Cold Fire

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

12/21/97:

    Chapter 1

Four days had passed since we had managed to escape from the
Krein moon base; though with the atmosphere around here now,
it seemed more like a retreat. That appeared to have been
the high point of all the action and it had started to get
pretty low.

This was the current lay of the land. Rachel, Theo and Laina
had taken back their positions in charge of the Council,
staying in orbit in the Council ship, and trying to oversee
the situation as it was developing.

Milgrove was back on _The Golden Phoenix_ trying to take her
mind off all that had happened.

Below us, Grasion was still in control of the situation. Two
of the hostages had already been released, the price being
money, plans and technology. His further demands were all
over the board; no one could quite make out exactly what he
wanted. At least, that was what I'd been told.

I'd only been informed that getting back to the base, and
through the base's defense system, was going to cause
problems. I wasn't sure of the why or how of it all, but it
was perfectly clear that a lot of people thought we should
have stayed and tried to fight it out.

Sebe, the female wolf that had escaped with us, was back on
Krein. She was now in charge of trying to find a way to get
up to the base and in through the system.

As for the rest of us... it wasn't very good. Neither Fox or
Oriana had awakened yet from whatever had caused them to
fall unconscious. Both seemed to be sound asleep, sometimes
getting close to waking, but never actually making it.

After two days, they were moved into the medical bay of the
Council ship. The only thing that had been found that could
lend itself to explaining what had happened was that the
bullet the doctor had removed from Fox's gut had been
covered in a mixture of a dozen different herbs.

A magical catalyst, that was all it could be. Ken (who was
still on the _Phoenix_) had said as much when he came to
look at it, as had the other magician that was in reach. But
it wasn't magic that was keeping them asleep now. Whatever
the spell was to do had been done; that was what was so
confusing.

It wasn't even a sleeping death, but just sleep.

For my part, I had stayed by their side as much as I could,
maybe because of how helpless I was to do anything for them.
I felt, though, that it was my duty to watch over them, even
when the doctor said I should myself be asleep. I was a
Healer, this was what I had always been taught to do and it
was very hard to go against that training.

That was also the reason I was the only person in the
Medical Bay when Oriana woke up.

She just started, her body jumping forward, as she began
hacking badly. I was on my feet instantly, going to her and
telling the ship's computer to get the doctor. As I got to
her bed, she had rolled onto her side, and was in a fit of
dry heaves.

I retrieved a glass of water for her, pressing it into her
paws. She gratefully took it and drank deeply from it.
Panting, she then rolled back over and moved herself into a
sitting position, wincing softly as she leaned back.

"You'll be all right," I said in a comforting voice as I got
her another glass of water. "You're in the Medical Bay
of..." I trailed off, she wasn't paying attention to
anything I was saying, or to the water I had.

Instead, she reached under the covers of her bed, and pulled
out her tail, holding it very carefully, as if it wasn't
even part of her, and the look on her face... it was somehow
wrong, like it didn't belong there.

Dropping her tail, she reached up and touched her nose with
the tip of one of her fingers. Her eyes almost crossed to
look at it. Then she pulled her arms forward, almost like a
self-hug, pushing her breasts up under her gown.

With a deep sigh, she dropped her arms, leaning back against
the wall behind her head. "Oh, hell," she whispered, looking
right at me.

The doctor arrived just then, walking smoothly over to her
bed. He looked at me with a slight smile, then back at
Oriana. "How are you feeling?"

She turned to look at him, a slight look of contempt on her
face. "Bloody damn horrible."

Startled a bit from the unexpected response, the doctor took
a step back. "In what way?" he then asked.

Shaking her head, Oriana ran her fingers from the top of her
face back through her hair. "Very simply," she said, her
voice pausing slightly, measuring each word. "I'm Fox."

The doctor was even more startled by this. "What?"

She sighed again. "Go get Ken for me, then leave. I want to
talk to Jadith alone."

He looked flustered, "I can't!" he protested.

She just smiled at him, very widely, showing most of her
teeth. The doctor, for his part, took two more steps back,
then turned and walked very calmly out of the Medical Bay.

"Jadith," Oriana... Fox..., I wasn't sure yet, said to me.
"What happened?"

"Fox?" I asked, not sure what to make of this.

She nodded. "That's right, I'm Fox."

I looked over to Fox's body, then back to her. "I didn't
know that could be done."

She shrugged slightly, and very carefully set her paws on
the edges of the bed. "What exactly happened? Last thing I
remember was reaching for Oriana."

