1y7m3w BV
Light military transport, open space
Milt
Pirates. They were hunting pirates. Ronovin had simply searched a Dominion bounty list and found a target that was both nearby and dangerous enough to matter. They were going in, just the two of them. Against a crew of at least eight.
“This will be like pouncing a nava grub, cub. Nice, easy rules of engagement. No target must be taken alive, all targets can be. We take them down, get a free ship, then turn in the bounty if we want.”
“We’re going bounty hunting and you don’t even want to claim the bounty?”
Ronovin shrugged. “Eh, I was mostly just using the bounties as a list of targets that no one would miss. I bet they even deserve what’s coming too. Now go prep your gear, we go in twenty minutes.”
Milt began the process of donning his hastily-built set of tools and equipment. Two days was not a lot of time to prepare, but he did have access to the equipment that he had used in training.
He donned the Heavy Belt; a pile of kinetics, dampeners, shielding and capacitors. As he plugged it into a power receptacle to top off the charge, the kinetics engaged, negating the majority of the belt’s weight. Into his pouches went a sizable collection of useful tools, a large stack of Stick-n-sleep patches and a pair of stun guns among many others. He holstered a pair of pulse pistols as well.
He donned his holo-goggles and tested the controls. With a few quick glances at a HUD in the upper right corner of his vision, and a twitch or two of his whiskers, he was able quickly create simple scripts for his kinetics to run. He took a moment to create a script, then carefully walked up the wall, across the ceiling, and back down the other side. Everything seemed operational. Milt threw his active camouflage cloak over himself and made his way to the airlock.
“You ready, Brother?” Ronovin called out as Milt entered the airlock. He was checking his own equipment one more time.
Milt nodded nervously as his ears danced, unable to settle in any one position. Feelings of eagerness, anticipation, fear and a pawful of other emotions raced through his head.
Ronovin sat an encouraging paw on his shoulder. “Calm yourself, Milt. Remain in control. The only difference between this and our training is that these guys-” He gestured towards the pirate’s vessel. “-aren’t hardened soldiers that have spent the past few months carefully and meticulously studying every move you made.”
Milt chittered grimly.
“Shouldn’t be too hard, but still, don’t go easy on them. Never fight fair.”
The two of them grasped each other’s paws briefly, then positioned themselves on either side of the door, pulling up their hoods as they settled into position. A resonating thud heralded contact with the opposing vessel. Ronovin opened the ship’s door, exposing the exterior face of the pirate’s vessel. He then used a shaped fusion blade to thin the metal, weakening a door-shaped section of the other ship’s hull.
“First room, they’ll know we’re coming. Maximum firepower until the room is clear. After that, use your best judgement.” He then pulled out a breaching charge, little more than a kinetic thruster attached to a charged capacitor, and attached it to the door.
With the press of a button, the short-lived thruster was fed an enormous burst of power, ripping that section of the wall free. It accelerated to an absurd speed then collided into the far wall of the ship with a disturbing splattering sound. One of the pirates just had a very bad day.
There was panicked shouting coming from the other ship as pulsefire filled the newly created doorway. The two infiltrators held their ground on either side of the opening. As soon as the fire abated, Ronovin rushed through the door with Milt close behind. With two quick swings of an alien blue-grey fusion blade -the only visible sign of the Ronovin- three pirates found themselves lacking a head. Over half the pirates in this room, dead, before Milt even had a chance to land his first pounce.
The two remaining pirates turned their armaments towards the direction that Ronovin had flown. Milt drew a pulse pistol as he sailed through the air, firing a round into the head of the nearest pirate as he landed on him. There was no chance of friendly fire with a shot like that. As an added bonus, the pirate’s shield didn’t work very well against a pulse directly injected into the skull. Ronovin, apparently much more confident in his own accuracy, took out this room’s final pirate with a sustained burst of pulse rifle fire from an unexpected corner of the room.
Five pirates down in under six seconds. Fyu’s balls…
A paw emerged from under Ronovin’s cloak, directing Milt down a hallway. The two of them carefully advanced from room to room, finding most of them empty. Eventually, they came across a room containing two Locayl and a Gaoian crouching behind cover with weapons raised towards the door.
“This group is yours, cub.” Ronovin whispered from just in front of him.
Milt gulped nervously. “Engaging.”
He cautiously entered the room. The three pirates were speaking to each other, but, as nothing tactically relevant was being said, Milt ignored them.
Suddenly the Gaoian sniffed the air and shouted. “They’re here! I think they’re cloaked!”
With a yelp, Milt quickly engaged his kinetics, flinging himself towards the ceiling. Pulsefire saturated the floor where he had just stood.
