Kitsune Shijuro
Kitsune dropped hard to the deck as the freighter lurched, throwing her out of her hammock and knocking her back into consciousness. Slowly, she pulled herself upright, cradling her head in her hands.
The past weeks had been difficult enough. Kitsune was running from the Psi- Corps, hiding out on whatever third-rate spaceship she could hitch a lift on, going wherever she could that was away from Earth and Earth-controlled space. Not long ago, there had been an "underground railroad," which would have gotten her from Earth to Babylon 5 and then to whatever League systems might offer a human telepath shelter.
But that was gone, and Kitsune - like any other telepath who did not want to join the group actively fighting the Psi-Corps, using the slogan "Remember Byron" and whatever weapons they could get - had to fend for herself. She had set herself the goal of reaching Narn space. The Narn had no telepaths; with any luck they would be willing to protect her and let her earn her keep, as the Yakuza clan had, before now. She was living by all the wits she had, and so far had survived.
Then last night, some equally derelict person, also hitching a ride on this freighter, had gone on a Dust trip, not knowing - more likely not caring - that his companion was a telepath.
Kitsune tried a scan of the cargo hold, though it was nearly impossible to focus past the pain in her head. She got nothing. Sighing, she settled her back against the bulkhead, and looked at the blood smear on the ridge beside her hammock. Her badge of survival, she thought.
Not long after her companion had taken the Dust, the pain started blossoming in Kitsune's head. Within a minute or two, he was physically and mentally charging her, pushing himself off a crate and flying through the zero-gee space. She had already put up her mental walls, but against a Dust-driven mind, she might as well try to hang a tatami mat to stop a truck.
She dodged him, kicking out and sending him tumbling, to smash into another crate. It broke his concentration, buying her time - no more than a few seconds, she guessed.
She bolted to the far end of the cargo bay, bouncing off bulkheads and crates, putting what distance she could between herself and her assailant, breaking his line of sight. Anything to slow him down.
Desperately she looked for a weapon. Her judo - the only unarmed combat she knew - was worse than useless. In zero-gee it would look like ballet, and the last thing she wanted to do was touch a man high on Dust.
He was coming, crawling hand over hand across the crates, grabbing for her mind, ripping memories out like pages from a book.
**A tri-colored cat leaped at her face, snarling, claws lashing for her eyes--**
**Stop it, damn you!**
She found the chemical fire extinguisher, bolted to the bulkhead. With strength born of terror and rage, she ripped it loose from its binding.
**Stepping into her lover's room, looking across at the man on the bed, over four times her size --**
**Filthy Dust-sucking bastard, get out of my head --**
Priming the extinguisher, she set it off, at the same moment throwing it bottom first at her assailant. Her frantic strength combined with the force of the pressurized carbon dioxide flowing turned the canister into a missile, and it caught the man right between the eyes. He tumbled backwards, heels over head, until his tumble was stopped abruptly as his head impacted on the hatchway leading to the exterior of the ship.
At once, the pressure on Kitsune's mind evaporated.
Letting herself go limp, she floated back toward her hammock, trying to rub life back into skin nearly frozen by the blast from the extinguisher. Just as she reached it, the ship lurched violently - it must have been passing through a jumpgate. Kitsune was thrown forward, smacking her forehead into the bulkhead.
She pitched into the hammock, unconscious.
The ship lurched and bumped twice more, then was still. A voice on the intercom said, "We've landed on Altair. The cargo hatch is now unlocked. Don't be aboard five minutes from now, unless you feel like chatting with the Customs guys."
Picking herself and her small bag of belongings up, Kitsune threaded her way through the cargo containers toward the hatch. It was there that she spotted the Dust bunny, as she'd taken to calling him.
No wonder she hadn't been able to scan him, she thought. He was dead.
She crouched over him, rifling his pockets - you did what you had to, if you wanted to survive - and thinking. Perhaps she had killed him, by knocking him into the hatch. Or perhaps it was just the stress of the Dust on his system.
Grimacing at the memory of the telepathic assault, Kitsune kicked the dead man until the hatchway was clear. She spun the clamps open and slipped off the freighter.
It had gotten into a routine now. At each stop, Kitsune had to find her way into the local underworld, and locate a ship going toward Narn space which wouldn't mind an off the books passenger.
A fair supply of credits made the job easier. Sometimes, being a telepath helped too. The Psi-Corps was an unpopular organization - more unpopular the farther out from Earth you got, as Kitsune had figured out quickly.
Other times, she had to work a deal for her passage. This was shaping up to be one of them, she thought, as she sat in a corner of the small bar. At least the wait wasn't too bad - the barkeep had actually managed to locate half a pint of sake, and it was almost palatable.
The tall human in a dark suit walked briskly through the door, flanked by a pair of Drazi bodyguards. One of them carried a small, rectangular crate with a wire door. Kitsune opened her eyes. These three were the ones she was waiting for. But even more intriguing was the crate. There was something alive and aware inside. Not anywhere near human awareness, but intelligent nevertheless.
She pictured herself in her mind's eye, hoping there was enough somewhere about her to make the right impression. A human woman, a scant meter and a half tall and not even forty kilos in weight; Asian by ethnicity - Nihonjin, to be precise. A little past forty, although months of constant fear for her life had aged her considerably. Black hair cut short for simplicity's sake, and dark brown eyes - bloodshot and deeply underlined with black - that had seen far too much.
"Gentlemen, welcome," she said, taking the initiative and addressing the human. "You must be the one they call Doctor Morbius."
He frowned. "Yeah. You Kit ... Kit, sun ..."
"Kitsune," she said. "Yes. You got my request, I take it?"
"Yeah. In fact, I got you on a ship that leaves in two hours. Narn passenger transport, bound for Dra'shu. Interested?"
Kitsune's eyes widened despite herself. An actual passenger transport, and Narn besides, destined for Narn territory. It seemed too good to be true - but Morbius was telling the truth.
Or at least part of it.
"What's the catch?"
Morbius jerked his head toward the Drazi carrying the crate. The reptilian creature stepped forward and put the crate onto the table.
"You gotta take that with you," Morbius said. "Keep it alive, keep it happy, and when you get there, hand it over to a man named Rupert Delgoda."
"What is it?"
