The Battlestar Glory Ch. 05

(This is not a sexy story. It is a space war thriller.)

Chapter 5: The War Admiral And His Dog

"Two full fleets, destroyed!" Queen Zsst raged. "How can one small human fleet without reinforcements or resupply cause so much damage?"

"It is because of that pest, War Admiral Norman North," said Admiral Stay. Stay was one of Zsst's most brilliant admirals. She spoke simply and to the point.

Norman North. Queen Zsst knew the name well. She used her higher brain functions to calm herself, and considered for a moment. North's fleet was already well outside their space; further resources would be a waste of effort. It was time to cut their losses.

Another one of her aides, Admiral Zsss, suggested as much, "We have wasted enough time and effort on this pitiful enemy," said Zsss. "Let us turn to-"

"No," said a voice.

The hooded figure of Baracki entered the room. "You must continue to pursue them."

"Why?" said Zsss. "They are far from our space now, and, according to reports, heading even farther out. It would take them months simply to return to regions under our control. We waste vital resources sending fleets in piecemeal to attack them. If they ever returned, we could concentrate all our forces for one mass assault. Right now we have sent several smaller fleets to search them out. As they head farther and farther from us, they could be anywhere in a larger and larger region of space and we have to send more and more fleets after them. We currently have two fleets seeking them out; we'd have to send another two to have any reasonable chance of finding them within a year. And while our fleets represent only a fraction of our strength, they only attack with their full force."

"They must be destroyed," Baracki hissed.

"Why?" Zsss persisted. "They are no threat to us! You have helped us, Baracki, and we are grateful for your help. But we have no further need of it!"

Baracki looked at Zsss, and Zsss started to shake. Then there was a cracking sound, and another, and another. One by one Zsss's bones were being broken. Crack, crack, crack! Zsss's body mass started to decrease as it fell into a heap onto the ground. Crack, crack, crack! Zsst's aides were sickened as they watched but were powerless, or too afraid, to interfere. Finally, when the body was no more than a bag of mush on the ground, Baracki turned to the others.

"Is there anyone else who rejects my help?"

No one spoke.

"Good," said Baracki, flicking a pink forked tongue. He turned to Queen Zsst. "The human fleet must be destroyed because they are a threat. Not today, or tomorrow, or next week or next year, but someday they may return and be a threat. Potential threats must be eliminated."

"We already have two fleets looking for them," said Queen Zsst. "We have increased ship production to maximum, but do not yet have the resources to send multiple large fleets while maintaining an adequate force over our occupied zones."

"So you're saying that there's nothing more you can do now?" said Baracki, giving Zsst a dangerous look.

"Wait!" said Admiral Stay, stepping forward. "While we build up our fleet, there may be other options."

"Good," said Baracki. He turned to Stay, with a dangerous look in his eyes. "Impress me with your creativity."

********

From the log of War Admiral Norman North, one year after Vitalics:

Things have been very quiet of late. It's been six months since our encounter with the last Insect fleet. I am newly confident that we are far enough away from their region of space to avoid further attack. And yet there may be other hostile alien forces out there we'll have to face, so we must stay in a constant state of battle readiness.

We're already running low on supplies. We're almost out of the anti-aging serum, which means that, in 20 or 30 years, when the vaccines wear out, we will all start aging again. I've talked with the medical staff about synthesizing a serum onboard, but we simply don't have the technical equipment or the raw materials to do so.

More immediate is our need for fuel, food, and parts. We have successfully converted our engines to run on hydrogen, which we skim from compatible stars and gas giants we come across. The fuel burns more quickly, and causes more breakdowns in our engines, but at least we are confident of having all the energy we need for the time being.

Food is a bigger problem. The ships' farms are barely producing enough to sustain our needs. I've authorized turning empty cargo sections of the Glory into farms, using soil we scooped off of hospitable planets, and we're growing more food, but we still face shortages.

We're worse off when it comes to spare parts. As parts wear out, we find that we have nothing to replace them with. Already several fighters have been cannibalized to provide parts for others. Our least replaceable parts are munitions--once we run out of missiles, there's no way to manufacture more of those. Thank goodness we haven't had to go into battle for several months.

And then there's morale. Morale sharply improved during our last battle with the Insects, but has gradually waned since. I've tried to authorize limited shore leave on every uninhabited world we've encountered, but that's only been two planets in the space of six months. And the shore leave is on empty worlds, offering little more than walks among vegetation.

Captain Took has taken it upon himself to improve morale by launching a fleet-wide vid cast. Some of his features have been irreverent and "borderline subversive", in the words of Captain Dulin, although I secretly enjoyed a parody he did of Colonel Dey--Took got his clipped manner of speaking just right. Captain Dulin has asked me for permission to shut down Captain Took's broadcast on the grounds that satire isn't "military", but, quite frankly, we need more efforts like Took's, not less.

The only other news to report is that we're approaching a nebula. Nebulas can contain anything, including a hidden attack force, so I've ordered the Blue Luna to go ahead and check it out first, just to be safe.

