Her nickname is "Tanj", and she's certainly living up to it. For her, it seems, "There Ain't No Justice." As a young engineer on a tramp space freighter, this Cheetah-morph found herself the victim of a scam, sold into slavery, and trained as a sex-slave. Sold to pirates, she finds herself as a pawn in a much larger struggle. This story contains bondage, non-consensual sex, and hopefully some humor, adventure and intrigue. Adults only, please!

Tanj's Tale: The Battle That Never Was, Chapter 4
By Kittiara
Stardate 2399.34

Tanj groaned as consciousness returned. She seemed to be lying, face up, on the floor, and in fact, she had a good view of the cafeteria's ceiling. As she tried to work some feeling back into her arms and legs, she came to the startling conclusion that she was unfettered. And sore; very sore. Her shoulders hurt, her hips hurt, her wrists and her ankles hurt, all her muscles ached as if she'd run a marathon... and then she remembered. The madness that seemed to be gripping everyone; the sexual frenzy that seemed to be pervading the Brethren. And no one was minding the store... Struggling to sit up she looked around, her gaze passing over the still form of the Mink, to settle on the concerned face of Mindy. The Mouse just sat there, on the floor, cross-legged, staring at her, a worried look on her face. "Tanj, what's going on around here" she stage whispered, her head turning to look over her shoulder as if afraid. "Everyone seems to have gone crazy! You wouldn't believe what I've been through in the last couple of days!" Tanj grunted as she tried to work the kinks out of her arms; "Yes, I know; we're all in great danger. Something's happened to almost everyone on the station; they all seem to have gone mad in a sexually related way. I've seen some pretty amazing sights myself." Tanj paused to stretch again, and Mindy nodded; "Do you think this is ... natural? Some form of space madness? Or do you think..." Tanj grinned; "Yes, of course I suspect foul play. In fact, I suspect a pathogen; some disease that we've been infected with. The vector is obvious. I think this is all just a prelude to some sort of attack. Tell you what; see if you can get to Engineering, and check on things there. I'm going to head down to Medical and see if there's anyone there that can start working on some sort of counter-agent. Then I'll try and make it up to Ops, or to Auxiliary Control, and see what I can do about bringing some weapons on line." Mindy just nodded and rose to her feet; looking at Tanj she sighed; "I won't ask you why you're not as messed up as everyone else is around here, I don't know why I haven't caught it myself..." Tanj just shrugged; "I think I've had a mild case. I think it got to me for a while, but now I'm "feeling better." But you... how are you faring, if you're not infected?" Mindy smiled and shrugged, and for the first time, Tanj realized the Mouse was nude; "Oh, I've had some rough times... And some fun times... No one seems really violent, just... Insistent. Its like this was bringing out everyone's dominant, or submissive side..." Tanj nodded, and muttered an "Uh-huh, well, Good Luck" and turning, staggered towards the door, and the corridor towards Medical.

Mindy smiled as she watched her go. Twice she'd encountered "hunting parties" on her way up from her station in Engineering. Both times the sex had been wild, plentiful, and forceful, but not exactly unpleasant. No, not at all unpleasant... Turning, the Mouse hastily fixed herself a sandwich, and then hurried off, back the way she'd come. As she walked, she wondered if she'd make it back there without being "caught" again. And then, smiling, she wondered if she really wanted to be caught...

Tanj listened, her ears straining. Somewhere down the corridor, a couple was making passionate love; she could hear the moans and the grunts, and even the sound of bodies coming together... Probably she could sneak past them as they were otherwise occupied, but as she stood there, listening, she found her own right paw softly stroking her mons... It was obvious that she still had a mild case of whatever was afflicting them... Smiling she shook her head no; she couldn't risk it; perhaps they'd reach out and grab her, to pull her down with them... And perhaps she wouldn't be able to resist...

Things were quiet as Tanj snuck into Medical, holding herself flat against the wall as she looked around. It was an amazing scene of normalcy... everything in its place. But quiet. She was about to head back through the door when Wanda, in a green nurse's set of scrubs, came around the corner. Tanj blinked at the Wolverine for a moment in amazement; Wanda stared back in equal shock; "Tanj! What's HAPPENED to you? You're a MESS!" Tanj just swallowed and nodded; "Uh, Wanda, something VERY strange is going on out there!" Wanda cocked her head to one side and then nodded slowly; "I kinda figured something was up when my relief didn't show up, and then when I couldn't get anyone on the comm... I couldn't go out and look for anyone; SOMEONE had to cover the emergency room... What IS going on out there?"

Tanj sighed and shook her head; "I'd say it looks like everyone on the station's gone sex-crazy... I think its some sort of biological warfare attack. The station's completely undefended. I thought that someone here might be able to get started on identifying the agent, and perhaps work to counteract it... But it looks like they're..." Wanda nodded; "That would explain Dr. Narayanan... We... had a rash of flu-like symptoms oh, about 72 hours ago. Similar to the symptoms you had, in fact. Dr. Narayanan was on duty, and saw most of them... Then he complained of feeling hot, flushed..." Wanda chuckled and shook her head; "and then he made a pass at me. I had to decline... Rather forcefully I'm afraid... He left and I haven't seen him since..." Tanj blinked, trying for a moment to imagine the slender Mongoose putting the moves on Wanda.. She was big enough to tie him in a knot... For a moment, she had the mental image of a Mongoose tied in a knot trying to escape down the corridor and had to suppress a giggle. Then Wanda got a hurt look on her face, and Tanj waved a paw; "Oh, Wanda, I'm SURE it was just the good Doctor under the influence of whatever this is. Did you have that problem with anyone else?" Wanda chuckled; "There were two, or three that came by, but when I made it obvious I wasn't interested, they wandered off." Tanj nodded; "Well, you'd better stay here; they're no longer taking No for an answer. I'm going to head out and see if I can find a way to attend to the station's defenses. By the way, do you have any idea why YOU didn't catch whatever this is? You must have been exposed..." Wanda just grinned; "I told you; I never get sick; must be some sort of natural immunity." Tanj nodded and rose, to head for the door. Stopping, she turned to look back; "Um, you didn't tie Narayanan in a knot, did you?" Wanda just grinned and gave a little shake of her head, no. Tanj nodded, and waved and headed back out into the corridor.

Hannah sighed, and shook her head once again, trying to dislodge the gag. She'd been sound asleep, exhausted, entwined in a pile of furry bodies when the crowd had burst into Ops. Several of the sleeping furrs had been roughly grabbed, designated as "prey", bound in some manner or other, and sent off at the run. She'd watched Evie hobbled, her arms bound behind her, a line from her rope collar to her ankles bending her over double. She struggled as she sought to put distance between herself and the hunters that were soon to follow. Gus had a similar problem; they'd tied his ankles to his thighs, and he was forced to crawl on hands and knees. As he scurried off, Hannah thought the Otter was rather enjoying himself; he had the biggest grin on his face. And the biggest erection. For her own part, she'd gotten off rather lightly, a gag buckled in place, filling her mouth, and her arms tightly tied behind her back at wrist and elbow. Wouldn't have been any trouble at all to run fast, and keep ahead of them, except for the weighted nipple clamps they'd added, almost as an afterthought. Now, with each step she took, the weights bounced, the clamps tugging sharply at her nipples... And yet, as she ran, searching for a good hiding place, there was something about the situation that excited her... She just couldn't deny the wetness between her thighs as she thought about a dozen hunters chasing her...

Kath groaned and opened her eyes. Her head HURT. Her muscles were stiff, and her hands and feet felt heavy, as if they'd been weighted. And her throat felt constricted, as if her shirt collar was too tight. Blinking, she looked around in confusion. This wasn't her cabin on the Liner... how in the world had she gotten HERE? In fact, where WAS here? Struggling to sit up, she raised one paw to brush back some hair from her face, and froze. There was a leather cuff on her wrist. A LOCKED leather cuff on her wrist. It didn't look like something you'd find on a prisoner... more like something you'd find on a slave, or someone playing at those silly bondage games...

Tanj heard footsteps echoing down the corridor, and rapidly ducked into a half-open doorway. She wasn't really surprised to see a nude and bound vixen trot past... stepping out into the corridor, she stage-whispered; "Hey YOU! Stop a Minute!"

Hannah turned to see the Cheetah Fem emerge from a doorway. Groaning to herself, she sank to her knees, thinking; "Dammit, its too soon to be caught already! I wanted a reward, not a punishment!..."

Tanj padded over to the kneeling Vixen and squatted next to her; "Bet you're wrapped up in the Hunt, aren't you?" The Vixen nodded. Tanj grinned; "Tell you what. I'll see that you get a nice reward when this is all done, if you do me a little favor. I want you to go find the nearest hunting party. Act as if you've blundered into them by accident, and then turn and run. There's an orgy in progress down in Accounting, and I want you to lead them there. This is important; can you do this for me?"