"It's a mongoose, I guess. A very special one, so they tell me. Get it to Delgoda, and he'll make it worth your while. Mess it up, and you'll have worse than the Psi-Cops on your ass, get me?"
"Very clearly, Doctor Morbius."
The gangster rolled his eyes, and seemed about to open his mouth when Kitsune spoke again.
"They call you that because you run Altair," she told him. "You should watch more old movies." She put a hand on top of the crate, sliding it toward her - and sliding the sake bottle out of the way with her other hand. "Tell me about the ship I - or should I say we? - are going out on."
Three hours later, Kitsune lay back in the berth of the Narn ship, feeling a sense of relaxation almost like bliss as the pressure of Altair's gravity faded away. Another jump point coming up; another step closer to freedom.
The berth was torpedo-shaped, barely more than an oversized coffin with a sleeping mat lining the bottom, and a few lights, temperature controls and a tiny view screen in the top half. But designed for the average Narn, even with the mongoose's crate, it was roomy for Kitsune.
Then the fear hit her.
Frantic, panicked. **Escape -- escape -- escape --**
Of course, she realized, leaning out of the straps of the tiny berth to catch the crate, which had started to float. She brought it up and held it to her chest, looking through the wire door and trying to catch the mind of the frightened creature inside. **No harm. No fear. I will protect you. Calm.**
Few people gave the idea of telepaths being able to communicate with animals much credit. And few telepaths ever bothered to try, at least as far as Kitsune knew. But she had worked for years with her cats, had even bred those which seemed to show the greatest responsiveness.
To think of the cats, which she had been forced to leave behind, brought a wave of grief to her mind, almost threatening to overwhelm the calming thoughts she was trying to send to the frightened mongoose. She took a deep breath and refocused herself. **No harm. No fear. I will protect you. Calm --**
**Who you? Can't walk! Escape!**
Kitsune's head jerked back. That had been a question! In all the years she had worked with her cats, they had never asked questions. Closing her eyes, she concentrated, scanning the mind of the mongoose in the crate.
She quickly realized it - she - was not a typical mongoose. Her intelligence had been significantly enhanced, at least to the level of a human child. Whether this was the result of selective breeding, or more direct genetic manipulation, Kitsune couldn't tell. She also couldn't guess why this had been done. Who would want a sentient mongoose? And what for?
**Who you!**
Kitsune blinked at the repeated question, and the sense of impatience it carried. She'd been rude, she realized.
**I'm sorry,** she told the mongoose. **I'm Fox. Do you have a name?**
**Riki.**
Well, whoever made this creature had a sense of literary history, Kitsune thought. Or perhaps Kipling knew more than anyone ever realized.
**Don't be afraid, Riki. I'll let you out of the crate. But you have to stay with me. Will you stay with me?**
**I'll stay.**
Kitsune nodded to herself, unhooking the latches and putting a hand inside the crate. Riki latched onto her hand and Kitsune pulled the mongoose free of the crate.
**Can't walk. What's wrong?**
Kitsune contemplated a few moments - how do you explain zero gravity to a child? - then gave it up. **You'll get used to it.** She looked over at the walls of the cabin, lined with thin, threadbare fabric. **Try climbing on the wall.**
Riki jumped and latched onto the wall, ran up and across it, then back and forth across the ceiling. **Fun!**
Kitsune grinned. **I thought you might like that.**
After a few minutes, the mongoose tired, and ran back down to Kitsune's berth. She curled up on Kitsune's chest, hooking her claws into the webbing and wrapping her tail around her nose, and dropped off to sleep.
Kitsune smiled. She could let herself rest, she thought, more than in weeks. If anyone tried to break into her berth, they'd be in for a shock. As her thoughts began to drift as she neared sleep, she found herself wishing she had a tail - a fox's tail - to wrap around her nose.
Some hours later, Kitsune left Riki in the berth and took a walk around the ship. It was small and quite Spartan by human standards, although she guessed it was luxuriant for the Narn, who made up the vast majority of the passengers.
And after weeks traveling in cargo holds, it was absolutely heavenly for Kitsune. One of the best things was that there were regular meal times.
On the second evening out of Altair, Kitsune headed for the dining room as dinner was called, and found herself seated with a Brakiri, dressed in an immaculate black suit and white shirt. His broad, flat face was covered with a tracery of fine tattooing that Kitsune tried not to notice.
She had learned that members of the Brakiri underworld shared a fondness for tattooing with the Yakuza clans she had fled from. This man could be dangerous. "Good evening, sir," she told him, hoping he wouldn't choose to talk further.
"Good evening, madam," he responded. "You look very tired. Have you been traveling long?"
"A while."
"My name is Kethtrell. I travel this route often, but I haven't seen you before. Have you come all the way from Earth?"
"Yes."
He continued asking questions, and Kitsune kept giving him monosyllabic answers, focusing on keeping her mind closed. She couldn't sense any other telepaths in the vicinity, and she didn't think she was being scanned. But she didn't trust the Brakiri. She didn't trust anyone - couldn't afford to. As soon as she could, she excused herself, almost running back to her berth.
Riki ran into her lap, and Kitsune fed her with the breen she'd saved from dinner. Riki made it clear this wasn't her favorite food, but she was hungry enough that it would do.
Over the next several days, Kitsune kept running into Kethtrell - literally, as often as not. Kitsune's unease kept growing, for although he didn't speak to her again, she could feel him watching her, studying her. She began to feel like a mouse, being stalked by one of her cats - or a snake, as Riki might pursue it.
She considered scanning him, but decided against it. An active scan - even a quick one - could be detected by another telepath, if one was aboard. And she had never tried to scan a Brakiri before - if she could do it at all, it would take her far more time than she dared.
Kitsune spent as much time as she could in the berth, playing with the mongoose. She brought what meat or fish she could from the galley, and protein cakes when she couldn't. Riki tried not to complain, though it was clear to Kitsune - and would have been even without telepathy - that these were far from the mongoose's taste. But hunger makes gourmets out of everyone, mongoose or human, Kitsune thought.
Unfortunately, she couldn't stay in the berth all the time. She - and Riki - had to eat, and Kitsune had to go to the communal head, at the end of the corridor.
