Page 37 of Dirty December

Within six years, most females of cub-bearing age had been sterilized. The only female Leonids who would be able to bear children were still children themselves. Girls who hadn’t entered their first heat were safe.

“Now we have a vaccine, sir. But in the meantime...”

Ru nodded. People on certain planets complained about the population. They begged couples to cease reproducing with incentives and contraceptives. Ru had a special bitterness for those worlds. They had no idea what they were really asking for.

Imagine having no new births for six straight years aside from a rare litter here and there. And imagine most of the females of your kind disappearing within a few months of thedisease breaking out. They’d only thought of surgery after the first few waves had swept through the Felix Orbus Galaxy.

The situation was desperate indeed.

“It would only be a temporary measure. I thought you ought to know. If we could test it here, I’d report my findings. It could be a stop-gap solution, just until the younger generation of females matures.”

“Hm,” Ru answered with a single grunt, raking his paws through his dark, honey-colored mane. It wasn’t that Leonid hybrids didn’t exist. The Leonids were old-fashioned about their pride structures, but within the pride, interspecies couples were common. There were mostly Felix-Leonid couples, but in a few cases, the pairings were more unusual. Why, his own sister had raised eyebrows when she married a Canid from the Sirius Federation.

But that was for love.

And it was never with a human. Sapien planets (all measly three of them) still had the unevolved mammalian, avian, reptilian, and aquatic species. Human interactions with those species seemed to be permanently ingrained within most of them. They were unaccepting of different social structures. The ones he had met years ago still seemed to consider Leonids and Canids dumb animals they needed to condescend to, even while taking their money for trade and contracts.

There was the whole human “structure” to consider, too.

“Humans are so...furless. And weak. They’re barely sentient. No Leonid in his right mind would want to mate with one.”

“The chromosome modification would allow the Leonid genes to be dominant. Yes, the child would have some human characteristics, but they could be bred out in a few generations.”

“No.”

“A lighter coating of fur. No tail perhaps. Poor night vision. You know our evolutionary matrix crossed with a sapien at some point or else—”

“I saidno, Marcus.”

Marcus sighed. “Sir, I didn’t want to bring this up, but this bulletin arrived from the Department of Health’s senior officer at Serval-Five.”

Ru snatched the screen Marcus was holding out.

“‘Possible Queen Fever mutation linked to deaths aboard a Sirius Federation pleasure ship.’ Bastet’s whiskers!” Ru pushed the device back into Marcus’ paws. “It’s jumping species?”

Marcus made a mewing noise in his throat. “It could be. They’ll know soon. They’ll know how to treat it, too.”

“But how could this happen now? It’s been six... Oh.” Rupex didn’t finish his sentence. When Queen Fever first struck in the Felix Orbus Galaxy, interplanetary and intergalactic trade and travel had been halted in nearly all cases. It had opened up slowly this past year, now that the fever was almost eradicated and vaccinations were widespread.

The Serval planets were closest to the Sirius Federation.

He could add two and two together to create a very grim picture.

Marcus injected a note of hope. “Our vaccine will probably work on most mammalian peoples.” He waited for a moment, a hesitant smile coming over his face. “And because of the structure of Queen Fever, it’s not compatible with humans. Humans will be immune.”

Ru groaned. He didn’t like when Marcus was smug, but he might have earned the right this time.

Chapter Two

Layla paced. Boredom had finally latched onto her after ten days aboard the craft. At least shehopedit had only been ten days. Time seemed slippery in isolation. She was the only human on board, and she wasn’t a passenger. She wascargo. She’d been sold by her no-good-not-even-boyfriend. A one-night stand gone horribly wrong on Sapien-Three, and now she was being sold as permanent help—or worse—to someone in the Felix Orbus Galaxy.

She’d heard rumors that the Leonids ate humans like humans ate the unevolved cows and pigs. She also heard that Leonids were a proud race who despised humans. They didn’t want them around, so maybe they’d be just as happy to let her work off a passage back to Sapien-Three, where she would track down Paul Bermauger and shiphimto the other end of the solar system.

“Miss Human?”

Miss Human. At least her captor was polite. And to give him credit, it wasn’t his fault that she was cargo. You could buy hired help legally anywhere in the galaxy, although the beings being bought were supposed to do the negotiating and bartering themselves, like a modern form of indentured servitude.

“Yes, Mr. Lion?”

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