OUTWORLD: Chronicles

Once in a Lifetime

Summerkin – a world of green meadows, rolling hills and clean air, home to Fox, Dog, Cat, Otter, Badger, Sheep, Rabbit, Goat, Squirrel, Hedgehog, and numerous other species. It stood in stark contrast to what surrounded it: hundreds of thousands of docking platforms, storage modules and habitation facilities forming rings of steel around the planet. Near-incalculable amounts of cargo moved in and out of Summerkin's orbit each day, being mass-shipped to other systems.

Aboard one of the storage modules, in one of its surveillance rooms, two security officers sat staring tiredly at their monitors. Both Dogs, they, like Summerkin and its companion rings, stood in stark contrast to each other. One, a male Collie, was wiry and tall, while the other, a female Shiba Inu, was shorter and what the Collie would charitably describe as "soggy in the middle". Her face would have been pretty were it not etched with boredom, much like Dawson's was.

The Collie, Dawson Sabatini, sighed and sat back in his chair, casting a look out of the viewport that faced him. The verdant sphere that was Summerkin rotated patiently just yonder, the sight of it nearly blocked out by multitudes of orbitals, flotillas of freighters, and swarms of cargo shuttles. "Y'know, in the time we've been here, living on this orbital, we've never gone down there," he muttered. "Wonder what it's like."

The Shiba Inu, Leyli Rachuk, snuffled noncommittally. "Better than Padlie, I'll bet," she yapped softly.

Dawson chortled. "Aye. And a damn sight better than Marisol as well." He stretched idly, freeing his body from the position in which it had been stuck for the last hour, and wondered briefly what it would have been like to grow up on Summerkin. Marisol was a grim industrial horrorworld and, from what Leyli had told him, Padlie wasn't much better.

Leyli smirked. "Well, even though we have absolutely no weather up here, I'm liking your musical selections for today." She flicked a paw up at the speaker system, which was currently broadcasting the strains of Crowded House's 'Always Take The Weather With You', with Dawson's connivance. The higher-ups let it ride since it didn't technically break regs.

"The advantage of having an ear for classic music," Dawson said archly.

Leyli shifted as well, her round belly wobbling, and poked at the camera controls for Storage Four. They were slick with grease from the large bucket of chicken whose contents Leyli was currently snarfing down. "Two thousand crates. That's a lot of playground equipment." She licked her oily fingers.

Dawson was about to say something about the gargantuan volume of coffee in Storage Six when his eyes suddenly found themselves drawn to the monitor overlooking Storage Nine. There was the faintest glimmer of movement. "Ley, I think we have something here."

Leyli glanced over. "Where?"

"Storage Nine," Dawson woofed, working the camera controls. The image enhanced a little, showing the definite outline of somebody whom Dawson was pretty sure had no business being there. He growled. "What's in Storage Nine, again?"

Leyli's maw worked as she looked up and ran through the relevant manifests. "High explosives for Shiffrin Mining. And I don't think he's there to check the numbers. Nobody's supposed to be in there."

Dawson couldn't help but snort. "Look at him. He seriously thinks we can't see him." The intruder was doubtlessly following, or rather trying to stay out of the path of, a conspicuous and very fake security camera that was sweeping the bay. The real eyes were located – and hidden – on a catwalk that spanned the area. "Run a check on Storage One through Eight. Ten as well."

"Clear," Leyli mumbled a few moments later through a mouthful of meat.

"Thanks." Dawson licked his muzzle. "Well, we can't leave him all alone in there."

"Yeah," Leyli growled. "Whaddaya say we get Mr. Stealth some company?"

"Aye." Dawson punched the communications link on his console. "Susie, you letting your lot do catnip in the warehouse again?"

"Ha-ha, funny," Susie's feline voice replied. "Why? What's up?"

"Unregistered yipyaw in Storage Nine," Dawson said. "Go see what his deal is, will ya?"

"We're on it," Susie hissed.

"Gimme a shout when you're going in, yeah?" Dawson said.

Several minutes later, Susie called through. "We're in position. Entering Storage Nine... now."

Leyli had keyed her monitor to Storage Nine's camera as well; she was as rapt as Dawson as Susie's five-strong team crept into the bay through a hidden silent-open panel in the floor. "Keep it tight," Susie could be heard whispering. She and the others stuck close to whatever large object was nearby, moving without a trace of sound.

"He's doing something with the explosives," Leyli cried.

Dawson panned over to their guest. The Fox was definitely doing something. He had unpacked several, and seemed to be modifying them in some way. No, Dawson thought. Not modifying – activating. "Susie, he's setting a timer. Go! No time for stealth – get him!"

Susie and her team pounced like their biological forebears, yowling and hissing as they mobbed the Fox, knocking him away from the explosives and pinning him to the deck. "Stay down, trash-eater," Susie growled. She was frisking the saboteur, disarming him – he was carrying a pistol – and reliving him of anything else. She suddenly laughed. "Yeah. Just as I thought. He's from SubTechnology." The pitch of her voice changed as she addressed the hapless individual. "Next time, loser, don't carry your ID on you." She got to her feet and looked straight into the hidden camera, her teeth bright in the low illuminations. "We can take it from here. Good job!"

As one, Dawson and Leyli slumped back into their seats.

It was nearly a full minute before Leyli could find the effort to speak again. "Fourth bloody time this week," she woofed. "I mean, I thought last week was bad with two in one day."

Dawson snorted in agreement. "Yeah." He blew out a sullen breath. "Wish something interesting would happen 'round here for once."

As the two went back to staring at their monitors, resignedly ever watchful, Talking Heads' 'Once in a Lifetime' played out: "Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was..."