Hannah blinked, and looked at the Cheetah from the corners of her eyes, as if skeptical, but finally she nodded tentatively. "What have I got to loose" she thought to herself; "If I don't do as she asks, I'll be punished anyways. Maybe this way I can earn an extra reward..."

Tanj grinned and rose; "Thanks; this is important, and I'll see you get something nice if you pull it off." Without another word, Tanj turned and trotted off down the corridor.

Hannah watched the nude Cheetah depart and sighed; turning, she started walking back the way she'd come...

Kath couldn't believe this. Not only wasn't she in her cabin on the Liner, she was naked, wearing locked cuffs on ankles and wrists, a locked collar around her throat, and to her absolute amazement and disgust, someone had pierced both her nipples! Her fur was a matted, sticky mess, and it was obvious that she'd been raped multiple times... At least she thought she'd been raped; she couldn't imagine herself indulging in sex to THAT extent, and especially with someone she didn't know. After all, she was an Imperial Agent; she had to be discrete... Rising, she padded to the exit from the... cafeteria?... and looked down the corridor. Where WAS she? Wherever she was, she had to get out of here, get to someplace safe, and contact her department, let them know that she'd been compromised... Steeling herself to the unknown, she started down the corridor, incredibly aware of her nakedness, and of the feeling of the rings in her nipples moving as she moved...

Tanj grinned as she slipped through the door into Auxiliary Control. She'd managed to avoid the few furrs wandering the corridors, and to her delight Aux. Control was deserted. Sensors were off line. Shields were off line... Weapons were off line... With increasing desperation, Tanj moved from Console to Console... Finally she turned and dashed quickly over to the Engineering Console. Her fingers flying over the keyboard, she started checking power flows...

Hannah let out a muffled "EEP" as she came around the corner... and saw one of the Hunting Parties. Turning, she ran, wiggling her bottom as best she could as she fled in the direction of Personnel, the howls and cries of the furrs behind her becoming louder and louder as they grew closer...

Tanj Groaned! She couldn't get ANYTHING to work. Somewhere between the fusion generators and the control relays, something had been turned off. Aux Control was useless, until those connections were restored! Sighing, she turned to look at the door. Engineering was a LONG way away... But there was nothing to do but head down there and try and restore power... Opening the door a crack, she looked out, checking both ways... And then sliding through, she started jogging down a side corridor...

Kath blinked and looked left and right. "I do NOT remember Pharrpoint station looking like this" she growled to herself. Hearing voices down one of the corridors, she wondered; dare she approach them, seeking help, or should she, naked and collared, avoid them? After a moment's indecision, she turned, to head away from the voices... but when she turned, she found herself staring into the eyes of a rather large, and completely naked Lion... The Lion rumbled; "Well, look what we have here! An escaped slave!" As the Lion turned to grin at the furrs accompanying him, Kath turned to run, to flee... Only to be brought up short as the Lion's huge paw grabbed the end of her tail; "I see our prey doesn't know how to behave, either!" The gray Wolf next to the Lion chuckled; "Oh, I think we can teach her how to behave..." And the Ferret on the other side of the Lion chuckled softly, his head nodding up and down...

Hannah shouldered her way into the Personnel office, and looked around. She'd been told by the Cheetah that there was a large orgy in progress here... And the obvious idea was to get the hunting party sucked into the orgy, distracting them from their hunt... But now the room was deserted. Papers were strewn everywhere, and a number of desks had been pushed against the wall to provide an open space... Hurriedly she looked about, seeking a place to hide... and then the door slammed open behind her. There was nothing to do but to fall to her knees, assuming the proper position, and await her punishment...

Kath groaned, and struggled feebly; they'd forced her to kneel, and then a fur had taken hold of either of her arms, holding them straight out from her body to the sides, forcing her to arch her back just a little. Kath was VERY aware of how this forced posture made her breasts stand out proudly, her nipples prominent... She could still feel the little rings in her nipples move with each breath she took... The Lion had stepped up between her spread knees and had presented his cock to her mouth, forcing her to take it, to lick it, to suck it... she squirmed, but there was no escape; the ones holding her were too strong. And as she was forced to suck the Lion's cock, something inside her melted; to free a small, bright point of light within her soul. As the Lion wrapped one paw in her hair, to hold her head, as his hips started to move, driving his cock in and out of her mouth, until its head repeatedly bumped the back of her throat, some small part of her came alive, and she realized that somehow, some way, she liked being used like this...

Tanj heard the sounds from down the corridor. It was unmistakable; the groans of a Male, the muffled noises of a female... someone was getting a blowjob, and from the sound of it, he was loving it. Grinning, Tanj turned to tiptoe down a side corridor, seeking to bypass the obstruction...

Sam grinned; it was obvious her attention was on the corridor behind her; as she moved, silent as a ghost, graceful as only a feline could be, her head was turned to look over her right shoulder... For a moment, Sam watched how her breasts bounced with each step, a soft, fluid motion... And then he was springing from the shadows, driving himself forward, to slam into her middle, knocking her to the floor. Heinz and Pam were right behind him, helping him to pin the Cheetah to the deck. His hunting party had just made their third capture, and he was sure the Leader would be proud of them!

Tanj squirmed, and thrashed; "No... you idiots, you don't know what you're doing! Stop, you've GOT to let me up! We're all in Danger!"

Sam shook his head; usually the Prey were vocal when captured, but this one was yelling louder than most. But he had a solution for that. Reaching back to his belt, the only thing he wore, he pulled free the plug gag... and when her head was turned just so, her jaws gaping, he shoved it forward, the black latex filling her mouth, bringing blissful silence...

Tanj tried to force the gag from her mouth, but then she heard the "snick" of its lock and knew it was too late. And then they were rolling her over, to bind her arms behind her back. Deciding it was useless to continue to struggle, she let herself go limp, and panting hard, tried to recover her breath...

Pam grinned as they dragged their prey to her feet; "Hey, lookit this! This one's not only got pierced nipples, but someone pierced her clitty!" Sam chuckled and bent to look; "Hey, you're right. Nice little ring... But I bet its big enough to take the end of my leash!" Tanj winced as she felt the weight of the Wolf's leash on her clitty; it wasn't supposed to be done like that, but her captors didn't seem to care. Moving carefully, doing her best to keep the strain off of her most sensitive part, she followed them, almost eagerly as they led her off down the corridor, towards the increasing sounds of passion... Towards the place she had been trying to avoid.

Kath's tongue stroked the Lion's cock as he drove it into her mouth again, eliciting a groan of pleasure from him. Some part of her wondered where she'd learned to do that so well, even as another part of her was disgusted that she knew how to do it at all. And lurking in the back of her mind was an unspoken question... Why wasn't any of the other furrs making use of her pussy, or fondling her breasts? Even as she struggled to breath around the Lion's thrusting cock, some small part of her brain demanded; "Held here like this, used like this, aren't I the sexiest, most alluring thing around?"

Tanj knelt when the Wolf with her leash stopped moving, and the whole group watched the scene before them. The Lion was tilting the Mink's head back further, thrusting his cock almost down into her mouth, and Tanj knew that the way she was being held, the Lion's cock had to be pushing past the back of her mouth, and down her throat. The Mink squirmed and struggled, but the furrs holding her were strong, and her movements only seemed to increase the Lion's delight. As she watched, Tanj scarcely recognized her Master. He seemed a huge beast, a primal force of nature... And then he was throwing his head back, to fill the corridor with the sound of his roar, his cock pulling free from the Mink's mouth, to discharge its cum all over her prominent breasts.

Kath gasped for air as the emotions warred within her; part of her was relieved that the brute hadn't ejaculated in her mouth, and part of her was delighted that he'd so marked her with his seed, as if proclaiming to all; "Look at how this one's made me cum!" Panting, she closed her eyes and waited for whatever was to come next...

Sam grinned as he watched. With luck, the Leader would let him use his newly captured prey in the same way; it would be a fitting reward... As the Lion caught his breath, the Wolf growled; "Hey, Look at what WE caught!"

For a moment, hope blossomed in Kath's mind, as the Lion stepped around her in response to some shout... but then paws were pulling her up, even as other paws groped at her crotch. She heard a voice say; "Yup, she's soaking wet," and then she was being led off by a small group, and she knew they weren't done with her yet...

The Lion looked down at Tanj and nodded, and then looked up at Sam; "Good Catch, Wolf. Use her as you will, but make sure she's WELL used, before you release her again." Sam just nodded and reached down to wrap his paw in Tanj's hair. Pulling her up a bit, from a kneeling position to a crouch, the Wolf watched as Heinz squirrmed, flat on his back, between the Cheetah's spread thighs...

