Last time Zwokkie, Silktail and Todd were captured by a strange reptilian race. They were kept for nearly a month, harried, interrogated and devoid of all the passing on time.
uckily Alex kept trying to get them out and during one of his attempts an inside friend lead them to freedom. Zwokkie was injured, hys tail broken on multiple places. Alex is in more danger, however. In the same fight where Zwokkie got hys tail broken, Alex was injected by a natural venom and is now suspended in stasis, unconcious and fighting for his life…
It was wondefull, after all that had happened in the past months, not to mention our last ordeal, we finally were close to home. The constellation the computer found was part of the Voxxan space we were travelling away from nearly a year ago. It would only take us a month untill we got close enough to the established trade routes to get radio contact with our known civilisation.
Something had changed though, Silktail and I almost never left eachothers side the days following our escape. There were a few laughs about how silly I looked with my tail in a cast, and there were those moments where I was working in engineering and Silktail on the bridge. But there seemed to be a silent tension in the air. Once I found myself almost blowing a part of the engine up as I started to concentrate on Silktails feelings instead of my work. Allthough it was clear to either of us what we were doing, it seemed easier to deny it than to try and find another solution.
As for Todd, he found himself in the stasis rooms for large portions of the day, sitting vigilance next to Alexander. Even though Silktail had allready entered his ‘final heroic actions’ in the ships log, noone had given up on him yet. Specially not Todd. It reminded me of an old Earthen fairytale, seeing Alex lying underneath the transparant lid, but waking him up wouldn’t be that easy.
About a week later I had a sudden nightmare about our captivity, just when I was about to collapse, I felt Silktail come into my mind. Hir presence pulling me back from wherever I was sinking into. When I woke up with a start and opened my eyes, the major part of the dream was gone from my mind, but Silktail and I were hugging eachother closely, shi was silently smiling in hir sleep. I drifted off again and slept soundly. The next day I asked Silktail about this and shi told me shi remembered dreaming something about that planet and me needing help and all shi knew to do to keep me safe was to find and hold onto me. I guessed that sharing a deep empathic bond had more implications than only sensing eachothers emotions.
We spent the whole next day talking, it wasn’t easy. Even when you can sense eachothers emotions and motivation, it’s still pretty hard to talk about what you feel and think.
Specially if it concerns your greatest fears. Eventually we managed to speak our peace and personally I felt like a ten-ton weight was lifted off my backs. After that we gave eahother the first true loving hug since we got back on board. Sure we hugged and kissed, but now it felt like that was more to reassure that the other was still there. Now we felt it with our minds and hearts. About what happened next, it suffices to say that I was in my female form again when we woke the next day.
* * * * *
From then the time I spent with Silktail was more relaxed as we finally realised nothing could happen to tear us apart like that anymore. Drawing on strenght from eachother and beginning the healing process. Next, but not less important, was Todd. With Alex in stasis at the point of dying, he really was alone.
One day I found myself ambling towards the stasis rooms again. Since Silktail and I got ourselves figured out, I went there every day to pay Todd a visit. Every day he was sitting there, staring at the tranclucent lid, as if he was willing Alex to wake up again.
“Hey Todd.” I started.
“Hi Zwokkie,” was his answer as he turned to me, “I was expecting to see you.”
I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder.
“How are you doing?”, I asked, everytime I asked the same question, and everytime I got the same answer.
“Oh, I’m doing ok, how’re you?”, was his standard reply.
I told him I was doing fine, and that Silktail was too.
“At least we’re going to reach home soon enough.. He’ll survive,” I finished my part of the ‘ritual’, I liked to think I was comforting Todd the first two times, untill I realised that I needed to hear that as much as he probably did.
“I know,” Todd replied, “I know.”
After that I spent a little time with him, talking about nothing in particular, trying to set him up for a plan Silktail and I had.
