The Cub – part 3: The Trip
By Garjala
 

It had been only few days since Snowspot's family and guards had been vaccinated when Snowmist was suddenly called to the chief's office. When shi arrived at the office, shi noticed a phaser and several power packs on the table. The chief nodded to hir and waited until shi had sat down before he started talking.

"I just got a message that Star Corps has accidentally managed to locate the colony where Snowspot's latest masterpiece was tested. I was told that shi did not exaggerate at all when shi told that its kill rate is almost perfect."

"If I cut the story short, Star Corps now has a quarantined ship orbiting that contaminated colony somewhere out there and when they consulted the experts of various diseases, someone who knew about Snowspot's creations counted one plus one and got two. At that point, normal teams for such cases were kicked straight out of the door to their great surprise, the whole incident was declared top secret, and Star Fleet prepared a very special science ship for that mission."

"Since it is pretty clear what is killing people in that colony and in the ship, they want Snowspot there for consulting purposes. Since shi is way too 'young' to travel alone, we have arranged it so that you will follow hir to the ship. Officially you will be investigating the matter about who founded that illegal colony and why. It is likely that you will not find anything related to that, but at least try to make it look like you are busy on the job."

"I understand that you and all of your cubs have been vaccinated. Is that correct Snowmist?

"Yes sir! Each of us got both of the vaccinations!" Snowmist confirmed to the chief.

"Excellent. It is up to you if you want to take your other cubs with you, but you shall take at least Snowspot with you. I am sure that if you decide to leave other cubs here for their safety, we can find a fine chakat to look after them for you."

That kicked Snowmist's parental instincts to overdrive and shi immediately responded "I will not be leaving Whitestripe and Snowmuzzle to some unknown person!"

For a moment a faint smile was visible on the chief's face before he nodded and continued, "I understand. I will inform Star Fleet that you are all coming. Then we have some other things to take care of. First of all we have a phaser in here as you have already noticed. Since you are moving outside of your normal safety net, my superiors have decided that Snowspot will be armed with a phaser. Hir weapon permits have been updated for that as you will soon find. When you arrive at the ship, security officers of the ship will take Snowspot through a normal set of weapon safety and handling courses. After shi has passed them, you will give phaser and power packs to hir. Is that understood?"

"That is very clear sir!" Snowmist answered.

"Very good. Secondly you should go to annoy this station's techies and fetch a good set of devices and things you need for your 'mission', Snowmist. Finally, since time is very limited in this case, you can take the rest of the day off for packing up your stuff, gear and the cubs for the trip. Tomorrow morning at 6AM you will be taken to space port, so make sure that you are ready to leave by then."

"Understood sir!" Snowmist immediately answered.

"Okay. You and Snowspot will get more detailed information about the situation after the ship leaves. You are dismissed!"

Snowmist collected the phaser and all power packs into a plastic bag and padded to the door with it. After leaving the room, shi headed to the lab section of the station. Once there, shi really annoyed all techies by asking for a large set of their finest high tech toys to be packed up for immediate transportation. Lab workers of course complained about the odd request for a long time very loudly until an irritated looking chief popped in telling them that he wanted more action and less noise. After that Snowmist got everything shi had requested for hir mission. Shi knew that shi would not need them all or even closely that, but temptation to test the finest of all toys was too much now that shi had permission to check out whatever shi wanted. Shi did notice though that the chief looked kind of amused when Snowmist was supervising the packing of equipment, knowing that one day shi would have to also return it. Preferably in one piece.

When the equipment had been shipped to the spaceport, Snowmist headed home. Both Whitestripe and Snowmuzzle were of course very excited when they heard that they would have a trip waiting for them. And that it would be in space! Snowspot on the other paw just showed a questioning look at Snowmist who quietly told hir that trip was job-related. After that, Snowspot just helped Snowmist pack up all needed stuff and gear, trying to make sure that Whitestripe and Snowmuzzle would not 'help' them too much. Finally they had managed to pack up everything needed despite the 'help' overexcited cubs had provided for them.

Hours worth of bouncing around like a super ball finally took its toll, and both Whitestripe and Snowmuzzle crashed to bed falling asleep very fast. Snowspot and Snowmist continued their preparations for the trip for several more hours, collecting possibly needed data, cub distractions, toys and games that they would probably need in the trip. Finally they too had to give up to sleep and set down to bed after setting alarm to make sure that they could wake up in time.