********

Once upon a time, the War Admiral had had a dog. It was a small dog, a mutant type 34 Pomeranian named Ripper. This was centuries ago, during one of his breaks from the Navy. The War Admiral had been very attached to his dog, and kept a hologram of it at his desk. Whenever he was tense, or tired, he would activate the hologram, and look at his cute little dog.

********

"-I tell you, Obe, I'm convinced it's a conspiracy," said Took, piloting his fighter.

"Uh huh," said Obe, flying a few lengths behind him. They were entering the edge of the nebula, and the fogginess of it prevented them from seeing more than a few feet around them.

"A conspiracy to murder me," said Took, for emphasis.

"I mean, why else do they always send me out on these scouting missions?" Took asked. "They always send the Blue Luna out in front, and always send me out in front of the Blue Luna."

"Don't forget me," said Obe. "And what about the Ken Pilot?" He glanced behind him, making sure the Ken Pilot's ship was still there.

"No, no one cares about you, you're incidental," said Took dismissively. "I'm convinced it's me they want to kill me."

"Who?"

"Captain Dulin. Commander Wren. Probably Colonel Dey too. He's been after me ever since I broadcast that imitation I did of him."

"Who can blame him?"

"I'm the only free press in the fleet, and they want to silence me," said Took.

"Have you ever thought there are ways of doing that short of killing you?"

"Sure, but they don't want it to LOOK like they're silencing me," said Took. "If they shut me down, it looks bad for them. But if I die in combat, or during a freak accident, it's not traceable to them... get my meaning?"

"Sure do," said Obe. "Hey, are your instruments reading what I'm reading?"

"Not very much," said Took. "My sensors can't penetrate very far in-"

"No, I mean the chemical analysis."

Took looked at the chem analysis. "Oxygen. Nitrogen. Helium--this stuff is breathable. What are the odds of that?"

"I'm picking up gravity too. Almost one quarter standard G."

"Gravity? This far out?"

"Look!"

Suddenly, through the clouds, they spotted what looked like a land mass. It looked almost like solidified clouds.

"You think we can breathe and walk on that thing?"

"In a nebula?"

"There's only one way to find out," said Took.

"Took, no, our instruments may be wrong!"

"I'll take shallow breaths." Took glanced at the air pressure, making sure it was roughly equivalent to the pressure inside his cockpit. He decelerated to a slow speed, and then halted his fighter entirely. Then he took a deep breath, and pressed the button to open his cockpit.

Exposing himself to outer space.

"Took! Took!"

Took let out a bit of the air he had been holding in, and took a small breath.

"Took!"

Took took another small breath. It smelled a bit salty, like fresh sea air. But it smelled fine.

"I'm still here," said Took.

"That was a crazy risk!"

"Not at all," said Took. "Now I can say I'm the first person to breath in outer space without a suit. Why don't we go and check out that land mass?"

"No," said Obe. "Enough with the wild risks. We don't even know if that really is a land mass. Let's get out of here and call a research team to do it properly."

"Oh... all right," said Took. He angled his ship back in line with Obe's and the Ken Pilot's. "Ready."

"Took? Aren't you forgetting something?" Obe asked.

"Oh. Oh, right," said Took, closing his cockpit. "You know, it's kind of nice flying with the wind on your face."

******

When they cleared the nebula, they made their report to Captain Harkness of the Blue Luna. When they suggested he send in a scientific team, he grunted. "Let's check with command."

Much to Took's disappointment, it turned out that they were ordered to wait for the Glory and the rest of the fleet to catch up. The War Admiral decided he wanted some of his best scientists on the Glory to check it out, and so they would have to wait.

"I knew I should have landed there when I had the chance," said Took. "Now I won't be able to be the first to report this breaking story!"

"Iday, I didn't bring the camera anyway," said Obe.

"Then it's your negligence," said Took. "You should always bring it with you."

"In my cockpit?"

"A journalist must always be prepared," said Took.

*******

The following day the Glory caught up with them. Captain Harkness ordered additional patrols of the nebula, just to make sure there was nothing in there waiting for them. The nebula was so large they could only explore a small part of it; but they did discover several more of what looked like land masses, and Took only narrowly avoided crashing into one of them that was obscured by nebula fog.

******

When the technical team from the Glory arrived they found that the land masses were solid enough for them to land on, and they landed on one of them, accompanied by a squad of marines, as well as Took and Obe.

The first thing that Took noticed was how crunchy the ground was, the way their feet seemed to sink a few inches into the ground, like it was snow. They were wearing protective suits, just to be on the safe side, but they soon opened up their faceplates.

It looked like an exotic winterland, with snow sculptures formed in exotic shapes around them. But when Took tried to touch one of them, his hand almost went through it. "Hey, what is this?"

One of the scientists checked his scanners. "The substances on this planetoid exist in various mixtures of solid, gas, and liquid form. We're just lucky we were able to land our ships on a part that was more or less solid."

