Mirror Cycle

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 10

That is to say, I pulled the trigger with the full intention
of shooting him right between the eyes. Instead I was
rewarded with the all too familiar thump of the gun
misfiring.

"Fuck," I swore, glancing down at the gun in my paws, then
quickly back up at Cain. He had cocked his head to the side,
and a smile had spread across the width of his face. "Do you
think I would leave any weapon on this station that could be
used to kill me?" His sentence was punctuated by the door
slamming shut, sealing us together in the room.

"Just the self-destruct," I growled, shoving the gun back
into my pants pocket, holding myself back from carrying
through my first impulse of throwing it in his face.

He chuckled darkly, hitting the control panel with the flat
of his hand. A deep hum quickly filled the room, starting
low, but building up louder every second; soon it was
rattling in my bones.

Looking satisfied with himself, he continued to work on the
controls. "Why? I haven't activated it yet. With you here,
everything is back according to plan."

I let out a low growl, unsheathing my claws as I lowered my
body into a crouching position. He gave me a short glance
out of the corner of his eye, and almost looked stunned when
I leaped at him. My paws out wide, mouth open and aiming for
his neck. He spun around, trying to hit a button on the
controls before I crashed into him. He failed. We both
sprawled out onto the floor, with myself on top of him.

He pulled his arm up to smack it against my face, twisting
my head to the side. His other hand came up and slammed
against the side of my head, causing my ears to start
ringing. I forced myself to ignore it, instead focusing on
tearing at his neck with my claws. I only managed to gouge a
row of cuts into his skin before he grabbed my paws, holding
them at bay.

There was a burst of noise in the room. The low humming
jumped an octave in a second as the outer of the two doors
slid open. The smell of ozone spilled out into the room,
hanging in the air around us.

Cain saw this, a smile playing over his face. In a sharp
move he yanked my paws to the sides, and smashed his head
into my face.

He stunned me for a few seconds. Dropping my paws, he
grabbed my ears and dug his thumbs inside. I let out a long
yowl at the sudden burst of pain. In spite of the pain, I
returned my paws to his neck, as well as digging at his legs
with my feet.

He let out a low scream of pain. Blood flowed up from his
legs, covering my feet, and the floor. It also provided a
catalyst for him, a focus; he twisted in a strange way under
me, and suddenly I found myself in the air. Tumbling in the
low gravity I crashed back-first into the controls, then
slumped to the floor.

With am annoyed grunt, he pulled himself to his feet. The
sides of his pants were stained red with his blood. It was
seeping at a rate that made me hope I had slashed open an
artery, something that would be terminal for the bastard. He
glared at me, almost snarling, it pulled at the scar on his
face, making him look even fiercer than he had the moment
before.

I pulled myself back to my feet, half standing, half
crouching, baring my teeth at him. He smiled back at me,
tensed his back, and dropped both hands to the ground. In a
single move, he pushed off the floor, throwing himself at
me.

But I moved faster than he did. My body was more agile than
his ever could be, and I had been trained in low gravity
situations before. Once he left the ground, every advantage
was mine.

I dropped my head down, sliding back to my knees as he flew
over me. He thrashed his hands out in surprise as I out
maneuvered him, but I was not about to let him sail over my
head. Shooting my arms up I grabbed his pants, my claws
sinking into the blood soaked fabric. I pulled him forward,
twisting as I did so. Then using all the strength in my arms
and legs, I threw him back over me, sending him tumbling
through the air to crash into the steel and glass wall of
the chamber that dominated the room.

He slammed against the lip of the door, the frame driving
into the side of his body, causing him to spin one more time
before coming to rest on the floor between the inner and
outer doors of the chamber.

With a snap of his head, his eyes cleared as he took in what
had just happened to him. A slow smile spread across his
face as he did so.

As I paused for a second to catch my breath, my ribs
screamed in pain. The move had aggravated the already
injured bones. I shifted my weight slightly, ready to take
him again.

