orange, and even less about Mr. Pink."

I nodded my head and stood up from my chair. "Marn thought
that Pink was highly placed, but he wasn't sure where," I
said as I started to pace around the room.

"Marn thought a lot of things, very few are probably true,"
Oria replied.

"Very true, but he has been correct about much of this," I
said as I continued to walk around the room. "So what do we
know? We know that Aikl was the muscle man of this group,
and Keller provided the money. It also seems that Keller was
the one in charge of Dwight as well," I said.

"How does this Clark fit into it?" Samantha asked as I
walked past her.

I shrugged and wrapped my arms behind my back. "I'm not
sure. It looks like Ms. Orange, Keller and Aikl were
familiar with each other, probably as part of the
HammerHeads. That's probably their connection with Clark;
they worked for the man before, and they probably still are.
It looks like Keller was the leader of the group, and he
reported to Clark."

"So we should look through the HammerHead database for Ms.
Orange," Samantha said with a smile.

Jadith returned the smile. "We already have, but with no
luck," she replied.

The young women laughed and flicked her tail. "You probably
searched that same database for both Keller and Aikl, didn't
you?"

The elf nodded, "And we didn't find them," she said.

"Well, I was able to find Aikl in there, and I might be able
to find Ms. Orange," she said with a smirk.

"Eliza found it, not you," Oria said. Samantha just shrugged
it off.

A frown pinched Jadith's face as she thought about that.
"You have a point, but I'd rather not involve Elena and hir
people in this. Sie's too volatile to easily trust. Even so,
they did succeed where we failed. I think it would be
reasonable to have you take the information about her to
them, but with no mention of the larger investigation," she
said.

The young woman nodded and flicked her hair back. "I'm good
for that," she said.

Jadith turned her head to look up at Mallory. "I want you to
keep an ear out at the OPD. If they had one agent there,
they may have others."

"I'll see what I can find, but if the investigation comes to
me I will be locked out for a time," he said with a soft
click of his lower jaws.

The elf nodded. "Well, do what you can," she said to him.

I continued to pace around the room, my hands clenching
together behind my back as I thought. Oria had taken my seat
and everyone was staying out of my way. I tried to think
about everything, trying to put the pieces together in my
head. It wasn't coming together. There was too much missing
and I could only form independent chunks, but not the whole.

"What do they want with the OPD? They made a big deal of
protecting Stanz once his cover was blown, but why? It has
to have been important, otherwise why waste the manpower?" I
asked the group.

Mallory thought for a few moments then said: "He was
redirecting the data of the defense grid, dealing with the
loss of data caused by the failure of the weather grid.
Maybe he was looking for a way to remove information from
the grid, to create data loss," he suggested.

"That would require feeding information back into the grid
to control it," Jadith replied and jotted down some notes on
her PADD. "Which means some sort of tap on the defense grid,
perhaps one that we can't trace until it's activated. I'll
have to pass that on," she said.

The alien nodded and gave the elf a smile. "I have a few
places I could check as well. There were only a limited
number of systems that Stanz could access. If he put one
anywhere it would be there."

I stopped my pacing to stand behind Oriana. "What kind of
information would they be trying to hide?" she asked as I
placed my hands on her shoulders.

"That's a very good question. Probably it would be about
whatever it is they have planned... which doesn't tell us
anything. I fear we will not find that out until it's
started," I said with a long sigh.

Jadith nodded and rose from her seat. "I hope to stop them
before that happens," she said.

"As do I," I said.

The elf sighed and looked around at us. "Well, we all know
what we have to do at this point. Fox, I want you in my
office first thing in the morning. We're going to have some
things to talk about, just between the two of us," she said.

"I'll be there at the crack of dawn," I told her with a wary
smile.

Jadith laughed. "You'll have a long wait until I get there,"
she said. "That's all I have for now, unless anyone else has
anything?" She looked around the room. No one responded.

"Well then, keep Fox updated about what you find, and pass
that on to me," she said before turning around and walking
out of the room.

I let out a deep sigh once she was gone and relaxed down
into a vacant chair. "Plotting, blah," I said, sticking my
tongue out.

"I second that," my wife replied as she stretched her arms
out over her head.

Samantha laughed. "I don't know, it's always been fun for
me," she said.

I chuckled and nodded my head. "I remember a time when I
felt the same way, back many years ago when I was running
around with delusions of being a Time Lord."

