Blue Horizon

Book Four

Copyright ©1996 Ted R. Blasingame

Revised Edition ©2018

All rights reserved.

Written with the assistance of

Eileen Blasingame

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

Cover art © by Elizabeth Jackson.

Used by permission.

Published by Lulu Press

http://www.lulu.com

Visit the Author's website

http://trblasingame.com

Dedication

This book – and the series – is dedicated to all of my Readers over the years. I have appreciated the kind remarks and reviews on this body of work and many of the friendships I have made along the way. These stories were written primarily for myself, but I'm glad to have had you along for the ride.

Introduction

Welcome back! Book Three of the Blue Horizon Captain’s Journal wrapped up the primary plot threads long-running throughout the series, and had been intended as the final end to the project.

However, at the behest of the fans and friends of Blue Horizon, I took the continuation of the series under consideration and have worked up a fourth season.

I was hesitant at first, because further stories would have a different feel to them. Half of the ship’s crew had left by the end of “Never Say Long Goodbyes” – including the captain himself, Merlin Sinclair – so future tales would take place under the direction of the ship’s new captain, Taro Nichols.

As Merlin’s first officer for many years, Taro was deemed capable of assuming command of the freighter, but I had never really given her command capabilities much thought. How would she react when faced with decisions she would have to make on her own? She is not a clone of Merlin, so she should operate differently under her own guidance when situations arise that are out of the ordinary for a mere shipping business. I decided to give her a chance to tell her own stories, so a new series of tales was written.

Sit back, relax and enjoy the new adventures of Captain Taro Nichols and the Blue Horizon.

—Ted R. Blasingame, 2009

P.S.

This book of tales represents the last of four volumes containing the adventures of the Blue Horizon that were written from 1996 through 2009. The series never actually had a formal end, but when I moved on to other projects, my imagination took different avenues. Dennier.Com eventually came to an end of its own and all my stories were moved to a free webhosting archive. Blue Horizon was one of the most satisfying projects I've ever been involved in and although friends met through the endeavor have come and gone, there are those who still remain. Through the years as I've read back through these adventures, I've often seen errors I would like to correct and some things that I would like to change, but then during a lull in which my Muse had taken a vacation on current projects, I decided to go back through the Blue Horizon series and make the revisions I've had in mind. This book now reflects those corrections, changes and additions, and this revised edition supersedes all previous versions.

— Ted R. Blasingame, 2014

BLUE HORIZON

Book Four

Life should be mundane shipping freight across the galaxy, but that doesn't always seem to be the case for the captain and crew of the Blue Horizon.

DAY ONE, DAY LOST

By Ted R. Blasingame

Merlin Sinclair opened the door of polished wood into the office of Blue Horizon Freight Transfer and walked inside to the sound of tiny bells. The room surrounded him with dark woodwork that made up built-in bookcases, accent tables and corner trim. The floor was polished wood with a large, intricate rug from Sillon in the center of the room. Save for a single table lamp in the corner near the door, the rest of the lighting was hidden and indirect, and a large fireplace dominated one wall. The front room was spacious, though the art deco motif of the place had always given him an odd feeling every time he walked through the door. It had started out with a rustic look in the beginning, but Cindy and Keri had since made interior design changes to the look of the small building after the pirate crew of the Basilisk had trashed the place in an attempt to thwart his business.

With an unbidden smirk at the interior decor, he wondered if he should buy a fedora, now that he no longer wore a captain’s hat. No, he thought with silent chuckle. It wouldn’t go with his suit.

Penny looked up from a crossword puzzle when Merlin closed the door behind him. The corner of the ferret’s mouth crooked up in a pleasant smile when he approached her desk.

“Welcome back, sir,” she said in a rush. “Are you ready for your first day at the office?”

The wolf snickered. “This could be different,” he admitted. “I’m not used to being stationary on the ground for long periods of time. However, please don’t…”

“Please don’t call you Sir, yes, I know,” Penny interrupted, “but you are no longer a captain and we can’t call you that anymore. You’re now the president of a company, so you should be prepared for everyone to address you with the associated title of respect.”  She folded her hands together on top of the desk and stared up at him with a tilt to her head.

Merlin opened his mouth to argue, and then shut it again. He raised an eyebrow at her and then nodded. “I suppose you’re right,” he said.

“Good morning, sir,” said another voice. Merlin and Penny looked up in unison at a sharply dressed white wolf.

“See?” Penny chirped. “You’ll be getting that from now on.”

“Right,” Merlin replied with a smirk.  “Good morning, Ms. Winters.”

“You may call me Tina, if you wish,” the woman said with a pleasant smile. “I tried formalities when I first came to this office, but the girls wouldn’t let me get away with that. However, I will leave it up to you how you wish to address me.”

“What is your personal preference?” Merlin asked.

“In a work environment, I have always aspired for professional appearance, but away from the office, I am comfortable with informality.”

Merlin sighed inwardly. “Well, then, Ms. Winters,” he said after a moment, “I’ll try to maintain your standards.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The front door opened to jingling bells again behind him. Merlin turned to see a large mastiff in denim jeans and a matching shirt with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows walk inside the office. He carried a box under one arm and shut the door behind him.

“Hi there,” the canine said with a broad grin.

“Good Morning,” Merlin said. It was the job of his receptionist to greet newcomers, but he was not yet used to the office routine. “Can we help you?”

Penny snickered and the mastiff walked toward them looking puzzled. “I brought breakfast from Mrs. Meers for the girls,” the canine said as he set the cardboard box on the ferret’s heavy wooden desk. He looked at Tina with a critical eye and asked, “Is this guy bothering you ladies?”

Penny snickered again and pulled a cup of steaming coffee from a carrier inside the box. “Stu, you’re silly,” she said. “That’s your boss.”

“Captain Sinclair?”

The wolf raised his eyebrows and held out his hand. “A captain no longer, but yes, I am Merlin Sinclair.”

“Pleased to meetcha, boss,” the mastiff replied. He took the wolf’s hand and shook it vigorously. “I’m Stuart Sloan, daytime security for your office, sir.”

Before Merlin could give the canine a reply, the front door opened yet again. Two mice stepped inside, one brown and the other gray.

Cindy’s face widened in a big grin and the gray mouse ran over to the wolf happily. “It’s great to see you again, Merlin!” she said as she gave him a warm hug.

“Hello, Cindy,” the wolf said with a laugh. He looked over at the brown mouse and gave her a pleasant smile. “Hello, Keri.”

“Welcome back, sir,” Keri replied with a grin.

“See?” Penny piped up merrily, “You’re getting more of them!”

“Yes, I got the point,” Merlin said with a sigh directed at the ferret.

“What are you getting?” Cindy asked curiously.

“People calling him Sir,” replied the receptionist.

“Ah yes, I forgot that you didn’t like that,” the gray mouse said.

Merlin waved a hand through the air. “It’s okay,” he said with a look around the small group that was gathered in the large reception room. “I’ll get used to it.”

“You don’t like being called Sir?” Stuart inquired.

The wolf simply smiled. “It reminds me of my military days, but I’ll get used to it,” he said again.

“How’s Sam doing?” Cindy asked as Stuart passed around the breakfast items he’d brought. The mastiff took his coffee and a cinnamon roll to a seat near the fireplace and sat down to eat it quietly.

The wolf perked up at Cindy’s question and grinned. “She’s happy as a puppy,” he said. “We’ve spent the past two weeks with Bill, Shannon and the kids, but we’ve also been looking for a house of our own. We had it narrowed down to three, but each had hidden storm damage that I discovered while giving each of the places a close inspection.”

“Most people wouldn’t think to look that closely,” Stuart remarked.

“I’ve lived on a ship out between the stars for the past ten years,” Merlin reminded him. “Looking at everything closely to make sure there are no leaks or malfunctioning life-support systems is rather ingrained in me. Something potentially wrong can often be a life or death situation out in space.”

“Good point.”

“It’s not as critical on the ground, but it’s still a habit. Shannon and Samantha will be looking at a couple more houses today, but I thought I should make an appearance here at the office and try to get settled into my new position.”

“How can we get you started?” Keri asked.

Merlin looked around at the faces that surrounded him. “First, I’ll need someone to show me to my desk. I know I’ve been here in the past during the Blue Horizon’s stops in the area, but I’ve not really spent any time in this building – especially if you’ve moved things around to accommodate me.”

“That’s easy,” Cindy replied. “Keri and I took the largest office and split it up between the two of us, packed it with our desks and equipment. I set you up in the office near the back, across the hall from Tina’s office. It’s not a large room, but Tina authorized new furniture for you and had the room soundproofed so you can have private conversations as needed.”

“That sounds good,” the wolf replied. “Once I’ve had a few moments to get myself oriented, I want to meet with each of you in my new den separately. I have a few business details to discuss one on one, and I’ll invite each of you to talk with me openly then if you have any gripes or suggestions.”

***

Merlin leaned back in his high-backed chair and stretched. He’d gotten no real work done that morning, but had spent the greater part of the time simply talking with each of his office employees, including the contracted security guard, Stuart. He would have to chat with the nighttime security guard, Bob Robinson at a later time.

For the most part, everyone got along well enough to do their jobs, but it seemed that each person had some trivial nit-picking against their co-workers. It was no more unusual than any other work environment, but there was nothing he suspected that would indicate potential trouble down the line. However, while no one specifically came out to say anything, the home office had been self-sufficient since it had been created, and he got the impression that he was considered merely a figurehead without any real purpose at the location.

It was only a notion without proof, but it frustrated him. Had he done the right thing by giving up his ship? Yes, he mused after a moment of thought. Even after he’d set the home office in operation, there were things he had continued to take care of behind the scenes that the others never saw. For a while, at least, he supposed it would appear that he had no need setting up in the home office, but he planned to get into his duties as quickly as possible.

Samantha’s talents, on the other hand, were another matter. The duties she performed on board the ship were redundant here, so there was no reason to set her up with a desk in the office. They had discussed the possibility of opening up a small consulting office of her own for computer services, but Bill had pointed out that Holden Pharmaceutical’s Dennier Branch would be more appropriate since she was still the primary shareholder of her father’s company. It was located in one of the city’s downtown skyscrapers not far from the Blue Horizon headquarters. Merlin had agreed with his brother-in-law and Samantha had acquiesced to the notion, but they would not pursue that course of action until they had settled into their own home.

Merlin stretched again and looked up at the ceiling, wishing his new den had a window or at least a skylight to let in the sunshine from outside. He straightened up in his chair with a wry smile. If anyone came into his den and found him leaning back in his chair, he really would present the image of someone without anything to do. Perhaps he should work with his door open so the others would see him working – when he actually started had something to do, that is.

Merlin snorted. When had he ever been concerned with the opinions of others regarding his position as head of his own company? Just because he was no longer on board the deck of the Blue Horizon, he didn’t feel he should be obliged to adopt a different way of thinking just to please others.

A moment later, there was a knock on his door. “Come in, please,” he said as he picked up a slateboard from his desk. He pretended to study it when Cindy opened the door and walked inside.

“Hi, Cindy, what can I do for you?” he asked.

The gray mouse sat down on the corner of the desk with another slateboard in her hands. “You wanted a report on the status of the ships, sir.”

“Sit in the chair, Cindy, not on my desk.”

“Oh, right!” she said with a grin. The business coordinator sat down in the plush seat in front of the desk and then nodded as she consulted her slateboard over her lap. “The Blue Horizon made an unscheduled stop on Tanthe two days ago, but is now on its way to Kantus to pick up a shipment of textiles for delivery to Fiddlestone on Alexandrius. The cargo hold is empty, since they didn’t pick up anything on Tanthe.”

Merlin nodded, fully aware of the purpose of the stop in Aris Grand. “Continue,” he prompted. Cindy nodded and tapped out a command on her datapak.

“The Hidalgo Sun is currently en route to Osaka, Japan on Earth, where they are scheduled to pick up Taiko drums for delivery to Ganis for some kind of ancient ritual. They are presently transporting exotic food spices for delivery to Marseille, France. Rezo has plans to let his crew stay overnight in France, and then their remaining two days of shore leave in Osaka when they pick up the drums.”

“What of the Mooncrest?”

“Captain Corwin’s ship is about a week out from Pomen with severe weather monitoring equipment bound for Cortez Island on Crescentis.”

“Any problems?”

Cindy frowned. “An altercation broke out last night, but Captain Corwin says he has the situation under control.”

Merlin tilted his head. “An altercation? Who was involved?”

“Rob Caine and Armando Jensen.”

“Armando,” Merlin repeated with a frown. “What was the cause of this… altercation?”

Cindy glanced up briefly at an imaginary spot on the ceiling. “Word has it that Rob was upset at the amount of honey mustard Armando used on a particular dish that he ‘d prepared for a special occasion. He said the honey mustard would kill the delicate flavor of the food, but Armando defended his taste preferences. Rob then hit him on the back of the head with a wooden ladle.”

“Let me guess,” Merlin said with a shake of his head. “Armando hit him back?”

The mouse shook her head. “Armando ignored him and went on eating, apparently unfazed by the spoon. Being ignored only made the cook angrier. Witnesses in the galley said Rob then dumped the entire hot dish over the lion’s head, lightly scalding his ears. That’s when Armando hit him.”

Merlin cringed. “Ouch,” he muttered, absently rubbing his face where Armando had once hit him. “How is Mr. Caine?”

“Armando only knocked the wind out of him, so he’ll be okay, but Rob is now keeping his distance.”

“What was Abner’s course of action?”

Cindy crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair. “It happened in front of just about everyone, and the captain determined that Armando was provoked and therefore not at fault. Even though Rob is Corwin’s nephew, that fact didn’t stop the captain from giving him punishment. In addition to his cooking duties, Rob now has to do all the rest of KP duties himself without help from the rest of the crew for the duration of this voyage; he has also been assigned ship-wide laundry detail. Armando’s burns have been treated, but otherwise he’s okay.”

Merlin made a face. “No need for me to get involved in that. Anything else?”

“The Moss unit on board the Hidalgo Sun went belly up a few days ago,” Cindy replied. “Patch said he would do a diagnostic on it, but I’ve not heard any more on it since. No one else has reported any other problems.”

“Glad to hear it,” Merlin said. “That reminds me… where’s our office Moss unit? I’ve not seen it since I got here.”

Cindy looked embarrassed. “It’s in the storm cellar out back,” she said hesitantly. “It startled me when I came in this morning and I spilled coffee all over my blouse. I shut the thing off and tossed it in the cellar before I went back home to change. I forgot to turn it on when I got back.”

Merlin chuckled. “I don’t know how many times I wanted to do that with the one we had on the Horizon,” he said. “I guess we need to —” The com unit interrupted with a soft chirp. Merlin tapped the control and responded, “Yes?”

“Sorry to bother you, sir,” the secretary’s voice emanated from the speaker, “but Samantha is on line two for you.”

“Thank you, Penny.”

“She sounded really excited, sir. I think she may have found the house you wanted!”

“Thank you, Penny. I will take the call now.”

“If you ask me, I think you should—”

“Thank you, Penny,” Merlin repeated irritably. “I will take the call now…”

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. Line two, sir.”

Merlin glanced at Cindy and shook his head. The gray mouse grinned and stood up. “I’ll be at my desk if you need me.”

“Thank you, Cindy.” The wolf watched her until she had disappeared and shut the door behind her, and then tapped the control for the waiting line.

“Hi, Sam,” he said in a calmer voice. “How’s it going today?”

“Hi, Sweetie,” said the Border collie’s voice from the speaker. “Shannon and I stumbled across a house that just went on the market. It looks like it might fit all our criteria just from our initial walk-through. I haven’t seen any storm damage, either, but you’ve been more adept finding those than I am.”

“You’ve already had a showing?” Merlin asked.

“Not officially,” she replied. “We were on our way home to get out of the heat and rest in the air conditioning when we came across the agent putting out a sign on the yard fence. We decided to stop and ask about the place, and wound up getting a brief tour of the estate. He hasn’t even listed the property yet, but has agreed to hold off if you can get down here right away to talk with him.”

Merlin looked at his office clock. “What’s the address?”

“It’s at 76 Totter’s Lane, right on the corner with Hartnell Circle. You should remember the place; we pass it every day. It’s about a mile from Bill and Shannon’s home. It’s the one with all the trees and the tall iron fence that surrounds the whole property.”

“Yes, I know the place,” Merlin replied. “It’ll take me about twenty minutes to get there, if the agent can wait that long.”

“He will wait for you, if Shannon and I have to lock him in the separate out-building to keep him here!” Samantha laughed.

Merlin chuckled. “Okay, I’m on my way.”

“See you soon, Luv.”

***

The wolf had been gone about two hours when the front door opened amidst the jingle of tiny bells inside the office on Timber Valley Road. The summer heat seeped inside with the arrival of a canine dressed in a heavy winter parka with the hood up over his head. Penny looked up from her calendar scheduling as the guy closed the door behind him.

“May I help you?” she asked in hesitation. His choice of clothing on a hot summer day puzzled her, but it wasn’t her place to judge the garments of a potential paying customer.

The schnauzer didn’t reply to her query, however, and remained standing by the front door. He put his hands into the pockets of the parka and became still. His eyes were moist, but Penny could tell from her position that his nose was dry. He licked his lips periodically as he panted, but otherwise made no further movement.

“Sir?” Penny tried again. “Do you need some assistance?” Again, the man made no reply or movement. The secretary crooked up the corner of her mouth as she reached slowly for the com unit. She touched a pad lightly and then said, “Keri, is Stuart back there with you?”

“Yes, he is,” came an immediate response. “He’s helping me cut some —”

Penny kept her eyes trained on the mysterious canine. “Please send him to the reception room immediately. There’s someone here who may need his expertise.” There was no further response on the com unit, but slow steps in the hallway heralded the arrival of their security officer.

Penny looked up at him and saw the two mice standing behind him. Cindy looked over at her with a curious expression, but Keri looked suddenly worried as the mastiff walked out toward their visitor.

“Good afternoon,” Stu said in a casual tone. “What can we help you with?”

The schnauzer remained unmoving until Stuart got halfway across the room. “Stop!” the canine ordered in a raspy voice. From beneath his parka, the schnauzer pushed out an old revolver with a shaky hand and held it up at arm’s length, with its barrel aimed at the guard’s chest. Stu froze immediately, the fingers of both hands splayed out in submission.

“Easy now,” he said in a calm voice. “There’s no need for this. Just let us know what you want and we will do what we can to resolve —”

“Don’t talk to me!” the schnauzer said in a strained voice. “Don’t say another word! You ruined me!” He wiped a hand across his face angrily, as if to brush off something that was biting him.

Keri started to back away into the hallway, but the man’s eyes bulged and he screamed at her. “Don’t move! Stay where I can see you!” He held the gun out farther, as if an extra inch would increase his threat. The mouse swallowed and raised her hands in submission.

Penny slowly shifted one of her hands back toward her com unit, but the schnauzer whipped his gun toward her with a shaking hand. “Don’t touch anything!” he commanded.

“Sir, what seems to be the problem?” Cindy asked in a quiet voice. The man panted from the heat and blinked rapidly for a moment.

“You ruined me!” he repeated. “He ruined me!”

“How?” Cindy prompted.

“Quiet!” he shouted. He wavered, unsteady on his feet, and Stu took a step forward. The schnauzer screamed something incoherent and Stuart froze again when the barrel of the pistol leveled with the spot between his eyes. “I’ve waited five years to put a bullet into his brain,” the man told him in a quavering voice. “Where is he?”

The front door suddenly opened to the jingle of tiny bells. Tina Winters walked in from her lunch break, unaware of the situation inside. The schnauzer grabbed her roughly, wrapping an arm around her neck. He shoved the barrel of his revolver up under her throat and then backed her up to the front window. Stuart took a step toward him.

“I will kill her if you come any closer!” he said to the mastiff, pressing the barrel harder against the white wolf’s neck. “Get over there by the fireplace – everybody with him!”

Stu backed away with upraised hands and then moved to where he had been directed. Cindy and Keri joined him in front of the hearth, but Penny remained in her seat. The schnauzer glared at her, but said nothing.

Tina swallowed hard at the gun in her throat, but otherwise tried to relax. If she struggled too much, he might blow her head off. “What – what do you want?” she whispered calmly.

“I want your boss,” the schnauzer replied through gritted teeth. “He ruined me! I lost everything because of him! Where is he?”

***

Merlin pulled up to the curb and shut off the engine of his car. He stepped out of the dark blue vehicle and looked up when he heard someone call his name. A middle-aged Golden Retriever across the street was sweeping the sidewalk in front of a rustic restaurant. She waved at him with a friendly smile. He returned the wave and crossed the street.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Sinclair,” the woman said pleasantly. “How are you today?”

“Good afternoon,” he replied with a smile. “Things are looking up, Mrs. Meers. My wife and I have finally found a house to settle down in.”

“That’s wonderful news. Where did you find it?”

“Just a mile from my sister’s home,” Merlin said. “We didn’t intend to get a place so close to her, but it fits all our criteria and we didn’t have to haggle much on the price. The agent is working up the documents for us now, so we should be able to sign and close soon.”

“Would you like to come inside out of the heat and tell me about it?”

“I would love to,” Merlin replied with a smile, “but I need to get back to work. It’s my first day on the job and my boss might dock my pay if I don’t get back.”

Mrs. Meers grinned at him. “Is Tina that much of a slave driver?”

Merlin chuckled. “No, she’s formal, but shows the proper respect to her alpha. Thank you for the invite, but I’ll have to take you up on it another time.”

“Have a good day, then,” she said.

“Good day, Mrs. Meers.” Merlin turned and walked back across the street, skirting light traffic to the other side. When he stepped up on the curb, he glanced over at the large window and stopped in his tracks. Someone wearing a winter parka was on the other side of the glass, one arm wrapped around his accountant’s neck as he threatened the rest of his staff with a gun.

Merlin ducked out of sight of the window and pulled a DataCom from the pocket of his jacket. He thumbed the contact of the local police dispatcher and got an immediate connection. He spoke quietly for a moment and then nodded to himself as he hung up. He poked his nose around the window for another look and saw that Stu was talking to the hooded figure. Good, just keep him talking and distracted, Merlin thought.

Out of sight, he slipped around the building to the alley behind it. He shucked off his jacket as he neared the back door to his offices and hung it on the doorknob.

Beside the back door was a set of steps going below the foundation level to the storm cellar. He opened the shelter door as quietly as he could and descended quickly into the darkness. He found an emergency flashlight torch just inside the door and thumbed it on.

The metallic surface of a small flying saucer reflected in the lamp light. The unit lay upside down on the edge of a cot nearest the steps leading up into the interior of the building. Merlin knelt next to the cot and flipped the saucer over. He found a tiny reset switch in a recessed depression and pushed it. Both lenses came to life and the unit began to hum as its gravity repulsors became active. It floated off his hands and then focused its primary lens on him as it made identification.

“Mew!” the mobile sentry system responded in a shrill voice.

Merlin winced and leaned in close. “Moss,” he said in a low voice, “Security routine gamma-gamma.” Following its new command protocol, the small floating disc responded with a simple flashing light below its upper lens, instead of its normal audible responses.

“Moss, verbal instruction kappa-iota,” he said, trying to remember the proper codes that Pockets had taught him. The unit responded with another flashing light to show acknowledgement. Merlin quickly spoke into the Moss’ tiny condenser microphone. A moment later, Moss flashed twice and then even its normal humming dropped in auditory level.

The gray wolf nodded in satisfaction and then crept up the stairs leading into the interior of the office. He grasped the doorknob and turned it as quietly as he could. He released the latch once he had the panel open enough for him to slip inside, and then stepped aside to let Moss float past him. The small flying saucer maintained a one inch altitude above the floor as it moved into the hallway.

Assured the unit would accomplish its task, Merlin moved toward the kitchenette. He could hear Stuart’s voice from the front room, and the terrorist’s exasperated replies. Merlin hoped he had time to implement his plan or someone might get seriously injured when the hooded man’s tension snapped.

Merlin looked around the kitchenette for a weapon, but all he could seem to find were plastic butter knives, forks and chopsticks. With a frown, he picked up a small wooden rolling pin, hoping it would be better than nothing at all and silently resolved to stock up the small room with a proper set of utensils.

Out in the front room, Stuart tried not to lock eyes with the schnauzer, hoping that a stance of submission would keep the man from feeling threatened. While keeping his eyes averted, he saw movement near the floor at the back of the room.

The office Moss unit moved quietly along the baseboard, more silently that he’d ever remembered it being, and hoped to the heavens that it didn’t come up from behind and meow at the schnauzer, who was already so tightly strung that anything might set him off.

So far, by keeping the man talking, Stu had learned that the schnauzer had recently been released from a local institution, where he had been confined for the past three years for a mental breakdown. The man seemed coherent and alert, though extremely agitated as they waited for “the boss” to return from his errands. However, it was still unknown just how Merlin had ruined the man’s life that he so desperately wanted to enact revenge.

As directed, the mobile sentry system targeted the hooded figure and covertly moved to a position parallel to the schnauzer as he faced the hostages. Keeping furniture and personnel in front of it for cover, it quietly increased its altitude until it was almost two meters off the floor. Keri and Cindy saw it at the same time, and both had to fight the expression of recognition from their faces. Penny, however, saw it and gasped.

The schnauzer stopped his ranting and turned his head slightly to look where she had. Moss calculated the man’s actions and implemented its next command. The flying saucer shot rapidly across the width of the room and slammed into the side of the canine’s head.

The stunned schnauzer lurched aside and reflexively released his hold on Tina. The white wolf dropped to her knees as Stuart rushed forward, his attention focused primarily on the revolver. The mastiff swung a hard fist at the schnauzer’s gun hand and struck the man’s wrist with as much force as he could muster. However, it was only a glancing blow and the firearm remained in the man’s grip.

The schnauzer squawked in rage and bared his teeth as he tried to regain his balance. He attempted to raise the gun barrel, but Stu clung to his arm at the wrist and the elbow as he tried to force the revolver away from him.

Unseen by the combatants, Merlin rushed out of the back room with the rolling pin above his head. He wanted the element of surprise, so he didn’t bother shouting for the fighters to stop, but as he swung the wooden bakery tool, the schnauzer wrenched the mastiff to the side and caught the rolling pin on his shoulder instead. It must have hurt, for the man gasped aloud, but it was not enough to disarm him.

The schnauzer suddenly dropped to his knees, but it was an action solely intended to pull the security guard off balance. Stuart stumbled and the man hit him behind the right ear with a fist. Stunned, Stu lost his equilibrium and fell to the floor. Before Merlin could draw his arm back for another blow, the barrel of the revolver was suddenly planted in the middle of his chest.

The hooded man stood up, snarling with bared teeth and pulled the trigger.

Merlin shut his eyes in reflex, but there was no explosion, only a sharp snap. He opened his eyes and saw the contorted face of the enraged schnauzer just as Penny fainted away at Keri’s feet. Not waiting for a second shot, Merlin spun around and dove for the lamp table near the corner. He picked up the lamp to use as a weapon, but its electric cord held fast to its wall socket.

Although still a little dazed, Stuart knocked the man’s knees out from under him and then jumped on him when the schnauzer fell backward onto the ornamental rug. The mastiff slugged him once in the jaw and then flipped the stunned individual over onto his stomach so he could sit on his back.

Stuart struggled to keep the schnauzer’s arms pinned behind him and Merlin used the opportunity to unplug the table lamp and then forcibly jerk the wires from the ceramic base. Stu held the man’s arms together as Merlin wrapped the electric cord tightly around his wrists. Cindy pulled her belt from around her waist and used it to bind the schnauzer’s legs while Stuart held him down.

With the man’s arms and legs bound tightly, Stuart rolled over onto the floor, still a little unsettled from the blow to the head. The schnauzer began screaming obscenities at everyone in the room.

Merlin put his boot up against the canine’s nose and applied a little pressure. “Shut up,” he told the man.

The schnauzer rolled his eyes up at Merlin with a scowl. “Where’s your boss?” he growled around the boot. “He ruined me!”

“What are you talking about?” Merlin replied as he knelt down next to the canine. “I’m the boss. I own this business.” He picked up the fallen revolver from the floor and noted the empty cylinder with surprised relief.

“You aren’t Meers! Where is he?”

“Meers?” Merlin looked puzzled and glanced out the front window toward the restaurant across the street. “Are you talking about Jonathan Meers?”

“Where is that mangy cur?” the schnauzer snarled angrily, struggling against his bonds. “I’ll rip his throat out with my teeth!”

“I’m afraid you’re too late,” Merlin told him as two patrol cars pulled up to the curb outside. “Meers died about three years ago. The Savings and Loan that used to occupy this building is no longer in business here.”

“You’re lying!” the schnauzer spat. “Meers’ financial advice cost me everything I had! I’ve sworn to make him pay every day for the past four years! He’s hiding from me – I know it!”

Cindy darted around him with a scowl and went to open the front door before the police could knock it in.

“Careful!” Stuart barked at the mouse. “They may already have guns trained at the door.”

Cindy hesitated with a look back at the security guard and then opened the door slowly. She eased her hand out in an upraised position with her palm out and fingers splayed. “Don’t shoot!” she called out through the door. “You can come in now!”

“Identify yourself!” called one of the lupine cops.

“My name is Cynthya Allport. I work here.” She eased out into sight and then motioned slowly. “The man you want is tied up on the floor in here.”

One officer came forward slowly, his handgun still drawn, while the three others remained behind the patrol cars with their weapons focused on the building. The cop eyed her suspiciously as he eased past her in through the door; he raised his eyebrows when he saw the bound schnauzer on the floor.

“I’m Officer Landry. Is there a Mr. Sinclair here?” he asked as he held his firearm with its barrel aimed at the ceiling.

Merlin looked up from where he was checking on Tina, and held up a hand. “That would be me. I’m the one who called your dispatcher.”

The officer surveyed the group in the room and then down at the schnauzer on the floor who panted from the heat. “Is everyone all right?” the cop asked.

“A few bumps and bruises, officer,” Stuart replied as he got to his feet, “but we’ll be okay.”

“Anyone else in the back?” Landry whispered, in the event someone else might be threatening their responses from a hidden position.

“No, sir. This is all of us.”

Landry made a hand signal out the front door to his squad and then stepped back inside. “Why’s this guy in a parka?” he asked.

“It’s my disguise…” the schnauzer grumbled into the rug beneath him.

“In the middle of the summer?” the wolf asked with a shake of his head. “Are you mental?”

“I believe he is,” Stuart whispered to the officer. “He told us he was just released from the Shelton Institution several days ago. He’s been under their care for the past few years.”

Two more officers came inside the front door, and after a moment of explanation, they replaced the schnauzer’s electric cord with a pair of sturdy handcuffs, hauled him to his feet and then escorted him outside.

“Why did he come in here?” Landry asked.

“He was looking for someone who no longer occupies this building, a person who presumably caused his financial ruin.”

“Ah, I see,” Landry said as he jotted down the details on a small notepad. He and Stu moved to Penny’s large oak desk to discuss the rest of the particulars. Keri came out of the back room with a cup of water for Penny, who sat up in one of the reception room waiting chairs.

“Are you okay, Ms. Winters?” Merlin asked the white wolf. The disheveled woman looked up from the chair she sat in beside Cindy. She swallowed and put her hands together in her lap.

“He tried to choke me, sir, and I am shaken up a bit,” the accountant said in a raspy voice, “but I will be okay with a little rest. I would like to request the rest of the afternoon off, sir.”

Merlin nodded. “After the authorities have taken everyone’s statements, I think it would be a good idea if we closed the office and we all went home to calm down. We can start again fresh in the morning.”

“Thank you, sir,” Tina whispered.

“Mr. Sinclair?”

Merlin looked up as Abigail Meers tentatively walked through the front door.

“Is everyone all right?” she asked.

“We’ve had a little excitement,” he told the Golden Retriever, “I’m surprised the cops let you through.”

“They let me pass when I told them I owned the building you’re renting from me,” Mrs. Meers replied. “What happened?”

Merlin told her everything, and after a few minutes, the Retriever had her hands up to her mouth. “I am so very sorry,” she said in a quiet voice. “My Jonathan didn’t have the best judgment in his final years, I’m afraid.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Abigail,” Merlin said in a gentle voice. “We don’t blame you.”

“Still, this wouldn’t have happened if Jonathan had gotten better care.”

“We’ll be okay, Mrs. Meers,” Cindy told her.

“What is this?” asked another voice. Merlin looked over at a feline police officer and the small flying saucer in her hands.

Merlin excused himself from the Golden Retriever and walked over to the striped cat. “That’s a mobile sentry system for my office,” he said. He took the discus from her and noted a dent in its leading edge. He tapped the unit’s reset button and the lenses glowed again.

The flying saucer responded with flashing lights when it registered Merlin’s identity.

“Good job, Moss,” the gray wolf said when it floated away from his hands. “Verbal instruction kappa-iota. Resume normal routine.”

“Meow!” the saucer acknowledged.

***

An hour later, Merlin locked the door to the office and then put a hand on Stuart’s shoulder. The girls had already gone and now it was just the two of them. “Thank you for your help today, Stu,” he said to the security guard.

“This is the reason I am here,” the mastiff replied. “It’s usually fairly quiet and I don’t generally have much to do, so I help out the girls with any projects they might have. It’s generally peaceful, but you never know when something like this will happen.”

“This was my first day on the job here in the home office,” Merlin said with a slow shake of his head, “but it feels like a day lost to me. I can’t wait to see what Day Two will bring…”

TRAIL OF THE BICYCLE THIEF

By Ted R. Blasingame

Max tilted his nose to the autumn sky over the city and tried to sort out the scents on the air. He frowned after a moment and then looked over at his companion. Lorelei’s perfume was a combination of cinnamon spice, rose petals and cherry blossoms, and while it was an interesting mix, it interfered with his olfactory senses.

“What’s the matter?” the white rabbit asked him in a lilting voice. “You look perplexed.”

Max sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “I can’t register the scents around us to keep a fix on our location,” he replied.

He rolled up the long sleeves of his loose-fitting denim shirt as he looked over at her. She wore a pair of bell-bottom blue jeans, a low-cut tee shirt with a rainbow tie-dye pattern, open sandals and a thin pair of dark sunglasses on an elastic strap. She appeared completely relaxed as they walked side by side along an undulating avenue bordered on both sides by old buildings of brick and stone. Colorful trees surrounded by iron bench seats dotted sidewalks of pedestrians, kids on skates and bicycles. The late afternoon was busy in this part of Coldsmith, the moderate-sized city where the Blue Horizon had just made its most recent delivery on Kantus.

“Why do you need to do that?” she asked as they approached a corner crosswalk. “I know where we are.” She pointed to a tree park diagonally across the intersection. There were several fountains of running water and gardens of late-season flowers that made the area look inviting.

“Would you mind waiting over there for me?” she asked. “I need to take care of something while we’re here.” The rabbit didn’t wait for a reply and padded off around the corner without him.

Max frowned and looked up and down the avenue. He was disappointed to have been left alone in the middle of a city that was unfamiliar to him. He had hoped to spend time with Pockets and Justy in the entertainment district, but almost as soon as the captain had released everyone following the unloading of their cargo, Lori had grabbed him by the arm to have him accompany her on an errand into town. Now she had left him alone to finish whatever her errand might have been.

He scratched the soft fur behind his left ear and wondered if she intended to purchase something that she thought might embarrass him. He couldn’t think of anything that she might be self-conscious about. Nothing seemed to shame her.

Whatever it was she went to get, he could do nothing but wait, so he crossed the busy street to the park and decided to have a look around. When he reached the curb, he stuck his hands into the pockets of his trousers and strolled over to the water fountain. There were many people about the park, from young children with their mothers, business partners discussing deals, to the elderly getting fresh air in the autumn sun.

A pair of pre-teen boys on bicycles pedaled past him, and Max watched them with interest. He had only been on a bicycle once before on Crescentis, and knew it was an efficient way to get around. Considering how many times he had to walk everywhere or rent a cab whenever they landed in a new city, he wondered if getting a bike to store on the ship might be a good investment.

He stretched his arms and felt lazy. He didn’t want to just sit around and wait for Lori to return, however, so he decided to stroll along the paved walkways through the park. If the bunny returned and needed to find him, they both carried their DataComs.

Max passed several food vendors, but he was not yet hungry. Renny would have stopped at each of the self-contained carts, he thought to himself with a smile. He’d never seen any single person eat as much as the cheetah did, and this included everyone he had ever seen at The Wild Star restaurant where he grew up.

He stepped around a bed of colorful flowers and then ducked under the low-hanging branches of a bright shrub with orange blossoms. He heard a small bell jingle and looked up when he rounded a bend in the pathway.

On a tall wooden stool was another German shepherd only slightly older than he was. Dressed in violet shorts and a white tank top, the girl was reading a printed magazine in one hand, while the other hand absently jingled a small bell to make her presence known. Max gave the bicycle vendor a smile as he walked up to her.

“Hi there,” the girl said pleasantly. She set her magazine on a small folding table beside her and then stood up. “My bikes can be rented for an hour, half day or full day. What can I do for you?”

“Hello,” Max replied. “I’m not sure I remember how to ride one of these, but I know it’s a good way to get around.”

“It’s the cheapest transportation besides walking,” she told him with a smile. “If you have a good sense of balance, they’re easy to ride, and once you’ve been on one, you never forget how to ride one.”

“I like to think of myself as a well-balanced guy,” Max quipped.

The girl’s brown eyes sparkled as she chuckled. She took a quick look at his leg length and then walked over to a red, medium-height bicycle. She unlocked a cable, pulled the bike free of its rack, and then wheeled it over to him.

“This one should fit you well,” she said. “Hop on and I’ll give you a quick refresher.”

Max frowned, suddenly unsure if this was a good idea. He’d been rather unsteady on the one he had previously ridden. “Uhm, I don’t know…”

“Aw, c’mon,” the girl prompted. “Surely a capable guy like you can remember something as easy as this.” She leaned forward onto the handlebars of the bike and looked up at him with a coaxing smile. Max swallowed and nodded.

The girl gave him a few instructions when he climbed on, and then walked along beside him with one hand on his arm and another on his seat just above his tail flap. Max wobbled as he tried to find his balance and felt completely unsafe sitting atop two thin wheels without anything for lateral balance. Tanis had once teased him about something called training wheels, but he now began to wonder if he should swallow his pride and request them.

The girl coaxed him with words of encouragement, and soon he was able to pedal along beside her with her hands only marginally on his tail. She worked patiently with him back and forth along the sidewalk in front of her stand, and soon to his delight, Max found himself actually riding the bike alone without much difficulty. She’d been right. Although it had been over a year, it was coming back to him.

The young mechanic had often flawlessly walked balanced on the tops of fences in Lormun, the dingy town where he’d grown up on Quet, so it was only a matter of finding that center of balance again over the bicycle.

Max straddled the bike next to the girl’s stand and gave her a wide smile. “This is fun,” he said enthusiastically. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Blue Eyes,” she replied. “Now, how long would you like to rent the bike?”

Max looked back toward the corner where Lorelei had left him and then stuck a hand in his pocket for the local currency he had exchanged after they the ship. “Maybe for just an hour,” he said. “I’m waiting for a friend, but I don’t know how long until she gets back.”

“Pay now for an hour’s ride,” the vendor said. “If you need it longer, you can pay me for the extra time when you bring it back. I’m open until midnight.”

“Why open so late?” Max asked as he paid her.

“I’m always open until midnight on weekends,” she said with a smile. “Some people can’t afford cabs or other transportation, so they rent my bikes so they can get around for their evening activities. Not very accommodating for dates, but I don’t charge much.”

“Thank you,” Max said. “I appreciate you showing me how to get back up on one of these things.”

The girl stepped close to his bike and lightly touched him on the back of his hand. “You’re welcome. Listen… if your friend doesn’t show up, come back to visit with me. My name is Jennifer.”

The young mechanic swallowed nervously and then gave her a grin. “Sure thing, Jennifer. My name is Max.”

“Have fun with the bike, Max.”

Max gave her a wave and then headed back along the pathway unsteadily. He had his balance, but it would take more practice before he looked as relaxed at it as the others he saw riding bikes. When he neared the crosswalk at the corner of the busy street, he looked around for Lorelei. The bunny was still absent. She’d not mentioned how long she might be gone, so he continued practicing with the bicycle along the paths in the park.

A half hour later, he was bored from just riding back and forth, so he decided to go looking for his crewmate. Traffic on the street had lightened up somewhat, so he rode the bike across to the corner where she’d left him, and then moved in the direction she had gone.

Max had a fairly good idea of the types of businesses she might go into, so he kept a sharp eye out for them. Unfortunately, most of the businesses he saw along the sidewalk would have interested her, so he worked up a routine where he would stop in front of a shop window, peer inside for her, and then move on to the next store. He passed a mom and pop grocery store, though didn’t think she would be in there, but he peeked inside anyway.

Regular maintenance of the street ended after three blocks and the area beyond looked rougher. Dilapidated warehouses and ramshackle apartment buildings lined the street, and uncollected garbage overflowed from receptacles at the curb. Max frowned and turned his bike around, sure that she wouldn’t have gone this far up the road.

Max felt thirsty and decided to go back to a small street café he’d passed. He pulled to a lurching stop beside a waist-high, iron fence and set the bike up against it. He walked in through the gate past mostly-empty tables to the counter and looked over a chalkboard menu hanging on the back wall. Soft singing issued from a portable music box at his elbow.

A bored-looking, female calico cat took his drink order and his credicard, processed the transaction and then handed him an empty cup. Max pocketed his credicard and then took his cup to a self-service drink dispenser at the end of the counter.

Just as he put his cup up to the machine, he heard a sound of metal clinking upon metal behind him. He turned his head and saw a brown bear cub about twelve years old take off on his rented bicycle.

“Hey!” Max shouted in surprise. The cub stuck out his tongue as the canine mechanic vaulted over the iron fence, his drink forgotten. Max raced after the kid, but quickly lost ground on foot.

He kept the bike in view for two blocks before he lost sight of it. The German shepherd growled beneath his breath and his thoughts were dark concerning the bicycle thief. He stopped to lean against an abandoned brick warehouse and panted heavily from the exertion, but he only allowed himself a brief rest. He began walking toward the last place he had seen the cub, but knew it was probably a wasted effort.

He walked another block before he decided that he should make his way back to the park and pay the girl Jennifer for the loss of the bike. He had plenty in his account to cover the expense, but he would have rather had the bicycle to return to her.

The fastener on one of his soft-sided boots had come loose, so he knelt down to reattach it. While down on one knee, Max noticed a particular track pattern in the dirt on the sidewalk. It matched the tread of the bicycle he’d been riding.

The canine’s tail swished in agitation as his eyes silently followed the tracks to a nearby alley. He stood up quietly and then moved to the corner of the building. He peered around the brick wall cautiously, but there was no one in sight. There was nothing else to go on, so Max set his jaw rigid and followed the tracks.

He’d not gone more than a dozen steps before his nose twitched. A scent lingered on the air in the dingy alley, a combination of cinnamon spice, rose petals and cherry blossoms. He stopped and sifted the aromas through his nostrils, recognizing them immediately.

Lorelei.

He looked up and down the alley, suddenly concerned that something sinister had befallen his crewmate, but he was also confused. His uncle Merlin had taught him to read the scents in the air, but it was apparent that the scent of fear was not present. For whatever reason that Lori had come this way, it had not been under duress.

The bicycle now forgotten, Max had a new mission. Where was Lorelei? He saw nothing in the shadows of the alley to indicate where she might have gone, so he put his back to the wall of the building closest to him and closed his eyes. He snorted out the old scents and then slowly drew in new air. Almost immediately, he felt compelled to start walking. His nose in the air, he followed the bunny’s perfume to a door just a few steps away.

He opened a torn screen door hanging only by its top hinge, and then peered into the interior of what appeared to be an old abandoned building. A single, low-wattage bulb illuminated a corridor with wooden floors and rotting walls that might have been painted green at one time. Scraps of yellowed newspapers littered the floor but little else.

Max frowned and stepped inside, but despite his misgivings on the condition of the place, Lorelei’s perfume led him on. He followed the scents through a maze of hallways that finally opened up into a larger area, no doubt a common room for whoever had once been tenants of the building. There were no lights inside, so he crossed the room as quickly as he could and remained silent. Only one exit left the room on the far side, but as soon as he walked through it, Lori’s perfume diminished.

He stopped and tilted his head, straining his ears. She had not come this way, he decided, and moved back into the common room. He halted in the center of the room and put his hands on his hips as he looked around. Aside from the newspapers on the floor, the room was empty. There were no other doors than the two he had been through, and there were no openings in the ceiling.

The German shepherd was perplexed, but in the quiet of the building, a new sound reached his ears. It was very faint, but he could hear nearby voices. Unsure if he might be in danger, Max moved to a corner of the room to get away from the doors.

He stood extremely still, but the voices seemed closer than before. He could almost make out the words, but couldn’t pick up the actual conversation. His nose twitched again and he realized that Lorelei’s perfume seemed stronger too.

He began looking around for a door that he might have missed in the gloom of the common room, but the walls near him were as solid as they could be in their dilapidated condition. He moved a step closer to the corner and the floor beneath his boot disappeared.

Max caught himself with outstretched hands against the walls of the corner and he looked down at his feet into a triangular opening a couple feet across. He dropped to his knees quietly; Lori’s perfume emanated from the hole.

There was a soft illumination from somewhere below, but it was dim. He reached down into the opening and found a wooden shelf directly below him. It felt solid enough, so he turned around and stepped down onto it. The platform held his weight and was the same size and shape as the hole he had just dropped into, but it was not an end to the route. Opposite the shelf, there was another triangular hole, and with yet another matching shelf directly below it. He nodded to himself in the gloom and understood that it was a kind of alternating stairway that went straight down, probably to the basement.

He took the triangular path down through several levels, and the soft voices below grew in strength. One of the voices belonged to Lorelei, who seemed to be the one doing the most talking. She didn’t sound as if she were in trouble; her tones were conversational.

Max stepped off the final shelf onto a dirt floor in a dark corner of a room filled with burlap sacks of unshelled toca-nuts. A single kerosene lantern hung from a nail in the ceiling further inside the room and gave him some light to see his surroundings. He made his way quietly around piles of sacks, trying not to step on individually scattered nuts, until he knew he must be near to his crewmate.

He dropped lightly to his hands and knees and then eased his nose around a sack until he could see who was in the room. He studied the scene before him and raised an eyebrow.

Several tocanut sacks were arranged like cushions, and sitting in the middle was Lorelei. Surrounding her were several kids of various species, the youngest of which was in her lap. Several more adults sat on other sacks, each one seemingly rapt in attention at the rabbit’s words as she told them all a story.

It took a moment before the German shepherd realized that she was telling her small audience a story about him. She explained how in his desperate hour locked in a filthy shed on Quet, he was rescued and found hope through a renewed life among new friends.

It was odd, hearing someone else relate his former existence, and he found himself listening just as intently as the others in the room did. The children interrupted her from time to time to ask her a question or insert their own comments, and Max found himself smiling at the exchange.

“Now listen,” Lori said as her blue eyes sparkled in the lantern light, “The moral of this true tale is that even when you are down and out, and have a hard time finding food from day to day, there may be some hope for a better life.” She looked across the gathered adults and added, “This kind of thing doesn’t happen to everyone, but if the hope exists, there’s always a chance.”

At her words, Max suddenly became aware of several paper sacks at her feet in front of the children, and that the kids and adults alike all had sandwiches and bottles of juice or soda to drink. Upon the sacks was the name of the mom and pop grocery store he had peeked inside on his search for her. He swallowed at the realization of what her little errand had been. Lorelei went on speaking quietly and Max began to fidget.

While looking over the group again, he suddenly recognized a brown bear cub sitting in the shadows at the periphery of the assembly. It was the kid who had stolen his rental bike. His eyebrows came together and he was about to step out of his hiding place when the cub stood up and walked closer to Lorelei.

“Miss Lori,” the boy said in a quiet voice, “I found a bicycle for you so you won’t have to walk all the way back on your sore foot.”

“Why thank you, Darin. That’s awfully sweet of you,” the bunny said with a smile.

“My mum said you’ve helped us before, so I wanted to help you too.”

Lorelei pulled the boy closer to her and then kissed him gently on the cheek. “I try to help out as much as I can,” she replied. She gestured toward the sacks at her feet and said to the adults, “I’ve made arrangements with Mr. Cashion up the street to deliver a month’s worth of groceries here in a few days. Maybe that will help you all for a bit. I’m sorry, but I can’t do more right now.”

“Miss Lori,” a scrawny feline woman said in a scratchy voice, “we can’t thank you enough for your generosity. This will keep our children fed a while longer while we try to find work.”

“Times are tough in Coldsmith right now,” a short beagle added, “but construction of an off-world business from Alexandrius will break ground next week. They’re promising several hundred new jobs soon, so perhaps there’s hope as you have said.”

Max swallowed back his anger and then stepped out into the dim light. One of the kids cried out in surprise, and the bear cub named Darin looked as if he was about to take flight. Lorelei looked up with a big grin and held out a hand to him.

“My friends,” she said to the group, “This is Maximillian, the one from the story I was just telling you. He started out as a beaten and punished slave in horrible conditions, but now he’s the adopted nephew of the owner of a profitable business. He’s proven himself as a capable mechanic on board the flagship of his uncle’s fleet, and he’s surrounded by friends who love him.”

Max looked embarrassed, grasped her proffered hand, and then stuck his other hand into his pocket. “Hello,” he said meekly.

“Hi!” several of the children replied in unison.

“Welcome, friend of Miss Lori,” said the collie with a weary smile. “Welcome, Maximillian.”

“What’s the matter, boy?” the scrawny feline said to the bear cub. “You’re shaking like a leaf.”

Darin swallowed hard and stared up at the German shepherd. “Uhm…” he said in fear. “I, uhm… think I’m in trouble.”

Max cleared his throat. “Darin got the bicycle from me,” he said with a nod to the cub. “I rented it from the park so Lorelei could have something to ride.”

“Aww, thanks, Max,” the rabbit said.

“Then why would you think you were in trouble?” the cat asked the cub suspiciously.

“Because… he lost me in the alleyway above,” Max answered with what he hoped looked like an innocent expression. “I had to find my way down here by myself.”

Darin hung his head, but looked up at Max with wide eyes. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

Max made his way to the boy through the small crowd and then held out a hand to him. “It’s okay, Darin. You were just in a hurry to help my friend.” The bear cub swallowed and then jumped forward to embrace the canine mechanic. Max cast a smile back at his crewmate and gave the child a hug. He then pulled away so he could drop to a knee to look into the boy’s soulful brown eyes.

“It’s okay,” he said to him again in a whisper. “I know you’re a good kid.”

Darin’s eyes welled up with tears, though he tried to hold them back. He grinned when Max poked him gently in the tummy with a finger.

“Well, folks,” Lorelei said to the small crowd, “my friend and I need to be going so I can take care of my bad ankle.”

The young child in her lap looked up at her in alarm. “Nooooooo!” the small collie whined in protest. “Don’ go!”

“I’m sorry, honey. I really would like to stay longer.”

“C’mon,” the child’s father said as he took the little girl. “Miss Lori will see us again when she can.”

“That’s right.” Lorelei gave the child a peck on the cheek and then started to get up. Max gave her a hand up on one side, and two other adults rushed forward to lend extra support.

“What did you do to yourself?” Max whispered to her.

“I stepped down wrong coming through the corner steps,” she replied, “but my friends here have taken good care of me.”

“We’ll take you back up through a different, easier way,” one the others said.

“Thank you.”

Several minutes later, Lorelei and Max waved goodbye to a small crowd. The bunny rode atop the rented bicycle and Max walked alongside of her out of the alley back to the main road.

After a few quiet moments on the way back to the park, Lorelei looked over at Max. “Darin didn’t get this bike from you, did he?”

“Oh yes, he did,” Max replied, “but he stole it from me when I stopped at a café for something to drink. I rented it from the park and was out looking for you.”

The bunny reached out and stroked the fur of his closest cheek. “Thank you for not making a fuss back there,” she said. “You would’ve been right to be mad at him for stealing, but I think what you did made a better impression on him.”

Max looked embarrassed and stuck his hands into his pockets. “Lori, I know how he feels. I’m not exactly innocent, myself.”

“What do you mean?”

“I used to steal stuff all the time when I lived on Quet. Although Mr. Tagon fed and clothed me, I was barely given anything else, so I helped myself when I needed something. I know that’s what Darin was doing, but I’m just glad it worked out okay.”

“I didn’t know you’d ever ridden a bike before,” Lori remarked with a grin. “You’re full of surprises.”

Max grinned at her. “Tanis taught me to ride one while we were on Crescentis about a year ago, but I’ve not been on one since. The vendor gave me a brief refresher before I was on my way.”

Lorelei looked thoughtful. “Was it a German shepherd girl named Jennifer?”

“Yes,” Max replied in amazement. “How’d you know?”

“She told me she thinks you’re cute.”

“She told you… Wait, when did she tell you that? I didn’t even meet her until after you left me to go on your errand!”

“Trust me,” Lori quipped with a wink. “She thinks you’re cute.”

“I think she’s cute, too, but how did you talk to her?”

“Hmm, what would your girlfriend have to say about that?”

“Leave Wendy out of this,” Max said perplexed. “How do you know Jennifer?”

Lorelei only gave him a smile and pedaled ahead of him. Max trotted to catch up, wondering if the bunny was ever going to answer his question.

GEMINI PI

By Ted R. Blasingame

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Renny Thornton’s eyes were open only to slits as he quietly jogged around the curved corridor of the Blue Horizon’s crew deck. The carpet beneath his bare feet was a blur of blue and gray and the simple white walls were only in the periphery of his vision as he made one circuit after another around the oval hallway.

Although he had no place to trim out at a full run, the cheetah was pleased that he felt well enough to jog around the corridor. Having been shot three times and then later beat up by the same person who had shot him, Renny felt fortunate to be alive. His former captain had noted that he’d been frequently injured far more than any others in the crew had. Considering the feline navigator had always been in better physical condition than most of his coworkers, it made his situation grimmer.

If anyone else had been out in the corridor, he didn’t see anyone. Renny’s thoughts wandered over the events of the past few months as he jogged, and it was those horrors that he saw before him. It was becoming more difficult to maintain the casual personality he had always presented to others, and the dangers he had faced during the past few years had hardened him somewhat. He was now more alert and was apt to be distrustful of strangers, but he was growing stronger in both body and mind. He would be ready for further perils that might confront him.

He would no longer be afraid, and vowed to himself that he would never again be caught off guard.

***

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Jerry Somner opened one eye and looked out sleepily across the front room of his cabin. He had fallen asleep on the couch while reading crew medical records. The compartment was dark, save for a small reading lamp above the coffee table that had paper-stuffed folders scattered across it. Jerry distrusted computers for maintaining medical records, so he had printed out everything from the database onto hardcopy. He would use the computer records system only for his backup.

His eyes felt tired and he rubbed them sleepily before allowing himself a pleasant stretch.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

The red fox frowned and sat up. He’d thought the thumping had been a part of a dream, but now that he was actually awake, the muted noise rose and diminished again. He stood up from the couch and absently brushed the wrinkles from his medical smock as he padded softly toward the door. The thumping returned just as he opened the panel.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Renny jogged past his cabin without seeing him and quickly disappeared around the curvature of the corridor. The cheetah was loosely dressed in a matching pair of black trunks and a tank top, his preferred dress for working out.

Jerry nodded quietly to himself and shut the door behind him. Although hearing the navigator trot around the corridor had awakened him, he was pleased to note that Renny had recovered well enough to resume an exercise routine during his off-duty hours. It had taken the feline quite some time to recover from his near-death experience, in both mind and body, and the ship’s doctor felt that his friend had progressed well.

Renny gave him a casual wave and a cordial nod when the physician stepped out into the corridor. Jerry returned the wave and made his way to the lift to the third deck. Now that he was awake, he needed coffee.

***

Blue Horizon PA1138

Captain’s Diary

I will probably get used to keeping up this diary after I do this for a while, but right now it feels like a chore to remember to sit down to record my thoughts concerning our voyages. Merlin says that I will prize my journal entries as time goes by, so I have taken his recommendation to heart.

It has been over a month since Merlin gave up his command of the Blue Horizon and promoted me as its captain. Almost half of my crew consists of new faces. Amanda, Damien, Jerry and Justy have taken the places of Durant, Merlin, Samantha and Tanis. Since I am still getting used to my new duties as captain, I have not taken as much time as I probably should to get to know the others, but I plan to place a priority on this soon. I already need to have a conversation with Damien about the recent friction between him and our doctor.

Our current mission has two purposes. We’re on our way to Alexandrius with a load of textiles for Fiddlestone and our standard mail quota, but just before we launched from Kantus, the home office called with a last-minute addition to our schedule. Added to our crates of fabric, we are also transporting a LightDrive engine pod and heat-shielded engine cowlings for a Gusev-class personnel cruiser that’s run into some trouble on Alexandrius. After we drop off the textiles, I can’t grant more than a couple hours of shore leave before we need to be off to a desolate place called Casperverah on the equatorial continent Parat.

I can’t help but feel apprehension with this assignment, and I have told Merlin of my concerns, but I have mentioned it to no one else. The last time we made a delivery into a remote area, it resulted in the torture of the Blue Horizon’s captain. I’m in no hurry to follow Merlin’s example.

– Capt. Taro Nichols

***

“Can an area be any more isolated and bleak than this?” Renny asked as he peered up at the vidscreen from his navigational station on the bridge. He swished his tail through the slotted opening in the back of the seat and narrowed his eyes at the uninviting images.

“It’s about as remote as the Valley of Bones,” Taro muttered from her seat at the Com station, “but more desolate.”

Jerry cast a glance toward the screen for a moment before he returned his attention to the piloting controls facing him. Taro fell silent and continued to study the terrain beneath them.

With the possible exception of Sillon, Alexandrius boasted the plushest environment of all the inhabited worlds in the Planetary Alignment. Casperverah’s existence seemed out of place on this world, but it seemed that even Alexandrius had its blemishes. The jutting, weatherworn hills and grayish, layered canyons appeared devoid of plant life, but upon closer inspection in the early morning sunlight, Taro could see sparse shrubs bleached of color among the washouts and gullies that blended into the inhospitable environment. The ground was riddled with small caves and sinkholes, with dirt mounds that appeared to have popped up randomly throughout the terrain. It was hard to tell if wind or water had shaped this land, but it looked about as arid as any place could be. Even the sky above seemed washed out and bland. One thing was certain - this was no place for a ship to break down.

“We’re coming up on the delivery coordinates,” Jerry reported, his eyes glued to the instrument panel before him. He reduced the Blue Horizon’s airspeed, but maintained their altitude to avoid jutting spires of sandstone.

“There it is,” Renny said with a frown. A blue and green vessel consisting of a fat central fuselage winged with upper wedge-shaped nacelles was upended, lying partially on its port side, the sinkhole-riddled ground underneath it having collapsed beneath its weight. The damage to the engine pod was visible even from their altitude.

Taro thumbed a control on the Com panel and picked up a headset microphone. “Gemini Pi, this is Captain Nichols of the Blue Horizon, Registry PA1138. We’re on final approach.”

“Horizon, this is Garnet Castor of the Gemini Pi, Registry PA31415” a woman’s voice replied instantly. “We’ve just spotted your running lights and are so glad you could help us out.”

“The Blue Horizon is considerably larger than your vessel, Captain,” Taro said with a critical eye at the vidscreen. “I’m not sure landing on such an unstable area is going to be feasible for us.”

“I don’t know what to recommend, Captain Nichols, but we can’t get airborne again without your help.”

“There’s a wide, flat area over there by the caves that looks large enough for us,” Renny said as he stood up for a closer look; he pointed to the place he had seen. “I don’t see any sinkholes or depressions, and it looks stable enough.”

“Doc, what do you think?” Taro asked as she absently straightened out the wrinkles in her tan blouse.

Jerry frowned and kept an eye on his instruments. “I can use extra thrusters to set us down gently, with a finger on the power level to boost us back up if it appears the ground is going to give way beneath our weight. The Gemini Pi probably could have done the same thing, had they known what the ground stability was like.”

Taro nodded in approval. “Okay, take us down and be alert. Renny, watch the indicators like a hawk. If you get the slightest reading that the ground is collapsing, shout out a warning.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Jerry acknowledged. Renny merely nodded and focused his attention on his task.

“Captain Castor,” Taro broadcast in a quiet voice, “my navigator has spotted a place we may be safe to land, but our thrusters will be ready for a power boost if things get dicey. Stand by.”

“We’re standing.”

“All hands, all hands,” Taro announced on ship-wide speakers, “landing sequence has begun. Strap yourselves in away from breakable items. This might not be an easy landing due to unstable terrain and we may have to make an immediate re-launch.”

Jerry moved the guidance shifts forward slightly and then pushed gently on a pad beneath one foot. The Blue Horizon slowed to a stop and hovered momentarily over the patch of ground they all hoped was solid. Renny held his breath as he studied his readouts and Taro crossed her fingers for luck.

Jerry lowered the large freighter slower than usual, but his hands were steady and his concentration focused. A few moments later, the landing gear touched down; to everyone’s relief, the ground remained steady beneath the ship.

As soon as the physician was sure there would be no ground shifting, he gave Renny a nod and then began shutting down the flight systems.

“Good work,” Taro said with a pat on the fox’s shoulder. She leaned back over the Com station and tapped a control. “We’re down and secure,” she broadcast ship-wide. “Everyone to the cargo deck.” She closed the circuit and then moved out the door, leaving the two men alone.

“I think you’ve earned your pay for the day,” Renny said to his longtime friend with a smile.

Jerry arched his back and then rubbed his eyes with a yawn. “I’m glad you think so,” he said. “I didn’t get much sleep last night and I was concerned it would affect my performance.”

“Why the trouble sleeping?”

“I had another argument with Damien in his quarters after the movie. It’s getting so that I get jumpy if he just walks into a room.”

“You two bickering about the usual thing?”

“Yes. I’ve reported him to the captain, but I don’t think she’s tried to do anything about it. As first officer, can you do something?”

“Taro has her own way of dealing with people, Jerry. Give it some time.”

The red fox yawned again widely with a curled tongue and then wiped at his eyes. “If she doesn’t do something soon, I won’t be fit to fly.”

***

By the time Taro got down to the cargo deck, Damien already had the bay doors rising. The coolness of the bay quickly evaporated as the arid, musty air from outside stole in through the opening. The load master stood next to a control panel near the primary airlock, dressed only in sandals, white tee shirt and a loose pair of blue shorts with the Blue Horizon logo printed in white near his right hip. The captain saw a look of clarity in the mastiff’s eyes as she approached, and she wondered if this might be a good time to talk to him.

The chance was suddenly lost when two human women approached the lowering cargo ramp. Both were short in stature and possessed brilliant red hair and sharp green eyes. Their heart-shaped faces were almost identical, though their hairstyles and clothing helped to distinguish one from another. The hair of one was short and curled under; she wore tan shorts and a pale yellow blouse. The other had longer hair caught up in a ponytail; she wore blue jeans and a man’s white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows.

“Ahoy there!” said the one with the ponytail. “May we speak with Captain Nichols?”

Taro gave the women a pleasant smile. “I’m Nichols,” she said, “but please call me Taro.” Before she walked down the ramp into the hot, dry climate, she gave the area a quick sweep with just her eyes. She didn’t see anyone else around, but wouldn’t let her defenses relax as she approached the strangers.

“Glad to meet you, Taro,” the woman said. “I’m Garnet Castor, and this is my twin sister, Gina Pollux.”

“We sure are glad to see you, Taro,” Gina said as she extended her hand up to the taller fox in greeting. “This is not the best of places to be, as we’d been led to believe.”

“What happened here?” Damien asked as he ambled down the ramp to them. The sisters looked up at the load master in unison, frowning together.

“We use the Gemini Pi as a tourist service to ferry visitors to interesting parts of the Planetary Alignment,” Garnet said with a sweep of her ponytail. “Our cruiser can hold up to ten passengers and it’s equipped with the latest LightDrive engine technology from Kantus.”

“My late husband started the business, but we kept it going after he passed away, God rest his soul,” Gina added.

“Anyway,” Garnet continued, “we got a tip last week from a local that Casperverah was so different from the rest of Alexandrius that it was frequented as a tourist attraction. We decided to check it out before promoting it as part of our business.”

“We found a likely landing spot, but the ground fell in before we knew what was happening,” Gina explained. “We’re one engine down and we’ll need your help with the repairs.”

Taro tilted her head. “Delivery of the materials you needed was the only thing we were hired to do,” she said uneasily. “We weren’t contracted to perform installation of the cargo.”

Garnet frowned. “You weren’t? I distinctly remember asking your dispatcher for the help. While we both have the engineering backgrounds, neither of us will be able to install an entire engine without some kind of assistance. After we get the damaged engine removed, we’ll need help hoisting the ship out of its hole before we can even hook up and calibrate the new engine you’ve brought us from the Kantus manufacturer.”

“We have the funds to pay you for your help,” Gina added. “It will set us back a little, but one or two tourist trips to Mainor will recover those costs.”

“Mainor?” asked a new voice with a thick accent. “I thought the hulk of Mainor was now off-limits.”

The Terran sisters looked up in unison at a small group that had gathered at the top of the cargo ramp to listen to their story. Gina broke out in a huge grin when she saw the speaker, a small gray koala in a brightly flowered shirt.

“Garnet, look! A teddy bear!” she exclaimed.

Justy looked confused and a bit intimidated when the woman walked up the ramp to him and began running her fingers through the soft fur between his ears. The koala rolled his eyes up at her with a goofy grin, but then realized how many faces were watching. He was about to ask her to stop when she stood and gathered him up in her arms as if he were a toy.

Standing beside them, Pockets smiled as he remembered a similar encounter with the human female accountant on the Hidalgo Sun when they’d come across the decrepit freighter stalled in space. Like Gina, Toni Delondin had cuddled up to him, practically gushing about how cute the little raccoon was. Pockets quietly stepped out of sight behind Amanda and wondered if all human females were captivated by small, furry citizens.

Justy squirmed when the red-haired woman hugged him close to her and he cast a look for help at his captain. Taro laughed at the sight and turned back toward Garnet, who showed more restraint.

“Before I can agree to help you,” Taro said, “I will have to contact our home office to see if our delivery schedule will allow us the time. We had only planned to be down here long enough to unload your cargo before heading off to our next pickup.”

“When you’re talking with them, see if your dispatcher remembers our conversation,” Garnet said with an audible sigh of frustration. “I specifically requested the help of your mechanics for installation in addition to the delivery.”

“I’ll contact them immediately,” Taro answered. She looked up at her load master and waved a casual hand toward the interior of the ship. “Go ahead and get everything unshackled. Whether or not we help install them, we still have a contract to deliver the cargo.”

“Aye, Captain,” Damien said. When the Hestran fox disappeared back up into the ship, the mastiff clapped his hands and said, “Okay, folks, get your work gloves on. Time to get unpacked.”

“Make sure you people have plenty of water to drink,” Garnet said in a carrying voice. “It gets hot quickly when the sun gets higher.” She turned to go and added, “There are some big ants around here too. Try to avoid them if you can.”

Justy tried to squirm out of Gina’s grasp, but she didn’t appear to want to let him go. “Excuse me, miss,” he said after clearing his throat to get her attention. “I – I should get to my work.”

“Gina, let him go,” Garnet said. Gina ran her fingers through his cheek fur and then released him with a smile.

“Go on, Mr. Teddy Bear. I’ll find you again later.”

Justy swallowed with a nervous smile and silently vowed to make himself as scarce as he could after his duties were done. He darted back inside toward the crew lockers at the back of the cargo bay to put distance between himself and the woman. She hadn’t hurt him, but the attention was embarrassing.

Lorelei strode up beside him and chuckled. “Looks like you have a fan, Jus-tee,” she sing-songed. When they got to the lockers, she leaned over and pulled him to her bosom the same way that Gina had done. “Oh, Mister Teddy Bear! You are so cuddly and huggable!”

“Not so loud,” Maximillian whispered while he pulled on his work gloves. “The customers may hear you making fun of them!”

“Be careful, mates,” Justy replied with a strained chuckle. “She might like bunnies and puppy dogs, too.”

***

“Honestly, I don’t remember Castor’s request for assistance on installing the items shipped to her, but I can do a search and replay the original conversation. Merlin says to go ahead and assess the situation and then have Amanda work up a credit figure on what to charge them.”

“What about our next delivery?” Taro asked the figure on the central bridge vidscreen. “Something the magnitude of replacing a LightDrive engine is not going to be on the order of an afternoon job. Once we get started, this may take us several days! Wouldn’t it better benefit Castor for us to find a local Alexandrian mechanic who can fly out here to do the job for them on-site? That kind of business would likely be better equipped to handle something like this.”

Cindy face looked concerned. “Normally, yes.”

Taro’s eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean by that?”

“I didn’t want to burden you with this just yet, but the customer at your next stop cancelled the delivery to go with a different carrier. Merlin was so mad that his hackles were raised talking to the guy, and has threatened a lawsuit on breach of contract. However, according to our lawyer Jackson Wyatt, a contract hasn’t officially gone into effect since the Horizon hasn’t picked up the shipment and started its voyage to them.” Cindy sighed and absently brushed an errant strand of hair behind one of her large ears. “This means your ship was to have a bit of downtime and we’ve lost the revenue from that job. If Castor agrees to the price of the repair work, Merlin says to take the job.”

“Great, just great,” Taro muttered. “First, we’re told to take on mail quotas whether we want them or not, then we’re hired out as starship mechanics. Next Merlin will want to hire out our spare cabins as space-available for people needing personnel transportation.”

“Don’t joke,” Cindy said with a strange smile. “I heard Merlin discussing that very thing with Captain Corwin yesterday afternoon.”

“Lovely and wonderful,” the vixen muttered. “Okay, I’ll have Amanda get with Pockets, Max and the Gemini twins to discuss the work and see what kind of figure we can come up with. I’ll contact you back as soon as we have a yea or nay from Castor on the price of our extended services.”

Good luck, Taro. I know it’s frustrating, but the stellar freighting business is an expensive one, and we need the income anywhere we can get it.”

“I’m halfway hoping that Castor won’t be able to afford us.”

“Now, now,” Cindy chided with a grin. She glanced quickly to something off to the side and then looked back at the vixen.

Taro looked up at her with both hands on her hips and then let out a frustrated sigh. “I always figured being the captain of the ship meant I could make my own decisions.”

“You’re free to make whatever decisions you think necessary,” said Merlin Sinclair as he stepped into view, “but you’re the one who called asking for guidance.”

Taro looked startled to see the wolf, but then caught herself and gave him a wry smile. “Have you been standing there the whole time?”

“Yes.”

“Sneak!”

“How else am I going to find out about my captains’ complaints if they don’t tell me directly?” He smiled back at her, his hands casually in the pockets of his slacks.

“Well, it’s just as well you knew my opinion on the matter,” Taro replied. “However, you’ve given us an assignment and I’ll make sure it’s carried out, even if I do think we’re stuck on the backside of Alexandrius just as it’s about to make a stink.”

“Thanks, Taro,” Merlin told her with a laugh. “I do appreciate it. Just do what you need to do and then report in when you’re finished. We should have another assignment for you by then.”

***

“Please come in,” Amanda’s voice called through the open door. Taro stepped inside the coyote’s cabin and looked around hesitantly. It was the first time she had been in the business coordinator’s quarters since the quiet woman had joined her crew. Amanda Black was about as “average” as anyone could be. Taro noted that while Amanda appeared to take pride in her work, she usually tried to stay out of the center of attention, apparently preferring instead to be an observer from the sidelines. She would usually only take part in a conversation if someone else drew her into the discussion, and then would keep her responses short and to the point, expounding on nothing. Communication skills were necessary as business coordinator and she was competent in her position, but Amanda rarely made an effort to join in activities when not working.

The Hestran fox glanced around the room in wonder. The entire décor of the room reflected a dragonfly motif of many colors and styles. Paintings of dragonflies over water or fields decorated the walls, while ceramic and wire collectibles occupied spaces on the room’s bookcases. A knitted afghan with green and blue dragonflies was draped across the back of a sofa, with matching soft pillows neatly arranged on each end. A small coffee table in front of the sofa contained a sewing kit and scraps of fabric that were in the process of being converted into a garment of some sort, also bearing detailed stitching in the unmistakable dragonfly design.

The coyote was seated at a desk on the far wall beneath the rectangular port window, where muted Alexandrian sunlight streamed in through the polarized glass. Her ears swiveled at the vixen’s approach, but she kept her attention on the spreadsheet displayed on her computer terminal.

“I will have your figures in just a moment,” Amanda said quietly as she tapped in commands on the slateboard before her. Taro didn’t wish to appear impatient by standing over her, so the vulpine captain walked over to a bookcase to study one of the paintings on display. In the lower right corner of its simple frame was the coyote’s signature. Taro smiled, noting how talented her quiet crewmember was in her hobbies. Several moments later, Amanda stood up from her chair and approached the fox with a printout.

“Here you go, ma’am,” Amanda said with a smile. “As directed, I figured in every little detail I could think of. Pockets provided a list of what tools it would likely take to do the work, in addition to whatever spare parts they might have to take from our stores to make the repairs. I’ve calculated a working salary for everyone on board who might take a hand in the work, based on an approximation on how long it will take.”

“Thanks, Amanda,” Taro mused as she looked over the list. She didn’t like working this way, but she was determined to discourage Castor and Pollux from wanting their extra services. From the look of the final figures on the spreadsheet, she knew it would be cheaper if a local mechanic were hired to do the work. Merlin had ordered her to offer their services at a price, but he didn’t say she had to make the price reasonable.

“I see you didn’t include your own salary in the figures,” Taro said to the coyote.

“I’m not very mechanically inclined or that good with my hands,” Amanda admitted quietly. “I would be more of a hindrance than an asset in repair work.”

Taro glanced briefly at the meticulous skill of sewing she saw on the coffee table, but decided not to pursue it. “Don’t worry about it; you’re excused from the repairs. These figures are what I needed anyway,” Taro said to the coyote. “Good work.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Amanda replied.

“Now comes the hard part – presenting it to the customer. Keep your digits crossed.”

“Yes ma’am, I will.”

***

When Taro approached the wreck of the Gemini Pi, Garnet Castor was on her knees on the coarse ground, peering ruefully down into part of the sinkhole beneath her ship.

“C’mon out of there,” the human woman said in a soothing voice. “That German shepherd isn’t going to eat you, but the ants might if you stay in there.”

“Don’t tell me your sister is afraid of us now?” Taro asked as she knelt down in the shade of the crumpled engine pod.

Garnet looked back at her with an amused grin. “No, Gina up on in the ship. This is the ship’s cat I’m trying to coax out of there. Your canine mechanic gave her a good-natured woof when she wandered out of the main hatch, and then she darted beneath the ship.”

Taro chuckled. “What is your crewmate’s name? Maybe I can talk her out of there.”

Garnet gave her a strange look. “Her name is Cinnamon and she’s down there with her fur and tail all fuzzed up.”

“Cinnamon?” Taro called softly. “My friend Max isn’t mean - he was just teasing you. I’m sure we can all get on if you come out of there so we can discuss it. What do you say?”

The human snickered. “Cinnamon is just a common housecat, Captain. Unless you understand kitty cat meows, it won’t be much of a discussion.”

Taro twitched an ear. “She’s not sentient?”

“No, Captain. She is a pet who keeps us company on the long voyages and keeps mice out of the food stores. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but she’s just an animal.” Taro twitched an ear, but otherwise gave no indication she had reacted to the human’s last statement.

There was a little movement in the depression beneath the ship and Taro saw a pair of green eyes staring back out at her. The vixen had a sudden sense of nostalgia; it almost felt as if she were looking into the eyes of her friend Sparky.

Garnet extended a hand toward the hole and a moment later, a ginger longhair cat slinked out toward her. The human gathered up the feline into her arms and began to stroke the cat’s fur. Taro watched them for a moment, always in wonder at humans and their relationship with their pets. The vulpine captain would have never considered having another animal as a pet, unless it was someone like Renny. She smiled at the comparison, but then remembered why she was there.

“We’ve been in contact with our home office about your request, but you may not like the result,” she said as she presented Amanda’s printout.

“What’s this?” Garnet asked as she took the sheet.

“All audio and video feeds to our headquarters are recorded and the playback of your original request to pick up and deliver the engine has nothing of a request for help installing it. However, I’ve been authorized to present our services to you anyway if you agree to the amount.”

The woman looked over the figures quietly. “What’s this entry for Schedule Restructuring?” she asked as she gave Cinnamon a scratch behind the ears.

Taro tried to seem perplexed. “As I mentioned earlier, we’re scheduled for another pickup after unloading your shipment. If we stay to help you with the installation of your engine, that pickup will have to be rescheduled with the other customer in order to make our timetables; likewise with the consecutive assignments after that. This will put us behind.”

Garnet nodded quietly and continued to study the report. Taro saw her furrowed brow and thought her ruse was going to work, until the human handed the spreadsheet back to her with a nod.

“This is a little steep, but as Gina said before, we can make this back up with a couple of tourist runs to Mainor,” Garnet told her. “I’ll transfer the funds to your home office immediately.”

Taro suppressed her disappointment and gave the woman a nod. “I will gather my crew together to put at your command.”

Garnet shook her head. “If it’s all the same to you, I would rather have your chief engineer in charge of coordinating the repairs. Gina’s a capable engineer, but she’s not used to anything of this scale.”

Taro managed a smile. “Pockets enjoys this kind of thing – he’s the raccoon. I’ll have him meet with your sister to get things started. We’re still on a schedule, so we need to get this done as quickly as we can.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Castor said with a genuine smile. “We really appreciate this, and we’ll be sure to send any cargo business your way that we hear about.”

***

Work began quickly on the engine replacement. A workbench that Pockets had previously set up for Max in the engine room was used as the central table for coordinating the repairs and laying out printed schematic prints that had been included with the new engine. Together with Gina, Pockets quickly worked up a checklist so that the procedures would be done in a specific order so that nothing would be missed. Replacing a LightDrive engine was not the same as changing out a faulty power module or some other minor component. If not done right, critical components of the engine could be inoperative when needed the most. Power for all primary ship systems were routed through the LightDrive and even the smallest power falloff could affect sensitive areas. It would be too easy to get optical bundles misrouted, so special care would need to be maintained at all times.

The raccoon knew that most of the Blue Horizon’s crew were not mechanics, but everyone’s help would be needed at one point or another to get the job done quickly. For those with lesser skills, he would delegate tasks of lesser importance, but things that were necessary nonetheless. Gina looked over his recommendations and was impressed with her fellow engineer’s checklist. She only found a few places in the plan that needed tweaking, and together they finalized a work list they both thought was the most efficient.

The first project would be to construct a structural framework beneath the Gemini Pi’s fuselage with sufficient scaffolding to keep the ship stable when they removed the weight of its crumpled engine pod. Due to the two-story height of the Horizon’s cargo bay, Pockets had plenty of scaffolding on hand. Renny, Jerry, Damien and Lorelei were assigned the task of building the framework, while Gina, Pockets, Taro and Max began removing the heat-shielded cowling from the engine pod and nacelle strut. Due to the damage, some of the cowling would have to be cut away since it wouldn’t be an easy task of simply removing the connecting fasteners. Justy and Amanda would act as runners to retrieve tools and parts that the work crews needed, and even Moss would take a part in the repair work since its cameras could relay back images from inside the sections too small for anyone to fit.

***

Justy panted in the heat and from the exertion of carrying his burden. He moved from person to person with a knapsack full of water bottles. The arid conditions made everyone thirsty as they worked in the full sun.

He set his pack on the ground in the shade of the engine pod and looked up at Max, who was missing from the waist up. Justy peered up into the narrow access panel, but was unable to make out the canine’s face in the darkness; it was too bright outside for his eyes to adjust well enough.

“Care for some cool water, Max?” the koala asked of the pair of legs before him.

“Yes, thanks!” replied a muffled voice. “It’s like an oven up in here!” The young mechanic squirmed his way back out of the hole and then sat down on the dusty ground in the shadow of the ship. Justy handed him a bottle with a straw from his knapsack and Max took it with relish.

The koala swallowed and pulled out another bottle as Gina emerged from the other side of the engine pod. “Did someone say ‘water’?” Gina asked. “I’m parched!”

Justy handed her the bottle he had been about to open for himself and gave her a weary smile. “Here you go,” he said.

Gina took the offered bottle with glee, but then took hold of his arm and pulled him into a snug embrace. “Thank you, ya little cutie. You’re my hero!” She stroked the fur beneath his round chin as he struggled to free himself from her clutches; the woman had taken to hugging him at every opportunity. She nuzzled his ear and then released him.

Justy suppressed a heavy sigh and turned toward his shipmate. “How’s it coming?”

“We should have the main taper-lock fasteners loose soon, but we don’t want to take them free just yet,” Max replied after a long pull from his straw. “Taro’s gone to prepare the anti-grav cargo hoist to handle the weight of this engine, but the scaffolding beneath the starboard pod isn’t ready to support the altered center of axis when the weight distribution changes.”

“Spoken like a true mechanic,” Justy said with a grin. Max put his hand on his chest and made a formal bow from his seated position.

Gina chuckled, but then she saw his stubby index finger. “What happened to your finger, Max?” she asked curiously.

The German shepherd frowned and absently covered the hand with his other. He disliked recounting the reason for his damaged extremity. Although he now had a good life with his friends on the Blue Horizon, he was still ashamed of his upbringing on Quet. Instead of giving her the details, he simply said, “It was an accident a long time ago.”

The human pursed her lips, realizing it was a sensitive subject. “Sorry,” she muttered.

Max sighed, but gave her a small smile as he held up the hand. “That’s okay, Gina,” he said. “I have an appointment in a few months to have a prosthetic finger grafted on by a surgeon I know. He’s certain he can make it match my others and it will be fully functional. I made the arrangements with my uncle only a few days ago. He’s going to meet us when our schedule takes us back to Pomen, and then he’ll bring me back to the Horizon after a little rehab and recovery time.”

Gina reached out quietly and took his hand in her own. She stroked the back of his hand as she looked at the finger stub and then looked up into his ice blue eyes. “You’re too young to lose fingers or toes, Maxie. You be more careful.”

The canine mechanic gave her a warm smile and replied, “Yes, ma’am, I intend to keep the rest of them connected to me.”

Justy tilted his head and gestured toward a set of empty coveralls tossed to the side. “What happened to Pockets? Did he melt away in the heat?”

Max chuckled. “He’s up inside the nacelle strut with Moss, labeling wire bundles before he disconnects them from the engine systems. He had too much junk in his pockets to fit up in the narrow access, so he shed his coveralls to squeeze in. I’m not sure how we’ll get him back out, though.”

“I’m very flexible!” called out the raccoon’s voice from an open access panel.

Justy picked up his knapsack and pulled out another water bottle. He handed it to Max and then pointed up to where Pockets’ voice had emanated. The canine peered up inside the hole and handed the bottle up to his partner.

When the koala stepped back out into the sun, Gina looked up at him. “Where are you going, cute stuff?” she asked.

Justy hefted his knapsack and said, “Gotta continue my rounds.”

As he walked away, the human woman glanced over at Max. “I like him,” she said. “I would love to take him home with me.”

Max raised an eyebrow, but instead of voicing the remarks he had in his head, he merely took another pull of water before returning to work.

Justy stepped around the engine pod and made his way past the edge of the sinkhole to the other side of the vessel. Tubular plasteel scaffolding had been erected beneath the starboard engine to hold its weight after the Port pod was disconnected. Lorelei was on the ground, handing up sections to Renny, who in turn passed them up to Damien and their doctor. When the koala stepped up to Lori, she turned to greet him with a frown.

Justy wasn’t used to seeing her with a frown in the short time he’d known her. “What’s the matter?” he asked as he pulled out a bottle of water for her. Normally she would have inspected the bottle’s label to make sure there were no inorganic ingredients, but she seemed distracted and gestured toward the nacelle above them.

Jerry’s ears were back flat against his head; his eyes were locked in a challenge with those of the mastiff. Damien glared at him for another moment and then waved off the doctor with a hand. He turned and made his way unsteadily across the scaffolding to the other side of the engine.

The red fox watched the load master settle down on a set of cross bars and turn his back to him. Jerry shook his head and exhaled a sigh that even Justy heard on the ground. “I see those two are at it again,” the koala muttered.

Lori nodded and fiddled with the straw in her bottle. She took a long drink and then started playing with the straw again. “I know Doc means to help, but I don’t think Damien is the kind to accept advice very well.” One of her long ears drooped and she gave her friend a shrug. “I don’t see a good outcome to this.”

“Well,” Justy said with a crooked smile, “maybe you could console one or both of them.”

The bunny moved only her eyes to peer down at her companion and then wriggled her nose at him after a moment of trying to look stern. “The idea has merit, but I’m afraid I would be the only one to benefit from it.”

A shadow fell over Justy as he chuckled, and he suddenly looked up to see Renny hanging upside down from the scaffolding above him. Both feet were curled around the plasteel tubing, his tail was stretched out for balance and one hand was extended toward the koala.

“Hi! I could use some water,” the cheetah said with a weary smile. “It’s hot up here!”

Justy fished a bottle from his insulated pack and then handed it up to the first officer with a grin. “Here you go, Ren-Ren!”

Renny did a double-take and then narrowed his eyes at the short supply officer. “You’ve been talking to Samantha, haven’t you?” Justy’s wide grin was answer enough. “Have it your way, Fuzzball,” Renny chuckled. “By the way, how is the First Lady these days?”

“She’s excited about the wedding,” the koala replied as he moved over into the shadow of the engine pod. “I’m not sure why she always seems to call when I’m the one on bridge watch, but she sure enjoys chatting.”

Lori moved over into the shadow with him and she bent down so that she was nose to nose with him. “What about the wedding?” she asked with sparkling eyes. “I need details.”

Justy swallowed at her proximity and shrugged. “All she can talk about is all the fluff she and Shannon have planned. The wedding is still weeks away, but she keeps talking like it’s tomorrow.”

Renny smiled. “That sounds just like—”

“Damien!”

The trio looked up at Jerry’s shout just as the mastiff hit the ground on the other side of the scaffolding, kicking up a cloud of dust. Justy dropped his pack and ran around the framework, followed closely by Lorelei. Renny looked up and saw the doctor scrambling down the plasteel pipes to join them. With a lump in his throat, Renny fished a DataCom from his shirt pocket and thumbed for transmit.

“Taro, get to the Gemini, pronto! Damien just took a dive into the dirt off the starboard engine!”

“We’re on our way!” came back her prompt reply.

Justy reached out toward Damien, who lay face down in the dust, but Jerry’s shout stopped him. “Don’t move him!” the fox exclaimed as he stepped down off the scaffolding. “If he’s broken anything, it could cause more damage if you move him before he’s stabilized.” Jerry ran over to his medical bag that he had kept close by and opened it. He pulled out a small medical device and then knelt down next to the load master with it.

Lorelei’s eyes were moist as she softly petted the back of Damien’s hand. The mastiff groaned and wheezed a little. Justy brushed dirt away from the canine’s snout so he could breathe better.

“What happened?” Renny demanded as he knelt next to the doctor.

“The radius bone of his left arm has a hairline fracture and he probably has a bruised snout,” Jerry muttered, “but otherwise he’s just had the wind knocked out of him. Here, help me get him onto his back.” Renny and Justy helped turn him over, while the doctor gently cradled the injured arm. Damien groaned, but didn’t open his eyes.

“Doc, what happened?” Renny asked again.

Jerry prepared a hypodermic without looking at the cheetah. “Damien fell off the scaffolding. Good thing it wasn’t any higher.”

“Why did he fall off?” Taro asked.

Jerry looked up at the vixen and the human woman beside her, but then returned his attention to his patient. He tightened his lips across the front of his snout and then replied matter-of-factly as he gave Damien an injection for the swelling that was already forming around the injured forearm. “He is intoxicated.”

“Intoxicated?” repeated Max as he and Gina gathered around.

“He’s dehydrated and likely has a bit of heat exhaustion,” Jerry answered. “We need to get him inside the Horizon quickly and get him cooled down or it could result in heat stroke.”

Renny grabbed a semi-flat access panel door as tall as himself and set it down next to the mastiff. “Here, we can carry him on this.”

Several of the group helped lift the heavy canine onto the makeshift litter, and then Renny took the lead as they carted him back toward the freighter. Taro put a hand on Jerry’s arm to hold him back.

“Tell me what happened, Doc,” the vixen commanded.

The physician twitched an ear with a frown. “He carries a flask of Winstle Vodka with him everywhere he goes. I’ve caught him taking sips from it today, but every time I warned him about the effects of alcohol and heat, he’d brush me off.” Jerry looked his captain straight in the eye and added, “I’ve already asked you to talk to him about his drinking on the job.”

Taro nodded, feeling a little deflated. “Yes, you have,” she admitted, “but I haven’t found the right time to bring it up.”

“You’ll have your opportunity as soon as I have him stable. You’re now down two people on your repair work, Captain,” Jerry said in clipped words. “Let’s hope that’s all that drops out.”

“Two?”

“Damien and myself. I’ve got to tend to him now, to make sure this doesn’t progress further; I won’t be of any more help to you here,” he said with an irritated gesture toward the Gemini Pi. Without waiting for a reply, the vulpine doctor gathered up his med bag and trotted off toward the Horizon’s Sickbay.

Taro watched him go, her emotions in turmoil. She saw her crew watching her and knew they had all recognized the scolding she had just received from her subordinate. “Doc will take care of him,” she said stiffly. “Everyone take twenty minutes to cool down, and then we’ll need to get back to work.

***

“Okay, everybody clear!” Pockets announced over the Horizon’s DataCom hand units. The day had been long and the evening sun didn’t seem much cooler at their equatorial location, despite the lengthy shadows already cast across the terrain. With ten bodies helping with the work, they had accomplished a lot, but there was too much to do to finish it in one day. With the daylight they had left, Pockets wanted to get to a certain place on their schedule before they stopped.

Inside the cockpit of the Gemini Pi, Garnet Castor sat at the piloting controls and waited for the signal. Without the energy generated through the port engine, the cruiser’s internal power was diminished, but there should be plenty from the starboard for simple maneuvering thrusters.

“Port side is clear!” Renny’s voice issued from the DC unit.

“Starboard side, clear!” reported Max. “Alternate pad to the Starboard also clear!”

“All clear aft!” announced Gina.

“All clear fore!” Taro confirmed.

“Okay, Captain,” Pockets said, “Take her up!”

Castor spread her fingers out on the thruster slide controls and gently pushed them away from her on the control panel. Chemical rocket thrusters beneath the ship ignited and began their downward force. The Gemini Pi wobbled for a moment and then began the lift at a skewed angle before Garnet remembered to compensate for the uneven weight of her vessel minus one engine pod. She gave extra power to the starboard thruster to counter the imbalance and the ship slowly became level.

Outside the small starship, the others watched the vessel rise up out of the sinkhole with a steady roar. Its movement slowed to a hover as rocks and dirt fell from the landing skids now freed of the earth. It maintained its position only for a moment before it began to slip laterally to the starboard toward an area free of stones or vegetation.

The Gemini Pi floated sideways until it had cleared the sinkhole by several meters, and then Pockets lifted the DC to his mouth.

“That’s good, Captain!” he signaled. “Hold it there until we can get the secondary scaffolding rolled into place.”

“Aye to that, Pockets!”

Renny, Max, Taro and Gina ran to another set of tubular scaffolding mounted on large rubber wheels. They moved quickly, rolling the smaller construct into place beneath the starboard engine amidst the dirt and rock kicked up by the thruster winds. Max adjusted the goggles on his face and then signaled Pockets that the framework was in position. Renny and Gina locked down the wheels and then cleared the area as Taro gave the raccoon a pre-arranged hand signal.

“Everything’s ready, Captain!” he announced into his DC unit. “Lower her gently!”

The blue and green vessel began to descend, its thrusters marking more power to keep the ship level. When the skids touched the dirt, and the ground remained stable beneath them, Garnet breathed a sigh of relief and removed her cramping fingers from the thruster controls.

Outside the vessel, Pockets nodded in satisfaction and walked over to the sinkhole where the Gemini formerly rested. He thought he saw movement down it its shadows, but it was getting dark with the setting sun.

“What do you see?” Renny asked as he removed his work gloves.

Pockets stared into the shadows a moment before looking up at the navigator. “Probably nothing,” he said. “Maybe just dirt and rocks falling into the hole.”

The cheetah gestured toward the original scaffolding they had erected beneath the engine that was now standing free. “Should we start taking that apart?” he asked.

“Leave it for tomorrow when we have more light,” said Taro as she walked up behind them. “I think this would be a good time to leave off for tonight. Lori and Mandy should have supper ready soon, so let everyone get cleaned up and relax. We’ve done enough work for one day.”

“Mandy?” Renny asked with a grin.

“Amanda,” Pockets chuckled. “Max started calling her Mandy since it’s easier to say, and it seems to have spread. She doesn’t seem to mind the nickname.”

“All hands, this is Lori,” broadcast the rabbit’s cheery words across the crew DC units. “You’ve labored hard and put in a good day’s work, but now it’s time to get cleaned up and report to the galley. Supper’s ready!”

Renny and Pockets exchanged amused looks. “Good timing,” the raccoon said to Taro with a grin.

“What about those two?” Renny asked as he nodded toward the Gemini twins.

“You have to ask?” Taro replied with a tsk. The vixen walked over to where the human sisters were talking next to their vessel’s primary airlock hatch. Taro spread out her arms wide and put them around each of their shoulders.

“You heard the bunny,” she said with a friendly smile, “let’s all get cleaned up to eat.”

Gina’s eyes lit up and Garnet returned her smile. “Thanks for the invitation,” Castor said with appreciation. “We’ve been so busy today that we’ve not really given much thought to preparing a meal beyond the nutrition bars we’ve nibbled on through the day.” Her stomach let out a prolonged gurgle and she bit her bottom lip with embarrassment.

“You’re welcome to share in our food,” Taro told them as they headed for the large freighter. “Lori’s a great cook and she’s good with interspecies meals.”

“That sounds wonderful!” Gina said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what she’s prepared.”

“We also have spare cabins with clean linens, if you wish to sleep in the Horizon tonight.”

Garnet pursed her lips. “Gina and I were just talking about that. I could feel a wobble to the Gemini when I walked through her corridors just now. With one engine pod missing, the ship is a little unstable on its skids, even with the scaffolding helping to support the unbalanced weight.”

“If you don’t mind putting us up for the night,” Gina added, “I’m sure we’ll sleep more comfortably knowing the deck beneath us isn’t going to tilt if we both roll over at the same time.”

Taro chuckled and gestured toward the Horizon’s hatch. “We don’t mind at all,” she told them. Her own stomach snarled for a moment, so she said, “Let’s eat now and relax. We’ll give further thought to your ship tomorrow morning.”

“Sounds good to me,” Garnet replied.

***

Garnet and Gina discovered that Taro’s words were true. Lorelei had prepared a fresh garden salad made of Terran vegetables for the two women with a nice pasta dish accompanied by light tomato sauce and garlic toast. Lori knew that most humans were omnivores, but she was unaware of the sisters’ meat preferences. The bunny was a vegetarian, herself, and although she detested handling meat, she served on a ship full of carnivores and was used to their diets. She had recipes to cover all meals and Lori’s culinary hunches won out in this case; the Gemini twins were appreciative of her skills.

As he had feared, Justy became the object of attention for Gina Pollux. She set her meal down beside him and spent the evening chattering away merrily while she constantly ran her fingers through the soft fur of his head, ears and his arms. The koala didn’t mind physical touch, but her unwavering attention made him nervous. His experience around humans was limited, but he was aware that they usually stuck with their own kind for relationships. Gina’s constant touching made him wonder where her motives lay, and he really wished she would just leave him alone. Unfortunately, she was a paying customer and had been invited to stay the night on board the Horizon. Besides that, Justy was a nice guy who disliked upsetting others, so he endured the attention as best he could. He would keep his cabin door locked during the night, however.

The only ones absent from the supper were Jerry and Damien. Legrand was resting in his cabin, with the vulpine doctor watching over him from Sickbay; Amanda had taken them something to eat on server trays so they wouldn’t be left out.

***

A little while later, Justy excused himself from the gathered party on the rec deck and took the lift down to the crew deck. He padded around the curved corridor to Sickbay and let himself in quietly.

The front room to the sick bay consisted of nothing more than cabinets and counters, with two roller stools out in the floor. There were various instruments mounted to the walls, as well as a number of charts that Doctor Somner had put up concerning his crew stats. The male fox sat on one of the stools as he quietly read printed pages from a folder on a counter.

“Hey, Doc,” Justy said quietly.

Jerry looked over at him. “Hello. Is there something I can do for you?” he asked.

“No, just wondering how Damien was doing.”

The fox rubbed his eyes. “He’s asleep in his cabin. I put his arm in a gel cast and gave him an injection to accelerate his body’s natural healing, but the alcohol in his system will slow its effects.”

“Did you give him anything to get over the alcohol?”

Jerry shook his head. “No, he’ll still get to have his hangover when he awakens.”

“That’s mean-spirited!” the koala said in disapproval.

Jerry shook his head. “No, Justy, the alcohol nullifier also inhibits the medication for his arm. Between a hangover and a broken arm, I’m sure he would take the hangover.”

“Well, I suppose,” Justy said with a frown. He wasn’t entirely convinced with the doctor’s explanation. Jerry and Damien had often argued about the load master’s drinking, with the physician usually losing the arguments.

“He chose to drink on the job,” Jerry said, “so he chose to accept its after-effects as well.” He fell silent for a moment, and then added, “If he ever drinks while he’s on bridge duty, we could all be in trouble.”

“I don’t think he would do that. He seems more responsible than that.”

Jerry’s brow furrowed. “I’d like to think that, Justy, but I just don’t get that feeling from him. He makes me nervous.”

“Aww, you’re just not used to him yet,” the koala replied with a smile. “Sit in on one of his card games sometime. You’ll get to know him better.”

The physician rubbed his eyes again. “Perhaps you’re right,” he said. “I don’t know what’s in his past that drives Legrand to drink so much, but when it gets to a point where he endangers others, I will to have to interfere. He doesn’t like people meddling into his personal affairs, and I think he holds grudges against those he thinks have wronged him; I’m probably on his list.”

“Justy? Are you in there?”

Jerry and Justy looked up together. Gina’s voice had come from the corridor. She began knocking on a door somewhere, likely Justy’s nearby quarters.

The koala looked back at the physician in alarm. “Hide me!” he whispered.

Jerry chuckled and gestured over his shoulder toward a doorway behind him. “You can hide out in the patient room, but don’t touch any of the equipment, please. It’s all been sterilized.”

“Thank you!” Justy crept into the back room just as Gina knocked on Sickbay door.

“Come in, please,” Jerry called out.

The door opened and the short, red-haired woman peeked inside. “Hey there, Doctor,” she said. “Have you seen Justy?”

“You just missed him,” the fox replied. “He may have headed outside for some fresh air.”

“Thanks, Doc!” Gina closed the door behind her and was gone.

Jerry rubbed his eyes once again and decided he’d done enough reading for one night. He closed Damien’s medical file and placed it in a drawer beneath the counter. Without a backward glance to the room where Justy had hidden, the doctor turned out the light and left Sickbay.

Several moments passed before Justy felt it was safe to come out. There were only a few red diodes from the doctor’s equipment on the walls to mark his way, but he managed to make it to Sickbay door without knocking anything over. He eased open the panel and peered out into the corridor.

He saw Taro casually leaning up against the wall a short distance away. Renny was standing in front of her, with a hand on the wall beside her on each side and one foot on the carpet between her feet. They were talking in quiet whispers and snickers, and then Justy saw the cheetah lean in and give her a kiss.

He felt like a voyeur, embarrassed to be witnessing something like this between the Captain and her First Mate. His cabin wasn’t far in the opposite direction, so he padded as quietly as he could around the curved passage, hoping they’d not seen him. He let himself into his quarters and locked the door behind him.

It was only when he was in the bedroom that he finally sighed in relief. He had already cleaned up before supper, so he quickly undressed, turned out the lights and slid between the sheets of his bed.

***

Morning sunlight streamed in through the polarized window and fell across Garnet Castor’s face. Without opening her eyes, she raised a hand to her forehead and brushed the long red hair from her face. She stretched languidly, yawned without a sound, and finally opened her large green eyes. She gave the room a quick glance with a contented smile and brushed aside the single sheet covering her.

Despite that she had spent the night on a freighter, this cabin was comfortable and she had slept well. She could remember having no dreams, but this never bothered her. What mattered was that she felt well rested.

She lay still a few moments more before she sat up on the side of the bed and snared her cotton robe from the carpeted floor where she had discarded it the night before. She made her way into the lavatory and started the water for a shower. This freighter had a full-sized bathtub that she could have soaked in, but with the work still ahead of them today, she didn’t feel she had the luxury of time on her side.

After she had showered, dressed and dried her hair, Garnet gathered the long red tresses into a ponytail with a simple elastic band and then walked barefoot out into the corridor. She heard the thump, thump, thump of padded feet and looked up to see the cheetah in a matching pair of black trunks and sleeveless tee shirt. He gave her a courteous wave as he trotted past her on his morning jog.

“Good morning, Renny!” she called after him. She heard his mumbled reply as he disappeared around the curve of the corridor. She didn’t remember exactly where the lift up to the galley on the rec deck was located, but didn’t think she would have too hard a time finding it. As she mused on this, a nearby cabin door opened and Justy’s nose peered out into the corridor. He saw her and started to withdraw back into his room, but stopped himself when he realized that Gina was not with her.

“Good morning, Miss Garnet,” he said to her with an embarrassed smile.

“Good morning, Justin,” the woman replied with a chuckle.

“Excuse me, but uhm… is your sister… uhm…”

Garnet laughed and shook her head. “No, she usually sleeps in as late as she can; you should be safe for now.”

Justy visibly relaxed. “Thank you,” he said. He stepped out into the hallway wearing a pale blue shirt over a set of cargo shorts, and walked with her to the lift. Renny’s thumping feet overtook them as he passed on another lap around the corridor.

“Please forgive my sister,” Garnet said quietly. “She’s always been an… animal lover, and gets over-enthusiastic sometimes.”

Justy noted the slight hesitation at her choice of words, but dismissed it with a slight shrug of his shoulders. “I usually don’t mind a little attention,” he admitted as they stepped into the lift, “In fact, I usually try to get all the attention I can.” He thumbed the third level pad and continued, “However, Gina seems just a little too focused on me, and… well, it makes me uncomfortable.”

“I understand,” Garnet told him. “Do you want me to talk to her about it?”

Justy’s expression changed to one of gratitude, but then his countenance fell before he replied. “I would,” he said quietly, “but I really don’t want to hurt her feelings. Although a little clingy, she’s only been nice to me. I can probably tolerate it for the duration of our stay.”

“As you wish,” Garnet said. The lift came to a stop and they could hear the sound of voices before the door opened before them. “However,” she added, “let me know if you change your mind.”

“Thank you, Miss,” he said politely. His nose quivered when he caught the aroma of Lorelei’s breakfast. He excused himself and made his way straight to the galley where he knew a cup of coffee was calling out to him.

***

Amanda stopped next to Justy outside the loading ramp of the Horizon, and touched him quietly on the shoulder. The koala looked up at the tall coyote and gave her a pleasant smile.

“Hi, Mandy,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Amanda snickered and put her hands on her hips. “So now you’re calling me that too, are you?” she lilted.

“Does it bother you?” Justy asked with a frown.

Amanda shook her head and put her hands behind her back. “No, it’s kinda nice, really,” she replied with a small smile. “Up until now, I really hadn’t felt like the crew had accepted me as part of the team, but if they’re giving me a nickname now, perhaps I was wrong.”

Justy grinned at her. “That’s possible, but I don’t think you ever had anything to worry about.”

The pair fell silent for a moment and the koala’s gaze returned to several nearby caves in the hills that surrounded the landing site.

“What’s got your attention?” Amanda asked quietly when she noticed his focus.

Justy pointed toward the closest cavern entrance. “Have you heard anyone say what’s inside there?” he asked. “They don’t look like natural formations created from wind or water erosion.”

“I really hadn’t given them much thought,” the coyote admitted. “I haven’t heard the humans talk about the caves at all. I don’t think they’ve been in them.”

A smile slid across Justy’s lips. “Not even Gina?” he asked.

Amanda looked at him strangely. “I don’t think so,” she replied. “Why?”

The computer tech shrugged his shoulders. “Just curious…” he answered in a quiet voice.

“Justy, I need a number three spanner, please,” Max’s voice suddenly erupted from both of their DC units. “I’m up on top of the Port side nacelle.”

“Be right there,” Justy replied into his handset. He turned to go back up inside the Horizon to the tool chest, but cast another glance over his shoulder toward the caves.

***

“Justy, are you okay?” Renny asked. His arms were loaded with optical bundles to be reconnected between the new engine and the control systems of the Gusev cruiser. He’d just stepped out of the Horizon’s cargo bay when he saw the koala kneeling down behind the Gemini’s new engine cowlings that were to be installed later.

The crews of both ships had been working on the installation of the new engine all morning and afternoon. With so many helping hands, the work had progressed nicely, but there was still a lot to do. Even Damien was back to work, acting as tool and parts runner, and Jerry was helping reconnect pneudraulic lines with Garnet.

The most difficult part of the operation had been maneuvering the new engine pod into place and raising it with their limited equipment to the nacelle struts, but they had miraculously managed the task without incident. Now the tedious task of reconnecting power transfer conduits, optical and electrical lines, and other small parts was under way.

Justy looked up at Renny in alarm and put a finger to his lips. “Don’t talk to me!” he pleaded. “Gina might realize it’s me you’ve seen!”

Renny sighed. “This is getting tiresome, Justy,” he said. “By hiding from the woman, you’ll only encourage her to look for you! Listen, you need to ask her to stop bothering you, as simple as that. She may be a customer, but if she can’t leave you alone, then she’s disrupting the work we’ve been hired to do.”

“Do you know what she’s doing now?” the koala croaked. “I overheard her talking to the captain about buying out my contract so she can take me with her when we’re done here!”

The cheetah readjusted the bundles in his arms for a better grip. “Justy, I think she was only joking when she said that to Taro. Gina’s a nice gal, but I don’t think she’s that obsessive.”

“Says you,” the computer tech snorted.

Renny furrowed his brow. “Justy, you’re of no use to anyone like this. As First Officer of the Blue Horizon, I’m giving you an order. You can either resolve your situation with Gina or you can forfeit your pay for this voyage and go hide in your room until we’re done. I don’t care which.”

The koala looked up at him in surprise. “You wouldn’t do that to me…” he whispered.

“We’re all tired of your game,” Renny said darkly. “Several of your crewmates have offered to speak to Gina for you and you’ve turned them all down. I know, because they’ve all come to either me or Taro about it. Since you’re so determined to endure what’s going on, I’m making it simple for you. Go find Gina now. Talk to her. Get it out into the air and get over with it. Otherwise, stop hiding behind the equipment or your shipmates and go confine yourself to your cabin.”

Justy swallowed and then bowed his head with a nod. Renny shifted his bundle again and said in a gentler voice, “You’re a good guy, Justy. We all like you, so please take care of this so we can all focus on the job at hand.”

The koala nodded again without a word, so Renny headed toward the Gemini Pi with his armload of optical bundles. The tedious job of reconnecting the ship’s systems through the new engine and then getting everything calibrated would probably take the longest to do out of everything they had done so far.

Justy watched the cheetah walk away and felt the pit of his stomach twist. He harbored no ill feelings toward Renny for the reprimand he’d just received, but he sighed, knowing what it was he was going to do. He walked up the ramp into the Horizon’s cargo bay, went straight to an equipment locker and pulled out a flashlight torch. He walked deliberately to an insulated cooler, pulled out a chilled water bottle and fastened its strap to his belt next to his utility knife. He heard his DC unit chirp with a low-charge alert, so he unfastened it from its clip and set it aside on a nearby crate.

As he walked out of the ship, he turned without looking at the Gemini Pi and headed for the opening of the nearest cave.

***

“How are you feeling?” Taro asked of her load master. When he handed her a small anti-static sleeve containing a circuit board, the mastiff looked over at her with sad eyes. She knelt in front of an open access panel in the small engine room of the Gemini, quietly working on a monitoring system for energy flows between the two nacelles.

“Feeling foolish,” Damien replied. “It’s one thing to break your arm from an avoidable fall in front of your crewmates – it’s another when you do it while drunk. The arm hurts, but the injury to my pride is worse.”

Taro set the circuit package on the deck beside her and gently brushed his cheek with her fingers. “Both will heal,” she told him quietly, ‘if you let them.” She studied his deep brown eyes for a moment and then said, “I’m no psychologist, nor am I a mind reader, but it’s easy to tell that something’s bothering you, else you wouldn’t drink as you do.”

Legrand opened his mouth to reply, but his words caught in his throat. He closed his mouth and turned his head to look away. Taro frowned and picked up the packaged circuit card.

“Whatever is troubling you,” she said, “I want you to consider confiding in one of your crewmates about it. It doesn’t matter who you tell, but trust me when I say that it helps to share your burden. Just talking about it seems to ease the pain, even if it might not solve the situation.”

“It’s not easy for me to talk to others about my private concerns,” Damien said in a hesitant voice. “I once trusted someone with some very private information about myself, only to have it later used against me to great pain and embarrassment.”

“Old girlfriend?”

“Fiancé,” he admitted. “Three weeks before we were to be married, she decided that the transient lifestyle I used to lead on starship freighters would cause a hindrance in our marriage. It didn’t matter that I had given that up for her and already had a steady job lined up to be working elsewhere. That was just an excuse for ending our engagement, I think. She had a lot of pent-up frustrations in areas I won’t go into, but in dumping me, she brought up every little personal tidbit I’d told her in confidence, and used it all to hurt me while giving me the boot – all in front of mutual friends.”

Taro nodded in understanding. She’d known two very good friends who had split amidst a similar situation. “Is that why you drink?” she asked in a whisper. To her surprise, Damien gave her a chuckle and shook his head.

“No,” he said. “That is why I don’t share my private concerns with anyone. If I couldn’t trust someone I was about to marry, who can I trust?”

“Perhaps you should choose someone with whom you have no attachments – an impartial third party, if you will.”

Legrand was silent for a moment, but then he gave the vixen a tired smile. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea either, but it might be something to … consider.”

“That’s all I ask,” Taro replied. “That and your promise that you will limit your drinking to when you are on your own time. I won’t order you not to drink, because I know it doesn’t work that way, but you’d better not do it again when you’re on duty. You only hurt yourself this time, Damien, but next time it could be someone else. Consider yourself reprimanded, with a broken arm as your personal punishment.”

“Aye, Captain,” the mastiff acknowledged with a nod.

“Then we’ll consider this matter resolved,” Taro said. “I need to get back to work now. I know you two have issues with one another, but if you see the Doc while you’re out running your errands, send him to me, please.”

“I will let him know you want to see him,” Damien said as he got up off his knees.

Taro pursed her lips as she watched him go. She felt she had taken care of one problem, but had another that involved the doctor. For the first time in all the years she’d known and worked with Merlin Sinclair, she finally understood his reactions to insubordination.

***

Despite the light of the torch, Justy’s eyes took a few moments to adjust to the darkness of the cave. The featureless passageway curved to the left just inside the entrance and he quickly left the oppressive sunlight behind. The ambient air temperature dropped considerably, and it was a welcome relief from the equatorial heat. There was an odd odor to the air, but the koala hadn’t spent much time in caves before, so didn’t know if the aroma was common to caverns or not.

The ceiling of the passage was barely high enough for his head; anyone taller would have to stoop. The floor was uneven, but there were many indistinct tracks in the gray dust at his feet. He was no geologist, but Justy’s original assessment of the cave held out; he didn’t feel as if this corridor had been formed by erosion. He idly wondered if it had been tunneled out, but there was no sign of who might have done it or why.

He’d not walked very far when the passage branched off into three separate tunnels. Two jutted off to his right and one went to the left. The left-hand passage descended at a slight angle while the other two appeared to remain level. He wavered a moment at which one to take and then shrugged his shoulders; he took the one on the left.

The downward angle of the passage wasn’t difficult, but he did have to keep a hand on one wall to maintain his balance. After he’d gone about twenty steps, the tunnel began to curve toward the left and level out, with several smaller side passages branching away.

He kept to the main tunnel, not by conscious thought, but merely kept walking as his brain mused over recent events. He stepped on a few sticks that had probably been washed into the corridor by a past flash flood, but ignored them as he trudged on into the darkness.

He’d not confined himself to his cabin, but there was no doubt he would be in trouble with Renny when he returned to the Blue Horizon. He needed time away from Gina’s scrutiny to figure out what to do about their situation. He knew he should probably just endure her attention with a smile, but was afraid that would only encourage her. He was not the kind of guy who would deliberately hurt a woman’s feelings by arrogantly telling her to back off. What could he do?

He stepped on another of the abundant sticks and it rolled out from under his heel. Shaken from his thoughts, he looked down with his flashlight and suddenly noted the sticks scattered on the passage floor were from neither trees nor shrubs. They were bones.

Justy squatted down with his torch to examine them closer. He picked up the one that his foot had rolled on and held it up close to his face in curiosity. He had no medical background, but he knew enough to identify it as a femur, possibly from a small animal.

He looked around and saw more bones scattered about. He twitched one of his large ears and unconsciously flexed his fingers. Had some critter crawled in here, injured or sick, and died in the passage? That would account for the odor he smelled.

The computer tech stood up, dropping the bone and suddenly feeling out of place in the cave passage. He checked his watch and noted that he hadn’t been gone as long as he thought he had. He took a drink from his canteen and decided to head back to work topside. Perhaps he hadn’t been missed.

Chk, chk, chk, chk.

Justy stopped, his hand with the canteen frozen over the belt clip. His ears twitched and he slowly looked beside him in the passage toward the sound. He saw nothing in the darkness, but he felt eerily nervous. He didn’t know what it was that he had heard, but he swiftly felt like getting back out into the sunlight. He turned to head back the way he had come in, but then he heard it again.

Chk, chk, chk, chk.

Justy swung around and aimed his flashlight along the passage behind him. This time, the light of his torch fell across an ant. This was not just any common ant, however. This one would have come up to Justy’s knees – the size of a joey just learning to walk. Its entire head and body was solid black, its large multifaceted eyes were cold, and its wavering feelers sent a shiver down Justy’s spine.

He remembered Gina’s sister comment on the large ants in the area, but something this size hadn’t occurred to the gray koala. He swallowed when he heard the sound again. Moving only his flashlight, he aimed the beam farther up the passage behind the ant. There were three more, all the same size.

At the moment, none had advanced closer, but the feel of an animal bone beneath his boot reminded him that he might be staring at the reason for its presence there. He took two steps backward, but the ants held their ground, possibly stunned by the light of his flashlight.

He took a chance and moved his light so that he could see his way in the opposite direction as he began to walk quickly.

Chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk.

Justy let out a little whimper. They were coming after him!

His boots were not able to get much traction in the soft sand that covered the cave floor, and his heels slipped as he rounded the curve in the tunnel. He nearly stumbled over himself when he stopped where the passage branched off in three directions.

Chk, chk, chk, chk.

He aimed his light behind him and saw an increased number of ants crawling along the corridor behind him. Most were on the floor, but some were advancing along the walls, too. There was something sinister about the determined movement they made toward him. Justy didn’t have time to remember which branch of the tunnel was the one he had originally come through, so he darted into one passage and began running for his life.

Chk, chk, chk, chk.

As he ran, the walls of the corridor became a blur to him. His feet slipped on more bones or sticks on the floor, but his self-preservation gave him enough resolve to keep himself on his feet. He passed more branches in the tunnel and he realized this wasn’t the way he had come before. There was suddenly no doubt in his mind that he would never see the sun again. Justy was about to become ant food.

“What the – Justy!” a voice echoed in the confines of the passageway.

The koala slid to a stop and looked behind him at another junction in the corridor he had just passed. Renny’s head was peering out at him, a look of combined anger and confusion. Relief spread across Justy’s face at the sight of the cheetah, but then he returned to his earlier state of panic.

Chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk.

“Renny! Run!” he screamed out in terror. Without looking to see if the first officer heeded his warning, Justy continued running in the direction he had been going.

Renny heard the chk, chk, chk, chk of the ants and his mouth dropped open when he saw dozens of kit-sized creatures swarming toward him. He darted back into the passage he had come out of; he did his best to put distance between him and the ants that followed him, wondering just how the koala had gotten into something like this. As he ran stooped over, Renny pulled a DC unit from his pocket and thumbed the call button, hoping the signal would penetrate the dirt and rock of the cavern.

Chk, chk, chk, chk.

Justy felt he was losing ground. The ants were gaining on him and the ground was rising, slowing his momentum. He was certain that the ants would get him, but now he would probably be the cause of Renny’s demise as well.

As he scrambled up a sandy slope, the thought came to him that he would prefer to be in the arms of the overbearing human named Gina. He had felt threatened by her attention, but it was only an embarrassment and was nothing compared to the threat of the ants behind him.

He suddenly felt a hot breath of air and instantly realized that he must be near an exit from the cavern system. He saw another passage branch off to the right and decided to take the risk. He darted into the tunnel and scrambled as fast as he could, hoping the ants were far enough behind him to miss his quick detour.

He rounded another corner in the passage and plowed headlong into another body. He and the body rolled over once before coming to rest against the cave wall. Justy held up his flashlight and looked up into the green eyes of Gina Pollux. He let out a cry of joy, and before she could say anything, the koala jumped into her arms, hugging her fiercely.

“Justy!” she gasped. “Are you okay?”

“For the moment,” he replied in a dry, raspy voice. His thick accent and heavy panting made his words hard to understand, but he gripped her arms and said, “We’ve got to get out of here! The ants…!”

“Let’s go!” Gina said in immediate understanding and alarm. She stood up, but could only stoop in the small passage. She took him by the hand and led him back in the opposite direction with a finger to her lips for silence. They could hear the chk, chk, chk, chk of the ants in another corridor, but it didn’t sound as if they were heading their way.

When she was sure they were safe for the moment, the woman pulled out a DC unit and thumbed the call button. “This is Gina. I have him,” she whispered into its tiny microphone.

“Good! We’re ready out here,” returned the vixen’s concerned voice.

“Renny’s back there somewhere,” Justy gasped suddenly. “We’ve got to find him or the ants—”

“Jerry? Report in,” reported the cheetah’s voice from the DataCom. “The rest of us are out here waiting for you, Gina and our wayward Fuzzball.”

“I’m already out,” replied the doctor’s voice. “I’m about thirty meters to your right.”

“Okay, I see you.”

Justy sighed audibly, relieved that the first officer had made it out of the caverns safely. A moment later, he saw light up ahead in the passage that came from no flashlight torch. It was sunlight!

Chk, chk, ch-ch-chkk!

Something clamped down hard on Justy’s boot and he stumbled. He yelled out and looked down at the solitary ant that had followed them up the side tunnel to prevent a potential meal from getting away. Its pinchers had latched onto his boot and it was squeezing hard even as the koala fell to the ground, his balance upended.

Gina kicked at the thing’s face, trying hard for its eyes, but it was determined to keep its food source. Gina shined her flashlight back along the passageway, but so far, this was the only ant in sight. She moved around behind it and began stomping hard on the back of its head.

Justy shrieked in terror as he began frantically kicking the ant in the eyes with his free foot. He pounded hard, but his boot only slipped a little from the thing’s pinchers. It had an iron grip on the thick heel of his boot and he could see the hard indentions in the rubber.

He kicked harder as Gina continued her attack from the other side. It would probably be only seconds before more ants arrived, so Justy grabbed the utility knife from his belt and pulled open the longest blade. He stopped struggling for a moment so he could slip the blade beneath the leather laces, though it was difficult with the ant’s head bouncing from Gina’s heel.

Justy sawed quickly at the laces and watched them part. He would have to gift something expensive to Pockets for keeping the blade razor-sharp for him. When he’d cut enough laces, Justy pulled his foot from the boot and rolled over backward to put distance between himself and the ant.

“Let’s go!” he cried out to Gina.

With her diminutive friend no longer in immediate danger, she leaned against the wall and brought both feet down on the ant’s thin neck. There was a sudden crunch and then the insect fell forward onto the empty boot. Justy didn’t bother trying to retrieve the footwear and just waved Gina toward him with his torch.

Chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk.

Justy and Gina grasped hands and ran through the small tunnel as fast as the woman could go in a stooped position. Ants swarmed into the passage behind them, but they slowed when several in front paused at the body of the dead ant.

Justy shielded his eyes with an arm when they burst out of the cave into the sunlight, and Gina stumbled when she straightened up in the open air. Taro was there to catch them both from falling at her feet. Several others gathered behind her, but explanations would have to wait.

Max suddenly lifted a compact Binfurr pistol he had taken from the Blue Horizon’s armory and fired rapidly at several ants that made it out into the sunlight behind them.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

Exoskeletons came apart quickly under the barrage. Encouraged, Garnet and Jerry produced pistols of their own and fired off a few more shots at ants that began to emerge from the cave entrance.

Unseen by anyone else, Pockets lifted a small metal globe that resembled an oversized marble, thumbed a tiny switch on its side, and then lobbed it into the cave.

Whoom! The air compressed and then suddenly expanded outward from the cavern in a blaze of terrific heat. Justy lurched off the ground with the concussion and blinked rapidly in the sunlight.

“Wow…” he gasped at the sight of burning ant bodies and a plume of smoke from the cave.

“Whoa, Pockets!” Max exclaimed with his hands up to his ears. “Warn us next time!”

“There’s more!” Renny shouted from somewhere off to the right. Everyone followed his voice and saw the cheetah fire his pistol at several ants that had come out of another cave. Pockets ran over to him as quick as his short legs would take him, and lobbed another marble toward the passage that more were coming out.

“Fire in the hole!” he announced loudly. His aim was off, however, and the intense little globe exploded upon the side of the cave, causing dirt, rock, and bits of ant bodies to shower the area. The roof of the passage collapsed in a plume of dirt and dust, burying more ants.

Before the dust could even settle, three more ants came out of another entrance further away. Unlike the others, these only stopped to stare for a moment before they retreated back into the safety of their domain.

For a few long moments, nobody moved, unsure if there would be more ants, but it soon became apparent that the ordeal was over. A number of ants were near the two cave entrances, dead, burning and stinking in the arid equatorial air.

Taro looked down at the koala in her arms. “Are you okay?” she asked in concern.

Justy wiggled the bare toes of his bootless foot and then glanced over at Gina, who still panted for breath in the heat. “Thanks to my friend, yeah. I’m okay,” he replied.

Gina gave him a wide grin and blew him a kiss. Justy returned her grin, not at all bothered by her gesture of affection. “That was close,” the human said. “We almost didn’t make it.”

Jerry walked up to them and gave the koala a quick examination to make sure he was okay. “How did you get into this mess?” he asked. “One minute we were calling for parts, and the next, Renny had us scrambling for weapons!”

Justy looked uncomfortable, especially when Renny looked down at him with a look of suspicion. He glanced over at Gina, feeling foolish, and opened his mouth to reply. At a loss for words, nothing came out, so he shut it again.

“It’s time we had a little talk,” Taro said to the koala with a frown. She turned to Gina and looked at her with an expression of embarrassment. “Sorry about this, but I think this concerns you too.”

Justy looked alarmed and Gina appeared confused. “Me? Uh, sure,” she replied.

Taro gave a nod to Renny, indicating he should come along, and then she turned to Pockets. “Get everyone back to their tasks,” she instructed him. “It’s better if there’s no more idle time for tongues to wag about what happened.”

“Sure, Captain,” the engineer acknowledged.

“I’ll get everyone together later after we’ve gotten this sorted out,” Taro said as Justy started hobbling toward the Blue Horizon with Renny and Gina. “In the meantime, keep a watchful eye that the ants don’t come back out looking for more of us.”

“Right,” Pockets agreed. Taro turned to go and heaved a sigh as she followed after the others. Max stepped up to his partner and popped the clip from his pistol to reload its ammunition.

“How’d you get thermite fire marbles?” the German shepherd asked in amazement. “I thought those were only available to miners!”

Pockets looked up at the youth and cracked a wide smile. “How do you think I got them, Max?”

The mechanic stared at him only a moment before his eyes registered comprehension. His mouth formed a perfect “oh” and then he smiled in return at the little bandit.

***

Taro led them all in through the door of her cabin. The front room would be large enough for the four of them, whereas it would have been cramped in the captain’s office.

“Take a seat, everyone,” Taro said with a wave toward the group. Justy sat down in the recliner, but kept his feet near the floor. Renny and Gina sat on the couch while Taro stood with her feet planted apart in front of them all. She crossed her arms and then looked at the koala.

“Okay, let’s have it,” she said to him.

Justy looked uncomfortably at Gina, then looked down at his lap where he was wringing his hands together. “Captain,” he said in a low voice, “I don’t think this is really such a good —”

“Yes, it is,” Renny countered with a dark look. Justy looked up at him, swallowed and then returned his attention to his hands.

“Renny caught me hiding from Gina a while ago,” he confessed.

That took the human woman by surprise. “Hiding from me?” she asked. “Why?”

“Because… be-because you wouldn’t leave me alone,” Justy replied in near whisper. “I felt like I was being… stalked.”

Gina put a hand up to her chest. “I was only teasing, Justy,” she said quietly. “I didn’t mean to cause you any distress. I thought you knew it was just a friendly game.”

The koala continued to stare at his fingers. “That’s what I thought it was at first,” he admitted, “but when you kept it up and got bolder, I thought you were giving me a little too much attention.”

Gina glanced over at Taro, her cheeks red and then gave a small shrug of her shoulders. “Maybe I was,” she said, “but it wasn’t intended as anything more than a game with a new friend. I’m sorry, Justy. Will you forgive me?”

Justy looked up at her and saw the concerned look on the woman’s face. She reached out with both hands and held them out to him. He swallowed, feeling very foolish, and then gave her a nod. He put his hands into her own, and she gave them a gentle squeeze. Gina wanted to draw him into a hug in appreciation, but in light of his revelation, she made herself do nothing more than give him a caring smile.

“Thank you,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to lose a new friend over miscommunication. I never intended to creep you out.”

Renny relaxed against the back cushions of the couch and let out an exaggerated sigh. “Well, that was simple enough. I’m glad that’s over,” he said.

“It’s not over yet,” Taro said stiffly. “This only explains why you were hiding, Justy. Now I want to know why you went into the caves with the ants, when you were supposed to be running parts and tools for the rest of us.”

Justy looked up at his captain and nodded, drawing his hands back into his lap. “When Renny caught me hiding from Gina a while ago,” he muttered, “he told me that I needed to either work out my trouble with her, or confine myself to my cabin for the duration of our stay, forfeiting my pay for this outing.”

Taro looked over at her first officer with a look of surprise. “You told him that?”

Renny nodded. “I did. He was getting on everyone’s nerves and I wanted him to resolve it for all of us.”

