FSE

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Chapter 16

Strong Soul untied the knot just beneath her bent left ear and unwrapped the shemaugh from around her head. Sand fell from the woven cotton to the deck panels as the main hatch closed behind her. She was starting to get used to being clothed eartip to tailtip with the last planet they visited. Once the cloth was undone, she lifted the goggles from her eyes and hung them on a hook near the hatch.

"Tell me again why we're going this route?" she asked, turning to watch Night Star unwrapping his own face.

With all the clothing and sand obscuring their forms, she could hardly tell that Night Star and Stargazer were the ones in the airlock with her. Long, light cotton covered their entire form and draped in such a way that it was nearly impossible to tell whether the person wearing all the cloth was human or Mrr'tani. The only thing that gave them away was the long tails protruding from behind.

The hot, dry smell of sand was everywhere around them in the small airlock, and Strong Soul could feel the grit in her fur, making her skin itch as much as her dry nose. She hung the shemaugh on the hook with her goggles and then stripped off the rest of her covering, leaving her in her usual utility pants and comfortable shirt.

"Don't complain, love," Night Star said when he had his head covering off. "At least you could get off the Pride for a little while on the last two stops. I think you were about to drive poor Stargazer up the wall after the stop at Duat."

"She was doing nothing of the sort," Stargazer said, hanging the last of his gear on his own hook. "I found her to be a most satisfactory student, in fact."

"I have to admit that it was fun watching the two of you throw each other around the hold," Night Star admitted.

"Hush you," Strong Soul said, grinning. "I'll find a way to get you to practice with me yet."

"It wouldn't be a fair fight," Night Star said as he pushed the button to open the inner airlock door. "You can read my mind, after all."

Strong Soul laughed, for the first time feeling more at home on the Pride than anywhere else, though she had realized not too long ago that it wasn't the place any longer that gave her the feeling of home, it was the people she was with.

"I can read Stargazer's mind, too, and it didn't seem to give me any special advantages."

"You oversimplify the Mrr'ouwff, Keeper," Stargazer said. Strong Soul noted how he was always careful to never use that name outside the ship. "It is not a parlor trick. It is a link between a Frr'a'narr'ah and her clan. Thoughts are not something that can simply be read like a book."

"I know, Stargazer," Strong Soul said, shaking her head. She figured he'd take her seriously. "Eventually, you'll figure out when I'm joking."

She heard Night Star's quiet chuckle behind her and she turned to glare at him. "What?"

He just gestured in Stargazer's direction and walked through the hatch into the ship. When Strong Soul turned around, she found Stargazer grinning at her, and his amusement radiated in his mind glow. She narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

"Alright, Stargazer. You got me. Come on, let's get this sand out of our fur and get going."

"Of course, Keeper," he said, still grinning.

The two of them ducked through the hatch and it sealed behind them. They stepped into the bridge just as Night Star was settling into his usual chair and bringing the systems to life.

"Strap in," he said, not turning his attention away from the monitors. "I don't know about you two, but I'm ready to brush the sand off."

"More than you know," Strong Soul said. She reached into her fur and picked out another of the ubiquitous sand fleas that had managed to infest her coat in the two days they'd spent on New Mecca and flicked it aside with an annoyed growl. With her other hand, she scratched where it had bitten her.

"You'll be finding those in your fur for the next week," Night Star said, shaking his head. "One of the hazards of this place. The Mrr'tani who live here are made of tougher stuff than I am."

"Better than Friedenhold," Strong Soul said. "I thought I'd be frozen solid forever after we got done there."

"Aw, love, you had the two of us to warm you up," Night Star said with a grin.

"And that's the only reason I think I thawed."

"Well, you'll like the next world. We're going to be staying for at least a week on Tapu. Marcus keeps a vacation home there, and one of the perks of being his personal delivery crew is that we get to use it when we stop there."

"If you would have told me that long ago, I may have traveled with you before now," Stargazer said from his seat behind Strong Soul.