Slightly dazed from the rough impact, Milt adjusted the kinetics to a reasonable negative point five g. He stood ‘down’ against the ceiling, quietly extracting two stick-n-sleep patches from his pouches. Carefully, he approached one of the two Locayl. He slammed a patch onto his target, then quickly threw himself over to the other, sticking him as well. The two Locayl hit the ground, unconscious, barely two seconds apart.
The Gaoian pirate quickly turned to look at his fallen allies, his ears falling in panic. He raised his rifle and began to wildly pepper the room in pulsefire. With a quick flick of a whisker, Milt inverted his kinetics and fell into a power-pounce, striking the Gaoian with far more force than was reasonable. As quickly as he could, he pulled the Gaoian into a choke-hold. Overkill, perhaps, as the stunned pirate had made no further attempt to resist.
Ronovin entered the room, chittering softly. “Three out of three live captures. Well done cub. There ain’t much left to this ship. You clear engineering and I’ll cover the bridge.”
“We’re splitting up?” Milt hissed.
“Look around, Brother. You’ll be fine.”
“…Acknowledged.”
Milt separated from Ronovin and worked his way back towards engineering. He stepped to the side of the doorway and opened it. Immediately, the air was filled with pulsefire. It eventually subsided, and he peered around the corner. Just as his head passed into the door frame, a burst of pulsefire erupted once more. One shot hit Milt’s head, dissipating easily against his overpowered shield unit. He quickly ducked back around the corner. Two hostiles.
With a quick twitch of a whisker, he shifted to the ceiling and moved into position above the door frame. His shield could easily take several more hits, but even so, he would feel better moving quickly to keep the number of hits low. Pulling out a stick-n-sleep patch in one paw, and the slightly-longer-ranged stun gun in the other, he prepared a new kinetics script.
Bursts of pulse fire continued to fly out of the door every few seconds. He watched and waited, attempting to find a clear moment to strike. When the timing was just right, he leapt into action. With one quick motion, Milt flipped down into the doorway as his kinetics shifted into an assisted lateral pounce. There was a yelp, followed by a much more frantic burst of pulsefire as Milt flew into the room. Only one more pulse hit him before he slammed the patch into the first pirate’s chest. He kicked off the pirate, flipping himself over and jamming the stun gun into the other foe. A surprisingly high-pitched yelp filled the room as the second target fell.
Milt glanced quickly around the room, confirming that no other targets remained, before turning his attention to the two downed Gaoians. The first would be fine… probably. Generally the patches were applied with slightly less force. The second…
…Oh.
…The second was an unarmed female. She lay twitching on the ground.
Milt nervously tapped his paws, unsure of what to do. He just hit a female! With a weapon! Thinking quickly, he pulled out a stick-n-sleep patch and rendered her unconscious. At least that had stopped the twitching. Hopefully he could resolve this without getting himself ostracized in the process.
Ronovin called over the radio. “Bridge clear, status?”
Milt silently vocalized into his hidden microphone. “Two live captures, no other known hostiles.”
“Two more? You lucky cub. I only found one in the bridge. Secure your prisoners and finish clearing the ship.”
After clearing the ship and verifying the condition of each of the former crew members, Ronovin parked their own light transport in one of the ship’s externally accessed cargo holds.
As a captured freighter, this ship didn’t have a brig, but it did have a number of sealed cargo bays that were sufficient for their purposes. All the pirates, save the Gaoian female, were thrown into one of the bays.
The female, meanwhile, was brought to the galley and gently seated across the table from the two Whitecrest operatives. Ronovin removed the patch and injected a light stimulant to hasten her recovery.
Sister Bora
Bora awoke slowly from an unpleasant slumber.
“She’s waking up.”
“I can see that Brother.”
The voices were unfamiliar. Had she been captured again? She tried to shake the sleep out of her limbs, hitting her paw on a hard surface in front of her.
“Easy sister. We’re not going to hurt you.”
Those words were very rarely truthful. Even so, compliance was generally the safest option. If they merely wanted to talk, well, she had found herself in worse situations recently.
“May I help steady you, Sister?” A voice called softly from her left.
She was startled, both by the sudden closeness of the voice, and by its cordiality. “…You may.”
Strong paws pulled her up into a seating position. “I apologize sister. I did not choose the best location for your recovery.”
She opened her eyes. A youthful Gaoian that could only be a Whitecrest Clanbrother was steadying her. She dismissed him with a wave of the paw. He stepped back and joined a much older and rougher Whitecrest on the other side of the table.
“How are you feeling Sister…” The older one asked, raising a paw inquisitively.