At 6AM sharp, a large PTV arrived at the front door in order to collect Snowmist and the very sleepy looking cubs. After an hour-long trip to space station, which all of them used for sleeping, their luggage was hauled to the shuttle waiting in the part of the space station which was reserved for the Star Fleet only. The chakats were hurried to shuttle which immediately took off and headed for the ship waiting in the orbit. Once the shuttle had docked, the ship jumped to warp and started accelerating to maximum speed before the chakats had even left the shuttle.

When the chakats padded out of the shuttle they were greeted by a large tiger morph who seemed to be head of the security in the ship. She informed them that all of them and their luggage would be scanned due to regulations of Star Fleet. When security officers found phasers from Snowmist and hir luggage, tiger told them that Snowmist was a police officer and had an official permit to carry them in the ship. Security officers took a questioning look at the tiger before putting them back. Soon after that one of the officers found Snowspot's stunner. When the human was about to take it, the tiger interrupted him.

"I do not see a stunner, so there is nothing to confiscate. Is that clear, Smith?" the tiger asked the very surprised human.

The human's jaw dropped when he tried to complain about that statement without getting any sound out. He looked several times at the clearly visible stunner in the hand-held scanner and to the ice-cold looking stare of his boss. Then he finally said, "It looks like that the cub does not have anything after all. Scanner is most likely malfunctioning. I'll have it checked as soon as possible, sir!"

"Very good, Smith! Since there does not seem to be anything interesting in your belongings, I will show your cabin to you. Your luggage will be moved there shortly by the crew, so do not worry about them," the tiger said and gestured them to follow her.

After following the tiger for a while, the chakats arrived at the relatively large cabin, which very clearly was selected so that all of them would fit to live in it.

"My name is Jelena Tigra and you are now aboard the Star Fleet science ship Douglas Adams. First I have to inform you that only me, the captain and the expert team we got in at the last stop know exactly what our mission is. Others do not know and they do not need to know. I am sure that you understand why. As for special security measures, all relevant parts of the crew have been vaccinated with both vaccines."

"If you need something you can ask for them from these persons," Jelena said sending data to both Snowmist's and Snowspot's data pads.

"We have also selected a cubsitter which you can use as needed, Snowmist," Jelena continued. "I doubt that Snowspot will need her though as I was informed that shi will have other ways to keep boredom away. I will check later today how you have adjusted to ship life. Now, could you follow me, please, Snowspot."

Jelena lead Snowspot to security team's training room where she called in one of the security officers.

"He will teach you the full set of weapon handling and safety courses. Just ask if you are unsure of something. OK?" Jelena asked.

"Shi's just a damn kid! I will not be teaching so young a brat! Shi would..." The security officer exploded after looking at Snowspot, but the rest of it was left unclear as Jelena stepped in.

"Which part of my order did you not understand, Jackson? If I have to repeat myself, I will mark your files that you refused to act based on a direct order! That also means disciplinary actions for you! So, tell me, what you will do next, Jackson?" Jelena asked in ice-cold tone.

Jackson looked at his boss once before making his decision "I will teach hir the full set of weapon safety and handling courses, sir!"

"That is correct. I will personally supervise hir final test which will be needed for weapon license, so you better make damn sure that shi will pass it!" Jelena snarled at Jackson.

Jackson looked sagged when he watched Jelena walking to the door and then disappearing as the door closed behind her. He looked at the cub next to him, sighed and went to fetch a phaser which security used for weapon training. The phaser itself was not a very remarkable looking one. It looked like a normal phaser, but it was painted with bright colours to make sure that everyone could easily tell that it was for training only. It was also pretty safe compared to a real phaser as the beam from it was almost harmless, and was only used to trigger special sensors in training clothing for hit counting.

Jackson gave the weapon to Snowspot who immediately disassembled it onto the table in the room, carefully checking each part while doing so. When shi had checked all parts, shi assembled the phaser again before putting it to the table.

Jackson could not believe his eyes. The damn furry midget had just done perfectly without any training what usually took an hour or two worth of training for new recruits. And that was just for a very slow performance. The speed and honed routine the cub had been using usually needed weeks or months worth of training.

"Okay, I am curious about how you did know the correct way to do that without any training? Those toys are not supposed to available to the public as far as I know. Only some SWAT teams in the police have some of them as they are carefully regulated. This is not the civilian model you know?" he asked.