"Both of you just collapsed; we got you both to the _Falcon_
and off the base."

She nodded again.

"Something else," I said, pulling a chair over and sitting
down. "The bullet that you were shot with," I paused, that
didn't sound quite right.

"What about it?" Fox asked, leaning just slightly forward.

I shrugged off my slight confusion. "It was coated with a
mix of different herbs. It was part of a spell."

She sat back, digesting this, her eyes blinking quickly
about twice a second. Finally she shook her head. "Last
thing I heard was Grasion saying that it wasn't going to be
that easy. Is that what you heard?"

"Yes, that's right."

She went back to thinking again, not blinking this time, but
her mouth was moving. Finally she closed her eyes, tightly,
and growled. "God DAMN IT!" she yelled.

I jumped back in my seat, and felt a hand on my shoulder.
Craning my head back, I found Rachel that was standing over
me. She looked back to Fox. "Care to explain?"

Her eyes burst open, looking right at Rachel. As their eyes
connected, Fox seem to calm down instantly. "Grasion knew I
was coming."

She tilted her head and looked down at me, a silent question
passing between us. I nodded my head, answering her that
yes, this was Fox.

"We already knew that. The bullet--"

Fox cut her off, "I know about it already. No, it was more
than that. He set this up; maybe he expected my escape
through the fold. But why wait until after I was close
enough to get to the _Falcon_? That part I don't
understand."

"Maybe he's trying to confuse you?" I suggested.

She scoffed, "Hardly. No, this has a worse effect." She look
me right in the eyes. "My ability to open the folds goes
with my body." Her eyes glanced over to where her body was
lying.

"The ability to use it, that's in my head."

Rachel nodded. "I see, he gets rid of you, and keeps you
from coming back to stop him."

"He must not have expected us to blow up the fold." I
suggested.

Fox nodded, "yes... I don't understand all of this, though."
She shook her head, and slid out from under her covers and
off the bed. She bent right down and started looking in the
drawers built into the frame under the bed.

"What are you doing, Fox?" Rachel asked.

She closed the last drawer and moved to the bed where her
body lay, presumably with Oriana inside. He started digging
through those drawers as well. After a quick search she
pulled out some clothing. "I," she announced, "am going to
change." Then walked across the bay and into the bathroom.

She came back out half a minute later, still in the hospital
gown. Bending down at her bed, she pulled out the clothing
that had been brought over for Oriana, and went back into
the bathroom.

She took a bit longer this time, but finally she came back
out. Somehow, even if the clothes were made for the body,
they still looked out of place on it.

Pausing for a second she looked at Rachel. "This isn't the
_Phoenix_."

Rachel nodded, walking over to her. "You're on the Council
ship."

Fox grimaced. "So that's what's taking Ken so damn long.
Fine, I'll be in the ship's garden. When he gets here send
him to me." She paused, looking down at her real body, "and
when Oriana wakes up call me. I need to be here."

Crossing her arms, Rachel stood back as Fox walked out of
the room.

"Why did you let him go?" I asked.

She looked at me, "because, no matter what the form, it is
not his. He's going to have to do some mental acrobatics to
get into sync with it." She shook her head, "He'll be fine
as soon as he gets his current sex straight in his mind."

"And everyone else," I said, realizing that I had been
thinking of her as a female even after I found out that it
wasn't Oriana.

She patted my shoulder. "That may be the easy part."

    Chapter 2

'The ship's garden' was a much friendlier term to call the
hydroponics bay that inhabited some portion of every major
space-going vessel.

And it was far more than just a bay; the Council ship's
garden covered the full center section of the ship. It was a
multiple-leveled collection of climates that trickled,
splashed, crept and grew through out the massive room.

The garden served three purposes, the first two being the
most obvious. One, it provided a cheap and clean way to
recycle the air and water aboard the ship. Second, it also
provided a large portion of their fresh food, in a series of
actual gardens that took up most of the bay.

Thirdly, though, was that the garden was a place to go to
get away from the ship. It was a place to step outside the
fine and steady lines of order and metal that were the only
way for a large ship to run. It created someplace far more
cluttered and organic than you could find in a simple
recreation room.

It was a place to go when you needed to seriously think
about things around you. A place where you could disengage
the parts of your mind that had to deal with all the order
in the universe, and let them run rampant.