The last clouds of drug-induced dizziness were rapidly fading. “Bora. I’ll be fine, Brothers. Who are you?”
“This is Associate Milt and I am Officer Ronovin, both of clan Whitecrest.” He ducked his head respectfully.
“Well met, Milt, Ronovin,” She said, ducking to each in turn.
Ronovin spoke again. “Unless I’m mistaken, you don’t belong here.”
“That is… accurate enough. I was pressed into service by the crew of this ship.”
“Former crew of this ship.”
Bora hesitated. “Former?”
Ronovin shrugged. “I guess half of them still live.”
She ducked her head. “Unfortunate. Most of them deserved death, but a few of them…”
Milt handed over a datapad. “These individuals were captured alive.”
She was relieved to find that her partner, Vert, had survived. They had already signed a mating contract, but had elected to wait until they found safe refuge before pursuing a cub. “Him. He is innocent.” She tapped on the picture of the Gaoian that had tried to protect her from the assault. “The rest of them can rot for all I care.”
Ronovin glanced at his pad. “He is not listed on the bounty.”
“Bounty? Clan Whitecrest is running bounties now?”
“No, this was something special.” He ran his paw against the younger Brother’s head. “Cub’s first raid.”
Bora tilted her head as she considered the new information. “Congratulations, I suppose…”
“We intend to return to Gao soon, but if you require something else of us, we will certainly take that under consideration.”
“…The fate of the pirates?”
“In your hands, Sister. Only you know their crimes.”
“I stand by my prior statement; Only Vert deserves to go free.”
“Very well. Sister, do you have any objections with returning to Gao?”
“No, that is fine.”
Ronovin nodded to the younger Whitecrest, who quickly departed.
Moments later, the ship entered FTL.
“So that Brother…”
Ronovin chittered. “Quite the cub, isn’t he? He didn’t think he could do this. All but one of the live captures was him.”
“…So that was him?”
He nodded.
Bora’s mood soured slightly. “I don’t know what he did… but it was painful.”
“Oh?” Ronovin, sat back and muttered a few quiet phrases.
Milt re-entered the room. “Yes, Ronovin?”
The elder studied Milt. “What did you do? Sister Bora here claims that you hurt her.”
Milt whimpered and ducked his head. “I didn’t mean to. There wasn’t enough time to-”
Ronovin interrupted him, growling impatiently. “What. Did. You. Do.”
“…Stun gun.”
Ronovin muttered softly as he turned back to Bora. “I do not believe that he intended you harm, Sister. But it’s your call.”
Bora peaked an ear in confusion. “What is my call?”
“His punishment. I would rather avoid going through official channels, if possible.”
She turned to look at the sad eyes of the keening Gaoian. “I… don’t think that is necessary. It was quite chaotic.”
Ronovin studied her, then pulled out a small device, made a quick adjustment and jabbed it into Milt. With a yelp of pain, Milt collapsed to the ground. Ronovin stared, intrigued, for a short time before turning back to Bora. “He should have been able to keep a level head in spite of the chaos. Even so, I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive him.”
“…Was that?”
Ronovin nodded and set the device on the table.
Bora picked it up, turning it over in her paws absentmindedly for a moment before setting it down. “How is Vert?”
Ronovin glanced at the datapad, inspecting Vert’s picture. “He suffered a bruised chest, not serious enough to require surgery. Otherwise, he is fine.”
Bora nodded solemnly. “I’m glad to hear that.” After a few minutes of silence, she began to worry about the younger Gaoian on the floor. “Is he going to be ok?”
Ronovin shrugged. “Probably, I’m not sure.” He stood up and kicked at Milt. “Quit your napping, you’ve got a female to apologize to.”
Milt groaned as he tried to roll to his side.
“Oh, get over it.”
Milt blinked several times as he rolled to his back. “You turned that up, didn’t you?”
Ronovin duck-nodded. “And you deserved it.” With a sigh, Ronovin pulled Milt back up to his hindpaws, then shoved him towards Bora.
Milt shuffled over, head hung low. “I’m sorry, Sister Bora. How can I make this up to you?”
Bora tilted her head. “Would I have been spared that” She pointed to the object still on the table. “if you had not tried to save Vert’s life?
He perked an ear for a moment, thinking. “Probably. It’s much easier to operate when the survival of…” He stopped a moment. “It would have been easier to identify you before the engagement.”
Bora set a paw on his shoulder. “Then you owe me nothing, Milt of Whitecrest. Vert’s life is enough.” With a playful flick of the ear, she stood and left the room. “Perhaps we will meet again.”
She stepped out into the hall, before realizing the obvious. She was still on the pirate’s ship and had nowhere to go to.