The vixen chuckled and said, “I’m impressed. You’re starting to get a feel for your authority.” Renny gave her a smirk but the captain had already returned her attention to the koala. “I’ve already had to reprimand two of my crew since we’ve landed in this place. I didn’t really want to add you as a third.”

“Who else?” Renny asked.

“Legrand and Somner,” she answered. “Damien for drinking on the job and Jerry for insubordination.”

“Sorry to be the cause of so much trouble,” Gina said with a raised eyebrow. She said it so dryly that it felt to Taro as if she had been stuck with a barb, but then she noticed the crook of a smile on the human’s lips. She gave her a nod to indicate she recognized the intent.

“Yeah, well, I may have three guys swabbing the cargo deck on the way to our next destination,” Taro replied as she rested a critical eye on Justy. The koala gulped and wrung his hands again. “Continue,” the captain told him.

“Yes, ma’am,” Justy said meekly with a quick glance at the human. “I didn’t want to lose my paycheck, so I knew I’d have to talk to Gina. I needed some time to work out how I was going to approach her, but I couldn’t do it while we were working. If I went back to my cabin, Renny would think I had taken the coward’s way out.”

Renny nodded. “You’re right. I probably would have.”

“I figured that if I went into one of the caves, I could be alone long enough to work out what I was going to say to Gina.” He looked apologetically toward the human, and then back down at his hands.

“I saw you take off for the caves,” Renny said as he leaned forward onto his knees. “I figured you were running away to throw a tantrum. I wasn’t the only one who saw you go; Max told me he thought he had seen you take a canteen and a flashlight, and I remembered Garnet warning Taro about the ants.”

“Garnet had told me how large the ants were and that their colony was in the caves,” Taro explained, “but I didn’t know you’d gone in there until Renny started putting together a search party.”

Justy looked up at the vixen, then over to Renny, and finally to Gina. “I’m sorry for being a bother to everyone,” he said. “I knew nothing about the ants, but I never should have blindly gone off into an unfamiliar cave. I’m glad you all came after me or I would have been ant food by now. I’m just happy none of you were hurt because of it.”

Gina reached out and tapped the back of Justy’s hand with an index finger. “When I heard you had gone into the ant colony,” she said, “I feared for your life.”

“Thanks,” Justy replied.

Taro heaved an audible sigh and then looked over at Renny. “Well, I think this little episode is over,” she said to him. The old familiar light in Justy’s eyes flickered and he almost smiled. He didn’t want to hope his luck was that strong, so he lightly bit his bottom lip.

“I think swabbing the deck is a good idea,” the cheetah replied with a nod toward the fidgeting koala. “Neither Pockets nor Max have cleaned it since we were back on Fyn.”

Taro nodded. “Yes, it does need a good cleansing,” she agreed with a glint in her eyes. She glanced back down at Justy, and he tried to look as innocent as he could possibly appear to her.

Gina patted the computer tech’s arm with a look of sympathy. “Poor Justy,” she said in a mock tone of pity. “First a clingy human, then a colony of ants out to eat him, and next a journey of intimacy with a mop and bucket. This isn’t likely a voyage you’ll remember with fondness!”

“Oh… thanks for your compassion,” he told her with a lopsided grin.

***

Blue Horizon PA1138

Captain’s Diary

We’ve just completed our launch away from Alexandrius. Usually I am always eager to visit this world, but I have just seen a part of the planet that I never wish to see again. It was not so much the area, however, as it was the events. I have had to reprimand three of my crew, and having to do so as a new captain has left a bad taste in my mouth.

First, there was Damien Legrand. He’s a capable loadmaster, but drinking on the job resulted in self-inflicted injury by a fall from scaffolding. Our doctor reports that he will be okay, with just a broken arm to contend. In the investigation, I discovered that Damien has some personal issues that led him to drink on the job, but as yet he won’t tell me what’s eating away at him; I am hoping in time he will open up to someone on board. The Blue Horizon has always had a close-knit crew, so maybe it’s only a matter of time before he realizes that we do care.

My second reprimand was for Doctor Jerry Somner. He’s intelligent and a great guy to be around most of the time, but this voyage has shown me that when it comes to medical attention, Jerry can be quite bull-headed and even insubordinate. I understand that on military vessels, the chief physician can outrank the captain on certain issues, but I had to remind him that the Blue Horizon is not a military ship and that he has no such rights under my command.

I don’t want to compare my captaincy to the way Merlin ran this ship, but I served with him for so long that I can’t but help but follow his lead when it comes to problems among the crew. I understood Jerry’s indignation when Damien flatly refused the doctor’s advice concerning his drinking, but when the fox jumped down my throat — in front of my own crew — that was the last straw.

As soon as I was sure the doctor had stabilized Damien’s injuries, I ordered him to my office and gave him a stripping down that he won’t soon forget. I don’t often yell when I get mad, but by the time I let him go, Jerry left my office with his ears down and tail between his legs. Unfortunately, I’ll now have to have my desk resurfaced. It will be difficult doing paperwork around the dent in the desktop I made when I drove home a point while talking to the doctor. I need to get a handle on my anger if this is how I am going to react to situations that arise on my watch.

My third problem child was Justy Mandolin. Here’s a guy who has an easy-going nature, who tries to get along with everyone around him and tries to make light of situations with laughter and a smile. He’s probably the last person who should cause me any trouble.

While I understand that he felt harassed by one of our customers, a human woman named Gina Pollux of the personal cruiser Gemini Pi, his final reaction to dealing with her caused no small concern to the rest of his shipmates. I want to give Justy the benefit of the doubt, but my gut tells me that he didn’t go into the ant caves merely to think about how he was going to confront the woman. He had just been reprimanded by Renny on his behavior, and I think he was running away to sulk, despite his words stating otherwise.

No matter his reasons for going into the caves, he risked his life needlessly, as well as several of his crewmates and one of our clients. In the end, no one was hurt, but it caused quite a stir. Renny feels that Justy’s ordeal should have been punishment enough, but it’s my intention to make sure he thinks twice before doing something so foolish again. For our voyage to Dennier, I have assigned him to laundry detail, whereas Damien and Jerry will be cleaning the floor of our now-empty cargo deck.

As for this particular mission, we were able to complete everything within four days on the surface. To replace a LightDrive engine on a Gusev-class cruiser is not an easy task, and would normally have taken much longer, but with ten people working together, we managed to get everything reassembled and calibrated in good time. We were on our guard after Justy’s little adventure, but there were no further encounters with the ants.

Pockets signed off on the paperwork only a few hours ago, certain that everything would function as it should. Garnet was impressed with his coordination of the entire process and even offered him a job on her ship. Fortunately for me, Pockets declined, saying he was right where he wanted to be. Gina’s earlier infatuation with Justy has now become a joke between both crews, so after Pockets turned down Garnet’s earnest job offer, Gina made the same offer to our little koala. Justy was embarrassed, but this time he went along with the gag long enough to let her act as if she were going to carry him away in her arms back to her ship.

Garnet was appreciative of our work, and despite my initial misgivings, everything seemed to turn out okay. The purpose of their landing in Casperverah was originally to check it out as a possible location to ferry tourists into, but after the incident with the caves and an unstable ground surface, she and Gina have agreed that the place was better left to the ants. Their damaged engine has been left behind, a warning to others who might want to land there.

We finally said our goodbyes to one another, and after our launch, we monitored their progress into high orbit to make sure their systems were indeed working properly before we left them. Once Garnet informed us that everything looked good, we went our separate ways. Without another immediate customer, Merlin has recalled us to Dennier, where we can rest a bit before attending the wedding.

Merlin and Samantha have known one another for many years and it’s about time those two got together permanently. I am looking forward to seeing what Sam has prepared for the event, and I am excited about seeing two of my best friends becoming lifemates.

Time to close my diary and take a long, soaking bath. I think I’ve earned it – with lots of bubbles.

– Capt. Taro Nichols

FOREVER AND ALWAYS

By Eileen Blasingame

Once upon a time… on a little planet named Dennier, in a chapel painted white, a wolf named Merlin Sinclair stood in front of a long dress mirror, grumbling in frustration.

He hated ties.

Merlin growled lowly, muttering beneath his breath as he again tried to adjust his tie so that it looked perfect. It had to look perfect. Everything about this day had to be perfect. Wedding days were supposed to be perfect in every way. He’d been captain of a space freighter that had fought off pirates at a great deal of risk to his own life, yet on his wedding day, he was as nervous as a teenage male was on his first date. He had butterflies the size of birds in his belly, making his fingers shake as he tried to make the knot look pleasing to the eye. It wasn’t working out so well. He growled again in impatience, amber eyes narrowed in irritation.

Renny gave a soft amused sigh and went over to help his former commander, having watched Merlin fumble with the tie for about fifteen minutes.

“I don’t know why you didn’t choose a clip-on bow tie,” the cheetah said as he easily fixed the tie, tucking the blood red, gold and black striped cloth into his friend’s jacket and patting him on the chest in an affectionate brotherly fashion. “Would have been loads easier.”

“I hate bow ties the most, always have,” the groom muttered, turning away and looking at himself in the mirror, making minor adjustments to the rich black suit made by Arlanistadus of Alexandrius. The wolf steadfastly refused to wear a tuxedo and the much-dreaded bow tie, opting for a more comfortable, if as expensively-tailored suit. Merlin looked over his shoulder and smirked at his best man. “They look stupid on me. I’d rather have gone with no tie at all, but Sam looked as if I’d sprouted another head when I mentioned the idea to her. Thanks for the help. This looks lots better.”

Renny was going to make a crack about Merlin spending more time in front of the mirror today than his bride would be, when the door opened, admitting the wolf’s sister who was wearing a pretty light blue dress. “Aren’t you ready yet?” Shannon asked incredulously, moving forward to straighten out both males’ ties and make sure the pink-kissed white roses were attached neatly to both of their lapels. “It’s almost time! You should already be in the sanctuary!”

“Okay, mother hen. We’re going,” Merlin teased, flashing a quick smile at his sister before he licked her gently on the cheek. He and Renny moved outside into the foyer and directly across from the bride’s room, which was a flurry of activity in itself. Renny grinned hugely at Merlin and tugged on his sleeve.

“Wanna go over and peek?” he asked, earning a swat on the shoulder from the groom.

***

Her adoptive mother fluttered about her, primping here, curling there, putting the finishing touches into Samantha’s dress and hair. Guinevere stared at her canine daughter with a critical, yet practiced eye. The lovely unicorn mare fussed about, sometimes having to dodge around the vixen in the room. The fox gave an apologetic grin to the graceful equine and found a place to sit out of the way. Taro was looking quite lovely as well, her hair done as a riot of cinnamon curls that fell loosely about her shoulders. There were diamond hair clips placed strategically through her hair, and she was garbed in a dress of light blue silk and velvet that made soft noises on the expensive carpet.

“Something’s missing,” the Silloni said thoughtfully, brown eyes darting here and there. Samantha stood patiently, eyeing her friend and maid of honor with some amusement tinged with exasperation, waiting for the older equine to pronounce her ‘perfect.’ Guinevere would not do so until she was absolutely sure that the Border collie before her was, in her learned opinion, quite flawless. The unicorn would not leave anything to chance. Samantha’s wedding had to be perfection.

“I still think you should have chosen the dress with the corset,” joked Laura, Guinevere’s daughter. “Go for the bratty heiress look.”

“I love this one, it’s beautiful. Besides, corsets are your style; I’d look silly in it,” Sam countered her bridesmaid, chuckling. “By the way, you are so going to get it for the ‘bratty heiress’ thing.”

The dress was indeed beautiful, satin halter-top gown with an overlay of tulle, cotton lace that had long belled sleeves and was artfully draped across the back of her shoulders, as well as a small train. While not extremely elaborate, especially for someone as wealthy as the bride was, it was much more sophisticated looking than its price tag would have one believe.

For the life of her, she couldn’t think of anything that was missing. What was Guinevere looking for? What had been omitted from her garments? Not even Gwen looked sure, even though she was snapping her dark eyes over Sam’s form, her brow wrinkled in concentration.

“What I still can’t believe is how you talked Merlin into having a Terran-style wedding ceremony. There are plenty of wedding customs in the Alignment to choose from, such as from Dennier, Alexandrius and Sillon,” Taro said, trying to calm her friend’s nerves by diverting the conversation to something other than the whatever Gwen could not find on the gown.

“I’m the bride, the choice of wedding customs was mine to make. Merlin wasn’t happy at first, especially with his history with humans, but he came around to my choice,” Sam answered as Gwen poked and prodded her. “Besides, I did keep a couple of Dennieran wedding customs in the ceremony, like the linking of two handfuls of water to show unity, or two becoming one, and also the throwing of sugared nuts at the couple instead of birdseed or rice.”

“Being pelted with sugared nuts?” Laura smirked slightly. “That has to hurt.”

“Hopefully no one will be throwing them with all their strength, but yeah, it has to do with something about life being sweet. I looked over several other wedding ceremonies and customs as well, and this seems easier done than the others are. Alexandrius has a custom of jumping through a fiery hoop together. As for Sillon… well, let’s just say I don’t have the proper equipment for such things, nor does Merlin.”

“Horns are definitely required for Silloni wedding customs,” Gwen said, smiling broadly and patting her charge with motherly affection. “Tristan did offer to allow you and Merlin both to use some old discarded horns of our ancestors, but you said no, pup.”

“I prefer not to look stupid, my well-loved step mom,” Sam chuckled. “Horns are for the Silloni race, not just some nobody adopted puppy from Alexandrius.” “My pup is not just some nobody!” said a deep commanding voice, causing the females in the room to turn in unison. A huge unicorn stallion entered, dressed in a charcoal colored suit, escorting a small female lynx with bright green eyes and a pretty dress that matched both of those worn by Taro and Laura. He had a box in his hand that he set on the nearest vanity. None of the occupants in the room actually noticed it; they were intent upon the arrival of another in the bridal party. “Must be talk of wedding customs again.”

“I think they should have chosen a Fynian ceremony myself,” squeaked the little cat as the bride swiftly shook her head in answer. “My wedding was beautiful! Elegant and simple!”

“Your wedding was amongst friends only, Sparky,” Sam said, coming over and hugging the cat, happy to see the former ship’s cook. “I just don’t want to see all of our guests completely stripped down to their fur. One should never see one’s parent’s bits, especially mine. I like the ceremony I have planned.”

This caused momentary laughter, all of which was affectionate. Taro replaced the collie in her friend’s arms, as Gwen raked a critical eye over the bride yet again.

“I see living on Sillon agrees with you,” Taro teased, the Hestran holding the slender feline out at arm distance and sweeping her eyes over her friend. It had been pretty hard convincing the lynx to wear the gown; she much preferred wearing the colorful silken cheongsams and kimonos to western style dresses.

“She agrees with Sillon too,” answered the huge black unicorn after he placed an affectionate kiss upon the velvety lips of his wife. “Since hiring Ivy, the Dragon Loft has had several nice write-ups in the interplanetary travel guides as well as a Five Star review of her cooking in Zagrats! Her Fynian Wonder Meal has been featured in ‘Holly’s Culinary Journeys’ for INN as one of the best food finds in the whole of the Alignment.”

The little cat flushed beneath her fur, flattered by her employer’s words. Such praise from someone who had once been a regent! She gave a slight bow and said in the slightly squeaky tones of hers, “Thank you. I think that working in such a lovely, positive place has made my cooking even better than I had ever imagined! Although I can say that it’s hard for me to be unable to supervise the staff here, to make sure that all the food is perfectly seasoned and whatnot.”

Sam looked that the lynx, frowning ever so slightly. “Sparky, you weren’t in the kitchen again, where you? You’ll ruin that lovely gown I had made for you. I’m sure Rafael and the rest of your hand-picked staff is doing just fine.”

“I caught her in there three times, tasting the sauces,” Tristan revealed, his tone light as the little feline fidgeted in a guilty manner. “It’s one of the reasons why I think she should stay up here with you ladies, to keep her from meddling in the kitchen, as well as to get together with the rest of the wedding party. The time for the bridal party to enter the church is drawing near. By the way, I saw Lorelei outside with the children; she seemed to have them stirred up over something. They were growling, I think.”

“She just wouldn’t shut up about my dad’s company. I got sick of her holistic healing nonsense and had to throw her out of the room to keep my sanity,” Sam said as her adopted mother moved even more frantically about her. “I have enough pressure as it is today.”

“Oh dear!” said Gwen as the mare looked over Samantha again and still not satisfied at all. “I can’t send you out there yet, not without whatever it is that you are missing.”

Her mate moved to her side, looking down upon the tiny canine that was all but his adopted daughter. He gave the bride a fond smile and asked, “Something is missing? Have you thought of the five old human customs that you are so intent on copying this day?”

There was an uncomfortable silence as the females tried to figure out what customs the large stallion was talking about, each looking very perplexed.

“You didn’t study,” Tristan teased. “I should have known, Little One. Very well, I shall list them for you again in order. The customs are as follows: Something old.”

“Yes, I have that,” Samantha said, her tail wagging a little. Her fingers brushed a diamond and pearl necklace that she was wearing. “It’s my great grandmother’s that’s been passed down to all the Holden females.”

“Something new?”

“I bought the earrings Sam is wearing,” said Taro in response, pointing out the dangly gemstones hanging from her friend’s ears. “I gifted them to her this morning.”

“Something borrowed?” The unicorn continued, nodding as the women around him were beginning to catch on. Jazz was beginning to dig through her little handbag looking intently for something as her father spoke.

“She borrowed my diamond bracelet,” Gwen said with a grin. “Her own just was too gaudy for the occasion. Mine matched the rest of her jewelry a lot better.”

“Something blue?”

The women looked at one another. “I don’t have anything blue!” Samantha said softly, looking rather troubled at the thought and a slight hint of concern in her voice. “If you don’t comply with this little custom it’s bad luck, isn’t it?”

Gwen wrapped a motherly arm about Sam’s shoulders as her husband went to retrieve the box he had laid on the vanity. “Don’t worry so, pup. These customs are just a bit of human silliness.”

“I want everything to be perfect.” The collie said mournfully. “It has to be exactly right.”

“Listen to Guinevere, Little One. Your day certainly will not be ruined by a bit of trifling silliness, human or furman. Nevertheless, just in case. I brought this.” Tristan removed a pretty tiara from the box; it was studded with diamonds, blue sapphires and pearls. Giving it to his wife, he watched as she set it into Samantha’s upswept hair, just in front of the veil. The unicorn mare stepped back, looked at her charge and finally pronounced her perfect.

Just then, they heard the music from the sanctuary, signaling to the bridal party to take their positions. Tristan lowered the veil over the collie’s face after placing a fatherly kiss on her cheek. They were just about to head out of the bride’s room when Jazz gave pronounced “AaaHAAAA!” and produced a small coin to which she moved to the bride’s side.

“Father forgot the last of the customs Sami, the fifth. Something old, new, borrowed, blue,” she counted off on her fingers, folding them down. “The fifth is ‘and a penny in your shoe.’ Here, take this old copper that I got on Earth and put it in your shoe. No bad luck for you today!”

Sam smiled gratefully and as Laura slipped the coin into her shoe. Nothing was going to ruin her wedding; it was definitely going off without a hitch! She gave a little shake, looked up at her Master and slipped a hand on his arm, letting him lead her into the church.

***

Merlin felt a twinge of nervousness standing in the front of the church with Renny, waiting for the ceremony to start. The doors to the foyer were still closed, but he knew that behind them, the bridal party was assembling. His golden eyes watched as Guinevere of Sillon finally took a seat in the front of the auditorium on the bride’s side, the last of the guests seated. The priest, an otter named Father Lonergan, stood patiently by his side, occasionally making a small joke to calm Merlin’s nerves. The wolf was thankful for that.

The doors opened as the music began to swell, trumpeting the arrival of his bride. He looked in that direction, but couldn’t see Samantha, even though he could see her escort, the massive unicorn easily discerned from the rest of the group of females. First to enter was Merlin’s niece Marissa, and Sparky’s daughter Kayla, the tiny children dressed in white matching with blue ribbons tied to their dresses, as well as a circlet of white, pink and blue roses in their hair, and carrying baskets of rose petals that they were throwing on the carpet. Following them, Merlin’s nephews, Shane and Jaran were dressed in matching tiny dark suits and holding a pillow between them.

Merlin heard a slight chuckle from behind him, and glanced over his shoulder at Renny who was smiling. It was hard not to smile, even if he had no idea what the children were doing, for the four cubs were baring their teeth, making claw fingers and growling “GrrrrrrrRarrrr!!!” at the guests on either side of them. Merlin glanced shortly at his sister Shannon, who had her face buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking in silent laughter. It was a relief to see that most of the guests were responding to the kids in that manner, soft laughter echoed through the church.

Behind the children and looking like she wanted to stop her daughter from doing her little act ahead of her was Ivy Sparks, the little Lynx looking somewhat slightly scandalized by her daughter’s actions. Her gaze met Merlin’s for a moment and she shrugged apologetically, but kept a smile on her face.

Next was Lori, the white bunny so giddy from joy at the occasion that she was practically skipping down the aisle behind Sparky, she waved and giggled at some of the guests that she recognized. Nothing, not even being thrown unceremoniously out of the bridal chambers by Samantha, could dampen the day for Lorelei.

She was followed by Laura, better known to the Blue Horizon crew as Jazz, former crewmember of the Lady of Dreams. Laura and Sam had grown up together, been friends and sisters since they were old enough to remember. Even if the Lady of Dreams had not been destroyed in the Siilv War, the former communications officer would have made it here for the wedding. She owed Samantha’s late father her very life.

Then the Maid of Honor entered. The Hestran vixen smiled in the direction of the groom and his best man, looking lovely as ever. Merlin felt a bit of warmth seeing her dressed so pretty and looking so happy. It was hard to believe that they had once thought Taro dead.

It was then the music changed, and in stepped his bride. Merlin felt as if his heart had leapt into his throat. The gown was lovely, but his eyes were caught by the vision wearing it. She was smiling, even though she wore a veil. To Merlin, she was the most beautiful creature in the known universe, and she was about to take his name in tradition.

Samantha tightened her grip on her Master’s arm when she met the gaze of her chosen mate. The unicorn smiled down at her gently and told her to, please, leave him with some circulation in his arm, if she would not mind. She blushed as he laughed and relaxed her grip, giving the large equine an apologetic look before looking once again to Merlin. She was simply on cloud nine, practically walking on air. It was no wonder that she hadn’t heard the two children that were carrying her long train doing as their siblings had. Joey Carlton and Jacob Wallace were posturing and growling at the assembled guests.

He stopped as the priest asked who “offers this woman” and after affirming that he was, Tristan placed a kiss on the little collie’s cheek and transferred her hand to Merlin’s arm. He took a seat beside his wife, who was now crying as she always did at weddings. Gwen grasped the lapels of her husband’s suit, buried her face in his shirt and sobbed loudly. This was echoed by Lorelei the white bunny crying out “I’m so moved!” as tears streamed down in her face fur.

The wedding was simple yet elegant, the couple trying hard not to be seen as overwhelmingly extravagant. As they read their vows to one another, they individually scooped some water from a crystalline bowl and combined them as one to symbolize the act of beginning their lives as one body and soul, each half of the whole.

The rings were soon exchanged, and Sam had trouble getting Merlin’s ring onto his lupine finger, causing Father Lonergan to joke about the “swelling of fear” to chuckles from the congregation. Then after being pronounced husband and wife, they kissed and the couple was introduced to their guests in Terran fashion as Mr. and Mrs. Merlin Sinclair.

The wolf and his mate ran the gauntlet of sugared nuts, the children not exactly knowing to undo their bags first and throwing them at the couple. One bag beaned Merlin in the head just as he was getting into the limousine to take them to the reception hall.

The reception was held at a very upscale restaurant called The Manor at Cliffside that was just outside of Grandstorm proper. The human-owned Manor was a large building that resembled a tasteful mixture of Grecian and Roman design, with lovely sloping lawns and high marble columns. There were lovely gazebos doting the immaculate landscaping, along with fountains and koi ponds here and there. It was a wedding photographer’s dream, though personally Merlin couldn’t understand the fascination with fountains designed to resemble small, fat human children with wings and urinating into a reflecting pool. He refused be photographed anywhere near the thing.

As the wedding party was being photographed, their guests filed into the lovely dining hall with a large dance floor and a view of the back lawn that was exquisitely decorated and took seats at the surrounding tables, some of which were outside on the patio. The wait staff, which were all canine types and dressed in crisp white linen shirts and black slacks with small blue tinted roses pinned onto the right side of their chests. They took orders for the diners, asking if each party chose the chicken, fish or steak. There were also vegetarian choices for those of the herbivore types and those dieting.

The band was set up in a corner next to the dance floor. When the members of Dragon, Wolf and Tiger tired, across the dance floor from them was a DJ, who was currently playing soft romantic favorites as the guests milled about talking to one another. The photographer’s assistant soon arrived and whispered to the DJ, who announced the arrival of the wedding party.

Moving through a floral gateway were the bridesmaids, each on the arm of one of the ushers. Lori Easter was on the arm of Jerad “Pockets” Porter, the short raccoon all bright smiles and waving cheerfully. Laura came in on the arm of Max Sinclair, the handsome young German shepherd looking very pleased to be included. Sparky was on the arm of her husband, Roland, and Taro Nichols being the maid of honor walked in on the arm of the Best Man, Renny Thornton.

The children followed the adults into the hall, a little more subdued than they had been at the church, as they were no longer growling, making faces and claw hands at the assembly. The reason for this was simple and the sister-in-law of the newlyweds had asked about it. “Why were you making such horrible faces and snarling, pups?” asked Shannon Wallace as they had ridden in the limousine to the reception hall, looking over the small upturned faces of the assembled children. Kayla and Joey Carlton glanced at one another in confusion, since they were certainly not puppies. “Shane? Jaran? Marissa? Kayla? Anyone care to explain?”

At once, Shannon got what she was asking for as the pack of children related in that tone little kids use when they know that they have been caught doing something wrong and punished for it, that high pitch as well as in unison. It took Shannon the rest of the drive to get the actual story from the little ones, even though each seemed to want to override the others in the telling.

She gleaned this bit from the young bearers and flower girls: the kids thought that Lori had said that they were ring “bears” and train “bears”, which set off a whole spectacle of wild growling, face and claw making with the boys. Wanting to be ferocious bears too, the flower girls had decided to follow the example of their brothers and made faces and claws as well. Samantha and Merlin were not angry over the children being children; in fact, they were rather amused and even had one photo taken of themselves and the children being fierce bears in the west gazebo.

The DJ asked the assembled party to rise as he introduced the bride and groom, the couple looking so very happy as they entered the room underneath the flower strewn archway. Finally taking their seats in the central section of the long table, the reception got underway. Music played and people rose from their tables to dance and mingle, chatting happily as they greeted the newlyweds. The assembled children, which now included those of her Royal Highness Princess Tinara Aris, were soon in a game of tag, racing around the dance floor, often times around and between the older guests.

Merlin and Samantha were separated as old friends offered congratulations and then struck up conversations. Merlin turned as he felt a small hand on his arm. In front of him was the vision that could only be Tinara, princess of the Aris monarchy, the lovely coyote wearing a pretty and somewhat revealing dress in the royal shade of dark purple. She smiled up at the wolf, her hand lingering on his sleeve longer than most.

“It’s good to see you again, Merlin,” she said softly, looking over him rather boldly. “You look just as handsome as always.” She uttered a small sigh. “Your wife is very a lucky girl, but you could have had a princess, not just an heiress.”

“You look beautiful as always, Princess,” Merlin said, and shifted his feet as a momentary look of discomfort crossed his face. The announcement of the birth of Tinara’s coywolf pups had generated a lot of speculation amongst his crew, even though he had assured them that he had not fathered the cubs himself, which was the truth. However, it was well known that Tinara would not be indifferent to sharing a bed with the captain of the Blue Horizon at any time. “I love Samantha, and her wealth has nothing to do with it.”

The princess leaned up to whisper in the wolf’s ear as she pressed her body close to his. “You know, the offer still stands. I would certainly be very happy if you shared my bed, Merlin.”

“Princess, this is hardly the place or the time, though the answer is still ‘No’. How dense can you be?” Merlin growled, tugging his arm from her grip, feeling a surge of anger. What was wrong with this woman?

Tinara smiled, but didn’t apologize. As Tinara leaned to whisper again to Merlin, Samantha narrowed her eyes, the curl in her tail straightening out. She’d been watching the coyote from the moment she approached her husband, and felt a sharp twinge of irritation as the woman pressed herself to the wolf and openly flirted with him.

She never had liked Tinara. The coyote was too clingy with Merlin, always trying to coax him into her bed, no matter if either was in a relationship. There were ugly rumors concerning the parentage of the coyote’s young coywolf pups. Sam chose to believe Merlin when the wolf said that he didn’t father them, but it didn’t mean she wanted that little scheming wench anywhere near her husband. She’d not wanted to invite Tinara or anyone of the Aris royal family to the wedding, but knowing that such a thing would look like bad form especially in Merlin’s case, given his business history with the family, Sam reluctantly gave in.

Excusing herself from the guests she had been talking to, a couple of friends of her parents, Sam determinedly made her way over to where Merlin and Tinara were standing, having to dodge the children as they raced past, squealing with laughter. Sam had gotten within earshot of the couple just as the coyote said something about domesticated canine heiresses. Oh, but it took every ounce of decorum she possessed not to deck that smirking cur, to show her just a little of the Silloni martial arts she had been trained in. Instead, Sam decided to use words. A good thing, too since Merlin looked like he was going to say something not so nice. Merlin tended, as most males were, to be blunt when angered. His words would be like getting hit over the head with a sledge hammer. Sam’s words were more like being sliced apart with a scalpel. Razor sharp and precise in the cutting. “Hello my handsome, sexy husband.” Slipping an arm through Merlin’s and snuggling into the wolf’s side, Sam grinned at her mate and licked his muzzle rather thoroughly, knowing Merlin would respond nicely. He did. Once the couple stopped kissing and licking, Sam looked over at the princess. She knew exactly what to say to the snide little coyote.

“Oh, is that you, Mrs. Navarre? Didn’t see you there. I thought I had my husband all to myself,” she said airily, though there was a slightly dismissive tone to her voice. It was something of a snub not to use the coyote’s title when in public, as well as to use the last name of her husband. Kal Navarre had taken the royal family’s name when he had married her, as per the laws of the Aris Monarchy. Samantha had been raised by the regent of Sillon, which was a sovereignty much older than that of the Tanthean coyotes as well as a multibillion credit heiress. Sam knew this like the back of her hand, what with all that etiquette training she had been forced to endure as a kid. It was too bad her guest was not as well trained, only being royalty and all. She was going to be schooled now. Sam delighted in being the smug wench’s teacher.

Ears going flat when the collie used her husband’s name, Tinara knew that Samantha had overheard her last comment, as well as possibly witnessed her making yet another play for the wolf that was Sam’s new husband. This was a serious breach of etiquette, and her own father would be scandalized by Princess Tinara’s behavior. The coyote knew what she had to do; she would have to apologize to the heiress.

Before the other female could express regret for her words and actions, the smaller Border collie turned her back on the princess, refusing to acknowledge her presence in the room any further. With her father’s successful business spread out across the Planetary Alignment, Sam knew she could buy and sell the Aris aristocracy and not even blink. It didn’t matter if the company lost the Tanthe accounts after this. It was about time this whelp knew her place.

“I think it is time for our first dance, love,” Sam said brightly, leading Merlin away from her royal highness and onto the dance floor. Stepping up to the microphone as the couple moved into the middle of the dance floor, Adam Singlebet, the lupine member of Dragon, Wolf and Tiger announced that they would be performing a new song, titled “Union” in honor of the happy couple. Sam placed a small hand on Merlin’s shoulder as the music swelled.

“That was very naughty, my lovely Samantha,” Merlin said quietly, a smile stealing onto his face. “And pretty funny too. Thanks for the timely rescue. I might not have been as nice.”

“I wanted to punch her in the face,” Sam said, chuckling. “But I didn’t want our wedding to be remembered as the one in which I decked a crowned princess. I’m not worried about how this will affect Holden Pharmaceuticals on Tanthe, either. I’m sure Alex and Ayana will smooth things over.”

“I’m sure they will,” Merlin agreed, and then he deftly changed the subject. “Looking forward to Ocean City?”

“OOOOhhh, am I ever! The beach, the ocean and the lovely Victorian architecture. Oh yeah, and spending some quality time with a certain wolf.”

The song ended, and there was a dull boom of cannonade, raining confetti on the guests. The children let out a loud chorus of oooo’s and ahhhh’s, momentarily distracted from their chasing games. “You remembered!” the lupine captain said happily, before giving his mate an exuberant kiss.

“I told you I wouldn’t forget the wedding cannons; you ought to believe me,” Sam said, snuggling a little closer. Males and their love of loud noises, second only to their affection for power tools. “I knew that these Dennieran customs would make you happy.”

Merlin whispered to her. “You entertain the guests for a few minutes.  I see an old friend I want to talk to.”

“Sure, but don’t be gone long. This is our day together.” Her mate licked her on the end of the nose and then walked away through the crowd towards the new arrival. She turned almost directly into the chest of one of her taller guests, a young Siberian tiger. There were so many of feline species here. The Carltons, the Bengoros, Carson Vetter of DWT, and others.

“Sorry... I wasn’t watching where I was going… Oh my goodness! Pan? Pan Arkane?” she asked, eyes widening in surprise. She hadn’t seen this particular tiger in several years, ten at the very least. He was about eight years younger than she was and his family being very wealthy stayed at the Dragon Loft when they were on vacation, even though they were from a non-PA planet in the Mytha System known as Ryu. Sam had been his cub-sitter back when Tristan had finally retired from the role as Silloni regent and opened the renowned vacation lodge. The handsome feline smiled fondly at her, nodding at her question. Sam hugged him enthusiastically, her tail wagging furiously. She couldn’t believe how tall Pan had gotten since she’d last seen him. The Arkane males were rather large, especially since they were of the largest subspecies of tiger in the known galaxy. He was almost as tall as Tristan himself.

“How are Marlin and little Giah? Heavens, how is your grandfather, is he still with us? And most importantly, how in the world did you know? About the wedding, I mean?” Sam asked, taken aback at the sight of the big tiger.

“My oldest brother is doing well, I’m sorry to tell you that his mate and cub died in an accident a few months back. He wishes you joy, though. Giah is about as tall as you are and now about twenty-one and studying at the Alexandrius branch of the University of the Alliance. As for the ‘how’, I was vacationing at the Dragon Loft when your invitation to Tristan and Guinevere arrived. I simply insisted that I see you get married. Tristan brought us with him when the family left Sillon for the wedding.”

Sam felt a momentary bit of sadness at the news of his brother’s loss. Marlin Arkane had always been a dear friend, almost an older brother being that he was a year older than Sam herself. But Pan moved his left hand as he was speaking and light caught the band of gold about his forth finger. Several cultures in the PA had retained the Terran wedding band as a symbol of fidelity between the married couple. Sam could hardly believe what she was seeing.

“You sly kittykat! When were you married and why wasn’t I invited?” she scolded, wagging an admonishing finger at the tiger. “I think I should feel insulted! Yes, indeed I should! I’m insulted.”

“You have never pouted well, so stop that at once.” The feline commanded with a smirk. “I was married a little over a year ago. As to why you hadn’t been invited, it is well known that you were off traipsing the known universe with your wolf at the time, on Argeia, I believe.”

“Okay, you have a good excuse. So, where is the bride of my favorite oversized tiger, hmmm?” She looked around, expecting to see a tigress like Wendy Bengoro and her mother, Tess.

Pan motioned towards a group of young women talking. His bride was feline, yes. A Tiger, no.

“Lori?” he said gently and a short yet very pretty American Rag Doll cat turned in his direction, she had cream colored fur that darkened to a shade closer to that of chocolate milk on her ears and tail as well as her muzzle. Her hands were white as was a small bib of fur on her chest. The coloring on her face made her lovely blue eyes stand out more. She also looked to be very pregnant. The poor thing was huge! The little cat snuggled into the tall tiger’s embrace, her expression happy. Sam blinked back sudden tears at the tender expressions on the feline’s faces. Young love. Her big kitty has grown up and found himself a mate!

“Loralei, I’d like you to meet Samantha Holden.”

“Sinclair,” the collie corrected fondly, patting Pan’s arm as the cat’s smile went wider as her eyes grew slightly round. Sam gave a slight start at the name, especially since the Loris and the Lorelei’s of her acquaintance usually were somewhat flighty. Okay, the one Lorelei she had ever met was a bit flakey. Besides this was Lor-ah-lay, not Lor-eh-lie.

The girl extricated herself from Pan’s hug and took Sam’s hands in her own.

“I’ve always wanted to meet you!” the cat said brightly, if slightly breathless from her mate’s embrace. “I could scarcely believe Pan when he said he knew you personally. We talked about you in my Women In Business class at the University. “I wrote a paper about you.”

Samantha grinned and gave the cat a gentle hug. “I’m happy to meet you, too Loralei. Anyone who makes my le tigre cub happy, is a friend for life. I do hope to see you both more often, and I want to see that cub! I swear I saw a not so… pregnant version of you here earlier.”

The girl laughed. “You saw my twin sister, Liana. She’s somewhere here with Pan’s cousin Mikhal.”

Just then, Merlin returned, wrapping his arms about his wife from behind and held her, nodding towards the felines to whom she was talking. Sam let him regain his composure before she introduced the wolf to her newfound friends.

“Merlin, this is Pan and Loralei Arkane. I used to cub-sit Pan when he was just a little shaver. This is my husband, Merlin Sinclair, President and CEO of Blue Horizon Freight Transfer.”

Personally, Merlin could never imagine that the young tiger who grinned and pumped his hand eagerly ever had been a ‘little shaver’. The kid was massive. He was probably taller than Sam had been when she had been his sitter.

“Nice to meet you both. Sam has mentioned you on and off to me since I’ve known her.”

“She did?” the young tiger asked, laughing a bit. “Did she ever tell you that I was always teasing her about eloping?”

Merlin raised an eyebrow, but since the affection the young soon to be parents was genuine, he had no doubts that this was just a running joke between old friends, much like the lighthearted sniping that Sam and Renny had engaged in on board the ship. He listened to the playful banter for a few minutes more, letting the feelings of affection for his chosen mate wash over him as she smiled back and touched him frequently throughout the conversation with the tiger and his mate.

Knowing that they had other guests to attend to, the Sinclairs bid the younger couple a good evening and exchanged contact addresses so that they could keep in touch. As they moved away, Sam placed a hand on Merlin’s arm, giving him a concerned look

“Is everything okay?” she asked noting that the wolf had been distracted when she had been in conversation with the Arkanes.

“Everything’s fine, my love.” Merlin answered warmly, taking his bride into his arms as he changed then the subject. “How much longer do we have to stay at the reception?”

“Well, we still have to sit down to dinner, cut the cake, toss the garter and throw the bouquet. I may just cut those last two.”

“Change your carefully scripted Terran wedding reception?’ teased her husband. “Horrors.”

“And here I thought you were eager to get to Ocean City,” Samantha shot back, sliding her arms about his waist. “You wanted to stay in that pretty Victorian bed and breakfast with the warm ocean breezes ruffling your fur. I think you also said something about a personal massage for both of us, with a spritz of perfume in my fur and a bit of cinnamon in yours.”

“There is that. Let’s drop the garter and bouquet throws; I don’t think anyone but humans would miss them anyway.” Merlin looked around, his ears perking up “Looks like it’s time to sit down and eat, so let’s go. I’m starving.”

The meal was wonderful, typical of Sparky and her crew. Renny gave his toast, which was laden with cheerful quips about the boss and his new wife. Lorelei asked if Samantha was going to keep her maiden name. The Border collie shook her head. While she would always be the heir and CEO of her father’s company, Samantha chose to go the old-fashioned route to take her husband’s last name. She would always be a Holden, but now considered herself Samantha Sinclair.

Then it was time to cut the cake. Merlin and Samantha stood close together as they sliced the confection and fed it to one another. There was no attempt to mash the cake into one another’s face. This bit pleased Sparky greatly, for the little lynx had been scandalized by the video Sam had shown her on Terran wedding customs. The tiny chef begged the canine couple not to ruin a perfectly good cake in such a way. Sam and Merlin readily agreed, since that custom bothered them both.

After the cake was served to the guests, Taro noted that Merlin and Sam had disappeared. She got to her feet to say something, when the couple returned dressed in everyday clothes. Moving quickly, they ran the gauntlet of thrown rice, seed and more sugared nuts to their car. The guests watched as the vehicle lights faded down the street.

The canine couple was finally off to their honeymoon in the little scenic ocean front villa in Ocean City.

SPACE AVAILABLE

By Ted R. Blasingame

The Blue Horizon is a freighter to the stars. The Planetary Alignment is its highway, a charter of fourteen partner worlds in eight star systems, and its fuel is paying customers. Blue Horizon Freight Transfer has been in operation, in one form or another, for nearly a decade, delivering cargo from one place to another across the Planetary Alignment. In its current form, the company consists of a fleet of three of the latest model Okami-class freighters, with its headquarters in the coastal city of Grandstorm on the world of Dennier.

The flagship of the fleet is the Blue Horizon herself, an H-model vessel of four levels in the shape of an elliptical flying saucer. Identical sister ships are the Hidalgo Sun and the Mooncrest. The lower two levels house the cargo deck, containing the engine room and a cavernous cargo hold accessible through a huge retracting airlock bay door. The third level is the crew deck, consisting of fifteen comfortable cabins, Sickbay, laundry room, supply storage, environmental systems, a business office and the bridge. The upper level is comprised of the recreation deck, a common area for the crew to relax, exercise and gather for their meals in the Galley.

In all, the vessel provides a comfortable ride for the captain and crew of a vessel designed primarily for hauling cargo across the Planetary Alignment. Ideally, an Okami-class freighter maintains a personnel roster of eight to ten individuals of various duties.

Due to the size and comfort of the crew deck, there are typically five empty cabins at all times. In these times of economic uncertainty, Blue Horizon Freight Transfer is pleased to offer these spare cabins on each of its vessels as Space Available to passengers wishing inexpensive travel from one PA world to another.

For a mere ©1,200 (a sixty percent savings over commercial interstellar travel cruisers), a Blue Horizon passenger will enjoy a three-room cabin complete with fully furnished visiting area, spacious sleeping room with a Queen-sized bed, walk-in closet and a roomy lavatory equipped with overhead shower and a water-immersion bathtub large enough to accommodate most PA species. Meals and snacks provided, with menus suited to meet the dietary needs of each passenger.

A typical voyage between PA worlds can be anywhere between three to six weeks in duration, so all passengers will have access to an extensive library of entertaining books and popular contemporary vids, in addition to the use of exercise equipment on the recreation deck.

Fly in comfort in our Space Available cabins with Blue Horizon Freight Transfer. Use the contact numbers located on the back of this information flyer for reservations, information and flight schedules. Walk-ins are also accepted on a space available basis. We hope you will join us on a journey across the stars.

***

A broad-shouldered cougar in brown slacks and a muted orange shirt studied the color photographs on the printed paper he held in his hands. He looked up from the glossy flyer when he heard his name called, and he saw a petite coyote standing in front of a glass door into the waiting area for commercial flights. She wore a simple white blouse and a pleated tan skirt that matched the color of her fur.

He gathered up a shoulder bag and a couple of wheeled suitcases, and then stood up from his seat. “I’m Rex Concolar,” he said. The coyote lass met him halfway across the semi-crowded room and greeted him with a pleasant smile.

“Good Morning, Mr. Concolar,” she said. “I am Amanda Black, the Business Coordinator of the Blue Horizon. If you will follow me, I have a luggage pallet outside that you may use to bring your belongings out to the ship.”

The cougar nodded and gestured toward the door. “After you, ma’am,” he said. He followed her outside the building and set his luggage onto the waiting antigrav platform. When he was ready, Amanda led him across the tarmac past ground-to-orbit shuttles, out toward a large elliptical vessel painted in two shades of blue. Recently washed, the ship gleamed in the morning sunlight.

“Is that it?” he asked as he pushed the small floating cart. “The Blue Horizon?”

“Yes, sir, that’s your ride to Kantus.”

Rex gave it a critical eye and then decided it appeared space-worthy. “I know it’s not a regular passenger liner,” he said, “but I suppose a freighter will get me there as well as anything else.” Amanda gave him a sidelong glance and opened her mouth to reply, but the cougar chuckled with a shrug of his shoulders. “I do appreciate the ride, Sweetie,” he added. “All the current commercial flights between Dennier and Kantus are booked up, not to mention expensive, so this was a life-saver!”

“Once you’re on the upper decks, you won’t even know you’re on a freighter,” Amanda told him as they approached the primary airlock, ignoring the Sweetie remark. “You probably won’t be able to distinguish the cabins on the crew deck from those in a decent hotel here in town, and the common area of the recreation deck looks nothing like a freighter either.”

“Yeah, I saw the photos on your flyer,” he said in an off-handed manner. “Looks good enough for me, or I probably wouldn’t have even bothered.”

Amanda flipped open a hidden panel beside the airlock and tapped in a combination code. When the door split apart to allow them entrance, Rex immediately noticed the internal compression door was already open so they could walk in directly. Pressurizing the ship for the voyage had not yet begun.

The cougar reached for his luggage and then stopped. “Will the pallet be okay out here on the tarmac?” he asked.

Amanda shook her head. “That one belongs to the Blue Horizon,” she replied. “You can bring it inside up the ramp.”

Rex nodded and wondered why he had to move his luggage himself. Commercial transports always had skycaps to do that for passengers as a courtesy. No doubt, it was because he was boarding a freighter, not a cruise liner. He briefly wondered if he would have to make his own meals too.

The cougar looked up at the height of the ceiling once he was inside. With the deck practically empty of cargo, the place appeared cavernous. There were several large, octagonal crates with “Jerad Porter, PA1138” stenciled upon them, as well as several large red containers of mail that were tethered to rings in the floor near the center of the room, but nothing else.

Rex heard an approaching hum and looked up in time to see a small flying saucer slow to a bobbing hover in front of him. “Hello,” he said hesitantly.

The unit was the size of two inverted pie pans, its metal skin shimmered iridescently, and it had three whisker-like antennae sprouting from each side of its “face”. It studied the cougar with an offset pair of lenses, one slightly above the other. Amanda gave him a smile and said, “Moss, security scan, passenger authorization Rex Concolar.”

The saucer emitted a pale green light from its upper lens and scanned the visitor briefly. Then it moved to his luggage and scanned them as well. When it was finished, it moved to a position in front of the coyote and intoned a casual “Meow” as it rotated two of its whiskers.

“Thank you, Moss,” Amanda said to the unit. “You may resume your duties.”

“Meow!”

“What was that about?” Rex asked, scratching his head as the unit floated away across the cargo deck.

“It’s just a standard scan to enter you into the profile of our onboard security system,” the coyote replied, “as well as to make sure you were not bringing any harmful devices on board.”

“Is that a problem on a freighter?” he asked, suddenly concerned.

“Not recently,” she told him. “However, Moss has cleared you to come aboard and we’ve had no other threats lately.”

“Ah, okay,” Rex replied with a slow nod.

Amanda moved to the controls to close the airlock, but an echoed voice from across the deck stopped her hand above the panel.

“Mandy! Please leave it open for me!” The coyote and cougar both looked toward the voice. Approaching them from inside was a young German shepherd dressed casually in denim jeans with a matching short-sleeved shirt. He had a duffel bag slung over one shoulder and a cheerful grin on his face.

“Well, Max, are you off?” Amanda asked the newcomer. She stepped aside to allow him access to the airlock.

“Yeah, I’m late. Uncle Merlin’s brother-in-law should be waiting for me in the terminal,” the young canine replied. “I’m kinda nervous about this whole thing, but I have been looking forward to it, too.”

“You’ll be just fine,” Amanda told him. She put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a confident smile. “Have a safe journey, Max.”

“Thank you, Mandy!” He gave the cougar a nod and said, “I’m sorry I don’t have the time to visit with the Blue Horizon’s first official passenger, but I need to be going.”

“That’s quite all right, Blue Eyes,” Rex said with a smile. “Take care, wherever it is you are going.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Amanda gave Max a quick hug, and then he and his duffel bag were out the airlock. When he had gone, the coyote sealed both the internal and external airlock doors. She turned back to her companion and gestured across the hold.

“This way to the lift, Mr. Concolar,” she said and began walking. Rex pushed the cart along behind her, admiring the shape of her legs.

“What’s the story with that guy?” he asked in casual conversation.

“That’s Max Sinclair,” Amanda replied. “He’s one of our mechanics, but he’s taking some time away for surgery.”

“Surgery?” the cougar repeated. “He looked pretty healthy to me.”

“He lost a finger a few years back,” Amanda explained as they neared a red door, “and he’s now having a prosthetic replacement grafted on by a Pomen surgeon. We’re scheduled to pick up cargo on Kantus for delivery to Pomen, so we’ll meet back up with him there.”

“Ah, okay.” When the lift door opened, he took his luggage from the pallet cart and set them inside. “Since I’ll be flying with you folks for a few weeks, I’m sure I’ll hear others mention ol’ Blue Eyes’ finger.”

“No doubt. You’ll also hear that Max is the owner’s nephew.”

“Is the owner on board?”

“No, sir. He was just married and is now away on his honeymoon with his new bride.”

“Your mechanic just left and your captain is away with his honey,” Rex mused as the lift doors opened up to the crew deck. “Is anyone else gone, or will your sweetness be my only companion for this flight?”

Amanda led him to the right, around the curve of the corridor. “Max will be our only absentee for this voyage, Mr. Concolar. Everyone else is on board, including our captain.”

“I thought he just got married,” Rex said.

“That was the owner, not the captain.”

“Ah, okay. What’s his name?”

“Her name is Taro Nichols. You should meet her soon after we launch, Mr. Concolar.” Amanda stopped before a door that had the cougar’s name affixed on a temporary occupant plate. “Here’s your room. If you want to stow your belongings, I can give you a brief tour of Sickbay, laundry room and the recreation deck.”

Rex opened the door to his quarters and looked inside. The coyote was right. The place resembled a hotel suite. Without even realizing it, he immediately felt better about traveling on a freighter. Despite the photos in the pamphlet, he had actually expected a room no bigger than a closet, with a folding cot and a rusty washbasin; cruise ships typically advertised rooms that were nicer and roomier than the actual cabins would turn out to be.

He set his luggage on the floor beside a comfortable-looking sofa and then turned back to his escort. “Not bad,” he said with a smile. “How long until we take off?”

Amanda consulted a trim timepiece on her wrist. “We should be launching in about a half hour,” she replied. “The bridge crew is probably going through their pre-launch checklist right now, but we still have enough time for a brief tour.”

Rex put his hands on his hips and grinned at her. “Lead the way, Sweet Stuff!”

***

“Open your mouth wide, please,” Jerry Somner said to the cougar. Rex sat on a stool in front of the standing doctor, his chest bare and his shirt draped over one arm. The passenger opened his mouth as directed and the red fox pressed down on his tongue with a flat wooden stick. He shined a bright penlight into the cougar’s throat and then nodded in satisfaction.

“Is a physical really necessary?” Rex asked when the fox released his tongue and allowed him to swallow.

“Yes, Mr. Concolar, it is,” replied the doctor. “It was noted in the document you signed when you bought passage through our home office. You will be sharing our circulated air during the three weeks you’re on board, and we just want to make sure you aren’t going to catch anything we might have.”

“Or you catch anything I might have?”

Jerry gave the mountain lion a nod as he scribbled some notes onto a small paper steno pad. “That is correct, sir. I should have checked you out before we launched, in the event you had an illness or an infectious parasite on you, but there was no time left when you arrived.”

The cougar crossed his arms. “I sat in the waiting area nearly an hour before your sweet coyote came to get me.”

The fox looked up from his notes and raised his eyebrows. “Really? I will have to speak to her about it.” He scratched at his notepad a moment more and then set it aside. “At any rate, you appear to be just fine at first glance, Mr. Concolar. I will know more after I’ve run the tests on your blood and urine samples, but for now you’re free to go.”

“Thanks, Doc,” the cougar replied, pulling on his shirt.

His job complete, Jerry sat down on another nearby stool and leaned against the wall. “What brings you on board with us, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Rex grinned widely, clearly pleased to have someone ask. “I bought a lottery ticket just before I left Kantus to come out here to Dennier to visit a lady friend,” he explained. “I found out last night that I won the jackpot, but I have to report in person on Kantus to claim my prize.”

“Ah, very nice,” Jerry replied with a smile.

“This lottery is held PA-wide and only once a year, so due to travel distances, they will hold the numbers for ten months to allow the winner time to claim it.”

“What was the jackpot?”

The cougar finished buttoning his shirt and then he leaned on the counter. “Twenty-seven million credits! I’m surprised you didn’t see a report about it on INN.” Then he stood up and slipped his hands into his pockets. “However, until they award my prize, I’m still stuck on a budget. Yours is the only ship I could afford to get back to Kantus.”

“When you came to Dennier to see your friend, didn’t you have a round-trip ticket to get back home?” the doctor asked.

Rex shrugged. “It was my intention to get a local job and stay for a while, so my boarding pass was a one-way trip. Buying the lottery ticket on the way to the spaceport was done on the spur-of-the-moment.”

“So what are your plans once you get your money?”

The cougar smiled again. “I was thinking I might buy a private transport with a small flight crew and travel around the Planetary Alignment with my lady. Why? Are you looking for a job as my medical officer?”

Jerry chuckled. “No, sir. I’m just curious about what someone would do with that kind of money.”

“Curious-schmurious… I’m sure I could use a doctor when I travel. Do you want the job?”

The red fox shook his head. “Thank you, but no. I am happy right here and I’m under contract anyway. Besides, you should not make offers or promises until you actually have the money. Just don’t lose your ticket between now and Kantus.”

Rex raised an eyebrow and patted his shirt pocket. “No worries, Doc. The winning ticket is safe. Once you get me there, I can pay off all my debts and then live comfortably.” He moved toward the door and gave the physician a casual wave. “See ya around the galaxy, Doc!”

When the panel closed behind him out in the corridor, Rex frowned and rubbed the spot where the physician had taken the blood sample. With the advances in modern technology, he knew there were less painful ways of extracting blood. He glanced back at the door, wondering if he’d gotten a needle simply because he wasn’t a member of the crew. With a sigh, he turned around and saw several people get off a nearby lift.

“Hello!” he said with the sudden return of his grin. Taro, Justin and Lorelei all looked over at him in unison.

“Hi, there!” Lori said with a lilt to her voice. Justy merely gave a small wave and headed immediately for his cabin.

“Mr. Concolar,” Taro said with a nod. The cougar joined them and rubbed his hands together. “What can we do for you?” Taro asked.

“The doctor’s just passed me on my physical, Lady Captain,” he said, “and I was wondering what there was to do now.”

“We have a library of books and movies up on the recreation deck,” Taro suggested, “or you may use the exercise equipment. My navigator is currently up there working through his daily routine, if you wish to join him.”

“Hmm, that sounds interesting,” Rex said with a nod.

“Are you hungry?” Lorelei asked him. “I just came from the galley, but if there’s something you want, I don’t mind.”

The cougar’s eyes lit up. “Now that you mention it, I am feeling peckish!”

Lori took him by the arm and led him back to the lift. “What can I make for you?” she asked.

Rex gave Taro a small waggle of his fingers and then he looked down into the rabbit’s bright blue eyes. “I’m not particular,” he said.

Lori nodded as the lift door opened for them. “I looked over your food preferences right after you came on board, Mr. Concolar. You have a wide variety of things you like.”

“Why don’t you just surprise me with something, Bunnyfluff?”

“A surprise, eh? Okay, I think I can surprise your taste buds!”

Taro watched the lift door close and she shook her head with a chuckle. It was different having a passenger on board their ship. She just hoped he could stay out of trouble for the next three weeks he would be with them. Fortunately, all guests were restricted to the upper levels of the ship, even if they had no cargo on this voyage. Pockets had requested the use of the empty floor space in the hold to sort out the parts to a special project; he would be nose-deep into it on their way to Kantus, so the fewer people down there would be for the best.

She absently ran her fingers across the white, blue-tipped feather clipped to the fur behind her left ear and then she turned up the corridor. It was her shift to relieve Damien from bridge duty.

***

A half hour later, Lorelei set a plate down in front of the cougar with a smile. Renny’s nose twitched as he finished putting away the exercise mat in a wall storage closet. “I’ll take some too, please,” he said from across the room. “Pile it high!” He hurried over to the galley and sat down with his tail through the slotted back of the chair, putting both elbows on the table.

“What is it?” Rex asked as he sniffed the aromas from the steaming plate.

Renny opened his mouth to reply, but Lori shushed him before he could say a word. “You said you wanted a surprise,” she reminded the passenger as she set up a plate for their navigator. “First give it a try before I tell you what it is.”

Rex studied the plate and sniffed it curiously. From his perspective, it resembled a mass of tiny intestinal strings covered in pulpy blood with the distinct presence of a grayish brown fungus, but its tangy aroma was throwing off its identification. As the rabbit had reminded him earlier, he had a wide and varied taste in foods, so he didn’t intend to turn his nose up at it.

Lorelei didn’t know his preference for eating utensils, so she set a ceramic canister of various instruments on the table. Rex looked again at the plate and then selected a pair of chopsticks. Renny grabbed a four-pronged fork as the ship’s chef set a plate before him. Rex watched the cheetah dig into the meal with glee and decided it was time to sample the food.

He sniffed it again and then used the chopsticks to gather up a bit of the stringy mass and raise it to his mouth. He took a moderate mouthful and chewed on it silently. Lori watched the cougar expectantly, and Renny smiled around another forkful as he continued to eat.

After the first swallow, Rex licked his lips and looked down at the meal. “I like this,” he said in genuine interest. “It’s good!”

Lorelei smiled widely and then filled drinking mugs for both her customers. “I’m glad to hear it,” she said to the cougar.

“What is this?” Rex asked as he lifted up another mouthful.

“This is popular in areas on Earth,” the rabbit answered. “It’s called pasta spaghetti, with tomato sauce, mushrooms and a bit of browned ground beef.” Lorelei didn’t eat meat herself, preferring a vegetarian diet, but she had long grown accustomed to the tastes of the predator-types she regularly fed.

“More please,” Renny said as he held up an empty plate. Lori gave him a smile and took the dish for a refill.

Rex ate his food slower than the cheetah, savoring the taste. The rabbit had not given him a large amount at first and he was soon finished with his portion. He licked his lips, picked up his mug, and then took a healthy drink. He set his mug down and then hefted the empty plate toward the waiting chef as he had seen the cheetah do. “Bunnyfluff, I think I would like more of this pasty pasketti, please,” he said with a smile.

“Pasta spaghetti,” Renny corrected.

“Yeah, what Spots said – pasta spaghetti,” Rex said.

The cheetah turned to look at him and swallowed another mouthful. “Spots?” he repeated with a raised eyebrow. “Tell me, Mr. Concolar, do you have a personal name for yourself, or do you just like hearing people call you Mister?”

“My name’s Rex,” the cougar answered nonchalantly as Lorelei set a freshly filled plate before him.

“Well, Rex, my name is Renny, not Spots. Our gracious chef here is Lori, not Bunnyfluff.”

“Don’t get your fur up,” the cougar replied with a shrug, picking up his chopsticks. “I don’t mean anything by it,” he said. “I’m just bad with names.”

Renny took a drink from his mug and then leaned toward the passenger. “Fair enough, but at least try to use our names,” he said, attempting to be diplomatic. “Your time with us will be nearly a month, and attitudes will be nicer if you talk to us using our names instead of nicknames. You’ve already been introduced to everyone on board individually, but I doubt anyone will be offended if you ask his or her name if you’ve forgotten.”

Rex nodded as he lifted another helping to his mouth. “I realize I’m your first passenger,” he said before eating, “but if you’re going to ferry people across the Planetary Alignment, perhaps you should wear name tags for people like me who won’t remember your crew names after hearing them just once.”

The cougar continued eating while Renny mulled over his words. He looked over at Lori, who nodded toward their guest. “I think that’s a good idea,” she said with a smile.

“That’s just it,” Renny replied thoughtfully. “I do, too. I don’t think this is something Merlin considered when he told us we were going to start taking on passengers.”

“You have a magician who makes the decisions for your company?” Rex asked when he finished his plate.

“Magician?” Renny repeated.

“Merlin the Magician,” the cougar replied with a smile. “You know, from Terran legends.”

Renny shook his head. “I’m not familiar with that one.”

Lorelei laughed. “I know who he’s talking about,” she explained. “My father was stationed on Earth for a while and I saw some movies about that Merlin. Strange, I never thought of him when I first met our Merlin. That was clever, Rex!”

The cougar stood up and took a bow. “Thank you,” he said with a smile.

Renny grinned at the passenger. “How can you be familiar with Earth’s legends, but know nothing about a common food like spaghetti?” he asked.

Rex raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t know about this spaghetti because I’ve never been to Earth. However, I think I may have seen the same movie she did. We get a lot of Terran movies imported to Kantus.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Renny agreed with a nod. “I’m from Gate City on Kantus, myself.”

“Really?” Rex asked. “I grew up in Martell! That’s where I’m headed after we land.”

Lorelei picked up both empty plates and took them to a large sink. “Do you know where he’s from, Renny?” she asked.

The cheetah narrowed his eyes at the cougar with a grin. “Of course I do,” he answered. “Martell and Gate City were arch-rivals in college stamball competitions. Our two teams were pretty closely matched; it made the games intense and exciting.”

Rex chuckled. “Yeah, they were loads of fun.”

Renny leaned on the table toward their guest. “Did you ever play?” he asked. The cougar’s eyes lit up and he relaxed against the back of his chair as he began to regale his host with exploits of prowess.

Lorelei chuckled as the two males became immediately engrossed in sport talk. They’re all alike, she thought to herself with a smile.

***

The intercom chirped and Taro looked up from the entry she was writing in her Captain’s Diary. “Yes, what is it?” she asked.

“Captain, there’s a call for you from the home office.”

“Thank you, Justy. Could you route the audio in here for me, please?”

“Incoming.”

There was another small chirp and then Cindy Allport’s voice emanated from the intercom speaker. “Taro?”

“I’m here, Cindy. How are you?”

“I’m fine, thanks for asking. My boyfriend wants me to spend some vacation time with him on the Kellogg Islands to the south; it’s very romantic with white sand beaches, clear blue water, secluded huts and lots of decadent fruit!”

Taro smiled. “That sounds great. When do you leave?”

“Next month sometime, providing Merlin lets me take the time off. I’ve been out sick a lot lately, and he’s been taking up the slack for me himself each time I’m away.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Merlin. So, what can I do for you?”

“There’s no easy way to say this, but the delivery you’re on the way to pick up has been cancelled.”

“Please tell me you are joking.”

“I’m afraid not. Crimson Astrogation is undergoing investigation, so they’ve stopped all shipments of their spatial navigation systems for the time being. There was nothing we could do about a situation like this, but I’ve already picked up a replacement for you on Tanthe.”

“Tanthe? At least that’s in the same star system,” Taro replied as she set up a new file on her computer terminal. “Okay, give me the details and then I’ll have Renny plot a new course to reroute us to the Tanthean location.”

“Actually,” Cindy said, “You’re still going to Kantus. You have a passenger who paid for a ride to Gate City on Kantus. Once he’s disembarked, then you can launch to pick up your new shipment. At their current orbital relationships, it should only take you twenty hours to reach Tanthe from Kantus.”

Taro let out a snort. “Having passengers but no cargo is going to cost us time and money when changes in the schedule like this crop up. You know they’ve happened before, and things like this will happen again. I wonder if Merlin has really thought this through.”

“I admit it can be an inconvenience, but the decision was based upon having a regular shipment load for each voyage. The passenger space is only available as a courtesy to people like your Mr. Concolar. The only reason you’re empty now is because we altered the shipping schedules to allow you all to attend the wedding. We’ll try to keep your hold stocked for each trip from Tanthe and on out. At least your destination from Tanthe is still to Pomen.”

“Well, that’s good, at least. We can still meet back up with Max as scheduled.”

“That’s what I was trying for. By the way, how is your passenger doing?”

“He’s been with us a week now, but he seems to be finding enough to keep himself occupied,” Taro reported. “He’s caused no real trouble, but he has a bad memory for names and has been calling everyone by nicknames he creates on the spot. It was amusing at first, but it’s starting to annoy some of us. If we’re going to continue this facet of our business, we should probably invest in name badges for the crew to wear.”

“That’s a good idea, really.”

“Yeah, it was actually the passenger who suggested it.”

“That should be a negligible expense and we can probably hire a business on Tanthe to make them up for you while you’re en route. If Tina approves the funds, I’ll take care of getting them made for you in time for landfall.”

“Okay, that sounds good.”

“If you’re ready, I can transmit the details of your altered schedule.”

“I have a file open. Ready to receive.”

***

“Okay, Taro, Renny, you two can open your eyes now.”

When the pair looked up, Pockets and Justy were grinning ear to ear. “Ta-da!” they said in unison.

Sitting on the floor of the empty cargo hold were seven large engine components that the raccoon had built over the past week with the koala’s help, using the parts delivered to the ship while they were on Dennier. Each section was nearly as large as the engineer himself.

“Well, it certainly looks as if you’ve been productive,” Renny said as he scratched his head. “What are they?”

“All of these make up the heart of a small Particle Vault system!” Pockets said proudly.

“A Vault system?” Taro repeated in astonishment. “How?”

“Do you remember a few years back when I got shanghaied onto Natasha’s ship?”

“Yeah,” Renny said. “Merlin was mad at you for a week for wandering off into town when everyone had been ordered to stay on board while we were on Brandt. You probably would have died along with her on the Lady of Dreams as part of her crew if you hadn’t made a deal with Natasha to get out of there.”

Pockets nodded. “As part of that deal, she gave me a set of plans to convert the Blue Horizon’s engines to Vault capability, but they were encrypted. Neither Patch nor I were able to make any use of them, but even if we had, major structural alterations would have been required to our ship to make it work. I was supposed to get back with Captain Natasha for the key to decrypt the plans after she checked out some information I gave her, but we never got the opportunity to meet with her again.”

“So what’s the difference now?” Renny asked. Taro walked over to the nearest component, but she was no mechanic and it looked like just another heap of spare parts.

“The difference is that I discovered Natasha’s Rosetta stone to her encryption a couple months ago and was able to decipher them. I started going over the plans again and figured out a way to use them.”

“Wait a minute,” Taro said. “You told me the key to her code was a single word from the local language of the Hestran village where Natasha and I grew up together. How can an encryption as strong as the one you described be unlocked by a simple word?”

The raccoon stuck his hands into the pockets of his coveralls amidst the tinkling of tools, and then rocked back and forth on his heels. “No, it wasn’t that easy,” he admitted, “but each letter of the word written in your alphabet unlocked a series of encryption keys, and each of those keys unlocked even more parts to the cipher, and so on. The word itself was merely the catalyst to begin a chain reaction to translate the code to Standard!”

Renny looked over at Justy at the explanation, but the koala merely pointed at Pockets with a smile and replied, “What he said!”

“How did you get roped into his experiment?” the cheetah asked Justy.

“I’ve had some experience as a mechanic. I was bored and Pockets asked me to help out since Max was gone,” Justy replied.

“That’s very clever, Pockets,” Taro said. “I’m impressed. So… now that you’ve made the components, what do you intend to do with them? You already told us it would take a structural modification for us to use them on the Horizon. Are you asking permission to take us apart?”

Pockets snickered. “No, Captain, that’s not what I’m asking…exactly.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Renny muttered. Taro merely waited for the raccoon to continue. Pockets raised his short arms and gestured at the vessel around them.

“This is a different model ship than the one we were flying when Natasha gave me her plans,” he explained. “That G-model Okami would have taken a structural overhaul to get these components integrated into the engine system. We don’t have that problem with our current H-model design! Naturally, I’ve already measured the space of where it would need to go.”

“Naturally,” Renny remarked.

Taro swept a hand through the air over the engine parts beside them. “I know Merlin sometimes let you and Patch experiment with the systems to get more efficiency out of them,” she said, “but I don’t know if I want these things attached to our engine.”

“Why not?” Pockets asked in sudden distress. “Being able to fly faster would give us an edge over our competitors!”

Taro knelt down to look her diminutive friend at eye level. “Pockets, I admit Natasha’s engineers probably worked wonders on her ship,” she said, “but this kind of technology isn’t available to the public. After Natasha’s death, I heard there were massive efforts to locate her base of operations to exploit her technology. They found nothing, so the general assumption was that all her knowledge was aboard the Lady of Dreams when it was destroyed. What do you think would happen if the rest of the PA found out that our little shipping company possessed technology that has been obsessively sought after by virtually every world in the Planetary Alignment?”

Pockets shrugged his shoulders and looked down at his toes. “Merlin sent Natasha’s data crystals to Master Tristan on Sillon,” he said. “He thought that if Vault technology was made available to the PA, it should come from a source not related to anyone who had any prior contact with Natasha. Tristan is wise enough to handle revealing such a breakthrough slowly. If the Silloni are successful in using her plans to build new Vault ships, no one will think twice about a world so far away developing a way to travel vast distances quickly.”

“Hmm, I wasn’t aware of that,” Taro said. “Still, that didn’t answer my question.”

Justy looked hopeful. “We could say that we’re testing a prototype for the Silloni,” he offered.

“Either that, or we just don’t tell anyone that we’ve got it,” Pockets added. “We could use it only on special occasions; you know, if we fall behind on a delivery for one reason or another.”

Taro sighed and looked up at Renny for a long moment. The First officer raised an eyebrow and made a brief shrug of his shoulders. Finally, she stood up and gestured toward the parts again.

“Are you sure these things will even work with our engines?” she asked.

Pockets nodded as he looked at his and Justy’s handiwork. “Pretty sure,” he said confidently. “We won’t have the sophisticated power technology to make extremely long hops like the Lady of Dreams, but it would cut considerable time off our trips.”

“How long would the engines be offline if you two were allowed to install these things?” Renny asked. Taro gave him a dirty look, but remained silent.

“Four hours, tops,” the raccoon replied quickly, “and we’d still be traveling along our route on current inertia so it’s not like we’d be sitting still in space. The components are already built and ready for installation. We already mapped out our procedures on how to integrate these to our engines with minimal downtime – with no structural modifications to the ship!”

“Natasha’s plans were fairly specific for use with a typical Liquid Crystal LightDrive engine,” Justy added. “It would have worked on your old ship, if only the engine room had been larger. There will be plenty of space to spare even with our new components!”

Pockets and Justy both gave the Captain hopeful smiles, and the koala had his fingers crossed behind his back for luck.

Taro was quiet for a moment. Merlin may have jumped at such a chance to give the business an edge over competitors, but something of this magnitude was beyond a casual decision. However, the wolf was out of contact and she was captain of the ship, so weighing the advantages against the precautions lay fully on her shoulders. Still, he was one of the best engineers she had ever known, and he had discovered the decryption key and worked out the intricacies of the vastly superior technology with almost no assistance, so it was reasonable to trust his judgment here. The idea had merits, if they could keep its existence a secret for now.

“Let me think about it,” she said. “We may try it later, but we currently have a schedule to maintain where four hours of downtime would put us too far behind.”

“If the Vault works,” Pockets said with a smile, “we can make up whatever downtime we have with loads of time on the clock left over. We can get our passenger to Kantus faster, and then be on to our next assignment much quicker!”

“Yes, but if the Vault doesn’t work,” Taro reminded him, “We could lose another client by failing to meet a timetable. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but I promise I’ll give it some thought.”

Pockets’ countenance fell. He was out of arguments and it showed on his face. Justy patted him on the shoulder and looked back at the vixen with a disappointed expression.

“Listen, guys,” Taro said quietly. “You two have done a great job, and you have presented me with a nice little gift. However, give me a little time to weigh the pros and cons, okay?”

Pockets looked up at her and gave her a bit of a smile. “Sure,” he said. Justy merely nodded his agreement.

“Thanks.” Taro gave them a nod in return, and then turned back toward the lift. Renny followed beside her, but his eyes were off in the distance as he thought about the implications of Pockets’ request.

When they were out of earshot and inside the lift, Renny looked over at the vixen. “If the Blue Horizon was equipped with a mini-Vault drive,” he said quietly, “we could fit in more deliveries and bring in more income to the company, and since everyone but you is paid per-voyage, that’s more income to the crew as well. From what I heard about the Lady of Dreams, it could travel half-way across the Planetary Alignment in just minutes, instead of weeks!”

“I really don’t understand how that can work,” Taro said. “Pockets tried to explain it to me back when we first encountered Natasha’s ship over Brandt, but I’m afraid that kind of stellar engineering is beyond me. I don’t understand slipping outside of real space, hopping over imaginary valleys between mountain tops, and zipping past everything else.”

“Yeah, but just think about it. He said we wouldn’t have the power capabilities that Natasha had, but there would be no more long weeks of boredom while we get from place to place! With the Vault and our power reserves, we could probably cut it down to a few days.”

“Yes, I admit that would be great,” Taro said as the lift came to a stop, “but I can’t think of anything that would justify having the whole Planetary Alignment after us for our plans to the technology.”

“Well, as Pockets said, we could just use it sparingly instead of all the time,” Renny replied, “I’m sure it could come in handy in some cases, even if we don’t use it to its full potential.”

“Maybe,” Taro said. The pair of them stepped out from the lift, and suddenly their passenger blocked their way on his way in.

“Hiya, Foxy!” Rex said cheerfully. “Hey, Speedo! Fluffbunny said she’s going to make a new dish for everyone tonight and wants to make sure everyone is there on time! Just try not to get in my way, or I might eat your fingers off!”

“Uh, right,” Renny said as the cougar pushed his way between them and into the lift. Rex gave them a wave just as the doors closed.

“Yeesh, I can’t wait until we can get to Kantus to dump this guy,” Renny muttered. “The longer he’s with us, the more irritated I get.”

“I thought you got along with him, seeing as how you two are from the same area.”

“That wore thin very quickly. He claims he’s bad with names, but I think he’s using his nicknames just to needle everyone around him. I know he’s a paying customer, but I’m sick of having him on board.”

“Yeah, I think everyone else is too,” Taro said. “The sooner we can get him to Kantus, we...” She stopped suddenly, stared back toward the closed lift doors, and then looked back at her companion. She bit her bottom lip and then walked down the curved corridor to the nearest intercom panel. She tapped a couple pads and then waited.

“One engineer at your service,” said Pockets’ country drawl a long moment later.

Renny looked at Taro curiously, but she ignored him. “Pockets, this is Taro. You have permission to install and test your components, providing you can guarantee we won’t be down for more than your promised four hours.”

“You got it, Captain!” the raccoon exclaimed happily. “It’ll take us about an hour to get everything ready and then I will let you known when we will need to shut down the engines. Four hours after that, tops!“

“Thank you, Pockets.”

Renny blinked and twitched his tail. “Did I just miss something?” he asked. “What made you change your mind about Pockets’ little experiment so quickly?

“Our passenger, Mister I-can’t-remember-anyone’s-name-so-I’ll-just-make-up-my-own-whether-they-like-it-or-not…”

Renny grinned at her. “Yeah, that sounds like a valid decision-maker to me.”

Taro snorted. “My concerns still stand,” she said, “but we’re just going to consider this an experiment in research and development. If it works, we will let Merlin decide whether or not we’ll keep it, and what to do about its implications later.”

“If it doesn’t work,” Renny said, “then we’ll be four hours behind in our delivery with no way to make it up en route. It’s not like we can count on a strong tail wind out here, even if we’ll still be on inertia.”

“Let’s just hope Pockets is as good an engineer as he thinks he is. In the meantime, call the crew together on the rec deck. I want to explain to everyone what we’re about to do.”

“Rex, too?”

“No, this will be a staff meeting. He’s not invited.”

***

“Three hours and forty-six minutes!” Pockets’ voice said proudly from the bridge intercom speaker. “We’re ready to restart the LightDrive engine.”

“Okay, restart the primary system and then stand by,” Renny said. “I need to re-calculate our new heading so we don’t come out of the Vault inside standard shipping traffic.”

“Aye to that.”

Jerry looked over at the cheetah from the pilot’s center seat. Aside from Renny, the crimson fox was probably the most experienced pilot on board, and for an experiment such as this one, Taro wanted him at the helm.

“Where are we going to come out?” the doctor asked.

“Theoretically, about two hours outside the orbit of the Kantus moon,” Renny replied distractedly. He held up a hand for silence as he worked his figures.

The door opened and Taro walked in. She saw the navigator concentrating on his task and moved to the Com station without a word. She sat down, buckled her harness and then made a notation on her slateboard.

“What’s that?” Jerry whispered to the vixen.

“A signed non-disclosure legal document swearing our passenger to silence concerning our engine test,” Taro whispered back. “He wants to get to his lottery winnings quickly just as much as we want to get him there, so he was willing to sign.”

“I thought we all agreed at the staff meeting not to let him know about the Vault,” Jerry whispered in alarm.

“I didn’t tell him it was a Vault test,” Taro explained. “As far as he knows, our engineer is just experimenting with a standard LightDrive engine that could give us a tremendous boost for an edge against our competitors.” She held up the slateboard and added, “However, no matter the result, this will legally gag him from mentioning it to anyone else and the penalty for breaking it would cost him half his lottery winnings.”

“Ouch, that should keep him quiet.”

“Okay, I think that should do it,” Renny said after a moment. “I’m feeding the new coordinates to your panel, Jerry.”

“Receiving.” The pilot looked over at Taro and put his hands up on the guidance shifts. “Are we ready to give this a try?” he asked.

The captain opened her mouth to reply, but Renny spoke up first. “Have either of you been through a Vault jump before?” he asked.

Jerry shook his head, but Taro gave him a lopsided smile. “I probably went through one after we crashed on Crescentis and was transported to Pomen and Hestra on Natasha’s ship, but I was unconscious and have no memory of it,” she replied. “Why?”

Renny grinned. “A few of us were on the Lady of Dreams when Natasha transported the Blue Horizon inside her cargo bay to Argeia, so the rest of you will have a new experience today,” he said. “The first time through can play funny with your insides.”

Taro exchanged a quick look of concern with the doctor. “What kind of funny?” Jerry asked.

Without answering the question, Renny looked over at Taro. “I need the intercom to connect only to the engine room and the rec deck,” he said. “I don’t want our passenger to hear what I have to say to the crew.”

Taro furrowed her brow, but then she turned to the Com panel, tapped a series of controls, and gave him a nod.

“This is Damien,” the mastiff replied.

“Engine Room,” Justy’s voice came back.

“Sound off, is everyone there?” Renny asked.

“Lori, Amanda and I are here in the Galley,” Damien replied.

“Pockets and I are down here together with the engines,” the koala reported.

“We are about to give Pockets’ home-made system components a test, but first I wanted to give you a bit of a warning. If this works as planned, we’re all going to feel a little ill when we jump, but it will only be momentary. Natasha told us that the best thing you can do is hold your breath, close your eyes and then tense up so the effect on the body is somewhat muted. They say it gets routine as you get used to it, but the first time can be disorienting. I don’t know how well our inertial dampers are going to work with a Vault jump, so I would suggest everyone get strapped into a flight harness. It’ll take us a few moments to get up to standard cruising speed and then Jerry will announce when he’s ready to initiate the Vault. Prepare yourselves.”

The intercom chirped, so Taro switched the channel. “This is Taro, but we really don’t have time to chat,” she said.

“This is Pockets. One of the components we built enhances the inertia dampers,” he explained. “We shouldn’t need harnesses.”

“Maybe not,” Taro replied, “but since this an experiment, it’s better to play it safe.”

“Okie dokie. I’m going to monitor the systems to make sure the regular engines still operate normally. The new components should have no effect on the LightDrive until it’s switched on, but I want to be sure.”

“Keep me informed of any changes to the readings you think look the least bit unusual,” Taro said.

“Of course!”

The captain closed the intercom circuit and gave Jerry a nod. “Take us up to standard cruising speed. Once you’re sure our LightDrive still works as it’s supposed to, we’ll make our Vault test.”

“Aye, ma’am,” the pilot replied as he initiated controls for the standard engines.

Taro tapped another control on her panel and waited for the reply. A moment later, the intercom chirped.

“Uh, this is Rex,” said the cougar’s voice. “I hope I touched the right pad to reply.”

“Mr. Concolar, this is the captain,” Taro replied.

“What can I do for the lovely vixen? My schedule is open if you want a rendezvous.”

Taro grimaced. “I just wanted to inform you that our down-time is over and we are moving again.”

“Does this mean your Coongineer’s test worked? When do we arrive on Kantus?”

“We haven’t tested the upgrades yet, but the components are now in place. Once we get up to standard cruising speed, we will make an announcement over the intercom and then initiate the test.”

“Do I need to hold onto anything?”

“If you look to the left of your desk, you will see a panel in the wall that pulls out and locks down into a small seat. It’s equipped with a harness for emergencies. To be on the safe side, I suggest you strap yourself into it when we give the warning.”

“I found it. I’ll be strapped in when you give the word.”

“Very good,” Taro said. “If this works, we should be able to shave off a good deal of our remaining timetable and get you to Kantus in record time.”

“Here’s hoping your masked mechanic knows what he’s doing!”

***

“We have reached standard cruising speed, Captain,” Jerry said.

“What does spatial traffic look like?” Taro asked.

“Nothing within half a light-minute of us in any direction,” Renny reported. “This is a good time to do it.”

Taro heaved an audible sigh and then held up her hand with crossed fingers to her companions. She turned, activated the ship-wide intercom, and then gave the physician a thumbs-up.

“All hands, prepare for engine boost test,” Jerry announced throughout the ship. “Get into your harnesses.” Taro left the com channel open while the pilot quickly went through his checklist once more. A moment later, he was satisfied everything was ready, so he reached toward a new set of controls that Pockets had earlier added to the right side of the center seat console.

The male fox held down three recessed pads simultaneously until a diode went from amber to green, and then he flipped a single toggle. He looked over at Renny and Taro and gave them both a silent nod.

“Engine Room, prepare for system activation,” he announced when he held his finger above a large green touch pad.

“Engine Room ready,” said Pockets over the open circuit.

“We are go on Five… Four… Three… Two… One!”

Jerry quickly held his breath, closed his eyes, tensed his body as Renny had instructed, and then punched the green pad.

Outside the freighter, a ring of blue-white flame encompassed the entire vessel for a brief instant.

There was a momentary sensation that everything stopped: heartbeat, brain activity, metabolism and even time itself. Everyone on board collectively felt a cessation of all senses at once. It was not a sensation in and of itself, but the lack of sensation. Then it was a feeling of suffocation, of being buried alive while sliding sideways. Those who had clenched up were too focused on their straining bodies to appreciate the experience of the Vault fully, but those who remained relaxed were sickened by it. Jerry felt as if his stomach was about to heave violently, but then it was gone before his body could follow through.

He felt a little disoriented, as if his inner ear was a little wobbly, but it subsided as soon as he opened his eyes. Taro and Renny both still had their eyes clenched so he looked up at the system clock on his console and noted that only a moment had passed.

“Renny?” he asked in voice that sounded strangely unlike his own.

The cheetah looked around and blinked rapidly to refocus his eyes. “Yeah,” he whispered. “You okay?”

To his surprise, Jerry felt just fine. The momentary queasiness was gone already without any residual effects. “Yeah, I’m okay,” he said.

Taro opened her eyes and shook her head as if clearing out cobwebs. “Uh, that was… surreal,” she breathed; she looked up and out the forward windows at the stars. “Did it work? Have we gone anywhere?” she asked. Renny turned to his navigational console and tapped in some commands.

The intercom chirped. “This is the bridge,” Taro responded. “Please stand by while we get our bearings.”

“C-captain,” said Rex’s quivering voice. “I got s-sick on myself. C-can I go clean up?”

Taro looked over at Jerry, who gave her a nod. “Yes,” she told him, “it’s safe to move around now.” There was no reply, but the intercom chirped again on another channel.

“Did we make it?” Lorelei asked. “That was weird! I don’t see Kantus on the vidscreen.”

“Hold on,” Taro told her. There was another chirp, but before she could respond, Pockets’ voice issued from the speaker.

“Captain!” he exclaimed with a cough. “We have a component on fire down here that’s eating a lot of oxygen! We’re going to seal off the bulkhead and vent the atmosphere from the engine room!”

“Do it!” Taro replied quickly. “Report ASAP!”

“Aye, Cap’n!”

“The navigational computer is down,” Renny said after a moment, “but sensors are reading a nearby solar body, distance approximately ninety million miles.”

“Is it Anya?” Jerry asked. “Maybe we just didn’t make it far enough inside the Anya solar system to Kantus.”

“Without the nav computer, I’ll have to make calculations based on the positions of the stars themselves,” Renny replied. He opened a panel near him and pulled out a brass sextant from a form-fitted, padded drawer.

He glanced up through the forward windows and then gestured behind him at the physician. “I need you to reorient the ship so the local star is visible through the forward windows.”

“Coming right up,” the male fox replied. While the navigator prepared to take his readings, Taro moved past him to the environmental station.

When the ship was in position, Renny turned down the bridge interior lights and then leaned up close to the middle transparent vidscreen panel. He took a number of sightings in a short period, and then had Jerry turn the ship twice. In the meantime, Taro monitored the engine room readouts and spoke quietly to Pockets with a headset so not to disturb the navigator’s concentration.

Once she was satisfied that Pockets and Justy were okay and the engine room was once again pressurized, she let them go inspect the damage before she would make a decision on what to do. She moved to the sensor panel and examined the readouts on the nearby star system.

“We’re detecting five planets,” she said quietly. “One is a methane gas giant, two are dwarf planetoids, and the other two are similar in diameter to one another, about the size of Kantus and Tanthe.”

“Then that is Anya out there,” Jerry said with an air of relief.

“No...” Renny said with a side-glance at Taro’s readout. “Not enough planets and they’re in the wrong order.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Anya star system has seven worlds; within the Goldilocks Zone, Kantus and Tanthe are the third and fourth planets, respectively. This star only has five planets, and the two worlds that size are numbers two and four, with the fourth being the only one in the habitable zone. This is not the Anya system.”

“Are you telling me that the star system out there is not part of the PA?” Jerry asked as he looked up at the vidscreen.

“That’s right,” Renny replied as he took another sighting. “It’s not on any of the charts.”

“How can you be sure?” the male fox asked with a strange look on his face. “You said the nav computer was offline, so how can you know that’s not the Anya star system?”

“Jerry,” Renny said patiently, “I’m a navigator and you know I have an eidetic memory of the PA star charts. Before the jump, I familiarized myself with the present locations of Kantus and Tanthe in their orbits around their sun for my navigational calculations, and I can assure you that this isn’t the Anya system.”

Jerry walked over to the forward screen and swished his tail. “Then where the blazes are we?”

Renny lowered the sextant with his eyes closed, and made some mental computations. When he had reached his decision, he looked back at Taro with a strange expression on his face.

“What is it?” she asked.

“We’re north of the galactic plane, so we’re above that star system out there, but if my calculations are correct, we’ve overshot our goal by a number of light years.”

“Overshot?” Jerry asked. “How far?”

“Without instruments, I can’t give you a figure, but I do believe we’ve gone out toward the Rim, or beyond.”

Taro dropped her headset in surprise, and then scrambled to pick it up. “Beyond the Rim?” she repeated hoarsely. The intercom chirped and all three of them jumped. “This is Taro,” she said into her headset. She listened for a moment and shook her head. “No, Lori, we’re still trying to figure that out,” she said. “Please, just hold on until we have something. Yes, you can move around now.” She disconnected the channel, unplugged the headset from its receptacle, and then sat down in the nearest seat.

“I want you two to do what you can up here to get our navigational computer operational,” she said. “I’m going down to check in on Pockets and Justy. If the Vault system is out of order, it’s going to take us a while to get back to PA traffic with the LightDrive engines and I want to know what we’ll be facing if it comes to that. I’ll meet with everyone on the rec deck in two hours to discuss our situation, so if anyone else calls up here to ask, just tell them to cool their heels.”

“Justy’s our computer expert,” Renny reminded her. “If you can spare him from the engine room, he can be better utilized up here.”

“Yes, I know,” Taro replied as she headed for the door, “but he helped Pockets build those components and right now our priority is to get the engines back online, with or without the Vault. Just do what you can for now, and I’ll have Justy help you later when Pockets can do without him.”

***

Taro looked out at the faces of those who depended upon her leadership; some were seated and others were standing. The crew was her family, and even though they had a passenger amongst them, she was responsible for him as well.

“Okay, I’m not given to long speeches like Merlin used to make,” she said as she leaned back against the edge of the rec deck’s vidscreen terminal, “so I’ll keep this short.” The cougar’s hand went up, and Taro sighed inwardly. “Yes, Mr. Concolar?”

“How much longer before we get to Kantus?” he asked.

Not soon enough, Taro thought to herself. “A little longer than expected, I’m afraid,” she told him.

“Longer, but I thought…”

“Just a moment, Rex,” Renny said. “Let her explain.”

“Okay,” the passenger said with a frown.

“We have good news and bad news...” Pockets singsonged from the side. Taro gave him a dark look and his smile faded.

“That is essentially correct,” the vixen said. “First, the good news, I suppose. Pockets’ experiment did work. However, we didn’t arrive at our intended destination.”

“We didn’t go far enough?” Amanda asked.

“Actually, we went too far,” Taro explained.

“Too far?” several responded in union. Rex immediately sat down on the arm of the chair nearest to him beside Lorelei.

“That’s right. We overshot our destination by a number of light years,” she said. Several of them spoke up at once, making the conversation nothing more than confused yammering. “Listen,” Taro said in a loud voice over the din, “if you’ll hold all your questions for a few minutes, I’ll tell you about our situation.”

The noise faded and then everyone’s attention was on her again. “The upgrades took the ship faster toward our destination as expected, but our navigation computer crashed when the new system activated. We didn’t brake in time.”

“Yeah, it’d be hard to know when to brake when the whole trip lasts only a moment!” Justy said with a grin.

“That’s why we needed the nav computer,” Renny replied.

“I think we moved much faster than anything should,” Rex said as he sat back down with his thick tail in his lap, “but I don’t think your invention is going to sell well if it makes people sick!”

Taro opened her mouth for an explanation, and then thought better of it. That sentiment of his could conveniently keep him from inquiring further into the technology after they finally got him back to Kantus.

“Right,” she said. “I agree it will take more research and development. However, as it stands right now, we’re a long way from home with two major systems currently out of operation.”

“What systems?” Damien asked. “It’s not Life Support, is it?”

“No, it’s not Life Support,” the vulpine captain reassured him. “The nav computer is still down and the experimental engine components are also out of commission.”

“They can all be repaired,” Pockets piped up, “but it will take a while.”

“Is the LightDrive out?” Damien asked. “If that still works, we should get started on our way back.”

“The LightDrive engines are fine,” Pockets replied, “but we had a component fire in the engine room that’s depleted some of our air reserves. We probably wouldn’t make the distance back to Kantus before it ran out.”

“I thought our air was recycled,” Amanda said in alarm.

“It is,” Taro answered, “but with a depleted supply and nine sets of lungs, the reclamation unit would be over-tasked with carbon dioxide before we could reach PA traffic. Renny has calculated our position, and we’re about six months away from Kantus.”

“Six months!” Lori exclaimed. “I don’t want to suffocate!”

“You aren’t going to suffocate,” Pockets said with a shake of his head. “That’s a worst-case scenario if we head back to Kantus using only the LightDrive, but I’m confident that Justy and I can rebuild the components necessary to get our experimental unit operational again.”

“So, what do we do in the meantime?” Damien asked. “I don’t want to put a damper on Pockets’ optimism, but we’re going on the assumption that he can repair the unit. But… if he can’t, we’ll be dead before we make it back to the Planetary Alignment!”

Taro crossed her arms and nodded. “Now we’re back to where I was going with this,” she said. Everyone fell quiet and looked at her. “Using the LightDrive, we’re currently within a day’s travel to a habitable world orbiting a star that Renny has identified on the charts as TES.84497. Due to its significant distance from the rest of the PA, we have no knowledge that it’s ever been explored, not even by the Firebird Fleet, but our long-range sensors have scanned a habitable atmosphere with acceptable pressure and solar protection.

“Since we’re without the nav computer, Renny is going to pilot the ship manually and take us down to the surface. Once we’ve landed, the engines will be shut down so Pockets and Justy can work on the experimental unit. They may need help, so if they ask for your assistance, please give it to them. After landing, we’ll see about using the local atmosphere to replenish our internal capacity for the ride home, although we may have to filter it first. If the components aren’t reparable, at least we will have air to breathe on the long journey back.”

***

The Blue Horizon passed through the atmosphere without incident. Taro shut off the infrared filters on the forward window panels as Renny banked the aerodynamic saucer to the right to throw off excess speed. The sky below them was wispy with cirrus clouds, and the yellow sun above them reflected off the airborne ice crystals in vibrant rainbow colors. It only took a moment to descend through the thin cloud layer and Taro began scanning the ground far below for a good place to land.

“What’s it looking like down there?” Renny asked. He kept his eyes glued to his instrument readings, his hands steady on the guidance shifts.

“Unspoiled countryside,” the captain replied. “Not a city in sight and there’s no air traffic. I see natural lakes, small groups of trees scattered in green valleys, and open fields. There are highlands and other snow-capped mountains to the east.”

“In that case, I’m heading west to avoid the mountains,” Renny decided. “Find us a nice open—”

Pip… pip… pip… pip… pip…

“Huh? What is that?” Renny asked.

Taro got up and moved to the Com station with a puzzled look on her face. “It almost sounds like a standard landing beacon,” she said, checking the computer, “but it’s very weak.”

“How can that be?” the cheetah asked.

Taro looked up and out the forward windows. “I don’t know,” she replied. “The com channels are otherwise clear. The sensors don’t detect any other signs of technology.”

Renny frowned. “Can you pinpoint the beacon?” he asked. “Maybe there’s someone down there who can help us.”

“Maybe,” Taro muttered, “or it might just be a survey marker from some past visitor to this world. We’re so far from the Planetary Alignment that someone from other nearby stars may have explored this system, or it maybe it’s another of the lost Terran colonies.”

“Well, if the marker points us to a nice open field, we may as well set down there as opposed to anywhere else we might choose at random,” Renny suggested.

“Agreed. I have general coordinates of the signal, but it’s not strong enough for me to locate the exact spot.”

“That’s good enough. Is it near a field? That’s what I really need.”

Taro gave him a smirk. “Yes, it’s near to a field, a lake, some trees, and is not far from the highlands,” She handed him a scrap of paper. “Here’s your coordinates since the nav computer is still down.”

“Thanks, darling,” the cheetah replied with a toothy grin. He compared the figures with their present location depicted on his instruments, and began to work out his trajectory to the landing spot.

While he was doing that, Taro turned back to the Com station and picked up her headset microphone.

“All hands, this is the Captain,” she broadcast over the ship-wide intercom. “We will be landing shortly, but this planet may not be as untouched as we first thought. We’ve picked up what seems to be a weak landing beacon so we are currently making for its location. It is unknown if there is anyone down there, because the beacon itself is the only technology we have been able to detect on the entire planet. Once we are down, our priority is repairing the ship, so please be prepared to help out. We’ll not be resetting our shipboard clocks this time, but it appears to be early afternoon where we will be landing. Please keep in mind that we’re no longer within the established civilizations of the Planetary Alignment, which means things could be different here than we’re used to.” She looked over at her navigator, who had already plotted their course, and she briefly glanced at his instruments. “We should be landing in about twenty minutes.”

***

In her cabin, Lorelei looked up at the announcement with a toothy smile. “Yay!” she exclaimed with glee. She shed her flight harness and then moved into the back room with a purpose. She quickly stepped out of her garments and into the bathroom, where she grabbed up her favorite scented shampoo for a quick shower. A landing beacon meant people! If there were any local shops out there on this new world, she planned to make a good first impression to get the best deals.

She thumbed the control on a wall-mounted music player to fill the room with energetic music, and then she turned on the shower to a heavy amount of steam. Dancing even before she stepped into the shower, Lorelei was happy with the ship’s current situation even when everybody else saw it as a bad thing. She raised her voice to sing along with the music and began to run the water through her white fur.

A moment later, the captain’s voice once more issued from the intercom in the front room.

“All hands, listen up. Our doctor has reminded me that a cargo vessel like the Blue Horizon is not equipped with the sensitive biological scanners standard on exploration ships like the Firebird Fleet, so our standard PA-regulated inoculations may not be effective against organisms native to this place. The outside vegetation seems similar to what we have on some of the PA worlds, but until we can test the local atmosphere for harmful elements, I suggest we all stay indoors. Jerry will be testing air and soil samples, so please don’t disturb him until he can provide a report on the outside conditions.”

***

The Blue Horizon slowed to a hover over a large field analogous to waving wheat. When Renny fired the landing thrusters and lowered the landing gear, he hoped he wouldn’t be setting the field on fire. The elliptical flying saucer set down gently on the virgin soil and then the sound of the vessel’s engines fell silent across the region.

Outside the star freighter, nothing moved for several long moments, but then colorful indigenous birds and insects promptly ignored the large blue rock that had fallen from the sky to resume their peaceful existence. Renny let out the breath he’d been holding when there were no burning plumes of smoke beneath them.

Taro stared out the forward windows across the wheat field and saw trees and gently rolling hills not far away to their port side. Leaves fluttered on the trees and the wheat heads gently rocked with a light breeze. “It looks like spring out there,” the vixen said with a sigh, “peaceful and inviting.”

“Hopefully Jerry will give us some good news concerning the environment,” Renny replied while he shut down the flight systems.

“That’s providing that his tests can find and recognize local bacteria and viruses,” Taro said. Renny joined her at the window and slipped an arm around her waist. He looked out on the new land and smiled.

“I’d like the opportunity to get out in that field and run!” he said merrily. “I haven’t felt the need to take a run across the countryside since I was shot in Iverson, but looking out there now, my legs are practically flexing to get started!”

Taro grinned at him. “Well, cool your heels, lover,” she teased. “I don’t want anyone going outside until we know it’s safe. It would be a bad thing if we brought back some biological hazard with us to the rest of the PA.”

“Better not let anyone else look out the windows,” Renny quipped. “Once they see that field, those trees and that sky, you won’t be able to get any work out of anyone!”

“Speaking of work,” the vixen said, “I need to make sure Pockets has all the help he needs with the repairs.”

***

Lorelei walked through the field with a huge smile on her face. Her small pink nose twitched with the sharp scents as she tried to identify everything around her. The stalks of wheat came up to her shoulders and she idly wondered at the potential of the plant as a supplement to their food stores. She plucked the ripe head off one and rolled its seeds between her hands, watching the chaff scatter in the light breeze.

As she neared the far edge of the field with the Blue Horizon behind her, she glanced into the shadows of the nearby trees and wondered where the nearest store might be. A flash of bright color at her feet attracted her attention and she squatted to pick a bright yellow flower. It had a mixture of red and green filaments and it gave off a pleasant scent when she put it up to her nose. She sneezed and felt her eyes water, dropping the flower as she rubbed her eyes. She felt fine a moment later, but left the flower where it had fallen.

She looked back toward the Blue Horizon, wondering why no one else had ventured outside. She surmised that her crewmates had probably already gone into town, leaving her behind. She pouted for a moment, but then she had a strong sensation of being watched. A shiver ran up her spine and she slowly looked around as the eerie feeling persisted.

Suddenly afraid, she squatted down in field, lowered her ears, and then became as still and quiet as the prey species she was descendant from. Only her wide blue eyes moved as she watched and waited. Everything around her was silent, with only the gentle breeze waving the heads of the tall, wheat-like stalks. She soon heard unfamiliar birdsong and the buzzing and tiny clicks of insects, but otherwise she could hear nothing else.

She began to wonder if it was her imagination playing tricks on her. She started to get back to her feet, but then she stopped when she heard a giggle. A giggle? Her ears went up and rotated as she listened quietly, trying to locate the source of what she thought she heard. There it was again — more giggling, but this time accompanied by indistinct whispers.

She was about to call out, but then suddenly she heard scampering through the field in places all around her. She grew very frightened as the realization came that something was stalking her!

She opened her mouth, wanting to scream, but she also didn’t want to give away her position. She’d not thought to bring a DataCom or a weapon with her, and she was too far from the Horizon to make a run for it. Her heart was beating rapidly and her nose was twitching, but despite the urge to run, she felt frozen in place.

There was a strange, yet familiar scent on the wind, but she couldn’t readily identify it. All she could see was the wheat all around her, and then suddenly a white furry arm reached out and took her by the wrist.

Lorelei jumped up and began to shriek, but then a lapin male face emerged over the arm and placed a gentle hand over her mouth. Lori’s breath caught in her throat and she began to shake all over. Her eyes were as wide as they could possibly go, but the face that looked back at her seemed puzzled by her reaction to his presence.

He released her wrist and then pressed two fingers to his bifurcated upper lip, but Lori didn’t understand the meaning. She swallowed back her fear and tried to calm herself. He removed his hand from her mouth and gave her a slight nod. Not knowing what else to do, she nodded back to him. He’d not harmed her, only restrained her from running or causing noise. Perhaps there was something still out there that he didn’t want her attracting its attention.

The young buck had fur that was all white like her own. He had an impressive, broad-shouldered physique like that of a professional football player, with arms that looked as if he could possibly pin her in a vice-like grip. He wore only what looked like a loose pair of shorts dyed to match the color of his blue-gray eyes, and had a simple pendant made from a polished amber stone upon his chest. Although he seemed like a robust specimen, Lorelei sensed fear from him.

He made some hand gestures that she didn’t recognize, but when he realized she didn’t understand, he eased up on her elbow, laid his long ears backward, and stood up to a stoop. She rose with him, keeping her ears down too, as they moved their heads just to the top of the wheat stalks. When she could see, they were facing the Blue Horizon, and then she understood.

This male was warning her, another rabbit, of the danger of what looked to be a large blue something that had come down from the sky. He didn’t seem afraid of her, so he may not have actually seen her come out through the airlock. She put a hand on his arm, and when he looked back at her, she nodded with a smile of understanding. The male nodded in return, and then pulled her back down to squat low to the ground.

He whispered something in a language she didn’t understand, and suddenly a dozen small rabbit children emerged all around them; there didn’t seem to be any kits older than five or six summers. The adult male looked around at them with two fingers pressed to his upper lip and the kits grew completely still and quiet. Lorelei was amazed at their sudden appearance and their obedience.

The adult male then leaned in so close to her that their whiskers brushed together and he put his lips next to her left ear. He whispered something in his language to her, but as before, she didn’t understand his words. She did close her eyes, however; his musky scent was pleasing in his closeness.

Likewise, the male’s nose quivered as he took in her strange scent. He’d never encountered perfume before and seemed puzzled at the odd aroma. It was a pleasant scent, but completely unknown to him.

He pulled back far enough to look into her eyes with puzzlement at her lack of response. He repeated his words, but when she again didn’t appear to understand, he frowned deeply. He glanced back in the direction of the alien thing and then took Lori by the hand. He spoke in quiet whispers to the children, and then they all suddenly disappeared back through the wheat stalks. He gestured in what Lori thought was an invitation for her to join him and then the two of them got up together, although they crouched to remain hidden beneath the wheat.

He led her by the hand away from the Blue Horizon and she cast a brief glance behind her. She no longer felt threatened by this buck and his large litter of kits, so she allowed herself to go with him willingly.

***

The intercom chirped and Jerry looked up from his microscope. He reached over to his com terminal and tapped a control. “Sickbay,” he said.

“Jerry, is the captain in there?”

“No, Damien, I am alone,” the fox replied. “I am calibrating my instruments in preparation to test our new planet.”

“Hmm, okay. I thought she was headed up to see you. If you see her, please have her contact me in my office right away.”

“I will,” the physician replied. The circuit disconnected, but before he could go back to his microscope, the door opened. Taro walked in, followed by Amanda.

“I brought you some help, Doctor,” the vixen told him. “She can help with whatever you need in your study.”

“Thank you, I can use her,” Jerry replied with a smile toward the lithe coyote. “Captain, Damien needs you to contact him ASAP. He’s down below in his office.”

Taro frowned, but moved directly to the intercom. A moment later, she opened the connection at the familiar system chirp. “This is Damien,” the load master’s voice said.

“You needed me?” Taro asked.

“Captain, I just found the primary airlock open to the outside.”

Taro’s tail twitched. “I thought I ordered everyone to stay on board.”

“Yes, you did. Nevertheless, it’s open.”

“Close it and lock it with a security code. With it open, our air may already be contaminated, but I don’t want to expose ourselves any more than we have to.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Taro punched the ship-wide intercom button in irritation. “All hands, please gather at the Galley — immediately.” She cut off the circuit and turned to her companions. “You two are excused,” she said. “I just want to get a tally of the others to see who might be missing from our ranks. I don’t think anyone on the crew would violate my orders, so I have a hunch that it was our passenger who went out the airlock.”

“I’ll finish calibrating my instruments and then suit up to test the air in the hold before I go outside for our samples. I just hope my simple lab will be able to detect and handle any foreign agents that might be harmful to us.”

“Just do the best you can,” Taro said. She gave a weary look toward Amanda and then was out the door.

The vixen stormed around the corridor to the nearest lift, but stopped short when Rex Concolar stepped out of his cabin toward her.

“What’s going on, Captain Lady?” he asked around a toothbrush. There was a towel draped across his bare shoulders and he used it to daub at a bit of foamy blue-green toothpaste on his lips.

Taro was at a brief loss for words, but she motioned him to join her in the lift. “I just need to get a head-count,” she told him. As they ascended to the upper deck, Rex continued to brush at his teeth, but when they stopped, Taro looked at him hesitantly. “Have you been on the cargo deck, Mr. Concolar?” she asked.

He shook his head and then turned away to empty the contents of his mouth into the folds of his towel. “Not since I came on board,” he replied when they stepped out into the recreation deck. “I was told to stay on the upper decks.” He dropped his towel next to the lift door and then followed her to the Galley where the rest of the crew waited for her already. Almost everybody.

Renny sat at the head of the dining table and Damien stood beside him with his arms crossed. Justy and Pockets were both seated at the long table. Rex took a seat next to the raccoon.

“Jerry and Amanda are in Sickbay. Where’s Lori?” Taro asked with an edge to her voice.

No one spoke up, but the captain didn’t see any deception on the faces of those who looked back at her. Justy shrugged his shoulders and said, “I haven’t seen her since lunchtime.”

Taro looked first to Renny, and then to Damien. “Why would she leave the ship against orders?” she mused aloud.

“Bun-bun’s gone outside?” Rex asked in alarm. “I thought you said it could be hazardous to our health out there.”

“I found the primary airlock open a few minutes ago and called the captain,” Damien reported. “Lori’s the only one of us missing.”

“That defenseless rabbit’s outside in an unknown environment!” Rex exclaimed, suddenly agitated. “She could be in serious danger!”

“Yes, that’s why I ordered everyone to stay on board,” Taro reminded him. “I thought I explained my reasons clearly enough.”

“I volunteer to go after her!” the cougar said valiantly. He turned and took two steps toward the lift before Damien grabbed his belt.

“Hold on, Rex,” the mastiff said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“No one else is going outside,” Taro said firmly. Renny walked across the room to a com terminal and keyed in the combined frequencies of all the ship’s DataCom units and ship-wide intercom simultaneously

“Lori? This is the Blue Horizon,” he said into the com microphone. “Are you there?” Everyone grew quiet to listen for a response as it echoed from the overhead intercom. After a minute, Renny tried again. “Lori, this is Renny. Please respond.” He repeated his message several more times before he sighed with a frustrated look toward the vixen.

The intercom chirped suddenly.

“Lori?” Renny asked.

“No, this is Amanda. What’s going on?” she asked.

“We think Lori’s gone outside,” Justy replied.

Jerry’s voice came back in alarm. “We haven’t been out to make our tests of the environment yet!”

Taro set her jaw and thought for a moment. Then she walked to a storeroom closet and said, “I want everyone to take binoculars. Get to the cabin windows and start looking for her visually. With hope, she won’t have wandered off too far and one of you can spot her.” Looking up at the ceiling intercom speaker, she added, “Doc, in the meantime, I want you and Mandy to go ahead with your task. Renny and I will also suit up to go look for Lori outside. If she’s been injured or is incapacitated in some way, we’ll be able to bring her back, but I’ll need you to be nearby in case we need your help.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jerry’s voice replied. “Amanda, let’s get suited up.”

“I’m right behind you,” the coyote answered.

Pockets took a pair of binoculars the vixen was passing out from the closet. “Taro, you and Renny may not need to go outside,” he said. “I can send Moss out to look for Lori. It can scan for things you might miss and it can be easily sterilized in the airlock before coming back on board the ship. It can’t carry her if she’s injured, but it can lead you to her location if you do have to go out in suits.”

“That’s a good idea, Pockets,” Renny said.

“Of course it is,” the raccoon replied with a smile. “All my ideas are good.”

***

“Lor-eh-lye… My name is Lorelei,” she tried again with a hand to her bosom. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be a common reference in their languages with which to work. She sat cross-legged in the grass below a large tree with triangular leaves, facing the lapin local. The small bunny kits were scattered out on the grass around them, either dozing or playing quietly with one another. The two adults had been attempting to communicate for the greater part of an hour without success.

Due to the transient lifestyle growing up in a military family, Lori knew several languages used in areas of the Planetary Alignment, but there was nothing in common with the tongue spoken by her new companion. It didn’t sound difficult to pronounce, but unless she knew the meanings and syntax, she might speak in gibberish if she tried it.

About the only thing she had been able to understand was the name of her companion. As far as she could tell, the buck said his name was “N’iik” as he put a hand up to his forehead, his palm facing outward. He tried to convey other words to her as well, but nothing else made any sense to her. Lori tried once more, unwilling to give up.

“Lorelei…”

N’iik tried to repeat her name, but he stumbled over the pronunciation. Lori’s eyes lit up and she tried a different tactic. “Lor-ee,” she said, using the hand gesture to her forehead. “I am also called Lori.”

N’iik watched her lip movements as she repeated the shortened name a few more times. Then he opened his mouth and said “L’ree.”

“Yes!” Lorelei exclaimed. She clapped her hands and then nodded to him with a wide smile. “That’s close enough for me!”

“L’ree.”

“Nick.”

N’iik seemed satisfied that they had finally made their introductions, but the lack of progress with the rest of their speech bothered him. He only knew the language spoken by his people, never having heard another tongue before. He briefly wondered if the fault lay with himself, since he didn’t appear to have the capability to understand this cute doe. Where she had come from, he couldn’t guess. Some of the other lapin communities spoke with different dialects, but they all shared the same common language. What was so different about this one?

He said something quietly to the kits and then took a quick head-count to make sure the youngsters were all accounted for as they gathered close around. Then he slipped his hand into Lori’s and gestured for her to stand up. Retaining her hand, he pulled her along with him further through the trees away from the blue thing in the field, a dozen bunnies in tow.

Lorelei followed along with him in fascination. She didn’t know where he was leading her now, but after a time, she could hear other voices. Perhaps he was taking her to his town where she could do some shopping. She’d love to have a souvenir from this quaint place.

She felt a tug on the rainbow tie-dyed tee shirt she wore and she looked down at a small lop-eared bunny who wandered along beside her. The kit held up a small handful of tiny blue flowers, and she took them from the child with a gentle smile. The little bunny seemed pleased that her gift had been accepted and she bounced up ahead of the adults in glee.

The ground beneath their feet meandered, and they were soon walking up a hill under tall trees with their lowest branches far above her head. When they crested the rise, the trees thinned and the area opened out onto a hilly plain that contained N’iik’s village. Lori found it of interest that all the homes and other structures were built into the sides of the surrounding hills, rather than buildings built on top of the ground. They were similar to some of the warrens on Mainor where lapin communities had once existed.

There were no doors that she could see, but over the main openings into the homes were long, split curtains of pastel colors that were woven with artistic designs. Small windows in the hillsides were also covered with similar curtains that wafted gently in the breeze.

At first, Lorelei thought the place was completely primitive, but she saw numerous tools in use made from many different materials, including a metal with an amber tint, and some were very meticulous and specialized. She saw nothing resembling mass transportation, however, nor did she see any non-sentient pack animals. This was simply a complete lapin community that appeared to be very much alive.

Rabbits of all shapes, sizes, colors and fur patterns moved around quietly, entertained in various tasks, and several of them stopped what they were doing to look at her in curiosity as she passed. Clothing was minimal and similar to what N’iik wore, mostly just practical enough to provide some modicum of modesty, although there were some who wore nothing but their naturally grown fur.

N’iik was apparently well known in the village, and no one seemed distressed by his strange companion dressed in brilliant tie-dye colors. It was probably not uncommon for rabbits from other villages to wander in to their territory.

The dozen rabbit kits still surrounded the two adults as N’iik led them all to a small copse of trees near the center of the village. Lori correctly surmised that the area was a common gathering place when he walked to a basket made of woven grasses hanging from a tree. He took down the basket and held it out for her to see. Inside were breads, fruit and other food items she didn’t recognize, but she politely declined. N’iik used a curved knife in the basket to carve off bits of fruit for the children, and then he sent them out across the soft grass beneath the trees to play.

N’iik carved off another piece of fruit and took a bite, and Lori could smell a sweet aroma from it. She signaled to him that perhaps she would try the fruit, and he seemed pleased when she took one from him. She bit into it and was rewarded with a delicious juicy flavor unlike anything she had ever tasted before. If there were a way to communicate with this buck, she would ask to take some of the fruit back to the ship for her crewmates to try.

Another lapin male approached them and he squatted down beside them with a few quiet words to her companion. This person had brown fur with bits of white here and there, and one black ear, and like N’iik, he wore only a pair of shorts in the warm weather.

N’iik gestured toward Lori as he spoke with the newcomer, and then the buck turned to look at her. She heard N’iik speak his version of her name, and then the brown male nodded. He took her gently by the hand with a smile, and put his other hand to his forehead, the palm outward. “J’rran,” he said.

Lorelei put her free hand up to her forehead in like manner and said, “L’ree.” She gave him a pleasant grin when he lightly stroked the fur of the arm he still held.

J’rran settled down in front of her and began to speak to her. His voice was light, but held a different dialect than the language spoken by N’iik. Lorelei realized what he was trying to do, but it was to no avail. Lori simply didn’t know their language and couldn’t understand their words. Given time, she might learn a few of their words and phrases, but the Blue Horizon was rarely ever down on a planet longer than a few days and she doubted that would be long enough to learn to converse with her new friends.

***

Jerry knelt down in the wheat field holding a collection kit with some difficulty. He wore a self-contained environmental suit, but since they were in a planetary atmosphere, he didn’t have the suit pressurized to full capacity. Still, the suit was bulky and the tail pouch was cumbersome. He had a little difficulty maintaining his balance and he had to watch his step since he was unable to rely on his tail to counter his movements. He had already gathered up air samples in containers filled with a thin, clear gel to trap molecules of pollens and other airborne agents. He had gathered wheat seeds, and was now digging into the rich soil for a spoonful. He planned to gather leaves and bark from the nearby trees, but was uneasy about going too far from the ship.

Inside the blue freighter, Pockets was unhappy that he had been stuck on the upper level along with everyone else with binoculars looking for their errant rabbit. He felt his time could be better utilized in the engine room repairing the damage done by his experiment. As yet, there had been no sign of Lorelei within sight of the vessel.

Out farther from the Horizon, Moss floated quietly through the trees in programmed search of the bunny. Its sensors were calibrated to maximize its scanning field, but it had not yet detected the presence of the rabbit. Its course didn’t take it in the direction that Lori had actually gone, so it could be some time before the small flying saucer might find her.

***

J’rran sat back on his tail, disappointed at the lack of progress he had made trying to communicate with the odd female visitor. Both of the males were usually possessed of almost infinite patience, but after a while, even that could wear down. Neither he nor N’iik could guess what far away community this doe had come in from, but both secretly wondered if she might have a type of mind madness that drove her to speak gibberish. Her language was just as insurmountable to them as theirs was to her.

L’ree seemed friendly enough and she didn’t seem to be a threat to the village, but unless they could find a way to talk, it was unlikely that she would be welcome to stay.

Lori’s general light attitude also showed signs of the strain and she no longer smiled openly. If one of the bunny kits came up to her, she was compassionate and gentle with a smile, but as soon as the child had gone, the weariness returned to her face. She began to entertain doubts of finding souvenir or clothing shops, and wondered if she should just return to the Blue Horizon.

N’iik had been silent for a long time while J’rran tried to make himself understood to L’ree, but now that all three of them had grown quiet, his thoughts returned to the field where he’d found the strange doe. It was only then that he remembered the large blue thing that sat in the wheat field.

He gestured toward J’rran and told him about seeing the giant blue rock fall from the sky, accompanied by bright star-lights and a hot breath that stirred up the ground before it settled lightly in the field. J’rran’s eyes grew wide at the tale, and then he looked over at Lori as if a new thought had occurred to him.

Lorelei watched the two bucks suddenly engage in an animated conversation, and she was sure she heard her name mentioned several times. She was tired and ready to take a nap, but she decided to see if there were any new developments.

The conversation came to an abrupt end and then J’rran got to his feet. He gave Lori a nod and then he left them. N’iik turned toward Lori and gave her a tired smile, but the look in his eyes gave her new hope. He just looked like someone who had a plan.

Most of the children had dozed off in spots of warm sunshine that came down through the trees, so N’iik roused them all. He gathered them around, spoke a few words, and then held out a hand to Lori. She took it without hesitation and then he led them all farther across the village.

They arrived shortly in front of a curtained doorway and N’iik said something to the bunnies. They obediently settled down on the side of the grassy hill, some of them still groggy from their earlier nap that they curled up against one another and immediately went back to sleep.

N’iik then called to someone inside the warren and waited. There was a muffled reply from inside, and the buck again took Lori by the hand to pull her inside with him. They passed through a split in the pale green curtains and into the darkness beyond. Lori’s eyes adjusted quickly and she saw the floor of a room covered by woven blankets and pillows. Incense burned somewhere in the midst of a natural, earthy aroma. Candles burned on small, three-legged tables near walls shored up by polished timber. Chimes made from amber metal hung from the ceiling near a covered window. A sturdy wooden table with five chairs topped in pillows was set up beside a small fireplace with a stone hearth. The place had a comfortable feeling of home and Lorelei felt at ease.

A tunnel at the back of the room probably led off to other chambers and she could hear approaching movement. A plump doe with eyes of deep brown and light tan fur came out into the room and looked at N’iik curiously. She wore a simple yellow apron, with three hand carved wooden bangles on one wrist. Several small bunnies that were not much younger than N’iik’s children were followed her out among the pillows.

N’iik said something with hand gestures toward Lori, and it was only then that the doe seemed to notice her. The female’s eyes widened as she looked over Lorelei’s colorful garments, and then a partial smile crossed her face as she locked eyes with her. The doe appeared to study her carefully, but then she cleared her throat and spoke.

“Hello, dear,” the newcomer said in perfect Standard. “My name is K’lssi. How may I help you?”

“Oh!” Lori’s eyes opened wide, but there was a pleased smile across her lips. She put a hand up to her bosom and replied, “You surprised me! I was beginning to think no one here could understand me!”

“My real name is Calissa Thalia,” K’lssi explained patiently. “I was born on Mainor, but I have been on Se’rei for the past six years with my new family.”

“Serray?”

Calissa smiled as she shooed her children out the door past N’iik. “That’s what the inhabitants of this planet call their world,” she said quietly.

N’iik sat down on the fireplace hearth and watched the two females with rapt attention. He couldn’t understand their words, but he seemed fascinated by their exchange and pleased that someone could finally comprehend the strange white doe’s tongue.

Lorelei giggled and moved forward to take the woman’s hand. “I’m glad to meet you, Calissa. I am Lori Easter. Our ship had some engine trouble and we landed on Se’rei to make repairs.”

Calissa tilted her head, making her long ears waver in the air. “You’re a long way from home, Lori. Has the Planetary Alignment really expanded this far out beyond the Rim?”

Lori shook her head. “Oh, heavens, no. I heard our captain say it would take us nearly six months to get here with the LightDrive. Our engineer was experimenting with a new engine technology, but he says our navigation system wasn’t sensitive enough to stop us in time. We went too far.”

Calissa raised an eyebrow and gestured toward chairs topped with hand-made pillow cushions. “What kind of new technology?” she asked with an odd expression.

When they sat down, Lori put a finger to her chin and looked up toward the ceiling as she tried to remember. “I think Pockets said it was called a Party Vote drive, or something like that. Some pirate lady he met up with a few years ago shared it with him, but he’s only now just tried it out.”

“Natasha!” Calissa said hoarsely. She poured water from an urn on the table beside them and took a long drink from a carved wooden mug.

“Oh, you knew her?” Lorelei asked curiously.

Calissa looked over at her and then stared for a long moment. Finally, she cleared her throat and spoke in a quiet voice.

“Natasha Khasho was my captain,” she explained. “I served under her on the Lady of Dreams for three years as an engineer.”

A small, lop-eared youngster suddenly peeked over the edge of the table at Lorelei and stared up at her with wide eyes. Lori winked at the kit as Calissa picked up the small female and set her on her lap.

“How did you wind up here?” Lori asked as she wriggled her nose at the youngster. The child giggled and hid her face in her mother’s simple robes.

“Do you know how a Particle Vault drive works?” Calissa asked. Lorelei gave her a blank look for a moment and then shook her head silently. The tan rabbit pursed her lips and then sighed inwardly. “Well, let’s just say that Captain Natasha was a genius who employed other geniuses that helped her develop the Particle Vault drive, a system that allows a vessel to travel unimaginable distances in a short moment of time by slipping outside normal space. If Natasha shared her technology with your engineer, then he must have done her a great service for such a reward.”

“That’s good, huh?” Lori asked almost absently. Her attention was on the child in her companion’s lap, but she was still listening. “I mean, that would make trips faster, wouldn’t it? That’s what happened to us.”

Calissa nodded. “With such a system at her disposal, Natasha often made time just to explore numerous regions of space out beyond the Planetary Alignment.” She gestured toward the sunshine outside the door with a hand as she bounced the child on her knee. “The Lady of Dreams came upon this star system on its third Vault jump out into unexplored space. It was the first star with a habitable planet we’d come across, so we were jubilant. Unfortunately, that made us careless when we landed to investigate.”

“Careless?”

Calissa smiled. “We didn’t take any precautions against a possible sentient race living here, and these people found us. Fortunately for us, they were timid and fearful of the aliens who landed near their village making crop circles in the wheat field. Natasha’s first inclination was to just go and leave them alone, but a lone male named N’maa approached us before we could depart. He was either braver than the rest - or more foolhardy - for coming close to our landing party that consisted mostly of predator types.”

“I’d say he was brave,” Lori said with a side-glance toward the quiet N’iik.

“I’d have to agree with you,” Calissa said with a smile. “N’maa assumed he would be safe since there was already a rabbit in their midst – me. Fortunately for him, he was right.”

“Then what happened?”

“We couldn’t understand one another,” Calissa replied. “I’ve always suspected Se’rei was one of the lost colonies of Earth that was just too far away to maintain any contact. Something must have happened early on that knocked the settlers back to a non-technical society. I’ve never seen any kind of historical records, so we may never know what happened. If it is one of the lost colonies, they’ve been left alone for nearly three hundred years and seem to have developed their own language. There are a number of other lapin villages I know of, but everyone speaks the same common tongue. Without contact with other outside races, any similarities between the languages of the PA have long since disappeared. It made attempts at communication really difficult.” Calissa shrugged and then smiled at a memory.

“One thing was certain, though. N’maa was extremely interested in me and hardly left my side. Natasha felt that so long as no one on her crew was hostile to the locals, they should be safe enough to stay a few days and collect local flora and mineral samples before the Lady headed out again.”

Another bunny kit crept into the room and stopped beside Lorelei. It was a small male with tan and white fur, and he looked up at her expectantly. When Lori smiled down at the toddler, he broke out into a grin and immediately held up his hands to her. Lorelei looked to the child’s mother, who gave her a quiet nod, and then she picked up the kit in her arms. He then snuggled up to her and closed his eyes with a tiny yawn.

“Yep, that’s a sign you’re a good person,” Calissa said with a chuckle. “T’raf won’t go near anyone he distrusts, and if he’s settled down for a nap, I suspect he’s sure you’re mommy material.”

Lorelei gently stroked the youngster’s ears and saw a contented ripple move across his face. “I’ve always wanted kits of my own,” she said quietly, “but I just can’t seem to make myself settle down anywhere. I was part of a military family that moved around a lot, and I just kept moving around when I got out on my own.”

Calissa nodded in understanding. “You sound like I was,” she said, “but by the time we found Se’rei, my contract with Natasha had expired. The captain expressed interest in retaining me, and I fully intended to stay on, but I’m afraid N’maa’s attentions distracted me.”

“Does that mean you and he…?”

“Yes, I became his mate. Even though we couldn’t speak one another’s language, certain types of communication are understood easily enough.” She said this last with a mischievous wiggle of her eyebrows. Lori laughed and suddenly realized that N’iik was standing beside her. She’d not seen him get up from the hearth. He squatted down beside her, but his eyes were on the toddler in her lap.

“I believe N’iik’s just as surprised by T’raf’s confidence in you as I am,” Calissa said quietly. At the mention of his name, the buck looked back at her and said something that made her smile.

Lori smiled. “So his name is Nick!” she said. “I wasn’t sure, since we didn’t communicate very well.”

“Your pronunciation is off a little, but otherwise yes, that’s his name.”

Lori seemed lost in thought for a moment, but then she slowly returned her attention to Calissa. “If you couldn’t understand one another, how’d you make a life here?”

“It took time,” the woman answered. “This is a slower society and these people have bottomless amounts of patience, it seems; everyone took part in helping me settle in once N’maa accepted me as a mate. Although their language isn’t related to any others in the PA that I know of, it was relatively simple to learn over time with a whole village of willing teachers.”

“Do you miss life in the PA?” Lori asked as N’iik settled down on a floor pillow beside her chair.

Calissa nodded with a wan expression. “Sometimes. I am surprised that Natasha hasn’t come back to visit, but I suppose she’s found other things to do with her time. I’ve kept a solar-powered landing beacon active for her.”

Lori tilted her head. “I don’t know of any easy way to tell you,” she said quietly, “but Natasha died when the Lady of Dreams was destroyed in the Siilv War by the Kastans.”

Calissa froze. Nothing moved, not even her small pink nose. It seemed like she even stopped breathing for a moment, but finally moisture rimmed her eyes. “Natasha is... uhm... she’s gone?” she asked in a whisper. “Destroyed, you say… by the Kastans?”

Were it not for the kit in her lap, Lori would have reached forward and laid a hand on the tan doe’s arm. Calissa remained quiet for another moment and then she wiped away the wetness in her cheek fur. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “Natasha was good to me... was good to a lot of people.”

“That’s what Pockets says,” Lori replied. “He said she was branded a pirate, but the things she did amounted to a greater good in the long run.”

