Esha was young for a Hunter, only 32 seasons old. She was a member of a bizarre belief, a cult really, that called for very short fur. She looked beautiful to non Cuaxas but was regarded as ugly by other Cuaxa. She didn�t care. Hunters led solitary lives.

She had killed three Renueas in her time and was an expert at skinning, having practiced in training on Cuaxa corpses. It was a perversity that the Cuaxa sold the pelts of their dead to bare skinned aliens who needed the warmth they provided. She despised fur. Esha only kept her fur because a Cuaxa looked very strange bare skinned.

The bodice and skirt she wore were her own designs, made from the cobbled together scraps of protective garments worn by male Hunters. Esha was frightfully thin for a Cuaxa female and most Hunters� garments were too big for her. Typical Cuaxa inequality caused her to either make her own or go on hunts, bare. Some did that and they always got maimed or killed it seemed.

Esha was hungry. She had not eaten since leaving the Hunter base on a moon in the Cuaxa Drift, 134 light-years from Qesak. The sedative they gave her, standard for a traveling female Cuaxa, made her forget and as it wore off, the hunger returned fiercely.

She went back into the spacecraft and got a self-heating bowl of basic meat stew from the small food service cabinet above the water sink. She filled a large cup with water and sat on the edge of the open door to eat.

The Renueas were in an oasis just a few kilometers from here, apparently mating, which would make it easy to sneak up on them. She had nothing personal against them. The Alliances commander at Qesak, an unpleasant thug called The Butcher, offered a 1,100 gold piece reward for the male�s pelt and nearly 10,000 gold pieces for the female�s pelt, if she did not mar the pelts too badly.

Esha needed the money to move out of the Cuaxa Drift and get a spot on the Hunter force that protected Ivau Eta in that other galaxy. If she could be among non Cuaxas, maybe others would accept her. In the Drift, she lived in a one room apartment with no a/c. Her short fur had a practical reason as well. Most Hunters were not Cuaxa. Most of them were Ivaea and there were many Xekas as well.

As she ate, she wondered about the legends of ancient technology and evil intentions of the extinct people who once lived here. She smiled at that. The only real evil in this galaxy was other Cuaxas. When she finished her small meal, she opened a package of mints and ate one. Meat made breath smell and she was hunting a quarry that could smell as well as she could.

A body spray covered other smells associated with female Cuaxas issued by the Alliances military. The Renueas would not smell her even if she was within killing distance. Esha looked at the small computer strapped to the inside of her left wrist. It automatically calculated the time based on planetary rotation and solar dawn and nightfall. It said 2:34 a.m. It said that the dim sun would rise at 4:06 and the yellow sun would rise at 5:01. She would have to get going before they rose and rousted the Renueas.

Esha strapped desert sandals to her feet and looped her water bag�s strap over her left shoulder, diagonally across her body. It hung against her right hip. It was tightly sealed and made no noise despite any sloshing. She picked up her phase caster and sheathed her knife on her left leg. She could not use a vehicle. The Renueas would hear or smell it.

She set off into the direction of the oasis at a confident pace.

Tekui awoke in the predawn chill and shivered. She looked at Edsaa and smiled. He lay on his back, snoring softly. She carefully got up without waking him and went to the spring for a drink. She felt very good. As if she was complete now. Her keeper informed her that the dim sun would rise in less than an hour. It wasn�t bad. It was the yellow one she was concerned with.

She smiled at Edsaa�s sleeping form and started for the wrecked Ermenda ship. The sand was difficult to traverse and she had to resort to scrambling on all fours sometimes.

Esha reached the oasis half an hour later. She crept in and found the male, sleeping near the far entrance on the other side of the spring pool. Killing the male when he was sleeping was wise but she would have to go the long way around the large pool.

She gripped her phase caster and checked the ground. The path was clear and she continued carefully.

The male did not stir. Esha smelled several powerful scents in his vicinity. Mating smells. The female would be easy to track because of this. Her computer identified this male. Edsaa of the Spayed, known thief. The Alliances wanted him for stealing several valuable computers and spacecraft, giving Alliances technological secrets to the Renueas and other enemies. His pelt would bring far more than what The Butcher would pay her if she took it to her Alliances masters. Let him have the female�s pelt. They only wanted her on Qesak.

The female was nowhere to be seen. The computer did not scan her within its scan range. It suggested that she returned to their crashed spacecraft for supplies. As Esha looked at her computer, the male stirred.

He sat up and called for his mate. His night vision was not good, evidenced by the way he looked around.

Esha pointed her phase caster at his head. �Do not move,� she said in Alliances Standard.