She had only stood there a moment before she was startled by a voice that called out from her left. “You do realize that you’ll still be on this ship with him for a few days, right?”
Somehow Ronovin had managed to sneak within a meter of her undetected. She took a moment to slow her heart back down before turned towards him. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
He chittered softly. “Even a Stoneback could have seen how you two were looking at each other.”
Speechless, she turned away.
“Alright, I know ya don’t want to talk about that with a male, come.” He beckoned her to walk with him. “So, the clanless, Vert. He should be released?”
“Yes.” She ducked her head away, slightly embarrassed. “He’s been good to me.”
Ronovin growled slightly. “He shot my Brother. I’m gonna need a bit more than that before I let him run free.”
Bora stopped and stared questioningly at him.
“You tell me that he has done nothing wrong and I’ll release him to your custody. Otherwise he’s going to the Straightshields with the rest of them.”
Bora thought for a moment, anxiously tapping a hindpaw. “He’s made mistakes…”
Ronovin snorted a quick chitter. “Yeah, we’re gonna try this again after we land. I’m not gonna chance a mutiny.” He pointed to a room on the right. “He’s in there if you want to visit. The inner door is to remain closed.” He then pointed to another door. “That’s your room. We’ll be back on Gao in a small paw of days. I’ll ask about him again them.”
1y7m2w5d BV
Carpe Aeternum, Outside Wolf: Wilderness Explorer facility, Earth
Chuck
Hindsight, as a wise man once told him, was a bitch. Today, hindsight told him that it would have been far more sensible to cloak the small shuttlecraft slash escape pod located under the bridge than to cloak the whole of the Carpe Aeternum. But he hadn’t. Instead, he now had to navigate on Earth using a ship that couldn’t fit anywhere.
Which is how he now found himself floating upside-down, cloaked, over the parking lot of his old Wolf: Wilderness Explorer facility. He glanced overhead, watching carefully as the wireframe model indicating the edges of his ship inched closer towards one of the company trucks. The irony of arriving in an invisible craft to whisk something away was not lost to him.
He carefully inched downwards until the upper deck of the ship was less than a foot from his selected vehicle. Forcefields engaged, securing the roof of the truck to the hangar’s deck. The grav plating engaged as well, creating a bubble of microgravity around the ‘upper’ flight deck. He wasn’t quite sure how strong the roof of the truck was, but with the Carpe Aeternum’s dampeners, it should be fine. Probably. One final gesture extended the ship’s cloaking field to envelop the vehicle, as Chuck quickly inverted the craft and flew towards Las Vegas.
Porter Gold and Pawn, Las Vegas, Earth
Kevin Paisley
The door chimed as a rather unusually dressed man entered the shop. The closest description he could come up with was ‘formal tracksuit’. “Can I help you?”
The man walked up to the counter and pulled out a handful of coins. He set them on the counter. “I’m looking to sell these.”
Kevin picked up one of the gold coins and inspected it. The stamping was unfamiliar, as was the intricate knurling along the edge. “What can you tell me about them?”
The man smiled. “A very poor investment. Bought them from a long-dead little dot-com startup. They’re supposed to be one ounce of twenty four karat gold each.”
Kevin nodded. “I’ll have to test these back in the lab.”
The man stared blankly for a second before nodding.
Kevin selected three of the dozen coins; one from roughly the top, middle and bottom of the stack. After verifying their composition in the shop’s small laboratory, he returned to the counter and set the full stack onto the shop’s precision scale. “As I am unable to determine these coin’s historical significance, I’m only able to offer you our scrap rates.”
“I figured as much.”
“You have nothing to worry about, sir. We offer one of the city’s highest rates for gold of this purity.” Kevin turned to the scale. “So, the total would come to… twenty three thousand, eight hundred seventy five dollars. What form of payment would you prefer?”
“Cash.”
Kevin blinked. “I’ll have to get a manager.” He left the front counter. Most forms of payment could be made offline at a later time, after a more thorough testing could be completed. Cash, well, couldn’t. After a quick call to the supervisor he returned to the counter. “The manager will be here shortly. He has the keys to the safe.”
The man nodded and turned to take a seat in one of the shop’s chairs.
While waiting for his boss’s arrival, Kevin gathered all the information he legally could about his customer without prying further. There wasn’t much, mostly just his truck’s plate number and a picture of the truck’s signage; Wolf: Wilderness Explorer.
The manager arrived with a small suitcase of cash. After re-counting the funds, and re-verifying the gold’s purity, he and the customer concluded the deal.
Kevin took the coins to log them into inventory. On a whim, he placed a pair of them in the display cabinets. There was something unusual about them. Maybe someone would pay a premium for them.