Silktail and I tried to come up with an idea on how to get Todds mind off Alex, making him feel a little more comfortable untill we got home. We discussed a lot of available options, but most of them would’ve been turned down anyway. Untill Silktail got an idea. I was to try and get Todd to cooperate in a series of examinations, to find out what his and his enhancements’ capabilities were.
It seemed like a good idea, this way we could find out what he could do and provide him with something else to think about. Besides, I was also dying to get a chance of doing this. Todd is a walking monument of science and history and I just had to find out more about him.
After some talking I finally managed to persuade Todd into coming with me and check his systems out. He admitted that he was curious to where his limits were, and in light of his amnesia, he might remember things about himself during the examinations.
* * * * *
The following week I ran every test available to me on Todds systems and I was amazed. I learned a lot of the ‘old’ technology after I was allowed to take a look in his workings. And I believe that nothing of what I saw there was known to the public at that time. Todd was a walking ‘High Security Risk’. I took my notes, a lot of them as well and comparing them to what I learned and what was in the computer, I came to the conclusion that about 80% of the knowledge invested in Todd was lost during the aftermath of the wars, and noone recoveredit since. While working with him I, got some interesting ideas and next to my notes, I started working on other plans as well.
One evening I was working on one of those plans. I had the idea of making a small headset, with a holographic-based visor to appear in front of the eyes. It was supposed to be in contact with the ships systems, scanners, transporter, you name it. I was just poring over the communication between the headset and the ship when Silktail burst into the room carrying hir painting equipment with hir.
“Now I’m going to make a picture of you working there and you better not stop untill I’m done”, Shi said with a grin.
I chuckled softly, shi was trying to paint me at work for some time now, but each time shi was busy I stopped to snuggle with hir. I liked the way shi looked in hir getup, covered with specks of paint. And every time hir muzzle peeked from behind the canvas, it reminded me of the time shi tried to paint me with the fishbowl. But this time when I wanted to come up to hir, I got a surprise. Shi was pushing me back with my own telekinesis. Laughing softly I resigned and resumed tinkering.
* * * * *
Finally the moment of truth was there, the ships computer had started to send out a signal last night, while we were asleep and our morning call was Todd banging at the door.
A scientific transport, currently travelling from the outermost planet in Voxxan space back to Earth, had picked up our signal and was heading our way.
Needless to say, we were extatic. Silktail and I rushed to the bridge and Todd set up a communications line. As the captain of the unknown ship popped up in screen we saw a Tiger-striped feline face looking at us.
“I’m captain Chakat Silverstripe of the Federation science ship Marie Curie, We received a message for help from your ships computer?” Shi said with a friendly smile, though with curiosity in hir voice.
“I am captain Chakat Silktail of the Independant vessel CSV Starhopper,” Silktail replied, “And I can’t begin saying how thankfull I am to meet you.”
Captain Silverstripe said that hir crew picked up our signal a few hours ago and was surprised to hear that it came from uncharted space. As it was, we were very lucky, because they were about to jump into hyperspace and then no communication would be possible untill they got out, near Earth. Within two hours we would make visual contact wth the ship and docking would start.
After the line closed, Silktail turned and we locked eyes. After a second we were in eachothers arms, dazed by eachothers happyness and glad we finally made it. When we finally separated Todd was missing. Silktail began to ask the computer to show where he was, but I shushed hir.
“He’s with Alex.. Give him some time alone for now,” I said, shi nodded and smiled.
The following two hours were spent packing our stuff, for some reason I also took the liberty of securing all the results from Todd and all the data on my projects.
* * * * *
The Marie Curie was huge, not just a science ship, but almost a science behemoth. It had entire decks equipped for just one study, and one that was filled with nothing but the ships computer. When we were docked, we had to wait a few minutes as our ship was completely decontaminated. We even had to wear envoiron-suits untill we ourselves had been decontaminated and given a complete physical check-up.
Well, who can blame anyone, while starfaring we had managed not to contract any alien diseases and noone wanted to start now.