It was when she was on her way back from one of the latter visits that Kethtrell came up behind her. Before she could react, he grabbed her, throwing one arm around her neck in a choke hold. She got a glimpse of a truncheon out of the corner of her eye, and then the whole world exploded and went black.
Kitsune struggled back to consciousness, her head a throbbing wash of pain. Too many blows to the head lately, she thought. At this rate, she would lose her telepathic powers - along with the rest of her brain - before she ever found a sanctuary.
A soft chuckle brought her attention back to the moment. "Good evening again, Miss Kitsune," Kethtrell said. "I wasn't sure you were going to come back."
"What's going on?" she asked, feeling too much pain to put ire behind her voice. "You have no right to do this."
"Who needs rights when there's good credits to be made?" he asked. "And I think I can make some very, very good credits from you, especially since you're alive. The Psi-Corps pay well for rogue telepaths turned over to them - not that they make the fact all that well known."
She narrowed her eyes, staring at him, trying to get a handle on his mind. It was too late to try and hide any more.
"Don't," he said, his tone turning from smug to harsh. "I don't have any of your human sleeper drugs, but I have plenty of others. Who knows what they might do to you?" He pulled several small bottles out of his pocket and showed them to her. "The first time you try anything inside my head, we'll start experimenting."
She muttered something in Japanese.
"I don't understand that, but I can imagine it's not a compliment," he said. "Curse me all you want, I've heard it all before, in one language or another."
She slumped in the chair, fighting the desire to burst into tears. It had been such a long run. She had come so far, and was so close - less than 24 hours from safety, she guessed. It wasn't fair that it end like this.
She wasn't going to let the Psi-Corps take her, that much she knew. She remembered the first time she'd fled them, taking the Kitakyushu ferry across the straits from Korea - it had taken all her will to hold the deck rail and not throw herself into the waves -
"Where's the animal, Miss Kitsune?"
Kitsune startled violently; she'd fallen so deep into a suicidal reverie she'd forgotten Kethtrell. The Brakiri leaned closer, repeating the question. She simply stared back at him, tilting her head up and pressing her lips together.
The Brakiri's hand whipped out, lacing his fingers into her hair and yanking her head all the way back. A short groan escaped Kitsune's lips. "Don't think you can hide it," he said. "I saw you carry it aboard. I don't know what it is, but I know it's important. Morbius wouldn't have paid a telepath to smuggle someone's pet. So where is it?"
Fear for the mongoose banished despair from Kitsune's heart. She had to find a way out of this, to save Riki. She wasn't going to leave her to this bastard, no matter what. "She escaped my berth. She could be anywhere on the ship."
Kethtrell's free hand cracked across her cheek. She grimaced, but said nothing. Suddenly releasing her, he took a few steps away before turning back. "I think you're lying," he said, his voice suddenly quiet and even more dangerous. "But I have a way to fix that too." He left the cabin and slammed the door.
Kitsune took several deep breaths, trying to focus. Better not to think about what would happen when Kethtrell came back, but rather about what she could do before then. She tested the bindings on her hands, wedged behind her back. They felt like fabric cord, but were tied tightly enough that there wasn't any give.
She looked around Kethtrell's cabin. Far larger than her own berth, of course, but still a rather confined space. She couldn't see any sharp edges readily to hand, though. Sighing, she thought of another tack. Telepathic attacks were never her strongest skill, but maybe if she prepared now, she could hit Kethtrell hard enough and fast enough when he came back to disable him. That might buy her time to find a way to free herself, or at least call for help -
**Fox? Fox, are you here?**
Kitsune almost gasped aloud. **Riki, where are you?** The mongoose felt close, but she didn't have the skill to be able to see through her eyes.
**It's dark. Metal. Round. Wind. I can smell you.**
A ventilation shaft. She must have climbed into it from Kitsune's berth, wandered through it. **Can you follow my smell?**
**Sure. You need to wash.**
Kitsune chuckled. **I'm sure. Follow my smell. I need your help.** She wasn't sure if Riki could discern emotions, especially over distance, so she added, **Afraid. Escape.**
The silence felt interminable, but it couldn't have been more than two minutes.
**Understand. I can smell you better now.**
Kitsune hardly dared to breathe, as she tried to locate the mongoose nearby, without speaking - the last thing Riki needed was a distraction. More minutes that dragged into near infinity. What was Kethtrell doing, Kitsune wondered. When would he be back.
**Here I am.**
Kitsune's eyes widened in wonder as the little mongoose wiggled between the bars of the cabin's ventilation grill and scampered down the wall and across the thin carpeting to her chair. **Escape?**
**My hands are tied. Can you help?**
Riki climbed up and over Kitsune's shoulder, down to the ropes. **I can chew.**
**Please do it. But be ready to run and hide when I say.**
Kitsune could hear Riki chattering to herself, then felt a tiny tugging at the ropes as the mongoose began chewing. She could sense its distaste, and tried to send what reassurances she could.
At the same time, she searched outward, trying to find Kethtrell among the many, mostly alien presences on the ship. Her headache got worse as the eternal minutes passed.
There! Kethtrell was just outside the door, and there was another person - human - with him. The door latch began to move.
**Riki, hide!**
The tugging at her wrists stopped as the mongoose ran for cover. Kitsune forced herself not to look over her shoulders, instead fixing a defiant glare at the door. Kethtrell stepped through, with a human she recognized as another steerage passenger right behind him. There was barely room for all three of them once Kethtrell closed the door.
"Have you changed your mind, Miss Kitsune?" he asked.
"Why should I? Who's your friend?" She tried to test the cord on her wrists. It wasn't free. But it was close, she thought. She hoped.
"His name is not important. But he is going to get the information I want out of you." The human said nothing, but simply leered as the Brakiri pulled a small, clear packet out of his pocket. "Do you recognize this?" he asked, showing it to her.
Kitsune's stomach turned over. A single word wrenched from her lips. "Dust."
"That's right. Dust. Very profitable stuff, too. You humans all want to dive into each other's minds, it seems. Well, I'll let him dive into yours."
Kitsune had started to tremble. There was no place to flee, here. No fire extinguishers to throw, no escape. "Please, don't do this . it will destroy me," she whispered.
"Well, it might lower the payment for you a little, but considering what I've heard the Psi-Corps do to rogues they catch, maybe it won't be so bad." Kethtrell turned to the human, handing him the packet. "Go ahead."