1y7m2w5d BV
Galley, Pirate vessel, Gao orbit
Ronovin
Milt and Ronovin stood alone in the bridge of the captured vessel.
“Are you satisfied, Milt?”
The cub tilted his head. “With what?”
“Your training.”
“I…suppose?”
“Come on, give me a better answer than that. You asked me to ‘teach you how to win’. Are you happy with the results?”
Milt stared blankly lost in thought.
“You wanted to best Hunters, pirates, and me, correct? You got the Hunters before we ever started.” He pointed towards the front of the ship. “Here’s the pirates. And as for me…” He shrugged.
Milt peered at him. “I still can’t fight you.”
“You didn’t ask to learn how to fight me, you asked to learn how to beat me.” He paused a moment, thinking. “I can count at least as dozen ways that you can take me down with the just the equipment you have on you.”
Milt sighed. “You could do the same to me.”
“‘Course I could. That’s how I fight, and that is how I trained you. If you want to learn how to brawl, I can talk to Cousin Aru, but I don’t think that that is what you want.”
Milt pondered a minute. “Could I really beat you though?”
The cub had snuck his stun gun out of its holster and thrust it towards Ronovin as he spoke. Ronovin disarmed him and turned it back against him with a sigh. “Cub, that’s insulting. At least try to- yelp”. Ronovin rubbed his injured paw. He looked at Milt, then down at where the stun gun had fallen to the floor, it had metal contacts clearly visible along the grip. He turned back to Milt and waited a few more moments to speak. “How long have you been holding on to that one?”
Milt looked just slightly smug. “Nearly two months.”
Ronovin chittered softly. “C’mere.” He playfully pounced on Milt, quickly subduing him before pulling him into a smothering embrace.
1y7m2w4d BV
Thalias’ office, Whitecrest Clan Enclave, Wi Kao, Gao
Officer Thalias
beep.
The sound of a message arriving on his datapad woke Thalias. He lifted his head off of his half-eaten lunch.
After Busani had confirmed that the Human Investigation Division had the Fathers’ ears, Thalias had redoubled his efforts. He stayed awake late every night personally sifting through and sorting through every scrap of intelligence he could get his paws on. Every night he worked until no dose of stimulants could keep him awake any longer. So much to learn, so little time to study; It had rapidly become obvious that he simply could not keep up with everything. But, lacking any other ideas, he resolved to try anyways, in spite of the obvious futility; The human datagrid was just too damned big.
He sighed, wondering if there were any cures for sleep. There was simply no time for that luxury anymore. Yawning, he rolled his paws across is face, dislodging a few stubborn crumbs that clung to his fur. He slid his datapad across the desk as he finished his grooming. The message had come from Whitecrest Intel. Curious as to why he would be the recipient of an intelligence briefing, he waved his paw over the screen to view it.
FWD: Human Investigation Division, Officer Thalias
Law enforcement report of Gaoian pirate activity noted in Capula System. One Gaoian and one suspected human involved in sale of stolen property. Forwarded to your department due to potential human involvement.
…
Ever since negotiations had begun to join the Dominion, Whitecrest made significant efforts to track Gaoian pirate activity. Sooner or later someone was going to complain and force Gao into action. Whitecrest obviously thought it best to prepare for that eventuality. The presence of a human among the Gaoian pirates was certainly a cause for concern.
Thalias scanned the rest of the document. Interestingly, the report mentioned zero fatalities. Whoever that human was, he must have been rather strong, either in will or simple brute strength, to keep the Gaoian muzzled. From these first impressions alone, he certainly seemed a reasonable potential candidate for Whitenet indoctrination.
This may be a good first mission for Chuck. Sent a human to meet with a human and… wait, no, that would be irresponsible. What if the report was inaccurate? Chuck was strong, sure, but against a potentially hostile human? He was too valuable an asset to risk with so little mission intelligence available. If Thalias failed again at managing the human… well, the Fathers would not be pleased.
Apparently, their reputation was already bad enough that Father Busani had felt the need to instruct Thalias to perform a task that had already been part of his responsibility for years. He wasn’t sure if his division could survive another failure. So, no. Perhaps send Chuck on a follow up assignment, but not for the initial assessment.
Fortunately, the Human Investigation Division was about to welcome a new Officer into its ranks. In just a few more days, Hiron’s ascension trials would be complete. Without another pressing assignment, he would be available to deploy; Unless, of course, the Fathers immediately reassigned him.
Hmm, well, nothing could be done to avoid that. It would be best to just assume he would still be available, and adjust plans later as needed. He would, however, still need time to recover from his trials.