Of course, then you get people like me who bring a cup of
tea with them. I wasn't getting too very far on my thinking;
it was hard enough to come to terms with the fact that I
wasn't exactly in the body I expected.

I had, so far, resisted the temptation to explore. I already
knew what was there, and now was not the time for me to go
verify it all.

Being in Oria's body wasn't having the effect on my head
that I had always associated with a sudden change in gender.
It didn't feel 'wrong' to me, nor did it feel 'right'. In
fact, other than the changing of what parts were protruding,
it felt perfectly normal.

'I must be the exception that proves the rule' I thought,
taking another sip of the tea.

Right now though, my mind was working on other things.
Mostly focusing on Grasion. He knew I was there and he let
me go, using this change to make sure I didn't come back.
That made sense, but didn't seem right, it wasn't his style.

I was missing most of the picture.

But why wait till I was on the other side of the fold to
pull the switch; why wait until I even got close enough to
the fold to open it? He had to have known how long it would
take for me to recover, he could have done it at any time
and effectively removed me from the equation.

Why hadn't he, though? Why did he wait to get me out of the
way like this? What wasn't I seeing?

I stopped, something tickling in the back of my head about
the fold. "This is wrong," I muttered, sipping my tea. The
spell was made to switch me with someone, it may not have
had anything to do with what happened.

His method of delivery was interesting as well. He didn't
kill me in one of the few times he had a chance, and was
prepared for... so he wanted me to survive. So I could get
away? So he could keep me from coming back?

Why let me live at all though, did he mean it as torture?
Did he want to switch me with someone and let them die in my
body? Again though, why? Could he have wanted me to
escape...

No wait... want... he wanted something from all of this.
Assuming that the switch was to keep me from coming back
through the folds... he would have known that a natural
could get through. That also must mean that he knew that no
natural had used the fold before, so no one could come in
from the outside that way.

Too many questions... why let me use the folds at all? If he
had taken me through the tunnels none of this would be a
worry. It was shorter to go through the folds and it kept
us--

"Fox?" Ken asked, standing a dozen feet away from me.

I jumped out of my thought, losing my hold on it. I
scrambled to get it back, but it was gone. What ever it was,
it was also something important.

I sighed, drinking the last of my tea. "Yes, Ken, it's me."

He walked over, sitting down next to the tree I was leaning
against. "How are you doing?"

"Hum... all right I suppose."

He frowned, "No mental shock?"

I let out a short laugh. "What? Finding myself a woman? No,
none yet. I mean, other than the obvious changes it feels
just like my normal self."

His frown deepened. "Then you are a rarity in that regard."

"Maybe it was the spell?"

He pulling his wings slightly. "I do not think so. None of
the spell components found on the bullet had any capability
to change your mental processes. Just transpose them."

"What else do you know about it?"

He chewed softly. "Now that I know what it does... not much
more, but understanding the result will help me to backwalk
over the processes. Eventually I will be able to reverse
it."

I nodded, "How long?"

Ken frowned. "It's not the style of magic that I am
accustomed to, but it's not a radical departure from any of
the norms. I would say it could be a few days at best.
Worst, never. Best guess-- I would say at least two weeks,
maybe more."

I chewed my lip slightly. "Would it be safe to keep Oria
sedated until you can undo this?"

"Fox," Ken said, soundly offended. "You can't keep her
asleep through all of this!"

"I know," I agreed. "But imagine how she is going to take
this. Not only is she a different sex but species as well! I
have some experience with a species change, and even if you
want it, it will still come as a shock. Throwing on top of
that a gender change, and the loss of her tail, do you think
she's going to take it very well at all?"

Ken sighed again. "You have many points there, but we still
cannot keep her drugged throughout this. She is in your body
as is the actual spell. Any drugs in the system will change
how well I can see it and deconstruct it. The fact is, if
you want to get back to yourself you're both going to need
to be up and operating for it."

I took a slow breath, letting it out again. "Agreed, but we
don't just want her waking up. Go talk to the doctor, tell
them to put her under a light sedation for now, I want to
wait a bit before she actually wakes up. While you're at it,
see what else you can learn about the spell now that you
know what it does."

Ken nodded, and started to rise.

"Mostly, I want to know about the switch," I said, speaking
the thought that had just occurred to me. "I want to know if
it was meant specifically for Oriana, or was the choice
random."

He nodded again, then hugged me tightly. "Watch yourself,
your mind may have more problems than you are expecting
right now."