Snowspot immediately realised that shi had screwed up. Back when shi had been working with Humans First, they had had regular weapon practices and all of them had apparently been done using military weapons. Shi had not ever asked about how Humans First had managed to obtain those weapons in the first place. Actually shi had not even realised that they had been using military models instead of normal civilian phasers. Since the weapon was similar to those they had used back then, shi had automatically done what they had taught hir to do back then without even thinking about it.

"I rea... Um, mommy, says that I watch too much TV and holos," shi tried and noticed that Jackson did not look too convinced.

Jackson looked at the cub for a long time suspiciously "I am not sure if I even want to know what you have been watching. In any case we can very clearly skip that part totally and move on to handling and safety part."

Next two hours went fast as Jackson noticed that he could skip most parts totally since the cub seemed to know them already for some reason, and that parts which the cub did not know needed to be told to hir once and only once. Then they used an hour practising before Jackson tapped his comm and said.

"Sir, the cub is now ready for the weapon handling and safety test"

Snowspot could clearly hear Jelena's sceptical sounding voice as she answered, "Jackson are you drunk or what? That training needs several days and you claim that you have done it in less than four hours?"

"No, sir. I am serious. I have taught hir everything needed and I am sure that shi can now pass the test," Jackson answered sounding confident.

Ten minutes later, Jelena arrived at the room with two other security officers. Without wasting time, they started by explaining the test method to Snowspot. The test started with simple safety and handling parts which Snowspot passed easily. Then they moved to more difficult parts, which did not cause too many problems for hir either. Finally when others were ready to call it quits and tell Snowspot that shi had passed the test, Jelena stopped them and said that there would be one more test left.

"Last one will be done in the holodeck. While it is not needed for passing the weapon test, I want to see what you can do in it. We call that test by the name: ship survival. Basic idea is that we create in the holodeck a replica of the ship's inner structures. Then two teams try to clean others out of that simulated ship without getting killed. You will be using training weapons and special clothing which registers hits from those weapons. Computer will tell if or when you got killed. Is that clear so far, Snowspot?"

"Sounds okay to me," Snowspot admitted. "I just do not understand why I am supposed to do a test meant for professionals."

Jelena looked at Snowspot thoughtfully for a moment before answering to question. "I was informed that your safety is our top priority in this ship. Thus I want to know what you can do by yourself if the worst happens. And if that situation ever happens, you will most likely face professionals, so take it as a chance to learn."

She lead everyone to the holodeck where the rest of the security team was waiting for them, and asked the computer to create a ship combat simulation using values they had never used before. Then she handed special clothes to everyone. When they had put them on, she told them the rules.

"This time the rules have changed a bit. Security team poses as attackers. Snowspot is the target and shi will be in some random location in the simulated ship. Ship layout will be exposed to Snowspot only. Attackers will have to find it out the hard way. Since this may sound too easy as a test for us from security, I will give three extra days off for next vacation for the person whose shot the computer counts as the kill. It should be nice enough bonus to keep you interested. On the other hand, I will give something nice to Snowspot for each kill shi possibly manages to do. Are the rules clear for everyone?"

When everyone nodded, she sent Snowspot inside and ten minutes later let the 'attackers' follow hir. Then she sat next to a screen where she could see what both teams were doing. 'Battle' was short and fierce. Snowspot used all the dirty tricks shi had learned during hir Humans First years in addition to what hir new body allowed. When it ended shi had taken over half of the security team down.

Jelena was not impressed by the performance of her team and let them know it in very vocal way. "Do not even bother to tell me that hir tail tricks, pepper spray, flour, stunner and other things shi used are unfair! That performance was a disgrace to the team's reputation! A six-year-old kid manages to take half of the team down just by using hir surroundings to the max! Although I do have to admit that hir tricks with telekinetic powers were exceptionally dirty ones. Still even that cannot be used as an excuse, so starting from tomorrow we train to counter those tricks."

"Based on the computer, Jackson scored the jackpot, so he gets the grand prize. As for the promise I made to Snowspot... shi gets this," Jelena said giving a relatively large box to Snowspot who found it to be full of lollipops of various flavours when shi opened the box.

Snowmist was surprised when cabin door opened and Snowspot padded in carrying a box and licking a lollipop. Shi was even more surprised when Snowspot put the box on the table and opened it. It took only few seconds for Whitestripe and Snowmuzzle to realise what was inside it before they rushed in to loot their share of the sweets.

"Where did you get those?" Snowmist asked looking puzzled.

"I passed the weapon test with such good results that Jelena gave me the box. Apparently I managed to show her some tricks she had not seen before, so she wanted to give me something for my troubles," Snowspot said licking hir lollipop and looking happy.