Cain let out a bitter laugh, and grabbed the frame of the
door he was against to pull himself slowly up to his feet.
"I concede this round to you. But _only_ this round. I'll be
back for you," he said the last part with venom dripping
from the words.

The hum in the room rose another notch, growing loud enough
that I could feel it shaking the floor below me. My
adversary just smiled again, as the outer door slammed shut,
locking him away from me.

I stood there, stunned, as the inner door opened, and Cain
limped into the center of the chamber. The inside door had
closed behind him once he was over the threshold. Taking a
few steps to the side, I watched him though the window.

He looked back at me, smiling as he hit a short series of
buttons that were inside a small control box, mounted next
to the door. With this done, he turned back to face me,
flipping me off through the glass.

When the hum stepped up one more notch, the whole room
started to shake. Cain moved back, pressing his back against
the wall. I jumped away, turning to the controls where he
had been working. Scanning over the buttons, I found they
were all labeled in a language I had not encountered before.

I raised my head to once more look at my double. I was
greeted with a blast of mental static burning behind my eyes
as an ugly, glaring fold ripped itself open in the center of
the enclosure. The edges were ragged, like a torn cloth, and
twisted around themselves in wrong ways.

With one last look Cain dived through the strange fold,
before it snapped closed almost too soon. At the last moment
I attempted to catch onto it, to find out where it had
opened to. But there was nothing to hold onto; the fold just
wasn't there, even though it was.

The shock when it closed was enough to cause me to stumble,
lose my footing, and fall on my tail. I let out a yelp and
jumped back to my feet, but Cain was gone.

I tried the fold one last time, but there was nothing I knew
there. Just a strangeness I couldn't place, a burning
feeling in the back of my mind, an oddness in spacetime. But
no way to follow Cain.

A frustrated sigh escaped my lips, as I returned to the
floor, and pulled my knees up under my chin. I tried to
relax a bit, drawing in a few long breaths and thinking
about what to do now. Cain was gone, that was true, but just
for the moment. He would be back, maybe in a day, maybe in a
week, but he would be back.

It was time I started acting against him, instead of
reacting to him. I was going to have to go after him...
before he came back for me.

I was still in that position when Ravindar discovered me
half an hour later. Oria was right on his tail, and was by
my side as soon as she got into the room. Bending down next
to me, she placed a paw on my shoulder. The weight of her
fingers caused me to wince, with the adrenalin gone from my
system, I was feeling the pain in my shoulder and ribs
again.

"I lost him," I said before she could ask the question. "He
went that way," I waved to where the strange fold had been.

"It's ok," she said with a sigh. "Let's get you back to the
ship."

"Not yet," I told her, standing up, wincing as my ribs
ground against each other. I stepped to the control panel
holding my paw over the buttons, but not touching them.
"This thing made a fold," I explained, looking up at my wife
and my bodyguard.

A look of surprise washed over Oria's face, Ravindar just
twitched his ears.

"I'm not sure how, but it created a fold in that chamber," I
pointed to the room Cain had escaped from. "I think it
somehow pulled ripples together, or perhaps something
weaker, and forced them to open." I yanked my paws apart as
I spoke, then winced in pain, grabbing at my side.

Oria was right next to me, arm around my side and a paw over
mine. "You're hurt. We need to get you back to the ship, and
get you taken care of." It was phrased as an order, instead
of a request.

I nodded, "I agree, but we do have to figure out how this
thing works, and where the hell he ran to."

"Think you can?" she asked, gently pushing on my back,
leading me towards the exit.

"No, I answered frankly, "But I know someone who does."

* * *

"Absolutely not!" The squirrel morph Captain protested,
looking as angry as such a being could. "I am not going to
divert this ship from a three year research project for you
or anyone else."

