CHAPTER 6

Several hours after the fight everyone in Sargasso began to feel the call of sleep pulling at them. Panther and Leon had gone to bed before Billie, who was seriously considering it as her eyes started to cross; each lid wanting desperately to collapse under their own weight. The fight with Wolf had left her a bit drained, and her forearms screamed out in a throbbing mass of bruises from where Wolf had laid out his barrage of punches. What Billie did not know, was that if Wolf really had indented to harm her he would have used his claws to shred away flesh and not his fists; so who would really win in a fight between the two if they went all out… it is difficult to say for sure. But she was almost done with the wiring for the last generator core: she had prepared four, even though the entire base Wolf had planned out would only need two in order to operate, but it was always best to have backups. The cores themselves almost looked like hearts, with the clear chamber directly in the middle where Billie would feed in her shadow lace to bring it to life, and the tangled rainbow of wires springing out of the top and the bottom. She sat in the silence surrounded by her four dead hearts, the only sound that filled the air was the clink of her hands working with the small pliers.

Wolf was in his office feeling insomnia set back in as everyone else got to sleep; he got to stay awake and be alone with his thoughts. He slowly strummed his clawed fingers on the armrest of his office chair and stared out at the fields of stars pressed against their ebony background. He had told Billie more than he had intended today; and that made his thoughts race just a bit. Would she tell anyone? Was he going soft? Was it too late to go back? Was she right about Leon and Panther? He shook his head to silence the inquisition in his head and then a new topic popped out into the silence for him to ponder; he needed some work that was worthy of his time for a change. And if McCloud's little crew was taking all of the honest work he was going to have to take something worth the time for the money. But now that word had gotten out of Star Wolf's footing on the smuggler's rock it was only a matter of time until someone came to them. He got up with a sigh and decided to let it be.

As Wolf headed down the walkways that honeycombed through he looked down to see the only other person still awake other than himself; busy with her work down on the flight deck.

"No music today?" he asked coming off of the elevator and walking up behind her.

"Nah I'm almost done here…" she yawned.

Wolf looked at the clear cores laying around the desk she had thrown together out of old crates; he walked up to look more closely at one. It looked so intricate, so many minor little details.

"So how do they work?" he asked tapping the claw of his index finger against one sending out and almost musical chime into the air.

"It would take all day to explain in detail…" she yawned not looking up to him from her sleepily working hands. "But basically once they are on Fichina I just hook them up to the base and feed them some shadow lace… they are pretty much a less complicated version of the core in my ship."

"Why is the core in your ship different?" he asked looking over at it resting next to his Wolfen.

"Devin built that one… I'll never be able to replicate that… The engine in that ship has never faltered or even needed repair in the 70 or so years of its existence. It's one of a kind; it could power this entire base if I wanted it too. That's why I need more than one core of my creation to power a smaller base; because my hands are not as practiced as Devin's were." She said almost sounding bored.

"But you're much older than he ever was now."

"Yeah, but I'm still not as skillful as that old cyborg was…" she chuckled through a yawn marveling at Devin's skill even now. Then she stretched her arms out with a big yawn and rose to her feet. "DONE." She proclaimed throwing her pliers into her toolbox.

Wolf looked down at her handy work; she had finished much faster than he had thought she would, having so much time to spare was wonderful it gave them more time to wait on a job.

"I'm going to go lay down before I fall down…" she said brushing past him with dark rings under her eyes. He caught a big whiff of her scent; there was still a tinge of salt on her from their sweaty fight.

"Billie…" he said to her back; she stopped walking but didn't turn around.

"About earlier…" he began feeling something unfamiliar to him. He didn't like it.

"Water under the bridge." She said simply and kept walking. However as she said that Wolf finally identified the bitter feeling he couldn't shake: shame.

"It's not." He said trotting after her. "Billie." He said stepping in front of her to stop her from walking.