The man downed the contents of the packet, looking from Kethtrell to Kitsune, almost panting in anticipation. The Brakiri seemed unfazed, even offering another taunt. "She looks like she's had quite an interesting life, I'd say. Just make sure you remember what I want to know."
Panic was eating away Kitsune's consciousness, when suddenly a rush of anger washed through her mind - even as a furiously chattering mongoose suddenly emerged from beneath the bed and launched herself toward Kethtrell. The little creature swarmed up his clothes, clawing and biting at his face in a protective fury.
"Riki!" Kitsune wrenched her hands as hard as she could, and the last threads of the rope parted. Inertia carried her out of the chair, which was bolted to the deck, and to her knees before she brought herself upright. She glanced at the human. He had taken a step back into the corner, oblivious to anything but the effect of the Dust, as it began to take hold.
Blood was flowing from half a dozen bites and slashes on Kethtrell's face and neck, drops growing on his skin then floating off, small globes of gore suspended in the air of the cabin. The Brakiri swatted at the mongoose, sending her flying. Kitsune caught her, pressing the small body against her chest with one arm, while shouldering past the Brakiri and wrenching open the door.
The human suddenly cried out, a sound of pain and lust twisted together as he plunged toward the Brakiri. Kitsune dove through the door, slamming it shut on the tableau of Kethtrell trying in vain to twist out of the man's grip on his face.
Half-floating, half-creeping along the bulkhead, Kitsune slowly made her way toward her berth. **Riki, are you all right?**
**I'm all right. You were scared. Like a kit. I had to protect you.**
Kitsune smiled, hugging the small creature close.
An anguished cry echoed faintly from Kethtrell's cabin. Kitsune tried to move faster, until another thought from Riki stopped her short.
**Can I have some breen?**
**I thought you didn't like it.**
**It's better than the bad man's blood.**
Kitsune glanced over her shoulder, then moved on. **I can believe that.**
She did have to explain what had happened, to a Narn security officer. She learned that both Kethtrell and the human had been found in deep comas. The security officer wasn't sure if they'd survive, and frankly didn't care. If the aliens were going to make that kind of trouble, they might as well kill each other off - that was his attitude.
Kitsune was able to convince him that she had been entirely the victim, and was allowed to return to her berth for the duration of the trip. She spent most of the time sleeping, and by the time the ship made planetfall on Dra'shu, the headaches had finally begun to fade away.
She consulted a datanet terminal at the passenger station. To her surprise, she found Rupert Delgoda listed in the public directory, with a complete address. As she printed out a set of directions that would get her there, Kitsune began to wonder if this was where she could stop running at last. Dra'shu was well within Narn space, one jump point from the Narn homeworld. Only the Narn had jurisdiction here, and she knew they could care less for the Psi-Corps' wishes.
Better to finish her present task, though, she thought, before thinking too much about what would happen next. She carried Riki to a large house in the wealthier section of the spaceport city.
She paused at the front door, holding the crate up so she could see the mongoose inside. **I have to say goodbye, she told Riki.**
**Goodbye?**
**In a few minutes, I won't see you again. Someone else will take care of you.** She smiled sadly. **He will feed you better than I could.**
**I won't forget you, Fox.**
"I bet you won't," Kitsune murmured aloud as she knocked. A human man, whose spectacles and graying hair suggested he was only a little older than she, answered.
"You are Rupert Delgoda?" she asked.
He nodded. "I am. You must be our courier."
"I am Kitsune," she said with a bow. "Morbius of Altair gave me this, to give to you." She showed him the crate.
He smiled, ushering her inside and taking the crate after the door was closed.
"Thank you," he said. "I'm very grateful. How was the trip?"
"Delgoda-san, I don't want to be rude, but I honestly think you'd rather not know that," she told him.
He looked at her again, his brisk demeanor gentling. "You do look like you've had a very hard time."
"I'm glad I could bring her here safely," Kitsune answered politely. "I haven't any right, of course, but I was wondering if you might answer just one question for me."
"Sure, if I can."
"What will she be used for? What was she created for?"
He chuckled. "That's two questions, but they have the same answer, so I'll let it pass.
"The Narn are desperate for an intelligence gathering capacity within their own space and out into the League. After what happened with the Centauri, they haven't much in the way of technology, or funds to pay for the latest advances. So they look for unconventional solutions. I'm working to supply that."
"Mongoose spies?"
"Exactly. Thus the enhanced intelligence."
"She ... she has feelings," Kitsune said quickly. "I -- well, trust me, I can tell."
Delgoda nodded. "I hoped she would," he said, smiling.
She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. He had feelings too. She could tell.
"Tell you what," Delgoda said. "There's a bathroom there, where you can take a little while and have a bath, even freshen up your clothes." He pointed to a door at the end of a short hallway. "While you do that, I'll get the mongoose settled."
"Her name is Riki," Kitsune said.
Delgoda nodded, and walked off. Kitsune turned toward the bathroom. She knew she shouldn't trust him, but the sincerity she felt from him - and the prospect of a proper bath - overrode her caution.
She imagined she could hear Riki laughing.
It was nearly an hour later when Kitsune emerged, feeling like an entirely new person. Delgoda was waiting for her, and ushered her into a sitting room. A pot of tea sat on a side table.
Delgoda smiled as he offered her a seat and poured the tea. "I wished to thank you again for bringing Riki to me, Miss Kitsune. You will find a - substantial - sum of credits already in your account." He handed her a small plate of cakes.
"What are your plans for Riki and the others?" she asked. "What will they do?"
"They can get into places people can't go, plant probes, act as watchers," Delgoda said, his enthusiasm clear. "With the proper training, who knows what Riki could do?"
Kitsune thought about the rapport she had achieved with the mongoose, and how Riki had saved her sanity, if not her life. "I think ... she will do very well, if she is well treated. You will treat her well, won't you, Delgoda-san?"
"Absolutely," he answered. "There's been far, far too much invested in her creation to do otherwise."
That was the truth, and Kitsune felt grateful for it. She and Delgoda ate in pleasant silence, until Kitsune finished her tea.
"Thank you again for your hospitality, Delgoda-san. I will take my leave now." She rose and bowed. Collecting the small sack of her belongings from the doorway, she slipped out the door and away into the streets.