Calissa nodded almost absently. “I can’t believe she was killed by the Kastans,” she said with sudden venom. Then she deflated just as quickly. “They killed her over some Siilv, you say? That just doesn’t sound like her style at all. Natasha frequently traded with Argeia, but to steal from them…?”

Lori shook her head. “No, they didn’t fight her over Siilv – that was a war between Argeia and other PA worlds that tried to take the Kastans’ Siilv just after they joined the Planetary Alignment.”

“Then what—?”

“During the fighting, the Kastans went after the Hestran monarch’s ship, but Natasha put the Lady of Dreams between it and one of their big ships for protection,” Lori explained as she tried to recall what she had seen on the Interstellar News Network. “I understand that Natasha took out the dreadnaught, but the Kastans retaliated with the weapon they used to smash Mainor – no, that’s wrong… not the same weapon, but they used something else no one else had ever seen before. The Lady of Dreams was destroyed.”

Calissa’s mouth fell open. “What... what do you mean, they... smashed Mainor?” She had been away from the Planetary Alignment so long that all of this was big news to her.

Lori nodded. “I don’t know what they did, but the whole of Mainor is now just fused rock with a poisonous atmosphere. Some say they somehow punched a hole in the planet.”

“My family was... was on Mainor. Why would they attack Mainor?” More silence. “Were... were there any survivors?”

“Only those who were already off-world when it happened,” Lorelei answered. “The Kastans gave no warning to the planet before they attacked.”

Calissa swallowed. “No, I meant survivors from the Lady of Dreams.”

“Yeah, there were,” Lori said. “I heard that quite a bunch abandoned ship at the captain’s orders before it was destroyed.”

“Then how do you know that Natasha didn’t make it?”

Lori frowned. “The last person to see her alive had a brief stay with us on the Blue Horizon,” she replied. “He said the captain forced him off the ship in the last life pod. The Lady of Dreams was destroyed just after.”

“Who said that?”

“I think his name was Tim... Yeah, it was Tim Mo, a young mouse. Cabin boy, I believe.”

Calissa shook her head. The name didn’t seem familiar to her, so he must have joined Natasha’s crew after she had gone. She wiped at her eyes again and cleared her throat. The child in her lap was beginning to show distress at her mother’s own anguish, so Calissa put on a calm demeanor once more.

“Well,” she said at last. “It appears a lot has happened since I settled down here with my new family.” She looked at Lorelei with a resigned smile. “It’s probably for the best, though. Life is peaceful here, and has had its rewards.” She gave her daughter a brief tickle and the small bunny giggled.

Lori looked over at N’iik, who had been quiet throughout the exchange in a foreign tongue, and she gave him a pleasant smile. He stared into her blue eyes for a moment and then asked something of Calissa with a look of concern. She answered with a few short words to reassure him that the mysterious stranger had not intentionally caused her distress, explaining only that she had received word of her own family from a far-off land. The reply seemed to satisfy N’iik, who returned his bold gaze to the white rabbit.

Lori reached out toward N’iik’s long ears and gently stroked the one closest to her. His eyes practically rolled back up into his head and a shiver rippled through his fur. Lorelei snickered at the reaction and touched the tip of his pink nose with a finger. He opened his eyes to look at her finger, his expression almost cross-eyed.

“Now then,” Calissa said with a sudden look of amusement, “what can I do for you, Lori Easter? Beyond N’iik’s obvious fascination with you, I assume he brought you to me for a reason.”

“Nick and his children found me in a wheat field, but I have yet to meet his mate,” Lorelei started to explain. A large smile suddenly spread across the tan bunny’s face. “What’s so funny?” Lori asked.

“N’iik has no children of his own, nor is he spoken for,” Calissa said. “However, I think he is looking for a mate if you’re interested.”

“But, there were a dozen small kits with him!”

“Those belong to several families,” Calissa explained. “N’iik is their teacher, and he often takes them to the wheat field to play on nice days like this. Mine would have been there too if they all hadn’t stayed up so late waiting for their sire to come home last night.”

Lori looked over at the male with a soft smile. “He likes children, does he?” she asked with a wink. N’iik stared up into her bright blue eyes and swallowed.

Calissa snickered and the buck looked over at her with a look of embarrassment. “What rabbit doesn’t like kits?” she replied. She spoke a few words to N’iik and suddenly his eyes grew wide. He then gave her a dark look, muttering beneath his breath, and Calissa laughed aloud.

“What was that about?” Lori asked in amusement.

“Just teasing him,” her companion answered.

***

An elderly black and white doe near the edge of the lapin village put a wooden bucket beneath a simple water pump and gave the handle a few ratchets before cool fresh spring water flowed into her container. She hummed quietly to herself until the bucket was full, and then let the overflow spill into a trough below.

She stopped humming, but then she tilted her head when a monotone humming continued behind her. She turned around and came face-to-something with an iridescent metal saucer with whiskers! It had two gleaming glass eyes, one slightly offset above the other, and both were glowing from within in alternating colors. If that wasn’t enough to frighten the doe out of her wits, that it hung suspended in midair with no visible means of support surely did.

Her mouth opened and closed rapidly without a sound, and the water bucket slipped from her fingers to spill over her feet. The metal object rotated a few of its whiskers and greeted her with an inquisitive “Meow?”

The female rabbit shrieked and bolted away from the unknown predator, tripping over the water bucket in her hurry. She flipped over onto her back and stared up at the floating thing with her heart in her throat.

Moss recognized a rabbit profile, but it didn’t match the criteria within its programming for Lorelei Easter; it dismissed the aged lapin doe and continued to search for its crewmate. It was calibrated to look for a female rabbit, and there appeared to be many within the community it happened upon, but now its search parameters would have to be narrowed to look for a specific lapin doe.

The elderly rabbit put a nervous hand to her heart when the flying saucer moved away from her. Her shrieks had drawn the attention of several nearby bucks, and in short clipped words, she described what she had encountered. It had been a while since the tranquil village had come under attack by the great feral mountain cats, but suddenly they were all afraid of what new danger might have come to their community.

***

“I think we’re being followed,” Lori said with a giggle. Calissa chuckled with a glance behind them at N’iik, and he frowned back at her. The buck had sent his class of kits back to their parents and was now trailing along behind the pair of does as they walked across the village.

He fully realized that Lori had probably said something about him to K’lssi, but it was frustrating to be unable to understand her. It had been no less frustrating to N’maa when he had originally discovered the group of predators when K’lssi had come to them, but she stayed and finally learned the lapin language. Through the tan doe, N’iik learned that L’ree was only there for a visit and would be leaving soon. In the short time they had been together that day, N’iik had already become quite fond of the white-furred newcomer and her pleasant scent. It distressed him to think that now when they had an interpreter between them, L’ree wouldn’t stay.

He quickened his steps and suddenly placed himself in front of Lori, almost causing both females to stumble. He put both of his hands gently upon Lorelei’s shoulders and she looked up at him with bright blue eyes. She smiled at him curiously and merely waited to see what he wanted.

Those long-lashed blue eyes sent a shiver down his spine and he swallowed involuntarily. Before his nerve gave away, he leaned forward and rubbed his small pink nose gently against hers, and then slid his chin along her cheek.

Lorelei closed her eyes with a smile and then turned toward him to brush her lips against his cheek. N’iik became very still, and then he reluctantly pulled away. He pulled his simple amulet over his head and lowered ears, and then presented it to her.

He spoke for a moment to Calissa, who had watched the exchange silently with a smile, and then turned back to Lori.

“He wants you to wear his symbol,” the tan doe explained.

“What does the symbol represent?” Lori asked as she traced her fingers over the polished amber stone.

“When he wears it, it’s merely ornamental, but if you accept it and wear it for him, you are broadcasting your intent to mate with him.”

Lori’s eyes lit up and a number of thoughts shot through her mind at once. Given the chance, she would love that opportunity, but she already knew that if that happened, he would expect her to stay and bear his litter. When she played around with other males, it was always just that, play. However, with N’iik it would be a commitment to their offspring. She leaned forward and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips, but then she looked back over at Calissa.

“Is that what happened between you and N’maa?” she asked.

Calissa nodded. “Yes, and I accepted. For me, living here and having a family has been most satisfying. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Lorelei looked back at N’iik and stared into his blue-gray eyes for a long moment. She reached up and lightly stroked one of his ears, causing him a delightful shiver, but then her face grew sad. She placed the amulet into his hands and covered them with both of her own.

“Please tell him that I am honored,” she said in a voice just above a whisper, “and that although I have known him only a few hours, I would love to be the mother of his kits. However, I must decline. I am still under contract with my captain, and I really don’t wish to leave my friends; I won’t be able to stay.”

Calissa nodded again and then relayed the message to N’iik. He was quiet for a moment, but then he gave the strange doe a nod of understanding with a little smile. He said something to Calissa and then removed his hands from Lori’s to put his amulet string back over his ears.

“N’iik is disappointed, but says that he understands obligation, and hopes that you won’t forget him when you leave,” Calissa translated.

Lorelei slipped her arms around N’iik’s neck and pulled him into a warm embrace. “I am missing you already,” she whispered into his ear, knowing he would not understand.

“Meow!”

Calissa and N’iik jumped in unison, but Lorelei looked over at the unexpected intruder with a laugh. “Moss!” she scolded. “That was mean!” Had she not had her arms around N’iik, the buck would likely have bolted away in fright. His eyes were wide, his mouth was open, and Lori could feel his heart rate accelerate. She absently began to pet the fur behind his ears to calm him as she would a child.

“Meowrr, Meow...” the floating unit responded with lower volume.

“It’s a flobot!” Calissa exclaimed with a hand over her heart. “It gave me such a start!”

“This is Moss,” Lori said. “It’s from my ship, probably looking for me.”

“Moss?”

Lori rolled her eyes up to remember. “It stands for Mobile Sentry System, I think. Our engineer built it.”

Calissa smiled and examined the flying saucer with the eyes of an engineer. “Captain Natasha would never allow these things on board her ship,” she replied after a moment. “For all the gadgets and technology on the Lady of Dreams, she still felt a personality was an asset over artificial intelligence. Can this thing think for itself?”

“I dunno,” Lori answered. “Pockets says it only follows programming, but sometimes I think there’s more going on inside that pie plate than a set of instructions.”

N’iik reached out toward the floating sentry and touched its metallic surface with only minimal hesitation. Neither of the does seemed bothered by its presence, and that in of itself gave him the courage to touch the alien object. He waved his hand above and below the flobot in fascination, wondering how the thing could float in the air like the spring seeds of a puff-flower.

He looked over at Lori with a look of wonder and she simply smiled. He said something to Calissa, who only nodded back to him, and then he leaned in close to peer into the little eyes. While Moss’ proximity protocols had allowed the buck to touch its surface, it wanted to protect the cleanliness of its lenses, so it retreated from the rabbit just enough to stay out of reach. N’iik grinned at the thing’s reaction and chuckled.

Like all members of his race, he was naturally timid with things unknown, but once he made it past the initial fear, N’iik had a strong sense of curiosity.

“Do you think your captain will let us see your ship?” Calissa asked. “I wouldn’t mind talking to your engineer about the Vault drive he built from Natasha’s plans.”

Lori shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t see why not,” she said. “Seeing as how Moss is here looking for me, I should probably be getting back anyway. I’d hoped to see what kind of shopping this new world might have, but since there’s not a mall in sight, I can give you a tour of my ship instead.”

Calissa smiled. “You know, if all you want is a souvenir, you could always take N’iik with you.”

Lori laughed and grinned widely. “Now there’s a thought,” she said.

Both of the does knew that he’d never be happy in the realm of the Planetary Alignment, but it was still amusing to think about. After several moments, the buck tired of examining the flobot and returned his attention to the white-furred female.

“Can you lead me back to the wheat field, or should we follow Moss back to the ship?” Lori asked.

“C’mon,” Calissa said. “I know the way.” She spoke a few words to N’iik and then the trio set out across the village. Moss took up station above Lorelei’s ears, but she ignored it, slipping her hand into N’iik’s while they walked. Feeling her warm palm in his, he immediately forgot the flobot and sighed in contentment at her closeness.

The way back to the field seemed familiar to Lorelei, but this time she didn’t look around in wonder as she had on the way in. They walked down a hill beneath tall trees and meandered through the woods until they soon came upon the edge of the field.

Calissa nodded to herself when she saw the elliptical bulk of the freighter, but N’iik stopped and crouched down within the wheat.

“My first guess is that’s an Okami-class cargo hauler,” the tan doe remarked, “but I don’t remember them being so big.”

“Yup, that’s the latest model,” Lori replied. “It’s been all over the Planetary Alignment.”

“And now beyond,” Calissa added with a smile.

N’iik tugged at Lorelei’s wrist when she didn’t hide with him. She shook her head and then pulled him back up to her side.

“That’s where I live,” she tried to explain to him. When he gave her that familiar look of puzzlement, she pointed to the ship and then pointed to herself. Calissa translated for him and then he finally stood up again beside her.

Moss moved on ahead of them and floated across the tops of the wheat toward the distant airlock. Just as it reached the ship, the panels split apart diagonally and someone walked out into the sunlight. It was Taro, Renny and Damien.

N’iik’s hand tightened in Lori’s as he caught sight of the trio of predators. He felt the strong instinctual urge to run and hide, but fear also kept him frozen in place. He stopped walking toward the freighter, almost causing Lorelei to stumble.

“Lori!” Renny called out when he saw her.

The white rabbit pried her fingers from N’iik’s tight grasp and then waved at the cheetah. “Hi, Renny!” she said. “Miss me?” She leaned toward Calissa and whispered, “He’s our navigator. Cute, isn’t he? The fox is my captain, and the dog is our load master.”

Taro’s face was a mixture of anger and relief. She was still upset that the bunny had disobeyed orders and caused them all grief, but she was relieved that she appeared unharmed and in the company of more rabbits. “Lorelei Patricia Easter!” she said with venom. “You disobeyed a direct order, and I am going to dock your pay for this voyage!”

Lori’s ears drooped. “Why?” she whined when the trio stopped in front of them. N’iik stood his ground beside her, but a tremble shivered through his muscles at the proximity of the carnivores, especially the one with red fur that seemed ready to pounce on L’ree.

“I told you that no one was allowed off the ship until Doc could determine it was safe enough to go outside! We only got the okay from him a moment ago.”

“When did you say that?” Lori asked in concern. “The last thing you told us before I jumped into the shower was that you had picked up a landing beacon and that we would be landing in about twenty minutes.”

“You were in the shower?” Damien asked with a bit of a smile.

“Yeah,” the white rabbit replied. “Twenty minutes is plenty of time to clean up before going into town – only I didn’t find the kind of town I thought I’d find.”

Taro bit her bottom lip and looked at Renny with a frown. The cheetah shook his head. “You didn’t hear her warning to stay on board?” he asked.

Lorelei shook her head. “I guess not. Sorry, Taro.”

“Perhaps this would be a good time to introduce us,” the tan rabbit said from the side.

“You speak Standard!” Damien seemed surprised.

“She’s originally from Mainor,” Lori said with a grin, “but she lives here now. This is Calissa Thalia. This guy beside me is Nick, but he can’t understand us.” At the mention of his name, the buck set his jaw and looked up at them, trying so hard to remain calm. “This is Captain Taro Nichols,” Lori continued. “That’s Renny, and this is Damien.”

“Hello, Calissa,” Taro said. “Hello, Nick.”

Renny stepped forward to grasp hands with N’iik, but the action unnerved the rabbit and he looked at the cheetah’s proffered hand as if he were going to tear at him with it. Calissa intervened by taking N’iik’s hand gently and then putting it into Renny’s. She kept her hands over N’iik’s as she explained to him that it was a show of friendly greeting among Lori’s people, the clasped hands symbolizing the absence of weapons.

N’iik looked up into Renny’s large golden eyes as the cheetah gave him a friendly, non-threatening smile. The rabbit was still uneasy, but he nodded and returned the grip lightly. Then he put his hand up to his forehead with the palm outward and said, “N’iik.”

Renny deduced the gesture correctly and mimicked the action. “Renny,” he said.

“R’nee?”

“Yeah, Nick, that’s close enough,” the cheetah said.

Calissa turned to Taro while Damien and N’iik went through the same routine. “I know you thought she disobeyed your orders, Captain, but I want to thank you for letting Lori visit with me,” she said. “Spending the afternoon with her has been good for me.”

Taro nodded, looking weary. “When we landed, I wanted to make sure we wouldn’t catch a sickness from anything we might not be inoculated against. After all, the Blue Horizon is a long way from the Planetary Alignment.”

Calissa nodded. “So long as you don’t drink the water while you’re here, you shouldn’t have a problem with anything in the air,” she said with a smile. “If you do that, however, you’ll need to stay near a latrine for a couple days while your body acclimates, but otherwise it’s harmless. That’s something we learned when our landing party got here.”

Taro looked at her uncomfortably. “Uhm, how did you get here, so far away from the rest of the PA?” she asked cautiously.

“The same way you did,” the tan doe gestured toward the blue freighter. “We used Natasha’s Vault to gap the distance.”

“Natasha!” Renny repeated in surprise. “Just how many people did she give out her technology to, anyway?”

Calissa chuckled. “Very few people, Mr. Renny,” she explained. “I was one of her engineers when we came to this place and Natasha Khasho was my captain. Just how did you get her favor for such a gift?”

“I’ve never been sure of that myself,” Taro answered. “My chief engineer is the one who engineered that trade with her, although he’s never revealed just what it was he did for Natasha.”

Calissa nodded. “Would you mind if I talked to your engineer about the Vault system he built? There are some dangers involved that he may not know about.”

Taro pursed her lips at the word danger. “I’d appreciate having an engineer familiar with Natasha’s Vault system look over our engines,” she said. “Pockets put ours together based solely on an encrypted set of plans she gifted him, but he’d no real guidance otherwise. That may be why our nav computer crashed and we over-shot our intended destination.”

Calissa grinned. It may have been six years since then, but she well remembered the trials and tribulations involved in testing the Vault. She had no doubt that Natasha’s people had fine-tuned it since she’d left the crew to settle here, but the vulpine captain may have given the engineer of this common freighter an older set of plans.

“I may be able to help him get —”

“Fluffbunny!” a new voice exclaimed. The small group turned in unison to look back at the Blue Horizon. Rex stepped out into the sunshine with a hand shielding his eyes and he looked delighted that the errant rabbit had been found unharmed. He bounded toward the group, but one foot tripped up on a clump of wheat stalks and he fell forward onto his face. When he got back up again with a toothy grin of embarrassment, N’iik suddenly let out a wail and bolted for the trees.

“N’iik!” Lori called. When she looked back at Calissa, there was a bit of fear in the tan doe’s eyes as well. “What is it?” she asked.

Rex ran up to Lorelei and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re all right, Fluff!” he said. “I was worried that something had happened to my favorite chef!”

Calissa swallowed and then put a hand to her heart, willing herself to calm down. “Are… are you part of Captain Taro’s crew?” she asked the cougar.

Rex released the white bunny and then immediately shook the tan doe’s hand. “Nope, just a passenger,” he said. “My name’s Rex! Pleased to meetcha.”

“Why did Nick run off like that?” Damien asked, scratching behind one large floppy ear.

Calissa let out a heavy sigh. “Because Mr. Rex resembles the great feral cats that sometimes come down out of the highlands to feed on our young,” she explained as she retrieved her hand from the cougar’s grasp. “We have been fortunate the last couple times we were attacked, but the mountain cats get desperate at certain times of the year when their native food supply runs low. N’iik lost his younger sister to one of them just last season.”

Rex looked downcast and shrugged his shoulders. “Please forgive me for rushing out and scaring the poor fellow,” he said. “I was just excited to see our bunny again.”

“About that,” Taro said as she faced him. She put one hand on her hip and then pointed back to the Blue Horizon with the other. “Our flight insurance doesn’t cover you should anything happen to you outside the ship, Mr. Concolar. Get back on board, please.”

Rex plugged his hands into his pockets and nodded. Without further argument, he made his way back to the freighter.

“What should we do about Nick?” Renny asked.

“Leave him be,” Calissa replied. “I’ll talk with him later – show him that I survived the encounter. He’s had no exposure to our technology, so it may be best that he doesn’t come on board with us anyway.”

Lorelei looked hurt. “You go on,” she said. “I’m going to go find him.”

“You won’t have to look far,” Damien said as he pointed. “He’s over there by that clump of thick trees. I can see his big eyes shining in the shadows.”

Lori moved off toward her friend, leaving the others as they walked through the wheat field toward the freighter.

***

With Calissa’s help, it took two days to repair the Particle Vault components and get the navigation computer in proper operation. She warned that she was unable to recalibrate the nav computer where it would be sensitive enough to be of use with the Vault, so they should use the special drive sparingly until they could upgrade to a high-end system. Their current navigation structure would never be up to the challenge that Vault travel presented. It was her recommendation that they use the Vault to get back into PA territory, where they should then use standard LightDrive engines to return to standard traffic corridors. Thereafter, they should save the Vault only for life-threatening emergencies.

She’d told them that traveling by Vault also had its share of dangers, though most were rare occurrences and could be avoided with a little assistance. She constructed a sophisticated device behind closed doors, and then permanently sealed its casing with a molecular weld. She attached it to a panel in the engine room with a simple set of wires merely for power and grounding, but not to the Vault components directly, knowing that it only needed to be near them to function.

When Pockets inquired about the device, which appeared to have only two outward color diodes, all she would say is that as long as the green light was on, they could use the Vault drive. However, if it should ever show red at any time, under no circumstances were they to use the Vault. Beyond this, she would not clarify her reasons.

“It’s for your protection,” she told the diminutive engineer in the presence of his captain. “This is not a rule you should ever bend.”

She went on to explain that once the Vault is used, it would take twenty-four hours for the system to recharge, and during that time, both lights would be dark and not to panic. The green diode would light up again when the system was ready and it was safe to use again.

When the tan lapin doe was sure everything was in order, Taro decided that they should be on their way. Their oxygen tanks had been scrubbed, refilled and pressurized, and with luck, the Vault would get them back to the vicinity of Kantus, where they would deposit their passenger and be on their way to their next assignment on Tanthe.

During their stay, Lorelei spent her days with N’iik and the children he taught, and the nights were spent with N’iik in his home. She continued to decline his invitations to stay and make a family with him, but knew that she would surely miss him after they were gone.

Despite her association with the blue thing from the sky, N’iik would not return to the wheat field. He hadn’t seen the mountain cat again, but as long as it was near, he would protect his students by keeping them within the village. In order to keep the peace with others in the community, Taro had forbidden anyone but Lori from visiting the village. There were too many carnivores in the crew and the less panic they induced in the locals, the better it would be all around. Several from the lapin community did venture forth to take a peek at the blue freighter, but none chanced a look any closer than from the cover of trees.

When the time finally arrived to leave, Lorelei cried in N’iik’s arms. J’rran, Calissa, and her mate N’maa waited outside the buck’s home until they finally came out into the evening air. Lori gave each of them a hug, including the brown and white sire of Calissa’s kits. She had gotten to know him over past two days, and because of his knowledge of his mate’s past, he was a stable spot of understanding in the village to her.

During a conversation with Taro, Calissa requested they not reveal Se’rei’s existence to the rest of the Planetary Alignment, even if it might be one of the lost colonies. It would take too long to get there using traditional LightDrive and this world would be better off as it was anyway. Taro promised their silence, since the sensitive nature of the topic of Vault technology would keep the Blue Horizon crew from announcing their adventure to anyone, anyway.

Calissa finally took Lori by the shoulder and led her away from N’iik’s home. He would not accompany her to the ship, so he stayed rooted to the spot and watched her go in remorse. Lorelei turned back to look at him through her tears and gave him a half-hearted wave.

“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Calissa told Lori quietly. The white rabbit followed her across the village toward the tree path that would return her to the wheat field, but she only shook her head quietly. Her throat was tight and she was afraid to speak. Calissa nodded and then led her back to her ship.

When the does finally reached the airlock, Lori clung to the other female tightly. “I... I will miss you, Calissa!” she said to her.

“I will miss you too, hon,” the older woman replied. “It’s been nice having someone around who understands my old life, but now you must go. Due to the distances, I doubt you will ever make it back out this way, but I will keep the landing beacon going for you just in case.”

“Thank you, my friend,” Lori said as she wiped her eyes. She gave her a resigned smile and then took a step back toward the open airlock. “If there’s ever an opportunity to return, I will take it.”

“Good bye, Lorelei.”

“Good bye, Calissa.”

The white rabbit walked into the airlock, turned around, and then touched the control to close the diagonal panels. Just before they came together, she looked back out to the wheat field and saw N’iik standing at the edge of the woods, quietly watching her go. Lori felt a strong lump in her throat as the outer airlock doors closed and then she turned toward the inside to seal the internal compression door.

Outside in the wheat field, Calissa gathered up her apron and then quietly walked back to where N’iik waited. Fifteen minutes later, they watched the Blue Horizon lift off out of the field on a mighty wind, and then it quickly rose into the evening sky. N’iik’s eyes followed the vessel’s running lights until it passed through a high layer of clouds and was lost to sight in the darkness.

***

Alone in the engine room of the Blue Horizon, Pockets monitored his station. It had been four hours since they’d departed Se’rei and everything appeared to be running smoothly. Using the navigational computer, Renny had calculated a Vault route back to the Planetary Alignment, hoping they would return to the vicinity of the Anya star system. Providing they didn’t overshoot their goal again by several light years, they could soon be on their way back to Kantus.

He glanced over at the small metal box that Calissa had installed and noted with a sense of ease that the light remained green. He had everything primed and ready for the jump, so now they merely waited until they were far enough above the solar system they were leaving behind that there should be no danger of flying through one of Se’rei’s sister planets.

The ship-wide intercom system chirped and then Renny’s voice came from the speakers. “Engine Room, prepare for system activation.”

“The light is green. Engine Room is ready,” Pockets reported over the open circuit.

“We are go on Five… Four… Three… Two… One!”

Pockets quickly held his breath, closed his eyes and tensed up all over in preparation for the jump. Outside the freighter, a ring of blue-white flame encompassed the entire vessel for a microsecond.

There was that momentary sensation where everything stopped, a cessation of seemingly everything in existence. The raccoon felt his stomach clench, but he was ready for it this time, and then the sensation was gone. He opened his eyes feeling disoriented, and immediately noted that the diodes on the box were dark. The Vault had discharged. He looked up at the system clock on his console and noted that only a moment had passed.

Pockets resisted the temptation to call the bridge, knowing that Renny would already be calculating their new position. While he waited, Pockets looked over the Vault system to make sure there were no burning components, but this time none of them was even warm to the touch. He smiled, pleased with the help that Calissa had given him. He had mistranslated a single calibration setting from Natasha’s original diagrams, and that had caused the burnout.

The intercom chirped and Taro’s voice said, “All hands, all hands. We made the jump without incident and Renny has just determined our location. We are outside of the normal traffic corridors, but we are back within the Planetary Alignment. We are only a day away from Kantus using standard LightDrive engines. We will be getting under way shortly, but you are free to get out of your harnesses and move around now.”

Pockets let out a Ganisan war whoop and danced a jig on the engine room floor. With all the tools and other miscellaneous items in the pockets of his coveralls, he sounded like a junk truck on a bumpy road, but the raccoon didn’t care. He was happy to be home.

***

“Where is it?”

Rex swept the covers of his bed onto the floor and then pulled off the sheets. He kicked the linens aside and dropped to his knees on the carpet. He searched under the bed, but found only dust. He rushed over to the closet that he had just emptied by packing it all into his suitcase, but there was nothing on the floor or on the shelves.

“Where is that wretched thing?”

The cougar looked in dresser drawers, the cabinet in the bathroom and on the table out in the front room. He peered under the sofa and recliner, beneath the com terminal desk, and around all the baseboards. Convinced that he had searched everywhere in his quarters, he ran out into the hallway and moved around the corridor to the laundry room.

Rex dug through a few baskets of dirty clothes, into the cleaning equipment, and even through all the cabinets. He got down on his knees to peer under the folding tables, but his search was fruitless. He growled in frustration and left the room just as Justy approached with a basket of his own laundry.

Rex grabbed the basket from the koala and dumped the contents onto the corridor floor.

“Hey!” Justy exclaimed. Rex didn’t bother him with a look as he sifted through the garments and put his hands in all the pockets.

“Y’know,” Justy said, “that’s kinda creepy!” The cougar snorted, but not finding what he was looking for he stormed away, leaving the koala with the mess. Justy frowned deeply and then knelt down to retrieve his dirty laundry.

Rex impatiently took the nearest lift up to the third level. Lorelei, Taro, Renny and Amanda were at the galley table, sipping drinks and chatting in casual conversation. When the cougar stormed off the lift and darted to the couch to start throwing cushions off onto the floor, the group looked back at him curiously.

“What’s going on?” Renny asked.

“It’s gone!” Rex muttered as he dug in between the crevasses of the couch. “I can’t find it!”

“Find what?” Taro asked. “What did you lose?”

Rex stood up, distress on his face as he replied, “My lottery ticket! Now that we’re almost to Kantus, I can’t find it!”

“Where did you last see it?” Amanda asked.

“It was in my shirt pocket,” the mountain lion said. “I’ve kept it on my person through this whole trip!”

“Want some help looking for it?” Taro asked.

Rex started to nod, but then his eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion. “I’ll bet one of you has it!” he accused. “You probably need more money to make your super-speed engine work right, and you think by taking my lottery winnings, you’ll have all the R&D money you could use!”

“Calm down, Mr. Concolar,” Taro said with a scowl at the accusation. “No one has your lottery ticket.”

“Yeah?” Rex sneered. “Doc Fox was asking me about my ticket when he gave me my physical, and made a comment warning me to make sure I didn’t lose it! I’ll bet he has it!”

“Jerry wouldn’t take it either!” Renny snarled. He rose from his chair and approached the cougar. “Don’t start accusing everyone of theft just because you dropped it!” Rex balled up his fists and took a step toward the cheetah. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Renny warned as he took up a Silloni martial arts stance. The cougar’s brow furrowed darkly, but then he stormed off toward the lift.

“Let us help you look for it,” Amanda told him. “More eyes will be quicker.”

Renny followed him across the room and the cougar felt stalked. Suspicious and frustrated, Rex whirled around, taking a swing at the cheetah. He looked up at the ceiling from the carpet and suddenly wondered how he had wound up on his back on the floor; his breath had been knocked from him and the navigator was standing over him. He knew cheetahs were quick, but he’d never seen anyone move that fast in a defensive move.

“Mr. Concolar,” Taro hissed at him, “I am confining you to your quarters for the remainder of our journey! We will look for your lost lottery ticket, and I promise you that you will get it back when it’s found, but if you are going to fight anyone on my crew, I will cancel your flight deposit and dump you out on the tarmac when we land without so much as a backward glance! Do you understand?”

Rex sat up and scowled at everyone around him. “If I don’t get my ticket back, and I find out that anyone associated with your company steps up to claim the prize, I’m gonna sue your company for my lost winnings!” he shouted. “My ticket has been DNA-imprinted, so I have legal proof that it was mine!”

“Renny, you and I will accompany our passenger to his quarters,” Taro said in a quiet voice. “Once there, he will be locked in until we land in four hours.”

“You’re gonna regret this!” Rex grumbled.

“Quit complaining and stop making threats,” Renny said with bared teeth. “You’re the fool who lost the ticket in the first place. You said it yourself that you carried it with you at all times, so I’m wondering how anyone could steal it from your body.”

“I can’t find it anywhere,” the cougar muttered. “Someone must have taken it…”

“Let’s go,” Taro said to him. “Go check your quarters again. Look through your luggage and under the furniture. We’ll do the same up here, and I promise that if it’s found, I will personally place it back in your hands.”

Rex grumbled under his breath, but then nodded as they led him back to the lift.

***

Taro faced her gathered crew. They were together on the cargo deck and the large bay door was open full to let the fresh morning air into the otherwise empty hold. During the last leg of the journey, they’d searched the ship from top to bottom for the cougar’s lottery ticket, but it was to no avail. Before their distraught passenger stormed out the airlock upon landing, Taro had given him a thumbprint-signed document stating that if the ticket turned up, she would ship it to him free of charge with the utmost priority. Rex had taken the document grudgingly, but once it was in his hands, he shoved it into a suitcase and then departed toward the nearest attorney’s office.

Finally rid of the passenger, the captain called everyone together in the fresh air. “Despite our little detour, we’ve arrived on Kantus earlier than originally planned,” Taro told them all. “Due to this, I am releasing everyone for now. We will need to launch for Tanthe no later than 1600 hours tomorrow local time, so that gives you all a day and a half to get out and enjoy Gate City. Renny’s from this area, so ask him about local attractions if you don’t know what to do. I don’t want any stragglers, so try to be here no later than an hour or two before launch time.”

“I’ll be staying on board,” Lorelei muttered in remorse.

“Why?” Jerry asked her.

“Taro said she was docking my pay for this voyage, so there’s no reason for me to go out.”

The vulpine captain smiled and shook her head. “Lori, I had a change of heart and had your pay deposited as usual since it was a simple miscommunication, but at your next altercation I might not change my mind about your punishment.”

Lorelei’s jaw dropped open, but then she smiled with moist eyes. “Thank you, Taro,” she said quietly.

“You’re welcome, Lori. After our recent adventure, I think you need to get out on the town anyway. Now, before you all disperse, I have a warning,” she said. “I think we were successful in keeping Mr. Concolar in the dark about our Vault drive. He believes we experimented with the regular LightDrive engine and made some mistakes. If he says anything, it will be against a gag order that he willingly signed, but even if he does tell anyone about the speed of our journey, I doubt this experience will have given him anything positive to say about it to anyone. However… I still want to keep knowledge of our new technology out of general public view. I can’t stress enough just how much trouble this would cause us if word got out. I will tell Merlin about it at some point when I can arrange a secure, encrypted channel, but otherwise you are forbidden to mention it elsewhere until we have a chance to develop the system into a more reliable mode of transportation. I can’t say that we will or won’t use it again, so for now try to put it in the back of your mind.”

She looked into the eyes of each member of her crew, and when she was satisfied that they all understood her, she smiled and gave the group a nod as she reached into a pocket. “Okay, the soapbox is put away. Your pay has been deposited to your accounts, so go enjoy your shore leave.”

Damien was first to head for the ramp. It was his intent to secure a hotel room for the night and then head out to see what kind of entertainment was available, preferably something with liquor. When he reached the tarmac, he made a quick sweep of the nearby landing pad, and then stepped out into the sunshine. He only took three steps before he stopped and looked back at a nearby ship.

There were two delivery trucks parked at the loading ramp of a sleek Mayfair-class freighter with the TranStar Shipping logo on its side. A company name printed in dark red lettering on the side of the trucks caught his attention. Workers of various species were loading the vessel with forklifts and power loaders, so it appeared as if the TranStar freighter might be there a while.

The mastiff trotted back inside the Blue Horizon and flagged Taro’s attention. The captain handed out the last of the vouchers and looked up at him.

“What is it, Damien?” she asked. “You look shaken.”

“Take a gander at the ship on our portside landing pad.”

The vixen followed him down to the tarmac and then peered over at the nearby ship. “That’s the Freckled Shark,” she said. “I read its transponder signal when we landed. What about it?”

“Now read the name on the side of the trucks loading it,” the load master replied.

Taro looked at the lettering and felt the blood drain from her face. Crimson Astrogation.

“Isn’t that the name of the company that cancelled our account? I thought they were going out of business.”

“That’s them. Their story was that they were under investigation and all deliveries were stopped,” Taro growled. “Listen, Damien. You go ahead and enjoy your day off. I’ll look into this myself.”

***

All was quiet in the wheat field. There was morning dew on the stalks, but that didn’t prevent N’iik from returning to that special place. He sat alone in the middle of the flattened crop circle where the blue thing from the sky had rested, thinking about the lovely white L’ree and the effect she’d had on him. They had only known one another for three days, but he couldn’t stop thinking about her. She’d a strange, yet pleasant scent, and had the softest fur he had ever touched, even among his own people. There were blue eyes within the rabbits of his world, but he had never seen eyes that shade before; so bright and expressive.

He wanted her to return. He wanted to know all about her and he was remorseful that she had gone away. He had invited her to stay, even presenting his amulet to her, but still she had gone away. He knew she had been attracted to him too, but she never even asked him to go with her.  Perhaps it had been his open fear of her predator companions and she was ashamed of him. If she had only asked, he would have boldly joined her, facing his instinctual fears. If she felt comfortable around such creatures, maybe he could have grown to feel the same way, too… if only she had asked. He didn’t know if he would ever see her again, but he knew he would never forget her.

N’iik heaved a heavy sigh and stood up. He brushed the damp bits of crushed wheat from his shorts and started back across the field toward home. He left the flattened stalks behind him, but before he’d made it halfway across to the trees, something at his feet caught his eye.

The white buck bent down and picked up a brightly colored object. It was flat, rectangular and had strange, meaningless symbols scrawled across its surface on both sides. The plastic material was foreign to him, but he knew it had to be from L’ree’s blue sky-home. He would keep it as a reminder of her visit, so he clutched the lottery ticket in his hand and quietly made his way back to the village.

ANGER MANAGEMENT

By Ted R. Blasingame

Taro stared across the tarmac of the spaceport where they’d landed, to a ship parked on Blue Horizon’s port side. She felt the blood drain from her face when she read the name emblazoned across the side of the delivery trucks that were loading it. It was Crimson Astrogation, a spatial navigation systems company that had cancelled a delivery contract with the Horizon while in flight, supposedly due to an investigation that was driving their client out of business.

The vixen turned to her cargo load master. “Listen, Damien. You go ahead and enjoy your day off. I’ll look into this myself.”

“Are you sure?” the mastiff asked. “I’d like to know what happened before I go.”

“Come along if you wish,” she said.

Damien’s first inclination would have been to seek out the captain of the Freckled Shark, the freighter being loaded, but Taro had a different approach. She walked up to a Siamese cat with a slateboard who oversaw the loading process.

“Excuse me,” Taro said to him, “may I ask you something?”

The feline glanced over at her. “What?” he asked brusquely.

When he faced her, Taro saw the Crimson Astrogation logo on his dark red uniform. “How did your company get back on its feet so quickly,” she asked. “That was a fast investigation.”

“Huh?” asked the puzzled cat. “What are you talking about?”

“Word has it that Crimson Astrogation was under investigation and that all shipping of their products had been frozen until after the inquiry.”

The Siamese narrowed his blue eyes. “I think you’re mixed up, lady,” he said with a frown. “We’re not under any investigation. Our operation is strictly legit.”

Taro frowned and bit her bottom lip. Damien looked again at the freighter that was being loaded and then turned back to the cat. “Is that the ship you were scheduled to load up?” he asked.

“Not originally,” the feline replied in irritation, “but when our trucks got here, we were directed to take it to the Freckled Shark instead. I was told it was a replacement for the other ship.”

“What was the name of the other ship?” Taro asked.

The cat looked down at his slateboard and then pointed toward the name with the tip of a claw. “Blue Horizon,” he answered.

“You mean that ship,” Damien said as he indicated the vessel behind him.

The cat looked over at the blue freighter and frowned. “I don’t understand,” he said.

“We were scheduled to pick up a shipment from Crimson Astrogation for delivery to Pomen,” Taro explained, “but in-flight, we received word the contract had been cancelled due to an investigation into Crimson’s company.”

“There’s no investigation, and I wasn’t given a reason for the change of freighters,” the Siamese replied defensively, “just the orders that another ship would be used instead.”

“Where did your change of orders come from?” Taro asked.

The feline pointed with his stylus to a nearby service shed at the edge of the tarmac. “Hexter’s in there. He’s the official Crimson rep, so you can bother him for more information.”

“Thank you for your time,” Taro said.

“Yeah, whatever.” The feline forgot them immediately, suddenly immersed in the data on his slateboard.

Taro and Damien walked to the shed, both of them puzzled by the information.

“What’s going on?” Damien asked.

“I don’t know. This doesn’t make any sense.”

Taro tapped on the door to the shed and a muffled voice said, “It’s open.”

It was dark inside the quiet, air-conditioned office when they stepped through the door, and it took a moment for their eyes to adjust. An aged badger looked up at them from behind one of three paper-strewn desks that filled the small room. The fellow was the only individual in the place and wore eyeglasses with thick, round lenses that made his eyes appear to bulge.

“What may I do for you?” he asked in a raspy voice.

“We’re looking for Mr. Hexter, the representative for Crimson Astrogation.”

“Amuel Hexter at your service, ma’am.” He peered at her through his thick lenses. “Have a seat and tell me how I may help you.”

“I just need to ask you a few questions,” Taro replied as she sat down in a well-worn seat in front of the fellow’s desk. Damien remained standing beside her.

“I’m Captain Nichols of the Blue Horizon.” The badger’s eyes appeared to bulge out farther. “Oh, good,” the vixen said dryly, “you know of my ship.”

Damien crossed his arms and took a step toward the desk. Hexter peered up at him and involuntarily crinkled the invoice he held in his hands.

“Uhm, w-well y-yes…” he stammered.

Taro leaned forward. “You have a contract with me, mister Hexter,” she said in an even voice. “Your dock workers are currently loading your equipment into the wrong freighter.”

“I-uhm-I am sorry, Captain,” the badger said, “b-but your contract was cancelled this morning. Another ship was hired as your replacement.”

“Why was it cancelled?” Taro asked icily.

“Y-your ship was deemed unsuitable for our needs,” Hexter answered. “I can’t tell you more than that.”

“Read the contract you have with us,” Taro reminded him with bared teeth. “There’s a ©25,000 cancellation penalty for the forfeiture of a contract in-progress, payable upon reaching the intended destination. We have been en route from Dennier for three weeks to pick up your cargo.”

“Twenty-five thousand credits!”

“Why the surprise?” Damien growled. “It’s clearly stated in the contract your company initiated with us.”

Taro nodded her agreement. “If you switched freighters for a lower price, this is going to put a knot in your budget,” she snarled. “Now you get to pay Blue Horizon Freight Transfer and TranStar Shipping!”

“Uh… uhm… I, uh… will need to consult my home office,” Hexter said with a gulp. “Y-you should expect to hear from us within two to three weeks.”

“Nope,” Taro said as she put her hands on the edge of his desk. “Payment is to be rendered upon reaching the intended destination. Read your contract. We are here, so that means right now.”

Hexter swallowed, his eyes darting back and forth between Taro and Damien, and then he saw the impressions of the Hestran vixen’s fingers in the metal edge of his desk. He swallowed, heaved a heavy sigh, and then nodded. He turned to his computer terminal and logged into the Crimson Astrogation financial system. A moment later, he held out his hand. With her eyes locked onto his, Taro handed him a small metal device no larger than a stubby cigar case with one end flattened into a computer interface.

Hexter plugged the credicard into a slot, tapped in a command, and then passed the hand-sized unit over to her so she could enter her authorization. Once she tapped in the passcode, a green light blipped in response; the badger removed the credicard and a printed receipt, handing both to her with a deep frown.

“Twenty-five thousand credits have been transferred to your company account,” Hexter said in a huff. “Now get out of my office.”

Taro stood up. “C’mon, Damien. Let’s go.”

“Not before I find out why this happened,” the load master replied as he cracked his knuckles noisily. He stepped up to the desk and leaned over so that his nose was mere inches from the badger’s.

Hexter’s expression darkened and he stood up behind his desk. “Get out,” he repeated.

Damien reached out, snared the badger’s shirt roughly, and then yanked him closer over the top of the desk. “Answer the question!” he bellowed at high volume.

His eyes wide with fear, the badger’s momentary boldness evaporated. “Th-the order came directly f-from Arbogast Crimson, p-president of the company,” he stammered. “I d-d-don’t know why, other than you were unsuited. I don’t know anything more! I swear it!”

“Damien, let’s go,” Taro said calmly. “Merlin will take care of the legal ramifications from here.”

The mastiff released Mr. Hexter and made a show of brushing imaginary dirt from his knuckles. “Thank you for your time,” he said. The badger only glared at him.

Taro and Damien walked out of the shed without another word and started back toward their freighter. After a moment, Taro looked up when the local mail truck arrived to pick up their shipment.

“This is happening too often lately,” she said to her companion. “Merlin’s going to have a fit when he finds out what Crimson pulled on us.”

“Did they really think we wouldn’t find out about their lie?” Damien asked. Taro didn’t answer. She walked with her eyes on the ground as she replayed the whole scene in her mind.

“Hey, who’s that?” Damien asked after a moment. As they neared the mail truck, they saw the uniformed lupine driver talking with a couple who stood just inside the open bay doors of the freighter.

The mail carrier gave a wave as they approached and then pushed his antigrav dolly toward the red mail crates in the ship’s hold without a word.

Taro turned to the pair who had been talking with the him. “May we help you?” she asked politely. A large male wolf and a shorter female Siberian husky smiled in unison.

“Yes, hello!” said the wolf in a friendly voice. “We’re looking for the captain of the Blue Horizon.” Taro rarely felt small next to anyone, but she was dwarfed by the size of this guy. He was muscular, with broad shoulders and chest, a full mane of fur around his head, and golden amber eyes that held a direct gaze that was hard to behold. She almost felt as if she were looking into the piercing eyes of her former captain.

“I’m Captain Nichols. What can we do for you?”

“You’re the captain of this fat bird?” the wolf asked in a throaty voice, maintaining his grin.

The husky put an elbow into her companion’s ribs. “You’ll have to excuse him,” she said. “He forgets himself a lot.”

Taro smiled and tilted her head as she looked up at the wolf. “Yes, I’m the captain, and you are standing inside my fat ship.” She said the last so casually with a straight face that the large visitor almost didn’t catch it.

“Right!” said the male wolf. “My friend and I need to book passage with you to Pomen. I just bought my own ship, but we have to get there to take possession.” He held up one of the Blue Horizon flyers. “We saw your availability announcement on the terminal vidscreen, and then when I was at the public Com terminal on a call to your home office, they told me you would be landing here at any moment! How’s that for timing?”

Damien nodded. “Yeah, you had a stroke of luck.”

“They said you had vacancies, so here we are to fill them!”

“Just so you are aware,” Taro said, “we’re not going straight to Pomen from here.”

“Wait,” the smaller husky replied. “Your home office said Pomen was your next destination.”

“That is our ultimate destination, but we will first make a stop on Tanthe to pick up the shipment that’s bound for Bassaris, Pomen.”

“How much longer will that take?” the wolf asked.

“It will only add a day to our schedule,” the captain replied. “The flight time from here is roughly twenty hours to our Tanthean destination, with another two hours to load up and square away the manifest.”

The wolf made a casual gesture of his hand through the air. “An extra day won’t matter,” he said. “How long will it take us to get to Pomen from there?”

“Four weeks.”

The wolf wrung his hands together. “More good timing!” he said.

“How’s that?” Damien asked.

“Frosty ordered modifications to the ship’s design,” the husky explained. “The shipyard said it would take about a month to get them installed.”

Taro nodded. “I take it you are Frosty?” she asked the large male.

“Tarjon Frost, ma’am,” the wolf said with a smile. “This is Mina Ferris, my engineer.”

“Well, Mr. Frost, the fare for you and Ms. Ferris together will be ©2,400. Will you need one or two cabins?”

Tarjon glanced quickly at his companion and cleared his throat. “Two, please.” Mina looked obviously disappointed, but remained silent.

“Well then, if you will follow me up to my office, I’ll collect your payment and get you registered. However, we won’t be able to put you up tonight. My crew is on shore leave this evening, so you will need to find lodging until tomorrow afternoon. Please be here two hours before liftoff, so you will need to be here no later than 1400 hours.”

“Lead the way, Captain,” Tarjon replied.

“Should I stay around until you are done?” Damien asked the red fox. He glanced over at the mail truck as it drove away with their delivered shipment.

“No, thank you,” Taro answered. “Go and enjoy your leave, Damien. I’ll see you back here tomorrow.”

“Aye, Captain,” the mastiff replied. “See you then.” The load master departed and then Taro looked over at her passengers.

“This way,” she said.

“Why do we have to be here two hours before launch?” Mina asked as they walked across the empty cargo deck. “That seems like a long time to wait around.”

“For insurance purposes, our doctor will give each of you a physical before we depart,” the vixen replied. She noted Mina’s alarmed expression, so she gave her a smile for assurance. “Don’t worry, dear,” she added. “It’s brief and primarily to make sure you’re not inadvertently bringing anything on board that will infect the rest of the crew on our month in space.”

“Ah, okay,” the husky replied. “I’m not fond of getting poked and probed by doctors.”

“Neither am I,” Taro told her, “but my physician is experienced and is compassionate toward his patients. You won’t have anything to worry about.”

The husky gave her a pained expression. “Thanks, but I think I’ll choose to worry anyway.”

***

Renny hopped down the steps in front of the antiquated bed and breakfast inn where he and Taro were registered and looked up at the vixen as she took slower steps down to him. “You look wonderful!” he told her.

She spun around slowly so that he could view her lavender dress from all sides. “It’s nice to see you dressed up, too,” she replied with a smile. The cheetah wore a pressed pair of dark gray slacks and a tan dress shirt with a thin silk tie. He felt conspicuous in garments that were anything but casual, but Taro wanted to go out on the town and enjoy the evening as a couple.

Renny extended his elbow courteously and the vixen slipped her arm through his. “Shall we go?” he asked.

“Lead the way, my handsome navigator.”

The cheetah looked up at the night sky, but was unable to see many stars due to the city lights. He feigned confusion and then pointed toward their left. “This way, I think,” he said.

Taro raised an eyebrow. “I thought you lived in this town all your life,” she said.

A wide grin spread across Renny’s face with a mischievous glint in his eye. “The Thornton farm is out on the savannah about a hundred miles from here,” he said, “but I moved into Gate City when I was old enough to attend college. However… the restaurant is only three blocks that way. It’s one of the reasons I booked our room here at the Crescent.”

“That’s the one that has the live magic act, right? Have you ever eaten there before?” Taro asked when they began walking in the night air.

“That’s the place, but no, the Caplan Garden is generally out of my price range. However, since you’re buying tonight…”

Taro snickered. “I hope their kitchen is well-stocked, but I can only afford so much, Renny. Please be reasonable when you order.”

The navigator licked his lips. “I will… try,” he said with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Taro laughed and gestured casually back at the bed and breakfast inn. “Did you see the pamphlets in the lobby?” she asked. “The Crescent is supposed to be haunted!”

Renny shook his head with a frown. “I’d forgotten about those stories,” he muttered. “Hopefully they’re only tales to draw in tourists. If I’d remembered that, I might not have come here.”

“Why, Mr. Thornton, are you afraid of ghosts?” Taro teased. “I thought Pockets was the superstitious one.”

The cheetah looked over at her. “Don’t tell anyone about this,” he said in a quiet voice, “but I think I had a run-in with a spirit, ghost or something like it when I was younger.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“My sister and I were prowling around in an old abandoned farmhouse one night while our folks were off to a neighboring town for a jamboree. We saw… something in the attic that we couldn’t explain, almost like a pale mist in the vague shape of a lion. It came at us with upraised paws and frightened us so badly that we ran from the house and didn’t slow down until we got back home! She and I both swore we felt something shove us as we ran.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t a—” Taro began.

“We didn’t know what it was,” Renny responded by stopping in his tracks, “but Sophie couldn’t stop talking about it whenever she and I were doing our chores the next day. She was always too curious for her own good and she snuck back out there a few of nights later when everyone was asleep.”

“What did she find?”

Renny’s expression grew dark and he stared down at his feet as they resumed walking. “When we all got up the next morning to do our chores, Sophie wasn’t in her bed. We looked all over for her, but she wasn’t in the house or barn. Ma started to panic and Pa was fixin’ to start calling up neighbors for a search party when I remembered something she’d told me the night before. She wanted to go back to see if she could find what we saw, but I didn’t want to. I confessed to us sneaking over there earlier and Pa took off without waiting on anyone else. By the time Ma, a neighbor and I got near the abandoned farmhouse, Pa was hiking back home with Sophie in his arms.”

“Was she okay?” Taro asked in a whisper.

Renny shook his head and swallowed. “No one knows exactly what happened, but… but… Pa said she probably fell from the attic ladder, landing on some old, rusty furniture with sharp edges. It was ruled an accident, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder if she was pushed by the apparition we saw.” He looked over at his companion and heaved a heavy sigh. “I’ve never been afraid of ghost stories, but sometimes I get a chill if I think about Sophie’s death.”

“Wow… I’m sorry to hear that,” Taro said after a moment. “Listen, if it makes you uncomfortable, I won’t mind if we get a room somewhere other than the Crescent.”

Renny’s familiar smile returned as he puffed out his chest in comedic exaggeration. “No need for that, ma’am. I’ll protect you from any free-floating apparitions who dare enter our room!”

Caught off guard by the cheetah’s sudden mood switch, Taro simply stared at him with an open mouth. Renny reached out and closed her mouth with a finger. “I’m okay,” he assured her with a calm smile. “I still miss Sophie, but that was a long time ago and it was her own curiosity that got the better of her. You know what they say about curiosity and cats…”

Taro chuckled and shook her head. “Even after all this time, you can still surprise me. Come on, then. Let’s forget this ghost nonsense and go eat some expensive food.” Renny’s eyes lit up and he practically pulled her along the sidewalk toward the restaurant.

***

“Blue Horizon Freight Transfer. Keri Petrie speaking. How may I help you?”

“Keri, hello,” Taro said toward the port side bridge vidscreen. “We’ll be launching in a few hours and I wanted to report in.”

“Taro! It’s good to hear from you!” the brown mouse exclaimed with wide eyes and a big grin.

“I don’t usually get you when I call in to the home office. Where is everyone?”

“Penny’s out sick with the flu, Cindy is away on vacation, Stu went across the street for coffee, and Tina is in Merlin’s office filling him in on the books. It’s just me and my caffeine out here in the front room.” She took a drink from an oversized coffee mug and then licked her lips with a smile.

“Merlin’s back?” Taro asked. “Isn’t he supposed to be on his honeymoon?”

Keri snickered. “He and Samantha were only at Ocean City for three weeks, Taro. Merlin came in this morning looking fluffed, relaxed and ready to get back to work. He also smells of cinnamon.”

“Cinnamon? Okay… Listen, I need you to have the cinnamon wolf contact me at his earliest opportunity. I have some information for him concerning Crimson Astrogation. Please tell him it’s important.”

“Isn’t Crimson under some kind of investigation?”

Taro’s brow furrowed. “Not yet, but I’m sure they will be after I talk to Merlin.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That’s okay, Keri. I’m sure you’ll hear it all when he explodes after I tell him how else the business is taking a hit.”

“Does this have anything to do with the Mooncrest?” the mouse asked.

Taro tilted her head. “Uh, no. What’s going on with them?”

“Abner’s ship left Fyn nearly four weeks ago with a load of perishable goods for Quet. When they got to the landing coordinates, the mining town they were to supply was abandoned, and it looked like it had been deserted for years. There was no one there to deliver the cargo to, so we tried to double-check the delivery location in case we had gotten it wrong. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to contact the customer who put in the order. Something about this is all wrong, but none of the business contacts will work. The Mooncrest was supposed to pick up a full load of micranite there for delivery to Dennier after unloading their Fynian cargo.”

“What happened?”

“We tried to get in touch with the customer on Dennier who’d ordered the micranite from Quet, but that contact information is non-working too. After that, Merlin authorized the Mooncrest to restock the ship’s stores from the cargo and continue on to their next assignment. We’ve arranged with a local store to buy the rest of the supplies at a reduced price to help recoup some of our costs, but we had to completely cancel the delivery of micranite to Dennier. We lost over a hundred thousand credits because of this and our lawyer is having difficulties trying to locate the ones responsible. He’s been working overtime for us lately.”

Taro looked down at the console in front of her and pursed her lips. “In that case, I’m not sure he’ll want to know about Crimson Astrogation…” she muttered.

“What is it I don’t want to know about?” asked Merlin’s voice. Taro looked up sharply and saw that Merlin and Tina had joined Keri behind the secretary’s desk. “I just caught the last of your conversation.”

“Merlin, hi! Uhm, I have twenty-five thousand credits to transfer into the company account,” the vixen said with a wilted smile.

“That’s always good news,” the gray wolf replied dryly. “Now tell me how we came to have this extra income.”

***

Amanda led their latest passenger up the ramp into the airlock with a careful hand on his arm for assistance. The elderly human gave the coyote a grateful smile as she retrieved his suitcase from the tarmac and brought it inside for him. He’d pulled the roller-equipped case across the tarmac, but had been unable to lift it up the ramp.

“Thank you, Miss,” he said. “I can take it from here.”

As the business coordinator handed the wrist strap to the gentleman, the Blue Horizon’s security unit floated across the cargo bay toward them. The saucer’s metal skin shimmered iridescently in the overhead lights, stopping to study the human with its offset pair of lenses; it rotated all six of its whisker-like antennae as if it were wondering what it was looking at.

“Moss, security scan, passenger authorization Lehigh Desmond,” Amanda told the unit. The saucer emitted a pale green light from its upper lens and scanned the elderly visitor briefly. Then it moved to his luggage and scanned them as well. When it finished, it moved to a position in front of the man and intoned a casual “Meow” as it rotated two of its whiskers.

“Thank you, Moss,” Amanda said to the unit. “You may resume your duties.”

“Meow!”

“That was curious,” Mr. Desmond said with a smile as he watched the unit float around the tethered cargo.

“It’s just a standard scan to enter you into the profile of our onboard security system,” the coyote explained, “as well as to make sure you weren’t bringing any harmful devices on board. We have to do this for all passengers who travel with us.”

The human grinned at her. “I hope it found me a harmless old man,” he said, running his fingers through his wispy shock of silver hair and then scratched his chin. “I am only a danger to myself these days.”

Amanda returned his smile. “Welcome aboard the Blue Horizon, Mr. Desmond. We can leave your luggage here for now; I will have someone take it up to your cabin for you shortly.”

“Thank you, Miss.” As the coyote led the elder gentleman toward the lift, he took her arm and hooked his elbow around hers with a smile. She didn’t know how old the human might be, but for his apparent age, he seemed to walk beside her well enough. He didn’t seem frail, just aged.

“Do you have a doctor on board?” Desmond asked.

“Yes sir, we do. Dr. Somner is a fully licensed physician.”

“Might I have a chance to talk with him before we take off? I brought my medication with me, but I’m not sure I will have enough for the whole voyage.”

“You’re in luck,” Amanda told him with a smile. “I was just about to take you to him.”

“Very good,” replied the old man. “We haven’t even left and you’re already taking good care of me. Thank you, Miss.”

“You’re quite welcome, Mr. Desmond. I’m happy to help.”

***

Releasing himself from the flight harness in his cabin, Jerry stood up and stretched. The launch went smoothly with Justy at the controls on the bridge, and Taro had just announced that it was okay to move about.

He stepped over to the small refrigerator beneath his desk and took out a cold bottle of minted water from his personal stash of drinks. He took a long swig of pale green liquid and then recapped the bottle while licking his lips.

The red fox walked to his bookcase and unstrapped a large blue tome from the bottom shelf, but as he pulled it out, he remembered something. He re-strapped the book and headed for the door, grabbing his medical smock on the way out.

A moment later, he knocked on a door and heard a quiet reply.

“Please come in. Yes, please come in.”

He opened the door and stepped inside. The elderly human was still strapped in his flight harness. He held an old book with worn pages in his hands and he marked his place with a thin red ribbon. With a look of gratitude to the fox, he said, “Hello.”

“Hello,” Jerry replied as he tried to hide his smile.

Lehigh Desmond looked apologetic. “These are good buckles,” he said. “I can’t seem to get loose.”

The doctor looked at the straps with a frown. He tried to release it, but the buckle mechanism appeared to be jammed with a bent pin. He worked with it for a moment before the straps finally slid through the frame.

“There you go,” he said. “I will have someone fix this broken buckle before you need to use it again.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it!” Lehigh replied as he stood up and set his Bible aside. “I may have some age on me, but I’m not usually this helpless.”

Jerry looked at the man with a critical eye and then nodded. “I came by to make sure you were okay after the launch,” he said. “Other than a faulty harness, how are you feeling?”

Moving to the room’s rectangular window, Lehigh looked out into space and could see the receding disc of Kantus. “I’m a little stiff, but that’s my arthritis. The launch was interesting. I’ve never been out in space before.”

“Space travel is as routine as cross-country travel these days,” Jerry said with a smile.

“How come we can stand up okay? Shouldn’t we be floating around the room?”

“All the floors are equipped with one-gee artificial gravity regulators,” the doctor replied. “We just call them gravity plates, but they help us keep a sense of normality. It also helps keep muscle tissue from atrophy while out in space. Now, would you like to go up to the galley for some coffee? I believe Lori picked up a few Kantan blends before we left.”

Lehigh’s gaze lingered on the window a moment more before he turned toward the fox. “Yes, a cup of coffee would be nice.” He followed the doctor out the door and around the corridor to the lift.

“So, what brings you out into space now?” Jerry asked merely to make conversation with the guest. “It must have been important.”

Mr. Desmond nodded as the lift doors parted and they stepped out onto the recreation deck. “I’ve been a farmer all my life, doctor. My wife and I had a son and tried to raise him with strong family values, but he moved away to Pomen after his mother passed away, unable to cope with the loss. I don’t think he realized that by going away he left me all alone, but he does send money with his letters from time to time.”

Lorelei had not yet come up to the galley, so Jerry moved back into the kitchen while Lehigh took a seat at the galley table. The fox rummaged around in the cupboard and found several bags of coffee strapped into the cabinet. “I know Lori bought some coffee from Kantus, but I only see one bag at the moment. Will Kidwell coffee do for you? It’s a simple breakfast blend.”

The human smiled. “That will be fine,” he said. Jerry pulled down a tan package and began preparing the rich granules to brew. “I’ve never met my daughter-in-law Chloe,” Lehigh continued, “but now that they are going to have my grandchild, I want to be there for that.”

“How long do you plan to stay with them?” the physician asked.

Lehigh chuckled. “I’m too old to keep up a farm on my own now, and my son has no plans to return to Kantus to work the crops, so I sold it before I left. I am hoping Pomen will be hospitable enough for a gentleman like me to live near my grandchild.”

“How do your son and his mate feel about you staying?”

The elderly human looked thoughtful. “They say I am welcome, but I’m hoping that does not change after my daughter-in-law meets me in person. I have enough money in my account from the sale of the farm that I should be able to get a small place of my own near them.”

Jerry nodded and leaned against the tabletop. “It’s not easy to pick up and move when you’ve been in one place for so long. It’s even tougher when you go to another world altogether.”

“That sounds like the voice of experience,” Lehigh said.

“Yes, sir,” the doctor replied. “I also grew up on Kantus. I have seven siblings and we always had a close family. My parents were pleased when I announced that I wanted to study medicine, but were not happy when I said I wanted to study on Pomen – that’s where the best hospitals in the Planetary Alignment are. I was the first of my family to go off world, and it wasn’t easy learning new places and histories, but my leaving seemed to prompt a mass exodus among my siblings to all parts of the PA. My parents made us all promise to make an effort to come back to visit as often as we could, but space-travel is expensive and I wasn’t able to afford it until after I had my license and was practicing. Despite that we’re all scattered across the cosmos, my family still remains close.”

“Did you get to visit with them before we left Kantus?”

Jerry nodded. “Yes, and it was nice to see them again. Two of my brothers were there too, so it was a nice little reunion.”

“I am hoping the reunion with my son goes as well,” Lehigh said with a nod. “Jack and I have stayed in contact, but it’s been ten years since we last saw one another face to face.”

“I’m sure he will be glad to see you again,” Jerry assured him as he pulled two cups from a cabinet. “He will get to show off his bride to you, with the anticipation of their child as well.”

“Whatever the outcome, I plan to make the best of it,” Lehigh said. “Even if I occasionally have my doubts, I have always been an optimist.” The human looked up and sniffed the air as Jerry brought him a cup adorned with a white unicorn. He took a sip of the hot liquid and leaned back in his chair with a smile.

“Yes, that’s good. Thank you, Doctor.”

***

Renny stepped out of Sickbay, studying the flight roster for the rest of their voyage. Taro had tasked him with making the bridge duty assignments and he juggled names in his head as he scratched them onto a slateboard with a claw tip.

Another door nearby opened, but he didn’t look up until Pockets stopped beside him with a grimace.

“Have you seen the Doc?” Pockets asked in a pained voice. “I burned my hand with a soldering iron.”

Renny looked alarmed. “Bad?”

“Not really, but I still want to get it treated. I forgot to turn off the iron before the launch and tried to catch it when it rolled off my workbench.”

“I was just looking for him, but Jerry left a note saying he’d be in Mandy’s quarters.”

Pockets’ eyes lit up. “Mandy?” he asked. “I never expected she and Jerry would hook up together!”

Renny chuckled. “I don’t think it’s like that between them,” the cheetah replied with a grin. “Ever since Taro had them working together on Se’rei, Mandy has been helping Jerry with the paperwork associated with Sickbay. He doesn’t trust computers to keep good records, so he’s printed out everything, just about using up all our paper stock. She’s good with paperwork, so she volunteered to help him out.”

Pockets shook his head. “You know how relationships are in this ship,” he said. “If they aren’t together, they probably will be if they spend so much time in one another’s company.”

“Are you jealous?” Renny asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nope,” the raccoon answered. “Mandy’s okay, but I don’t find myself attracted to her.”

“It’s possible that Jerry isn’t either. They may just be friends, do you think?”

“Maybe… but I still think they spend way more time together for just friends.”

Renny shook his head in resignation. “Jerry’s in Amanda’s quarters,” he said. “Go see him about your burn, but don’t cause a scene.”

“Who me?” Pockets responded with an innocent expression.

“Yes, you little bandit. You.”

***

“Come in, the door’s unlocked.”

Tarjon thumbed the control pad and then stepped into his partner’s room. The lights were dark and there was no one there. “Where are you?” the wolf asked.

“I’m in the bedroom, Frosty. Come on back.”

Tarjon tapped on the lights of the front room so he wouldn’t run into the furniture, and closed the door behind him. When he entered the back room, he stopped with a frown. The Siberian husky had her tail to him, but her garments were neatly folded on the bed. She wrapped a towel around her middle and then turned around to give him a smile with a wag of her tail.

“Hi,” she said.

“What are you doing?” Tarjon asked. “I thought we were going to get something to eat right after the launch.”

“That was before I decided I wanted an immersion bath,” she said. “I’ve never been on a ship with a bathtub before and it’s been a long time since I’ve used anything but a shower anywhere else.”

Snorting, her companion turned to go. “Have your bath. I’m going up to eat,” he said.

“Wait,” Mina called. Frost turned to look at her. She stepped up to him and put a hand on his muscular arm. “Share my bath with me,” she whispered. “There’s enough room.”

Tarjon let out a long exhale and shook his head. “No, Mina. We’ve discussed this before and you know my answer. Go take your bath. I’ll see you later on the upper deck.”

The husky shrugged her shoulders. “Can’t blame a girl for trying,” she said impishly. Just to spite her companion, she handed him her towel and then padded off into the bathroom wearing nothing but her fur.

Tarjon shook his head with a deep frown and then departed her quarters after dropping the towel on a chair. Out in the hallway, he saw Lorelei at the lift. The door opened and she stepped inside before noticing him.

“Going up?” she asked.

“Yes, thank you,” he replied.

“Where’s your friend?” the lapin doe asked as the door closed. She tapped the upper level button.

“She wants to try out the bathtub,” he grumbled. “She’ll be up later.”

Lori smiled up at him with large blue eyes. “I’m surprised you aren’t in there with her,” she said.

Tarjon looked at her incredulously. “Lady, Mina is my business partner, not my bed partner,” he snorted.

“Why not? I’ve seen the way she looks at you.”

Tarjon couldn’t believe how direct this rabbit was with him. It was irritating. He stuck a finger in her face and growled, “That’s not your business!”

Lorelei only grinned at his response. “I thought so!”

“Thought what?”

“You do like her, don’t you? You’re just afraid of a relationship!”

Tarjon felt like wrapping his thick fingers around the doe’s neck, but he closed his eyes and silently counted to ten. The lift doors opened and Lorelei slipped an arm around his, pulling him out into the room with her. Renny and Jerry were in the galley, quietly chatting with the elderly human, and Damien was spreading out an exercise mat on the far side of the room.

He followed Lori to a couch and then sat down beside her, his breakfast temporarily forgotten. He sat there quietly for a moment while Lorelei merely waited. Without prompting, the wolf began talking in a low voice so the others wouldn’t hear.

“Mina and I first met about fifteen years ago,” he said. “We dated for a while, but she let her finances get out of hand and dug herself fairly deep into debt. My cousin’s brother-in-law had helped me make some good investments with my savings, so I had a nice little bank account that Mina thought she would tap into. She told me I’d gotten her pregnant, but her doctor was actually a friend of mine and I discovered otherwise. I realized that it was just a ploy to appeal to my sense of family and get me to propose to her. I thought that if I confronted her, she’d bolt and run away. I was wrong.”

“What happened?”

Tarjon leaned back against the couch cushions and rubbed his temples. “She admitted that she was never pregnant, but still wanted to marry me. By this time, I figured out that she saw me as nothing more than a way to get her out of debt, no matter how she felt about me.”

“But yet you’re still together after all this time,” Lori said.

Tarjon scowled at her. “Since she wouldn’t let up on me, I’m the one who bolted. In an effort to get away from her, I joined the Dennieran military as a helmsman on the battleship Deep Well during the Dennier-Mainor conflicts. Unfortunately, it did no good to run. She signed up too, but I’ll probably never know how she wound up serving on the same ship as a mechanic. We got busy with our assignments and she stopped trying to marry me, but she’s never let me out of her sight.”

Lori tilted her head, letting one ear droop. “She can’t be too bad if you still let her tag along with you, even now.”

The wolf finally smiled. “Well, she’s an extremely good mechanic,” he replied. “Our service contracts ended a year after Dennier and Mainor agreed to a truce and she followed me wherever I went as my mechanic. We hired out as a team on several vessels, but my investments finally earned enough that I could buy a ship of my own. She talked me into keeping her on as my mechanic and helped me pick out the rest of my crew.”

“Where’s your crew?”

“They’re waiting for us on Fyn, where we’re headed after I take possession of my ship on Pomen.”

Lorelei stretched and then smiled at the wolf. “Do you think that you and Mina will ever get married?”

“Miss, I…”

“You may call me Lori.”

“Lori, I may one day take a mate for life, but knowing Mina as I do, I don’t intend for it to be her. She’s a great mechanic and sometimes is a good friend, but she also likes to play mind-games. She probably thinks she’ll eventually wear me down, so I have to maintain a psychological barrier against her at all times.”

Lorelei’s pleasant smile faded at this last revelation, but then her eyes sparkled with a new thought. She put a hand on his knee and whispered, “If you need a break from her attentions, I’m willing to offer you a new distraction.”

“What kind of…. uh… oh…” Tarjon swallowed when he realized what her offer meant. “Uhm, thanks,” he said.

Lori giggled at his reaction and then stood up. “What would you like for breakfast?” she asked. Tarjon’s stomach growled at the mention of food. He stood up with her and named his request. Lori nodded at his short list and said, “I can have that ready for you in about twenty minutes, if you can wait that long.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Lori padded off to the galley. Tarjon considered joining the others at the galley table, but Damien’s exercise routine caught his eye. The mastiff was stripped to the waist and exercising in a number of moves that the wolf didn’t remember ever seeing before.

“Hello,” Tarjon said when he stopped beside the mat. Damien looked over at him, but continued exercising.

“Hi,” he replied. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Just watching you work out,” Tarjon answered. “I don’t recognize your moves.”

“I used to be a Tanthean boxer. This was my trainer’s personal exercise routine.”

“You’re a fighter?”

“Used to be, but I like to stay in shape. Boxing, wrestling, martial arts… How about yourself?”

Tarjon smiled. “I’ve been in more barroom brawls than I can count, but I’ve done some boxing in my time.”

Damien studied him quietly and Frost could almost read his mind. “How about a friendly match?” Tarjon asked.

Damien gave him a good-natured smile. “I’m not sure your passenger flight insurance will cover us if I hurt you.”

Pulling off his shirt, Tarjon grinned. “I’m willing to take that chance,” he said. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a good workout.”

Damien looked over toward the galley. “Did you hear that, Renny?” he called. “How about it?”

“Yes, I heard. Why are you asking my permission?”

“You’re the first officer.”

“If you’re both willing, go for it.”

Damien walked to a wall cabinet, pulled out two pair of boxing gloves, and then tossed one set to the wolf. “Give us a hand lacing up,” he said. Renny walked over to the mat just as the lift door opened. Taro walked onto the deck and went to the galley to sit down next to Jerry.

“Hello, Mr. Desmond,” she said to the passenger.

“Hello, Captain,” the gentleman replied with a smile. He picked up a slice of toast and buttered it with a greenish paste from Alexandrius.

“What’s going on?” Taro asked when she noticed the trio on the exercise mat.

“Two fools want to beat up on one another,” Jerry replied. “I’m staying out of it until one of them needs Sickbay.” Taro frowned; several of her crewmates occasionally worked out together on the deck, but she was unsure if including one of their passengers was a good idea. The fox tod correctly guessed her train of thought and added, “Mr. Frost offered to work out with Damien. Renny gave his permission after Damien informed our passenger that his flight insurance won’t cover him if he’s injured.”

“I see,” she said quietly.

Jerry stood up. “Maybe I’d better play referee and keep a close watch on them,” he said.

As the fox approached the gloved pair, Renny told them, “The edge of the mats will mark the rope boundaries. Go to your corners and wait for my signal to begin.”

“I’ll take over from here,” the physician said. “Go eat your breakfast.”

“Thanks, Doc.”

Both combatants stood ready until Jerry dropped his hand a moment later. Damien and Tarjon approached one another and then tapped their gloves together. Tarjon then took a sudden swing at the mastiff, but only found empty air. He grinned and then tried another tactic.

The lift door opened again and the ship’s engineer wandered into the room, both of his hands in his namesake pockets. He looked around the deck, watched the boxers jab at one another for a moment, and then noticed Lorelei serving a plate to the navigator. He sauntered over to the cheetah and took a seat next to him. He gave a casual wave to the captain, but she was busy watching the fighters.

“Hey, I heard you two spent the night in a haunted hotel while we were on Kantus,” Pockets said with wide eyes. Renny looked up as he swallowed the first bite of his breakfast.

“It was a bed and breakfast, not a hotel, and it was supposedly haunted,” the cheetah replied a moment later. “If there were any ghosts there, we never saw them.”

“Did you hear any strange noises or bumps in the night?”

Renny shook his head. “No, nothing. The place was peacefully quiet.”

Pockets looked thoughtful. “If I’d known you were going to a place like that, I would have given you my lucky four-leaf clover from Earth.”

“What is lucky about a plant with four leaves?”

“The clover on Earth only has three leaves. The locals there believe a rare one with four leaves is lucky!”

Renny took a drink from his cup. “Silly superstition,” he said with an amused expression. “I know you believe in that sort of thing, Pockets, but I saw no sign of paranormal activity while we stayed at the Crescent Bed & Breakfast Inn. I don’t think your mutant clover could have made our stay there any quieter.”

The raccoon frowned. “The Crescent, huh? I’ll have to remember not to stay there anytime I’m in Gate City.”

“Why? You don’t like a good night’s sleep?”

“There are rumors of ghosts there. I don’t want to anger any ghosts!”

The first officer rolled his eyes. The diminutive engineer apparently heard only what he wanted to hear. “I’ve heard the stories, but we didn’t see any ghosts, Pockets!”

“Did you go to sleep?”

“Of course I did.”

“They could have been in your room without you seeing them if your eyes were closed!”

Renny signed audibly. “Pockets… you’re making my brain hurt. Forget about it. I’m sure the Crescent won’t miss your money if you don’t check into one of their rooms.”

“You can bet I won’t be staying there!”

The cheetah left his empty plate and glass for Lorelei and then headed for the lift without another word to the superstitious raccoon. Pockets pulled out a transparent circlet from the shirt pocket of his coveralls and examined the clover within the disc. The acrylic was scratched and scuffed from sharing space in his pockets with tools and miscellaneous junk, but he vowed to keep it with him everywhere he went.

***

Damien found an opening and drove his glove up against the wolf’s jaw. Frost’s head rocked with the blow and he fell backward onto the mat. His equilibrium was skewed, so he lay there gathering his wits. When the marbles finished spinning around inside his skull, Tarjon looked up at the mastiff with a lopsided grin.

“You win,” he conceded. “You’re good… better than I am.”

Damien smiled and offered his glove to help him up to his feet. “You’re pretty good too,” he replied, “but you could use a little training to fine-tune your offense.”

Tarjon stood up and put a glove on the load master’s shoulder. “Is that an offer to coach me?”

“Are you serious?”

“Sure am. As you say, I can use the training.”

“Hmm, okay. I’m agreeable, providing the captain gives her approval.”

Tarjon grinned and looked over at the vixen. “How about it, Captain?” he asked before he grabbed the end of a glove lace in his teeth.

Taro frowned. “I have to admit that I’m impressed by my load master’s boxing abilities, so I’m afraid he might hurt you inadvertently, Mr. Frost. Your passenger flight insurance doesn’t cover something like that.”

“What if I sign a waiver?” the wolf asked. “I won’t hold him responsible if it’s an accident.”

“I don’t know…”

“I can pay him extra for the training,” Tarjon added. “Listen, we’re going to be with you folks for a month and this would be good to help me pass the time.”

Taro finally nodded. “If you’re willing to sign a waiver, then I don’t see why I should refuse it. All I ask is that you be careful.”

“Thank you, Captain. I’ll gladly sign it.”

“See me sometime tomorrow,” the vixen replied. “I’ll have the waiver drawn up for your thumbprint by then.”

“Excellent!” Tarjon said with a wide smile. He turned back to Damien as he removed a glove and went to retrieve his shirt. Lorelei waved at him from the galley, and the wolf licked his lips in anticipation of his breakfast.

***

“Okay, folks, we have an unusual cargo this time around, so you can’t just load up the hold as we normally do with standard crates,” Damien told the gathered crew. The Blue Horizon landed twenty minutes earlier and the mastiff had just signed off on the official documents taking possession of the cargo.

“What’s so different about this load?” Justy asked. He looked over at a pair of large delivery trucks backed up to the loading ramp. Damien walked to the nearest one with his slateboard and flipped the latch. He raised the door with one hand and gestured inside.

“Rather than standard octagonal shipping crates, we have a number of rug and carpet rolls,” he said. “We’ve got them in several sizes, in length and diameter, so standard tie-downs aren’t going to work. Some of these are extremely heavy.”

He gestured up higher on the back wall above the storage bins at a series of racks with adjustable horizontal arms. “The larger ones will go up there, where they will transport better, but we’ll still have smaller ones secured to the deck with special straps I’ve requisitioned from Aris Grand so this can be done correctly.”

“These hand-made items are very expensive and are being exported to the Pomen ruler of Bassaris under serious scrutiny,” Taro added. “The Tanthean monarch has guaranteed safe passage for this cargo simply by requesting our services by name. The Blue Horizon has a special relationship with King Aris and we’re going to treat this cargo as if everything was made of irreplaceable Vaterfin Crystal. The Bassaran prince will have an armored truck waiting for them when we land.”

“Armored?” Justy repeated. “Wow…”

Damien clapped his hands and said, “We can hand-carry the smaller rolls with one person to each end, but power loaders will be needed for the larger rolls.”

“Jerry and I will operate the power loaders if they’re working,” Renny announced. He and the male fox left the group and walked across the hold to a pair of exoskeleton power suits stowed near the engine room. They’d picked them up secondhand after getting the ship, but it turned out they weren’t very reliable and often broke down under a heavy load.

The captain looked over at the coyote standing at her elbow as the others started in Damien’s direction. “Do you have a ride to the print shop?” she asked.

Amanda nodded. “I just called for a cab to meet me here,” she replied. “The name tags that Cindy ordered for us have been paid for and are ready to pick up, but the shop is across town from the spaceport. Depending upon traffic, it may take an hour and half to get there and back.”

Taro frowned and looked at her watch. “We’re scheduled to launch at fourteen hundred hours, local time. That gives you roughly two hours to get there and back.”

“You will wait for me if we get stuck in traffic, won’t you?” Amanda asked hopefully.

Chuckling, the vixen put a hand on the coyote’s shoulder. “We aren’t going anywhere without you, Mandy, even if we have to miss our launch window and reschedule take-off. Just don’t dawdle.”

“Hopefully, I’ll be back before that happens.”

“Well, you’re off to a good start. Here comes your cab.”

Amanda trotted off toward a green and yellow vehicle that pulled up next to the delivery trucks, but before Taro could join her crew to help with the cargo, she saw her passengers approach from the lift. She gave them a pleasant smile.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hi, Captain,” Tarjon answered. He wore a simple white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a pair of denim jeans and boots. Mina had on a blue skirt with a matching halter-top and sandals.

“We’ll be launching in two hours,” Taro said, “but if you want to get some fresh air and wander around the spaceport, you’re welcome to do so until then. Just don’t be late getting back.”

Mina grinned. “The fresh air and the sunshine out here is nice,” she replied, “but I think I’m going to check out the trinket shops in the spaceport. It shouldn’t take me two hours to see what’s there.” She looked up at her companion. “You coming along?” she asked.

Tarjon shook his head. “No, if the captain says it’s okay, I’d like to help with the cargo.”

“Suit yourself, Frosty,” the Siberian husky said. She gave Taro a wave and then walked toward the terminal building.

“You don’t have to help us load rugs,” Taro said to the wolf. “I pay my crew to do that for me.”

“I’m not asking for payment,” Tarjon replied with a toothy grin. “I just want something to do while we’re waiting around.”

The red vixen nodded her understanding and pulled a pair of work gloves from her back pocket. “I doubt mine will fit you, so follow me to the storage closet and we’ll see if we have some you can wear.”

“Thanks, Captain. I appreciate you letting me help.”

“You’re welcome. Just don’t get hurt, okay? Your flight insurance doesn’t cover this.”

Tarjon grinned at her. “Y’know, you bring up our insurance coverage just about every time I ask if I can do something,” he observed.

“We’re liable to keep you safe as we transport you from one location to another,” Taro explained. “I just don’t want to see either you or Mina hurt from misconduct, whether by yourselves or one of my crew.”

“Yeah, I understand,” the wolf responded with a wide grin. “I’m just giving you a hard time about it.”

Taro raised an eyebrow and gave him a smirk as she opened a storage locker. She pulled out a large pair of worn gloves that had to have been Durant’s. She handed them to Frost. “Here, these should fit. Now, get to work!”

Tarjon laughed and gave her a salute with the gloves. “Yes, ma’am!”

***

“The Blue Horizon has been authorized for immediate launch,” Taro announced.

Jerry checked the readouts of the pilot’s console and unconsciously nodded to himself. Energy buildup was at one hundred percent and he was about to fire the thrusters when there came an urgent knock on the bridge door.

“Hold it,” Taro said in alarm. Jerry stayed his finger over the green-lit control as the vixen unstrapped herself from the Com station. Renny bit his bottom lip as Taro tossed her headset to him and then moved quickly to the door. When she opened the panel, she looked up into Tarjon’s smiling face.

“Mister Frost!” the vixen said in surprise, “Please get back to your cabin and get strapped in. We need to launch right now!”

“May I watch the launch from up here?” he asked quickly. “I won’t be in the way.”

“Passengers aren’t allowed on the bridge,” Renny called from the center seat.

“You heard the announcement a moment ago to get strapped in!” Jerry added.

“I’m a pilot, too,” offered the wolf. “I thought that if—”

“The control tower is demanding to know why we haven’t launched,” Renny announced.

Taro growled beneath her breath and pulled Tarjon into the room forcibly. “Sit down and strap in!” she said angrily. She jumped for her own seat, strapped in and then said to Jerry, “Punch it!”

The doctor fired the thrusters and then moved his hands quickly over the controls. The Blue Horizon rose quickly from the spaceport and then the elliptical flying saucer nosed up through the overhead clouds.

Once the freighter had reached orbit, Renny handed the Com headset back to Taro and began his calculations for their journey to Pomen. Without looking at their passenger, Taro touched a pad on the engineering console next to her and then spoke into her headset mike on ship-wide broadcast. “The ship’s artificial gravity has automatically enabled and is reading normal. Once we have broken orbit and are beyond all planetary traffic, the LightDrive engines will be engaged for cruising speed, but mobility is now safe. You may now shed your harnesses and move about.”

She disconnected the circuit and then turned to look icily at the wolf. Knowing what was coming, Tarjon looked embarrassed and gave the vixen a small smile.

“Mister Frost,” Taro hissed, “this bridge is off-limits to you at all times, especially during launch and landings! If I find you in here again, I am going to fine you five hundred credits and then have you locked in your cabin for the duration of our flight! What you did was incredibly dangerous and stupid! Had we launched while you were standing there at the door, I’m sure our doctor here would now be treating you for injuries.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry,” Tarjon said in a small voice while he unbuckled his harness. “I just wanted to —”

“Get off my bridge!” Taro shouted. Frost bolted for the door and quickly departed. After the panel closed, Taro glanced down at her hands and muttered a curse.

“What is it?” Jerry asked as he and Renny looked over at her. Without another word, the Hestran vixen lifted her hands and let them see the mangled arm rests of her seat.

Jerry raised an eyebrow and Renny politely went back to his calculations. Taro sighed and tried to straighten an armrest, but its metal base was fractured. This was something she would have to report in with the home office for funding approval to get the chair replaced. Merlin wouldn’t be happy.

The intercom chirped and the vixen tapped the control with a hard-placed finger. “This is Taro,” she said tersely.

“Captain, would you please meet me in my office?” Damien asked. Jerry frowned at the tone of the mastiff’s voice and returned his attention to the instruments in front of him just as Renny fed the navigational data to his panel.

“I’ll be down in a moment,” Taro replied. “What’s up?”

“I just caught Pockets trying to pilfer one of the smaller Tanthean rugs from our cargo.”

There was a sharp snap when one of the mangled armrests of Taro’s chair broke off completely in her hand. Renny winced as the vulpine captain raised the piece in the air, but then she changed her mind about throwing it into a wall.

“I’ll be right there,” she said through clenched teeth. She disconnected the circuit, stood up, dropped the armrest in her chair, and then stormed off the bridge.

The cheetah glanced over at Jerry and said, “Coordinates have been transferred to your station. I’ll check back with you in a bit to see if you need anything.” The male fox only nodded his acknowledgement.

A few moments later, Taro and Renny stepped in through the door of the mastiff’s small office. Pockets sat meekly on a chair in the corner, nervously swinging his legs. Damien rested on the corner of his desk. Rolled up on the desktop beside him was an ornate rug in shades of brown, beige and burgundy. The hand-woven detail was intricate and tassels of Tanthean silk adorned its edges.

Taro only made a cursory glance at the rug before boring her eyes into Pockets’. She resisted the urge to scream at him. Instead, she crossed her arms and simply waited for him to explain himself. Renny was unable to keep quiet, however.

“Pockets…” he began, “are you insane?” The raccoon shrank further into the corner, but said nothing in his defense. “This cargo belongs to a friend of King Aris!”

Damien looked over at Taro. “He was out there just as soon as you gave the okay to move around,” he said. “I guess he thought no one would notice him getting a small rug with everyone distracted from the launch.”

“How did you catch him?” Renny asked.

“I used one of your previous load master’s tricks and set up a perimeter alarm as soon as the bay doors were closed and we began pressurization. I thought it would be a good idea with an expensive cargo and three passengers on board the ship. I didn’t suspect I’d catch our own engineer.”

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Renny asked the raccoon. Pockets shook his head quietly and looked down at his feet.

Taro rubbed her eyes and then let out a long, drawn out breath. In a voice that was calmer than she felt, she looked at the raccoon and said, “Pockets, I am docking your pay for this voyage. Everyone else may have looked the other way when you occasionally filched things from the cargo, but I won’t tolerate it. You may have forgotten, but were it not for King Aris’ friendship, we wouldn’t even have this freighter!”

Pockets pulled his feet up into the chair and wrapped his arms around his knees. He rested his forehead on them, but said nothing.

“You are also denied shore leave when we get to Pomen,” Taro continued tersely. That got the raccoon’s attention. He looked up at her and opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Taro put her hands on her hips and concluded by saying, “This is the only warning you’re going to get, Jerad Porter. You’ve been with us from the beginning, but the next time you’re caught stealing from our clients, Merlin will be holding interviews for your job!”

Renny looked surprised and exchanged glances with Damien. He could smell Taro’s anger radiating outward like heat waves and was sure that Pockets could too. The vulpine captain glared at the engineer for a few heartbeats and then quickly left the small office.

Renny sighed quietly and then crouched down so that he could look the raccoon in the eye. “Pockets, I’m not going to rake you over the coals beyond what Taro already did,” he said quietly, “but I think you should take her at her word. You’ve known her longer than I have, so keep that in mind the next time you take interest in our cargo. We’ve already lost several clients lately. If the Tanthean king decides we can’t be trusted with his cargo, we’ll never get another customer once that news got out.”

Pockets looked up at the cheetah with moisture in his eyes. He began to shake a little, but he was only able to speak a single word. “Sorry…” he whispered.

Renny nodded and put a hand on his small friend’s shoulder. “I think that’s all Taro wanted to hear from you. I just wish you’d been able to tell it to her yourself.”

***

Taro stormed into her cabin, skirted around the furniture on her way to the back room, and then collapsed on her bed in frustration. It seemed as if she was continually losing her temper lately, and it was getting to her.

Was it her, or did they just seem to have a string of bad luck lately?

She lay on her back and lifted up her hands in front of her face. She unclenched her fists and simply looked at her hands. Every Hestran knew when they went off-world that they would have to control their anger due to their inherent strength born of a heavy-gravity planet. Although she didn’t look it, Taro was stronger than most everyone she ever met while out among the worlds of the Planetary Alignment.

Normally, she didn’t have trouble maintaining a reign on her anger, but lately it seemed she was out of control. She was afraid that if she didn’t do something about it soon, she might actually hurt someone; perhaps it was the weight of responsibility that was piling up on her.

She had seen Merlin lose his temper on occasion, but overall he’d handled his responsibilities with seeming ease. How had he done it? she wondered to herself.

The vixen closed her eyes and rested her hands on the bed beside her, willing her heart rate to decrease with breathing exercises she remembered from somewhere. After a while, she calmed down and rolled over onto her stomach, gathering up a fluffy pillow in her arms. Perhaps a nap would help her relax.

She closed her eyes and lay there for a long while, but her mind was simply too active for sleep. With an audible sigh, she sat up next to the headboard and looked around the room. On the nightstand next to her, she snatched up a well-worn paperback copy of How to Control Your Anger. She didn’t think it had helped her thus far, but it wouldn’t hurt to give it another read.

She heard a knock on the external door of her cabin and she closed the book in her lap wearily. Now what? she wondered. She heard the door panel open and then heard Jerry call out her name.

She got up and went out to the front room. “What can I do for you, Doc?” she asked in a tired voice. “I’m not really up for a visit right now.”

The male red fox studied her for a moment with his hands in the pockets of his white lab smock. “Captain, would you allow me to give you a brief examination?” he asked quietly.

Taro heaved a heavy sigh. “Why?”

“Because your first officer has asked me to take a look at you.” He pointed toward the book still in the vixen’s hand. “He’s not the only one who’s taken notice of your temper lately. I’ve heard several of the crew mention it in conversation.”

Taro’s expression grew dark and she opened her mouth to make a caustic remark, then thought better of it with a shake of her head. “I suppose I have been on edge lately,” she admitted. She sat down on the couch, set the book on a cushion beside her, and looked up at him with a tired expression. “Go ahead and examine me, Doc. Maybe you can do something for me that this book can’t.”

Jerry gave her a quiet nod and pulled a small med-kit from his pocket.

***

Max Sinclair looked up into the cloudy evening sky in anticipation. There were numerous sets of running lights over the spaceport and he wondered which ones might belong to the Blue Horizon. The German shepherd took a drink from a cup on his table near the terminal window, and then looked over at the lion sitting across from him.

“Are you making any progress?” he asked his companion.

The male lion shook his head as he kept his attention on the tiny instruments in his large hands. He was working on the slateboard datapak that Max took with him everywhere he went, but it had developed problems on this trip.

“Almost,” the lion replied after a moment. “I think the core values are almost shot, though. If you can afford it, you should upgrade to a S’leen model. This C’maat edition is a luxury item, but it’s obsolete and I don’t think many folks use them anymore.”

Max frowned. “How hard would it be to transfer the data from it to a new one?” he asked.

The lion looked up when the slateboard beeped at him. He reattached the back panel and answered, “Not hard at all, providing you can keep this one running long enough for the transference. For now, however, it’s working.”

“Thanks!”

“Don’t mention it, Max. I enjoy working on old computer systems.”

“Blue Horizon, PA registry one-one-three-eight, now landing on pad one-two,” a subtle voice announced over the terminal intercom.

“That’s my ship!” Max said with a grin.

The lion handed the slateboard to him and gave him a smile. “Lucky you,” he said, taking a quick lap from a cup of tea. “I have another two hours to wait for my ride.”

Max stood up, put the slateboard into his carry-on luggage, and then held out a hand to his companion. “How much do I owe you for repairing my C’maat?”

“Not a thing. It gave me something to do while we were waiting.”

“Thanks!” Max replied as they shook hands. “If there’s anything I can help you with, just contact me via the Blue Horizon.”

“Tell your boss that if he needs any upgrades or tech work done on your company systems, my services are open to negotiation. I put my contact info on your slateboard.”

“I will.” Max looked out the window and saw the blue freighter land gently on a brightly-lit launch pad. “Time to go. Take care of yourself.”

“You too. Bye, Max.”

The German shepherd gathered up his bags and headed for the terminal ramp. He trotted down the steps to ground-level, and then started out across the tarmac. He heard footsteps behind him so he glanced over his shoulder to see a human couple following him, a man and his pregnant mate.

“Excuse me,” the woman said when she saw his eyes dart quickly to her protruding belly.

“Ma’am?”

“Are you going to that ship?” she asked with a thick accent.

“Yes, ma’am. I’m a mechanic on her crew.”

“Is that the Blauer Horizont?” asked the male.

“Yes, sir,” Max replied with a cordial smile. “They’ve just arrived from Kantus.”

“Thank you,” said the man. “My father is supposed to be a passenger on your ship. We’re here to take him home with us.”

“Come with me,” Max told them. “We’ll see who disembarks in a moment.” No sooner had he spoken than the large cargo bay door began to open on its port side and a ramp began to extend to the tarmac.

“There you are!” Damien called down to the young German shepherd with a grin. “I was about to report you to the captain as AWOL!”

“All hands!” Taro’s voice broadcast over the cargo bay intercom speakers, “All hands report to the hold to unload cargo. Passengers will please check out with Amanda at the main hatch before you disembark. Thank you for flying with Blue Horizon Space Available.”

Max turned toward the humans. “Your father should out in a few minutes,” he told them.

“Thank you, sir,” the man replied. Max hefted his bags and then trotted up the ramp to Damien at the bay door controls.

“Well,” said the mastiff. “Let me see it.”

Max grinned widely and then held up his left hand. Damien examined the middle finger and even gave it a good-natured tug.

“It looks and feels real,” he said. “It matches your skin and fur coloring.”

“Doctor Bengoro did a good job,” Max said proudly. “I like it!”

“Can you feel anything with it?”

The shepherd shook his head, but his ice blue eyes still shined. “No, it’s still a prosthetic just made to look like a real finger. I had to go through a week of physical therapy to learn how to pick up things with that hand all over again.” He wiggled it to show that it could operate normally. “It was weird at first, since I’d gotten used to nothing being there in the middle and had compensated for it. It feels natural now, even if there’s no sense of touch in it.”

Damien gave him a warm smile, tapped the new finger with one of his own, and said, “Just don’t lose this one!”

“Not a chance!” Max replied as he extended the finger by itself. “I can’t wait to show it to the others.”

The mastiff reached up and took hold of the young mechanic’s hand, gently folding the digit back down. “Don’t stick your middle finger out like that,” he said quietly so the pair of individuals waiting nearby wouldn’t hear. “It’s considered a rude gesture in some places, especially to humans.”

“Oh, yeah... I forgot.”

***

Tarjon shook hands with the Blue Horizon’s captain as the three of them departed the lift onto the cargo deck. He gave her a wide smile. “I apologize for being a pain in the trip, but Mina and I appreciated the chance to fly with you.”

Taro returned the grip. “Apology accepted, Mr. Frost. I’ve been a little irritable, myself, so it’s not all your fault. Doctor Jerry thinks I might have picked up something from our previous stop that our inoculations didn’t cover.”

“Is it contagious?” Mina asked in concern with a hand to her throat. Taro gave the husky a smile and shook her head.

“He doesn’t think so, but it might not be a bad idea if you have a physician look you over before you head out into deep space for any length of time. How are you feeling?”

Mina looked up, twitched an ear and then shrugged. “I feel like I always do,” she replied.

Tarjon put an arm around her and said into her ear, “Yup, that sounds like you’re still infected with whatever it is you’ve always had.”

Mina grinned and swatted his hand from her shoulder. “I guess I’m okay, captain,” she said. “I’ve been on board with you for nearly a month. If it was catching, I’m sure I would have gotten it before now.”

Taro nodded and asked, “What are your plans now?” They walked toward Amanda near the open bay door with their luggage. The rest of the crew had already begun transferring their cargo into an armored truck sent by the Pomen prince. Ursine guards watched the loading with serious scrutiny and Pockets’ demeanor was noticeably subdued by their presence.

“Now we go sign for our new ship and make sure they made all the right modifications,” Mina replied, adjusting the straps of her overalls. “I’ve already ordered a stock of supplies for the new ship, so once it’s been delivered and put away, we can head over to Fyn to get the rest of our crew.”

Taro nodded when they got to the ramp. She saw a human couple greet Mr. Desmond with grins, tears and hugs, and she couldn’t help but smile. Lehigh had been afraid that his son’s wife wouldn’t like him, but it appeared they were off together on a good start.

She looked back up at Mina and held out a hand to her. “I wish the two of you the best of luck,” she said. “Our next assignment will also be on Fyn, so perhaps we’ll see one another again.”

Tarjon rubbed his hands together and looked out across the spaceport tarmac. He stretched out his arm and pointed toward another landing pad several slots over. “I think that’s her, right there!”

Taro and Mina followed his gaze. A white vessel with gold paint trim gleamed in the nighttime flood lights. It was a sleek, flying wing starship of the compact Myotis class, built for stellar speed, atmospheric aerodynamics and the latest advancements in astrogation technology. It could hold a crew of ten comfortably and up to twenty if everyone doubled up in its cabins. The Myotis cruiser line had been in operation for years and boasted fine construction and repeat customers.

“Nice!” Taro said in appreciation.

“Thanks, Captain,” the wolf replied. “However, I’m itching to get my paws on her, so we’ll bid you safe journey and be on our way.”

“Safe journeys to you two as well.”

Tarjon met with Amanda to check out, and then a moment later he picked up his luggage with Mina following him down the ramp across the tarmac.

As they walked, the Siberian husky looked up at her companion with a smile. “You’re grinning like a happy puppy!” she teased.

“And why not?” he replied with a laugh. “You know what it’s like to want something for years? I’m looking forward to this!”

“Yes, Frosty. I know what it’s like to want someone for years.” Tarjon raised an eyebrow at her comment, but then she batted her eyes at him with hands clasped over her heart. He couldn’t help but laugh.

“C’mon, mechanic!” he said. “Pick up the pace and double-time it!”

***

The Blue Horizon lifted off from Pomen three days later, its hold filled to capacity containing three separate paid shipments to various locations on Fyn. Considering the loss of clients in recent weeks, Taro was happy to have this trio of assignments at the same time to make up for dwindling company funds. Cindy and Keri had worked overtime to secure the deliveries, making sure they were all paid in advance. The mail quota was heavier than usual, so the hold was packed with only a narrow walkway dividing each customer’s goods, and a path around the entire perimeter of the cargo bay.

Damien was making a final inspection of the cargo before he was to report to the bridge for his watch. As he came around the bay near engineering on his way back to the lift, he saw the raccoon watching him from the doorway.

“What’s going on, Pockets?” the mastiff asked suspiciously.

The raccoon held up both hands with an annoyed expression. “Don’t worry, mister load master,” he replied, “I’m not going to steal anything!”

“Then how come you’re out here?”

“I was cleaning the actuator on one of the landing claws and needed some fresh air. The recycler is now filtering the fumes out of the engineering compartment. You’re welcome to go in there and sample the air with a deep breath, if you don’t believe my story.”

Damien frowned at the raccoon’s attitude. “Listen, Pockets. There’s no need to get this way with me. I was—”

“Save it. I know you were only doing your job. Just don’t expect me to thank you for it.” Pockets turned his back on the load master when a small blip sounded from the room behind him.

“Did you do this with Durant?”

Pockets stopped in his tracks, spun around and shook a finger at the larger male. “Durant was my friend. Don’t ever compare yourself to him!” Before Damien could utter a response, the engineer retreated into his lair.

The mastiff stared after him for a long moment, and then turned to go report to the bridge.

***

Justy yawned widely, his small pink tongue curling up as he stretched. It had been quiet during his watch, and he had just finished the book he had brought with him, with another hour still left until his relief showed up.

He set the slateboard on the floor beside the center seat and stared out into space. Stellar distances were so vast that even at LightDrive speeds, the vista of stars appeared unmoving unless someone stared at them for long periods. Justy blinked to refresh his eyes, and one of the stars to the starboard suddenly appeared to be keeping pace with them.

He watched in interest as the star grew larger in size and stellar magnitude. He thought he might be witnessing a sun going into a rare nova and leaned forward on the console with a smile forming across his face.

The object continued to grow, however, and he jumped in his seat when sensors bleeped at him in alarm. The koala shook his head as he realized that it was another vessel approaching from the starboard, its speed closely matching their own.

He hit the intercom pad on his panel and a sleepy voice issued from the speaker. “This is Taro… what is it?”

“Sorry to bother you, Captain,” Justy exclaimed, “but we have another ship coming up alongside of us.”

“Who is it?”

Justy moved to another station and called up the sensor log. “Its transponder identifies it as the Frostbite, PA99473.”

“Frostbite? I don’t know that one. Has her captain tried to hail us?”

“No, ma’am. Do you think it’s a pirate ship?”

There was a moment of silence. “I wouldn’t rule out that possibility. See if you can raise them, but be on the alert for any trickery. I’ll be right there.”

“Aye.” The koala closed the connection and then dialed up the other vessel’s registry code. “Frostbite, this is the SS Blue Horizon. What can we help you with?”

“Blue Horizon,” said a familiar voice, “this is Captain Frost. If I’m not mistaken, is this Justy I’m speaking to?”

The koala grinned when Taro and Renny walked in through the door, both in robes and looking disheveled. “Yes, this is Justy,” he said into the headset microphone in his hand. “Good to hear from you, Tarjon. We didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

“My ship had already been supplied when we got to it, so we were given clearance to launch about an hour after you. We’re on our way to Fyn to pick up the rest of my crew and thought we’d accompany you there, if that’s okay with your captain.”

Taro gave Justy a nod and then yawned widely; she tugged on Renny’s arm back toward the door. The pair departed without a single word.

“Taro’s asleep right now, Captain, but I don’t think having you along will be a problem,” Justy replied. “Are you sure we won’t be holding your faster ship back too much?”

There was a laugh from the connection. “Yeah, I’m sure we could outrun you, but you folks are good people and we’d like the company.”

“That’s great! Listen… if Mina doesn’t mind, I’d like the chance to match her at another game of chess while we’re in flying in tandem. I have an online board that she could connect into with your computer.”

“You know she’ll whoop your tail again, Justy.”

“Hey, she didn’t beat me every game! Besides, I got a lot of practice playing chess with her while you were with us. I think I can give her an even run for her efforts!”

“She just said that you’ll be sorry you tangled with her, but yes, she accepts your online challenge. Personally, I agree that you’ll be sorry you wanted her— Ow! Don’t hit, Mina!”

Justy grinned widely as there were sounds of a scuffle for a moment over the open connection.

“Sorry about that, Justy,” Mina’s voice said over the speaker. “CAPTAIN Frost has gone back to the galley to prepare my breakfast. You and I are now alone together to wreak havoc across the chess board. You ready?”

“I’m calling up the program now. You can connect using our transponder ID and the activation code, Chaturanga.”

“Chaturanga, eh? That’s appropriate... Got it and connecting in now. Better have some bandages ready for your tail!”

***

Renny drummed his fingers on the guidance shifts before him and wondered idly why he hadn’t brought a book with him to the bridge for his watch. He’d relieved Justy two hours earlier and had already grown bored. When Merlin was captain, the cheetah had often suggested having a StellarNet feed routed to a screen on the bridge, but the idea was always nixed since the pilot needed to be alert for any emergency. Those so-called emergencies were extremely rare, so the first officer wondered if he might sweet-talk Taro into having Pockets rig up the connection anyway. It would help pass the time even if all he had to watch on StellarNet was INN broadcasts.

Standing up from the seat, he decided to do some exercises. He didn’t have a floor mat, but the bridge wasn’t large enough for a full set of calisthenics anyway. Despite this, he dropped to the floor and began a routine of push-ups.

The door opened later just as he finished with a set of rigorous sit-ups, and Lorelei walked in with a tray of food in her hands.

“Have you worked up an appetite?” she asked with a teasing lilt to her voice. Renny looked up at her with a grin and licked his lips.

“You know me so well,” he said as he got up and took the tray from her. “Thank y—” The sensors bleeped suddenly in alarm and Renny heaved a big sigh. He handed the tray back to the rabbit and shut off the klaxon. “Looks like the Frostbite has gotten too close to our… no, wait a minute, that’s not Tarjon’s ship!”

Renny jumped into the pilot seat, buckled his flight harness and then slammed his palm down on the autopilot emergency release. He grabbed the guidance shifts, keeping his eyes trained on the instrumentation before him, and said over his shoulder, “You’d better get strapped in, Lori!”

The white doe set the food tray on the floor and then took the nearest seat at the environmental station. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

Proximity alarms suddenly blared out and the starboard vidscreen came to life with a digital representation of the Blue Horizon at its center. The Frostbite was ahead of them by several thousand kilometers, but another vessel was bearing down on them from the port side at a speed too great to be a casual approach. A quick check of the com reading gave news that the cheetah dreaded.

“Their transponder isn’t transponding! It’s gotta be pirates!”

Renny was in a sudden dilemma. He couldn’t get to the armament panel without leaving the pilot’s seat. “Lori! Can you get to the weapons console? We need to defend ourselves!” He knew the bunny was the peaceful type, but she had exhibited her flawless skills with a handgun that time back on Fyn when the Basilisk crew had tortured Merlin. Perhaps she was just as precise with the ship’s weaponry.

Lorelei was scared, but she knew what was at stake and unbuckled herself to move to the station at the front of the bridge. Renny cursed beneath his breath when another warning klaxon blared out and warning lights bathed the bridge in red. A spray of greenish-white energy spread out toward them from the oncoming ship, and he had to spin the Horizon over on one axis in order to avoid damage. From the angle of the shot, Renny knew they were trying to disable his engines.

He increased their velocity in an effort to outmaneuver their opponent. Unfortunately, the fully loaded freighter was no match for the speed and agility of the marauder’s smaller design. It resembled nothing more than a fat, blunt-nosed cylinder, but it could maneuver faster than the larger cargo vessel.

***

Taro’s quarters suddenly lurched to the side with a jolt hard enough to launch her out of the shower, a bottle of shampoo hitting the deck beside her. The vixen tumbled to the floor in a heap, slid across the tile to the side of the lavatory. She fought to regain her footing and equilibrium, and had to cling to the counter in order to stand. The room shuddered with a low growl as another heavy jolt rocked the ship again.

From the other room she heard Lori’s voice from the intercom, “Captain, come to bridge! We’re under attack!”

She struggled to her feet when another blast rocked the ship. It sent her stumbling against a wall as she propelled herself out of the door and toward the hallway.

***

On the bridge, Renny’s fingers gripped the guidance shifts as he fought to evade the pirate vessel. He whipped it starboard while pushing up their speed for escape. The Horizon banked sharply as angry fingers of energy slashed out at the sluggish freighter, only to sail right back into the barrage of green fire. It was like trying to escape through an electrified fence.

Taro stumbled in through the bridge door just as the Com station lit up with intercom requests from just about everyone on board. The towel-clad vixen somehow managed to get into the Com chair and buckle up the harness.

She glanced up at the active vidscreen before she realized that some of the ethereal display came from her ship. She looked down at Lorelei at the weapons console and noted in wonder the ease in which the bunny operated their armaments against their attackers. Unfortunately, Renny was concentrating so intently on avoiding enemy fire that Lori’s chances of actually hitting the pirates was practically hopeless with the erratic flight of the Blue Horizon.

Taro turned quickly to her station and hit the ship-wide intercom as she glanced up at the active vidscreen.

“All hands, hang on!” she broadcast to everyone. “Looks like we’ve got pirates after our cargo. I’m not sure we can outrun their weapons for long, so be alert for armed boarders. If we can just—”

The attacking vessel suddenly veered off in a move that surprised both Renny and Lori at their controls. It almost looked as if the ship was trying to avoid collision. Then without warning, a white flying wing appeared directly between the freighter and its attackers, its thrusters on full braking as it whipped around to follow the pirates.

“It’s Frosty!” Lorelei exclaimed happily. She clapped her hands and bounced in her seat beneath the safety harness.

Mixed streamers of blue and green fire were exchanged between the Frostbite and the pirate vessel as they sped off into the void, but Renny saw none of it. He recalculated their course and resumed their heading toward Fyn with as much speed as the blue saucer could manage.

For several moments, it felt odd that the deck plates beneath their feet were no longer tilting and shaking crazily. Although they seemed to be out of danger for the moment, all three on the bridge maintained a watchful vigil.

Finally, Taro released her breath and looked over at her companions. “Good work, you two,” she said with a relieved smile. Cheetah and bunny exchanged quick glances.

“I couldn’t hit them,” Lori admitted with a frown. “Everything was too crazy!”

Renny shook his head too. “All I did was buy us a few minutes,” he replied. “If Tarjon hadn’t shown up, we would have been disabled and boarded.” He looked up at the screen, but saw no sign of the either vessel out among the stars. “That could still happen, y’know.”

Taro nodded, understanding their frustration, but still she gave each of them a warm smile. “Possibly,” she admitted, “but at least they wouldn’t have taken us without a fight. Good work, you two,” she repeated.

“I hope Mina and Frosty are okay,” Lorelei said in a quiet voice.

The intercom chirped and Taro would have leapt from her seat had she not been strapped in. She chuckled nervously and connected the call to the overhead speaker. “This is the bridge,” she said.

“Captain! Are we okay?” came a strained voice.

“For the moment, Max. Mr. Frost showed up to chase away the pirates, but we still don’t know how well they might be doing. Are you okay? The floor plates were shaking awfully hard during the attack.”

“Yeah, I’m okay, but we may find things scattered all over the ship. The backup inertia dampers for sudden jolts like this have been faulty lately and we haven’t had the extra parts to repair them.”

“Why haven’t we bought the parts we need?” Renny asked.

“Pockets requested the funding from the home office for the parts, but since we’ve lost several clients lately, Ms. Winters has to find some other area in the budget to cut in order to pay for the parts we need. For a starship, those components aren’t cheap.”

Lori wrinkled her small nose. “I liked it better when we had money.”

Taro nodded in agreement. “I think several blasts might have gotten through our stellar shields during the attack. You and Pockets should start checking the ship for damage.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Taro made another glance at the vidscreen and then unbuckled her harness. “I’m going to go check on everyone else,” she said. “Lori, would you stay up here in case Renny needs anything?”

“Yes, ma’am, I will.”

“Thank you. Renny, should we need to—” The sensors bleeped again in alarm; Taro sat down quickly to buckle herself back in as Renny prepared to take evasive action. Before the vixen could get the harness fastened, a voice hailed them over the circuit she had left open.

“Ahoy Horizon!”

Taro visibly deflated in relief. “Ahoy, Frostbite! We’re so glad to see you! Are you two okay?” She transferred the conversation to the port vidscreen and the wolf’s grinning face peered out at them.

“Yeah, Mina and I are fine,” Tarjon replied. “We got to test out our new ship and modifications, and she passed wonderfully. Sorry we couldn’t get back here in time to save you from the attack. Are you guys all right in there?”

The Frostbite took up a position starboard aft of the Blue Horizon and made a lazy circuit over and above the freighter. Renny surmised that they were looking over the Horizon’s external damage.

“We’re shaken up, but still assessing condition of the ship. What happened with the other vessel? Do you think they’ll be back?”

A quiet chuckle came across the speaker. “Don’t worry about the Peg. We sent her running and then disabled its engines when we figured she had enough inertia to get her closer to Fynian traffic to be picked up by the local authorities, whom we’ve contacted.”

“Peg?” Lori asked.

“It’s a common nickname for that ship design,” Tarjon said with a laugh. “They’re small and cheap, but roomy with a decent little cargo hold. They also have interstellar range.”

Taro rubbed her eyes and suddenly remembered that she only wore a towel and had half-dried shampoo all through her fur. She figured she must look a fright, but it was too late to try to look presentable now. She looked up at the screen and asked, “Are you sure the Peg won’t be coming back for us?”

“Not to worry, Captain. Mina and I will watch over you until we get to Fyn. The rest of my crew will be disappointed they missed the excitement, but now we’ll have a tale to tell them.”

“Thank you, Captain Frost,” Taro said with a smile. “I appreciate your assistance and am grateful that you were here with us.”

“You’re welcome. Now why don’t you go tend to your people? You do look like you could use a shower, though.”

Taro chuckled with a shake of her head. “That’s where I was when the excitement began.”

***

Four hours later, Mina sat down in a comfortable chair on the bridge of the Frostbite, sliding her tail into the slotted seat back. She handed a cup of coffee to her companion and gave him a smile. “So, are you satisfied with the way she handles?” she asked.

Tarjon took a lap from his cup and then nodded. “Yeah, I enjoyed that little workout. Our little ship performed really well, and I think she’ll do nicely,” he said, “but I want you and Decade to see what you can do to tweak our speed when we have everyone on board.”

Mina smirked. “That’ll make him happy. You know how much he likes to improve upon any system he gets his paws onto!”

“This’s true.”

“You know… we still have a few hours before we get to Fyn. We’re all alone… with no distractions…” The husky leaned forward seductively and rolled a shoulder toward him. Frost swallowed, but shook his head. He opened his mouth to reply, but then a control panel twittered.

Tarjon looked up with a raised eyebrow. “What in thunder does that sound mean?” he muttered. The ship was still so new he was not familiar with all the sounds the vessel might make.

Mina laughed at him. “We have an interstellar call, Frosty.” She reached across a panel and thumbed a glowing blue touch pad. “This is Chief Engineer Ferris of the SS Frostbite, PA Registry 99473,” she said to a hidden microphone. “What can I help you with?”

There was a slight pause before the speaker’s voice came across the circuit. “Chief Ferris, my name is Merlin Sinclair, president of Blue Horizon Freight Transfer. May I speak with your captain, please?”

Mina toggled a switch and transferred the conversation to the large vidscreen window over them. Tarjon looked up at the image of a gray and white wolf dressed in a dark blue dress shirt.

“Cousin Merle, hello,” he said with a smile.

“Hello, Tarjon,” said the other wolf. “It’s been a long time.”

“It’s been a long time since we’ve talked, but not that long since I’ve seen you.”

Merlin twitched an ear. “When was that?” he asked. “Was it on the Sagittarian Arrow on the flight from Tanthe to Crescentis? That’s the last commercial flight I took.”

Frost chuckled. “No, it was not on a commercial flight, but I’m hesitant to give you the name of the ship over an open channel.”

Merlin pursed his lip. “Well, the only other ship I’ve been on beside my own was the Lady of Dreams. Her captain transported us to Argeia to deliver the Cold Fire virus inoculation during the Siilv War.”

“As the humans would say, Bingo.”

Merlin’s amber eyes went wide in surprise. “You were there?”

“I was on the bridge at the helm.”

“I didn’t see you… Why didn’t you say anything?”

Tarjon grinned and spread out his arms. “Merle, you knew you were in the company of pirates. As with all those considered pirates, I was keeping a low profile while guests were on board.”

Merlin nodded. He remembered hearing something similar from Tristan’s daughter, Laura Jazz, after she’d been rescued from the destruction of Natasha’s great vessel.

“Well, that’s in the past now,” he replied. “I may not have exactly been close friends with your former captain, but she did help us twice when we needed it. I’m sorry she was lost.”

“Yes, she will be missed.”

Merlin nodded and then he brightened up. “Speaking of pirates, the reason I called is to thank you properly for the defense you provided for my flagship. Captain Nichols told me all about your heroics. I appreciate what you did.”

“You’re welcome, cousin. If there’s ever a time when you need my assistance, I’d consider it a favor if you would call on me. The Frostbite and her crew are for hire for any job needed, and for family I make special consideration. You and I always got along well when we spent our summers all over the countryside outside of Grandstorm.”

“Likewise, Tarjon. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.”

“I will. Thanks for calling, Merlin. I’ll be sure to stay in touch.”

***

Not a light was on in her bedroom, but Taro’s wet eyes were still open as she gazed up at the ceiling. Her throat was tight, having just cried herself out. Her emotions had been running out of control, but she couldn’t help for thinking that the cause was more than something she may have caught on the bunny planet. After all, she hadn’t spent that much time out in the open air of that world, and it seemed to have affected only her. Perhaps there was more wrong with her.

Was she cut out to command the Blue Horizon? Did she really have what it takes to lead the others, even if it was only for a common stellar freighter? The command decisions and crew reprimands made life tougher with her responsibilities, and lately they were really gnawing at her.

Taro felt the doubts rise up again in the pit of her stomach, churning as if she had eaten something bad. She turned over onto her side and wiped the moisture from her cheek fur, even as she felt as if she might cry again.

No! she thought to herself. I’m not going to give in to this fear! I can do this... Merlin says I can, and I know I can... I think...

She felt her throat tighten up and there was new moisture in her eyes. She forced it back, and burying her pride, realized she couldn’t face this alone. She needed help. Taro made herself sit up on the bed and scoot back so she could lean against the headboard. With some hesitation, she reached out in the darkness for the intercom control on her nightstand.

“This is the bridge,” said a bored voice.

“Renny, this is Taro...” she said, trying to make her voice sound casual.

“Yes?”

“I... need you. Please come to my quarters.”

“Uh, I’m on watch, you know that.”

“Have someone relieve you. I need you... please.”

There was a momentary silence, and then he replied, “Okay, but I don’t think it’s appropriate that you drag me from bridge duty to ruffle the covers...”

Taro’s eyes went wide. “Renny....” she said with a little crack in her voice, “It’s not that, but I do need you. Please?”

The last was not an order and the cheetah on the bridge suddenly realized that it was a plea. He was suddenly filled with dread. “Sure, I’ll get Max up here and then I’ll be right there.”

“Thank you,” Taro said quietly. She closed the connection, wiped new moisture from her eyes, and then dried her hands on the hem of her nightshirt.

To get through this personal crisis, she needed the arms of her favorite cheetah around her. If she had to endure this emotional rollercoaster, she knew she could face it better if she weren’t alone. She would share her doubts and fears with him, and whether or not he had any answers, it would be enough that he was with her through it.

LIVE CARGO

By Ted R. Blasingame

Blue Horizon PA1138

Captain’s Diary

It’s been a while since I last updated my diary. I just can’t seem to remember to pull it out to write down what’s been going on, but Merlin insists that I will be glad I did someday. I wonder if he now spends his evenings with Samantha in his study, reading back through old adventures. I probably could have asked when I spoke to her on the Com link last night, but I didn’t think of it at the time.

She and Merlin have finally settled into their married life. Sam says she missed the time with us on the Horizon at first, but her days are now being filled with other duties and responsibilities. There are frequently long periods of inactivity on board a freighter that takes weeks to reach its intended destination, but Samantha has found her schedule full with day to day living.

When she first left the ship, she filled her time searching for a new home. After they bought a house, she went shopping to fill it with furniture, accessories and other necessities, much as they had to do when Merlin stocked up the new Blue Horizon. Then came preparations for the wedding... the wedding itself... and then the honeymoon.

With all that behind her, she looked to other things to fill her time. There are so many things to do in Grandstorm and she seems to love every moment of her new life. However, she also went through a time of depression after things settled down and became so routine that boredom began to set in. Merlin recognized the signs quickly and put into motion a plan that he said had been in the back of his mind for a while. She needs to go back to work.

Samantha’s friend Alex Rogers is currently CEO of Holden Pharmaceutical, her father’s company, and is doing an admirable job in his position. Samantha has no intention of taking over that role, but Aaron Ohren recently announced his upcoming retirement from the Dennier branch office in Grandstorm, so things are currently underway for her to take over operations there. She has a bit of training to go through with Mr. Ohren, but there’s still some time before the effective date of his retirement.

Sam has never really liked the thought of an office job, which is why she signed onto the Blue Horizon in the first place all those years ago. In those early days, she’d taken a leave of absence from the family company so she could serve on board the Blue Horizon for a year in order to help Merlin’s fledgling business get off the ground, in addition to satisfying her sense of wanderlust.

After that time, she was to return to her place within Holden Pharmaceutical per an agreement with her Master Tristen, and she’d done so through teary farewells. Even though an office routine gave her much more to do than sitting around on a ship for weeks at a time, I think it was Merlin and the camaraderie of the crew she missed the most.

In the end, she left her father’s company again and returned to the Horizon, this time to stay. The first time was under the pretense that she’d gone to Sillon for family issues while she served on the ship under a false name, but when she returned, she’d done so with the company’s full knowledge, though amidst their consternation.

This time, however, it took some finagling for Master Tristen and Alex Rogers to let the board of directors agree to let her come back. Samantha Holden still owned the controlling interest in her father’s company, but the wayward heir wasn’t as well-thought of anymore for abandoning her place as their figurehead.

She’s been humbled by the whole experience, but she’s better seasoned now with a greater sense of responsibility. She’s meticulous enough that I think she’ll find the office routine better to her liking this time.

As for myself, it’s taken me a while to settle into my role as captain of the Blue Horizon. There are times when I am unsure of myself as a leader, even if over the crew of a common freighter, but I have started to see the support that everyone has for me.

The past few weeks have been rather tough, but Jerry assures me that I picked up some sort of bacteria on Se’rei that was not affected by our standard inoculations. I seem to have been the only one to catch this thing, and it really hit me hard in the emotional area. I’m still not convinced that was completely to blame for my behavior, but I’m feeling much better now and have an acceptable control over my temper.

Doc has isolated that bacteria in his lab and is working on a paper to present to the scientific community, but I’ve cautioned him against it, as it would reveal the presence of the lost Se’rei colony and bring into question our method of getting there. I’m not sure how he will finagle something like this, but he says he has it all in hand. I have made him promise to show me his material before he submits it anywhere, even to a colleague.

I still haven’t had the opportunity to tell Merlin of that little adventure. It’s not a tale I want to broadcast over a Com signal, and I’m not even sure that an encrypted channel would be secure enough for my comfort. I have written down the events so I won’t forget anything, and I’ve locked the document in my captain’s vault. Should the opportunity arise that I can get it to him, then I will. I am sure he would be very interested to know about our Particle Vault capability, but I don’t want anyone else to know about it.

Our current assignment has us on the way to Hestra, my homeworld. We left Fyn three hours ago with the hold full of miscellaneous import goods and we still have thirty-five hours left of the flight. Due to the higher gravity of the large planet, we won’t actually be landing on Hestra herself, but rather at Sharra Base located on its moon.

Vashon is a large enough natural satellite to hold a thin, pressurized atmosphere, but even that’s not enough to harbor sentient life on its own. The air pressure is low, but enough that a light pressure suit is all that’s needed to exist on the surface.

When Hestra joined the Planetary Alignment, Sharra Base was established on Vashon as a transfer station for ships, personnel and visitors not equipped to handle the heavier Hestran gravity. Made up of transparent, pressurized geodesic domes, Sharra has grown over the years to the size of a small city. Some members of the populace have businesses operating drop jumpers, the Hestran transfer vehicles to ferry cargo and personnel back and forth from the planet.

For non-Hestran visitors who have a need to travel down to the planet, there are endosuits that may be worn to allow the visitors to stand up and move around on the surface. These consist of a wire outer skeleton that gives the body form and helps keep it standing or sitting straight under a heavy gravity, while also providing a medium of lower gravity within its net so internal organs are able to function.

However, I understand the endosuits are not comfortable and are nearly impossible to sleep in, so visits to the surface must be made in short durations. A few low-gravity buildings have been constructed for individuals who have a need for longer stays (such as the one where I saw Dragon, Wolf & Tiger in concert), but there are plenty of hotels inside Sharra Base for people to stay.

Fortunately for my crew, we won’t be landing on Hestra herself, so the endosuits won’t be a necessity for them. We will unload our cargo in a pressurized hangar on Vashon, and then restock with export cargo bound for Alexandrius, which is only about thirty hours from Hestra in its orbit right now.

I don’t mind these one or two day deliveries within the Goldilocks Zone of the same system. It allows us to make up lost revenue in a short amount of time before we return to an interstellar schedule.

--Capt. Taro Nichols

***

It was quiet during Max’s watch. Due to a worrisome reading on the engineering computer, Taro had authorized Pockets to drop the ship out of spatial warp temporarily to run down what might be a potential problem. They continued on their course at sub-light speeds; they were still traveling at comparatively high velocities, just not over the speed of light.

To his relief, there had been no one to distract Max Sinclair from his studies during his watch. Due to a restrictive life on Quet and a transient lifestyle on board the Blue Horizon, Max had never had the opportunity for a formal education. Samantha had tutored him for three years and she felt that he had done well, but it seemed as if the more he learned about the universe, the more the German shepherd thirsted for knowledge.

Prompted by Doctor Bengoro, the tiger who had recently grafted a prosthetic in place of his missing finger for him, Max had looked into taking accredited online courses while he awaited the arrival of the Blue Horizon. The most promising appeared to be with a longstanding online degree program from Earth.

He knew that some higher-education programs required acceptance due to past educational experience to get in, but since he had no formal education, other avenues had to be pursued. The Phoenix system looked promising, so he had applied for the online testing in an effort to sign up.

He’d not yet told anyone on board of this educational pursuit, and the bridge watch alone-time had given him ample opportunity to finish the test without distraction.

The young mechanic smiled to himself as he prepared to submit his test responses. He keyed in the proper PA transmission code and then established data-connect with a feeling of satisfaction.

It only took a moment, but the document was away now without a chance for him to change his mind and retrieve it. Almost simultaneously, an incoming message chirped at him for attention.

He glanced at the intended recipient and was surprised to see that it was addressed to him, rather than someone else in the crew. The message originated from Pomen and he recognized the tracking code immediately. It was from his girlfriend, Wendy.