An hour later, Snowmist noticed that all the cubs were just as sticky due to lollipops as shi had feared, so shi had to dump them all into the bath. After that shi confiscated the remaining lollipops and made sure that everyone brushed their teeth carefully before they started sleeping.

Next morning Snowmist gave a phaser to Snowspot who carefully secured it to hir belt pouch. Soon after that, the cubsitter arrived, turning out to be a female fox morph. Snowmist suspiciously watched the cubsitter for half an hour before shi came to the conclusion that she apparently was up to the task after all. It looked like that fox knew well, that she could not keep up with supercharged chakat cubs, so instead she used clever tricks to make sure that both cubs stayed busy all the time. And since both cubs seemed to like their new cubsitter, everything seemed to be okay.

Soon after that, Jelena appeared at the cabin door in order to take them to the expert team, which was already waiting for them. It turned out that Snowspot already knew several team members and had heard of most of the remaining ones. The leader of the team was an elderly Caitian who was called Sunshine. Probably due to her very lightly coloured fur as Snowspot soon realised.

Sunshine did not waste time filling in the information that Snowspot and Snowmist were missing.

"About year ago, a Federation scout ship found a planet which seemed to be suitable for colonisation. Actually based on initial scans, the place looked more like a paradise. Abundant plant life and scans did not return anything that could be counted as really dangerous. So when they returned from their mission, the Star Corps sent out a ship to prepare the planet for possible colonisation. About six months ago, the ship arrived in orbit of the planet and started its work almost immediately."

"They were surprised when they quite soon found out something that looked like relatively large colony which was clearly built using Federation technology. So they sent down a scout team to search the place thoroughly."

"The crew of the Star Corps ship did not have any reasons to expect problems when they first found and then searched that probably illegal fur colony. They were just surprised when they only managed to find kids and some young teens. All kids looked unkempt and scared of something. Next night there were several deaths in the ship. That was when they started suspecting that something was not right."

"Since they correctly assumed that it was already too late for them, they started asking serious questions from kids and it turned out that all adults in the colony had died in less than one week a few years earlier. Apparently some of those kids even managed to describe symptoms in detail. Details of course matched perfectly with those deaths in the ship."

"The crew knew that ship was already contaminated, but even though their doctors tried their very best, they could not find out what was killing them. Finally someone noticed that all those who had died had had sex when death had happened, so while it sounded totally absurd to them, they declared the whole ship free of sex and deaths almost stopped. I probably do not have to tell you what that did to morale of the crew. Especially for chakats."

"Anyway, at that point they sent a very fast probe back to closest Star Fleet base in order to tell them about the problem and that they were in serious need of help. Luckily someone in the Star Fleet had heard of that virus and they managed to prepare this mission."

"I am sure that you all understand the importance of this mission. If even one of the infected persons gets out of there and to some Federation star base, no-one can stop the plague after that and it will wipe out billions of furs in the Federation. I know that vaccinations are already going on in Terra and Chakona, but there are still billions out there who cannot resist that virus. Fortunately Star Fleet and Star Corps are already vaccinating all of their fur workers and their family members. Thus if we manage to clear out this mess, it will be the last one as possible new infected colonies cannot infect ship crews any more."

"Since Snowspot knows the most about the virus, I would like to know what are our chances to succeed in our mission?" Sunshine asked looking curiously at Snowspot.

"Ship itself is actually pretty simple," Snowspot started. "Vaccine kills the virus even from already infected person. Problem is that it can take up to six weeks before virus has been wiped out from infected persons system and he or she is immune to it. So, we have to wait for two full months before ship's crew is safe due to safety margin. Virus itself does not survive very long outside of fur's system, so six months of waiting makes sure that ship is totally clean. And that is the easy part."

"Problematic one is the colony itself. You said that it is full of kids and teens. Problem lies in a fact that you have to find and vaccinate each and every one of them. Miss even one of them and whole colony is still a bomb with burning fuse. If their parents died years ago, not all of them might be in original area of the colony any more. Do you have any ideas about how to round up and vaccinate all of them without any failures? Especially since some of them can be almost anywhere in the planet," Snowspot continued.

"No, at least not yet," Sunshine admitted.