The male�s eyes widened when he saw her. �You are a Hunter?�

�I am Hunter Esha. Have you any last words before you die?�

He snarled at her. �Cuaxa trash.�

She shot him, the bright yellow pulse striking his head and it exploded like a smashed fruit. Red ichor splattered everywhere as his body flopped back down. Esha kept her phase caster aimed at him, knowing that Renueas could regenerate parts and change forms. She listened for yelling or movements from the female but heard only the wind, which bore no scents.

After a few moments, the male was clearly dead. Esha shouldered her phase caster and pulled out her knife. She began to methodically skin the male, cutting along pelt lines with a precise touch. She got no blood on anywhere but her hands. She thought of the dead Cuaxa she had skinned. This was for proof, nothing more.

It took almost twenty minutes but she completely removed his golden pelt and cleaned it with an enzyme cleaner she carried for this purpose. She washed her hands and knife in the pool and took the pelt to her hiding spot on the back side of the pool to await the female�s return. She placed the pelt in a small mesh bag and set it aside. Simple as that.

Tekui scrambled up the large dune and found the spacecraft half buried at a small valley between two large dunes. The dim sun had climbed a little into the sky, casting an eerie yellow glow to everything. The bright yellow sun lit up the eastern horizon to her left. There was enough light to see well. She looked down the slope and wondered how Edsaa climbed up here, carrying her.

She growled to herself and started easing down the incline, expecting to slip. She did, her right foot slid forward on loose sand. She tumbled down and landed hard against the spacecraft�s smooth hull. Landing painfully, banging her left shoulder and growled as she got to her feet, sore all over and covered in gritty sand.

The ship hull loomed above her and she had to use her claws to climb up the small EVA hooks and depressions to the dorsal hull. She climbed up and saw the open hatch as the bright sun crested the horizon.

Tekui sighed as she went to it and looked down into the dark hole. She carefully climbed down and lowered herself into the ship. It was very dark inside until she made her way to the flight controls and activated the interior lighting. The ship�s sensors were intact and beeped, catching her attention. Tekui gasped when she saw the scan of the oasis.

With horror, she noticed a headless, skinned corpse cooling in the infrared eyes of the sensors. Across the pool, hiding in some ferns, was a Cuaxa female, who had Edsaa�s pelt in a mesh bag nearby. Anger and fear mixed in her heart. The female was an Alliances Hunter. She reminded Tekui of why female Renueas were forbidden from learning how to change into Cuaxas.

Females could only change into female forms. A female Cuaxa was heavily controlled by her own people and the Alliances. To travel, one had to voluntarily submit to calming drugs or sedation. They were vicious when provoked or angry. Most were quite civil these days due to harsh discipline and reforms in their upbringing.

This Hunter looked young. She probably was most urbane and civil in person, executing her duties as a Hunter calmly and coolly. She looked very strange with short cut fur and wearing what looked like a white dress made of a material the Ermenda sensors could not identify. A dreaded phase caster gun lay across her lap and she was cleaning it.

Edsaa was gone. The realization crushed her and brought tears to her eyes. She was beginning to love him. Tekui was too old to let emotions drive her to rash behavior or actions. Edsaa was a thief, a well-known thief who stole from the Alliances. It was not a great shock that they would send a Hunter after him. So, why was she still here?

Tekui considered this carefully. This Hunter was waiting for her to come back. Why would she? Edsaa was dead. The Hunter would come looking for her before long. She went to her bags and withdrew her plasmic gun. It was not as powerful as a phase caster but it was formidable enough.

A chilling thought occurred to Tekui. She and Edsaa did not use protection. They mated three times. She shook her head. Master Kerrechu would understand. If she was pregnant, her cub(s) would be blessed with the change ability. One or more to replace their father. It made her very sad.

Did her message reach Ikleu? She had no way of knowing until they sent anyone. She collected rations, a large bag of water, eye shades, and her sweater, which was cleaned after the ordeal of leaving Plate 53. Tekui knew how to hide, how to survive. She felt strong enough to change but she was slow compared to others. She also didn�t have a lot to eat. Tekui would have to stay Renuea but that was not a bad thing. She was not so different from a Cuaxa and could change her fur color at will or grow bigger claws.

She also plugged her keeper into the wrecked craft�s computer and downloaded a weather and map program. Any other relevant data was up to the keeper to download. After it was done, she shut everything off. Tekui slung her bag over her shoulder and climbed out into the morning light. It was not hot yet but it would be soon.

