There he was, at the last station the cargo train could possible reach in the snow ring. Petrash had been the only passenger in the single carriage for people for the better part of the day, no-one else in their right mind headed this way. With a deep sigh he grabbed his two black sports bags containing what he'd needed most and stepped out into the freezing cold. The train had entered a long warehouse so cargo could be loaded and offloaded under cover and not in the middle of the constant snow and wind, and for that he was grateful. It was still as cold as outside but at least the wind was blocked for the most part. He asked one of the men unloading crates where he could find the office and followed the path he was told between the containers, stacks of crates and barrels. The office looked like a rundown shack made of composite plating, not very comfortable, which suggestion was enforced by the creaking of the door as he entered it. He asked for the chief and one of the men pointed to a large figure in the corner writing at his cluttered desk with a heater close by.

'Excuse me, I was told you could get me to outpost Zero.'

The figure turned around and Petrash saw he must be part of the polar bear clan. White fur, heavy body underneath the dark blue snow jacket and grey trousers. His ears showed scars of frostbite so Petrash figured he must have been working here for quite some time.

'Ah, you must be the guy they sent to Zero this time.' he said and held out his hand. 'Call me Chief.'

They shook hands and Chief continued. 'HQ told me you'd come and asked to get you to the outpost.'

He grabbed his battered beige cap from a stack of papers and led him out the door to the garage at the back. 'Unfortunately I can't spare anyone to guide you because I've got extra cargo deliveries to a nearby lab, but if you're not willing to wait you can use a bubble to get there by yourself. Navigation will show you the way so it's not really difficult.'

'I'm here so I might as well get there as soon as possible. The sooner I go crazy the sooner I'll be back.'

Chief laughed and slapped him on his back. 'I guess you heard about the stories of all those who were sent here.' He looked at Petrash and smiled. 'Then again, they just might take a liking to you.'

Petrash shuddered at the thought of being liked by a group of hard-ass snow ring drivers nicknamed the Huskies from Hell as Chief opened the door to the garage.

Most of the garage was empty except for a dark green tracked vehicle looking larger than a house and two yellow tracked trucks the size of regular street trucks. Chief led him to the other side of the huge truck and there were a couple of bubble shaped tracked vehicles. Most of the top half of the bubble was transparent plastic, the rest a dirty yellow metal.

'Here you go.' Chief said and opened the door at the side of the first one. 'Navigation has the coordinates for Zero in the preconfigured list.'

It was large enough to hold four people and baggage.

'Thanks.' Petrash said as he dropped his bags on the floor in front of the fake leather back-seat. 'How long will it take to get there?'

'About eight hours.'

'Damn.'

'If you like, there's rations and even a couple of bottles of the strong stuff in the back so you won't have to feel cold during the trip. As long as you don't overdo it.'

'Heh, no worries. I intend to get there in one warm piece.'

'Well said.' Chief snickered. 'Well, have a good trip, and good luck. I'll open the door for you.'

'Thanks, I'll need it.' Petrash said and settled into the driver seat. The controls were pretty close to a car's. He started the engine and put the automatic gearbox in drive mode. Carefully feeling how quick the steering reacted he drove forward and turned to the open door where Chief waited for him. He gave him a quick wave as he entered the outside world of the snow ring for the first time in his life. The shacks that formed the town for the people here to live in laid to the right but the navigation showed his route to the left. Not having to worry about streets he turned until the arrow pointed straight ahead and turned on the cruise control.

It didn't take long for him to feel lonely out in the white void. With the navigation the only thing guiding him and the only sounds the wind and rattling of the tracks he wondered if he'd start to go crazy even before he would reach the outpost.

"How the hell did I get into this mess?" he thought, then remembered. "Oh yeah."

He sighed, crawled into the back and checked the rations. He chose a pack of cookies and took one of the unlabelled bottles with clear fluid.

'To a new career.' he said to himself, unscrewed the top and took a swig from the bottle.

"Holy fuck!" he thought when the liquid burned down his throat and coughed. "I just drank the cleaning fluid or the fuel reserve." He rummaged in his bag and took out his player, plugged it into the sound system of the bubble and cranked up the music to sing along to it.

He kept himself busy like this while it turned dark. The navigation showed it would be another hour until he arrived and he couldn't wait to see something else besides nothing. While eating another cookie he noticed something was off. He turned down the music and tried to listen. He heard the engine and tracks of the bubble and howling of the wind but couldn't lay his finger on it. Something in the back of his mind said he had to take notice. He looked around but saw nothing out here. Thinking it had to be all this time out here playing tricks on him he sat back down in the driver's seat. But moments later he sensed a rumbling noise getting louder. Figuring something was wrong he stopped the bubble completely. Looking around again he saw nothing in the dark until behind him suddenly several headlights lit up and a large tracked vehicle ran right over him, burying him under snow.