Tanj jerked as the Skunk beneath her drove his hard shaft up into her pussy; for a moment, she melted a little, thinking that felt SOOOOO good... and then she remembered; she had to get the skunk off, and quickly, so they'd let her go; she had things to do! Moaning she started to move on his cock...

Sam watched the Cheetah start to move, riding Heinz's cock and nodded; he'd been right about her. Padding around behind her, he knelt between Heinz's knees and put his hands on her hips...

Tanj jumped again, much to the skunk's delight, when she felt the wolf's cockhead touch her anus; but his paws were insistent, pulling at her hips, dragging her back down, until she was doubly filled. And then it was the Wolf's thrusts that moved her, again to the delight of the skunk, as he pounded his cock into her ass...

Tanj moaned as she felt the squirrel's paws on her head, unlocking the gag... She'd thought the fem wouldn't just sit back and watch; no one seemed to be doing that these days... as the squirrel pressed her crotch to Tanj's muzzle, the Cheetah obediently started to lick her...

Hinoki yawned and stretched. Both Duke sisters were sound asleep, and he didn't want to wake them. They'd had a simply marvelous time together, stroking and petting and licking and nibbling, until the urges became simply too great, and they joined together in some absolutely marvelous love-making. He couldn't call it fucking, it was beyond that; way beyond that. He genuinely cared for them, and was sure they cared for him too... As he watched them sleep, he felt his stomach rumble, and he grinned; wouldn't it be nice, if when they woke up, he had a sumptuous breakfast waiting? Grinning, he rose and stretched again, to head out to find them all something to eat.

Kath panted as she lay limply on the floor. The hunters had used her; used her pussy, her ass, her mouth, and one of them had even fucked her between her breasts... and now, exhausted, they'd all moved on, leaving her in the middle of the corridor, covered in their cum. And while part of her shuddered at the horrible ordeal she'd just been through, something within her reveled in it. Growling at herself, she decided she'd have herself psychoanalyzed at a later date; for the moment, she had work to do. Struggling to her feet, she looked up and down the corridors, wondering which way to go. With a mental shrug she turned and walked carefully down one of the corridors, her muscles aching, not only from all the sex she'd had, but from her shoulders being pulled back so sharply. They'd laid a broom handle across her back, just below her neck, and pulling her arms straight out to the sides, they'd tied her arms to it. However, as the length of wood wasn't long enough to hold her in a cruciform pose, they'd folded her forearms back, to tie her wrist cuffs off to the back of her collar. And then her upper and lower arms had been bound tightly to the wood. As a result, her shoulders were pulled back, and she looked as if she were caught in the middle of the stretch some folks do as they yawn. As she walked she wondered how, even if she found a comm unit, she'd be able to contact her department...

Tanj mewled softly to herself; her captors had eventually tired of her, and had released her, to be hunted anew. But they'd given her a few handicaps... And from Tanj's point of view, as she tried to move quietly down the corridor, the jinglebells hanging from labia and nipple rings weren't as annoying for their weight, as for the noise they made with the slightest movement. They'd also fastened her wrists to her neck with a pair of "stocks." These three foot long strips of metal, about 4 centimeters wide looked like someone had taken a flat bar of metal, and then pounded one large semicircular depression in the center, with two smaller ones on either end. With the depression at the center of one bar pressed against the back of her neck, and the matching piece pressed against the front of her neck, they formed a second collar. And of course her wrists were held to either side of her shoulders in the classic "hands up" position, by the smaller openings. The bars were held together by simple wing nuts, but the way her paws were confined, there was no way Tanj could reach them, to undo them. As she trotted down the corridor, jingling, Tanj thought to herself; "Well, if I twist to one side, and bend over, I might get one paw on a keyboard... But typing's going to be slow..."

Mindy tiptoed towards Engineering. She'd turned her trek into a kind of a game, seeing just how far she could go before being "caught." On one occasion she'd happened by a couple making love in the middle of Environmental, but they were too distracted to notice her. Another time, she'd hidden in a supply room while a hunting party thundered past, in pursuit of some poor hapless fur. And another time she'd eluded a hunting party by taking a short-cut through an electrical utility tunnel. Now the real fun was about to begin, the main pressure door to Engineering only meters away. Once through the door she'd be on "home turf"... But any hunting parties there might also be made up of Engineers and technicians, not accountants or staff wienies...

Mark Hmmmmmed, deep in thought as he stared at the power distribution panel for the No.3 Matter/Antimatter generator. The Generator was a complex system, providing not only plasma but electricity as well, and if he was going to carry out his plans, he'd need at least every erg this system and its mates could deliver. But how to channel it all, and in time to do any good at that, without explosive consequences... Sighing to himself, he muttered; "This is going to take some VERY creative engineering..."

Tanj moved in an intermittent manner; she'd dash ahead a dozen meters and then stop, to recover her breath, and to try and listen for pursuit, for any sign that her jingling bells had been heard. Twice she'd heard footsteps, and both times she'd hidden as quietly as she could, and both times she'd been passed by, either unobserved, or ignored. Peeking around a corner she got ready to make another dash...

Kath sighed and shook her head in frustration; she'd found a comm terminal in an empty office, and kicking a desk chair into place, had been batting at the keyboard with her right foot, trying desperately to get an outside line. Except there didn't seem to BE any outside lines. Wherever she was, she'd determined it was isolated from the outside universe at large. Grumbling, she continued to try , seeking some sort of comm line or e-mail program that would let her send a message to her superiors. Concentrating on what she was doing, she failed to hear the door open behind her...

Hinoki smiled; he'd found the pantry in the cafeteria open, all the "specialty" items that were normally under lock and key were simply there for the taking, and take he had. He'd gathered up quite an incredible assortment of ingredients for the Breakfast he planned on making for the Duke sisters. In fact, he was planning one of his universe-famous omelets. And this time he even had a real, fresh onion! The green peppers looked vat-grown, but they were reasonably fresh. The eggs, however, were powdered. "Ah well," he sighed to himself, "nothing's perfect." Padding down the corridor towards the residential section, his ill-gotten gains under one arm, a bottle or orange juice and a bottle of champagne, for "eye-openers" under his other arm, he idly wondered where everyone was...

Grillo smiled as he slipped through the door. He hadn't had too much luck joining the hunt; no one seemed to want him on their team, and they'd made it quite clear that no one would be interested in hunting him... "Ah, Well," he mused to himself; "A porcupine's life can be a lonely one. But that's about to change..." He grinned as he tiptoed closer to the bound Mink so intent on her computer terminal. In a moment, she'd be his, to do with as he pleased... And he had a LOT of things he wanted to try with with a sexual partner, willing or unwilling...

Kath jerked and SCREAMED as the paw touched her shoulder. Bolting from her chair, almost falling over, she turned to regard the nightmare that had crept up behind her; for a moment, all she saw was a monster, all jagged and pointy, sharp spines seeming to stick out everywhere. As she backed towards the far wall, her eyes wide, some part of her mind recognized the creature as a porcupine, but that bit of rational information seemed to fail to take hold, and she cowered, all her training forgotten, as if some unholy terror was approaching her.

Grillo sighed to himself; why did they ALWAYS have to react like that? He wasn't going to hurt her; he had every intention of being careful; it was just that he was MUCH too horny not to do SOMETHING... And bound as she was, well, this one wasn't going to escape him, no matter what she thought of him!

Hinoki paused at the cross corridor, and frowned; it sounded like someone from down there had screamed! For a moment he wavered, his sumptuous breakfast forgotten as he pondered a damsel in distress...

Kath watched in horror as the creature came closer; in addition to spines sticking out everywhere, the creature had a truly massive hard-on, his pink cock bobbing before him as he approached. Once again, her mind seemed to fragment into pieces; one part insisting that if this... THING raped her, she'd be a pincushion, and for a moment she had this horrid vision of her drinking a cup of water and it leaking from a dozen or more punctures in her body... And another part of her mind giggled; "He's just another male who finds you attractive! He WANTS you! How can you turn him down?" As the creature reached out to stroke her cheek, she flinched and let out a low, terrified moan...

Hinoki nodded; "Yup. Someone's in trouble." Setting down his groceries by the side of the corridor, he turned and strode purposefully down the corridor towards where the sound had come from.

Grillo grinned, as he placed both paws on the Mink's shoulders, to turn her towards him; looking her up and down he grinned; "Oh, yes, you'll do quite nicely... Now, bitch, on your knees; you've some licking to do..."

