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New Alliance Command, Yotan Home-ship New Dawn

Colonel Pauls sighed deeply as he skimmed through yet another incident report. "Commander Stormworn," he sighed deeply, in reality speaking to no one, "you are quickly becoming my favorite person in the fleet." This was her 10th complaint today: it had started first with a few complaints regarding Senior Engineer Tim, the first regarding some Lupin technical standard, then saying he "failed to respect Beta-ranked command staff" (which Paul assumed to be Stormworn herself), and finally accusations of inappropriate access to Lupin technological secrets - if Pauls' eyes could have rolled any harder on that one, they'd have popped out of his head. First response was easy enough - the regulations pointed out had been superseded by New Alliance standards, Tim is a civilian and cannot reasonably be held to Lupin military standards for conduct, and finally that sharing technological secrets as needed is a key underpinning for the New Alliance's success. Unfortunately, she clearly hadn't found that response acceptable, as shortly after she submitted additional complaints to both Hack and Scythe - the latter of which decided to ignore it, and the former simply had kicked it back to Pauls and told him to "work out a resolution with Stormworn." It was abundantly clear at this point she just could not stand working with Tim, and he'd need to find someone else to get anything done at a reasonable pace... but who? A notice from one of the covert agent comms beeped, drawing his attention as such messages sometimes needed to be addressed quickly. "Commander Sabre Blackpaw?" Pauls had to look up the nature of his mission, as it hadn't been one of the high profile agents he'd received command for. Snowlit Dawn... that civilian freighter we upgraded? Why in the void do the Lupin have a covert agent there??? He couldn't help but think as the message decrypted, revealing a request for information on someone he was familiar with, this time for good reasons. Not every day I get to give good news to someone. Should do this personally, it's a reason to avoid "Stormy Stormworn" a bit, and boost my mood.

Snowlit Dawn, Deep Space

Sabre pressed the direct intercom button next to the door of Dorrin's room for the 3rd time. He'd not been responding to his personal comms and privacy mode had been enabled for a while. Ancestors, is he alright? This is not a usual time for him to be asleep, and one would think he wants to hear news of Saril. To make matters worse, Sabre had effectively put his new CO on hold, who was rather confused that Sabre wished for him to deliver this news to Dorrin. Re-briefing new command is always a pain, I shall have to do so immediately following this, apparently there is much this "Colonel Pauls" does not understand. Sabre was more surprised that the Yotan had asked if they could hold the conversion over regular holo-comms if he was being honest, it wasn't as though his mission was a secret any longer... "Marla," he asked with a sigh, knowing she could hear everything said in the corridors, "what is Dorrin doing in there."

"U-uh," her projection appeared, blushing slightly, "can't tell you really, other than he's in that room, along with Ambassador Longtail. They entered at the same time an hour ago and engaged privacy mode." Now it was his turn to blush as he thought of possible implications.. then firmly but politely knocked on the metal door. Several minutes passed slowly as he looked to Marla, who merely shrugged. "Privacy mode is still enabled, knowing Dorrin I'm pretty sure he should have heard that even if he was sound asleep."

"I really wish I did not have to do this..." he grumbled as he keyed in a door override code, pressing a padded finger to a multi-biometric sensor under the intercom. Distasteful, but I must see this through.

The door slid open, revealing Dorrin's sizeably upgraded bunk taking up most of the space in his room. The Tigrin was on the bed, still dressed in his undershorts and shirt, turning his head to look at Sabre. "Uh, s-sorry gramps," he chuckled awkwardly, gesturing at a similarly dressed Ellia, who was holding him close with her eyes closed; "I didn't wanna wake her, she's so cute like this. But every time I try to slide away, she pulls me back."

"I told you Ragerians are clingy!" Marla laughed from the hall as Sabre breathed a sigh of relief.

"Didn't think you meant literally!" Dorrin snorted, trying to shift once more as Ellia's eyes fluttered a bit. "If you're getting me... Saril? You have news???" The Tigrin leapt up, tossing the much smaller Ragerian who had been snuggling him to the bunk with a soft "oof".

"What the hell, Dorrin?" She growled, glaring up at him before noticing Marla and Sabre. "Oh, so it's you two I should be mad at. Do Lupin not understand what 'privacy mode' is?" She complained loudly as she jabbed a finger at Sabre's vest covered chest. He simply gave her a flat look in response... Before his eyes went wide as he watched the bulkhead seemingly slide up and away, revealing a view of deep space.