Alexander was immediately taken to the sickbay, Todd went along no matter what the doctor had to say. Silktail had to go to the captain for official businesses, a whole lot of mandatory paperworks. That left me some time to look about the ship, besides Silktail and I were still together in a way.
I had no troubles navigating the huge corridors because I sneaked my long since compleded visor along. Wearing it made me look like I had a pair of metallic bunny-ears sticking to the sides of my head, but thanks to the Starhoppers computer I soon had a map of the Marie Curie on the holographic screen. These ships were common and information about them was publicly available. I had added a small glove for the right hand to the model, enabeling to manipulate objects on the screen as in virtual reality. The glove itself looked like those small gloves with the fingers cut off.
Once I found the place I was looking for, main engineering, there were also no troubles getting in. Even though we had an independant vessel, ranks still existed, and since I had finished Star Fleet training as part of my education, I had an ‘official’ uniform with the rank of Chief Engineer displayed on it. I don’t really like to pull rank, but when it enables me to take a look into the workings of a ship like the Marie Curie, well what can I say.
As soon as I cleared the doors to the huge room a person wearing the same bars as I was walked up to me, extending his hand in a friendly welcome. He was a tall man, who looked like he was in his thirties and some grey was allready showing in his black hair. His brown eyes seemed to notice everything that was going on in the room, and while he was talking to me, he was also keeping check to a little pad he had in his left hand.
“Hello, and welcome to engineering, I’m Chief Parkinson,” He said, ” And who do I have the pleasure with, miss?” “I’m Chief Zwokkie from the CSV StarHopper”, I said with a broad smile as I returned his handshake.
I was absolutely sure I felt Silktail chuckle for a moment, or maybe it was just part of my imagination. It seemed that only now did Chief Parkinson notice I was a ‘taur as I saw him do a retake.
“You’re a Skunktaur..?”, I nodded, “Chakat-kin?”, I nodded again, smiling.
“I’m sorry, Miss, err, Shir..,” He began to fumble a little, unsure of what to say.
“It’s ok,” I interrupted, “miss will do fine as you can see. And if you wish to be sure you can just call me Zwokkie.” I gave him a smal snug to prove there was nothing wrong and he relaxed again.
Unlike Chakat, Skunktaurs aren’t that well known to everyone. Of course there were huge news items the days on wich Skunktaurs were rescued from their slavery, and again when our powers were discovered. But the last time there was anything big on Skunktaurs is when almost every single Skunktaur migrated to Chakona to populate the Archipelago. Since then, not a lot of our species left ‘home’. So it’s more common for a Skunktaur to be mistaken for one of the more regular taur species, like wolftaurs or foxtaurs, than it is for Chakats, who have made quite a name for themselves in various fields.
“Well then, Zwokkie, what brings you to my part of the ship?” He asked, while he glanced over my shoulder to see what was displayd on a screen there.
“Professional interest”, I replied, “After all, engineering makes a ship tick, and this place is far more advanced than the StarHopper.”
He gave me a little proud smile, wich is understandable, even though the whole ship is the Captains’ and ultimatley belongs to either Star Fleet or the Star Corps, engineering was his.
“Would you care for a little tour?”, he asked me, offering his arm. I gratiously accepted.
* * * * *
It wasn’t before long that a call was sent out to engineering for me, Captain Silverstripe requested for me to go to hir office. I said my goodbyes to Chief Parkinson, who informed that if I’d like to see them make the ship go into hyperspace, I should return in an hour. They were ready to jump when they got our signal and since they’re in a new relative position to their goal, they had to remap their jump all over again. That is a vital process to the hyperspace jump, once you’re off, there is little to nothing you can do to change course. And when you miscalculated the point of reentry, you could well end up in the wrong place, or worse.
I found my way to the captains office by use of my visor again and put it away before asking permission to enter. When I enterted the office, the first thing I noticed was a completely baffled Captain and a grinning Silktail. The moment I started to ask what was wrong, I realised what had. I was willing to bet that Silktail had predicted the exact moment I’d knock on that door thanks to our little bond.