Hinoki stopped in the doorway, blinking as the Porcupine forced the Mink down, forcing her to kneel, and then wrapping his paw in her hair, pulled her head forward against his crotch... For a moment the Cheetah just watched, grinning, and then he remembered; he was here to SAVE her, not play the voyeur. Growling low in his throat, he stepped forward.

Grillo looked up and snarled; he was NOT going to loose this wench to any other. Shaking himself, he rattled his quills threateningly... even as he thrust his hips forward, driving his cock into the protesting Mink's mouth.

Hinoki stopped for a moment, watching the quills move. For a moment he wondered how the Porcupine ever got anything done, carrying around all those sharp little barbed spears, and for an instant he flashed on the hapless creature in a space suit, air leaking from a hundred pinpricks... then he shook it off. Still growling he stood there, wondering how to successfully attack the creature.

Kath mewled softly, her tongue instinctively licking at his cock; there were quills on either side of her face, but they were long enough that no points threatened her there... however, the way her arms were bound, sticking straight out to the sides... as the Porcupine had pulled her head to his groin, her arms could feel the pinpricks of dozens of quills...

The office seemed devoid of anything he could use in his assault, and Hinoki sighed to himself. What he needed was a suit of armor, and as that thought ran through his head, he suddenly realized he was naked. How'd he ever venture out without at least his shorts? Pushing that thought aside for the moment, he looked around again, his eyes finally lighting on a desk blotter...

Grillo growled and turned away from the intruder, placing his back, and the majority of his quills towards the Cheetah; the Mink's tongue was heaven, and he was having trouble both watching over his shoulder and concentrating on the feel of her tongue and mouth on his cock... Why did someone always have to come along and screw up what few pleasures he could find?

Hinoki stripped the sheets of paper off the desk blotter until he had the bottom sheet of cardboard; holding it in both paws he swung it upwards, in a golf-like swing, square into the Porcupine's rump. As he intended, he'd caught a large number of quills point-on, embedding them in the cardboard. By themselves an embedded quill would merely pull free, but he'd latched onto dozens, and when he tugged at the cardboard, the combined pressure was sufficient to make the Porcupine howl.

Kath almost bit the Porcupine when his hips were suddenly pushed against her muzzle; and then, wonderingly, she found his cock jerked from her mouth as the surprised Porcupine was pulled away from her...

Hinoki used his new "handle" to pull the Porcupine away from the girl, spinning him just enough so that when the startled creature turned to face him, he was able to jab at its unprotected face.

Grillo saw stars as the fist slammed into his muzzle. For a moment he stared in confusion at the spotty cat dancing and bobbing before him... and then the image split into three spotty cats, blurred out, and went dark as he fell forwards, flat onto his face.

Hinoki saw the Porcupine topple (thankfully forwards and not backwards into the girl; he hadn't thought about THAT!), looked at his fist as if to say; "Did I do that?" and then lifted his head to grin weakly at the Mink. Stepping carefully forward, he helped her to her feet; "Come on, fair damsel; lets get you out of here before he wakes up; I'm not sure I could do that again if I had to..."

Kath blinked at the Cheetah; she'd seen him somewhere before; she was sure of that, but she couldn't remember where. Didn't matter; he'd rescued her from what she was sure was going to be a horrible experience, and that was all that mattered. Following him, she made her way into the corridor.

Hinoki paused to retrieve his groceries; straightening he grinned at her; "You'd better come with me, Ma'am. I know a place where you'll be safe for a while." As they started down the corridor, the Cheetah looked at the Mink once again, almost shyly, and muttered; "You look familiar; do I know you? My name's Hinoki by the way... what's yours?"

Mindy smiled to herself; she'd made it into Engineering, without too much trouble, and while she'd evaded another hunting party, she'd found a rather large orgy in progress in Engineering Central Control. Things there had been so wild, they'd never even noticed her look in the door. Now she was almost to the primary motor control center, the main electrical switch room for the base. If she could get in there, she could still figure out what was running and what was off line from the maintenance terminal there...

Tanj squirmed, but found she couldn't escape; her jingling had finally attracted the attention of another hunting party, and they'd pounced her without too much difficulty at all. Instead of hauling her off to be delivered to some hunt master, they'd dragged her into a utility room, and had tied her, suspended horizontally, face up, between a series of pipes. With pumps humming in the background, the hunters had taken turns, one stepping up between her well-spread thighs to fuck her, in ass or pussy, as was their preference, while another had stepped up to her head, forcing it back and down, until she could take his cock in her mouth. She'd lost count of how many times she'd made one or another of the hunters cum; it seemed like they were going around for the third time... As the stud between her thighs came once again, pulling out, to spray his jism over her tummy, she moaned around the cock in her mouth... She HAD to find a way to get them to release her, and she knew that wouldn't happen until they'd tired of her... But what would it take to satisfy them? As the stud stepped away, she stiffened, her muscles going tense as she felt a tongue between her thighs; the way it stroked her, the places it danced over, it could only be a female, and that meant... there were more hunters joining the "party"... With a moan she applied her tongue to the cock in her mouth, striving to bring him off as fast as she could; she simply HAD to get out of there...

Mindy stared in amazement at the switchgear. Almost all of it had been disconnected from the main power, all the breakers thrown. Some critical switches were locked in the "open" position, preventing her from sending power to the switchgear that might let her send power to the station's shields or weapons... Lockout procedure was very strict; Each person who worked on such devices had one lock, and one key. No one was allowed to remove anyone else's lock (preventing equipment from being worked on from being suddenly energized). There was no way she'd get those locks off short of cutting them off... Looking over the system, she traced backwards until she came to the master breaker for the Motor Control Center. This massive piece of switchgear was designed to handle the combined power of all the station's generators... and its door was open, the safeties bypassed, and a weird yellow-green cable of a type she'd never seen before spliced across the massive buss bars... Scowling, she turned, preparing to trace it, when she noticed a shadow on the floor, right next to hers...

Hinoki let himself into the Duke sister's room quietly, motioning for Kath to follow. Lazily, Emmie Lou opened her eyes, and looked up from the rug by the holographic fire, to smile; "Oh, Hinoki! How sweet! Such a delicious little plaything you've brought us! And so nicely bound, too!" Hinoki just smiled and patted Kath on the head; "Be a Dear and go entertain my lovers while I go fix us all some breakfast, will you?"

Kath looked at the sleepy Tigress, and then looked at the Cheetah... Somehow she'd thought that he would be her complete salvation, that when they'd found a quiet place, that she'd be able to convince him to untie her, to help her contact the Empire, to arrange for her rescue... And here he'd just casually turned her back into the sex slave she so seemed to resemble! But before she could protest, the Tigress had crawled over to her, a predatory look in her eye, to distract her with a firm lick to her pussy. As Kath's insides melted, as she felt herself once again get wet, she heard the other Tigress yawn and stretch, and then giggle; "Sister, whatever DO you have there?"

Tanj panted, and struggled to move. The hunters had finally tired of her, and had released her to be hunted again... She'd lost the damned metal stocks that had held her wrists by her sides, and the jingle bells, but what they'd done to her was scarce an improvement. Someone had come up with a latex dress, at least two sizes too small for her. They'd taken great delight in rolling it down over her shoulders, without letting her put her arms through the armholes... As a result, her arms were tightly pressed to her sides by the tight latex that covered her from neck to ankles. In order to walk, she had to stretch the skirt material, and try as she might, she found she couldn't take more than an eight-inch step. And as she walked the latex squeeked almost as loudly as the jingle- bells had been. "I look like I'm wearing a giant condom" she grumbled to herself as she tried to peek around a corner, to see if the way was clear. Stumbling and almost falling, she staggered on her way towards Engineering. As she moved, she wondered; if she fell, would she ever be able to get up, or would she have to try and roll there...

Mindy gasped, and squirmed. The hunters had dragged her back to Engineering Central Control, and had promptly buried her under a mass of writhing bodies. She was astride someone, unable to even see who it was, his cock firm in her pussy, while another crouched behind her, to fuck her ass. There was another cock in her mouth, and lips on her nipples, and paws stroking her, seemingly everywhere... and as she was licked and stroked and fucked, she gradually lost all memory of why it was she'd come down to engineering in the first place...

Mark looked at his jury-rigged power supply system. He'd had to build most of it from scratch, using materials he wasn't supposed to have, and had browbeat several natural laws into grudging submission, and the end result was anything but pretty. Still, it would work... At least this once. Pausing for a moment, he contacted his "hidden asset", to check on the Mercenary cruiser...

Franz smiled as he looked over the shoulder of his Offensive Weapons operator. Xylex had obtained for them three Nova class torpedoes, any one of which would destroy a small moon; the three of them together could have done major damage to Elysium, or any other planet. But they were a bitch to bring on line. The plasma charge that each one held had to be brought to temperature, and once that was done, they had to be used within a set time. Holding one too long risked the chance of it going unstable, and possibly blowing up in their launch tube. And he didn't want that... As the Mercenary Cruiser moved closer to the asteroid base, they carefully prepared their weapons...

