Ash is more aware of CJ’s suspicions than he thought. Now, it’s time for Ash to explain why he would never be a pirate.

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Chapter 7

As CJ left the supposed rec room along with everyone else, he could not help but cast a few glances back at the enormous wolverine woman. It was a little hard to believe he was, or had been, in a relationship with her. Mixed species couples were already a rarity in the galaxy. Humans getting into such intimate relations with the other races was even rarer due to the vast difference in size between humanity and even the smallest of Goliaths.

The last CJ remembered, only half a percent of the human populace were in such relationships. But there were trillions of humans in the galaxy. That made CJ one of billions. It was a little less strange when he thought of it that way. Still, that made him smaller than one of his girlfriend’s toes, by a large margin, and she was the one that had approached him about starting the relationship. And all he had to do was beat her with a cargo mech half her size. All that training he had been put through when he was younger had definitely seemed worth it to his 19-year-old self.

CJ only wished he could remember how that relationship had turned out. With that context, he could tell he was still pining after Eli. That could mean they were still a couple, or she could be the one that got away that he still had feelings for. There was no way to tell, and that was simply frustrating. That was something he could not worry about for long. The doors shut behind the humans, isolating them from the Goliaths.

While that dealt with the danger of some of the Goliaths, it still left them with the human pirates. It was good that the Goliaths had figured out a reasonably accurate way of identifying everyone through scent. CJ did have enhanced senses, including smell, but it still did not work the same way for him that it did for creatures who had evolved it naturally over millions of years. It helped to clear things up, even though the lack of years of experience could make some people completely different.

CJ smiled, thinking about what had happened while the Goliaths figured out who everyone was. The wolverine, Eli, had been giving him love eyes the whole time while she constantly stopped to sniff at him. With a sniffer of her size, he could feel the air tugging at him whenever she did that. It was clear she still had feelings for him. Even stuck in an unknown alien prison with a bunch of space pirates, with how Eli looked, it made him feel that life was not all bad.

With Eli out of sight, his situation came back into focus. They had the human pirates to deal with and the people who were little better than pirates without their full memories. CJ and the others were worried about the ones who had to share cells with them. Their group may have been able to fight off the pirates, but everyone had to sleep eventually. That would not be easy when they had a cutthroat in the room with them.

Fortunately, the aliens were not keeping as close a watch on them as they should have been. There was a good chance they would not have been able to tell humans apart easily even if they had been more diligent. With so many of the prisoners being in the military and pirates, there was a good chance they had implants keeping hostile automated surveillance measures from keeping track of them, too. That should have given them some freedom.

When CJ and a few others proposed new cell arrangements, some objections were raised. All the pirates were going into the cells that shared space with Goliath pirates. Everyone else was to get the cells with the exclusively friendlier Goliaths. The pirates trusted their giant companions about as much as everyone else. Some did try to resist, but a few quick fights put an end to that. That turned out to be a little unnecessary. The Goliaths had also made new cell arrangements. It looked like their pirates were no longer welcome in cells with humans.

When CJ and Ash returned to their cell, they found the Goliaths waiting for them. Eli looked relieved to see him there. The wolf was beside her and seemed pleased to see Ash there. CJ looked right back into Eli’s huge red eyes and did not stop until he heard Ash laugh, “I think you two need to get a room.”

CJ snorted, “You’re one to be talking. That wolf seems to be pretty interested in you.”

A knowing smile crossed Ash’s face, “So then, has all this helped assuage your suspicions that I’m a pirate.”

“You knew about that,” CJ asked before Ash nodded. “God, I hope not. With how much that wolf seems to like you, if you were an enemy, he would be, too. I saw how well he could fight, and I would not want to be enemies with a Goliath like that, even if I was in a combat mech.”

“It wasn’t hard to figure out you had doubts about me. If I were you, I would avoid games like poker,” Ash said.