“I’ll give him a little while to rest before briefing him.” Thalias muttered to no one in particular.
Setting aside the notes, he stood and left his office. As one of Hiron’s mentors, he should be present for at least some of his trials. Remotely arranging a shuttle to take him to the glade of the rites, he stepped out into the cool spring air. As he waited for the shuttle to arrive, he closed his eyes and took a deep, relaxing sniff. Simple pleasures like this made him wish he had more time to spend out of the office. He sat down on the lawn and laid back, enjoying the fleeting moment of peace.
1y7m2w4d BV
Home improvement store, Las Vegas, Earth
Chuck
Shopping. After several months in space Chuck finally returned to Earth and spent nearly the whole time shopping. He had already purchased a substantial quantity of groceries and restaurant prepared meals, perfectly preserved by the wonder that is the stasis box. And clothes; boots. Of all the things that he had missed from Earth, he had never thought that high quality footwear would top that list.
Now, he stood in line at the checkout counter, cart loaded with several thousand dollars of walnut lumber. There were also other ‘essentials’ in his cart, including a small pile of potato and strawberry seeds to try in his new hydro-farm.
He paid, loaded his truck and drove off into the desert where his ship was parked. After a several minutes spent flailing his arms in an attempt to locate the hidden vessel, he finally found the door to the ship. As a precaution, he inverted his ship and engaging its field cloaking systems. With it parked in a hover over his truck, there should be little chance of being spotted by anyone that didn’t physically run into it.
Chuck entered the hangar’s elevator, adjusting it to microgravity as the elevator extended towards the ground. He carefully worked his way to the ceiling and gradually adjusted the elevator car’s gravity field to match Earth’s familiar one g.
Thus began the painstaking process of loading several hundred pounds of cargo. Move a load into the elevator, set to microgravity, move cargo ‘up’ to floor, match ship gravity, move to the eight square meter hydro-farm for biofield decontamination, pull back out and stow in cargo hold, repeat.
After nearly an hour, Chuck had finally finished loading the Carpe Aeternum. He extended the hangar’s fields to grab his truck and began the flight towards his next destination; a starving artists show in Milwaukee.
Chuck mentally counted off the supplies he had gathered so far, verifying that he specifically recalled each and every item passing through the bio-field. Lumber, seeds, jerky, clothes, groceries… wait.
With a sigh, Chuck returned to the cargo hold, then passed each of the grocery filled stasis boxes through the bio-field again, this time opening them first. Stupid shit like that could get sapients killed if he was not careful.
After re-securing the cargo, he traveled up to the hangar deck. Walking out onto the open, invisible deck, he couldn’t help but stare in awe as the mountains flew by overhead. He set down a just-purchased lawn chair, locked it to the deck with force fields, and took a seat. After months of travel through space, here he was. On Earth.
A thought struck him; He could stay. Easily. Just land the ship, drive back home, forget all about everything that happened. Sure, there would be some questions to answer, but still… his old life back.
Chuck sighed as the mountains began to give way to rustic expanse of the great plains. If he returned to Earth… What then? The FBI listed him as a missing person. If he went home, then decided to leave again… No, if he disappeared a second time, there would be nothing left to return to. You don’t just go missing twice without ruining your name. If he returned to Earth, he would have to remain for good.
But he had a ship. One that could, apparently, travel to Earth with ease. He could return any time he wanted! Pragmatically, there was simply no reason to reveal himself until he made his final decision… which also could wait. It’s not like Earth was going to suddenly disappear or something.
Chuck returned to the cargo hold to grab a beer. Rather than wasting one of the newly purchased ones, he grabbed one of Hiron’s brews. When given the proper time to age, they actually turned out just fine. They weren’t beer, but whatever. Good enough. He returned to the hangar deck with his beverage and tried to figure out how the hell he was going to park this ship in urban Wisconsin.
1y7m1w5d BV
Ronovin’s office, Whitecrest Clan Enclave, Wi Kao, Gao
Chuck
Ronovin opened the door and entered his office. He stopped just as he entered the room, sniffing the air.
Chuck slowly began his approach.
“Good afternoon Ronovin.” Milt called out, stepping from behind a cabinet. “You really need to change your access codes more often.”
Ronovin glanced around the room, puzzled. “Milt. What are you doing in here?”
“I was asked to arrange a meeting.”
Ronovin glared at Milt’s translator suspiciously. “There’s someone else here. It smells like-” He didn’t have a chance to finish the thought before Chuck lifted him into a massive bear hug.
Chuck spoke from under the hood of his camouflage cloak. “These things work pretty well.”
“Chuck?” Ronovin tried to break free. “What are you doing on Gao? How did you get here?”