Mark nodded to himself; the mercenaries were living up to his expectations. No surprises there, other perhaps than that they HAD taken this long... He turned towards the Brou device and nodded again, determinedly; "And now, lets show a certain fur who's name shall go unmentioned but starts with an "X" how even the best laid plans of mice and men can go awry..." Throwing a series of switches, he listened as relays clacked, circuits engaged, and massive amounts of power started flowing...

Tanj hugged the wall as the three furrs emerged from Engineering Central Control. All were nude, and two of the three were kissing, or trying to, as they walked. "Looks like things are a mite hot in there" she sighed to herself. Shaking her head, waiting until the trio were far enough down the corridor not to notice, she turned and squeaked with tiny steps towards the Motor Control Center.

Hinoki popped the cork from the champagne bottle, letting it fly across the room. The noise startled the Mink, and she raised her head to see what had happened, only for Emmie Lou to put a firm hand on the top of her head and force her muzzle back down to her hungry sex. The Cheetah chuckled as he watched the Mink lick slowly at the Tigress, with Emmie's sister behind the mink licking slowly at her exposed sex. Shifting his gaze, he slowly added the champagne to the half full glasses of orange juice on the table. Eye-openers, half orange juice, half champagne, were one of his favorite breakfast drinks, and went well with his omelets, he thought... Then, grinning up at the three ladies, he thought; "But nothing goes better with it, than some good loving..."

"This isn't right" Tanj thought to herself as she looked at the cables and wires snaking across the floor of the MCC. "I've seen a lot of power distribution systems in my time, but this is just plain... Weird!" And then it hit her. Mark. The Alien Teleportation Device. Smiling to herself, she turned to try and trace out the path of the cables, trying to confirm to where the power was all flowing. "I should have KNOWN Mark would know." Tanj thought to herself. "I don't know what he's doing, but I think I'd best get down there..." Tanj turned and minced towards the door, taking miniscule steps... and then she stopped. One of the disconnect doors was open, exposing the 1760 volt wires within the box... The door edge was sharp sheetmetal, its top corner just about crotch height, and she looked at it for a long moment; "If I push into that, it might just puncture the latex, and let me tear this damned dress enough to be able to MOVE... but if I push too close... voltage that powerful has been known to jump considerable distances to "ground"..." Finally with a sigh, the Cheetah moved forward, to push against the corner of the door, pressing herself forward until she heard the latex go "pop." Staggering, she all but fell backwards as she tried to keep away from the exposed live circuits... Working her legs, moving her knees apart, she managed to enlarge the tear enough so that the could bring one knee through the opening, hook one foot against the lower edge of the tear, and use her claws to shred the latex the rest of the way down to the hem. It now looked like she was wearing a dress slit up the front to the crotch... Looking down, Tanj grunted; "Very stylish. At least I can run now... but if I could just free my arms..." Another look around convinced her that there were no other sharp projections that she could use to her advantage and she didn't seem to be able to get the leverage she needed to extend the rip further upwards. With a sigh she once more headed for the door.

Hinoki smiled and slid the finished omelet out of the pan. It was huge and he grinned as he sliced it into four portions... Putting a piece on each of the plates at the table he'd set, he served up the hash browns and then turned to announce that Breakfast was served...

Kath blinked as the Cheetah held her chair for her; things had taken on a bit of a dream-like quality as she went from rolling around on the floor, licking and being licked, by the two tigresses, to sitting down to a mouth-watering breakfast, albeit nude, at a finely appointed table. She blinked and picked up her fork, only for one of the Tigresses to gently lay a paw on hers; "Wait a moment, Dear; I know you're hungry, but we'll let Emmie say Grace first... Then you can dig in..."

Mark growled as yet another alarm sounded; the numerous beeps, bleeps and screams from his control panel was distracting him with warnings which would have made sense BEFORE his extensive rewiring, but were worse than useless now. Reaching out one paw, he flicked a finger and four meters distant, the console speaker made a funny sound and lapsed into silence. Nodding, he folded his legs under himself, closed his eyes and concentrated...

Franz's head jerked up as his sensor operator yelped; "NOW what's wrong?" the Sensor tech just shrugged; "I ... don't know... there's some sort of distortion growing in front of us..." Franz just sighed and shook his head; "I KNEW this was too easy to be true. I KNEW those Pirates were professionals, and too slick to be caught like this!... OK, put it on the main viewer and lets see what we're up against..."

Tanj panted hard as she ran; she'd managed to avoid any and all furrs ... well almost all. One she hadn't seen until the last minute had merely waved politely and kept on walking as if seeing a naked Cheetah half encased in translucent latex was an everyday occurrence. And now, as she ventured further away from the more inhabited sections of the station, Following the strange yellow-green cables that sang with power, as she drew closer to Mark's remote workshop, she ran harder, less mindful of the noise she was making... something told her they were very near to disaster, and she wanted to be with Mark when whatever was going to happen, happened.

Kath settled into the cushions of the couch and smiled. Breakfast had been a delight, even if her head now swam from the strange concoction she'd been drinking. The two Tigresses were splayed out on other pieces of furniture, smiling, half dozing, as the Cheetah male bustled industriously in the kitchen, cleaning up the remains...

Franz scowled as the distortion took shape on the main viewer; it looked for all the world like a black and silver flower blossoming before them, opening... Looking over at his Exec, he raised an eyebrow in a silent question; the Exec just shrugged in return; "Never seen ANYTHING like that..." Franz nodded and bit his lip. The Nova torpedoes had been "lit"... he'd have to use them soon, or jettison them. Should he bore on through, and ignore the... whatever, or take evasive action and hope he could get back to the right vector before he had to fire?

Tanj slid to a stop before the doorway to Mark's lab. It was closed, and she couldn't use her hands! Growling she threw herself to the floor, bringing one foot up to pound on the keypad...

The sensor operator growled and shook his head; "Sir, I'm getting some awfully strange readings here; there's a LOT of power in that thing, whatever it is..." Franz nodded and turned to his helmsman; "Try and skirt that thing, whatever it is, and then get us back on track on the other side of it." The Helmsman just nodded, his fingers dancing over his console.

Tanj howled with triumph as she finally hit the right button and the door slid aside; rolling, moving quick before it could close again, she squirmed her way into Mark's lab... To behold a bizarre sight. The mouse was seated in a lotus position... Floating a good three feet off the floor. Over one portion of the Brou device, a sphere of light showed a starscape, the wavering outline of a vessel more hinted at than directly visible... And in front of it, shifting as the ship changed course, was a black flower, its petals outlined in a crosshatched pattern that seemed to describe and delineate the flow of energies... Transfixed, Tanj stared, open mouthed.

The Helmsfurr on the Mercenary Cruiser cursed and tried again; it seemed no matter what course he set, that strange flow of dark energies seemed to slither straight in front of his ship. It was obvious there was an intelligence behind it, whatever it was... "Captain, I can't seem to evade it... And I can't kill our forward momentum in time... we're going to hit it..."

Franz growled and nodded; "Weapons officer; put the first Nova square into that thing; maybe we can blow it out of our path!" The Wombat he was growling at hesitated for a moment, and Franz knew what was going through his mind; at this distance, their massive weapon might destroy them as well as that thing... but after only a split second, his fingers were caressing the controls, and the ship bucked as the first torpedo left its tube... They watched it run straight and hot, only to be swallowed up by the energies...

Hinoki purrred and settled onto the couch between the Mink and one of the Duke sisters. Snuggling softly, he settled down for a short nap...

Franz watched in amazement as the torpedo just seemed to... vanish. One moment it was there and then next it wasn't... No flash of light, no wreckage, no energy discharge that they could detect... it was just gone! Growling he turned to yell at the Helmsfur; "Do SOMETHING! Don't let us pass into that thing!" But even as he spoke, he knew it was too late...

Tanj watched in amazement as the image of the ship passed into the cloud of roiling black energies... And didn't come out the other side. After a moment the black flower seemed to fold in on itself, diminishing until it was gone, leaving only the blackness of space, sprinkled with distant stars... And then a breaker somewhere slammed massively as it tripped and Tanj turned to gasp as a panel seemed to dissolve in a shower of sparks.

Ben blinked and shook his head. Sitting up, he looked around in amazement. How'd he get in Personnel? As he struggled to get up, his jaw dropped, as he realized he was naked! Staggering he headed for his quarters, hoping he wouldn't run into anyone on the way...