I shook my head slowly, my shoulder numb from the painkiller
that had been applied there a few minutes before. Once back
on board the ship, Oria had proceeded to bandage me up,
wrapping my ribs as best she could, and applying a pain
killer for the ugly bruise on my shoulder.

Right now I was relaxed in a soft chair inside the galley of
_The Falcon_. I was wearing just a bra, panties, and an
annoyed look on my face, whole my feet soaked in warm water
to clean the blood out of my fur.

"I'm not requesting this Captain Banes, I'm issuing this as
an order. I'm transmitting you my authorization codes now."
Reaching forward, I dropped the ID card Oria had made into a
slot in the console, and hit a quick series of buttons.

The Captain turned his attention to his left, leaning
forward slightly. He looked puzzled for a few seconds, then
turned to the other side of the camera's view, working
quickly at what I assumed was a computer there. A look of
surprise was growing on his face.

After a few moments he turned back to me. "I have never
heard of the Consortium Security Council before," he stated
flatly, glaring at me through the screen.

"Check the code," I told him, sounding as annoyed as I
could, "It is valid."

"Already did," he snapped back, "It's perfectly valid, and
has a ranking higher than my Commander's. We'll be coming to
you. Would you please be good enough to transmit the
location?"

I nodded, hitting a few other buttons. "On sub-carrier
three," I told him, relaxing back in the chair, resting my
paws on my lap.

He nodded, turning away from the camera again. "This is well
out of any explored space," he said, turning back to me.
"What is out there important enough to pull us away from our
current mission?"

I smiled at him, looking as pleasant as I could. "I have a
machine here that can make a fold."

He blinked in slight shock. "You mean a machine that can
capture and open a ripple?" he asked.

My response was to laugh. "I'm not that given over to
hyperbole. No, when I say make a fold, I mean _make_ a fold.
I'm not sure how, but it ripped open the ugliest, nastiest
fold I've ever seen."

On the other end of the line, the Captain's face was
slightly slack-jawed. "If that's true..." he trailed off,
leaving the statement to finish itself.

"I see you understand," I told him, adjusting my position
slightly to lessen the pain in my side. "When can I expect
you to arrive?"

He paused, leaning forward, hitting at something below my
view. "If we leave our temporal observation equipment here,
and set it to continue monitoring the event, the ship and my
crew can be there in seventeen hours."

"I will have one of my ships waiting. I won't be here, but I
will be returning as soon as I can. I have other things to
attend to." I shifted again, unintentionally wincing as I
did so, but it had the proper effect.

"Understood, ma'am. We'll be on our way within the hour.
_Benthic Explorer_ out." There was a few seconds pause
before the link broke, leaving me staring at a blank screen.

"What was all that about?" Oria asked from the doorway into
the galley. She was looking relaxed, her hair tied up in a
pony-tail, and dressed pretty casually.

I turned the chair around so I could face her. "The _Benthic
Explorer_ is a Council Research Ship, one of the three that
are out right now. It's currently been out of port for
almost two years doing research on a temporal event."

She came down the three squat steps from the hallway to the
galley. "This doesn't involve time, though," she stated,
looking puzzled.

I smiled. "One of the researchers is Re'ka Benathia. I meet
him soon after I came to Prid. He's the one who told me
exactly what I was, and what I could do. He is an expert in
folds, and how they work against and with each other. He
belives that a way to make anyone a natural will be
developed in as short as five hundred years."

"Five Hundred Years? I wouldn't describe that as short," she
said, walking over to the single table, pulling out a chair,
but not sitting down.

I responded with a laugh, "Nor anyone else. The man is an
elf, so he's long-lived to start with. To add to that, he's
supposed to be immortal, or as close to it as one can get."

She gave me a sharp look, and shrugged the statement off,
just as I had when I was first told about the immortality
bit.

"He's the best person to have on this, which is why I called
them here. I need to know where Cain went to, the how is not
important right now."

"I've never seen you this spooked before," she observed.