Kitsune dropped hard to the deck as the freighter lurched, throwing her out of her hammock and knocking her back into consciousness. Slowly, she pulled herself upright, cradling her head in her hands.
The past weeks had been difficult enough. Kitsune was running from the Psi- Corps, hiding out on whatever third-rate spaceship she could hitch a lift on, going wherever she could that was away from Earth and Earth-controlled space. Not long ago, there had been an "underground railroad," which would have gotten her from Earth to Babylon 5 and then to whatever League systems might offer a human telepath shelter.
But that was gone, and Kitsune - like any other telepath who did not want to join the group actively fighting the Psi-Corps, using the slogan "Remember Byron" and whatever weapons they could get - had to fend for herself. She had set herself the goal of reaching Narn space. The Narn had no telepaths; with any luck they would be willing to protect her and let her earn her keep, as the Yakuza clan had, before now. She was living by all the wits she had, and so far had survived.
Then last night, some equally derelict person, also hitching a ride on this freighter, had gone on a Dust trip, not knowing - more likely not caring - that his companion was a telepath.
Kitsune tried a scan of the cargo hold, though it was nearly impossible to focus past the pain in her head. She got nothing. Sighing, she settled her back against the bulkhead, and looked at the blood smear on the ridge beside her hammock. Her badge of survival, she thought.
Not long after her companion had taken the Dust, the pain started blossoming in Kitsune's head. Within a minute or two, he was physically and mentally charging her, pushing himself off a crate and flying through the zero-gee space. She had already put up her mental walls, but against a Dust-driven mind, she might as well try to hang a tatami mat to stop a truck.
She dodged him, kicking out and sending him tumbling, to smash into another crate. It broke his concentration, buying her time - no more than a few seconds, she guessed.
She bolted to the far end of the cargo bay, bouncing off bulkheads and crates, putting what distance she could between herself and her assailant, breaking his line of sight. Anything to slow him down.
Desperately she looked for a weapon. Her judo - the only unarmed combat she knew - was worse than useless. In zero-gee it would look like ballet, and the last thing she wanted to do was touch a man high on Dust.
He was coming, crawling hand over hand across the crates, grabbing for her mind, ripping memories out like pages from a book.
**A tri-colored cat leaped at her face, snarling, claws lashing for her eyes--**
**Stop it, damn you!**
She found the chemical fire extinguisher, bolted to the bulkhead. With strength born of terror and rage, she ripped it loose from its binding.
**Stepping into her lover's room, looking across at the man on the bed, over four times her size --**
**Filthy Dust-sucking bastard, get out of my head --**
Priming the extinguisher, she set it off, at the same moment throwing it bottom first at her assailant. Her frantic strength combined with the force of the pressurized carbon dioxide flowing turned the canister into a missile, and it caught the man right between the eyes. He tumbled backwards, heels over head, until his tumble was stopped abruptly as his head impacted on the hatchway leading to the exterior of the ship.
At once, the pressure on Kitsune's mind evaporated.
Letting herself go limp, she floated back toward her hammock, trying to rub life back into skin nearly frozen by the blast from the extinguisher. Just as she reached it, the ship lurched violently - it must have been passing through a jumpgate. Kitsune was thrown forward, smacking her forehead into the bulkhead.
She pitched into the hammock, unconscious.
The ship lurched and bumped twice more, then was still. A voice on the intercom said, "We've landed on Altair. The cargo hatch is now unlocked. Don't be aboard five minutes from now, unless you feel like chatting with the Customs guys."
Picking herself and her small bag of belongings up, Kitsune threaded her way through the cargo containers toward the hatch. It was there that she spotted the Dust bunny, as she'd taken to calling him.
No wonder she hadn't been able to scan him, she thought. He was dead.
She crouched over him, rifling his pockets - you did what you had to, if you wanted to survive - and thinking. Perhaps she had killed him, by knocking him into the hatch. Or perhaps it was just the stress of the Dust on his system.
Grimacing at the memory of the telepathic assault, Kitsune kicked the dead man until the hatchway was clear. She spun the clamps open and slipped off the freighter.
It had gotten into a routine now. At each stop, Kitsune had to find her way into the local underworld, and locate a ship going toward Narn space which wouldn't mind an off the books passenger.
A fair supply of credits made the job easier. Sometimes, being a telepath helped too. The Psi-Corps was an unpopular organization - more unpopular the farther out from Earth you got, as Kitsune had figured out quickly.
Other times, she had to work a deal for her passage. This was shaping up to be one of them, she thought, as she sat in a corner of the small bar. At least the wait wasn't too bad - the barkeep had actually managed to locate half a pint of sake, and it was almost palatable.
The tall human in a dark suit walked briskly through the door, flanked by a pair of Drazi bodyguards. One of them carried a small, rectangular crate with a wire door. Kitsune opened her eyes. These three were the ones she was waiting for. But even more intriguing was the crate. There was something alive and aware inside. Not anywhere near human awareness, but intelligent nevertheless.
She pictured herself in her mind's eye, hoping there was enough somewhere about her to make the right impression. A human woman, a scant meter and a half tall and not even forty kilos in weight; Asian by ethnicity - Nihonjin, to be precise. A little past forty, although months of constant fear for her life had aged her considerably. Black hair cut short for simplicity's sake, and dark brown eyes - bloodshot and deeply underlined with black - that had seen far too much.
"Gentlemen, welcome," she said, taking the initiative and addressing the human. "You must be the one they call Doctor Morbius."
He frowned. "Yeah. You Kit ... Kit, sun ..."
"Kitsune," she said. "Yes. You got my request, I take it?"
"Yeah. In fact, I got you on a ship that leaves in two hours. Narn passenger transport, bound for Dra'shu. Interested?"
Kitsune's eyes widened despite herself. An actual passenger transport, and Narn besides, destined for Narn territory. It seemed too good to be true - but Morbius was telling the truth.
Or at least part of it.
"What's the catch?"
Morbius jerked his head toward the Drazi carrying the crate. The reptilian creature stepped forward and put the crate onto the table.
"You gotta take that with you," Morbius said. "Keep it alive, keep it happy, and when you get there, hand it over to a man named Rupert Delgoda."
"What is it?"