Mark smiled and nodded in satisfaction; opening his eyes he turned and looked at the wide-eyed Cheetah; "Hello Tanj!" he called cheerily; "What's new?"

Tanj blinked at the Mouse and then growled; "New? NEW? The base is inundated with some sort of sex craze, probably a biological attack of some kind, you're using a device that isn't supposed to work to make ships vanish, and you ask me whats NEW?" Mark laughed at her expression, and nodded with only mildly exaggerated seriousness. "Of course. News travels rather slowly down here, after all..."

The Lion blinked and sat up. "Now how in the Hell did I get down in the Docking bay?" he growled to himself. Rising, he scratched his head and padded off towards his quarters. It wasn't until he was about to step into the shower that he realized that he wasn't wearing anything to take off. Yawning widely he put off that conundrum for the moment. He wanted to get clean and then get some sleep, and he'd deal with that curiosity later.

Tanj grunted as she rolled up the cable. Mark had cut the latex sheath from her, but they hadn't been able to find anything for her to wear, so she was working in the nude. Mark was insisting that they get the power grid back to the way it was supposed to be as soon as possible, or the Engineering managers would have his hide. And therefore Tanj worked to help him undo all his jury rigging, not understanding half of what she was disassembling.

Emmie Duke yawned and stretched... And her eyes fell on the sleeping form of a nude Hinoki, as he snuggled against an equally nude Mink. Blinking in surprise she looked around; her apartment was just the way it should be, perhaps with a pillow here or there out of place... As her gaze fell upon the form of her sleeping sister, she blinked and then grinned wickedly as she realized that she too was nude... as she was herself! "Well," she purrred to herself; "I don't know what's been goin' on here, but it looks like we've all been having fun... but enough's enough." Rising she padded over to Hinoki, to shake his shoulder lightly.

Hinoki awakened to the sight of a smiling Tigress looking down at him; with a grin he tilted his head up to try and kiss her, only to have her put a finger on his nose and push him back gently; "Enough of that, Dear. I think its time you and your friend went home. Sis and I have to get to work in the morning and we need our sleep." Nodding sleepily, Hinoki yawned and tugged Kath to her feet, to lead her from the appartment.

Emmie closed the door behind them and locked it and then padded over to her sister, to rouse her just enough to get her to go in to her bed. As the two tigresses headed for their bedrooms, Emmie growled; "Getting' kinda risque, Sis, inviting those two over for a wild night..." Her sister just looked at her sleepily; "Me? I thought YOU invited them!"

Tanj put the heavy, insulated electrician's gloves back in their storage bin and turned to Mark; "OK, everything's pretty much back the way its supposed to be, with the exception of the one melted transformer, and all the blown breakers. Engineering IS going to notice that, I suspect. The smell of burned insulation is EVERYWHERE." Mark just smiled and shrugged; "Some things we can't hide; but we do have power flowing to most of the rest of the station, like its supposed to be." Tanj nodded and crossed her arms under her breasts; she stared down at the Mouse for a moment and then demanded; "So just what WAS that I saw, in your workshop? What did you DO?"

Mark shook his head and smiled disarmingly. "Only what I was supposed to. Remember how I told you I'd been assigned to figure out what that device DOES? Well, how would I ever find out for certain without at least one test run?" Tanj frowned and shook her head; "Why is it I get the feeling you're not telling me the whole story?"

Sam grinned as he stepped through the door and into Ops. He was fifteen minutes early for his shift, a fact he was sure was going to shock and amaze his boss. But as he looked around, he realized something was very wrong. The place looked like a tornado had struck, papers and manuals scattered everywhere... and there wasn't a soul present! Shocked, Sam turned to check the status of the station's defenses, only to find them offline. Biting his lip, he started the recycle procedure, to bring the shields back up to their normal status... When he got them some protection, he'd get on the comm and find out where everyone was... And then he grinned; usually his boss gave him grief for being late; now, it was quid pro quo time!

Franz looked over his navigator's shoulder, and shook his head for the dozenth time; "It just doesn't make sense. Are you sure our navigational database wasn't corrupted somehow? I mean, if the stars around us don't match anything on our charts, we'd have to be WAY outside the Empire!" The Navigator shrugged; "I know its unbelievable, but there's no trace of computer problems, and nothing matches. I literally have NO idea where we are, or how we got here!" Franz just groaned; turning to the Exec, he shook his head; "Better put us on restricted rations. We're going to have to find out where we are by going around and ASKING folks... Might be a while before we get home..."

Tanj padded slowly back towards her quarters. It was all catching up with her and she felt wore out, totally exhausted. On her way, she passed a few furrs, wandering about; most seemed to be confused, or dazed, as if they didn't really know where they were, or how they got there. She had one bad moment when she recognized one of the members of the hunting party that had captured her, but the wolf walked right past her as if she wasn't even there... As she watched him padd away down the corridor, she had to chuckle; "Has to be an improvement over the last time we met..."

Grillo opened his eyes and groaned, only to hear a "No, no don't move; you've got a nasty bump on your head; better lie still." Forcing his eyes open he blinked as things came into focus... A lady was kneeling over him, dressed only in the tattered remains of a blouse, gently pressing a damp cloth to his brow. Shaking his head a little, the porcupine groaned; "Be careful, I wouldn't want to stick you." To his surprise she laughed, a light musical sound; "Oh, I'm not worried; I don't think you can hurt me..." Taking another look, the Porcupine blinked, trying to focus his eyes; as the image of the lady armadillo cleared, he smiled and muttered; "I think I'm in love..."

Jim rolled over in bed, and swatted at the comm switch; "Yeah, yeah, I'm here, whats the emergency?" Sam's voice came over the speaker; "Hey, Boss; I'm in Ops and YOU AREN'T! YOU'RE LATE!" Jim blinked, suddenly more awake than he wanted to be. Shifting his gaze at the chronometer, he blinked; "Naw, that's GOT to be wrong! Check again!" "Sorry Boss, every Chrono I can find, including my wrist unit, says the same thing. Got the schedule right here on the monitor in front of me. And I'm the ONLY one in Ops!" Jim growled and shook his head; he felt like he'd been drugged, and was still so sleepy he could hardly see straight; "All right, all right, but if I find out you're screwing with me, you'll regret it!" Stabbing a finger at the disconnect switch, he struggled to sit up, only to go wide-eyed as a feminine voice behind him purrred; "Who was that, Lover?"

Rafe blinked at the mass of bound furrs in the middle of the kennel area. Walking around them, he chuckled and shook his head; "I see SOMEONE'S been busy. Pity I missed it; they do good work!" Chuckling he reached up and started undoing the straps holding the lady squirrel in what had to be a most uncomfortable position, thinking this was going to take a while to undo... but it should be interesting work.

Tanj keyed open the door and stepped into the cabin she shared with the Lion, only to come to a quick stop. There, in the middle of the bed, he lay, snoring softly. For a moment her mind was filled with the animalistic image of him on the hunt, and she almost turned and slipped back out. After a moment of indecision, she turned and tiptoed quietly towards the bathroom, and a good hot soak.

Hannah worked her jaw hard, as the Chipmunk pulled the ball gag out of her mouth; "Thanks; that'd been in there so long, I was afraid it was going to take root!" As the Chipmunk worked at the straps that bound her, he muttered, "Geez, Lady, who DID this to you?" Hannah smiled; "You know, I don't remember... but I'd love to run across 'em again!"

Jo smiled and nuzzled Amanda soflty; she had no idea how she'd wound up in her roommate's bed, and could only suspect what they'd been up to, given the ruffled state of her fur, and certain matted areas... but after a few minutes reflection, she decided this was a nice place to be, and snuggled softly against Amanda once again...

Hinoki padded into the Kennels, leading Kath at the end of her leash. They'd both had a shower back at his quarters, and the Cheetah had found some clean clothes, and after some quiet conversation, he'd decided he'd better get her back where she belonged. As they padded through the entrance, they stopped to watch for a moment as a Wolf slowly unstrapped a rather large and exhausted looking Tigress from the center of the floor, to lead her towards the baths.

Kath sighed as the Cheetah gently pushed her into the cage. She'd been polite, but firm as she dared, given the way she found herself, given the fact that everyone assumed she was a sex slave. But the Cheetah had just smiled and shrugged, and refused to let her use a comm, or to get a message to her office. When she'd told him that she was an Imperial Agent, he'd just smiled and said that was Tanj's domain, and she'd be along shortly, he had no doubt. It wasn't until they were almost to the Kennels that she'd had her worst fears confirmed. She still didn't know exactly where she was, or who these furrs were, but she knew she wasn't on pharrpoint station any more...