“Don’t I know,” CJ sighed. That got a raised eyebrow from Ash. “My old man and his merc buddies let me gamble with them when I turned 14. Let’s just say I did not win often. The Goliaths I played with used to tell me I was the only human they knew that was easier to read through body language than by my scent.”

“Which is why I can tell you still have some doubts about me.”

CJ shrugged, “It can’t be helped. You are missing a lot of years.”

Ash looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he turned to the wolf and asked, “Should I tell him, Ty?”

When the wolf nodded in the affirmative, CJ grew confused. He had seen that the wolf understood common sign language. Ash had not used sign language, though. It was like the wolf understood the words that Ash had said.

“Ty? Is that the wolf’s name? How do you know that? Is there something between the two of you,” CJ asked in quick succession.

Ash looked more serious as he said, “CJ, the answer to some of that is why I would never work with pirates. Now sit back and let me explain some things to you.”

***Passenger shuttle above Adventure Planet – 29 Years ago***

“Passengers, please take your seats as we prepare to descend into atmosphere,” the ship’s pilot said over the comm system. That was not exactly what Ash wanted to hear. He was too excited to just sit around in some chair. It was his seventh birthday, and he was getting to spend it on the Adventure Planet. And it had really turned into a bigger deal than it should have been.

Since Ash’s father was in the military, it made it hard for the whole family to get together. But the stars had aligned this time. Everyone had managed to get time off around Ash’s birthday. So, what was supposed to be a small family vacation had also turned into a family reunion. Besides Ash’s siblings and parents, there were cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on. Even better, his dad’s best friend from the military and his family were also meeting them on Adventure Planet. Ash always loved seeing them.

Ash was about ready to bounce out of his seat. Getting strapped into it was almost unbearable. At least the view from the seat was neat. That was not just because of the portal’s view of space and the planet. The human seating for the shuttle was located above the Goliaths, and the floor was transparent. It let Ash get a good view of all the Goliaths as they moved about on their part of the ship. He was always fascinated watching them move about. They were just so huge, even the kids who were only his age, maybe younger. It was amazing that such giant creatures could exist, and they could be just as excited about visiting the same place he was.

There were so many different kinds of Goliaths, too. Ash wanted to run around the compartment and try to find ones he had never seen before. That usually was not hard. There were supposed to be as many different kinds of Goliaths as there had been known animals back on Earth. Ash had wondered why there was an anthropomorphic Goliath for every animal known to have existed on Earth. Maybe he would find that out one day. Everyone told him he was smart. They had even let him skip a few grades already. It was a reason why he was being rewarded with a birthday on Adventure Planet.

While Ash was looking down at the Goliaths, he heard some gasps from both humans and Goliaths. All eyes started to turn toward the portals to the left of the seating. Ash frowned and joined them. Off in the distance was a ball of flames falling to the planet. No, it was not just flames. It was another passenger shuttle. The engines looked like they had exploded. Ash wondered if some terrible accident had occurred.

Suddenly, the pilot came back on the comms, “All passengers, brace for evasive maneuvers.”

The once calm pilot sounded like he was on the verge of panic. Ash was starting to feel frightened himself. As the shuttle deviated from its previously smooth route and started flying about wildly, Ash turned to his father and asked, “What’s going on?”

He looked serious as he said, “Not sure. But this guy is flying like a rookie pilot on his first combat drop.”

Ash was going to question his father further when the ship abruptly rocked violently. He felt an intense heat on one side of his body. It was worse than anything he had felt in his life. Ash closed his eyes and screamed in pain. By the sound of things, he was not the only one screaming. Air was rushing out of the ship, and Ash found it hard to breathe. He forced his eyes open, and the sight that greeted him was confusing at first.

