New Story: Sky Wolf

I wanted to use a few ideas from the Nuegua chapter "Ghost Sickness" concerning the Super Dogs.

Aside from the predictable enhanced reasoning capabilities a reader would expect, the real leap forward is in their larnyx. The Super Dogs --bred as corporate war machines--can subtly alter the harmonics of their howls to communicate with other Super Dogs miles away. Ordinary humans can't hear it, but our Ellie can. The latest development is the Mongrel, a wolf-man hybrid that can withstand extreme cold temperatures, because of its wolf physiology (yellow fat), but has human hands, and binocular, albert color-blind vision. Mongrel speaks to his handlers in AmSlan He breaks out of confinement in Northern Alberta, and escapes into the Yukon. He is of course hunted by corporate soldiers, who must remain incognito, so they head north as caribou hunters. This sets the season for the story.

Ellie is pureblood Inuit. Because of a childhood sickness, she is mute, although she can make sounds. Her hearing is superior to most humans, and she is of a very high order of intelligence, especially with regard to mechanics. She is highly proficient in AmSlan, and a marksman. She is sixteen at the time of the story, and her goals are to learn to fly a helicopter, and to go to Maui to learn to surf. She intends to be the first Inuit wahini.

And here is the Japanese teen model, Saaya Irie, who is my template for Ellie:

http://www.geekopolis.ca/sky_wolf/images/saaya_car_wash.jpg

Dwayne is the corporate hunter assigned to bring down Mongrel. He is recently divorced, and is rebuilding his life at the time of this assignment. Through one of teams' abilities to use AmSlan, he connects with Ellie.
The crucial sequence is Ellie's connection to Mongrel, and Dwayne's blossoming friendship with Ellie, a replacement for the teenage daughter that he has failed. Ellie is out hunting caribou, unknowingly in Mongrel's territory, and slips her snowmobile. Mongrel comes upon her, and she begs him in AmSlan to help her. He signs back, and reluctantly brings her back to his lair. Mongrel tells Ellie his story, ending with: "They made me a monster, to hunt and kill people." Ellie vehemently argues against this, with: "No! They made you for me." Mongrel becomes very attached and protective towards Ellie. The only reason she can leave him is because he understands that the other Innu will come hunting for her, and then the White police. But ultimately, Dwayne--the handler who treated him the worst--will come.

What is the core theme of the story, apart from the exciting hunt? The Super Dogs are the new biological weapon of the Corporation A, which has not yet revealed their existence. Super Dogs have been created as industrial spies and provocateurs. At this date EMF pulse weapons are standard issue for Corporation B, and the Super Dogs can slip right by them. Mongrel is the next development: a Super Dog with hands, and sometimes upright posture--though still backward-pointing knees--who has had enhancements to his right parietal lobe that allows him to sense electrical and electronic equipment. I'm going to use my class Parapsychology experiments to flesh this part out.

Dwayne goes in, knowing Mongrels' physical abilities, but it not told of his quasi-psychic senses, because Dwayne is being used by Corporation A as a test subject in an experiment with Mongrel.