She cocked her head to the side, and then shook it off.
"I've been reading up what happened with the HammerHeads. I
was surprised to find that both of your names came up as
part of it. When you said 'we stopped them' I didn't expect
it to have been so literal."

I smiled and shrugged my shoulders as a blush started to
form in Oria's ears. "Well yes, we did get involved with
that, but it's over now."

"Involved is an understatement Fox. I seem to remember that
both of you were instrumental in stopping the coup," Mallory
said.

I shrugged and gave a wave of my hand. "And it brought me
nothing but trouble afterwards. In retrospect, I wish I had
kept my head down a bit more so fewer people knew my part in
it. Still the past is the past, and the errors have now been
corrected. It's still a rather sore spot, so I would rather
not discuss it further," I said.

The alien nodded his head and clicked his segmented jaw. "I
fully understand," he said.

"Good, now let's get some food. It's lunch time and I missed
breakfast," I said, and then quickly stood up and headed
towards the kitchen.

* * *

I sat on the crest of the roof, lit only by the few stars in
the sky. I had a warm cup of tea in one hand and a PADD in
the other, not that I was paying attention to either.

Instead I had one knees tucked under my chin and my eyes
closed as I tried to play with my body. My powers were being
flighty, as I was seriously trying to manipulate them to
create a tail. It wasn't easy but I could feel a few twinges
at the base of my spine.

It was odd. The roof had started as a place for me to sulk,
but I had come to enjoy it, especially in the cold crisp air
of the late night. It was different than when I had fur, but
it still felt good.

I broke my concentration and sipped at my tea, feeling the
warmth run down my throat. I was surprised when I felt a paw
dropping on my shoulder. Turning my head, I was surprised to
see that it wasn't Oriana as I had expected, but Kalie.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on Hr'raal?" I
asked.

The female otter gave me a smile and sat down next to me,
her thick tail hanging down the hatch to the attic. "I don't
have to be at the Temple until tomorrow afternoon," she
said.

I nodded and tucked my PADD under one leg so it wouldn't go
sliding down the roof. "So you couldn't sleep either?"

She nodded.

"I don't blame you, you have a big day tomorrow," I said as
I reached out and wrapped an arm over her shoulder.

Kalie vigorously nodded her head and clenched her paws
together. "I keep asking myself if I'm doing the right
thing, if this is what I really want to do with my life,"
she said, wringing her paws as she spoke.

I shook my head. "I'm not the right person to ask for
reassurances," I told her with a soft nudge. "You know how I
feel about religion."

The otter smiled and nodded her head. "But I'm still asking
you because you are a good friend."

I smiled and gave her shoulder a squeeze as I tried to think
of something to tell her. "Well... its hard for me to say. I
wouldn't do it, but I don't have to tell you that. Really
this is not like you, at least not like you were before, but
Thryn has been a great help for you the last year, even I
can see that. Entering the priesthood is a big step, but I
can see why you're taking it. It's the right choice for now,
as for the future, only time knows, and time isn't telling."

Kalie smiled a bit, then leaned over and gave me a short
kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Fox," she said as she pulled
away.

"You're welcome, I hope," I said with a smile as I sipped at
my tea.

She nodded, and then leaned in a bit to look me in the eyes.
A moment later she reached up and cupped my chin, slowly
lifting my head until the starlight reflected in my
crystalline like eyes.

"Do you see something?" I asked as I looked down at her.

She took her paw away and shook her head. "Your eyes look
strange tonight. What's bothering you?"

I gave her a weak smile. "There's a lot on my mind...
between this web of Marn's and the Neverending I'm not quite
sure where to turn. I feel a bit out of control at the
moment, but that will change."

The otter gave me a smile. "The Neverending has been
bothering you for a while, so what exactly is going on with
it?"

"Oh, I have to stop a fleet by myself," I said with a shrug.

She laughed. "It's never small with you is it? Sounds like
something you could solve with a few high yield nukes," she
said, reverting to her old military self.

I chuckled and gave her a gentle shake of my head. "I'm not
allowed to use any overt technology, just magic," I told
her.

Her dark eyes glittered happily. "Oh, I'm sure there is a
way to create one with magic. Fusion is a natural process;
if it happens in nature it can be done by magic," she told
me.

