Cold Fire

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 4

I walked into the on-ship Council Chambers to receive nearly
a dozen stares. What little conversation there had been
before I arrived stopped dead once they all registered who I
was.

The group contained Theo and Laina, and ten other people
whom I didn't know. One of those ten was the first to speak
up. "I'm sorry miss, I think you have the wrong room."

Oh... they didn't know what had happened.

I walked over to a free chair on the side of the room.
"Rachel told me to come here," I explained.

"Why?"

"Because," Rachel explained, walking in through the doors,
"she's giving the presentation on Grasion."

This caused some puzzlement amid the group. "But, you said
Fox was to give it."

She nodded and waved her paw at me. "Right now, that is
Fox."

That stopped the conversation again, if only for a few
seconds, then everyone seemed to start talking at once. Most
of the questions seemed to be directed at Rachel, and a few
towards me.

Rachel just ignored them, walking to the far side of the
conference table and sitting down at the end next to the
other Council members. "Very well, Fox, you can begin."

I sighed, standing back up and pushing a stray hair back
over my ear. "All right then." I walked over to stand at the
free end of the table. "Have any of you seen Grasion's
file?"

They all shook their heads, a few muttering 'no'. I sighed
again, rubbing the top of my muzzle. "Why not?"

The question was direction at Rachel, "We're not officially
involved deeply enough to bring the Council in on this.
We're acting as advisers."

I swore under my breath. The Krein world wasn't a member of
the Council, and that limited anything they could do. If any
of the three first level members had been down on the base
still it would have been different... wait... there was
something to that.

"Miss," a man who was sitting close to me said, breaking my
train of thought. I shook it off, I wasn't sure what I had,
but I knew I had something.

I nodded. "Ok then, let me cover the basics on him. Firstly,
he's a human derivative. A member of a genetically enhanced
variation of the species, superior in strength, speed and
mind. Except that he's only smarter than a normal human, a
major genetic fuck up. It messed up a lot of the genetic
'perfection' that had been edited into his DNA, as well as
making him a Natural."

This prompted a few murmurs around the table.

"I don't know how he survived, or learned to use his
ability, but he has. He's been tearing around the
multi-verse for close to a decade now. I first met him a few
months after I started walking the folds, and in most every
way he's my arch-enemy. This currently is our fifth run-in."

"How good is his mind?" someone asked.

I ran a paw through my hair. "Very good. He's had a head
start on us by months if not years. He has everything
planned out for dozens of moves in any direction. It's best
described as a demented game."

"So he's covered every way for us to get back in?" Another
asked.

I nodded, twitching my tail slightly. "Yes. The only real
way through was the fold, and switching me with Oriana kept
me from going back through it."

There were a few 'oh's as the group as a whole realized why
I wasn't whom they had expected.

I smiled, "Though I'm rather sure he didn't plan on us
blowing up the folds. By the way, did that work?"

Laina nodded, smiling. "Yes, both folds are back at their
original locations."

Twisting my ears I blinked. "Original? Tell me later." I
said, leaving it for that.

"He's a natural," a person half-way down the table said,
"and the field around the base will let a natural through.
Could he have been planning on using that to escape?"

Bingo, two points, there was a piece of this puzzle. "Yes,
you're right; when he had what he wanted he would have just
walked away." I looked around the table, "What other folds
can he get to without dropping the field?"

A pair near Rachel's side of the table looked at each other.
"There's only the one on the planet, but it's heavily
guarded and locked down tightly."

I shook my head. "No. Then there has to be at least one
more. Find it, check all the possibilities. You're right, he
would have used that as an escape. He would have a ship of
some sort waiting for him."

There was some slight whispering, then another person spoke
up. "If we find it?"

"You will find it, he's not going to try and jump in and out
of the other fold. You may get lucky and find some
information on the ship that can help us, it also probably
is a decoy."

Most of them sighed.

A young tigress sitting right next to me spoke up for what I
think was the first time in the conversation. "Your escape
was planned as well?"

I nodded. "Yes... it got me out of the picture as well as
disabling the one person who could get through the folds."

She nodded slowly, tapping the tip of her nose with a
finger. "What about the rest of you? Why did he let them
escape?"

I 'oh'ed myself, realizing what that bit I had was. "If any
of the Council members had stayed they would be able to do a
lot more than consult. The other two were helping me and
without them I would not have been able to get through the
fold."

Wait... there was that something again. Why let us go
through the fold at all? My death wouldn't have changed
anything if they could have gotten out, so why let me live
and switch me. What WAS it that made it necessary for us to
go through the fold!

I though back, ignoring the next questions presented by the
tigress. It was blurry, but I could remember most of what we
had done. The seven of us, the ones he wanted to escape and
the female wolf... why was she allowed to escape?

The door had closed right after the female wolf had gone
through. Everyone else was outside already... right? Yes,
Oriana had gone out before, to watch our backs as we left.

But that didn't make sense! Why then close it after her
unless she was meant to escape with us? How could he insure
that she did and the other captives didn't? Grasion could
not have known she would be with us.

Guards... there had to have been more guards, I seemed to
vaguely remember one at the end of the hallway. They would
have been there to keep the others back and let the wolf go
with us.

That wouldn't have been very easy though. He may have
expected her to actually be with us, why, though? And why
still let me use the folds? What was I missing?

"The wolf that was with us?" I asked, looking up.

"Sebe," Rachel answered.

"What did she know that made it imperative that she got off
the base? It wasn't an accident that she left with us."

There was a pause as they looked at each other. "She helped
build it," one responded.

I smiled, more things falling into place. "Which is why she
knew about the defense system. If she had stayed she would
have found a way out of his control and shut down the
system. Or at least the chance was so high that he felt it
would be better with her gone. Which is also why I was
allowed to use the fold and not just killed. If we had taken
the long way to the base she might have split off on her own
to shut down the system."

"But the fact that she didn't means we can't get back into
the base." someone said.

I shrugged. "Don't you have any way at all?"

"Oh sure," the same person, a large wolf, continued, "but we
need a ship that no one can build."

I shook my head. "Why not?"

He crossed his arms. "No pilot can glide a ship in from
space and it would take years to develop the computer
systems to do it. No one has ever bothered with it, it's
easier to do a vertical landing."

I blinked. "Wait... you mean a ship made to glide in, no
thrust except for adjustments, would be the only way to land
on the base."

He nodded. "Yes, the defense system isn't made to see the
impossible."

And idea was starting to bubble in the back of my head.
"What makes it impossible?"

The wolf sighed. "Because," he said with force, "no one can
remember all the different adjustments to bring it safely
in."

"Ah... seven, give or take two..." I shook my head. "Ok
then, I don't think I can do anything more to help the
situation."

Rachel stood up. "Very well, then, you can all go now." As
the others started to stand she walked around the table and
grabbed me by the arm, pulling me over to the side. "I saw
that look on your face. You know how to get that kind of
ship."

I nodded, very slowly, licking my lips. "Rachel. I'm going
to go back to the _Phoenix_ with Oria if she's up to it. I
want you to come over in twelve hours, we'll talk then."
Then before she could respond, I slipped away and out the
door.

If what I was thinking about was in any way possible it was
going to break a dozen laws, and I didn't want the Council
in on it at all. _The Golden Phoenix_ was not part of the
Council, it was just registered on Prid.

The idea was almost insane. If it worked we could get to
Grasion, if it didn't... the Council would kill us.

Literally.

-----

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.