"Hm," said Took, picking up part of the "snow", or whatever it was, bunching it into a ball, and throwing it at Obe. The ball dissipated before it reached him, and Obe, looking in another direction, didn't even notice he had been attacked.

"Well, that was no fun," Took grumbled.

The scientists seemed to be having more fun as they examined the semi-gaseous material the small planetoid was constructed of.

"Great," said Took. "They're playing with the snow and we're standing around doing nothing."

"You volunteered us for this duty, remember?" said Obe. "Something about a photo essay?"

"You're right," said Took. "Even this hunk of snow qualifies as news on a slow day. Got your camera, Obe?" Obe held up the camera.

"Good. Get a view of the ridge line and the sky behind me. Ready? Let's roll."

Obe nodded, and Took immediately went into showman mode. "This is Command Captain Idaho J. Took on the front lines of exploration, here on the snow planetoid."

A swirling mist seemed to gather in the distance behind Took. Obe saw it through his lens. "Uh, Obe."

"Shh! We're taping this," said Took. Clearing his throat, he continued, "Around me we have the wondrous semi-gaseous planetoid that brave scouts from the Blue Luna, namely myself and Lieutenant Obe-" At this point the swirling gas cloud approached very quickly, as if it were deliberately moving towards them.

"Took!"

"What?" said Took, dropping his persona. "You know if you keep interrupting, you're the one who's going to have to edit out-"

"Behind you!" Obe pointed.

The swirling cloud was almost on the scientists, who suddenly just noticed it themselves. The cloud moved quickly over several of the scientists, and they started screaming.

Took and Obe drew their weapons and started towards the scientists at a run. "Quick! Back to the ship!"

Some of the scientists started running for the transport, while others stopped to help their screaming companions, but they started screaming too, clutching their own bodies, even through their protective suits. The marine detail started firing into the cloud, but didn't seem to have any noticeable effect--except that the cloud moved over to them, leaving the scientists, for the moment.

"Quick!" said Took, dragging one of the injured scientists, as Obe directed the other scientists to help the rest of the wounded back to the transport. Took ignored the screams behind him as he pulled the wounded scientist as rapidly as possible. They had just reached the transport when the screams abruptly stopped. Still not looking back, Took entered the transport, whose doors were already open.

"Hurry, hurry!" said Took, waving the others in. The swirling cloud had finished doing whatever it was doing, and was heading towards them quickly.

"Hurry!" cried Took, watching the cloud close in on Obe, who was half carrying the last straggler.

In retrospect, it was an interesting math problem. Can Obe, moving at a fraction of the speed of a gas cloud, cover a fraction of the distance to the transport before the much faster gas cloud, which had a longer distance to go, could?

Some of the scientists were screaming for him to close the door, close the door, and Took knew that if the gas cloud got in there that they would all be dead. But he also knew that if he closed the door before Obe got there, that Obe would be dead.

Took waited until the last possible moment, and that's just when Obe and his wounded companion staggered into the transport, with the gas cloud almost at their backs. He slammed the door control shut, and the outer airlock door quickly slid close almost in the face of the gas cloud.

They heard a thump from the other side of the door, and then there was silence. Took eyed the door cautiously. If that thing got inside....

Took went forward and assessed the wounded. Many of the scientists had burn marks over parts of their bodies, even parts that were protected by the suits. Took soon found out why, when he saw the corrosion on their spacesuits. The gas had literally cut through their suits to strike at them. If that could cut through the hull....

"We've got to get out of here," said one of the scientists, realizing the danger.

"What about the marines?" Obe said.

Took looked out the cockpit windows. "It looks like they didn't make it," he said, noticing their bodies, as well as one of the scientists.

"Lifesigns?" said Obe.

Took frowned, checked the sensor displays. "I can't tell, even at this close distance. There's some kind of interference."

"Do you think any of them could still be alive?" Obe asked.

"There's no way to be sure," said Took. "Unless we go out and look."

"No!" said the scientist who had spoken before.

"We can't leave without checking," said Took. "Besides, what about our Wildcat fighters?"

"What about them?" said the scientist.

"There are two perfectly good fighters out there."

"Leave them!"

"Wildcat 150-B's don't grow on trees," said Took patiently. "And we're a bit far from our resupply depot. Obe, where is this cloud now?"

"I don't see it on any of the visual scanners," said Obe.

"Anywhere?" said Took anxiously, checking the scanners himself. Nothing. It was either in hiding, or gone.

"We should contact the fleet and get further instructions," said Obe.

"A swell idea, but we'd have to take off out of the nebula to reach them," said Took. "And we might not even find this particular planetoid again. No, the senior officer in charge has to make a decision."

"And that would be...." Even now, Obe hadn't entirely lost his sense of humor.

"We have to consider what this thing is. If the gas cloud is an intelligent form of life, it may be waiting for us in ambush," said Took.

"A gas cloud is a form of life?"