"It's a mongoose, I guess. A very special one, so they tell me. Get it to Delgoda, and he'll make it worth your while. Mess it up, and you'll have worse than the Psi-Cops on your ass, get me?"
"Very clearly, Doctor Morbius."
The gangster rolled his eyes, and seemed about to open his mouth when Kitsune spoke again.
"They call you that because you run Altair," she told him. "You should watch more old movies." She put a hand on top of the crate, sliding it toward her - and sliding the sake bottle out of the way with her other hand. "Tell me about the ship I - or should I say we? - are going out on."
Three hours later, Kitsune lay back in the berth of the Narn ship, feeling a sense of relaxation almost like bliss as the pressure of Altair's gravity faded away. Another jump point coming up; another step closer to freedom.
The berth was torpedo-shaped, barely more than an oversized coffin with a sleeping mat lining the bottom, and a few lights, temperature controls and a tiny view screen in the top half. But designed for the average Narn, even with the mongoose's crate, it was roomy for Kitsune.
Then the fear hit her.
Frantic, panicked. **Escape -- escape -- escape --**
Of course, she realized, leaning out of the straps of the tiny berth to catch the crate, which had started to float. She brought it up and held it to her chest, looking through the wire door and trying to catch the mind of the frightened creature inside. **No harm. No fear. I will protect you. Calm.**
Few people gave the idea of telepaths being able to communicate with animals much credit. And few telepaths ever bothered to try, at least as far as Kitsune knew. But she had worked for years with her cats, had even bred those which seemed to show the greatest responsiveness.
To think of the cats, which she had been forced to leave behind, brought a wave of grief to her mind, almost threatening to overwhelm the calming thoughts she was trying to send to the frightened mongoose. She took a deep breath and refocused herself. **No harm. No fear. I will protect you. Calm --**
**Who you? Can't walk! Escape!**
Kitsune's head jerked back. That had been a question! In all the years she had worked with her cats, they had never asked questions. Closing her eyes, she concentrated, scanning the mind of the mongoose in the crate.
She quickly realized it - she - was not a typical mongoose. Her intelligence had been significantly enhanced, at least to the level of a human child. Whether this was the result of selective breeding, or more direct genetic manipulation, Kitsune couldn't tell. She also couldn't guess why this had been done. Who would want a sentient mongoose? And what for?
**Who you!**
Kitsune blinked at the repeated question, and the sense of impatience it carried. She'd been rude, she realized.
**I'm sorry,** she told the mongoose. **I'm Fox. Do you have a name?**
**Riki.**
Well, whoever made this creature had a sense of literary history, Kitsune thought. Or perhaps Kipling knew more than anyone ever realized.
**Don't be afraid, Riki. I'll let you out of the crate. But you have to stay with me. Will you stay with me?**
**I'll stay.**
Kitsune nodded to herself, unhooking the latches and putting a hand inside the crate. Riki latched onto her hand and Kitsune pulled the mongoose free of the crate.
**Can't walk. What's wrong?**
Kitsune contemplated a few moments - how do you explain zero gravity to a child? - then gave it up. **You'll get used to it.** She looked over at the walls of the cabin, lined with thin, threadbare fabric. **Try climbing on the wall.**
Riki jumped and latched onto the wall, ran up and across it, then back and forth across the ceiling. **Fun!**
Kitsune grinned. **I thought you might like that.**
After a few minutes, the mongoose tired, and ran back down to Kitsune's berth. She curled up on Kitsune's chest, hooking her claws into the webbing and wrapping her tail around her nose, and dropped off to sleep.
Kitsune smiled. She could let herself rest, she thought, more than in weeks. If anyone tried to break into her berth, they'd be in for a shock. As her thoughts began to drift as she neared sleep, she found herself wishing she had a tail - a fox's tail - to wrap around her nose.
Some hours later, Kitsune left Riki in the berth and took a walk around the ship. It was small and quite Spartan by human standards, although she guessed it was luxuriant for the Narn, who made up the vast majority of the passengers.
And after weeks traveling in cargo holds, it was absolutely heavenly for Kitsune. One of the best things was that there were regular meal times.
On the second evening out of Altair, Kitsune headed for the dining room as dinner was called, and found herself seated with a Brakiri, dressed in an immaculate black suit and white shirt. His broad, flat face was covered with a tracery of fine tattooing that Kitsune tried not to notice.
She had learned that members of the Brakiri underworld shared a fondness for tattooing with the Yakuza clans she had fled from. This man could be dangerous. "Good evening, sir," she told him, hoping he wouldn't choose to talk further.
"Good evening, madam," he responded. "You look very tired. Have you been traveling long?"
"A while."
"My name is Kethtrell. I travel this route often, but I haven't seen you before. Have you come all the way from Earth?"
"Yes."
He continued asking questions, and Kitsune kept giving him monosyllabic answers, focusing on keeping her mind closed. She couldn't sense any other telepaths in the vicinity, and she didn't think she was being scanned. But she didn't trust the Brakiri. She didn't trust anyone - couldn't afford to. As soon as she could, she excused herself, almost running back to her berth.
Riki ran into her lap, and Kitsune fed her with the breen she'd saved from dinner. Riki made it clear this wasn't her favorite food, but she was hungry enough that it would do.
Over the next several days, Kitsune kept running into Kethtrell - literally, as often as not. Kitsune's unease kept growing, for although he didn't speak to her again, she could feel him watching her, studying her. She began to feel like a mouse, being stalked by one of her cats - or a snake, as Riki might pursue it.
She considered scanning him, but decided against it. An active scan - even a quick one - could be detected by another telepath, if one was aboard. And she had never tried to scan a Brakiri before - if she could do it at all, it would take her far more time than she dared.
Kitsune spent as much time as she could in the berth, playing with the mongoose. She brought what meat or fish she could from the galley, and protein cakes when she couldn't. Riki tried not to complain, though it was clear to Kitsune - and would have been even without telepathy - that these were far from the mongoose's taste. But hunger makes gourmets out of everyone, mongoose or human, Kitsune thought.
Unfortunately, she couldn't stay in the berth all the time. She - and Riki - had to eat, and Kitsune had to go to the communal head, at the end of the corridor.
It was when she was on her way back from one of the latter visits that Kethtrell came up behind her. Before she could react, he grabbed her, throwing one arm around her neck in a choke hold. She got a glimpse of a truncheon out of the corner of her eye, and then the whole world exploded and went black.