Dear Max,

My father told me of your visit to his clinic and of how well everything went for you. I am sorry that I was not able to get away to visit you, but I was studying for exams and was unable to make it home. Dad said you looked good and he enjoyed working with you.

Despite this, however, I am afraid I have some bad news for you. I am not sure how to tell you this, but… I have met someone. We met at the university a month ago and we have begun dating. He is another tiger with the same major as I, and we have many things in common.

I know you will take this hard, and I am sorry. I like you very, very much, but since you have no plans to move to Pomen to be with me, and I am working toward a medical degree that will take me places other than a cargo freighter, we both know that our long-distance relationship has no future.

It’s been fun, and I have enjoyed my blue-eyed friend, but I think it’s time we both moved on with our lives.

Take care, Max. Please do well in everything you set yourself to do.

Wendy

With a lump in his throat, Max lifted his new finger to the touch pad to delete the message, but decided to print out a hard copy instead. He picked up the letter and reread it several times.

How was he supposed to feel? Before Wendy, he’d never had a girlfriend before, so the whole experience with her had been new. There was a knot in the pit of his stomach, and he began to pant as the room suddenly seemed extraordinarily hot. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be mad at Wendy - or sad that he had been rejected. What he did feel was confusion.

The door to the bridge slid aside and Jerry Somner entered the room. He held a thermal bottle in one hand and a stack of medical records in the other.

“Hello, Max,” he said with a casual smile. “I’m here to relieve you at the watch.”

The German shepherd folded his letter and put it into the pocket of his shirt. “Hi, Doc. Thanks. Nothing to report, all’s quiet.”

Jerry watched the young mechanic as he stood up and shuffled toward the door, his ears back and his tail low to the ground. “Is there something wrong?” the fox asked.

Max stopped before the door, but didn’t turn around. “I just got a letter from my… girlfriend,” he muttered. “She’s dating someone else now.”

Jerry sat down sideways in the center seat, his full attention on the German shepherd. “I’m sorry to hear that, Max,” he said in a quiet voice. “Long distance relationships are not easy to maintain.”

“Yeah…” Max muttered. He took a step toward the door, but then stopped again. Without looking up, he turned around and moved back to the Com station. He sat down with his hands between his knees and closed his eyes. Jerry took a quick glance over the pilot terminal to make sure all was quiet, and then he returned his attention to the young adult after making a minor course correction.

“Max…” he started in a gentle voice.

“I… I already knew in my heart that something like this would happen,” Max suddenly said in a rush. “It was inev… uhm, inevitable. I knew it couldn’t last… but it still doesn’t feel very good.”

“It never does,” the fox replied.

Max looked over at him, feeling morose. “Has this ever happened to you?” he asked.

Jerry nodded. “Twice,” he replied with a sigh. “The first was a vixen I’d grown up with as neighbors. She grew impatient waiting for me to finish my studies and married a mutual friend of ours.”

“Wow…” Max whispered.

“The other time was about twelve years ago. I was dating the sister of one of my coworkers, and everything went well for a couple years.”

“What happened?”

“She was a Flight Attendant on a PA cruise ship. We only saw one another every couple months, but we were nearly inseparable every time she came home. I thought we were getting serious, and I’d entertained plans of proposing to her.” Jerry looked over at Max and swished his tail across the other side of the seat. “Then one day, I got a letter from her stating that she had married the ship’s Entertainment Director and was pregnant with their kits.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“What did you do?”

Jerry raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “I moped around for a couple weeks, making myself and everyone around me miserable. It finally made me mad enough that I decided she wasn’t worth it.” He smiled at his companion. “I’m sure you’ve heard Renny talk about how I used to be a carouser.”

“Yeah, but you don’t seem like that kind of a guy to me.”

“True, I’m not that way now,” the physician said, “but after I got that message from her, I started going out with any vixen who’d flirt with me. Renny used to call me the Vixenator…”

Max laughed in spite of himself. “The Vixenator? Heh… that’s funny!” Jerry grinned, pleased that he was able to get a smile out of the young mechanic. Unfortunately, it didn’t last. Max grew quiet again and then put a hand in the pocket with the letter. “How should I respond to her, Jerry?”

“What’s your first thought about responding?”

“I dunno… I’m not sure I even want to write back to her. It seems pointless to reply.”

“There’s your answer. Go with your instincts. If she said everything there was to say in her letter, there’s no need to respond. I know you liked her, but if she’s lost interest in you, there’s no need to pursue her. Let her go and find someone else on your own… find several someones, if you need to.”

“I don’t know if I can do that,” Max said shyly. “I don’t have a lot of experience. I… I don’t think I could be a… a Maxinator.”

Jerry saw a glint of sudden mischief in the German shepherd’s eyes. He laughed out loud and reached for the thermal bottle on the floor at his feet. “Max, you don’t have to become a carouser, and I’m not suggesting that you do. All I am saying is that you can go ahead and mope about Wendy if you want to. You’re entitled, but please don’t think that’ll be the end of your relationships. You’re young and have a whole galaxy of women to —”

The astrogation computer suddenly gave off a warning blip for attention. Jerry swung around in his seat to face the controls and Max stood up to look over his shoulder.

“That’s odd. We’re off course,” the fox reported. He released the autopilot and corrected their heading slightly with the guidance shifts before he reengaged the automatic system. “Nothing looks amiss,” he muttered after checking the system.

Max returned to his seat and sighed. “I appreciate your suggestions,” he said, “but I don’t think I can just shrug it off so easily. I liked Wendy… a lot!”

“Wasn’t she a tiger or some kind of feline?”

“Yeah, she’s a tiger,” Max replied. “So’s the guy she’s dating.”

Jerry nodded. “Max, I’m sure the two of you had a great time together, but she’s young and it’s natural for a female to keep an eye out for potential male of her own species to have kittens with. The two of you would never have had any natural kids of your own.”

“Yeah, that’s because I’ve been—”

“No,” Jerry interrupted quickly, “it’s because you two don’t share the same genetic background. The plumbing may fit, but your seed and her eggs could never ignite the proper code to create life. There will never be a half canine, half feline mix – not naturally, anyway.”

“I know, but…” Max clamped his lips shut and stared down at his shoes.

Jerry sat back in the seat and crossed his arms. “Listen, Max, it won’t be easy, but feel free to talk to one or two of your shipmates about it. Closing up into yourself won’t be good for you. Your friends may not have the answers you need, but sometimes it helps just to talk to someone who cares. There are others who have been through similar situations.”

Max kept staring at his feet. “I’m not sure if I —”

The astrogation computer blipped again for attention and they both looked up in unison.

“Here, take over the center station, Max.”

The German shepherd did as told while the red fox moved to the navigation console. “What’s causing us go keep going off course?” Max asked, grateful to have a distraction away from their conversation. “I had to adjust it three times before you came in, but they were all really minor corrections.”

“I’m not sure… Checking to see if any of the maneuvering thrusters are kicking in by mistake… No… Nothing is malfunctioning.” Jerry tapped controls on the screen before him, a frown increasing across his muzzle. “This is very odd. I instructed the astrogation computer to make automatic minor adjustments to our course and it’s suddenly gone completely active.”

Even as he spoke, the system blipped for attention. “This time, it’s telling us it needs a course correction that’s more than minor.” He looked up at the vidscreen window, peering out into the stars. “Something’s pulling us off course, but I don’t think even Hestra’s gravity would have affected the ship this far out. There must be another cause.”

“Is there anything on the long range sensors?” Max suggested. Jerry immediately shifted his attention to the appropriate control panel as the astrogation computer blipped again.

“Uh oh…” the fox muttered. “I’ve found the cause.”

“What is it?”

“That!” Jerry looked up at the starboard vidscreen panel and put up the view from the long-distance starboard cameras. They were bearing down on a huge asteroid just slightly off their course, and its size and proximity were enough for its mass to generate ample gravity to pull the freighter toward it with increasing strength and speed. The sensors placed its size at nearly eighty kilometers in diameter, although its shape was not exactly rounded. Lorelei would have said it resembled a gigantic potato from Earth. Even with auto-correction by the astrogation computer, they began to feel a slight shudder in the deck plates beneath their feet.

Mesmerized, Max and Jerry stared at the massive rock as it grew larger and larger, until the long-range collision and proximity alarms suddenly went off. Still in the pilot seat, Max acted quickly and grabbed the guidance shifts. They refused to move in his grip until he remembered to shut off the autopiloting system. The instant it was released, the ship lost its auto-correcting ability and began to nose over toward the slowly tumbling asteroid.

With their current velocity, it would only take a matter of moments to reach the rocky bulk. “Max!” Jerry exclaimed. “Get us out of here!” He would have taken the controls himself, but there was no time to switch places with the increasing gravitational pull. The Blue Horizon wanted desperately to go meet the interstellar Goliath.

The young German shepherd fought to pull the freighter away from the rock, but the closer they flew toward the asteroid, the stronger the gravity became.

The intercom chirped and Jerry reached for the nearest control as the ship’s faulty inertial dampers began to slip. He stumbled against the nearest chair and sat down quickly.

“This is the bridge,” he gasped into the intercom microphone.

“What’s going on up there?” Taro’s voice asked in a rush. “More pirates?”

“Asteroid! Big one!” was all Jerry managed to say. The spatial rock loomed larger in the vidscreen as Max struggled to force the guidance shifts away from it.

“Max!” Jerry exclaimed. “Instead of trying to pull us away from it, increase our speed by one-third and skim in closer to it. If we’re lucky, a combination of our speed and its gravity will slingshot us past the asteroid before it has a chance to pull us down.”

The young mechanic’s eyes went wider. “Are you sure?” he croaked.

“Trust me!” said the fox. “I’d do it myself if I was in your seat.”

Max bit his bottom lip and flattened his ears. “I’m not sure…”

“Do it!” Jerry shouted irritably. He had to reduce the magnification on the vidscreen to keep it from filling up the view.

Max jumped at the fox’s command and pushed up the ship’s velocity as ordered. The difference in the asteroid was significant, as it grew larger extremely quick. The canine pilot braced himself as he altered their course in closer to the massive rock.

Jerry felt himself tightly gripping the armrests of his seat. The pockmarked gray surface of the stellar boulder stood out in stark relief from the distant sun’s illumination. “Max…” he whispered, “we’re getting awfully close!”

“That’s what you told me to do!” the mechanic retorted through clenched teeth. Without waiting for further instruction, he increased their speed further and suddenly felt the guidance shifts lose a bit of their struggle. He suddenly understood what Jerry wanted and eased the controls ever so slightly.

Pockets stumbled in through the bridge door and nearly went to his knees when he saw the vidscreen. Instead, he backed up against the nearby wall and swallowed hard.

“Wha... wha… wha…” was all he managed to say.

A moment later, Taro burst in the room, nearly tripping over the raccoon. She stumbled around him and darted to the Com station seat while staring up at the asteroid. She buckled herself in and reached for the armrests before she realized she was in the seat she had broken on their previous voyage.

The Blue Horizon hurled closer, but the space rock was suddenly sheering sideways across the starboard vidscreen panel. Multiple finger-like outcroppings appeared to jut out at them as they sped by and Max had to maneuver the freighter down to avoid their touch.

Then, just as suddenly, the asteroid was behind them. Not convinced they were out of danger, Max maintained their current speed to put distance between them and the rock.

Jerry managed to pry his fingers loose from the armrest and tap the control to reverse the angle on one of the vidscreen panels. The asteroid still filled up the view, but it was slowly receding behind them.

“What happened?” Taro asked, breaking the silence. She looked over at Pockets as he slid down the wall to a sitting position.

Jerry answered, detailing everything that happened from the time the astrogation computer gave its first warning blip. Max remained at his post, saying nothing, but continually watched the instruments before him. The adrenaline would wear off in a moment, and he would then be glad his watch was over. He was already panting.

When Jerry finished, he gestured toward the young mechanic and said, “I’m glad to know that Max has what it takes to stay in control in an emergency like this. I don’t think I could have gotten us out of there any better than he did.”

“Thanks… thank you, Max!” Pockets finally spoke.

Taro unbuckled her harness and moved to the German shepherd’s side. “Yes, Max,” she said. “Thank you. I’m really proud of you.”

The young pilot closed his eyes for a moment and then looked up at her. “Does it still count if I tell you I was scared?” he asked in a small voice.

Jerry chuckled. “Max, we were all scared!”

“You were entitled to be afraid,” Taro assured him, “but you held yourself together even though you were frightened. That’s why I’m proud of you, Max.”

“Thank you,” the youth replied. “C-can I make a request, though?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Max looked over at Jerry, feeling a little lightheaded. “May I go to my cabin now? My watch is over and I think I’m going to be sick…”

“Here, Max,” Pockets said with a hand on his friend’s arm. “Come with me. I’ll make sure you get back to your room.”

Jerry gestured toward the door with a casual wave of his hand. “Go rest. You deserve it.”

Grateful, Max locked the controls down with the autopilot and then slid out of the seat to stand up next to Pockets.

“How soon can we reengage the LightDrive?” Taro asked with a glance up at the vidscreen. “I’d like to get out of the reach of those space rocks as soon as possible.”

“Anytime,” Pockets replied. “I was on my up here to do it myself when the floor tried to go out from under me.”

“All right, we can take it from here,” the vulpine captain said. Once Pockets and Max were out the door, Jerry looked down at the navigation console and he began tapping commands into the astrogation computer.

“What are you doing?” Taro asked. She glanced back up to the rear view screen and felt a shudder at the thought of how close they had been to that behemoth.

“I’m recalculating our heading to put us back on course to Hestra,” the male fox replied. “I’m not as quick as Renny is doing this, so I may be distracted for a few minutes.”

“Are you okay?” Taro asked.

The physician glanced up at her with a wan smile. “I’m still coming down from the adrenaline, but yeah, I’ll be okay if you want to go.”

“Call me if you need anything,” the captain replied.

The intercom suddenly chirped and Jerry gestured toward the Com station. “Can you field that for me while I do these calculations?” he asked.

“Yeah, I have a feeling there may be several calls. Do your ciphering. I’ll handle the crew inquiries.”

“Thanks.”

***

“Do you feel that?” Justy asked.

Standing next to the koala on the recreation deck in front of the large vidscreen window, Lorelei tilted her head to the left as she tried to listen hard. Justy smirked as she said, “I don’t hear anything.”

“Feel, Lori, not hear. Do you feel that?”

The bunny tilted her head to the right. “Nope,” she said. “I still don’t hear anything.”

“Give it up, Justy,” Amanda said with a chuckle from across the room. “I don’t think she’s feeling much right now. I caught a whiff of incense from her room a bit ago. I’m not sure what she’s been burning in there, but it was rather strong.”

“Are you sure it was incense?” Justy asked with a shake of his head. He scratched one of his large round ears and left the rabbit standing in front of the forward window. He joined the coyote on the couch and sat cross-legged up on the cushions. When Amanda didn’t reply, he gave her a nod. “There it is again. Did you just feel that?” he asked.

“I’m not sure what you’re referring to,” Amanda answered.

“It’s a slight shifting of the deck plates, almost as if we are sliding a little to the port as we fly through space.”

Amanda looked surprised. “Just how would you feel that without some frame of visual reference?”

“I dunno... Just a sensation, I guess. I’ve gotten so used to the way the ship feels beneath my toes that I guess it’s just a subtle inclination. I do have a bit of heaviness in my stomach, so maybe that means something.”

“I didn’t know you were psychic,” the coyote deadpanned.

“I’m not,” Justy replied before he realized she was teasing him. She gave him a wide canine grin with a wink, causing him to laugh. “Okay, I guess that means you didn’t feel it either!

“Nope,” she teased. “I didn’t hear a thing.”

“All hands, all hands,” Taro’s voice emanated from the overhead intercom. “We have just passed into the Hestran gravity curtain, so you may feel a little heavier until we can compensate with the Horizon’s deck plates and readjust our current heading. Hestra should be visible on your monitors as a bright star in the lower left if you have the view angle facing directly forward. It will grow in magnitude over the next hour as we approach Hestran orbit to match up with Sharra Base. Depending upon Vashon traffic, we should be landing in about two hours, so be ready for cargo detail in light pressure suits at that time.”

“Wow, you are psychic!” Amanda seemed impressed. “You felt the Hestran gravity before Taro could announce it!”

Justy grinned and wiggled his ears independently. “Pockets says I must get good reception on these things. Perhaps he’s right!”

“Aw, that’s mean…” the coyote said with a mock pout. Justy chuckled with a shrug of his shoulders, secretly pleased that Amanda seemed to be coming out of her shell. Ever since she had joined the crew, the business coordinator had preferred to stay quiet and always in the background, but lately she appeared more relaxed and a little more open. He wasn’t sure what might have changed for her, other than simply getting more used to the crew, but he was glad for whatever it may be. The two of them had joined the crew at the same time and he felt a certain kinship with her because of it.

“No worries,” he replied. “He may be right!”

Amanda snickered and stretched with a yawn, her pink tongue curling in on itself. She closed her eyes with a smile and kicked her shoes off onto the carpet next to the couch.

“You seem to be in a good mood,” Lorelei lilted as she plopped down on the couch between the coyote and koala. She leaned closer to the female and grinned. “What’s up?”

“I’ve lost weight!” Amanda exclaimed.

“Yay!” Lori replied. “What size are you down to?”

“I don’t want to burst your bubble,” Justy commented, “but you’re about to gain it all back.”

“What?” Amanda and Lori said in unison, both of them gifting the koala with a glare.

Justy couldn’t keep the smirk off his face. “We’re all going to gain weight as we get closer to Hestra!” he said with a laugh.

“Oh, you!” the coyote gasped with a grin. “That doesn’t count!”

“You’re evil!” Lori added with a poke to the koala’s middle. Justy grinned as both females took turns swatting and poking him.

***

Hestra loomed great in the forward vidscreen, a large world where colony life had flourished despite its heavier gravity. It was a mountainous planet with hardy vegetation covering most of the surface like a lush carpet, and its single ocean measuring some thirty-two hundred kilometers across meandered like a continuous giant river near the equator. The landscape was dotted with myriads of freshwater lakes, with whirls of cloud formations across its skies.

Early vulpine settlers to the planet nearly perished from the gravity, but those who somehow managed to survive lived on with an equally hardy determination to make the lush world their own. The mortality rate was high in the beginning, but the children that survived became stronger, their physiology becoming denser as they grew more accustomed to the environment. Generations later, the Hestrans were considered the muscle men of the Planetary Alignment, but their population numbers were still small compared to the other colony worlds.

One such Hestran stood on the bridge of the ship at her command, silently reminiscing about her childhood. The vixen had lost her family and hometown to a terrorist attack several years earlier, but oddly enough, she felt at ease and was not concerned with the past. For the first time in weeks, she was confident, felt sure of herself and was in control of her emotions.

“We’re now in lunar orbit, Captain,” Jerry reported automatically. Although he was also a red fox, the pilot was not Hestran. “It will take us approximately twenty minutes to catch up to Sharra Base on Vashon in this orbit from our insertion point.”

“Very good,” Taro replied. She looked at her two bridge companions and asked, “How are you guys doing?”

Renny held up his hand and let the others see the subtle trembling of his fingers. “Although the Horizon’s deck plates are compensating for the Hestran gravity, I’m still shaking a little,” he said.

“There’s not much I can do for you, medically,” Jerry told him. “You might want to put on an endosuit if it gets too bad.”

Taro reached over to her friend and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Do you want to sit out while we unload the cargo?”

Renny raised an eyebrow. “I said I was shaking a little, not weak as a kitten,” he scoffed. “I’ll survive and do my duty to the cargo, thank you.”

“Glad to hear it,” Jerry replied with a smile. “I didn’t want to carry your load for you, anyway!”

Taro moved to the Com station and picked up her headset with a chuckle. She keyed in a registry code and thumbed the call control. “Sharra Base, this is the Blue Horizon, PA one-one-three-eight. We are now on lunar approach.”

“Blue Horizon, this is Sharra Base,” instantly replied a nasal voice. “We have you on approach in lunar traffic, estimated time of arrival seventeen minutes. You will be directed to dome twenty-three in through air hatch seven, where you will hover in a null-gravity field until the hatch is pressurized. You will then proceed into the dome where you will be guided to landing pad DC. Please make sure your bay doors are oriented toward the drop jumpers stationed at your pad when you set down. The dock master will greet you upon your arrival and arrange to transfer cargo directly into the jumpers with your load master. Welcome to Vashon.”

“Blue Horizon acknowledges instructions,” Taro replied. “Thank you for the welcome.”

***

Fifteen minutes later, the blue elliptical saucer descended toward the southern pole of the moon. Unlike many planetary satellites, Vashon was not a dead body. Although its pressure was light and no sentient creatures had ever developed there, the moon did have its own ecosystem of vegetation and atmosphere. There were no oceans or lakes, for its water reserves were underground, but nearly the entire surface was covered by flowers, grasses and shrubs. There were no real trees to speak of, but the population had been experimenting with transplanted Hestran trees inside the domed Sharra Base.

Renny continued to pass on navigational data to Jerry as he piloted the freighter down toward a directional beacon. “We’re on final approach to dome twenty-three,” the red fox reported.

“There’s hatch seven,” Taro replied and gestured to the vidscreen with a claw tip, She paused to listen to a message over her headset. “We’ve been invited to enter.”

Jerry dropped their altitude until they were only a few meters above a field of long pale grasses and then moved forward in through a set of huge bay doors in the side of the translucent geodesic dome. The Blue Horizon was nearly four stories tall, but the massive airlock they flew in through could easily hold a vessel three times her size.

On the facing wall before them inside the bay was a control tower window with several figures inside. A trio of red lights flashed rapidly when the Horizon was in the center of the chamber; Jerry stopped all forward movement of the vessel. A null field surrounded the freighter so hovering thrusters were not needed to maintain its altitude above the floor. The airlock doors traveled quickly behind them, shutting out the low pressure atmosphere in a matter of seconds.

It took longer to pressurize the chamber, but it was so efficiently done that it was only a few moments before internal doors were opened for them with an alternating set of green and blue lights to signal them to continue.

Jerry eased the maneuvering controls forward, following a directional set of chaser lights embedded in the flooring below them. They moved through a long corridor of landing pads that were occupied by other cargo carriers of the Planetary Alignment. Most contained Okami, Sakura, Prairie Dog and Carico-class freighters, all common designs, but others held the smaller, heavy-duty drop jumpers that would be transporting incoming cargo down to the planet.

The directional markers presently indicated an empty pad beside a pair of bright red drop jumpers. “Landing pad DC,” Taro read aloud from a large sign affixed to the side of the building.

“We’re home, dear,” Renny lilted with a smile.

Jerry said nothing as he positioned the Horizon over the landing pad and then rotated its axis to line up their cargo bay with the twin jumpers. The freighter set down gently and then the bridge crew began to shut down the flight systems.

“All hand, all hands,” Taro broadcast over the ship-wide intercom, “Report for cargo duty. Expected light-pressure suits won’t be needed after all, so you can all work in your shirt sleeves. Hop to, folks.”

Jerry stood up and stretched his legs. “How long is shore leave this time, boss-lady?” he asked. “I’ve never been here before and might need a little time to explore.”

“You can have the standard three days,” Taro replied with a smile, motioning her companions to follow her out into the corridor. “However, you may get bored before it’s time to leave. Sharra Base may not contain enough entertainment to occupy your attention for more than a day or so, unless you’re a female who loves to shop!”

Jerry exchanged looks with Renny. “Uh oh... I think we’ve been had,” the physician said.

“Leave it to a lady captain to find a shopping mall to deliver our goods,” Renny quipped. He expected to get swatted for the remark, but Taro merely turned around and walked backward into the lift, her tongue sticking out at them. Jerry shook his head in amusement and entered the lift with the cheetah beside him.

***

Damien blew his nose on a handkerchief and felt his eyes water. Within moments of opening the cargo bay door, his sinuses had started to clog. The mastiff had no allergies that he was aware of, but something in the air at Sharra Base didn’t agree with him rather quickly. He tried to ignore it while he worked, but now that the cargo had all been unloaded into the pad-side drop jumpers, he could feel a headache coming on.

Everyone else had scattered in twos and threes for shore leave, but suddenly he didn’t feel like roaming around in an atmosphere hostile to his senses. He clutched his handkerchief and headed for the nearest lift after the ship’s bay door had been closed and secured.

When the lift door opened, Pockets stood inside wearing a bright blue and yellow flowered shirt with a travel bag slung over his shoulder. The raccoon looked out at him with wide eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You don’t look well.”

Damien sneezed into his handkerchief and peered down at the engineer with bloodshot eyes. “I think I’m allergig to somthin here.”

“I think Doc’s already gone,” Pockets replied. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

The mastiff narrowed his eyes as he fought back another sneeze. “Ah thot you din’t wan’ to have anything t’do with me.”

Pockets frowned and lowered his ears. “Yeah, about that...” he said in a quiet voice. “I’m sorry for what I said and how I acted. You didn’t deserve that. I’m the one who got in trouble, but I took out my frustrations on you.”

Despite his clogged sinuses, Damien’s expression softened. He put his free hand on the raccoon’s shoulder and said, “Apology aggepted, Poggets.”

Pockets smiled up at the load master and put a small hand on top of Damien’s. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ve felt bad about what happened ever since, and I would like things to be okay between us.”

“Thaggs. Be too.”

“Now… can I get you anything?”

The mastiff nodded as he stepped into the lift beside the raccoon. “Hep me find somthin in Sig Bay for mah zinuzes?”

“Sure, let’s go up and see what we can find.”

***

“Wow, that was a great movie!” Max exclaimed as he, Justy, Lorelei and Amanda walked out of a Sharra Base theatre.

“What was your favorite part?” Lori asked as she hooked a hand around the young mechanic’s arm. The German shepherd’s friends had taken him out in an effort to get his mind off of Wendy, and for the moment, the tactic had worked. “I liked it when Darnell showed up at the last minute to save Fumiko! The way they looked at one another was so saucy!”

Max grinned at her. “I liked the destruction of the Sereton super-fortress! The effects made it look real and the sound system made you feel like you were there!”

The coyote beside him laughed. “That’s just like a guy!” Amanda said. “Did anything but the explosions interest you?”

“Of course they did,” Max defended himself with a grin, “but Lori wanted to know what my favorite part was. My favorite was the explosions!”

“Of course!” Amanda replied.

“Of course!” Lori echoed. She looked over at Justy and tilted her head. “What was your favorite part of the movie?” she asked him.

Justy dipped another hand in his popcorn bucket and contemplated the snack for a moment. “I liked the bedroom scene,” he muttered before eating the handful.

“Justy, there wasn’t a bedroom scene in this movie…” Amanda said with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes there was,” Justy countered. “It was on while you were out at the concession stand getting a refill on your soda.”

The coyote female’s eyes flashed to Lorelei in a panic. “I missed the bedroom scene?” she asked. “Ah, no! The line at the stand was too long! What did I miss? I want details!”

“It was hot and juicy,” Justy told her. “It was graphic frontal for all three characters that involved…”

“All three!”

“…several milk bottles, a lawn chair and a tuning fork,” Justy continued.

“Heavens! I’m not sure I want to know what they did with those? Yes! Yes, I do! What happened? How? Who was it?”

Lorelei was laughing at the coyote’s distress as she stared at the koala. The doe put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head. “Justy’s pulling your tail, Mandy! There was no such scene.”

Amanda stopped in her tracks, making her companions look back at her. “There wasn’t? Really?” Justy and Max laughed at her and she suddenly felt foolish. “Justy….”

The koala cackled aloud and had to trot ahead to avoid getting swatted. “Nyah, nyah!” he said back to her. Amanda heaved a sigh and gave Justy a look to let him know she would get him back for teasing her, but it only made him laugh again.

A local alarm suddenly sounded, causing them and others around them to clasp hands to their ears. When everyone looked up, all the public vidscreens stationed around the base avenues lit up with a red sign stating the words “Attention - Emergency Announcement” written in Standard.

A male red fox in a tailored gray suit suddenly appeared at a news desk with the globe of Hestra as a backdrop behind him. Other pedestrians in the area gathered around the Blue Horizon crewmates to watch the screen.

“This is an emergency worldwide announcement carried on all Hestran bands. To repeat, this is an emergency worldwide announcement carried on all Hestran bands. It was confirmed just minutes ago that an asteroid previously monitored passing harmlessly through the Centaurus star system was sighted by an incoming cargo vessel, its path apparently altered by the Hestran gravity well. What originally was only of casual interest to backyard astronomers has suddenly turned into a deadly threat. Trajectory analysis projects that the seventy-nine kilometer rock is on a parabolic course into Hestran orbit that is predicted to intersect with the planet within nine hours.”

Gasps from the gathered crowd were almost in unison, and frightened conversations suddenly broke out. Someone yelled “Quiet!” and the hushed congregation returned its attention once more to the public vidscreen. Max swallowed hard, remembering their earlier close encounter with the subject asteroid. Taro must have made a report to the local administration.

“Authorities explain that planetary long-range sensors have been offline, undergoing upgrades for the past week, and were unavailable for detection of the asteroid’s altered trajectory. Once operational, the extended range for spatial objects such as this would have been nearly tripled in sensitivity, but little use does this do for Hestra now, as there is now no time to effect plans to deflect such a huge object.”

“Does that mean it’s going to hit Hestra?” someone behind Max asked in a voice full of emotion.

“Dunno,” someone else replied. “They only said it was coming within our orbit.”

“Hush!” said a third voice.

Max’s ears swiveled to and fro to hear the comments, but like the rest of the crowd, he realized that the news reporter was still speaking.

“...further calculations will have to be made to determine its full effect on Hestra. Even should the rock not strike the planet, its sheer size will likely affect the tides and possibly cause a few quakes. The Hestran Emergency Response Authority is currently in session with planetary scientists to determine a possible course of action. Stay tuned to local broadcasts for further instructions. Whatever it is we are to do in the face of this crisis will have to be executed quickly to minimize disruption.”

“A disruption?” Justy muttered hoarsely. “What do they think this is, a simple local disturbance?” An advertisement for a new Prime-class freighter suddenly dominated the screen, prompting the crowd to disperse.

“Do you think that Taro will—?” Amanda’s DataCom chirped before she could finish her thought. She thumbed the call switch and lifted it up to her face. “This is Amanda,” she said.

“Mandy? This is Taro. I need the crew to assemble at the ship immediately. I don’t know if you’ve heard the news, but we have an emergency on our hands. Shore leave has been canceled.”

“Yeah, we just saw it on a public vidscreen,” the coyote replied as the others gathered around her.

“We? Who’s with you? I haven’t gotten in touch with everyone yet, only you, Renny and Doc so far.”

“Lori, Justy and Max are here with me. We just got out of a media theatre.”

“Good, that’s four of you with one call. Please return to the Horizon as quickly as you can.”

“Yes ma’am. We’re on our way.”

“Taro, out.”

“Does that answer your question what Taro will—?” Justy asked with a smirk as they made their way through the thickening crowd in the entertainment district.

“Yes, but this is no time to be smarmy,” Amanda rebuked. “This is serious!”

“Yeah, this is serious!” Lori echoed.

Justy exchanged amused looks with Max and then shrugged with a big grin. “I agree this is serious, but I can still be smarmy if I want to!” Both females snorted in unison, which only served to give Justy the giggles.

Max shook his head. “Come on, folks. Let’s get going.”

Lori slipped an arm around Max’s waist and gave him a nod. “Yes sir, Former Captain’s Nephew, sir!” she said crisply. Amanda turned her back on the koala and then took up a position on the German shepherd’s other side, taking his free arm. Justy maintained his smile as he followed along behind them.

It took twenty minutes for them to make their way back to the Blue Horizon. By the time they stepped in through the main hatch, everyone else was already present in the cargo bay. Damien sat on an empty crate looking sleepy, miserable and had a handkerchief up against the end of his nose while Jerry looked him over with a pen light.

“Any further news?” Justy asked.

“Actually, yes,” Taro replied when she had everyone’s attention. “I just got word through the dock master that trajectory analysis has determined that Vashon’s orbit around Hestra may put us in the asteroid’s path. They are guessing that it will hit the moon rather than the planet. Either way, it will be a disaster. Evacuations are encouraged to begin as soon as possible.”

Pockets looked up suddenly and trotted to the airlock. “Looks like the news just hit,” he called back. “People are running for their ships!” Indeed, they could all hear upraised voices in alarm and panic out in the hangar.

“How long before we have authorization to launch?” Renny asked. “We passed a lot of parked ships on the way in.”

Taro started as if the thought had not occurred to her. “We’d better get up to the bridge and prepare for liftoff,” she said. “We haven’t even reloaded our air reserves and food stores yet, and we’ll need to have the Com system open for official authorization.”

There was a roar from outside the hatch and Pockets looked back inside. “Another ship is taking off,” he reported. “I’d wager it’s without permission.”

The crew moved forward and filed out on the ramp beside the raccoon. A green and gold Prairie Dog-class freighter lifted off a nearby landing pad. One of its multiple cargo bay doors was still open and they could see crew members inside scrambling to keep their footing. They were trying to get the door closed even as the rectangular vessel rotated in mid-air to nose toward the distant dome hatch.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” Jerry muttered as the ship moved away faster than was usually allowed inside the structure.

“Right,” agreed Taro. “Everyone inside and prepare for launch. We may have to lift off in a hurry, so do what you need to do quickly.”

Following her lead, everyone moved back inside and headed for the lift. Max and Pockets raced for the engine room, apprehension clearly in their minds.

***

At a complete surprise to everyone on the bridge, Taro growled impatiently. Although the situation was grim, Renny looked back at her with a small look of amusement, quietly reflecting that Taro was probably unaware she had taken up Merlin’s old habit. She’d never growled low in her throat even when she had been afflicted following their stay on Se’rei. Perhaps growling was an attribute that all starship captains eventually acquired — stresses of command and all that.

Outside the forward windows, the hangar was clogged with traffic. Freighters of all colors, shapes and sizes vied for position to get their ship out through the airlock. Due to the rapid congestion, the Blue Horizon hadn’t even made it off its landing pad yet. The engines were primed and ready, but only on standby as they awaited their turn.

Not for the first time, Taro looked up at the geodesic dome above them, fervently wishing they’d been able to set down on an outside pad as usual. The building was only slightly pressurized; they could have easily used light suits to unload their cargo. Had that been the case, they would have already launched away from the Hestran satellite.

Time was running out for the Vashon moon and Taro wanted to be as far away as possible when the strike came. The Hestran government was preparing to launch a military warhead at the asteroid, but due to its size and nearness, the effectiveness of the action was in question. World leaders quarreled and bickered over where the fault lay in the disaster, and it was unlikely to be resolved even after the catastrophe.

Taro had no love of politics and wanted only to leave in time to make it to safety. She growled again and fidgeted with impatience.

***

“I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” Amanda whispered. She, Justy and Lorelei were belted into cushioned foldout launch chairs on the recreation deck. The vidscreen on the far wall was tuned to a local broadcast, although its sound was muted so they could listen for Taro’s launch announcements. Justy could watch in silence no more, so he turned on the volume while keeping an ear out for anything from the bridge.

The broadcast showed panic. People of all species were running to and fro, children, luggage and prized possessions gripped tightly in their arms as they rushed to find escape. In the midst of the pandemonium were others who used the situation to smash shop windows and loot anything in sight. Older couples who had settled on Vashon during its original establishment refused to leave their home and all their possessions, even knowing they would likely perish with it all. Local religious centers saw packed congregations and scam artists hawked good-luck charms in the streets. Among the population were those who scoffed at the impending doom, blaming the government for scaring the public with such nonsense, and those who refused to leave their homes open to looters and vandalism. The regional law enforcement was stretched thin as those still on the job attempted to quell riots and stop a sudden rash of panicked killing, including those who tried to defend their homes.

Outside one of the Sharra Base domes, a small group in light pressure suits had gathered around a series of telescopes to watch the incoming asteroid, which was now visible even to the naked eye.

A steady stream of freighters, cruisers and drop jumpers cycled through the massive warehouse airlocks, and some smaller vessels had doubled up through them in an attempt to speed up the evacuation. The Blue Horizon, however, was too large a vessel to attempt a quick getaway. They were stuck in a traffic jam, but the asteroid would wait for no one.

The trio on the recreation deck watched in horror as the on-scene reporter suddenly went down under a hail of large rocks thrown by laughing members of a local gang organization. The news camera operator tried to make a run for it, but the brave individual was run down by the mob and beaten in front of the camera.

“Turn it off!” Lorelei wailed. “Please!”

Justy thumbed the remote without a word and transformed the vidscreen back over to clear, forward-facing windows. Amanda closed her eyes and rested her head back against the launch cushion while Lori sobbed quietly beside her. Justy rubbed his eyes and wondered if they would make it out in time.

***

Down in the engine room, Pockets moved from gauge to gauge for the hundredth time, making sure all settings were correct and power was available so they could launch immediately. Max was strapped into his launch chair, quietly watching the raccoon pace back and forth.

“Don’t you think you should be belted in?” he asked his partner. The chief engineer thrust his hands into his namesake pockets and looked over at him with a frown.

“I should be,” he admitted, “but I can’t sit still!”

“The inertial dampers still aren’t working right,” the German shepherd reminded him. “If we take off while you’re pacing the floor, I’ll need Jerry down here to help me scrape you off the back wall.”

Pockets looked at the young mechanic in annoyance, but he knew he was right. He padded over to his chair and started to get into his harness.

“What’s that?” Max suddenly asked. Pockets looked up and saw the canine’s ears perked up and his head tilted to the side. He strained his hearing and suddenly heard a muted thumping from the direction of the cargo bay.

Both of them unbelted and ran out into the empty hold. They saw Damien run toward the main hatch and it was then they realized that someone was pounding on the outside door.

The mastiff activated an external camera and he saw a crowd of locals gathered at their airlock. There was no audio, but he could see them yelling in a panic and pounding on the hatch.

Damien thumbed the intercom and a moment later, there was a signal chirp.

“This is Taro. Make it quick, we’re about ready to move.”

“Captain, there’s a crowd outside our main airlock, pounding on the door to get in!” The medication the doctor had given him had begun to clear up his sinuses, so he was able to breathe well enough to be understood when he spoke.

On the bridge, Renny activated the right-hand vidscreen to match the image picked up by Damien’s external camera.

“What do we do?” the cheetah asked. “If we launch with them standing there, they’ll be blasted by the thrusters!”

“Are they looters or are they trying to escape?” Jerry asked with a frown. “Crowds are gathering at other ships, too.”

Taro studied the scene in a brief instant and shook her head. “I don’t see anger in their faces,” she said. “They’re afraid for their lives and are looking for any chance to get away.” Unbidden, memories of the devastation of her hometown during the Taquit Fever terrorist attack came back to Taro. The people there had been unable to escape their doom, with no way to escape. She made a quick decision and thumbed the intercom.

“Damien, open the airlock,” she said. “Let in as many people as will come on board and have them sit on the floor of the cargo deck. We’ll try to make our launch as smooth as we can, and then return them when the danger has passed.”

“Aye, Captain!”

Damien closed the connection and then tapped out a sequence on the control panel before him. He turned to Pocket and Max and said, “You two better get back to the engine room and lock the door. Panicked crowds can get ugly and the bridge may need you in an instant.”

“Right!” Pockets replied. He and Max trotted back to their domain and shut the door behind them just as the airlock completed cycling.

Damien opened both the inner and outer hatch doors and called out in a loud voice, “Inside quickly!” There were a few cheers from the crowd outside and the mastiff also heard sobs of relief. As people of all kinds poured into the hold, Damien shouted out instructions. “Please move as far inside as you can and sit on the floor. Our inertial dampers are not working well and you will need to be as low to the floor as you can when we take off!” He had to repeat this every moment or so as others scrambled to get inside the freighter.

It became noisy inside as everyone attempted to get situated, and a few arguments broke out as some fought for their own piece of flooring. Nearly the entire throng of evacuees was inside the vessel when a crowd trying to get inside another ship noticed the open airlock and surged toward the Blue Horizon en masse.

Moments later, Damien was finally able to close and seal the hatches before he signaled the bridge. “Captain, we’re secure again. The floor of the hold is three-quarters full of frightened people and I’ve cycled pressurization.”

“Acknowledged. Prepare for launch.”

Damien skirted around the crowd toward his office and was about to call for everyone’s attention when a Dalmatian tugged on his shirt sleeve.

“Are we going to get out of here in time?” the guy asked. “That rock is going to be here any minute!”

“We’re going to get out of here as soon as we can, sir,” the load master replied. He stepped up on a tethered crate of freight tie-downs near his office and held up both hands. “May I have your attention, please?” he said in a loud voice. He had to repeat himself over the crowd noise twice before it was quiet enough to continue.

“Listen folks,” he said as his eyes swept the assembly, “my captain has informed me that we should be launching at any moment. This is an emergency situation and we will do all we can to get you out of the danger zone, but we’ll need the cooperation of everyone.”

“This is all your fault for not alerting us sooner!” someone shouted. There were a few echoes of agreement until Damien called back at the jackal who had spoken out.

“Sir, this ship does not belong to your local government and we are not an appointed rescue vessel. This is a commercial freighter trapped up in the same situation with the lot of you. We could have easily just left you standing on the tarmac to face the asteroid on your own, but our captain chose to give you the opportunity to escape with us.” Damien swept his gaze across the crowd once more. “We’ll try to accommodate you as best we can, but you will have to be patient. We’re in this just as much as you are.”

“Why aren’t we moving? You’ve got the hatch shut and now we’re just waiting?” called a woman in the back.

“We are awaiting our turn to leave, ma’am,” Damien replied. “You saw the hangar out there – we can’t all leave at the same time. There are a number of ships in front of us.”

“Is there any other way out of this building?” someone else asked.

“Not for a starship, sir.”

“Why don’t we just blast through the dome?”

“Yeah, it’s only glassteel under a metal frame!”

“That metal frame is what’s keeping us from going through it. It’s stout enough to puncture our hull,” Damien replied in exasperation. “Listen! We’re getting out of here as soon as we can. Please, just bear with us!”

***

“The control tower reports that it will be another thirty-five minutes before we can leave our launch pad just to get in line,” Taro said in irritation. She dropped the headset onto the console and moved to the forward windows. She leaned on the counter beside Renny and heaved another sigh. “They also report that the asteroid is within an hour of striking Vashon, its velocity increasing as gets drawn further into Hestra’s gravity well.”

“This is not good,” Jerry muttered. “This is not good at all.”

Renny flattened his ears against his head. “At this rate, we won’t make it out of the building by the time that thing hits.”

Suddenly a loud roar penetrated the bridge from the outside. The larger Carico-class freighter on the pad next to them suddenly lifted off the ground, its thrusters stirring up dust and other debris.

“Did the Leroux just get clearance to leave?” Renny asked.

“I don’t think so,” Taro replied as she glanced down at the landing pad and saw several bodies sprawled on the thruster-heated concrete. When she looked up, the rectangular vessel continued to rise toward the dome, far above the airlock corridor. The ship gained altitude and picked up speed.

“It’s going to go through!” Jerry exclaimed.

Before anyone else had a chance to comment, the blunt nose of the Leroux struck the geodesic grid with such a force that the entire structure shook violently. Pressurized glassteel panels shattered and fell to the ground below while the metal framework buckled and the air within escaped out into the thin Vashon atmosphere. The ship’s thrusters brightened with increased power and it pushed through the grid at an angle.

The action was not without its consequences. Steel girders from the dome framework penetrated the freighter’s hull near its stern as it passed through the ragged opening it had made. More of the grid peeled outward with the ship, but it began to hold fast.

The Leroux sheered suddenly toward the port, its thrusters now pushing against a different direction. The vessel spun out of control, and everyone watched in horror as it nosed back toward the base of the dome in an inevitable crash.

Even while glass and other debris continued to rain down upon the ship, Taro spun around and barked an order to Jerry. “That hole’s big enough for the Horizon!” she said through clenched teeth. “Launch immediately!”

Keyed up for the past hour, Jerry jumped at the command and ignited their thrusters instantly. Before anyone had a chance to brace themselves against the launch, the Blue Horizon rose quickly toward the breech in the dome.

Taro lost her footing on the tilting deck and tumbled over a chair. Renny tried to snare her leg, but he grasped empty air; Taro slid along the floor and slammed into a control panel. She clung to the counter supports and held on tight.

***

Damien’s body strained against his launch harness as the Horizon shot upward. Mindful of their living cargo, Jerry tried to take the freighter straight up, but the wind shears borne of equalizing air pressure between the internal atmosphere and that of the outside buffed the elliptical saucer. The floor tilted crazily, and although the gravity deck plates were on, the faulty inertia dampers could not keep things in place.

Evacuees piled up together amidst cries and screams as they slid across and over one another with little to hang onto. Those who were near the freight tie-down rings recessed into the floor tried to hang on tightly, but other bodies tumbling into them knocked them loose to slide into others.

Cries of fear, panic and pain filled the air amidst the roar of the ventral thrusters. Damien was unaware of the situation outside that prompted such a rough launch and quietly cursed Jerry’s piloting skills. There was nothing Damien could do for their unwitting passengers, but watch and hope their flight would smooth out quickly.

***

The Blue Horizon passed through the torn opening in the dome ceiling with only meters to spare on all sides, the landing gear having retracted only seconds earlier. A concussion fireball from the Leroux’s destruction took out a large section of the building’s support base, and the structure quickly began to collapse upon the ships and people still inside.

Jerry saw none of this with his attention riveted to his instruments. He pushed the vertical thrusters for all they could give him, since he was unable to tilt the nose upward and use the main engines to drive them up out of the atmosphere.

Air resistance decreased quickly and suddenly they were away from the doomed satellite. Hestra loomed large to their starboard and the planet’s gravity began to tug at the ship’s mass. Free of Vashon’s influence, Jerry gently nosed the ship’s leading edge forward and engaged the main drive. The Blue Horizon shot away from the moon’s southern pole and he aimed for deep space below the galactic plane without a heading.

“Renny,” Taro gasped from the back of the command center.

“Are you okay?” the cheetah asked as he struggled out of his harness. He knelt down beside the vixen and helped her into a nearby seat.

Taro coughed and rubbed her ribs. “I’ll live,” she said at last. “Jerry, alter heading and take us toward the asteroid.”

“Toward the asteroid!” Renny and Jerry exclaimed in unison.

“We’ll circumvent it, using its mass gravity to slingshot us away from the area just as Max did on the way in. We’ll avoid collateral damage from expelled debris when that thing hits Vashon!”

Renny exchanged looks with the pilot and both knew the captain was right. They needed to be as far from the strike zone as possible, and they could use the incoming rock to increase their speed to do it.

“May I request that either you or Renny take over the flight controls,” Jerry said with a frown. “That was a lousy take-off, and I would assume there are some injured passengers in the hold.”

“You did the best you could under the conditions,” Taro told him, “but you’re right. You should grab your med kit and get down there. Take Mandy with you, and have Lori and Justy prepare water and paper cups for our guests. I would imagine we have a bunch of frightened people on board, so try to deal with them as well as you can.”

“Right, we’ll get on it right away.”

***

It had seemed like an eternity, but the flooring beneath the evacuees finally calmed down when the ship left the thin Vashon atmosphere. Jumbled and stunned, groans and cries began to permeate the air as everyone tried to disentangle themselves from one another.

“My leg is broken!” someone cried out.

Damien thumbed the intercom control. “Bridge,” came Taro’s immediate response.

“Send Jerry down to the cargo hold,” the mastiff said in a rush. “We’ve got some injuries from the launch.”

“Doc and Mandy are already on their way.”

“Okay, thanks.” Damien made his way the aft end of the hold and found a ferret with a twisted leg threaded through one of the immovable cargo tie-down rings embedded in the floor. The fellow looked up at him with tears streaming down his cheek fur.

“Our doctor’s on the way,” he told the ferret in a soothing voice as he knelt down next to him. He was examining the leg and wondering if he should attempt to pull it free of the tie-down when he felt a small hand on his shoulder.

“Mister, I can’t find my brother,” a young bobcat said to him. Damien turned to look at the small feline and he felt a sudden catch in his throat. He had to force down the chill that shivered down his spine and then glanced around. He saw passengers clutching arms, legs and heads as they began to take inventory of their aches and pains.

“Is that him over there?” he asked hoarsely. The little bobcat followed his pointing finger to see a younger male bobcat with his back up against the cargo bay door clutching a plushie that resembled himself.

“Yes!” the girl exclaimed. “Thanks, mister!” To his relief, she bounded away toward her brother just as a door opened across the hold. Jerry and Amanda dashed out of the lift toward the nearest injured individual and the fox started treatment right away. Damien waved to the coyote and called her over.

Amanda knelt next to him and took the ferret’s hand as she made a cursory examination of the twisted leg. “The doctor is here and will be with you shortly if you can hang on, sir,” she said in a calm voice.

“It hurts!” the ferret cried.

“Is there anything you can give him for the pain?” Damien asked as he appeared to have made a decision.

The coyote shook her head. “Jerry didn’t give me anything to dispense,” she answered apologetically. “I’m not a nurse, and I think he has different meds for different species.”

“Do you have a pencil?”

The non sequitur took Amanda by surprise, but she nodded and pulled two of them from the pocket of her pink blouse. She held them out to him, but Damien shook his head. “It’s for him to bite on,” he explained.

The ferret’s eyes grew wide. “What are you going to do?” he croaked.

The mastiff looked at him in what he hoped was a compassionate look and said, “Before your leg can be treated, the bone must be re-set as quickly as it can. I’m afraid this is going to hurt.”

Amanda pursed her lips. “Have you done this before?”

“Yes.”

The coyote nodded and then offered a pencil to the ferret. The guy looked like he might pass out from the pain at any moment, but he opened his mouth obediently. He took the pencil between his teeth and clenched his eyes shut as Damien reached for his leg.

***

Taro wrapped her arms around herself as she and Renny stared at the aft view on the vidscreen. The cheetah gripped the guidance shifts nervously, wishing it was his arms that were around the vixen as they watched the killer approach her homeworld.

A message chirped from the Com station and Taro moved quickly to read it. She studied the readout a moment and then picked up her headset microphone. She thumbed the ship-wide intercom and then gave Renny a quick glance.

“May I have your attention, please?” Taro’s voice echoed from the ship-wide intercom system. “We have just received a news feed from the Hestran emergency broadcast system. It has been determined that the incoming asteroid will miss Hestra, but Vashon is coming around the planet in its orbit and it will hit the asteroid almost head-on. Estimated time of impact is in ten minutes.”

Taro shut off the intercom and could almost hear the cries of anguish from their passengers. Most of the Blue Horizon’s crew could watch the event dispassionately from the onboard vidscreens, but Taro’s emotions were in turmoil as she helplessly watched the existence of her world’s satellite draw to a close.

***

The asteroid filled the Vashon sky as a science vessel from Earth launched to escape. The SS Michael Faraday had waited until the last possible moment to record sensor readings of the gravitational stresses of the moon caught between the influences of Hestra and the asteroid.  It was insane to stay that long when remote sensors could have recorded data instead, but Dr. Barrowman’s enthusiasm for being there could not be sated that way.

The Faraday cleared the satellite’s orbit, its sensors still recording as it safely headed out into space. A moment later, the space rock struck the moon head-on.

Untapped resources of quartz, opal and siris inside the satellite struck equally volatile elements in the asteroid, causing a chain reaction that ignited both in a celestial detonation more powerful than all the Hestran defense weapons combined.  A bright flash of released energy burned out sensitive camera lenses trained on the event as megatons of material were blasted out into space. A shock wave circled the moon and expanded outward, destroying orbiting satellites and slow moving vessels.

The bridge crew of the Faraday thought they’d put plenty of distance away from the collateral damage, but they’d underestimated the devastating effects of the collision. Measurements taken of observed shockwaves had occurred in the thick Hestran atmosphere where they were retarded.  In the vacuum of space, however, the unimpeded shock wave surged across empty void and caught up the ship before it could activate its LightDrive system. The aft engine pods buckled and split apart under the impact, sparking and igniting the fuel cells into an intense fireball that expanded through the rest of the fuselage, flaring brilliantly before snuffing out in the vacuum. The explosion was but a flicker of light compared to the lunar firestorm.

The Blue Horizon’s vidscreen circuitry flashed from an overload of sensor information and anyone looking at them was blinded for several seconds. The effect was only temporary, and when their retinas finally cleared, Renny and Taro looked up through watering eyes to the forward glassteel windows.

The atmosphere of Vashon instantly thickened, permeated with an immense dust cloud that completely obscured the surface from view. Tons of debris that hadn’t achieved escape velocity rained back down upon the satellite in the form of superheated boulders, rocks and pellets that left burning streaks across the clouded sky.

Renny tried to speak, but discovered his voice had fled. He was amazed that the moon hadn’t split apart from the impact, but he could only imagine the size of the crater that lay beneath the dusty atmosphere. He could see Taro shaking visibly in her strapped harness at the Com station, and had he not been occupied at the ship’s controls, he’d have gone to her and given what comfort he could.

It would be a while yet before news would be released on the aftermath of the impact. Considering the Horizon’s narrow escape from Sharra Base, he knew that Vashon had not been completely evacuated before the collision. Shock waves through the core of the moon would have shaken apart all structures on or beneath the surface, and it was unlikely there would be many survivors.

***

“…the effects have had repercussions even on the planet. Early data shows the impact has altered Vashon’s orbit somewhat, which in turn has affected tidal forces throughout Hestra. Ground quakes have occurred throughout many regions around the world, and although the asteroid struck Vashon, the danger has not yet passed for Hestra herself. Fragments of the moon and the asteroid have penetrated the planet’s atmosphere and some regions have experienced a rain of fire from above. It may be some time before the total effects of the incident are fully known.”

A brown bear looked up from bandaging his mate’s wrist with a torn bit of shirt and sighed at the audio news signal that had been piped down to the cargo hold. Although the Blue Horizon’s doctor was going through the crowd with the help of his crewmates, it might take a while for them to get to his friends.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” asked a voice. The bear looked up at a white rabbit wearing sandals and a long gray tee shirt with the Blue Horizon’s name and logo across the front. She gave him a friendly smile, but appeared to be just as weary as the rest of them.

“We could use some water,” he replied in a low voice. “If your doctor has any anti-inflammatory medication, I think my mate could use some for her wrist.”

“I’ll get you some water,” Lorelei replied, “but I have some natural herbs I can mix in with it that will work to reduce your lady-friend’s swelling.”

“Whatever you have…”

After the bunny moved away, the female black bear looked up at her mate with moisture-rimmed eyes. “What are we going to do, Rhone?” she asked. “We just lost everything! Our apartment, our ship and all our belongings! We have nothing, not even our insurance information! What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know, Tress, I don’t know. If I hadn’t already taken apart the drive circuit in the ship, we could have launched in plenty of time to get away.”

“Where’s this ship taking us?” Tress suddenly asked. “How long are we going to sit here on the cold floor? There’s no place else we can go!”

Rhone looked at his mate with a frown and then looked away. “We should be lucky they let us on board, instead of leaving us to die.”

Tress buried her face in his chest fur and let the tears fall freely. “Is this lucky? It might have been better to die,” she whimpered bitterly.

***

Taro sat down at the Com station, her legs unsteady as she listened to the Hestran dispatcher on the vidscreen give her details on the situation. It seemed like she spent more time on the bridge lately than any time in memory and she wondered if she should simply take over all watches until she could no longer stand. For now, she was alert to every trickle of information that came through the channels.

Much of Vashon had been successfully evacuated before the asteroid struck, but it was estimated that nearly three hundred were unable to leave in time. There were reports from some who had escaped that others had remained on Vashon who simply didn’t believe they were in danger and stayed in their homes to wait out the emergency. There could be survivors, but it was doubtful.

“I am not sure what we can do to help,” the vixen told the fennec dispatcher on the center bridge vidscreen. “We let a number of evacuees catch a ride with us in our cargo hold and I will try to get you a tally of how many we have. Perhaps this will help drop the reported numbers of those still missing. However, I’m not sure we have room to go back and pick up more.”

“We appreciate your willingness to help others in need, Captain, but we are not asking you to return to Vashon. We have established a tent city near the capitol that has been relatively free of seismic activity where you can land and deposit your evacuees. Medical teams are standing by to help those who may be injured, and we have counselors to assist any who may need psychological help from this disaster.”

“I’m afraid there’s a problem with your plan, Mr. Rifkin,” Taro replied. “Most of my passengers are not Hestran, and unless you have a truckload of endosuits to equip them for the high gravity once we land, they won’t be able to disembark.”

The desert fox looked back at her in alarm. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he muttered. “There are already three other ships like yours on their way down with evacuees from the moon. We’ll have to recall them right away. Excuse me, Captain.”

“Rifkin, wait!” Taro exclaimed. The dispatcher looked back at her, his expression one of stress.

“Make it quick, please,” he pleaded.

“My ship is merely a freighter and is not equipped to handle the amount of people we have on board. We had not yet re-stocked our supplies, so I don’t have sufficient air, food or water to hold us all for long.”

“I’m sorry, Captain. I will have to get back to you on that. Please stand by.”

The signal contact dropped and the vidscreen circuitry returned the panel to its transparent window view. Taro bit her bottom lip and closed the channel on the station beside her. Her first impulse was to pound on the counter in frustration, but she nixed the thought before it had time to make it past her mind.

Instead, she tapped out a command on the Com station and found a local news broadcast to pipe on the overhead speakers. She wished she could see the video images of a StellarNet channel, but the bridge was not equipped for such signals. It was something that Renny had often campaigned to get in the command center.

Taro pursed her lips at the thought and made a quick decision. She signaled the engine room and it was only a moment later when the intercom chirped back at her.

“Engineering.”

“Max, would you send Pockets up to the bridge with his tool bag?”

“Aye, Captain. Anything I can do for you?”

“Just let him know that I need him to route StellarNet up to the bridge so I can keep tabs on things going on with Hestra and Vashon.”

“Okie dokie. I’ll send him up as soon as I can find him.”

“Thanks, Max.”

***

“Did I just hear one of you say that you don’t have enough oxygen for us all?” asked a bull moose. He stood with his feet planted apart and his question had been voiced loud enough to carry. Max and Damien exchanged a brief look as a crowd collected around the door to Engineering. The faces around them were worried, and some were angry.

Damien raised a hand for attention, but it didn’t appear to quiet the gathering much. “May I have your attention, please?” he said loudly.

“You’ve got our attention,” the bull said sarcastically. “We’re just not sure we want to hear anything else you have to say!”

“Sir, if you will let me—”

“We’re going to suffocate! What more can you possibly say?”

“Sir,” Damien said to the moose, “you aren’t helping the situation.”

“Not helping!” the bull shouted. “We all just lost everything, and now you’re telling us we may die anyway?”

“I don’t want to die!” exclaimed a feline in the crowd.

“We said nothing of the sort!” Damien roared. “You heard part of a conversation and took it upon yourself to—”

The moose grabbed the mastiff’s shirt and there was an audible rip in the fabric. Max backed into the engine room and thumbed the bridge call pad as Damien fastened his meaty fingers around the moose’s wrists.

“Let go and shut up!” Damien growled, tightening his grip on the fellow’s arms.

A Mainoran lion stepped in between them and tried to force them apart. The moose looked at him darkly. “Stay out of this, Wiltz!”

“Calm down, my friend. Let this guy try to explain away his words,” the lion said. “If it’s true you only heard part of the conversation, I want to know what it was he really said that included running out of oxygen.”

The moose released Damien’s collar and snorted into his face. “If anything happens to us while we are on your ship, you will hear from my lawyers, Thomlinson, Gosselin and Young!”

“Kieran, I said ‘calm down’,” Wiltz stated firmly. “You’re using up more oxygen by shouting,” The bull opened his mouth again, but then shut it with a snap of his teeth. The lion looked at Damien and nodded. “Can you explain?” he asked.

The mastiff glanced around at the angry and frightened faces around him and tried to choose his words carefully. The wrong expression could incite further panic. “Like the rest of you,” he began, “we were unprepared for the emergency. Our ship had only recently landed and we had not yet re-supplied our vessel for launch. Yes, supplies are low, but while you are with us, you are welcome to all the resources we have on board: food, water and anything else we can provide.”

“What about oxygen?” asked a young bobcat. “Are we going to suffocate?”

“Our generated air is recycled and may get a little stale, but while we don’t have enough to make another long voyage, our captain is currently on the Com with the Hestran emergency committee to get you folks some proper care as soon as possible.”

“How long is that gonna take?” a gray mouse wanted to know. “Some of us were injured in the escape from Vashon. Your doctor and nurse are treating everyone, but I doubt they’ll get to all of us before something sets up wrong.”

“Are we going to run out of air before help can arrive from Hestra?” asked the bobcat again. “Mr. Kieran said he heard you say you didn’t have enough!”

“My engineer was concerned about our carbon dioxide filters having trouble with so many sets of lungs on board,” Damien admitted, “but this should not be a concern if Hestra dispatches rescue ships to take you to an emergency center.”

“Where can they take us?” cried a spaniel female. “I’m not Hestran! I won’t be able to stand up on the surface!”

“We can’t go back to the moon!” said another. “What’s going to happen to us?”

“We’re going to run out of air before we can get anywhere safe!”

Damien looked helplessly as the situation took on more panicked questions and exclamations. “Our captain is working on that!” he offered, but knew that it would appease no one now. The bull moose’s eyes were getting bloodshot and the tension was mounting in his face as word of their dilemma spread throughout the evacuees.

“What are you gonna do about this?” Kieran demanded of the mastiff.

Damien backed into the Engineering doorway and said, “We are going to continue doing what we can for you, sir.”

With that, he shut the door on the crowd and locked it. He leaned back against the wall and then glanced over at Max.

“Pockets said to do what we can,” Max told him. “He said that Taro’s been in touch with Hestra, but until someone comes up with a plan, we’re stuck with these people.”

The load master tilted his head back and rubbed his eyes. “I know they’ve been through a lot, but I just wish they’d understand that we’re not the enemy. We helped them escape death and are still trying to keep them alive.”

Although the door to Engineering was closed, they could hear elevated voices from the other side. Damien looked over at the young mechanic and heaved a sigh. “I think we’d better stay in here a while, Max. They’re frightened and upset, but wait until they realize that there’s only one latrine on this deck. Then we’ll really have a riot on our hands.”

***

The raccoon crawled out from beneath the bridge Com station and tapped the call-receive control from on his knees. “This is Chief Engineer Porter of the SS Blue Horizon,” he said. “How may I help you?”

“Blue Horizon, this is Hestra Spatial Control. May I speak with your captain, please?” requested a weary-looking fennec fox.

“Sure, hold just a moment.” Pockets put the incoming call on standby and then paged the captain to the bridge. Almost immediately, the intercom chirped.

“This is Taro.”

“Captain, HSC wants to chat with you.”

“On my way.”

The vixen and her first officer walked in through the door seconds later. They had been in the captain’s office in the next compartment. Pockets crawled back under the counter to continue his work while Taro took the call. Renny took a seat quietly and looked up at the vidscreen.

“Hello, Rifkin,” she said, recognizing him from their earlier conversation.

“Captain,” the desert fox said with a quick nod, “an empty Merriam Cruise Liner from Alexandrius has been dispatched and should arrive in approximately twenty-nine hours to collect the civilians from yours and other ships that helped get the evacuees off Vashon. The SS Soundchaser will be better equipped to harbor the large number of folk that aren’t physically able to be ferried down to the surface.”

“That is good news,” the vixen replied. “However, my supply officer took an inventory since our last conversation and determined that our supplies will completely run out in approximately fifteen hours. Our atmosphere generators and reclamation units are running on full, but with nearly sixty pair of lungs on board, breathable air will be running stale and very thin by the time Soundchaser arrives.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s the closest ship we could call upon to help you. All vessels planetside are currently tied up with surface emergency operations in the tidal quake and meteorite impact zones.”

“In that case, I think it best that we launch toward Alexandrius immediately to close the distance between the Blue Horizon and the Soundchaser to reduce our wait time.”

Renny nodded at her words and made a quick calculation on the astrogation computer. “At top speeds, it will take us roughly thirteen hours to meet up with the cruise ship,” he said aloud.

Taro looked up at Rifkin. “That should get us there with a couple hours to spare. Once we’ve transferred our passengers to the Soundchaser, we will continue on to Alexandrius with our limited supplies. Is there any chance the cruise ship can replenish our air reserves before we disconnect?”

“I will get in contact with the captain of the Soundchaser and see that you are supplied with enough air, food and water to get you to Alexandrius. I can’t thank you enough for your help in this disaster, Captain Nichols. The supplies they give you will be charged to the Hestran Emergency Response Authority.”

“Thank you, Rifkin. We’ll be on our way presently.”

“Good luck to you, Captain Nichols.”

Taro turned immediately to the cheetah. “Plot an immediate course to Alexandrius and launch as soon as you can at best possible speeds. We can coordinate our trajectory with the Soundchaser as we get nearer so we can find a suitable rendezvous point. Justy, Lori and the others will ration out the food and water from our stores to our passengers. Hopefully that will keep them calm until we can get them over to the Soundchaser.”

“Don’t forget to save some of those rations for your lowly crew,” Renny said with a frown.

“Don’t worry, dear. You won’t go hungry for long. Pockets, you should stop what you’re doing now and get down to the engine room. I want you and Max to make sure all systems are running smoothly while we stress the engines to full capacity.”

The engineer backed out from the counter access area. “I’m almost finished,” he said. “Gimmee ten more minutes and I’ll have the feed routed up here. Max can watch the engine diagnostics in the meantime.”

“Okay, finish what you’re doing and then get down there,” Taro agreed.

Pockets glanced around the room as if to make sure it was only just the three of them, and then he spoke again in a low voice. “You know, we could use the Vault drive to get the evacuees to the Soundchaser a lot quicker. Then we could continue on to Alexandrius on our own without having to deplete all our stores of food, water and air.” He looked up hopefully at the vixen.

Renny and Taro exchanged dubious looks and then the captain shook her head. “No, I’m adamant against using the Vault in public, and there’s no way we could keep something like that from our passengers, the Soundchaser or Hestran command. I haven’t even told Merlin about it yet! Besides, you know how unreliable it is with our navigation equipment. We could wind up even farther away from help than we are now without meaning to.”

“Yeah, but I thought I would mention it,” Pockets said with a shrug before he ducked back under the counter.

Renny redirected the right-hand vidscreen panel to an aft view and looked back at the planetary body receding in the distance. “What about Hestra?” he asked quietly.

Taro looked up with a frown and felt a shudder go through her. “We will have to leave Hestra to her fate. Planned or not, the well-being of our passengers is our biggest priority.”

***

“There, Madsen, that’s almost got it,” the bull moose muttered. He and a young brown bear each had a pry bar they’d found in an equipment locker and had them wedged into the split of the elevator lift door. The two panels were warped with ragged edges where the pair had worked on it for some time, but the door was finally starting to give.

“This is ridiculous, Kieran,” grumbled the bear. “There’s only one latrine we can find down here, and they shut off the power to the lift to keep us from using their facilities on the upper decks.”

“I don’t know who these people think they are,” said the moose. “Cargo haulers are nothing more than truckers in space. They ain’t any more uppity than the rest of us. If they have what we need up there, we ought to have access! We have nothing now.”

“Probably afraid we’ll steal stuff from their cabins.”

There was a sudden pop and the lift door panels separated. “Great, that’s got it!” exclaimed the moose. He and the bear dropped their pry bars noisily and then pulled the panels open as far as they would go.

Kieran moved into the tubular room and looked up. He grinned and used his fist to pop up an access panel in the roof next to the light. “Give me a boost,” he said to his companion. “I’ll bet there’s an emergency ladder up in the shaft.”

“You won’t find a ladder, but you will find live power conduits that will give you a nasty jolt as soon as you get your hands on them,” Damien said. Kieran and Madsen both jumped, turning in unison.

“For your own safety, I suggest you leave the elevator.” The load master held both pry bars in his hands. One was down at his side and the other was resting casually over his shoulder, but when the moose took a step toward him, both bars came up in front of him in a ready stance. Kieran stopped and snorted in anger.

“You can’t do this to us!” he shouted. “We aren’t your prisoners!”

“Sir, you will be off our ship in six more hours when we meet up with a cruise ship from Alexandrius,” Damien said evenly, trying to remain diplomatic. “Try to stay out of trouble until then and then you’ll never have to see our ship again.”

The moose took another step toward him. “Why, I ought to—”

“That won’t improve your situation, I assure you.”

Kieran made a quick glance at his companion, but the bear showed no signs of joining him in a fight. The moose weighed his chances of running his antlers into the mastiff, but then thought better of it when he considered the pry bars in the cur’s hands.

“Six hours won’t come soon enough,” Kieran grumbled as he finally moved out of the lift. He slipped past the mastiff haughtily and then disappeared into the crowd that had gathered outside the elevator. Madsen stepped up to the load master and sighed with a frown.

“You’ll have to excuse him,” the bear said in a low voice. “His family lived on Quet until over-mining ruined its atmosphere, and then they moved to Brandt. They did well there until the Siilv deposits ran out and ruined the economy, so they packed up and moved to Mainor. He was off-world when you-know-what happened to that place, but his family didn’t make it. Now he’s just lost his business on Vashon and everything left that he owned.” The bear licked his lips and shook his head. “I don’t think I want to be living on the next planet Mr. Good-Luck happens to settle down on.”

“Yeesh,” Damien muttered. The crowd around them started to disperse, so he turned toward the bear and spoke in a low voice. “Listen, I was just coming to tell you that my captain agreed to allow folks in limited quantities on the upper decks for use of the latrines in our unoccupied cabins. We can take a few up at a time.”

“Limited quantities? Why the escort?”

“The easiest way to put it is that’s where we live. You’re welcome to use the unoccupied facilities, but you don’t have freedom to invade our homes, disaster or no.”

“Yeah, okay, I can live with that explanation,” said the bear. “So, can we go up now? I could do with a shower.”

Damien raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “No, you and your buddy just ruined the lift doors, and it sounded like you snapped an actuator arm. You are going to help me repair them first or no one will be going up there.”

***

Renny rubbed his eyes as he rounded the curved corridor to his cabin. He was just as tired and weary as the crew and their impromptu passengers. Taro had granted him an hour to rest and clean up, but he’d need to be back on the bridge thereafter. Jerry and Amanda were still going through the crowd, treating what hurts they could, while Pockets and Max nursed the Horizon’s engines to give them everything they could. Lori, Justy and Damien were busy escorting folks up and down the lift to the spare cabins, so that just left he and Taro to manage the bridge.

As he neared the door to his quarters, he felt a tug on the tip of his tail. He turned around and found a young cheetah girl looking up at him with wide, golden eyes. He quickly looked both ways up the corridor, but saw no one else.

“Hello, there,” he said to the youngster. She couldn’t have been more than three or four summers old. She wore a single beige garment that draped across her skinny shoulders and hung to her knees, and there were two colorful bangles on the wrist of the hand that held his tail.

“Uhm, hi,” she replied in a small, squeaky voice.

“What is your name?”

“Sandilee.”

Renny smiled at her and knelt down to look at her at her own level. “You’re a cutie. Where are your folks?”

“Dunno,” she said with a shrug.

“Can you tell me your full name?”

“Sandilee,” she repeated.

“Sandilee what?”

“I dunno,” she said.

“Okay then, I’ll see if I can help you find them,” the navigator replied. “Did they come up here with you?”

“No,” Sandilee said.

“Did you come up here with someone else to go to the bathroom?”

“No.”

“Hmm, okay. Let’s take the elevator back down and see if we can find who you belong to.”

“I don’t wanna go back down there.”

“Why not?”

“It makes me afraid. I’m not afraid with you.”

Renny pursed his lips. “Well, Sandilee, I need to get you back to your folks. It will make them afraid if you are gone too long.”

“They aren’t there,” the girl said. “I can’t find them. Can I stay with you?”

The navigator reached out and lightly ran a finger under her chin. The girl smiled and looked up at him hopefully, but Renny slowly shook his head. “Come on,” he said. “I will help you find your family.”

***

Taro looked up from the INN broadcast on the StellarNet feed she was watching when Renny walked back through the door. It had been an hour since she had sent him out for rest, but the navigator didn’t look rested. In fact, he still wore the same clothes he had on when he left. She frowned at his weary expression and motioned him to sit down at the Com station.

“Couldn’t rest?” she asked.

Renny heaved a sigh and rubbed his eyes. “I didn’t get a chance to,” he answered. “I found a young cheetah girl wandering the corridor out there and spent the past hour trying to reunite her with her family.”

“That was sweet of you,” the vixen told him. “I’m sure she’s happy to be back with them. If you want to go back to your cabin, I can spare you another hour.”

“I couldn’t find her family,” Renny said. “She and I are the only cheetahs on board and I couldn’t find anyone else who might have been taking care of her.”

Taro looked troubled. “That’s a big crowd down there,” she said. “Maybe you just missed them.”

“I stood on a crate, called for everyone’s attention, and then held her up for everyone to see. No one claimed her when I asked, but one guy heckled me for trying to pawn off my own child to anyone who would take her.”

Taro snickered, but then sobered up quickly. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t be amused at this kitten’s plight. Do you think her family might have been up using the facilities up here while you were down on the cargo deck with her? You did say you found her up here, right?”

“That was the first place I looked, but neither Justy nor Lorelei have seen any other cheetahs on board with the evacuees.” Taro crossed her arms and looked down at the floor, her thoughts working overtime. Renny glanced out the vidscreen window and added, “I’m wondering if she got separated from her family on Vashon and got swept away into our hold when the crowd surged on board.”

The vixen looked up and absently toyed with a feather dangling from a clip in the fur near her left ear. “I’ll contact HERA and see if anyone has reported a lost cheetah kitten. Perhaps her family got out on another ship.”

“Hera? Isn’t that one of the Terran gods?”

“The Hestran Emergency Response Authority, silly. It was formed after the Taquit Fever incident. They’re collecting the names of those who escaped, and I’ve had Jerry and Mandy getting the names of our passengers for them.”

“Hopefully they can find Sandilee’s folks,” Renny mused. “I’ve tried asking her about her family, but she’s young enough that she hasn’t yet learned much about her family beyond her folks and siblings. She can’t even tell me what planet her family’s from, or if she has any relatives elsewhere.”

“I don’t want to think about it,” Taro said, “but we also have to consider the possibility that her family didn’t make it out of Sharra Base alive. You remember how we got out of there? They could have been in one of the other ships trapped under the dome when the Leroux crashed and the building collapsed.”

“I hope to Hera that someone there can help her. She’s too young to lose her family.”

“Where is she now?”

Renny rubbed his eyes again. “I left her with Lori. She said she’d watch over her until the Soundchaser can take her.”

Taro moved over to her friend and gently rubbed his shoulders from behind his chair. “Why don’t you go get your lost hour?” she said. “Once you’ve had a bit of rest, you can relieve me so I can do the same.”

“Thanks. I’m so tired right now that I can barely stay on my feet. At least a short nap should recharge me a bit.”

“Go then,” the vixen ordered. “Try not to pick up any more lost children on the way to your cabin this time.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

***

“Blue Horizon, this is the SS Soundchaser,” said a uniformed lynx from the left-hand vidscreen. “We have you on our long-range sensors. Please stand down from current velocity and then report your coordinates so we don’t overshoot your position. Captain Ransdell welcomes your passengers at the behest of the Hestran government.”

“Thank you, Soundchaser,” Taro replied with a weary smile, “I’m Captain Nichols. We’re dropping out of spatial velocity now. Our supplies are almost exhausted and our atmospheric reclamation units are over-taxed, so we’re very glad to see you.”

“Very glad,” Renny repeated with a grateful expression.

“The Hestran government thanks you for your help. Once we are in position, we will extend a gravity deck walkway to your main hatch. As soon as your passengers have been transferred to this vessel, we have been authorized to grant you food, water and air to speed you on the remainder of your journey to Alexandrius.”

“Thank you, Soundchaser,” Taro repeated. “We have slowed to sub-light velocity and will be solely on inertia within ten minutes. At that time, we will fire thrusters to stop all momentum. What orientation do you need us so we can align our hatches?”

The lynx’s ears dropped back for only a second, but Renny caught it in the Soundchaser’s communication officer’s voice. “The Soundchaser is equipped with extended walkways on both port and starboard.” He almost sounded miffed that his ship would only be equipped with one walkway.

Taro quietly dismissed the feline’s look of indignation and replied, “In that case, you should approach with us on your port side.”

“Acknowledged. We will await your final coordinates, Captain. Soundchaser, out.”

“That’s a Paladin class ship,” Renny remarked once the connection dropped. “Just because it’s five times the size of the Horizon doesn’t mean they—”

“Drop it,” Taro snapped irritably. “Once we can get these people into better conditions, we’ll be on our way. When we get to Alexandrius, I’m going to authorize a full week of shore leave so we can all rest up from this madness.”

Renny flinched at her rebuke and just shook his head. “What are we going to do about our next assignment?” he asked. “Won’t an extended break hurt our schedule?”

The vixen waved a hand toward the aft end of the bridge. “The cargo we were to take from Vashon to Alexandrius was probably pulverized into dust by that asteroid, Renny. We don’t have anything to deliver.”

“Right.”

The cheetah fell silent and gave focus to his job, wishing it was Jerry sitting in the pilot seat instead of him. Several minutes later, the Blue Horizon was stationary in space and he calculated their present coordinates. Taro reestablished contact with the larger vessel and got an immediate response.

“Blue Horizon, we have just received your coordinates. You may prepare your passengers to disembark.”

“Acknowledged.” She tapped a command on her console and then spoke into her headset for a ship-wide broadcast.

***

“May I have your attention, please? This is the captain speaking.”

A family of multicolored cottontail rabbits looked up from their huddle in the middle of the cargo deck at the announcement. The doe looked up at her mate and began trembling. “More bad news?” she asked. “I don’t think my heart can take much more.”

“I have some good news for you, folks. The SS Soundchaser, a cruise ship from Alexandrius is now on final approach to our position to take you on board their vessel. The Hestran government has hired this vessel to take care of you and others like you who survived the Vashon collision. They will be sufficiently set up to handle all your needs and are here to welcome you aboard.”

Voices began to rise in discussion at Taro’s words, but others strained to hear the rest of the announcement. “The Soundchaser will be docking with us momentarily. All passengers will need to be ready by the main hatch and will disembark quietly in single file. Once aboard the Soundchaser, you will be assigned cabins for the remainder of your journey and their medical staff will see to your injuries. This is Captain Nichols, wishing you a safe journey.”

Damien moved quickly around the perimeter of the cargo deck to the main hatch. He had to push through a congregation of bodies who were already starting to gather at the airlock with excited voices. When he got to the control panel, he looked up and felt the hackles on the back of his neck stand up. The first one in line was the moose, Kieran.

The load master cleared his throat and looked at the press of bodies around him. “I need everyone to form a line, please! Everyone will be get their chance to go across, so there’s no need to hurry. The Soundchaser has enough room, food and medical supplies for all of you, and we won’t be leaving until everyone has been transferred across. So now, please form a line!”

He turned his back on the crowd as a great number of them either began grumbling and complaining about losing a close spot near the door. Kieran didn’t budge, making sure that everyone lined up behind him.

Damien activated a small monitor on a panel next to the airlock and a camera mounted flush with the outside of the hatch showed the hull of another ship sliding past. He began pressurizing the airlock as the other vessel slowed.

The intercom chirped on the cargo deck. There was a com terminal next to his console, so he thumbed a pad as he kept his eyes on the monitor. “This is Damien. I’m at the hatch.”

“The Soundchaser has signaled that they are in position. Make preparations to receive boarders.”

“Already pressurizing,” he said.

“I’ll be down there in a moment,” Taro said. The connection was terminated and Damien could see a hard-walled tunnel extending toward them. This was not one of the inflatable, flexible tunnels used on smaller ships like the Blue Horizon, but had solid sides and was equipped with gravity deck plates for efficient movement. A moment later, its soft-seal end came in contact with the freighter’s hull. Through the airlock’s thick glassteel window, Damien could see an amber caution light flashing as the tunnel was pressurized by its parent ship.

“Hurry it up!” complained a voice behind him.

Damien turned to see the bull moose leaning over his shoulder just as there was a muted beep from the control panel. “Gladly,” he replied, punching a large red button beneath the pressure gauge. The outer door locks released, and when the sensors confirmed full pressure, Damien toggled another switch; the inside hatch locks released with a thunk. He stepped back and had to push Kieran aside to let the thick door slid to the right on tracks.

Without waiting to see if anyone was in the hatch, the moose shoved his way past the load master into the walkway tunnel. The crowd surged in behind him, clogging the hatch even as Damien tried shouting for order. He was knocked to the side for his trouble, and then the mastiff decided to just let the tide take its course.

As he expected, the walkway filled up with people, but the hatch on the other side had not yet opened. Kieran was shoved up against the other ship by the crowd behind him. He would have tried punching people to get them to back up, but they were pressed in too tightly.

A loudspeaker suddenly blared in the walkway. “Back away from the hatch, people. We can’t open it with you up against it!”

“Back off!” Kieran shouted. “Get off me!”

It took several moments before the crowd could ease up enough for the moose to step away from the door. Inner door locks inside the hatch released with heavy clunks and then the panel pushed outward to slide sideways, nearly taking off one of the moose’s antlers.

Before another announcement could be made, the crowd surged into the Soundchaser without bothering to get proper instructions for boarding from the cruise director.

Damien watched the evacuees flow past him, glad to be rid of them. This was not an experience he would soon wish to repeat.

***

Two hours later, the Blue Horizon was on its way to Alexandrius. The Soundchaser had replenished their oxygen supply and granted them a day’s supply of prepared gourmet food for the entire crew. Unfortunately, everyone was so exhausted from the ordeal that no one wanted to do anything about it. Lori promised to put out the food in the galley for anyone who wanted it, but she was going to spend some time in the tub in her quarters, soaking and relaxing.

Taro thought that was a good idea and suggested everyone take a rest period, but she would man the bridge herself for now. She settled into the pilot’s center seat with the autopilot engaged and a stack of old printed magazines from the Soundchaser at her side. She wanted a break from the disaster and decided to avoid the news channels for a while.

Now that the engines were operating at a lower velocity, Pockets retired to his cabin to rest his eyes, but Max and Renny went up to the recreation deck to put on a movie to relax with. Justy went to his bed to sleep, citing he wouldn’t emerge from his cocoon until he had sprouted colorful wings.

Damien wanted to rest as well, but agitation kept him on his feet. He had a push broom in his hands, sweeping up the litter that the crowd had left behind. The evacuees had been on board for less than a day, but the deck looked as if they had camped there for a week. He found several spots near the sides where someone had gotten sick on the floor and he felt he couldn’t rest until that had been cleaned up as well.

All that was to be expected after such a crowd, especially after the ordeal they’d all had to go through. However, his patience ran out and he let his anger get the best of him when he found several equipment lockers where the contents had been scattered out onto the deck and the locker itself had been used as a latrine – by several people, from the looks of it.

He cursed and threw a few tools across the hold, but once he’d vented his anger, he dutifully cleaned up the mess and retrieved the tools. It took him three hours to disinfect all the messes he could find, and then he headed up to his cabin to clean himself. He felt disgustingly filthy and wanted nothing more than a bath and then a meal.

***

Taro looked up at the clear vidscreen windows and worried her lower lip for a moment. She’d browsed through the magazines that had been given to her by the Soundchaser’s steward, but the disaster wouldn’t leave her mind.

She finally gave in to the temptation and put up the StellarNet feed Pockets had installed. She keyed in the channel for INN and steeled herself to what she knew she’d see. Holly Harken was there, fulfilling her usual role informing the Planetary Alignment of the situation at hand. The Terran woman was still young, but aging gracefully and still the most well-known news anchor on PA-wide broadcasts. Her face was grim as she reported what the Hestran Emergency Response Authority had released to her.

Vashon’s orbit had already begun to stabilize, and the tidal ground quakes on Hestra had subsided. Early estimates figured in a death toll of nearly one hundred thirty thousand across Hestra, and four hundred fifty on Vashon. The moon’s atmosphere would likely be clouded for some time, and its reflected light on the planet had increased several-fold. Infrared and other sensors that penetrated the cloud layer confirmed that the satellite had great cracks across its surface in chasms fathoms deep.

Taro sighed and muted the sound. She watched images of the devastation silently for several minutes and then she looked up at a thought. The vixen moved to the Com station and called up a bookmarked call code. She keyed it in and waited for the response. The wait was brief. She received an error stating that the code was either invalid or inaccessible.

Taro was not surprised. She was certain that communication lines on Hestra would likely either be down or so busily jammed that she couldn’t get through to her father’s cousin, Dr. Rhineheart. She desperately hoped that Leslie was okay. It had been she who’d aided in Taro’s surgeries and recovery after the hand-to-hand combat with the pirate Sagan. Taro had been unaware that any of her relatives had survived the Taquit Fever disaster, another disastrous situation engineered by the dread pirate. Her entire immediate family had perished to that horrible virus. If anything happened to Leslie through this disaster, Taro would be totally alone in the universe.

The vulpine captain resisted the urge to get emotional. She had no proof that Leslie had been in any danger, so until the communication lines opened, she would have faith that her father’s cousin was okay.

Taro watched a little more of the news and then switched it off. She yawned widely, her pink tongue curling in over itself, and she was still drawing in air when Damien walked into the room.

“Looks like you could use a rest period,” the mastiff said. He had a thick book tucked under one arm with a sand-colored ribbon hanging from the middle of its thousand pages, a heavy novel with a cloth cover and its title printed in bold script down its spine.

“I can barely keep my eyes open,” Taro agreed, “but I think I can hang in here for the rest of the journey.

Damien gave her a knowing smile and shook his head. He stuck his face up close to hers, almost touching nose to nose with her. “I am relieving you of duty,” he said in a light tone. “Go to bed. That’s an order.”

The vixen leaned back away from him and looked at him in amusement. It was the first time she’d seen him so light-hearted, especially after a hard assignment. She sniffed lightly but didn’t smell any liquor on his breath. In fact, he smelled clean. “Who gave you the authority to give orders to your superior officer?” she asked lightly.

“I did,” he said with a straight face. “Now, go get some rest. I’ll watch over the brood from here while you take a turn with a pillow.”

Taro rested her chin on a fist and looked at him wearily. “I think you’re just as delirious as I feel,” she told him with a smile. “I’d dock your pay for insubordination, but I’m too tired. Carry on, then, mate. I’m going to bed.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

Taro gave the controls a quick glance before she stood up and stretched. “Thanks, Damien. I appreciate the hard work you and everyone else gave on this voyage.”

“You’re welcome. Now, scoot. I want to get back to my book and you’re using up my valuable reading time!”

Taro chuckled with pat a on his shoulder. “All yours, my friend. You have the watch.”

***

Taro stepped into her dark cabin and stopped just inside the door. Peace and quiet. Finally, some time to herself. She heaved a heavy sigh, smiled to herself and then closed the door panel behind her.

As she made her way through the dark to the bedroom in the back, she remembered how small the cabins were on the original Blue Horizon, so many years ago, it felt like. The entire cabin could have fit inside the front room of her current quarters, a one-room affair with a small bed, a closet, a desk with a small terminal to the computer and Com system, a built-in bookcase and a small latrine with a connecting shower stall.

The vixen stopped inside the door of her bedroom and looked across the queen-size bed. It looked inviting and she started to remove her blouse, but then she stopped. She was tired, but she didn’t want to be alone.

She had no plans to play, but she suddenly wanted to cuddle up next to Renny on his mattress. She needed someone beside her while she slept. It would help to relax her and ease her dreams that would likely be focused on Hestra and Vashon.

The red fox left her cabin and padded quietly to Renny’s door. She tapped on it lightly, but there was no answer. It was possible he was already asleep, so she let herself in and crept toward his bedroom.

She didn’t turn on the lights, but a small blue nightlight from the bathroom gave her enough light to see her way to the bed and the lump under the covers. She sat on the side of the bed to remove her shoes and listened to the slow, rhythmic breathing. She tilted her head to the side with a frown, realizing it was not Renny’s familiar breathing she heard.

Taro’s first thought was that it might be Lorelei or Amanda in his bed. Although Taro and Renny shared a relationship, it was long understood that it was not exclusive. She stood up to leave, but then a small voice stopped her cold.

“Mommy?”

The vixen swallowed the lump in her throat and felt the furs at the back of her neck stand out. “What is it, dear?” she tried to whisper reassuringly.

“Can I have a cup of water?”

“Just a moment, kitling.” Taro moved quickly into the bathroom and ran some water into a small paper cup, trying desperately to keep her hands from shaking. She returned to the bed a moment later with the water, but the child had already drifted back to sleep. Taro set the cup on the nightstand, tucked the covers around the kitten’s shoulders and then quickly departed the cheetah’s cabin.

Just as she stepped out into the corridor, Renny came out of the elevator lift with a cup of coffee and a piece of pie on a paper plate. He saw her and flashed a wide smile. “Hey, foxy,” he said. Taro walked over to him and resisted the urge to slap him. Her eyebrows came together in anger and Renny suddenly felt shiver run up and down his spine. “What’s the matter?” he asked cautiously.

“I just found your kitten,” Taro said coldly. “Did you think you could hide her from me?”

Renny’s large eyes grew wider. “What are you — wait… Sandilee – that lost cub? Where?”

The vixen narrowed her eyes. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

“No,” Renny said quickly, his temperature rising, “but I’m confused. Start over and tell me what the blazes you’re talking about.”

Taro snorted irritably. She was too tired to engage in an argument, so she grabbed his wrist, nearly spilling his coffee, and pulled him back to his cabin. Renny managed to convince her to let him set his coffee and pie on a table just inside the door, and then allowed himself to be led back to his bedroom. When they got into the room, Taro pointed toward the bed.

Renny’s heart skipped a beat and he shook off Taro’s grip from his wrist. He moved quickly into the bathroom to turn on a small light and then looked over at the bed. A small, fuzzy head with tiny round ears and spotted fur lay upon his favorite pillow. “Oh, my…” he replied with a gulp.

He turned back to Taro and looked back at her with a shocked expression. “How long has she been in here?” he muttered in a whisper.

“You tell me!”

“Taro, I’m asking you!”

The vixen blinked. “You didn’t know she was in here?”

“No, this is the first I’ve seen her since trying to help her find her folks. Then again, this is the first time I’ve even been back in my quarters since I left her with Lorelei.”

“You’re kidding, right? Where have you been since the Soundchaser left?”

Renny pointed a thumb at the ceiling. “Up watching a movie with Max,” he replied. “You know that helps me to relax when I’m bushed. Ask him, he’ll tell you I’ve been there.”

Taro grabbed his wrist again and pulled him back out into the front room. “That kitten can’t be here, Renny!” she said in a rush. “She’s supposed to be on her way back to Hestra to find her family!”

“Should we turn around and go after that ship?” the navigator asked.

Taro swallowed and sat down on his couch. “No, uhm, I don’t think…” She fell silent and the cheetah sat down next to her. “We can’t. The Soundchaser only gave us enough supplies to get us back to Alexandrius. We have to go on as planned or we won’t make it anywhere else.”

“Do you think Lori put her in here?” Renny asked. “She was just as tired as everyone else and might have forgotten about her when that cruise ship got here.”

“It’s possible,” Taro replied with her head in her hands. “Listen, it looks like we have an obligation to get her to the proper authorities when we get to Alexandrius. Perhaps they can get her passage back to Hestra.”

“Listen,” Renny said as he slipped an arm around her shoulder, “I didn’t know that she was in my quarters, and I didn’t hide her from you. I would have grabbed you as soon as I’d found her in here, myself.”

“Yeah, I realize that now,” the vixen muttered wearily, leaning over to rest her head upon his shoulder. “I’m going back to my bed and try to get some sleep. I’m too exhausted to think about this right now.”

“I’ll go with you,” Renny said. “My bed’s occupied.”

Taro gave him a tired smirk. “Come on, then,” she replied. “Just no playing around. I really need to sleep.”

“Yes, ma’am, one sleep-only rest period coming right up!”

***

The world of Alexandrius appeared as a blue crescent in the forward windows, but only one of its two moons could be seen on a backdrop of glittering stars. Clouds swirled like ribbons across the planet’s visible surface and a portion of its oceans glittered even from the distance of spatial orbit.

Jerry sat in the pilot seat, with Taro stationed at the Com terminal and Renny at navigation.

“Adjusting ship’s time to Delorme standard clocks,” Taro announced over the intercom. “Local time is nineteen oh-seven.” It was standard procedure to set themselves to whatever world and time zone they were about to spend much time in and would remain as standard ship’s time until their next planetfall. The ship’s systems would reflect the change instantaneously with her reset.

The red fox received a signal in her headset and nodded to herself at the information scrolling across her station screen. “This is the Blue Horizon,” she stated into her microphone, “Planetary Alignment registry number PA1138. We’re coming in on standard approach for landing at the Garrison Spaceport in Delorme.” She listened a second and then answered, “Any available pad, please. We have just arrived from Hestra. No cargo. Yes, thank you.” She received the transmitted coordinates on her screen and as she listened, her fingers glided across her panel to transfer the data to Renny’s terminal. The cheetah set about programming the information into the main computer as Taro finalized their approach from the Alexandrius Defense Authority.

“ADA has given us authorization for landing, Jerry,” she announced.

“Good,” the physician replied. “Renny?”

“Transferring navigational trajectory to your panel now.”

“All hands, all hands,” Taro announced on ship-wide speakers, “landing sequence has begun. Strap yourselves in.”

When the cargo vessel finally emerged beneath the cloud layer over the city below, the vixen turned back to her board. “Equalizing our internal air pressure with that of the city,” Taro intoned automatically. “Full atmosphere transfer to replenish our depleted reserves will commence in two minutes.”

“I hope the filters are working properly,” Jerry remarked. “We don’t want any smog on board.”

“Agreed,” Renny said.

Taro engaged a few switches and then spoke over the ship-wide intercom, “Artificial gravity has now been disabled. In another ten minutes, we’ll be on the ground with full engine shutdown. I want to meet everyone on the cargo deck after we’ve landed. Damien, don’t open the airlock or bay doors yet. I am granting everyone five days of shore leave to get this experience out of your system, but I need to explain our situation to everyone before we disembark, so wait for me in the hold.”

Renny gazed out the windows when the vixen closed the intercom, glad to be almost back on the ground. They were moving beneath the spaceport traffic and on approach to a small gray building simply marked with a pad number. The Blue Horizon stopped forward movement above a concrete landing pad and began dropping slowly.

Jerry lowered the landing gear and set the ship gently onto the pad with the slightest of bumps. He began shutting down systems on his panel and Renny did likewise. Within moments, only the necessary systems on board were still operational.

The male fox got out of his harness and glanced at movement on a nearby monitor. “Captain, I think you should see this,” he said. He tapped a control and put the image on the left-hand vidscreen panel.

Taro and Renny looked up to see a crowd of news reporters converging on the Horizon’s airlock hatch. “Uh, oh, what’s going on now?” Renny asked.

Taro frowned. “We’re the first ship out of the Hestran disaster zone to arrive,” she explained. “I was contacted about an hour ago with requests from INN and several local news channels to interview us as eye witnesses to the catastrophe.”

“And?” Renny asked.

“I agreed,” Taro replied. “That’s what I wanted to tell everyone before we scattered. I also agreed to turn over our video recordings of the asteroid collision exclusively to INN due to our past relationship with Holly Harken.”

“Do we have to be interviewed?” Jerry asked. “I’m not afraid of a little on-air exposure for the business, but I really don’t feel like getting grilled by the media. You know they won’t just ask simple questions. By the time they’re through with us, they’ll twist our words around and make it sound like we caused the disaster!”

“I thought about that, but I also want to use this to our advantage,” Taro said. “HERA has turned up nothing so far on Sandilee’s family, so I am going to try to steer the focus of the questions directed to me onto her. If we can get her picture and name broadcast PA-wide, it will increase our chances of finding someone to claim her.”

“Yeah, but what about the rest of us?” Renny asked.

Taro gave him a smile. “Give them your charm and just tell them what happened. We will be hounded until we give in and give them something, so we may as well just get it over. I will explain this to everyone once we get down to the hold.”

“You replenished our air supply already, right?” Jerry asked.

Taro glanced at the engineering console. “The pumps just finished, yes,” she replied.

“How about we take off again and go somewhere else where there aren’t any reporters? Some place out in the country would do nicely.”

“Nice try, Doc. Now, let’s go.”

***

Taro faced the small Com unit in her hotel room and tried to keep the frustration out of her expressions. It was so hard to keep her ears upright while listening to the Hestran Secretary to the Ambassador.

“I am sorry, Captain, but there’s nothing I can do for her,” said an elegant Irish Setter. “HERA operations are completely tied to the situation on Hestra and there’s been no time to do any research on the child survivor. Without a family name, there’s little for us to go on, but the ambassador believes it was wise of you to work the girl’s plight into your INN interview. We can only hope this will serve to gain a response from the child’s family, but for now this may be her only chance.”

“I understand, Ms. Trevre. Who should I turn her over to in the meantime until she is claimed?”

The canine on the screen shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “You have a mixed crew on your ship, Captain? I believe you have one or two felines, yes?”

Taro flicked an ear at the odd question, but nodded. “My first officer is a cheetah, but what does this—?”

“Captain, although the metropolis of Delorme boasts of a large population, there are actually very few felines in the area. After I received your query, I looked into local shelters for underage children. However, there are none that are equipped to properly care for a young kitten. Since you do have a feline among you, and a cheetah at that, it’s the ambassador’s belief that you will be better suited to protect the child until such time as when her family may be located.”

“I beg your pardon,” Taro said as she allowed her ears to fall back to show her distress. “Do you really think a freighter is the proper place to keep a child?” she asked. “I do have a cheetah on board, but neither he nor anyone else on my crew has had experience caring for a child so young. Besides this, it would be more appropriate if the girl stayed on Alexandrius. My ship flies all over the Planetary Alignment. If her family is found quickly, they’ll likely still be in the Centaurus system and want her back as soon as possible. Our delivery schedule will be taking us away from this area; it may be months to a year before we’re back this way!”

“Yes, Captain, we understand your concerns, but—”

“Her best chances would be to have her transported to the feline population of Fyn for proper care until her family claims her.”

“Yes, Captain, that would be preferable, but that option is currently not open to us right now. I have been authorized to provide a stipend to your business account to cover the child’s care in your custody, funded by the Hestran Emergency Response Authority. The Blue Horizon is not unknown to us and the ambassador vouches for your crew’s reliability in this situation. Please rest assured that we won’t simply leave her in your care indefinitely, but this office will continue to do all we can to locate the kitten’s family.”

Taro heaved a heavy sigh, caring not if the Secretary to the Ambassador noticed. “Please believe me, Captain,” the canine said in a soft voice, “If there was another option, we would take it, but you have proven yourselves to be trustworthy and compassionate. Please take care of Miss Sandilee, Captain. We will have her funds set up by tomorrow morning and then we will contact you periodically to check on her well-being until her case is resolved.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Taro responded numbly.

“Good evening, Captain.”

“Good evening, Ms. Trevre.”

The vixen shut off the Com unit and sat back in the small desk chair, her tail through the slotted opening in the back and twitching in agitation. She hated to be backed into a corner, but there seemed to be nothing she could do about it. The child had fallen into their laps and it was up to them to take care of her.

Taro looked over at the small bed beside her. The hotel didn’t have a suite containing more than one small bed, so she and Renny had rented separate rooms next to one another for their stay in Delorme. Max and Justy had taken other rooms in the same hotel, while the rest of the crew scattered on the wind for their shore leave. Despite her orders to cooperate, Damien had hidden himself from the reporters when they’d converged on the crew, and then had disappeared into the city as soon as he could get away. She didn’t fault him for his actions and decided just to forget it. She would have hidden from the media herself if she felt she could have gotten away with it.

She moved to the bed and stretched out on its firm mattress, burying her face in both pillows provided to her. She drifted off within moments, but it didn’t seem as if she had been asleep long when there was a knock on her door.

The fox crawled to her feet and unfastened the lock. Renny stood in the doorway with Sandilee beside him, holding his hand. She held an ice cream cone in her other small hand and licked at it slowly as if savoring its taste.

“Hi, come on in,” Taro said. The cheetah pair moved into the room and Sandilee immediately found a spot in the middle of the floor to sit and finish her cone. Renny took a seat in the desk chair while Taro locked the door and returned to the bed.

“Thank you for taking her out while I called the Embassy,” Taro said quietly.

“Sandy didn’t give me any trouble,” Renny said. “I pushed her on a swing in the park, let her play in the tall grass of that field next door, and then bought her the ice cream.”

“Sandy?” Taro asked with amusement.

“It’s easier than Sandilee.”

“An’ I like it!” the kitten squeaked between licks. Taro chuckled and then looked over at her friend.

“How did it go?” he asked in a whisper. The vixen shook her head and then glanced over at the kitten.

“The Ambassador believes we can take care of her better than they can,” she replied quietly. She didn’t want to give him the details of her argument in front of the youngster, so she kept it simple. “They’re paying a stipend for her needs out of the emergency funds, but will continue to look for her family in the meantime.”

“Why do they think we can do a better job?” Renny asked.

Taro gave him a little smirk. “Mostly because of you,” she said. “They think you make a good daddy.”

“I make a better friend,” Renny countered quickly. “Don’t they have foster care facilities at all?”

Taro hushed him to keep his voice down. “They do,” she answered, “but apparently none who can take a feline.”

Renny sat back and looked down at the young cheetah that had started crunching on the waffle cone. He remembered back to when Merlin had taken it upon himself to be an uncle to Max, but Renny had no plans to adopt the youngster. He could be a big brother until she could return to her real family.

“Are you up to this assignment?” Taro asked.

Renny looked alarmed. “I can help look after her, if that’s what you mean. I expect the whole crew to lend support.”

The vixen chuckled again. “Yes, that’s what I meant, but since she’s taken to you, I expect she’ll be staying with you in your quarters.”

The navigator leaned in close to the fox. “We have spare cabins,” he reminded her in a whisper.

“Yes, but she’s too young to stay by herself. Make a bed for her on your couch, if you must, but she needs someone close by. You two are related by species, if not by blood, and right now she needs you.”

Renny shrugged his shoulders in acceptance. “Okay, I’ll look after her as if she were my own sister. I think Sophie would like that.”

Taro nodded. “Yes, I think she would. Now, how about we all go shopping? Sandy’s going to need more than one outfit, and HERA is paying for it.”

“Are we goin’ shoppin’?” Sandilee asked as she licked off the remaining cream from her fingers.

“Yes, kitling, just for you,” Taro said with a smile. The youngster grinned up at her, and then held out her hands to Renny to carry her.

CATNAP

By Ted R. Blasingame

“Hello, Amanda. How are you today?”

The coyote smiled up at the right-hand vidscreen. She had a pillow in her lap and her slateboard on top of the pillow while sitting in the pilot’s seat. “Couldn’t be better, Cindy. I’m the only one currently on board; everyone else is gallivanting around the countryside while we wait for our next assignment. I assume that’s why you are calling, so I’m glad I was here.”

“It’s awful what happened at Hestra, but Merlin’s proud of you guys for your help with those evacuees.”

“Yeah, we did what we could, but it got ugly before it got better. Everyone’s glad to have a bit of time off after our next delivery was summarily canceled by an asteroid, but frankly I’m ready to get back to work.”

“In that case, I’m here to grant your wish!”

“You’re smiling awfully wide, Cindiloo. Did we get a juicy assignment that pays double?”

The gray mouse on the screen snickered. “I’m sworn to secrecy to divulge specific details, but on Merlin’s orders, the Blue Horizon has been recalled to Dennier. You won’t be flying home empty, though. We lined up a three-fold delivery that will fill your cargo deck. You’ll be carrying high-tech electronics for JR Lane Astrogation, six communication satellites for Loxley DataStream, as well as a last-minute passenger addition who will ride with you to Grandstorm to meet her business partner. All will converge on the Blue Horizon tomorrow morning, so you’ll need to schedule a flight plan with the Alexandrius Defense Authority and then contact your crew. I’m uploading the mission file with all the details of your cargoes and passenger as we speak.”

Amanda nodded and put a finger under her chin. “All that sounds great, but my interest has been piqued by the real reason behind our flight to Dennier. A recall? That’s usually something rather serious, if you’re bringing us back to home base. Did you recall our sisters too?”

“No, this really doesn’t concern the Hidalgo Sun or Mooncrest as directly as it does the Blue Horizon, so they’re still on schedule.” Cindy Allport giggled again and put a hand over her mouth. “Only the flagship is being recalled.”

Amanda narrowed her eyes. “C’mon, give! What’s this about?”

“Nope, can’t tell you. It’s something you’ll have to find out for yourselves once you get here.”

“Cindy!  Dennier is four weeks away from Alexandrius!  I’m gonna die of curiosity before we get there!”

“Heh… quit your whining. I’m not going to tell you.  Not even Captain Nichols will know what this is about, so all you need to do is focus on your mission deliveries.”

“We’re getting fired, aren’t we? It’s because of all those jobs we lost.”

Cindy looked surprised. “Huh uh – nobody’s losing their jobs. This is going to be a good surprise, not something awful. Would I be giggling if that was the case?”

Amanda pouted. “Why’d you even mention it, then?” she grumbled. “You could have told me about the assignment and just left off the part about the recall.”

“Sorry, I just wanted to give you something to look forward to at the end of the flight.”

The coyote swished her tail through the slotted opening in the back of the chair and switched tactics. She gave the mouse a smile with wide eyes and clasped hands. “I promise I’ll look forward to it if you tell me what it is…”

“Nope, not a chance.”

“Brat!”

“Did you just call me a rat?  I’m a mouse, I’ll have you know!”

“Same thing, as far as I’m concerned!” Amanda stuck out her tongue.

“Nyah, nyah. Keep the recall to yourself, if you want. Just give the mission file to Taro when you’ve called her back to the ship. I won’t keep you any longer. You’ll need to contact your crew immediately.”

“You’re mean,” Amanda muttered with the back of her hand up to her forehead. “You’re going to cause me mental anguish for the next month. I might not be able to survive!”

“It’ll be worth it, I promise!”

“It better be. I won’t ever talk to you again if it’s not!”

Cindy laughed. “Then I have nothing to worry about.  Bye, then.  See you in four weeks.”

“Bye.”

***

“Blue Risen!”

Renny looked down at the young cheetah holding his hand. “Yes, Sandy, that’s the Blue Horizon, our home.”

The four-year-old who had recently become his charge released his hand and ran to the airlock ramp, waiting for him to open the door. She trotted up to it and slapped lightly on the painted door panel, grinning back at him, Taro and Lorelei.

“She’s such a cutie,” the white rabbit whispered. “That outfit you bought looks good on her.” The youngster wore a dark blue jumper that was loose over her fur, with yellow butterflies across the front and a matching blue ribbon at the end of her tail.

Renny strode up the ramp with a shopping bag of their purchases and gave the young girl’s head fur a tousle before punching in the security entry code in a recessed panel. With no pressurized air to cycle, the doors split apart diagonally and the chamber light of the airlock came on. Sandy darted inside and began running around the empty cargo hold with her arms outspread like airplane wings.

“Looks like we beat Damien back,” Renny said to the ladies when they stepped inside.

The vixen turned to a panel beside the airlock and keyed in a long-memorized sequence. The massive bay door began to rise up and outward. “May as well let in some fresh air,” she said. “Lori, would you go pull out the work gloves?”

“I’ll get them,” the doe replied with a light hop. She chased after the small cheetah girl and followed her around with outspread arms a moment before she continued on to the equipment locker on the far side of the chamber. Sandy enjoyed the attention and followed the bunny to see what she was doing.

“I’m going to gather up our little bird and set her in front of a video in my cabin,” Renny said. “Once I’ve gotten her set down with water and a snack, I’ll lock the door to keep her inside and then I’ll be back down to help with the cargo.”

Taro nodded and glanced at her watch. “The first truck should be here in about twenty minutes,” she said. “Would you stop by my desk on your way back and grab my slateboard? I need to send Lori out on a supply run. She knows what foodstuffs we need, but Justy left me a list of the other shipboard supplies we needed before he left for shore leave.”

“Sure.” The navigator walked across the deck while the bay doors completed their opening cycle. “Lori,” he said to the rabbit, “Taro needs you to make up a grocery list to stock up the galley before we launch. Do you think you can get everything within two hours?”

The bunny looked up at him with a handful of work gloves and flashed him a pleasant smile. “I already have a list in my quarters of what we need,” she replied.

Renny nodded his approval. “You’re fast!” he said.

Lori laughed and gave him a wink. “Of course I’m fast. I’m a rabbit!”

The navigator looked at her with a grin and said, “Anytime you want to see if you’re faster than a cheetah, just let me know.”

Lorelei laughed aloud and touched the tip of his nose with a finger at arm’s length. “Your legs must really be feeling better if you’re willing to race,” she said. She then leaned in and whispered something in his ear that made the end of his tail twitch.

Renny cleared his throat and looked down at Sandilee. “C’mon, kitten,” he said. Lori gathered up the rest of the work gloves with a mischievous smile. “Let’s go.”

“Where we goin’?” she asked, scratching an ear.

“We’re going up to our cabin,” he said, trying to ignore the look the rabbit was giving him. Renny reached inside the shopping bag and pulled out a vid package. On its cover in primary colors was a children’s show butterfly character sniffing a flower next to a sparkling lake. The title emblazoned across its sky read: Happy Bug and the Rainbow Song of Sillon. “Want to watch this?”

Sandy’s eyes lit up over a wide grin. “Yeah!” she exclaimed. All other thoughts evaporated as she reached up for the video. Renny handed it to her and led her to the lift.

“Bye, Sandy!” Lori lilted. The small cheetah waved absently, her focus now on the vid package.

When they got up into their quarters, Renny quickly got her situated in front of the video player so he could put away her new belongings and set up her bed on the couch. He went up to the galley, grabbed some water and few snacks for her, and then came back to pause her show. When she looked up at him in surprise, he squatted down next to her.

“I need to go back down and help the others do some work, so I need you to stay in here for a while,” he told her. “Can you do that for me?”

“Don’ go!” she said in sudden distress.

Renny brushed a finger lightly under her chin with a gentle smile. “Don’t worry, kitten. Happy Bug will keep you company and I won’t be gone long.” Sandilee put out her bottom lip and looked forlorn. The adult cheetah sighed and shook his head. “Do this for me,” he said, “and I’ll let you sit on my lap on the bridge when we fly up into the sky.”

Sandy’s distress disappeared and her eyes grew wider. “Promise!” she said.

Renny put his hand over his heart and said with a wink, “I promise.”

“Okay,” the appeased youngster said.

Renny pulled out a coloring book and box of wax markers from the shopping bag. He set them on the floor beside her and replied, “Good girl. I’ll be back in later to get you.”

“Okay,” she repeated. Renny resumed her program and stood up. The kitten’s attention instantly refocused on the screen, so the navigator gave the room a quick glance and then shut the door behind him.

He started to head directly to the lift, but then snapped his fingers sharply as his memory kicked in. He walked into the captain’s office and spied her favorite slateboard resting on one corner of the wooden desk. As he picked it up, he noted that she’d left her monitor on to the news feed. He reached out to shut it off, but then recognized the cruise liner on the report.

He took up a position on the corner of the desk, turned up the volume, and listened to the local broadcast for a moment.

“The SS Soundchaser has just arrived in the capitol city with its load of refugees from the Hestra-Vashon disaster. Dispatched several days ago, the empty cruise ship’s function in this emergency was to collect evacuees of the Vashon moon from various smaller vessels that helped get the populace out of the danger zone. The first response of the Hestran government was to set up a tent city on the parent planet for these folk, but then it was discovered that nearly ninety percent of the evacuees were non-Hestran, and therefore wouldn’t be able to stand up on the surface of the heavy-gravity world.

“The Merriam Cruise Line graciously offered the use of one of their liners for the emergency, the SS Soundchaser, which was currently in port in Alucara. The Vashon refugees will be granted temporary housing in Alucara set up just for—”

Renny switched off the monitor and headed back down to the cargo deck. When he stepped out of the lift, he saw two trucks backed up to the loading ramp, each bearing the silhouette of a rabbit and the words “JR Lane Astrogation” painted upon their sides. Several of the Blue Horizon crew was already moving crates from the trucks up into the hold, with Damien directing for proper weight load placement.

Taro was chatting with the truck drivers, both male red foxes who had taken it upon themselves to be friendly with the shapely vixen. Renny frowned as he stopped next to her with the slateboard.

“Here you go, Honey,” he said, putting emphasis on the last word for the benefit of the truck drivers. Both vulpine drivers instantly looked uncomfortable when the navigator leaned in and placed a quick lick on the side of her muzzle.

Taro raised an amused eyebrow at him and replied, “Thank you, Luv.” She glanced at the foxes and said, “Excuse me, guys. I need to take care of this.” Both murmured something and ambled back to their trucks to stand in the shade.

“Feeling jealous, lover?” she whispered impishly to the cheetah.

Renny gave her a crooked smile and shook his head. “Flirt all you want,” he said. “I’m still the one who gets to travel with you.”

Taro laughed and gave him a quick hug. “Too true,” she said.

“Listen, there’s something I need to discuss with you,” Renny told her while they walked back toward the hold. “I saw a local news broadcast while I was up on the crew deck. The Soundchaser just arrived in Alucara with all the evacuees collected around Hestra.”

The captain nodded. “That’s good to know,” she said as she gestured to Lorelei that she’d just transferred Justy’s supply list over to the bunny’s slateboard. “They’ll get good care from the Alexandrians.”

“You went to the Hestran Ambassador on Sandy’s behalf when we couldn’t turn around and take her back to the Soundchaser, where she should have gone. Now that all the evacuees are now here on Alexandrius, shouldn’t she go join them until her family can be found? There were other felines among those we had on board the Horizon. Perhaps some of them can take care of her.”

Taro looked at him for a moment. “I thought you liked Sandy,” she said.

“I do, but that’s not the issue,” Renny replied defensively. “As you told the Ambassador, we’ll be launching halfway across the Planetary Alignment once we leave here, and may not be back this way for some time. It would be better if she were here local when her family comes to get her.”

“Yes, I agree that would be best,” the vixen answered, “but we’ve already made an agreement with the Ambassador. I doubt she would be pleased if we bothered her with this again.”

Lorelei bounced up to them, bumped fists playfully with both the cheetah and vixen, and then bounded away. “I’ll be back as quickly as I can,” she said.

“Don’t be late!” Taro called after her. The bunny headed to the spaceport terminal building, where a busy line of local cabs waited for fares. The captain looked at her watch and then back to Renny’s forlorn face. “Okay, I’ll go call the Ambassador again, now that the Soundchaser has arrived. However, even if she agrees, there may not be time for her to arrange a transport for our little friend. We’re on a tight schedule to make our launch window and Sandy can’t wait for a cab or other transport by herself if we run out of time.”

Renny nodded. “I accept that you’ll give it a shot,” he said. “I do like Sandy, but she does need to go back to her family, wherever they may be.”

“Agreed.” Taro pantomimed handing something to the cheetah and said, “Don’t whip the galley slaves too hard, taskmaster.”

Renny swung an imaginary whip into the air and made a crack! noise with his lips. Taro laughed aloud and then headed toward the lift.

***

Max looked up from his work as a shapely Cocker Spaniel walked up to him. She was dressed in calf-high boots, a mini-skirt that barely covered her tail and a narrow halter-top, all the same golden-blond shade as her fur. There was a matching fringed purse in her slender hands and a wheeled suitcase beside her. He looked up into her chocolate brown eyes and was instantly lost in her wide smile.

“Hello, Max,” she said in a high, bubbly voice, “is this the Blue Horizon?”

“Uhm, uh, yeah,” the German shepherd replied thickly. “Yes, it is.”

“Oh, good!” she replied with a bit of a bounce. “I’m supposed to be your passenger to Grandstorm. My name is Ariel Bennington.”

The German shepherd blinked away the fog that had suddenly wrapped around his brain and he gave her a big smile. “Ariel, hi!. How did you know my name is Max?” She reached out and lightly tapped the name tag attached to his shirt with a grin. “Oh, yeah,” he replied.

“Can you check me?” she asked.

Max quickly glanced over her form and then forced his eyes back up to her face. She was only a few years older than he was, but she definitely had his interest. “Excuse me?” he asked hoarsely.

She giggled and held out a printed ticket. “Can you check me onto your ship, please?” she asked. “I would like to put my things on board.”

“Uh, sure,” he said absently. When Pockets set small crate on the floor beside him, the mechanic remembered his place. “Actually, if you speak to that coyote over there,” Max said as he gestured toward the airlock hatch, “Amanda will get you checked in and taken to your quarters.”

Ariel nodded with a bop of her head and then made a cursory glance at Max’s shoulders. He was no longer the skinny boy he’d been when he first came on board; his shoulders were broad and his physique was shaping nicely from his workouts with Renny and Damien on the exercise mats.

“What do you do on this ship, Max?” the woman replied.

“I’m a mechanic in the engine room,” he replied, automatically pointing to the engineering symbol on his sleeve displaying a crossed wrench and a screwdriver.

Ariel’s eyes lit up. “You help make the ship go fast?” she asked.

“Yeah, something like that,” Max answered.

The Cocker Spaniel moved in closer and then turned away just enough so that she looked at him over her bare shoulder. “Could you give me a tour later?” she asked. “I’d really like to see where you work.”

Pockets set another crate next to Max and cleared his throat. The young mechanic grinned at the woman and said, “Sure, we can do that after we’ve taken off. However, my partner needs my help loading the ship. Amanda will see you to your cabin.”

“Thank you, Blue Eyes,” Ariel with a friendly wave. “I’m looking forward to seeing more of you later!”

Max returned her wave with a waggle of his fingers and then watched her bop across the tarmac toward the coyote, her floppy ears and tail swaying with the wiggle in her walk. Pockets gave him a nudge in the side and clicked his tongue.

“What?” Max asked, startled.

“You’re stirring up the dust with that wagging tail of yours, partner.”

“Huh?”

The raccoon laughed aloud at him. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about finding another girlfriend,” Pockets said in a low voice. “She was checking you out as much as you were of her!”

Max grinned at his friend and shook his head. “Hush!” he scolded. “She might hear you!”

“She probably did,” Renny said dryly. Max and Pockets whirled around to see the first officer standing behind them looking stern. Both mechanics dropped the conversation and went back to work without saying anything more. When Renny walked away, he had to hide the smile that spread across his face. He liked Max and felt sorry for his broken heart, but as Jerry had tried to tell him, he would get over his breakup with Wendy. It would take time and maybe a different female form to push him onward.

“Renny,” Justy said as he trotted up beside him, “Have you seen the captain? A truck with the satellites for Loxley DataStream just arrived.”

“Thanks. I’ll get Damien to sign for them.”

***

Sandy’s eyes were wide with wonder and delight as the Blue Horizon launched from the Garrison Spaceport. The middle vidscreen showed their forward path, while the left-hand screen showed their departure angle. As promised, the cheetah kitten was strapped into Renny’s lap behind his flight harness so she could see their launch. Normally this would not be a good idea with the stresses of launch, but Jerry had promised a smooth take-off now that Pockets and Max had successfully repaired the faulty inertia compensators with parts they’d purchased on the company account while in Delorme.

Likewise, Taro’s seat at the Com station had been repaired and the vixen calmly sat with her elbows on the new armrests. She smiled at the kitten’s enthralled expressions and then looked over at her pilot. Jerry appeared to be struggling with the guidance shifts and his lips were pressed together tight.

“Something the matter, Doc?” she asked in a quiet voice so as not to alarm the youngster.

The edge of the male fox’s lips curled up slightly. “The controls are little sluggish, probably due to a full hold. The launch thrusters just aren’t used to the weight of the satellites we’re carrying.”

“Are we going to have trouble making orbit?”

“No, but it may take a little longer to get there.”

As predicted, the extra weight added nearly ten minutes to orbital entry. It may not have seemed like much time to the rest of the crew, but it took more thruster fuel to gain the altitude.

Taro touched a pad on the engineering console next to her and then spoke into her headset mike on ship-wide broadcast. “The ship’s artificial gravity has automatically enabled and is reading normal. Once we are beyond planetary traffic, the LightDrive engines will be engaged for our run to Dennier. Mobility is now safe; you may shed your harnesses and move about.”

Sandy’s little eyes shifted from the view looking aft toward the forward vista of stars. She looked back and shared a wide grin with Renny. The navigator never tired of the stars and was pleased to share the sight with the youngster.

After several moments, however, the forward view remained unchanging. Without a stationary frame of reference, it appeared to the kitten that they had stopped moving, although they were increasing velocity to incredible speeds. Bored, she looked back to the aft view and saw the blue-green world shrinking on the monitor. She stared at it for a long while, but as they traveled farther away, there were no more wonders to see.

Sandy started to squirm on Renny’s lap, so the navigator unbuckled his harness and set her on the floor. Taro reached out for the child’s hand with a smile. “Renny needs to do some work now,” she said. “Let’s go see if Lori can find us a snack.”

“Okay,” the kitten replied with an exaggerated nod of her small head. Renny was already deep into his astrogation calculations by the time they walked out the door.

***

No sooner had Taro’s announcement come over the intercom that Ariel Bennington was out of the flight harness in her cabin. She stowed it into its recessed wall receptacle just as Amanda had instructed, and then she moved to the back room to study her reflection in the mirror. She fluffed up the fur around her large, floppy ears and then checked to make sure her skimpy outfit was presentable. She briefly considered spritzing a bit of perfume into her fur, but instead decided her own natural scent would be sufficient.

She checked her reflection once again, made a cheerful bounce on the tips of her toes, and wagged her tail with a happy smile. She was ready.

Ariel peered out the cabin door into the corridor, but saw no one else about. Pleased, she darted to the lift with her small purse and thumbed the call. A moment later, she stepped into the elevator and tapped the “1” pad just as a short koala stepped out into the hall.

Justy tried to stop her so he could catch a ride up to the recreation deck, but the panels closed before he could get there. He shrugged his shoulders and stretched, waiting for the lift to return.

When the elevator reached the cargo deck, Ariel stepped out into the cold chamber. Although pressurized and insulated, the Hold was always difficult to keep warm while the ship was in space simply due to its volume. The Cocker Spaniel’s fur was not thick and she felt a shiver as she stared up at the large satellites tethered in cradles at the center of the deck. Octagonal crates surrounded each of the satellites for proper weight distribution, and they were secure to the deck beneath sturdy freight nets. There was a three-meter wide aisle around the perimeter of the chamber and she looked each direction, wondering which to take.

It had been a while since the shapely canine had last been on board an Okami freighter, but this model was a new design to her. Simply on a hunch, she turned to her left and began walking along the aisle.

Several moments later, she passed by a compartment that looked out into the Hold behind a thick sheet of glassteel. Inside, there was a large, paper-strewn desk with laden book shelves lining the walls and a small kitchenette on one end of the room that was littered with paper coffee cups and paper plates. Sitting behind the desk was a broad-shouldered mastiff in a white shirt with long, billowed sleeves. The office pressure door was currently open.

Her sandal bumped into a metal chain lying on the floor up against the wall and the mastiff looked up at her through the window. He stood up and moved around the desk to the doorway.

“Excuse me, miss,” Damien said in a deep voice, “but passengers are not allowed on this deck.”

Ariel looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes. “Why not?” she asked.

The mastiff leaned against the door frame. “We’re carrying cargo for other customers that needs to remain untouched, and also because it’s dangerous for you to be wandering around alone down here.” He tapped the chain on the floor with the toe of his boot. “Things like this can trip you up and your flight insurance doesn’t cover you in areas that are forbidden to non-crew personnel.”

“Oh,” she replied with a crestfallen expression. “That cute German shepherd said he would show me where he worked after we launched.”

Damien sighed inwardly, wondering if Max would need a chaperon now that the young mechanic was inviting women into his out-of-the-way work area.

“Just a minute,” he said after a moment. From the ethereal look the girl was giving him, Damien wondered just how much dust might be upstairs in that attic. He moved to a control panel beneath the window and tapped a control. A moment later, there was a sharp chirp that echoed into the upper rafters of the cargo deck.

“You have reached the mightily impressive engine room to the flagship of the Sinclair fleet,” drawled Pockets’ country voice. “How may I be of service?”

Damien simultaneously raised an eyebrow and the edge of his lips. “I have a young lady here who claims that your partner promised her a tour of engineering,” he said with amusement.

“Oh, he did, did he?” Then in a voice that was slightly removed from the microphone, “Max! Your date’s here!”

Damien flashed a quick look at the Cocker Spaniel, but the girl only beamed back a wide grin at him with a gentle wag of her tail. He chuckled and shrugged briefly.

“The young stud is on his way,” Pockets said with a laugh, apparently not caring if the girl heard him.

Somewhere out around the perimeter of the cargo deck, Damien and Ariel heard booted feet stepping quickly around the aisle. Maximilian emerged from the shadows with an embarrassed look on his face.

“Hi, Ariel,” he said shyly.

“Hello, Max,” replied the spaniel. She moved closer to him and then very gently licked the side of his muzzle. Damien chose to return to his desk at that moment, and Max was unsure if he liked being left to the female. He gave her a crooked smile and then offered his arm to her, as he had seen Merlin do countless times with Samantha.

“Did you handle the launch okay?” Max asked as he led her back toward the engine room.

“Yes, it was okay,” she replied. “The launch chair was a little stiff, and my rear could use a massage, but otherwise it was just fine. I was lonely up there all by myself, though.” She snuggled up to the German shepherd and Max suddenly found it difficult to swallow.

They approached the pressure door into engineering and met up with Pockets. Ariel’s eyes grew wide and she bent over to rub the raccoon’s ears. “Aww, how adorable!” she cooed. Max’s eyes went to the back of her short skirt while Pockets looked up into the girl’s smiling face.

“Yes, I am!” he said with a grin. “You must be Ariel.”

She blinked and looked back at him in delight. “You know my name!” she squealed.

“Yeah, well, Max couldn’t stop talking about you while we waited for lift-off!”

Max bristled. “Pockets!” he hissed indignantly. Since the canine mechanic had grown up a bit during his stay with the Blue Horizon crew, the raccoon had taken to teasing the boy that he had taken on to be his partner.

“If you two will excuse me,” Pockets said, “Lorelei called us to supper. I told her you two would be busy for a while,” he said with a waggle of eyebrows, “so she said she’d keep your food warm until you came up to claim it.”

Max scowled at the engineer and hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “Shoo!” he said. “We’ll be up there in a bit.”

“Bye, mister Pocketo,” Ariel said with wriggling fingers. “We’ll see you later!”

“Good bye for now,” Pockets said. He scurried past Max, narrowly missing the swat that had been aimed at him. After the raccoon had gone, the German shepherd slowly turned to face his guest. He put an arm across the back of his neck and grinned at her sheepishly.

“So…” he started. “What would you like to see first?”

The Cocker Spaniel looked at him coyly and said in a quiet voice, “Impress me and show me everything you’ve got. I want to see it all.”