"If, on the other hand, it is alive but non-sentient, it may act purely on instinctive. It may have simply wandered off," said Took. "And if it's a natural phenomenon, there's no reason to think it's hanging around."

"Cut the analysis. I say one of us goes out there and sees if any of the marines are still alive," said Obe.

"I always love the scientific method," sighed Took. "All right, I agree. You stay here."

"Hey? What? Why me?"

"Well, they're going to need someone to pilot this thing if I don't return," said Took. "Under no circumstances are you to open the airlock doors if something appears."

"Took... that's so... brave."

"Yeah," said Took, cocking his head. "Yeah, I guess it is."

******

Took cautiously peered out the airlock door as it cycled open. His blaster would be useless; his only weapon was speed. He tried to tell himself that they had been on the planetoid over an hour before the gas cloud had attacked them; perhaps it was long gone by now.

He walked cautiously towards the bodies of the marines, constantly looking around him, ready to run at the first sign of trouble. Every snow drift looked suspicious, a possible hiding place for the deadly gas cloud....

Took moved closer to the marines. None of them were moving. They all looked very dead. Was he risking his life for nothing?

And then one of them moaned, and moved slightly, and Took forgot about everything and rushed over to the body. One of them, at least, was alive.

"Got one, alive," said Took into his comm. "Anything on the horizon?"

"Nothing I can see," said Obe. "But hurry, that thing can move quickly."

Took checked the bodies quickly, constantly looking over his shoulder. It turned out that several of the marines were still alive. "Four of them!" he yelled. "I'm going to need some help here."

To their credit, three scientists rushed out of the ship to his location. They each quickly grabbed a body and slowly pulled them towards the ship. "We could do this a lot quicker if we had more help," said Took.

Four more scientists came out, looking very fearful, and helped carry the bodies quickly to the ship. Took didn't push their luck by insisting that they go back for the deceased. When they got back to the transport, Took said, "Careful! They're badly burned. Ready to make a dash for our ships, buddy?"

Obe opened his mouth, then closed it, then nodded.

*******

They made a mad scramble for their ships. The yards separating them from the transport seemed like miles, even though their ships were closer to the transport than the spot where the marines had fallen. But both knew that this would be the last opportunity the gas cloud would have to strike at them. Took scrambled to his ship, climbing up in one fluid motion, slid into the cockpit, and slammed the closure button.

Nothing seemed to happen for an eternity. Then, his cockpit slid closed. A few seconds later, so did Obe's.

Whether the cloud had been intelligent or a freak of nature, it didn't strike, and Took gave a sigh of relief as his did his preflight.

One of the scientists fired up the engines on the transport and, to their great relief, they headed home.

*******

"We have emergency wounded coming back on the transport," said Lieutenant Shishman.

"Wounded? How?" said the War Admiral.

"There are seven dead, four badly wounded," said Shishman, listening to the comm report.

"Seven dead! What? Who are you communicating with, is that Took? Put me through to him directly," said the War Admiral. For a moment Shishman paused, and the War Admiral realized he hadn't stopped to ask whether Took was one of the dead or wounded. But in seconds Took's voice came over the comm system.

"-attacked by some kind of gas cloud. It came up all of a sudden-"

"Weren't you wearing your protective suits?" the War Admiral asked.

"Yeah, though our faceplates were open," said Took. "But it cut right through the suits. We made it back to the transport, and it either couldn't enter there, or didn't try."

"The transport," said the War Admiral, studying the sensor blips. "But you're reporting from your Wildcat."

"Yeah, I went out to get it when I checked for the wounded," said Took.

"You went out there, totally defenseless?" said the War Admiral, looking surprised. "Foolish, but commendable."

"Yeah, I'm usually an odd mixture of both," said Took. "We managed to save four marines, but I'm not sure if they'll all make it. Have medical standing by, bay two."

North nodded to Shishman to call medical. "I'll want a full report when you return."

Major Fortran requested permission to leave his post and report to the landing bay. The War Admiral nodded.

********

The most seriously wounded were the first off the transport, followed by the mixture of moderately and unwounded scientists, and finally Took and Obe, who arrived from their recently landed 150-B's.

"What happened?" said Major Fortran, watching his men being carried off.

"A killer gas cloud. We couldn't stop it; blasters didn't even phase it," said Took. "But your marines distracted the cloud long enough for the others to get away. They gave their lives to save ours."

Fortran nodded, and followed his men down to the medical bay.

"You're a hero too, Iday," said Obe, putting an arm around him.

"Don't remind me," said Took, slowly walking away from the landing bay.

*****

It was only much later that the unnoticed occupants of the transport disembarked; two small swirling gas clouds, first one, then another. They seemed to be chasing each other, or zigging back and forth aggressively against each other; but when they emerged, each quickly went in separate directions, one into the ventilation system on the port side of the bay, the other into the starboard one.