I nodded, shifting again, and groaned as my ribs shifted
slightly. Twisting the chair, I hit the bridge intercom.
"Kalie, Milgrove. Tell the rest of the ships to keep in
orbit around the base. Have them wait till the _Benthic
Explorer_ arrives, and have someone call me then. For us,
set course back to Prid, best speed."

"Laying in the course right now," Milgrove's response came.
Kalie followed hir, "Passing your orders on now, Fox."

I nodded, letting go of the intercom, and turning back to
face Oria. "Not to disparage your medical work, but I really
need to see a doctor about my ribs."

She smiled, finally sitting down at the table. "I'll make an
appointment."

With another wince, I pulled myself to my feet. "That sounds
like a good idea, but for now I think I need to sleep. It's
been a long day, far too long. Care to join me?"

She stood back up, smiling. "Are you sure you want me to? I
could smack your ribs in my sleep."

I walked over to her, wrapped my arms over her shoulders,
and kissed one cheek, then the other. "I'll take that risk."

She returned the kiss, this time on my lips, as we both
headed to our little bedroom on the ship.

* * *

05/16/99:

A few hours, and a trip to the hospital later, I was back
home. My ribs had been patched up, but we'=re still a little
tender. Things were worse with my shoulder, even my fur
hurt, and I winced every time I moved my arm. The doctor had
said it was pretty badly bruised, almost to the bone, and he
just couldn't fix it. The shot they use for bruising was the
same chemical used in a regen tank, and I had an allergy to
it that was bad enough to kill me.

So, as soon as I got through the fold, I went right to the
kitchen, stripping out of my shirt on the way. Once there, I
removed one of the ice packs from the freezer and plopped it
right down on my shoulder, letting out a little whimper as
the cold sank into my skin.

Shutting my eyes, I let my whole body relax as I leaned back
in my chair. I was tired, not having slept but for the two
hours that was the trip back to Prid. Every muscle in my
body was telling me that I had overstressed them on Cain's
base; even my bones hurt all over. The only thing free of
some kind of pain was my tail.

"You look like hell," Sora commented. Sliding open one eye,
I looked at her as she stood in the doorway of the kitchen's
far wall. She had her arms crossed, her wings wrapped around
her body, and a smug look on her muzzle.

"Astute observation," I muttered, closing my eye again.

She chuckled softly as the sound of a chair being pulled
from the table filled my ears. "Hard to miss. Oriana gave me
a once over of what was going on when I came back. I find it
hard to belive that Cain would try something like this on
you."

I shook my head slightly. "What I can't belive is that I
fell for his trap... and it was a trap, don't doubt that.
Oria and I both fell for it, hook, line, and sinker." I let
out a low sigh. "The only saving grace was that he didn't
know about my fem-form. Otherwise, this would have ended a
lot worse."

"I see," she said, sliding her chair against the floor. "Did
you kill him, or manage to capture him at least?"

"No," Oria's voice said, entering the fray. "He used some
kind of device to create a fold, and escaped through it.
There's a team on their way to his base as we speak, to try
to find out where he went, and how he did it."

"I see," she answered with just a hint of worry in her
voice.

I opened my eyes again, sitting a bit straighter in my
chair. "I'm just mad at myself for not seeing it sooner, or
even suspecting it for a moment. In fact the only person who
even thought of the possibility was Ravindar."

"Don't berate yourself," Sora said, fanning her wings out
slightly as she finally sat down in the chair. "You couldn't
have known, and you should not have expected to."

I snorted through my nose. "I should have questioned it; the
whole plan as we saw it was so damn contrived. The idea of a
trap should have been the first thought to cross my mind,
not the last."

With a slow shake of my head, I stood back up, wincing again
as I swung my arm in the process. "I've had the whole trip
back to think about this. I seem to be blinded by the fact
that he's me. I think it's causing me to over look the
obvious."

Oria walked over to me, placing her paw on my good shoulder.
"Under the circumstances you did as well as anyone could
have. Now that you know you're doing this, you can handle
him better the next time you face off."