"What in the ancestors' names???" Sabre wheezed, his heart beating heavy in his chest. For a Lupin, his reaction to seeing an unobstructed view of deep space was mild, even without hypnosis typically employed before exposure when duties called for it, but... It was unnerving for his people in a primal way that was indescribable.

"Uh gramps, what's wro- whoa!" Dorrin gasped in wonder as he turned around, looking out over the vast expanse of nothingness, apart from distant stars and particulate clouds as a backdrop.

"Oh neat!" Ellia yipped, "I didn't know we had those!"

"They were added with the refit," Marla's projection simulated a yawn in response to the question, "I was wondering when someone was going to actually look at the new specs."

"Marla," Sabre grimaced, holding the doorframe in a deathgrip, "will you please shut the view-port, it is... distressing."

"Oh alright, big baby..." She muttered, as bulkheads slid back into place seamlessly, and Sabre let out a sigh of relief, "didn't you want to speak to Dorrin about something?"

"Yes, I was contact by my new commanding officer, who is waiting on holo comms right now." At this, Sabre led the to the mess hall, where the holographic projection of a very bored looking Yotan in a green dress uniform waited. "Colonel Pauls, this is Dorrin, it was he who asked about Saril, who you likely know as 'Stripes,' do you have news for us?"

The projection of the coyote in uniform had been studying the various images and practically jumped in surprise as he turned to Sabre, who held his fist to his chest in the typical Lupin style salute.

"At ease, Commander,"' Pauls sighed, shaking his head a bit, "this isn't a formal briefing." He then turned to Saril, looking him over and about to say something, then he noticed Ellia. "Ambassador Longtail, so this is where you got off to! Should I-?"

"You didn't see me, I'm not here." Ellia growled, glaring at him.

"Ambassador, let's be reasonable, you shouldn't be -!"

"You either saw nothing or I'll have a close friend of mine tie that tail in a knot."

"... oh, right... I must have mistaken you for someone else." He tugged at his collar nervously for a brief moment then turned back to Dorrin. "You were asking about 'Stripes'? Correct?"

At this point, Dorrin was just staring at Ellia, his maw open seemingly in disbelief before his attention turned back to the Colonel. "Yes, I was. Is he... still alive?"

A broad grin spread across Pauls' face as he laughed jovially. "Alive? Well of course he is! In fact, the Lupin are arranging a ceremony to honor him, along with several others who made noteworthy contributions to the defense effort."

Dorrin let out a sigh of relieve, before blinking and looking back up at Pauls. "Wait, what did he do?"

"I cannot speak to specifics," Pauls frowned slightly, shaking his head, "at least not until all the reports have been audited and had any classified data redacted, but I can tell you that there's an orbital platform, several ships, and thousands of civilians who would not be around right now had it not been for his wing."

"I..." Dorrin paused and hesitated, "I'll have to ask him later, don't know what to say right now."

Dorrin's Quarters, some time later

"Ellia..." Dorrin sighed as he flopped onto his bunk, gazing as the stars through the panoramic window he'd just learned existed, "what in the void was that?"

"I-I'm sorry," she muttered, already curled up at the foot of the bunk, "I'm just..." She sniffed, curling herself up tighter. "I'm sort of... crashing, you know, in more than one way. I think I need more than just a rebalance this time."

"You threatened to physically harm someone who's on your side, and wasn't even causing any problems..." Dorrin sighed deeply, rubbing his face, "that's not something I'd have expected from you, under any circumstances."

"I know," she whimpered, hugging Dorrin, "I shouldn't have done that... but I did have to do something. Pauls would have sent a ship to pick me up right once we'd reached our destination. I guess I'd picked up more of Gerra than I'd realized."

Dorrin shook his head, but returned Ellia's hug. "This had better not turn out to be an act," he smiled, but couldn't help but think if it is, then you're not the person I fell in love with.

[I can hear that, you know...] she thought to him with a whimper, [but I'm serious, this is a problem for Ragerians in general, when dealing with, well...]

Other species who can't sense what you do?

"Yes" she flopped against him and looked up, her bright blue eyes shimmering in the ambient starlight. "It's still so easy for me to assume, at least in-person, that everyone else is aware of how I'm feeling, if not the what and can possibly guess the why. Something that is entirely incorrect."

"We often guess, and guess wrong... when we even care."

"I know you care, Dorrin, and that's what really matters to me. I want you with me when I go down to find what happened to my real father. I... don't know what I'll find, but it probably will impact me, and not in a beneficial way."