******

A gas cloud flittered through the ventilation system, moving this way and that, seemingly at random. In times of battle, the ventilation system would be sealed off, to limit the damaged cause by hull breaches; but right now the ship was on normal duty status, and the vents were open. The gas cloud, after a number of fits and starts, finally arrived in the quarters of a high ranking officer. The quarters were empty, but contained a desk, a bed, several chairs, and a small table. The gas cloud flittered around, first at the bed, then at the table, causing a small electronic pad to swish to the ground; and then the cloud moved to the desk, and then solidified enough to press different parts of the desk. Purely by accident, the cloud pressed a button on the holocontrol panel, and suddenly, a holoimage of a small mutant Pomeranian sprang to life.

The gas cloud sprung back, as if sensing that someone else had suddenly appeared in the room. But all the mutant Pom did was stick out its tongue, and give the dog equivalent of a smile. The gas cloud observed this for a while, and then started to change shape; and before long it started to solidify, with something like fluffy fur forming around its edges.

The gas cloud noticed the Pom's sharp ears, and then something resembling ears appeared in the front of the gas cloud, which was more and more resembling a floating version of a mutated Pom every minute.

And then the image of the War Admiral entered the range of the holorecorder, reaching down to pet the Pom, muttering, "Good doggie, good doggie," over and over. The Pom made a small crying sound.

And after a moment of watching, the gas cloud did too.

*******

"-a senseless loss of life," said the War Admiral, speaking into his personal log in his office. "Two of the wounded marines died shortly thereafter in sickbay, but Doctor Farb informs me the rest should survive. The burns were caused by cells being exploded from within the body. It's still not clear if the attack was made by an intelligent lifeform, or if it was simply the nebula's equivalent of a storm. But the way the gas cloud focused on the marines after they fired their blasters, convinces me that it was an intelligent creature, and I have decided to change course to avoid the nebula. What a senseless loss of life! And yet not senseless, for we need the courage to continue to investigate and take risks to find the location of the Monumentals. These marines gave their lives today for our cause as surely as any other member of the crew did in our battles against the Insects."

There was a buzz on his comm, and the War Admiral stopped speaking. "Come."

Commander Wren entered his quarters. "War Admiral, shouldn't you be off duty by now?"

"I'm just clearing up a few things," said the War Admiral.

"You've been up 18 hours; you should get some sleep, sir," she said.

North looked amused. "Is that an order, Half Commander?"

"A suggestion, sir," said Wren. She paused, looking down at the deck plating for a moment, then back at him. "Don't tear yourself up about the incident in the nebula, sir. This is the price of exploring the unknown."

"I'm used to paying this kind of price," said North bluntly, thinking it a bit ironic that her words had echoed what he had just written into his log. "But it just seemed so... senseless. Why did the cloud attack? What did it want? We don't even know the answers."

Wren nodded, but said nothing. She looked at him meaningfully.

"Oh very well, Commander," said North. "I'll be in my quarters if I'm needed."

*****

North yawned as he entered the code to open the door to his quarters. The marine on guard nodded as he approached. This had also been Wren's idea, but when had the War Admiral ever needed a guard outside his quarters before?

The War Admiral didn't spend much time pondering this as he entered his quarters. He sniffed the air. It smelled kind of salty, like sea air. How could that be? It must be something from circulated from one of the other quarters through the ventilation system. Or could it be a symptom of a bigger problem? It was probably nothing, but better to check it out. He pressed a button.

"Bridge, this is North," said the War Admiral.

"Yes War Admiral," came Wren's voice. "What can we do for you?"

"Probably nothing," said the War Admiral. "I'd just like you to run a routine atmospheric and life support check on deck twelve."

"Certainly. Any reason?"

"I'm smelling an odd sort of salty smell in my quarters," said the War Admiral. Behind him, a gas cloud started swirling.

"A salty smell?"

"It's probably nothing," said the War Admiral. "But just check the internal atmospheric sensors and let me know what you find. I'm in my quarters."

Behind him, the shape was taking form...

"Of course, sir," said Wren. "I'll have a report for you in a few minutes."

"North out," said North, flicking the switch and swiveling slightly in his chair.

The cloud behind him gasified and dispersed into the vent, loitering just inside the intake.

The War Admiral turned around to go to bed. The smell was stronger now. Just where had it been coming from? Realizing for now that he'd have to leave this minor mystery unsolved, he changed into his sleeping wardrobe and went to bed.

******

Wren had Lieutenant Kao run the atmospheric check while she sat in the command chair. Her shift and Captain Dulin's didn't overlap for a few hours yet, so she was technically in command. What kind of salty odor could the War Admiral be smelling? She pulled up a schematic on her screen to locate all the rooms surrounding the War Admiral's quarters. That entire section was residential. Could someone be burning a candle, or eating something-

"Alert, alert!" came a voice over the comm.

Wren immediately looked up. "Report," she said.

"Security, deck 22. We found technician Robert Foley badly burned down here."

"Burned?" said Wren. Deck 22 wasn't too far from engineering. "By what? A console exploding?"