"Then I suggest that all vaccinated kids and teens will be marked with remotely readable tag. If you find a person, who does not show up in the reader, you found out a person who has not been vaccinated. Since external tags are easy to remove, I suggest that tag be inserted under the skin to some place where it does not cause problems. So it would be some kind of small capsule containing remotely readable tag. Power source could be body heat, as that kind of function does not need that much energy. Actually I am pretty sure that replicator library contains something we can either use directly or after some minor modifications.

"That sounds like a good idea. I have to consult the ships electronics expert in order to find out what they can come up with." Sunshine said looking slightly less worried.

"Ok, since I am an expert in virus itself and not in prevention of epidemics, I leave that part to you. You can probably plan the vaccination better than I do. In any case you have one benefit in that colony: it is full of kids and those can usually be bribed with sweets or toys quite easily. I am quite sure that a good meal and a lollipop or two attracts most of them to vaccination centre. The rest is up to you and your imagination," Snowspot said ignoring the dirty look from Snowmist due to reference to lollipops.

Snowspot and Snowmist spent the rest of the day getting bored to almost death as they watched others arguing about how, what, why, where and when they should do. Apparently they were making progress, but still all in all it was deadly boring to watch.

Next day Snowspot decided not to go to meet the team as shi knew that they would be very busy, and until they would reach the colony itself, shi would just be an extra wheel in the system. Thus shi had to find out something to do for over a month. Cubsitter was doing excellent work with Whitestripe and Snowmuzzle, but as Snowspot was mentally fully mature, her clever tricks did not work at all on hir that seemed to frustrate the cubsitter.

Finally shi dug out hir data pad and started checking what the ship's computer could offer to hir. Shi knew well that the operating system which Star Fleet and Star Corps were using was supposed to be secret, but still as shi also knew you could find full sources for it if you just knew where to look for them. And Snowspot had found them and spent a lot of time checking out how that operating system actually worked. It was a very complex and interesting system and had kept hir busy for a long time.

Snowspot had checked ship's operating systems configuration, version info and other interesting things for about twenty minutes when shi got a feeling that something in it was not correct. Hir own programs were showing much higher resource usage for the ship than its own systems. As far as shi knew both numbers should have been the same although hir own program was using different method in getting them. Two hours later shi finally found out what was causing the difference.

Shi headed to the door and when the cubsitter turned to see where shi was going, shi said that shi would go to visit aunt Jelena.

Jelena Tigra was sitting behind her desk in her office when Snowspot padded in. "What can I do for you little one?"

"I'm bored. Mommy is busy and cubsitter is not fun. Could you install some entertainment ROMs into the computer for me? I have list of what I would like to see in here," Snowspot said giving hir data pad to Jelena.

Jelena was about to shoot down little chakat's hopes when she actually looked at data pad and raised her eyebrow.

"Write your answer onto the data pad and then give it to me. Do not say aloud anything related to material on the data pad. And keep data pad in offline mode. Question is simple: Are you running ship-wide data and voice logging software in the computer?"

"This is a science ship little one. We have very little time for entertainment and computer resources are reserved for research purposes. Thus I do not think that we can do that," Jelena said, typing her answer onto the data pad and then handing it to Snowspot.

"No. What makes you think that I would be doing such a thing?"

"Please, I'm really bored. Could you install even one of them?" Snowspot said handing data pad back to Jelena.

"Because someone is running very cleverly hidden software which logs all conversations and makes hidden copies of all the data that is loaded into ship's computer. Could it be your computer expert? I assume that you have one, right?"

"Okay, I will call Data here and see if we could make an exception this time and only this time. Just because you asked for it so nicely," Jelena said and tapped her comm.

"Data, I want to see you in my office as soon as possible!" she said before closing the connection.

Five minutes later, a male Siamese looking cat morph appeared to the office.

"You asked for me, boss? What's going on?" he asked.

"Snowspot, this is Data. His real name is Justin, but we all call him Data since he knows everything about computers," Jelena said. "Little one here is bored. Shi wants to have some entertainment and has asked us to install some entertainment ROMs for hir. Here is the list of what shi would like to see. Do you see any possible problems with them?" Jelena said handing data pad to Data.

The cat looked at the data pad.

"Answer the following question simply by yes or no. Do not comment question itself aloud. Question is: Are you running ship-wide software that logs all conversations and makes hidden backups of all data?"

"No. All titles in the list should be okay and have no known problems," he answered looking puzzled.

Jelena looked at Snowspot who nodded to confirm that cat was telling the truth. Then she took the data pad back from Data.

"Okay, that sounds good. Let me mark what titles the little one really wants to see as we cannot for sure install them all," Jelena said, typing something onto data pad and then handing it to Data.