Kitsune struggled back to consciousness, her head a throbbing wash of pain. Too many blows to the head lately, she thought. At this rate, she would lose her telepathic powers - along with the rest of her brain - before she ever found a sanctuary.
A soft chuckle brought her attention back to the moment. "Good evening again, Miss Kitsune," Kethtrell said. "I wasn't sure you were going to come back."
"What's going on?" she asked, feeling too much pain to put ire behind her voice. "You have no right to do this."
"Who needs rights when there's good credits to be made?" he asked. "And I think I can make some very, very good credits from you, especially since you're alive. The Psi-Corps pay well for rogue telepaths turned over to them - not that they make the fact all that well known."
She narrowed her eyes, staring at him, trying to get a handle on his mind. It was too late to try and hide any more.
"Don't," he said, his tone turning from smug to harsh. "I don't have any of your human sleeper drugs, but I have plenty of others. Who knows what they might do to you?" He pulled several small bottles out of his pocket and showed them to her. "The first time you try anything inside my head, we'll start experimenting."
She muttered something in Japanese.
"I don't understand that, but I can imagine it's not a compliment," he said. "Curse me all you want, I've heard it all before, in one language or another."
She slumped in the chair, fighting the desire to burst into tears. It had been such a long run. She had come so far, and was so close - less than 24 hours from safety, she guessed. It wasn't fair that it end like this.
She wasn't going to let the Psi-Corps take her, that much she knew. She remembered the first time she'd fled them, taking the Kitakyushu ferry across the straits from Korea - it had taken all her will to hold the deck rail and not throw herself into the waves -
"Where's the animal, Miss Kitsune?"
Kitsune startled violently; she'd fallen so deep into a suicidal reverie she'd forgotten Kethtrell. The Brakiri leaned closer, repeating the question. She simply stared back at him, tilting her head up and pressing her lips together.
The Brakiri's hand whipped out, lacing his fingers into her hair and yanking her head all the way back. A short groan escaped Kitsune's lips. "Don't think you can hide it," he said. "I saw you carry it aboard. I don't know what it is, but I know it's important. Morbius wouldn't have paid a telepath to smuggle someone's pet. So where is it?"
Fear for the mongoose banished despair from Kitsune's heart. She had to find a way out of this, to save Riki. She wasn't going to leave her to this bastard, no matter what. "She escaped my berth. She could be anywhere on the ship."
Kethtrell's free hand cracked across her cheek. She grimaced, but said nothing. Suddenly releasing her, he took a few steps away before turning back. "I think you're lying," he said, his voice suddenly quiet and even more dangerous. "But I have a way to fix that too." He left the cabin and slammed the door.
Kitsune took several deep breaths, trying to focus. Better not to think about what would happen when Kethtrell came back, but rather about what she could do before then. She tested the bindings on her hands, wedged behind her back. They felt like fabric cord, but were tied tightly enough that there wasn't any give.
She looked around Kethtrell's cabin. Far larger than her own berth, of course, but still a rather confined space. She couldn't see any sharp edges readily to hand, though. Sighing, she thought of another tack. Telepathic attacks were never her strongest skill, but maybe if she prepared now, she could hit Kethtrell hard enough and fast enough when he came back to disable him. That might buy her time to find a way to free herself, or at least call for help -
**Fox? Fox, are you here?**
Kitsune almost gasped aloud. **Riki, where are you?** The mongoose felt close, but she didn't have the skill to be able to see through her eyes.
**It's dark. Metal. Round. Wind. I can smell you.**
A ventilation shaft. She must have climbed into it from Kitsune's berth, wandered through it. **Can you follow my smell?**
**Sure. You need to wash.**
Kitsune chuckled. **I'm sure. Follow my smell. I need your help.** She wasn't sure if Riki could discern emotions, especially over distance, so she added, **Afraid. Escape.**
The silence felt interminable, but it couldn't have been more than two minutes.
**Understand. I can smell you better now.**
Kitsune hardly dared to breathe, as she tried to locate the mongoose nearby, without speaking - the last thing Riki needed was a distraction. More minutes that dragged into near infinity. What was Kethtrell doing, Kitsune wondered. When would he be back.
**Here I am.**
Kitsune's eyes widened in wonder as the little mongoose wiggled between the bars of the cabin's ventilation grill and scampered down the wall and across the thin carpeting to her chair. **Escape?**
**My hands are tied. Can you help?**
Riki climbed up and over Kitsune's shoulder, down to the ropes. **I can chew.**
**Please do it. But be ready to run and hide when I say.**
Kitsune could hear Riki chattering to herself, then felt a tiny tugging at the ropes as the mongoose began chewing. She could sense its distaste, and tried to send what reassurances she could.
At the same time, she searched outward, trying to find Kethtrell among the many, mostly alien presences on the ship. Her headache got worse as the eternal minutes passed.
There! Kethtrell was just outside the door, and there was another person - human - with him. The door latch began to move.
**Riki, hide!**
The tugging at her wrists stopped as the mongoose ran for cover. Kitsune forced herself not to look over her shoulders, instead fixing a defiant glare at the door. Kethtrell stepped through, with a human she recognized as another steerage passenger right behind him. There was barely room for all three of them once Kethtrell closed the door.
"Have you changed your mind, Miss Kitsune?" he asked.
"Why should I? Who's your friend?" She tried to test the cord on her wrists. It wasn't free. But it was close, she thought. She hoped.
"His name is not important. But he is going to get the information I want out of you." The human said nothing, but simply leered as the Brakiri pulled a small, clear packet out of his pocket. "Do you recognize this?" he asked, showing it to her.
Kitsune's stomach turned over. A single word wrenched from her lips. "Dust."
"That's right. Dust. Very profitable stuff, too. You humans all want to dive into each other's minds, it seems. Well, I'll let him dive into yours."
Kitsune had started to tremble. There was no place to flee, here. No fire extinguishers to throw, no escape. "Please, don't do this . it will destroy me," she whispered.
"Well, it might lower the payment for you a little, but considering what I've heard the Psi-Corps do to rogues they catch, maybe it won't be so bad." Kethtrell turned to the human, handing him the packet. "Go ahead."