***

“After all the jobs we lost, I’m glad to have a full cargo hold again,” Justy said before he scooped up a forkful of eucalyptus salad.

“It feels like we’re making up the lost revenue with multiple loads,” Renny agreed as he fed a half spoonful of tuna to the small cheetah beside him, “but I wonder if Merlin ever found out why all those folks were dropping out on us.”

Taro took a drink of green tea and pushed an empty plate away from her. “I haven’t had much opportunity to talk with him lately,” she said, “but I intend to have a long discussion with him about our Vault capabilities when I can speak with him privately. Since all three deliveries of our current assignment are to be shipped to Grandstorm, it’s a lucky coincidence that we get to return to headquarters.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Amanda murmured absently as she cut her meal into smaller portions. “Since we’ve been recalled, I can only wonder—” The coyote realized what she was saying and suddenly clamped a hand over her mouth, drawing everyone’s attention.

“Recall?” Justy asked with a sharp look at their captain.

“What do you mean, we’ve been recalled?” Damien asked.

Taro appeared just as puzzled as the rest of them. She looked at the coyote with a furrowed brow. “Mandy, you’re the one who told me about our assignments,” the vixen said in a quiet voice. “I don’t remember you saying anything about a recall.” Amanda’s eyes betrayed her fear, but she didn’t remover her hand from her mouth.

“This isn’t looking good,” Pockets muttered. He wiped his hands on his coveralls and put them on the edge of the table. “Are we in trouble?” Lorelei sat next to him in stunned silence.

Amanda put her hands in her lap and nervously wrung them together. “I-I don’t know why we are being recalled,” she said quietly, making everyone strain to hear her. “Cindy acted like she wanted to tell me, but said that Merlin had forbidden her to give us any details.”

“Mandy, you aren’t making sense,” Renny replied. “Start over.”

The coyote nodded, took a deep breath, and then looked around the gathered crew. “When Cindy called to give us our assignment,” she explained, “she was acting strange, as if she had a big secret. I asked her why she was acting like that, and she said that she was sworn not to give out any details, but that the Blue Horizon was being recalled to Dennier. I begged her to explain, but she wouldn’t say anything more about it. I asked her if the other ships were being recalled too, but she said this only concerned us and that we would find out what was going on once we arrived.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this?” Taro asked in annoyance.

“I called Cindy mean-spirited, but she told me that not even you were to know why we’re being recalled. I was told it would be best if I didn’t mention it to anyone else so we could focus on our assignment.”

“I’ll bet we’re getting canned,” Justy said dejectedly. Everybody looked at him in surprise and he stared back at them indignantly. “What?” he exclaimed. “You were probably thinking it too!”

“I said the same thing,” Amanda continued. “I thought it might be because we lost those clients and were being punished for losing the revenue, but she denies that anyone’s jobs are in danger.”

“Then what is this all about and why all the hush-hush?” Pockets wanted to know.

“She wouldn’t tell me,” Amanda replied, “and that is all I know about it – honest!”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Taro asked again. “Even if you didn’t know details, I think this is something important enough that your captain should know about!”

“I’m sorry,” Amanda replied with a lump in her throat. “I don’t know why Cindy told me what she did if Merlin had forbidden her to say anything!”

“It sounds like Cindy has a big mouth,” Pockets said dryly. “If it’s such a secret, she shouldn’t have said anything to you at all.”

The vixen set her tea cup on the table and got to her feet. “I’ll get to the bottom of this, folks. I’m going to talk to Merlin directly.” Without another word, she walked defiantly toward the elevator lift.

***

“What does this do, Max?” Ariel asked. She clung to one of his arms and had her body pressed up against him as she trailed her fingers along a panel full of indicators and controls.

The German shepherd had difficulty focusing with the girl pressing in on him so much. He was sharply conscious of their points of contact and he swallowed uncomfortably. She was apparently unaware of her effect on him.

“Th-that’s for liquid crystal fuel regulation,” he replied. “We have to keep the inflow of energy balanced to get the most efficiency for engine output. If any of the settings are out of synchronization, we’d lose speed rapidly and fall back to sub-light velocities.”

“That’s bad, huh?” Ariel asked with a bop of her chin against his shoulder.

“It’s certainly not good,” Max said with a smile. “If it gets too far out of balance, we could wind up with a ruined feedloop module. Now, if you want to see something really interesting, look over here,”

The German shepherd went on with a mouthful of technical jargon, but Ariel looked back at the fuel regulation panel with sharp interest. Her eyes took on a focused expression until her host asked her a question. She returned her attention to him instantly with wide eyes of innocence and fluttered her eye lashes at him.

“I’m sorry, Max,” she said with a giggle. ‘I was daydreaming.”

“That’s okay,” the young mechanic responded with a smile. “I’ve learned so much from Pockets the past few years that I’m afraid I can spout out technical babble almost as much as he can! I apologize for boring you with all this.”

“Not at all,” the Cocker Spaniel replied with encouragement. “This is all so interesting, but I admit that I don’t understand everything you’ve explained.”

“Is there something else I can show you that would be of more interest?” Max asked.

The female canine’s eyes narrowed and the corners of her mouth curled up. “Yes, show me your cabin, Max,” she said in a whisper. “I want to see your bed.”

“Y-you want to see where I s-sleep?” The German shepherd swallowed, suddenly feeling the girl’s hand at the base of his tail. “I, uh,”

“Don’t be embarrassed, Max,” she cooed in his ear. “I like you, a lot! Don’t you like me?”

“Uh, yeah, I d-do,” he stammered, “but I don’t know if…”

“Let’s go, Max,” she whispered. “It’ll be okay.”  She led him by the hand out of the engine room, but suddenly stopped just outside the door. “Oops,” she said. “I left my purse in there. Be right back!”

Max fidgeted, waiting courteously for her to return. Although he was sure he could read her intentions correctly, he wasn’t certain he could meet her expectations.  A moment later, she bopped out to his side with her purse in hand, and then threaded an arm through his.

“Lead me on, Max,” she said with a giggle.

***

“No, Taro, I can’t tell you anything more.”

The vulpine captain scowled up at the brown mouse on the right-hand vidscreen. “Keri, I want to know what’s going on, and I want to know right now! Get Merlin on the line.”

“Taro, everyone’s gone home for the evening. The only ones here are me and the night guard, Bob, and I’ll be leaving in about ten minutes. Bob doesn’t know the answers to your questions, Taro, so there’s no one else you can talk to tonight.”

“Will Merlin be there tomorrow?” Taro asked irritably.

“No, I believe he and Samantha have an appointment together,” the mouse replied.

Taro’s expression softened and she leaned on the forward console. “Please, Keri, tell me what’s going on. My crew is afraid for their jobs and I need assurances.”

“Listen,” the mouse said sternly, “what you want to know is information that has been classified SECRET by our boss, Merlin. We have been forbidden to divulge any information on the matter, especially over a Com line. Cindy should have never mentioned it!”

Taro’s ears twitched and she nodded with a sigh. “Okay, if it’s that sensitive, we’ll wait until we get to Grandstorm to get our new orders.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny whatever it is you are thinking, Taro, but it will be better to simply wait until you arrive to find out what all this is about.”

“I don’t like all this secrecy,” the vixen muttered, “but I’ll refrain from asking further. All I can say is we’ll be on edge the rest of our voyage wondering what’s up.”

“It’s better if you just try not to think about it,” Keri said with a nod, “but I assure you that it will be worth the wait. However, it’s time for me to go. I have a date tonight and I still need time to get ready.”

“A date?” Taro asked, the focus of her attention diverted. “With whom?”

Keri grinned widely. “His name is Jomo, but I don’t have time to tell you more. See you later, Taro!”

“Good night, Keri. Have fun tonight.”

The communication circuit closed and Taro sat down in the chair at navigation. She glanced over at Jerry, who stared back at her from the pilot’s center seat, and shook her head. “I just don’t get it,” she said. “Merlin’s never been this secretive with the crew before.”

Jerry thought for a moment and then glanced briefly up at the vidscreen where Keri’s visage had been. “Since our purpose at Grandstorm is classified a secret and everyone is forbidden to talk about it, it’s possible we may have been contracted to take on a government cargo to haul somewhere covertly,” he guessed. “That could pay really well.”

Taro’s eyes widened in surprise. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she replied. “That would explain why we can’t get straight answers out of anyone. It would be foolish to discuss it on an open com channel.”

“It makes sense,” Jerry said. “Either they don’t want anyone listening in to find out, or they don’t want anyone on board finding out.”

“Who would they want to keep information from on this flight?”

“Well, we do have a passenger on board.”

Taro snickered. “Yes, but I think she’s cut from the same cloth as Lorelei. She doesn’t seem all that intelligent.”

Jerry smiled. “I don’t think she’s all that innocent. From what Pockets has said, that little spaniel has her cross hairs on Max.”

“Poor Max, that girl has no clue to his past. She won’t get a full performance out of that show.”

Jerry looked at her with a tilt to his head. “Max may be shooting blanks, but he can still perform if he wants to.”

Taro looked surprised. “Huh? I thought he couldn’t…. I mean, he was neutered as a pup!”

Jerry shook his head. “I dare say you’ve not had a close inspection,” he said. “Max was sterilized when he was young, but he still has all his equipment. He’s young and hasn’t had many opportunities for experience, but he would have if he had stayed on Quet.”

“What do you mean?”

“Since you were only a crew mate at the time he came on board, I don’t suppose Max ever gave you his full story,” the male fox replied, “but as his doctor and a male friend, he’s told me all about his childhood.”

“Aren’t you breaking the doctor-patient confidentiality by telling me this?”

“No, because there were others present when he told me,” Jerry replied. “Besides, as his captain, you may need to know anyway, in case you ever run across his former owner again.”

Taro studied him for a moment and thought it over. “All I really know is that he worked on Quet in a restaurant as a kitchen slave,” she admitted. “His father was a visiting space pilot and his mother was a working girl who owed money to the owner of another pleasure house. When she got pregnant, her master made her go through the birth and then sell the child to settle her debts. When he was old enough, Max’s owner had him neutered since he would be working among all the females at the establishment.”

“All that’s mostly true,” the doctor replied, “but the rat wasn’t protecting his girls from Max by having him sterilized. When he bought the puppy, Tagon intended to add Max to his business when old enough, so he had him sterilized to protect future clients.”

“Wait… Max was going to be a male prostitute?”

“That was the plan. The establishment also catered to female clients and Max would have brought in extra revenue to the business. I doubt he would have taken the pup merely to be a slave, since he purchased him before Max would be old enough for that. Even as a pup, Tagon could probably tell that a blue-eyed German shepherd male would be an exotic draw to his female clients.”

Taro looked perplexed. “Okay, I can understand all that,” she said, “but he told us he’d been neutered when he first joined us here on the Horizon. That’s not the same thing as being sterilized.”

“How old was Max when he came on board?”

“Fourteen or fifteen. I don’t remember exactly.”

“Right, and a fourteen or fifteen-year-old probably doesn’t have much of an idea what being neutered means. He probably heard it from one of the ladies of the house and thought that meant him – either that or that’s what Tagon told his girls to keep their paws off him until he was old enough to start learning the business. At any rate, until you guys came along, it was in Max’s future to spend his life pleasuring others for money – something that’s as legal and widely practiced on Quet as slavery.”

Taro leaned back in her chair and put her hands behind her head. “Did he tell you about Merlin’s deception that freed him from that place?

“Yes.”

“Do you agree with what he did? Merlin practically stole him from his rightful owner to keep him with us.”

It was Jerry’s turn to look perplexed. “I don’t intend to argue in generalities, Taro, but let’s look specifically at Max’s situation. Yes, Tagon legally owned him and was in his full rights to raise the boy into the business as he wished. However, he frequently beat the child, kept him in deplorable conditions and even starved him. It’s possible that Tagon had no prior experience raising a child and let his anger get away with him when dealing out punishment. However, the more Tagon overly punished Max, the more the kid rebelled, so it was likely the rat changed his mind about him; otherwise, he would have done everything in his power to make sure the boy grew up safe, strong and handsome for the ladies to fawn over when older.”

“That might explain why he let Max go so easily,” Taro mused. “Sure, he put up a fuss, but I don’t think he really tried all that hard to get him back.”

Jerry gestured with a hand. “Do I agree with what Merlin did? Speaking in generalities, I would say ‘no’ – but in Max’s situation, I think it was better that he came to live here than stay on Quet where he may have died from mistreatment. The owner willingly offered to sell the boy’s contract to Merlin, so that was a legal transaction by Quetian law. There might have been deception involved on how Max wound up on board the Horizon, but Merlin didn’t steal him from anyone.”

Taro fell silent again, but then a moment later a smile crossed her face. Jerry saw it and twitched an ear. “You find this amusing?” he asked.

“Not that,” the vixen replied. “It just occurred to me that Lori might have tried to bed Max when he became of age, if he hadn’t told everyone he had been neutered. As with most bunnies, she’s free with her affections and will play with any willing male, but she never thought he would be able to perform. Even though he’s now an adult, she’s left him alone.”

Jerry shared her smile. “I’m sure she could teach him all he might have learned at the Wild Star if she knew his real physical condition. Are you sure that she never worked at a pleasure house?”

“No,” Taro laughed, “I’m not sure, but we’ll just have to take her at her word that she’s just a typical bunny.”

***

Justy hummed to himself on the quiet bridge and flipped through an old printed magazine. The Blue Horizon was approaching the Van Conner nebula, an area of space filled with gaseous hazes of blues and greens. Their current course would take them just beyond the edge of it on their starboard side, and although the area contained large traces of chorterium gas that would diffuse their sensors, it was otherwise harmless.

Kicking back in his seat, the koala flipped on the new StellarNet connection that had been routed to the bridge. He bypassed the INN news broadcast to a movie channel, and although the show was already in progress, Justy didn’t care. He came in during an action scene and immediately riveted his attention to the screen while he idly munched on a eucalyptus leaf.

***

“What’s going on?”

“The enemy’s found us and is attacking!”

“WHAT?”

“Two of them entered the entrance tunnel by cutting through the side airlock, and now they’re trying to breach the inner airlock. The remainder of their forces are blasting down from above, trying to break through the hardened roof.”

“Get everyone moving!  We’ve got to get out—reach the ship!”

A warning chirp from the engineering console interrupted Justy’s enjoyment of the movie. The koala muted the entertainment channel, stood up, and then moved to see what needed his attention. He expected it was probably a warning that the sensors had lost a signal, but that was to be expected in this nebular region. Instead, he saw that the ship was losing speed, falling rapidly to sub-light velocities.

He checked the flight settings, but everything appeared to be correct. The ship should be flying at standard cruising speed. Unable to ascertain the cause of their falloff, he punched up the intercom for the engine room.

Justy waited for a reply, but there didn’t seem to be anyone down there. He frowned and signaled Pockets’ quarters. A moment later, the intercom chirped.

“Yeah?” drawled the raccoon’s drowsy voice. “I was nappin’.”

“Pockets, this is Justy. We just had a major drop in the engine output and I can’t find the cause for it up here on the bridge. Max isn’t down in the engine room either.”

“How bad is the drop?”

“With our current decrease, we’ll be solely on inertia in a few minutes.”

“Yikes!” Pockets’ voice came alive. “I’m heading down to engineering!” he said quickly. Before he had a chance to close the channel, the entire ship began to shudder beneath their feet, and then there came a roar through the deck plates that could be felt as much as they could all hear it. “That’s not good!” Pockets exclaimed. The roar stopped abruptly and then the ship shuddered once more before it too ceased.

Justy swallowed and looked up at the vidscreen. The usual, slight telltale ‘smear’ of starlight that denoted FTL speeds was gone. The stars he could see through the nebula gases were sharply in focus, although there was no visual frame of reference to see how much they had slowed.

The intercom suddenly chirped several times in rapid succession. He tapped the control to open the first connection. “Bridge,” he said.

“Justy, what’s going on up there?” Renny’s voice asked. The koala could hear frightened whimpers from the cheetah’s young friend in the background.

“Something’s happened to the engines,” Justy reported. “Dunno what yet.”

“Let me get Sandy calmed down, and then I’ll be up there.”

“Okay.” Justy tapped the next connection. “Bridge.”

“What took you so long to reply?” Taro exclaimed.

“Renny called the same time you did,” he explained. “Something’s happened to the engines. Dunno what yet.”

“I’ll be right there as soon as I get dressed.”

“Okay.” Justy sighed and tapped the next connection. “Bridge.”

“Justy,” Jerry started.

“Something’s happened to the engines. Dunno what yet,” the koala repeated.

“You need any help up there?”

“No, but Pockets may need help in the engine room.”

“Where’s Max?”

“No idea,” Justy replied with a shrug he knew the fox could not see. “I suppose he’s with his lady friend.”

“This is a heck of a time to be away from the engines!”

“The last time I checked, I don’t think Max was clairvoyant,” Justy said with a chuckle.

Jerry started to retort, then stopped himself and said, “Right,” before he closed the connection. The short koala stuck the tip of his tongue out between his lips and held his finger poised over the intercom answer pad as if he was a snake about to strike, awaiting the next call from someone to ask about their situation. Right on cue, there was another chirp.

***

Ariel opened Max’s cabin door only a crack and peered out into the corridor with one brown eyeball. The German shepherd had just left her alone to report in to Pockets to help assess the problem with the engines.

She saw Renny leave his quarters and then trot around the curve in the passageway, followed by Taro a moment later wearing a set of medical scrubs and toweling the fur of her head dry with a large multicolored towel.

When the corridor was empty, the Cocker Spaniel opened her door and slipped out into the hallway. She glanced around sharply focused, her innocent and bouncy demeanor gone, and she walked quickly to the door Renny had just departed. She tried the panel, found it unlocked, and let herself inside.

The floor inside the cabin was covered in toys, coloring books, crayons and other oddments. Sitting in the middle of it all, on the carpet in front of a long coffee table was the small cheetah kitten wearing a mint green jumper. Sandilee looked up with a crayon in hand and stiffened when she saw the canine woman.

Up until that moment, neither the little cheetah nor the spaniel had been together in the same room on the Blue Horizon, yet there was instant recognition between them.

“I knew I’d find you, brat!” Ariel said with a smile that was anything but friendly.

A ridge of fur on the back of Sandy’s neck stood up and she suddenly scrambled beneath the coffee table. Ariel rushed forward and dropped her knees, breaking several crayons. She snared the kitten’s scrawny tail and tried to pull her out, but Sandy dug her claws into the carpet and began to yowl.

“I don’t have time for this,” Ariel snarled. “Come out of there!” She yanked hard on the spotted tail and then grabbed one of the small ankles, making the cat screech louder. Ariel pulled harder and the pain to her tail was frightening, but Sandy’s claws were firmly embedded in the carpet. Ariel knocked the coffee table aside angrily with an elbow and then gathered the kitten up roughly in her arms.

“No!” Sandy screeched. “Lemego!” She took a scared swipe at the spaniel and her tiny claws raked thin furrows across Ariel’s snout. The canine cursed and dropped the kitten to the floor to grab at her nose with one hand, but retained a grip on the kitten’s wrist with the other.

Angered, Ariel reared back to slap the child when the cabin door opened. Renny reacted swiftly, instantly launching himself at the Cocker Spaniel with a feline shriek that set the dog’s teeth on edge. She tried to twist out of the way, but Renny bowled her over and all three landed hard against the couch. Ariel’s grip on the kitten released only when Renny bared his teeth and went for her throat.

As cheerful and bouncy as the passenger had appeared when she had first come on board, Ariel Bennington was none of that now. She jammed the point of her elbow into the adult cheetah’s side while simultaneously slamming her open palm against his throat. Renny dropped to the carpet with a gurgle as the spaniel scrambled away from him.

Sandy darted around the couch and swiftly ran toward the back room, but Ariel was onto her instantly. The kitten shrieked and tried to use her claws again, but the canine woman pinned her little arms to her side and held her tight.

“You aren’t getting away from me again!” Ariel spat. When she turned around, Renny was there. He was having trouble swallowing, but his anger made him desperate. He slapped her hard across the snout, and then grabbed her wrists in a tight grip before she could react.

Sandy dropped to the floor and scrambled away as Ariel reeled back against a bookcase. Books, curios and photographs rained down upon her, but she wasn’t down yet. She raised her knee swiftly toward his crotch, but Renny had anticipated this and twisted enough that her knee hit his hip bone instead. Undaunted, Ariel growled fiercely and lunged back at the navigator, her jaws going for his throat.

Renny got an arm up in front of him and her teeth sank deep into his left forearm. He hissed in pain, but then the Cocker Spaniel’s head rocked suddenly to the side, taking his arm with her. Both fell over onto the carpet, but Ariel’s eyes rolled back and she stopped struggling.

“Are you okay?” Jerry asked. Renny looked up sharply with wild eyes, but shook it off quickly when he saw the remnants of a shattered clay vase in the fox’s hand. The cheetah grimaced and nodded toward his bleeding arm.

“Glad you could stop by for a visit,” Renny said hoarsely as he extricated his arm from the unconscious woman’s mouth. “I didn’t like that vase, anyway.” Jerry knelt down to check his injuries, but Renny waved him off, cradling the arm close to his chest. “Do something with her, in case she wakes up,” he suggested.

Jerry nodded and whipped off the belt from his trousers. “What happened?” he asked, swiftly strapping the woman’s arms together behind her back. “I heard the commotion from the corridor.”

Renny sat back and struggled out of his burgundy tee shirt. “I came back to check on Sandy,” he said between breaths as he wrapped the cloth around his injured arm. “I found this idiot going berserk, trying to hit her, so I jumped in without asking questions.”

“Yes, I see,” the physician said as he unplugged a small lamp table, snapped the power cord from its base, and then used the wire to bind the spaniel’s ankles together. “I don’t understand it, though. Ms. Bennington didn’t seem like the type who would want to hurt anyone.” He knelt close to examine the back of her head where he’d struck her with the vase. There was a bit of blood beneath her fur, but the cut was only superficial. She would have a tender lump as a gift when she awoke.

Renny got up to his feet and leaned up against the back of the couch, rubbing his bruised hip. “It had to have been an act,” he said with a scowl. “She’s not as innocent as she appeared. Little Miss Bubbly here knows how to fight.” He started looking around the room, but didn’t see the kitten. “Sandy?” he called in a raspy voice. There was no reply, but he assumed she was hiding somewhere in terror and was unlikely to answer right away. “Sandy, kitten. Where are you?”

Jerry got to his feet and moved to the navigator’s desk while the cheetah started looking under furniture. The fox thumbed the intercom and the return signal chirped almost instantly.

“Bridge,” Taro’s voice said.

“Captain, we’ve just had an incident in Renny’s quarters,” the doctor replied. “Our passenger was trying to hurt the kitten and got into a row about it with Renny.”

“What? Are you talking about Ms. Bennington?”

Jerry gave her a brief rundown of what he had seen and what the navigator had told him, while Renny got down on his knees beside his bed in the back room. There was nothing but dust balls and a couple of missing socks under there, so he slowly looked around the room.

“Sandilee, little kitten,” he called softly. “It’s okay, you can come out now. The bad doggie won’t hurt you anymore.”

He still couldn’t see her, but he did hear a small chirp from the closet. He moved closer and saw the tip of her tail wrapped tightly around her butt underneath his old duffel bag. “C’mon, little one,” he said gently. “Renny’s here for you.”

There was a rustle from the closet and then a tiny spotted form launched out at him, landing up against his chest. She clung to him and buried her face in his chest fur as he wrapped his good arm around her. She shivered and shook, and then started bawling.

The navigator picked her up gently and carried her into the front room. The first thing he saw was Taro hefting the conscious Cocker Spaniel bodily from the floor. Renny turned his back to them so the sobbing kitten wouldn’t have to look at the canine. He moved quickly to the door and said, “I’m taking her topside,” before he disappeared out into the corridor.

Taro deposited Ariel roughly into a chair and then she and Jerry stood over her. “What’s the meaning of this insanity?” the captain shouted at her. “She’s just a kitten!”

The canine woman looked up at her in defiance and then spat out several choice words about the vixen’s ancestry in several languages. Taro’s eyes widened and drew back in surprise. The spaniel’s reactions didn’t match the personality she had earlier presented to them all. The captain’s eyes narrowed and Jerry wondered if he would have to stop her from jumping their captive for a sound thrashing for her tirade. He need not have worried. Taro was in better control of her temper and merely crossed her arms to give their passenger a calculating stare.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Jerry said with dark eyes at the canine. “Do you have a hatred against children, or felines in general?”

Ariel snorted and added his ancestral history to her repertoire. The doctor scowled and looked at his captain. “May I have permission to infect her with something nasty from Sickbay?” he asked through clenched teeth.

“If she doesn’t start answering questions,” Taro replied, “I might be tempted to let you.” She held up her fist in front of the canine’s nose. “Hurting a child is a serious offense, especially on board my ship! We might just have to return the favor. Now, start talking!”

***

Justy jumped in his seat when the bridge sensors bleeped at him in alarm. The koala willed his heartbeat to slow back down as he peered up through the forward windows. He recognized the shape of a Tandem-class, long-range cruiser as it pulled up alongside the port side of the stationary Blue Horizon. Lit up and painted in a stylized script across the white cruiser’s bow was the name, Oubliette.

He was about to call for the captain, but the com station blipped when the other vessel hailed them. He shuffled to the panel and tapped the appropriate command. “This is the cargo freighter, Blue Horizon,” he said. “Our engines are down. Are you here to help us?”

A hoarse, voice-only response came back across the bridge speakers. “Blue Horizon, we know you are transporting a cheetah kitten and we demand that you hand her over to us right away.”

Justy blinked in surprise. “Excuse me?” he replied.

“Playing ignorant isn’t going to work,” the gruff voice said impatiently. “We saw your broadcast stating that Sandilee Binfurr was traveling with you, and our operative on board your vessel has confirmed it. We want both at your primary airlock within ten minutes or we will be forced to come and get her ourselves.”

“Your operative? Wait, I don’t think—”

“That’s right. Don’t think. We can do this peacefully or forcibly. Take your pick. You wanted to find someone to take her. We’re here to help.”

“If you’re here to help, you could have simply asked,” Justy replied with an empty hand-gesture toward the clear vidscreen.

“In that case, we’re asking you to have them at your airlock immediately,” the voice replied in thick sarcasm. “Your time is running out. We’ll come over for them with pressure suits as soon as we have an indication they’re there.”

The circuit was disconnected and Justy frowned up at the other ship through the windows. He knew nothing about the trouble with Ariel or the kitten. Taro had left without an explanation; he assumed she’d gone to check on the engine trouble. He tapped a control, but it was a moment before he got a response.

“Make it quick,” Pockets replied in a harried voice. “We’re rather busy at the moment.”

“Is the captain down there?”

“Haven’t seen her.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Justy didn’t know where she might have gone, so he locked down the bridge controls to go looking for her. He checked the captain’s office in the compartment next door, but it was empty. Just as he passed Renny’s quarters on the way to Taro’s cabin, he heard muffled shouting coming from behind the door. He recognized the vixen’s voice and hesitated about intruding. He knew that she and the cheetah often dallied together and wondered if they might be having a lover’s spat. Then he remembered why he needed her and steeled himself against possible embarrassment at intruding. This was more important.

Justy tried the door and found it unlocked. He knocked and then opened the panel without waiting for a response; he stopped immediately just inside, stunned to see their passenger strapped to a chair with several belts, with Taro and Jerry standing over her. All three turned angry gazes back toward the short koala.

“Not now!” Taro growled at the computer tech.

Justy lost his voice for a moment, but then he cleared his throat. He pointed back out the door behind him and said in a rush, “A ship just pulled alongside demanding we turn over Renny’s kitten and some operative on board!”

Taro turned back to the canine and snatched up a handful of her blouse. She hefted Ariel and her chair up so the women were nose-to-nose to one another. “What. Is. This?” she demanded in clipped tones.

Ariel gave her a smug smile. “That would be the Oubliette,” she remarked. “They have come for me and the kitten.”

“Yeah, that’s the name of the ship,” Justy supplied. “They said we have ten minutes to get her,” he pointed at the Cocker Spaniel, “and Sandilee to the airlock.”

Ariel grunted. “You’d better do as my companions say. They aren’t blessed with a lot of patience.”

The vulpine captain tightened her grip on Ariel’s blouse and they could all hear fabric start to tear. “Why are you people after Sandilee?”

“What’s it to you?” Ariel retorted. “In your interview, you were practically begging someone to come and take the little brat so you wouldn’t have to bother with her.”

“You’re far from her family species,” Jerry said dryly. “What makes you think we’re going to just give her away to anyone?”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Taro said with another twist of her grip. Ariel felt some of her fur pinch and pull in the vixen’s grasp.

“Ow, you’re hurting me!” she hissed.

“You mean to tell me that it’s okay for you to hurt a defenseless kitten, but it’s not okay for me to hurt you?” Taro said in a suddenly calm voice. She indicated the scratch marks on the canine’s snout and added, “Semi-defenseless kitten, from the looks of your nose. Now, why are you here?”

Ariel grimaced. “I came on board to determine if the child really was on your ship, and if so, disable the engines so my people can come to get us. That’s it.”

“Why do you want Sandy so badly?”

“You don’t need to know,” Ariel replied evenly. “Just hand us over to my friends and you won’t have to worry about the kid any more. She’ll be in safe hands.”

“Somehow, I really doubt that,” Jerry muttered.

***

Two figures in silver pressure suits hovered near the Horizon’s airlock, each with a simple magnet-on-a-tether keeping them in place near the freighter’s hull; the first one had an extra tether attached to a fat metal case. The second had a cable attached to his helmet with the other end in his hand up against the hatch door.

“I’m detecting no one anywhere near the airlock. I don’t hear any movement in there.”

“Stubborn idiots. They aren’t making this easy for any of us. Okay, this is on their own heads. Do it.”

The other figure let the listening device float beside him, and then opened a pouch on his leg to pull out a small domed object with a solitary covered switch. He affixed the flat end of the item against the outer rim of the hatch, flipped up the switch cover, and then pressed the button beneath.

Both figures moved their tethers and retreated a safe distance from the hatch with small jets affixed to their backpack units. Two compartments on bottom of the small dome opened and a pair of vacuum-activated chemicals combined into a clear gelatinous blob against the hull. The result was instantaneous. A metal-melting compound started to make quick work of the thick pressure door, burning the material with a brilliant light in the spatial darkness.

A sizeable section of the hatch swiftly melted away in super-hot globular clusters, along with a portion of the surrounding structural frame. When the breach punctured the internal secondary hull, warning klaxons went off inside the vessel, but outside the ship, the two figures watched as a sudden rush of air spewed out and crystallized. The Horizon’s bulk began to drift a bit from the powerful thrust of escaping air.

The chemical process continued despite the presence of a pressurized atmosphere, widening the hole considerably, but soon the elements began to play out. The suited figures watched passively, knowing from experience not to approach the damaged hull section until the chemicals were totally depleted and rendered inert even in the cold of space. Jagged oxygen crystals, bits of molten metal, as well as frozen flotsam and jetsam from the cargo hold were all ejected at a high velocity out away from the moving freighter, but any of it could present a danger to the pressure suits if any lingered in the area.

One of the figures checked a timepiece mounted to the wrist of his suit and nodded. “Okay, that should do it. Get Matreh and Dinco out here with their stunners. We may have to search the entire ship for Ariel and the brat. Terson and I are going in.”

“Copy that, Piers. Be careful and try to get out as quickly as you can.”

Piers grabbed the floating suitcase while Terson uncoupled their tether magnets and put away his listening cable. A moment later, they jetted slowly toward the large opening in the side of the Blue Horizon’s hull.

***

When the klaxons sounded at the hull breach, all pressure doors on the affected deck closed instantly, and then automatic shutters slid over them to seal the rest of the compartments from deadly decompressive vacuum. Max and Pockets were in the engineering room trying to diagnose the disabled engines. Without knowing specifically what had happened, it was taking time to locate the problem before they could even begin repairs.

They were totally unaware of the events on the upper decks, and knew nothing of the external assault until klaxon alarms went off; the pressure door to the engine room slammed noisily into place, sealing itself immediately with the external shutters. Max banged his head in surprise against the top of his access tunnel.

“What was that?” he called out to his partner amidst the loud alarms.

“Hull breach!” Pockets exclaimed. The short raccoon ran to the sealed door and saw the negative pressure on the indicator next to it. Fear crossed his masked face as he ran back to a diagnostic console that was currently littered with engine schematics.

Max backed out of the crawlway and pressed his hands over his ears against the noisy din. He saw Pockets rushing back and forth between control stations and marveled at the speed at which the short raccoon worked. The klaxon suddenly silenced, but Max’s sensitive ears were still ringing.

“What happened?” he asked. “Did we get struck by a meteorite?”

“Dunno,” Pockets replied distractedly. “Indicators show a vacuum in the cargo deck, but nowhere else. There’s no pressure outside that door.”

Max swallowed nervously. “I hope no one was out there.”

“Yeah, me too,” the raccoon replied.

“Are we going to be all right in here?”

“We should be,” Pockets answered, looking around them. “This compartment has its own air supply and kitchenette, so we won’t suffocate or go hungry. However, we’re sealed in here by ourselves. Our pressure suits are in the lockers right outside our door… yeah, currently in a vacuum.”

“Can someone bring the pressure suits to us?”

“Just how do you expect them to get to us?” he asked tersely, looking up at his partner. When he saw the canine’s surprised expression, he apologized and put a hand on the young mechanic’s arm. “I’m sorry, Max. You’ve been a good student and have learned a lot,” he said, “so sometimes I take it for granted you know as much as I do about space ships. The answer to your question is ‘No’.  All the suits are in lockers in the hold, to be put on before going out the airlock if necessary. Right now, everyone else is just as trapped on the upper decks as we are down here. There are manual controls to open the pressure doors, but without air or pressure in the hold, that would be suicide.”

The raccoon leaned back against the wall and passed a hand over his face. “Even if we get the engines working again, I’m not sure how the Horizon could land anywhere with a hole in our heat shield-protected hull. We can’t even go check out the damage to see how bad it is or find out what happened. The breach could be huge, or as small as a marble. Either way, the result is the same.”

He stopped for a moment and licked his lips. “Moss!” he said suddenly, darting to a computer terminal on his desk. Max followed him to see what the engineer had in mind.

Pockets called up the mobile sentry system’s interface. A tinny “Meow?” issued from the computer speakers when the connection was made, and an image from the flying saucer’s camera appeared on the monitor.

“Yes!” the raccoon whispered.

***

Terson and Piers stood before the lift door and studied the pressure shutters that covered it. The door itself looked as if it had been forced with a pry bar at some point in the past, but the puckered metal ends didn’t look as if the damage would keep it from opening.

Having some knowledge of Okami freighters, Piers opened a panel beside the elevator that revealed several toggle switches and a manual crank. He tripped the first toggle and the emergency shutters retreated into their receptacle above the door. He flipped the second toggle and then an amber diode lit up as the elevator shaft depressurized. When the light turned red, he reached for the crank and began to turn it counter-clockwise. The cogs had been unused for so long that the wheel was stiff, but he managed to move it with two hands. The lift door began to open. As luck would have it, the elevator cage was on their level.

When the door was wide enough, the two figures stepped inside. Terson opened another panel inside the elevator and thumbed an internal power switch. As a precaution against the vacuum, power to the lift had been shut off to prevent anyone from the upper decks taking it down to the hold. The overhead lamp lit up and then the lift doors closed stiffly in the cold spatial air. A second switch repressurized the compartment before movement could be initiated.

***

“What are you doing?” Max asked quietly, feeling chastised by Pockets’ earlier rebuke.

“Just before the klaxons went off, I thought I’d seen Moss float through the door out into the hold. I don’t know how it kept from getting sucked out through the breach, but I’m glad to see it still operating.”

“Where is he?”

Pockets looked at the young mechanic with amusement. “He?”

Max shrugged. “I’ve always thought of Moss as male,” he explained. “I know Moss is only a device and has no gender, but I’ve often found myself talking to him when I needed someone to talk to about my problems.”

The raccoon looked hurt. “You can always talk to me, Max,” he said quietly. “I’ll never spread anything you tell me to anyone else.”

The canine looked down at his feet. “Yeah, I know, but sometimes…. sometimes I just need to talk about embarrassing stuff that I could never say even to you, Pockets.”

An impish smile crept across the engineer’s face. He couldn’t resist teasing his partner whenever he had the chance, even in the midst of an emergency. “If you tell Moss your deepest secrets, then it’s fortunate that you and I are such good friends!”

“Huh?  Why?”

Pockets’ smile grew wider. “You are aware that Moss records everything it monitors, right?  Guess who has sole access to all those recordings?”

The German shepherd’s ears flattened. “You’ve been listening to my private conversations with Moss about Wendy?” he croaked.

“Maybe I have, and maybe I haven’t.”

Max’s pupils dilated quickly and his mouth went dry. He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a quiet whimper.

The raccoon could barely keep from laughing, but he took pity on the young mechanic. “Relax, Max,” he said in amusement. “I haven’t listened in on your private secrets.  Until now, I wasn’t even aware you were talking to it. Moss only keeps its recordings in the system for twenty hours and then they are overwritten with new recordings on a continuous loop. Unless you’ve had any private talks with our little flying saucer in the last day, I don’t have a way to go back in and peek at them.”

Max looked doubtful. “Twenty hours, you say?” he asked hoarsely.

“That’s right. I rarely even look at its data unless it signals me for an emergency anyway, so I didn’t think it needed to keep more than twenty hours at a time.”  The canine still didn’t look completely convinced, but Pockets chuckled. “Trust me,” he said. “Even though I enjoy teasing you, I don’t really care about digging up dirt on my partners. Your secrets are safe with Moss. They’d be safe with me, too, if you ever told me any.”

The raccoon turned back to his controls when Max didn’t reply. “Anyhoo, let’s find out what Moss sees out in the hold. We’ll report our findings to the captain once we have something to tell her.”

***

Amanda stepped out of her cabin, buttoning the front of her blouse with only her claw tips. She rubbed her eyes and looked around, but the only person she saw was Lorelei. The rabbit padded up to her with a worried expression and placed a hand on the coyote’s arm.

“What was that noise?” the doe asked. The alarms had left her sensitive ears ringing and her own voice sounded muffled to her.

“I think our hull’s been punctured somewhere,” Amanda replied. “I was taking a nap when the alarm sounded.” She looked around the corridor, wondering where everyone else was. “I’ll check with the bridge,” she said. “Maybe I can find out what happened there.”

“I’m going with you,” the bunny said in a quiet voice. “I don’t like this.”

Just as they started for the command center, the elevator lift door opened. Amanda automatically turned toward it, but stopped short when she saw two figures in gray pressure suits with elongated helmets step out toward them. She assumed it was a couple of their crewmates behind those mirrored faceplates, but one of them raised a small device toward them and pressed the switch.

There was no visual discharge of the device, but Amanda dropped to the carpet with a thud. Lori landed beside her, her thin arms splayed out beside her.

“Piers, where are you?” said a voice in the helmet speakers of both suited individuals.

“We’re up on the crew deck, Matreh,” Piers replied. “We just stunned two of them, so watch yourselves when you come up. Terson and I will check the crew cabins. You and Dinco go on to the top level and look up there for them.”

“Understood.”

***

“I can’t raise anyone on the bridge,” Pockets said in a worried voice. “The bridge is never left unmanned! Never, ever!”

“Maybe they’re trying to get to us,” Max suggested.

Pockets shook his head and thumbed the ship-wide intercom. He hated using it, as he really disliked the sound of his own voice on the overhead speakers, but there was a need for it. “Captain, please contact engineering. Captain, contact engineering, please.” There was a pregnant pause before the local intercom chirped. Pockets tapped the control. “Engine Room,” he said.

“Sorry, Pockets,” came Justy’s strained voice. “The captain is rather busy at the moment. You guys okay down there? We’ve heard more loud noises while you two have been doing whatever it is you’ve been doing to the engines; you even had us all worried when you set off that alarm!”

“Justy, the alarms sounded because we’ve had a hull breach in the cargo bay, and not because of anything that we have done!”

“Hull breach! Ohmigosh!”

“Please get Taro-”

“I’m here, Pockets,” the vixen’s voice said anxiously. “What was that you said about a breach?”

“Yeah, we’ve got a great gaping hole in through the airlock and surrounding structure of both hulls,” he reported. “Max and I are okay, but the emergency systems have sealed us in Engineering.”

“A hole!”

Before he could explain further, Pockets heard another voice across the intercom speaking in a haughty voice. “I told you they’d come if you didn’t hand us over!”

“That sounded like Ariel!” Max whispered into the raccoon’s ear.

“How do you know there’s a hole in the cargo bay if you can’t go out there?” Justy asked.

“Moss is in the hold. We can see the damage through its camera signal. The damaged area looks like it was… melted through from the outside.”

“Did you see anyone?” Taro asked. “We may have been boarded!”

“No, but I directed Moss to recon the damage out through the hole and there is another ship alongside of us. Captain, what’s going on?”

“I don’t have all the details yet, but our passenger was a plant on board to disable our engines so she and her friends could kidnap Sandy.”

“Kidnap Sandy!” Max exclaimed. He was already distressed that the friendly young canine woman was in some kind of trouble, and this last news made his head swim. He leaned back against a bulkhead and slid down the wall to the floor.

“Have you seen Damien?” Taro asked in a concerned tone. “I think he might have been down in his office earlier, working on the accounts.”

Pockets and Max exchanged sudden looks. “Uh, no,” the engineer replied hesitantly. “Moss hasn’t detected anyone on this deck but us.”

“I’ll bet he got sucked out the hole!” Ariel called.

“Quiet!” Jerry’s voice exclaimed.

“Pockets,” Taro said, “would you send Moss over to Damien’s office and see if you can visually spot him through his office window? Maybe he’s sealed in like you are.”

“Aye, captain,” Pockets answered mutely. He moved back to the mobile sentry system’s control, but a sudden noise from the intercom made him and Max both look up toward the overhead speaker. There was a sudden shout, a crash, and then Ariel began yelling loudly in a language the raccoon didn’t understand. That was followed by another bang and the sound of a frantic struggle.

***

“That sounded like Ariel’s voice,” Terson whispered.

“Yeah, I think she said someone got sucked out the hole we made, Piers growled. “No matter, they were warned and had their chance to cooperate. Get ready.”

Both figures stood by the cabin door where they’d heard their associate’s voice. Each held their stunners ready and Terson set the fat metal case he’d been carrying on the floor beside the wall. Piers held a hand above the door control and then nodded to his companion.

Terson unfastened his faceplate and then raised a hand to his canine mouth as he shouted out a pre-arranged call-sign through the door in a little-known Alexandrian language. Piers punched the door control and the two of them jumped inside. Terson knocked over a floor lamp beside the door and it fell to the deck with a crash, causing Justy to jump backward into a bookcase.

Ariel began shouting instructions to her associates in the same language, even as Taro and Jerry leaped toward the intruders. Piers tried to fire his stunner at the male fox, but the doctor twisted out of the way when he saw his weapon and scooped up one of Sandy’s toys from the carpet. He hurled it at Piers, but it failed to connect with the stunner in time. Jerry received a quick blast from the weapon and he tumbled over on top of the coffee table.

Terson shot Justy with his stunner and then turned it on the vixen. Taro swung for the weapon and successfully knocked it from his hand, bouncing it across the room, but then Piers fired upon her. Taro’s Hestran physiology resisted the stun beam for a moment, and she managed to throw a punch at Terson before she fell. The canine intruder’s head rocked back from a blow to the head that made his helmet rattle; he sat down hard.

Piers knelt down beside his partner. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“St-still seeing sparks,” Terson replied, “but I’ll be okay.”

“Untie me!” Ariel demanded. “My right arm’s going to sleep!”

Piers moved toward the Cocker Spaniel while Terson went out into the corridor to retrieve the fat metal case. He set it on the coffee table beside Jerry’s unconscious form and then sat down on the couch to let his head clear.

Freed from the restraints, Ariel massaged her arm for a moment before she unlocked the case and opened it. Inside was a thin pressure suit and helmet. She set the helmet aside and then picked up the suit designed for her lithe form. Without hesitating in front of the others, she shed her sparse clothing completely, dropping them all to her feet, and then began to slip into the form-fitting suit.

“The brat was in here, but the adult cheetah took her out to another compartment,” she reported quickly. “He’s gotten protective of her, so be careful.”

“Matreh and Dinco are already heading up to the top level,” Piers replied, “but we’ll start searching the other cabins on this deck.”

Terson got to his feet. He was still a little unsteady from the blow to the helmet, but he followed Piers out into the corridor.

Ariel took out a compact air recycling unit from the bottom of the case. She slung it around onto her back and began fastening the straps across her chest. While she was preoccupied, she didn’t notice Taro get up onto her hands and knees, shaking her head from the effects of the stunner. The vixen felt woozy and nauseated, but knew exactly where she was. She heard the Cocker Spaniel grumbling to herself about a hose fitting and turned toward her.

Ariel snapped the connector into place and then reached for her helmet. A black-furred hand closed around her arm and spun her around dizzily, but the canine struck out instinctively and caught Taro across the snout.

Not to be taken down again, the vulpine captain reeled and snared Ariel around the waist. She twisted around to pull them both off-balance and the female combatants stumbled over one another. They fell entangled to the floor and Taro’s knee came down hard on the back of Ariel’s ankle. There was an audible snap and the canine cried out in genuine pain. She curled up and clawed at her ankle, but Taro got to her feet and pulled the whimpering spaniel up with her.

She deposited Ariel into the chair and grabbed the belts off the floor while the canine sobbed, no longer interested in anything but her ankle. Taro strapped her to the chair again, and then grabbed the woman’s ears to make her look her in the eyes.

“You aren’t going anywhere with your friends,” the vixen hissed at her. To prove her point, Taro grabbed a handful of the pressure suit fabric and pulled the metal fibers apart between her fingers. At the tearing of her clothes, Ariel’s wet eyes darkened, but then they widened at the realization that even if she were to get free, she could no longer follow her companions out through the vacuum of space to their ship.

Taro turned her back on her and knelt down next to Jerry, brushing her blue-tipped white feather ornament away from her face. Aside of a small cut on his cheek, he appeared unharmed, just sleeping off the stunner ray. She next went to Justy and rolled him over onto his back. He snored softly and also appeared unharmed.

Ariel began to bawl from the pain in her ankle, but Taro left her in the cabin and moved out into the corridor. She immediately spotted Lorelei and Amanda and rushed to their sides. Fortunately, they were also unharmed, just stunned. She didn’t know how long the effects would keep them out, so she moved them out of the way near the wall.

She heard a noise from Max’s nearby cabin, so she crept stealthily closer to the intruders’ location.

***

It took a while, but Renny had finally gotten the kitten settled down. He had stroked the soft fur behind her ears, talked gently in a soothing voice, promising to protect her from all harm, and reminded her how pretty she was. She remained snuggled up to him with small shakes, but eventually she calmed down into an exhausted sleep.

Unfortunately, the navigator’s bladder was in need of relieving, so he gently pulled her small arms free of his sides and lifted her onto a soft couch cushion. She mewed once in complaint, but he assured her in a soothing tone that she was okay, and then she curled up in a small, fuzzy ball.

Renny got up slowly so not to disturb her, and then padded quietly to the head. Just as he closed the door behind him, the lift arrived and its panels opened.

Two figures in silver pressure suits stepped out onto the deck, each holding a stunner pistol out in front of them. One carried a fat metal case similar to the one that had held Ariel’s suit. They peered around the room through elongated mirrored helmets and spied their quarry on the couch, amazed that the kitten had been left alone.

“I’ll grab the brat and hold her, Matreh,” said one in an under-modulated voice across the other’s tinny helmet speaker. “You get her into her little suit.”

“Right.”

Renny had just refastened the tail flap on the back of his trousers when he heard Sandy’s frightened screech. A ridge of fur on the back of his neck stood up as he bolted out the door, expecting another fight with the Cocker Spaniel, but drew up short when he saw two silver-suited figures struggling to stuff the kitten into a another small pressure suit. Both had their hands full with the suit and the youngster, but Renny instantly recognized the presence of the stunner guns in holsters at their hips.

He launched himself and landed in the midst of them, knocking the trio to the carpet. Thinking quickly, he snatched up Sandy and bolted back to the head, favoring his bitten arm. Before the intruders could get back to their feet, the cheetah thrust the kitten into the restroom and locked her inside.

From within a panel beside the head, Renny pulled out one of Merlin’s rapiers from a tethered rack. The navigator might not have been a champion fencer, but he’d learned from the Dennieran wolf well enough that he was confident enough in his skill.

Dinco fired his stunner at the cheetah, but Renny had anticipated the action and ran toward him in a zigzag pattern, swinging the thin blade. He caught the pistol with the tip of the blade and flung the weapon across the room.

Matreh couldn’t fire for hitting his partner, so he shouted instructions to Dinco in the same Alexandrian language their companions had used earlier. The two of them rushed the cheetah, planning to pin him to the galley counter, but Renny thwarted their efforts by whipping the rapier back and forth toward the fabric of their pressure suits.

Both intruders realized the folly of their action and darted away from the angry navigator. Although he only held a blunt-ended practice sword, a single tear in their suits would prevent them from getting back to the Oubliette. With his partner now clear of the line of fire, Matreh fired off his stunner at the cheetah.

Again, Renny anticipated the move and rolled over onto the floor behind a recliner. He came to rest beside a couple of weight-lifting dumbbells that hadn’t been stowed away. He dropped the rapier to the carpet beside him and snatched up both weights.

He rose up quickly and hurled one at Matreh. It struck the intruder’s forearm in a glancing blow and the stunner dropped to the deck. Before anyone had a chance to scramble for the weapon, Renny threw the other weight, catching Dinco flat across the chest, knocking him backward.

The cheetah picked up the rapier and started for the now-defenseless kidnappers. Realizing they’d failed, Matreh and Dinco got up and bolted for the elevator, one barely able to breathe while the other cradled his bruised arm.

Renny reached the lift just as the doors closed. He leaned against the wall, his narrow chest heaving. He could call the lift back up to go after them, but he didn’t want to leave Sandy unprotected.

Suddenly thinking of her, he moved back to the head and called out to her. “Sandy, they’re gone, little one. Are you okay?”

There was no reply, but Renny wasn’t worried. He knew she’d likely be hiding beneath the small sink, curled up and shaking in fear. He was concerned for the mental trauma the young kitten would probably experience, so he moved quickly to the galley and opened a drawer of utensils. In the back was a small brass key that he picked up deftly before moving back to the locked door of the head. He kept an eye on the lift to make sure the intruders didn’t regroup and come back to try again.

He didn’t know who the suited figures might be or where they had come from, being unaware of the hull breach and the situation on the lower decks, but like the Cocker Spaniel, they had tried to abduct the young kitten for reasons unknown. Whatever their purpose might be, it was plain to see that it was not in Sandy’s best interest, so Renny strengthened his resolve to protect the youngster at any cost.

***

When Matreh and Dinco reached the crew deck, they stumbled out of the lift and looked back into the compartment as if expecting the adult cheetah to come out after them. Their attention was drawn to a commotion inside a nearby cabin and they recognized Terson’s voice in the fray. They moved quickly to an open doorway and peered inside to see a female red fox struggling with both of their partners.

Taro had her arms wrapped across Terson’s lower rib cage while Piers was up on her back trying to strangle her with an arm around her neck. Mindful of his bruised arm, Matreh grabbed an ornate vase full of Terran cattails. He tossed the dried plants aside and then brought it down upon the distracted vixen’s head. Still weakened by the stunner, Taro collapsed and they all fell to the floor in a heap.

“Gahh,” Terson gasped as he rolled over off of the vixen. He looked up, saw the mirrored helmet above him and nodded. “Thanks,” he wheezed.

Piers helped his friend up and then looked at Dinco. “Where’s the brat?”

“She’s up on their play deck. We couldn’t get her. There’s an armed cheetah guarding her.”

“We barely got out of there!” Matreh added. “He had a blade and tried to rip our suits.”

Piers looked annoyed as he readjusted his helmet. “We’ll all go up and get her. He can’t stop all four of us!”

“He’s got our stunners,” Dinco said. “Both of them.”

“We can’t all fit in the lift, and he’ll be waiting for us to come back,” Matreh added.

Piers’ look of annoyance became anger. They left Taro lying on the floor of Max’s cabin and went out into the corridor. Terson looked around and grabbed Piers’ arm. He pointed to Amanda, who was on her hands and knees, shaking the cobwebs from her head. “Look. That one’s waking up.”

A door opened further up the corridor and a male fox stumbled out of Renny’s cabin. He was woozy, but when he saw the four suited figures, an expression of anger crossed his face.

“Let’s cut our losses and get out of here,” Matreh exclaimed. “We’ve lost our surprise!”

“Where’s Ariel?” Dinco asked.

Piers shut his helmet faceplate angrily. “Forget her. Everybody back to the ship!”

“But—”

“Now!”

Dinco let his exasperation show, but Piers wouldn’t have it. He pushed his partner toward the elevator. Despite the close quarters, all four of them did pile into the lift. It took precious time to cycle the shaft’s air handlers back to a vacuum, but the doors would not open for them until the environment matched the compartment outside.

They rushed around the cargo back toward the hole in the airlock while Piers transmitted orders to their pilot on the Oubliette to prepare for immediate departure.

Dinco muttered obscenities in his helmet and then spied a control panel set into the wall. He turned a key set into a knob and punched several buttons angrily. An amber flashing light activated overhead and the canine intruder turned to look up toward the ceiling. One of the Blue Horizon’s overhead cargo cranes released a large cabled hook, its brakes disabled. The heavy-duty iron hook descended rapidly and smashed half a dozen crates of delicate electronics, narrowly missing one of the satellites.

Dinco snarled and made a rude gesture toward the mess, and then turned on his heel to follow his companions out through the hull breach. Minutes later, all four of them were safely inside their vessel as the Oubliette sped off into the nebula, leaving both Ariel and Sandilee behind.

***

Justy walked groggily back onto the bridge. Almost absently, he checked the automated systems and found things just as he had left them. There was no sign of the other vessel, but the long-range sensors were unable to pick up anything due to the nebular region. At the captain’s order, he recorded an automated distress signal that included the ship’s name, registry and a brief explanation of their damage. With that task accomplished, he sat down in the pilot’s center seat and fired the aft thrusters to give them some movement; with the main engines offline, they were going nowhere with any amount of speed, but at least they would be moving. They were now dependent upon the help of another vessel along spatial traffic lanes.

***

Ariel lay on her back on a bed in Sickbay while Jerry treated her broken ankle. She was sedated for the pain, but the Cocker Spaniel was despondent about being left behind and the failure of her mission. With nowhere to go and no hope for rescue, the fight had gone out of the canine woman. She lay there passively, talking to no one. Taro intended to interrogate her further once the doctor was finished with his treatment, but for now she was out checking on the well-being of the others who had been stunned.

Pockets and Max had been busy trying to find the problem with the engines, but they still hadn’t pinpointed the cause. From Taro’s report, they knew that Ariel was responsible for disabling their engines, but it had to have been something she could do quickly. She hadn’t been alone in the engine room long enough to do anything elaborate. Contrary to what they had feared at first, there had been no bomb or explosion, but components had been seriously damaged as a result of whatever she had done.

There had been no sign of Damien anywhere in his office or the cargo bay, and while no one was keen on voicing what was on everyone’s mind, it was feared that he had died when the hull had been punctured. If he hadn’t been sucked outside with the escaping air, it was likely they would later find his body wedged in amongst the cargo crates when they were able to return.

Taro walked into Damien’s quarters dejectedly and turned on the lights. It was the first time she’d been in his cabin since he had joined the crew; until now, there had never been a reason. She stared at the unkempt front room littered with randomly discarded books, magazines and clothing. The remnants of meals on plates were stacked on the coffee table. Damien didn’t always join the rest of the crew at mealtimes, and it appeared that he even neglected to take Lorelei’s dishes back up to the galley.

She stepped around the clutter on the floor, wondering how someone could live like this. She was no neat-freak herself, but she did keep her cabin picked up well enough that she would never be embarrassed if she received visitors. Moving to the bedroom, she peered in around the corner and turned on the light, but the unmade bed was unoccupied. The room was just as much in disarray as the front and she felt reluctant to enter. The only reason she’d come into his quarters this time was to give herself confirmation that he was not inside. He had not answered the intercom from any compartment on the freighter, nor had he responded to knocks and calls through his door.

On the nightstand beside the bed were several empty liquor bottles. She felt her stomach knot up at the amount of them, but had to remind herself that she hadn’t forbidden him to drink in his quarters, only when on duty. On a hunch, she knelt down on the floor and looked beneath his bed, hoping that he may have fallen off in a drunken stupor and rolled under. All she found was more clutter and more empty bottles. There wasn’t enough room under there for the mastiff anyway.

The vixen stood up, heaved an audible sigh and turned to go. When she did, a faint sound came to her that she hadn’t noticed before - running water. Daring not to let her hopes get too high, she looked up at the bathroom door and noted that it was closed.

She set her jaw as she strode over to it, grasped the handle and then opened the door. Water was running in the shower, but she heard no movement of anyone inside. She pulled back a brown plastic curtain decorated with river reeds and found Damien lying face down on top of his hands and knees in the tub, the cold shower water hitting his bare back just above his tail.

Taro resisted the urge to call out his name, but instead knelt down beside the tub. She turned off the water and then put a hand on the mastiff’s back. The skin beneath his fur was cold to the touch and she held her breath as she moved her fingers up to his neck to feel for a pulse. The canine groaned, but didn’t move his face from his hands.

“Damien,” Taro said gently. He didn’t respond to her voice, so she tried again louder. “Damien!” The load master groaned again, but otherwise made no effort to move or respond.

The vixen walked back out to the front room and tagged the intercom to Sickbay. The signal chirped and Jerry responded with a distracted “Yes?”

“Doc, this is Taro. I found Damien in his cabin. He’s lying on his face in the bathtub. He’s alive, but not responsive. Please get over here quickly.”

“On my way,” Jerry responded in an alert voice.

Taro moved back into the bathroom and pulled several large towels out of his linen closet. She was reluctant to move Damien for fear of causing him further injury if he was hurt, but she could try to warm him up a bit by rubbing his fur with the towels. Her emotions were in flux. She was disheartened to see him in this condition, but she was also glad to know he had not been on the cargo deck when the hull was punctured. What had happened to him, however, remained unclear for the moment.

***

“Are there any access tunnels from Engineering to the upper decks?” Taro asked. She sat unclothed in front of the desk terminal of her quarters, grooming her fur with a thick brush after a shower.

“Well, yes and no,” Pockets’ country accent replied. “There are plenty of vacuum-sealed power conduits running from the engine room up to all compartments, but there’s nothing large enough for either Max or myself to crawl through to get topside – no matter how flexible I might be. There aren’t any emergency passageways between the decks — a design flaw that I intend to report to the Okami Corporation, to be sure, but at the moment the two of us are stuck down here until we can put a pressurized atmosphere in the cargo hold. I can control Moss from here, but since it’s nothing more than floating camera and sensor package, all it can do is look around. It has no claws, arms or other means to make repairs for us.”

“I see. We’ve been doing a little brainstorming to try to find a way to get you guys out of there, but so far that’s all we’ve been able to come up with for you. Justy reminded us that we have an emergency hatch on top of the ship through the recreation deck, but even if we depressurized the deck to open the hatch, we still have no pressure suits up here to go out to get to you.”

“Yeah, do you think we should skin the guy who decided to stow all the pressure suits in one convenient place in a cargo bay locker?” Pockets asked dryly. He’d been kicking himself all day for being so efficient in that decision. If they made it out of this situation, he resolved to stow at least one pressure suit on each of the three decks.

Taro sighed and put down her brush. She could hear the fatigue in the raccoon’s voice. “How are you two doing down there?”

“We have water, sodas and snacks in our kitchenette, but nothing that would make an actual meal. The water closet is working and we have cots to sleep on. We’ve gotten on each other’s nerves a bit, but otherwise we’re fine. However, we’re still weeks away from Dennier even if the engines were working.”

“Any progress on that?”

“Well, we’ve found the damaged components, but don’t have the necessary parts to replace what’s broken. You want details?”

Taro smiled. “The technical details would probably be over my head,” she said. “Any idea what caused the problem?”

“The best we can figure is that the fuel regulation settings were all out of whack. Max gave Ariel a tour of the place earlier and remembers her asking him about that system. He said he didn’t think anything of it at the time, but he was playing tour guide and explained its purpose to her. It’s something she could have done quickly and easily, so that would be my guess. With the settings out of calibration, three components overheated with the imbalance. One swelled up so tight that we can’t get it out without a cutting torch, and the other two developed structural fractures. Coolant leaked out of one onto a wiring bundle that’s now fused together.”

The vixen frowned and picked up an ornamental disc that trailed a blue-tipped white feather. She clipped it to the fur behind her left ear. She hesitated to make the next suggestion, but since it was an emergency, she felt like she had no choice.

“What about your Vault drive?” she asked.

There was an amused chuckle over the line. “Of course, now you give us permission to use it… The Vault drive is a wonderful piece of astro-engineering, but it is not an independent system. It works with our standard LightDrive engine, and with that out of commission, it won’t be of any use to us.”

“If you had the components, how long would it take to get us operational?” Taro asked.

“With the exception of the one part we need the torch to get out, we’ve already removed the other ruined components and are in the process of cleaning up the vacant spots. With the right parts, we could be up and running in a day if we had Justy down here to help, and then it would be just a matter of minutes to have the Vault prepped for operation.”

“No, forget the Vault for now. I was only going to authorize its use if it was possible to use it in place of the LightDrive.”

“You know, Taro,” Pockets said in a suggestive voice, “If we put the Vault into operation for normal use, pirates would never catch us, and groups like this last bunch couldn’t even track us on our runs. We wouldn’t have to worry about stuff like this ever happening again!”

“That’s a valid argument, Pockets, but we’ve already discussed the implications on what would happen if word got out. Besides that, I’m still distrustful of that system. Even if we were able to use it now, what would happen if we overshot our destination again and find ourselves stranded even farther away from help than we are now? We can’t count on another Se’rei being available to land on for help.”

Pockets huffed in frustration and didn’t care if Taro heard him across the com line. His nerves were on edge and he was getting awfully tired of the same argument. “Listen,” he said, “if I upgrade the Horizon’s navigation system myself, would you give the Vault a try? We really need that system.”

The vulpine captain closed her eyes and massaged the bridge of her nose. Upgrading to a more sensitive navigation system would be out of the company’s operating budget, so it was probably safe to assume that it was out of her chief engineer’s personal finances as well.

“Sure, why not? Merlin would probably agree to your logic, Pockets,” she said wearily to pacify him. “I’ll tell him about it the first chance we get to meet in person.”

“Thank you, captain,” the raccoon replied in an appeased tone. Then, in a concerned voice, “How is Damien?”

Taro kept the line open, but she began to move around the room to get dressed now that her fur was fully dry. “He’s resting in Sickbay. I didn’t feel his quarters were such a good place to recover, but I’m not going to clean up the place for him. He can do that himself once he’s mobile again.”

“Has Doc found out what happened to him?”

“Partially,” Taro called across the room as she slipped on a white blouse. “He’d been drinking and woke up with a hangover, so he got into the shower to clear his head. While he was in there, we figure the intruders found him while looking for Sandy and hit him with a stunner. He collapsed in the shower and lay there until we found him, although he hadn’t had time to process all the alcohol out of his system. He doesn’t remember a thing, so I’ve ordered him to sleep it off. Once he’s fully sober, I’ll have a talk with him.”

“Ouch. I know what those ‘talks’ are like…”

“I’m about to gather everyone onto the rec deck so we can all hash all this out with our passenger. You want to listen in over the intercom or let you guys alone to work?”

“Tune us in,” Pockets replied. “We could use a break from the work, even if we can’t change the local scenery.”

“Actually, a break sounds like a good idea. I think I’ll give everyone a two-hour rest period before we do this. Everyone’s nerves are frazzled and it will be better if we confront Ariel with clear heads.”

“If that’s the order of the day, I think Max and I are going to curl up on cots down here too. There’s really nothing more we can do to fix things at the moment.”

“I’ll give you a wakeup call in a couple hours.”

***

It was a room full of touchy nerves. With the exception of Pockets and Max, who were still trapped in the engine room, the entire crew was there. When Taro brought in the Cocker Spaniel, Sandy burrowed under the cushions of the couch, so Renny gathered her up in his arms and took her to the bridge without a word. Someone needed to monitor the Com station in the event their distress signal was answered, anyway. The navigator had become extra-protective of the cheetah kitten and did everything he could to shield the child from further trauma.

If the sight of the Cocker Spaniel bothered her, Renny would simply remove her from the area. Some of the crew thought the cheetah should make the kitten confront the canine woman, but Renny argued that she was too young for that to be of much help. No matter the argument either way, Renny had been appointed her guardian, and guard her he would.

Taro set Ariel down in a chair placed in the middle of the room, her leg out in front of her in a straight-leg splincast. The couch, recliners and galley chairs were arranged in a circle around her and everyone present surrounded her talking in low voices between themselves. Damien was still in confusion about all he missed, but he still wasn’t feeling well and intended only to listen quietly to the proceedings.

Taro had no real plan for the gathering, but she wanted answers. Everyone grew quiet when she got up and began to pace back and forth in front of their passenger with arms crossed. In an even voice, devoid of anger or other emotion, she simply asked, “Why are you after Sandy?” Ariel said nothing, keeping her expression just as neutral. “For what purpose could you have in abducting this child?” No answer. Taro cast a glance around to the others, and although she wasn’t telepathic, everyone seemed to understand what she wanted.

Jerry gestured toward the Cocker Spaniel. “What’s so important about her?” he asked. “She’s only four years old.” Ariel looked at him, but kept her mouth shut. She didn’t appear angry or even resistant. She simply didn’t answer.

“You’ve been watching her,” Amanda stated. “You were sent to make sure she was really here. Why?”

Nothing.

“You wanted her enough to play me for a fool and then damage our ship!” Max’s angry voice issued from the intercom. “If you and your friends were only after the kid, why did you have to damage our ship the way you did? Someone could have been killed and you would have been responsible!” A look of regret crossed Ariel’s features, but still she didn’t say anything.

“Sandy is too young to understand, and you’re hurting her mind!” Lorelei added. “How do you think she’s going to grow up with this?”

Ariel only looked down at her feet.

“Why are you doing this?” Justy pleaded. “Just tell us why…”

“Answer the questions,” Taro said quietly. Ariel glanced up at her with a sudden look of defiance, but remained quiet. Taro nodded. “Okay, I didn’t want to resort to this, but you have left us with little choice. Doc?”

Jerry pulled a capped needle syringe from the pocket of his lab coat and got to his feet. Ariel’s eyes widened and Lorelei gasped. “What’s that?” the rabbit asked. She was no friend to chemical medications, but knew that the physician had to be prepared for most emergencies and had a well-stocked lockup of pharmaceuticals.

The vulpine doctor held up the syringe in front of the canine woman. “Have you ever heard of silphium?” he asked. Ariel swallowed hard and shook her head. Lorelei, however, tilted her head to the side and was about to say something when the doctor turned and shushed her. Taro moved behind Ariel and gently took her arms to hold her in place. Jerry knelt down beside the canine and parted the fur of her forearm with two fingers.

“Silphium is a powerful truth serum,” he explained. Lorelei cleared her throat and started to say something again, but the doctor turned to glare at her. The rabbit closed her mouth and sat back with a puzzled look. Jerry continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “It puts the patient’s mind into a dulled, malleable state that prevents her from remembering that she needs to lie to questions put to her.” Ariel suddenly looked afraid and stared at the drop of clear liquid oozing from the tip of the sharp needle.

Taro asked over the canine woman’s shoulder, “Are there any side effects?”

Jerry nodded with a solemn expression. “Just one,” he replied. “Silphium has a gray history of sometimes destroying brain cells in the higher cognitive functions. It’s only a fifty-fifty chance that she’ll come out of it with her intelligence intact, but if we get the information we want, she may never know it.” Ariel’s pupils dilated greatly at that news and she began to pant as the room seemed to spin around her.

Justy sat up, a horrified expression on his face. “Is that ethical?” he asked in a strained voice. “I thought you doctors were supposed to be against harming a patient!”

“That is our creed,” Jerry admitted, “but I am also under the command of our captain. I was instructed to give our passenger a dose of silphium if she refused to answer our questions.”

“Ariel Bennington’s actions have endangered us all,” Taro added with an edge to her voice. “Our distress signal may not be picked up in time. We may drift too far out of traditional shipping lanes for help to arrive in time.”

“Don’t do it!” Amanda pleaded. Lorelei’s puzzlement became amusement as she listened to the reactions around her. She had to hold a hand over her mouth to keep from giggling aloud. Amanda turned to glare at her in disbelief that the doe could be so heartless.

“Do it!” Max’s voice called from the intercom, uncharacteristic anger dripping from his words. “I want to know why she did this to us all!”

“Captain?” Jerry asked.

Taro leaned closer to the Cocker Spaniel’s ear. “Her companions left her behind and she knows we won’t just let her go even if we do get rescued, so I don’t think we have anything to lose,” she said coldly. “We can hand what’s left of her over to the authorities. I’m sure they can find a nice quiet corner of a sanitarium to park her until mealtimes. Go ahead, Doctor.”

Jerry nodded with a grim expression and Ariel suddenly shouted in his face, “Don’t!” she shrieked. “Don’t!” Her eyes welled up with tears, but the male red fox pressed the tip of the needle up to the skin between his fingers. On the couch, Amanda clutched a pillow to her chest and began to gnaw on a corner tassel.

Jerry let the tip of the needle barely prick her skin and Ariel shrieked again. “No!” she screamed. “I’ll talk! I’ll tell you want you want to know!”

“That’s right, you will,” Taro said. “Continue, Doctor.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Ariel started bawling. So did Amanda.

“Hold it, Doc. I think she’s really changed her mind,” Taro said. Ariel bobbed her head up and down frantically and the physician finally withdrew the syringe to a safe distance. He didn’t put it away, however. He held it within her sight should she change her mind.

“I’ll talk… I’ll talk…” the Cocker Spaniel whimpered. Taro released the canine’s arms and then she took a seat in the circle.

It took a moment for her to compose herself and wipe her eyes on the fur of her arms. When Ariel spoke a moment later, she folded her hands together in her lap and stared down at them.

“Since you never found her family,” she began, “I assume you don’t know who she is. The kitten you are protecting is Sandilee Binfurr, the only daughter of the Binfurr clan of Fyn.”

“Binfurr? Don’t they make firearms?” Taro asked.

Ariel nodded. “Three years ago, Binfurr financially ruined my family and several others,” she said quietly. “We began plotting shortly afterward and have been watching their daily routine for patterns ever since. Last week, we put our plan in motion and kidnapped Sandilee from her nanny while they were shopping. Several of my friends took her to Vashon to hide out until the ransom was paid, but then that asteroid messed up our plans.”

“It messed up everybody’s plans,” Justy muttered.

“The kid got separated from our friends during the evacuation. Somehow she ended up on your ship while the others got swept away onto another.” She looked up and glanced briefly at the koala who had spoken. “The ship my friends got on didn’t make it off the moon in time.”

She sighed and leaned against the back of her chair, looking over at Taro. “We thought the kid was lost with them until we saw the interview where you showed her to the cameras, asking for help identifying her family. We knew we had to act fast. If we saw your broadcast, then it was likely that someone in the Binfurr clan probably did too. It became a race to get me on board before you left. If I discovered that you still had the kid, then I was to find a way to disable the ship so my friends could come and get us before Binfurr sent their own ship out after you.”

“Sandy’s family is on their way now?” Lori asked.

“Probably. That’s why my friends didn’t hang around. We failed in our attempt to get the kitten back, so they had to get out before someone else got here.”

“That means we’ll be rescued!” Justy said with a smile.

“Ariel,” Max said tersely, “why the bouncy, seductive act when you first came on board?”

“In case any of you had seen the local news about the kidnapping, I needed to make sure none of you would be suspicious of a last-minute passenger.” She looked embarrassed and then looked back down at her hands. “I saw the mechanic’s crest on your shirt, Max, so I knew you worked on the engines that I would need to disable. When I bought a ticket on your ship, your dispatcher gave me your rules, and one of them stated that passengers were not allowed on the engine and cargo deck. You’re close to my age and a canine like me, so I figured it would be simple to sweet-talk you into getting a tour of your engines, even if it wasn’t really allowed.”

“Then… then why did we… uh, y’know?”

Ariel smiled a little. “I found out what I needed to know about the engines. After that, I was on my own until my friends arrived, so I saw no harm in having a little fun with an attractive male.” Max cleared his throat uncomfortably, but said nothing more.

Lorelei looked at Ariel. “How much fun could you have with Max?” she asked. “He’s been neutered.” Nearly everyone stared at the rabbit’s audacity to say something like that publicly.

Ariel looked back at the bunny in amusement. “Are you sure? If he was, I couldn’t tell. Everything was there and in working order.”

Max cleared his throat again and suddenly his crewmates looked all around them, anywhere but at one another. “Lori,” the young mechanic said quietly, “I was sterilized, not neutered.”

“But… you told us all that you were neutered,” the rabbit reminded him.

“I was a kid when I told you that, and I didn’t know the difference at the time. I’ve learned more about myself since then.”

Taro stood up and waved a hand toward the bunny. “Lori, this is neither the time nor the place for this topic.” Lorelei sat back on the couch, a strange expression on her face as she considered what she’d just discovered. She suddenly started to laugh.

“What’s gotten into you?” Amanda asked her. “I don’t think it’s funny to embarrass Max!”

The lapin cook snickered and glanced over at Jerry. “Sorry, Max, but actually, it’s appropriate and ironic at the same time.”

“Why is that?” Damien asked; it was the first thing he had said since the interrogation had begun.

Lori giggled. “The silphium that Doc was going to inject her with isn’t a truth serum,” she said. “It’s an herbal contraceptive!”

“What?” Ariel exclaimed. She looked at Jerry in shock. He gave her a satisfied smile and capped the needle.

“I’ve been had…” the Cocker Spaniel muttered. There were chuckles at her crestfallen expression, but Taro waved her arms for silence.

“Well, we got what we were after,” she said. “If what she says is true, we should expect a representative from the Binfurr family before long. If we’re lucky, they’ll be able to get us safely off the Blue Horizon and allow us to ride with them back to Fyn. We’ll have to abandon the ship for now, but I’m sure Merlin can arrange with someone to get out here to tow it to a safe port where it can be repaired.”

“If pirates don’t find it first and strip it of our cargo,” Pockets grumbled. “We can’t just leave the Horizon behind!”

“We may not have a choice,” Taro said. “I doubt that Binfurr will have a spare airlock on board to loan us. Without it, it’s pointless to stay on board. However, we haven’t been rescued yet, so we still have to rely on someone picking up our distress signal in time.”

“Are we done here?” Damien asked wearily. “I need to go lie down again.”

Taro nodded. “Yes, we’re done for now.” She turned to Ariel. “You will be confined to your quarters with the door locked. Lori will provide you with food at mealtimes, but will have an armed escort with her. Any attempts to escape or hurt any of us, and you will be sedated for the rest of your time with us. Understand?”

The Cocker Spaniel nodded. “Understood,” she muttered.

***

“That was some good acting there, partner!” Pockets said with a grin. “We all thought you were so angry you were going to crawl through the Com system to get at her!”

Max turned to the raccoon and raised an eyebrow. “Who said I was acting?” he replied in a stony voice. The smile evaporated from Pockets’ face and he stared at the German shepherd in disbelief.

“Uh, uhm…. Max?” he said. “I know what she did was bad, but… but don’t you think you might be taking this just a little too…”

“Gotcha!” the canine mechanic said with a face lit up in a wide grin.

Pockets’ expression froze for a moment before he remembered to blink. “Huh? You… you mean you didn’t really…”

Max laughed and took a bow. “As you said, I was acting! May I have my award now?”

The chief engineer sat down hard against the back of his chair. “You scared me!” he admitted, putting a hand up over his heart. “Why did you do that to poor Pockets?”

“You’re always teasing me,” Max replied. “I just thought it was a good time for a little payback!”

Pockets looked at him sideways for a moment before letting a smirk cross his face. “Okay, touché. You won that round, Maxie.”

“Yeah, I did, didn’t I? Besides, Taro asked me to play it up ahead of time.” The German shepherd grinned widely, but then after a moment, it faded from his face.

“What’s the matter?”

Max rubbed a hand over his face. “I still can’t believe what she did,” he muttered.

“Now, don’t get that way,” his partner replied. “You’re a great guy and she was attracted to you.”

The canine shook his head and gestured toward the LightDrive component systems outside the engineer’s office. “No, I meant what she did to the Horizon. Couldn’t she have slowed us down without doing major damage to the engine? I don’t condone her mission, but if all she wanted was Sandy, she didn’t have to hurt the rest of us like this.”

Pockets raised an eyebrow. “You’re not upset that she used you to get to the engine room?”

“Of course not, that would be silly.”

“Silly? That’s certainly not a reply I expected.”

“I’m not happy that her goal was to sabotage the engine, but why should I be upset that she gave me some personal attention?” the young mechanic asked. “After getting dumped by Wendy, I’m not ready for another relationship, but I think I needed the notice of cute girl, even for a short while. You tell me, Pockets — who used who?”

The raccoon shook his head in amusement. Max had grown up.

***

Renny brushed a finger across the top of Sandy’s fuzzy head as she slept. He’d made a pallet for her on the floor of the bridge using blankets from his quarters and now she slept peacefully with the tip of her tail curled up against her nose.

He’d never grown up around other children younger than himself, and he had never really seen himself as a fatherly type, but since he had taken on the role of the kitten’s protector, he was enjoying his time with the youngster. Her innocence and wide-eyed wonder at everything around them continually amazed him, and her naïve take on life was amusing. She seemed to have an endless supply of questions, asking him about everything she saw, and never seemed daunted when Renny failed to explain the answers in a manner for someone as young as her to understand.

She made him laugh, and it pleased him that he could make her giggle as well. Sometimes it took a tender tickle, but other times all it took was a goofy look or funny-phrased answer to her questions. She snuggled up to him often and purred contently when he stroked the fur along her back.

Renny was unsure if he felt like he was acting as either a father or a big brother to the kitten, but however it was that she felt about him, he knew he wouldn’t hesitate to put himself in harm’s way to protect her. She’d been threatened twice in the past few hours and he would not tolerate it to happen again.

He watched her sleep for a few moments before he stood up and moved to the pilot’s center seat. Having the kitten around had given him some new things to think about during the quiet times. Sandy had only been with them a few days, but Renny discovered that he liked having someone to care for and protect.

He had always enjoyed a free lifestyle, and although he and Taro maintained something of a relationship, it was unlikely they would ever be married. With these new thoughts, the cheetah afforded himself a smile. Even if he and the vixen tried a species-mixed marriage, there would never be any natural cubs or kits in their family. Adoption was possible, and sad as it may be, there would always be orphan children who needed the love and attention of an adult.

He glanced back down at the kitten and wondered how anyone could willingly harm a life so innocent.

Short-range sensors suddenly chirped for his attention. The navigator pulled up the information on the left-hand vidscreen and felt the fur between his shoulder blades stand at attention. The Oubliette had returned.

The cheetah reacted instantly. Not bothering to hail them, he primed the freighter’s unconventional weaponry and locked it onto the incoming ship. He would have to be quick, as he could not operate the weapons and the maneuvering thrusters simultaneously from different stations. Renny fired the shock thread emitters, sending out a precise ripple of energy. However, the incoming ship was not yet in range for a weapon designed for close combat and the Oubliette only received a bumpy ride.

Cursing beneath his breath, the cheetah punched up the pulse cannons and fired off a shot. This had better results, blowing off a section of the other ship’s angular flight surface. It was not enough to cripple the space vessel, but it would hamper its ability to maneuver within a planetary atmosphere. His target had been the ship’s midsection, but without his ability to spin the Horizon on its axis, his aim had been off. With his hands full on the weapons control, he couldn’t even call someone to the bridge to pilot for him.

The commander of the Oubliette apparently recognized his handicap, for the vessel stayed out of range and maintained a position out of his line-of-sight to fire. The sensors showed him exactly where the ship was stationed, but he was unable to bring the cannons to bear upon it again. It was not unlike a mosquito one could hear in the night over a bed, but couldn’t see to swat it.

He was puzzled, however, because the Oubliette never fired upon the freighter. It merely harried the ship, annoying its navigator. Jerry suddenly burst in through the door behind him. “I heard the weapons fire. What can I do to help?” he asked in a rush.

“Orient the Horizon with the thrusters so I can get off a shot at them.”

“Aye!”

With only maneuvering thrusters at their command, all they could do was spin around to point their weapons. It was enough, however. Several close grazes convinced the Oubliette to depart for deeper space at a high velocity. It completely disappeared from the sensors just as Taro walked in through the door.

The vixen knelt down next to Sandy, who was now sitting up and rubbing her little eyes with her paws. “What happened?” she asked no one in particular. Sandy held up her arms to the captain and Taro picked her up obediently.

“Ariel’s friends came back,” Renny replied. His attention was riveted to the sensors, awaiting the Oubliette to return for another round. His eyes popped wide, however, when a return signal came from the opposite direction. He had no idea how the ship could have circled them so fast, but he primed the pulse cannons for another fight.

The com station chirped, so Taro carried the kitten with her to answer. Like Renny, she expected the Oubliette to demand the release of their passengers, but all three adults on the bridge received a surprise. A Siamese cat wearing a pressed gray uniform stared out at them with bright blue eyes from the center vidscreen.

“Blue Horizon, stand down your weapons for assistance,” she said. “This is the SPF Cruiser Aldantia in answer to your distress signal. I repeat, stand down your weapons. The hostile has launched into spatial warp and is no longer a threat.”

Taro gave Sandy a smile and thumbed the reply as Renny obediently shut down his array. “This is Captain Taro Nichols of the Blue Horizon. Thank you for coming, Aldantia. We’re glad you could make it to our little party.”

“Our sister ship, SPF Garroway is in pursuit of your attacker. I am Spatial Police Officer Celia Sashay. What is your condition, Captain?”

Taro gave the feline a quick rundown on their troubles, the cat nodding and taking notes on a slateboard, but never interrupting the explanation. Taro covered everything from the escape of Vashon to their present situation. “We have Ariel Bennington locked up in one of our cabins,” she finished. Then she indicated the kitten in her arms. “Sandilee Binfurr is well. If you can help us, I am sure her family would like to know of her whereabouts.”

“We have been in contact with child’s family. The Chitraka was already en route and should arrive in a couple hours. Mr. Binfurr will be most anxious to see his daughter again. Captain, will you allow us to couple with your vessel for a personal meeting?”

“That would be great, but as I mentioned, our airlock is damaged beyond repair. We have no way to receive you.”

The Siamese smiled and her eyelids appeared quite slanted with the expression. “We are prepared for this emergency,” she said. “A modified walkway will be extended to cover the opening in your hull and we have enough reserves to pressurize your hold. This will allow your engineers to leave the engine room and then we can move freely between our two vessels. When the Garroway returns, she will stand watch over us while our ships are connected.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Taro replied. “Feel free to begin at any time.”

“Operation will begin immediately. See you soon, Captain.”

***

The procedure took two hours to get the walkway in place and the cargo bay pressurized. The second SPF cruiser arrived before Pockets and Max were freed from engineering, but the Garroway maintained a discreet distance to ward off any further attacks.

SPO Sashay introduced herself and four other SPF officers to Taro while Jerry gave the mechanics a quick physical check before he released them to the upper decks. Max and Pockets both headed to their respective showers to clean up before going up to a full meal that Lorelei had prepared for them.

With the exception of Damien, who remained in his cabin, the rest of the Blue Horizon crew had gathered on the recreation deck to meet their rescuers. Sashay and her partners took all their statements, and although both Renny and Jerry insisted that Sandilee was in good health, one of the officers looked her over and talked quietly with the kitten for a short time.

In the end, the officer complimented Renny on his care of the youngster. Despite the traumatic events she had experienced, the child was in good spirits. The real test came when two of the officers escorted Ariel up to the deck and Sandy saw her again for the first time since the attempted abduction.

The kitten stiffened up at first, but when the Cocker Spaniel didn’t do anything threatening, she relaxed and sat down on the carpeted floor to retrieve a crayon from under the couch so she could color on a scrap piece of paper.

SPO Wagner approached Taro and looked up at her with a small slateboard in his hands. “Captain, before we go any further, we will need a decision from you,” the silver fox told her.

“Sure, what I do I need to do?” the vixen replied.

“Well, the damage to your hatch and double hulls is more than what we can repair and make functional, but there are three options open to you. One, we can transfer your crew and passengers to the Aldantia and then transport you to Joplin to the SPF Headquarters, where another transport can be arranged to take you on to Dennier. Two, you can board the Garroway for a return to Alexandrius. Either way, you will have to abandon the Blue Horizon until such time as when your company can send a tow transport or a fully equipped repair team out to it. We can set up a transmission denying salvage rights to anyone who may happen across it in the meantime, but we can’t guarantee that pirates won’t simply ignore the warning and take what they want from your ship. We’re still at the edge of the Van Conner Nebula, which is a known hunting ground for pirates. Frankly, I’m surprised you haven’t been accosted by any of them since you sent out a distress. Like a wounded animal, I’m sure others will come sniffing for you soon enough. Anyway, we can offer you transport if you wish.”

Taro frowned. “I’m not sure I really care for either option if it means abandoning our ship to all-comers,” she said, “but it’s something we’ve already discussed. What was the third possibility?”

“Even if we had a spare airlock to replace with yours, there is still major structural damage outside the hatch area. The best we can offer is to seal you and your crew inside, and then you can make your way to whatever port you desire. We can help you repair your engines to get you mobile, then vacuweld thick metal plates over the damaged area as an external patch. Once sealed, you can then pressurize your cargo chamber and be on your way. It will allow you to make an atmospheric landing someplace where you can then make more permanent repairs, whether back on Alexandrius or continue on to your Dennieran destination. When you land, you’ll have to disembark through your cargo bay door, but at least the primary airlock will be sealed against the vacuum.”

Taro absently toyed with the feather hanging from her fur as she mulled over the choices. Finally, she nodded to the silver fox with a sigh. “I think the third option is our best scenario,” she said, “but my mechanics say they don’t have the parts necessary to replace the damaged components. I am assuming you think your engineers can help us return to flight if you’ve offered that option, so I’ll have Max and Pockets get with them as soon as they’ve had a chance to rest a bit from their meals.”

Wagner nodded and made a notation in his slateboard. “Very well, then,” he said. “SPF Officers Lawrence and Bruner will start accessing your damaged systems as soon as your folks are ready. They are among the best engineering mechanics in the Spatial Police Force.”

“Thank you, Officer,” Taro replied. “We really appreciate your willingness to help.” Wagner gave her a grateful smile and then wandered away to report in to his shipmates. Before Taro had a moment to turn around, another officer walked over to her.

“Captain?” said a tan coyote with eyes the color of burnished copper. “I’m SPO Bergey. I’ve been examining the damaged cargo in your hold. If I could talk to your load master and have a look at your manifest, I’ll do what I can to make sure a proper report is made to the owners of the cargo and all insurance parties involved.”

“My load master has been ill and out of commission through this whole affair, so he’s currently resting in his quarters,” Taro replied. “However, if we go talk to him, I’m sure he will be able to assist you in your duties.”

“Thank you, Captain. Lead the way.”

Taro and the Bergey quickly left the din of the recreation deck and quietly rode the elevator lift down to the crew deck. The coyote said nothing until they stopped in front of the cabin door and read the name plate. His eyes narrowed briefly.

“Is this the name of your crewmate?” he said with a suddenly cautious expression on his face. “Is he a mastiff?”

“Yes, on both accounts,” Taro replied, puzzled. “Do you know him?”

The coyote pulled up his DataCom unit and tapped a code. There was a blip and then he spoke quietly. “This is Bergey. I’m on the second level at the cabin door of Damien Legrand. Please assist me.”

“Legrand?” There was a noticeable pause. “We’re on our way.”

Taro twitched an ear and ran a hand through her head fur. “Officer, what’s going on?”

The coyote looked up at her. “How long have you known Mr. Legrand?” he asked.

The question took the vixen by surprise. “Only a few months,” she replied truthfully. “We hired him on Pomen after our previous load master passed away from a heart condition. Why?”

They heard the lift door around the corridor open and feet moved quickly in their direction. They couldn’t know where the cabin was located, but the deck was elliptical in a full circle, so it wouldn’t have mattered which direction they took.

Taro watched in sudden trepidation when the lion and the black bear pulled out their side arms, taking up positions on both sides of the cabin door. “Will someone give me an explanation before this goes any further?” she asked, stepping in front of the coyote. “We’ve had a lot of excitement lately and I don’t care to be in the dark.”

“Captain,” Bergey started with a worried expression, “A mastiff named Damien Legrand has been on the run for over a year in connection with the death of two children on Pomen.”

Taro’s eyes grew wide and her lips parted in disbelief. “M-murdered?” she asked.

“Evidence supports a hit and run. Legrand has an extended DUI record and it’s believed he may have been intoxicated when he sped through a school zone. Two ursine children died instantly and their mother had to be committed to a local institution from a mental breakdown. The father also sold much of their assets to tender a reward for his capture.”

“Oh God!” The vixen gasped. She put both hands up to her mouth and backed up against the cabin door.

“Please keep in mind that so far this is all circumstantial with evidence found on his vehicle. It will be up to a court to decide whether or not he is the one who ran down the children, but we have a standing warrant for his arrest.”

One of the other officers stepped forward, but didn’t touch her. “Captain,” the lion asked in a firm voice, “will you allow us to do our job, or are you going to block our way to him?”

Taro blinked and looked over at him with a tight throat. “What? Uh, no… I won’t stop you,” she said as she moved away from the door.

“Captain,” Bergey said gently. “Will you call him out, please?”

The vixen nodded and composed herself. She knocked on the panel and spoke loudly. “Damien? This is Taro. I need you out here, please.”

There was a hesitation, and then a muffled reply. “Coming.” When the door opened, the mastiff looked up with tired eyes. He had showered and put on clean clothes, but he still looked haggard. As soon as he saw the SPF officers, he swallowed and raised his arms in surrender.

“Then… it’s true?” Taro whispered with moist eyes.

Damien looked at her with a sorrowful expression and nodded before looking down at his feet. “I’m not sure what they told you,” he said quietly, “but they have been after me.”

“Damien Legrand,” SPO Bergey said in a firm voice as the other two pulled stout manacles from their belts and cuffed his arms behind him, “you are under arrest in connection with the hit and run deaths of Jomy and Karina Soljer. Will you come peacefully?”

“Yes,” the mastiff replied solemnly. “I’m through running.” He looked back over at the vixen and said, “Thank you for taking care of me, Taro, and thank you for caring.”

The vulpine captain put a hand on his arm. She didn’t know how to respond, so she leaned in and gave him a gentle peck on the cheek as moisture rimmed her eyes.

“Excuse us, ma’am,” Bergey said. The lion and the black bear led Damien away, back to the elevator lift. He would be taken over to the Aldantia and likely locked up in the brig with Ariel Bennington.

Shaken, Taro walked numbly to her cabin and shut the door behind her. She needed a few moments to compose herself before going back to her crew.

***

“I am now transmitting the SPF report for Interstellar Insurance,” Taro said, bringing her report close to an end. “The officers have gone over the manifest, but the crane smashed several of the containers so bad that identifying individual parts is going to be next to impossible. We have swept up everything into a spare container, but it will be up to someone else to sift through them as needed. Fortunately for Loxley DataStream, none of the satellites were damaged, but we may have to replace the crane hook.”

The piercing amber eyes of Merlin Sinclair peered out of the monitor in the captain’s den, his expression one of longsuffering. Taro set her slateboard onto the desk and picked up a cup of water, awaiting his response.

The wolf was well-groomed, dressed in a pressed gray suit with a tie the color of his eyes. He hated wearing ties, but he’d be meeting shortly with local agents of JR Lane Astrogation and Interstellar Insurance and wanted to look professional.

“Have you talked with Damien since he was placed under arrest?” he asked quietly.

“No, I can’t get onto the Aldantia to see him,” Taro replied. “There’s an officer guarding the airlock to their vessel, and the rest of them are helping Pockets fabricate some kind of replacement for the damaged components. They don’t have actual Okami parts, so they are trying to come up with something that will work long enough to get us to Dennier.”

“We do a security background check with every new employee we hire. I don’t understand why Damien’s police records were never brought to our attention,” Merlin grumbled.

“We usually go through SPF channels for the security checks,” Taro reminded him, “but I think we used a local firm when Damien was hired.”

“You’re right. I think we did. Admittedly, none of us was thinking clearly after we lost Durant, especially since we were interviewing applicants for the job that was his.”

The vixen leaned forward on the desk and rested her chin on an arm. “He has shown signs of inner demons for a while. I talked with him a couple times, but he would never open up to what was bothering him. Now I know why. I asked Sashay if there was anything we could do to help him, but she told me that Damien’s problems are out of our hands. What was done happened before he came on board, that it doesn’t concern us. I understand that, but it seemed like a rude answer.”

“How is everyone handling it?”

Taro frowned and closed her eyes. “I’ve not told anyone yet. After they took him away, I went to my cabin to calm down a bit. Since no one else saw them take him away, he’s still resting in his quarters as far as everyone else knows. I figure they don’t need another worry at the moment. None of the SPF officers have mentioned it to my crew, so I assume they’re focusing on their current work to help us get up and running again.”

She sat back in her chair, kicked off her sandals, and put her feet up on the corner of her desk. “I know that Interstellar Insurance will help with some of it, Merlin, but you know it’s going to cost an arm, a leg and three toes to get the Blue Horizon back into service. Not only do the engine components need to be replaced with actual parts, and not only does the airlock hatch have to be replaced, but Pockets said that whatever they used on us did some major structural damage to both the internal and outer hulls. That’s going to put us out of commission for a long time, and we’ll probably lose more customers since we can’t stick to our current schedule.”

It was subtle, and quick, but Taro saw a brief expression flicker across the wolf’s face. Had she not been looking directly at him, she might have missed it, but Merlin acted as if nothing transpired. “Let me worry about all that,” he said in an even voice. “I’m sure we can weather this okay.”

Taro narrowed her eyes. “You’re not usually so calm talking about this kind of money. What’s going on?”

Merlin raised an eyebrow. “Everything is under control on this end,” he assured her. “However, I am starting to re-think my decision to allow passengers on board as Space Available. It’s brought in only small amount of extra revenue, and situations like yours might not have happened if Ms. Bennington hadn’t been on board.”

“I’m sure she and her partners would have tried another way to get Sandy from us,” Taro replied, allowing the conversation to be redirected away from her question. “I didn’t care for the idea at first, but now I’m okay with having passengers on board. We do have more cabins than personnel, so why not use them to bring in a little extra income?”

“Well, I’m still going to think about it. I’m not sure if it’s worth the bother to all three crews.” He fell silent for a moment and then snapped his fingers. “I just remembered… Have you been watching INN lately?”

Taro chuckled. “No, I’m afraid I haven’t. We’ve been a little busy for that luxury.”

“Interpost has undergone major restructuring and is back in business. After you land, Interpost will take possession of your final mail shipment. You’ll no longer be required to pick up and deliver a mail quota with each flight”

Taro nodded. “That’s just one less thing for us to be concerned about,” she said. “Good.”

“While I’m thinking of it, tell Renny we’re proud of his involvement with the kitten. I’m glad he was there for her.”

“He wasn’t happy with the assignment at first, but now I think he’ll be distraught when he has to give her up. He’s gotten quite fond of the kid.”

There was a soft ping from the timepiece on Merlin’s wrist. He glanced at it and frowned. “Whoops… Time for me to meet with Interstellar.”

“Have fun with your meeting.”

The wolf gave her a smirk. “Uh huh, I’m sure it’s something I will enjoy immensely… Keep me posted on your progress.”

“I will. Talk to you later, Merlin.” Taro terminated the signal and lapped up another drink from her cup. The intercom chirped and she reached for it automatically. “This is Taro.”

“Captain, we have a problem,” Amanda’s reported from the bridge.

“So what else is new?” the vixen replied with a wry smile. “What is it this time?”

“A long-range cruiser called Chitraka has just pulled up alongside us, Registry 80898. The captain has identified himself as Tisane Binfurr.”

“That would be Sandy’s father. The SPF said he was on his way. What’s the problem?”

“He wants to come aboard and get his daughter, but the Aldantia is still coupled with the Horizon. I tried to explain our situation to him that the SPF ship can’t pull away without decompressing the cargo deck, but he doesn’t seem to care.”

“Put him in contact with Sashay over on the Aldantia. Maybe she can explain it to him sufficiently. Until we can get the engines operational to LightDrive capability, we cannot uncouple the ships.”

“I don’t think he’ll listen, but I’ll refer him to the SPF as directed.”

“I understand his excitement about seeing Sandy again, but he’s going to have to wait.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

***

“Hello, Captain. I am Tisane Binfurr. Sandilee is my daughter.”

Taro shook his hand and gave him a pleasant nod. The male cheetah was not much older than Renny, but he had the air about him of someone with money and power. He wore minimal clothing over his spotted fur, but it was considered expensive business attire on Fyn. He was also accompanied by three other male cheetahs with stony expressions.

“Welcome aboard, Mr. Binfurr,” she told him as she gestured toward the gaping hole in their hull. Fortunately for them all, the SPF walkway covered it over as protection against the void outside. “I’m sorry for the delay in getting you over here, but you can see our problem here. Fortunately, the Aldantia had a portside airlock that you could connect to in order to get over here.”

“Yes, I apologize for my impatience,” Binfurr replied, dropping his smile. “I’m sorry for the problems you have faced on my daughter’s behalf, but I’m appreciative that your people fought to protect her. I will be in touch with your company’s president to offer compensation as soon as we return to Fyn.”

“I am sure Mr. Sinclair will be grateful, but our insurance will cover part of the costs.”

Binfurr took Taro gently by the arm and led her a few steps away from his escort. In a quieter voice he said, “Let me pay for the damage. I’m good with numbers and estimates, and from the report the SPF sent me, repairing your vessel will cost me far less than the ransom that was demanded on my kitten. I can also help if you will allow me to send some business your way. I was using TranStar to deliver our goods, but of late, they have been unreliable. I suppose that is inevitable when you use a company so large they no longer provide a personal touch for their clients.”

Taro nodded. “I have heard rumors that TranStar Shipping can be a little stiff with their customers, but I’ve never had direct dealings with them myself. We would appreciate any business you can direct our way, sir.”

Binfurr rubbed his hands together. “Consider it done. Now, may I see my daughter, please?”

The vixen led him past the smashed cargo containers around the perimeter of the hold and took him to the elevator lift. The stony escort followed a few steps behind. When Taro glanced back at them, Binfurr pursed his lips.

“Apologies for the armed escort, Captain, but after recent events, it’s a necessity.”

“Armed?” Taro repeated in shock. “How did you get weapons through a police ship?”

The cheetah grinned. “An armed escort for the armed escort,” he explained. “We have the necessary PA firearm licenses, so they let us through, but only with their own escort.”

“What kind of firearms?” Taro asked tentatively, punching the lift control for the third deck. “We have our own, but I’m always reluctant to bring them out while we’re in flight, no matter the reason. Too many things can happen with a tiny puncture through the hull from a wild shot.”

“I agree,” Binfurr said with a nod. “At the moment, we’re carrying stunners.”

Taro looked up in alarm. “That’s what the intruders used on us.”

“I hate to side with our enemies, but stunners are best for use in instances like what you went through,” the cheetah remarked. “Better a temporary shock to your nervous system than a bullet through a vital organ. Stunners also won’t pierce a pressurized hull by accident. You need a stock of our stunners for your armory.”

The lift door opened and Binfurr stepped out onto the carpeted recreation deck. Renny stood near one of the room’s couches, quietly grooming Sandy’s fur with his good arm. The kitten sat on the cushion with her eyes closed and hands folded in her lap, purring contentedly.

Binfurr’s eyes crinkled in delight and his breath caught in his throat. He swallowed and then spoke the child’s name in voice barely above a whisper. “Sandilee.”

The kitten’s eyes snapped open and she bounded off the couch before she had even seen his face. “Papa!” she exclaimed with an excited squeak. The kitten launched from the floor into her father’s arms. Binfurr’s eyes filled with moisture as he held his daughter close and rubbed his cheek against hers, both of them purring joyfully.

Taro moved to Renny’s side and put an arm around his shoulders. The navigator wore a wide grin, but it began to fade from his lips. He glanced over at her as she gave him a knowing smile. Even she could see how much he was going to miss the kitten, and she wasn’t even gone yet.

Carrying Sandilee in his arms, Binfurr walked over to Renny and held out his hand. “Mr. Thornton,” he said respectfully, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The cheetah males shook hands and the navigator gave him a nod.

“Mr. Binfurr.”

“Rinny!” the kitten said as she pointed a tiny finger at him. Renny reached out automatically and touched the tip of her finger with his own before he even realized he had done so.

“It looks like you two have gotten along well,” said the father. “I am thankful for the care and protection you have given my daughter. What can I do to repay your kindness?”

Renny’s throat tightened and he shook his head. “Nothing, sir. Having her around has been a treat. She was well-behaved and I do think I will… miss her.”

“Allow me to do something for you.”

Renny reached out and stroked the kitten’s cheek with a finger. She rubbed her chin on it with a smile and a fresh purr. “Just make sure she’s safe and happy,” he replied. “Goodbye, Sandy-kitten.”

“Bye?” the youngster said, grasping his finger. “Don’ go!”

Renny smiled. “I’m not going anywhere, kitling. You’re going home with your papa.”

“Come with!”

Binfurr looked amused. “You are welcome to join us, Mr. Thornton,” he said. “It should not be difficult to find a place for someone with your skills within my company.”

There was no hesitation in the navigator’s reply. He shook his head with a smile and said, “Thank you, sir, but my skills are needed here on board the Horizon. I appreciate the offer.”

“Don’ want you to go…” Sandilee said with a pout.

Renny snickered and gave her a little tickle, making the protruding lip pull in over a giggle. “Be a good girl, Sandy,” he said.

Binfurr tilted his head. “I’m not quite sure I recognize your accent. Where on Fyn are you from?”

Renny chuckled. “I’m from Kantus, actually,” he replied. “The Gatian Savannah, to be precise. My family has been there for several generations.”

“That’s interesting. If you are ever on Fyn, Mr. Thornton, you’re welcome at my estate at any time.”

“May I make a request, sir?” the navigator asked.

“Name it.”

“May I have permission to write to Sandilee on occasion? I would like to know that the experiences she has witnessed since she was taken from you have not caused her lasting trauma.”

“Of course. We will stay in touch. I am sure she would like to know that her protector is doing well.” The child’s father leaned in closer with a wry smile. “Protection means a lot to the Binfurr name, you know!”

“Yes, I guess it does,” Renny said with a laugh.

“Well, if you will excuse me, I want to get Sandilee safely back to the Chitraka.” Binfurr’s look became troubled as he added, “Then I want to have a long talk with Ms. Bennington. I understand there are grievances that caused this whole mess.”

“Of course,” Renny answered. He leaned in and rubbed noses with the kitten. “I will miss you, Sandy,” he said. “Be good for your papa.”

The youngster stuck out her bottom lip again and then wrapped her arms around her father. Binfurr shook hands with the navigator warmly and then did the same with Taro.

“Thank you again, Captain,” he said. “I bid you all a safe journey.”

***

A day after the departure of the Chitraka, several of the Blue Horizon’s crew was in the galley eating lunch. Amanda had just put on some light music on the sound system and everyone was chatting idly when the lights went out and the music went dead. Red emergency lights in the ceiling flicked on, giving the surprised personnel an eerie glow.

“That can’t be good,” Justy muttered.

Taro wiped her hands on a napkin and got up to make her way to the intercom panel, but she only made three strides before the power came back on. The intercom chirped for attention before she reached it.

“This is the captain,” the vixen responded.

“Captain, this is SPO Wagner. Have you had any power interruptions up there?”

“Yes, just now. It only lasted a moment, though.”

“Good, that’s what we needed to hear. Wagner, out.”

“Wait!” Taro exclaimed into the microphone.

“Yes?”

“What’s going on? What was that?”

“The ship’s power has just been transferred through the replacement components. We should be ready for an engine start test in about thirty minutes.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Taro replied, “but will that be a good idea with our ships still coupled together?”

“There will be no forward movement, ma’am, but the chargers will need to be powered up to make sure our jury-rigged repairs are going to handle the power running through them.”

“Understood. Let us know if we need to do anything from the bridge.”

“Acknowledged. Wagner, out.”

***

Pockets, Max and SPO Lawrence were in pressure suits inside the cargo bay as pumps removed the atmosphere from the deck. The engine startup had been successful and Lorelei had later prepared a celebration meal for the crews of both vessels. A rest period followed to allow everyone the chance for a respite from fatigue, especially the engineers and mechanics. Several hours later, the second phase of the repair work began. If the first has not been successful, there would have been no need for the second.

Pockets monitored the readings from a control panel just outside the engine room door, while Max and Lawrence stood by the damaged airlock. The Aldantia had already sealed its primary hatch, and as soon as there was no pressure within the Horizon’s hold, the walkway would be retracted.

“That’s got it,” Pockets announced over his suit com signal. He shut off the vacuum pumps and set the safety switch.

“This is the Aldantia,” came back a reply that echoed in all three helmets. “Negative pressure confirmed. Retracting walkway. You may now open your cargo door.”

As soon as the cushioned seals of the walkway pulled away from the Horizon’s hull, Pockets activated the controls to open the large bay door. There was no need to let it fully extend up and outward, for all they required was enough room to pull out the large metal plates that had been transferred over from the Aldantia.

Lawrence and Max each picked up a tethered magnet from the floor at their feet. The gravity plates continued to provide them with normal footsteps across the deck, but as soon as they reached the edge of the breach, Max balked before stepping outside the ship.

“Don’t worry, Max,” Lawrence assured the German shepherd. “Just make sure your magnet is attached to the hull before you step out of the ship. It’s strong enough you won’t float away from the ship.”

The young mechanic frowned as he peered over the edge of the airlock. There was nothing but stars below the toes of his boots. “My brain knows that isn’t ‘down’, but to my eyes, it still looks like a long way to fall,” he muttered.

Lawrence smiled inside his helmet at the canine’s hesitation. “Is this your first time weightless in a space suit?” he asked.

“I’ve been weightless here in the cargo bay doing maintenance on the overhead crane, and I’ve been in a space suit before, but that was inside another ship that had no air. I’ve never been outside in space with nothing under my feet, though.”

Lawrence flung his tether diagonally out the hole and felt it swing around to attach to the hull. Then he stepped out into space, feeling gravity’s weight disappear. The lion turned slowly and faced his companion. “See?” he said. “No falling.”

Max chuckled nervously. “Okay, it’s my turn.” He moved one boot out away from the deck and felt the tug of gravity release it. He had the conditioned urge to step down, but there was no need, there being nothing for his foot to land on. He swallowed hard, and then instead of stepping out with the other foot, he closed his eyes and pushed off with his toes as Pockets had instructed him to do that day they worked on the crane pulley.

The German shepherd floated out away from the ship, but Lawrence suddenly latched onto his arm. “You forgot to deploy your tether,” the SPO informed him, taking hold of the magnet still in the canine mechanic’s hand. He flipped it toward the Horizon’s blue hull, where it picked up speed from attraction and hit the metal side hard without a bounce.

“Don’t ever do that again,” the lion scolded gently. “If you propelled yourself out here without a tether, you might keep going and never stop, long after your oxygen ran out. These suits aren’t equipped with thrusters.”

Max turned in his helmet to look at Lawrence with wide eyes. “I-I’m sorry,” he stammered. “I-uh, I-I didn’t think…”

“That’s right, and that’s what can kill you. Space is hostile – it’s a predator. We were never meant to be out here, Max, but we went beyond our natural abilities and came anyway. Since we broke the rules, Space will always try to kill us. Because of that, we must always be alert and we must always think. If you let your guard down while you are out here, you’ll never do anything again.”

Max was shaken. Literally. He started shaking inside his suit and he swallowed hard. “I… I… I don’t think I can do this,” he said after a moment.

“I think you can,” Lawrence said with an encouraging smile. “Once you fear Space, then you will respect Space. Having that respect will make you alert. I believe you’re now more ready than you were before you stepped out here with me a moment ago. Do you remember how we went over one another’s pressure suits to make sure all seals were properly sealed, that our airlines were connected properly, and that there were no kinks or tears in the material?” Max nodded. “That’s what partners do for one another. It’s too easy to forget something on your own, even if you are thorough, so you should always have a partner help you double-check everything – including your tether. For today, you’re my partner, and we will rely on one another to get this job done.”

“Oh… okay,” Max replied. He’d been fine, and even a little excited about working with the SPO on the hull patch, until he had made an error that could have been potentially fatal. Now he was unsure of his abilities, and was not all that comfortable being outside of the ship, but feeling the light tug of the tether against his belt harness was reassuring. “Uh, sir?” he asked as he willed his heart to calm down. “Thank you.”

Lawrence smiled and put a hand on the canine mechanic’s shoulder. “You’re welcome, Max. That’s what partners do.”

“Lawrence?” said another voice in their earphones.

“I’m reading you, Sashay. Go ahead.”

“Wagner and Bruner are on their way out, but the com in Bruner’s helmet is intermittent.”

“Thanks for the heads-up. We may have to use hand signals like we did during the Firedog incident.”

“Understood.”

Lawrence turned back to Max. “You remember the plan?” he asked.

“Yeah, you and I will position each of the large metal plates over the ruined airlock and the hole, while Mr. Wagner and Mr. Bruner vacuweld them into place.”

“It sounds simple, but the mass of the plates may be difficult to wrangle. You ready?”

Max took a moment to consult his insides and found them stable. He gave the lion a nod inside his suit and replied, “Yessir. Let’s get started.”

“Excellent. Follow my lead and go slow.”

***

From the small vidscreen in the engine room, Max and Pockets watched the twin SPF cruisers Aldantia and Garroway disappear from sight into deep space. Three metal panels had been welded into place over the external damage without an incident and then the engines had been tested on a brief trip that took them completely out of the Van Conner Nebula. Satisfied the jury-rigged engines would perform well enough to get them to Dennier, Taro thanked each of the Spatial Police Officers personally before they bid one another safe journeys.

Taro had promised her mechanics that they could rest and relax after it was determined the ship could run without constant monitoring. With both cruisers away to deliver their prisoners, she wanted the Blue Horizon on its way as quickly as possible.

Pockets switched off the vidscreen and then moved to the main control engineering console. He and Max prepped the LightDrive system and then the raccoon called up the bridge.

“This is Jerry,” said the fox’s voice.

“All systems are green. We can depart any time.”

“Thank you. Captain?”

Taro’s voice could be heard over the intercom. “Let’s go.” Twenty minutes later, the captain’s voice echoed in the engine room. “Everything looks normal up here,” she said. “Anything to report?”

“No problems,” Pockets replied. “Siilv energy transfer through the liquid crystal mix is normal. Output generation is down just a smidgeon, but it’s nothing that will hamper our flight.” He smirked at his partner. “I suspect it’s from some inferior parts that were recently installed. I wonder who did that.”

“Jerry says it was some goofus, but I don’t know who he might be talking about. Okay, guys, that all sounds good. Doc will take the first watch and keep an eye on the readings from up here. You boys are free to go rest. I imagine you’re sick of seeing the engine room for a while.”

“Aye to that,” the raccoon said with a smile. “I’m tired, but not really sleepy, so I may go up and watch one of the movies Sashay left with us.”

“I’ll watch one with you,” Max piped up. “I’ll even make the popcorn.”

“Deal!”

“Okay, guys. Have fun.” Taro closed the circuit as Pockets sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes.

“Ready to go?” the young mechanic asked.

“Max…”

“Yeah?” The German shepherd looked back at his partner. The usually-chipper raccoon worried on his lower lip for a moment, studying his canine companion. “What’s up?”

Pockets motioned for the young mechanic to join him in a small alcove at the back of the compartment. Something lay in the corner with a dark gray tarpaulin covering its bulk. The engineer pulled the tarp off onto the floor and then looked back at his friend.

“After we’ve had a chance to rest, I want your help installing something,” he said quietly.

Max looked at him oddly. “I thought we had all the engine parts back together,” he said. “What’s that?”

“This is a high-end navigation system,” the masked raccoon answered proudly. “I filched it from the cargo.”

“You did what?”

“Keep your voice down, Max. Taro told me we could start using the Vault drive if we had an astronomical navigation system that was sensitive enough to work with it, but that the company couldn’t afford it. I asked her that if I got one myself, would she allow us to use the drive and she said ‘Yes’.”

“Pockets…” Max said in disbelief, “I don’t think that’s what she had in mind!”

“Taro should know by now to be more specific,” the raccoon chuckled. “I never told her I could afford to buy one either, only that I could get one.”

“But not from our cargo!”

“Calm down, Max,” Pockets said with a sudden edge to his voice. “We could have used the Vault system twice for recent emergencies, but Taro didn’t trust our current astrogation system. She told me she still hasn’t even told Merlin about the Vault or what happened on Se’rei, so I took it upon myself to see we were not without the Vault again in the future.”

“But…”

“We may not use it for typical delivery flights, but for emergencies, I intend for it to be available to use without fear of ending up somewhere astray out in the cosmos.”

“Pockets, you can’t just steal something that expensive from our customer! What about the manifest!”

The raccoon grinned. “I’ve been fixing the manifest in Durant’s books long enough to know just how to make it look like a clerical error. I can do the same with Damien’s books, and since he’s still holed up in his quarters, this might be a good time for me to sneak in there and take care of it. In our favor, it should be a simple task to make it appear that this was one of the cases smashed by the intruders.”

“I can’t believe you, Pockets!” Max exclaimed. “This is… piracy! Are you no better than a pirate?”

“Listen to me, Max,” the engineer said darkly. “Our job on this ship is to keep her running and to keep her safe. If you’re going to be a mechanic on a starship, you are going to need to learn that sometimes you will do whatever is necessary to keep your friends and your cargo safe. I learned that a long time ago. I admit taking the Tanthean rug was a mistake, and I am sick and tired of apologizing for it, but something like this navigation system is a necessary step. Because of the actions of Ariel’s partners, Lane will be fully compensated for the loss by the insurance company. Had I not taken the equipment, it might have been damaged anyway. I took it from the very area where the other containers were smashed.”

“Did you know the intruders would damage the cargo?” Max asked with sudden wide eyes. It seemed inconceivable that his friend was in league with an intruder attack.

“No,” snorted the engineer, “but it worked into our favor anyway. As a friend once told me, ‘In confusion there is profit.’“

“Pockets, how can you think like that?”

“Max, if we’d had the Vault drive when the Basilisk attacked us four years ago, we could have gotten away and my friend Jiro would still be alive. Likewise, Sagan would have never been able to board us to hurt Taro if we’ve had this system. That is worth stealing a bit of technology. When I weigh someone’s financial loss against the loss of an innocent person’s life, I always choose to protect the life.”

The young canine mechanic sighed and put a hand to his forehead. He understood what Pockets was trying to tell him. He had often stolen food and other things to stay alive when he was a slave on Quet, but since he’d become a part of the Blue Horizon’s crew, they had all tried to teach him a better life.

“Max, if you won’t help me protect our ship and intend to turn me in, Taro is going to fire me for taking this equipment; one day the Horizon is going to find itself in a situation where speed is needed to save someone’s life, and a standard LightDrive engine isn’t going to be fast enough. The distances are simply too great. Someone you care for is going to die and you will vow never to let that ever happen again. Because of pirates, we lost Jiro and we almost lost Taro. We could have easily lost someone this time – maybe even you or me. I don’t want to risk that again!”

“All right, all right!” Max exclaimed in exasperation. “You’ve convinced me. I still don’t like the way you went about it, but I’ll help you.”

“Good boy, Max. The Vault may seem like an unreliable luxury to some, but with a top-of-the-line navigation system, we’ll have it at our disposal when the next emergency arises.”

“Okay, but we’d better get it installed before Taro finds out about it and cans us both.”

“There’s plenty of time to do it before we get to Dennier,” Pockets replied as he recovered the crate. “Let’s go watch a movie.”

***

The room was dark, save for a butterfly nightlight that glowed faintly on the wall. Renny Thornton sat on the carpeted floor of the front room, picking up broken bits of crayons, colored-on papers and scattered toys that Sandy had left behind.

The navigator had never considered himself the type who would ever have a family, but ever since the cheetah kitten had touched his life, he found himself thinking about it a great deal. As long as he remained on board the Blue Horizon, however, he didn’t see ever having another child to care for as a possibility. There were no other felines in the crew to start a family with, and it was unlikely he would be allowed to legally adopt unless he were part of a mated pair. Tsarina had often expressed a playful interest in having his kittens, but with the two of them being navigators on two separate vessels of Merlin’s fleet, it was unlikely they would ever get to serve on the same crew together.

Should he go back to Kantus and try to find a mate – or take up Binfurr’s offer to join his company on Fyn in hopes he would meet someone there?

No, he thought to himself with a smile. There’s no guarantee I would find anyone suitable, and I really don’t want to leave the Horizon anyway.

The cheetah got to his feet with Sandy’s things in his hands. He would store them away as souvenirs of her stay with him. Perhaps he would meet her again someday when she was older and return them as tokens of a shared moment in time.

The overhead intercom system chirped for attention and then Taro’s voice issued over the ship-wide broadcast.

“Attention, please. I need all personnel to gather on the recreation deck in fifteen minutes for a mandatory staff meeting. I repeat, all personnel to the recreation deck.”

Renny raised an eyebrow. As Taro’s first officer, he was usually privy to everything she had in mind for the crew, but of this, he knew nothing. He put the crayons and other items into a drawer of his desk and then moved quickly to the bedroom to change into a fresh shirt.

When he stepped off the lift onto the recreation deck a few moments later, everyone was already present except for Damien and Jerry. Taro stood at the front of the room, leaning back against the large vidscreen window behind her. Everyone talked among themselves as they waited for the cheetah to find a seat.

With everyone settled, the captain held up a hand with a remote. “Okay, quiet down everyone,” she said in a loud voice. It took a moment until everyone’s attention was on her. “Are you listening, Doc?”

“You have my full attention and my left vidscreen is tied into the one up there. Everything’s quiet here on the bridge and we’re cruising normally.”

“What’s going on?” Justy asked.

“Something serious,” the vixen replied. “If you look around, you will notice that Damien is not among us.”

“Is he still sick?” Lori asked with a snicker. “He’s slept through this whole mess! That’s what he gets for using chemicals in his system. I have some herbal tea that’ll perk him right up.”

“Please,” Taro said in annoyance. “I have the floor and need to say this without further interruption.”

Lorelei’s ears drooped and she put her hands in her lap. “Sorry.”

“Now,” the vixen started again, “let me start off by saying that I think Damien did an admirable job as load master.”

“Did?” Pockets repeated.

“Shhhh!” Max hissed at him.

“Damien is no longer a member of our crew,” Taro continued. “He is now resting in a cell on the Aldantia next to Ms. Bennington’s.” Before there was a chance for more unwelcome comments, she clicked the remote in her hand and an image appeared on the vidscreen behind her. It was an SPF wanted poster for Damien Legrand. The captain stepped to the side to allow everyone the opportunity to read it.

“Ohmigosh!” Amanda gasped in shock. “He killed two cubs!”

“That can’t be!” Justy exclaimed. “He was a good guy!”

“One of the SPOs recognized his name from this PA-wide alert,” Taro responded by gesturing toward the poster with the remote. “When three of them went to his cabin, he surrendered immediately without a fight. When confronted, all he would confirm is that he has been on the run.” More voices rose in comment, but the vixen shushed them with a wave of her hand. “He has been arrested and will be transferred back to the Pomen authorities after Ms. Bennington has been delivered to Fyn.”

“I guess that’s why he was always brooding,” Jerry said from the bridge.

“Are we in trouble for harboring a criminal?” Renny asked.

“The SPOs made no mention of that,” Taro answered. “I was told that his situation didn’t concern us, but you know that once the lawyers get involved, we may be drawn back into it. If this does happen, I am ordering you to be truthful with any investigation. Damien never talked about his past, so none of us knew why he was with us other than for the job on our crew. I have informed the home office of the situation, and Merlin agrees that the best thing for now is to let it go. We will deal with an investigation only if it comes back to us.”

The vixen shut off the image and then set the remote down on the control panel in front of the vidscreen. She leaned back against the counter, her hands behind her. “We’re still two and a half weeks away from Dennier. Once we land, I will assume Damien’s duties with Lane and Loxley when we transfer our cargo from the Horizon and until such time as I can hire someone to replace him.”

The room fell quiet for a few moments, everyone a little introspective about their now-former coworker. Justy held up a hand, hesitant about interrupting the silence. “Yes?” Taro responded with a nod.

“All this aside, has there been any word on the reason for our recall to Dennier?” the koala asked.

Taro shook her head. “None. No one at the home office is talking, but Doc and I are assuming we may have been given an assignment for some secret government delivery with a handsome payout. That would explain why no one would talk about it on an open channel, but again, we’re only guessing. Until we find out for sure, it’s probably a good idea not to worry about it. Merlin has assured me that we have nothing to be concerned about. However, before we can do anything, the Horizon will need extensive repairs to the hull, and that means we’ll have some downtime. Merlin’s already arranged for us all to stay at his and Samantha’s home in Grandstorm, so no one will be out anything by renting hotel rooms this time.”

“It’ll be good to see Uncle Merlin and Samantha again,” Max said with a smile.

“That it will,” Taro agreed. “Now… I need Justy, Mandy and Lori to help me clean up Damien’s cabin and box up his belongings. Although we have plenty of time, I really don’t want to wait to get this done. His rooms are a mess and it’s going to take a while to get everything cleaned up.”

“I’ll help, too,” Renny added. “I could use the busy-work right now.”

“Okay, that’s all I have,” Taro said.

***

The northern shore of land appeared in the vidscreen and Renny looked at it with a smile. “There’s Grandstorm,” he said “This is one trip I’m glad to have over and done.”

The Blue Horizon had left orbit and descended upon Dennier over the Arvallian Sea after a harrowing time with nearly everyone on board concerned that the external patches over the hull would stand up to the heat of reentry. Fortunately for all, the descent had been uneventful.

There were thunderheads in the distance, a sight common over the area during this time of year. The blue flying saucer zoomed low over green choppy water toward the shore, but then Jerry raised their altitude back up to standard air traffic while Taro exchanged information with the spaceport control tower for a landing site.

The evening sun was just touching the western horizon beneath the clouds and the traffic near the seaside spaceport facility was heavy. The skyscraper spires of the city were lit up from internal offices and glittered in the evening as the ship approached Grandstorm. Commercial and private sea craft were scarce that evening and the boardwalk at the beaches was practically vacant of nighttime visitors as the city prepared for incoming storms.

“The control tower is directing us to pad eighteen,” Taro reported. “Merlin has it reserved for us and should be waiting there now. I’m equalizing our internal air pressure with that of the outside and will then begin atmosphere transfer.” Taro engaged a few switches, watched for confirmation of her commands, and then spoke over the ship-wide intercom, “Artificial gravity will be disabled in fifteen seconds. In another five minutes, we will be on the ground with full engine shutdown.”

The ship slowed even more and Renny glanced out the windows. They were moving beneath the spaceport traffic and on approach to a landing pad ringed with flashing green lights. The Blue Horizon stopped forward movement above the pad and began dropping slowly. Jerry flipped the toggle to lower the landing gear, and then a moment later they were on the ground. Even though they were no longer moving, the floor seemed to shift slightly beneath them.

Jerry and Renny looked up from their stations in unison. “Did you feel that?” the cheetah asked.

“Yeah, I can’t say what it was, but something felt… different about that landing.”

Taro tapped in some commands at her console and activated the cameras beneath the ship. She cycled through them looking at the vessel’s underside, but nothing appeared out of place, including the landing gear.

She shut them off and then shrugged toward her bridge crew. “Maybe the landing pad wasn’t designed for a ship of our weight class and it settled beneath us.”

“Maybe so,” Jerry replied.

“I’ll report it to Merlin when I check in,” Taro said.

Back to work, the males started shutting down all but the necessary onboard systems, fully aware that it may be a while before they launched again. Taro enabled the intercom once more. “Landing complete. All hands to the cargo bay. Get your work gloves and prepare to unload our freight.”

The three of them left the bridge a moment later and headed for the elevator lift. “One of the good things about coming back to Grandstorm,” Taro said, “is that the home office has already taken care of all insurance matters. All we need do with the damaged items is load them onto the Lane trucks with the rest of their goods.”

“I’m almost happy the ship is damaged and needs to be repaired,” Jerry remarked as they stepped out of the lift at the bottom level.

“That’s an odd thing to say,” Renny replied. “Why?”

The vulpine physician stretched his arms and yawned widely. “After the disaster on Vashon, the unexpected passengers we picked up, and now the whole mess with the Oubliette, I think we all need a vacation!”

The large cargo bay door was already opening, Pockets having activated the controls in Damien’s absence. The salty evening air flowed through the chamber and Taro inhaled deeply.

“Mmmm, I’ve missed the smell of the sea,” she mused with a little smile.

“After what nearly happened to us, I’m glad to be smelling air of any kind!” Renny quipped. Thunder rumbled in the distance and his joviality disappeared. “Although I could do without a storm.”

“Ah, it’s only a little rain,” Jerry teased. He was fully aware of his longtime friend’s feelings toward violent weather.

Renny raised an eyebrow at him. “There is a reason this place is called grand storm. I probably won’t be getting any sleep tonight!”

Before they made their way around the perimeter of the cargo to the open door, they could hear Lorelei squealing in delight, and when they got to the ramp, they saw the white rabbit’s arms wrapped around a grinning gray wolf with a small crowd surrounding them both.

Merlin Sinclair peeled free of the happy doe and then rushed forward to welcome the captain of his flagship. “Welcome home,” he said as he extended a hand toward her.

Taro grinned and hugged him instead. “Thanks, Merlin. We’re glad to be on the ground again!”

“I’ll take that hand,” Jerry said with a smile.

The wolf shook his hand gratefully. “Good to see you again, Doctor,” he replied. “I appreciate you taking care of my crew.”

“My crew!” Taro laughed.

Renny bypassed the hand offered to him and grasped arms with Merlin instead. “You’re looking good,” the cheetah said with a grin, “despite being married to Samantha!”

“Hey!” the wolf retorted, “That’s why I’m looking so good!”

The others took their turn greeting the president of their little company and then Merlin walked over to the damaged airlock with an arm around Max’s shoulders. “It doesn’t look so bad from out here,” he said with a gesture toward the three aerodynamic patches welded to the hull.

“You should see it from the inside!” the German shepherd replied. “Want to see it?”

“Not right now,” Merlin replied as two large trucks pulled up. “You all have cargo to unload. I’ll have transportation arranged by the time you get everything offloaded, and then we can head out to the house, hopefully before it starts to rain.”