"Oh, so it's not that we're friends, it's the house on Tapu. I guess I know where I rank," Night Star replied with a fake pout on his face.

Stargazer chuckled as he turned to his own screen. Strong Soul didn't need to turn around to know that he was watching the feed from the various cameras on the outside of the hull. He took his role as her protector quite seriously, and she'd not been able to get away from him anywhere.

Not that she minded in the slightest. Ever since the night she'd "harnessed" him, she found that his presence was more comforting than disconcerting, more like the presence of her arm or her leg. He was a part of her, deeper than she'd ever felt, and she couldn't even imagine not having him around.

"The departure pad is clear, master Jason," Micah's voice said beside her.

"Let's hit it, then," Night Star said, punching the screen in front of him.

The liftoff from New Mecca was even more dramatic than any of the other planets. The loose sand blew around the ship as they rose, completely obscuring the view through the windows.

"Good thing there's nothing to hit," Night Star said. He was leaning back in his chair and letting the autopilot take them out of the atmosphere.

"The underground city was pretty impressive," Strong Soul said, "and it makes it quite easy to take off."

A prickle of curiosity ran through her spine, perking her ears and drawing her attention to Stargazer behind her.

"What is it, Stargazer?" she asked.

"Viewscreen 3, please, Micah, on all screens," he said, leaning forward in his chair.

The screens in front of Strong Soul and Night Star changed to a view of the ventral hull of the Pride. Strong Soul had seen it often enough over the last couple days as the only refuge from the burning sun was either the city beneath the surface or sheltered under the Pride.

She leaned forward, mimicking Stargazer's posture and watched the sand swirl starting to fade away as their altitude increased. As it thinned, she started to see a sharp line in the random pattern of the dust and sand. It extended a slight distance from the hull and looked vaguely like a disk inscribed within the sand.

"Well there's why we haven't seen anyone following," Night Star said. "They haven't needed to."

"What is it?" Strong Soul asked.

"Unmanned reconnaissance pod," Night Star said. "AI designed to go where they tell it. Attach it to a ship and it just feeds back all the intel you want. It just stores it all and then sends it to every Allied ship it sees."

"I would hazard a guess that when it sees another ship, their intelligence officer will be quite perplexed with our choice of route," Stargazer said.

"I would say you're probably right," Night Star replied, "The IOC on Duat is probably quite confused. I don't think we've seen any other Allied ships since then, though."

"No, but that doesn't mean that they have been absent. Some of their intelligence cruisers can be very stealthy." Stargazer considered the screen and his whiskers twitched with concentration. "I believe the best course of action is to remove it before we jump again."

"Hopefully they haven't updated their schematics all that much in the last couple years," Night Star said. "A friend on New Earth got me the plans on them a few years ago. I always meant to sell them, but never got around to it. They were just too interesting."

"You always did have a fascination for mechanical contraptions. Probably why you're still flying."

"That's what we'll do, then. We'll go out and get it when we're out of the gravity well. We'll figure out what to do with it after we get it off."

"Are you certain that's the right thing to do?" Strong Soul asked. "I don't know if I like having some recorder on the ship."

"Not to worry, love," Night Star said, "we'll have it deactivated. I think I'd be a little more comfortable leaving it to drift here, though. If we can salvage the storage chips on it, we can short the rest out and then slag it."

"Just be careful. It doesn't seem that the humans take much for granted when they're trying to find Frr'a'narr'ahn."

"Don't worry. I'll have Stargazer out there to watch my back and help me out. If you can spare him, that is."

"I don't think I'm going to have any problems on the ship," Strong Soul said. "Go do what you need to do."

Night Star looked behind him and tapped Stargazer on the arm. "You ready?"

"Of course," Stargazer said.

Together, the two of them stood and headed off the bridge, leaving Strong Soul in her usual seat. She didn't need them to be close to feel them still in her mind, so the bridge didn't feel nearly as empty as it used to when she was first aboard.