Tekui went to the uniformly colored sand and concentrated on changing her fur color, which was not far from this color to begin with. She also decreased its density and increased her cooling ability. Now the ordeal of climbing up the incline again presented itself. She sighed and shook her head, staring up more carefully than she came down.

Esha grew bored waiting. She reckoned that the female had a keeper, the small computer most Renueas carried. Edsaa�s was full of interesting things and would be a prize worth more gold pieces from her Alliances masters. That keeper would tell her that Esha was here waiting for her. Esha did not relish the thought of going back into the oppressively hot sandy desert to look for her.

The Cuaxa female looked at the dead Renuea�s remains and wondered why they were enemies of the Alliances. It was not a brutal or oppressive regime like most outsiders thought. Low level persons like her were free to choose their fate. She intended to do this to go to Ivau Eta. Did she even need to kill the female? Edsaa was a prize worth six times the bounty that thug, the Butcher, offered. She did not work for him. She worked for the Alliances Security Bureau.

However, the ASB did send her to kill both of them. Esha decided to wait for the female, who would come here to seek revenge for the killing of her mate. Renueas were not so different from Cuaxas. She got up and pulled off her raiments. A swim would be pleasant.

Esha kicked off her desert sandals and dove into the surprisingly deep pool. It was cold but bearably so. She felt refreshed by it. She would live in a seaside community on Ivau Eta and have Ivaea friends.

Let the female Renuea come. The phase caster was more powerful than anything she could possibly have. She swam around for a bit, then got out and used this opportunity to relieve herself without leaving spoors to track.

After drying in the suns, she put her raiments and desert sandals back on. She picked up the mesh bag and phase caster and headed for the far end of the oasis. Sneaking up on her from here would be difficult for the female.

Tekui suffered despite her precautions. The heat was far more than she could tolerate. She followed her tracks from the early morning but kept falling down. Endless sand stretched out to the far horizon and there were no clouds to take the bite out of the suns� light. She thought of going back to the spacecraft but the Cuaxa would have her cornered if she came out here.

Her keeper showed that she had a swim and was now climbing a tall palm tree. Tekui growled at this one�s nonchalance. This killer and Alliances scum. Her enmity for the Cuaxa kept her going. She would shoot this one and learn her form as a double insult and indulging a prohibited wish.

However, being a member of a species shaped by forest cold and icy environments, Tekui fell victim to heatstroke and collapsed halfway between the Ermenda ship and the oasis. She fell face down on the sand, her fur blending in perfectly with it.

Esha used Edsaa�s keeper to find the female and smiled when she saw the female laying face down just over one kilometer away. She wasn�t moving, likely heat struck. Esha climbed out of the tree she had gone up to hide and set off in the direction of the female.

The heat got to her too but it was tolerable thanks to her ultra short fur. She walked quickly, phase caster in hand. She would put this one out of her misery at once. The sand was hard to cross and the wind picked up, blowing sand and reducing visibility.

Esha�s eye shield�s IR function became useless and she had to switch to compensation enhancement. The light-colored female would be hard to spot, especially if she changed her fur colors to match the sand. She proceeded carefully, circling the female in a wide arc so she could come up behind her.

Tekui regained consciousness in a light sandstorm. She growled and struggled to open her water bag for a drink. An eerie sense came over her. She grabbed her plasmic gun and turned over. [Behind you] the sense said. Tekui sat up and turned around. She saw the Cuaxa right there in the blowing sand. Knowing that dress was probably armored, she aimed for her legs and fired.

Esha could not see her. She took a step and a bright yellow plasmic pulse struck her in the left shin, shattering it. She sucked it in and hopped on her right foot, tracking with the phase caster. She was a Hunter. No simple Renuea would kill her.

�Give it up, Renuea!,� she yelled into the blowing sand.

�Shoot me if you can, killer!,� came the reply.

Esha switched back to IR and found her, sitting up and aiming her gin at her. She aimed the phase caster right at her chest and started to squeeze the trigger when something grabbed her from behind, claws digging into her sides, unable to penetrate the raiments. Being squeezed like that hurt however and made it hard to breathe, already a chore in this blowing sand.

�Throw it down,� a male voice said in her ears. She could feel his hot breath on her neck.

Esha growled but did so, tossing the phase caster to the sand. She could feel her blood dripping from her shattered leg. She reached for her knife and the male stopped her.