I nodded, hugging him back before he stood up. His face wore
a look of concern before he turned away. Just as he was
leaving, Rachel entered the garden, walking towards me. She
was holding two cups, and had some files tucked under her
arm.

She walked directly to me, and handed me a cup. "I figured
that by now your tea would be gone, or cold."

I took the cup with one paw and waved her to sit with the
other. "Come to ask about my health?" I asked.

She sat down next to me, her face was neutral. "No... I need
to know where Oriana was."

Frowning again, I sipped the tea. "When?"

"Before Grasion first showed himself. She left half an hour
before. What was she doing?"

I shook my head. "Rachel..."

She sighed, and handed me the two files she had brought with
her. "These were tucked under the second set of clothing she
had on."

The files were labeled 'Creation of Genetic Computers' and
'Testing of Genetic Computers'. I started to open one, but
Rachel reached out and grabbed my paw. She looked panicked
for a second, then let go. "Those are covered by the Active
Secrets Act. Looking at them could be construed as an act of
war."

I cleared my through. "You're telling me that all we are
allowed to know about them is their titles?"

She nodded. "Yes. Now why would you..." she sighed, "I mean
Oriana, have these? Or more to what seems to have happened,
why would she steal them?"

I frowned, looking down at the pair of fire, suddenly
knowing exactly what they were. I looked back up at Rachel.

"This is off the record, everything I tell you from here on.
Acceptable?"

She looked at me, staring hard, then slowly her face
softened. "Very well then, but only if you tell me why."

I opened the second folder, the one marked as 'testing' and
flipped through the first few papers inside. Snapping the
folder closed, I sighed. "The Guild sent Oria on a special
assignment. She was to find any documented proof of the
suspected actions of Dr. Grafrin. If the proof was found,
she was to kill him."

Rachel looked worried. "What did he do? What do these
prove?"

I just handed them over to her. She opened one, slowly
reading through a few papers, her ears growing whiter and
whiter as they burrowed themselves in her hair. She finally
looked up at me. "So he is dead?"

I shrugged. "Oriana knows for sure, she can tell us when she
wakes up."

"And when will that be?"

I thought for a few seconds. "Tomorrow-- we can be prepared
for her then."

12/22/97:

    Chapter 3

Fox seemed to wander into the Medical Bay rather than coming
there with a purpose. Rubbing the back of... her... neck,
she looked about as normal as she could. The clothing she
had picked out was pretty loose, hanging around her body
more than off it. Her hair was brushed, but was just flat,
not even pulled back. In all she looked rather bland, but I
couldn't actually knock it. I doubted anyone would be able
to adapt fast to such a sudden change.

She gave me a sidelong glance, her tail moving slowly behind
her. "You look worried, Rachel."

I shook my head. "No, not that. It's just strange to see you
like this." I could tell from her reaction that wasn't
exactly what I needed to say. I tried for a quick recovery.
"What I mean is, you're you, and it shows. It's strange to
see your mannerisms coming from Oriana."

Twisting her ears slightly, she nodded. "I can agree with
that." She shook her head slightly, rubbing her fingers
between her eyes. "Things are more than slightly different
in this body."

I walked over to stand next to her. "Holding up well?"

"Pretty much... sleeping, though, was an interesting
experience."

"Oh?" Was all the response I could muster.

She nodded. "I slept, for a full night. Actual sleep, not a
magical one like before. It feels strange."

The ship's doctor walked into the room about then, his
steady pace easily cutting through the ground to where we
stood. He looked between the two of us, then over to where
the real Oriana lay in her drug induced slumber.

Jadith came in after him, rubbing her eyes slightly and
yawning. She seemed to be unusual for an elf in that she
didn't wake up very easily in the mornings. In my experience
elves could usually go from a deep sleep to wide awake in a
matter of seconds.

She walked over to us, yawning again. "Morning, you two,"
she blinked, looking at Fox. "Sins, you look horrible."

Fox rolled her eyes. "Not sure how to look good like this."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" The doctor asked,
removing the IV drip from Oria's arm that had been keeping
her sedated.

Fox nodded. "Yes, this will be the best time for it."

The doctor nodded, walking into a side room then coming back
with a small bottle of a clear liquid. "I doubt this will
wake him up. We used it on both of you with no results."

She chewed her lip slightly. "I'm awake, she should have
followed right after. This should wake her up."

The doctor nodded, connecting a clean needle to a syringe,
then filling it from the bottle. Working the plunger he
forced any air out of the syringe, then walked to where
Fox's body lay.