"Billie when we were fighting, there was a moment where I wanted to… I wanted to…" he trailed off remembering himself in that split second wanting to rip her neck open with his teeth. What if this happened again? What if he couldn't regain control of his senses in time then?

"Wolf its fine. Just stop spacing out; your starting to freak us out that's all" she said brushing past him again to get to bed before she collapsed. He clasped her forearm angrily wanting to make her listen to him.

"Ouch!" she snapped as he squeezed a bruise.

"What? I didn't grab you that hard." He snapped back at her reaction.

"No; but I'm still pretty bruised up from your treating my arms like a punching bag in , you know instead of the one you shredded today?" she said in her sarcastic way.

"Well my chest still hurts from your kick." He said angrily in his defense.

"Okay, whatever." She said making one last attempt to find a bed to fall into. Wolf slapped his palm to his face as if to say 'well played Wolf.'

Billie walked off into the base leaving Wolf alone on the flight deck. She really held no grudge against him after their argument. She could see this whole thing was extremely new to him and he was trying to adjust. But she really wanted to sleep right now. When she arrived in Wolf's dark room she felt her way through until she felt mattress; then fell down in a heap and passed out.

"Morning." Billie chimed, clean and well rested to Wolf who was standing around the lounge room with Panther and Leon. Wolf looked over from where he was leaning with his arms crossed and sort of nodded to acknowledge her. Leon was sitting off on the other side of the room at a pool table that doubled as a normal table, sharpening some nasty looking piece of weaponry. Panther was flipping from station to station looking rather bored.

"So, then I was going to get working on the generator frames today… unless you have something planned." It sounded like a question. But everyone looked rather unenthused today… and Billie couldn't help but wonder if Wolf had gotten any sort of rest last night; he looked worn out.

"You've been working that pretty white tail off sweetheart; why don't you take some of today to relax." Panther purred looking over his shoulder at her.

"Don't become like that lazy ass Billie…" Leon shot over; Panther looked like he had taken a slap to the back of the head and turned to Leon's direction.

"I don't recall inviting you to this conversation." He said always being able to keep the texture of silk to his tone. Billie giggled a bit and made her way over to Wolf in his little corner.

"So any plans boss?" she joked standing in his eye line. Wolf looked down at her face and she lost her smile as she saw the tired glass of his eye; what Billie didn't know was that he had in fact been up all night but he was in the room with Billie, sitting on the edge of the bed listening to her loud breathing. He had been trying to let it lull him to sleep but found it hadn't worked. About an hour before she awoke he had given up and come in here to watch the news.

"Maybe a day off is a good idea." She said putting her hand on Wolfs arm; she lightly tugged him over to sit on the semicircular sunken in sofa that surrounded one side of the hollow generator. Wolf sat next to Billie and she leaned on him slightly; he responded by crossing his arms again, looping her bruised forearm in under his arm. And let the desire for some pulse pounding, gut wrenching action go to the back of his mind… just for the moment. Wolf O'Donnell learned something that day from Billie Shade's long life of regrets; enjoy the little things. Even if it's only for a little while. Billie took this as his apology, they understood each other better than either one thought, words were unnecessary for things like this now, after their time together they were sort of rubbing off on one another.

"So; Panther what did you do before you joined Star Wolf?" Billie said trying to force some small talk. She had bared her past before them before and thought this subject might be good for bonding or something…

"Oh, a great many things." The cat said turning his attention to some lingerie shoot on the projector.

"He was probably a gigolo…" Wolf muttered looking at his choice of television.

"I wish; that would have been my dream job. But my father wanted to become a pilot; and he shelled out a pretty penny to get me into the Cornerian flight academy. Ahhh if only I hadn't been kicked out… I may have been a member of the Cornerian military." The cat said leaning back admiring a bodacious, busty model.

"You were kicked out of the flight academy?" Wolf laughed not too surprised. "What did you do nail the deans daughter?"

"The headmasters actually…" Panther chimed.

"SHUT. UP." Billie said feeling like some gossiping teenager.