�I will kill you if you make another move. You�re going to slowly sit down on the sand and behave. Got it?�

She snarled but slowly lowered herself with his help until she sat on the hot sand. �The Alliances see you. They will avenge my death.�

The male, a Cuaxa with immaculate white fur, laughed. He changed shape right before her eyes to become a dark gray Renuea male. �Who said that I would kill you? The desert will do that.� He picked up her phase caster and smiled at her. �You are halfway attractive for a Cuaxa. Pity that you will die here.�

Rage seethed in Esha. This one was far more dangerous if he could change that fast. How did he sneak up on her like that? Another Renuea, a female with purple fur came up behind her with a stunner and touched it to her neck, rendering her unconscious. Hunter Esha fall back like a child�s doll, slack on the sand.

Tekui saw Master Kerrechu emerge from the blowing sand and the storm abruptly dissipated. She thought it was an illusion but he knelt in front of her. �Tekui? Are you all right?�

She shook her head, dizzy from the heatstroke. �I�m heat sick.�

He picked her up as if she weighed nothing. �Edsaa is not here?�

Tekui growled weakly. �That . . . Cuaxa killed him. Didn�t you kill her?�

�No. It is not our way. Let the desert kill her.� He took her to Edenu, who injected something into her right arm.

�Sleep now, my friend. You�ll wake up in your own bed,� she said.

Tekui faded into blackness.

Esha came to with a powerful headache and a numbing, agonizing pain where the shot shattered her leg. She sat up and found herself half buried in sand. It was night again and she was alone in this vast desert.

She tried to get up but couldn�t bear the pain. She fumbled about and found her water bag drained. Edsaa�s pelt was intact and near her. That was a welcome relief. Those foolish Renueas thought that they trapped her here. She reached into her bodice�s inside pocket and grabbed her ship call. She pressed its retrieve button.

The infiltrator craft dutifully powered up and took off, flying here on its own and it landed very near her. She grabbed her water bag and the mesh bag and dragged herself to the ship and inside. She crawled to the medical robot and activated it.

It deployed from its storage closet and went right to work on her bloody and shattered left leg. The painkillers it injected into her made all her pains fade away. Its deft mechanical fingers and regenerative lasers quicky healed her leg and restored her fur, which chagrined her. She would have to trim it.

Once she could stand, she went to the flight controls and flew back to the oasis to collect water from the spring and to bathe in the pool.

She collected water in her water bag and water for the tea maker and cooking processor. She was not returning to Qesak. She would fly directly back to the Cuaxa Drift. She didn�t want to be medicated to travel and didn�t need to be if she flew by herself.

Esha finished collecting the water and then pulled off her raiments. She washed them in the pool and then dove in, swimming around and rubbing the blood off her leg. Once clean and refreshed, she climbed out and put her raiments back on. Most Cuaxa went bare thanks to their thick fur but ones like Esha couldn�t because private things became visible with short or no fur.

She went into her infiltrator ship and flew away from Celinoa IX, sort of disappointed that nothing came of the reputed legends of ancient evil there.

When she landed, 14 hours later, in the ASB Space Yard on the Drift�s capital asteroid to turn in the pelt, ASB Hunter Director Ek�Arrla, an ominous looking dark brown furred Ivaea male, summoned her to his office. She had only met him once during an inspection drill and knew little about him. Her stomach fluttered in nervousness. What could he want?

She went deep into the asteroid, through rough hewn corridors covered in metal mesh painted to match the rock beneath it. Bright emission lights were slung from the mesh high overhead ever so many meters. The floor was expanded metal with rough little teeth on the surface that provided a no slip grip that made her desert sandals stick to the floor.

Esha was nervous and sleepy. She felt sore in her leg and walked with a slight limp. She wore her white robes and carried the pelt, hoping that it would bring at least 18,000 gold pieces. Traveling between galaxies was expensive.

She reached the austere cave-like office of Ek�Arrla and found him sitting on what looked like carved rock. He wore the black robes of a Director, which made him appear even more menacing. He regarded her with malignant dark colored eyes. �Hunter Esha?�

Esha made a bow of obeisance. �Director. I am she.�

Ek�Arrla growled deeply. �Sit.� He pointed to a carved rock pedestal place in front of his wooden desk.

She sat and nervously cleared her throat.

The Director looked at the pelt. �That is the pelt of the Renuea thief, Edsaa?�

�It is, Director. Clean and ready for processing. I hoped to get the reward for it.�

He smiled, revealing gleaming predatory teeth. �The reward of 22,500 gold pieces is yours. They are crediting it to your accounts as we speak. Give me the pelt.� She gave it to him and he inspected it. He rumbled. �Mmm, good work. You have a fine touch, Hunter.�

Esha�s heart skipped a beat. She was free! She could now afford to go to Ivau Eta. She smiled. �Thank you, Director.�

The Director looked deadly serious suddenly. �It would perhaps sadden you to hear that the Qesak Region Director has filed a grievance against you.�

Her joy evaporated at once. �What?,� she asked, dumbstruck.