"No, we found him in a corridor," said the voice of the crewman. "Burns over his hands, face, and neck. He's unconscious, we're taking him to sickbay."

Burns? The mission team which was attacked in the Nebula suffered burns. "I'll meet you in sickbay," said Wren. She pointed at Lieutenant Shishman. "Have Captain Took meet me there."

*****

Half Commander Wren looked at the burned man lying in the sickbay bed, who was lying there unconscious.

"He's got some second and third degree burns, but he'll make it," said Doctor Farb, working rapidly.

Wren looked at his burns with distaste. What had caused them? At that moment Took entered the sickbay.

"Whoa," said Took, seeing the burned crewman.

"Are those the same kind of burns that your team suffered?" Wren asked.

Took took a look, and grimaced. "Yep. But this guy wasn't on our team. Where did he-"

"Deck 22," said Wren.

"Deck 22?" said Took, looking very alarmed.

"You brought this thing back with you," said Wren.

"No," said Took. "We closed the hatch before it got to the transport. I'm sure of it."

"Then maybe it could get through the hatch," said Wren. "Or..." She thought a moment. "Think back, before the attack. Were the doors of the transport open, or closed?"

Took considered. "I'm.... I'm not sure."

"Think!"

Took did think, and then he remembered. "I remember when we ran for the transport, the doors were open. One of the scientists must have left it open, and that let the salty air in-"

"What did you say?" Suddenly, her conversation with the War Admiral returned to her.

"The salty air," said Took. "The air had this weird kind of saltiness to it. You know, like sea air-"

"Oh no," said Wren. She punched her wrist com. "War Admiral! War Admiral!"

She waited a moment. There was no response. She switched frequencies.

"Security," came Major Fortran's voice.

"Intruder alert! Activate a full shipwide security alert! Get a security squad to the War Admiral's quarters, on the double! He's in grave danger!"

Why didn't he answer? Only one possibility came to Wren's mind, and she started trembling as she ran down the halls, with Took in hot pursuit.

*******

The War Admiral put out the light and went to bed. He lay on his back in the dark for a few minutes before he turned on his side and went to sleep, as was his custom. By now he was used to the salty smell and didn't really notice it.

But then something happened that he did notice. He felt an air current brush his face, and then he heard a faint whine, as if from an animal.

The War Admiral lay perfectly still. He must have been imagining things. There was no way that there could be an animal in the room with him. The whine, if he had really heard a whine, was the distorted, distant sound of something electrical, or mechanical.

And then he heard a puffing sound, like a small dog makes--like HIS small dog, Ripper, used to make. But Ripper was long since gone. Could the holorecording on his desk have somehow become activated? The War Admiral looked in the dark at his desk, but couldn't see anything. The only light in the room was from the very dim emergency lighting in the floor, and while he could see the clear outlines of his desk, it was obvious that nothing was activated there.

And then the War Admiral felt something... almost furry, but not quite, brush his hand, and he knew he wasn't alone. The War Admiral swiftly sat up and pressed the light controls by his bed.

And found himself facing a swirling gas cloud.

"War Admiral! War Admiral!" he heard from the comm at his desk. His own wrist comm was also on the desk, but unfortunately the gas cloud was between him and his desk. And the exit.

The War Admiral took in the situation immediately. A piece of the gas cloud that had attacked the mission team had gotten aboard the Glory and was here, with him, in his quarters.

It hovered before him, spinning and swirling. North knew it could burn him before he reached the door. Maybe if he stood perfectly still it wouldn't attack. Maybe he could buy time until Wren got there with a security detachment. If only there were some way to signal the guard outside his door!

The gas cloud moved closer to him, and then higher, right up to his face. What if it burned his eyes? North found himself gulping, but willed himself not to move. The cloud was now mere inches from his face.

Then, suddenly, it started to change. The outer edges of the gas cloud started to thicken, to solidify, almost. It formed a soft, puffy looking material and the entire cloud changed into an almost cylindrical shape. The end started to form sharp points that became fox-like ears. And then, to North's surprise, a black eyes, nose, and mouth formed.

The gas cloud thing opened its mouth and a vaguely pink tongue came out. The thing started to appear to breathe heavily and puff, like a real dog.

What was going on here? Not only did it look like a dog, but not just any dog--it looked like Ripper!

The gas cloud thing watched him for a moment and whined slightly, as if puzzled by the lack of response. Then it backed off, retreating to North's desk. North still didn't move.

The gas cloud thing hovered over his desk, and then a fake paw reached out and flicked a button.

The holographic image of Ripper appeared on the screen.

"Ruff! Ruff!" said Ripper.

"Ruff! Ruff!" said the gas cloud thing.

North slowly got out of bed and, step by step, moved slowly to the gas cloud thing that now looked like a dog. It was hovering in mid air, watching him.

*****

Wren arrived at the same time as Major Fortran's squad. The guard outside looked bewildered. "What's wrong?"

"The War Admiral is in danger," said Wren, gasping for breath. "Open the door!"