'Goddammitmutherfuckingpieceofshitsonofabitchasylumretardasshole!' he shouted.

He drove the bubble back and forth until he got clear and continued his way feeling pissed off.

Eventually he saw blue lights in the distance. Getting closer he saw they were poles marking the way to the outpost. He followed the way and ended up at the outpost, a collection of smaller and larger concrete boxes connected through corridors. He found the vehicle that ran him over in a vehicle bay next to another one. He parked the bubble just outside the entrance in the bay, took a deep breath, grabbed his bags and entered. The entrance led into a corridor littered with an assortment of boxes leading to a large room where he noticed the guys were slumping on couches watching an action movie on TV.

'Alright, very funny.' he said as he put down his bags. 'Who do I have to thank for-.' was as far as he got when he noticed the guys were not guys at all. They had small muzzles, full, long hair and tails.

'Ah, so you came.' a black and white female husky said, then continued to watch the TV with another blue-grey and red-brown one on the couches, all dressed in large t-shirts.

'Are you..?'

'Yeah.' a white-grey female husky in a large heavy metal shirt said as she walked in munching on crisps. 'I guess you also thought we were guys.'

'Gomen, but everyone made it sound like you were a bunch of mean, bullying guys.'

'And who says we're not a bunch of mean, bullying girls?' the red-brown one asked.

'Ehmm, well, I never really believed girls could be that bad.'

They all kept silent for a moment, then the white-grey one leaned closer. 'You're a virgin, aren't you?' she asked with a devious grin.

He stepped back blushing. 'Wait, what? What has that got to do with anything?'

The black and white husky snickered. 'Well, so far he has made the best introduction of them all.'

'Who all?' he asked.

'This is a punishment game from the company. All who piss off the boss end up here in this freezing hell with us.' the black and white husky said, grinning at him. 'And leave with a few less marbles.'

'Ehm.'

The white-grey husky gestured at the black and white one, 'That's Dice.' the red-brown one, 'Rusty.' the blue-grey one, 'Dusk. And I'm Ghost. You can use the room at the end of the corridor.'

'Ah, thanks. I'm Petrash by the way.'

Ghost sat down on the couch. 'Okay.'

He sighed and brought his bags to the room at the end which was full of dusty boxes and a bunk bed.

'Great.' he said and dropped down on the squeaking bed. 'I'd be better off if I had gotten lost forever.'

Tired from the journey he fell fast asleep until the morning. He took off his coat and dragged himself to the kitchen looking for something to eat. What he found was something beyond the gates of hell. Dishes piled up in a sink covered by strange goo, empty boxes and plastic bags in one corner surrounding a trash can so full the lid wouldn't close. Half-eaten bits of food seemed to be hunting other bits of food. This place had to be a biological hazard. He walked out into the common room where Rusty was preparing to make her delivery.

'Wha..?' was all he could say while pointing to the kitchen.

'Ah, yeah. That's part of your job, housekeeping. Good luck.' she said and left.

He looked back frightened at the kitchen and contemplated using the standard equipped anti-alien flamethrower for isolated stations in the snow ring. He sighed deep, then reluctantly walked back in search of something to chip away at the dirt and a bandanna in exchange for his plaid cap.

At the end of the morning he managed to wipe out the new lifeforms growing in the sink and the fridge and sat down.

"I could have made scientific discoveries here. Must not forget to mark the trash container with a medical warning." he thought, then fell back and slept.

When he woke up it was time to make dinner. Something real instead of the instant stuff he found all over the place. Luckily there was real food in storage so he was able to make something simple but decent. He looked satisfied at the table he set up.

"All that's left is warming up the rest." he thought, looked at the time and decided he could take a rest before they'd be back.

He made himself comfortable on a couch and fell asleep again soon after.

Some time later the girls walked in and halted at the scent in the air.

'What's this?' Dusk asked. 'It smells of food.'

Dice pointed at the kitchen. 'Something happened here.'

The girls looked at a clean kitchen.

'Did he..?'

'I guess he did.' Ghost said and looked at the food ready to be heated and served. 'And by the smell of it, he did a good job.'

'Let's eat.' Dusk said. 'I'd hate to waste this opportunity.'

'Wait,' Dice said as she looked at Petrash. 'It's only fair to have him eat with us.'

Ghost scratched behind her ear. 'I guess you're right. Something this good we haven't had before.'

Rusty poked him. 'Oy, time to wake up and serve us.'

He woke up startled and looked around. 'Oh, you're back. We can eat.'

