Chapter 3: Contact.

Personal log: Dal-kel. 4 254 sector 8

We found a perfect planet. It had five moons, no terran population and had jungles full of fruit and more importantly - meat.

As Den and Fer had been holed up in the back of the ship for so long we decided that they could have the first run on the planet. We wired them up, put trackers on them and set them loose. To see the excitement of two werewolves with the scent of fresh flesh in their nostrils was a sight to behold.

Once they were gone into the dark jungle we resumed our place in orbit. It was a chance for us to have a look at the ship that we had stolen. It seemed it had many more modifications than an ordinary ship. Having found compartments under the prison rooms we came to the conclusion that they had been shipping more than werewolves on a regular basis.

It also made me feel uneasy that somebody, somewhere, would be wanting this ship back and would do anything in their power to do so.

We had to stay as werewolves as there was no point in orbit that allowed us any darkness from the five moons. It made me think about whether a utopia could exist for our species. This planet was too close to the Coobal system, but far out in the galaxy there would be similar planets. Maybe this was our task, to head out into the unknown and find this place.

Log ends.

Rin-kon first noticed the alarm we had set. A ship heading towards the planet at a high velocity.

"It won't have seen us yet," he said, "what shall we do?"

Thinking quickly was not something Dal-kel had to do in his ordinary, previous life. Den and Fer were still on the planet and I shouted to Del-ros to calculate how much time it would take to get down to the planet and away.

It would be too long. They could either run and hide, or take their chances on an encounter.

"Let's get behind one of the moons, contact the surface and tell them to hide," ordered Dal-kel.

The ship moved towards the largest of the orbiting moons. It was pockmarked with craters from asteroids, it had a deadly silence and the ship struggled to stay upright in the pull of the two gravities.

Behind the moon they could no longer track the incoming ship, the hope was that they could not be tracked either.

Den and Fer had found a cave system underneath an escarpment. They had already eaten well and were now collecting food for the crew. Communication with the ship had now become difficult given their location and the location of the ship.

The ship came to a complete halt in orbit over the surface. It was a large carrier, capable of transportation across vast tracts of the universe. There were highly armed and dangerous vessels. You would not want to attack them, powerful investors ensured that they had state-of-the-art weapons, so whatever they lost in speed they gained in power.

They too were looking for fresh supplies, or that is what it seemed.

The commander of the vessel had been following the communications about a group of renegade werewolves and the skirmish with the patrol craft. They were now listed as missing, but this commander was a veteran of many a chase and conflict. Having been a former transporter of werewolves and observed them close up he had made a calculation that they were here somewhere.

"They could be behind one of those moons," he observed from his flight control deck. "Send down twenty drones, irregular pattern of survey, track any potential animal remains, flesh and blood that could signify a hostile presence on the surface.

From the rear of the ship the drones flew down criss-crossing the planet.

Dal-kel picked up signs of them as they raced long the edge of the planets atmosphere.

"They are trackers…"

The three looked at each other not knowing what to do. They were hiding in this corner, out-gunned, helpless with two of their colleagues on the surface.

"Eight potential sites, sir, but six in one gerun of each other, someone has been feasting."

The commander looked at the screen.

"We have ourselves some werewolves," he said proudly.

"Full tactical, drop the search pods into that area, thermo detectors, blood tracers, I want them found and I want them aboard this ship." The commander noticed his second in command give him a slightly quizzical look. "Just werewolves, when we have so much cargo onboard? Do you know how much werewolf blood is going for on some of the research stations. You might think that we gave up a long time ago trying to harness the blood and rage, but it only moved out to… places most people do not know about. I have been waiting a few years to find and trap a couple of live ones, unofficially of course, and help some of my colleagues out."

The second in command shifted uneasily. The commander continued, "Imagine the lands that we could conquer out there, the riches that await us."

From the surface there came a message.

"Two possible traces, underground in a cave system."

The commander smiled, "Let's go get us some werewolf blood!"