DogForge (22 page)

Who? Who!

“Mistakes were made.” Maya spoke again, faster, “Men came, and a fleet of starships led by one named
Everest
. But,” she looked away. “Caesar was too strong.”

Everest. Dead? Ask her! Ask her! Damn you, ask her!

“
Did
Everest
die?”

Maya looked at Denali. “No,
Everest
was heavily damaged. They tried to capture a ship called
Flavius
. They boarded with men, a legion of dogs, and would have won. They even took control of the ship. The dogs of
Flavius
wouldn’t fight men, couldn’t.”

What happened?
Cicero was bubbling up with excitement.

“What happened?”

“Caesar launched robots to repel the boarders and when they failed, he fired on Flavius.” Maya looked away and swallowed hard. “The starship burned on impact and was shattered across Forge.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Denali asked. Something stirred in her heart.

“I was one of the last to escape from Flavius before it burned. I prayed to find a survivor, anyone. I always hoped to find a survivor, any survivor. So many mistakes were made that day.”

Captain Maya looked away. Neither of the dogs looked at each other. Denali stared at the floor and didn’t know what it all meant.

“I was born on Flavius?”

“Yes.”

Denali’s eyes welled with tears.

“Denali.” Maya leaned close. “I know your father.”

“M
y father,” Denali mouthed silently. “Who is he?” Her tail thumped heavily on the floor.

“His name is Martin.”

“When can I see him? Is he here?”

Captain Maya shook her head. “You can’t.”

“I need to see him, what is he like? My mother? Who is my mother? Where is she?”

“He serves Caesar now. I didn’t know him well. Those who did...are dead.”

“Dead?”

Captain Maya looked away. “Your father was horribly wounded trying to rescue your mother in the assault on Flavius. We were ordered out, but he wouldn’t leave, not without...” The words drifted away. Captain Maya took a breath.

“Then Caesar fired on Flavius and we were caught, we just barely made it out. He wouldn’t leave, even almost dead. Now, now, he’s something different, I don’t think much remains of his mind.”

Denali numbed and her ears burned. Something different, the words hung in her mind. “My mother?”

“Her name was Freya. She was a diplomat that wanted to stand with the men, to give dogs their freedom. Men came in, Flavius tried to negotiate a peace, but it failed.  We could have done it.” Captain Maya shook her head. Her eyes were dark and bitter.

Captain Maya continued: “We could have done it, Caesar would have come to their terms, I know he would have. Instead they seized the ship, killed Flavius, and tried to escape. Your father didn’t agree with the path, he, well, he always served Caesar.”

Denali saw her father in her mind and whimpered. “What happens now?”

“We serve Caesar and protect our families, our kind.”

“I must find him,” Denali said. “He has to know I’m alive.”

Captain Maya shook her head. “You will serve and do your duty. You are protecting the worlds where dogs live and by holding this flank protecting mankind as well. We are a buffer on his flank, we still serve men.” Maya relaxed and tucked her tail against her legs. “We serve Caesar because he serves us. One day we will have our freedom.”

“What of men?”

“There is something in us, something deep, ancient, written in our genetic code that we serve men, we can’t fight them.” Maya cocked her head. “Caesar can’t invade the realms of man. Instead we live on the borders. He can defend himself, but something in his core doesn’t allow him to invade.”

Such is true,
Cicero said in her mind.

“The alien soldiers.” Denali remembered them on the edge of the starship.

Maya nodded. “We handle the aliens on the borders, other aliens handle the men who invade our space. We’re stuck between the human nations on one flank, and countless aliens on others. If we don’t fight and hold, then we’ll be overrun.”

Denali felt confused and relieved. Questions became answers, but those answers brought her to even more confused places. What purpose her life had was again adrift in a sea of uncertainty. She could never fight for Caesar, not knowing that he fired on her mother, so instead she would fight for her comrades and to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.

“Your name.” Maya said slowly. “Is the name of the starship that almost destroyed Caesar in that assault.
Denali
came with
Everest
and sent the humans across to negotiate, they were the ones who seized Flavius.”