The Lion yawned and stretched; he felt good, felt rested... and somehow he felt... well, young. Like he'd just won some sporting event the previous day, and after the strenuous task, had gotten a good nights sleep. And then his eyes narrowed; there was Tanj wrapped in a blanket, sleeping on the couch? What was she doing over there? Had he said something to make her mad at him?

Tanj jerked awake when she felt the rough tongue on her cheek; as her eyes came open she beheld the face of her Master and instinctively flinched. The Lion just sat back and blinked at her; "Tanj, what's wrong?" She shook her head; "Wrong? Urrrrr, the hunt! I remember you leading the hunt... and the feathers, Oh LORD, the feathers!" The Lion just frowned; "Tanj, you're not making any sense. What hunt? And what feathers!"

Zassa yawned and stretched, looking about, wondering how she got here... wherever "here" is; looking down at herself, she grined at the stickyfurr; "Must have had a truly great time; can't remember a thing!" Rising, she padded nude and not in the least self-conciously back to her quarters.

Mindy purrrrred as various furrs disengaged themselves and headed home. Thinking over what Tanj had said, she realized she'd never really had the "flu" bad, it never really affected her... but now that everyone else seemed to be recovering, she was kind of sad to see it end. She'd been enjoying herself. Suddenly remembering why she had come to Engineering in the first place she rose and padded towards the MCC to check it out. Standing in the doorway, she looked around and frowned. No strange yellow-green cables. No systems modified, and re-arranged... Everything looked, well, normal. There was the stench of burnt insulation in the air, but nothing seemed IMMINENTLY in danger, nothing too hot... Finally she shook her head and with a shrug, turned to head back to her quarters, thinking she must have imagined it all...

As they padded towards the Cafeteria, the Lion shook his head; "Tanj, I remember you coming back from the last mission not feeling well... Are you sure you didn't run a fever, and, well, imagine it all? You have to admit, it sounds like something delirious..." Tanj sighed and nodded; "It sounds wild all right; but I bet you we can examine the internal security cameras and prove it... except the power was turned off. There HAVE to be records somewhere..." The lion just shrugged and got a tray, to move down the line, grabbing things for both of them for Breakfast. Tanj just looked around the Cafeteria, remembering the wild night, and the tickling. Finally she settled into a seat opposite her Master, to stare at her glass of Orange juice, as if trying to divine whether her memories were real, or imagined.

The Lion took another spoonful of cereal and watched the distracted Tanj. Frowning, he looked past her and a little to her left... Rising he stalked around behind her and bent to pick up something... The yelp Tanj let out when the Lion picked up the feather turned heads all through the room...

Tanj sat at her work station in Intelligence, the hum of the busy office serving to reassure her that everything was getting back to normal. The e-mail and field reports, however, were all stacking up as she sifted through records from engineering. There was no doubt that the generators had delivered an absolutely massive surge of power to something... the Engineering staff members she'd questioned had passed it off either as an instrumentation glitch, or as some power spike caused by what Mark had been doing. Tanj was convinced of the latter; she'd been there, seen what had happened, but try as she might, she could convince no one of what she'd seen happen. All the sensors had been off-line at the time; the records showed that clearly, although no one could explain WHY they were off-line. As to the missing three days, most were evasive about that. Some firmly insisted that there was some sort of a glitch with all the chronometers in the station, and the true date was almost three days ago. Some thought it all some obscure practical joke... Others thought that Mark's experiments had somehow thrown them three days into the future. And no one wanted to own up to three days of wild sex. But Tanj was convinced. There HAD been a ship out there, there HAD been a threat. She was just having difficulty proving it. Turning back to her terminal, she called up the communications logs. She had to find out if that ship out there had transmitted anything, if they'd revealed the location of the Brethren's base...

The Mink stared at the Cheetah fem as if she'd gone crazy; "Madam, I am an Imperial Agent; there is No WAY I'd behave like that!" They'd taken her from the kennels, biterly protesting until someone had gagged her, to some sort of an interrogation room, strapped her tightly to a chair, and then left her. Kath had squirmed, tugging against her bonds for what seemed like hours, before the Cheetah had shown up. The Cheetah had then proceeded to tell her the most fanciful story of a sex contest at Pharrpoint station, and of how SHE had approached HER, asking to borrow her male slave. LUDICROUS!

Tanj smiled and shook her head at the still gagged Mink; "I know you don't believe any of this, and I think I know what happened to you, but before we get into that, let me show you a holotape. You see, one of the prizes we won was a copy of the commercial recording of that evening's events. At one point, if you ignore the goings-on, on stage, you can see, in the lower left hand corner, yourself coming over to our table to talk to us." Tanj sighed; "and to my chagrin, my crewmates have been distributing copies of this tape all over the station..." Shaking her head, Tanj sighed and then shrugged. After a moment she looked up; "No matter. Aside from that, we also keep a camera running in the cargo bay of my ship, just for security purposes. The player will switch to that recording as well. I think you'll find it... interesting. I'll start the player and then I'll leave you to watch in peace. I'll be back by the time its over." So saying, the Cheetah rose and pressed a button on the holoplayer, and as the air filled with the images of the bar on Pharrpoint station, she slipped quietly out of the door.

Tanj smiled and sat down across from her Master, only slightly late for Dinner. As they discussed the day's events, in what Tanj found to be an annoyingly normal manner, Mark and Mala sat down next to them. For a while, the conversation turned to the recent voyage of the Overlord and the success of their operations, and of Mala's exploits. As happens, after a while, the conversation fell off, and in the momentary silence, Mark turned towards the lion; "Say, did anybody ever find out just where those guys trying to attack us while most of us were, ah, "incapacitated" came from, and who might be behind the operation?" The Lion turned to look at Mark; "You mean the story about the cloaked cruiser being eaten by the Brou device? As much as I trust you two, I find that story awfully hard to swallow. But if it IS true, could you put on a demonstration for us? Show us how the Brou device can make a Cruiser, or something of equivalent size, vanish?" Mark frowned lightly and shook his head; "No can do, I'm afraid. The device was never really meant to move quite that kind of mass OR operate off station power, and in doing both, it was severely overtaxed. It has some basic self-repair capacity and should be able to restore itself, within time IF we can feed it the correct raw materials... but for the moment, its essentially out of order. To be honest, it's a miracle and a half that it didn't just go up in smoke under the strain." The Lion gave Mark a long hard look and just let out an "uh-huh..." before returning his attention to his meal. For his part, Mark turned and gave Tanj a smile and a shrug as if to say "I tried..."

Kath looked up as the Cheetah re-entered the interrogation room; the holoplayer had run its course and she'd been alone with her thoughts for a while. The Cheetah set down a covered plate, and turned to remove the Mink's gag; "Well, what do you think?" "I think it's a blatant forgery!" the Mink snarled. "I'd NEVER behave in such a manner! NEVER!" Tanj just grinned and bent, to shove a paw rudely between the Mink's thighs. She'd been bound to the chair with an ankle secured to each of the front chair legs, and she was unable to pull her knees together to defend herself. After a moment Tanj looked up, into Kath's eyes and smiled; "For someone who finds such activities so objectionable, you're awfully wet, Dear." And under her fur, Kath blushed, the blood rushing to her skin, the heat making her facial fur bristle.

Tanj smiled and fed the Mink another spoonful. It was obvious that while the Mink was hungry, she hated being spoon-fed. On the other hand, Tanj knew Imperial Agents were well trained and she had no intention of discovering the Mink's unarmed combat abilities. "So you say the Buffalo jabbed you with his cane on the Transport, and that it bled a little. How much you want to bet you were infected right then and there?" Tanj could see the indecision flicker across the Mink's face before she flatly rejected the idea. Smiling, Tanj held up another spoonful; "Now, tell me all about this Buffalo, and anything else you might remember about anyone else you noticed on that ship..."

Kath grumbled, the ball gag once again stifling her comments, as the Cheetah dragged her down the corridor at the end of her leash. At one point the Cheetah had actually threatened to re-attach the leash to a nipple ring, if she didn't behave. Grumbling, not quite fighting the leash, she followed the Cheetah down the corridor...

Wanda smiled and gave Tanj a hug as she entered Medical; "You wouldn't BELIEVE what I've found!" Tanj turned and looked at Kath, and pointed to a spot on the floor, and with a glare that would singe fur, the Mink reluctantly knelt where she was told. Turning back to Wanda, Tanj grinned; "What did you find?" Wanda led Tanj over to a computer terminal, and called up a file; "I found this little beastie. Well, all right, Dr. Narayanan helped... Its definitely a virus, and we're pretty sure its artificial. Not many natural viruses die out so completely after they've run their course." Tanj nodded; "Pretty much as we thought. Now, the big question; who made it?" Wanda blinked and shrugged; "Well... I would have to guess there are a couple dozen labs throughout the Empire that might produce such a thing... Be awfully hard to figure out which one though. They don't exactly put logos or serial numbers on things like this." Tanj nodded and bit her lower lip as she thought... "Is there any place on Elysium that might have produced it?" Wanda thought for a minute and then nodded; "Actually, there was, but I heard it was destroyed in the fighting a while back..." Tanj just smiled and nodded... "How convenient..."

