Cold Fire

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

12/21/97:

    Chapter 1

Four days had passed since we had managed to escape from the
Krein moon base; though with the atmosphere around here now,
it seemed more like a retreat. That appeared to have been
the high point of all the action and it had started to get
pretty low.

This was the current lay of the land. Rachel, Theo and Laina
had taken back their positions in charge of the Council,
staying in orbit in the Council ship, and trying to oversee
the situation as it was developing.

Milgrove was back on _The Golden Phoenix_ trying to take her
mind off all that had happened.

Below us, Grasion was still in control of the situation. Two
of the hostages had already been released, the price being
money, plans and technology. His further demands were all
over the board; no one could quite make out exactly what he
wanted. At least, that was what I'd been told.

I'd only been informed that getting back to the base, and
through the base's defense system, was going to cause
problems. I wasn't sure of the why or how of it all, but it
was perfectly clear that a lot of people thought we should
have stayed and tried to fight it out.

Sebe, the female wolf that had escaped with us, was back on
Krein. She was now in charge of trying to find a way to get
up to the base and in through the system.

As for the rest of us... it wasn't very good. Neither Fox or
Oriana had awakened yet from whatever had caused them to
fall unconscious. Both seemed to be sound asleep, sometimes
getting close to waking, but never actually making it.

After two days, they were moved into the medical bay of the
Council ship. The only thing that had been found that could
lend itself to explaining what had happened was that the
bullet the doctor had removed from Fox's gut had been
covered in a mixture of a dozen different herbs.

A magical catalyst, that was all it could be. Ken (who was
still on the _Phoenix_) had said as much when he came to
look at it, as had the other magician that was in reach. But
it wasn't magic that was keeping them asleep now. Whatever
the spell was to do had been done; that was what was so
confusing.

It wasn't even a sleeping death, but just sleep.

For my part, I had stayed by their side as much as I could,
maybe because of how helpless I was to do anything for them.
I felt, though, that it was my duty to watch over them, even
when the doctor said I should myself be asleep. I was a
Healer, this was what I had always been taught to do and it
was very hard to go against that training.

That was also the reason I was the only person in the
Medical Bay when Oriana woke up.

She just started, her body jumping forward, as she began
hacking badly. I was on my feet instantly, going to her and
telling the ship's computer to get the doctor. As I got to
her bed, she had rolled onto her side, and was in a fit of
dry heaves.

I retrieved a glass of water for her, pressing it into her
paws. She gratefully took it and drank deeply from it.
Panting, she then rolled back over and moved herself into a
sitting position, wincing softly as she leaned back.

"You'll be all right," I said in a comforting voice as I got
her another glass of water. "You're in the Medical Bay
of..." I trailed off, she wasn't paying attention to
anything I was saying, or to the water I had.

Instead, she reached under the covers of her bed, and pulled
out her tail, holding it very carefully, as if it wasn't
even part of her, and the look on her face... it was somehow
wrong, like it didn't belong there.

Dropping her tail, she reached up and touched her nose with
the tip of one of her fingers. Her eyes almost crossed to
look at it. Then she pulled her arms forward, almost like a
self-hug, pushing her breasts up under her gown.

With a deep sigh, she dropped her arms, leaning back against
the wall behind her head. "Oh, hell," she whispered, looking
right at me.

The doctor arrived just then, walking smoothly over to her
bed. He looked at me with a slight smile, then back at
Oriana. "How are you feeling?"

She turned to look at him, a slight look of contempt on her
face. "Bloody damn horrible."

Startled a bit from the unexpected response, the doctor took
a step back. "In what way?" he then asked.

Shaking her head, Oriana ran her fingers from the top of her
face back through her hair. "Very simply," she said, her
voice pausing slightly, measuring each word. "I'm Fox."

The doctor was even more startled by this. "What?"

She sighed again. "Go get Ken for me, then leave. I want to
talk to Jadith alone."

He looked flustered, "I can't!" he protested.