“Good you could come so soon Zwokkie,” Silverstripe started. Shi was a dark grey Chakat with a silver colored tiger pattern on hir fur. Shi was about the same lenght I was and had long silver manes tied up in a ponytail. Hir green eyes took me up as I looked at hir and turned into an expression of surprise when I got closer and gave my mate a loving hug. I realised I wasn’t wearing my headband and the captain was now subject to both our emotions for eachother thanks to me. I quickly pulled it out of a beltpouch and set it on.
“I’m sorry captain, I forgot to take precautions. I hope we didn’t cause you much discomfort,” I said as I settled down next to Silktail.
“Erm, no, everything is fine,” Shi replied, ” I’m sure there are a lot worse things to feel than that.” Finishing hir answer shi gave a meaningfull look, “My mate and I feel the same things for eachother.”
Shi padded over to me and gave me a friendly greeting, “With all that business I didn’t even get the chance to properly greet you. I’m Chakat Silverstripe, Child of Bluefur and Brighteyes.” I returned hir hug and replied,”I’m Zwokkie of House Bluepaw, Child of Softpaw and Jester. Pleased to meet you.”
Silverstripe let go of the hug, ” Very pleased to meet you too, but now for the real reasons I asked you here.” Shi took on a more businesslike stance and picked up a keypad from hir desk. “Well, first lets take care of some less enjoyable business,” Shi said as shi handed me the pad. I felt sadness comefrom Silktail and guessed what was on the screen before I even read it.
“This is the report from your captain regarding the actions of Alexander Dawson on the CSV StarHopper, I’d like your validation as eye witness,” Captain Silverstripe concluded.
I didn’t have to read it at all, I knew what had happened and I knew that Silktail had given a truthfull testimony. Even though I felt like a heel for doing so, and so did Silktail, the law was the law and Alex had smuggled a bio-weapon on the StarHopper as well as unintentionally sabotageing the ship. I added my signature to the end of the file as witness and handed it back to Silverstripe.
“Next on my list are a few other questions. Firstly, we’d like you to open up the secured hold where you stored the evidence, so we can note it’s contents and safely dispose of it, and we’d also like permission to download data from your computer, partaining the charts of your journey, information on the planets you landed on and the information about all those new fruits and vegetables you found.”
I helped them along with all the information they needed. I could imagine the bioengineers in the hydrophonics-lab having a field day. Who knew, one of those fruits might even end up named after us. Our stellar charts were quickly added to the Marie Curies and Silktail and I had extra notes added to certain planets.
After this was all done, I went to check up on Todd and Alex. Silktail joined me on my little trip and I had the opportunity to show hir my new ‘toy’. Up untill now it looked like I was wearing a matte grey hairclip around the back of my head. I was sucessfull in using the same sort of technology people had used with masking Todds tail, wich was mainly based on using light, thin materials that folded in on itself and miniturisation. Though it wasn;t perfect, it could be better if I could have replicated the same alloy they used with Todd, but when I touched the controll on the glove, two receptors unfolded, a little tab pressed against my ear, a small mike extended next my muzzle and the lightgreen holoscreen flickered into life in front of my vision. Silktail stood amazed.
I had to promise hir shi’d get a go as soon as possible before I was even allowed to lead us towards Todd.
* * * * *
We found Todd sitting outside the doors to the sickbay.
“They’re busy, but they’re afraid to lower the stasisfield for too long,” he told us, “They got a sample and stabilizing him is first priority.”
We both looked through the small windows in the door. Humans and morphs wearing protective suits were delicately moving around the room. It didn’t mean much to me except for the fact that I knew how all that equipment looked like on the inside. We turned back to Todd, who was looking pretty downcast.
“Hey, come on Todd. Stop being so glum,” Silktail said, “They’re busy with Alex, getting him back on his feet. And they have every means available to them to find an antidote. It just takes time.”