�It appears that you did not kill the female Renuea. As far as the ASB is concerned, she did nothing worthy of our attention, however, this brutal oaf had charge of your duties. The Courts have accepted his grievance. They have punished you for not killing that female already.�

Esha did not understand. She shook her head, fears flooding through her. �No . . . There was nothing I could do. The Renueas had weather control and used it to sneak in. I can�t very well contend with the forces of nature. The female shot me and I could barely stand.�

The Director growled sadly. �It is of no consequence. They sentenced you to one year of Beholden Service to Director Kerken, the Butcher of Qesak as he�s known. If you survive that year in good shape, you may move to Ivau Eta. I will keep a spot open for you.�

Beholden . . . the word struck her like a phase caster shot. Enslaved was more like it. The butcher could have his way with her and the Alliances would not lift a finger until her year was up. �But . . . I am a Hunter, Director . . . � She stammered, unable to talk clearly. Her mind whirled between fear and disbelief.

The Director frowned. �I cannot help you, Esha, despite my wish to. I�m sorry.�

Two armed Security officers came in and without warning, injected her in the neck. She felt her fear and worry dissolve in a wash of calming drugs. Her free will was taken away by these drugs and she hated it. A lifetime of harsh discipline and finishing schools did away with the need of these drugs and that only intensified her hatred of them.

�Come with us,� the Xeka officer, clad in with shock armor crisscrossed with dark-blue protection webs, squawked into his translator disc. He held a stunner in his wing-hand and waved it threateningly as he talked.

Unable to resist, Esha obeyed and cast one last baleful glance at the pelt which brought her freedom that now was threatened. They took her down the hallways and to a passenger ship without a word spoken.

It promptly left for Qesak.

Tekui awoke in her bed and found a blue plastic bracelet on her left wrist. It had the Renuea letters p-r-e-g-n-a-n-t stenciled on it. She felt them in her, keenly attuned to her body senses. All those who could change were. That was impossible, she was with Edsaa just . . . how long had it been?

Her keeper was on the bedside table. She picked it up and checked the date. It had been almost a month. She felt stiff and nauseous. It took some effort to get up but she managed and went to the hallway in the upper levels of the training center. As she opened her room�s door, she found a note asking her to go to Master Kerrechu�s domain, which was a massive room at the very top of the training center.

She went to the elevator at the end of the hall and took it up, opening into a massive cavern of a room with wooden floors and a crystalline ceiling that diffracted sunlight everywhere. It was always a wonder coming up here but she did not feel it this time, felling sick and worried about being in trouble.

Her fur had returned to normal color and she had lost weight. All her modifications for the Celinoa desert were gone and her feet were abnormally sensitive. She wished that she had thought to put something on. She felt naked despite her fur.

Master Kerrechu sat at his massive round table, looking at holograms of new forms and change statistics. He looked through them at her. �Tekui? It is a relief to see you up and around.�

Tekui came to the table and sat in a chair near him. �Master, what happened to me?�

�You were heatsick. We let your body heal itself. You have a condition we must speak of.�

She looked down, knowing what it was. �I. . . I know.�

Kerrechu looked sympathetic. �You believe we will punish you for your two cubs?�

Tekui looked up at him, astonished. Two? One or three was most common but two was a rarity. She had been the third in a brood of three. �Yes.�

He growled. �You will not. We regret and are saddened by the death of Edsaa but he will live on through your children. I�m giving you one season to bear your cubs and to care for them. After they are weaned and ready, we will accept them into the training rolls. Afterward, we want you to change onto your Av�rite-er form and go to Averia to help convince them to help us take the Qesak Habitat for all the peoples of this and the other galaxy.�

Twin joys made her heart soar. She would freely have her cubs and change into her favorite form and visit her favorite people. Renuea gestation was only 72 days on average, not even a third of a season. However, it would be without Edsaa. �Thank you, Master Kerrechu.�

Edenu came across the massive room. �Tekui? Welcome back, my friend.� She hugged her.

Tekui smiled. �Thank you.� She got up and smiled at Master Kerrechu. �Thank you, Master.�

He smiled. �You are most welcome.�

Edenu smiled and took her to say hello to everyone. She was glad to be home despite the Cuaxa, Qesak Mind and the Alliances.

The End of Tekui�s Ordeals

Thank you for reading.

� 9 July 2004 Gregory Thompson. All reproduction is prohibited.