In a quick set of moves, the doctor cleaned a section on the
upper arm and inserted the needle, letting whatever drug it
contained  flow into Oria's system.

"He should be awake soon, if at all." the doctor explained,
disposing of the needle and putting the rest of the syringe
in the medical cleaning system.

Fox nodded to him, then waved her paw gently. "I would like
to have her see people she knows until she understands
what's happened, so could you please wait outside. We will
call you if we need you."

He opened his mouth to say something, then his eyes
connected with Fox's. He just shut his mouth and walked out
of the bay.

Licking her lips, Fox pulled a chair next to the bed and,
careful of her tail, sat down. Jadith sat on the other side
of the bed, using the chair that had already been waiting
for her.

"What do we tell him?" Jadith asked, looking down at the
slowly waking form.

Taking a deep breath, Fox looked at me, then at Jadith. "We
tell her the truth about anything she asks. It should only
take a few seconds before she realizes that something has
changed. I don't know how she'll react... she may panic...
or take it as well as I did, or better."

"We'll know soon enough," Jadith said, "he's starting to
wake up."

Fox looked perfectly calm, staring down at her own body. Her
tail, though, was twisting wildly through the air. "Yes, he
is." The words seem to take an effort from her, draining a
lot of energy that she really didn't seem to have.

Oriana moaned softly as he (that sounded even stranger than
calling Fox 'she') started to fully awaken.

"Oriana," Jadith whispered, resting her hand in his. "You're
going to be all right."

His eyes looked over her body, flickering with a deliberate
stare that truly was of Oriana. They locked eyes for a few
seconds, then finally broke again as he turned to look up at
the ceiling.

Jadith almost instantly had a glass of water in her hands,
holding it out to him. He propped himself up on one elbow
and took it, drinking it quickly, spilling some as he missed
his mouth.

Coughing, he looked back at her. "What happened?" he asked,
the pacing and tone of his speech off enough to be slightly
disturbing.

He noticed it as well, reaching up for his throat, then
stopping in mid-reach. Quickly sitting up he looked at me,
squinting. "I can barely see." he stated, starting to shake.

Fox very slowly reached over and picked up his glasses,
opening them and placing them on Oriana's face.

He slowly stopped squinting, his eyes focusing on me, then
turned to look at Jadith. Finally he looked to his other
side, first moving his eyes then slowly moving his head to
match.

He and Fox locked eyes, looking at each other for a few
seconds before Oriana spoke. "Fox?"

She nodded.

He closed his eyes, his body trembling under the sheets.

"Grasion switched us," she explained.

He didn't responded.

She nodded, "I know... it's strange."

He nodded, pulling his legs up under the sheets till they
were against his chest, wrapping his arms around his knees.
"I'm scared."

Fox took one of his hands. "I know, so am I. Ken's trying to
find a way to undo it, though."

He laughed, a soft laugh, out of place with his current
form. "How? How can Ken do anything? This is the final
punishment, the destruction of the soul. The first death for
those who have committed the greatest of sins." he started
to shake even more.

Chewing on her lip, she seemed to take it in stride. "This
is not a punishment from Thryn. There was so much weight of
death on that man's soul that what you did was a release for
the universe, something that outweighs any sin from what you
did."

He was trying to cry, Fox's body going through the motions,
but no tears coming. "Why then?" he whispered.

"It keeps me from using the fold to go back after him."

He shook his head. "No... please, no... that can't be it. I
deserve this."

"Oria," Fox hissed. He suddenly snapped his head around to
look at her.

"If it's your punishment, why did we switch and not just you
change?" she asked, I could tell she was holding her voice
in check, but her ears were almost flat.

He paused, his lips trying to form words. "I... I want the
Book." he finally said, starting to stutter just slightly.

Bending down, Fox opened one of the drawers under the bed,
and sat back up with a book in her paws. It was two inches
thick, and bound in leather. She gently handed it to Oriana,
"I though you might want it."

He nodded, opening the cover and running her fingers down
the first page. He looked back up, moving over all of us.
"Can I be alone?"

"No," Jadith replied. "This is not a walk-away attack on
your body. You need someone to watch you until I'm sure you
won't do anything stupid."

Fox nodded. "She did the same thing to me last night. Don't
worry, she won't be a bother."

He nodded, looking back down at the book in her lap. Finally
the look on his face changed, so small of a change I
couldn't tell in what way it had, just that it was a
different expression.

