“Done your homework, I see.” A note of approval threaded through Hollis’s voice. “Lower gravity tends to make them taller, but more delicately built. We compensate by keeping them weighted the whole time they’re growing up. There’s been some papers on it.”
“Like I said, the trip was uneventful. Plenty of time to read up.”
“Well, so far you’re dead on. Did your reading material talk about the suits at all?”
“Just a little bit, mostly focusing on the weighted aspect. I gather that the neuro implants that allow the dogs’ brains to interface with their vac-suits’ chemical receptors are still proprietary tech?”
“Very much so,” Hollis said. “We don’t even have the full specs, though our vet happened to be on the developmental team for the implant. But she’s as good as her word on the non-disclosure agreements, so we don’t get anything out of her. What you need to know is this: each dog is fitted for their own customized suit. The helmet plugs into the dogs’ implants. They get the implants before their first birthday and grow up using the suits, so it’s very natural to them. Thanks to the implant, the dog actually smells in a vacuum. That is, the chemical receptors in the suit communicate the appropriate scent profile to the olfactory receptors in their brains, and they react accordingly.”
“Neat,” Leiko said.
“I thought so. We’ll get you working in a suit asap. Most handlers have to do a bit of catching up, since unlike their partners, they didn’t grow up wearing a vac suit.”
“Makes sense.”
“But for today, It’s probably enough if you just meet Ryu. He’s . . . a lot.”
“Dominant?”
Hollis met her eyes and nodded, his expression serious. “He’s a bit of a problem dog. For some reason, he’s convinced he’s in charge, and he’s a big guy. To be honest, I’d pair you up with any other dog if we had anyone else. But if we had anyone else, we’d probably have to put Ryu down. He’s just too hard to work.”
“Maybe he hasn’t met the right handler yet,” Leiko said, carefully keeping her emotions out of her voice.
“I’m hoping you’re right. And for his sake . . . and yours . . . I hope you’re the handler he needs. Honestly, we probably should have put him down already. Still want to meet him?”
“Sure. A brief introduction. I’ll need to get his file from you and go through it in detail later.”
“You got it,” Hollis said as he pushed back up to his feet.
They headed back out into the hallway and turned toward the double doors. As soon as Hollis pushed the right one open, a cacophony of barks rose up, echoing off the concrete walls.
“Enough!” Hollis said, his voice sharp and pitched to carry. “Y’all know better than that!”
Sure enough, the dogs fell silent, and Leiko stepped out into the kennel area.
It was about what she’d expected: a perpendicular hallway with a line of wire-fronted kennels facing the doors they’d come through. Each kennel had a large window set high in the wall to provide light, although Leiko could see light fixtures over her head as well. The kennels themselves had no frills to speak of; each consisted of a simple concrete floor with a drain set in it, three concrete walls, and the chain link fourth wall with a door.
“This is Mida,” Hollis said, pointing at the dog in the nearest kennel, who looked up at them with an expectant expression. “She’s the youngest of the group. Next to her is Sly, then Jugger. And Ryu is on the end.”
Leiko bounce-walked down the line of kennels, ignoring all of the dogs. She imagined she could feel their curious looks as she passed them. She made her way to the end and stopped right in front of Ryu’s door.
He was huge. She could see that even without looking directly at him. She took her time and examined his kennel, letting Ryu get a look at her before she paid any attention to him. He lay against the back wall of the kennel, well clear of the puddle of sunlight that poured in through his window. Not far away, a metal water bowl sat upside-down on the floor, and a thin sheen of water ran from it to the drain. She wondered why no one had gone in to clean it up.
As if in answer to her thoughts, a deep warning growl rumbled forth from the back of the kennel.
“Knock it off,” she said, her own voice low and calm. “I’m not even looking at you. You’re convinced it’s all about you, aren’t you?”
The growl intensified.
“Oh, shut up. You’re not scaring anyone here, you spoiled pup. Hollis, do you have a squeegee?”
“Against the wall on your right,” Hollis said from his vantage point near the double doors.
“Thanks,” Leiko said. “Billy Badass here has kicked over his water dish and made a mess of his kennel. I’m gonna clean it up for him.”