“How’s Samantha doing?” Lori asked.

Merlin grinned widely. “She’s just about ready,” he replied.

“Ready?” asked Amanda.

Merlin’s smile filled up his whole face. “You’re a little late getting here because of your problems, but we tried to schedule it so you would arrive in time. You just made it.”

“Just made it for what?” Renny asked wearily. “We’re too tired to play guessing games, Merlin.”

“Samantha’s pregnant,” the wolf announced proudly, “and she’s about ready to give birth to our pups. We wanted you here for the main event.”

The small crowd around him looked stunned for a moment, and then cheers and exclamations of congratulations filled the air.

LULLABY

by Ted R. Blasingame

“Miracles do happen.”

Shannon Wallace turned to look at her sister-in-law with a raised eyebrow. “What was that?” she asked with a chuckle.  She and Samantha were resting in the afternoon shade with cups of cool water. The small round gazebo they occupied was under a large, fruit-laden jamon tree in the back yard of the Sinclair home; its wide summer leaves flapped gently against one another in the breezes that flowed in off the Arvallian Sea. Shannon wore a pale yellow sun dress over her predominantly tan fur. Samantha, largely pregnant with several canine-lupine pups, wore a simple maternity nightgown of powder blue with a pale red blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

The Border collie lapped from her cup and gave her mate’s sister a smile. “Miracles do happen,” she repeated. “Considering the injuries I received during my fight with the Kastan assassin during the Siilv War, Merlin and I were never sure I’d be able to have puppies.”

“Yes, I remember,” Shannon replied quietly. “Your wounds were pretty severe. I’m glad to know your fears were not realized.”

Samantha looked out through the black iron fence surrounding their property and gazed across the sea. Fishing trawlers moved in the distance and the sound of lapping waves was calming.

“You two have known one another for what… half your lives together?” Shannon asked, breaking the momentary silence.

“That’s right, and we’ve had that long friendship to use as the foundation for our marriage. Too many other couples barely know one another before they get married, and too often those marriages fail because they later find out what one another is really like.  Merlin and I have few surprises left to discover about one another’s pasts. We have only new horizons to look forward to together.”

“Speaking of horizons,” Shannon said, “are you ready for a whole houseful of guests? The Blue Horizon should be here this evening.”

The Border collie gave a small jump and her eyes widened. She put both hands on her swollen belly and gave her sister-in-law a smirk. “I think someone in here just reacted to that name.”

“You mean Blue Horizon?”

Samantha jumped again. “Yeah,” she snickered.

“Blue Horizon!”

Sam jumped yet again. “Stop doing that!” she whined.

Shannon grinned impishly. “That one will likely be a future captain of the…” —Sam narrowed her eyes, daring her to say it— “…ship. Any idea which one it might have been?”

The collie shook her floppy ears. “There are five of them in there, Shannon. It could have been any one of them. I just hope he or she didn’t kick one of their siblings. It wouldn’t do to have one of my pups start out their first day with a bloody nose!”

The female wolf shook her head. “Miracles do happen,” she admitted. “Not only were you able to conceive after your terrible injuries, but you had to go and out-do me and Bill by making one more than we did!”

Samantha snickered and then gestured toward her chest. “Yeah, but I hadn’t remembered that this would happen,” she said in amusement. “I’m used to the top two, but when the other four started filling up, I had to change my wardrobe!”

“Get used to it for a while. It’s common for wolves to have anywhere from one to six puppies, so with five of them, you’re going to need all the help your body can give you when it’s feeding time!” They both laughed and relaxed in their soft lawn chairs.

“My doctor said they all appear to be healthy and so do I,” Samantha said. “She feels there’s nothing to be concerned about, but I’m glad you’ll be there to play midwife for me.”

“I’m honored,” Shannon replied with a show bow. “It’s about time you and Merlin gave my children some cousins.”

“Selfish! Is that all you care about?” Sam retorted, causing the wolf to laugh again. The two women had become closer since she and Merlin had settled in on Dennier, and although they were related only by marriage, they were becoming the best of friends.

Shannon and Samantha fell quiet and gazed out to sea again when a private boat came into view near the coastline. After several long moments, Samantha spoke in a whisper.

“My pups will arrive soon. I can feel it.”

***

A long passenger van floated along Totter’s Lane parallel with the Arvallian Sea. The running lights of a fishing boat trying to get in to port before the storm arrived were visible a short distance from the shore. The sun had set, and although the tall cumulonimbus clouds were no longer easy to see in the darkness, flashes of lightning within them occasionally highlighted their location. Low rumbles moved across the choppy water as area winds picked up, flowing into the storm. Inside the van, riding beside the driver, Renny Thornton kept his eyes fixed upon the distant flashes of light.

“Don’t worry,” said the wolf at the controls of the vehicle, “we’re almost to the house and we’ll be inside long before it rains.”

“Yeah…” the cheetah murmured.

Taro leaned forward from her seat behind the driver and placed a hand on her navigator’s arm. “You okay?”

Renny turned to look at her with a look of amusement. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just hoping Merlin’s house is stronger than the inn where we stayed on Earth.”

There was a chuckle from the driver. “Within a city named Grandstorm, you should know that we build our structures to withstand great forces of wind and rain,” Merlin said.

“That’s what they said about the homes built in Tornado Alley,” Renny rebuffed.

“True, but that inn was over a hundred years old,” Max piped up from the back of the van. “It wasn’t built to stand up to the tornado that hit Woodward that day.”

“There isn’t much that will stand up to three hundred mile per hour winds,” Jerry added, “no matter how it was built. That’s nearly twice the sustained wind speeds of most hurricanes.”

“We’ve had our share of those, too,” Merlin said. “However, the storm that’s coming isn’t breathing the conditions for either, so we’ll just have wind, rain and lightning tonight. It’ll be bumpy, but we won’t be in any real danger. Our house is on a rise above the sea level, so there shouldn’t be any flooding to worry about, and yes, Renny, the construction of the house and barn will withstand what we’re facing.”

“You have a barn?” Justy asked with interest. “Are you raising your own food stock?”

Merlin chuckled. “No, the barn is for the vehicles and yard tools. The house didn’t come with a conventional garage, so everything is parked in a detached out building, although we have an underground tunnel linking the buildings together.”

“Do you have many trees on your property?” Amanda asked as she tried vainly to see the terrain of the countryside through the van windows.

“We have two jamon fruit trees out front and one in the back, but there’s also a mix of other trees out in the back. We’re almost there, so you can see the place for yourself.”

Normally a chatterbox, Lorelei had remained quiet since they had left the spaceport. She was unusually bothered by the arrest of Damien Legrand. Although none of them had known him for more than a few months, he’d always seemed like a good guy to her, even if his drinking was excessive. That he had drunkenly run over two children in a school zone and fled was more than she was willing to accept.  Despite her eager anticipation over the impending birth of Samantha’s pups, Lori’s ears drooped as she stared out into the darkness.

A row of lights caught her attention through a tall iron gate, and she realized the vehicle was slowing.  Merlin guided the long van along a curved drive to the front of a two-story house of white rocks and red brick. He set it down on runners, shut off the engine and then looked back at his friends.

“We’d best get your luggage inside the foyer before the rain starts,” he said with a smile. “Our place is large enough for everyone, and I made sure that your rooms and beds upstairs were ready for you.  Once you’re all inside, I’ll put the van in the barn and then will come back to give you the tour.”

“Boss, I know it’s late,” Justy said, “but do you think we could get something to eat?”

Opening the driver side door, Merlin gave him a smile over his shoulder. “You’re in luck!” he said. “Sam and my sister should have supper about ready for you.”

At the mention of food, Renny perked up. “Aside of Sam’s pregnancy, that’s the best news I’ve heard all night!”

Moments later, Taro and her crew stood in the entry hall of the house while Merlin took the van around the back. The interior of the house had been thoroughly cleaned in anticipation of the arrival of the guests. None of the polished wood trim on the walls, the wooden beams in the high vaulted ceilings or the green plants that decorated tables and counters showed a speck of dust. The multi-hued stone tile of the foyer gave way to a tightly-woven tan carpet, and although the furniture of the front room was nice, it was not extravagant.  An oil painting of a younger Merlin and Samantha held a lighted place over the fireplace mantle, the signature of Jiro Brannon unobtrusive in a lower corner.

“Welcome to our home!” Samantha said pleasantly. She stepped out into the front room around the furniture and held out her arms toward them. The Border collie’s footsteps were slow but sure, as she carried the weight of her puppies within her. She wore a powder blue maternity dress with a beige shawl across her shoulders.

Taro grinned widely and moved in to give her a gentle hug. “Wow,” she said with delighted eyes, “you look great!” She stroked her friend’s cheek fur and chuckled. “Your fur is so soft!”

Lorelei and Amanda moved in toward Samantha, while the guys hung back a step, most of them not quite sure how to approach the pregnant mother. Sam would have none of it, though, and after an initial greeting and hugs by the females, she moved toward the males and latched onto her friends one by one, starting with Pockets.

The raccoon hesitated, looking unsure. “What’s the matter?” Sam asked.

“I’m afraid I might hurt them.”

“They’ll be fine, Jerad. Just a light hug will do.”

Pockets smiled and tried to wrap her arms around her, but his short arms barely encircled her girth.  Sam laughed and hugged him warmly.

“Oh, it’s so great to see each of you!” she said with bright eyes, moving to each of the others. “I’ve missed you all!”  She turned to Justy and Jerry at last and grinned. “I don’t know you guys as well as the others,” she said, “but you’re family too.  Here, let me hug you.”

Justy felt a little uncomfortable with the embrace, but the vulpine doctor smiled at her and wrapped his arms gently around the collie’s shoulders. “You’re looking well,” he told her.

“I’m feeling good,” she said, “although tired. Now that the hugs have been passed out, I need to sit.”

“Sit, doggie, sit!” Renny quipped with a wide grin.

Sam gave him a smirk. “Yeah, c’mon, kitty cat!” She then gestured them all further into the front room. She took her place in a simple gliding rocking chair and wrapped the shawl around her.

The front door opened and Merlin came inside. He walked quietly to his mate’s side and gave her a brief nuzzle. “Where are the others?” he asked.

“Others?” Taro asked. “Who else is coming?”

Samantha shook her head, but looked up at her lupine mate. “They’re still in the study, looking at the ultrasound pictures.” Heavy footsteps sounded behind her and all eyes went to the newcomer.

“Guinevere and Shannon will be here in a moment to meet the guests,” replied a deep voice.  Merlin looked up at the black Silloni unicorn dressed in a sharp charcoal suit tailored to his physique.

“For those who’ve not met him,” he said, “this is Master Tristan, former Regent of Sillon, and Samantha’s adopted father.” Tristan gave the group a short bow while Merlin introduced each of them to him.

“This is Jerry Somner, Justin Mandolin and Amanda Black,” he said as he indicated each one. You have already met Taro Nichols, Renny Thornton, Jerad Porter, Max Sinclair and Lori Easter.” Justy looked up at the huge equine male, his mouth open in sheer awe of the bipedal unicorn.

“I am charmed to meet you all,” Tristan replied in the rich tones of an orator. He turned at a sound and then gestured to a white Silloni female beside him. “This is my wife, Guinevere.”

“Good evening,” Gwen said with a smile and a short nod of her head.  She was only a foot shorter than her mate was, but she still towered over everyone else in the room. “Thank you all for coming in honor of our daughter’s birthing.” Her voice sounded melodious and held the timbre of an operatic singer.

Amanda gently nudged Justy and the koala suddenly remembered his manners.  He bowed slightly from the waist and said, “We’re honored to honor your… daughter?”

Guinevere smiled. “Yes, Mr. Mandolin, Samantha is our adopted daughter. We took her in after her parents were lost in an accident when she was a pup. Although we are of different species, the puppies she and Merlin have created together will be our legal grandchildren.”

“Wow,” Amanda said quietly.  She looked over at the gray wolf and couldn’t help but share in Merlin’s contagious grin. “Congratulations to you all,” she said with a large smile. “We only found out about the pregnancy this evening.”

“Yes, we tried to keep it a secret,” said yet another voice with a chuckle, “but wagging tongues at the office almost gave it away.” A tan wolf stepped out from behind the Silloni pair and she held out a hand toward Amanda. “Hello, I am Shannon Wallace, Merlin’s sister.”

“Pleased to meet you!” the coyote replied.

“It looks like you’ve got a full house,” Taro said to Merlin. “Are you sure you have room for us all?”

“Plenty of room,” the wolf assured her. “Shannon, Bill and their cubs only live a mile from here, just down the shore, actually.”

“Where’s Bill?” Pockets asked, finally finding his voice.

“He’s at home with the children,” Shannon answered. “He will be here shortly with them after they have had their supper.”

With the introductions out of the way, the group started to mingle. At what must have seemed an unspoken signal, all five women swarmed over to Samantha, while the guys gravitated to Merlin and Tristan.

Pockets held back a moment, his thoughts whirling, but then he courteously asked to speak with Tristan alone. They removed to the other side of the room and then Tristan took a seat in a large wing-back chair so he could converse with the short raccoon face to face.

“Of what service may I be to Master Porter?” the Silloni asked.

Pockets hooked his thumbs under the belt loops of his dark green trousers. “It’s good to see you again, sir,” he began. “Have you been on Dennier since the wedding?”

Tristan smiled, but shook his head. “No, we arrived yesterday morning.”

Pockets raised an eyebrow. “It’s a three-month journey between here and Sillon, but it hasn’t been six months since we saw you at the wedding. I figured you had to have been here the whole time.”

Tristan’s large brown eyes sparkled. “Following the wedding, we returned directly to Sillon,” he said, “but along the way, we received word of the impending birth. We refreshed our supplies upon our arrival on Sillon and then made a return trip.”

The raccoon studied him silently, running the explanation over in his mind. Something in the story didn’t sound right. The gestation period for canine types was only around nine weeks, so the turnaround time for Tristan’s party would have made it impossible for the person sitting before him to be there now.

Tristan could see the wheels turning in the engineer’s mind, but he only gave Pockets a smile. A radical thought seized the raccoon, but the front door to the house suddenly opened with a bang, interrupting their conversation. Four young wolf pups burst into the room followed by an adult black wolf in a light gray suit.

Bill Wallace quietly closed the door behind him as his children spread out in through the gathered adults. “Hello, everyone,” he said wearily. It was evident that keeping up with four energetic youngsters had taken its toll on him today. When one of the children saw Pockets, he squealed and ran straight for the raccoon.

“Pocky! Pocky!” little Jaran exclaimed.  Jacob and Marissa followed suit when they spotted him, and all three of them started jumping up and down in front of the engineer.

Pockets grinned widely, gave them a group hug, and then asked in a loud voice, “Who wants candy?”

The fourth cub came running over and joined the bouncing pups in their energetic responses.  “Me!”  “Candy!”  “Yay!” “I do!”

The raccoon walked over to his overnight bag, and from a side pocket, he pulled out several large straws of flavored sugar that he had brought along from Earth just for them.  He whipped out a pocket knife, snipped off a crimped end from each of the straws, and then passed them out to the youngsters.

The kids cheered, each of them gave the raccoon a peck on the cheek, and then they ran off excitedly with their confectionary treasure. Bill stepped over to him and put a hand on the engineer’s shoulder.  The engineer looked up into the disapproving face of the black wolf.

“Pockets, did you have to give them sugar this late in the evening? They’ll be bouncing off the walls all night.”

The raccoon’s face fell.  “Oops,” he said with a frown.

Bill shook his head wearily, but gave Pockets a chuckle. “You can help me round them up and take them out into the back yard where they can run off their newfound energy.”

“What about the rain?” Renny asked as he joined them.

“The air’s gotten cooler, but the weather announcer said the expected storm has stalled. I think we can let the kids outside for a little while anyway.”

The cheetah looked relieved. “Maybe the storm will turn and go elsewhere up the coast.”

“I could use some fresh air, myself,” Amanda said from across the room. There were other similar sentiments, so the children and several of the adults moved out to chairs on a polished wooden deck behind the house. Samantha begged off, however, citing the need for a cushy chair to rest in, but Bill and Renny offered to move a chair for her out onto the deck.

Not wishing to be separated from her guests just yet, Sam accepted and then watched the guys move her heavy cushioned chair out through the back door. Once set up next to a waist-high wooden railing beneath the branches of a large tree, Gwen, Shannon and Taro attended her with glasses of locally squeezed jamonade and animated conversation.

Pockets, Justy, Max and Lori ran around the yard with the children for a bit, but then Merlin flagged the engineer back up to the deck.  The raccoon brushed bits of grass from his Polynesian-style shirt and gulped for breath as he clomped up the wooden steps.

“Have a seat before you fall over,” Merlin said with a grin.

“I don’t have the energy I used to have for running around like that,” Pockets gasped as he dropped into a canvas beach chair beside their ship’s doctor.

“You’re what?  Only thirty-six years old?” Jerry asked.

“No comments from the peanut gallery,” the raccoon wheezed. “When you’re as out of shape as I am, thirty-six feels like forty-six!”

“I’ve been trying to tell you for weeks that you need more exercise.”

“Yeah, yeah…”  Pockets gave the fox a grin and then looked over at Merlin when he took a seat beside him. The wolf carried a slateboard and a small box, the latter of which he held out toward him.

“This came for you about a week ago, addressed in care of the home office,” Merlin explained.

Pockets took the package and looked at the return address. It was from the offices of the Okami Corporation of Dennier, the builders of the very freighters that Blue Horizon Freight Transfer used as its fleet.  His eyes lit up and he grinned at his boss delightedly.

“What is it?” Jerry asked curiously.

Pockets cut through the seal on the package with a claw tip and opened it slowly. Inside was a single data crystal packed in form-fitting foam padding. He picked it up, its slender faceted surfaces reflecting the room lights, and looked over at Merlin.

“May I borrow your slateboard?” he asked. “I left mine in my quarters.”

The wolf smiled and handed him the one he’d brought with him. He hadn’t known what the package had contained, but had the slateboard datapak with him for other reasons.

Pockets plugged the crystal into the unit’s receptacle and then tapped the screen to open the contents. A cover page came up first and his eyes moved quickly over the text. When he looked up a moment later, he had to swallow hard before answering Jerry’s question.

“Months ago, I submitted design drawings and technical notes on Moss to the PA Patent Office on Alexandrius. At the same time, I sent the designs for the flobot, notes for computer integration, security protocols and its functional history to Okami Corp. here on Dennier, noting that the patent was pending.”  He swallowed again as he looked around at several others who had gathered nearby to hear his words. “It… it’s all been accepted by Okami for Moss to be made standard equipment exclusively for all future Okami-class freighters, with installation kits to be made available for current and older model ships that can be purchased separately…”

“Wow, that’s great!” Justy said with a clap of his hands.

“It sure is,” Lori added.

“Don’t they already have flobots on some ships?” Tristan asked. “I seem to recall reading about them.”

“As far as I know, they only have them in the Firebird Fleet,” Pockets replied, “Patch showed me an article about them in one of his trade magazines, and those bots are highly specialized for exploration. The Fleet hadn’t launched yet at that time, but after reading what was planned for the new vessels, I thought I could make one of my own to fit the needs of an ordinary ship. Beyond that they are both floating robots, there’s really very little in common between them. Moss and its operating software was of my own design.”

“Did they send you a contract?” Taro asked.

Pockets flipped through the document amidst copies of his drawings and technical notes and stopped at one. “Yes, here it is,” he said. He glanced over it quickly and then his eyes bugged out when he saw the payment figures stated there before him.

“May I see it?” Bill asked, as he often examined legal documents in his line of work.

Pockets nodded, handed the slateboard over to the financial advisor without hesitation, and watched the black wolf’s face intently as he looked over the language of the document.

“What does it say?” Max asked quietly, kneeling next to the engineer’s side. Before Pockets could reply, Bill looked down at him with a nod.

“I can help you go over it in more detail to make sure everything is tight and legal before you apply your thumbprint to sign,” he offered, “but upon first glance, I think you’re going to get some nice returns on your little invention.”

“Wow…” was all Pockets could say.  He was flabbergasted as he took the slateboard from the wolf and stared at the numbers again.  Not daring to speak, he merely passed around the document for the others to see.

“Wow, is right!” Amanda commented. “What are you going to do with all that money, Pockets?”

The raccoon sat quietly for a moment as he thought over her question. “First, I’m going to pay off all my debts, and then I’m going to pay off Jasper’s debts too, since he helped me fine-tune it all with another pair of eyes.” When the slateboard came back to him, he closed the document and then pulled out the crystal. He handed the datapak back to Merlin and then reverently placed the data crystal back into its small box.

“I’ve missed my brother,” he said, “and it’s because of his debts that he’s no longer serving on board the Horizon. I know this won’t bring him back, but he won’t be able to use that as an excuse to be grumpy anymore.”  He said the last with a grin.

“Well, it looks like Durant’s wish will never come true,” Samantha said with a chuckle from her nearby chair. “He never did like Moss but it appears that little pie pan is here to stay.”

“Yeah, just think,” Max added. “Moss will soon be invading ships all across the Planetary Alignment!”

***

Not long after the excitement of Pockets’ news, everyone moved back inside the house. The storm that had stalled over the sea appeared to have caught its second wind and it was once again advancing toward Grandstorm. Jerry and Max helped Merlin stow the patio furniture in the barn while Bill and Renny wrestled Samantha’s chair back inside the house.  The wind picked up, growing cooler, but the rain had not yet reached the shore.

Once everyone resettled inside the house, Shannon took the Suga-Stix from her children to pitiful wails of indignation. She promised to give the candy back to them tomorrow, but neither she nor her mate wanted their pups to have any further fuel. The kids were already into everything, and every time one of them had to be scolded, it was done with a sidelong glance toward the raccoon who had foolishly given them what Lorelei jokingly called drugs for kids.

Shannon disappeared into another room for several minutes before she came back out wiping her hands on a dish towel.  “For those of you who might be hungry,” she said, “we’ve prepared something for you to eat.”

Although the farthest from the dining room, Renny made it through the crowd swiftly and was already seated by the time the others arrived at the table.  The cheetah wore a wide grin as the others started teasing him about his appetite and he took the kidding as something he was used to.

Later after they’d all been fed and the dining table cleared, Taro approached Samantha’s chair and looked at the group that had filtered back into the front room. Conversations were in full swing as everyone apparently had some tale to relate, and the din was getting so loud it was hard to chat. The vixen studied her friend and saw the fatigue in her eyes, so she knelt down next to her and placed gentle fingertips on her arm.

“Should we go to a quieter room?” she said in a voice just loud enough for the collie to hear.  Sam looked at her in gratitude and nodded without trying to reply over the noise.  Taro took her by the arm and helped her up, but when the two of them started to leave the room, Merlin was instantly at his mate’s side.

“What’s wrong?” he asked with a mixture of dread and anticipation. “Is it time?”

Samantha chuckled, but it was Taro who answered. “Nothing’s wrong, and no, it’s not yet time.  Sam just needs a quiet room from the crowd for a while.”

“What do I need to do?”

Sam patted his cheek. “Go back to your friends,” she said with warm eyes. “Taro and I are just going to visit for a while. We will let you know if there are any developments.”

Merlin looked unconvinced, but he finally nodded. He stood rooted to his spot, wringing his hands together, ears back and tail down, while the women retired to a back room.  Renny startled him with a good-natured slap on the back.

“Cheer up,” the cheetah said with a casual wave toward one of the wolf’s nephews. The kid was currently digging in the base of a potted plant, scattering soil on the carpet. “You’ll have several of those of your own running around here before you know it!”

“You’ve got to keep me occupied,” Merlin said with a frown, “or the anticipation is gonna kill me.”

“You want to get out of the house for a while? You can show me a local club, if you want.”

The gray wolf pursed his lips. “No, I don’t want to leave the premises. Sure as I do, something will happen.”

“Well, in that case, let’s sit back down. I can tell you about a little cheetah kitten I know. Taro or Shannon will alert us if you’re needed.”

***

Taro followed Samantha down a carpeted hallway, its walls adorned with framed photographs of friends and family members from both sides of the Sinclair household. She paused in mid-step at an old group portrait of the original crew of the Blue Horizon taken just prior to its maiden voyage.

Merlin and Samantha stood side-by-side. They had dated casually prior to the business startup, but they were not yet an exclusive couple. Merlin was striking a stance with crossed arms attempting to look like the serious captain, but the glint in his eyes belied his pose. Samantha’s face beheld amusement, although she looked directly into the camera.

Jiro Brannon appeared relaxed, the bare-chested cougar ever the follower of his lupine best friend. Not yet a couple, Taro stood beside him looking so much younger than she felt now. Standing just behind her and to the side was Durant, the older grizzly bear who was “everyone’s elder brother”.  Taro felt moisture in her eyes as she realized that the photo framed her between two dear friends who were no longer with them.

Little Sparky sat on a cushioned stool in the front of the group, dressed in a pale yellow dress with a kitchen apron adorned with a smiling kitty; this was before the lynx had developed a fondness for Asian-style garments. Standing beside her were the raccoon bookends, Patch and Pockets Porter, both of them in their usual green work coveralls. Patch’s ever-present cigar was lit with a curl of gray smoke, and Pockets held a rather large wrench across two small hands.

Taro frowned when her eyes fell upon the final member of their crew, a short red-headed human woman who had signed on as their medical officer on false pretenses that later endangered one of them on their first voyage together. It was largely because of her that Merlin rarely trusted humans, and Taro was puzzled that he would allow the portrait to hang on the wall of his home.

Samantha looked back at her friend and noticed the photograph she studied. “That seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?” she asked softly.

Taro nodded and refocused her eyes on Jiro’s smile. “Yeah,” she answered slowly. “Sometimes I wish we could go back to those times.”

The collie nodded, but then rested a hand on her swollen belly. “Those were simpler times,” she agreed, “but that would mean I wouldn’t have my family.”

The vixen looked over at her and nodded with a renewed smile. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry, but I still miss Jiro at times.”

“Taro, there’s no need to apologize,” Sam chided gently. “Jiro was a great guy. We all liked him.”  Laughter rang out from the front room, so they continued toward the back.  The canine led her friend to a room with a modified door that looked like a recent addition. It was lower than normal and looked as if it were designed for a smaller person.

“Are you going in there?” Taro asked when Samantha ducked her head to enter.

Sam chuckled and her eyes crinkled with amusement. “It’s an old canine instinct for a mother dog to prepare a birthing den to have her pups in.  It’s a little close quarters, but there’s still plenty of room for me, my pups and a midwife.”

Taro shook her head with a grin. “You didn’t leave Merlin much room out here in the hallway to pace when it’s time.”

Sam looked behind her and chuckled. “You know, we never thought of that.”

“Too late to change things now.”

Samantha grinned at her and then ducked into the small room.  The full-sized bed was equipped with a low plush mattress to make the mother as comfortable as possible, as well as a pair of stirrups on a frame that were currently folded down out of the way. The sheets were pale blue with tiny white flowers and a row of small heated cribs lined the far wall. The ceiling was low and the indirect lighting was dim to allow the illusion of an earthen den. Even the walls were lined with dark wood paneling. On the near side of the bed was a table already set up with a pitcher of iced water that had been recently refreshed by Shannon, along with towels and a black bag of medical instruments should the need arise. A short roller chair with a cushion and a low, slotted seat back provided the only place to sit down in the small room.

Taro helped Samantha onto the bed and then relaxed in the chair as her friend adjusted a pillow behind her back so she could sit upright.  When they finally got situated, the vixen looked over at her friend.

“How are you feeling?” she asked. “Are you close?”

“I’ve not yet lost my water, but I’m sure that could happen at any time. For now, I’m fine, just a little tired. I think Merlin is more nervous than I am, but I’m glad you and the others are here to help distract him.”

“After all we’ve experienced lately,” Taro said after a brief sigh, “we could use the distraction, too.”

“Yeah, I heard what you and the others went through.  Wow, that can’t have been easy to handle.”

The vixen smiled. “You have no idea,” she replied, “but I have a good crew – well, most of ‘em, but I couldn’t do anything for Damien’s situation. Even in the midst of the crisis, he was a benefit to the crew, I suppose.”

“Damien? What happened with him?” Samantha asked. “I’m afraid I didn’t realize he wasn’t here with you.”

A frown crossed Taro’s face and she described his attitude since coming on board, covering most everything up to his arrest by the Spatial Police Force.  “He was supposed to be one of us,” she finished, “but he would never open up to anyone. We never knew why he was so secretive, right up until the SPF took him away. We’ve heard nothing of him since then. When I’ve inquired, the SPF have politely told me that we should no longer be concerned with him. That’s not right, even if I understand their reasoning.”

“It’s not easy being captain, is it?” Sam asked, patting the vixen lightly on the arm.

“Not always, but it does have its rewards.”

“Has Merlin told you about the ship?”

Taro shook her head. “No, we’ve not had much time to talk about the damages since we landed. Max tried to show him the repairs, but he didn’t seem interested.  I suppose Merlin was more concerned getting us all here quickly in case you went into labor.”

Samantha chuckled. “No, I didn’t mean the damages. There doesn’t seem to be a need in repairing the ship now that…”  She trailed off and raised an eyebrow at Taro’s puzzled expression.  “No, I don’t think he has told you,”

“Told me what? Why isn’t there a need to repair the Horizon?”

Sam studied her for a moment and then shook her head gently. “No, that should be Merlin’s job, not mine.  Besides, that would take the fun out of the recall.”

“I don’t understand,” Taro muttered. “I thought the recall was due to your pups.”

“Well, that was part of it, yeah. We did think it was appropriate that you were here for this, but that wasn’t the primary reason he called you back. The timing just happened to put everything together at the same time.

“But what—?”

“That news will have to come from Merlin.”

“Okay, now I’m nervous. If we’re not going to repair the ship, then our earlier fears must be true – you’re going to lay us off since we lost all those delivery contracts!”

Samantha looked surprised and firmly gripped Taro’s arm. “No, you are not losing your jobs, Taro. None of you are. Trust me!”

“But—”

“Trust me,” she repeated. The Border collie closed her eyes and leaned back against her pillow. “Go talk to Merlin, Taro. Right now. He needs to explain what’s going on before you have a stroke. I am in need of rest, but I can’t do it with you needlessly stressed out like this.”

The vixen parted her lips to speak, but Samantha merely pointed toward the door without even opening her eyes. With a feeling of foreboding, Taro ducked out of the small room and headed back to the front of the house.

***

The gray wolf was at the center of attention, reading aloud from a message he had just received on his slateboard.

“…and due to your invaluable contributions to the House of Aris, a trust fund will be set up for each of your children immediately upon notification of the births and the naming. Congratulations on your new family.  With greatest admiration, King Adion Aris, Monarch of Tanthe.”

“Wow…” Pockets said.

The wolf dropped the slateboard to his lap and looked embarrassed. “If King Aris thought he owed me a debt, I think it was long paid off with all that he’s done for us since. I need to let him know he doesn’t have to do this.”

“Never underestimate the appreciation of a ruler toward those who have helped his House,” Tristan replied. “Accept the gift with grace, son, not for yourself, but for your children.”

“After what happened between Samantha and Tinara at our wedding reception, I’m surprised the Aris family even gives me a passing thought anymore.”

“Samantha embarrassed the princess,” Shannon remarked. “It is unlikely she related that bit of information back to her family to keep the focus off her herself, especially with what prompted the confrontation in the first place.”

“Yeah, the King probably knows nothing about her imprudence,” Justy added.

Guinevere noticed Taro’s return. “How is Samantha, my dear?” she asked.  All eyes went directly to the vixen.

Taro tried to hide the apprehension she felt and gave everyone a smile. “She’s tired, but resting,” she answered. “There’s no change in her condition.”

“Her condition?” Jerry replied with a grin. “You make it sound like she has a disease!”  Everyone laughed, including Taro, glad to have the attention diverted for the moment.

“Well, her abdomen is swollen!” Renny said lively. “Perhaps she needs one of Lori’s herbal remedies to reduce the swelling!”

“Oh, wouldn’t Samantha like that!” Amanda quipped.

Lorelei laughed with everyone else, until she realized the implications of the coyote’s remark.  “Hey!” she retorted with a frown.

The conversations around them became animated with laughter, so Taro chose the moment to pull Merlin to the side while everyone else was distracted.

“May I talk to you in private?” she whispered into his ear. At his look of excitement, she added, “It’s not about Sam or the pups. I need to talk to you about the ship – right now, in private.”

Merlin understood and gave her a nod. The two of them started toward the back door, but Max decided to join them.  The gray wolf turned to the young mechanic with a look of apology. “Would you excuse us,” he said. “The captain needs to speak with her boss for a moment.”

“Uh, sure,” the German shepherd said. While he returned to his seat, Merlin led Taro out to the back deck. Muted flashes of lightning illuminated the clouds above them, but there was no rain. The wind had picked up a bit, but as yet, it was tolerable.

When the wolf descended the steps to the grassy yard, Taro followed him meekly out past the large barn to a gazebo nestled beneath a large tree. Merlin motioned her to sit on a wooden bench built into the inside perimeter of the small structure, and then sat beside her.

Taro gave him a worried look. “What’s going on with the Blue Horizon?” she asked. “Sam told me I needed to talk to you about it.”

***

Conversations in the main room of the house eventually grew quiet in consideration of the expectant mother elsewhere in the Sinclair home, prompted by Shannon’s gentle admonishment. Max, Lori and Amanda were down on the floor with Bill’s pups, quietly showing them creative things to do with a set of blocks that Samantha kept in her house just for them.

Tristan and Guinevere sat quietly apart while the others tried to keep themselves occupied as they waited. Pockets put away the Okami contract that he had been studying on Merlin’s slateboard once again, and sauntered over to the immense black Silloni.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said with a slight bow to Gwen, and then to Tristan, “May I ask you something?”

The unicorn stallion gave the raccoon a friendly smile and answered in a deep voice. “Something bothering you, son?”

“Yes, sir. I can’t seem to wrap my brain around the fact that you’re here – today - when you should still be a couple months distant out in space. Could you please enlighten me how this can be?”

“I do not believe it has started raining yet,” Guinevere mused, tilting her head slightly to listen toward a nearby window.

Tristan took up her cue and nodded toward her.  “If my lovely wife will excuse us, let us take a walk outside, Master Porter.”

“Of course,” Gwen replied.

“Uh, sure,” Pockets replied.  Being the shortest person on board the Blue Horizon, he was used to everyone else towering over him, but beside the massive form of Tristan, he felt positively miniscule. The Silloni stood up beside him and motioned Pockets to follow him to the front door.   Renny looked up curiously, but since they didn’t appear to be in distress or in a hurry, he returned his attention to the printed magazine in his lap.

Out on the front porch, Tristan motioned to a pair of rustic iron benches beneath a large tree in the yard.  Once they had settled in, Pockets looked expectantly toward the large unicorn.

Tristan leaned forward, resting elbows on his knees and focused his deep brown eyes upon the raccoon. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others,” he said, “but to the engineer of the Blue Horizon who discovered the key to decrypting priceless data, I will divulge the information you wish to know. However, I must insist that you keep what I tell you in strict confidence.”  Pockets swallowed with a nod, but kept his tongue.

“Thanks to your discovery,” Tristan began, “a team of engineers and scientists on Silloni began poring over the data detailing Natasha Khasho’s technology.  Despite that she was branded a pirate, the genius of she and her people cannot be denied. There were plans to many inventions created under her guidance that would be a boon to the Planetary Alignment as a whole, while there were others which would be of interest to only a few. Be that as it may, the crowning jewel of her technology is the Particle Vault system that was often of interest to public fancy.”

“She gave me encrypted plans for a small version for use on a vessel the size of the Horizon,” Pockets replied with the crook of a smile, “but I wasn’t able to decipher them until I stumbled across the Rosetta key.” He was unsure how much of his experimentation he should reveal to the Silloni Master, so he said nothing about the working system currently integrated into his ship’s engine.

Tristan nodded. “With the data at hand, our current Regent, Master Ritchka, prompted me to assemble a team to develop the technology into a prototype hybrid LightDrive and Particle Vault system. Unfortunately, time was short and we had to begin our voyage here to Dennier to make it in time for our Samantha’s wedding. Rigorous development on the new system continued in my absence and a deep space probe was used for initial testing, although it met with some mishaps. When the system was stabilized and coupled with a high-tech astrogation computer, two prototype production models were completed just prior to our return home.”

Pockets held his breath, instinctively riveted to his seat. “The smaller of the two systems,” Tristan continued, “was installed into a standard Hoshi-class cruiser, a type common to Sillon. I met with Master Ritchka in conference about it for several days when I received word of Samantha’s pregnancy. Although a couple of short test runs had been made within our star system, it had not yet been tested at greater distances. I volunteered to command two small crews to make Vault jumps within the Planetary Alignment in a series of tests.  As with all new propulsion systems, there is always a risk, but we felt confident that Captain Khasho’s technology could be combined with standard LightDrive systems. If our flights were deemed successful, the Regent would consider introduction of the LightDrive/Particle Vault system into Silloni-made starships that could be sold throughout the PA.”

Pockets grinned widely. “Who better to release Natasha’s secret technology to the public than the Silloni, who are so far from the rest of the Planetary Alignment that research into making faster long-distance travel possible would be expected?”

“That is essentially correct. Of course, word of the technology’s origin would have to be kept a close secret. To the galaxy at large, there are no connections between Captain Khasho and Sillon, so this will be viewed as the result of independent research, not the exploitation of lost knowledge. To this end, we are calling it the Hyld, a Hyper-LightDrive system.”

“So that’s how you were able to make the return voyage from Sillon to Dennier so quickly,” Pockets said excitedly. “Did you have any problems with braking in time?” he asked. “We overshot our destination when our own tests with Natasha’s Vault technology proved a little…”  he trailed off at the expression on Tristan’s face.

Oops…   Realizing that the unicorn had trusted him with a Silloni state secret, Pockets now felt obligated to relate his own story of experimentation in return. He had to think fast, however, as he was still sworn not to divulge the existence of Se’rei and its inhabitants, but he could tell Tristan about the test of his home-made Particle Vault system.

***

Taro looked at Merlin with pleading eyes and dutifully waited for him to begin. The gray wolf knew the internal struggle his longtime friend must be feeling, but he wasn’t quite ready to jump into the heart of the matter head first. Instead, he put his arms up on the railing behind him and tried to appear relaxed.

“You seem to have had a plate full of adventures lately,” he said in a casual tone.

“Yeah, but no more than usual for the Blue Horizon,” Taro replied, feeling anything but relaxed herself. “Why is it that a common freighter such as ours always seems to attract attention? Why couldn’t our business be mundane?”

Merlin laughed. “That’s because our crews have been anything but mundane, Taro. You’ve seen the characters we’ve always had on board. Have we ever had anyone in the crew that could be called ordinary?”

Taro was unable to keep a smirk from tugging at the corners of her mouth. It wasn’t long ago that she felt Amanda Black was as ordinary as they come and Merlin’s comment recalled that sentiment. She couldn’t bring herself to voice that personal opinion, however.

“Still,” he continued, taking her silence as a negative, “you have to admit that we’ve had a good bunch since the beginning.”

Taro tilted her head. “Are you including Connie Davies?” she asked, remembering the crew portrait inside the house.  The wolf’s ears laid back at the mention of the human’s name, but the dark look in his eyes was there only an instant and vanished just as quickly.

“Connie was an exception,” he said in a flat tone. “I learned from my experience with her and counted that as a lesson in trust. You can never be sure of anyone’s background.”

“Don’t I know it,” Taro muttered. “Imagine my shock when I discovered that Damien was on the run for the deaths of two children.”

Merlin nodded. “Connie was the only really bad egg I had in my first crew, so perhaps Damien was yours.  Everyone else you hire from here on out should be just as eccentric as the rest of us!”

The vixen gave him a smirk. She didn’t realize it, but she was beginning to relax a little from their conversation. “Yeah, well that’s going to have to be one of my next priorities. While the Horizon is being repaired,” she said with a sidelong glance at him, “I’ll need to hire a new load master to fill the vacancy.”

“So the fiasco with Damien is not duplicated, I’m going to ask the SPF do extensive background checks on all applicants,” Merlin replied, purposely ignoring her attempts to fish for information on repairs to the ship. “I want to know the next person we hire for the company is clean.”

Merlin looked up at a flash in the clouds and then listened for the rolling thunder that rumbled a heartbeat later. A few sprinkles of rain began to patter the top of the gazebo, so Merlin stood up and motioned for Taro to follow him. The wolf darted out into the light rain, weaving back and forth across the grass.

“Quick! Between the drops!” he quipped with a grin. Taro followed him, trotting across the lawn to the large barn up near the house; he tapped in a passcode set into the side door and opened it. They darted inside, barely wet from the raindrops, just as the sky opened up. Merlin shut the door on the sudden downpour and flicked on the overhead lights.

Taro looked out into the barn and whistled at the sight before her. A sleek personal star cruiser with gleaming red and black paint occupied most of the large building. The Starwolf-class vessel was small enough that it could be flown across the planet and land without a spaceport launching pad, yet it also had long-range capabilities for interplanetary travel. It could sleep up to three, but only required a single operator to fly it. Its sleek sport design was of a type popular across the Planetary Alignment, and its atmospheric wings were currently retracted within the fuselage for storage. Taro knew he had purchased it as a company ship, but this was the first time she had seen it.  The name Christopher Watson was painted in a stylized script beneath the bridge window panels across the nose, its registry number below it.

Parked beside the cruiser was the long passenger van that Merlin had rented to pick up her crew from the spaceport. Next to the van were two smaller air cars that Taro guessed were Merlin and Samantha’s personal transports. Along the side wall next to a small motorboat laden with fishing poles was a riding lawn mower and a tool board equipped with numerous yard instruments. Near the door they had entered through was a large workbench fully stocked with hand and power tools.

“This way,” Merlin told her.  She followed the wolf under the tail of the Starwolf to a small cubicle in a back corner next to shelves of assorted odds and ends. Inside the enclosed cubicle were three chairs, a computer desk and a cot. Merlin sat behind the desk and Taro dropped into a chair in the corner after first removing some printed maintenance manuals.

“Is this the doghouse where Samantha sends you when you’ve been bad?” Taro teased.

Merlin grinned. “No, but I may use it as an escape as the pups grow and I need a moment of peace. Bill has something similar at his place that he uses for that purpose.”

Taro chuckled, but then looked up at a sound. The storm outside moved in full force; winds shook the building and the lights flickered briefly when a loud crack was instantly followed by a rattling boom. A bolt of lightning had struck something just outside the structure, causing the vixen’s ears to flatten back against her head.

She looked back at Merlin’s wide eyes that looked comical above a silly grin. “What?” she asked with a lopsided smile.

“I love these storms,” the wolf admitted, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if Renny was clinging to the ceiling rafters about now!”

“You’re mean!” Taro rebuked with a grin of her own.  The storm raged on, but the barn had been constructed to withstand the frequent gales that blew in off the sea. Merlin merely winked at her and kicked his boots off onto a worn rug beneath his desk.

The pair of them sat for several moments, doing nothing more than listening to the wind, rain and thunder. After a while, Taro grew used to the storm and visibly relaxed. She wasn’t frightened by the tempest, but she held a healthy respect for what a storm of this violence was capable of doing. It might be a while before they could brave the weather to get back to the main house, so she settled in to her chair and looked over at the wolf.

It was the first time she had been alone with her former captain in what seemed like ages, and a memory jumped to the forefront of her mind. “Since we’re alone and away from potential ears,” she said to him, “I just remembered there was something I needed to tell you in private, for your ears only.”

Merlin merely looked at her curiously and gestured that she should continue. “Do you remember Rex Concolar, that cougar we took on as a passenger to Kantus not long ago?”

The wolf twitched an ear and nodded. “He’s contacted the home office at least once a week since then, wanting to know if you’ve found his lottery ticket yet. At first, he was angry and belligerent, accusing us of stealing his millions, but then he became apologetic after hiring a private investigator to check into our company finances. When we had no sudden rise in revenue, and the lottery office had no takers to claim the prize, he finally decided we hadn’t cashed it in. Please tell me you found his ticket.”

“No such luck,” Taro told him. “Sorry.”

“Okay, so what else should I know about him if you needed to talk to me in private?”

The vixen shook her head, causing the blue-tipped white feather by her right ear to flutter beside her. “Nothing about him, but I want to give you some details about that particular voyage.”

“Go ahead.”

Hesitantly, she told him about Pockets and Justy’s experimental Particle Vault system, how the engineer had implored her to let him test it, and her own weakness to grant him permission. Merlin listened quietly, neither voicing comments nor displaying body language to display his thoughts. Encouraged that he didn’t appear upset, Taro went on to describe over-shooting their goal and winding up far beyond the accepted boundaries of the Planetary Alignment.

He seemed genuinely intrigued with the lapin race on Se’rei and the fortuitous meeting with Calissa due to her landing beacon, but when Taro related the assistance that Captain Khasho’s former engineer gave with the Vault system, he suddenly started to fidget. Taro finished up her tale and folded her hands in her lap, silently awaiting a reprimand.

Merlin leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk. “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” he asked. “That was some time ago.”

“I was paranoid,” Taro replied. “I was afraid of releasing that kind of information over an open channel that could easily be intercepted. The whole PA has been searching for Natasha’s secrets. If word got out that we had a working Vault unit on our ship, who knows what kind of attention would be drawn to us.” The vixen wrung her hands and took a slow, deep breath. “Besides, I promised Calissa that I wouldn’t tell anyone about the existence of Se’rei, with or without news of the Vault. I’m sure that once word of another lost colony of Earth got back to the scientific communities of the PA, it would be swarmed over with explorers and exploiters.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Merlin agreed. “They’ll be discovered, eventually, but there’s no need to speed up the process.”

“Despite our problems, Pockets is convinced his Vault system is usable, but we would need to upgrade our astro-navigation computer to a more sensitive unit in order for it to be of any real use. The cost of repairs to the Blue Horizon fairly eliminates any possibility of that, so I’m afraid he’ll have to forget about it for now.  I don’t even want to think about the legal ramifications, either. Every world in the PA would demand we turn over Natasha’s technology to them.”

“I’m impressed that you’ve thought all this through so thoroughly,” Merlin told her. “You have a good head on your shoulders, Taro. I think you’ve made a fine captain.”

The vixen beamed at his praise. “Thank you, Merlin,” she said with a tight throat. “Coming from you, that means a lot to me. I – I don’t think I’ve really done that great of a job, though.”

“Nonsense. No command is easy, even for a mere freighter,” Merlin assured her with a friendly smile. “Space presents so many variables that you can never predict what’s going to happen from one day to the next, so you must always be on the alert. I’ll say it again, because I believe it.  You have done a fine job, Taro.”

“Thank you.”

Another close lightning strike boomed and reverberated off the sides of the building; the wind and hard rain didn’t sound as if either would let up any time soon. To give herself time to swallow the personal embarrassment at Merlin’s praise, Taro got up to her feet and peered from the cubicle out into the barn.

Behind her, the gray wolf mulled over his thoughts, but his eyes never left the vixen. She held herself well, even relaxed against the door frame looking out away from their conversation. Many things had happened behind the scenes at the home office that she was unaware of, and he felt the lull in their conversation might be a good time to reveal them.

“Taro,” he said in a calm voice. He had spoken quietly, but loud enough to be heard over the din of the storm outside.  The vixen looked over her shoulder at him, and he motioned back toward the chair she had occupied.

She sat down, but before Merlin had a chance to say anything more, she held his gaze and said, “I know you’ve been occupied with the birth of your pups, but I think we need to make plans to get the Horizon repaired and back in business as soon as possible. We don’t want to lose any more clients by our—”

Merlin shook his head. “Taro, I don’t know how to tell you this other than outright, but I don’t intend to have your ship repaired.”

“What?” Taro exclaimed.

“I’m going to decommission her, probably early next week. Now, before you—”

“Merlin,” Taro gasped with wide eyes, “this Horizon is only three years old! Surely the jobs we lost didn’t amount to the cost of our ship?”

“Taro…”

“I knew we were getting canned!” she spat in anger.

“Taro, calm down,” Merlin said patiently. “That’s not the end of the story.”

The Hestran fox snorted, crossed her arms, and then glared at the wolf. It was a confrontational stare that would normally have garnered Merlin’s wrath, but her emotions were in such a state of flux that she tensed her Hestran muscles and silently dared the wolf to come at her for it.

Instead, Merlin relaxed back in his chair and looked at her with compassion and spoke in a gentle tone. “Just as my original ship was damaged and replaced by another, so is yours, Captain.”

That took the vixen off guard. She wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. “What did you say?”

“That’s right, your ship is being replaced by a shiny new freighter.”

Taro blinked rapidly and swallowed. “But… the new Okami models aren’t due to be released for another couple years,” she said. “I remember Patch once saying each new model is produced every five years.”

Knowing he finally had her attention, the wolf explained. “The new ship is not an Okami freighter, but a —”

“Is it one of the new Prime-class cargo haulers from Earth?” Taro interrupted. She had seen the ads on the StellarNet channels, as well as in some magazines, but had not really given them much thought. What she did remember of them, however, the ads seemed to be promising the advancement of interstellar travel with a new type of LightDrive engine.

Merlin shook his head, but smiled at her renewed interest. “No, this is a brand new design from Sillon, a Kirin-class freighter. This one resulted from the cooperative efforts of Silloni and Ryujin engineers, and Tristan has delivered it here to us.”

“You’re… deviating from the Okami line?” Taro asked, quietly surprised.

“They’ve served us well, but times change under certain conditions.”

Taro thought it over for a moment. “Isn’t a kirin some kind of unicorn-dragon mix from mythology?”

Merlin grinned. “Yes, I think so. Since the Silloni resemble unicorns and the Ryujin as dragons, a ship designed by both races would make the name fitting, wouldn’t it?”

“How long has this new design been on the market?”

The wolf sat up and then leaned forward. “Here’s where it gets interesting, Taro. Your new freighter is the prototype of the new Kirin-class of freighter. You’ll be flying the first one built, but that’s not all.  Tristan’s original plan was for Blue Horizon Freight Transfer to test it for the Silloni government as an additional ship in our fleet. However, since the damage to the Horizon is so extensive, the new vessel is going to replace her.  You see, Taro – no one will be losing his or her job.”

“This… is the real reason for the recall?” the vixen asked. Merlin nodded. “You must have been planning this for some time.”

“Months, actually,” Merlin admitted.  “The design has been in development for the past couple years, but recent advancements in technology altered its final configuration and Tristan’s people were most anxious that we be the ones to test it for them.”

“Why? Is it because of Samantha’s ties to Master Tristan?”

“Partially, but the Silloni representative said it’s primarily because of our help a few years ago when that star between here and there went nova, cutting them off from the rest of the PA. They were never in any danger from it, but they’ve never forgotten our proactive endeavor to check in on them when the rest of the Alignment had written them off.”

Taro sat back in her seat, amazed at the turn of events. Merlin hadn’t brought his slateboard out with them, but he opened a folder on the desk and pulled out several large photographs. He spread them out on the desktop in front of the vixen. “The Kirin holds roughly the same amount of cargo as your Okami, but as you can see, it’s no longer a flying saucer. It’s longer, more slender, though not as tall as the former ship.”

Taro studied the pictures. The vessel was royal blue with a pair of double white stripes running along its sides from bow to stern. Instead of one large cargo bay door, there were two of them side by side on the port side of the ship. It had two airlock hatches, one on the port and the other on the starboard. Something like this would have eliminated a lot of headache on our last voyage, she thought to herself. Thick polarized glassteel windows dotted the upper deck on both sides.

The photos didn’t depict the interior of the vessel, but from first glance, she guessed there were only two decks, rather than the three of their Okami. The aft section flared out slightly over the engine compartment, but none of the photos focused on the actual propulsion nodules from the rear. Beneath the relatively flat underbelly were caterpillar treads comprising a trio of landing gear, and it was easy to see the rotating mechanism that could turn them for lateral movement once on the ground. The bridge was located above and just behind a softly rounded nose, and the ship’s name and registry number was painted just below the forward windows.

Blue Horizon

PA28080

Taro looked up at the wolf.  “I thought the name of the new ship was the Kirin.”

“It was originally, but now that’s the class of vessel. Since it is going to replace the Blue Horizon, I had it registered under the same name and the different vessel class required a new registry number. PA1138 is going to be retired just as soon as it is decommissioned.” Merlin grinned and added, “You didn’t think my company flagship should continue to be called the Blue Horizon?”

Taro chuckled. “No, I wasn’t thinking,” she replied. “You said that we would be testing the prototype for Sillon. How long is this test supposed to last?  Will we get to buy the ship after the testing is over, or will we need to turn it back over to them?”

“Testing period is for two years. I know that’s a long time to test a ship, but this one has a special engine system and they want to make sure all the bugs are worked out of it before it’s released to the public market.”

“What’s so special about the new engines?”

Merlin leaned forward onto the desk, his eyes practically glowing with excitement. “The ship has the latest Silloni LightDrive engines, but they’ve been specially modified into what they’re calling a ‘Hyld’ combination propulsion system.”

“Hilde?”

“H-Y-L-D: Hyper-LightDrive. It’s basically a Particle Vault and LightDrive combination.” The vixen’s eyes went wide, but Merlin continued. “The same decryption key Pockets used to decipher the plans Captain Khasho gave him for your home-made particle vault system on the Horizon was used by the Silloni to translate the crystals she stashed in the young mouse’s endosuit. I had Alex Rogers deliver the crystals to Tristan’s people for decryption, but they were unsuccessful cracking the code until Pockets stumbled upon the key.”

The wolf paused and tilted his head, listening to the unrelenting thunder outside. “Once they discovered what they had, the Silloni immediately began researching how they could use the technology. Although Captain Khasho originally developed the particle vault system, those of us in the know have sworn not to make any association to her with the public, so they’re calling it a Hyper-LightDrive instead. Since the Mytha star system is so far from the rest of the PA, no one should question such a world coming up with an interstellar propulsion system designed to travel faster than standard LightDrive technology. To the rest of the galaxy, it will be the Silloni who developed this system.”

“I can understand that,” Taro said with a nod. “When Pockets begged me to let him install his components, I lectured him on the ramifications if word got out that we had Natasha’s technology. If the general knowledge to public mentions nothing of her, it should be safer to release it to the masses with everyone thinking that someone else came up with a similar system as hers.”

“Not even Captain Khasho’s own people will be aware that she gave away her technology.”

Taro twitched an ear. “Wasn’t Master Tristan’s daughter a member of Natasha’s crew for a while? I’m sure she knows of the Hyld’s origin.”

Merlin shook his head. “Tristan told me that she is unaware of the data crystals delivered to him, and therefore doesn’t know the origin of this technology. He confessed that he purposely left her out of the loop due to her association with the Pirate Queen. After all, Laura did run away from home to join up with pirates. Although he’s happy she has returned, he doesn’t know how strongly her loyalty to Captain Khasho’s people might be. As far as she and her surviving crewmates are concerned, the Silloni has done research along similar lines as Natasha had.”

“What is she doing now?” Taro asked.

“She joined up with the Silloni Spatial Forces after spending some time as a counselor for disabled children. She wanted to go out into space before, but they wouldn’t hear of it. Fearing she might do it again, Tristan and Guinevere have given their blessing for her enlistment into the SSF.”

Rumbles of the storm continued, but the thunder seemed to be moving on. Hard rain now fell without so much wind, though it still sounded as if there was a water fall overhead. Merlin checked his watch and discovered they hadn’t been out in the barn as long as he thought they had.  He settled back into his chair and put his bare feet up on the desk.

“The Silloni have built two versions of the Hyld for testing,” the wolf continued. “The smaller of the two was installed in a light cruiser common to Sillon that Tristan is now personally testing, and they are currently installing the same engine in another vessel to be tested by the Spatial Police Force. The larger version was installed into their new Kirin freighter prototype. The LightDrive part of the system by itself is still faster than standard LD engines currently in use throughout the Planetary Alignment, and there are already plans to include those in all new Silloni-built spacecraft. Your ship, however, will be the only freighter in the galaxy equipped with a Hyper-LightDrive system.”

“How are we going to keep something like this a secret?” Taro asked. “Giving it a fancy new name isn’t going to shield what it can do from the rest of the PA once we start making quick trips around the cosmos.”

“There won’t be any need to be secretive,” Merlin replied. “Tristan will be releasing an article to select scientific journals concerning the Hyld system, with a cover story that since the Blue Horizon rushed to the planet Sillon’s aid when the rest of the PA had written them off, our company was selected to help Sillon test its new prototype over a two-year period. Until the testing period has been completed and all bugs are worked out of the system to ensure that it’s safe before releasing it commercially, there will be no further release of the technology beyond the three vessels. This is standard research and development into any new technology. The Kirin-class freighter itself had already been in development by the Silloni before Pockets discovered Captain Khasho’s information; it was just about ready to be released on the market with the new Silloni LightDrive engines anyway, and would have undergone a similar period of testing before being released to the public.”

“Merlin, all this sounds great, but you must know that we’ll be under close scrutiny by the rest of the Planetary Alignment for those two years,” Taro pointed out. “Everyone will want to get a closer look at the engine system and will likely try to come up with all kinds of ways to get inside. The scientific community will be drooling to see how it works, our competitors in shipping will be jealous of our ability to deliver goods faster than they can, and I’m sure that pirates and other dishonorable organizations will want to possess the technology for their own purposes. Are we going to be able to defend ourselves from everyone?”

“At my request, the Kirin is equipped with combat weaponry similar to what your ship has now. The engine room has an encrypted biometric door lock to prevent outsiders like Ms. Bennington from doing damage or trying to steal the technology, and any passengers will be limited strictly to the upper crew deck. All visitors will be forbidden without exception from entering the engine room, as will most of the crew.”

Taro furrowed her brow at that last statement but Merlin continued without noticing her expression. “Pockets and Max will have to enter the encryption with a bioscan of their hand each time they enter or exit the Hyld compartment. As commander and first officer, of course, you and Renny will also have your hand scans encrypted to enter, but I do not want anyone else entered into the biometrics, no matter how much you think the others can be trusted. This is simply a measure of extra security that I agreed to make on behalf of the Silloni government.”

Taro nodded with a frown. “This is sure to give our company an edge over our competitors. We’ll have to be on constant alert against sabotage or other attacks like the one that nearly cost us Renny’s life. What about the Hidalgo Sun and the Mooncrest?”

“The Kirin is the only Hyld-equipped freighter Sillon has produced, and until our two-year test period has expired, your sister ships will continue operating normally using standard LightDrive engines. Since we’re not making any PA-wide announcements that we’ve got this system, it may take a while before news of our capability is spread word-of-mouth to the public.”

“Won’t that work against us?” the vixen wanted to know. “As a business out to make a profit, aren’t we supposed to advertise our capability to get things delivered faster?”

Merlin smiled. “Normally, yes, but when the home office makes arrangements with our clients to deliver their goods, we’ll be stacking the jobs closer together instead of spreading them out in three-to-four week ship dates. Despite the lost jobs of late, we still have plenty of work. Once some of our customers realize just how quickly we can get their cargo delivered, I’m sure many of them will be repeat clients.”

For the first time since they started this conversation, Merlin frowned and released a heavy sigh. “Having the new Hyld system will likely increase the Blue Horizon’s workload exponentially. It takes twenty-four hours for the jump components to recharge, so there will be at least a one-day layover after every delivery.  However, this means you will likely have new cargo to deliver every two or three days. You’ll no longer have weeks of inactivity on the flight between systems. This will force your crew into cargo detail more often, and likely produce fatigue from the increased activity. Due to the recharge, you will have a day off after every delivery, but with the frequency of jobs, I think your crew should be granted a full week of downtime after every eight weeks of business. Additionally, you won’t have to re-supply the ship after every voyage. Once a month should be sufficient to get everything you need restocked during downtime.”

“Despite our new capabilities, I don’t know if everyone is going to be thrilled with the increased workload,” Taro mused. “Everyone, including myself, is used to having time to sit back and relax while we’re traveling between systems – time to work on personal projects, read, watch movies, and so on. I can already see Amanda stressed from trying to coordinate all the jobs packed so close together.”

Merlin thought about this for a moment and then nodded. “After we’ve informed your crew of the new ship and new potential workloads, we can grant each member of the Horizon the opportunity to either accept or turn down service on the new ship. If there are any who don’t think they can live up to the workload, their positions can be offered up to their counterparts on the Hidalgo Sun or Mooncrest. If there are any takers, then the personnel will simply have their assignments transferred between the crews. No one will lose his or her job from these decisions, unless someone willingly decides to resign due to the changes.”

“That sounds reasonable. May I make a suggestion?”

“Always.”

“While we are keeping the origin of the Hyld system from the rest of the PA, I think it would be prudent to do the same with everyone within our company. Granted that Pockets, Max, Renny and I will know, but there’s no need to tell anyone else that this was a result of Natasha’s lost technology. Let them all believe it’s a Silloni invention. That way, if anyone does resign, there won’t be any danger of the secret leaking out when they leave. It would also curb the potential of someone blabbing about what we have and where we got it during shore leave.”

“That’s a good idea. The less who know about it, the greater will be our chances of keeping a lid on this,” Merlin agreed. “Who knows, after the testing is done and Silloni Hyld ships become commonplace throughout the Planetary Alignment, then the system’s origins can be revealed.”

Taro nodded quietly, picking up the photographs again and studying the Kirin’s sleek design. “Well, maybe the next two years will give me what I asked for.”

“What’s that?”

“Mundane voyages,” the vixen said with a wry smile. “With such an increased workload like this, we won’t have time for any adventures along the way.”

Merlin chuckled. “Perhaps, but I wouldn’t count on it. Shipping freight across the galaxy should be mundane, but that never seems to be the case for the Blue Horizon. Besides, you’ll still have standard LightDrive capability that can be used without vault jumps. I’m sure some jobs will be accomplished between worlds within the same solar systems and won’t require the Hyld system at all.”

“What about the astro-navigation system?” Taro asked after a moment of thought. “The one on the Horizon wasn’t sensitive enough to brake in time, which is why we shot too far past Kantus on our test run.”

Merlin nodded. “The Silloni have already encountered this oversight during the initial test flights with unmanned probes. The Kirin has the highest sensitivity astrogation system they possess. I don’t think you’ll be repeating that mistake with the new ship.”

The pair of them fell silent, and rain became the only noise in the barn hangar for several long minutes. After a time, Taro dropped the photos onto the desk and then stretched. Merlin checked his watch again and looked as if he wanted to head back to the house to check on his pregnant mate. However, the vixen had something else on her mind they needed to discuss before the distraction of puppy birth took over.

Merlin dropped his bare feet down onto the floor next to his boots and began to slip them on. “What about my load master?” Taro asked suddenly.  The wolf looked at her in veiled frustration for only a second before he released a boot and sat back in his seat.

“That will be tricky, given the sensitive nature of the new ship,” he muttered. “We’ll have to ask the SPF to do an extensive background investigation on anyone we might consider for the position.”

“Why don’t we offer the position right away to the load masters of our sister ships before we hire anyone else?” Taro suggested. “We can give them first choice, and if there’s a taker, then we can hire a new person for the crew that loses its person.”

Merlin thought about it for a moment. “The idea has merit,” he admitted, “but the load master for the Mooncrest is Armando Jensen. Although he’s kept his nose clean and has given me no further cause for trouble, I don’t want him on the Horizon.” He looked up at Taro and gestured toward the photos. “We can offer the position to Mark Littlefeather of the Hidalgo Sun, if you wish, but not Armando.”

Taro raised an eyebrow. “It doesn’t matter to me,” she said slowly, as if choosing her words carefully for the wolf, “but what about your uh, mistrust of humans?”

Merlin surprised her with a lopsided smile. “Mark has always shown proper respect for his alpha and has been the exception in my dealings with his species. I trust him far more than I do my old competitor.”

“What if he declines? It will mean quite an increase in his workload.”

“We won’t hold it against him if he chooses not to transfer. We’ll then take applications for the job with an extensive security background check by the Spatial Police Force. Honestly, though… do you really think he might turn down the opportunity to crew on such a flagship?” Merlin asked with a continued smile. “I wouldn’t.”

The vixen relaxed visibly. “In that case, I’d gladly accept him as my new load master if he wants a job on a soon-to-be overworked ship.” She said the last with a smile.

“While we’re on the topic of new crew members,” Merlin said, “there is one more thing I forgot to mention. As part of the deal with the research and development of the Hyld, a Silloni engineer will join your crew for the first year.”

Taro frowned. “A watchdog, so to speak?”

“No, more of a specialist. Pockets will remain your chief engineer, but this new person will be your expert on the new ship and its engines. If something breaks down, you won’t be able to call the nearest shipyard for parts on a prototype, so you’ll have someone on board with knowledge of its construction, and she can teach Pockets everything he needs to know. She will be a regular member of your crew, even helping with cargo detail along with everyone else.”

“She?” Taro repeated with interest.

“Her name is Suzuko. She’s a Silloni engineer who has been with the Kirin program since its inception and was also part of the team who attempted to unlock Natasha’s code before Pockets found the key. She has full knowledge of the Hyld’s origin and she was on board the first manned hyper-jumps for both ships. As you put the ship through a regular routine, she will be making reports on the ship’s performance. If there are problems, or even suggestions for improvements to make before the design goes into mass production, this will be the time to make them. Your crew will have full input rights for any aspect of the new ship, but please don’t let them get too nitpicky about every little thing.  Remember, you are testing the ship for someone else. It’s not your personal vessel, so Suzuko will need to keep a rein on Pockets’ personal need to experiment. The program engineers may welcome his insight, but if he has suggestions to make for major improvements, he will have to go through Silloni channels for permission before he can do them.”

“What happens to the ship after the two years are up?”

“Providing all goes well and the ship is still in operation at that time, we will turn the prototype back over to them, in return for the first three ships off the commercial line at half price. We can replace our entire fleet with the latest Kirin-class freighters that have been upgraded and equipped with the suggestions and recommendations your crew makes during the test period. “

“Wow!”

“Exactly,” Merlin replied with a nod, “but keep in mind that since this is a prototype, there are likely to be bugs and glitches in the system that you may have to deal with on a regular basis until Suzuko, Pockets and Max can get them all smoothed out.”

“Yes, that’s to be expected. You mentioned visitors,” the vixen reminded him. “Are we still going to take on space-available passengers?”

“Not at first,” Merlin told her, “although it may be necessary to ship some associated personnel with the cargo you deliver on occasion, as we’ve done in the past. We will try to keep those to a bare minimum, allowed only as needed. Space Available was designed to help bring in extra income, but since the Horizon will be taking on more and more customers, it won’t be necessary. After the incident with Ms. Bennington, I’m reluctant to let non-personnel on board, especially in a ship using a propulsion system that all our competitors would give their first-born to possess, but I know there will be some cases where it can’t be helped.”

“With this extra income,” Taro said, “would you authorize me to hire licensed guards to watch the ship during our downtimes? Once word starts to spread about our new capabilities, jealous competitors may attempt to sabotage us. The guards can keep the snoops and saboteurs out.”

“If you can hire from SPF-accredited security organizations, yes, I’ll approve it.” Merlin looked at his watch again. “Is there anything else you need to discuss in private?” he asked.

“I have more questions, but nothing that can’t be answered in front of the crew later,” Taro replied, noting his clock-watching.

Merlin reached for a boot. “In that case, I want to get back to the house and check on Samantha.”

“I hope you have an umbrella,” the vixen muttered, an ear tilted upward toward the continued sound of rain.

“No need. We have an underground tunnel between the barn and the house to keep us out of the weather.”

Taro grinned. “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”

“It came with the house, actually.”

“Well then, let’s go check on Sam and Renny.”

“Renny?”

“To peel his claws out of the rafters after that storm.”

Merlin gave her a smirk as he stood up and tamped the toe of his boot on the ground. “Either that, or we’ll have to drag him out from beneath a bed, leaving scratches in the bare wood floor. Either way, I may have to charge the repairs of his claw marks in my woodwork against his pay!” The pair of them laughed at their friend’s expense and then the wolf led her out into the barn toward a set of steps that dropped below the foundation of the structure.

***

The next morning arrived, calm and peaceful. The storm had passed in the night, leaving the land refreshed under a clear sky. A slight breeze wafted gently in from the sea, giving the air a salty tang and the temperature was pleasant.

Samantha opened her eyes with a quiet yawn, her pink tongue curling as she stretched lazily. She’d slept well through the night, despite the soreness of her lower back from carrying her pups. As yet, they had not made an entrance into the world, despite everyone’s predictions they would arrive during the storm.

The gentle sea breeze that spread out thin beige curtains over the king-size bed was cool and she pulled up a fluffy white comforter with blue and yellow flowers up to her chin. She turned and looked to her left, but Merlin wasn’t there beside her.  The clock showed it was still early, but he had a habit of getting up before she did every morning to jog along the coast for the exercise.

She closed her eyes again with a final stretch and then snuggled further down into the covers. No sooner had she done so, there was a light tapping at her door.

“Sam, are you awake?” asked a quiet voice.

“Yes, come on in,” the Border collie responded with a smile.  It pleased her to see her vulpine friend, glad she was able to be here during this special time.

Taro eased open the door with her elbow and brought in a bed tray with a glass of juice, a bowl of oatmeal, a small plate of buttered toast and a jar of red plum jam. “Shannon’s not here yet, so I decided to prepare a bit of breakfast for you,” she said with a smile.  She set the tray at the foot of the four-poster bed and then helped her friend into a sitting position with several pillows behind the collie’s back.

“Thank you.” Sam sat with the tray across her lap and picked up her teacup.

“How are you this morning?” Taro asked her.

“Tired, as always. I really thought they would arrive last night, but I had nary a kick from any of them.”

A smirk crossed Taro’s face. “Speaking of kicks, Shannon wanted me to give you a message.”

“What is it?” Samantha asked around a slice of toast.

“Blue Horizon!”

Sam’s eyes went wide and she gave a small lurch beneath the breakfast tray. One hand went immediately to her belly and then she narrowed her eyes at the vixen.

“It works!” Taro exclaimed in surprise.

“Stop that!” Samantha huffed. “I can’t believe she told you about that!”

Taro laughed aloud and sat in a nearby wing-back chair decorated in paisleys. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist trying it out.”

Samantha growled playfully. “If you have to mention your ship, just say ‘Horizon’ – that by itself doesn’t get my insides kicked!”

“Oh, all right,” the fox said with a grin. “Just trying to help kick start your day!”

“You’re horrible, Taro. As mischievous as he is, not even Merlin’s done that to me.”

“Does he know about it?”

Samantha smiled and shook her head. “Actually, no, but you’d better not tell him!”

“Why not? If we keep the one in there kicking, perhaps the others will get tired of him and induce their own labor to get out!”

“Don’t you dare,” the Border collie warned, raising her eyebrow at her friend and spreading jam over another slice of toast. “They’ll come out in their own good time.”

“Aw, you’re no fun.”

“I’m lots of fun!” Sam countered. “Just ask Merlin.”

Taro snickered and pointed toward the canine’s swollen belly. “I think we can all see that Merlin thinks you’re loads of fun!”

Sam’s eyes went wide. “I can’t believe you just said that!” she whispered. Taro only giggled in reply. The collie shook her head and took a bite of her toast. A moment later, she asked, “Speaking of my mate, where is he?”

“He’s playing leader to my crew once again,” Taro replied. “He got up early to take a jog, but Renny, Jerry, Mandy and Max wouldn’t let him go without them. They’re all in shorts, tee-shirts and sneakers, jogging right alongside him somewhere out on the road.”

“Good, I’m sure they can all use the exercise in the clean air. He does that every morning before preparing for work, so I’m glad he has the company today. How come you’re not out there with them?” Samantha asked. “Don’t you have a daily workout routine of your own?”

“I do, but this weekend I’m sticking close to your house.”

“Anyone else awake?”

“Tristan and Gwen are having coffee out on the back deck in the cool air and Pockets is out in the barn checking out the Starwolf. Lori and Justy are still in bed, I think, and I’m in here with you.”

“Did you talk to Merlin last night about the Horizon?”

Taro nodded. “Yeah, we had a nice long chat out in the barn while it was raining. He gave me the low-down on all that’s going on with the ships, giving me a stroke in the process; I’m fine, now that I have all the details. Renny and I took a hot soaking bath before bed last night and discussed it.”

“What was his reaction?”

“I think he’s more excited about it that I am,” Taro admitted. “He’s never really been content to just sit around during our three-to-four week voyages across the Planetary Alignment, so he’s looking forward to having more to do. He doesn’t have a problem with the secrecy surrounding the vault system and figures that even we will forget about its origins after a while of calling it Hyld. Unless Merlin mentions it to the others during their jog, we’ve not told anyone else of the new ship. I’m sure Pockets and Max would want to be out in it at this moment if we told them, but right now we’re here for you, so I’m not going to have my people scattered all over Grandstorm until you’ve popped out those biscuits.”

“My biscuits, eh?” Sam laughed. “I’ve been told that I have buns in the oven, so I guess that fits!”

“Even if you don’t go into labor for a while, I’m content to stick around and relax. If you get tired of me hanging around, just let me know and maybe I’ll go for a jog down the shore.”

“I appreciate you bringing me breakfast, Taro. If you’ll take the tray back to the kitchen, I think I’m going to waddle into the shower and then get dressed.”

“You need any assistance?”

“Nope, that I can do myself.”

“Okay then, I’ll see you later,” the vixen replied, reaching for the tray. “I should probably go check in on Pockets or he may have all the wiring out on the floor of the Starwolf, making modifications on his own!”

“Checking up on Pockets is always a good thing,” Samantha said with a laugh.

***

Jerry looked up from the local printed newspaper he was reading, silently noting that Samantha had begun pacing the floor, her back arched to hold the weight of her unborn children. With nothing to do but wait, most of the crew had grown bored and gone outside in the yard to busy themselves with various activities to keep from fidgeting. The expectant mother appeared to be restless as well. As he studied her, he watched Lorelei approach from the kitchen and say something quietly to her. Samantha shook her head slowly and resumed her pacing, leaving the bunny with a frown.

Lori returned to the kitchen where she and Shannon were preparing lunch for everyone. Jerry watched the canine pace for another moment before he returned his attention to the article he had been reading.

“Are you okay?” Amanda asked. Jerry looked up and saw Samantha leaning against the back of the couch behind the coyote.

“Sorry,” Samantha said. “It’s hot in here and I guess I got a little lightheaded.”

Jerry frowned. The house was comfortably air conditioned, even a little cool to his nose, and the ceiling fans had been on for hours to circulate the air. Sam picked up a paper magazine from a lamp table and fanned herself with it.

“Maybe you should sit down for a while,” Amanda suggested.

Samantha gave her a smile, but shook her head. “No, I’m too restless to sit still right now,” she said. “I think I’ll be better if I’m moving around.” She walked around the furniture to a thermostat on a wall and checked its readings. She frowned and tapped the control to lower the temperature further.

Jerry heard her mutter to herself about the inefficiency of their cooling unit as she resumed her pacing. The fox followed her back and forth across the room, his orange eyes tracking her across the top of his paper.

He was about to return his attention to the article once more when he saw her falter and sit down heavily in a large wingback chair. He was up and across the room to her side before Amanda had noted her action.

Samantha looked up at him with watery eyes when he bent over to have a look at her. She was panting and holding her stomach lightly.

“What is it?” he asked quietly. Amanda crouched down beside him.

“I feel nauseated,” the Border collie replied, “and really hot.”

Jerry nodded to himself and took her pulse automatically. “Mandy, would you get Shannon, please?”

“Shouldn’t I get Merlin?” the coyote asked.

“Shannon,” he repeated patiently. Amanda trotted across the room and disappeared into the kitchen.

“I don’t feel well, Doc,” Samantha said. “What’s wrong with me?”

Jerry gave her a gentle smile. “You have five foreign bodies within you that may soon want out for some fresh air,” he said in a soothing voice. She smiled back at him weakly, but only panted in reply.

“What is it?” Shannon asked a moment later. She wiped her hands nervously on a kitchen apron, Lori behind her mimicking her actions unconsciously.

“Is she sick?” the lapin doe asked.

“She’s going to be just fine,” the doctor answered and glanced over at Shannon. “I think you should turn the kitchen duties over to Lorelei. Sam is going to need a midwife now.”

“She’s gonna have her puppies?” Lori asked excitedly.

“Not yet, but soon. I think we should get Sam back to her bed where Shannon can watch over her. She’s hot and nauseated, and I think I have something in my med kit to calm her stomach.”

“There’s no need, Jerry,” Shannon replied, putting a gentle hand on her sister-in-law’s shoulder. “I have everything she needs to calm down and ride this out already prepared in Samantha’s birthing den.”

The fox gave her a nod. “In that case, let’s help her to her room, and then you can take care of her from there.”

Although she knew the reason, Samantha was still slightly annoyed that she couldn’t get back up from the chair by herself. Her legs felt weak and the room had begun to wobble – or was that her that was wobbling? Shannon and Jerry helped her to her feet and she felt herself shuffled slowly down the narrow hallway.

Her sister-in-law opened a door and then turned back toward Jerry. “There’s not enough room for the three of us in there, so I can help Sam inside from here.”

“All yours,” the physician replied without argument. “Have fun, you two.”

Shannon chuckled. Sam would have scowled at him for his remark, but another wave of dizziness washed over her. With Shannon’s help, she took two steps toward the bed and then stopped to catch her breath. The birthing den had trapped a nice pocket of cold air and felt better than the front room, but she was still hot.

Shannon turned to close the panel behind them, but just as she grabbed the door handle, she heard something wet splashing on the tiled floor behind her. She turned and looked back at Samantha, whose eyes were as wide and round as the shape she made with her mouth.

“Come on, dear,” she said to the expectant mother. “Shed your nightgown so I can get you cleaned up and into bed. It begins.”

***

Although there had been no plans to do so, Taro’s crew had been slowly congregating on the wooden deck behind the Sinclair house. The afternoon sun was hidden above the shade of a large tree beside the deck and the temperature was pleasant with gentle breezes from the nearby sea. Lorelei kept everyone supplied with glasses of tea, soda, jamonade, water or coffee, merrily serving her friends.

Merlin and Bill were pacing the floors inside the house, while Tristan and Guinevere calmly kept them company in the front room. Jerry’s help had been politely turned down by Shannon, so he was outside with his shipmates. With Samantha so near to giving birth, no one wanted to be away from the house. Not even Bill’s children could provide much distraction for the gathered crew, so the pups played together out on the lawn, happily chasing one another around the trees, the barn and through the gazebo throwing fallen jamon fruit at one another, while the adults fidgeted collectively.

Taro had been talking privately with Renny in low voices, but the others soon realized that the conversation had nothing to do with either Samantha or their intimate history. Renny’s eyes were too wide, his tail twitching and his arms gesturing just a bit too much for comfort’s sake.

“Okay, are you two gonna let us in on the big secret?” Pockets finally grumbled, rocking back and forth in a wooden glide chair. His legs were too short to push off from the ground, so he had one foot up on the deck guard rail.

Taro looked up and noticed that all eyes were upon her and her first officer. She glanced back at Renny, who gave her an imperceptible nod. She reached a quick decision and stood up to lean back against the railing. Her ornamental blue-tipped white feather fluttered beside her and she reached up absently to still its motion.

“I suppose this is as good a time as any to give you all the news,” she said. “I had hoped to wait until after the pups were born so nothing would distract you, but I think a distraction is what we all need right now.”

“Uh oh, here it comes…” Justy said with a gulp. Amanda put a nervous hand on his arm, dreading the expected bad news just as Taro had the night before.

The vixen looked over at her chief engineer. “Pockets, do you remember your little experiment with Natasha’s Vault system?”

The raccoon stopped rocking. “Uh, yeah…?”

“I want you, Max and Justy to go out to the ship tomorrow and dismantle it.”

“Huh?”

“Get everything out, including Calissa’s black box, and return the engine room to its original state. We need to—”

“I know you don’t trust it,” the engineer grumbled, “but I assure you I can make it work with a new astrogation computer I just got my paws on.”

“Please don’t interrupt me just yet,” Taro said patiently. “I have more to say.” She gave him a compassionate look, knowing she hadn’t started out as well as she had wanted. She was never good at dragging out a mystery, so she decided to tell them outright.

“Okay, here it is. Merlin is replacing our damaged ship with a new freighter from Sillon,” she said to looks of surprise. “The new one—”

“Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to have ours repaired?” Jerry asked suddenly.

“No interruptions,” Taro reminded him with a smile. The doctor sat back with a furrowed brow. “I’ll answer any questions you may have after you hear what I have to say. For now, please just listen to your captain.”

There were annoyed and fearful faces looking back at her, so she set her jaw and began. “The Silloni have developed a new Hyper-LightDrive propulsion system that works along similar lines of the Vault and they have produced two prototypes for testing. Master Tristan is testing a small personal cruiser equipped with the new system.” Pockets nodded, having already heard about the Silloni test from the unicorn himself, with a promise of silence. However, he was unaware of what Taro was to say next.

“The second prototype is a larger unit and was installed into a new freighter class that was already being prepared for the market. Due to the help we provided to Sillon a few years back, Blue Horizon Freight Transfer has been chosen to test the new freighter equipped with the Hyper-LightDrive system.” Several mouths opened in excitement, but Taro held up a finger to quell their expected comments and questions just a bit longer.

Spurred on by their own enthusiasm, the vixen went on to tell them about the new ship and their two-year testing phase. The only thing she kept from them was the origin of the new Hyld system, as she had agreed with Merlin. Everyone was riveted to her words and faces brightened with each new thing she told them about the new Blue Horizon.

***

Merlin was a nervous wreck. The fur of his face and the top of his head was all in disarray from running fidgety hands over his head for the past three hours. His eyes were red and his feet were tired from pacing around the house. Bill was in better shape, having only just been anxious, but both wolves felt worn out from the long wait. Although no less in anticipation for the news, Tristan and Gwen had gone out to the rustic iron benches under the tree in the front yard to get some fresh air. Every time Shannon came out of the birthing den, both lupine males would rush to greet her for the news. However, she would only grant each of them impatient looks as she rushed to the kitchen for ice, water or other items.

Merlin unbuttoned his shirt completely and pulled the shirttail from his trousers. He paced absently around the room, narrowly missing the furniture with each revolution. He heard a door open and looked expectantly toward the hall. When Shannon emerged from the shadows, there was a different expression on her face. Merlin felt a lump in his throat as he tried to read the stoic look in her eyes.

Unable to maintain the façade any longer, Shannon let a wide grin spread across her face. “Congratulations, Merlin. You have two daughters and three sons!”

The new father had to stop himself from howling for joy, but he reached out for his sister’s hands with a sudden worried look. “Samantha?” he asked hesitantly.

“She’s fine and so are all the puppies,” Shannon replied with a nod to his concern. “There were a few worrisome moments during the birthing, but everything turned out okay. Everyone’s been cleaned up and ready to see you now.”

“You mean I can —”

“Yes, brother!” she laughed. “You can go in now!”

Merlin bolted down the hall and Bill tried to follow, but Shannon held him back. “Whoa, there,” she said with a chuckle. “Let the father see his new pack first. You can see them in a minute.”

“Yeah, okay,” Bill replied and gave his mate an excited hug. He pulled back, brushed a hand over his face to calm himself, and then looked at her with bright eyes. “Have they chosen names?”

The tan wolf led him to the couch and then sat down beside him wearily. “Sam says they have, but she wouldn’t tell me what they were.”

“Why?”

“They agreed that Merlin will be the one to decide which male name goes with each of his sons, and she would do the same with their daughters. Moreover, due to the presence of Tristan and Guinevere, Sam wanted Merlin to announce each of them in a Silloni naming ceremony as each puppy is brought out for the official grandparents to see. I thought it was a good idea and didn’t press her for the names.”

“Speaking of the grandparents,” Bill said, “they’re out in front of the house. You go give them the news; I’ll tell everyone out back.”

“That’s a good idea.” Before she let him get up, however, she wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled him affectionately.

***

Merlin reached the low door of the birthing den and tentatively opened the panel into the small dark room. Samantha looked up wearily from the bed, but when she saw who it was, her expression softened. She lay on her side facing his direction and beckoned him near.

“See what we made, my love?” she whispered.

The wolf moved forward silently, afraid to disturb the five tiny pups suckling at their first meal. He sank to his knees beside the bed and rested his chin on top of his hands on the mattress. There was moisture in his eyes and a smile on his face that threatened to split his jaw in two. He swallowed as he studied them all, and then he looked back up at his mate.

“You did a fine job,” he whispered to her, stretching out a hand to clasp her fingers gently. “They’re beautiful. You’re beautiful!”

“Thank you. I can’t get up, so you’ll have to come here so I can kiss you.”

Merlin complied, giving his mate his undivided attention. Moments later, he drew up the room’s solitary roller chair and sat beside her bed. He studied the tiny pups and could already see both canine and lupine physical characteristics in them. He’d never been a father before, and had never really spent much time around small children, but the instincts within him had come alive and he already felt protective of them and their mother.

One pup stopped feeding to catch its breath, so Merlin gently scooped up the tiny body and leaned forward to take in the small female’s scent. He gave her a small lick and then pulled her up against the chest fur through his open shirt. The pup whimpered briefly, but then sniffed at the new body warmth. Merlin stroked her back gently with a forefinger and swallowed at the depth of emotion in his chest. When she whimpered again for her lost breakfast, Merlin set her back down beside her mother.

For a long while, Merlin spoke quietly with his mate, and repeated his action with each pup that paused long enough it its feeding for him to pick it up to get acquainted.

***

The guests had all gathered back inside the house in the front room, and when Merlin walked out to face them, no one could blame him for the unabashed look of pride on his face. He held up one hand with two fingers extended, and the other hand with three fingers displayed.

“Two girls, three boys,” he said proudly. “All are healthy, and so is their mother.” Pockets let out a sharp whistle, startling Lori into a fit of giggles, and Renny began a round of applause with a wide grin. Merlin allowed them to show their celebration, and when they had calmed down, he gestured toward the two Silloni unicorns occupying a matching pair of large wingback chairs.

“In honor of the official grandparents,” he said with a slight bow of respect toward them, “Samantha and I would like to follow a Silloni tradition with a Naming Ceremony.” The bright look in Guinevere’s eyes was filled with emotion, and Tristan’s chest swelled with pride. The large black equine may have once been Regent on his world, but he was still susceptible to certain private honors where family was concerned. Samantha’s family had meant a great deal to them, and the love for their adopted daughter was genuine.

Merlin turned toward the hallway behind him and made a brief gesture. A moment later, Shannon appeared with a pale red blanket in her arms. In the folds of the blanket was a tiny puppy. The new father gently picked up the naked infant and then held it up for all to see. At this stage, the male child looked little different from a non-sentient puppy, but humanoid characteristics would continue to grow into well-defined limbs and features in the coming weeks, as it was with most all of the anthro-races that made up the Planetary Alignment.

The small male made no sound as he was presented to his guests. He was predominantly lupine in appearance with brown, gray and white fur, but the small ears were longer and rounder than the usual triangular ears, evident of his mother’s heritage. The tiny eyes would remain closed for nearly two weeks, so it would be a while yet before the color of his eyes could be determined. Merlin carried the infant over to the grandparents, held the bundle out toward them and said, “This young one will be known as Alexander Merle Sinclair.”

Keeping with the custom of their people, Tristan and Guinevere stood up from their seats and bowed forward so that their alicorns crossed over the top of the puppy.

“Alexander Merle,” they repeated together, “may your life be long, happy, full and prosperous.”

Amanda began to clap, but Taro stopped her with a light touch. With a smile of embarrassment, the coyote put her hands together in her lap with a look of apology toward the lupine father.

Merlin responded to the unicorns with a bow of his own as he licked the top of Alexander’s head. He smiled warmly, holding the infant up against his chest, and then he returned the puppy to Shannon’s arms. His sister gave him a pleasant smile and then retraced her steps back down the hallway. Merlin refrained from looking back at his friends while he awaited her return.

Moments later, Shannon presented another bundle to her sibling. Merlin held up a small female with fur of red and brown, and although the product of a canine and lupine union, her ears and other features appeared distinctly lupine. She let out a soft whimper as her father presented her to her grandparents.

“This little girl will be known as Cassandra Diane Sinclair,” Merlin said quietly.

Tristan and Guinevere crossed their horns and responded, “Cassandra Diane, may your life be long, happy, full and prosperous.”

Merlin bowed, licked his daughter lightly on the head and then held Cassandra up against his chest. He turned, set her in Shannon’s arms, and then put his hands behind his back as he waited.

Like Alexander, the next puppy was predominantly lupine in appearance, but the young male had Samantha’s Border collie ears. His fur was an even mix of gray, black and white, and he wriggled around in Merlin’s hands. The pup’s father grinned as he held onto the squirmy child.

“This son of mine will be known as “Marcus Derek Sinclair.”

“Marcus Derek, may your life be long, happy, full and prosperous.”

Shannon brought out another female puppy. This little girl looked as if she were entirely Border collie, and with the pattern of her monochrome fur, she was a tiny version of her mother. When Merlin picked her up to show her off, the infant snuggled up close into her father’s hands and began sucking on a fingertip.

“This daughter of mine will be known as “Katherine Amy Sinclair.”

“Katherine Amy, may your life be long, happy, full and prosperous.”

Only when Merlin tried to give the puppy back to Shannon did little Katherine begin to whimper at being separated from her father. Lori let out a soft “awww” and there were a few chuckles in the group. Shannon grinned as she gathered the little girl in the blanket, and then she disappeared back into the back room.

When Merlin held up his final offspring moments later, there was a couple of gasps from the guests. As much as Katherine resembled Samantha, this infant male looked like a miniature version of Merlin. His coloring, ears, fur pattern and even his facial eye mask bore a striking likeness to his father. While his siblings had remained passive in Merlin’s hands, this little guy sniffed the air and even attempted to get up on his front paws facing toward the larger wolf. Merlin smiled and touched noses with his son before presenting him to the grandparents.

“This one will be known as Ramius Christopher Sinclair,” Merlin said proudly.

“Ramius Christopher, may your life be long, happy, full and prosperous,” Tristan and Guinevere said together. Gwen’s voice cracked with emotion and Tristan put a strong arm around his mate’s shoulders.

Merlin returned little Ramius to Shannon’s blanket, and after she had disappeared into the darkened hallway, Tristan stepped up to the wolf and clasped hands with the new father.

“Congratulations, son,” the Silloni unicorn said with full, rich tones. “You and our Samantha have produced a fine litter that you can be proud of.”

Merlin swallowed and looked up into the former Regent’s deep brown eyes. “Thank you, Master,” he replied with a chest unconsciously puffed up in pride.

Guinevere bent down to pull him into a warm embrace. She beamed at him with moist eyes and said, “I am so proud of you both. I know your little ones will be well-cared for with enriched lives.”

“Thank you, Ma’am,” Merlin replied.

The room was intensely quiet when they parted, and everyone could hear Amanda’s whispered question to her captain. “May I clap now?”

Merlin laughed aloud and said with a nod, “Yes, please do. Samantha’s birthing den is soundproofed, so make as much noise as you wish!”

The coyote grinned widely and began clapping vigorously. The others joined in, and Renny let out a sharp whistle. Pockets, Max and Justy cheered in unison, and the others expressed their congratulations in different ways.

Renny, Taro and Jerry approached Merlin at the same time, but the cheetah managed to secure his friend’s hand first. “It looks like you’re the alpha of your own wolf pack now!” he said cheerfully.

“Congratulations, Merlin,” Jerry said with a smile. “You have a fine family of pups.”

Taro pushed both males aside and slipped her arms around Merlin’s neck. She gave him a quick peck on the side of his muzzle and then hugged him. “You’re a daddy now,” she said. “Treat those young’uns good, train them well, and you’ll have half the compliment of a new crew for a future generation for the Blue Horizon.”

“He can train up my children for the other half!” Bill Wallace piped up as he joined them. “They could use good jobs!”

“I figured they’d all grow up juggling numbers like their father,” Merlin quipped as he pried himself from Taro’s arms and gave his brother in law’s hand a good squeeze.

“Possibly, but you know children – they never seem to grow up to follow their parents’ wishes,” Bill replied. “Take me, for example. My folks wanted me to be a starship designer, but I can’t draw a straight line to save my life – even with a computer!”

“That’s true,” Shannon said from behind the group. “That’s why his sister’s now the head of the design team for the Firebird Fleet on Alexandrius instead of him.”

“How is Samantha?” Taro asked. “Is she going to get to come out to revel in the adulation of the masses?”

“Sam’s tired and now sleeping,” Shannon replied. “The kids are tucked into a warming crib so she can get some rest, but I would imagine they’ll be ready for another feeding in a couple hours. Once she’s ready to come out to see the sun, Samantha will be ready to visit with you all. For now, she needs her rest.”

“May I speak with Merlin alone, please?” said Guinevere. The group parted to allow the white Silloni mare access to the wolf.

“Of course, Ma’am,” Taro replied, hooking arms with Jerry and Renny. “C’mon, you two. It’ll be a while before Sam’s ready to see us, so let’s go back outside where we can talk about our new ship. We have pictures!”

Merlin allowed himself to be led to a quiet corner of the room. Guinevere held both of his hands in hers and spoke in a gentle voice. “My dear Merlin,” she said, “Tristan and I have been Samantha’s legal guardians since she was a child, and although she grew to adulthood and went off to follow her own direction in life, we have always tried to be there for her in times of difficulty. Although the great distances have not often been helpful in her times of need, we have always done our best to make ourselves available to her.”

“Yes, Ma’am. Samantha has told me much of her life with you, and I’m most grateful for your love and affection for one not born of your own blood,” Merlin replied quietly. “You were influential in her upbringing, and had she been raised by her biological parents, she might have grown up to be someone else who may have never come my way. I am indebted to you for her.”

Gwen nodded. “Thank you,” she said. “It is of those influences I wish to speak. We have no authority and make no demands to have any sway in the rearing of your young, but if you would permit us, Tristan and I would appreciate any opportunity you may grant us to take part in their lives.”

Merlin looked up at her in surprise. “Ma’am, I feel confident that I can speak on behalf of Samantha on this issue. It’s likely that a Dennieran upbringing may differ from the methods you used with your children, but we would be grateful for any benefits you can bring to the lives of our pups – not necessarily the wealth of currency, but in the wealth of your knowledge, experience and wisdom.” He gave her a smile and added, “Not to mention the wealth of your love and compassion.”

The mare’s eyes crinkled in delight. “Thank you, Merlin. May I make one small request of you?”

“Name it.”

“I know you hold Tristan and myself in high regard – this much our Samantha has told us, but we both would be pleased if you would drop titles of office or status when speaking to us. Please… use our names. We are family now.”

Merlin nodded with understanding. He’d once received a similar request from a Tanthean princess. “It may be a difficult habit for me to break, Guinevere, so I ask your patience until the practice becomes comfortable for me,” he said with a smile.

Gwen smiled at the use of her name. “Thank you, Merlin. Now, let us return to your guests. I imagine there are others who would like to pat you on the back.”

NEW CONTRACTS

by Ted R. Blasingame

Jerad Porter paced the yard behind Merlin and Samantha’s house, his small hands jammed into two of his namesake pockets and his feet making tracks in the now-dry grass along the tall iron fence. He was happy for Merlin and Samantha on the birth of their children, but now that the event had finally taken place, the engineer was most anxious to see their new ship. He had been with the Blue Horizon since Merlin had originally set up the business a decade earlier, and although he’d become intimately familiar with each vessel to carry the name, he was not particularly attached to the specific machine. From what Taro had told them of the new Kirin class freighter, he was anxious to see it and start to familiarize himself with its new systems.

He and his brother had been servicing Okami class freighters built on Dennier for nearly fourteen years, and while he knew those systems through and through, he was ready for something new. He and Jasper had often experimented with existing systems to improve performance, but with the prototype of a ship, everything was new. There would be plenty of opportunities to test and improve upon the freighter before it even went on the market, so he was now in the enviable position to mold and shape the vessel to his whims.

It bothered him little that there would be a Silloni engineer assigned to them for their first year. He would still be Chief engineer, and would tap the new person’s knowledge of fledgling technology. It would also be nice to have another individual on board with whom he could hold coherent technical conversations. Max had learned much in his short time, but he was still inexperienced and was lacking in practical knowledge. The young mechanic could learn more with another engineer on board to guide him.

Pockets had enjoyed working on the H-model Okami version of the Blue Horizon, but as far as he was concerned, it was now an old and damaged tool to be replaced. Ironically, the new contract with Okami Corp for his Moss designs would limit the flobot for use only on Okami freighters. Yet another tool, Pockets would miss having Moss on board the new ship, so he might have to come up with a different flobot design to work with the Silloni security systems. That was a challenge he was more than ready to face.

Anxious to get started familiarizing himself with the new vessel, Pockets had been to Merlin and Taro twice, entreating them to let he and Max go see the new ship. However, the new father was still too distracted with his family that he would do nothing more than tell Pockets to be patient. They would all go out to see the Kirin the first thing on the morrow. Pockets even tried to convince the wolf to divulge the location of the new ship, but Merlin refused to tell him where it was parked.

The raccoon continued his pacing, but then looked up at the sound of footsteps in the grass. Renny wore a smirk on his face, but Pockets was in no mood to hear about anything else that Merlin may have discovered about his children. However, Jerad was not the grumpy sibling of the Porters, so he greeted the cheetah with a look of amusement.

“What’s tickling your fuzz?” he asked.

Renny chuckled and shook his head. “You, Justy, Lori and Max have all worn down Merlin’s patience,” he said. Pockets’ eyes lit up with hope. “He still doesn’t want to leave his new family just yet,” Renny continued, “so he has asked Master Tristen to take us all out to see the new ship. He’s already given the security codes to Taro so we can head out to see it as soon as everyone’s in the van.”

Pockets tried to split his face with a wide grin. “What are we waiting for?” he asked, taking a few steps toward the house. “I’ll race ya to the van!”

Renny raised an eyebrow at the raccoon’s challenge to race a cheetah, but he gave the engineer a grin and nodded his chin. “I’ll give you a head start,” he said, getting down into a sprinter’s stance.

***

Renny guided the passenger van along the marked lanes toward the spaceport tarmac, following Tristan’s open-air vehicle at a safe distance. Talk had been animated on the drive from the Sinclair home on Totter’s Lane, but now voices were hushed as they drew nearer their anticipated destination.

“Is this a joke?” Pockets asked, hanging onto the back of Taro’s front seat. “Master Tristan’s taking us back to our ship!” Indeed, their familiar Okami H-model freighter rested on its landing gear directly ahead of them, the patches over its battle scars still an ugly blemish.

Taro grinned at the raccoon over her shoulder and shook her head. “No joke, Pockets. Merlin had landing pad eighteen reserved for us when we came in to Grandstorm. The Kirin is on pad seventeen and Tristan’s cruiser, the Kokoro, is on pad sixteen.” She pointed past their vessel, where they could just see the softly pointed nose of another ship beyond. “We landed right next to our new ship!”

“I hope the Horizon isn’t jealous,” Max said from somewhere in the back, “sitting next to her replacement.”

Keeping up with the mechanic’s analogy, Justy replied, “Nah, Max, she’s ready for retirement. She’s got several million miles of travel on her bones and she’s so damaged that repairs will never be made.”

“Well, that’s only partially true,” Jerry countered. “I heard Merlin and Bill discuss selling the old ship to a local vocational technical school that uses decommissioned ships like this for their trainee mechanics to work on. It won’t go for a top-credit price, but with its structural damage, it would be difficult to sell it otherwise.”

“At least it won’t be in a junk heap,” Amanda added.

“Like the last one,” Max murmured sadly.

“The Horizon deserves better than that,” Amanda added.

“When do we get to move in?” Lori asked. “At least we won’t have far to take our stuff.”

“Tonight we’re just here to visit and look around,” Taro answered. “The call-sign transfer of the Blue Horizon name cannot take place until the old ship has been officially decommissioned tomorrow afternoon, and until that happens, we can’t set up shop. Merlin’s already made arrangements to have local officials on hand to do their officiating.”

Renny followed Tristan’s vehicle around their freighter and soon the new ship came into view. Taro locked her eyes onto the vessel she had seen only in the photographs she had passed around to her crew, and saw instantly that the pictures didn’t do it justice.

“Wow, would you look at that!” Justy exclaimed. Although not as tall as the Okami freighter, the Kirin was longer and more slender, a fact accentuated by a pair of double white stripes that ran the length of its sides from bow to stern just beneath a row of polarized glassteel windows. The vessel’s base color was royal blue and the early evening sunlight hit it just right for it to glisten. The Kirin rested on triangularly spaced landing gear, each a set of caterpillar treads that sat low beneath the relatively flat underbelly. There were aerodynamic nubs at the bottom of the structure beneath a pair of cargo bay doors that likely housed loading ramps not currently extended.

Renny pulled up beside Tristan’s parked vehicle on the vessel’s port side near the primary hatch. They knew from the photographs that another airlock hatch occupied a similar position on the starboard side of the fuselage. Taro and her crew piled out of the van as soon as the cheetah set it onto the ground and shut off the engine.

Pockets started to run for the hatch, but then checked himself and stopped.

“What’s the matter?” Max asked from his side.

The raccoon turned to him with a grin. “I just want to take it all in before I touch her,” he said. “Take a look there, Max. You see where the aft section flares out slightly? That’s over the propulsion nodules and will be our domain. C’mon, let’s go look at her rear end!”

Taro watched the mechanics trot away and gave Jerry a smile. “Did you see the sparkle in his eyes?” she asked.

“Yeah, they were practically glowing,” the doctor replied with a laugh. He glanced toward the softly rounded nose of the craft and saw the ship’s name and registry number painted on the underside of the curvature. The photos had shown the same name and number below the bridge windows on the upper surface. It made sense that it would be repeated below for landing crews on the ground to identify the vessel when coming in.

“Come on, Taro!” Lorelei called to her from the extended ramp below the airlock hatch. Justy and Amanda stood with her, and all acted as if they were awaiting permission to open holiday gifts. “Unlock it so we can go inside!” the bunny whined.

“Alright, I’m coming,” Taro said. She looked around for her first officer and saw Renny quietly conversing with Tristan beside the van.

As the captain approached the airlock, Jerry silently studied the walkway ramp. It appeared that while in flight, it would swing up into a recessed trough around the airlock and fit flush into the fuselage to maintain the vessel’s aerodynamic profile. Likewise, he noted, the dual cargo bay doors fit flush with the sleek surface. They were currently closed, but he idly wondered what method they used to retract when open.

“Move aside, Lori,” Taro told the white-furred doe. “I need to be right where you’re standing.” Lorelei scooted to the side, bumping into Justy and nearly knocking him off the ramp.

Taro slid open another flush panel that revealed a ten-digit number touch pad. The vixen retrieved a small plastic card from within the envelope she had carried from the van and studied the security passcode. She tapped the numerical sequence on the key pad and was rewarded with an active green diode.

Standing beside the airlock, they could hear the internal mechanism cycle a moment before the panel pulled in several inches and then slid to the right within the hull. Just inside was the pressurization chamber, large enough to hold four fully-suited people and equipment, if needed. Since the ship was on land in a friendly environment, the internal airlock door was already open. In flight, both panels would be closed and sealed against external climates.

Justy rushed through first and found a control panel just inside. Overhead light panels came on, but instead of standing inside the cargo bay, they found themselves in a wide corridor with walls of azure. A glassteel window on their right looked out into the hold, but the connecting pressure door to it was farther up the passage. That entrance was also equipped with a locking number pad, an extra measure that would keep potential passengers from getting into whatever cargo they might be carrying.

Rather than looking into it, however, the group followed the passage across the breadth of the vessel, bypassing several intersecting doors; at the other end, they walked directly into an airlock to the outside.

“Did we get turned around?” Lori asked. “We’re right back where we started!”

“How?” said Justy. We walked in a straight line.”

“This is the starboard airlock,” Taro reminded them. “This ship has two of them, one on each side.”

“I think one of the doors we passed back there must have been the lift,” Amanda suggested, hooking a thumb over her shoulder.

“What about the others?” Justy asked.

“Probably storage closets for pressure suits, equipment or access to internal systems,” Jerry replied.

“About face!” Taro commanded in a light tone. She headed back the way they came, and after a moment, they saw Renny standing inside the open door of a large elevator lift located exactly halfway between both airlocks.

“What did you find?” he asked.

“Just the back door,” Justy replied. He moved past the cheetah into the lift and made room for the others who filed in behind him. Amazingly, it was large enough for them all, if a little snug for that number.

Jerry activated the control and the elevator took them up quickly. When the single door panel slid aside, they stepped out onto earth tone flooring. Automated lights in recessed panels came on immediately and illuminated a short corridor that led away to both port and starboard sides of the ship, much like the hallway they had just left behind on the first level. Instead of concluding in an airlock, however, the ends of the passage made right angle turns toward the aft areas of the vessel in parallel hallways that mirrored one another. Lori looked down the long starboard corridor and saw a row of door panels on both sides of the passage. Amanda went to the end of the port corridor and saw much of the same thing.

Due to his being the shortest individual in the present group, Justy noted that all the doorways and corridors seemed higher than usual. He had no doubt that it was due to the ship having been designed by larger Silloni unicorn and Ryuji dragon engineers.

“Here’s the bridge,” Renny said. Everyone turned to look at the cheetah. The lift had opened up next door to the command center and they had completely missed seeing the gold-painted panel beside them.

“I’m going exploring,” Justy said with a wave. He disappeared down the portside corridor with Lori following, while Jerry and Amanda wandered off down the starboard hallway.

Taro looked at Renny and smiled. “That leaves you and me, Luv,” she said brightly.

The navigator gave her a smirk and then a quick lick on the cheek before he turned toward the interior of the bridge.

“Want to see if the door has a lock on it?” he asked slyly. Taro laughed and gently pushed him into the room. The lights here didn’t come on automatically, so the vixen fumbled around a moment before finding the touch pad beside the door. The illumination was not bright, giving just enough light to read instruments labeled in Standard.

The bridge was an oval shaped room, with a large curving glassteel window occupying the forward wall. There were stations right up front, with the other stations arranged in a semi-circle behind them. Upon closer examination, Renny discovered that the left forward console was designated for astrogation, while the one next to it was marked as the helm, though the ship could be piloted from either station due to switchable touch screens.

The room was not overly large and instrumentation covered most of the walls and low ceiling. Taro guessed that once powered up, the room would have plenty of light from backlit dials and control touch pads.

Renny sat down in the primary pilot seat and slid his tail through the slotted chair back. He had to adjust the seat to his anatomy since its last occupant must have had a larger rear end than his, and then he looked over the console before him. He was relieved to find a standard set of guidance shifts with swivel handles that would control all three axis, four foot pedals on the floor and several other levers mounted on each side of seat. The console itself was equipped with indicators and controls for all aspects of flight, for interstellar and atmospheric travel. He looked at the low ceiling above him and saw controls for the Hyld system within easy reach.

“Mommy, may I take it out for a test drive, please?” the cheetah quipped with a smile.

Taro pursed her lips and shook her head with a mock stern look. “Not today, Junior,” she replied, walking toward two door panels at the back of the room.

One opened up into a small lavatory, and the other into a small room with a desk built into the wall with two recessed cabinets. Taro assumed it was designed to be the captain’s office, but she noted there was no door out into the hallway. Whoever came to see the captain while she was in there would have to come in through the back of the bridge compartment to see her. It was not a problem, just a noted difference.

“Why don’t we go check out the cabins and see what the beds are like?”

Renny raised his eyebrows over a grin. “Feeling frisky already?”

“No, silly, but I do want to see the rooms. As fearless leader, I get to pick out mine first.”

“That’s not fair! What if I wanted the room you choose?”

Taro smiled at him. “In that case, you might have to just share it with me.”

“Yeah, I thought so. You are feeling frisky!”

The vixen laughed and grabbed his wrist. “C’mon, Ren-Ren, let’s go see what we have.”

***

“Well, Sickbay was rather generic,” Jerry muttered, stepping out into the corridor with his coyote companion. He shut off the light and closed the door behind them.

“It’s larger than the one on the Horizon,” Amanda assured him. “You should be pleased with that.”

“Yes, but there’s too much automation in there,” the fox replied. “I can alter the place to my liking, though. At least there’s a good-sized cabinet built into the wall that should hold all our paper records from the boxes in my quarters, anyway.”

“Speaking of quarters, I want to see what our new cabins look like here,” Amanda said. She turned around, walking backward along the hallway, looking up at the doctor with a smile.

“What are you so cheery about?” Jerry asked.

“Samantha had her puppies, silly! That should make anyone cheery. Why are you so grumpy today?” Amanda countered with a grin.

The fox stopped at a random cabin door without answering and thumbed the control. The panel slid aside and he reached in to turn on the lights. Amanda walked back to him and hooked an arm through one of his. He arched an eyebrow at her in momentary surprise and then led her into the room.

Amanda and Jerry stopped just inside the door, both of them wearing sudden frowns. The cabin was considerably smaller than the ones they had on the Okami freighter. The bed was little larger than a full, tucked into an alcove in the wall, with storage above and below it. Across a wide aisle from the bed was a dresser, also built into the wall, with six drawers below the counter and a moderate size vidscreen mounted above it. Next to the dresser was a closet large enough to walk into. However, once it was filled with clothing, there would barely be room to turn around in it. A full-length mirror occupied the inside panel of the closet door. Beside the wall at one end of the bed was a cushioned chair before a small, built-in desk that was equipped with a monitor and touchpad keyboard. At the other end of the room was another door that led to a lavatory with a multi-species squat toilet, a counter with a sink and a large shower. There was no immersion bathtub for soaking, something that Amanda loved using in her current cabin on board the Horizon.

In all, the entire cabin was no larger than a single-occupancy hotel room. It was a nice room, just smaller than what they were used to, about the size of the front chamber of the cabins in the other ship.

“I don’t believe this,” Jerry muttered. “They want us to spend all our time in here when we’re not on duty?”

Amanda had to check her own disappointment before responding. “Well,” she said quietly, “Taro did say that with the new engine system we wouldn’t be spending weeks at a time out in space between worlds. I guess the engineers didn’t feel we needed as much room if we weren’t going to be in them as much.”

The doctor looked over at her and nodded. He let out a long sigh and sat down on the edge of the bed. “I guess that makes sense,” he said, “but I don’t think I like it. It was nicer having a front room to entertain guests without them having to see my bedroom.”

He poked at the mattress to test its firmness. “The rest of this ship seems to be designed with the larger Silloni and Ryujin in mind, but I just can’t see someone the size of Tristen sleeping on this bed.” He looked up at his companion and muttered, “It may be a faster vessel, but I think we should be glad that Merlin didn’t have to buy this ship.”

Both Jerry and Amanda had joined the crew of the Blue Horizon long after Merlin had acquired the current H-model Okami freighter. Unlike the other, long-time members of the crew, they’d never stayed in the smaller cabins of the original G-model vessel the business had started out with. In comparison, the crew quarters of the Kirin-class freighter were a little larger than those on that original freighter, but considerably smaller than the one they currently lived in.

“It’s a prototype,” Amanda reminded him. “One of our tasks will be to make suggestions and recommendations for improvements to the company for future models. I vote we propose larger cabins as a design change.”

***

“It’s not as big as our quarters on the Horizon,” Justy said as he stretched out on the bed of a cabin he and Lori had ducked into, “but I like it!”

The white doe stretched out on the mattress next to him. “Why?” she asked. “I admit it’s cozy, but it’s a lot smaller than what we have now.”

Justy grinned and began to pet the soft fur of the arm she draped across him. “I always thought the Horizon’s cabins were too large for my tastes,” he replied. “I’ve stayed in some cabins in a luxury liner that were smaller than this, but a larger room is harder to keep clean.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t have as much stuff as the rest of us,” Lori agreed. “Your cabin is always so sparse and looks almost empty. Why is that?”

“I’m still trying to figure out why most of you keep as much stuff as you do!” the koala countered with a smile. “I have only what I need, with a few things that I fancy, but there’s no need to keep loads of stuff that you may only use or even look at once in a long while.”

The bunny’s blue eyes sparkled with her smile. “Those bits of things and stuff are pieces of memory, Justy. I can pick up my trinkets and associate good times with each one of them. They help me remember those times, when I might otherwise forget them.”

“Did you see all the clutter and junk that was all over Damien’s cabin when we cleaned it?” the koala asked. “If that stuff was reminders of good memories, I don’t even what to think about what he might consider bad times.”

Lori rested her chin on his shoulder with a frown. “Well,” she mused sadly, “he probably didn’t have many good things to remember. In his case, I suppose his stuff was just clutter that he never bothered to throw away.” She fell quiet for several moments and then moisture began to rim her eyes when she remembered the reason he’d been so closed off from everyone.

Justy reached up and wiped away a tear from her cheek fur with a finger, and then he used it to tickle the end of her pink nose. “Don’t think about it, Lori. We have a new ship, so let’s go explore it some more!”

Her expression softened and she leaned in to give him a gentle nuzzle before crawling back off the bed. “Okay,” she said with a little smile. “I want to see the galley.”

***

Renny opened a door in the corridor and took a peek in at the air and water reclamation units inside. So far, they had found the laundry room, empty storage closets, system lockers and the ship’s computer mainframe. Fourteen cabins also lined the passage, seven in each corridor.

The navigator shut the door and looked at Taro. “There’s so much equipment in there, a couple wouldn’t have enough room to hide out and get frisky!”

The vixen shook her head in amusement, but didn’t bother with a reply. They’d reached the end of the starboard corridor without meeting anyone else, so they turned the corner and found two doors, each across the hall from one another.

One door on the aft wall was adorned with the PA-universal symbol for eating: a vertical fork, knife and a spoon arranged side by side and crossed by a pair of horizontal chopsticks. That would be the galley, so they turned to the remaining door to see what was inside.

Aside from the cargo deck seen through the glassteel window when they had first come on board, the recreation room was the largest compartment they had found so far. There was another door like the one they had just come in through on the opposite end of the room, likely leading out into the corridor across from the door to the bridge.

The floor was covered in dark earth-tone carpet, the walls were a blue so pale that was almost white, and there were two skylight windows in the ceiling between light panels. Two curving sofas resided in front of a huge vidscreen display that took up most of its wall. The room was relatively empty of recreational equipment, but they had plenty on board the Okami with which to fill it.

“Not bad,” Renny commented. “Since our cabins are smaller, I can see myself spending more of my free time in here.”

“You probably won’t need your exercise equipment, though,” Taro said, pulling him back out into the corridor. “You’re going to get plenty of exercise moving cargo every two or three days.”

“Maybe, but I’m not leaving my equipment behind!”

Taro thumbed the control to enter the galley, but before the door opened, they could hear voices raised in heated argument. The panel slid aside and they saw a large window dominating the opposite wall, looking aft of the ship between the round flared edges of engine pods. This particular view overlooked the spaceport toward the Arvallian Sea, but none in the room were focused on it.

Jerry was leaning over a long dining table toward a flustered Justy. Lori sat beside the koala and Amanda was opposite her beside the fox, both of them looking apprehensive.

“—can be repaired!” Jerry fairly shouted at the computer tech. “He can just hire another--” His words trailed off when everyone noticed the captain and her first officer.

“What’s going on, guys?” Taro asked with a twitch of her whiskers. Renny took up a station just behind her to the left as the door panel shut behind his tail.

“I like the ship,” Justy said, hooking a thumb up at the doctor. “He doesn’t.”

Jerry sat down, but looked up at the captain. “May I ask you a question?”

Taro appeared as if she were going to say something, but then changed her mind and simply replied, “Ask.”

“During the test of this ship, does Merlin actually own it?

“No, it belongs to the Silloni. We’re only testing it for them.”

“If Mister Tristan had not handed Merlin a new ship, would he have used insurance money to have the Blue Horizon repaired?”

“Probably.”

The male fox looked over at Justy and said, “There you have it.”

“What is this between you two?” Renny wanted to know. He sat down at the end of the galley table and leaned back against the wall behind him.

“I think Merlin should have our ship repaired and leave us on it,” Jerry answered. “There’s no need for him to sell it to a bunch of trainee mechanics. With his plans for the increased workload, he should make plenty of money during those two years to pay another crew to test it, plus have plenty to finance the repairs to the Horizon for us.”

“I doubt Merlin will change his mind about this ship,” Taro replied. “He and Master Tristan have been planning this for months.”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” Jerry retorted irritably. “He can go ahead and test this ship, just don’t knock us out of our own ship to do it! He’ll have enough extra credits to pay another bunch to crew it for him.”

“It’s my turn to ask you a question,” Taro said, leaning against the wall beside the door. Jerry looked uncertain, but he gave his captain a nod. “Why are you so adamant against upgrading to a new ship?”

The male fox opened his mouth to speak, shut it again, and then gave the question some thought for a moment before giving an answer. “It’s not the upgrade that concerns me,” he said slowly. “Upgrades are fine, but that’s fine for equipment. As a doctor, I don’t think everyone in this crew will be up to the workload that will be forced upon them.” He gestured to those around him. “Look at them and think about it. Neither Justy, Lori, Amanda, nor even Pockets are built to do a lot of lifting.” Justy opened his mouth to speak up, but Jerry cut him off with an impatient wave of his hand.

“They do fine when they have to move cargo once every three weeks, but now the plan is to do it every two or three days. You can forget them going on shore leave during the day it takes the new engine to recharge. They’ll be too exhausted in their tiny, cramped cabins to move after the first several days. Renny, Max and I are probably in better shape that we could do it only a few days more than them before we would join them in exhaustion. Taro, you could outlast any of us, but you’re the captain and you sure aren’t going to move the cargo by yourself.”

“Those are valid concerns,” Renny said, “but —”

“As cargo movers, we’re a soft lot,” Jerry interrupted. “Myself included. Let Merlin hire a physically fit crew with an athletic trainer to do the kind of workload he intends with this ship. The science of the faster engine is great, but I don’t think he’s thought through the physical repercussions of its application in freight transfer.”

“The rest of us aren’t afraid of hard work, despite our sizes,” Justy grumbled. “I think you just prefer lying around for three or more weeks at a time to get your pay!” The koala was usually an easy-going guy, but the fox’s ill mood was rubbing off on him.

Jerry took a swipe at him angrily, but Taro reached out quickly and snared his wrist before he could connect. “Calm down,” she said darkly. “Both of you.”

“He started it!” Justy complained.

“I’m going to finish it!” Taro snapped. “Listen, all of you. As Renny said, Doc has some valid concerns. The testing of a prototype system means more than just testing the equipment. It also means testing the way we do things. If something doesn’t work out, we make suggestions to change the way procedures are done so others to follow can benefit from it.”

The vixen released the doctor’s wrist and moved to put her hands on his shoulders. “You and I can talk with Merlin and discuss your concerns with him. It’s very possible that moving cargo every two or three days is only a preliminary arrangement at this early stage in the testing, and once he’s aware of your thoughts, he’ll probably be willing to work with us on a schedule that would be more feasible.” She began to knead his shoulders gently. It startled him at first, but he didn’t attempt to stop her ministrations.

“You’ve never really worked with Merlin himself,” she told him as everyone else remained quiet, “but he was my captain for almost ten years before he left the ship in my care. He always allowed his crew to come to him with their concerns, and he always listened. If it was something he could change and felt would be a benefit, he never had a problem doing it. Let’s talk to him in a civil manner, and you’ll see how attentive he can be to your concerns.”

“You think he will accept my idea to repair the Horizon and keep it in service?” Jerry asked in surprisingly normal tones.

“You never know, he might. On the other hand, the structural damage to our ship may prove too expensive to repair. Even without the arrangement with Sillon, he still may have needed to buy another ship to replace the Horizon to stay in business. In any case, Merlin may heed your advice about the workload on the Kirin and loosen it up so that the crew doesn’t have too many jobs so close together to cause fatigue.”

“He might even come up with a third option that none of us have thought about yet,” Renny added.

Jerry closed his eyes and felt tense muscles relax under Taro’s massage. “In the meantime,” the vixen said with a glance over at Justy, “control your tempers if you don’t like what someone else has to say. That’s all I’m going to say on that matter. If I have to bring it up again, some heads will roll. Now… this new ship will have both pros and cons, but try not to nit-pick it to death. We’re going to have it for two years, so there’s no need to try to find all its faults right off. Come to either me or Renny with your comments or concerns, and in turn, we’ll present them to Merlin and Master Tristan.”

She looked around the room, but no one else appeared to have anything more to say at the moment. “Okay, she said with a look at her watch, “go ahead and look around some more if you want – I know that I do. We’ll meet down at the van in an hour and then we’ll head back to Merlin and Samantha’s house for supper.”

The door to the galley suddenly slid open. Pockets burst into the room, followed more slowly by Max and Tristan. “Wow, have you guys seen the ship?” the raccoon exclaimed gleefully. “This is gonna be great!”

***

Mid-morning of the next day, Merlin casually sat down at the Kirin’s pilot station and motioned for Taro to take another seat. He examined the console in front of him for a moment and then spied what he was looking for. A video box appeared in the middle of the forward window, displayed by its near-invisible internal circuitry. The image on the vidscreen showed a view of the cargo deck, where the dual bay doors were open to let in the late morning sunshine.

In view, Master Tristen and a younger pinto-patterned Silloni woman led a small group of PASS journalists into the ship on a casual tour of both Hyld-equipped vessels they’d brought to Dennier. Local representatives of the Planetary Alignment Scientific Society had been invited to examine the Kokoro and Kirin as part of the Silloni spokesman’s public announcement on the Hyper-LightDrive’s existence.

The bridge speakers picked up Tristan’s rich tones explaining that through their intention to develop a faster system to bridge the distance between the Mytha star system and the rest of the PA, a breakthrough technology shared with Sillon’s sister world Ryu provided the solution to the problem. He went on to explain that only the two prototypes had been constructed, but if successful after a two-year testing period, the Hyld engine systems could be mass-produced for sale to the rest of the Planetary Alignment. He said nothing of the third vessel equipped with the new system, at the request of the Spatial Police Force testing it for them.

“Due to their immeasurable help to Sillon when star SDC-971 exploded and disrupted communications,” Tristan told them, “our government has selected Blue Horizon Freight Transfer of Dennier to test the freighter design of our Hyld system. Testing will begin— yes?”

He nodded toward a yellow Labrador who’d raised a hand for attention. “Thank you, sir,” she said. “Are you aware that word has been circulating that Blue Horizon is not a reliable freight transfer company? Is it wise to trust this technological miracle to such a business?”

Merlin sat up straight in his chair, flattening his ears against his head. On the screen, Tristan nodded and clasped his hands together behind his back. “I have heard this and we have looked into it,” he replied, “but there has been no evidence to support such an accusation that likely originated with a competitor. Following the Siilv War, the captain of the Blue Horizon practiced sound business tactics and kept his company above the rough waters of economic instability. They did well enough that extra ships had to be added to their small fleet to handle the business coming their way. Other freightliners were not so fortunate and no doubt envious, so I would suggest the foundationless rumors began there.” The look of confidence on the unicorn’s face betrayed no second thoughts.

“Blue Horizon Freight Transfer has the full support of both the Silloni and Ryujin governments, the latter of which has been actively sought for membership into the Planetary Alignment. Our choice of test crew is not open for negotiation, so let us move on to the more important issues for which you were invited here to report. Testing will begin within a week’s time, as soon as the crew has acquired sufficient instruction on the new vessel’s operation. Now, for the technical aspects of the Hyld system, I wish to introduce you to this lovely engineer who will join the Blue Horizon’s crew for its first year of testing.”

Merlin muted the sound and swiveled his seat to face his flagship captain. “Well,” he said quietly, “the secret’s now out of the bag. Granted, the information was given to a technical science group rather than released through multimedia news channels, but I’m sure INN and others will eventually find out about it.”

“Something of this nature will be too important to the Planetary Alignment for this to stay quiet for long,” Taro agreed. “When the news does break, I hope you and the home office are prepared for the flood of folks demanding to know more about the new system.” The vixen absently toyed with the ornamental feather hanging from the disk clipped to the fur behind her left ear. “Personally, I wouldn’t have even told the scientific community about it until the testing was well underway, or even completed. That way we could have continued to operate our business without having to deal with newshounds or idiots who might want to take the ship from us.”

Merlin nodded. “That was my original suggestion to Master Tristan as well, but he seems to feel the dangers will be at a minimum and that the scientists have a right to know about such a breakthrough, even though they have no intention of stating where the technology originated. If you on board the ship or we of the home office are besieged with demands for information, we are to direct all inquirers to Master Tristen’s office. They will handle all PR for this. We are obligated to give nothing to the public.”

Taro looked at him in hesitation and took a moment before she asked, “Have you had the chance to think about the concerns we brought to you last night?”

“Yes,” the wolf replied. “I agree with your doctor about the workload. Although we have the means to move a lot of freight in a short period of time, that doesn’t mean we have to fill our workload as full as it can be. However, once these ships are available to the public, you know that some captains will put their people and their schedules to the limit to bring in as many credits as possible.”

“Yes, but that won’t be for at least another two years,” Taro countered. “While we’re testing the new ship and procedures, there’s no reason to push this crew to their limits right away, is there?”

Merlin shook his head. “No, there is no reason for that,” he agreed. “As soon as the home office was open this morning, I instructed Cindy to start altering the delivery schedule we’d already come up with per Jerry’s recommendations. She and Keri should be working on that right now.”

“That’s good to know. What about the other request?”

The wolf grew quiet for a moment, but then shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. The structural damage to the Horizon is too great to keep her in service. While we were all at my house awaiting the birth of the pups this weekend, there were engineers from Okami Corp. out here looking at the damage for me.”

“What?” Taro exclaimed. “You had people on board my ship without telling me about it?”

“That’s right,” Merlin replied in a stern voice. “I had already anticipated the argument you and Jerry gave me last night after supper, so I wanted an unbiased engineering inspection of the damage to your ship without interference. I had Stuart Sloan accompany them into the ship, but they were not allowed on the upper decks, only in the damaged area.”

Taro crossed her arms and looked at him defiantly, but then turned away when she couldn’t maintain contact with his piercing gaze. When she didn’t say anything, the wolf continued.

“The Oubliette did more damage than you realize,” he told her. “That solvent melted a hole through both of your hulls, right across a major structural rib, and when the substance finally played out, the immediate area around it crystallized and became brittle. Yes, you were able to affix a patch over the hole to allow you to pressurize that deck, but when you dropped out of orbit to land, normal gravitational and atmospheric stresses of aerodynamic flight further strained the fatigued structure. The engineers believe that the major load-bearing rib fractured like a dry stick close to the moment you landed. Had you been in the air much longer, the ship might have come apart on you to disastrous results.”

“Renny and Jerry both remarked that the landing felt different this time,” Taro admitted.

“Being experienced with how the ship flies and how it feels during a landing, I’m sure they noticed something that major.”

Taro leaned forward, trying to make sense of the technical explanation he had given her. “When that bomb took out the Hidalgo Sun’s airlock and cargo bay door, they had more damage than what we got, but yet they were able to repair the damage to get their ship back in business!”