"Next time we face off," I said, turning my head to look her
in the eyes, "I plan to be going after him. We can't allow
him to run free over the multi-verse. The damage he could
do..." I left the statement there, unfinished. It didn't
seem worth continuing.

Which reminded me. "Where's Ravindar gotten to," I asked,
not finding him at his usual place in the room. "I need to
talk to him."

"The Guild left a message for him while you were gone," Sora
offered. "He took it as soon as you got back, then left
through the fold.

I frowned slightly, it was an inconvenience for the moment,
but would have to be accepted for now. "I don't suppose you
know what the message said?" I asked, leaning forward
slightly.

She shook her head, "I couldn't read the language."

A smile played over my face and ears. "It's all right, must
have been something important if he left right away." I
paused for a second, brushing some of my hair out of my
eyes. "I need to make a call anyway."

"Who are you calling?" Oria asked as I turned away from the
table and started walking towards my office.

"Ken," I answered her. "He made a comment a few months ago
that I want to follow up on."

"About what?" she asked, following me into the office. I
smiled at her over my shoulder before sitting down at my
desk.

"It involves the pendant," I explained as I dialed his
number.

She nodded, settling down in a chair next to me. She rested
one paw on my leg, the other was on my good shoulder,
squeezing me gently.

I place my paw over the one on my leg, and squeezed back, my
tail brushing up against hers as the phone started to ring.
It only lasted for a moment though, as the screen snapped on
to show a profile of Ken's face, his jaw gapping open in
surprise at something that was in front of him.

"Ken?" I asked, leaning forward slightly.

He seemed to jump, twisting his head around to look at the
screen. Trying to cover up the look of shock, he quickly
started talking. "Fox, I was just about to call you! Ah...
to tell you that you could come get the pendant." He was
speaking faster than he usually did.

I chuckled gently. "That's what I wanted to talk to you
about. A few months ago you mentioned something about my
being able to shift back to human earlier than normal."

He nodded his head quickly, "Yes, yes, I remember that," he
said, turning away from the phone, and fiddling with
something in front of him. "A short gap between changes
might allow a faster relax time for the spell." He froze for
a second, then snapped his head back to the screen. "Are you
asking if you can do it?"

"Yes," I answered.

With a sharp nod of his head, he was out of his chair, and
out of frame. There was the sound of rustling and falling
paper in the background before he dropped back into the
camera's view. He had a bundle of papers held in his fore
claw. "Let's see," he muttered to himself, paging through
them like one might with a book. After a quick scan of each
page he muttered something to himself in his own language.

After a few seconds had passed, he yanked out a sheet of
paper, letting the others drop to the floor. "Here it is,"
he said, holding it close to his face. I could see his eyes
scanning over the writing. "Yes, it can work," he said as he
continued to read. "I need to make one small change to the
pendant. It shouldn't take more than an hour."

"And if it doesn't work?" I prompted. I didn't want the
spells on the pendant to break, leaving me stuck in this
form.

"It will be a short exposure," he answered, dropping the
paper onto the table in front of him. "The spells will not
be affected. I'll be there to insure that. If you'll give me
the opportunity to add the spell to the pendant, I can be
there with it in..." he paused, snapping his head around to
look at something on the wall that was out of camera range.
"An hour and fifteen minutes."

"Sure," I answered, starting a sentence, but before I could
get a second word out he had hung up the phone.

"I've never actually seen him work before," Oria observed,
"At last not under normal circumstances. Is that the way he
usually is?"

I smiled, "Oh yes, that's exactly how he is!" I crossed my
arms, letting out a low groan from the pain again. "Though I
wonder what he was doing before I called."

"You mean what had him so surprised?" she asked.

I nodded.

"I don't know, but if it's important, he'll tell us as soon
as he can."

I took in a long breath, nodding my head. "Of course he
will."

   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.