Chuck smiled, pointlessly. “Your security needs work. I parked the Carpe Aeternum out on the east lawn and no one even noticed.”
He tilted his head. “No one noticed?” He thought for a moment. “When did you cloak your ship?”
“Oh, about two weeks ago.”
Ronovin froze for a few seconds, before breaking into a chitter. “Ya know, that answers a few questions… Hmm, and raises a lot more.” Clearly, Chuck’s ease of ingress concerned the beast.
Chuck gently set Ronovin down and lowered his hood. “I thought I’d bring a few presents.” He gestured to a pile of four stasis boxes sitting on Ronovin’s desk.
Ronovin shook out his head. “What do you have there?”
“Oh, a few snacks. One for me, one for Hiron, and two for Milt.”
Ronovin and Milt both focused their gaze on him.
Ronovin puzzled for only a moment. “Two for… mmhmm.” He nodded and looked to Milt.
Milt took a bit longer. He looked at Chuck, who was smiling at him, then glanced at Ronovin, who was staring pleadingly. As Milt searched the two for clues, his face changed from a look of confusion, to a look of frustration, then of understanding, before finally settling to a more neutral position. He slowly and calmly walked over and stood between Ronovin and Chuck, grasping each of them by the wrist. With a solemn glance at Chuck, and then at Ronovin, he brought their two hands (or paws in Ronovin’s case) together.
Chuck and Ronovin exchanged confused glances as Milt momentarily pulled his paws away, returning them with a metallic clang.
Puzzled, Chuck looked down to see that he had been handcuffed to Ronovin.
Milt stepped back and pressed a button on a small remote. An electric shock surged through his wrist. Chuck couldn’t help but cry out. Ronovin let out a much more agonized yelp as he fell to the ground. Chuck followed him, if only to prevent Ronovin from injuring his wrist.
Chuck turned to Milt, his heart racing from adrenaline. “What the hell was that for?”
Milt walked over and set a paw on Chuck’s face. “I love you almost as a Cousin, Chuck. But don’t do this to me.”
“Do what?”
Milt stepped back. “Don’t use me.”
“I wasn’t using you, I was using him.” Chuck pointed at Ronovin.
Milt snarled as he thrust a paw towards the stasis boxes. His ire quickly subsided, and he fell into a nearby chair. “You helped me when no one else would, and for that I am grateful. But I’m not some stupid, useless cub.” He stood up and walked back towards Chuck. “If you want me to spy on someone for you. Just. Ask.” Those last two works were punctuated with a paw to Chuck’s chest.
Keening softly, Milt removed the cuffs and collapsed into Chuck’s arms. He took a deep breath. “Please don’t hate me for this.”
Chuck smiled as he scratched Milt’s flank. This was a new being that he now held in his arms. The tortured sapient that had entered his bedroom a few months ago would never have been this assertive. “I’d never. I’m glad to see that you’ve grown.”
Milt tilted his head towards Chuck. “You see it too?”
Chuck just smiled and nodded. He glanced over at Ronovin, who still hadn’t done more than twitch unnaturally. “Is he ok?”
Milt reluctantly pulled himself away and stepped over to Ronovin, kicking him in the chest. He seemed satisfied with the light wheeze that came from the pained Gaoian. “He’ll be fine. I’ve taken worse shocks than that, and he’s supposed to be the tough one.” He tilted his head and perked a thoughtful ear. “Though, I did have to turn it up a bit for you.”
Ronovin groaned and slowly attempted to sit up. “Whuja do that for?”
Milt pounced on him, bared fangs mere inches from Ronovin’s face. “You lied to me.”
Ronovin tilted his head, confused.
Milt snarled as he smacked Ronovin in the face. “I saw the way you were looking at Chuck. You are trying to use me to get to him.” He thrust a paw towards Chuck.
Ronovin rubbed his face. “Well, yeah. I told you that.”
Milt stopped mid-snarl. “…What?”
“Right after I said I was done lying to you I-.” Ronovin glanced over to Chuck, hesitating for a moment. “Ya know what, I’m sure he knows already.” He turned back to Milt. “I told ya that I needed you to put in a good word to Chuck for me.”
Milt fell back, scrambling away from Ronovin.
“You don’t remember that?” Ronovin perked a thoughtful ear. “That explains a lot.”
Milt sat in quiet contemplation for a while. Chuck didn’t dare to break the silence.
Finally, Milt responded. “You told me, right there on the ship that you needed my help with Chuck?”
“I did.”
Chuck glanced over at Ronovin. The Gaoian caught his gaze and shrugged in some sort of half-hearted apology.
Milt let out a depressed sigh as he walked over and nuzzled Ronovin. “Then I am sorry, Brother.”