Todd looked up at hir while shi was speaking, “Just remember a few things, he’s still alive, he has a chance to get better, and frankly, being all depressed doesn’t do anyone any good. Now snap out of it!”
Todd sighed and started to say something, but a glare from Silktail stopped him in his tracks. “Think about that for a while before you say anything else,” Shi concluded.
I was a bit startled at the tone shi used with Todd, even though I could feel shi didn’t mean a single word, well, not the way shi said it. But I realised Silktail had a point, we had been carefull around Todd for a long time, trying to coax him out of his funk, without any results. Maybe a directer approach was better now. Then I suddenly remembered Parkinsons invitation.
“Anyone want to go and see an antimatter core send a ship into Hyperspace up close?” I ventured. Both of them looked at me with a quizzical expression, I smiled. “If you don;t know what I’m talking about, you really should come along and see.” My words and anticipation quickly drove Silktail into and beyond curiosity and,with some insisting on our part,Todd went along as well.
An antimatter core is usually not a big sight, just a faintly glowing mass within a big frame, surrounded by a containment field. But, when the ship jumps into hyperspace, the core has to provide an enormous amount of power. This to hold the shields to prevent the ship to collapse onto itself, as well as to power the drive responsible for the jump. And this is where things become interesting, due to still unexplained properties of hyperspace itself, the expelled radiation from the core, held at bay by the containment field, assumes a multitude of hues. Almost like looking at a mixture between Earths Aurora Borealis and a huge lasershow.
We were just in time to look at the spectacle. As soon as the short burst of nausea, indicating the jump, hit us, the inside of the containment field exploded into a mass of colors and lights. I knew what to expect, since I’d done an intern on a ship with burst capacity, but I didn’t expect a sight so huge. Granted, big ships need big drives, but I’m sure Parkison had the field expanded to the limits to treat his ‘guests’ to a treat. Both Silktail and Todd were marvelling at the sight. I snuggled up close to Silktail while we watching and soon felt hir tail roaming through mines fur.
* * * * *
We spent some more time in engineering after the core had restabilized. Silktail asked how this wat possible and I let Parkinson explain the phenomenon as far as he, and I, knew.
After that we finally went to the rooms provided for us. It was an, in comparison, huge room. A special matrass had been placed in it instead of a bed and some of our own stuff, wich we had asked for, was neatly stored away. We got our rooms because we were still in for a few day trip. Hyperspace was a means of spanning great distances in only a fraction of the time, and time itself distorts for the traveller as well. In short, what feels like a three day flight, actually took a week, but was faster than the four month trek in regular space.
Of course, since I promised, we did spend the first hour exploring my visor. Silktail wearing it, me explaining it to hir. After about fifteen minutes I had explained the basics to hir and shi began using it on hir own. Less than ten minutes later shi had figured all the options out by hirself and was playing with the thing like a kitten with a toy mouse.
After shi was finished toying, the both of us were so tired after a day like this, we fell asleep as soon as we were undressed and lying down.
* * * * *
The next morning we were woken up by a loud noise at the door. For a moment we were a little disoriented, and almost afraid that we only dreamed being finally picked up. But as soon as the second wave of knocking came, we got our bearings and saw we were still on the Marie Curie. We quickly slipped on our shirts and opened the door, Todd was there, looking distresed.
“Captain, Zwokkie, you got to come along fast,” He began. Our first concern was that Alex’ situation had deteriorated, but this was soon replaced with sursprise and curiosity when Todd took the way to the docking bay, where the StarHopper was. And not to Sickbay.
When we rounded the corner and stepped through the large doors to the deck, there was a bustle going on around and in our ship. Silktail immediately padded up to the highest ranking person around demanding an explanaition. I took a quick glance at some of the parts that were being carried from our ship and reckognised bits and pieces of our engines.
After a bit of arguing the Captain was sent for. Silverstripe arrived quickly.