"Fine then, but you two," he looked to me then to Fox. "Come
back later?" he asked, suddenly timid.

Fox broke into a smile. "Of course," she said as she stood
up.

Oriana smiled back and started to read through the book. Fox
walked past me and motioned for me to follow her out of the
room. I did, and we exited the bay, using a different door
than the doctor had used.

Once out in the hallway, with the door closed, Fox seemed to
fold over, sinking backwards against the wall, and sliding
down it a foot.

"Fox?"

She looked up at me. "If Ken can't find a way to undo this,
I don't think either of us will really last."

"Fox!"

She brushed some hair from in front of her eyes, pushing it
over her head. "I mean it. Oria fears this as a great
punishment, and frankly I'm not handling this as well as I
first thought. If Ken says he can't put us back I'm not sure
how well either of us can get back on with each other's
lives."

I walked over to her. "Would some work help take your mind
off of this?"

She gave a sharp laugh. "Anything! Why, you have a
government you need overthrown?"

"No, there's a meeting in an hour. Really a progress report
on how all our different plans on getting back to the base
are panning out. We're also going to have a presentation on
Grasion."

She perked her ears up, standing a bit straighter. "On
Grasion? Who in the world did you find to do that?"

I smiled. "You."

She stopped, did that slow double blink that was his normal
reaction to being startled. "Where's it at then?"

"The Council Chambers, you had better prepare."

Fox just rolled her eyes and muttered something under her
breath about memos.

    Chapter 4

I walked into the on-ship Council Chambers to receive nearly
a dozen stares. What little conversation there had been
before I arrived stopped dead once they all registered who I
was.

The group contained Theo and Laina, and ten other people
whom I didn't know. One of those ten was the first to speak
up. "I'm sorry miss, I think you have the wrong room."

Oh... they didn't know what had happened.

I walked over to a free chair on the side of the room.
"Rachel told me to come here," I explained.

"Why?"

"Because," Rachel explained, walking in through the doors,
"she's giving the presentation on Grasion."

This caused some puzzlement amid the group. "But, you said
Fox was to give it."

She nodded and waved her paw at me. "Right now, that is
Fox."

That stopped the conversation again, if only for a few
seconds, then everyone seemed to start talking at once. Most
of the questions seemed to be directed at Rachel, and a few
towards me.

Rachel just ignored them, walking to the far side of the
conference table and sitting down at the end next to the
other Council members. "Very well, Fox, you can begin."

I sighed, standing back up and pushing a stray hair back
over my ear. "All right then." I walked over to stand at the
free end of the table. "Have any of you seen Grasion's
file?"

They all shook their heads, a few muttering 'no'. I sighed
again, rubbing the top of my muzzle. "Why not?"

The question was direction at Rachel, "We're not officially
involved deeply enough to bring the Council in on this.
We're acting as advisers."

I swore under my breath. The Krein world wasn't a member of
the Council, and that limited anything they could do. If any
of the three first level members had been down on the base
still it would have been different... wait... there was
something to that.

"Miss," a man who was sitting close to me said, breaking my
train of thought. I shook it off, I wasn't sure what I had,
but I knew I had something.

I nodded. "Ok then, let me cover the basics on him. Firstly,
he's a human derivative. A member of a genetically enhanced
variation of the species, superior in strength, speed and
mind. Except that he's only smarter than a normal human, a
major genetic fuck up. It messed up a lot of the genetic
'perfection' that had been edited into his DNA, as well as
making him a Natural."

This prompted a few murmurs around the table.

"I don't know how he survived, or learned to use his
ability, but he has. He's been tearing around the
multi-verse for close to a decade now. I first met him a few
months after I started walking the folds, and in most every
way he's my arch-enemy. This currently is our fifth run-in."

"How good is his mind?" someone asked.

I ran a paw through my hair. "Very good. He's had a head
start on us by months if not years. He has everything
planned out for dozens of moves in any direction. It's best
described as a demented game."

"So he's covered every way for us to get back in?" Another
asked.

I nodded, twitching my tail slightly. "Yes. The only real
way through was the fold, and switching me with Oriana kept
me from going back through it."

There were a few 'oh's as the group as a whole realized why
I wasn't whom they had expected.

I smiled, "Though I'm rather sure he didn't plan on us
blowing up the folds. By the way, did that work?"

Laina nodded, smiling. "Yes, both folds are back at their
original locations."

Twisting my ears I blinked. "Original? