Mirror Cycle

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 6

Kalie and I walked back into the living room. She had
cleaned herself up a bit, drying her face and her eyes. She
didn't look completely calm yet, but some of her strength
had returned.

I hoped that she would hold up thought all of this. Our
friendship was important, but there was so much going on! I
couldn't lose my focus on Cain. I had to stop him before he
did something else, something worse than trying to kidnap my
wife.

Oria was currently sitting on the couch, balancing Beca on
her legs, and reading to her. The twins were in the carrier
at her feet, both sleeping soundly, with Rhea curled up next
to them, guarding them from all harm.

Oria flashed us both a smile, mixed with a slight look of
relief. I would have to talk to her about what had happened,
and some of what Kalie told me. She might be acting better
right away, but Oria and I both knew that it was just that--
and act.

"Rachel called," she said after a moment, setting the book
down on her lap. "I didn't want to disturb you, so I took a
message. She told me that she has done what you wanted her
to do."

I smiled, brushing my hair back from the side of my head.
"Good, that will simplify things a lot. Right then, I need
to talk to Ravindar, then Kalie and I need to get to the
shipyards."

She smiled back. "That's good news then... but what exactly
has she done for you?"

"The Security Council, you might have heard about it on the
news. It's kind of the Consortium's investigative and
enforcement branch. Not sure I can go into it right now.
When it was about to be formed, Rachel told me that I was
wanted as a Special Agent. I said I would think about it."

She twisted her ears slightly, her paws, claws out, brushing
out Beca's hair. "I see," she said, sounding curious, as
well as annoyed, at the same time.

I nodded, relaxing my stance slightly, tail flicking behind
me. "The point is, I now have jurisdiction over all Earth.
Which means, I have direct jurisdiction over Cain. This
means I can pull rank to deal with him, and have the clout
of the Consortium behind me for now."

"Ah," she said with a smile, "so you accepted this job so
you could deal with Cain. That makes sense, but how will
this affect us after we've finished dealing with Cain?"

I shrugged, "I don't really know. There is no one else in
the CSC as of yet. It's just me, so I guess I might end up
setting some of the power base by accident. That's for
later, right now I need to get some ID made up, and have it
set into the system for authorization."

"Do you have anything in mind?" she asked. "I can make it
myself while you're at the shipyards."

For a second I was tempted to do something along the lines
of the classic 'FBI' id, but decided against it. "Keep it
simple, have the CSC big, and put everything you can on it.
If Rachel didn't give you the authorization information when
she called, it's probably sitting in the mail system."

"She sent it to me, don't worry. I have a few ideas, I'll
show you what I have once you and Ravindar get back from the
shipyards," she said the last part with a knowing smile.
Suspecting what she was smiling at, I glanced over the back
of my shoulder. The tiger was standing behind me, smirking
just slightly.

I chuckled. "Good, nice to see you can keep sneaking up on
me." I said, turning around so I was face to face with him,
or rather face to chest. "Do you have what I asked for?"

He nodded, holding up the pair of wrist bands. "If you will
hold up your arms, I will put them on for you," he said, his
voice softening just a touch.

"You're just a good old romantic," I told him with a smile,
pushing my sleeves up, and holding my arms out to him. He
snapped both bands onto my wrists, locking them tightly.

"The left band has the chip controller and the pill
container, the right is the portal control. To open either
one, you, and only you, must tap on it. Twice fast, twice
slow, and twice more fast."

I smiled. "Good, how about being able to track me through
the fold?"

"The Guilt is currently working on that as we speak," he
answered, looking slightly sheepish. "It will be ready soon
enough; I was promised no more than an hour. That's not all,
though. If you cross your wrists and tap the bands
together," he showed me as he spoke, tapping the insides of
his wrists together twice. "You'll find a small blade in the
right band. It's not much, but no one wants to see you
defenseless."

I smiled, glad to have him thinking of things like that for
me. "Good, now I have one more thing for you to do before we
head off to the ship yards. I'm going to need a bio-drone
for you. Nothing fancy, but if they're supposed to kill you,
I'd rather it be a fake you instead of the real one."

"That was already suggested," he commented with a sly smile,
his tail flicking back and forth as he spoke, "That will
also be here in no more than an hour."

I laughed, "Nothing left to chance. Very good! Well, then I
guess we had better go."

"Not so fast," Oria said. I turned back around to face her.
She was standing up from the couch, Beca already out of her
lap. "I need to talk to you for a moment before you go.
Kalie, would you watch Beca for me?"

Kalie nodded, a slight smile flickering over her muzzle as
she walked into the room.

As soon as Oria was near me, she grabbed my arm, showing a
sudden urgency that wasn't there a moment before. "Come with
me. Ravindar, you stay put for now. This is private." She
keep on walking, pulling me along with her.

I keep up, staying just a step behind her. "What's going
on?" I asked.

She sighed, flicking her ears in annoyance. "You're so hyper
about going after Cain, you're forgetting what body you're
in."

I shrugged. "Well, the body is an integral part of the
plan," I answered, sounding kind of sheepish myself.

She pulled me around a corner, then dropped my arm, stepping
around me so that she could look me in the face. "You're
leaking," she said, hissing slightly.

I blinked in surprise, glancing down at myself. A pair of
wet spots were spreading out along the front of my shirt,
one over each beast. "Oh," I said, dumbfounded, "I guess
that escaped my attention."

She sighed again, but smiled just slightly. "I thought you
liked that?" the sarcasm was dripping from her voice.

"On you!" I protested.

She took my arm again, pulling me along the hallway,
flicking her tail at me as I tried to keep up. "I like it on
you, too. Don't worry about it that much, it happens to
everyone at some time." I suspect that wasn't true, but
didn't want to contradict her at the moment. "You've got
your attention divided up in so many different directions
that you're not paying attention to your body. It's just
like when you forget to eat."

"Ah, yes. I see what you mean," I rubbed my forehead with my
free paw. "I'm most likely going to be in this form for a
few days. This could get in the way if I'm captured," I was
starting to be a bit worried, this could be more than just
an inconvenience.

Stopping in front of our bedroom, she opened the door with
one paw, pulling me into the room with the other. "I've
already thought about that. Change into a clean shirt and
bra, and double the pads, you don't need to have this happen
again before we can get you drained."

Not one to be told what to do twice, at least not when my
wife was telling me what to do, I shed my shirt and bra and
dried off my fur with the shirt. Putting on a new bra, I did
notice that things were starting to get tight. "I'm going to
have to do something about this soon," I commented as I
pulled my shirt on.

"Take this," Oria said, holding out a pill. I nodded, as I
took it from her and swallowed it dry. "And what was
'this'?" I asked once it was down.

She held out a pill bottle for me. "It's a hormone blocker.
It will prevent you from producing milk. It lasts about
twelve hours, so keep an eye on the clock."

I took the bottle from her, guessing what she was going to
tell me to do next. Tapping open the left band, I put a
dozen of the small pink pills into the little gap there.
While I was at it, I moved my Matrix chip from my watch into
the band as well, abandoning my watch on the bed. "If you
take them long enough, will they stop production of the
hormones?"

She nodded, taking the bottle back as I snapped the band
closed. "The less you nurse, the less milk you produce," she
explained by way of an answer, "and before you ask, I didn't
take them after I was done nursing Beca because there's a
slight chance they may cause birth defects. I didn't want to
risk it."

"Good plan," I told her, pausing for a second to tuck my
shirt back in. Then we both walked to the door.

"Just remember to take them," she told me, opening the door
and ushering me out into the hallway. "When you get back
from the shipyard you'll have to feed Adric, that will drain
you enough that it won't cause problems."

I was suddenly struck by the absurdity of the whole scene.
The whole idea just made me laugh. "Do you know how silly
this all is?"

Oria gave me a long smile, her tail twitching back to twist
around mine. "I know, love. But you are silly, so it all
seems to make some kind of sense doesn't it?"

I laughed harder, wrapping my arm around her shoulder, then
pulling her into a kiss. "I love you," I told her, kissing
her again.

"I love you, too," she answered between kisses.

We both had to hold ourselves back, this was the type of
situation between us that could degenerate into baser
actions. So, we managed to pull away after a few moments.
Both of us were a bit disappointed, but it was something to
look forward to later.

We reentered the living room, and Oria drifted back to the
couch. Kalie was reading to Beca now, who was starting to
drift off into sleep. They shuffled around a bit so Beca was
in Oria's lap, and Kalie came over to me.

"Are we ready?" Kalie asked, glancing over my new shirt, a
slight smile on her face.

I nodded. "We're ready. Come on Ravindar, lead onto the
shipyards."

He smiled a bit, and motioned for me to lead instead. I
shrugged, happy to oblige him. He followed right behind, and
Kalie was by my side, hanging back just a bit as we walked
down the hall to the fold room.

Once inside, I reached out, and with a twist of my mind,
opened the fold, connecting it to the one that was just
inside the shipyard hanger. Stepping over the threshold, I
came out into a back corner of the massive room.

The open hanger stretched into the distance, about half a
mile, and a third of that wide. Every hundred feet or so,
sat a _Red October_ class starship. Each one was in a
different phase of construction. This was the factory floor;
all the main parts were assembled here.

Clustered around this end of the hanger were four of the
ships, one was _The Falcon_. The other three had yet to be
named, the only things on their white hulls were their
registration numbers, and the shipyard's logo.

Lounging around along the side wall was a motley crew of
pilots and gunners. There were seven of them, each of a
different species, and all very good at their jobs. They
were talking among themselves, except for Milgrove, who was
watching us enter.

Sie walked right over to me as I closed the fold, Kalie and
Ravindar standing next to me. "I assume one of these two is
my gunner?" sie asked, placing hir paws on hir side, causing
the skin of hir wings to bunch out.

"Milgrove, this is Kalie," I waved the paw from one to the
other, "and Kalie, this is Milgrove. Kalie is going to be
the gunner, and in charge of this mission."

They shook hands, each looking over the other. Milgrove
seemed pleased at the arrangement, but Kalie looked a bit
wary. She was a land fighter, being in space wasn't part of
her training. But I had seen her work a gunnery system
before, and knew she would be able to handle it.

"Please to meet you," Milgrove said, offering hir paw out in
a motion to shake. Kalie responded in kind, but without much
enthusiasm, her species wasn't big on that type of contact.

"Now," Milgrove said, stepping away from us. "Would you care
to explain what's going on here?"

"Sure. Why don't you call the others over?" I told her with
a bit of a smile.

Sie did just that, bringing the other six over to stand in
front of me. Kalie stepped over with them, placing herself
next to Milgrove.

I gave them all a quick summation of what they were going to
do. That I was commandeering the ships on official business
for the CSC, then quickly explained what the CSC was. I gave
Milgrove and Kalie the authority to lead the group as well.
Hopefully that would prevent any major problems.

Once that was out of the way, I outlined what the mission
was going to be. That they were going to be needed to track
down a base, and prevent anyone from escaping it. Or, if the
situation called for it, they might have to attack the base
outright.

I would have Ravindar handle the actual location of the base
once I had been kidnapped. He would tell Kalie the closest
fold to the base, and he would also insure I didn't get shot
by my own ships if I was trying to escape.

There was a general look of worry shared between everyone.
Milgrove appeared slightly unsure, and Kalie's face was
stone, nothing was showing on it anymore.

I would have liked to be able to reassure everyone about the
success of this mission. At that time, I didn't have any
real idea what it would entail. I just hoped to use them to
shut down Cain's base, and to help me escape when the time
came.

Trying hard not to show the worry that I felt, I answered
all of their questions as best I could. A few people
questioned Ravindar, and he answered them, using what seemed
to be as few words as possible.

Finally there was nothing left to answer, and everyone was
satisfied about what was going on, although there was some
nervousness still floating around. No one backed out, and I
had given everyone the option three times during my
explanation of the mission.

They had reacted better than I would have, I suspected.

Leaving some final instructions, including that Kalie should
spend some time in the simulator, Ravindar and I left the
hanger. Once we were back in the house, I let out a long
sigh. I was feeling a lot more nervous now than I had an
hour before.

"May I speak with you," Ravindar said. I glanced back over
my shoulder at him, his ears were bent slightly in a look of
concern.

I shrugged both my shoulders and tail. "I don't see why
not."

He nodded, motioning me to step out of the door and into the
hallway. I followed behind him as he started down the hall,
away from the living room. It struck me as an interesting
reversal of our roles.

Once around the corner, he opened up the door to one of the
unused rooms. I stepped inside and was surprised to find
that it wasn't unused.

"So this is where you sleep," I commented, flicking my tail
as I looked around. There was a cot along one wall, with a
chest at the foot of it. Nothing more.

He grunted, closing the door, and walking around to face me.
The only light in the room was from the window, filtering
from the center enclosure of the house.

"You have no real plan do you?" he said, crossing his arms
over his chest. It wasn't spoken as an insult to me, more
that he was expressing his own worry about the situation.

I spread my paws out, "Oh, I wouldn't go as far as that," I
laughed nervously. "I just have so little information on
what's going on. Once I get to his base, you guys come
swooping in."

"That is not much of a plan. It occurs to me that this could
be a trap," he twitched his tail as he spoke, I suddenly got
the feeling that he was controlling himself, perhaps to keep
from showing his anger to me

I nodded, rubbing my chin and swishing my tail behind me.
"Yes, it is a possibility," I admitted with a sigh, "but I'm
sure they're not aware that I've twained myself, and if he
knows of my being Rhea, he wouldn't know of my morphic
form."

He nodded his head slowly, making the motion look
deliberate. "I concur. He has attacked you once before,
which Rhea stopped." Not true, I had stopped that, in Rhea's
body. "But to know of your morphic body would require him or
his agents getting closer to you than we know they have."

"So it might be a trap, but they're going to think they
captured Oriana?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Correct," he answered, twisting his ears around, "Tour
presence would take them by surprise. Though if it is a
trap, expect to be hit by a second tranquilizer. They would
assume you would already have taken a serum to prevent the
first."

"So, find out what other tranquilizers are safe to use in
conjunction with the first. Perhaps we can work out what the
second one would be and provide an antidote for that as
well."

"Fox," he frowned as he spoke, "You're stalling."

I sighed, slouching slightly. "Perhaps, but I want to be
prepared as best as I can be."

"Which is what you should be," he answered, walking over to
me and placing his paws on my shoulder. "But the more we
think about how things are arranged, how they could be done,
the more we will attempt to prepare for. We can prepare for
eternity, but we must move soon."

I shook my head feeling my hair flip behind me. It was
finally dry, and still hanging loose down my back. "I
understand, but is there anything we can do, in case I'm
drugged for a second time."

He shook his head. "Hope it doesn't last too long. We must
go soon, before it is too late, and we need to start from
scratch once more."

I sighed again, "I suppose so. Come on, let's hope the stuff
from the Guild has arrived, so you can track me down."

He nodded, walking around me to open the door. "After you,"
he said, motioning once more for me to walk ahead of him.

"You know," I told him as I stepped out into the hallway,
"Sometimes I wonder if you always walk behind me just to
look me up?"

He chuckled, placing a paw on my back, "You're married, Fox;
why would I want to watch as you strut around?"

I swished my tail at him, "Because of the view."

He laughed, patting my back softly. "You're a tease."

"Of course," I said, turning my head back to look at him,
and smirking as I did so.

He shook his head, closing the door to his room. "Go on,
Oriana will be expecting us in the living room."

"Right, right," I answered, starting to wall, grinning a
bit. Sometimes, having a female body could prove to be quite
fun. It also served to break the tension that sometimes
could creep into these situations.

He did have a point, the fact that it could be a trap had
never crossed my mind until he mentioned it. It had me very
worried.

   To Be Continued...

-----

This story is copyright 2000 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. Milgrove is copyright 2000 by J. 'Packrat'
McCoy, and is used with permission.