“What are you doing with my ship?” Silktail exclaimed distraught, shi was obviously agitated because hir tail was wildly twitching.
Silverstripe took a deep breath and began explaining.
“The enginetype used on the StarHopper has been debated for safety quite some time. And the information you gave us, explaining the nature of your accident was enough for me to decide that these engines were indeed a great hazard.” Silverstripe paused for a moment, Silktail was still bristling.
“I also decided that I couldn’t allow such a safety hazard on my ship. Unfortunately I can’t contact Star Fleet while in hyperspace so I had to make a judgement call and had your engines dismantled.”
Silktail took a deep breath and shakily replied to Silverstripe, “All I can say is that I hope Star Fleet has a realy good insurance..”
Silverstipe smiled conspiratorally, putting all three of us off balance with a single look. “Of course, but unfortunately I can;t contact anyone from here. Would it be allright if I offer to install the engines of a small fightercraft. Oh, And I’ll be sure to tell Chief Parkinson to give your entire ship a complete overhaul.” Shi chuckled softly.
Silktail blinked a few times and I felt hir relax. What’s more I first felt a wave of relief followed by mirth. To be honest, I didn’t follow the conversation that much since I saw parts of ‘my property’ being thrown on the recycle heap. But then the innuendo in Silverstripes explanaition hit me. Thanks to our ‘unfortunate’ blackout the StarHopper was going to be outfitted better than ever.
Chief Parkinson arrived a few minutes after Silverstripe was finished speaking and called me to him.
“Well, Star Fleet offers it;s sincerest of apologies,” he told me with a chuckle, “but if there is anything I can do to make up for it, just tell me.”
I felt elated, this was the opportunity to clear my long overdue wishlist for the StarHopper, but before I could talk, my stomach interrupted by reminding all of us we hadn’t eaten since we got on board the Marie Curie.
Parkinson smiled, “Lets discuss that over a good breakfast. I’m byuing.”
Well, of course the food was free, but I admit the remark fit the occasion. The four of us went to the mess hall and had a very expanded breakfast. Captain Silverstripe was there as well, with another Chakat. Shi was a bit larger than Silverstripe with a very unusual fur pattern. Shi was dark brown with white spots along hir shoulders as well as on the shoulders of hir lower body, hur taur belly, and then also hir chest were a creamy white, both hir ears were pitch black. Something about hir looked very familiar.
Silverstripe invited us to join hir table and I was just about to put on my headband again, when I sensed something unusual. It was the strange Chakat. When I got close enough I felt another person next to Silktail, and so did shi. I was totally dumbstruck when the other Chakat turned around to face me I knew exactly what shi reminded me of. Hir fur was exactly the same as were shi a spotted skunk.
“Thanks for coming,” said Silverstripe, “I’d like you to meet someone.”
The other Chakat gave us a warm welcoming hug and introduced hirself, “I’m Chakat Blackears, child of Sharpclaws and Primus.” Blackears chuckled softly as I guessed shi could also sense my confusion. “My sire is a Skunktaur like yourself. I inherited hys fur and hys empathic bond, but no psionics though.” Shi explained.
As we settled down, Silverstripe and Blackears told us they were mated to eachother, in answer to our immediate question they confirmed that they also shared the same bond Silktail and I had. “But for the rest I’m only able to link with Skunktaurs, and I can’t even send as strong as you can to other Chakats,” Added Blackears. Chakat allready posess the ability to form mental bonds, though not as powerfull, but it strengthens with their loved ones.
During breakfast we talked a lot, we shared some of our adventures, told about various beautifull sceneries. We also avoided mentioning ou last brush with death as much as possible. I had taken to put on my headband for now and tried to steer the conversation towards Parkinson, to see what we could do with the StarHopper. After we all ate our fill, the StarHopper would be equipped with a fighterclass drive core, replicators and some older systems would receive complete overhauls. I also had to promise the Chief I’d look over those makeshift EMP protections we fitted in the StarHopper with him.