"Micah, can you please make sure I can see them when they're out there?" she asked.

"I will keep the active sensor focused on them, Strong Soul," he said. The monitor in front of her changed to show a view of the outside of the airlock.

"We'll orbit at one zero zero thousand kilometers, please, Micah," she said, reaching out to touch the correct settings on the system. She felt Night Star's glow of approval and she smiled. It hadn't taken her long to learn what she needed to know to keep the ship flying, and she was well on her way to being a competent pilot, though she still had a ways to go before she would even think about trying to fly the ship on manual. She'd watched Night Star fly her a few times, and though it looked easy, she could sense his intense concentration when he was doing it. It was something she wanted to try, though, because layered beneath the concentration was a sheer joy that she longed to feel for herself.

The numbers changed on the screen in response to her command and she double checked them before she was satisfied that everything was working properly. Never trust a computer, not even Micah, Night Star had told her, and she didn't want this to be the first time something went wrong on her watch. Not with her family outside.

It wasn't long before the altimeter leveled off at the requested orbit height and a soft chime sounded to let her know that a stable orbit had been achieved. She took her eyes off the instruments and pressed a button on the console. "We're stable, Night Star. You can go when you like."

"Okay, love," he said over the comm, "We're suited and ready. Micah, open the airlock hatch, please."

Strong Soul watched the sensor feed from the outside of the ship and saw them walk out the hatch and down the hull. Every step they made was careful and deliberate, and the concentration she sensed from the two of them rivaled the intensity with which Night Star flew. She knew that he was putting all of his focus into what he was doing.

"The object was detected one hundred meters to starboard and fifty meters to stern," Micah said, keying into both the speakers in the bridge and their suit comms.

"Okay, heading aft. Let me know when to turn starboard," Night Star replied.

Stargazer hadn't said anything, but she could tell he was being just as careful and watchful as Night Star. If anything, his mind tasted even more of wariness. She leaned forward and looked closer at the picture on the screen and she realized that in addition to the tools around his waist, he carried a pulse rifle, similar to the one that she used on occasion in Airgidbaile. It looked a bit larger and more modern than the one she was used to, but he handled it as if he was born to it.

"What do you know about these drones, Micah?" she asked, watching them make their way carefully along the hull.

"They were designed initially to ensure human pilots were not needed for long-term and long-distance reconnaissance. Before they were in widespread use, a human pilot was required to fly a small, stealthed craft to obtain the desired information. The most famous recon pilot of the modern age was Henry Chalker, who flew five reconnaissance missions total. His final mission left him outside of Allied controlled space without support for one year, six months and two days."

"That's a long time to be in a little ship," Strong Soul remarked, thinking that if it was her, she'd have died of boredom and sheer lack of nature.

"His record is still intact," Micah said, "as manned flights of that sort were discontinued only two standard years after his record-setting journey. Now drones are used to collect needed information, as they do not have the same biological needs as human pilots. Most drones are designed to function from solar power or from harnessing the electromagnetic field inherent when a ship traverses both normal space and hyper."

"Seems they have good stealth technology, too," Strong Soul remarked.

"Of course. A drone such as these would be useless if it were detectable. The Allied Planets have been developing stealth technology for some time, though they have yet to succeed in stealthing anything larger than a two-man vessel. Some of their research has led to other developments, but nothing that is as sophisticated as the drones."

"Well, that's good. It means there probably isn't one of those around here."

"No. Most of the stealthed two-man vessels are utilized within the core. They require substantial support from other ships and would be quite unwieldy to use this far from the Allied core. Turn now, please, Master Jason."

"Heading starboard," Night Star said, and Strong Soul watched them turn and begin heading to where they'd seen the disk.

All was quiet in the bridge while she watched the two of them get closer to the disturbance. Micah had highlighted the area of the hull on the screen where they'd seen the object, approximating its position and its size. The highlighted area seemed slightly taller than Night Star, though it was only about as wide as the Mrr'tanou.