Parts of the shuttle were just gone. The ship was open to space as it joined the other shuttle in hurtling toward the planet. Ash was a little dazed from the lack of air as he looked around. Multiple separate holes were running from the back of the ship to the front. There had been a lot of people, both humans and Goliaths, where those holes were. The Goliaths were large enough that at least parts of them were left. But what was left of them could not have been alive, especially the ones that only had their lower bodies left. As for the humans, there was no trace of many of them, including Ash’s mother and siblings. His father was draped over him protectively. There was a disturbing amount of smoke coming off his back, and he seemed to be unconscious but breathing.

Ash looked around for other family members, but most of them had been sitting where a hole was. That should have been more distressing for Ash, but he felt himself starting to pass out from the lack of air. Ash had paid attention to the safety message they had received after boarding the shuttle. Because of that, he was able to locate an oxygen mask. He had no idea if it would work. Ash may have only been a kid, but he was smart enough to know the ship was severely damaged. There was a good chance they could have lost their oxygen supply or that the lines to it could have been severed.

Once Ash put on the mask, it was a great relief when he did feel air flowing into it. His mind started to clear up with the fresh supply of oxygen. Then he put another mask on his father since he had yet to wake up. But that was the only good bit of luck he had. Ash was slammed back into his chair as the shuttle’s inertia dampeners failed. A few people cried out, and it looked like they passed out. Or at least Ash hoped they had only passed out. Ash had been augmented since before he could remember, but not everyone was that way. The shuttle had been pulling a lot of G’s before, and it probably still had a lot of that speed. He hoped it was only enough to cause unaugmented people to pass out.

The inertia dampeners were not the only system that failed. Lights went out. Fire suppression was not putting out any of the fires, though they were fortunately few and weak, with the shuttle still venting air. Ash could only hope they would not spread as they fell through the atmosphere. Several other safety measures were supposed to go into effect in the event of a crash, but they all seemed to have failed, too.

That meant the only thing anyone could do was assume the optimal crash position for their species. Ash’s father was unconscious, so he helped him do that. Once more, Ash was thankful he had the augments that allowed a seven-year-old to move a grown man around like that while under incredible G forces. Then, all Ash could do was assume the same position and wait for the crash to happen.

It was a few long minutes waiting for the shuttle to reach the planet’s surface. The pilot was not saying anything if he was alive, so Ash had no idea when the impact would come. Despite anticipating it, the impact still came as a surprise. Even with an augmented body, it still hurt. Considering that the ship started to come apart and Ash’s seat was thrown through the air, he was happy that the only thing he felt was some pain. Then Ash felt something hit his head, and he passed out.

Ash woke up sometime later. There was no way of telling how long he had been out for. All he could tell was that someone was weakly shaking his shoulder and saying, “Ash, come on, Asher, you have to wake up.”

That voice sounded muffled at first, but as his senses returned, he thought he recognized the voice, “D-dad? Is that you?”

“Thank God, I thought I lost you there,” Ash’s dad said. There was something wrong with his voice. Ash did not like the way it sounded.

Even though Ash wanted to ask him about it, he felt so tired. What he really wanted to do was go back to sleep. But his father insisted, “Whoah there, son. You need to stay awake right now. Just try to do that until someone comes along to help.”

Ash tried to listen to his father’s advice, but it was not easy. His body really wanted to go to sleep. Ash tried to look around to distract himself from how tired he was. That was not such a good idea. The scene was not something someone his age should have seen. Not many other people looked like they were still alive, human or Goliath. There were not many places Ash could look without feeling sick.

It did not feel like Ash could last much longer until he felt the ship start to rumble. That caused him to worry enough to wake him back up. He thought that the shuttle was about to explode or something like that. Though the rumbling did get worse, what was left of the ship did not explode. In fact, the rumbling started to feel familiar to him. Ash had played with Goliaths before. One of the more fun things to do was get in a bouncy castle, turn off any shock absorbers in the area, and have the Goliaths pound the ground. It was amazing how good a bounce they could get that way.