Kath looked up as the Cheetah and the Wolverine padded back towards her, completely forgetting her new "station." Tanj grinned and forced the Mink's head back down, to a more proper posture and then turned to grin at Wanda; "Years ago, your father gave me to you as your servant, and I've always felt a little bad about "stealing" myself away from you, and for landing you in such a strange and awkward situation. I told you I'd bring you back a little something from this trip, and to try and make up for some of that, I'd like to give you this slave." In chorus, both Kath and Wanda yelped "WHAT?"

Tanj smiled; "Well, we certainly can't risk letting an Imperial Agent get loose on us. I don't trust the memory wipes the Psych folks say they can do, and the only other alternative is to kill her. Don't really want to do that either. I think, deep down inside, she's an amazing submissive, and that she's been hiding it under a layer of bluster all her life. And I think you could keep her under control. Oh, I'll have to borrow her from time to time, as certain questions come up, but aside from that, she's yours. Her name's Kath." Wanda smiled and hugged Tanj again; "Thank you, she's lovely and I'm sure we'll get along famously!"

Kath watched the Cheetah leave, and then turned to look at the Wolverine lass in the nurse's uniform; shaking her head, she muttered; "This can't be happening..." Wanda just laughed. "You stay right where you are, and keep quiet. I've got another two hours left in my shift, and then I'll take you home... In the meantime, think about what you're going to make me for dinner..."

Xylex watched calmly as Trotskie stepped out of the shadows. The industrial side of town was always dangerous after night, especially now that the rebellion was growing so strong, but he knew he had nothing to fear from the Reds. They needed him too much. The Bear looked at Xylex for a moment and then growled; "The Brethren are still making their presence felt. Their forces are constantly backing up the Blues. Their ships actually provided fire support for the assault on the Government facility at Arneth last week. I thought you said you were going to destroy them!" Xylex shrugged; "The Mercenaries I hired haven't been heard from. I know that operation was initiated, but obviously something's gone wrong. But that's my concern. Tell me about your advance on New Prague..."

Later, Trotskie watched Xylex's ground car disappear into the night. He was growing tired of the Wolverine's attitude. Yes, he was providing priceless intelligence, and yes, he was able to provide the weapons and money... But he was starting to act like HE was in charge... And now this failure with respect to the Brethren... Trotskie wondered to himself if Xylex wasn't also supporting the Blues, and his story about trying to take out the Brethren just a decoy to make the Reds more ... amenable. Grumbling, as he turned to head towards his own transport, the bear decided he didn't care one way or the other if the pirates lived or died; just so long as they stopped helping his arch rival, Cromwell, and his goody-goody Blues.

Xylex watched the scenery go by as his groundcar took him home by a circuitous route. That Trotskie was becoming an annoyance. He was starting to fight against the leash Xylex had so carefully forged for him. "Have to get rid of him soon" the Wolverine thought to himself... And then his thoughts turned back to the mercenaries. Why HADN'T they completed their mission? The plan was fool-proof!... unless someone had tampered with it. Had Trotskie and the Reds done something to mess up the plan, to keep him distracted while they sought to usurp HIM? Growling, Xylex reviewed his plans for replacing Trotskie, evaluating how he might accelerate the time-table. Besides, the cause could use a martyr about now... Settling back in his seat, Xylex made a mental note to figure out how to blame the loss of the Imperial Courier on the Brethren, and if possible, on the Blues. Maybe some profit could come of this fiasco after all...

Wanda smiled as she watched Kath do the dishes. As a chef, the Mink's cullinary skills definitely needed improving. And the MOUTH on that one! She'd finally had to gag her to shut her up about how the Empire was going to destroy them all, and how she'd have her vengeance... and about how she'd been so horribly mutilated... Wanda chuckled at that one; she'd seen the Mink flick one of her nipple rings back and forth, when she thought no one was looking... Relaxing, waiting for Kath to finish the dishes, Wanda wondered if she might be able to use her tongue for something other than complaining... "Only one way to find out" she mused to herself, watching the Mink's ass move as she scrubbed one particularly stubborn pot...

Tanj smiled as she read the field report. She'd been gathering bits and pieces of information, in the weeks since the "incident." The medical evidence that Wanda had turned up was hard to refute, but still there were those that insisted that nothing had happened. The short term memory loss associated with the virus was amazing, and the Brethren's own scientists were trying to find a way to incorporate just that in a virus... And now she had a report of yet another skirmish on Elysium. Except this time it was between the Reds and a Mercenary group. Well, that wasn't THAT unusual; sometimes thieves fell out with each other. But in this case, a reason was listed. It seemed the Mercs were trying to charge the Reds for an operation that hadn't quite come off, including a rather hefty payment for equipment lost... and the Reds didn't want to pay, because they hadn't completed their mission... Smiling, Tanj composed a message, to her opposite number in the rebel group known as the Blues, asking him to have a few select furrs "picked up" for her...

Kath knelt in the corner of the interrogation room, at Wanda's feet, the Wolverine lass lightly holding her leash. Tied tightly to examining tables on the other side of the room was a female Gerbil and a male Mongoose, both nude. Various barbaric instruments of torture lay about, as if ready for use. The room was cool, almost chill, and Kath had trouble keeping from shivering. The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it, as if the cold had congealed it from the bodies of the Gerbil and the Mongoose. After a while, Tanj padded in, looking particularly rough in her combat vest and camouflaged pants. For a long moment she paused, just inside the door, ignoring Wanda and Kath, her gaze fixed on the two bound prisoners. With a convulsive movement, the Cheetah jerked a slim-bladed dagger from a sheath at her belt, the metal of the blade making a hisss as it was withdrawn. Toying with the dagger, its point pressed against the pad of one finger, its hilt twirling back and forth, she padded over to stand between the two examining tables. "Lets see now, you're from whats left of a mercenary unit called the Renegades... No, don't answer, I know that to be a fact. You don't have to confirm that... I understand you recently had a small altercation with the Reds... I'd like you to tell me about it." The Gerbil's eyes flashed to one side, as if trying to look at Mongoose, but the way she was bound, unable to turn her head, it was obviously more a reflex than a genuine effort to obtain guidance or reassurance. Finally her eyes turned to Tanj and she sighed; "It was just business you understand. Nothing personal..." Tanj smiled; "So the cruiser that was about to attack us WAS yours...?" The Mongoose nodded; "Yeah, but if we'd known your defenses were THAT good we would never have taken the contract... There wasn't even any report of WRECKAGE! How in the Hell'd you DO that, anyways?" Tanj just chuckled; "So who gave you the contract?" Again the prisoners tried to exchange looks. After a moment, the Mongoose muttered; "Um, that wouldn't be ethicalllllLLLEEEEYYYOOOOWWWW!" Tanj smiled sweetly, the point of her dagger under the Mongoose's chin, a drop of blood forming from where its tip had pricked the skin... The Gerbil looked at the instruments strewn about and then at Tanj and sighed; "Leave him alone; I'll tell you! It was Xylex. He set the whole thing up." On the other side of the room, both Wanda's and Kath's jaws dropped. Tanj smiled and nodded as she looked up into the corner behind them, the voice stress analyzer flashing green... "Thank you; that's what I thought, but its good to hear from you... now... what can you tell me about..."

As they padded back towards Wanda's cabin, Kath edged up a little, until she was essentially walking next to Wanda. A frown on her face, the Mink growled; "Xylex was the Elysium Government official I was to contact on my arrival. He was the one I was coordinating all my travel plans through. Obviously he sold me out! If I EVER get my paws on that Xylex, he'll wish he'd never been BORN!" Wanda chuckled and tugged on the leash just a little, to remind the Mink of who and what she was; "My Father? No way, I got first dibs!" Kath blinked and came to a complete stop, the leash jerking tight; "Your FATHER? You're Xylex's DAUGHTER?" Wanda just grinned; "Yup. Real bastard, isn't he? Come on, Slave, we've got revenge to plan..."

This story is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any characters, living, dead or imaginary is purely a coincidence. Tanj and these stories are copyright Kittiara's player, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000. Kittiara can be found on Furrymuck; telnet 209.100.167.128 8888. Hinoki, Zassa, and Jenka copyright their players, also to be found on FurryMuck. Mark is copyright Ann'katar, also of FurryMuck. Comments, suggestions, or flames can be directed to ha_seng@hotmail.com.