Night Star stretched out his hands and looked at the small monitor on his suit's arms, inching his way to the highlighted area, and finally stopped. Strong Soul could see that his hand was pressed up against it, and he started working his way around by feel.

"Update tracking, Micah," he said. "Track to my hand."

The highlighted area on the screen started to shift, the purple estimation starting to fill in with red confirmation contours. As she watched, the drone took shape, including the small sensor cluster bumps on its surface. Stargazer watched from a safe distance with his rifle at the ready, pointed off into space for the time being. Night Star watched his own monitor while the sensors in his suit glove gave form to the object. Finally, when it was mostly filled in, he stopped and then moved backwards, still working by feel. One hand stayed pressed against the invisible object while the other fished out a small tool from his belt. He pressed the tool against the object, and after a couple quick turns, it faded into view.

Strong Soul leaned forward and looked more closely at the monitor. The object didn't look like anything she'd ever encountered before. Though it was clearly mechanical, the shape of it reminded her of a human woman in a dress. Small sensor bumps protruded from slick silver sides, and even with the stealth field off, it was difficult to see from the wrong angle. The polished silver hull of the object reflected the stars of open space.

"This one's a little different," Night Star said, stepping back to look it over. "Though it looks like everything's in the right place. Micah, pull up the plans I uploaded and send them to my suit comp."

"They are there awaiting your attention, Master Jason," Micah said.

"Isn't there something that keeps someone from tampering with it?" Strong Soul asked while Night Star checked his computer.

"Yes," Micah answered, "though the designers primarily rely on it not being detected. There are plans for the security system within the schematics Master Jason uploaded."

"Can you magnify this section here?" Strong Soul asked, pointing to the tip of the object.

At her request, the screen zoomed in, giving her a startlingly clear view of the very top of the drone. She didn't know what caught her eye about that part, but she leaned in and looked even closer. At this distance and angle, it no longer looked like a human. It was a round ball in a socket joint, and as she watched, the ball turned. She saw a small lens come into view, stopping when it lined up with Night Star.

"Night Star," she said quickly into the comm, "it's watching you."

He looked up from his computer at the lens looking down at him and cocked his head to the side. She knew he was figuring out what to do about the eye, she could feel his curiosity.

"That's not in the plans," he remarked. "What do you think, Stargazer?"

"Be cautious, please, Night Star," Stargazer said, moving his rifle to point towards the drone. "Human artificial intelligence is quite astounding."

"You think they threw an AI on this thing?" Night Star asked. "That would make sense."

A bright flash at the base of the drone startled Strong Soul back in her seat, and she had barely enough time to register a flash of pain, followed by a moment of panic. The pain from Night Star and the panic from both Night Star and Stargazer. When she looked back at the monitor, Night Star's boots had separated from the hull plating and he was floating backwards towards Stargazer.

Stargazer didn't spare any attention for him, though. He brought the rifle up and squeezed the trigger. What would have sounded overwhelmingly loud in an atmosphere was eerily quiet in a vacuum, and only puffs of superheated plasma venting from the barrel of the rifle announced Stargazer's attack. Titanium slugs fired at almost half the speed of light took no time at all to chew their way through the outer armor of the drone, making a trail from the base to the ball on top. Two slugs blasted through the ball and smashed it to small, floating bits while others dented, then seared, and finally chewed through the outer armor, finally destroying the sensitive electronics inside.

Once he was sure the drone was destroyed, Stargazer turned his attention back to Night Star. Strong Soul's eyes flickered to the small life-sign readout in the corner of the screen, showing that Night Star's suit was losing pressure quickly. She could feel him fading from her mind, his own thoughts beginning to wander and darken.

No, love, she thought, you're not going anywhere.

She opened the link and let her mind flow into his. She took a bit of Stargazer's with her, feeding all the energy she could into him. Little by little, she felt him coming back to consciousness, bolstered by the energy she was shoving into him.