“Sure you want to do that?” Hollis asked.
“Yup,” Leiko said, still in that calm, unconcerned tone. “Unlock his kennel for me, willya?”
She glanced at Hollis out of the corner of her eye and caught his shrug, but he pushed a button on the end of a row of them near the door, and Leiko heard a quiet click.
So did Ryu.
He bounced up to his feet, moving like lightning in the lunar gravity, and started barking and growling loudly enough that Leiko felt the pressure change on her eardrums. The other dogs picked up his cry, and for just a second, she thought she just might drown in the cacophony.
“KNOCK IT OFF!” she shouted, and all the dogs fell silent.
All but Ryu, who quit barking, but continued growling and snarling at her, his lips pulled back to showcase teeth as long as her little finger. Leiko still refused to acknowledge this, and turned to grab the squeegee before turning the metal handle of Ryu’s kennel door and letting herself in.
For a moment, she wondered if he might attack her. She held the squeegee loosely in front of herself, just in case she had to use it to hold Ryu’s bite off of her throat long enough for Hollis to come rescue her. But the big dog didn’t move, just stood at the back of the kennel and growled.
“I’m not here for you,” she said softly. “I’m just here to clean up your mess, Billy Badass. Bet it sucks that you’ve got a wet kennel now, doesn’t it? Maybe you shouldn’t knock your shit over, hmm? Maybe you should act like the grown-ass dog you are instead of trying to pass for a spoiled puppy who insists on getting his way? How’s that for an idea?”
As she talked, she started to use the squeegee in long, sweeping strokes to pull the water toward the floor drain. She moved slowly and methodically, watching the way Ryu circled away from her so as to be on the opposite side of the kennel from wherever she stood. When she got to the water bowl, she bent down to pick it up.
Silence was her only warning. Ryu had kept his steady growl going the entire time she worked, so when he suddenly stopped, she knew something was up. She lifted her head just enough to catch a flash of brindle black and brown before she felt the full impact of a charging moondog. Instinct alone had her reaching out and clamping one hand tightly around his muzzle, holding his mouth shut as she wrapped her other arm around his body and twisted, using his momentum to take them both to the floor. Somehow, she managed to roll so that Ryu’s body was pinned under her slightly greater weight. She felt him try to yelp, then to snarl and snap, but she’d been a dog handler her entire adult life. When she grabbed a dog by the muzzle, the dog’s mouth stayed closed.
“This is not how you’re gonna act with me, Billy Badass,” she said softly, almost purring into Ryu’s pointed ear. “You don’t scare me. You are not in charge of me. I’ve seen a hundred dogs like you, and I’ll see a hundred more when you’re gone. You try to hurt me, and I promise, I won’t be the one getting hurt.”
He squirmed under her, his back feet scrabbling against her thighs as he fought to regain control. Slowly, carefully, she got her feet under herself and pushed up to her knees and elbows, still holding Ryu to the floor. For the first time, she looked in his eyes.
“But if you trust me, if you work with me, I’m gonn
a take care of you,” she said, pumping sincerity into every word. She took the hand she’d wrapped around him and slid it out from under him as she rose up. Slowly, softly, she started to stroke behind his ear. “You don’t have to be scared anymore, Ryu. I’m here, I’m in charge. I’ll take care of things. You just have to trust me and do what I ask. Got it?”
Dogs understood tone, not words. She knew that. She’d been taught it all her life, and had taught that principle to her students in turn. But right then, it really did seem as if Ryu understood her, because he stopped moving, stopped growling, and just stared back at her in challenge.
“You want proof?” she asked. “Trust you to earn your trust? Fair enough, Billy Badass. Fair enough.”
Outside, she could hear Hollis stifle an expression of disbelief as she slowly let go of Ryu’s muzzle. Her other hand slid down to his chest, holding him lightly on his back in a submissive posture. Ryu looked at her, considering, but she tilted her head slightly to the side and raised her eyebrows as if to ask if he really wanted to do something he’d regret.