She just smiled at him, very widely, showing most of her
teeth. The doctor, for his part, took two more steps back,
then turned and walked very calmly out of the Medical Bay.

"Jadith," Oriana... Fox..., I wasn't sure yet, said to me.
"What happened?"

"Fox?" I asked, not sure what to make of this.

She nodded. "That's right, I'm Fox."

I looked over to Fox's body, then back to her. "I didn't
know that could be done."

She shrugged slightly, and very carefully set her paws on
the edges of the bed. "What exactly happened? Last thing I
remember was reaching for Oriana."

"Both of you just collapsed; we got you both to the _Falcon_
and off the base."

She nodded again.

"Something else," I said, pulling a chair over and sitting
down. "The bullet that you were shot with," I paused, that
didn't sound quite right.

"What about it?" Fox asked, leaning just slightly forward.

I shrugged off my slight confusion. "It was coated with a
mix of different herbs. It was part of a spell."

She sat back, digesting this, her eyes blinking quickly
about twice a second. Finally she shook her head. "Last
thing I heard was Grasion saying that it wasn't going to be
that easy. Is that what you heard?"

"Yes, that's right."

She went back to thinking again, not blinking this time, but
her mouth was moving. Finally she closed her eyes, tightly,
and growled. "God DAMN IT!" she yelled.

I jumped back in my seat, and felt a hand on my shoulder.
Craning my head back, I found Rachel that was standing over
me. She looked back to Fox. "Care to explain?"

Her eyes burst open, looking right at Rachel. As their eyes
connected, Fox seem to calm down instantly. "Grasion knew I
was coming."

She tilted her head and looked down at me, a silent question
passing between us. I nodded my head, answering her that
yes, this was Fox.

"We already knew that. The bullet--"

Fox cut her off, "I know about it already. No, it was more
than that. He set this up; maybe he expected my escape
through the fold. But why wait until after I was close
enough to get to the _Falcon_? That part I don't
understand."

"Maybe he's trying to confuse you?" I suggested.

She scoffed, "Hardly. No, this has a worse effect." She look
me right in the eyes. "My ability to open the folds goes
with my body." Her eyes glanced over to where her body was
lying.

"The ability to use it, that's in my head."

Rachel nodded. "I see, he gets rid of you, and keeps you
from coming back to stop him."

"He must not have expected us to blow up the fold." I
suggested.

Fox nodded, "yes... I don't understand all of this, though."
She shook her head, and slid out from under her covers and
off the bed. She bent right down and started looking in the
drawers built into the frame under the bed.

"What are you doing, Fox?" Rachel asked.

She closed the last drawer and moved to the bed where her
body lay, presumably with Oriana inside. He started digging
through those drawers as well. After a quick search she
pulled out some clothing. "I," she announced, "am going to
change." Then walked across the bay and into the bathroom.

She came back out half a minute later, still in the hospital
gown. Bending down at her bed, she pulled out the clothing
that had been brought over for Oriana, and went back into
the bathroom.

She took a bit longer this time, but finally she came back
out. Somehow, even if the clothes were made for the body,
they still looked out of place on it.

Pausing for a second she looked at Rachel. "This isn't the
_Phoenix_."

Rachel nodded, walking over to her. "You're on the Council
ship."

Fox grimaced. "So that's what's taking Ken so damn long.
Fine, I'll be in the ship's garden. When he gets here send
him to me." She paused, looking down at her real body, "and
when Oriana wakes up call me. I need to be here."

Crossing her arms, Rachel stood back as Fox walked out of
the room.

"Why did you let him go?" I asked.

She looked at me, "because, no matter what the form, it is
not his. He's going to have to do some mental acrobatics to
get into sync with it." She shook her head, "He'll be fine
as soon as he gets his current sex straight in his mind."

"And everyone else," I said, realizing that I had been
thinking of her as a female even after I found out that it
wasn't Oriana.

She patted my shoulder. "That may be the easy part."

-----

This story is (c) 1998 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) 1998 by J. 'Packrat' McCoy, and is used
with permission.