“Taro, you’re only looking at the external evidence of the damage. That bomb didn’t do the same thing to the Hidalgo Sun as what Bennington’s associates did to the Blue Horizon. That structural rib cannot be simply patched like a cracked bulkhead or replaced with a spare in stock. The ship is built around the keel and ribs. It’s not a replaceable part; the metal fatigue has become so great that I’m not sure I would even trust a short flight from the spaceport to a junk yard! If you don’t believe me, let’s take a walk over there and you can see the final structural splintering with your own eyes. It’s quite frightening.”

The vixen swallowed hard as the realization finally sunk in with understanding. The death of her first ship was just as final as Merlin’s first one had been. Slowly, she shook her head and dropped her hands into her lap.

“I believe you,” she admitted. “What about buying another Okami to replace her? Surely the insurance from the damage would pay for a good part of the cost. That’s what you would have done anyway, right?”

Merlin looked at her compassionately and leaned forward in his chair. “Taro, you know as well as I that if the test of the Kirin is successful, I will be replacing my entire fleet with these ships. It’s true that I probably would have purchased another Okami to replace the Horizon under normal circumstances, but with the present situation, you know I’m not going to spend that kind of money for a ship I know will be replaced. The need simply isn’t there.”

Merlin sat up and rubbed the back of his neck for a moment. “We already have a replacement for your damaged ship, Taro; it’s just not another Okami. You are still in command — if you want to be.”

She looked up at him in surprise. “You were thinking of replacing me?” she asked hoarsely.

“Not at all. I think you’ve done a fine job, but you don’t seem like you are really interested in this ship. I know Jerry isn’t interested, and I’m afraid we may have to make some personnel transfers as you and I discussed a couple days ago.”

Taro released a long sigh. “I’m sorry, Merlin. Yes, I am interested in remaining captain of the Horizon, no matter what class of vessel she may be.”

“Very good,” the wolf said with a smile. “There’s no one else I would rather have in command of this sparkler.”

“Sparkler?”

Merlin chuckled. “The ship is sparkling new – thus, a sparkler.”

Taro snickered and felt more at ease than she had since the conversation with her crew in the galley the night before. She stretched languidly and then wiped the back of her hands across her eyes.

“I would hate to lose Jerry from my crew,” she finally said after a moment, “but I won’t try to make him stay against his wishes.”

“After Master Tristan has finished with his presentation to the PASS representatives, we’ll need to assemble your crew. We will give them all the details on why I’m not repairing the Horizon or buying another, and then we can talk to them about their service on the new ship. I’ll get on the Com to the captains of the Hidalgo Sun and the Mooncrest tomorrow after we talk with your people. We’ve said nothing to either Rezo or Corwin about the Kirin, so I’ll need to give them the details I gave you the other night, minus the connection to Natasha. Probably best if I do it in a conference call so I don’t have to say it all more than one more time.  I’d like you to be there, since it’s your crewmates you’ll be discussing with them in the end.”

“Sure. Even if none of my crew chooses to leave, I still have to extend the offer of transfer to Mark Littlefeather as cargo load master, but I don’t want to do it until his captain knows what’s going on.”

The door to the bridge suddenly opened and Master Tristan looked in at them. “Please excuse us, Captain,” he said warmly. “I would like to show your command center to our guests.”

“Of course, please do,” Taro said with a smile. She stepped forward to extend a hand toward the first of the visitors. “Welcome aboard the Kirin, soon to be recommissioned as the Blue Horizon. I am Captain Nichols.”

Merlin got to his feet and moved quietly aside to let others come into the small room. He was pleased that Taro had finally come to understand the situation, but they still had the daunting task to face her crew.

***

Just outside Engineering, Pockets held his palm up to a biometric scanner set into the wall beside the door. A small diode beneath scan glass blinked from red to amber, but otherwise didn’t do anything. The raccoon looked aside to his partner and shrugged.

“Maybe there’s no power to it yet,” Max suggested.

“I don’t think that’s it,” Pockets replied. He withdrew his hand and tried again. “Still nothing. You try it.”

Max put his palm up to the scanner, but he had no more luck than the chief engineer did. “Maybe we can’t get in until the ship has been formally commissioned,” he said.

“It was working for Master Tristan’s crew who flew it here. There must be a trick to it.”

“Has your chief engineer initialized it with the security passcode?” asked another voice. Max and Pockets looked around sharply. Neither of them had heard the lithe Silloni woman come up behind them. She smiled at them calmly, secretly amused that she had surprised them; despite walking on hooves, she was light on her feet.

“Hello,” she said in a light voice, picking a spot of lint from the front of her crème-colored blouse. “We have not yet been introduced. I am Suzuko.” She was not as tall as Tristan or Guinevere, and although her alicorn towered above her by nearly a foot, she was no taller than either Taro or Renny. She wore a delicate gold chain from her neck and it glittered lightly in the corridor lights when she moved toward them. The natural paint patterns across her body that were exposed gave her a mixture of the common and of the exotic.

The raccoon smiled up at her. “Suzuko, hello! My name is Jerad Porter, but everyone calls me Pockets. I’m the chief engineer. This is Max Sinclair, my partner mechanic.”

“Hi,” the German Shepherd said quickly.

“Sinclair?” repeated the woman. “I thought Mr. Sinclair’s family line was lupine.”

Max gave her a wide grin. “I’m his adopted nephew,” he told her proudly.

“Ah, I see,” she said. She looked at Pockets. “You said you were the chief engineer? You should have the security passcode for engineering. Otherwise, I cannot let you inside.”

The raccoon nodded. No one was allowed in engineering without authorization anymore and she was adhering to the policy. Anyone could say he was authorized, but without the codes, entry was not permitted. He dug into a chest pocket and withdrew a small envelope that Master Tristan had given him.

“I’m sorry,” he told her. “We’re not yet familiar with this new design. I wasn’t sure what to do to get set up.”

Suzuko gave him a warm smile. “That’s why I’m here. I am to be assigned to your crew for the first year of testing. May I have your passcode, please? I will show you how to set up the biometric scanner to recognize your prints.”

Pockets remembered policy, too. He shook his head and said, “Thanks, but if you’ll just instruct me on what to do, I’ll hang onto the passcode.”

Suzuko nodded. “Very good, Mr. Porter. Had you given me the code, I would have marked it as a violation of our security agreement.”

Max furrowed his brow. “Are we to be tested as well as the ship?” he asked guardedly. “I’m not sure everyone will like having a snitch on board.”

The unicorn chuckled, but shook her head. “No, Mr. Sinclair, that’s not why I’m here. However, due to the sensitivity of this new system, we must take our security very seriously. Foremost, I am an engineer and will be a working member of your crew. I don’t have any authority over your chain of command, but if I see any major violations, please understand that I am under obligation to report them.”

“I see,” said Pockets quietly. “I have my passcode. What do I need to do to get us into the system?”

Suzuko stepped up next to him and tapped a blank section of the wall panel just beneath the scanner. A hidden alphanumeric keypad flipped out at a forty-five degree angle and Pockets nodded when it clicked into place.

“Type in your sixteen digit passcode and then press the white tab.” Pockets pulled a small beige card from the envelope and studied it for a moment before he tapped in the alphanumeric sequence. He tapped the white tab and then the red diode beneath the scan glass changed to amber.

“Place one palm on the scanner. Now with your other hand, hit the white tab twice.” Pockets did as instructed. He expected the glass to glow, hear a hum or something, but there was no visible activity with the scanner. Only the tiny diode beneath it changed its color to blue.

“Okay, you’re now in the system, Mr. Porter,” Suzuko said. “Has Mr. Sinclair been authorized for access to the engine room?”

Pockets nodded and stepped back. “Yes, this is his work station.”

“Mr. Sinclair, please place a hand on the scanner.” Max quietly did as he was told, still somewhat unsure of her purpose for being there. The diode turned red as soon as his hand came in contact with the scanner glass. Pockets worked the keypad, and a moment later, the diode changed once again to blue.

“The captain and her first officer will need to be added in the same manner, but for now you will need to input the passcode once again to close out the sequence.”

Pockets did as instructed and then tucked the beige card back into its envelope. “Now what?” he asked.

Suzuko tapped the bottom of the keypad and then it flipped back into place, the panel fitting flush with the wall. “Now, when you need to enter the engine room, simply place your palm upon the scanner. It will detect your presence and automatically check to make sure you are in the system. There is an identical scanner on the other side of the door. Likewise, you will not be able to leave the compartment without the scanner.”

“What if there’s a power failure?” Max asked. “How do we get out if the scanner’s not working?”

“Now that the security system has recognized you, I can tell you this. There’s an emergency exit inside that I will show you, but you must not reveal its existence to anyone else on the crew,” Suzuko answered with a sudden smile that crinkled the corners of her large brown eyes. “It isn’t even on the schematics.”

“We could have used an emergency exit on our last voyage,” Max replied. “I really don’t want to have to go through that again.”

Pockets reached up and placed his palm face down on the scanner. As before, there was no visible activity other than the tiny diode changing color. This time it turned green and the pressure door slid aside smoothly. “Nice,” the raccoon said with a grin.

Suzuko walked in through the door and Pockets followed her inside. Max hesitated for just a heartbeat before he walked into the new engine room. The panel slid shut behind him, almost trapping his tail against the door jamb, but he managed to jump out of the way just before it sealed. He sighed quietly, resolving to learn to get through that door more quickly.

***

Taro’s crew was to meet in the Rec Room of the new ship for a staff meeting she had called, but it wasn’t for another hour. Plenty of time, Pockets thought to himself. He walked quietly up and down the aisles of Engineering with a small black box tucked under one arm, making sure he was alone. He and Max had just met with engineers from Okami Corp. concerning the damage to the Horizon at Merlin’s insistence, and the raccoon had been in full agreement of their final assessment.

With his excitement over the capabilities of the new Kirin freighter, Pockets felt no remorse over the loss of their old vessel. Although he had long been intimately familiar with the Okami design, he was thrilled to have an entirely new ship to discover.

Max was over on the Blue Horizon, boxing up his personal effects to get ready for the eventual move to his new cabin. Technically, they could not transfer operations to the new vessel until the two ships were processed through their commissions later that day, but Suzuko had gone with Tristan back to the Sinclair home and Pockets wanted to use the time alone to make a small modification.

When he and Max had taken their initial tour through the engine room led by the Silloni pinto, he had taken a close inspection of the Hyld system that was modeled after Natasha’s Particle Vault system. He was impressed by what he saw, but saw nothing that resembled the safety box that Calissa had constructed and installed onto the Blue Horizon while they were on Se’rei.

According to Calissa, traveling by Vault had its share of dangers, only some of which she had warned him about, and then only hinting at some that she said were rare occurrences. The component appeared to have only two outward color diodes, and as long as the green light was on, she had said the Vault was safe to use.

However, if it should ever show red at any time, under no circumstances were they to use the Vault. She wouldn’t elaborate, only telling him it was for their protection and that it was not a rule they should ever bend. Both lights would go dark after a Vault jump discharged the unit. Only when it was safe to use again, the green diode would illuminate.

Although the unit was in a molecularly-sealed box, Calissa had shown him that it only had to be installed near the Vault’s primary components. When he’d pressed her for more details, all she would divulge was that the small unit monitored for specific spatial signatures. Beyond that, she would not say. It was apparent she’d believed that they would have only used the home-built Vault system on the Horizon for emergencies, never dreaming it would become part of the heart of a new ship.

He could install the unit with common tools he typically carried on his person when in his coveralls, and it would only take five minutes. Nothing special required.

***

Lorelei Easter stood dutifully at a serving cart she’d brought up with her from the Horizon, handing out drinks to her crewmates as they entered the Kirin’s Rec Room. The brightness of her rainbow tie-dyed tee shirt stood out vibrantly in the sunlight that streamed into the room from the overhead skylights. The large vidscreen also displayed the forward view from the nose of the ship, adding additional light to the room.

Amanda requested a glass of jamonade and the bunny filled a frosted glass from a chilled pitcher of the local fruit drink. The coyote took her glass to one of the long curved couches and sat down between Renny and Doctor Somner. Jerry looked sullen, but Renny was all smiles as he chatted quietly with a female unicorn seated on his other side.

Amanda didn’t recognize the Silloni pinto, but admired the way she held herself. Her hair was predominantly white, and from what Amanda could see, her right shoulder and arm were chocolate brown, as was her mane and tail. She wore loose tan slacks shaped for her digitigrade anatomy and a bright yellow blouse. Her alicorn was pearly white with a hint of iridescent sheen, but Amanda thought that last might simply be an application of Silloni makeup to accent the beauty of her horn, since it had been applied to her hooves to match. The woman looked to be in her late twenties and she had an easy laugh toward something Renny had said to her.

In contrast, the coyote looked over at Jerry, who stared out at the external vista displayed on the vidscreen. He seemed lost in thought, but the expression on his face and in his orange eyes reflected inner turmoil. She felt saddened that her friend was in such a mood concerning their situation, but with things being as they were, she didn’t think there was any real alternative.

The coyote had a small sense of foreboding about the meeting that Taro had called of her crew. It could be something as simple as direction to begin stocking the new ship, but with Merlin’s presence at the gathering, she suspected it was something more. The gray wolf stood over in a corner with the captain, whispering quietly with occasion glances back toward the congregating crew. Amanda shook her head and tried to shake off the feeling. Perhaps it was just the jitters at having to transfer to another vessel when she hadn’t even been on the other one for much more than a few months.

Pockets was the last to show up, and after he and Lori took the last spots on the other couch, Merlin and Taro walked over to the group. The vixen stood in front of the large vidscreen, dressed smartly in a pair of black slacks and a mint green blouse, while Merlin activated a control that shut off the image so there would be no outside distractions.

“I hope you are comfortable,” Taro told her people. “Merlin and I will need your full attention for a while, but if anyone needs a break, just ask. First of all, let me tell you all that Merlin and I are in agreement over what we are going to discuss. We have had some long talks with debates and deliberations, and now it’s time to let you know what we’ve come up with.” She looked at each of them before her for a moment before she added, “Let me remind you that this is a discussion, and any responses you may have are to be kept civil, as what is decided here today may affect your futures.”

Amanda swallowed hard at the captain’s last statement. Perhaps the feeling of foreboding was not inaccurate after all.

“The first topic I want to bring up is a suggestion brought up at our last meeting concerning replacement of the Blue Horizon with another Okami freighter.” Jerry locked eyes with Taro, but otherwise kept his facial expression neutral. “While we were gathered at the Sinclair home this weekend, Merlin had the damage to the Horizon inspected by engineers brought in from Okami Corp. After a thorough examination, it was determined that the damage to a primary structural rib is not reparable. We all knew this might be the case, but now we have official confirmation. If you are interested, I can give you the details on the extent of the damage later. Pockets has already confirmed their findings, so there’s no doubt about the extent of the damages. But, our old ship will never fly again in its condition, and the tech school that will assume ownership may have to have it manually transported by a heavy-lifter.”

There were nods around the room, but Jerry remained impassive. “However…” Taro continued, “it has been decided that with the likely replacement of all the current ships in our company with these Kirin-class freighters after our testing period has ended, there is no reason to spend the credits to replace the Horizon with another Okami model for such a short duration. Due to Sillon’s trust in us to test their new vessel, we already have a replacement.”

Jerry set his jaw firmly and Taro could see his neck muscles tighten up as he slowly crossed his arms. The vixen sighed inwardly and forced herself to break his penetrating stare to look around at the others.

“Nevertheless,” she said, “Merlin agrees that the preliminary workload imposed upon us with the new ship’s capabilities was too ambitious and he has been working with the home office to relax it a bit to give us all a little more recoup time between jobs. We will still be making more shipments than we are used to, but we will no longer have three or four weeks of downtime between worlds. At first, we will be making one shipment a week until we get used to the physical demands of the new schedule, and then possibly to two a week if we feel we can decrease the time between shipments later. Before that happens, I promise we will make the decision together – it will not be forced upon you.”

Taro looked over her shoulder at Merlin, who stood with his tail to the large vidscreen. He gave her a subtle nod to let her know he was still there to back her up, and then she faced her silent people once more. She was surprised that no one had tried to interrupt her, but was grateful for their full attention.

“Now, several of you have come to me in private with your concerns about transferring our operations to the Kirin, and we have taken your feelings to heart, so this brings us to an announcement that is going to require a personal decision by each of you.”

“Uh oh,” Justy muttered beneath his breath. In the quiet of the room, however, everyone heard him.

“As we have been reminded, there are those among us who may not be as physically suited for extensive cargo moving as others. If… there are any of you who do not think you are up to the task with our new workload, Merlin has agreed to let—”

“Let us go?” Lori exclaimed with a deep frown.

Taro looked at the bunny with shake of her head. “Merlin has agreed to let you transfer to either of our other ships, providing one of your counterparts will agree to swap with you and come over to this crew.” Most of the eyes looking back at her reflected the surprise she knew they were feeling. The vulpine doctor was no exception; this was not an announcement he had anticipated.

“No one will lose his or her job, unless even this arrangement is not satisfactory,” Taro said over the conversations that had started. “I know this is not a welcome thought, but if you wish to transfer to another ship, but none of your counterparts want to swap out with you, you will be left with the choice of staying here — or resigning your employment with us altogether.” That stopped discussions and drew the focus back upon her.

“If it comes to that, you will not be penalized for breaking contract, but we will provide you with references for your next employer. At the moment, we have not informed the captains of the Hidalgo Sun or Mooncrest of our arrangement with Sillon, so there are none on those vessels who yet know anything about this ship. Once word gets out to them, however, I am sure there will be those within their crews who would be envious of the opportunity you folks have here. Keep in mind that if you do choose to swap out, it is extremely likely that the vessel you transfer to will also be replaced by another Kirin freighter in two years. However, I am sure we will have the shipping schedule shaped into something workable by that time and perhaps the new ship will not be so daunting then.

“The choice is yours, but since we are on a timetable, I’m afraid that I will need your decision whether to swap or stay no later than 0900 tomorrow morning. That only gives you overnight to think about it, but Merlin is going to have a conference call with Captains Corwin and Kegawa tomorrow to give them the details of our Silloni contract. He will need to know if there are any swaps to be offered to their crews so he can open discussions with those individuals immediately.” A hand was raised. “Yes, Pockets?”

“Count me in,” the raccoon said with a smile. “I’m staying!”

“No surprise, there,” Renny said with a chuckle.

“Well, no surprise here either,” Max piped up with a grin. “I’m staying too!”

Taro raised her voice. “Before anyone else gives me an immediate response one way or the other,” she said over beginning discussions, “I want you to think it over tonight. Even if you are sure of your decision right now, think about it. Tell me tomorrow morning – in private. I will get up early in the morning and will set up out in the gazebo in Merlin’s back yard. Your current contracts were for the old ship, so I will have new contracts for the two-year duration testing the new ship. Now, as with your previous contracts, you will be paid per voyage. This means that if you choose to serve with us on the new ship… and we make more frequent voyages…”

“More credits for everybody!” Pockets said excitedly.

“That’s right,” Taro continued, “but even if you are staying on board, you will still need to come out to me in the gazebo to sign your new contract.” She looked out over the group, but purposely didn’t lock eyes with anyone. “Now listen to me, folks – this is very important. If you fail to sign your contract or fail to inform me of your intention to swap with another crew by 0900, I will mark you down as needing references to take to another employer.”

“Hey Max,” Justy said with an impish grin, “if you want to move up the chain of command to Chief Engineer, now’s your chance to slip Pockets a Mickey Finn tonight so he oversleeps!” Some of the tension in the room dissipated with shared laughter. The raccoon pulled a rubber band from a shirt pocket and snapped Justy’s arm with it. “Ow!”

Pockets pulled out another rubber band and aimed it at his partner. “You stay away from my drink, Max!” he growled playfully.

The German shepherd raised his hands as if he were being held up by an outlaw. “You’d better go to bed thirsty,” he warned him with a smirk.

Renny and Taro exchange amused looks with one another as Merlin chuckled behind the vulpine captain. Taro shook her head with a smile and clapped her hands a few times. When she finally held everyone’s attention, she put her hands behind her back.

“Okay, now that we’re on the subject of personnel, I have two announcements to make,” she said. “As you have probably noticed, we have a newcomer among us. As part of our two-year contract, a Silloni engineer will join our crew for the first year as an advisor with the new ship and Hyld system. She is not here to spy on us, but is an expert on all things Kirin. She will be working with Pockets and Max during all our tests and every day usages to help us over any rough areas. Once we get underway, if you have suggestions or recommendations on how the ship may need to be improved or altered before they are mass-produced for the public, she’s the one to go to. This is Suzuko, everyone. She will be a regular member of our crew and will join us in all things as one of us, including cargo detail. Please introduce yourselves to her as you get the chance; get to know one another.”

“Hi, Suzuko, I’m Lori!” the lapin doe said cheerily with a finger wave.

The unicorn waved back with a smile. “Hello, Lori,” she replied.

“Later, she said!” Renny quipped.

“Moving right along,” Taro continued. “In addition to all this, we’re still in need of a cargo load master, so when we contact Captain Kegawa tomorrow, I’m going to offer the position to Mark Littlefeather at Merlin’s recommendation.”

There were looks of surprise. At least half of the crew was aware of the wolf’s trust issues with humans, but Merlin merely smiled back at their looks of wonder. “He’s the best one for the job,” he assured them, “and was my first choice for Mr. Legrand’s replacement.”

Taro winced inwardly. She hadn’t wanted to mention the mastiff’s name, and the expressions on several faces confirmed that they’d suddenly recalled the reason for needing a new cargo load master. Merlin caught it too and cleared his throat.

“Listen, folks,” he said. “Many of you attempted to help your crewmate through his unnamed troubles while he was with you, but his difficulties started before you ever met him. Whether or not he is guilty will be settled by a court of law, but there’s nothing more you can do but try to remember him well. Now… I trust Mr. Littlefeather, and if he accepts the position, he will be one of you. Most of you already know Mark and he’s already a part of the company. If he agrees to the transfer, Master Tristan has agreed to rendezvous with the Hidalgo Sun in the Kokoro to bring Mark back to us. I’ll then try to have a replacement hired and waiting for Captain Kegawa at his next stop. Likewise, if any of you make the decision, Tristan will transport all other personnel swaps for us.”

Taro motioned the wolf to stand beside her in front of her crew. She looked at her watch and said, “If any of you have questions, you can come up to either of us tonight and you can be assured to get an honest answer. However, I need everyone to gather outside the cargo ramp of the old ship in about thirty minutes for a ceremony with local officials to decommission the old ship. Once that has taken place, Merlin will process the paperwork to transfer the name and operational status to this ship. You are all now free for the next half hour.”

***

Despite his verbal assurances to everyone that the Blue Horizon was only a worn or broken tool to be traded in for a new one, Pockets wiped his eyes when the Dennieran official declared the H-model Okami vessel decommissioned. PA1138 was now permanently retired. The oval-shaped flying saucer with dual paint that had been their home for the past three years was no longer the Blue Horizon. For official purposes, it was now a nameless broken hulk that would soon be swarming with a new generation of students who would cut their engineering teeth on it. For convenience, however, they all started referring to the older vessel now simply as “the Okami”.

The SS Blue Horizon was now officially a Kirin-class Silloni freighter with the Planetary Alignment registry number PA28080.

In attendance was Captain Taro Nichols and her crew, Merlin Sinclair, president of Blue Horizon Freight Transfer, Master Tristen and the seven crewmembers who had traveled with him from Sillon on both the Kokoro and the Kirin, as well as three local officials from the PA Registry office to sign and stamp the final paperwork.

Afterward, Taro had a few quiet words with her crew while Merlin and Tristan took care of a few minor details with the officials.

“Okay, folks, you’re free to do whatever you wish the rest of the evening,” she said with a quick glance toward a sun that would soon descend in the distance. “The new Blue Horizon is officially in service, so feel free to spend time aboard her or the Okami. We’ve already picked up a number of empty boxes and put them in the hold, so you can move some of your stuff if you wish, but you are not required to do so until Wednesday. At that time, we will begin a concerted push to transfer everything that is not part of the old ship over to the new one, with our first official liftoff next Saturday.

“For now, however, I want all of you to give serious thought to your contracts on whether you will continue serving on the Blue Horizon, transfer to the Hidalgo Sun or Mooncrest, or tender separation. Merlin said he would be here with the van for another two hours, so you can have a ride back to his place with him up until then. As for me, I’m taking a cab back to his place to visit with Samantha and the pups as soon as we’re done here.”

“I’ll ride back with you,” Renny said. “I’ll see plenty of both ships when we start to move everything over. Besides, I’m ready for supper.”

“You’re always ready for supper,” Pockets said with a grin. “As for me, though, I’m gonna hang around for a while.”

Like the raccoon, most of the others decided to loiter around the ships for a while longer. Some wanted to get started boxing up their personal effects, while a couple others wanted the time to give Taro’s proposals the serious thought they deserved.

Due to his previous reaction, everyone already knew what Jerry’s thoughts were on the matter, but now that they could all disperse, he seemed more relaxed and at ease.

When Taro and Renny hailed a cab for a ride back to the Sinclair home, the doctor joined them. “I’ll split the cost with you,” he said with a smile. When they looked at him curiously, Jerry shrugged and said, “If I don’t get in on supper now, Renny won’t leave anything for me to eat later!”

Taro laughed and wondered if she had misjudged the male fox. He and the cheetah had long been friends and for the first time in a long while, he acted in a lighthearted manner.

“You’ll have to get inside the door ahead of me,” Renny said with a dig to the doctor’s ribs while Taro gave the destination address to the driver.

“Yes, I know… Just make sure my fingers are out of the way when you get started!” Jerry quipped.

The cab pulled out into traffic and the trio spent the entire journey back to Totter’s Lane in relaxed conversation. None of them brought up the evening’s serious topics, but instead bantered back and forth to keep the mood light.

When they were alone inside the engine room of the Okami with the door closed behind them, Max put a hand on Pockets’ arm. “What are we going to do about that new navigation system you acquired?” he asked.

The masked raccoon frowned and looked around as if he was afraid someone else was in the compartment with them. “Let’s keep that quiet,” he admonished. “I’m already taking care of it.”

“What did you do?” Max asked.

“I can’t return it, now, can I?”

“I suppose not, but what…?”

“I’m sure I can find a buyer for it,” Pockets replied. “I have contacts just about everywhere and I think I can get a premium price for it.”

“Pockets,” Max said with a deep frown. “What do you need the money for? With your Moss contract, you’ll have all the credits you can handle!”

The engineer gave his partner a stern look and said, “Just you forget all about that navigation system. We won’t need it on the new ship since it’s probably not as good, but I can’t let it go to the vo-tech students. I’ll take care of it myself.”

The German shepherd snorted and then let out a long sigh. “Okay,” he said. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I always do. C’mon, let’s grab a few things and take them over to the new ship.”

***

Max stumbled as he whipped his tail out of the way of the new engine room door and fell over onto the carpet. Pockets chuckled and looked back at him. “Having a problem with gravity?” the raccoon asked.

The German shepherd looked up at him and Suzuko with a grimace. “I must be,” he replied, getting to his feet. He dusted off his blue jeans and then looked at the unicorn. “Is there a way to slow down the speed of that door?” he asked. “It nearly takes my tail off every time I go through it!”

The woman nodded. “Yes, it can be adjusted. I don’t think it was originally designed for three people to go through it at once, and since you usually bring up the rear, you’re the one it tries to close on.”

“If we could adjust it right away, I won’t be so anxious every time I go through it.”

“Sure, just let me get my tools,” she replied.

Pockets looked up at her and put his hands into two of the namesakes in the green coveralls he now wore. “What do you need?” he asked with a grin. “I probably have the tool already.”

Suzuko smiled. “Do you have a number three Kistler driver in there?”

The raccoon’s eyes lit up and he rummaged around in his left pocket a moment before holding up a double-pronged instrument. “Here ya go,” he told her.

The unicorn pinto studied him a moment in amusement and then took the tool. “Thank you,” she said.

Moments later, Max sauntered back through the door, an eye on his tail, but the closure time of the panel was more hesitant. “Yes, much better,” he admitted. Suzuko handed the tool back to Pockets and then led them deeper into the engine room.

“If you guys are willing, I’d like to show you a—” the unicorn hesitated when she saw a small black box mounted to the side of a Hyld system monitor. She knew the systems on this new ship better than anyone did and the box was foreign to her. “What…” she said with a furrowed brow, “…is this?” she asked, walking over to it.

The raccoon studied her for a moment. “You said you were aware of the origins of your new Hyld system?”

Suzuko nodded, secure that they could not be overheard in the engine room. “The system was gleaned from Captain Khasho’s encrypted data that you unlocked for us.”

“What I am about to tell you is confidential, but I think you should know since it is related,” Pockets told her. “During a recent voyage, but prior to our recent calamity, we tested a homemade Vault system on the Blue Horizon constructed from plans Natasha gave me several years ago in exchange for some information. We had a mishap, winding up beyond the established Rim of the Planetary Alignment near a previously unknown planet.” Suzuko’s eyes widened with interest. “We detected a landing beacon and followed it down to make repairs to damage caused by a misinterpretation of the plans, and also to replenish our oxygen. There at the beacon, we found one of Natasha’s former engineers who’d made a home with the local residents. She helped us make our repairs and then built this little box for us.”

“What is it?” Suzuko asked again.

“Calissa said that—”

“Calissa Thalia?” the unicorn asked in surprise. “Was she a brown rabbit?”

“Uh, yeah, with lop ears,” Pockets replied. “Do you know her?”

“Calissa Thalia was a prominent lapin engineer from Mainor who disappeared about eight years ago. This is the first I’ve heard about her since the PA-wide search for her was called off.”

Pockets grinned. “She didn’t tell me her personal history, other than she had been a member of Captain Natasha’s engineering team for a while,” he said. “When she learned of our homemade Vault unit, she asked to see the plans we used. She helped correctly translate something I’d gotten wrong, and then said that Vault travel had some dangers involved that required monitoring.”

“What sort of dangers?”

“She didn’t explain, although I did ask her. She said I probably wouldn’t have believed her, but she insisted on constructing this monitoring device for us. She said that as long as the diode was green, we could use the Vault system, but if it ever showed red, she warned us not to use it.”

“Yeah, she stressed that several times,” Max added. “She said it was a rule we should never ignore.”

“The diodes will go dark after a jump discharge, but one would light up again with a full charge,” Pockets said.

Suzuko frowned and looked again at the box. Outwardly, it was simple. There were the two color diodes and then a small bundle of three wires that exited a small hole in the side. “You said this was a monitor. What does it monitor?”

“She wouldn’t tell me,” Pockets admitted with a sigh. “The box is shielded with micranite and is molecularly welded, so I haven’t been able to see what’s inside. I didn’t want to risk breaking what she built for us, so I’ve just left it hooked up as she intended. When I saw that your Hyld system didn’t have a monitor like this, I decided to hook it up for our safety. It may be nothing more than a warning system, but if we’re going to be making vault… er, hyper jumps on a regular basis, it couldn’t hurt to have the safeguard.”

“If you don’t know what it does, how did you know what to hook it up to?”

“It just needs power and grounding. Otherwise, it’s all self-contained and is hooked to nothing else, but it needs to be near the vault components. Whatever it monitors, it does it internally on its own.”

The Silloni pinto fell quiet and mulled over what she’d just been told. Finally, she looked over the guys and said, “President Sinclair warned me that you liked to experiment with the engines, Mr. Porter. You know, our agreement to let you test our prototype does not allow you to make personal modifications to the system, so I’m afraid we’ll have to disconnect the box.”

“Yes, it’s true I like to experiment,” the raccoon admitted, “but that’s not what this is. It’s a safeguard put in place by someone who helped develop Natasha’s system! Calissa knew the dangers and wanted to protect us from them.”

“Dangers that she would not name,” the unicorn reminded him. “Don’t you think it’s suspicious that a member of a pirate crew would attach a mysterious box in your engine room? What if it’s a tracking device so Captain Khasho’s allies can find you and plunder your cargo? – or worse, an explosive device to disable us?”

Pockets’ eyes narrowed. “I knew Natasha personally,” he said defensively. “She never attacked private cargo ships or military vessels unless she was provoked into it. They only boarded tax ships that were extorting from the needy to the greedy, and they always left their crews alive and unharmed as possible! There would be no reason to track our ship, especially since our vault system was gifted to us – a gift that she wouldn’t hand out to just anyone!”

“Be that as it may, installing it without authorization on this ship is a security violation.”

The raccoon spread his arms wide in exasperation. “What is it with you and your stubbornness to improve the systems of your ship? Isn’t that what a prototype is for – to improve upon the base design before it goes public?”

“I didn’t say improvements couldn’t be made,” Suzuko rebuffed. “I said you were not allowed to make changes without authorization!”

“So authorize it!”

“I can’t do that, not on my own!”

Pockets stamped a foot and snorted at her. “You want authorization? I’m taking this directly to Master Tristen! He’ll understand!” Without waiting for a response, the raccoon turned on his heel and stormed out of the engine room.

***

“Unruffle your fur, Master Porter,” the large black unicorn said calmly to the raccoon. “I will listen to your argument, but at a much slower pace where I may understand your words.”

Tristan and Pockets were on opposite sides of a round table in the galley of the other Hyld-equipped vessel, the Kokoro. The former Regent was dressed in a slate gray suit of sartorial perfection designed for his physique, with a muted red tie for a spot of color. Seated, he was in contrast to the standing raccoon’s rumpled and worn green coveralls that were adorned with multiple pockets, some of which had been added on haphazardly by the engineer himself.

The raccoon was out of breath, but he forced himself to calm down. He began again, detailing his conversation with Suzuko and recalling the Blue Horizon’s prior voyage to Se’rei to the Silloni master. As long as Pockets was coherent, Tristan listened quietly without interruption until his small visitor was finished.

“When you told me of your journey to Se’rei on the night of your arrival,” the unicorn said at last, “why did you not tell me of this addition to your self-made Particle Vault system?”

“In all truth, I’d forgotten about it,” Pockets replied, scooting up on the large chair beside him. “Outside of you, Taro, Renny, Max and now Suzuko, no one else is aware of the monitoring device Calissa Thalia built for us. Sir, I know that we aren’t supposed to be allowed to modify the new ship without authorization, but this really can’t be counted as a modification. I didn’t alter anything. All I did was connect three wires for power and grounding to an otherwise self-contained unit; plugging in a fur dryer in my cabin amounts to the same thing!”

Tristan held up a hand and nodded to his guest. “Yes, I would have to agree with you, Master Porter. However, I also understand Suzuko’s hesitation to plug in a pirate’s alien device that’s purpose is hazy, at best.”

“Sir, Calissa was on Natasha’s original design team when they came up with the Vault system!” Pockets reminded him. “I admit there’s the possibility for ulterior motives as Suzuko pointed out, but I trust Calissa’s intention for building the monitor to keep us safe. She could have easily kept her mouth shut and let us face the dangers on our own without a clue.”

The unicorn clasped his hands together on top of the table and then closed his eyes. Pockets watched him for several long silent moments, almost afraid to say anything more. He knew as well as anyone else that sometimes saying too much could ruin his case. After bit, he began to fidget and swung his feet back and forth under the large chair he sat upon.

Tristen opened his large brown eyes and stared off into a memory without focusing on his guest. “I am curious about the dangers involved that Ms. Thalia referred to,” he said in a calmly accented voice. “After we received the key to unlock Captain Khasho’s encryption, we immediately built a small Particle Vault engine system for testing. It was installed into a remote controlled probe and then sent off into deep space out away from the Planetary Alignment for safety reasons. It didn’t come back to us right away, and we thought it lost, but that was before we knew of its twenty-four hour recharge time. It returned to orbit over Sillon the next day. When we studied the probe’s recorded data, we discovered that it had traveled the distance of nearly two hundred light-years and back. It emerged within a day’s flight at normal LightDrive speeds from a red dwarf star, so we were understandably excited about returning to investigate.

“We had designed that test engine in a modular frame, so it was pulled out of the probe and reinstalled into a small, one-person craft equipped with an armada of scientific sensors, recorders and personal supplies. One of our colleagues, a prominent scientist as well as a skilled pilot, volunteered to go back to the red dwarf to study it up close. The ship was programmed to automatically return within a week in the event the pilot was incapacitated in some way, but it never returned.”

Tristan looked down at Pockets. The raccoon’s attention was riveted to his words. “We did more testing with and without a pilot,” he continued, “but we never lost another test vessel. Without proof, we could only conjecture that either that first test engine malfunctioned or the navigational computer was not sensitive enough to brake in time and we shot him directly into the heart of the red dwarf. We may never know what happened to our associate, but with what you tell me of Ms. Thalia’s warning, I am now wondering if one of those unnamed dangers was the cause of that initial failure.”

Tristan stood up and began to pace. Pockets felt tiny next to the huge equine male and kept his seat. “I think it might be prudent for me to take your little black box back to Sillon for further study,” the unicorn said. “If traveling by vault or hyper jump presents hidden dangers, we may need to look into this more closely before setting up ships like this and yours for long-term testing.”

Pockets opened his mouth to comment, but the unicorn sighed and shook his head. “We have already announced the testing period to several scientific journals,” he remembered aloud. “If we halt the test before it’s really begun, this is going to throw the shadow of doubt across the potential of the system.”

Pockets tried again to speak, but Tristan continued. “My team and I have flown our two ships on several flights without any indication that we have been in any danger without the black box.” The raccoon held up his hand, but the unicorn didn’t notice. “However, I am hesitant to continue without an acceptable safety margin.” Pockets began waving his hand back and forth, and the movement finally caught Tristan’s eye. “Yes?” he responded.

“May I make a suggestion, sir?” Pockets asked.

“By all means.”

“Sir, for something with this kind of potential for safety or hazard, why don’t we ask Merlin to make the new Blue Horizon’s first journey a covert return back to Se’rei? Suzuko and I could talk with Calissa about the black box and explain our intention to incorporate it into a public transport as a safety feature. She may be hesitant to help us in a commercial venture like this, but in exchange for the information, we will do what we can to keep the existence of Se’rei from the rest of the Planetary Alignment. Perhaps Sillon could claim Se’rei as its territory and quarantine that star system if or when the Hyld engine is commercialized.”

Tristan studied the raccoon for a moment before he nodded. “That might work. If Ms. Thalia is willing to draw up technical plans of the monitoring device, and explain what those dangers might be, I can offer up a treaty to her world with Master Ritchka’s authority to shield their existence from others, or whatever other compensation she might name.”

“If we act quickly, Merlin can alter our initial shipping schedule long enough for us to confer with Calissa and give her time to draw up the plans to show us how to construct the black box, if she’s amiable to sharing her knowledge.”

Tristan placed a hand palm down on the table. “I will inform Suzuko that the monitoring device will need to stay in place so that you may make a safe return to Se’rei and back. I’m afraid she may not be pleased that I have sided with you on this decision, but she knows that I have full authority over the Hyld project and will abide by it. Had we not lost our colleague mysteriously in the initial manned flight, I may not have given in to your argument, but in this instance, the safety of future Hyld-equipped vessels may depend upon your return to Se’rei.”

***

Right after Pockets had stormed out of the engine room, Max apologized to Suzuko and excused himself. He was unwilling to listen to further bickering between the two of them, so he departed the ship and hailed a cab to return to his Uncle Merlin’s home.

Shannon Wallace was surprised to see him on the front step when she answered the door chime. “Come on in, Max,” she invited after a brief hesitation.

“Is everything okay?” the German shepherd asked of her concern.

“Yes, everything’s fine,” the tan wolf answered. “I’m just not used to seeing you alone without one of your shipmates. I thought you would come back with Pockets later on this evening.”

Max gave her a wan smile and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m tired and just wanted to come back,” he said.

“Okay, return question,” Shannon said as they crossed the front room toward the kitchen. “Is everything okay with you?”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said, plunging his hands into the pockets of his jeans, “but Pockets and the new mare have been arguing. I understand what both of them are saying, but didn’t feel like being in the middle of it.”

“What are they arguing about?” Renny asked. Max looked up and saw the cheetah at the dining table with a large piece of pie on a paper plate before him.

He took a seat opposite the navigator, crossed his arms upon the tabletop, and then put his chin down on them. He was unsure how much he should say in front of Shannon, so he decided to keep it vague. “Modifications to the engine room,” he stated in tired voice.

“Hmph, it sure didn’t take long for Pockets to start looking to see what he could upgrade or change,” Renny replied with a shake of his head. “We haven’t even lifted off on our maiden voyage yet and already he’s butting heads with another engineer.”

“Something like that,” Max agreed.

“Are you hungry?” Shannon asked.

The German shepherd thought about it for a moment, but then shook his head. “Not very much,” he replied. “I just need something else to think about besides the new ship.”

Renny took a sip from his soda straw and then stood up. He leaned across the table and put a hand on the young canine’s forehead. “Hmm, you feel okay,” he cheetah said with the hint of a smile, “but it can’t be normal for an engineer’s mechanic to want to think about something other than a new ship!”

“Ha ha,” Max responded with a smirk.

“If you want a distraction,” Shannon said while she covered a dish to keep the local flies from it, “I have an idea for you.”

“What’s that?” Max asked with interest. Renny sat down again and resumed eating.

“Follow me.” The German shepherd got up from his chair and followed the tan wolf from the kitchen. She led him down a dim hallway to a closed door. She tapped on it lightly with a claw. Samantha’s voice answered in a quiet voice.

“Yes?”

Shannon opened the door and stuck her nose into the opening. “I have someone here who would like to see his adopted relatives.”

There was a light chuckle. “Please show him in.”

The wolf waved Max into the room and then shut the door behind him on her way out. The German shepherd stood beside an oak chest of drawers in the master bedroom of the house. The room was dimly lit by three aromatic candles that smelled of lilacs.

“Hello, Max,” Samantha said lightly. “Come on in and sit beside me.”

The young mechanic unconsciously wiped both hands on his light blue tee shirt and nodded. He approached a king-size, four-posted bed with a thick set of mattresses. A fluffy comforter with a subtle floral pattern covered the bed and its primary occupant.

Samantha Sinclair lay on her side in the middle of the bed, her bare-fur shoulders slightly exposed above the comforter. She had a freshly-cut red flower clipped to the fur behind her left ear and the smile upon her face was pleasant and warm.

Max sat down in a chair beside the bed and put his hands in his lap. “How are you doing?” he asked nervously. “Are your puppies okay?”

“See for yourself,” Samantha replied. She raised an arm beneath the comforter and drew it aside. Sleeping beside her on the mattress were five small bodies in a row whose tiny sides moved rhythmically in their slumber.

Max swallowed and averted his eyes when he realized that Samantha wore nothing but her fur beneath the cover. She didn’t seem embarrassed, however, and seemed proud to show off her children to him. Max leaned forward with a growing smile on his face as he focused his attention on the infant pups. Although he knew that the women of The Wild Star occasionally gave birth, he rarely ever got to see them, and never this close.

“They’re so small,” he whispered, looking up at her with bright eyes.

“Yes, but they will grow considerably in the weeks to come,” Sam replied. “When they have grown a bit, I would like you to come visit them as often as you can so they can get to know the man their father adopted as his nephew.”

“I would like that very much,” Max answered. “How soon before I may hold one of them?”

“If you are gentle, you can pick one up now.

“Uhm, are you sure?”

“Just be gentle and don’t be concerned if one or more of them wake up. They are not very active the first day or so, and will get plenty of sleep if you let them.”

Hesitant at first, the German shepherd reached out toward one of the pups on the end and tenderly scooped up the small body that filled two hands. He pulled his hands back towards him without lifting them much above the comforter and then leaned in closer to inspect the child. Already the infant’s limbs seemed longer than they had been during the naming ceremony and he marveled at its continued growth.

“Which one is this?” he asked of the reddish-furred body that began to squirm a bit in his hands.

“That is Cassandra,” Samantha replied quietly. “Merlin has already started calling her Cassie.”

“Cassandra,” Max repeated in a whisper. With a quick glance at the mother, he pulled his hands up to his chest so that the little female rested up against his shirt. Cassie let out a soft whimper and then began to sniff the air at him. She whimpered again and then one of the other pups whimpered in response to the absence of her warm body.

Max looked apologetic and then carefully returned the little girl to her place beside her mother. “There you go,” he whispered. “Safe and sound with your momma.” He looked up at Samantha and gave her a bright smile. “Thank you,” he said. “She’s beautiful, just like you.”

Sam let out a happy sigh and reached out to stroke the fur behind Max’s right ear. “Thank you, Max. You’re sweet. I am glad you could be here with us now. I hope you get the chance to experience this yourself someday.”

The young canine raised an eyebrow at her and sat back slowly in his chair. “You know that will never happen,” he said with a look of regret. “I couldn’t father a child any more than I could give birth to one.”

Samantha stifled a chuckle at his comment and shook her head. “Max, just because you can’t create one, doesn’t mean you have to love one any less. You may have the opportunity to adopt a child someday, just as Merlin adopted you and gave you a home.”

Max nodded and grew quiet, lost in thought. Finally, Samantha drew the covers back over her children to keep them warm, though leaving enough of an opening for fresh air. After a time, the young mechanic looked up at her. “May I ask you a personal question?”

“What is it you wish to know?”

“When Uncle Merlin adopted me, how come he adopted me as his nephew, instead of his son?”

“That is something we’ve never discussed,” Sam replied honestly, “so I really don’t know. However, I can only guess that it was because at that time, he didn’t have a proper mate so you would also have a mother. You were already nearing adulthood, so perhaps he thought an uncle would be more appropriate of a relationship, still closer than that of a guardian. Do you feel like you were unloved?”

Max looked at her in surprise. “Never!” he said, louder than he intended. Mindful of the pups, he swallowed and lowered his voice back to a whisper. “Uncle Merlin has been good to me. After he allowed me to stay on board, he spent a good deal of time with me and seemed to always make sure I knew that I was welcome. He hugged me when I went to him with problems that I could only talk to him about, and he let me know when I did something that pleased him.”

“What kind of problems did you have that you needed his advice?” Sam asked curiously. “You always seemed a happy kid – except when you thought I gave you too much homework in your tutoring.”

“After I left Quet, I had a lot of emotional baggage to go through, and it wasn’t always easy,” he admitted. “I sometimes still have nightmares of what Mr. Tagon did when he got angry.”

“I’m sorry, Max. I didn’t know.”

He looked up at her with a wan smile and shrugged his shoulders. “As a slave, I was never really allowed to go talk to anyone about my personal problems, so I learned to bottle it up and keep it to myself.”

“That’s not healthy!”

“That’s what Cindy used to tell me during our counseling sessions,” he said. “I… I think I told her things that I’ve never told anyone else, but she helped me through some real pain.”

“I’m glad you had someone to talk to.”

“Me too, but I think Uncle Merlin was a bigger help over time. He kept me laughing, gave me encouragement, and even lent an ear when I had a specific personal dilemma.”

Samantha raised her eyebrows. “What was that?”

Max looked embarrassed and he looked away, suddenly wishing he hadn’t said anything more. “I… I had a… uhm… a crush on someone in the crew,” he admitted hoarsely.

“I’ll bet it was Sparky,” Sam said with a smile. “She was cute and really liked you.”

“N-no, it was not Sparky.”

Sam tilted her head. “Taro?”

“Nope.”

“Cindy? Lori?

He shook his head to both names, dreading the direction of the conversation.

“No? But, that just leaves…”

Max looked up at her as the realization sunk in for her.

“Uh huh.” He swallowed hard and wanted to crawl beneath the bed for his confession.

Samantha looked at him in wonder, suddenly recalling the quick kiss he’d given her that time when the Blue Horizon was shot out of orbit over Crescentis and they were just about to plunge into the watery planet’s atmosphere.

“I’m flattered, Max,” she told him sweetly. “Please don’t feel embarrassed to tell me this. You and I spent a great deal of time together in your studies, and I became quite fond of you too.”

“Thanks, but that’s not really the same,” he muttered, still feeling the heat on his cheeks beneath his fur.

“No, I don’t suppose it was,” Sam admitted. “However, we’re now family and I still love you very much, Max.”

“Why do you say I’m family?” the young mechanic asked. “You now have five children of your own fur and blood. I’m only a bystander.”

“You are part of my family,” Samantha stressed. “Listen, Max, in some cultures throughout the Planetary Alignment, someone who is adopted into a family has stronger rights than someone with a blood birthright. A natural child can be disowned by a family, but not so with an adopted child. Merlin adopted you, and now I’m married to Merlin. You are one of our rightful heirs and don’t ever forget that.” Sam gave him a smile and added, “Not only are you an heir to the Sinclair estate, but you’re also an heir to the Holden estate. You’ve already been written into our wills. How about that?”

“I don’t care anything about being an heir to some estate,” Max said, looking across the room, anywhere but at her. “All I care about is being part of a family…”

“Max, I will say it again. You are very much a part of my family. Would you feel better about it if I filed official paperwork adopting you directly? I could even suggest that Merlin and I alter your adoption as a son, rather than a nephew – then you would be an older sibling to these five little ones.”

A grin suddenly spread across Max’s face. He started to speak, but his voice cracked and he started again. “Th-thank you,” he said. “That means more to me than you can ever know, but you’ve convinced me. There’s no need to change my adoption status. I’m okay with being your nephew. Besides, I’ve been calling Merlin my uncle for so long that it would be hard to change now anyway. I just needed to know where I stand, now that your pups have come along.”

“As soon as I’m back on my feet,” Samantha said with moist eyes, “I’m going to give you the warmest, motherly hug I can muster!”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Max replied with a satisfied smile. “Thank you.”

***

Taro was up at the crack of dawn. By the time she had showered, dried her fur, dressed and headed downstairs to the kitchen for a toasted muffin and a cup of coffee, Merlin had already returned from his morning jog and had set up a small card table and two lawn chairs out in the gazebo for her. She carried a slateboard tucked under one arm, while she balanced a small plate with her butter and muffin on top of a coffee cup with the other.

She met Merlin halfway across the yard, the morning dew clinging to her sandaled feet and the tip of her fluffy tail. “Good morning,” she said with a smile.

“Good morning,” the wolf replied. “Here, let me take that for you.” He took her coffee and plate and walked back with her to the gazebo. “Are you up for this?”

Taro stepped up into the wooden structure and set the slateboard on the table. “Probably not, but it’s one of the evils of command, I’m sure you know.”

“Don’t I know it! I always dreaded times like this.” He waited a moment, absently smoothing out the wrinkles in his black jogging shorts and shirt while she set up her things. When she sat down behind the table in a lawn chair and faced him, he took the opposite chair.

“Would you prefer I was here with you for support during the proceedings?” he asked.

The vixen shook her head with a smile while she spread a pat of fresh butter over her muffin. “Thanks, but I’ll be okay. I only have to collect the signatures of those who are going to stay as my crew, or at least the decisions of those who would transfer.” The two of them were alone in the yard, but she lowered her voice and leaned toward Merlin across the table.

“If Jerry is going to transfer, he may have a difficult time,” she whispered. “I doubt Carmen Burgess will want to come over here from the Hidalgo Sun since she was involved with Durant and this was his crew. Alicia Tangle is the medic on the Mooncrest and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard she has an exclusive relationship there that she won’t want to leave. Other than that, I don’t know that much about her. She’s not that big, and may not want the added workload that Jerry wants us all to avoid anyway.”

“I’ve visited with Alicia a few times,” Merlin whispered back, “and she’s a nice person. She has an open personality and has a good medical bedside manner, so I wouldn’t discount her if it comes down to this. That relationship you mentioned isn’t too stable right now, so that might not be a factor. I would not dismiss Doctor Burgess either. Durant’s scent won’t be all over your new ship, and that’s what bothered her about the old Horizon. Besides, it’s been long enough that she could probably handle it anyway.” The wolf sat back and gestured back to the house. “However, Jerry has yet to make his decision, but if he does, try to keep his feelings in mind when you get his answer.”

“Yeah, that’s all true,” said the vulpine captain after a lap of coffee. “I just wish he were a little more flexible.”

Merlin looked at his watch. “You have roughly two and a half hours until your oh-nine-hundred deadline. Is there anything I can do to help you get ready?”

Taro took a bite of her muffin and shook her head. “Not that I can think of,” she replied a moment later. “You might check in on me in a while just to make sure I still have a crew. I might need someone’s shoulder to cry on.”

The wolf smiled. “I think you’ll do better than you think. Your first two customers are already on their way out and they’ve already publicly announced their decisions.”

Taro looked up to see both Pockets and Max trudging across the wet lawn toward the gazebo. She straightened her pale yellow blouse and brushed muffin crumbs from her dark gray slacks.

“I didn’t expect anyone out here for another hour,” she whispered to the wolf. “I thought I’d have time to gather my thoughts and my wits about me before dealing with anyone.”

“I will check in on you after I’ve cleaned up and have had breakfast,” Merlin told her. “Good luck!”

“Thanks.”

Merlin looked over at Pockets when he hopped up both steps into the gazebo. “Morning, boss – bosses!” the raccoon said cheerily.

“Good morning, Pockets,” Merlin replied. “Max, however, you still look asleep!” Indeed, the German shepherd was still in his sleeping shorts and tank top, and his fur had not been groomed.

Max yawned in reply and then nodded. “I just want to sign my contract and then go back to bed,” he said. “…didn’t want to miss the deadline…”

“I had to drag him out of his bed by the tail,” Pockets said with a grin.

“I had a bad night,” the young mechanic muttered. Merlin looked at him in concern, but the short raccoon turned toward Taro, rubbing his small hands together.

“Good morning, Pockets,” Taro said with a smile. “You too, Max.”

“Gimmee your slateboard so I can put my thumb on it!” the engineer demanded. “You may be captain of the crew, but the new ship is mine!”

“That’s an interesting theory,” Merlin told him with a grin. The smile faded when the young canine beside him didn’t seem amused by his partner’s antics. He was about to inquire, but Max noticed the look and simply shook his head. Merlin nodded and finally said, “I’ll see you guys later. I need to clean up.”

“See ya,” Max said with another yawn.

Taro looked over at the German shepherd and gestured toward the house. “Max, can you go wait up on the deck until Pockets and I are through?” she asked. “I want to talk to each of you in private before any of you sign anything, and this may take a few minutes.”

“Sure,” the young mechanic said, “but I may be asleep in a lawn chair by the time you’re ready for me.” He headed back out across the grass, unconsciously stepping in Merlin’s tracks back to the house.

***

An hour later, Amanda tentatively approached the gazebo. The morning was still cool and there was a gentle salty breeze coming in off the sea. The coyote wore a pair of black slacks and a lavender blouse with the buttons fastened up to the ruff at her throat. She seemed nervous, but wanted to look professional.

“Come on up,” Taro invited calmly. “Have a seat.” Amanda slid her tail through the slotted back of the vacant lawn chair and sat down with her hands together in her lap. “Would you like some coffee?” Taro asked her, reaching for a thermal bottle at her feet.

“No thank you, ma’am,” the coyote said in a voice barely above a whisper.

Taro caught her mood, but pretended not to notice as she refilled her own cup. The vixen took a lap of her drink and then set the cup aside. “How are you this morning?” she asked.

A smile briefly crossed Amanda’s face, but then was gone just as quickly. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I didn’t sleep much last night.”

Taro sighed inwardly and canted her head slightly. “Is it about the contract,” she asked quietly, “or is it something else?”

The coyote looked down at her hands. “It’s the contract, ma’am,” she replied.

“I see. What can I do for you to make this easier?”

Amanda looked up and swallowed. She was never one for confrontation, but she knew she had to work through this. In her job as the ship’s business coordinator, she had no problem hammering out the details of their shipments with their clients. She did her job well, but when it came to personal issues, she was often timid.

“Please don’t think ill of me, ma’am,” she forced herself to say, “but I don’t think I’m up to the physical demands of the new workload. One… uhm, one of the reasons I originally applied with you was that that I knew that cargo moving would only be a small part of what I did as a member of your crew.”

Taro gave her a look of compassion. “That’s okay, Mandy. I understand your reasons for leaving us and I assure you that I won’t hold it against you. Some people just aren’t cut out for the amount of physical exercise it takes to work on a freighter.”

The coyote shook her head and gave the fox a little smile. “Actually, I’m not leaving,” she said.

Taro looked at her in surprise. “Huh?” she asked before she even realized she had spoken.

“Well, I was – originally. I seriously considered swapping out with someone on one of the other ships, until I realized who did my job for those crews.”

“You’ve already contacted them?”

“No, ma’am, but I looked up the crew rosters for both ships. The business coordinator for the Hidalgo Sun is Sean Jones. He’s also the ship’s first officer, so it was unlikely he would want to downgrade from his position to swap with me. I found a similar setup on the Mooncrest. Captain Corwin is the coordinator for his own ship, so I can’t swap out with him either.”

“I didn’t know that,” Taro admitted, “but it doesn’t surprise me. I was Merlin’s first officer when he was captain of the Blue Horizon, and I was also the business coordinator, although we called it customer liaison at the time.”

“Exactly,” Amanda replied, dropping her gaze back to her hands. “I… I really don’t want to lose my job, ma’am, but there’s no one to swap with, so I have decided to stay on with your crew – if you’ll still have me.”

Taro smiled, though the coyote wasn’t looking at her. She opened a folder on her slateboard and pulled up a document. She handed it to the coyote and said, “Here you go, Mandy. I’m glad you’ve decided to stay. If the workload gets too strenuous for you, we’ll try to work out something. Your primary job is my business coordinator, and as someone who used to hold that position myself, I can honestly say you’ve done a good job.”

“Really?” Amanda looked up with moist eyes. “Thank you, ma’am.” She wiped at her eyes and then made her thumbprint in the appropriate box to sign the document. “I will try to hold up my end of my other duties as well, but it may be difficult at first.” She swallowed and then gave her captain a big smile. “Besides, I can use the extra credits in my new pay to help my brother with his tuition.”

***

Justy met Taro’s gaze easily and settled back in his chair. “I have to admit that I was unsure about staying on with the new workload, but then I realized a couple things.” He held up two fingers and waggled them.

“What’s that?”

“First off, I did sign up for a cargo ship and I knew beforehand that I would be moving cargo, but it’s not like I knew what your shipping schedule was going to be like before I applied. For all I could guess, we might have made a bunch of on-planet deliveries without making it far out into space, and I could have been moving freight every other day in such a case!”

Taro returned his smile. “Yes, that could have happened. What was your second thought?”

The koala leaned forward and rested an elbow on the small table. “If I quit or ran away to another ship, I’d be validating Jerry’s argument!” The twinkle in his eye was mischievous, and he couldn’t help but give her a wink.

Taro laughed aloud and felt the tension melt from her shoulders. “Well, we can’t have you giving him that satisfaction now, can we?”

“I’ll sign my new contract now,” Justy said, retaining his smirk. “I may be small, but I’ll keep up my end of the workload.”

The vixen handed him the slateboard with his contract document open on the screen. “I thought you and Doc got along okay,” she said. “When did things change, or have I just been blind to it all this time?”

Justy signed the document with his thumbprint without bothering to look it over, trusting her implicitly. “Oh, there’s been no real bother between us,” he admitted. “He has his creative moments, but overall he doesn’t loosen up as much as I do and sometimes he seems annoyed with my free spirit. I try not to be annoying, but sometimes I can’t help being in a good mood!”

Taro took the slateboard back from him. “Well, I’m glad you’re such a nice guy, Justin,” she said. “I’m sure it helps with the morale of the others, so I hope you don’t change anytime soon.”

Justy grinned at the formal use of his name and he presented her with a sharp salute. “Aye, aye, Captain! You can depend upon me.”

“Thanks,” Taro replied with another laugh. “Now… since you’ve fulfilled your obligation for this morning, there’s something you need to do.”

“What’s that?”

“I need you to get with Master Tristan and have him introduce you to one of his people, a palomino named Stoyan.”

“Stoyan, okay.”

“He knows the Silloni computer systems very well and you should get in some training with him on the new ship between now and Saturday when we take off. I understand that their file system command structure is a little different than what the rest of the PA uses, so it would be in your best interest to pick his knowledge while you have him available to you.”

“That’s a good idea,” Justy nodded. “I’m familiar with seven different Planetary Alignment operating systems, but I’ve never played with one from Sillon.”

Taro sat back and picked up her coffee cup. “Do you have any further questions?”

The koala shook his head. “Nope, I think we’re good.”

“Okay, then. I’ll transfer a copy of your signed contract to you later today for your records.

“Thanks. How many more are left to come out to talk to you?”

“Just one,” Taro said with a glance at her wristwatch. “He has only twenty-three minutes left until the deadline.”

“May I ask you a question,” Justy asked in a low voice. Taro nodded hesitantly. “Have we lost anyone yet?”

The vixen relaxed and shook her head. “Not yet. There were a couple like you who were hesitant at first, but in the end, everyone so far has signed the new contract.”

Justy bit his bottom lip. “I guess that tells me who the last guy is,” he said. Taro didn’t reply to his statement, but he could read the confirmation in her eyes. “Well, I guess I’ll go grab some breakfast and then go find Stoyan. Thanks again, Captain.”

“You’re welcome, Justy. Thanks for staying on.”

***

Taro heard the sound of soft footsteps in the grass. She looked up from the notes she’d made on her slateboard and saw Jerry Somner standing just outside the gazebo. He wore a pair of black slacks, a matching black shirt, and was in his medical smock, the last of which he’d not worn since they had landed several days ago.

“Hello, Jerry,” she said in a voice that was calmer than the way she felt inside. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach when she looked at her watch. 08:58. The male fox stepped up into the gazebo, slid his tail into the chair’s slotted opening, and then looked straight into her eyes.

“Good morning, Captain,” he said courteously. He crossed one leg over the other and then rested his hands on top of his elevated knee. Taro was unable to read the expression in his eyes and had to force herself not to swallow hard in front of him. “Am I the last?” he asked.

“Yes, and you cut it rather close.”

“Sorry about that,” he told her. “Shannon’s away on a school field trip with one of her boys this morning and Samantha needed attention.”

“Is she okay?” Taro asked with sudden dread.

“She’s fine, just a little case of new-mother jitters, thinking she might not be giving her children enough milk. Her pups are looking healthy, but I looked them over for her peace of mind.” He nodded and added, “She has nothing to worry about. All five are still growing, as they should. Their fingers and toes are becoming more pronounced, and the length of their arms and legs are extending slowly. They should be at the desired stage of post-birth development within a week.”

“That’s good to know,” the vixen replied. She steeled herself inwardly and then put both hands calmly upon the table. “Well, I suppose it’s time,” she said in a quiet voice.

“Sure,” Jerry said with a smile. “May I see the contract, please?”

Taro started, and instantly felt embarrassed at her outward sign. “Uh, uhm… here.” She already had his pulled up on the screen of her slateboard when she handed it to him. While the doctor read over the entire document, Taro tried to will her heart to slow back down. Jerry seemed calm and relaxed, but the vixen felt as if he were just waiting for right amount of tension in the air to reach the proper snapping point.

Several long moments passed before the physician finally nodded and then signed his name on a line at the bottom of the page with the proper placement of his thumbprint. When he handed the slateboard back to Taro, he chuckled at the diameter of her eyes.

“Surprised you, did I?” he asked casually.

The vixen nodded mutely as she looked down at the contract to make sure he really had signed the document. She let out a long, audible sigh that she didn’t’ try to hide and then looked back over at him with a relieved smile.

“Yes, I guess you did,” she admitted truthfully. “May I ask what made you change your mind about staying with us?”

He rested his hands back on his knee, but didn’t break eye contact with her. “Taro,” he said calmly, “I never intended to leave the crew, despite all of my arguments. I was uneasy with the physical demands of the new workload, but just as you said, Merlin listened to my concerns and was willing to do something about them.”

He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward onto them, clasping his hands together. “I may not be as impressed with the layout of the new ship as the others, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. My Infirmary is larger than the old one, and we have a decent recreational room, so if I don’t feel like locking myself up into the closet that is my cabin, I have other places on board I can be.”

Taro was appreciative of the cool breeze still coming in off the sea. She returned his smile and said, “Thank you,” with the hint of emotion in her voice. “I really didn’t want to lose you.”

“I’m glad to hear that, Captain. As the ship’s doctor, I’ll be keeping a close eye on everyone’s well-being under the new conditions. If I have any concerns, I now know you’ll be willing to listen.”

The vixen nodded. “You know I will. Are there any other concerns or questions I can help you with?”

Jerry thought for a moment, but then he shook his head. “No, I’m clear on what’s going on. I know we’ll be moving everything from the old ship to the new one, but we’ve been running low on some medical supplies. While I was taking care of Samantha, she told me that she would authorize a discount through her pharmaceutical company to get what we need in that area, so that will help us get my new Sickbay restocked. However, even with the discount and her influence, I still need to get your authorization for everything on my list to keep the business legal.”

“Sure, just let me see your list before you go shopping.”

“I will.”

“Okay, well, I guess that wraps up everything,” Taro said at last. “I’m out of coffee and you were the last one to sign. I’ll have a copy of your contract forwarded to you later today for your records.”

“Thank you, Captain. If that’s all, then, I’m going to see if I can get a ride out to the ship to start packing for the big move.”

“I’ll see you later, Jerry.”

Taro watched him idly as he walked back toward the house, but then a sudden thought occurred to her. She looked at her watch and noted with some bit of embarrassment that the deadline had come and gone, but she had not yet signed the captain’s contract that Merlin had discussed with her the night before.

With a chuckle and a glance around to make sure nobody was watching her, Taro pulled up her own contract and put her print on it. She made sure the notes she’d scratched down were saved on the slateboard and then began to gather up everything to go see Merlin.

***

The Kokoro took off late that afternoon, bound for high orbit before launching via Hyper-LightDrive to rendezvous with the Hidalgo Sun that was en route to Ganis from Crescentis. The conference call between Merlin and Taro with Captains Kegawa and Corwin had gone well enough, describing the non-repairable damage to the Blue Horizon, the offer of the Kirin for testing and an explanation of its capabilities.

However, when Taro told them of Damien’s arrest and of her need for a new cargo load master, Rezo Kegawa was less than pleased with her request for Mark Littlefeather to relocate to her ship; the human had been a member of his crew for years and Rezo flatly refused the transfer, demanding that Taro take Captain Corwin’s load master instead.

Abner was more open to the transfer, but Merlin stepped in and nixed the idea. The request had come from Taro, but Merlin backed her up with his desire to have Mark on board the new ship where security restrictions would be tighter.

Rezo argued and ranted for a long while, but in the end, Merlin overruled him with a warning of insubordination and ordered him to bring the human into the conversation. Fuming, the red panda called Mark to his bridge and then sat grumbling in the background while Merlin filled the cargo load master in on the situation. The formal offer was made, but Mark hesitated with furtive glances toward Rezo before accepting the new assignment.

Merlin informed them all that Master Tristan would rendezvous with the Hidalgo Sun for Littlefeather, so he would have little time to pack up his personal belongings. The wolf assured Rezo that applications for his new cargo load master were already being tendered through a third-party business at their destination on Ganis and Mark’s replacement would be awaiting him upon landing.

That set off Rezo into another tirade since he wouldn’t even have a say in who Merlin might hire for his ship. The wolf had to remind him again that the Sun’s timetable wouldn’t allow for an extended time of interviews, so they would be conducted ahead of time before he got there. Rezo didn’t like it and was plenty vocal in his displeasure. The conversation had ended with the president of the company giving his subordinate another warning. If Rezo was intent upon challenging Merlin’s authority, he was welcome to accompany Mark back to Dennier on the Kokoro, but he would need to bring all his personal possessions with him. The red panda finally backed down, though not at all gracefully.

Despite the upcoming increase in workload for Taro’s crew, everyone in her crew had signed two-year contracts for the testing period. After experiencing Rezo’s tantrums, however, Taro was glad that there were no further requests for personnel transfer between their ships.

***

Renny’s DataCom chirped at his belt and he put down a box of free weights he’d just brought up to the new recreation room. With everyone on the crew scattered between the two vessels, they had all taken to carrying their DC units to stay connected.

“This is Renny,” he answered.

“Hey, Renny —Justy here. When you get a moment, could you meet me at the main airlock here inside the Okami? We’ve found something you should see.”

“I’ll be down there in a few minutes.”

“Thanks.”

After the cheetah properly stowed his burden, he made his way around the corridors to the lift, passing Lori and Mandy guiding an antigrav cart full of pots and pans toward the galley. Outside the ship, he looked up at the overcast sky with a hand shielding his eyes, wondering if it was going to rain again. He crossed the tarmac between the ships and then trotted up the ramp of the open cargo bay door of the decommissioned Okami. He saw Justy and Max standing over two long boxes of olive green near the controls of the damaged airlock.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” he asked.

Justy looked up and scratched one of his large ears. “Hi. I finished moving everything from my quarters to the new ship yesterday afternoon,” he said, “so I’ve been down here since this morning, moving over things from this deck – tools, tie-downs, padding, etc. Taro said we were not to leave anything behind.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen you and Max carting over stuff.”

“Well, he and I finally made it over to this area and Max found these two crates sitting here.”

“Since we put the patch over the airlock on the outside,” the German shepherd explained, “none of us have had a reason to come over here until now.”

“Okay, so what’s in the boxes?”

“Dunno yet,” Justy replied. “We were afraid they might be bombs, left behind by those people who came on board, so we thought we’d report it to you first. I think the captain has gone out shopping, so we called you. Maybe we should call the police.”

“Could be another bomb,” Renny muttered uncertainly, “but why hasn’t one of them gone off before now?”

“Maybe they’re triggered to explode when the top is opened,” Max theorized.

Renny studied the box with a furrowed brow. The plastic crates were approximately two feet wide and five feet long, about two feet thick. There were rope handles on each end and a pair of latches along one side keeping the top closed, though there were no locks.

“Why don’t you have Moss scan it?” he suggested. “That’s one of the functions that Pockets programmed into it for passenger luggage, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it was,” Max answered, “but he’s already shut it down and purged its special programming. He said he didn’t want some bright vo-tech student to reverse-engineer it before it gets implemented through his new contract with Okami Corp, and he can’t use it on the new Horizon since they are now exclusive to Okami ships.”

Renny nodded quietly, still looking over the crates. The only printing he could see upon the containers was “BA” in stylized black letters near a bottom corner. The letters seemed familiar, somehow.

Then his eyes lit up. “Binfurr Arms!” he exclaimed in sudden realization. The letters were stamped upon every Binfurr rifle and handgun they kept on board. Renny reached down toward the box closest to him and Justy suddenly ran for the open bay door.

“What are you doing?” the koala called back hoarsely when the navigator flipped open both latches. Max looked suddenly afraid, wondering if he should run too.

Renny lifted the lid of the container with a smile and threw back the lid. Max jumped when the top hit the adjacent box with a loud bang, but the cheetah reached in and pulled out an oversized pistol from a fitted foam block. It was a stunner gun, identical to the ones Mr. Binfurr’s people carried when they’d come to get his daughter, Sandilee. He looked at the power pack in the handle grip and noted that the gun held a full charge.

“Where did those come from?” Max wanted to know. Renny handed the gun to him and then picked up another. The crate held five of the pistols and ten extra rechargeable power packs.

“Mr. Binfurr told Taro that stunners like these are best for protection on a ship out in space,” the cheetah answered. “We have rifles and hand guns in our armory, but a solid bullet from one of those might pierce the hull or a window.” He looked up at the damaged airlock and nodded toward it. “You know the kind of danger that can be out in space.”

“Yeah, don’t I know it.”

“’Better a temporary shock to someone’s nervous system than a bullet through a vital organ’, I think Binfurr said. These may be similar to what was used on us when Ariel’s friends came on board.”

Justy had slowly rejoined them and looked over at the firearms hesitantly. “Okay, now we know what’s in the crates,” he said, “why are they here? We’ve not had time to go gun shopping since we landed.”

Renny looked over at him with a smile. “I’ll wager that Mr. Binfurr had them left on our ship before he left. He apologized for what we went through, but was grateful to have his daughter back. He probably thought we could use them.”

“Wow,” Max said. He aimed it at the floor and sighted along its fat barrel, but knew better than to discharge it. He handed it to Justy, who only glanced at it before putting back into the crate.

“Come on, Max,” the koala said. “Let’s get these over to the new ship and add them to the armory closet.”

A klaxon sounded out on the tarmac, signaling the arrival of a vessel to one of the other landing pads. Out of curiosity, all three of the guys stepped outside to see what was coming in, and they were surprised to recognize the scarlet form of a Silloni cruiser descending from the sky. The Kokoro landed lightly on a triad of landing gear and the whine of its atmospheric engines immediately began to wind down.

“Okay, let’s get back to work,” Renny said. “No need to gawk at Master Tristan when he disembarks. You two grab that crate and I’ll see if Jerry will help me with the other.”

“He just went up in the lift a moment ago,” Max grunted as he grabbed one end of a crate and lifted.

***

When Mark Littlefeather emerged from the airlock of the Kokoro a few minutes later, his brown eyes displayed excitement, but otherwise he seemed calm and collected for someone who’d just experienced his first hyper jump. He was dressed in a pair of brown leather boots, close-fitting blue jeans and a white, long-sleeved shirt; the collar was open to reveal a silver and turquoise medallion in the shape of the Blue Horizon company emblem; it rested upon the smooth dark skin of his chest. His jet black hair was cut to collar length, framing his Amerindian face.

The broad-backed man shifted the strap of a large duffel bag over his left shoulder and looked behind him into the vessel. He nodded to something said to him and then he walked across the tarmac toward the new Blue Horizon. Although the Kokoro had flown in over the top of the other vessel, he’d been strapped into a seat in a cabin during the descent into the Dennieran atmosphere and had not seen the new ship from the air. This was his first view of his new home and he admired its sleek beauty as he slowly stepped toward it.

Taro was already walking toward him and greeted him as he neared the vessel. “It’s good to see you again,” she said with a smile. “You’re looking well.” The last time they had seen one another in person was at Durant’s funeral, and although the human had not known the grizzly that well, they had all mourned his loss as a fellow wingman and none had been in the best frame of mind for visiting.

“Thank you, I am,” he replied with a grin. “It is good to see you again too.” He had always felt that the vixen had an exotic beauty, and her curves fit her black slacks and pale lavender blouse well. When his eyes fell upon the blue-tipped white feather dangling at her left ear, his eyes sparkled behind his smile.

Taro extended a hand in greeting, which he took gratefully, and then he moved back a step, set down his duffel, and then presented her with a sharp salute.

“Mark Ski’rik Littlefeather, reporting for duty, Captain Nichols,” he said formally.

Taro smiled and returned the salute. “Welcome to the Blue Horizon, Mr. Littlefeather. I’m happy you could join us.”

“Thank you, Captain. The new ship is impressive, and I’ve not even seen the inside yet.”

“Well then, I think we have time for a brief tour before we put you to work,” the vixen said with a smile. “I just got back from a shopping trip and need to take up my packages anyway. I picked up all new linens for the beds, since they’re a different size than the ones on our old ship, the Okami.”

Mark hefted the strap of his duffel back over his shoulder and then gestured toward the ship with his free hand. “After you,” he said politely.

“Is that all you brought with you?”

“No,” he said. “I have three boxes of personal effects still on board Master Tristan’s ship, but they said I could get them later. They aren’t taking off again for several days, so I can retrieve them any time before then.”

“How long did the Kokoro stay in the vicinity of the Hidalgo Sun?” Taro asked while they walked up the ramp and in through the airlock hatch.

“Only about an hour, just long enough for the usual greetings and to get my things moved. The Kokoro got there so fast that my crewmates didn’t have time to throw me a goodbye party, so all I got was a few quick hugs and pats on the back.”

Taro stopped just inside the entry corridor and picked up several shopping bags full of linens. “The Hyld system takes twenty-four hours to recharge. How did you leave after only an hour?”

Mark laughed. “Rezo was still so upset that I was yanked from his crew that he demanded the Silloni ship just take me and go. He said they were delaying his delivery schedule and that he didn’t have their luxury of a super-engine to make up the time. Master Tristan did as he requested and once the Sun continued on its way, we headed back using standard LightDrive engines until the Hyld was recharged. It didn’t take off any of our flight time getting back, but it gave his crew something to do in the meantime, rather than just sitting in space.”

“You seem rather informed and comfortable with the new propulsion system,” Taro told him with a smile.

Mark’s easy grin resurfaced. “We had a day of travel to sit and talk,” he replied. “Master Tristan, Stoyan, Metra and the others all took time out to visit with me and tell me about my new ship, the Hyld system, and our contract to test it for them.”

“May I ask you a personal question?” Taro asked in a quiet voice.

“Fasten, and then zip,” Mark answered automatically.

“Huh? What are you… oh.” Taro chuckled and shook her head. “No, my question is not that personal.”

Mark laughed. “Sure, ask your question.”

“When you were offered the position on my ship, you didn’t look very excited about it. Did you have any reservations about coming over here?”

Mark let out a sigh. “I was excited by the offer,” he replied. “Very much. However, Rezo was upset when he called me to the bridge, so I already knew that whatever reason I was there had not set well with him. I didn’t want to seem over-eager in his eyes. He can get quite vindictive when he doesn’t get his way on his own ship.”

“Wow, I didn’t know that about him.”

“Speaking candidly, ma’am, he puts on a good front for guests, but behind the scenes he’s a regular Captain Edwards.”

“Edwards?” Taro asked. “I don’t know him.”

Mark shook his head. “Edwards was the cruel captain of the HMS Pandora on Earth’s seas several centuries ago. Perhaps I should have compared Rezo to Captain Bligh of the HMS Bounty instead. People feared Bligh’s acidic tongue more than they did physical punishment. Rezo never abused us physically, but if you ever get him stirred up, he can strip you down to nothing with just his words. For several hours after you called, he did everything he could to me so I would feel like a heel for accepting your offer. Personally, I’m glad to be out from under his command. He always found some way to coerce me into renewing my contracts when they came up, so I’ve served with him for quite a while.”

Taro grimaced. “Yeesh… why did you sign back up under him after he sold his old ship for scrap and then hired his crew back?”

The human shrugged. “Like my crewmates, I needed the work. Had it only been for Rezo, there’s no way I would have come back, but with Merlin in charge, I hoped things would be better. At least the ship and the pay contract had improved, but lately it seems like Rezo gets a warning of insubordination from Merlin every time there’s a major decision made. Knowing what he’s said about Merlin behind his back, I’m frankly surprised Captain Kegawa is still employed with the company.”

“Hm, nice. Speaking of contracts, I have yours up in my cabin when you’re ready to sign. No coercion, I promise.”

“Captain,” Mark said with raised eyebrows, “I can already tell that you’ll be easier to work for than he was, even under a heavier workload. I’ll gladly put my print on the document.”

“Very good. So, how was your first hyper jump?”

The human made a face and put a hand on his stomach. “Gut wrenching,” he answered. “Literally. It wasn’t pleasant, but Metra told me how to prepare for it. She said that in time, I would get so used to it that my body would react to it automatically, rather than me having to consciously prepare myself.”

“That’s good to know,” the vixen replied. “I’ve only been through it a couple times, and even with prior warning, it still wasn’t what I would call fun. It’s the only part of testing the new ship that I’m not looking forward to experiencing.”

They began walking but then Mark stopped again beside a thick glassteel window. He looked out into the cargo bay and nodded. “It looks larger,” he said, “but maybe that’s because it’s longer. It’s not as wide, though.”

“You want to see your office down here first?”

The human shook his head of dark hair. “No, I’d like to go up to my cabin and drop off my duffel. Without this hanging off my shoulder, I can enjoy the tour better.”

“A sound idea. This way.”

***

A tall, metallic figure emerged from behind a large wall locker and stepped forward across the cargo bay. Renny and Jerry both turned to the sound of a warning klaxon and grinned. The white-gold figure strode quickly, despite its mass and apparent weight, down the ramp toward one of seven octagonal containers that had just been delivered by truck to the ship.

“Everybody step back, okay?” Taro said to the other crewmembers that were busily unlocking cargo straps.

The form stepped forward with heavy mechanical movements, and the scattered crew saw that it was actually Mark Littlefeather in one of the new augmented power loaders. The human gave Taro a friendly smile, extended one of the thick, robotic arms and spun the large pincer.

He motioned to the rest of his crew, and the brand new mechanical loader stepped toward the truck. Large pincers grasped lift-points on the nearest crate, and the power loader lifted it effortlessly from the truck. He then turned and stepped back up the ramp to take their fresh food supplies into the freighter.

Renny smiled at Jerry, approving of the mechanized loader. “I’m glad Merlin authorized the purchase of new units for our increased workload.” The used models they’d purchased with the last ship had proven unreliable and it had caused Pockets to work on them all the time to keep them running.

“That’s just what the doctor ordered,” Jerry agreed. “Should I go get the other one and help out?”

The cheetah shook his head and gestured toward the loader with a smile. “No, let Mark play with his new toy. He’ll have all the crates loaded by the time you get the other one out anyway.”

In a relaxed moment of levity, Jerry stuck out his bottom lip. “Aw, daddy… I wanted to play with the toys too!”

“Later, son,” Renny quipped, “but only if you eat your vegetables.”

***

Saturday morning eventually arrived. The weather was fair, spirits were high and the ship was fully stocked and prepared for their first voyage. As per Master Tristan’s suggestion, Merlin had set the Blue Horizon’s first flight to Se’rei to seek out Calissa Thalia’s knowledge on the monitoring device she had constructed for them on their first visit to the lapin community. Taro, Renny, Pockets and Suzuko had been given specific instructions on dealing with the former pirate engineer, and their hopes were high that she would help them for the sake of safety. Due to her friendship during their prior visit, Lori would act as a liaison to strike some kind of deal with Calissa for her help.

For one month, the home office would route all shipping customers to the other two vessels in the small fleet, and then the Blue Horizon would need to be back in service.

In the event that Calissa would not help them, the Horizon’s black box would be confiscated upon their return to Dennier for Tristan’s people to study back on Sillon; all Hyld jumps would then be banned until a proper monitoring system could be reverse-engineered, and the Blue Horizon would use its new Silloni LightDrive system for deliveries in the meantime, which in of themselves were a little faster than what the rest of the Planetary Alignment used. It would be a blow to the planned test, but in the name of the associate they’d lost, Tristan was adamant about the safety of those who might use the new jump system.

At an hour before launch, everyone gathered in front of the bow of the Blue Horizon. The cargo bay doors were sealed, but a temporary awning had been set up over twenty-five folding chairs for an official send-off ceremony.

In attendance were the ten who made up Taro’s crew of the Blue Horizon, Tristan and his crew of six Silloni unicorns, Cindy, Keri, Penny and Tina from the home office, Bill and Shannon Wallace, and also Merlin and Samantha Sinclair. The children of Bill and Shannon were in school, and the Sinclair infants were in the care of a trusted friend so Samantha could attend.

When everyone had assembled and they were in their seats, Merlin stood up and moved to a spot in front of them. Although he would not be leading the ship, the gray wolf wore an outfit familiar with the crew. He was dressed in a beige mock-neck shirt with a loose collar, a pair of dark blue pants with gold vertical stripes on the outside seams, black jackboots, a brown flight jacket with the company logo on the right shoulder and over the left chest pocket, and a blue and white nautical cap that was perched on his head between his thick, triangular ears. He set a paper sack on the ground at his feet and then faced them all.

“My friends,” he said with a casual smile, “it is the end of an era. Ever since my friend Jiro and I first decided to go into the cargo hauling business with a used freighter a decade ago, the Blue Horizon has been an Okami-class vessel. Due to a few mishaps along the way, our ship has been broken twice, but now thanks to Master Tristan and the Silloni government, the Blue Horizon rises yet again, but this time she’s a different species.”

He looked around at the faces focused on him. “The Kirin-class freighter behind me is the latest in state-of-the-art Silloni technology, and although she is still in her prototypical testing phase, I think we can all be proud of what her potential can be in our career field. If the solar winds are with us, we can expect to be flying Kirin freighters for a long time to come. The next two years will determine if there are any improvements or changes to be implemented in the design before the ships are made available to the public, and the Blue Horizon’s crew will be instrumental in making this happen.”

Merlin smiled and put his hands into his pockets. “Samantha and I are the proud parents of five new lives, but our pack is much larger. Between the Blue Horizon, the Hidalgo Sun, the Mooncrest and our home office, we have forty individuals in the Sinclair family. I want to thank each and every one of you, whether you are in the crew of a ship, associates from Sillon, colleagues from the office, or actual blood relatives. This new ship now goes into service as a result of everyone’s participation. May your journeys be smooth, your friendships are strong, and may the stars forever light your pathways.”

The gray wolf bent down and pulled a glass wine bottle from the sack at his feet. He walked over to the bow of the ship and then held the bottle up high. He winked at his wife and then said in an elevated voice, “As captains have done for centuries, I now give you the SS Blue Horizon, PA28080!”

Merlin brought the bottle down hard against the hull. Its green glass shattered, splashing the wine juices across the forward curve of the vessel as the gathered crowd clapped in celebration.

***

“Sir, I think you should see this.”

Victor Faltane, former black marketer and now current Representative of the Earth to the Planetary Alignment, looked up from a document on his desk toward an aid in a dark suit who had just stepped in through his office door. The swarthy man tapped on the large vidscreen on the wall of Faltane’s office and the narrator’s voice of a broadcast documentary issued from the room’s surround speakers.

“…from a joint venture between Sillon and non-Alignment world Ryu. What began as merely an opportunity for these sister worlds to work together to pool their resources has been beneficial to both planets. When stellar distances…”

“You know my schedule, Kane,” said the man with pale blue eyes, cropped beard and styled blonde hair that lightly brushed the collar of his navy blue suit. “I don’t have time to watch a documentary on Science Discoveries.”

The aid, a broad-shouldered man of twenty-five brushed a hand across his flat-top haircut and nodded toward the screen. “You will want to watch this one, sir,” he said.

Faltane knew his people well enough to recognize the edge to the man’s voice. He set down the slateboard he’d been holding and gave his full attention to the StellarNet program.

“Local Dennieran representatives of the Planetary Alignment Scientific Society were invited by Tristan of Sillon to examine two new prototype starships equipped with a combination propulsion system consisting of the latest Silloni LightDrive engines with a new technology developed into a Hyper Jump system. They are calling this engineering marvel a Hyper-LightDrive engine system, or a ‘Hyld Engine’ for short. Due to the extreme distances between Sillon and the rest of the Planetary Alignment for which it holds a membership, Silloni and Ryujin engineers have long worked together to break the LightDrive barrier. It was announced early this week that two versions of the Hyld Engine have been constructed for testing, a small unit for personnel-size cruisers, and a larger unit for moving large transports. The smaller of the two was installed into a Hoshi-class staff cruiser, and Tristan, a former Silloni regent and owner of a plush vacation resort call the Dragon Loft, was appointed by Regent Master Ritchka to head the commercial development of the Hyld Engine.

“The larger unit was installed into a new class of freighter the Silloni had been developing for sale to the Planetary Alignment. These two prototype starships will undergo a two-year testing period before they are released to the general public for sale. Tristan’s personal team is testing the Hoshi-class staff cruiser, while a private shipping company has been chosen to test its new Kirin-class freighter.

“Despite unsubstantiated rumors of unreliability, the combined governments of Sillon and Ryu have shown faith in Blue Horizon Freight Transfer of Dennier and have secured their services for testing in a real-world environment. Although the launch date of its maiden flight is not yet…”

Faltane sputtered and cursed. He checked himself with a quick glance at Kane and then steeled himself to watch the rest of the broadcast. The documentary itself was dry, and it was unlikely to be viewed by anyone without a scientific interest in traffic throughout the Planetary Alignment, but it was the kind of thing that the opportunist in Victor Faltane frequently watched for.

A half-hour later, the show ended with a techno soundtrack over the end credits. Faltane snapped his fingers sharply and then pointed toward the screen. “I want a copy of that broadcast available to me by tomorrow,” he said to his aid with a menacing look.

“Yes, sir. I’ll get on it right away.” Kane withdrew from the room and quietly shut the heavy oak door behind him.

Faltane growled beneath his breath and fought to maintain control of his temper. The development of his Prime-class freighters was intended to revolutionize shipping freight, and they had only recently gone on the market to the public. He understood every bit of technical jargon that had been used in the program to profile this Hyper-LightDrive engine system, and the stellar mechanics behind its theory ran along similar lines to the particle vault technology that Sagan had stolen from the pirate queen, Natasha Khasho – a system that his own engineers had thus far been unable to recreate for his own purposes.

If the Silloni had perfected hyper travel on their own and have announced the possible distribution of its technology to the public on the outside of two years, it was unlikely Faltane would be able to sell many of the Prime ships. Who would want to buy his expensive freighters when everyone could simply wait a couple years for vault-like capability?

To rub salt in the wound, one of the Silloni prototypes had been given to Merlin Sinclair, a Dennieran wolf who had unwittingly side-railed some of his plans already. Despite Faltane’s recent covert efforts to steer customers away from Sinclair’s business, he was fairly certain that companies would compete for the Horizon’s services once it became known that they could now get their goods delivered faster than anyone else in the industry.

Faltane’s own attempts to reverse-engineer Natasha’s vault drive had not been successful. Despite having a working model of her technology, there were key elements in the way things worked that were simply beyond the capabilities of his engineers. They’d been able to construct a prototype that appeared promising, but after its third test flight, the manned ship simply vanished without a trace. It was unknown whether the ship encountered problems related to the vault or some other issue altogether, but a second prototype was built using the same technology. It had vanished on its first flight.

Rather than pour billions more into a technology they didn’t fully understand that seemed determined to defeat them, Faltane had turned his R&D department over to the Prime starships instead. Gargantuan advances were made and a new type of LightDrive technology promised to revolutionize transportation – not only in simple freighters, but also for all interstellar transportation.

Faltane Industries of Earth stood to become the wealthiest concern in the Planetary Alignment, but now Sillon’s advancements could completely derail his efforts. Faltane was livid. Even if he thought to take out the Blue Horizon itself, the Silloni government still had the technology to build more.

The deceptively young-appearing human ground his teeth together. When he needed to be, Faltane could be cutthroat and use emotional blackmail in order to accomplish his goals. He could have his affiliates leak news of his company’s failed Vault prototype, attributing it to one of his sub-contractors for plausible deniability. His cronies could make a number of loud statements about “concern for public safety” and other bland, formless terms. The Blue Horizon would have to demonstrate that they would not just disappear into the void with someone’s cargo or passengers using experimental technology. Lawsuits could be threatened, environmental concerns addressed, and plain old, outright lies could be spread throughout the media.

The man let out a guttural growl and drummed his fingers on the desktop. It was an ill wind when someone crossed Victor Faltane. One thing the human forgot, however, was that no matter how large and expansive his empire might be, there were always larger predators in life. Some hunted for sport and fun, some hunted for food, but there were others that hunted for revenge.

The hunter on the veranda just outside Faltane’s office was of the latter variety.

***

Samantha opened her eyes from a dreamless sleep. The lights were out, the curtains wafted gently in the cool sea air that came in through the open bedroom window and crickets chirred somewhere out in the yard. She could hear a gentle ting ting ting from the sailboat marina up the road and she felt calm and relaxed.

It was in the middle of the night, but she chose not to turn her head to see the glowing blue numbers of the clock on the nightstand to check the time. Without moving, she could mentally feel the presence of her five tiny children in the room, but she could sense there was someone else. The feeling didn’t come from Merlin’s side of the bed and she suddenly felt a small tang of fear.

The Border collie turned her head and saw a silhouette bent over the large crib that contained the pile of puppies all snuggled together. When her eyes adjusted to the moonlight coming through the window, she could see that it was her wolf gently stroking each pup’s small ears.

Merlin sensed her gaze and looked over at her with a contented smile. She could see the moisture reflected in his amber eyes, but knew the tears were not of sorrow, but of deep emotion. He turned back to their young ones and continued bestowing affection upon them.

Samantha Sinclair sighed deeply and closed her eyes with a smile. All was right in their world.

COMMAND DECISION

by Ted R. Blasingame

Captain Rezo Kegawa muttered beneath his breath as he watched the scarlet form of the Kokoro settle down on a nearby landing pad. He recognized its form easily, since he’d just seen it days earlier when it had rendezvoused with the Hidalgo Sun in flight to Crescentis to take his cargo load master away from him. His protests had been overruled and then Mark Littlefeather was transferred to the newest ship in the company fleet.

This had left him without anyone to coordinate the offloading of cargo when they’d reached the watery world. He’d had to tackle the job himself, but somehow they’d managed to get everything unloaded onto a fleet of trucks that had arrived to take possession of the delivery. They were a day late and their client hadn’t been happy about it, having had to retain personnel on overtime to wait for them.

When Mark had been taken, he’d been told that a new cargo master would have already been hired and waiting for them by the time they landed, but as yet no one had arrived to claim that position. Then, before he could release his crew to shore leave, he’d received yet another message from the home office requiring them all to stand by for another arrival of the Kokoro.

It was freaky knowing that the little scarlet vessel with their new super engines could zip back and forth between worlds in minutes with only a twenty-four hour turnaround, but yet here it was again – probably bearing more bad news. All he’d been told was that an important passenger had immediate business with the captain and his first officer that would affect the crew as well. Who was this mysterious passenger he and Jonesy were to meet? Was it another Silloni like Tristan, or were they bringing Mark back already? He sincerely hoped it was the latter so he could inflict his displeasure upon the human deserter.

The red panda narrowed his eyes and ground his teeth together, making his companion look over at him surreptitiously. Rezo’s attitude had already gotten him into trouble with the company president once this week. He’d always been in control over his crew, and it grated on the captain’s nerves to know that he had been powerless to prevent Mark’s departure. Making command decisions for others had suited him, and although he hadn’t always made sound choices, those responsibilities were his own and no one else’s, mistakes and all.

He shielded his eyes against the Crescentan afternoon sun and waited for the flight crew to shut down their systems and open the airlock.

The captain’s first officer stood beside him, a slateboard datapak in the orange feline’s hands. The rest of the red panda’s crew was gathered a few yards behind them and all were anxious.

“Any idea what this is about?” asked the cat.

“Jonesy, I have no clue, but I hope they make this quick,” he said in annoyance. “We’re already behind schedule as it is and I didn’t like having to cut everybody’s shore leave by a day to make up for it.”

“Someone’s coming out,” Tsarina remarked from the back of the group. Rezo and Jonesy looked up from their conversation to see the hatch on the other ship recess back in to the hull and then slide sideways. One of the unicorn-like Silloni in a one-piece uniform walked out into the sunlight and then stopped to await the personnel ramp to complete its descent to the tarmac.

Rezo frowned, recognizing the captain of Master Tristan’s new ship. He motioned to Jonesy to follow him and the two of them walked toward the Silloni vessel. The others waited a moment and then followed Patch as he went out after his captain. Rezo stopped at the bottom of the ramp and looked up at the unicorn.

“Hello again,” the tan and brown Silloni female said with a slight tip of her horn.

“Metra,” Rezo replied with a nod of his head in an approximation of her greeting. “Why are you back so soon? Have you come to take another employee off my hands — or bring the other one back?”

The unicorn frowned at the snide tone of the red panda’s voice. “Not exactly,” she answered. There were a few low spoken words from within the ship, and then a silhouette appeared at the airlock. Rezo’s eyebrows shot up when he recognized the face that emerged from the shadows.

“Hello, Captain,” Merlin Sinclair said. The expression on the wolf’s face was neutral, hiding the true nature of his thoughts. He nodded to the other and added, “Hello, Jonesy.”

“This must be serious if the company president himself diverts his resources to touch base with one of his ships,” Rezo said, stepping forward. “Couldn’t you have just contacted me online?”

Merlin straightened up to his full height, placing his hands into the pockets of the slate gray overcoat he wore over matching slacks and beige mock-neck shirt. He looked down at the short red panda and shook his head. “Something of this nature must be discussed in person,” he replied. “I will need to talk to you and Mr. Jones in private, right away.”

“Are we getting one of the new ships too?” the orange cat asked.

“Not yet,” Sinclair replied, not taking his eyes off the short captain. He didn’t appear to be in a good mood and the orange cat looked back and forth between Merlin and Rezo.

“Let’s go up to your office on the Sun,” the wolf directed.

The red panda crossed his arms and looked up at his imposing employer, trying his best to keep from being intimidated. “Why don’t we discuss it right here?” he asked with a swallow. “If it affects the whole crew, they should hear too.”

“In private,” Merlin insisted.

Jonesy looked behind him at the others and exchanged concerned looks with the chief engineer. Rezo stared up at the wolf for a moment longer before he turned and walked away. “Suit yourself,” he said. The orange striped cat followed his captain, and then Merlin turned to Metra.

“Thanks for your help,” he told her.

“You are welcome, sir,” the Silloni captain replied. “Let us know if you need anything. We’ll be preparing for the return flight, to leave as soon as you’re ready.”

Merlin gave her a nod and then followed Rezo’s crew back to the Hidalgo Sun.

***

Rezo, Jonesy and Merlin rode up to the crew deck in silence, leaving everyone else down outside the ship to wait. When they stepped out into the corridor, Merlin followed the Hidalgo Sun’s command personnel to the captain’s office. Once inside, the wolf shut the door behind him and gestured the others to take their seats. He remained standing, his hands back in the pockets of his overcoat.

Without preamble, he moved directly to the purpose of his visit. “Rezo Kegawa,” he said in a somber tone, “In accordance with the written conditions of your signed contract with Blue Horizon Freight Transfer, I am terminating your employment on the grounds of multiple accounts of insubordination to your superior officer.”

“What?” Rezo exclaimed in shock. Jonesy opened his mouth and shut it quickly, swallowing hard. This had not been what either of them expected.

“You have openly challenged me on several occasions and I won’t tolerate it further. You have been treading on dangerous ground ever since you came to work for me, and since you apparently don’t appreciate all I’ve done for you, that ground has now given away beneath you.”

“You… You can’t fire me!” Rezo sputtered indignantly. “I have the title! I own this ship!”

“Captain, as of this moment, you no longer work for Blue Horizon Freight Transfer,” Merlin said in an even voice. “It’s true you purchased the Hidalgo Sun from me with the split in the profits, so I can’t take that away from you.”

The red panda snorted triumphantly, crossing his arms.

“The crew, however, belongs to me,” Merlin reminded him, “and my personnel will be returning to Dennier aboard the Kokoro.”

“What do you mean the crew belongs to you?” Rezo spat. “These people are mine and they aren’t going anywhere with you!”

“Wrong. As I’d already reminded you when you challenged me in front of everyone on Pomen, the contracts of the personnel serving on your ship all belong to me. Those contracts were made with my company, Kegawa, not to you. I have no intention of cancelling their employment, so I’ll try to get them set up right away on another freighter.”

Despite his short stature, Rezo Kegawa stood to his full height and glared directly up into the wolf’s amber eyes. “I’m not afraid of you,” he hissed. “Get off my ship right now. My crew’s staying put.”

“Do you really want a legal battle with my lawyer? If you want me off your ship, so be it. The others are coming with me.”  He turned to the orange cat and said, “Mr. Jones, inform your crewmates of the circumstances. Since we are all unwelcome here, we must leave immediately, so you’ll all need to gather your belongings as quickly as possible. Once back on Dennier, I will grant them the shore leave they won’t get here.”

Jonesy swallowed, glanced quickly at Rezo, and then nodded slowly to the wolf. “Aye, sir,” he acknowledged before getting up from his seat.

“What am I supposed to do with a ship and no crew?” Rezo spat after he’d gone.

“That’s not really my concern. You’ve had your own ship and crew before. You already know how to hire people.”

The short captain glared at the wolf for a long moment. “All of my profits went to buy the Hidalgo Sun from you,” he said in a quieter voice. “I don’t have the startup capital in reserve to hire another crew and set up as a new business.”

“Also not my concern,” Merlin said coldly. “I take challenges very seriously, Mr. Kegawa, but I gave you ample opportunities to straighten up your act. You’ve apologized and made empty promises to do better, but your open challenges to my authority have come to an end.” His eyes softened for only a moment. “I don’t regret giving you and your people the chance to contribute to my company, and the profits from our association have been worthwhile, but — you aren’t irreplaceable. Another captain who can follow orders will be happy to have the job.”

“You already knew I couldn’t afford to hire another crew,” Rezo grumbled. “My only alternative would be the sell the ship, putting me out of the business altogether. I suppose your next move is to offer to buy her from me; you’re doing this just so you can get your hands on my ship!”

Merlin looked surprised. “Actually, that had never occurred to me.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.”

The wolf arched an eyebrow at him. “If all I wanted was your freighter, I could buy another one myself. With the economy still trying to recover from the Siilv War, there are plenty of ships to be had at a good price. By taking these people with me, I’ll have to do just that, since they’re contracted to crew a ship for me and I still have a delivery schedule for them to maintain. I don’t need the Hidalgo Sun herself. She’s all yours to do with as you will, Captain.”

He turned his back on the panda and took a step toward the door. Rezo looked in panic at him. Without the first officer in the room, his demeanor crumbled and he rushed forward to face the wolf. “Don’t do this to me,” he pleaded. “I lost my ship once, and I don’t want to do it again. Please, give me another chance! Don’t fire me!”

Merlin sighed inwardly. “Mr. Kegawa,” he said in a quieter voice, “I have warned you against insubordination many times. Despite constant reprimands, you have continued to rebel against me when you don’t get your way, even though you have openly admitted that your life has been better off since you joined the company. As someone in authority over others, you should be well aware of the dangerous position you placed yourself in every time you defied my orders, especially when you have flatly refused in front of others. Since you joined us, I have allowed you to run this ship in the manner you wished, but there have been numerous complaints against you by members of your crew.

“I am well aware of the way you treat your people, but that’s not the issue here. The issue is with my patience, which has finally run out. You have given me promises to adjust your attitude, but you have constantly proven otherwise. Morale under your command is dangerously low, and that isn’t healthy.  The chances you want have run out. Your latest temper tantrum on my decision to transfer Mr. Littlefeather to the Blue Horizon was made without regard to the repercussions. Instead of trying to talk me out of it in a civil manner, you chose to contest me by openly refusing. You have apparently never enjoyed working for me, so as of now, your association with my company is at an end. I have cancelled your contract, so you are now free to do as you wish without my interference.”

Kegawa sat down heavily in the chair behind the desk and closed his eyes. He was silent for several moments before he buried his face in his hands and spoke without looking up.

“You win,” he muttered in resignation. “I want nothing more to do with you, Sinclair. If you want it, I’ll sell the Hidalgo Sun to you and then I’ll clear out.” He paused for a moment, and then added, “I think I’m tired of freighting anyway. Perhaps I’ll use the money to buy a boat and take up fishing with the Crescentis fleets.”

Merlin took a seat opposite that of the red panda and sat back with a sigh. “I am sorry, Rezo,” he said in a soft voice. “I think that you were your own boss for so long that you were unable to accept my authority over you. I didn’t want to do this, but I can’t allow you to challenge my decisions anymore.”

“Yeah, whatever,” grumbled the panda.

Merlin nodded. “Have it your way. You can sell her to me or you can sell her to someone else. I don’t care which. Name your price.”

Rezo still didn’t look at him. “What I paid you for it.”

The wolf stood up and looked down at the former captain. That was half the cost of one on the market — an older, used one at that; Rezo could have easily demanded more, but Merlin was just as weary of the argument as the red panda was and simply nodded.

“Prepare the Hidalgo Sun’s title to be signed over to me. I will arrange a transfer of the funds directly into your personal account.”  Then, without waiting for another disgruntled reply, he reached across the desk and toggled the intercom control for a ship-wide announcement.

“Attention all hands,” he said, “This is Merlin Sinclair. I need everyone to assemble on the Recreation Deck in thirty minutes. Mr. Jones, please return to the captain’s office immediately.” He closed the circuit and then waited for the orange feline.

Rezo sat back in his chair and then looked up at the wolf darkly. “May I go to my cabin and start packing,” he asked, “or do you intend to embarrass me further in front of the crew at this meeting?”

Annoyed with the whole issue, Merlin just said, “Go.”

Rezo Kegawa got up from his chair, fighting off the urge to give the wolf a rude gesture, and then quickly departed the compartment. He bumped into Jonesy out in the corridor, but didn’t bother to excuse himself as he stormed away.

The orange striped cat entered the office with a frown. “You needed to see me, sir?” he asked.

Merlin sighed, nodded and then gestured toward the chair that Rezo had just vacated. “Have a seat, Mr. Jones. There’s been a change of plan.”

***

Merlin and Jonesy stepped out of the lift together onto the tan-themed Recreation Deck. With the exception of the red panda, the rest of the crew was seated on chairs and couches in front of the forward vidscreen. Jonesy had changed out of his jeans and tee-shirt and was now in a crème colored polo shirt and gray slacks. Since the cat had not had time to carry out Merlin’s previous order to inform the crew of the whole command mess with Rezo, no one had an idea what the assembly was about. All they knew was that the Kokoro had brought the company president out to them on urgent business, so there were several worried faces amongst the crew.

Merlin was aware of what they must be thinking, assuming their jobs were on the line; fortunately for them all, the news was not that dire. Only one of them had lost his job today, and he had elected not to take part in the assembly.

Dr. Carmen Burgess watched him from her seat with rapt attention; the polar bear felt that she’d miss something if she looked away. Beside her on the end of a couch was the raccoon, Jasper Porter, gnawing silently on the end of an unlit cigar. The chief engineer was familiar with Merlin’s tactics and quietly waited for the wolf to spring a nasty surprise upon them all.

Next to him was Roger Paxton, his Palomino mechanic, who was nervously grooming his mane with an old brush. He swallowed and licked his lips several times, but kept his eyes on the floor at his feet. Riki Nori watched him in concern and put a gentle hand on his arm. He jumped, and then gave her an embarrassed smile.

Upon a second couch, Sheila Aval and Tsarina Ahnya sat together, the kangaroo and the jaguar talking animatedly in soft whispers. The bobcat, Danaher sat stiffly upon a chair by himself, slightly removed from the others. He tended to be a loner, but the accountant was good with numbers and had never turned in an error to the home office.

When Merlin and Jonesy walked together to the front of the room, all eyes went to them. There was some confusion when they realized that it was Sean Jones who stood with Merlin, rather than the absent Rezo Kegawa.

Assured he had everyone’s full attention, Merlin put his hands behind his back, unconsciously standing in a military parade rest stance. He had shed his overcoat, as he didn’t wish to intimidate the crew.

“Hello, everyone,” he said in a calm voice. “I won’t take up any more of your time than necessary, but this meeting is an important one. I will ask you not to comment or open up discussion until I have finished.”

Several faces displayed open anxiety. He’d hoped to give some background behind his decision before making the announcement, but there was no time. From the way the scent in the room was growing, he’d have to make this quick before there was a panic.  “As many of you have noticed, Rezo Kegawa is not in attendance. This is because I have relieved him of command of this vessel.”

Stunned expressions gazed back at him, and the scent of fear wavered in the wolf’s nostrils. Several voices started up, but Merlin raised a hand with his palm out toward them.

“Quiet, please!” he commanded. “I am not finished.”

Patch scowled openly toward his former captain and crossed his arms across his chest. Of all those on board, the raccoon had gotten along with the temperamental red panda best of all; he had considered Rezo a friend.

“From the start of Mr. Kegawa’s employment with Blue Horizon Freight Transfer, many of you have contacted me with complaints against your captain. So long as deliveries were made on time and expenses kept within budget, I’ve allowed this vessel to operate under the captain’s discretion. However, at times when personnel complaints were on the rise, I did talk to him as requested. I have since learned that often afterwards, he would threaten retaliation on those who spoke out against him. This in itself was inexcusable, but was unknown to me until this afternoon.”

Several eyes went to Jonesy, but the orange feline kept his face and focus carefully neutral.

“Nevertheless,” Merlin continued, his hands still clasped behind him, “Rezo has constantly challenged my business decisions and commands, usually openly in front of others, and as many of you know, I handle all challenges to my authority with a serious single-mindedness.” He looked around at their faces and saw that the fear had mostly been replaced with curiosity, and everyone was now focused on his words. “Normally I try to work with those who have a problem with me, but despite promises of respect to my authority, Mr. Kegawa never changed his ways; this became a constant issue not just with me personally, but with the company too.”

He unclasped his hands and raised one up to gesture around him. “When I first brought you all into the company, it was done out of a sense of responsibility to pay back a similar favor done for me. I set Mr. Kegawa as captain of my second freighter, and even allowed him to name this vessel. Thanks to scheduling by an efficient home office, the Sun managed to pull in a good profit for the company and I allowed half of those profits to go toward the purchase of the ship for Mr. Kegawa. Last year, the purchase debt was paid off and I transferred the Sun’s title to him, with the option of staying with Blue Horizon Freight Transfer or buying out your contracts and going into business for himself. He chose to stay. I have counted you all as good assets to my company, but despite all this, your numerous complaints against him have been heard, and his insubordination against the chain of command has unraveled all this.”

“Wait a minute!” Patch exclaimed, sitting up straight in his seat, “Rezo owns this ship. How can you remove—?”

Merlin held up a hand. “Quiet!” he commanded. “I’ll take your questions and listen to your discussions after I have finished. However, I will go ahead and answer this one. Mr. Kegawa has offered to sell the Hidalgo Sun back to the company and get out of freighting altogether.”

“Did you strong-arm him to sell?” Patch asked with a growl.

Merlin narrowed his eyes at his former crewmate. “It was his own decision to sell the ship when I informed him that I would be taking the crew back with me to Dennier.” There were many surprised looks at this. “Your employment contracts belong to me, not to this ship. He admitted that he didn’t have the funds to establish another crew and set up a new business on his own, so he offered to sell.”

“So you did strong-arm him!” Patch exclaimed.

Merlin stood his ground. “The idea to sell was his own, and there was no coercion to do so. The only other alternative would have been for him to buy out all of your work contracts, but if he didn’t have funds to hire a new crew, he didn’t have them for that either.”  He crossed his arms and stared down the brazen raccoon. “Now, shut up and let me continue.” The engineer couldn’t meet his direct gaze for more than a moment and had to turn away.

“Mr. Kegawa is now taking his leave from us. He has expressed a possible interest in joining the local fishing fleets, so he is already taking his future in hand.” Merlin looked over at the orange feline beside him and his expression softened. “At my behest, Sean Jones has agreed to serve as your captain to keep the crew and the business in operation. He has requested that he fill this merely as a temporary promotion, so I have allowed him this caveat. If his performance is satisfactory and he wishes the position to be permanent at a later date, he and I will work out the particulars of his contract at that time. Effective immediately, he is now your captain.”

With the possible exception of Jasper’s perpetual scowl, the rest of the crew seemed to be okay with Jonesy as their new commander. He’d been their first officer for years and he seemed to be universally well-liked among them. Merlin had never received a complaint about the feline, and Jonesy was already familiar with the daily routine, so he felt the ship would be in good hands.

Merlin had nothing more to announce, so he gestured to the cat to take over. Jonesy cleared his throat and seemed embarrassed by the attention of so many pairs of eyes focused upon him.

“Well,” he said in hesitation, “I don’t have anything else to add. Any questions?” Tsarina held up a tentative hand.  “Yes?”

“Do we call you ‘sir’ now?”

Jonesy suddenly smiled, the first time since the Kokoro had arrived. “Only if you want to,” he replied. “Don’t expect me to be making a lot of changes. We already work well together, so I’m hoping things can go a little more smoothly now that… uh, now that…”

“…Now that the arrogant little snot is no longer in charge?” Sheila finished for him cheerily. Although unknown to the rest of her crewmates, the kangaroo lass had suffered greatly under the red panda’s acidic tongue and she had lodged the most complaints with the home office. Several of the crew looked at her in surprise, but Jonesy nodded with the return of his frown.

Roger Paxton held up a hand, and the orange tabby pointed at him. “Yes, Pax?”

“As Mr. Sinclair reminded us,” the equine mechanic said, speaking with a southern drawl, “the name of this ship was chosen by Captain Rezo, after his old ship. Now that he’s neither the captain nor the owner of the Hidalgo Sun, will you rename it?”

Jonesy looked surprised and looked over at the wolf. Merlin raised an eyebrow and then placed his hands into the pockets of his slacks. “Things have happened so fast regarding all this,” he said, “that I hadn’t even considered that.”  He looked at Jonesy and then back out over the faces of the crew. “Mr. Paxton has a valid point, but at the moment I don’t have an answer for you. If you all wish to choose a different name for your freighter, I have no objections. Mr. Kegawa is now preparing the title to be signed over to me, and I will submit it to PA Registration when I get back to Dennier.  If you wish to talk it over between yourselves, you will need to let me know what you’ve chosen no later than tomorrow so I can register that along with the title transfer.”

Jonesy looked around. “Are there any other questions?”

No one else raised a hand or said anything more, so the orange feline nodded. “Okay, then. Merlin is going to take me to meet the new cargo master he’s hired to fill Mark’s vacant position before he departs with the Kokoro. The rest of you are free for shore leave, but remember we only get two days this time in order to meet our next delivery and get back into a routine. I’ll introduce everyone to our new crewmate when you come back, and then I’ll announce who I’ve chosen as my first officer. For now, you’re dismissed.”

Jonesy turned toward the gray wolf while everyone else began to disperse amidst new conversations. “Well, that went better than I expected,” he said.  Before he could say anything more, however, Patch approached them.

“Yes, Jasper, what’s on your mind?” Merlin asked of the raccoon. He was reluctant to hear anything the engineer might want to say, but he had long offered an open door policy with those he employed.

“Am I next?” Patch asked with a dark look at the wolf. “Are you going to can me next on insubordination for questioning you?”

Merlin knew he was being baited, but shook his head at the shorter male. “You had a valid question,” he responded diplomatically, “even if you ignored my orders to keep your questions until I was finished. I can’t fault you for asking, but I shall warn you not to challenge my authority. That was the mistake that Mr. Kegawa made, time and again.”

Patch pulled a partially chewed cigar from the shirt pocket of his coveralls. He studied it for a moment and then looked up at the wolf. “What would you say if I requested that you terminate my contract as well?”

Merlin raised an eyebrow. “Why would you request that?” he asked in genuine surprise. “Do you have a problem with serving with Mr. Jones in command?”

“No, I think he’s capable enough. It’s you I have a problem with,” replied the raccoon boldly.

“I see,” Merlin said with a frown. “You’ve always seemed to harbor something against me, even though I gave you and your brother an extraordinary amount of leeway running my engine room.”

Patch looked up at the wolf and was able to hold his gaze, perhaps because Merlin wasn’t glaring at him this time. “You were never the commander you should have been,” the raccoon answered truthfully. “With your prior military training, you should have kept a tighter ship than you did, and I sincerely believe that a lot of the difficulties we ran into were caused by your lax attitude.”

Merlin’s expression darkened. “Despite my background training, the Blue Horizon was not a military freighter, Jasper, and I refused to treat her as one. I gave everyone on my crew the opportunity to serve in a relaxed atmosphere for reasons of morale; I’ve never regretted that decision, though I am sorry if you didn’t appreciate what I did for you all.”

Jonesy directed a rare scowl at the raccoon. “I suppose that’s the reason why you were sticking up for Rezo,” he said in annoyance. “He’s been beating down this crew’s morale for far longer than you’ve been with us, Patch. The greater majority of us were sick and tired of his iron fist, and you can bet your cigar that I’m not going to follow his lead!  I was bothered that his actions had resulted in getting himself fired, but not anymore. He pulled that down upon himself. Is that what you want for yourself?”

Jasper’s eyes widened. He’d never seen the orange tabby so animated before, and he unconsciously took a step backward in surprise. Momentarily flustered, the raccoon didn’t have a reply. Merlin looked down at the engineer.

“If you feel that I have been too lax with you, Jasper, I’m about to grant you your dream,” he said with a hardened gaze. “Your request for the termination of your contract has been denied. You still have a little over a year on your contract to fulfill before you have the option to seek employment elsewhere. Until that time, I expect you to give Jonesy your best in military efficiency as his chief engineer. Is that understood, mister?”

To the surprise of both the wolf and the cat, Jasper gave them a lopsided smile. “Aye, sir. You can count on that.” He gave his captain a crisp salute and held his pose until Jonesy smirked and returned the action.

“Unless you have anything further,” said the feline, “you’re dismissed.”

Patch nodded and stuck the chewed end of the cigar between his lips. “I’ve said my piece,” he said. “Despite how everyone seems to claim that Rezo treated them, he’s always been fair to me. I don’t intend to shut him out for the reminder of our stay here. He is my friend.”

Merlin relaxed and said to the raccoon, “I am glad to hear that, Jasper.  Everyone needs a friend, especially when life is not going well.”

The raccoon nodded and then excused himself. The three of them had been the only ones left on the recreation deck, and soon it was just Merlin and Jonesy.

***

The Kokoro departed an hour and a half later. From the window of a nearby hotel, Rezo watched the scarlet cruiser’s running lights shrink into the distant darkness of space. The vessel’s Hyld system still had the greater part of a day to recharge before it could be of use on the return journey to Dennier, but it could make headway using its LightDrive engines. The Hidalgo Sun would launch in a couple of days to resume its delivery schedule without him.

The red panda uttered a mouthful of curses directed at the lupine passenger of that Silloni ship, and then he took a drink of amber liquid from a square glass of crystal he held in both hands. When he turned from the window, he moved to the computer desk and called up his personal account. He was now several hundred thousand credits richer than he had been a few hours ago. He had signed over the title of the freighter to Sinclair and he was now just a local tenant of the hotel.

With the credits in his account, Rezo planned to play tourist on Crescentis for a few days before looking for a job with one of the ships in the fleet. He’d considered buying his own boat, but he had to admit to himself that he lacked the necessary skills to start his own fishing business right away. He would seek out a local boat in need of deck hands and learn the ropes before trying to run one of his own. He knew it would be hard work, but if it meant that he would never have to take another space flight, it would be worth it.

***

Merlin Sinclair relaxed upon his bunk in the small cabin that had been assigned to him on the Kokoro. He hadn’t needed it for more than a few minutes on the flight out, but now that he had hours to wait out the Hyld recharge, he had taken advantage of the time to rest and reflect upon the situation.

After the Blue Horizon had departed Dennier on its return trip to visit the lapin community on Se’rei, Merlin knew that it was time to confront Rezo Kegawa while he had certain resources available to him. With the birth of Samantha’s cubs and the prototype Kirin freighter delivered as the new Blue Horizon, Master Tristen would soon be returning to Sillon. Merlin had begged the use of the Kokoro for one final voyage so he could put an end to Rezo’s insubordination once and for all, face to face. With this trip alone, he was already convinced how such quick transportation would be greatly coveted by every world in the Planetary Alignment.

He had already transmitted the freighter’s title to the Dennier branch of the PA Registration office in Grandstorm, but the name of the ship would remain Hidalgo Sun, as voted upon by her crew. None of them could agree upon a new name, so in the end they had chosen to remain with what they were used to, despite its origin. He agreed it would make things easier with the company paperwork.

Later, when the ship-wide intercom beeped for attention and then the captain’s voice announced the jump time was imminent, Merlin roused himself to prepare himself for the gut-wrenching that was associated with a Hyld jump. Once through on the other end, he would soon see his family again. That alone would make the discomfort worth the trip.

HIGHLAND FERAL

by Ted R. Blasingame

Seated directly below the large curving glassteel window occupying the forward wall of the Blue Horizon’s new bridge, Renny and Jerry were at the astrogation and helm stations respectively. The cheetah was engaged in navigational calculations for their mission, while the red fox monitored the interstellar traffic orbiting the moon of Dennier below as he guided the new freighter past it on a course set for deep space.

Although there were no overhead lights in the small compartment, the instrumentation covering most of the walls and low ceiling provided ample illumination from backlit dials and control touch pads. Behind the two forward pilot stations were four smaller consoles and seats arranged in a semicircle. Seated at the communication station, Taro tapped out commands on the terminal in front of her as she listened and spoke through a small wire headset.

The preceding three hours had consisted of a test flight around the local planetary body, preparing its crew for the first mission of their new Silloni-made vessel. All systems seemed to be working as designed and each member of the flight team on the bridge and in the engine room were satisfied with the handling of the controls.

Taro sat back in her seat and rubbed her eyes, but her respite didn’t last.  A chirp from her board heralded an intercom call, but it took her a moment to find the right control to answer it. The Silloni engineers that designed this new vessel had not adopted the standard layout that most of the Planetary Alignment used, so she was still learning where things were located on her console.

“This is the captain,” she said at last into the small boom microphone that rested in front of her lips.

“…and this is your illustrious chief engineer,” drawled the responding voice. “The checklists are checked and the lights are lit – all green. We’ve performed all designated tests prior to first flight and things are running satisfactory. Suzuko concurs that we may begin as soon as you are ready.”

“Thank you,” the Hestran red fox replied. “Course to destination is still in calculation. Stand by.”

“We’re standing.”

Renny looked up from his board. “Astrogation is ready,” he announced at the same time he transferred figures to Jerry’s terminal.  “These coordinates will take us to a relatively empty area I’ve selected north of the ecliptic, estimated time of arrival in forty-five minutes. We don’t want to make our Hyld jump within interstellar traffic, so we will engage the system at that point. I’ll have the coordinates to Se’rei ready for you by the time we get there.”

“Aye to that,” Jerry responded automatically, programming in the data he had been given.  They still had to cross commercial shipping lanes to reach their jump point, so the next three quarters of an hour would require a close eye on the surrounding traffic. It had been tricky filing a flight plan that did not include the route to Se’rei, but with luck their instant flight out there and back would circumvent any close monitoring.

Once they began to rise above the current plane of the ecliptic, the traffic should thin out and then they could depart without running over anyone — in spite of Suzuko’s assurances that the Hyld jump would take the ship outside of normal space and that they wouldn’t be running over anybody. Nevertheless, Taro didn’t want to take any unnecessary chances.

“Helm is ready,” Jerry announced a moment later.

“Good, let’s get going,” Taro told him.  She looked over her board and then tapped the control for ship-wide intercom with the tip of a claw.

“All hands, all hands,” she broadcast throughout the ship, “Initial company testing of the Blue Horizon has been completed and we are now on our way to our jump point; ETA is approximately forty-five minutes.  This is it, boys and girls — we’re on our way.  If all goes according to plan with the Hyld jump, we should be near the Se’rei system in about an hour.”

Renny looked back and gave her a thumbs-up sign.  The vixen closed the intercom and then looked at her flight team at the stations in front of her.  “Well, guys,” she said with a smile, “I’ve enjoyed our time with Merlin and Samantha, but I’m ready to get back to work. This may be a new ship, but we’re all familiar with the business. Hopefully our stop will be short and sweet so we can be on our way.”

“You know things are never that simple for us,” Renny said over his shoulder with a smirk, “but perhaps we’ll get lucky this time.”

***

“All hands, all hands, prepare for Hyld jump,” Taro announced throughout the ship. “Get into your harnesses. We’ve already covered this in our staff meeting, but as a reminder to those who have never experienced a Hyld jump before, the sensation will make you feel a little ill but only for just a moment. At the jump, hold your breath, close your eyes and tense up. This will help mask the effects to get you through it; I’m told this will become routine as you get used to it with several jumps, but the first time can be a shock, so prepare yourselves.”

The vixen closed the intercom and waited. Jerry reached out to his console with one hand, held down three spring-resistant buttons simultaneously until a diode went from amber to green, and then with his other hand, he flipped a single toggle before releasing them. He looked over his shoulder at Taro and gave her a silent nod, holding his finger ready above a green switch.

Taro reopened the intercom. “Engineering, prepare for Hyld activation,” she announced.

“Engine room is ready,” replied Pockets’ voice over the open circuit. “Safety monitor is green.”

“We are go for Hyld jump in Five… Four… Three… Two… One!”

Jerry quickly closed his eyes, tensed up, held his breath and then stabbed the green switch.

Outside the freighter, a ring of blue-white flame encompassed the entire vessel for a brief instant, and then the ship and the ring vanished from visible space.

Although he’d been through this before, Jerry felt as if his stomach was about to heave violently, but then it was gone just as quickly. He opened his eyes feeling disoriented, and looked around panting; Taro and Renny both still had their eyes clenched, each with pained expressions on their faces. He glanced at the system clock on his console and confirmed that only a moment had passed.

When he looked back over at Renny, the tip of the cheetah’s tongue was sticking out between his lips. “Are you okay?” the fox asked in a raspy voice.

Renny pulled his tongue back in and swallowed. “Yeah,” the feline replied after a moment. “I am now.”

“I don’t care what anybody says,” Taro gasped behind them, “I can’t see how I’ll ever get used to that feeling.”  The queasiness may have already gone, but the memory was still fresh.  The vixen looked up at the forward windows and saw only distant stars. “Did we make it?” she asked.

Renny checked his terminal and nodded almost immediately. “Right on target,” he told his companions. “As with our first visit, we’re above the galactic plane, but this time the planet is right below us to the starboard.”

“How did you get so precise?” Jerry asked in amazement. “When we were here before, we weren’t on the planet long enough for you to learn its orbital speed. How did you know it wouldn’t be on the other side of its sun by now?”

Renny grinned at him. “I didn’t. The first time we were here, we were still a day’s travel away from where we emerged from the jump. For this trip, I used the stellar coordinates I’d calculated last time using the sextant, so we’ve arrived at virtually the same area we did before. As you’ve noted, I had no way of knowing where the planet would be in its orbit around the sun, and I certainly didn’t know we’d come out almost on top of the one we wanted. Thankfully, the navigation system on this ship was sensitive enough that we braked right when we were supposed to.”

Jerry shook his head in wonder, looking back at his captain. “Maybe this is a good sign that the rest of this visit will be as lucky.” Taro shrugged, but was delighted with the outcome of their first Hyld jump in the new Silloni freighter. Renny looked insufferably pleased with himself.

The male fox turned in his seat and went to work with the controls to reorient the ship while Taro opened the intercom.

“Attention please – our brief, gut-wrenching journey was a success,” she said with a smile on her muzzle. “We have arrived. Renny put us almost on top of Se’rei and we’ll be assuming planetary orbit shortly. We will be scanning for the landing beacon, and once we’ve established ground-based coordinates, we’ll be descending into the atmosphere. For the moment, it would be best if you remained in your seat harnesses until we have landed.”

She closed the circuit and then turned to the communications console to begin her scan of the planet’s frequencies below. Despite the captain’s edict to remain seated, Renny would be free of duty for a few moments, so he unbuckled his harness and moved to the engineering station.

He tapped in a command and the small screen built into the console panel played back a recording of the jump from one of the forward mounted cameras. The star field was normal with the sound of the captain’s voice counting down, but at the moment of the Hyld jump, the forward view was simply replaced by a new pattern of stars from one second to the next. There was no flash, no blackout or streaks of stars.

“Hmm,” he muttered. “That was unimpressive.”

“Jumping instantly across numerous light years in just a moment wasn’t impressive?” Taro asked, keeping her focus on her monitors.

“Visually,” the cheetah responded. “I expected more special effects from our point of view.”

Taro chuckled. “You’ve been watching too many movies, Ren-Ren.”

The navigator snorted, moving back to the chair he’d previously occupied. He didn’t sit down, however, but leaned over his console, gazing out through the forward windows.