"Oh my yes… she was a gazelle; literally. The most gorgeous creature I ever did lay my eyes upon… up until that point at least. As soon as I laid eyes on her I had to have her; to pounce on her, she was my prey. The attraction was mutually instant." Panther went on like he was rehearsing a play. He kept going on about her features; every one.

"…And those legs!"

"Panther!" Wolf said wanting him to get to the point.

"Oh yes; well anyways she was also a student there… we had two classes together. And one day she said that she was sick and tired of all of the boys running away from her in fear of her father. She said she needed a man who was unafraid, and she wanted desperately to get back at her father for making her so miserable as well: that was just a bonus." He said purring caught in his nostalgia.

"Wait a second…" Wolf mumbled.

"We had the wildest, hottest, sweatiest, most pulse pumping two hours in her father's office; right on his desk. By the third release she said she felt like her insides would fall out…"

Billie sort of cringed at how detailed he was starting to become.

"But I digress… right in the middle of about her 20th orgasm her father walked in on us."

Billie's mouth fell open in shock, and Wolf bent his ears back knowing what came next.

"Her father must have lost his mind at the sight of his daughter sweaty, in the grip of pleasure; he picked up an award he had won for something stupid and trivial… and well." Panther ran some smooth black fingers over the scar on his face. "Let's just say he gave me a souvenir."

Billie's jaw dropped; surely he was lying, there was no way this was true but then Wolf cut in with the ending.

"Then you jumped out of the window, landed in a rosebush; and the headmaster used an antique musket to chase your naked ass over the green? That was you!?" Wolf said disgusted.

"Ah, so you were in my class then?" Panther asked sounding pleased with himself.

"I didn't graduate either… decided to leave." Wolf said thinking back on the day James had taken his eye. "Bu you sick son of a bitch…" Wolf gruffed trying to stop visualizing the day he'd been exiting the e-library and saw that spectacle. He couldn't believe he had added that dope to his team.

"WAIT, so what happened after that?!" Billie cried having to hear the ending, she didn't want to; she had to.

"My father disowned me and the headmaster expelled me; had to do something to get by, so I decided to apply my piloting skills to the black market. The rest is history." He finished the story with a shrug. Billie put her hand over her mouth to keep it from hanging open.

"You asked…" Panther said looking at her reaction.

"I did… and yet I wasn't… prepared." She said through her hand.

Then Billie looked over to Leon in his corner of the room; sharpening a very large knife, looking at it like one would a lover.

"So uhm… What's Leon's story?" She bravely asked out to no one. Panther shrugged and they looked at Wolf.

"You don't wanna know." He said flatly.

"But-" they both argued before Wolf cut them off.

"Trust me. He shouldn't have told me; but he did. And now I'm telling you: YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW." He said in a stern voice dismissing the subject.

Billie and Panther looked at each other, then at Leon, then back to Wolf: and they burst out in a fit of laughter. Wolf started tapping his heel a little aggravated at them for bringing the memory back up, then a little chiming noise came from his e-patch; he recognized the caller.

"Everyone shut up! And Leon get over here!" he barked then stood up. He then proceeded to put the caller up on the hollow projector.

"Ah; there you are. You know I was beginning to suspect that Team Star Wolf had died on the Aparoid home world. I'm glad to see those rumors were exadurated." Came a stony voice from a face on the hollow projector. Billie recognized the tiger; it was the infamous crime boss Dexter Tyson. She had hauled in quite a few of his men. And she felt herself trying to sink back into her seat, wanting to disappear.

"Been a long time." Wolf said up to the face of the predator looming down on them.

Okay, had to tie up a few odds and ends; but next chapter the real action starts to reveal itself. Added in some comedy relief since their lives can be pretty hectic. And a special shout out to zewing who requested a little peek into the past of Panther and Leon; i hope you liked what i did there. I tried to keep the mood light and airy in this one; but now shit gets serious! keep reading my lovlies and don't forget to review.