Get him fast, Stargazer, she commanded, using the rest of her attention to keep his mind functioning.

She felt his confusion, but it didn't last long. He was quick to assess his situation and within a few seconds, he managed to fish an emergency patch from his belt and slap it over the hole in his suit. Stargazer, meanwhile, had attached his emergency line to the hull of the ship and launched himself after Night Star. He caught him and brought him back to the hull.

He unclipped from the hull and used the same line to tether Night Star to his suit. Strong Soul felt the urgency and the determination in his mind, but there was no longer any panic. Stargazer knew what he was doing, and what had to happen. All thoughts about Night Star were emptied from his mind, and he focused on the singular goal of getting back to the hatch. Step by step, he came closer and closer.

"Micah, emergency compression override," he said when he got back into the airlock. He pulled Night Star in with him and Strong Soul could feel the pain that went through him. She searched the part of her that had been so helpful over the past few days and found she knew how to help with it. Another wave of energy and she deadened the attention his mind paid to that sensation. A pulse of gratefulness was returned and she watched the airlock pressure build quickly. It stabilized in seconds and she ran from the bridge to meet them when the airlock door opened.

When she got there, she found Stargazer removing Night Star's helmet. Together, they dragged him out of the airlock and to the ship's medical bay.

"Micah, scan Night Star, please," Stargazer commanded when they had him on the bed. "Can he be treated on board?"

Micah was silent and Strong Soul watched the readouts on the monitors as Micah scanned his body. She felt him trying to slip away again to unconsciousness, and she fed him a bit more energy from her mind.

"Injuries are serious. Perforated lung with hemothorax. Supplies insufficient for treatment aboard. Medical facility needed."

"Does New Mecca have what we need?" Strong Soul asked.

"Affirmative. Medina Medical Center has all trauma related treatment necessities."

She looked across Night Star's body at Stargazer. "Can you fly the ship?" she asked.

"Well enough," he answered.

"Go. Get us on the ground and call the medical center. Have them meet us on the pad."

Stargazer bowed and then ran from the room. Even before he was gone, Strong Soul was rummaging through the cabinets and drawers, finding anything she could to stop the bleeding she could see coming from the suit. A few minutes and a laser cutter later, his suit lay in pieces on the floor and her paws were coated in blood as she packed his wound.

"Hold on, love. You'll be just fine," she said as she worked.

"I know," he whispered. "I've got you."

The currents of air buffeted the ship and the supplies shook on their shelves. Strong Soul braced herself on the medical bed while the Pride plunged back through the atmosphere. She felt Stargazer fighting with the controls, trying to ride the perfect edge between too fast and too slow, and from what she could tell from his emotions, he was riding it like an expert.

We'll get you there, she thought to Night Star while she fed him even more energy. She knew she was running on empty, though, and time was running out.

"Stop shielding, love," she said, more a command than a request.

"No, they'll feel you," he said, shaking his head.

"What do you think is going to happen when you die?" she asked. "Drop it now and let me save you."

He took a breath and she felt him considering his options. Then the muffling was gone from her head and links lit up like stars in her mind. Where before she was a battery running on empty, now she had more power than she could use. She was careful to draw from the strongest links, the ones that she knew were no traitors, but even with her only drawing on those links, she knew that every Mrr'tani on the planet below could feel her. All she could do was keep as low as she could, ensuring they didn't know where she was while she fed the life energy of her Mountain Clan into Night Star's mind. She breathed a sigh of relief now that she was sure it would be enough to get him to help. It meant, however, that they were going to have a much harder time leaving when it was done, though.

"Hold fast, Strong Soul. Medical is on their way to the pad, and we shall arrive in five minutes," Stargazer said on the comm.

"Just get us down safe, Stargazer," she said. "Let's not die after all this."

She held tight to Night Star as the Mrr'tani Pride continued to fall through the atmosphere, praying that they'd be in time, and that they could get back out when all was said and done.