I told you I knew a Denali,
Cicero spoke smugly in her head.

Almost destroyed Caesar. Denali ran it through her mind.
Someday, I’ll finish that job.

“Speak of this no more. It is the past, and it’s better not to dwell on such things. The only reason I spoke, is I was there, you had to know.”

Denali nodded. Her mind roamed and she dreamed of her father, her mother, and a starship named
Denali
.

“When you leave you will find Kell, he’s to train you.”

“To be a rat?”

“To be a rat.”

Denali stood on shaky legs. She looked up at Captain Maya. “Why did you tell me this? Why find me?”

Maya looked away and spoke in barely a whisper. “I should have stood with those who fell.” She drifted her eyes onto the wall and then at Denali. “Dismissed.”

A thin light blurred the floor beneath the closed curtain. Denali stared at it and wished she could sleep. She closed her eyes again and thought of her father and mother. The emotions boiled inside of her.

What were they like? Did her father even know she still lived? With every question came desperation, and the realization that she might never know. Was he so changed? What made her mother risk so much? Freedom? She didn’t even know what it really was.

My life is here,
she thought.
How could I ever escape? Where would I go?

There are other places in this universe.

“Shut up,” Denali muttered. She didn’t feel like listening to Cicero prattle on about things she’d never see.

If you could escape, would you?

Denali closed her eyes again. Could she?

Pictures of other places flowed through her mind. Planets she’d seen pictures of, vidrolls of firefights and invasions. Forge. The planet she was raised on. All she knew was violence, it was as much a part of her as was her own fur.

“Yes,” She said it to herself and knew it to be true. For now the dogs around her were her family, her duty, but if she had a chance...

Claws clacked outside of the niche. Chewing sounds and a loud sigh disturbed the silence of the room. A fart broke the moment and the claws clacked away.

Denali closed her eyes and slept, dreaming of a father she never knew.

“I have to go in there?” Denali asked.

She hunched down and stared into the ventilation shaft. It burrowed into darkness with dust and cobwebs drifting in the wind.

“Yup,” Kell snorted.

Smells wafted out, a mix of dog, rust, dust, and a tint of feces.

“Ugh, where does it go?”

Kell cocked his head to the side. “Well, it wouldn’t be much fun if I told you.”

He laid down next to the tunnel and scratched his paws in front of him. His back legs sprawled out like a jumping frog. “When it’s tight you go in like this,” he rolled a bit and tucked his legs, “now you grab with your front and pull, kick with your back.”

“What if I run into something?”

Kell stood and stretched. “You always run into things.”

“How do you fight?”

“You get a set of monofilament blades and a fusion lance. The mono is mounted on your paws, and the lance on your shoulder.” Kell shivered. His eyes lost focus then snapped back. “They work.”

Denali stared at Kell.

“I’m fine, really,” he said.

“Is it that bad?”

“Sometimes it’s nice and quiet. You could almost take a nap. Other times, well...” he drifted again. “It gets tight.”

A brute of a dog trundled past with a heavy wheeled cart. He glanced at the pair and wrinkled his stubby coal black nose.

“What you looking at, eh?” Kell snapped. “You big ugly son of a turd.”

The cart slammed onto the ground. A low rumble rose. The black dog locked his teeth onto the leather strap and tore it off.

“What are you doing?” Denali asked Kell.

“Fat and stupid. You from Hades, big boy? Ya smell like sulfur.” Kell stood with his shoulders braced and his head held high, a head that wouldn’t even reach the knees of the black dog. “Fat! Slow!”

“I’m gonna—”

Denali backed up into the wall. “Kell?”

“She thinks you’re ugly, too,” Kell snarled.

The black dog stomped. Spit flew off his face.

Kell spun around, his legs a blur, and disappeared into the tunnel with a mischievous yip.

“You,” the dog roared, and charged at Denali.

Denali dropped onto the ground and crawled into the tight space. Kell’s bottom wiggled in the darkness ahead and Denali followed after. Her heart pounded and she turned to see the maw of the dog snarling and barking at her. She grinned to herself, “Fat and stupid!”