"Good doggie," said the holoimage of North, petting the holoimage of the dog on the head.

North looked at the gas cloud thing, which was imitating the same extended tongue as the holoimage of Ripper.

"Good doggie," said North, reaching out as if to touch the gas cloud. His hand hesitated before he touched the edge of it; after all, all the reports indicated that it burned flesh on contact. But what if contact alone wasn't enough to burn? What if the creature could control its effect? Tentatively, North reached out and touched the very outermost edges of the thing.

It felt real, almost like fur, except, with a little resistance, his hand could pass through it. But North felt not the slightest pain or discomfort.

The thing continued to smile as North gently pet it, stroking its "fur". "Good doggie," North continued.

Suddenly, the door slid open and marines rushed in.

The thing reared, growled, bearing teeth North hadn't seen before, and slid into the vent and was gone.

"War Admiral, you're-" Wren blinked. "Did I see what I just thought I saw?"

"I can't even confirm what I saw, Commander," said North.

"As you probably know by now, a gas cloud stowed away aboard the transport and is on the ship," said Wren. "It wounded a crewman on Deck 22. This creature seems to give off a salty smell. When you told me about what you smelled, I rushed over." She paused. "But it didn't look like it was going to attack you. In fact," she said, looking at the War admiral oddly, "it looked very much like a dog." Wren turned to Took.

"No, we weren't attacked by dog shapes, just gas clouds," said Took. He added, "If we had been attacked by dogs, I would've remembered it."

"Why didn't it attack the War Admiral?" Wren asked. "So far, it's been uniformly hostile."

"I don't know," said North. "But if it wanted me dead, I'd be dead."

"Regardless, we can't take any other chances," said Wren. "I'm sealing off the ventilation system while we hunt it down."

"How long can we shut down the ventilation across the entire ship without suffocating?" the War Admiral asked.

"Three hours," said Wren.

"And what do we do with this creature once we find it?" said Took. "It barely even notices blasters."

"A good point," said the War Admiral. "When you find it, call me."

"Oh no," said Wren.

"For whatever reason, it doesn't seem to want to attack me," said the War Admiral. "We should find out why. Maybe it's trying to communicate."

"Like the way it was trying to communicate with the men it killed?" said Wren skeptically.

"I have an idea," said Took suddenly. "Remember the particle intake units our hazardous environmental units use? We could use those as a vacuum to suck that thing up."

"Good idea," said Wren. She turned to Fortran. "Find out how many of those we have, and issue them to search teams."

"Fine," said the War Admiral. "But I'm joining the search too."

******

It turned out there were only four particle intake units on the ship, and they were each issued to a search party. But on a ship the size of the Glory, four search teams could search for days before covering the entire ship.

This the War Admiral was very much aware of. After two and a half hours he ordered the ventilation units turned back on, over Wren's protests. But, curiously, once he ordered the vents reopened, he stopped searching himself, and just returned to his quarters.

Twenty minutes later, he had another unauthorized visitor.

******

Wren monitored the pace of the search. So far, nothing. But the gas cloud could travel at great speeds, and could be very difficult to detect. She sat on the bridge with Dulin, monitoring the pace of the search. How would they ever find this thing before it struck again?

Suddenly, they heard the War Admiral's voice over the comm. "Captain, Commander, please join me in my quarters."

Why did the War Admiral want to talk with them in his quarters? Almost without exception he summoned them to his office, on the bridge.

*******

They found out when they entered his quarters.

"Come in slowly," said the War Admiral, his back turned to them. When he moved away, what they saw made them gasp.

It was a gas cloud, in the shape of a small dog. And the Admiral was petting it slowly, without being harmed!

"Good doggie, good dog," said the War Admiral soothingly.

"Admiral, that thing's a killer," said Dulin.

"Perhaps," said the War Admiral. "But it's not killing now, is it?"

"It's unpredictable at best," said Wren, staring at it in horror. "It could attack at any time."

"Admiral, that's not just any dog, is it?" said Dulin, remembering something the Admiral had once shown him.

"It's taken the shape of your old dog," said Wren. "War Admiral, that's not your dog!"

"I know that," said the War Admiral, as he calmly continued to pet it. "But I don't believe it has hostile intent."

"Then why did it kill our men on the planetoid? And why did it attack the engineer on deck 22?"

"I don't know," said the War Admiral. "But I think it would be safest, for now, if it stayed with me."

Wren was about to open her mouth to object when her comm chimed. "Alert!"

It was Major Fortran. "Another crewman was just attacked on Deck 21. He's badly burned."

"When did this happen?" Captain Dulin asked.

"Sometime in the past hour," said Fortran.

"Get a particle intake unit to the War Admiral's office immediately," said Wren.

"No, Commander!" said the War Admiral.

"Don't you see, it's manipulating you, Admiral," said Wren. "It's appearing as something pleasing and reassuring to you while hunting the rest of us."

"No," said the War Admiral. "I don't think so. That would be the action of a very highly intelligent being. I think this life form acts purely on instinct."