The nearby star was known only as TES.84497 on Planetary Alignment stellar charts, and although a published study had never been done by PA astronomers of this particular distant star, the Blue Horizon had been there once before right after they’d begun taking on passengers through a Space Available program. An initial scan of the solar system on their previous visit had recorded five orbiting planets; one was a methane gas giant, two were small dwarf planets, and the other two were respectably similar in size to those typically populated within the Planetary Alignment, only one of which was within the habitable Goldilocks Zone.  The world known as Se’rei by its inhabitants was the fourth from its sun; it had a breathable atmosphere with acceptable pressure and solar protection and had an abundance of life.

***

Pip… pip… pip… pip… pip…

“I’ve got the landing beacon,” Taro announced. “It’s weak, but we’re picking it up. All other local com channels are clear.” The console before her let out a small chirp. “Okay, we’ve got the coordinates and it looks like it’s in the right place — wooded area with large nearby fields, some highlands close by and snow-capped mountains farther out. The scanners don’t detect any structures, though – metal, wooden or otherwise.”

“I think Lori mentioned that the lapin community built their homes into the sides of hills,” Jerry remarked. “The scanners wouldn’t pick up underground warrens.”

“Probably true,” Taro replied, transferring the landing coordinates to the helm station. “The beacon is all we have to go on, so we’ll try to put down in the same wheat-like field as before.”

Renny studied the coordinates from his console. “We can make standard orbit in twelve minutes from our current location, but then we’ll need at least three revolutions for optimum insertion into the atmosphere.”

“Aye-yi,” Jerry acknowledged.

“Actually,” Taro interjected, “can we put the ship on automatic pilot once we get into standard orbit?”

“Sure,” Renny answered, “the autopilot can handle the necessary three orbits. What did you have in mind?”

“I want to meet with everyone assembled in the Rec Room before we land.”

“In that case, you can let everyone out of their harnesses now,” the cheetah replied. “Jerry and I will be there as soon as we establish our orbit and get everything locked down.”

“Thanks, guys,” Taro said.  She turned back to the intercom to make the announcement.

***

Taro stood with her hands behind her, in front of the large vidscreen that dominated one wall. Her feet were bare, toes dug into the soft, dark earth-tone carpet and her thick brush of a tail swayed gently from side to side behind her. The bulk of her crew had already gathered on the two long curving sofas in front of her and all seemed engaged in animated conversations about the world displayed on that screen. It wasn’t often they got to see a virginal untouched world. The vulpine captain allowed her mind to wander as they all awaited the bridge crew.  It only took a few more minutes before the red fox tod and his feline companion entered the room. The couches were full, so they took up positions behind them and stood there relaxed.

Not knowing what to do with her hands while she spoke, Taro put them behind her back again and then looked over at each face before she began.

“I know that this will be the first visit to Se’rei for some of you,” she said, “so let me reiterate a few of the facts with a little conjecture.  A little research while we were at Merlin’s place has dug up a name that may correspond to this place. One of the earliest colonies of Earth was established upon a far, distant world that took them over a year to reach using the FTL engines of the time. While there are no surviving records naming the planet or even the star they went to, we have learned that the name of one such colony was called Surrey in English, due to the large number of four wheeled covered carriages pulled by horses they’d taken along for transportation. Sometime over the long years following the Great Abandonment, the colonists may have forgotten their homeworld and reverted to a simpler life without technology; perhaps the tech they had stopped working over time and they didn’t have the skills to repair them.

“It’s possible that Se’rei is an approximation of the Surrey name that’s been a little twisted over the past three hundred years, but we have no concrete proof it’s the same group. There’s no other records specifying what Fur species made up the colony, but it may have been anthrolapins as we’ve discovered. Due to the extreme distance, it would be no wonder that contact was never reestablished. Even at today’s top LightDrive speeds, a one-way trip here would take approximately six months, about twice the distance from Dennier to Sillon. That’s not too bad where interstellar distances are concerned, but it was hardly close enough for a trade route.

“Standard is apparently no longer spoken by the inhabitants, but there is one individual among them who still remembers the common language of the Planetary Alignment. Known as K’lssi to the inhabitants, Calissa Thalia was a former lapin crew member of the Lady of Dreams who stayed behind after Captain Khasho’s ship stumbled across the planet during their initial testing of her now-infamous Particle Vault system – a system along similar lines of what the Silloni have developed as the Hyper-LightDrive engine that we are now testing for them in real-world use.

“Although we are cargo-movers, the purpose of this first voyage has nothing to do with shipping freight, even though we are not flying empty.  The crates within our hold contain hand tools, clothing, seeds and other oddments that a simple village like the one we’re visiting could use.  Our primary purpose for returning to Se’rei is to encourage Ms. Thalia to provide a little engineering information about Natasha’s Vault system that can also be applied to the Hyld in order to increase the safety factors in Hyld jumps.

“Now, I must warn you that the locals are all rabbits and are unfamiliar with the mixed species of the Planetary Alignment. I want to keep contact with our crew strictly limited to the non-predator types so we don’t frighten them. Although several of us have met Ms. Thalia in person, this is only because she came to us aboard our ship. Lori is the only one among us who has actually been to the lapin village. Because of this, she will be our liaison with the locals, and through her, we hope to get the information we need.

“If all goes well, we should have what we came for and can be on our way to our first real job in two or three days. For optimum landing, we’ll need to make three full orbits before we can descend and we are already within the first.” She looked at a dainty timepiece on her wrist. “This means we’ll have about four hours before we begin our landing sequence, so for now you’re free to make yourselves at home and move around the ship. Lori has volunteered to prepare a light meal before we land so we won’t have to worry about our bellies once we get down there.  I’ll make an announcement about ten minutes prior to our drop from orbit, and then a countdown to the drop itself. That’s all I have.”

***

The sleek form of the Blue Horizon slipped through light, wispy cirrus clouds over the continent of its target destination as it descended. Though still far below, the ground terrain seemed to rush by while Renny maneuvered the unfamiliar ship into a series of turns across the sky to throw off excess speed gained from atmospheric entry. Unspoiled country stretched out as far as the eye could see in every direction, dotted by natural lakes, forests, valleys, open plains and a snow-capped mountain range that was reduced to mere highlands at its southern tip. The constant pip-pip-pip of the landing beacon directed the ship’s course to a land of trees and gently rolling hills near the highlands.

“There’s the wheat field,” Jerry announced to his companions on the bridge.

“I see it,” Taro confirmed. “Let’s set down roughly in the same area where we came down before. It’s been months since we were here, but I think I can still see the shape of the old Blue Horizon where we crushed the wheat stalks. It’s grown back in, but the new growth hasn’t matched the old.”

“That’s a prime example of an alien crop circle,” Renny remarked.

“True, but splashing water on us will only get our fur wet,” Jerry responded in reference to an old movie they had watched while at Merlin and Samantha’s place. “Besides, we weren’t here to harvest the locals for food either.”

“Three minutes until full shutdown,” Renny reported. “Let’s just hope we don’t frighten everybody with our return – after all, we aren’t even in the same ship they saw us leave in, so they might think we’re someone else.”

“We’ll send Lori out to their village first with a letter I’ve written explaining to Calissa why we’ve returned,” Taro said. “I don’t want the lot of us out tromping through their woods without letting them know we’re here and only want their help. We’ve too many predator types on board that would scare them needlessly.”

“Coming over the field now,” Renny informed them. “Slowing to hover, activating landing thrusters.” The forward windows only showed the clouds and the peaks of the nearby mountains, but smaller vidscreens tied to recessed cameras along the bottom of the craft showed the landing spot and the caterpillar treads as they locked into place. Within a moment, clouds of dust and chaff filled the air around the vessel.

***

Wearing a bright orange tee-shirt and a pair of tan shorts, Lorelei stepped out through the wheat field just as she’d done once before. She crossed over halfway between the ship and trees and stopped to listen, looking up at the blue, partly cloudy afternoon sky. She closed her eyes for a moment and then squatted down amongst the wheat stalks, listening for any sign that her lapin friends were nearby.

She waited for several long minutes, but she heard nothing but birdsong, the clicks of insects and soft pings as the metal of the ship cooled. There were no giggles of small bunnies and no one reached out to take her by the arm. It seemed she was quite alone this time. Even the air was still and there were no new scents in the air.

The white rabbit slowly stood up and looked back at the Blue Horizon. How strange it was to see this new vessel design and think of it as her ship. The name and color might be the same, but it looked nothing like the old freighter she had called home. She felt a small surge of nostalgia, but then remembered why she was here. The airlock had closed behind her, but she was sure that someone on board was keeping tabs on her.

There was no sense of danger, just the feeling of being alone. She couldn’t expect her friend N’iik to visit the field with the village children he watched over every day, so she wasn’t really surprised that they were not there now; she had merely hoped that he was.

She smiled to herself at the thought of the broad-shouldered white male rabbit who had invited her to stay and be his mate despite only knowing her a few hours, even though he had been unable to understand anything she’d told him besides her name. While she had been intrigued and even a little tempted by the invitation, she knew her place was with her crew aboard the Blue Horizon. Even if the offer was repeated on this visit, she would be unable to consider it due to the fresh new contract she had just signed with the company.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to indulge in the fantasy of a simpler life in a village of nothing but other rabbits for a few hours. She was hopeful to spend some time with N’iik, but she found she was looking forward to her time with K’lssi even more. The older lapin female known as Calissa Thalia in a previous life had been a relatable delight during her earlier visit. Both she and her mate N’maa had been the best of hosts in their home and their children took to Lori as if she was a beloved aunt.

When she reached the cover of shade, she looked around until she recognized a particular old gnarled tree with broad leaves that were green on one side and yellow on the other, remembering it as the start of the path that would take her to the village. She glanced back at the ship, waved to whoever might be watching, and then boldly walked into the forest.

***

“It’s been an hour since she left,” Mark Littlefeather mused, looking out across the field with binoculars. The forward cargo bay door was open to the fresh air and the human sat comfortably in a lawn chair at the edge of the opening. It was his first time to Se’rei, but no one besides Lorelei had been allowed off the ship, so he was sitting as close to outside as he could get. His cargo bay still smelled of its newness, and while there was nothing wrong with that, the man preferred the fresh fragrances of the countryside.

It didn’t matter that the world and its plant life was all alien to what he was familiar with on other planets, but the similarities were comfortable. No matter where they went, grass was grass, trees were trees and birds were birds, even if Mother Nature’s designs were different from place to place. Although his nose may not be as sensitive as those of his furman associates, he still preferred the outdoor scents to the recycled air of a space ship. With the cargo door open, he was hoping that some of the aromas would take up residence inside.

Had Taro known of this, she might have ordered him to close the door at once, for although Jerry and Amanda had tested the soil and atmosphere samples on their previous visit, it was still a new world with an ecosystem of its own. There was no way of knowing what airborne agents might be on the local air that was now inside the vessel.

The captain, however, was on the bridge engaged in tachyon burst communication with the home office, giving a full report on the new vessel’s performance thus far, unaware of her cargo master’s actions. It was unlikely that anyone else would report the faux pas, as several of them had just gathered at the lower level to do much the same.

Pockets sat down upon the edge of the ramp that extended from the ship down to the field. The raccoon adjusted his tail behind him and then looked down at a small green and yellow bird that alighted near his feet. The avian creature looked back at him for a moment, a high topknot of feathers on its head quivering with its movement and then flew off across the field.

“How far is it to the village?” Suzuko asked. “It might take her a while to find the place again and then find the right rabbit to talk to.”

“I wish we could have gone with her,” Max remarked. “We’re going to be really busy soon and a quiet walk through the woods would be nice.”

“Better enjoy the unpolluted countryside now any way you can,” Justy recommended, taking a seat on the floor at the German shepherd’s feet.

“We’ve just had extended downtime due to Merlin and Samantha’s pups, but I like this fresh air,” Pockets agreed. “There are scents I don’t recognize, but they’re all nice.”

The door between the cargo bay and the forward corridor opened, but no one bothered to look back until they heard hurried steps across the cargo bay floor. “Hey boss,” Mark said when the vixen stopped beside his lawn chair.

The gamut of emotions playing across her face was a mixture of annoyance, fear and impatience.

“Has anyone seen Renny?” she asked in a hurried breath.

“I think he was going to see Jerry,” Max replied. “He said something about inoculations.”

“Is there something we can help you with, Captain?” Suzuko asked.

Taro shook her head, but then changed her mind. “Yes, get everyone down here at once,” she replied. “Make sure you all have your walking shoes on and everyone has a DataCom.”

“What’s going on?” Mark asked, getting up from his chair.

“Renny’s got the codes to the armory lock-up and I need everyone armed before we head out to the rabbit village.” She turned back toward the corridor and then said over her shoulder to the human, “Get this bay door shut by the time I get back down here. I want the ship locked down tight when we go.”

“Armed and under lockdown?” Max repeated, suddenly exchanging looks with his human crewmate. “Why are we going to the rabbits? I thought we were going to stay away.”

“I just got a panicked call from Lori,” Taro explained. “She’s frantic, saying that everyone in the village is dead and there’s fresh blood all over the place.”

***

Amanda walked along a forest path beside Jerry, completely ill at ease holding a Binfurr stun gun in her hands, its barrel pointed carefully at the ground beside her. Others in the crew were armed with standard firearms, but she had never felt comfortable with a regular gun and had tried to refuse to carry one. The captain was adamant about everyone being protected against a potential threat, so the shy coyote had agreed to only to carry a stunner. She was unsure that she would be able to use even that if the situation turned ugly, but Taro’s orders were immutable; they had no idea what they might be up against. She wasn’t alone, however; at his own request, Max also carried a stunner.

Mark led the way, although none of them had ever been to the lapin village. The human had grown up in central North America on Earth and had spent much of his youth tracking animals to learn the skill. If pressured to confess, he might have pleaded guilty to hunting for food and sport, but surrounded by a crew of sentient and anthropomorphic animal types, Mark had wisely kept this part of his personal history to himself. Later in life, he had used these same skills in a small war between countries, and it was due to this knowledge that Taro had asked him to track Lorelei’s recent passage through the forest. He might not have the sensitive olfactory senses of his companions, but his other skills more than made up for it.

The seven who followed him moved quietly, whispering only when necessary. All were nervous; Lori’s frantic message had given no real details other than finding bloody bodies throughout the village and that she had found no one alive. She was frightened and fearful that whatever had decimated the local population might still be in the area. She had not wanted to wait for her crewmates to come for her, but was afraid to go back into the forest alone. Taro had instructed her to find a deep warren tunnel or a tall tree to hide in, and that they would find their way there as quickly as they could.

Although there was a sense of urgency in their steps, Mark took care in studying their surroundings. Whereas others might have missed the signs, a few thin, freshly broken branches in the underbrush here and a small tuft of white rabbit fur on a bush there showed the human where Lori had likely passed. The forest floor was covered in leaves and pine-like needles which didn’t retain footprints very well, but in places where the debris had been scuffed or shuffled aside to bare the rich soil beneath, he found a familiar shoe print. Although Lorelei had often shopped throughout the Planetary Alignment for shoes to fit her large rabbit feet, he suspected that the local lapin inhabitants would not be as well-shod.

Mark led his entourage up a slight hill and then discovered a well-used path across a rocky area that had been worn virtually smooth in places from ages of travel. Over the crest of the hill, the underbrush thinned out and the tree trunks were farther apart. The tracker saw signs of recent passage that he doubted were caused by his white-furred crewmate and knew they were heading in the right direction.

Taro was impatient to get to the village, but it was taking all of her own attention to keep those behind her from rushing forward. With emotions high and the uncertainty of what they would find, she was afraid of itchy trigger fingers on the weapons they carried.

She had just shushed a discussion between Justy and Max from getting too loud when Mark tapped her on the wrist. Startled, the vixen jerked her hand up away from him, but then sighed heavily when she realized that he simply wanted her attention.

He leveled an arm and pointed through the trees to the edge of a clearing at an old, rusted pipe of a hand-cranked water pump. Its design was crude but proved that the lapin residents possessed some mechanical and metalworking knowledge. Water dripped from the faucet into a wooden trough, but there was no one else in the vicinity.

“Okay, we’re nearing the village,” Taro said in a voice barely above a whisper to those behind her. “We don’t know what happened or what we’re facing yet, so I want everyone to stay alert. Be careful with your firearms; I don’t want any of you to shoot one another by accident – or any survivors we may find – but keep an eye out for potential danger. I don’t want to draw any undue attention to ourselves, so stay quiet unless you need to sound an alarm.”

She glanced over at Renny and nodded quietly. The cheetah stepped up beside Mark and gave him a few quiet instructions. The pair of them held their handguns ready and walked forward together. Jerry began to follow, but Taro stretched out her arm to stop him.

“Let them go first,” she whispered. “No need to have us all grouped together out in the open where an enemy could take us out all at once.”

Once Mark and Renny reached the edge of the clearing, the human squatted down beside the wooden trough. There was only a thin layer of water on the bottom, but nothing else to indicate how long ago it had been used. Renny grabbed the handle and gave the pump a few heaves. The metal squeaked a little, but water rushed out of the faucet into the trough.

Mark let the cold well water run over his fingers beneath the faucet and then lifted them to his nose. It smelled no different than regular spring water, so he put a damp finger to his tongue; the water droplet had a metallic taste to it, but otherwise seemed fine. He didn’t suspect the water supply as the cause of deaths, especially with Lori’s report of fresh blood, but he didn’t want to discount anything.

He stood up, nodded quietly to his companion, and then the two of them continued on. Taro patted Jerry’s arm, giving silent permission to move forward. She waved everyone on in pairs, and then followed up behind everyone to watch their backs. She’d tried to reach Lori on her DataCom, but there had been no reply. She was either somewhere trying to remain hidden and quiet – or she had suffered the same fate as those in the village; it was not a thought she wanted to entertain, but she had to be realistic.

Although Mark’s human nose was not as sensitive as his crewmates, even he could smell the blood before they reached the village proper. He didn’t smell rotting meat from the lapin bodies lying out in the sun throughout the clearing, so he suspected the carnage was recent, possibly within mere hours.

Jerry knelt next to the first body he came upon, an older rabbit female with brown and white fur, frowning at the damage to her throat and belly. The bloody flesh was ragged and the vulpine physician suspected that it had been rent by powerful teeth. Other wounds upon the body appeared to be caused by large, sharp claws due to deep gouges that penetrated deep into the body cavity. The internal organs were missing, having been torn out by the rabbit’s assailant and partially eaten on the spot.

Max stood behind him, one hand over his mouth and the other holding his pistol flat up against his stomach in an attempt to keep his last meal down. Tearing his eyes away from the woman, the young mechanic looked out across the clearing of the lapin village. The area was covered in a lush green grass, though travel paths had been worn down to the dirt. Rabbit bodies were scattered about and he swallowed involuntarily. What had happened here?

The clearing was ringed by a rise of low hills dotted with openings that he assumed were doorways into the warrens, the humble homes of the inhabitants. Split curtains hung from carved wooden sticks fitted tightly into the openings, providing a simple door cover.

Mark approached one such door and gently pulled aside one of the draperies of a rough-weave cloth. He peered into the darkness beyond, but hesitated at the entrance. Renny stepped up beside him and the two of them exchanged a quiet nod before he pushed in through the pale green curtains.

He took two steps inside and then stopped to let his eyes adjust to the gloom within. The place was a disaster. He didn’t know what a Se’rei lapin warren home was supposed to look like, but he seriously doubted it typically looked anything like this. The room he entered looked as if a mad bull had rampaged through it all. The floor was littered with the broken debris of anything that might have once been in larger pieces, there were shreds of cloth hanging from various spots on the walls and there were grisly splotches on the fabric of woven pillows and blankets throughout the stuff on the floor. Amidst the iron smell of blood was the hint of incense.

Mark stepped in behind him and held open the curtain for some light. He gasped and swallowed hard when the cheetah knelt down and reached for a tan-furred hand that stuck out from beneath floor detritus near a rustic fireplace. Renny brushed aside three wooden bangles to feel for a pulse. Without looking at his companion, he shook his head sadly and then pushed away some of the debris to get a look at the body – only there wasn’t one. The hand and arm up to the elbow was all that remained of the rabbit who had once lived in this place. He gently set the grisly limb onto a pillow and then sighed inwardly, wondering if there were more body parts under the debris covering the floor.

Renny’s ears suddenly twitched and he stood up quickly, nearly knocking Mark over as he held his handgun pointed back into the recesses of a dark passage leading away from the main room.

“What is it?” Mark whispered.

“Movement,” Renny replied quietly, gesturing with the gun. “Back there.”

The human looked around and spied a small wooden bowl of fat with a burned wick, instantly recognizing it as a handmade candle. He fished a small lighter from the pocket of his shirt and then picked up the candle bowl to light it; he was not a smoker, but the cargo master always carried one with him for situations such as this one.

Renny’s eyes narrowed in the sudden light, but he caught the glimpse of red eye-shine from the back tunnel before it blinked and disappeared.

“Did you see that?” Mark whispered. Renny nodded, but didn’t otherwise reply. He held his gun ready in front of him and advanced slowly, taking careful steps around the things on the ground. Mark took a tentative step to the side with his firearm raised to cover him.

“Hello?” Renny called out in what he hoped was a friendly voice, even though he knew the locals didn’t speak Standard. “We’re here to help you.”

There was a rustle of movement, a whimpered sob, and then a white figure rushed out and jumped for him. Renny pulled his gun up just in time to keep from shooting the lapin female and Mark was almost a heartbeat behind of firing his own.

“Renny!” Lorelei cried out, wrapping her arms tightly around the cheetah. She clung to him and started bawling onto his shoulder.

Mark wiped the sweat from his brow and grinned nervously while Renny tried to console the trembling rabbit. After several long moments, Lori looked up at him with tear streaks soaking the fur of her cheeks.

“Are you okay?” Renny asked quietly. “Are you hurt?”

Lori nodded to the first question and then shook her head to the second, but her throat was still too tight to answer verbally.

“Did you find Calissa?” Mark asked from behind them, glad to see his shipmate was okay.

With a trembling hand, Lori pointed toward the fireplace hearth. Lying on the pillow where Renny had set it was the tan-furred arm and hand with the wooden bangles. The cheetah wrapped his arm around his shipmate and held her close. Lori did her best not to cry again, but tears still leaked onto her cheek fur.

“Nobody’s alive!” she gasped at last, voice cracking. “I was so afraid!”

“You found no one?” Mark asked quietly. “What about your friend Nick?”

She bowed her head. “No one.”

“You checked all the homes?” Renny asked.

Lori started to nod, but then shook her head. “Only a few,” she admitted. “When I f-found Calissa… I fainted. Then… then I thought I saw something outside s-stalking me from the s-shadows, so I… I hid.”

“What it the same thing that killed everyone else?” Renny asked.

“I don’t know, but it was big. I heard it panting, but didn’t get a l-look at it. Didn’t w-want to.”

“We should check the other homes,” Mark suggested.

Renny took Lori by the hand and led her around the debris to the doorway. Before going through, however, he checked his firearm and held it ready. He pushed the curtains apart and then stepped out into the sun. The rabbit continued clinging to one arm and Mark flanked her other side, his eyes alert for trouble.

The only movement they saw across the village was from the other Blue Horizon personnel combing the area. Each doorway was being checked, and Taro was picking up the remains of the dead left behind and setting them gently beside one another beneath a large tree near the center of the clearing. Her normally tidy clothing was stained by the blood of the victims and the expression on her face had hardened against the deeds that had taken their lives.

There were no complete bodies. All had been partially eaten, their internal organs gone, and the local variety of flies and gnats had already begun to gather around them. The incident with the Walkabout still haunting his memories, Max had elected to dig graves for the dead instead of helping search for survivors. He tried not to focus upon the remains, but concentrated solely upon his physical task.

Taro looked up when the trio approached her. The captain knelt beside the body of a female about her own age with a frozen expression of terror upon her face. Something had taken her down with a ripping bite to the throat, but then it had fed on her as it had on everyone else.

Mark knelt down to look at a track print the size of his hand in the dust of a trail when the vixen looked up at Lori. Seeing her distress, Taro stood up and took the rabbit’s hands in her own.

“Are you all right?” she asked quietly.

Lori swallowed with difficulty, but managed to nod. She parted her lips to say something, but a high-pitched shriek filled the air. Fearful that one of her crew had just been attacked by the same thing that had slaughtered the villagers, Taro took off running toward the source of the scream, followed closely by her first officer.

Others of her crew had already gathered outside a set of powder blue curtains separating them from the interior, but it seemed no one really wanted to go in.

“Who screamed?” Renny demanded, preparing to jump inside.

“Mandy went in this one to look for survivors,” Pockets answered, “but I don’t think that was her.”

Renny moved forward, but Taro stopped him with a touch. She took his place at the curtains, though she didn’t enter.

“Mandy?” she called out. “Are you okay in there?” There was a moment of eerie silence and Taro was about to repeat herself when the coyote’s demure voice called out.

“I’m okay,” Amanda said from the interior, “but I think I scared someone in the back.”

“Come on out,” Taro instructed. “These people have never seen sentients besides other rabbits, so you might have been seen as another predator.”

There was a shuffle inside and then the coyote poked her nose through the curtain, her stunner gun clutched to her chest. Amanda saw Lori and then rushed forward to embrace her crewmate.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she told her. “I was afraid something had gotten you too!”

“I’m okay,” Lorelei assured her. “I’m just frightened out of my wits.”

“Me too!”

Taro put a hand on the rabbit’s shoulder. “Lori, I need you to go inside and see if you can coax whoever’s in there to come out with you. I know you don’t know their language, but perhaps because you’re another rabbit that this one will be more comforted by your presence. You may have to try hard to convince him or her that we aren’t another threat, but we’ll back away from the door to give you room to come out.”

Lorelei nodded and wiped her eyes again. She hadn’t met everyone in the village during her previous visit, but she hoped it might be someone who recognized her. Whoever it was, she was thankful there was someone who had survived the decimation of the lapin people.

“Hello?” she called out softly, moving toward the back of the abode. She reached for a shelf on the wall that was surprisingly untouched and picked up a small candle bowl. There was a striker of some kind with it, but it only took a moment to figure out how it worked. She snapped two bits of hinged metal together and a small flame came out of one end. Not devoting any time to figure out how it performed its task, she used it to light the candle and then put the striker back on the shelf.  Instead of using one of the bright flashlight torches from the ship, the doe figured whoever it was back there might be a little more comforted by one of the local candles instead.

“Hello?” she repeated in a soft voice. “Please come out. We won’t hurt you.” As she moved farther back into the narrow corridor, she could hear a whimper and someone shuffling. A moment later, there were two points of eye-shine reflecting back at her. From the muffled sound and limited movement of air, it was apparent this was the end of this particular passageway; the refugee couldn’t back up any farther.

Lorelei knelt down slowly and set the candle on the floor beside her. Then she opened her arms wide and then nodded to the individual she faced.  It only took a moment before the person rushed forward into her arms and began crying.  It was a young girl, an adolescent dressed in only her honey-gold fur, and she clung desperately to the older rabbit.

Lorelei held her tight with one arm and then gently rubbed the young girl’s back while cooing in a soothing voice. After a few quiet moments, she heard Taro’s voice call out.

“Lori? Are you okay?”

“We’re okay,” she replied in a soft voice as so not to startle the female. “I’ve found a teenage girl and I’m trying to calm her down a little; she just needs some arms around her at the moment. I’ll try to bring her out.”

“Okay.”

At Lorelei’s words, the young girl looked up at her in the candlelight. She reached up and lightly touched Lori’s lips, clearly puzzled by her foreign words.

Remembering her earlier visit, Lorelei put the back of one hand up against her forehead and introduced herself. “L’ree.”

The girl swallowed and put a shaking hand up to her own forehead. “Nay’ha.”

“Nay’ha,” Lorelei repeated with a nod. She took both of her hands and began to stand up with her. Nay’ha stopped her long enough to pick up the candle bowl and then held it up to peer behind the white doe. Seeing no one else, she stood up and then walked hand-in-hand with Lorelei back out to the front room, her eyes searching everywhere and her nose twitching constantly. She didn’t understand some of the scents she picked up, but there was no one else in sight.

Lorelei saw something on the floor and bent to pick it up. She handed it to the girl, who swiftly donned a long shirt-like garment that hung to her knees without question.

They moved together to the front curtain, but then Lori stopped. She didn’t know if it would be wise to lead her out where her people still lay where they’d died. Then, there were a few more shouts of alarm. Lorelei gestured to Nay’ha to wait and then she left through the curtain.

She’d expected the same crowd outside this dwelling as she’d gone in, but instead they’d all scattered across the village, apparently shooed away by their captain. However, there were now several running toward another curtained doorway, but this time the situation was different.

A white-furred male rabbit with broad shoulders and thick arms was standing just outside one of the homes, brandishing a two-pronged spear tipped with what looked like deer antler points. He wore nothing but a loose pair of dusty brown shorts and a simple pendant made from a polished amber stone upon his chest. There were the stains of blood smeared over places of his exposed fur, but it was unknown whether any of it was his own.

His face was a mixture of fear and anger, and his blue-gray eyes kept darting from one person to another as he held the spear before him. Jerry and Taro were backing away from the buck with the weapons in their hands raised and pointing toward the sky; Renny had one hand extended to the male, attempting to talk to him in a calming voice.

Lorelei had been trotting across the village clearing toward them, but when she recognized the male, she ran to him as fast as she could.

“N’iik!” she called, rushing past Renny.

The buck looked up in surprise and then moved the spear aside just before she jumped into his arms. The matched pair of all-white rabbits clutched one another in a fierce embrace, and once again, Lorelei began sobbing.

Taro led her people away to look into other homes, but then the three of them stopped and held still. The adolescent female that Lorelei had left behind had followed the white rabbit timidly across the clearing. Fear in her eyes of the other alien species roaming around her village was almost petrifying, but she didn’t want to be left alone. Somehow, she made it past predators that were not attacking so she could join N’iik and L’ree. When she touched the buck’s arm, he looked up at her with relief that she still lived spread across his face. He pulled her and Lori together in a group hug, speaking lowly.

After several long moments, N’iik put his arm around Nay’ha’s shoulders and then pointed straight at Renny with another few words to her. N’iik gestured to the cheetah for him to come closer, but Renny was hesitant. Without a word, Lorelei copied the motion and then the navigator came forward slowly. The girl shrank back when the cheetah grew closer, but N’iik kept her right beside him.

Renny stopped a few steps away and then the white buck said to the girl, “R’nee.”

Nay’ha swallowed with difficulty. She looked at N’iik, then she looked at L’ree. Both nodded with confident smiles. She looked back at the feline, and with some hesitation, raised the back of her hand to her forehead.

“N… Nay’ha…” she said in a trembling voice.

The cheetah mimicked the action. “R’nee,” he said. He smiled without showing his teeth and extended his hand toward her, palm up. She looked at his semi-retractable claws with fear, but then N’iik took her hand gently and placed it palm down upon the navigator’s hand. Renny held her hand gently and without pressure.

N’iik hadn’t recognized the cheetah at first, but with Lorelei’s appearance, he remembered him now. Their first meeting had unnerved him, but through Calissa’s patient explanation, he came to know that the strange spotted cat and the others were somehow a part of L’ree’s extended “family”. The cougar that had accompanied them last time, however, had resembled the great feral cats of the highlands too much and N’iik had then left the newcomers alone, visiting only with L’ree until she’d left after only a few days. He didn’t know why they’d all returned, but the timing couldn’t have been any more wrong.

Renny gripped Nay’ha’s hand very gently and then dipped his head before releasing her. He wanted her to know that she was in no danger from him. When she drew her hand back to her bosom, she looked at him in wonder, but then averted her eyes timidly.

N’iik looked over at Lorelei and stared into her bright blue eyes. “Glad see you again,” he said in a fair approximation of Standard. “Why here now?”

Everyone looked back at him in surprise. The last time they’d met, he couldn’t understand a word of Standard.

Lorelei recovered first and placed a hand on his chest over his heart. “I am glad to see you again too,” she said. “We came back to see K’lssi, but we’re too late.”

“Too late?” the buck repeated. “She here somewhere.”

Lorelei shook her head. “We found her… arm,” she whispered, moisture returning to her eyes. “Nothing more.” N’iik looked stricken and Nay’ha asked him quietly. He responded and then she clung to him to cry again.

“N’iik,” Taro said in a quiet voice, “how is it you can understand us now?”

He looked over at the vixen, but seemed unwilling to speak to her. Remembering her manners, she put the back of her hand up to her forehead and said, “Taro”.

“Ter-ro,” the white-furred male repeated. “K’lssi teach words after L’ree did leave. Not many good, but understand some.”

“What happened here?” Renny asked. “We just found it like this.”

N’iik swallowed with difficulty. “Poor hunting high lands, great cats come down here to eat today,” he explained. “Many died, some hide, some gone other villages.” He saw that Lorelei’s other friends were taking the remains of the dead and laying them quietly beneath the large tree in the central clearing. He noted the reverent respect they gave them, even though they were of different species, including that the predators among them were not feasting upon the kills. K’lssi had told him of faraway lands where peoples of all kinds worked together as friends. It had seemed like little bunny tales to him at the time, but now he saw that she’d given him the truth.

There was a sound from within the home behind him and N’iik’s ears twitched. He looked at Lorelei. “Is safe now?”

“We believe so,” she answered. “We’ve not seen any of the great cats since we got here.”

The buck looked relieved and relayed the message to Nay’ha. “Waits,” he said to Lorelei and the others. He ducked back into the home through the split curtain and Nay’ha suddenly felt exposed. Despite N’iik’s assurances that these strangers were safe, she stood close beside Lorelei. Lori put an arm around the girl automatically.

Renny spoke to Jerry and Taro in quiet words for a moment and then he and the doctor left to continue their search for other survivors. Taro kept a watch around the village, but the only movements she saw were by her own people and by a gathering of large birds with scarlet feathers in the trees, no doubt scavengers that had been drawn in by the smell of blood on the breeze.

When N’iik emerged again moments later, a crowd of small bunnies trailed after him, all looking frightened and unwilling to leave the vicinity of his legs. Lorelei remembered that he had been a teacher of small children and figured that they must have been in his company when the feral cats attacked. There had been an even dozen of them before, but now there were nine. She knelt down beside them and several immediately gravitated toward her arms.

Taro watched the display silently for a moment, but then Pockets called out for her from across the clearing. She excused herself and left Lorelei with the survivors. She approached the frowning raccoon. He brushed a hand across his face and looked hesitant.

“What’s up?” Taro asked.

“I heard Renny telling others that Calissa was killed in the attack.”

Taro nodded with an audible sigh. “A piece of her was found that was identifiable,” she admitted quietly. “We were too late. Maybe we could have stopped this slaughter if we’d been here sooner, maybe not.”

“That means the knowledge of her vault monitor’s been lost.”

“The knowledge… and her life,” she reminded him.

“What do we do now? Are we going to go back?”

The vixen looked around. “We’ll help them bury their dead before we go. That’s the decent thing to do.”

“What about the cargo we brought for them?”

She thought about it for a moment. Merlin had purchased the seeds, clothing, hand tools and other things they thought the rabbits of Se’rei might find useful, primarily as a bargaining chip to use with Calissa for her knowledge, but there would be no purpose in returning them either. It was doubtful that Merlin could sell them back to the vendors he’d bought them from.

“I’ll explain to Nick what we have and I’ll offer to let them have them. Maybe they can still use them after all this.”

“Do you think Lori’s friend will understand? We can’t speak one another’s language.”

Taro shook her head. “We just found out Calissa taught him some Standard after our last visit. I think he knows enough that he’ll understand, but we may just have to unload it in the field. None of them may want to come near the ship to get it, so they can pick through it later.”

She looked around the small village and her gaze came to rest upon Justy kneeling in the lush grass beside one of the bodies he’d just placed beside the others. It was too small.

Without speaking, she began walking toward the koala, a growing unease within her; Pockets followed quietly. When they stopped beside Justy, he looked up at the vixen with sorrowful eyes. Beside him was the half-eaten body of a toddler. The expression frozen upon the small face made Taro’s insides twist and she clutched at her belly, looking away.

“Such indiscriminate death,” Justy whispered. “Young and old alike. Even the babies.”

Taro looked back at the child and something snapped within her. A growl issued low in her throat and her two crewmates looked at her in surprise. She clenched her fists and the expression upon her face grew darker by the moment.

“Inexcusable,” she muttered. “Unforgivable.”

“Really sad,” Justy remarked.

“Destroy them,” she hissed with sudden ferocity.

“Huh?” Pockets asked. “Taro, whu—?”

“We are going to hunt down the feral cats and kill every last one of them!” she said through clenched teeth.

“Taro…” Justy said in a quiet voice. “This is the natural course of things, a potential danger to anyone in a setting like this.”

Her eyes shifted to look at him, but then went right back to the child’s body. “Yes, and my natural reaction is to kill them all so that it doesn’t happen again!” she exclaimed. She stood upright and then pulled the DC from her belt clip. She tapped its transmitter to go out to all the units carried by her crew and then lifted it up to her mouth.

“I want all Blue Horizon personnel to gather to me in the clearing. Right now.” She clicked it off and then motioned Pockets and Justy to follow her away from the bodies lined up in a row. It took about ten minutes for everyone to congregate together, but Taro refused to say anything until the last of them were present. Unwilling to be left alone, even N’iik, Nay’ha and the bunny children came out to see what was going on, though the rabbits still kept some distance from the other predator types. Lorelei remained with them to help keep the youngsters all together.

“Folks, listen up,” Taro said in a voice loud enough to carry to everyone. “We cannot do anything for those who lost their lives this morning beyond giving them a respectful burial. However, what we can do is prevent it from happening again, at least in this region.”

“What do you mean?” Renny asked. He was usually aware of anything she might announce to the crew ahead of time, but he was just as in the dark about her words as the rest of them.

“I want Jerry, Mark, Max and Renny to join me on a hunt,” she said with both hands upon her hips. “We will load up with all the guns and ammo we can carry. I want to the rest of you to continue the work here, but stay armed in case the murderers come back.”

“What’s going on?” Suzuko asked. She didn’t know Taro as well as the others and hadn’t followed her line of thought.

“Those of us on the hunt are going to track down and kill the feral cats that decimated this village,” Taro replied with an edge to her voice. “As long as a rabbit community exists here, they will be in danger from the cats anytime their food source in the highlands is scarce.”

“That’s going to be awfully dangerous,” Pockets remarked.

N’iik handed a small bunny in his arms over to Nay’ha and then stepped forward. “No need,” he said in halting Standard.

“Why not?” Taro asked incredulously.

“Cats always come,” he said. “You kill some maybe, not all. Many, many.”

From her experience, Taro knew that rabbits as a species across the PA were usually passive and N’iik wasn’t acting any different. She swept a hand across the clearing with a snarl. “Doesn’t it bother you that your friends and family died today?”

N’iik nodded with a frown. “Yes, too many,” he said. “Sorrow.”

“If we kill the cats, they won’t be able to harm you here again!”

The buck shook his head. “Lost too many to stay,” he said. “We go.”

“I can’t believe you’re just going to let them drive you away from your homes!”

“Taro,” Justy spoke up from the front of the group. “Look how small the number of survivors are. There are only eleven left of a whole community and most are very young children.”

“That’s not enough to rebuild a village,” Suzuko added.

“Truth,” N’iik said, following the discussion well enough to understand. “We leave, go other warrens to, uh… north and east. Two walk days.”

Taro gritted her teeth. “Then you’re letting the cats win,” she grumbled.

N’iik shrugged his shoulders. “If not here, cats starve on own.”

The vixen wiped a palm across her face, trying hard to quell the anger within her. “Don’t you even want revenge against the murder they’ve done to your people?”

“Revenge?” N’iik seemed genuinely puzzled. Taro didn’t know if he was unfamiliar with the concept or if he just didn’t know the word in Standard. Before she could ask, however, he shook his head, making his long ears wave above him. “No mur-der. Is nature, cats feed on others. Was our turn.”

Taro clenched her fists so hard that her claws pricked the palms of her hands. She looked around at her people and the miniscule amount of survivors beside them. She saw many different expressions. There were some that mirrored her own disgust, but others looked as if they agreed with the rabbit. It was their lives and their kin that had been destroyed, but as Taro looked around at the village itself, noting the bodies, the smell of fresh blood and the scavenger birds gathering in the trees, she could feel the anger rebuilding within her.

She looked at N’iik, Nay’ha and the bunnies, with Lorelei standing among them as a kindred species. After a long moment, a dark resolve crossed her face.

“So be it,” she said unkindly. “You’re so few that all you think you can do is run and hide in another warren, but the feral cats might also follow to get the rest of you!” N’iik looked stricken, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him.

“Go ahead and run away, leaving the cats triumphant in their slaughter,” Taro continued. “You have a responsibility to protect the children left parentless and you can best do that in another warren, but I don’t intend to let the cats have the rest of you.”

She turned back to her crew. “Renny, Mark, Jerry and Max – we are going to hunt down and destroy every feral cat we can find so there’s no chance they’ll ever go after these when they leave.”

“All of them?” Max asked with wide eyes. “Everywhere on the whole planet?”

“That would be impossible,” Jerry said.

“Just the ones in the highlands,” Taro clarified. “The ones responsible for today!”

“Captain,” Amanda said meekly, “Is that really necessary? What if we just accompany Nick and his kids to the new village, making sure they get there safely?”

“Because the cats might follow the food source!” Taro shot back. “With our backs to this place, we might not see them coming – and they may even try to take us down with them!”

“But—”

“No!” Taro exclaimed hotly. “The longer we wait, the cats could be gathering for a return meal. The five of us will track down and slaughter them before they have a chance to return. The rest of you get back to work. If you finish before we return, get everyone back inside the ship for protection, including the rabbits. It’ll be safer there.”

Lorelei raised her hand, but Taro brushed her off. “We’re going back to the Horizon to get what we need. We don’t have a lot of the day left, so I want to finish this before dark.”

Without waiting for more distractions, the vixen stormed off across the clearing in the direction of the ship, expecting her orders to be carried out. Renny and Jerry had a quiet conversation before they began moving, and continued it in low voices. Max followed behind meekly, looking back at the others left behind. Mark remained in his spot for a moment, watching after his captain in concern, and the rest began discussions of their own.

Lorelei put the two bunnies she’d had in her lap in the grass beside Nay’ha and then moved to stand in front of N’iik. They faced one another in silence for a moment and she could tell he wasn’t pleased with her captain’s plans. She stepped closer and put a hand upon his chest fur beside his amber pendant, looking up into his eyes.

N’iik studied her and then put his arms around her shoulders, drawing her chin up beneath his. She rubbed her forehead against him for a moment and they both sighed.

She pulled back and swallowed with difficulty, her thoughts anything but still. Without a word, she nodded almost to herself, picked up the pendant from his chest and then drew it over his head. N’iik looked at her in shock, but then dipped his head so she could get it past his ears. With no further hesitation, she put the woven string of the amulet over her head and let the polished stone rest upon her bosom in the middle of her bright orange tee-shirt.

When she looked up at him, she moved only her eyes, almost afraid to see his reaction in the symbolism of her action.

***

“Taro, wait!”

The vixen turned to look at the white doe running after her, but she didn’t stop. She and the four males of her party were halfway back to the Blue Horizon. Taro frowned at Lorelei, certain the rabbit was going to try to talk her out of the hunt.

“What is it, Lori?” she asked guardedly.

Lorelei drew up beside her and matched her pace walking along the trail out to the wheat field. “May I talk to you for a moment, please?” she asked.

Taro shook her head. “If you’re going to talk me out of—”

“No, this is something else. Something important.”

“If you can talk while we walk, go ahead.”

“Thank you.” Lorelei put her hands together down in front of her and considered her next words. The guys were several steps behind them, so she spoke in a low voice.

“Captain…” she started. She stopped, sighed audibly and began again. “Taro… Please don’t be mad at me, but I would like you to… to break my new contract.”

This time, Taro did stop. “Huh? Why?”

The rabbit lowered her chin, unable to meet the vixen’s eyes. “I… I want to stay here,” she admitted. “As you said, the orphan bunnies need N’iik to care for them and keep them safe. That’s not a task he can do alone, so I would like to stay and help him.”

Renny stepped up beside her. “What about the other girl? I think her name was Nay’ha. Wouldn’t she be there to help him? They’re from the same village, so he might take her as his mate.”

“She’s too young,” Lorelei informed him with a frown. “Even if they made it to the other lapin village okay, she would probably be taken in to be raised by another family. There, she won’t be permitted the responsibilities of raising bunnies until she’s considered an adult.” She gave Renny an embarrassed smirk. “She’s also his cousin, and even for them, a mating is out of the question.”

“Lori, consider what you’re asking,” Taro said, resuming her walk. “This is a primitive culture. You’ll have none of the things you’re used to and life will be a lot harder than you think, including dangers like today’s! This other village may not even accept you since you’re not really one of them. You can’t speak their language and you don’t know their customs.”

“Taro, I can already speak a half dozen languages passably due to all the places my family lived while I was growing up. My father was in the military and we moved around a lot. With N’iik’s help, this will be just another language for me to learn, and he will also help me with the customs. Calissa did the same thing six years ago and she loved her life here.”

“You barely know him,” Jerry reminded her. “What if we leave you behind and then you find you two can’t stand one another after a week or a month? You won’t be able to come back! Without Calissa’s help, we can’t build the safety box for other Hyld ships and we probably won’t even be allowed to use the one she did build for us. No one from the Planetary Alignment will ever be back this way again in your lifetime. He’s fascinated with you now, but how do you know he’d even want you as his mate?”

“Despite what you think of my species, the rabbits here are monogamous and mate for life,” Lorelei told him. “By accepting me as his mate, there is no divorce or separation for as long as we both live.” Renny chuckled. “What’s so funny about that?” she asked in an offended tone.

“Lori, no malice intended,” the cheetah explained, “but you and monogamous have never gone together. I’ve lost count of how many beds you’ve shared since I’ve known you.”

The doe tilted her head. “Have you ever known me to share my bed with another rabbit?”

“Hmm, no – now that I think about it, I can’t recall that you have.”

“That’s because there’s no danger of pregnancy with species other than my own. I’ve been free to play as much and as often as I please, but I’d never be that careless with someone I could produce children with. That’s a lifetime commitment, Renny.”

She turned back to Jerry and then put a hand upon the polished amber stone of the amulet pendant she now wore. “As for N’iik, he has already accepted me as his mate. That’s what this represents. All I have to do is stay.”

Taro had been watching the white doe while she’d been talking. In all the time she’d known Lori, she’d never seen her so serious-minded before. The rabbit had always been happy, carefree and even a little ditzy at times, but that was almost another person now. Lorelei had changed in just the short time they’d been here, no doubt due to the carnage she’d seen in the village.

“Lori…” she said. “I will consider your request, but I won’t give you an answer right away.” The rabbit began to speak, but the captain held up a hand to silence her. “While the guys and I are away, think about what you’ve asked. Don’t make a spur of the moment decision. I want you to realize exactly what it would mean to leave behind your whole life. Think about your family and friends back home, and all that you’ve accomplished. As Jerry said, if we leave you here, it’s permanent.”

Lorelei sighed, but nodded. “I will give your arguments some thought while you’re away,” she said, “but please be careful when you go. I don’t want to lose any of you before it’s just a decision to make.”

The vixen nodded in relief. “Thank you, Lori. We’ll be as careful as we can be, but we will do this thing. I appreciate that you haven’t tried to talk us out of it.”

“Taro, I won’t pretend to believe you’re doing the right thing with this hunt, but I know you think you’re doing what’s best.” The rabbit looked at the ones the captain had chosen to go. “This isn’t your fight, but please come back alive. All of you.”

They’d reached the edge of the wheat field, but Lorelei didn’t follow them to the ship. She watched them for a moment and then turned back to return to the village.

The hunting party pushed through the wheat stalks, but before they reached the airlock of the Horizon, Renny looked over at the vixen who walked beside him.

“Taro,” he said quietly, “I don’t think this is a good idea. We should just get the survivors out of here as quickly as possible.” She turned and gave him a dark look, but he continued before she could interrupt him. “They probably won’t like riding in the Horizon, but if we can coax them on board, we can fly them most of the way to the other village. The cats would never be able to follow us.”

“That’s right,” Jerry added. “We don’t have to go all the way to the other warrens, just drop them off far enough away they can walk in on their own without us frightening more rabbits with our flying ship.”

Taro flipped open the recessed control panel beside the ship’s hatch and angrily punched in the security code without a word. She waited until the panels pulled into the hull and then slid aside. She stormed inside through the open pressurization chamber and into the azure corridor beyond as the overhead light panels turned on automatically.

After they’d all stepped into the ship, she turned on them abruptly. “Stop trying to change my mind!” she said in a huff. “I am your captain and you are contracted to do as I say!”

There were expressions of surprise on all the guys’ faces, but then Jerry stepped forward. “Captain,” he said, stressing the title, “I think you’ve been infected by the same bacteria that got you the last time we were here.”

“Just what are you insinuating, Doctor?” she hissed, balling her fists.

“No insinuations. I’m telling you outright that you have no control over your temper right now and it’s affecting your judgment. You are making decisions you should not be commanding under this condition.”

The vixen stared at him incredulously for a moment, but then she narrowed her eyes at him. “Go back to the village,” she growled. “If you’re going to drag your heels and give me nothing but resistance, you’re only going to get in my way. Go gather bodies with the rest of the pacifists, Doctor!”

Jerry crossed his arms defiantly. “I think I’d better go along,” he retorted boldly. “In your current frame of mind, you may be more of a danger to your hunters than you will be to the cats.”

Taro snorted forcefully and then turned to glare at Renny. “What about you?” she spat. “Are you going to keep being a hindrance too?”

The cheetah swallowed, but said nothing. The vulpine captain gave each of the four males a hard look. “Come with me or go back to the village, all of you. I don’t care anymore. I’ll go hunt down the cats myself if I have to!” Without waiting for further argument, she turned her back on them and headed for the armory.

“She’ll get herself killed if we let her go alone,” Mark whispered. Without waiting for the others to say anything, he went after the vixen. Max didn’t look as if he felt very brave, but he followed the human anyway. Renny and Jerry exchanged looks and then joined the others.

***

An hour later, Taro and her hunting party arrived at the foothills of the highlands, a rise of terrain not high enough to be mountains, but serving as a stepping stone toward the range in the distance. The ascending ground was broken with numerous boulders, outcrops and capstone, festooned with scrubby vegetation that clung to minimal patches of soil. There were plenty of places to hide, so the five of them had to watch everywhere at once as they progressed.

They were equipped with rifles and pistols, each carrying extra clips of ammunition in small day-packs, in addition to stunners and hunting knives. No one knew where the knives had come from or why they’d been included in the ship’s armory, but they’d been stocked along with a few swords as well. This was likely Merlin’s doing, though they’d not brought the cumbersome swords along for this outing.

Mark led the party, checking their surroundings for the spoor of their quarry while Renny scanned the landscape with a thermal sensor. He found many small creatures hiding beneath brush or in the shadows of rocks in the late afternoon sun, but nothing large enough to have caused the decimation of the village.

N’iik had described the feral cats as resembling Rex Concolar, the Space Available passenger on their previous visit, but the local felines had tawny fur in splotches that made the others think of camouflage. That alone would likely make them hard to see in the light and shadows among rocks and brush, but they also had the advantage of knowing the lay of the land while the technological-minded Furs of the Horizon did not.

Taro kept watch around them while Mark had his attention focused upon tracking. It would be so easy for him to miss a living creature stalking him with his head down and absorbed with his task.

Jerry brought up the rear, his own attention sharply tuned to his surroundings, and Max was just up ahead. The youngster had grown up well with the crew of the Blue Horizon, but he was still inexperienced with many of life’s lessons. He carried one of the Binfurr stunners instead of a rifle; that way, if he accidentally shot one of his companions, it would only be a temporary setback. If he used it against one of the feral cats, someone else could dispatch the animal he’d stunned. This was a request he’d made on his own, but no one else had tried to change his mind; they’d all agreed this was the better course of action for their own sakes.

It was while Mark was on one knee examining an older cat print impressed in mud that had dried following a past rain when he saw something peculiar. A small item was out of place in this setting and he picked it up out of curiosity.

“Captain?” he whispered behind him. Taro approached him and then he handed something to her. “What do you make of this?” he asked.

At first, Taro thought he’d handed her a strangely formed stone, but as she examined it further, it took on a familiar shape. The object was obviously iron that was heavily rusted from having been exposed to the elements for ages, but the hills and valleys of threads were still discernible along the length of its two-inch shaft. She turned it over in her hands and looked closely at the six-sided head of the large bolt. Although heavily pitted, she could just make out a surface stamp printed in English. Portland Iron.

She looked up at the human in surprise. “How can this be?” she whispered. Renny abandoned his scanning for a moment to look at what had been found. She handed it to him and his eyes widened as well. In turn, he passed the iron bolt to Max and Jerry. The German shepherd didn’t understand its significance, but the doctor almost whistled at the find, only to catch himself in time.

They’d found numerous tools, pipes and other items made of metal in the lapin village, but they’d thought nothing of it at the time, all of them assuming that the primitive culture had discovered local ores to fashion their own items. This old iron bolt bearing an English stamp was beyond their make, however.

Taro looked at the human. “Anything else?” she asked quietly.

“Just that,” he replied. He looked up at the knoll ahead of them and saw a number of dark shadows in the rocks that could be shallow caves. The sight sent a ripple down his spine. He’d been so focused on subtle signs on the ground or bushes that he hadn’t even seen where he’d been headed.

“Up there, maybe,” he suggested. “Be on the lookout – possible cat den.”

With those words, the mystery of the Terran bolt was instantly forgotten. Jerry pocketed the rusty item and crept forward following the others up the rise. He held his rifle ready and made sure to look around at their sides and behind them too.

The human abandoned his tracking to focus on the hill side. As he suspected, there were hollows in the rock where wind and water had worn away the dirt and stone. It was a series of caves, though none appeared to go far back into the knoll, but most were large enough that the Furs could walk upright into them.

“Careful,” Taro whispered as Renny approached the nearest opening. Max felt a strong sense of curiosity, but at his captain’s instruction, he kept watch around them while the cheetah checked out the cave.

The navigator held his rifle ready before him, fully expecting a cat the size of himself to jump out at him. He knelt down to pick up a few stones from the ground at his feet, never taking his eyes off the dark opening. One at a time, he flipped the rocks into the shadows, his legs ready to propel him away if something came out after him, but there was no reaction.

He moved forward and then stood just inside the shadows of the cave, letting his eyes adjust to the gloom, but his other senses told him the place was empty. There were a multitude of tracks inside in the dirt, however. Renny didn’t need Mark’s expertise to know the cats had used this place to relax out of the sun.

He walked inside just to satisfy his curiosity, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. He examined the floor, the walls and the ceiling, but it was nothing more than a weathered blemish in the hillside.

“It’s empty,” he reported when he walked back out into the sun.  “The others may not be, though.”

Keeping a close watch around them, the hunting party crept around the side of the hill to another opening. This one was larger, but before anyone could go inside, Renny made another discovery.  Carved into the rock wall beside the opening was a shelf about shoulder-high to the cheetah, and upon the ledge was something that looked like a heavy glass bowl. It was cracked, dusty and filled with bits of dirt, grass, leaves and dust, but at the bottom was the remnant of a burned wick.

“Looks like the rabbits might have lived up here at one time,” Jerry observed. “This was probably the equivalent of a porch light for past inhabitants.”

Max looked at the old item with interest. “Maybe there’s more stuff inside,” he said.  He started to walk right into the opening, but Mark put out a hand to stop him.

“Let’s make sure there’s nobody home first,” the human whispered.  Just as Renny had done before, Mark lobbed a few rocks into the dark recesses of the cave. Everyone held their breath subconsciously, but as before there was no response from inside. Even that didn’t necessarily mean it was safe, so Mark stepped inside quietly with his rifle ready.

Taro and the others waited anxiously. The surrounding terrain was quiet but for the natural sounds of birds, insects and the little breeze that blew in off the plains. The human stepped back outside a few moments later.  “It’s empty of cats,” he said with a raised eyebrow, “but the cave itself isn’t empty.”

“More stuff left behind by the rabbits?” Jerry asked.

“Probably, but I’d wager it’s been a long while ago.”

Taro stepped forward, but then stopped to look at the others behind her. “Check the other caves, but be careful,” she said. “We’re here to find the feral cats.”

Jerry, Max and Renny moved off as directed, but Taro joined Mark inside the dark cave. The sky outside provided a medium light so she could walk in without a lamp. When her vision adjusted, she saw that the inside of the cave was furnished, at least partially. There were three old wooden chairs near a far wall, none of which looked substantial enough to hold anyone’s weight anymore. A round-top table occupied a spot in the center of the small room. More carved shelves adorned the natural walls and there were a few oddments upon them, but everything looked ancient. This might have been someone’s home shelter at one time, or perhaps it had been a small meeting place. There was nothing like a bed or bedding, and if there had been any curtains or draperies, they were long gone.

Mark picked up a small tray from one shelf and examined it. It was made of some kind of metal that looked as if it had been stamped with intricate little designs and he wondered if there might have once been a more technological civilization on this world more advanced than the small village they’d visited.

Taro moved around the room with a growing sense of impatience. This was an interesting find, but they were losing time they could be hunting down the feral cats. They could be anywhere, she mused. These highlands went on for miles, so they would need to get back to tracking and leave this place behind.

She had been pacing around the perimeter of the room without really seeing anything of real interest, but her focus was upon her thoughts. She kept seeing the half-eaten remains of a toddler and her throat was tight. She was about to grab Mark and depart the old abode when she tripped on something in the dim light. She almost fell, but caught herself with a hand to the wall. Mark looked up at her muttered remark, but then stood up straight when he saw what she’d bumped into.

There was a small alcove cut into the rock at ground level and there was something protruding from it. Taro slung her rifle over a shoulder and then knelt down to reach for a dusty old blanket covering the object. The aged cloth fell apart beneath her fingers and she coughed at the sudden dust cloud. Revealed beneath the blanket was an old trunk made of wood and bound by thin metal bands; a hinged metal handle occupied the center of the box end.

Mark squatted down beside her and the two of them exchanged glances. Without a word, Taro grasped the handle and pulled the trunk out into the open. For all appearances, it looked to Mark as if it was on old treasure chest, and the spectacle was completed by the addition of a rusty padlock.

“Stranger and stranger,” he murmured. “I wonder if the key is on one of the shelves.”

Taro picked up the padlock and examined it. She didn’t often flaunt the strength of her Hestran-born muscles, but she could feel how pliable the metal felt between her fingers. She tightened her grip and twisted; the lock came apart in her hand. Mark gave her a smirk and shook his head.

“Who needs a key?” he quipped. There was a twinkle in the vixen’s eyes, but then she returned her attention to the trunk. It was only a foot high and thick, and two feet long. She hesitated only a moment and then raised the lid. The hinges were also rusted together, so their fasteners simply pulled loose from the old wood. Taro found herself holding the lid up by itself, so she set it aside on the ground beside her.

They both peered into the box, but the illumination was too dim to see much with their bodies blocking the light from the cave entrance. Mark was about to pull out his lighter, but Taro already had a small flashlight torch in her hand. She clicked it on and both of them suddenly squinted in the brilliance.

Taro chuckled nervously and then looked over into the trunk, Mark’s head right beside hers. Inside were several items of curiosity. The first thing they saw was an old ship’s sextant, it’s shape instantly recognizable; there was one of a similar design to this one inside a padded compartment on the bridge of the Blue Horizon herself. Mark picked it up gently, almost afraid that it would fall apart in his hands too. He hefted its weight and looked over at the vixen.

“Didn’t you say that Natasha Khasho came to this world?” he asked quietly. “Maybe this was from her ship.”

Taro shook her head. “That was only six years ago, according to Calissa, the one we came here to find. This couldn’t have been hers; this has been here much longer than that.”

The human brushed his jet-black bangs from his eyes and then set the sextant on the ground beside him. “Maybe another ship from the Planetary Alignment came here years ago,” he suggested. “Surely the distance involved didn’t appeal to anyone but deep-space explorers.”

“Maybe.”

The next thing Taro picked up from the box was even more out of place than the sextant. It was an electronic device of some kind made of molded plastic and metal, but any labels that might have adorned its surface had long since worn off. There were two plastic-coated wires plugged into a receptacle on one side, but they fell apart as soon as they were lifted out of the box.

“Definitely something from another world,” the human mused. “The people of this planet don’t have the capability to make anything like this.”

“Remember the rusty bolt we found outside?” Taro reminded him. “It had Terran writing on it.”

“Okay, it’s from Earth, then – from a long time ago. Anything else in the box?”

Taro aimed her torch inside and found a number of smaller items all made of cloth, but she assumed they would all fall apart if she tried to pick them up. Beneath them, however, was something shining back in the lamp light. She brushed away the cloth items to a resulting cloud of dust, but picked up the item beneath. It was a glass box several inches long and wide, but it seemed to be fitted together with some kind of rubber seal that appeared to have survived the years. Inside the clear container was a paper-leaf book in surprisingly good condition. Upon its cowhide cover were English words embossed in dull gold letters: Terran Colony Surrey, Planet Aphaea.

Mark’s eyes lit up. “Aphaea!” he exclaimed. “I remember reading something about the discovery of that planet as a habitable world. If memory serves, it was named after a Greek goddess having something to do with agriculture and fertility. That would be an appropriate place to populate with rabbit farmers, wouldn’t you say?”

“I was right…” Taro whispered, almost to herself. “I thought this might be Surrey.”

She looked back inside the trunk, but there was nothing more of interest inside. She held the box of thick glass in her lap, wondering if she should open it here. If it was indeed a leftover relic from a time three hundred years earlier, she was afraid the book might disintegrate as soon as she opened its container.

On the other hand, the book would never be read otherwise. If they were going to keep this world a secret from the rest of the Planetary Alignment, it could never be taken back where it could be opened and preserved in a sterile environment. If it fell apart here, no one would ever read it in the future anyway.

Taro decided to chance opening the container, so she sat down on the dirt cave floor and put the glass box in her lap. She looked at Mark, who nodded quietly, and then she grasped the lip of the top. The glass and its sealer was long stuck together and it took her special brand of strength before the layers finally began to separate. When the top finally came loose of the box, there was a sudden acrid smell that escaped. Even the human’s dull olfactory senses could smell it and he flinched, barely able to contain a sneeze.

“Gas?” he whispered. “A preservative, perhaps?”

Taro didn’t answer. She set the lid aside and then gingerly put a finger upon the book’s cover; it felt like Terran cowhide, but it held up against her touch. She eased her fingers around it and gently picked it up. So far, so good.

When she opened the cover, the yellowed pages within looked old, but didn’t seem to be in danger of disintegrating at her touch. The container had somehow preserved the old book as Mark conjectured. She opened to the first page and found a neat handwriting written in English. Fortunately for her, she’d learned to read that Terran language years ago, although it was the only one from that world she could understand. For the benefit of her companion, she read aloud.

First Day. Our fourteen-month journey to Aphaea came to an end with a rather rough landing due to unstable air over the mountains. Our mechanics will have to see if the thrusters will be capable of launching the ship again, but the engineer thinks the keel of the ship may have been damaged and too structurally unsound to support the weight of the ship in flight. Any such repairs will have to wait until a later time, however. For now, we’re celebrating our arrival and enjoying the relative spring-like weather we have today. We’ve rationed our food the past two months in space, but now that we’re here, I’ve authorized breaking into the stores for a feast.

I’m no scientist myself, but even I’m excited as the ones who are at just how Earth-like this place is. There are differences, to be sure, but as the old adage goes: Grass, trees and birds are grass, trees and birds no matter how nature has shaped them. Of course, we’ll have to analyze everything first before we start eating any of it. There may be no nutritional value to anything we ingest and it could be all poisonous, but at first glance, it could be a veritable Garden of Eden.

There are seventy-two colony Furs that include myself, and we’re all of anthrolapin genetic transformation. If all goes well and we can survive here, we may be the first of many to migrate to this world much like what happened with Kantus twenty years ago. I have more I could say on our first day here, but I need to put away this journal to help out with the feast preparations.

Jonas Kasseris, Surrey Colony Captain

“Sounds like a standard captain’s journal recording the first landing here,” Mark observed. “You might keep it in your library for night reading.” Taro nodded and flipped forward through the pages. She stopped at another entry at random and read a little more.

Although light years away, the conflicts on Earth affect us even here. The last data-burst we received contained distressing news. The anti-Fur organizations across the world are gaining strength and there’s talk of abandoning ALL the starter colonies that have been established, and this – of course - includes ourselves. We’ve been here a little over a year and are fairly self-sufficient for the most part, but we’d all hate to be completely cut off from home.

There’ve been reports of violence in some areas where the Fur laboratories have been burned to the ground and there have even been attacks upon the mission control centers for the colony launches. It’s terrible to think it’s come down to this. The reason Furs like us were created in the first place was to aid in the exploration and colonization of habitable planets to pave the way for new lands for an overcrowded Earth. The program has been successful so far, but pure-human groups don’t see this.

In a way, I’m glad we’re here on a world so far away that the violence can’t reach us from Earth, but the news of what’s going on is damaging enough. If we do get abandoned and cut off from home, I’m sure we’ll survive here well enough. Think of the future.

Jonas Kasseris, Surrey Colony Captain

At the time this journal was written, the events were still happening, but for Mark and Taro it was ancient history. The anti-Fur movements on Earth had indeed peaked with a complete abandonment of all Fur colonies for a period that lasted well over a hundred years. Generations later, however, the altered sons and daughters of Terra were remembered and emissaries were dispatched to reestablish contact with the orphaned worlds. Not all of the diplomats were welcomed with opened arms, the prolific Furs having had a century to nurture resentment over their past treatment.

Since many of the records of the furman colony program had been lost during the worldwide uprising on Earth, and enough time had passed that there was no one still living from that era, there were no surviving documents listing all of the colony worlds that had been established. Some were remembered, but others forgotten altogether; it appeared that Aphaea was one of the latter.

An influential woman named Noiré Mooncrest was at the head of the efforts to reestablish contact with Earth’s children and it was through her endeavors over a fifteen year period that saw the formation of the Planetary Alignment. During the period that had become known as the Great Abandonment, each of the colonies had become fully-fledged worlds with their own governments and societies. There were those that kept some of the customs and traditions from the areas of Earth where they’d originated, but others developed their own cultures, completely turning their backs on their heritage. As a result, there was almost as much variety on each of the PA worlds as there was on Earth.

Unfortunately, something happened here on Aphaea that stunted the cultural growth of the lapin society that had been abandoned here. Other worlds had nearly three hundred years of their own civilizations behind them now, but this place had regressed to a more primitive time. Was it by design or chance?

Perhaps that answer was contained with this journal, but there wasn’t time to read it all now. Taro flipped to the final entry in the book.

Surrey is finished. Jonas is dead, along with most of the colony, and the remaining survivors have taken what food and tools they can haul in their horse-drawn surreys to scatter to the four winds. There aren’t many of us left, and some of these balked at separating, but most have agreed that if we set up other camps instead of everyone staying together, the mountain lions can’t get us all.

Maybe it was a mistake to send rabbits to a world with so many predators. We’ve become the prey animals that our engineered genes came from and there will never be any help from that cursed planet Earth. Sure, we’ve survived well enough here in the highlands for the most part, but we don’t have the defenses necessary to fight off so many cats.

The rabbits of Earth have a long history of being fertile and prolific, but they can’t hold a candle to the mountain lions of this place. They’re everywhere, and now that they’ve discovered how tasty we are, they won’t leave us alone.

I’m with the last group to leave our colony home to find another place far from the highlands in hopes the cats won’t follow so far from their dens. There are other creatures here among the mountains they’ve preyed upon before we came along, so they’ll have to go back to eating them once we’ve gone.

There’s no one left alive with the knowledge to maintain or repair our electronic equipment and we may not even be able to use what mechanical items we have after they break down too. It’s possible we may have to live a simple life for a while. Maybe someone amongst us has the mechanical aptitude to figure out how to repair what we have in time, but for now, all we have left are farmers, ranchers and other common folk.

I am preserving this journal in a gas-filled box in hopes that a future generation may find this record of our beginnings here on Aphaea. Unable to repair it to flight status, our ship was salvaged for useable parts long ago; the land has overtaken what’s left of it and it wouldn’t be much shelter against the cats now anyway.

The Earth has disowned us, our technology has failed and the mountain lions are driving us away from our original colony site. This journal may never be found, but in case there are eyes from the future who can read my scrawling writing, this was our beginning. Please remember us.

Jo Erms, Colony Secretary

Taro closed the cover of the book and looked over at her companion. “Well,” she said, “now we know.”

“Now that we know, what do we do with this information?”

The vixen rubbed a hand over the exterior of the well-preserved book for a moment, but then pulled her pack around to place it inside. “I’ll give it to Merlin once we’ve returned to Dennier,” she said. “There would be far-reaching effects if word of Surrey’s existence got out to the public. Just as Calissa feared when we were here last, I’m sure someone would try to make the journey out here to exploit the planet. For now, you and I should just keep this between us. It’s probably best we leave this world to the rabbits from now on to make their own way.”

Mark looked at her. “After how long they’ve been abandoned, don’t you think the rabbits might be ready to go home?”

Taro shook her head. “If Nick’s people are typical of the Surrey descendants, none of them even remember the Earth after so long. To them, Se’rei is home. They have their own customs and even their own language now. Perhaps it didn’t turn out how the original designers of the program planned, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes.”

With the exception of the journal, she returned the glass box and everything else she’d removed to the trunk and then put the broken lid back on top. Without the book, the trunk held no more value, but she pushed the box back into its alcove anyway.

Mark followed her back to the entrance of the cave, but when Taro stepped outside, she stopped and looked at the sky. The time was crawling into early evening and she didn’t know how long the days might be on this world. “That was certainly educational,” she muttered quietly, “but we need to get moving if we’re going to find the cats before dark.”

“We don’t have to look very far,” Mark whispered.

Two pair of golden yellow eyes peered at them from the shadows of the scrub brush directly across from the cave entrance, but the new arrivals didn’t bother to stay concealed. Both of the mountain cats stepped out into the sunlight, one with its head down, and it was then that Taro and Mark saw just how large these creatures were.

Down on four feet, the male was nearly four feet from the ground to its shoulder and its companion was only slightly smaller. Both had a head eerily reminiscent of the non-sentient mountain lions they were familiar with, and it was with an unnerving feeling that Taro could see the resemblance to the passenger she’d had on her ship months earlier. Their pelts were tawny brown with lighter and darker patches that could only be described as a camouflage pattern. Thick, non-retractable claws and powerful jaws open in excited panting completed the picture of danger.

Without preamble or ceremony, Taro drew the rifle from her shoulder sling, took aim and shot the larger male right between the eyes in one swift motion. As it dropped, the second one flinched in reaction to the loud report, but before she could bolt away, Taro plugged another bullet through her temple.

“Look at the size of that thing!” Renny exclaimed from an elevation somewhere a little higher. Jerry and Max also came running from the caves they’d been investigating. Until now, there had been no sign of the great cats other than shed fur and tracks in the dirt.

“Everybody on your toes and be on the alert,” Taro said, giving the dead animals no further attention. “There will be more coming to investigate, I’m sure. You are to shoot them on sight.” She turned a critical eye to the youngest member of her party and added, “If you shoot any with your stunner, Max, let one of us know so we can dispatch it for real before it can get back up.”

The German shepherd felt stung by her words, but he merely nodded to show obedience to his captain’s command.

“What do we do about those two?” Jerry asked, pointing to the dead cats.

Taro was about to wave them off as unimportant, but then changed her mind. She moved to the larger of the two and then knelt beside it. She pulled a large knife from her boot and then deeply cut its belly open in a wide swath. The ground flowed red at her feet and she backed away several steps.

“We’ll use them as bait,” she said as Max turned his head and the others looked on in horror. “The blood will draw others, so find yourself a safe place to wait and we’ll let them come to us.”

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Jerry muttered, but now that the deed was done, there surely would be others drawn to the scent; he quickly returned to a nearby shallow cave he’d just looked into and put his back to it. He didn’t really want to be cornered there if several of them rushed him, but it was preferable to leaving his tail unguarded.

It didn’t take long before several other mountain lions appeared, their noses to the air and twitching. Renny took aim at one, but hesitated. In that moment, another lion appeared on the hillside above him and the cheetah could feel a ridge raise along his back beneath his shirt.

The lioness saw him and drew her lips back into a snarl as she gathered her feet together. Renny didn’t hesitate this time and swung his rifle up toward her. He managed to squeeze off a shot before she could leap down at him, but it wasn’t a clean kill. The lioness dropped to her belly and began to convulse, kicking up dust and dirt, but Renny had to force himself to shoot again. This time she lay still and didn’t move again.

The Horizon’s navigator was unable to relax, however; others were now coming after him from the surrounding hills. In only a matter of seconds, the hunter had quickly become the hunted, and now the cheetah became focused to protect himself. There was no hesitation this time as he began shooting.

A short distance away, Jerry had his back to the wall with three of the feral mountain cats facing him. His rifle level and steady, he shot one through an eye, but another jumped for him before he could alter his aim. A young male landed right in front of him and slashed out with a massive paw. The fox slid sideways along the wall behind him and just managed to avoid being gutted by those razor sharp claws. He didn’t escape injury, however; part of his shirt was ripped into sudden shreds and several claw tips cut furrows into his side. Luckily for him, the cuts were shallow, but it was enough to incapacitate him.

The cat suddenly collapsed to the ground before it could strike again, however; it had been caught in Max’s invisible stunner beam. Spurred on by Jerry’s injury, the young mechanic rushed toward the other cats surging forward and sprayed his beam across them with gritted teeth. One dropped instantly, but the other charged toward him barely affected. It was larger than the other two and Max had to fire again, this time at point-blank range.

The animal dropped, though not before running headlong onto the German shepherd. The cat’s great weight pinned Max to the ground and he began struggling frantically to get out from beneath it before another of the feral felines discovered him. He also didn’t know how long the stunning effects would last, and he didn’t want to be around if this one woke up with its massive head in his lap.

He managed to wriggle free and then got up onto his feet. He limped on a bruised hip to Jerry and the fox looked up at him in pain.

“You’ve got to kill them,” Jerry gasped, holding his arms across his middle in an attempt to stop the flow of blood. “I can’t do it for you.”

Max swallowed with difficulty, but when the big cat at Jerry’s feet began to stir already, he knew he didn’t have a choice. He picked up the fox’s rifle and stood up. He aimed its barrel at the animal’s head and put his finger on the trigger.

“Do we have to do this?” he asked in a quiet voice.

Jerry looked up at him. “We’re in too deep, Max,” he said.

The lion opened its eyes and started to shake off the effects of the stun to its nervous system. The teenage canine braced for the recoil and pulled the trigger, killing the great cat instantly.

“Good man,” Jerry encouraged him. “Now the others.”

Steeling himself for the job at hand, Max moved to the other sleeping lions and then shot them all quickly before he could think himself out of it. Relatively safe for the moment, he moved back to Jerry to see if he could help with his injuries.

At another place upon the side of the hill, Mark ejected the clip from his rifle, shoved it into a pocket and then grabbed another from his back pack to reload. He’d been systematically shooting every mountain cat he saw, and there were considerably more of them than he’d hoped to see.

He’d sustained a few injuries of his own from felines that had gotten in too close, but all were superficial. He didn’t like killing the animals any more than the others had, but he was no stranger to the task and his frame of mind had moved into an automatic zone where he didn’t have to consciously think about what he was doing.

He didn’t stand still against the hillside waiting for the lions to come to him, but methodically sought them out on his own. He knew from the journal they’d found that these cats were more prolific than rabbits and there were likely to be many more amongst the highlands, though he tried not to think about the odds. Now that battle had been engaged and other cats were drawn to the noise and blood, he would likely run out of ammunition before they’d all been dispatched.

Elsewhere, in spite of the anger and rage within her, there was a part of Taro’s mind that realized for all the kills she and the others had made, there seemed to be no end to the large animals. Most she’d killed with bullets, but one had come at her from above and she’d had fight for her life when it went for her throat. She had claw marks across her back and shoulders from when it had taken her in a fierce offensive hug, but she’d managed to keep its jaws from tearing the life out of her. In the end, it had taken all the reserves of her Hestran strength to break its neck, and this had brought forth suppressed memories of her fight with another murderous feline, the pirate Sagan.

She heard movement behind her and she turned with wild eyes to kill another, but Renny raised his hands swiftly and grabbed the end of her rifle to keep it pointed away from him.

“It’s me!” he said with a gasp. Taro blinked in rapid succession and then exhaled strongly. She was so full of adrenaline that her eyes wouldn’t focus on him. She kept her attention on the hills and brush all around them. For the moment, however, it seemed they had a moment of respite.

“Taro,” Renny said firmly, “we’ve got to get out of here! There are too many!”

“Too many…” she growled. The cheetah shook her briefly and she finally looked at him with clearer eyes. Yes… you’re right, of course,” she acquiesced. “Let’s find the others and get out while we can.”

For the first time since they’d left the lapin village, Renny sighed in relief, but didn’t allow himself to relax; feline reinforcements could arrive at any moment. When they started stepping around the fallen mountain cats, Taro came out of her daze and her attention became sharply focused.

“Are you okay?” Renny asked, looking over the shredded back of her blouse.

“I’ll live. I can’t believe I thought we could get rid of them all,” she admitted to her first officer and best friend as they climbed to higher ground. They were looking for their fellow crewmates, but had to keep alert for more of the feral cats.

They found Max tending to Jerry. The young mechanic had pulled off his own shirt and cut it into strips with his knife to bind around the fox’s middle.

“How bad is it?” Taro asked, kneeling beside them.

“Superficial,” the vulpine doctor replied, “but it hurts just the same.”

“Can you travel? We’re getting out of here.”

“I can travel well enough to do that!” Jerry grumbled.

“What about you?” she asked Max.

“Just bruises,” he reported. “I’m okay, but has anyone seen Mark?”

“I’m here,” the human said, standing on the rise above the shallow cave where Jerry rested on the ground. “Just keeping an eye out for more. We seem to have a moment to catch our breath, but I wouldn’t let down my guard just yet.”

Max and Renny helped Jerry to his feet and Taro looked up at her cargo master. “Are you injured?” she asked.

“Yeah, but I can live with it until we get back to the ship. Lead on and I’ll watch our backs.”

The hunting party began moving around dead cats, rocks and brush down the hill, but they were still on the lookout. The could hear a feline shriek some distance away and they all assumed it was either a cat calling for more of its kind or it was mourning the loss of kin.

On the way back down to the plains with the forest of the rabbits in sight, Mark had to dispatch only two more of the feral mountain lions they encountered. They surmised that they had either managed to kill off all those in the immediate vicinity or the cats had pulled back to regroup in the face of such losses.

Taro felt that they’d been extremely lucky in that their own injuries were survivable. When they reached the flat wheat lands between the highlands and the forest without further battle, Taro felt the need to speak to the others as they walked.

“Guys,” she said quietly, “I’m sorry for this. I was blind with rage over what happened in the village, especially to the children, and I wouldn’t listen to reason. I… was wrong.” No one said anything and Max was the only one who would meet her eyes as she looked them over. Discouraged, the vixen fumbled for more words, but while she was momentarily quiet, Jerry cleared his throat.

“Captain,” he said, keeping his eyes straight ahead across the plains while Max and Renny continued to help keep him upright. “I mentioned this earlier, but I want you to remember our last visit here. You were infected by a local bacteria that affected your judgment and you were unable to stay in control of your anger for a while thereafter.”

“I remember.”

“It seems to have affected you quicker this time around, probably because you’d caught it before, but instead of building up an immunity, you just became more susceptible.” He finally looked over at her, but his expression hadn’t really softened. “I don’t blame you for your convictions because of it,” he said, “but because you’re our captain, we had to follow your orders.”

“Yes, and I am really sorry,” Taro murmured. “I should have listened to the counsel given me, but I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“You seem okay now,” the teen canine observed quietly.

“I think I’m all used up, Max. I had so much anger and rage in a killing rage back there that I probably burned up the bacteria. Now I’m spent.”

“If I ever get to publish a paper about the bacteria,” Jerry said in a moment of levity despite his pain, “I’m going to name it after you, Taro.”

The vixen gave him a wan smile. “That can never happen, and you know it,” she responded, rubbing one of the scratches across her shoulder. “You’d have to reveal where the bacteria came from, and that would lead back here.”

Mark’s gun spat three staccato reports behind them and they all whirled around expecting more teeth and claws coming after them. The human lowered his rifle and looked back at Taro with a frown.

“We were being stalked,” he explained. “Hopefully those were just scouts. We’re losing daylight fast and I don’t guarantee that I’ll be able to see more of them once the sun goes down.”

“I lost my thermal scanner during the fight,” Renny mumbled, “so that’s no help.”

Taro nodded. “Once we get back to the village, I will apologize to everybody and then we’ll all need to abandon the site quickly in case the night brings the rest of the cats out to finish the job they started. We can hold up safely inside the Horizon, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to get the rabbits inside. They don’t understand our technology, and although we’ve proven they are under no threat by any of us, they may not feel safe enough inside the ship with our predators anyway. I’m not sure what to do about them.”

***

The hunting party returned to the decimated village just as the sun set beneath the western horizon. On a slight rise above the village proper, Renny stopped and turned back the way they’d just come. He peered behind them looking for movement, silently wishing for the thermal scanner. He and Mark had traded places helping Jerry on the way back, just as Taro and Max had swapped out.

Internally, he sighed with relief that his night vision found nothing larger than small nocturnal critters after several long minutes of meticulous searching. He finally turned and followed the others down toward a large bonfire that had been built in the center of the clearing. A slight evening breeze was sending the column of smoke toward the east.

Whether or not the hunting party had been successful in their task, N’iik had already determined that he and the survivors would be leaving this place to join another lapin community he knew of to the northeast. He had been there numerous times, familiar with the route and with several individuals living there.

Before abandoning a village, however, it was customary to burn the personal belongings of all the dwellings but one, and in that one would be stored an assortment of items representing the lives of those who had once lived there.

Unfortunately, no other survivors had been found, so N’iik and Nay’ha had already selected the largest abode, emptied it, and then gathered from the other homes what would be placed there. The Blue Horizon crew had then helped them bring out everything else to the central clearing to be burned to ash.

When Taro learned of this tradition, she asked that Calissa’s portable landing beacon be added to the fire, as it was unlikely they would ever have the opportunity to return to this world. It would also be unwise to announce their presence to any other vessels that might happen to come this way, whether from the Planetary Alignment worlds or elsewhere.

The bonfire would serve three purposes. The dead would first be placed in the center, and then the personal possessions stacked over them and piled high, so that the ritual burning of the belongings would also serve as a funeral pyre. The third purpose would help keep away any of the feral cats or other predators that might try to come back during the night.

Max had balked at this at first, as he had already dug several graves to bury the dead, but that was not the lapin way of this place. N’iik had patiently explained to the young canine that this would prevent scavengers from digging up the bodies.

They’d already driven off all the red-feathered scavenger birds that had gathered earlier, and now that night was falling, there may be more drawn to the smell of so much blood; the bodies may be consumed by the fire, but spilled blood still remained throughout the village. Once the deed was done, they would leave the village altogether, spending the night elsewhere before starting their two day journey the next morning.

Taro made a humble speech to the entire gathering, giving only a brief account of the siege against the feral highland cats, and then she offered a public apology for her actions and reactions.

“I have no excuse for what I’ve said and done,” she said to the crowd. “I can claim a sickness due to something here I alone seem to have no immunity against, but I’m still responsible for my actions. All I can do is say I am sorry and that I hope you all can forgive me.” She looked over at her bedraggled hunting party where Amanda and Suzuko were tending to their wounds using Jerry’s med kit. “I’ve caused injury to those who followed me into needless battle, and I could have easily lost any of them to the overwhelming odds we faced this evening.”

She looked down at her hands, her ears back and her tail hanging low. “When we get back to Dennier, I will tender my resignation as captain of the Blue Horizon and let Merlin choose someone else better suited to the responsibility.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Jerry said from the sidelines. Taro looked over at him as other voices began to raise in response to her declaration.

“No, you can’t resign!” Pockets wailed loudly. There were other similar sentiments, but it was the vulpine doctor that Taro’s attention went to. Jerry saw her focus and nodded toward her.

“Captain,” he said in a voice loud enough to be heard over the sudden din, “your judgment may or may not have been impaired by a sickness, but the fact remains that you were doing what you thought was necessary in light of what happened here this morning. There were so many deaths here that almost an entire village was decimated, and after what we five experienced tonight, it’s a wonder that there were any survivors among the rabbits at all. We may not have agreed with your methods, but I think we understand your motivations. That you realize what you’ve done and have apologized for it is good enough for me and I would prefer that you not resign.”

“Yeah, what he said!” Justy exclaimed. Again, there were more voices that backed up what the doctor expressed, and Taro’s eyes grew moist.

“Thank you,” she said when the noise died down. “That doesn’t excuse what I’ve done, but I appreciate your acceptance.” She looked over at N’iik, who hadn’t understood everything she’d said in the Standard language, but he’d relayed what he could to Nay’ha beside him.

The vixen approached him with her hands down and clasped together demurely. “I have done you a great wrong,” she told him quietly. “I hope you can one day forgive me.”

The white buck tilted his head at her words. “Forgived,” he said simply. “Understand you help us, but our way best.”

Taro nodded. “Yes, your way is best. You will find safety with other rabbits. I hope you, Nay’ha and the children will have long and prosperous lives.” She glanced at Lorelei and then back to N’iik. “Since I won’t be here to protect her, I will trust you to keep my L’ree safe at your side.”

The white doe’s eyes went wide. “You… mean you’ll let me stay?” she asked in a trembling voice.

Taro nodded. “For the sake of N’iik and these children, yes, I will honor your request. For the sake of those back home, you and I will need to sign a consent form legally breaking your contract and you’ll need to put together some kind of letter to your family to explain why they’ll never see you again - without revealing too much about this place, of course.”

Lorelei moved forward and enveloped the vixen in a warm embrace. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Taro gasped when the doe’s hands brushed her injuries and it was only then that she realized that she had been ignoring the stinging pain across her back and shoulders to make her public apologies. It all came rushing back to her and she suddenly felt light-headed.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Lorelei gasped when Taro wavered on her feet.

“Maybe I should sit down somewhere,” the captain murmured as she sank to her knees. N’iik and Nay’ha immediately knelt beside her and Lorelei went in search of something to treat the wounds with from Jerry’s med kit.

***

N’iik declined Taro’s offer to take the rabbits to a place near the next village in the ship so that they wouldn’t have to be concerned if the cats tried to follow them. He’d conveyed that the felines would likely be too gorged from eating the villagers and their own dead to come after them across the plains.

He also believed that the two-day travel would give them time to grieve over their losses and prepare to present themselves and the children to their new elders.

However, he did take her up on the offer of letting them spend the night in safety inside the “cavern” within the ship’s hold. N’iik and Nay’ha were fascinated by the giant blue sky-thing that L’ree had arrived in, neither of them understanding how it could happen, but accepting that it must be so. The young bunnies ran around inside the cavernous hold for a while, but eventually the lateness of the night wore them down and they all gathered back together in a sleepy pile near the adults.

Cushions, pillows and blankets had been provided for them to sleep on, but despite the events of the day, it was long into the night before anyone but the little bunnies could sleep. Taro had sent everyone but Lorelei and herself to the upper decks, and while they were alone, she had opened the cargo crates to let the adult rabbits pick through the contents so they could take anything they wanted and anything they thought they could use from the items that Merlin had sent.

There were a few small tools that N’iik thought could be handy, and they took all of the food seeds, but the most valuable objects among the crates were the most practical. Blankets and clothing along with the other oddments they’d chosen would be loaded into backpacks that the rabbits could take with them; heavier items would have to be left behind since they had nothing like cart or wagon to take them in. There were no more surreys, or horses either. Everything they took would have to be carried, and with nine bunny children along for the two-day trek to the closest village, they would need to travel light. The biggest concern would be food and water, and Taro had allowed Lori to take anything she thought they could use from the galley.

As for the rest of the cargo items the rabbits didn’t want or couldn’t carry, Taro was tempted to simply dump them out on the ground outside the ship for other rabbits to discover and go through, but there was no guarantees the stuff would be found anytime soon due to the distance to the nearest village. It seemed like such a waste, but the original purpose for them had also been overcome by events.

Instead, she decided to take them back to Merlin. Most of the items could be used in a garden setting and the wolf had often expressed a desire to grow his own vegetables, so perhaps he could use them himself.

Everyone exhausted from the ordeals of the day, they finally bid one another good night and they all settled down in their beds.

***

The next morning, Mark opened the forward cargo bay door to let in the sunshine and fresh spring air, impressing the rabbits that the whole side of their “cave” could swing outward at his command. The weather for the day looked to be calm and pleasant with only a gentle breeze; it was a perfect day for traveling. A report from the bridge confirmed that thermal scans in all directions found no awaiting mountain cats within range.

Taro and Lorelei had fulfilled the final requirements of her contract the night before, with a brief letter written for her family, so Lori now considered herself a new resident of Se’rei. The captain had not told her of the origins of the rabbits on this world that she and Mark had discovered, deeming it unnecessary to her lapin friend’s existence within her new life.

The rabbits had a long journey ahead of them, and hampered by a herd of children, the voyage would be slower, but the crew of the Blue Horizon was unwilling to let their former crewmate simply leave. With promises to keep it as short as possible, a small going-away party was given for Lori.

As expected, the native rabbits declined to delve deeper into the interior of the ship-cave, but they understood the need to allow L’ree to properly say goodbye to her extended family. N’iik and Nay’ha would be getting the children ready to travel, but neither complained about the burden the journey was apt to be. They all lived, and that was the only thing to remember.

On the deck above them, the recreational area was crowded with the crew all gathered around their former cook. Some of them had served with Lori for years, while others only knew her for a short while. When Justy had lamented the coming loss of her good cooking, Suzuko announced that she was willing to fill in to make sure nobody went hungry, herself an experienced cook in addition to being a great engineer. There were good-natured jokes at the unicorn’s expense on her modesty after that, but it was all taken with grace and humor.

There were hugs and teary farewells, but eventually things began to wind down simply due to the injured weariness of some and the need for the rabbits to begin on their way. Everyone accompanied Lori to the cargo bay, and there she joined her new mate with his cousin and the small bunnies that now depended upon them.

The dozen rabbits stood at the bottom of the cargo ramp and Lorelei grinned back at everyone. She’d taken only her most prized possessions from her quarters on the ship and those consisted merely of a few pretty trinkets she thought she could trade amongst the other rabbits she might encounter. She’d changed into locally-made clothing that Nay’ha had given her from the village before everything else had been burned, and she’d decided to leave behind all her brightly-dyed garments and fancy footwear, though she did keep one pair of simple sandals.

The pack and bedroll upon her back was full, but one small bunny sat on top of it and clung to the back of her neck while another tiny bunny rode in her arms. Only the smallest would be carried thusly by N’iik and Nay’ha too. The other children would have to walk. Most of them were too young to even remember the events of the previous day for long, though some would miss their parents for a while. All they knew now was the love and compassion of their teacher; the strange looking people in the big blue cave would also soon be forgotten.

The time finally came for them to leave. Taro walked down to the rabbits out in the field to give Lori a final hug and fond wish that she be forever happy, and then the travelers turned toward the northeast.

Amanda hadn’t known Lori for long, but there were tears streaming into her cheek fur as she watched them go. Pockets had known the rabbit far longer and wasn’t to be outdone by the simple coyote. He wiped his eyes on a the sleeve of his coveralls, only to have his eyes fill up again as sobs threatened to escape from his throat.

The rabbits stopped and Lorelei suddenly trotted back to the cargo ramp, holding onto her two squealing bunnies as she ran. Taro looked at her curiously as the white doe tried reaching one of her pockets. It was difficult with her arms full, but she finally managed to snare something that was inside.

“I almost forgot!” Lori exclaimed with a wide grin. “N’iik gave this to me, thinking it was mine.” What she handed the vixen was a small, brightly colored sheet of plastic. It was flat, rectangular and had words and numbers written across both sides in stylish Standard. A scrawling signature had also been penned in across one side of it.

“Rex’s lottery ticket!” Taro exclaimed with a laugh. “I’ll bet it fell out of his shirt pocket when he ran out of the ship and tripped up in the wheat field!”

Lori nodded. “N’iik said he found it after we left last time. He didn’t know what it was, but kept it as a reminder of my visit. Can you make sure it gets back to Mr. Concolar, please?”

Taro laughed again and tickled the large bare feet of the bunny in the doe’s arms, making the little girl giggle. “By all means. He keeps contacting the home office about once a month hoping we’ve found it somewhere on the ship. We’ll all be glad to make sure it gets to him.”

Lori leaned forward, kissed her former captain on the cheek and then made sure she had a good hold on both little bunnies before she trotted back out to her waiting party.

Taro pocketed the lottery ticket carefully and then waved one last time. When she was sure that the rabbits were far enough away, she turned to Mark and nodded. “Time to close up and prep the ship for liftoff.”

***

Thirty minutes later, the Blue Horizon leapt straight up into the sky on full thrusters, flattening the wheat stalks beneath it in powerful hot winds. The lower cameras showed their departure angle on the vidscreens and anyone watching could see the small party of rabbits looking up and waving from a distance. The sight of the giant blue thing soaring up through the sky must have been awe-inspiring to the primitive lapin folk.

It didn’t take long for the ship to gain an altitude where the atmospheric engines could be engaged to increase velocity to get them up into orbit. A short while after that, the entire world could be seen below as a blue and green marble with patches and swirls of white.

Once the gravity deck plates were active and they were in a stable orbit, Pockets unfastened his harness and padded over to look at Calissa’s little black box. One diode was lit up brightly. He thumbed an intercom pad and gave a brief report.

“The Hyld system is fully charged and the safety light is green. We can jump any time you’re ready.”

“Aye to that,” Taro’s voice replied. “We’ll reach optimum orbital departure in twenty-three minutes, and approximately fifteen more to reach our jump point. Let us know if anything changes.”

“Aye-yi, will do.”

***

The Blue Horizon emerged from its jump at a distance of just half a day away on standard LightDrive velocities from Dennier. They were far enough outside the standard traffic lanes that there had been no danger of running into any other ships in the area.

Shaking off the ill effects of the jump, Renny immediately began calculating their route back to the nearby world, and while he was working, Suzuko guided the ship back down in line with the galactic plane, piloting the interstellar vessel with ease. Taro watched from the com station, pleased that the painted-pony unicorn had prior experience flying the Kirin-class freighter. With Jerry out of commission for a while and her own injuries limiting movement, Suzuko and Renny were the only other two on board who could currently fly the new ship design. This oversight would be corrected later as the other crewmembers got their chance to familiarize themselves with the ship and her controls.

Satisfied that Suzuko had control of things, Taro turned to the console beside her and slipped on a headset with a flexible arm to place the speaker bud within one of her high ears with the tiny microphone on a boom near her lips. She tuned into the local traffic and listened for a while, but was puzzled by some of the chatter she heard.

She switched over to StellarNet and tuned into INN to see if she could get a clearer picture of the news snippets she’d picked up. She listened for a good long time while her crewmates took care of getting them back to home port.

After Renny had finished his calculations and transferred the data to Suzuko’s panel, he turned in his seat to face the lithe unicorn lass beside him.

“What happens now?” he asked quietly. He could see Taro focused upon whatever it was she listened to, so he kept his voice low. Suzuko looked up at him after setting their course to match the figures he’d provided.

“What do you mean?”

The cheetah frowned. “The purpose of our first flight was to see if we could talk Natasha’s engineer into providing plans for the particle vault safety monitor so you could include them in future Hyld ships. Right now, we have only the one unit with no idea what it monitors or how to build more.”

Suzuko considered his words for a moment and then shook her head. “It’s likely that Master Tristen will take the device back to Sillon to see if they can figure it out, and that is if they can even determine what it is that it monitors and why. Calissa only hinted at dangers and Tristan seems to think this has bearing upon a few events that happened during our own initial testing.”

“Can we still use the Hyld jump system built into this ship for our testing phase?”

“I don’t see how we can,” she answered. “If we don’t have the monitor, Master Tristan is unlikely to allow us to use the system for safety reasons.”

Renny crossed his arms. “Does this mean our two-year contract is finished before it really begins?”

“Not necessarily. Before the Hyld package was included in the Kirin, this ship had already been equipped with the latest Silloni LightDrive propulsion system. It is point-seven-five percent faster than the current LD systems on the market today and point-five faster than Earth’s new Prime ships, so we’ll still have a slight edge on the competition.”

“We?” Renny asked. “Will you be staying with us even if we can’t use the Hyld? I thought that was the reason you’d joined the crew.”

The equine engineer smiled. “The Kirin is a prototype that needs to be tested before it goes on the market for mass production, so we all still have work to do here; the Hyld was only one system of the whole ship I was to look after. Besides, I’d already set my home affairs in order to be gone for two years before I left Sillon, so there’s no reason to leave you just yet.”

The navigator smiled. “I’m glad to hear it,” he said. “I was afraid you’d take this new ship away from us and Merlin would have to shop for another Horizon.”

“That’s not going to happen. I still have to prove to everyone that I’m a good cook, anyway. I can’t do that from Sillon.” She smiled and Renny grinned.

“I’m sure you’ve already heard about my appetite, so I hope you’re up to the challenge.”

At the com station, Taro pulled off the headset and set it down on her console. Renny looked over at her and saw the expression on her face. “What’s up?” he asked. “Looks like you got some bad news.” Suzuko looked over her shoulder at the vixen.

“Well, there is news,” said the captain, “but how you take it personally will be up to you.”

“Why? What’s happened?”

“The news channels are all abuzz with the assassination of Earth’s Representative to the PA Legislature.”

“The Representative?” Suzuko repeated.

“That guy we met, Victor Faltane,” Renny guessed with raised eyebrows.

“The one and the same. You and I know him as Sagan’s master, but others thought of him as a successful businessman and a leader of men.”

“If he was assassinated,” Suzuko remarked, “I suppose that means he had enemies somewhere. That happens if you’ve stepped on the wrong people for your successes.”

Taro nodded. “The news reports say the identity of the murderer is unknown, but even in the early stages of the investigation, evidence has turned up that Faltane may have had plans to kidnap the Argeian Heir Apparent during the Siilv War to force some issue. Popular opinion is that a Kastan assassin caught up to him due to the way he died.”

“What happened?” Renny asked.

“Something tunneled into the back of his head and came out through the top, and then the skin of his face was surgically sheared away.”

“Ew!” Suzuko responded, sticking out her tongue.

Renny made a retching sound in his throat, but then shook his head. “I’ve heard rumors that the Commodore of the Kastan fleet wears a vest made of the faces of those he’s personally bested in combat. I don’t remember his name, but heard he could be brutal in battle.”

Taro nodded. “Commodore Blanc. His name came up in the new reports; it’s his style. alright, but I wouldn’t think he’d stoop to something he could hire an assassin to do.”

“Maybe someone’s mimicking his methods to make him look like the culprit,” Renny surmised.

“Earth was one of the worlds that tried to go up against Argeia, so I suppose it isn’t surprising that the Kastans would kill off their Representative to the Legislature,” Taro said, “but the Terrans are livid and are demanding answers. None of the news services have been able to get any response to this action from Argeia, and I don’t think they’ll get one anyhow. Argeia is off-limits to the PA worlds and the Kastans themselves have written off the PA anyway.”

Suzuko looked back down at a blip from her console and made a quick calculation. “We’re coming up on Dennieran traffic. We should be back in Grandstorm in about five hours.”

***

Bandaged and moving stiffly, Taro followed Merlin out to the workshop adjacent to his house so they could be alone together for a private conversation. The home office was locked up for the weekend, so she’d taken a cab to the Sinclair residence. She’d left her crew back at the spaceport with the ship so she could give the wolf a personal account of the trip to Se’rei and get their next assignment.

Secluded in Merlin’s little cubicle where they’d had a conversation about the new ship only days before, the wolf sat behind his desk and listened to the vixen’s story. He tried not to interrupt her so she could get everything off her chest, but there was a time or two he needed clarification on something.

When she finished, she opened the bag she’d brought with her and pulled out a cloth-wrapped object.  She set it on the desk and then unfolded the cloth to reveal the old colony journal she and Mark had found. Beside it, she also placed the plastic lottery ticket, but neither of them were really interested in that right now.

Merlin lifted the book gently, as if afraid it might fall apart in his hands, but it felt just as solid as the journals he’d written in over the years while on board the Blue Horizon.

“So this is it,” he said quietly. “Historical proof on the life of another of the lost colonies, yet we can’t show it to anyone.”

“We’d be grilled day and night for information if our trip to Surrey ever went public,” Taro remarked. “I don’t think it’s right to keep something like this a secret, but we’d be ruining the lives of Lori and the way of life for the people she’s joined.”

“After the Great Abandonment,” Merlin said, flipping through the old pages of the book, “the colony worlds had to make their own way, developing at their own speeds and in the directions their societies went. It wasn’t up to Earth how another world governed itself or what cultures they produced, and it doesn’t matter if Surrey moved forward or regressed to a more primitive time. The rest of the PA doesn’t have the right to interfere with how they’ve lived for the past three centuries and I’m afraid if we divulged the location to anyone, irrevocable changes would take place.”

He hefted the book. “I’m sure this will be some very interesting reading, but I’m not sure I know what to do with it otherwise.”

Taro looked at him with a smile. “I’ve been thinking about that,” she said, “and I may have a solution.”

***

Master Tristan stood just inside the azure corridor of the Blue Horizon, waiting with the ship’s captain and her first officer. The wrappings on Taro’s shoulder stuck out from beneath the short sleeves of her white blouse, but she didn’t appear to be in any pain.

Several moments passed before the door to the cargo bay opened. Pockets, Max and Suzuko stepped inside and the shorter unicorn gave the larger a short bow of respect. The raccoon behind her looked gloomy, giving the box in Suzuko’s arms a furtive glance.

“Master,” Suzuko reported in a quiet voice. “It is done.”

“Thank you, dear. Would you deliver the package straight away to Stoyan aboard the Kokoro, please? We will be departing within the hour.”

“At once.” The painted-pony unicorn turned and was out the airlock quickly.

The larger black unicorn chuckled at the forlorn expressions on the mechanics’ faces. “Do not look so glum, gentlemen. This is for the best.”

Pockets looked up into the former Regent’s calm brown eyes. “You took away the best part of the ship!” he complained. “I miss it already!”

“I will have the top engineers of Sillon working to unlock the mystery of Ms. Calissa Thalia’s particle vault monitor. With luck, we will be able to determine its functionality and soon be able to create more to include on future Hyld vessels.”

“Yes, but did you have to take the key component from our Hyld system too?”

Taro put a hand on the raccoon’s shoulder. “Pockets, it’s for our own good. As long as we have a working system, we’d be tempted to use it despite the potential dangers, and you know it.”

“But what if we’re attacked by pirates again?” Max interjected. “You already told several organizations that we’d be testing the Hyld system and someone will probably come after us to get it – only we won’t have it to get away!”

“All good points, Mister Sinclair,” Tristan admitted, “but until we know what the danger might be using it under the wrong conditions, you will not take that chance. I will release a statement to the same scientific organization as before saying that an unforeseen situation arose after first use and that further research will have to be made before the system can be used publicly. This is not a lie, and hopefully word will circulate to those proverbial pirates you mentioned that you will no longer have jump capability. You should still be able to outrun any who come your way and this vessel is not without defenses at any case.”

“We’ll still be testing this new prototype ship and its new LightDrive engines for Sillon and Ryu,” Renny reminded them, “so our contracts are still valid. It’s just going to take us a little longer to get from place to place than we’d originally planned.”

“Yeah, I know,” Pockets acquiesced, “but now that we have a slower ship, we’re all going to have to listen to Jerry complain about the small size of his cabin on every trip we make!”

***

A month later, a human courier with tanned skin, short black hair and an angular jaw approached an office on the third floor of a building in the city of London on Earth. Dressed in a sharp uniform, the man stepped up to an open doorway and tapped lightly on the wooden panel identifying the office belonging to Director Leatherby.

A portly gentleman with thinning gray hair and a massive mustache looked up from a tablet upon his oak desk, his large eyes annoyed at having been interrupted.

“Yes, what is it?” Leatherby grumbled.

“I have package for you, sir. It was delivered to the main desk downstairs just a few minutes ago.”

“Very well, let me have it.”

The courier moved the desk and then pulled a common cardboard box from the pouch hanging from his right shoulder. It was not overly thick, but a moderate size book or computer tablet would fit into it neatly. He set it on the desk and then handed a slateboard datapak to the portly man. “Sign here, please.”

The man put his thumb print upon the screen and then handed the unit back to its owner. The courier thanked him and then quickly departed.

Rhys Leatherby examined the package for a moment. It was simply addressed to The Director of Colonization Antiquities with the address beneath it. There was no return label on the box, so he reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a small pen knife.

He cut the strapping from the box lid and then opened the flaps carefully. Something inside was wrapped up in plastic, so he set the knife aside and then picked up the item. He pulled the sheeting apart and found an old book with a cowhide cover. The words Terran Colony Surrey, Planet Aphaea were embossed in faded gold-colored letters.

Leatherby’s heart thumped in his chest and his breathing became shallow when he realized what it must be. He set the book gently upon his desk blotter and then opened the cover, hardly able to contain his excitement.

He read the opening lines but then quickly shut the book. He rifled through the box it had come in, but there was no letter, note or data crystal to accompany it. He struggled to get his bulk out of the plush chair and then he rushed out of the office into the hall. He looked down the corridor and saw the courier at the far end approaching the staircase that led to the lower floors.

“You there!” he called, startling coworkers in nearby offices. “Please come back!”

The courier turned around at the man’s shout and nodded. He walked casually back to Leatherby and looked down at the shorter gentleman. “Yes sir?” he asked courteously.

“Excuse me,” said the portly man, “but did you see who delivered this package? There was no identification inside or out.”

“No sir,” the courier replied. “I had just arrived at the main desk and found this sitting upon the counter. The public doors had just opened, so it couldn’t have been there more than a few minutes at most.”

Leatherby pulled a handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit and wiped it across his forehead. “You’re certain no one knows who left it?”

“Positive, sir. Is it important?”

Leatherby considered the question a moment and then pursed his lips. “Perhaps the delivery itself is not important, but the contents of the package is of great significance.” He patted the courier on the arm and gave him a smile. “Thank you, you may go now. I have an interesting book to begin reading this morning.”

“You are welcome, sir,” Mark Littlefeather replied. “Have a good day.”

LINGERING FEARS

by Ted R. Blasingame

Merlin opened his eyes but discovered that he couldn’t see anything. His head throbbed and he ached in numerous other places. He was blindfolded and bound with chains in a slumped, standing position with his arms outstretched between two poles. Some part of his brain noted that his shirt was hanging on him in shreds. Stinging cuts on his back reminded him why the shirt was in tatters. He tried to stand up, but his legs were weak. He dropped back against his bonds with a grunt and then he heard someone stand from a creaking chair to his left.

“Merlin Sinclair…” a voice said near his left ear.  ”It’s about time you woke up. I’m tired of listening to you snore.”

“Who… who are you?” the wolf said through swollen lips.

“I’m your mailman.”

“My….”

There was a soft chuckle and Merlin could feel the speaker’s hot breath against his ear. “I have delivered letters,” the voice explained, “but you chose to ignore them.”

“Those were your threats!” Merlin said in sudden understanding.

“Threats? No, promises!” Another chuckle. “Some are as yet unfulfilled.”

“Do I know you?” the wolf said with a swallow. “How have I wronged you?” Merlin could see a portion of the floor in front of him beneath the bottom of the blindfold. He saw a pair of booted feet move into view and then his companion spoke again from the front.

“You have caused no limit of frustration to those I’ve served,” his faceless enemy said.

“Who do you serve?”

“No, I won’t provide you with an answer, Sinclair, but you have met them. You are well known and we have followed your movements for some time.”

“Do I get to see the face of my enemy?” Merlin asked uneasily.

“Careful, Sinclair,” the voice said menacingly, “to look upon the face of the basilisk is death!”

Merlin’s mind raced. He’d been in tough predicaments before, but never one such as this. Although he didn’t have a name, he now knew his enemy from that one word. “How should I address you, if not by one of the names that immediately come to mind?”

A strong hand suddenly grabbed his throat, but only as a brief warning. The hand relaxed, but the clawed fingers lingered on his neck. Merlin swallowed hard. There was another chuckle, very low. “Yes,” his enemy said, “I will kill you, Sinclair. Of that, you can be certain. Soon, but not right away.”

The individual stepped back from him. “What about my crew?” Merlin asked in a low voice. It was difficult to talk with beaten, swollen lips. “What have you done—?”

“No more questions!” his captor snapped. “You will give only answers.” He paced around the wolf with a growl. “Now… tell me where I can find your children.”

“M-my children?” Merlin asked with a thick tongue.

“Where are they, Sinclair?” the voice hissed. “I want them!”

“I don’t understand…” the wolf said in confusion.  Children?  He didn’t have any…

The voice lowered to barely a whisper, the fetid breath nauseating the already-battered lupine captain. “Alexander… Cassandra… Katherine… Marcus…” a long drawn-out pause, “and Ramius. I want them all.”

“I-I don’t know what—”

A fist slammed into his stomach and all the air went out of him. Merlin coughed and tried to double over, but his arms were still bound to the poles; he could nothing more than hang against his chains. A hand grabbed the fur between his ears and pulled his head up sharply. Beneath the lower edge of his blindfold, he could see a black-furred feline chin.

“Where are your children?” the voice growled again. “Where have you hidden them?” When Merlin didn’t answer, the assailant kicked the wolf in the shin. Merlin grunted from the pain, but otherwise didn’t cry out. “You’re too stubborn,” the feline said, “but that’s your choice, Sinclair.”

The cat walked away and it was then that Merlin realized someone else was in the room. “Tell the captain what happens next.”

“No, p-please…” said a small voice.

“Tell him,” growled the captor. Merlin heard a shuffle of feet as someone was shoved over to stand in front of him. Beneath his blindfold, Merlin could make out a bare foot with gray fur.

“They…” said in a frightened voice, “They will t-torture her in front of you… It – it’s horrible! P-please… tell him what he w-wants to know…”

Merlin bit his bottom lip, a sinking feeling deep in his gut, but otherwise said nothing.

“He’s not going to talk,” another voice said. Merlin tilted his head, but the voices of the mysterious captors were not familiar to him.

“I think he will. Bring her in now.”

“Yes, sir,” the other replied.

Merlin swallowed hard, his mind wrenched with the gravity of the situation. Something about all this seemed somehow familiar, but it wasn’t quite right. He felt fingers on the knot at the back of his blindfold and then a dirty white cloth was removed from his eyes. He blinked a few times and then looked around. The room took up the bulk of a hut he was in, likely the gathering place for a large crowd of people during inclement weather. He stood between two wooden supports of the room, his arms in manacles, attached to the poles with light chains. His work shirt was in tatters, with the remnants of sleeves still attached to cuffs beneath his manacles, but the rest of it barely hung upon his body. The white fur of his chest and belly was matted and dirty, and although his trousers were in better shape than his shirt, there were tears along the outer seams and both of his knees were exposed.

The floor and walls were made of wooden planks and the rafters in the ceiling were exposed. Light was provided by oil lamps attached to the building’s supports rather than by electrical means, and he could see cloth curtains blowing in the cold breeze that came in through open-air windows. Several folding chairs were scattered about the room, but there were brown stains on the floor beneath a solitary chair positioned directly in front of him; dried blood, Merlin’s brain told him numbly.

From what he could see of the room, a small folding table was near him with what appeared to be a rolled-up tool pouch. He saw crayon-drawn artwork on papers tacked up on one wall, likely from the children his captor wanted.  A cat with gray fur sat dejectedly in a chair against a far wall, his leg manacled to another support post. The two of them exchanged looks and Merlin could see the terror in the cat’s eyes as he waited what was next to come.

“Yes, he knows what’s about to happen,” said a voice from behind the wolf. Merlin tried to turn his head to look at the one who had spoken, but the individual was out of his range of vision. “I would listen to him, Sinclair. You would save yourself a lot of grief if you just tell me what I want to know.” Merlin thought he should probably say something witty in return, but the knot in his stomach prevented him from giving a reply. Instead, he just looked at the floor, unable to meet the unfamiliar cat’s forlorn expression again.

The door opened and Merlin looked over to see two black-furred jaguars escort a bound Border collie into the room. He gasped and his ears flattened in disbelief. Samantha looked as beaten and battered as he was, her clothing ripped to shreds, barely covering her modesty, blood matted in her fur and her breathing coming in great rattling rasps. She was taken to the chair in front of Merlin and forced to sit down.

“No!” Merlin croaked. “Don’t do this! Please! Have mercy!”

The unseen assailant chuckled. “Mercy? Only you can grant that now.”

“Merlin, what’s going on?” the Border collie asked. The wolf swallowed deeply and tried to speak, but no words came out of his mouth. The canine looked at someone behind Merlin and swallowed. “Who are you?” she asked.

“I am Death,” said the voice. “Your death, Mrs. Sinclair.”

“I don’t understand.”

There was an evil cackle. “We are going to torture you… until your mate tells me where your children are hiding,” he said quietly. One of the jaguars that had brought her in moved to her side, brandishing a large serrated knife that glinted in the lamplights.

“Why do you want our children?” Samantha gasped as rough hands held her in her chair.

Merlin heard the lips smack in anticipation. “I am going to eat them…” the voice purred.  “I am very, very hungry, and I am going to gobble them up!”

“Get away from us!” Merlin exclaimed. “You’ll never find them!” A fist slammed the back of the wolf’s head. Merlin saw stars for a moment and it took an effort to refocus his eyes.

“Torture her… slowly,” growled the remembered voice of Var Briggs, “Keep her alive for now, but cause her great pain…”

The dark jaguar gave Merlin a feral grin with bloodshot green eyes and raised his knife. “I am going to enjoy this!” said the feline. The razor-sharp blade glinted in the light as he reached for the Border collie’s throat.

Samantha’s terrified scream rang in Merlin’s ears and he jumped forward with a shriek of his own. Blankets wrapped round his bare feet tripped him up and he sprawled hard onto the floor, hitting the bed stand and causing a lamp to fall to the floor beside him with a broken crash.

Another bedside light came on and Merlin looked up into the worried face of his mate peering at him over the edge of their mattress. “Merlin?” she asked tentatively. “What’s the matter?”

“S-Sam?” he rasped. “Are you okay? Where did he go?”

The Border collie looked around the room, seeing no one else but the two of them. A nearby clock registered the time as 02:30. Nervous, she gathered her nightgown up around her throat and searched the shadows of the bedroom.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she answered in a whisper. “Where did who go?”

“Briggs,” Merlin whispered in alarm. “He’s after our children!” He kicked the blankets from his ankles and got to his feet in a crouch, his ears back, his fangs bared and his tail swishing behind him in agitation. He reached up a hesitant hand to Samantha’s cheek and caressed it gently, suppressing a shudder. He was relieved that there were no marks upon her pretty throat, but then he clenched his fists and pushed himself up from the bed to his feet.

“Merlin,” Samantha said quietly. “Briggs is not here. He’s dead, remember?”

The gray wolf looked at her as if she were in grave error and then shook his head. “I saw him, Sam,” he croaked. “He wanted to eat our cubs!” He turned and walked quickly to the door to their room. He reached for a pair of crossed rapiers mounted to the wall and pulled one free of its clasps, holding its hilt close to his chest.

“It must have been a dream,” she reassured him. “You had another nightmare.”

Merlin looked back at her and swallowed. It had seemed so real, so lucid; he knew she must be right, but there would be no rest for him until he looked in on their young ones. He gave her a tentative nod and then opened the door.  Samantha sighed and crawled out of the bed. She pulled a blanket from a nearby rocking chair and draped it around her shoulders over the light nightgown. She padded quietly out of the room, turned down the hallway, and then approached the room belonging to their beloved children.

As with all young Furs, the young cubs of Merlin and Samantha Sinclair were growing fast. At only a year in age, they were already equal in physical and mental development with a three-year old human child. They were still small enough that all five of them could sleep in the same room, but that wouldn’t last long. Plans were already in mind to split up the three males from the two female pups into separate rooms, but the Sinclair house had plenty of space when the time came.

When Samantha stepped inside the room next to theirs, she paused in the doorway and leaned lightly against the wooden frame. Merlin was on his knees on the floor beside the large bed where all five small bodies slept quietly, the sword on the carpet beside him. The gray wolf had one hand stretched out and was caressing the reddish-brown fur of little Cassandra.

When he turned to find Samantha kneeling beside him, moisture glinted in the dim nightlight from his cheek fur. He took her into a tight embrace and held her tight for a long moment. When he finally pulled away, Samantha took him by the hand and quietly led him from the room.

She didn’t take him back to their bedroom, however, but kept his hand clutched tightly in her own as she took him down the stairs at the end of the hall and out to the living room of their home. She tapped a touch lamp to its lowest setting and then settled onto one end of an oversized couch. As he had done several times before, Merlin lay down on the couch with his head in his mate’s lap. She leaned over so her nose was mere inches from his ears and she stroked his cheek fur gently.

After several long moments of stillness, Merlin wiped his eyes and then closed them with a heavy sigh. “I am so tired of the nightmares,” he told her in a quiet whisper. “They are becoming altogether too real to me.”

“Perhaps you should schedule an appointment with Dr. Siegfield,” Samantha suggested. “Shannon said he was highly recommended.”

There was a subtle shake of the wolf’s head. “No,” he said. “I’m not ready to see a shrink.”

Samantha frowned and continued petting her mate’s facial fur. “Merlin… until you talk to someone about your experiences, the pain of the memories won’t go away.” She gave a small sigh. They had held this conversation before, but it always resulted in her wolf’s stubbornness.  ”Since you were tortured in the Valley of Bones, you’ve refused to talk to anyone about it.” A small tear escaped her eye and it dribbled down across her nose to drop onto Merlin’s cheek. “You made me promise never to ask you what you saw, but until you open up to someone, it will continue to eat away at you. Give Dr. Siegfield a chance.”

Merlin stared off across the room, seeing nothing but that fateful day on Fyn during their final confrontation with the Basilisk. The horrors of his nightmares were as real to him as the events of that experience, and although they were only twisted creations of his memory, the psychological effects were just as painful. He knew Samantha was right. If he could not speak of the memories and get them out into the open, bottling them up inside would do more damage and cause a greater emotional state over time.

The gray wolf trusted his mate implicitly, but he had sworn to protect her from harm, real or imagined; he never wanted her to know the horrors he witnessed, but perhaps it was time to share those memories. He’d long heard that simply talking to someone about terrible events could help to lessen their emotional impact, but he was afraid to relive the pain and terror.

Merlin Sinclair swallowed deeply and closed his eyes. No, he would not talk to a stranger about his experiences, no matter how well recommended. There was only one person within all of existence he could share this with.

Samantha took her mate’s silence as a resurgence of his stubbornness, and she let out a long, low sigh of frustration. There seemed to be nothing she could do but comfort him after the frequent nightmares, a duty she would continue to perform for him as long as necessary.

Merlin turned over on the couch so that he curled up facing the back cushions, his nose on her lap resting gently against her stomach. She stroked the soft fur behind the wolf’s triangular ears, but then hesitated when he began talking.

For the first time since the incident, Merlin allowed himself to relive the experience to someone else in succinct words, describing to Samantha what happened with such vivid detail that had been permanently etched into his memory. He left nothing out, from what he saw to what he felt. She cried with him at the horrors he witnessed and comforted him through the terror of it all, and by the end of his narration, both of them were shaking and shaken, emotionally spent and exhausted.

When sunlight through the east window blinds fell upon Merlin’s face, he awoke slowly and found himself still on the couch. They were spooned together, one of his arms gently around Samantha’s middle and his nose up against one of her floppy ears. Her tail was draped over across his bent legs, but when he tried to move his feet, there was an unexpected weight.

He raised his head above Samantha’s shoulder to look at the opposite end of the couch and then a smile spread across his face.  There were cubs curled up with one another around the feet and legs of their parents. There were occasions when one or more of the youngsters would slip into Merlin and Samantha’s bed during the night, and it appeared that some of them had found the master bedroom empty.

Merlin counted noses and knew that the entire family had somehow managed to snuggle up together on the large couch. Without disturbing either his mate or his children, the wolf laid his head back and closed his eyes, although he didn’t go back to sleep.

He hadn’t enjoyed reliving the horrors and lingering fears left over from his experience in the Valley of Bones, but sharing it with Samantha had loosened the bonds over his heart. She had taken it with more strength than he had thought she had within her, but she had always been of strong character. She cried when appropriate, and she was strong for him when it was needed, but there was something deep inside that told him that he would probably be okay because of her.

Samantha’s ear flicked rapidly with his breath and then she opened her eyes. She yawned widely and then smiled contentedly upon feeling his arm around her. He slightly shifted his other arm trapped beneath them and she knew he was awake.

“Good morning, my Love,” she whispered. “How are you?”

“Freer than I have felt in a long while,” he whispered back. “I think I may be okay now.  Thank you.”

“That’s what I am here for, always and forever.”

“Forever and always,” Merlin intoned back, snuggling up closer to his mate. “The devil is dead, and our children are alive… at our feet.”

Samantha chuckled and then she felt the small bodies across her ankles. “So they are,” she said with amusement, lifting her head up enough to see a small black tail with a white tip wagging gently against her toes. She relaxed back into the comforting arms of her mate with a smile on her face. It had been difficult hearing what Merlin had gone through, but it was something she needed to hear, for her sake as well as his. Together now, perhaps the nightmares and lingering fears had been banished forever.

CAPTAIN’S AUTHORITY

by Ted R. Blasingame

Merlin finished his narration and closed the cover of his journal as he looked around at his family with a smile. Samantha sat beside him on the loveseat in the front room of their home in Grandstorm, their five pups sitting on the carpeted floor at their feet. Now six years of age, the anthrocanine youngsters were curiously inquisitive, and one of them had pulled out their father’s first Blue Horizon Captain’s Journal, taking it to the wolf in his study for him to read to them.

Merlin rubbed his hand over the worn cover of the journal with affection. “Now you know how the Blue Horizon came to be, sixteen years ago,” he said with a smile. “I imagine that one day, each of you will also fly on board the flagship of our fleet.”

“Who gets to be captain?” little Ramius asked with wide, golden eyes. His triangular ears stood up erect and his tail thumped the carpet behind him.

“I’ll bet it’s me!” Cassandra said immediately, tapping her chest with a fist.

Samantha laughed aloud and leaned down toward her children. “It could be any of you,” she said with a grin, “if you mind those in authority above you.”

“If you’re captain, you’re the boss!” Marcus piped up. “Ain’t nobody in ‘thority over you!”

Merlin shook his finger in front of them all. “There is always someone in authority over you, even a captain,” he told them.

“That’s right!” Katherine said haughtily over her siblings. “Taro’s the captain of the ship, but father is president over her!”

Alexander scratched an ear. “Father doesn’t have a boss!” he replied. “You can be captain, I wanna be president!”

Katherine jumped to her feet and raised her hands into the air triumphantly. “I get to be captain! I get to be captain!” she boasted. “The Blue Horizon is mine!”

“No it’s not!” yelled Ramius. “I called it first!”

“No you didn’t!” Cassandra yelled just as loudly, “I did!”

“Settle down!” Samantha said loudly. When the noise level did not drop, Merlin put fingers to his lips and let out a shrill whistle that made them all stop and clutch their ears.

Once he was sure that he had everyone’s attention, Merlin held up his old journal. “Being the captain of a ship is not an easy task,” he said. “Just because you are the alpha over others does not mean you always get your way, nor does it mean that it’s easy. It’s not always fun, and you have to be responsible for the actions of your crew as well as your own. If you want, I can read more of my journal entries to you each night.”

“Yeah!” all the kids exclaimed in unison.

Merlin tapped the journal. “There are lessons to be learned in here,” he added. “You will learn how hard it can sometimes be, and I might even tell you the story on how your mother wound up coming back to us on the ship after returning to her father’s company after that first year was up.” All five cubs nodded, but one of them held up a small hand. “Yes, Cassie?”

“Can I still be captain?” she asked.

Merlin glanced over at his mate and gave her a subtle wink before answering his daughter’s question over the whines of the others.

“That will depend upon you,” he said. “Before you can become captain, you must first serve others faithfully. I became captain only after I had served in the Dennieran military and had proven myself capable of leading others. If you serve well, you might be able to lead well, and this means doing what you are told when you are told to do it. Prove yourself to be trustworthy, and you may have a chance at being captain someday.”

All five of the children fell quiet, lost in their little thoughts; Merlin sat back on the loveseat, putting an arm around Samantha’s shoulders. After several moments, Ramius looked up at his parents and held up a hand.

“Yes?” Merlin asked.

“I want to be captain someday,” Ramius replied. “What do I need to do?”

The wolf smiled. “A captain has to set a good example for his pack. The last time I looked, your room was a mess. Go straighten it up, and I think you will have a good start.”

Ramius stood up and gave his father a snappy salute. “Yessir!” he responded loudly. Then he dashed off toward his bedroom as commanded. Not to be outdone, Cassandra saluted and gave her own loud “Yessir!” before running off to do likewise.

The other three cubs looked at one another for a moment before getting to their own feet. They were not as excited about cleaning their bedrooms as their siblings were, but none of them wanted to be left out of a possible captaincy.

After the last one was gone, Samantha turned toward her mate and gave him a smirk. “I have been trying to get them to pick up their things all day.” she said.

Merlin raised an eyebrow and then shrugged. “All it takes is a little encouragement to the crew,” he said. “It isn’t that important to me that they all serve aboard the Horizon, but it would be nice to hand over the business to one of them someday. If one becomes captain, I am sure they will have adventures of their own. Some might think that life should be mundane shipping freight across the galaxy, but that never seemed to be the case for the captain and crew of the Blue Horizon.”

You have just finished the end of the Blue Horizon series, but if you are interested in reading other stories in this universe, you may wish to read these titles:

Blue Horizon 1261

Things were not easy setting up a new business, hiring a crew and getting a secondhand ship in order, all while trying to find clients that were unwilling to trust their goods to a new freighter with no history. Trouble and frustration seemed to hamper them at every turn, even after they finally get into space.  Set six years prior to the first Blue Horizon tale, at a time when the ship and business are first put into operation.

Hoenix

Aramis Thorne was a genetic anthro wolf with no memories of a possible past life of piracy. When he is approached with an old starship of questionable reliability, his life takes a turn for discovery and tragedy with the legend of an ancient city's treasure snapping at his heels.

Table of Contents

Cover

Dedication

Introduction

DAY ONE, DAY LOST

TRAIL OF THE BICYCLE THIEF

GEMINI PI

FOREVER AND ALWAYS

SPACE AVAILABLE

ANGER MANAGEMENT

LIVE CARGO

CATNAP

LULLABY

NEW CONTRACTS

COMMAND DECISION

HIGHLAND FERAL

LINGERING FEARS

CAPTAIN’S AUTHORITY