Instead, he twisted his body and got back to his feet. Leiko let go of him and straightened up, but she remained sitting on her knees, even though Ryu’s head was now even with hers. He took a half step backward, still watching her. When she didn’t move, he walked back toward her and put his nose up under her chin, snuffling as he pulled her scent in through his wet nostrils.
“Holy shit,” Hollis breathed, his eyes narrowing. “I’ve never seen anything like that. How in the hell did you tame psycho dog so fast?”
“Oh, he’s not tame,” Leiko said. “He’s just playing nice for the moment. He’s still gonna push me for a while yet, but I think we’ve got the start of an understanding here, don’t we, Ryu?” She reached out and stroked the deliciously soft fur between his ears, and the tip of Ryu’s tail began to swing just the tiniest bit.
“Still. I thought he was gonna try and kill you! He cut up his previous handler but good. The guy quit, went back to Earth.”
“You didn’t think I’d want to know about that?” Leiko asked, her voice deliberately mild.
“It’s all in the file,” Hollis said, a bit of a defensive tone leaking into his words. “I didn’t think you’d go in to the kennel right away!”
“Even after you unlocked it for me?”
Hollis looked uncomfortable enough that Leiko let out a low chuckle. She felt Ryu’s skin shiver in response under her fingertips.
“It’s okay, man,” she said. “I get it. I’m proving myself to you as much as I am to this guy here.”
“I guess,” Hollis said. “But after that? Shit. I don’t think you gotta prove anything to anyone. I’ve never seen Ryu take to someone so quickly!”
“I trusted him,” Leiko said. “You’d be amazed at how much of a difference that makes.” She patted Ryu on his head and then pushed gently on his chest.
“Go lie down again,” she told the dog. “I’ve gotta go, but I’ll be back in a little while. I’ll get you more water, as long as you don’t knock it over again.” Ryu looked at her, and Leiko could swear she saw a spark of mischief in the dog’s eyes, but he obediently backed away enough that she could get to her feet. She surprised herself by laughing again.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “You’re gonna be a handful, all right!”
Over the next few weeks, Leiko and Ryu got to know one another. The moondogs’ daily training regimen included extensive work in their weighted training suits, both inside and outside the dome. Every time Leiko approached his kennel with the heavy suit draped in her arms, Ryu would leap to his feet, his body quivering in excitement. Leiko would work them until they were both falling-down exhausted, but every morning, Ryu’s enthusiasm returned.
“Something new today, Billy,” Leiko said as she stepped into the kennel one morning about three weeks after she’d arrived. In her arms, she carried her own vac suit, and a lighter, stripped down version of Ryu’s.
“You’re graduating him to the operational suit, huh?” Hollis asked from behind her. Leiko turned and jerked her chin at him in a hello, and he nodded back at her. “Sure he’s ready? No one’s taken him off weights yet.”
“That’s why he’s so big,” she said. “He is what you guys made him.”
“He’s a psychopath,” Hollis said. “I don’t know how he hasn’t killed you yet.”
“I haven’t let him. Besides, we trust each other, don’t we, Billy?”
“Crazy fucking dog. Crazy fucking handler.”
“That’s how we like it,” she said as she unlocked Ryu’s kennel. Truth was, she didn’t much care what Hollis and the other handlers thought. They were well-trained and mostly a disciplined lot, but every one of them, including the Chief, had been willing to give up on Ryu and have him destroyed. No wonder he hadn’t trusted any of them, and had acted so aggressively. She’d have done the same in such a hostile environment.
“But I’m here now, aren’t I?” she murmured for the dog’s ears alone as she unlocked the newly upgraded kennel lock with her fob and stepped inside. “I’m here and I’ve got you. No one’s gonna hurt you, Billy Badass, because we’re gonna work together and show them all what you can do. So let’s get you in this suit and go see what’s what.”
“Where’re you taking him?” Hollis called from the door.
“Lock Three.” Leiko held the suit legs open while Ryu stepped obediently in. She grunted softly and pulled up hard, making sure the vac suit sat snugly around his legs and belly before continuing the dressing process. “There’s a shipment going out from the distribution center, and we’re gonna scan it. My friend Ryder said they’re including some demo equipment. Should give Billy here a bit of a workout.”