"I'll keep that in mind," I told her as I finished the last
gulp of my tea.

Kalie nodded, then let her head drop slightly. "You can't
stop a fleet, not by yourself. No one person can do that,
even with a nuclear weapon."

I let out a long sigh and nodded as well. "Luckily I'm not
going to be alone. I'll have another fleet I'll be working
with, which is magical in nature, and a mage to boot. I'm
not so dumb as to try and do this alone."

"Good... they might know how to magically build a bomb, but
you might want to get some advice before you go," she said
with a smile. "Do you think Ken would know how to do it?"

I shook my head. "Blowing things up has never been his
style. On the other hand I do know an Archmage, he might be
able to tell me something," I said with a smile.

She nodded and ran a hand down my back. "Being well prepared
is the best defense in this kind of situation. I would be
more than happy to help you plan, but I'm going to be busy
for the next few months."

"Training is like that," I said as I stood up and stretched
out my arms and legs, easily staying balanced on the crest
of the roof.

Kalie looked up at me, then down to my bare feet. "I see
some other things have changed with you as well. You used to
be afraid of falling," she said.

I shrugged and ran my hands back over my hair to play with
my ponytail. "I still am, but I know that I can keep my
balance up here," I told her as I took a few steps along the
edge. Even in the dark I could still feel my way in my bare
feet.

She laughed and placed one paw over her eyes. "You're going
to break your neck if you keep that up," she scolded.

I considered taking a quick jump in the air, but thought
better of it after a moment. "That would be something of an
inconvenience, so I'm going to avoid it," I said as I headed
back down into the house, picking up my teacup and PADD on
my way down.

Kalie followed after me, closing the hatch behind us. We
headed down the steps from the attic and into the house
proper. "So why were you up on the roof?" I asked her as I
closed the door.

"I wanted to see the stars, and the backyard is a mess," she
said with a shrug and a gentle slap of her thick tail to the
ground.

I nodded. "Well yes, it is that, we're going to have to
clean that up soon. It will give the kids a place to play,"
I told her as I set my tea cup in the kitchen.

The otter nodded and turned to give me a hug. "I'm going to
go to bed," she told me.

"I should be asleep as well," I told her as I returned the
hug.

She smiled and pulled away. "I'll see you tomorrow
afternoon," she told me as she walked down the hallway.

I watched her go with a nod of my head, then turned back and
walked towards my room. I took a peek at the children before
I slipped inside the bedroom and shucked my clothing. I
slipped into bed next to Oriana and pressed gently up
against her.

"You're up late," she said, her voice muffled slightly by
the pillow.

I nuzzled gently at the nape of her neck. "A lot to think
about tonight is all. Lots on my mind, but Kalie gave me
some interesting ideas."

She nodded and flicked her tail back around my legs as we
pressed together.

"I didn't mean to wake you up," I told her as I wrapped my
paws around her firm belly. She felt good against my body.

My wife laughed softly, "It seems like everyone is up late
tonight," she said, one paw reaching back to grasp my hip.

I chuckled and nibbled at her neck. "So why were you up?"

She shifted in the bed and turned herself to look at me.
"Just Guild work is all, trying to track down Aikl," she
said with a slight frown.

I closed my eyes and breathed in her scent for a few
seconds. "That's good, love," I said as I pulled her against
me.

She let out a soft purr and slipped her arms around me,
pulling herself close, and resting her head on my shoulder.
Slowly she ran her paws down my back until she was stroking
the base of my spine.

"Have you taken any more contracts?" I asked her, kissing
the top of her ears as I spoke. It was one of the few times
that I had brought up her Guild work.

Oria shook her head, still holding me close to her. "Not yet
love, I haven't found someone who really deserves it," she
said softly.

"As long as you keep your standards high, and call me if it
goes bad," I told her.

She purred happily and licked gently at my neck. "Of course,
Fox, I'm not going to do anything stupid," she told me with
complete sincerity.

I reached up and gently grasped the back of her head. "I
love you," I told her with a purr.

"I love you too," she replied, her purr rising up to match
mine. We held each other for a few more minutes before
unwinding from each other so we could sleep.

* * *

Samantha stood on the patio outside of her room, wrapped in
a thick robe and smoking a cigarette. With her other hand
she held her robe tightly closed as she looked up at the
dark sky. The cold night air felt good against her skin,
making it grow taut as the sweat cooled.