That made Ash realize that Goliaths must be approaching the shuttle. If shock absorbers were in the area, the crash may have damaged them. And it would have been a miracle if the shuttle’s absorbers were working. This was a lot less fun than a bouncy house. With as much damage as the shuttle had taken, many loose sections shook ominously. People might have survived the crash only to get crushed by collapsing parts of the shuttle. However, the rumbling suddenly eased up. It was still there, but it was like the approaching Goliaths were moving more carefully.

Eventually, Ash heard voices yelling from outside as the sound of metal screeching echoed through the shuttle. The Goliaths were tearing their way into the ship. It took a while, but a section of the ship above Ash lifted away, and he saw a wolf’s head through a hole. Despite his size, the wolf was still a kid like him, only a few years older. The black wolf with the silver fur around his jaw was familiar to Ash, and it was a relief to hear the wolf turn to someone else and say, “Dad, I see Mr. Bennett and Ash.”

“Are they alright? Can you get to them,” another voice called out.

“I don’t know. This section looks really fragile.”

“Hold on, I’m coming to help.”

A few moments later, a larger section of the shuttle started to lift away, giving the black wolf enough room to start reaching into the shuttle for them. The unseen voice said, “Careful Tytrius. Even though they’re augmented, they might be in an especially fragile state right now.”

“Right, Dad,” Ty said, being about as careful as a Goliath could be when handling a human. Since Ash was augmented, he was usually alright with being handled by Goliaths. This was not normal, though. He had been battered from the crash, and he was bruised all over. And it seemed like every one of those bruises protested getting picked up by the pillar-like fingers of the young wolf. Even then, Ash was relieved to get pulled out of the shuttle’s wreckage.

There were quite a few Goliaths outside the shuttle, most of them wolves, which made sense to Ash since they must have been a part of the same pack. One of those wolves, Ty’s father, bent down to give Ash and his father a good sniff while Ty held them carefully.

“Spirits,” Ty’s father exclaimed, “Hold them still, Tytrius. I need to give them a dose of nanites.” The wolf fumbled at his waste. That was strange. Ash’s family had intended to meet up with him and his pack. Ash had never seen him shake in fear, but his hand looked like it was doing that just now. Despite how badly the wolf was shaking, he managed to pull out a medical nanite spray. It was better to use an injector for medical purposes, but a Goliath was more likely to do more harm than good when trying to inject a human with nanites, so they had to settle with a spray when they needed to deal with humans.

The second the spray hit Ash, he felt the slightly cool sensation of the nanites flowing into his body. Relief from his pain came soon after. While Ash felt better, he saw Ty’s father still looked worried. The massive wolf’s ears dropped, “Will…”

“I know, buddy,” Ash’s father said. His voice sounded weaker than ever despite the nanites. Ash looked over at his father, concern clear on his face. His father coughed a couple of times before he continued talking. “That laser got me good. I’m certain most of my organs were fried. I think my augments are the only things keeping me going, and they’re redlining on me too.”

“Will, I’m sorry,” the wolf sighed.

“There’s nothing anyone could have done about it,” Ash’s father said through labored breaths. His body was wracked by a coughing fit that had everyone scared. But he managed to get himself under control. “I don’t think anyone else made it besides Ash. Valerian, would you do me a favor and look after my boy?”

“Of course,” Ty’s father, Valerian, said enthusiastically. “I wouldn’t let my best friend’s kid go packless.”

Ash’s father tried to speak again, but he could only cough. When that stopped, he did not start speaking again. He sounded like he was struggling to breathe. Valerian looked incredibly sad, so much so that Ash was really scared as he looked over to his father. His chest rose and fell a few more times before it stopped altogether. As Ash felt the tears coming, Valerian’s expression changed to one of pure rage.

“Tytrius,” Valerian said, a low growl in voice.

“Yes, father,” Ty responded, paying close attention to his father’s words.

“Ash isn’t just your playmate anymore. He’s your little brother. Make sure you protect him.”

Ty’s fingers curled up into a protective cage around Ash, “I will, Father.”