So close to fitting; Oh well. Continued in comments below.
Chuck quietly messaged Hiron, letting him know that he had arrived. He smirked at Milt, pointing to the boxes. “I’m still going to leave the decision in your hands, Milt.”
Milt rested a paw on his face and shook his head. He glanced at Ronovin, cocking his head towards Chuck with a playful flick of the ear.
Chuck was knocked to the side by a chittering projectile. Ronovin landed on top of him, panting excitedly. He licked Chuck’s face, then rolled off, chittering happily.
Chuck wiped the spittle from his face. “Are you really going to keep doing that?”
Ronovin lent Chuck a paw to help him to his feet. “I gotta do something. You don’t even seem to notice anything else. So, yeah.” He pant-grinned.
Hiron entered the room, his ears perking as he noticed the off-world visitor. “Good to see you, Chuck.”
“Good to see you too. So, did you beat Ronovin yet?” Chuck cocked his head towards Ronovin with a sly grin.
Hiron’s ears fell and a slightly sick expression fell onto his face. “Well…”
Ronovin interjected, flattening his ears and glaring disappointedly at Chuck. “The conflict was successfully rendered irrelevant.”
Peculiar. Ronovin was declining to claim a victory that Hiron seemed willing to grant him. Something had obviously happened between those two. Chuck diplomatically nodded. “Good to hear. How’s your head feeling, Hiron?”
“I believe that I have resolved most the important consequences of that event.” Hiron spoke as he and Ronovin shared another glance with each other.
Not good enough. Chuck walked over to Hiron and ran his hand across the site of the injury.
Hiron chittered softly as he gently pushed Chuck away. “I’m fine, Chuck. You’ve done enough to help.”
Chuck smiled. That was the answer he needed. Hiron seemed annoyed by his actions, not at him personally. That could be resolved later. As much as he wanted to know what had transpired between Hiron and Ronovin, he knew better than to ask. The answer would come, in time, if they cared to discuss it.
Stepping back, he approached the desk. “So, I bet you are wondering why I brought you here?”
Ronovin glanced at the other two Whitecrest Brothers, then at the desk. “It ain’t that hard to figure out.”
Chuck smirked as he addressed Ronovin. “Do you remember the morning at the Riverclaw Cafe?”
Ronovin perked an ear. “I do.”
Check gestured to the boxes. “Gentlegaoians I bring you, lobster. Generally you eat only the tail, claws and legs, but I’ve put them through a biofilter, so, technically, it should all be safe.”
They each took one box and opened it. Inside was a steaming freshly cooked Maine lobster and a small cup of drawn butter. Each of the Gaoians were sniffing the air, with Ronovin in particular nearly jumping in giddy anticipation.
They dug in, telling stories as they ate. There was good news from Hiron. The Gaoian had, just two days prior, completed his trials and became a full Officer of Whitecrest! He said that the trials were a truly life changing experience. But, in spite of Chuck’s pleading, he refused to elaborate further. Conversation soon turned to Milt and his encounter with pirates. Chuck listened, fascinated. So much had happened since he had last seen the younger two Whitecrests!
Chuck finished his lobster, though the Gaoians were, inevitably, unable to finish their crustaceans in a single sitting.
Ronovin had nearly finished his, thoroughly overstuffing himself in the process. He had rolled to the floor midway through his meal. “That was everything that I hoped it would be.” With a pained whine, he rolled over to look at Chuck. “Where did you get them?”
Chuck smirked. “Earth.”
Ronovin duck-nodded, brushing his snout along the floor. “Ah, that makes sense.”
“That’s not all I brought you guys.” He opened his bag and pulled out a ten pound ham. “You’ll have to split it, I only brought the one. I think you’ll get, what, thirty or fourty meals out of this?”
Hiron picked it up, slightly struggling with the weight. “Probably, yes.”
“It’s pre-cooked, so you don’t have to worry too much about preparation. Grill it, bake it, whatever.”
Ronovin lifted his head slightly off the ground. “Did I ever tell you how much I like you, Chuck?”
“You’re just saying that because I brought you a lobster.”
“Probably.” He grunted. “Or maybe there was some kinda narcotic in that?”
Hiron replied with a taunting cock to his ears. “No, you ol’ whitesnout, you just couldn’t figure out when to stop eating.”
“…Come ‘ere so I can pounce ya.”
Hiron happily obliged, defeating Ronovin with trivial ease. It turns out that holding a pin is easy when the opponent can’t even stand up on his own.
After farewells, Chuck left the three Gaoians behind. He had one more stop before he left Gao. Pekin had earned a ham as well.