Half asleep he got up and walked into the kitchen to heat up the rest of the food while the girls sat down.

'Just look at this. Baked potatoes! I haven't had those in ages.' Dusk said.

Ghost nodded. 'Looks like he might be useful after all.'

'We'll see if he can stay sane here. We're still dealing with a guy the company sent.'

The rest nodded in agreement when he came back with the rest of dinner.

'I hope you like it. I had to make do with what was here. Tomorrow I'll order some better stuff.'

'It's okay.' Dice said. 'We'll eat it for now.'

'It fills the stomach.' Rusty said.

He returned to the kitchen losing hope he could have made a good impression and snacked on some beef and potatoes thinking they must hate him when in fact they were whispering how good it was to have real food after a long time.

'Just don't forget, he's from the office so he'll soon try to run the show. Better to get him to leave before he becomes trouble.' Ghost whispered.

'Just let him stay long enough to cook us some more food like this.' Dice said. 'I'd miss this.'

'I don't mind eating instant as long as there's no pesky men around.' Rusty whispered poking a potato.

'We'll see.' Dusk said. 'Any bets on how long he'll endure our usual routine?'

The girls laughed as they wagered their cookie rations.

After dinner they all went into the hot-tub while Petrash cleaned up.

"They did finish it all, so it wasn't all bad probably." he thought.

After he was done he heard the girls come back and settle down in the common room. He checked to make sure the bathroom was empty and took a long shower before settling back in the large tub.

"This is better.. But I need to set aside a day to clean up here as well." he thought looking at the rings of dried soap on the tub, tufts of fur and empty flasks in the corner and sighed.

He let himself float deep enough to keep his nose out of the water which is why he didn't notice Rusty coming in to take a shower again after laughing so hard at the movie that she spilled her drink all over herself. She hadn't noticed his clothing on the bench nor his body under water and lathered herself firmly with soap. She rinsed herself and feeling fresh and clean again she stretched herself just as Petrash came up out of the water.

'...'

'...'

'What are you doing here!?' she asked hurriedly covering her private parts with her arms.

'That's my line!' he said turning around quickly. 'Didn't you see I was here!?'

'How would I know when you hide under water!?'

'My clothes are right there on the bench next to your shirt!'

She wanted to respond but didn't have an answer to that.

'I'll get out.' he said. 'It's not polite to stay while beauty needs to use it.'

'Yeah.' she said, then blushed. 'What? Wait what? What do you mean beauty?'

He wrapped a towel around him and stood up. 'Ehm, well, that I should leave as a girl needs to use the bathroom.'

He walked past her turning his head the other way when she noticed his ears. She blinked in surprise, then saw something sticking out underneath the towel. She stepped closer to him, pulled down his towel and looked at the grey tail at his back.

He turned away quickly covering himself. 'What are you doing!?'

She grabbed one of his ears. 'What are you?'

He tried to step back but tripped just as she came closer and both ended up on the floor with her on top of him.

'Ouch!' he said as he rubbed the back of his head.

She saw his grey ears again and pulled them to see if they were real.

'Hey! Stop that!'

'Why do you have these ears? You can't have these, you're not Kanine.'

'I'm half Kanine. My mother is Kanine Wolf and my father human and I'm one of the few to end up as half instead of almost full Kanine or human.'

She stroked his ears and he twitched.

'Stop that! They're sensitive!' he said closing his eyes.

She grinned. 'How cute. How embarrassed can you get?'

'Very! Especially with a beautiful naked girl on top of me!'

She stopped stroking his ears, remembered the situation they were in and quickly got up, grabbed a towel, dried off quick and walked out pulling her long shirt over her head.

He sighed and stayed on the floor for a while. "Okay, that did feel very nice." He contemplated the situation for a moment more. "I'm so going to die here."

Rusty went back to the living room and the others saw the surprised look on her face.

'What's up?' Dusk asked.

She sat down and took a shot from a bottle of liquor. 'He's half Wolf...'

Dice raised her eyebrow. 'What do you mean?'

'He has the ears and a tail. His mother's Wolf.'

'Wait, how did you find out?'

'He was in the bath when I took a shower.'

The girls looked at each other. 'You were in the bath together?'

She waved her hands in denial. 'I hadn't noticed him as he was under water while I showered! He was just as surprised as I was!'

'And he had nothing to say?'

She nodded. 'He said he'd leave as it wasn't polite to stay with a..' She turned away feeling embarrassed.

'With, what?' Ghost asked.

She took another shot from the bottle. 'Nothing. I saw his ears and tail and he explained and left.'

'Right. We'll ask him tomorrow. It's late enough.'

The rest agreed and they all took a quick glance later at his room before walking into their bedroom.