You see, the StarHopper is just a smal craft, by relative standards, and the engines we had were designed to power it as it was. A small fighter did have a much more powerful drive, for such a small vessel, but it needs to be able to perform at high speeds, power it’s weapons and all sorts of auxilary systems. Since the build of the StarHopper also only permitted it to travel at speeds no greater than warp 7, a drive like that was enough to power the engine, every system on board, the to-be replicators and still have ample power left for whatever you might like.
As it turned out during the conversation, the Marie Curie was stationed on Chakona. She only had to go past earth to download the data from it’s mission, and to give the crew a few days welldeserved leave before heading back home. Even though they weren’t allowed to take off with us on board, there was nothing against picking us up in orbit and then setting us off on Chakona. As stated before, the Hyperspace jump would cut our time considerably and the faster we got home, the better. Besides, it was getting close to ~this~ years festival.
* * * * *
Finally, a few days later we dropped out of Hyperspace. It was still a full days voyage before we reached Earth and could settle into orbit, but regulations don’t let ships enter or leave Hyperspace close to inhabited planets. Silktail and I were extatic, and even Todd, who had lightned up over the past trip, was exited.
“What’s the matter?” I asked him, when I saw him looking into outer space expectantly. “Well, It’s just, I’m almost home,” he replied, “I’ve been remembering smal bits of Earth, what it looked like, even how it smelled.”
For a moment his vision trailed of again, “I’m going to see the place where I’m from, and maybe find out where I belong.”
I nodded silently to his words, happy though as I was, his words did sting because they reminded me of still not being home myself.
The day passed quickly. Silktail had to go to Silverstripes office to take care of some more dreary paperwork. Shi also had to remove our missing status from the central databanks. After meeting up with Blackears for lunch, shi was a very interesting person and briefly I found myself wondering about how open I could be with hir. Seeing as how long it took me to open up to Silktail. Shi was currently off duty, shi worked in the hydrophonics lab, and offered to come along with me to see how work was progressing on the StarHopper.
The Chief walked up to us as soon as we entered the bay. “We’re checking her systems one final time and then she’s all set.” he announced happily, “If you’d like to come along, you can see what we did to your ship.”
I agreed, since I was supposed to be looking after her. That was also the reason why I followed every change they made up close. Blackears and I followed Chief Parkinson while he proudly showed us what he and his men had done. Together we listened to him talk and explain, while beyond conversation one of another kind took place.
I had since a few days refrained to wearing my headband with Blackears around, hir presence as welcome to me as a mothers embrace to a cub. On the other side of the link I also felt Silktail being happy. And through Blackears we felt Silverstripes warm thoughts. The four of us shared, albeit in miniature, the same kind of emotional bond that united almost every Skunktaur in a settlement and it was very pleasant. For me, and also for Blackears, it was like being home. For Silktail and Silverstripe a whole new experiance. We had allready agreed to spend the time on Earth together, Silverstripe and Blackears showing us the sights.
When we all met in the mess hall again for dinner, all five of us, Todd seemed elated. He told us that the doctors on board had finally found a way to remove the toxin from Alex’ system.
“He won’t get any worse when they remove him from the stasis field,” Todd explained, “He won’t be allright though. Half his nerves are gone and he needs to undergo massive gen therapy to regrow them. But he’s going to be allright again.”
We celebrated the good news while on the bridge, orders to establish orbit were given.
While we were finishing off dessert, a messenger rushed up to Silverstripe and whispered something to hir. We immediately felt dread radiate from hir.
“What’s the matter dear?” asked Blackears, taking hir mates hand.
“It seems an escort has been sent to pick up Alexander Dawson, Todd Fox, Zwokkie of House Bluepaw and Chakat Silktail for respecively, court, examination and debriefing.” Silverstripe announced.
“Can they do that?” I asked.
Silverstripe smiled, “No, but they can try.”
***
by taross