Valerian set to work on the shuttle again after that. He had Ty stand back and watch Ash while everyone else tried to find other survivors. Ash was the only human who made it out of the crash. The Goliaths that had been on board had not faired much better. Only three of them made it out, and two of them could not move on their own.

Shortly after they got everyone out of the wreckage, a deer in a security uniform came running up. He called out, “What are you folks doing out here?”

Valerian shot the deer an angry look, “What you and your team should be doing. Where is the rest of your team? Are they helping out at the other crash sites?”

If the deer noticed Valerian’s anger with him, he did not show it. The deer was either made of sterner stuff, or he was too tired to care. He was out of breath as he said, “I don’t know. Communications are being jammed. I’ve got no clue what’s going on.”

“No clue,” Valerian shouted, “This is a Spirits’ damned pirate raid. They’re shooting down all our means of escape and jamming our connection to the greater galactic net. They’re making sure we can’t freeze our credit accounts before they kill us and hack them at their leisure.”

“That’s impossible. The nearest pirate armada capable of pulling something like this off is behind a naval blockade at least three days from here,” the deer laughed, sounding as if Valerian had just said something ridiculous.

Valerian’s expression changed. The anger was still there, but by the way his face fell, it was like he was shocked and confused. Ash took that all in, but he was too numb to care. The only thing that really mattered in the exchange was that Ash now knew what had happened. Ash knew Valerian was not dumb. If he said this was the doing of pirates, then this was pirates.

“Do you think all these shuttles are crashing due to, what, poor maintenance?”

“It’s…possible.”

“Do you think all the security here thinks the same as you?”

“Well, I don’t know everyone on the planet, not even close. But there hasn’t been a major pirate raid in forever. Why would anyone think this is pirates?”

“Spirits,” Valerian whispered, sounding almost like he was talking to himself, “They probably aren’t firing on their dropships. The starports might not even be defended.”

“You’re serious about the pirates?”

“Are you even armed,” Valerian sounded exasperated.

The deer sounded hesitant to answer that, especially with an entire pack of wolves starting to surround him, “Only with a stun baton. We need authorization from the head of security to use deadly force.”

“Spirits help us,” Valerian said.

“Listen, you’ve got injured people here,” the deer said placatingly. “Why don’t we all head back to the starport so we can arrange transport for them to a hospital. Then we can get this all sorted out.”

Valerian looked at the deer like he thought he was an idiot. He visibly tried to calm himself before saying, “Okay, I realize you must have only dealt with drunken, belligerent tourists before, but you need to understand what is going on. We are being attacked by a pirate armada. From talking to you, I’m guessing Adventure Planet lacks anti-air defenses. That means those pirates are going to walk right in there, kill everyone, or send them right back up to their ships as slaves. They might already be at the starport. We need to find somewhere more secure, or we can quickly make secure.”

The deer looked at Valerian and the rest of the pack surrounding him like they had lost their minds. He used a calming voice as he said, “Why don’t you all just settle down. I realize this crash has been disturbing, but we are not under attack by pirates or anything else like that.”

Suddenly, explosions and weapons fire could be heard in the distance. Ash knew that if he could hear it, so could the wolves and the deer with their much keener sense of hearing. Valerian asked, “What do you think that noise was?”

“Perhaps another ship crashing,” the deer said doubtfully.

“Now you’re just being stupid,” Valerian said. Then he took a moment to think before saying, “If you’re security, you must have a detailed layout of the facilities on this world. Send them to me so we can figure out where to go.”

“I’m not authorized to do that, sir.”

Valerian let out an angry growl as he rushed at the guard and lifted him off the ground by his uniform. Being a security guard at such a popular tourist destination, the deer was far from tiny. Valerian was a little above average in height for a wolf, which made them about even. But the wolf was much more muscular. It was obvious the deer was not used to being manhandled like that. He looked like he was about to go for his stun baton, but a growl from Valerian and the rest of the wolves let him know that would be a mistake.