“Interesting,” he said, softly. “That’s an elegant solution. And it beats being tied to the damn vidlink like me. I’d even go out with you to watch Psycho there if it would get me out of this conference call back to Earth. Damn thing’s supposed to take all freaking day.”
“Yeah, thanks. I figured we might as well get what practice we can.”
“Sure,” Hollis said, snorting softly. “But keep the tether short, Leiko. I still think that psycho’s too crazy to be allowed near too many people. More and more I think he’s just waste of training and a waste of a dog. He really shoulda been put down.” He looked at her with sober, concerned eyes.
“With respect, Deputy Chief, I disagree,” Leiko murmured, just as she became aware of the low, rolling growl coming from Ryu’s chest. She turned and thumped the dog just between his front legs.
“Knock it off,” she growled, lowering her chin and staring into his eyes. “Behave yourself.”
The growling stopped, but the stiff defiance in his body language remained. Leiko thought about correcting him, but couldn’t face the hypocrisy of it. She agreed with Ryu, Hollis was a dick.
“Come on,” Leiko said then, speaking to herself as much as to the dog. “We’ve got work to do. Let’s get these suits on.”
Less than half a standard hour later, Leiko led Ryu out through the grey gravel training yard and onto the thoroughfare. She wore her own armored vac suit with the visor retracted so that she could speak and hear normally. Ryu’s helmet included a smoked visor that shaded his eyes, and made him look even more formidable than usual. Leiko keyed the button to turn on Ryu’s hot mic and heard the rhythmic panting of his normal breath. She set her own radio to vox, so she could speak and Ryu would hear her commands inside his helmet.
“Ryu. Hold.” she said, and Ryu, who had been idly sniffing around, froze. His attention sharpened, intense and unwavering as he stared at her and waited.
“Gape.”
Ryu obediently yawned widely inside his helmet. Leiko checked to make sure that the flexible chin piece expanded as advertised without compromising the suit-to-helmet seal. Below that, the suit’s hydraulically actuated “prosthetic jaw” opened up, revealing the shark-like rows of serrated tungsten steel teeth.
“Snap.�
��
Ryu let out a growl and snapped his mouth shut. The steel teeth slammed together hard enough to make a ringing sound. From her research, Leiko knew that the pressure of the suit’s bite was enough to snap a fully grown male human’s femur. Which was a pretty neat trick, all things considered.
Leiko did one more check of the seals on both her suit and Ryu’s, and then the two of them set off in an easy, hopping lope toward Lock 3. They moved well together. She’d become more accustomed to working in lunar gravity, and Ryu stayed glued to her side, his tether curving slackly between them.
“Feels good to get out and move, doesn’t it?” she murmured, looking down. His near ear twitched in response to her voice. “I can tell you like the non-weighted suit. You feel strong, don’t you? Like you could go forever? Yeah, Billy Badass. Me too, buddy. Me too.”
Neither one of them had broken a sweat by the time they arrived at Lock 3. Leiko slowed to a more pedestrian pace and looked around for the distribution vehicle she’d been told to find.
“Leiko? Ah, I mean, Officer Soloway?”
Leiko turned, moving her whole body rather than just her head, and gave Ryder a solemn, professional head nod. Beside her, Ryu stiffened, but did not growl.
“Ryder,” she said. “Let me introduce you to my partner, Security K-9 Ryu. Just look at him, please. Don’t hold out a hand or approach him in any way.”
“Is he dangerous?” Ryder asked. “I’ve never seen one this close before. That suit is something else!”
“He can be,” Leiko said, with a small smile for her friend. “But he’s a professional, and he’ll listen to me. We appreciate you letting us take this opportunity for training.”
“No problem,” Ryder said. “I’m happy to help. I just can’t believe how big he is! This is really cool. So, you want me to show you to the convoy?”
“Please,” Leiko said. “And please ask your people to basically ignore us. Ryu won’t bother them as long as they don’t bother us.”
“Of course. It’s just right over here. We are just a touch behind schedule, so I’ll just introduce you to the convoy supervisor—”
Battle Luna Page 18