The black dog roared in anger.

Kell laughed. “See! Now remember that. Lesson number one: always go where the enemy can’t.”

Denali grinned and pushed forward.

The tunnel scraped her back and at every junction a bit of hair tore loose. She gritted her teeth and winced anytime a seam came into view. The smells rolled over her and she tried to discern where exactly they were. The smell of feces hit her and then faded away.

She entered a four way junction. It opened up and she sat upright, though her head scraped the dusty ceiling. Kell sniffed with his nose held high.

“If ya know the pipes, let them follow ya, then fight where you can move and they can’t.”

Denali licked her paws and tasted the grit in her mouth.

“Eek!” Kell yipped. “Don’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“You’ve no idea what’s in these places.”

She remembered the smell of feces and stopped licking.

“If ya got the place to yourself, learn the exits, and dart around. They’ll pop one shut, so you go to the next. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Kell grinned back. “You’ll see. Now come on!”

Denali squirmed behind Kell. Her joints tightened up into fiery knots. The pair moved farther and Kell moved faster. Soon he pulled away from Denali and she was left in the darkness. The silence of the passage was only broken by a distant clang, or the hum of a hidden fan. She sniffed deeply, but smells all stirred together.

She arrived at a junction and stared at the floor. Paw prints went both directions.

No hints this time.

“
Hints?”

Remember, back in your trial? I recalled the floor plans.

“I wondered how you knew,” she mumbled. “So which way, genius?”

I have not the slightest clue.

The passage sloped down on one side while the other was level and wore a patina of dust. The air came in on the sloped tunnel, and exited out the level one. Denali walked to each, closed her eyes, and let the scents pass over her.

Trees.

She opened her eyes and sniffed once more. Trees, she was sure of it, the musky tang of bark and soil tickled the back of her nose. She thought of Forge, of spruces and pines, of rolling in the dirt and tunneling through the mounds of needles. That was her path.

Denali stretched  and delved deeper down the sloped path. She studied the paw prints in the gray dimness of the tunnel. What looked like one, was actually three. One going forward, one going back, and another returning forward.

“Clever,” she muttered. Well, at least it’s the right path.

Dust, thick like a musty blanket, caked onto her arms and legs. The cool wetness chilled her stomach. The deeper she went, the worse it got, soon her fur was a mass of dust, moisture, and sticky dirt.

Her nose tickled with the scent of pine resin. She plunged deeper, her claws scratching against the slick metal. Every joint burned. The trees drove her on, she couldn’t wait to see them.

The slope delved farther down. Every push brought her closer, and with less effort. She moved faster down the tunnel, her paws squeaked as she braked. Her ears flapped in the breeze and she grinned in excitement.

A pinprick of a light sparkled in the distance. She squinted and kicked off faster. The wetness of the floor soaked her and she shivered. The pinprick grew into a white square that stung her eyes with a titanium brightness.

She slid faster, and no matter how hard she pressed her paws down she couldn’t stop. Panels flew by and made a
thud-thud
sound as she dropped from one to the next. The brightness was intense.

Slow down.

“I’m trying!” Denali barked. The grin disappeared and she tried to turn herself, but the mucky base gave her no traction.

Her eyes burned in the brightness. The tunnel slid away and she flew through air with a howl.

The space stretched out into the distance in pillars of green needles and bushy browns. A green-blue creek slashed through the center. The ceiling was pure white, like the sun laid down for a nap.

She dropped straight into a pool of warm, slightly steaming, water. The shock was intense and she thrashed to the surface. Her breath caught in her throat and she hacked up water and gobs of dust.

Kell backflipped on the shore and threw a rooster tail of water into the air. His face squished together with laughter. “I love that!”

Denali paddled to the edge and climbed out onto the earthy soil. Her toes squished in the mud. “What is this?”

Kell shook his fur. Droplets of water flew into the air. Denali tucked her head away from the spray.

“This,” he said as he spun around, “is part of the air treatment system.”

“It’s amazing,” she whispered. Her heart ached and she breathed in the scent of the trees.