Ash had never seen Valerian that angry before. It was scary. Ty noticed that and held him against the soft fur of his neck as he said, “Don’t worry, Ash, that anger is meant to protect us.”

Valerian’s ears twitched in a way that Ash recognized as an acknowledgment of what his son had just said. That was comforting for Ash. Not so much for the deer. Valerian’s eyes never left him. His voice was low and menacing as he said, “I just lost my best friend. And now your stubbornness is endangering his son, the very one I swore to protect as his dying wish, as well as the rest of my pack. You will send me those plans, or I’ll tear your head off right here.”

The deer sighed and said, “Sent.”

“Good, now let’s see about surviving this cluster-” Valerian looked back at Ash and his cubs before continuing, “This screwed up situation.”

***Unknown Prison – Present***

“Holy shit, you were on Adventure Planet during the pirate raid! How did you survive,” CJ asked.

“A lot of Adventure Planet was designed by retired military engineers. Pop found a good place to hole up in one of the locations meant to cater more to predators. And by catering to predators, I mean it was pretty much a hunting ground. There were even underground facilities that could hold up to a bombardment. And my pack weren’t the only ones who figured out it was a good place to wait things out. They even managed to loot a security armory. After a few failed attempts to take the hunting grounds, the pirates decided to stick to easier targets.”

CJ smirked, “I’m guessing that most predators viewing pirates as edible had nothing to do with that.”

“Maybe a little,” Ash chuckled. “Getting used to some of the eating habits of my new family did take a little getting used to.”

CJ pointed back at the wolf, “So that wolf?”

“Is Tytrius, my big brother. My very big brother.”

“I’m surprised the government let a Goliath adopt a human. Seems like it could be a little dangerous,” CJ said.

Ash smiled, “The government knows not to interfere with things like that regarding some of the more social races. The wolves take the dying request of a best friend deadly seriously. If the Coalition tried to step in and stop that adoption, it could very well have been facing insurrection from a few different races.”

“Well, that’s a nice story and all. But that was nearly three decades ago. A lot of things could have happened since then. Living through something like that could mess a person up,” CJ said.

“I suppose you’re right,” Ash said. “But, something stuck with me all my life. My adopted father always thought it was strange that the pirates managed to make it all the way to Adventure Planet undetected.”

“Everyone says they found some precursor stealth tech.”

Ash sighed, “Just because everyone says it doesn’t mean they’re right. As time went on, I always thought it was strange that they never found any of this stealth tech on any of the pirate vessels that have been captured since then. So, I hit the books hard, really dedicated myself to figuring out how the pirates had done what they did. I had multiple degrees by the time I turned 18.”

“I suppose that might be helpful now.”

“More helpful than you know, CJ.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Ash looked at Ty once more, and the wolf nodded. Then Ash said, “Well, I found the answer. They didn’t go undetected.”

“Then what happened,” CJ asked, a little confused.

“They forced the people that did detect them to believe they had not detected them.”

“Wait, you’re talking about mind control technology.”

“Yes, and they probably only have one or two devices their leadership is keeping close at hand,” Ash explained.

“And you discovered all this by the time you were 18?”

Ash said, “No, about a year ago.”

“Wha-“

Ash interrupted, “We came across a precursor facility that was researching mind control tech, or rather, they were researching ways to defend against it. After all that time, I had just figured out how to piece all that research together. I was shipping out to the blockade to finish my research and deliver a counter to the mind control tech I believe has been responsible for foiling the anti-piracy efforts in the region.”

When Ash saw how CJ looked at him, he smiled, “I actually finished up a defense against the tech during transit. Unfortunately, I only had enough time to use it on myself before we were ambushed by our current captors.”

“Wait, does that mean what I think it means,” CJ asked.

“Yes, my memories are intact,” Ash said. “And hopefully, yours will be soon, too.”