"It looks like a dog, War Admiral; that doesn't mean it has the mind of one," said Dulin. "I agree with the Commander on this one."

The War Admiral looked conflicted. The thing, sensing a change in mood, started to give a low warning growl. Wren and Dulin took a step back. At that moment a suited environmental officer appeared at the doorway with a large sucking device in his hands.

"No!" said the War Admiral.

The thing assumed gaseous form and flew into the vent.

"We're back to square one," sighed Wren.

"Get me the incident report on the planetoid and the attack on the two crewmen," North snapped. There was something not quite right here, something he was missing.

No one moved.

"Now!" he ordered.

And so the search teams started out again. This time North, after reviewing the incident reports, joined them, accompanying a team to Deck 20. The two previous attacks had been on Decks 21 and 22; it made as much sense to search here as anywhere else.

North walked ahead of the small team. One person carried the bulky particle intake device; others came along as spotters to look for the gas cloud.

North walked along with them, not looking very attentively, as if he were lost in thought.

After two hours of searching the corridors and maintenance rooms, they started to tire. North knew that a search to locate the cloud would probably be fruitless; the Glory was simply too big, and the gas cloud was too elusive. But the War Admiral had another goal in mind.

And then, searching in one of the secondary generator rooms, he smelled it. A faint salty smell.

North snapped his fingers, sniffed, and pointed in the direction of the smell. The smell was strongest just around the corner, behind a bulkhead. Cautiously they moved forward...

and a gas cloud spun around the corner, barely whipping past North before settling on two of the marines. They screamed and clutched their faces. The Marine in the environmental suit turned the particle intake machine on them, but the cloud turned on him, and he dropped the device, screaming as he clutched his face too.

North backed away, triggering the alarm with his wrist comm. The marines were still screaming; only the ones in the rear were unaffected, but they didn't have any weapons that could stop that thing. And the cloud was between North and the only exit.

The marines dropped to the ground in agony, and the cloud turned and moved toward the War Admiral.

******

Things happened very quickly at that point, and only someone with a sharp eye could describe exactly what happened.

A second cloud, which had formerly been transparent, dropped down from above and formed a misty sphere in front of North. The first cloud turned red, and then the new cloud also turned red.

Bolts of electricity flashed between the two clouds, back and forth, back and forth. It was as if a miniature storm was brewing in engineering. Little shrieks could be heard as the bolts blasted hot and fast.

The clouds circled around each other, faster and faster, shooting at each other, and then they started to become fainter and fainter, one fainting much more quickly than the other one.

And then, in an instant, it was over; one of the clouds faded completely, and the other one stopped spinning and whirling.

North held his breath, not knowing, for a second, which one had won the battle.

And then it solidified in front of the War Admiral, and, to the total astonishment of the marines, they saw something that looked like a pink tongue lick his hand.

*******

"-And so I knew there had to be two of them," said North, sitting down to dinner in the war room with Wren and Dulin. "Given the time of the attack, there was no way it could've been on deck 22 and in my quarters at the same time."

"So what if there were two of them?" said Wren. "They both could have been equally hostile."

"Possibly," said North. "But consider this; how did they get on the transport? Captain Took had testified that none of them snuck onto the transport during or after the attack; therefore, they must have gotten aboard before the attack. Therefore, they must not have been the ones who attacked our marines."

"But these gas clouds could've been equally hostile like the ones our marines encountered on the nebula land mass."

"Possibly," said North. "But accept, for a moment, my hypothesis that these beings have the intelligence of animals, and attack on instinct, nothing more. Why wouldn't they have attacked the occupants of the transport?"

No one thought of an answer to his question.

"Obviously, something must have been holding them back," said North. "I hypothesize that there at least two kinds of gas cloud creatures, the aggressive ones that attacked our crew, and another kind that only attacks the aggressive ones, like this one," he said, reaching down to pet the gas cloud dog, who was sitting obediently by his chair.

"Two gas clouds boarded our shuttle. This one must have been restraining the other one from attacking, otherwise the transport would never have reached the Glory. But when the transport landed, the aggressive other gas cloud escaped, and they went their own separate ways."

"And you purposely sought out the hostile cloud, knowing the friendly one would be around to protect you," said Dulin. "That's really risking your life on a hypothesis, isn't it?"

The War Admiral smiled. "We haven't had any more attacks in the past few days, have we? I would say that my theory has been proven valid."

He took another bite of his dinner.

"Just what does that thing eat?" Wren asked.

"We're really not sure. Doctor Farb hypothesizes it gets nutrition by breaking down the molecules of the oxygen around it," said the War Admiral. "But please don't call it a thing. His name is "Ripper" or "the War Admiral's dog", if you please."

"I thought pets were against military regulations," said Dulin.

"He's not a pet, he's a mascot," said the War Admiral, affectionately putting his hand in and through Ripper's "fur". Ripper smiled at the attention he received. "Goood doggie!"

And that is the story of how the War Admiral got himself a dog.