"Kid knows where that program is and what it looks like. You consult hir as needed. First of all you get rid of that shit. I want it to be removed from our computers today. When that part is done and you have confirmed that it really has vanished for good, you will immediately report to me! Secondly I want to know who installed and controls it. And thirdly I want to know how much information that spy has managed to leak from the ship. Especially since this last mission started! You will report to me on a regular basis and keep me well informed. Unless I personally tell you otherwise, you will tell this information to no one. This includes security team and ship's captain! Do you have any questions?"

Data looked at the pad. "Looks clear and simple. Shall we go then, little kitten, and get something to keep boredom away from you?"

Jelena watched as Data and Snowspot walked out of the door and then vanished. She had waited for five hours when everything suddenly went totally black, then emergency lights lit up and computers in the room started showing signs that the operating system was loading. Soon after that, normal lights returned and all computer screens returned to normal operating mode.

An hour later she was still answering furious calls from all over the ship when Data walked in with Snowspot.

"First part is done, boss! That thing is no longer running in our systems. We also checked that several times after the reboot to make sure that it has not returned, since it was set to reload in case system was rebooted for some reason. I have never seen that advanced logging software anywhere. It was like a hydra: cut one head and it grows two new ones. And just like Snowspot, said it logged everything that was happening in the ship. We managed to disable it. Most of its critical files are now corrupted on purpose. If person controlling it wants to get it running again, he or she has to replace pretty much whole software and that trips several alarms we set to system."

"Actually the kid did even better: shi found out how that pest was controlled and set in homemade software which emulates some parts of it. If anyone now connects to its control interface, it trips an alarm and turns on video feed from that terminal or data pad. And that feed is recorded automatically. So now we just wait and see if its user is stupid enough to come into the spotlight."

"Oh, and can I borrow that kid by the way? While we were checking that logger, shi noticed several possible bottlenecks in the system configuration. If shi is correct about them, I should be able to finally get rid of that micro lag those damn researchers have been complaining about for ages," Data asked Jelena.

"Well?" Jelena asked looking at Snowspot.

Snowspot pretended to think about it very carefully before shi answered, trying hard to keep a straight face. "I want lots of candy for it! And a big plushie! A very big plushie!"

For a long moment, both Jelena and Data looked at Snowspot, looking totally dumbfounded. Then they totally lost it and burst into laughter.

"Are you not a bit too old for that Snowspot?" Jelena said when she finally managed to stop laughing.

"I am seven years old soon! I'm old enough to get a plushie!" Snowspot declared trying even harder to keep a straight face.

Jelena almost lost it again. "By the way I know about your background, so you do not need to try to fool me. And that reminds me of something else... Data, you may have noticed that Snowspot is not exactly what you would expect from a cub of hir age. You make damn sure to keep those notions to yourself. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir! Still, I think that plushie idea has its merits. Big plushies tend to draw attention from their owners," Data pointed out.

"Good point, Data. By the way, what happened to those lollipops you got earlier Snowspot? You still should have plenty of them left even after sharing with your sisters?" Jelena asked from Snowspot who started showing sour face.

"My mother confiscated them. Shi said that we get too sticky after eating them. Especially Snowmuzzle who was sticky like a post-it note after an hour of licking lollipops," Snowspot admitted.

That night Snowmist was stunned when Snowspot arrived at their cabin carrying an absolutely huge tiger plushie that was clearly bigger than the person carrying it. Shi was followed by two crewmembers carrying two only slightly smaller plushies for Whitestripe and Snowmuzzle.

"Ok, what did you do this time?" Snowmist asked suspiciously from Snowspot.

"I just fixed a minor computer software problem for them. They liked the result though, so they gave me little something," Snowspot said not even trying to hide the lollipop shi was happily licking.

Snowmist looked at the lollipop in a disapproving way, but did not say anything.

Next morning, Snowspot heard that security had caught and then also lost the person who had installed the spy software. The trap they had set had worked perfectly, but when security had started questioning the person they had found out too late that he had been conditioned to kill himself when certain questions were asked. Shi was told that security was searching through his belongings, but they were not too hopeful about finding out who had been his employer. Data had removed the rest of the software from computer because it was no longer needed.

Jelena warned Snowspot that it was possible that hir identity was compromised. Which meant that Snowspot's life was most likely getting even more interesting.

 



Story © Garjala. For comments and feedback, please email me – garjala (at) gmail (dot) com


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