Mallory came out of the house behind her and placed one of
his large hands on her shoulder. "What is on your mind, St.
Clair?" he asked.

"Bad Wolf," she said, letting the smoke roll past her lips.
"It seems odd to think that what started with our little
investigation has come to this."

The tall alien chuckled and lowered his head so that it was
even with his girlfriend's ear. "It's reassuring that it has
come to this; for so long I was worried about how my
concerns were being brushed aside. Now they will be
addressed in full."

She nodded and flicked away the butt of her cigarette, only
to light another one. "I would rather it was still in our
hands, but after killing Aikl there wasn't much hope of
that," she said.

"There are others we can continue to investigate, Clark and
Keller for example. There is also the unknown Ms. Orange,
which someone must communicate with Eliza about," Mallory
replied.

Taking a long drag, she let it trail out of her nose. "I
want to do more than just be a messenger for Fox. You know
how I am, I just can't sit around," she said with a sigh.

He smiled and ran a large finger down the small of her back.
"You are too strong of a person to rest when there is work
to be done. I am confident that you will find something to
do."

She nodded and tried to flick her tail, forgetting for the
moment that she was nude under her robe. Instead she ended
up ruffling the fabric. "There has to be something we can do
instead of just standing around."

"I already have a task set out before me, until my job is
suspended," he said with soft click of his split jaw.

Samantha nodded and thought for a few more seconds then
flicked out her cigarette. "This Keller, let's pull up the
information on him," she said as she turned and walked back
into the room.

He followed after her, ducking slightly to get through the
door. She was already at her desk, having shed her robe in
the process. He walked up behind her and placed a hand on
the skin of her shoulder.

"So here is the man," she said to herself as she pulled the
image up on her PADD. "Lots of information but no real
leads, parents both dead, born off of Prid... but it seems
like he's still on the planet. How many cities are there in
the southern hemisphere?" she asked.

Mallory thought about it for a few seconds. "Three, with a
fourth that spans the equator," he answered.

She nodded her head and pullout a second PADD and started to
jot some notes. "He's trying to hide, along with Clark. They
probably won't be together. They're too smart for that. They
also aren't limited to the south, just because that's where
they used to be."

"If I was in the same position, I would avoid Corban until
it was time for things to begin. Otherwise there is still
too high a chance of being spotted." The alien said.

Samantha nodded her head and thought for a second. "So
Keller and Clark are hiding and have been for a while. Both
were presumed dead before now. Aikl wasn't, he was allowed
to move around freely because no one noticed him."

He shook his head. "To an extent, but not as freely as you
would think. He was part of the HammerHeads, that meant he
was wanted at least for questioning."

The young woman turned her head to the side and chewed on
the end of her pen. "He wasn't trying to hide, not from the
cops. That means they weren't looking for him, or they
didn't care. Maybe they did question him and then let him
go?"

Mallory spread out his jaws for a moment then pulled them
back together with a loud clack. "That is a very good
question, do we have access to that information here?"

She shook her head and made a note. "No, but we can find it
quickly. Aikl worked with Keller, and they had been seen
together if Fox's information is correct."

He paused for a second then nodded, and then started to dig
though the pile of PADDs on the table.

"What are you looking for, hon?" she asked.

With a smile he help up one of the last of the PADDs.
"This--information that Fox gave you a few days ago. I
browsed through it while you were sleeping last night, and I
saw something," he said, quickly paging through the data.

Samantha leaned over to look at the PADD, watching the pages
of text flashed by faster than she could read. He finally
came to a stop at a dim image cut from a newspaper; it was a
picture of a busy restaurant. Two of the people in the
picture had been circled in a single red circle. She
recognized them as Keller and Aikl.

She started to laugh as she took the PADD from him. "By
accident, they got picked out by accident," she said as she
read the attached text. "This was taken a year ago at a
restaurant in Solovki."

"In the southern hemisphere, I wonder how often Aikl
traveled to that city, and where did he stay?" Mallory
asked.

Samantha set the PADD down and looked up at her boyfriend.
"I think we should find out," she said with an excited
smile.

-----

This story (AFiW #507) is copyright 2006 by Fox Cutter.
Hardcopy reprints limited to one per person, all other
rights reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee
except by permission of the author, and this copyright
notice may not be removed.