The man downed the contents of the packet, looking from Kethtrell to Kitsune, almost panting in anticipation. The Brakiri seemed unfazed, even offering another taunt. "She looks like she's had quite an interesting life, I'd say. Just make sure you remember what I want to know."
Panic was eating away Kitsune's consciousness, when suddenly a rush of anger washed through her mind - even as a furiously chattering mongoose suddenly emerged from beneath the bed and launched herself toward Kethtrell. The little creature swarmed up his clothes, clawing and biting at his face in a protective fury.
"Riki!" Kitsune wrenched her hands as hard as she could, and the last threads of the rope parted. Inertia carried her out of the chair, which was bolted to the deck, and to her knees before she brought herself upright. She glanced at the human. He had taken a step back into the corner, oblivious to anything but the effect of the Dust, as it began to take hold.
Blood was flowing from half a dozen bites and slashes on Kethtrell's face and neck, drops growing on his skin then floating off, small globes of gore suspended in the air of the cabin. The Brakiri swatted at the mongoose, sending her flying. Kitsune caught her, pressing the small body against her chest with one arm, while shouldering past the Brakiri and wrenching open the door.
The human suddenly cried out, a sound of pain and lust twisted together as he plunged toward the Brakiri. Kitsune dove through the door, slamming it shut on the tableau of Kethtrell trying in vain to twist out of the man's grip on his face.
Half-floating, half-creeping along the bulkhead, Kitsune slowly made her way toward her berth. **Riki, are you all right?**
**I'm all right. You were scared. Like a kit. I had to protect you.**
Kitsune smiled, hugging the small creature close.
An anguished cry echoed faintly from Kethtrell's cabin. Kitsune tried to move faster, until another thought from Riki stopped her short.
**Can I have some breen?**
**I thought you didn't like it.**
**It's better than the bad man's blood.**
Kitsune glanced over her shoulder, then moved on. **I can believe that.**
She did have to explain what had happened, to a Narn security officer. She learned that both Kethtrell and the human had been found in deep comas. The security officer wasn't sure if they'd survive, and frankly didn't care. If the aliens were going to make that kind of trouble, they might as well kill each other off - that was his attitude.
Kitsune was able to convince him that she had been entirely the victim, and was allowed to return to her berth for the duration of the trip. She spent most of the time sleeping, and by the time the ship made planetfall on Dra'shu, the headaches had finally begun to fade away.
She consulted a datanet terminal at the passenger station. To her surprise, she found Rupert Delgoda listed in the public directory, with a complete address. As she printed out a set of directions that would get her there, Kitsune began to wonder if this was where she could stop running at last. Dra'shu was well within Narn space, one jump point from the Narn homeworld. Only the Narn had jurisdiction here, and she knew they could care less for the Psi-Corps' wishes.
Better to finish her present task, though, she thought, before thinking too much about what would happen next. She carried Riki to a large house in the wealthier section of the spaceport city.
She paused at the front door, holding the crate up so she could see the mongoose inside. **I have to say goodbye, she told Riki.**
**Goodbye?**
**In a few minutes, I won't see you again. Someone else will take care of you.** She smiled sadly. **He will feed you better than I could.**
**I won't forget you, Fox.**
"I bet you won't," Kitsune murmured aloud as she knocked. A human man, whose spectacles and graying hair suggested he was only a little older than she, answered.
"You are Rupert Delgoda?" she asked.
He nodded. "I am. You must be our courier."
"I am Kitsune," she said with a bow. "Morbius of Altair gave me this, to give to you." She showed him the crate.
He smiled, ushering her inside and taking the crate after the door was closed.
"Thank you," he said. "I'm very grateful. How was the trip?"
"Delgoda-san, I don't want to be rude, but I honestly think you'd rather not know that," she told him.
He looked at her again, his brisk demeanor gentling. "You do look like you've had a very hard time."
"I'm glad I could bring her here safely," Kitsune answered politely. "I haven't any right, of course, but I was wondering if you might answer just one question for me."
"Sure, if I can."
"What will she be used for? What was she created for?"
He chuckled. "That's two questions, but they have the same answer, so I'll let it pass.
"The Narn are desperate for an intelligence gathering capacity within their own space and out into the League. After what happened with the Centauri, they haven't much in the way of technology, or funds to pay for the latest advances. So they look for unconventional solutions. I'm working to supply that."
"Mongoose spies?"
"Exactly. Thus the enhanced intelligence."
"She ... she has feelings," Kitsune said quickly. "I -- well, trust me, I can tell."
Delgoda nodded. "I hoped she would," he said, smiling.
She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. He had feelings too. She could tell.
"Tell you what," Delgoda said. "There's a bathroom there, where you can take a little while and have a bath, even freshen up your clothes." He pointed to a door at the end of a short hallway. "While you do that, I'll get the mongoose settled."
"Her name is Riki," Kitsune said.
Delgoda nodded, and walked off. Kitsune turned toward the bathroom. She knew she shouldn't trust him, but the sincerity she felt from him - and the prospect of a proper bath - overrode her caution.
She imagined she could hear Riki laughing.
It was nearly an hour later when Kitsune emerged, feeling like an entirely new person. Delgoda was waiting for her, and ushered her into a sitting room. A pot of tea sat on a side table.
Delgoda smiled as he offered her a seat and poured the tea. "I wished to thank you again for bringing Riki to me, Miss Kitsune. You will find a - substantial - sum of credits already in your account." He handed her a small plate of cakes.
"What are your plans for Riki and the others?" she asked. "What will they do?"
"They can get into places people can't go, plant probes, act as watchers," Delgoda said, his enthusiasm clear. "With the proper training, who knows what Riki could do?"
Kitsune thought about the rapport she had achieved with the mongoose, and how Riki had saved her sanity, if not her life. "I think ... she will do very well, if she is well treated. You will treat her well, won't you, Delgoda-san?"
"Absolutely," he answered. "There's been far, far too much invested in her creation to do otherwise."
That was the truth, and Kitsune felt grateful for it. She and Delgoda ate in pleasant silence, until Kitsune finished her tea.
"Thank you again for your hospitality, Delgoda-san. I will take my leave now." She rose and bowed. Collecting the small sack of her belongings from the doorway, she slipped out the door and away into the streets.