Adoption

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

11/11/97:

With I small sigh, I stepped out of the elevator and into
the... well I guess it's a situation room more then anything
else. I was there though, once again at Rachel request,
though I didn't need to be escorted this time.

Rachel, Page and Milgrove were all there, along with a pair
of bears and one _very_ large wolf. All three were dressed
in some kind of military uniform, I wasn't to sure past
that.

"Take a seat," the wolf said, more of a demand then anything
else.

I sat, "I don't suppose I'm here because you've gotten
something out of the mouse?"

Rachel shook her head. "No, sie is still not telling us
anything of value."

I raised my eyebrow, I hadn't know the mouse was a
hermaphrodite. "What is it then?"

Rachel turned to the wolf. He nodded and started to speak.
"We have received an automated distress call from the second
plague world."

Page reacted very suddenly, grabbing Milgrove's paw hard
enough to make her yelp softly. Rachel nodded slightly,
tapping her claws on the table. The two bears didn't move at
all.

I sat back in my chair and looked back at the wolf. "You
think someone survived?"

"No," he snapped, "they set up something for us to retrieve.
The message is asking us for just that."

I frowned. "Then why the hell am I here?"

"I want an unofficial Council representative going," Rachel
explained.

"Am I the only free-lancer you have?" I asked with a sigh.

"Yes."

I snapped my head around and looked right into her eyes.
"How can that be?"

"Because the Council never had a need for free-lance agents
before now," she said, speaking slowly, "we had the
Hammerheads, this was what they were created for
originally."

"Then maybe it's time to start recreating them."

Rachel cut me off, "That would take months!"

"Which is why I'm going to do this. Though with this kind of
hazard, it will be triple pay."

She nodded. "Good," her voice had the lost sharpness of
before, "thank you Fox."

I began my reply, but stopped when I heard the sound of a
slap a few feet away. Twisting around I watch as Page sank
down against one wall, holding her face and beginning to cry
as Milgrove stomped into the elevator and started upwards. I
had never even noticed when they had left the table, or what
cause what ever happened.

I started to stand to go to her, but I was stopped by a
heavy paw on my shoulder. I looked up into the wolf's eyes.
"No time for that boy. We are leaving now."

I started to protest but Page spoke up. "Go Fox, I'll be
fine for now." She spoke in no more then a whisper, but I
understood her well enough. With a sigh I stood up and left
with the wolf and the two bears.

* * *

We walked until we were outside of the the Hall, and into
the city around it. Then into one of the tube trains that
crises crossed Prid. The trip took only about ten minutes
and gave me some time to think of all this mess.

I ended up worrying about something a lot more minor then
this little expedition. Oriana, or actually what she feared.
When I had shown her the cockpit setup for the _Falcon_ she
refused to even set foot inside.

I understood her reasons, after her accident with the train
on her world she feared small transports. Such as the
cockpit. So I needed someone else to actually fly it while I
did the job of gunner. I just didn't know who to ask.

Malia was the only person I could think of, I just hoped she
would be willing.

The trip though the tube ended in a city on the far side of
Prid. We all got off and I was directed to a large building
accost the street.

"This is out embassy with Prid," the wolf explained as we
entered the building. That was all he explained too, keeping
quite as we moved through the back rooms of the building and
into one small room. What I recognized as (and was clearly
marked as) bio-hazard suits hung along the wall.

"You're prepared for something like this?" I asked, taking
down one of the suits, just as the other did.

"We were prepared if this plague came to Prid," the wolf
said, as he pulled the suit on.

I nodded, tying the tail of the suit down before I put it
on. The wolf was busy checking something inside his suit so
I didn't bother him with any more questions, the two bears
were already suited up and waiting to go.

Stepping into my suit, I made a few checks myself, then
closed it up. There was a slight hum and it puffed up a bit,
the suit's systems filling it with clean air.

The wolf gave us all a once over, then walked back out of
the room, and into a smaller one to the side. Punching a few
buttons on the arm of his suit, he opened a fold.

Stepping through I found myself shocked at the sudden
silence. There was no noise, not even the wind, it was more
then just deathly silent.

This truly was a dead world.

The wolf was holding a small device of some sort, waving it
around a bit. Finally he stopped and pressed a button on the
device. "The single is this way," he said, pointing, and
started off.

We had arrived inside of a small park, and following him
lead us into a lager city. With out any life to fill it, it
was a very large, and frightening, place.

It took over an hour of walking to find the source of the
signal. It was quite clear that it was the source as well.
Close to the edge of the city, laying at the end of a burnt
gash that extended past the horizon, was a space ship.

Close to a mile long and about a third of a mile wide, it's
running lights were still on, and flashing in some kind of
pattern.

The wolf spoke. "This is a colony ship."

"I suppose it's a good plan," I said, "pop into stasis until
the planet recovers, then come back out and start over."

He nodded. "I can see an airlock," he said then started for
it.

The inside of the ship was space and small, there was a
total of ten rooms in the inter ship. One of the rooms was a
hold that extended for most of the ship. There was no side
of a crew, or a stasis pod. It took only a few minutes of
though to realize what was going on this.

"It's a seed ship," I explained to the wolf.

He looked up at me from where he was sitting, trying to shut
the distress signal off. "Seed ship?"

I nodded, rubbing the back of my neck though the suit.
"Right, instead of sending a crew, send a few thousand
frozen embryos and a computer smart enough to teach grow and
teach them."

He nodded, punching a few buttons on the controls. "Ah, so
they land it on there own world in hopes of surviving. Then
send a distress call so the Council will take care of it."

"Right."

Walking past me he shook his head. "It said we were support
to retrieve something as well."

"You have any idea what?"

"Yes," He said, and walked into one of the other rooms of
the ship. It was one I didn't look inside of, having been to
busy going over the hold. The room was a small medical bay,
with three beds and an assortment of equipment.

There was something else though, lowered from the ceiling
was a large cylinder, about four feet long and dripping wet.

"Cryo-stasis?" I asked, walking over to it.

The wolf shook his head. "No, the system is not powered."

I looked closer, "It seems to be powered."

"I know, I believe it is a form of magic."

I rolled my eyes a bit, as if in response the cylinder
opened with a snap, the top raising a few inches the
rotating open. Fog seemed to roll out from inside of it, but
faded before it ever reached the ground.

Stepping forward, I bent down a bit to get a look inside.
From some reason finding myself remembering a scene like
this from _Alien_. Inside though was not a monster, an egg,
or anything else in that category.

Inside was a child. A young female skunk, all of seven years
old and yawning softly. Blinking her eyes she looked up at
me and smiled. "Daddy?" She asked.

Ssuddenly I knew that the answer was soon to be 'yes'...

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a 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.
'Milgrove' is (C) 1997 by J. 'Packrat' McCoy, and is used
with permission.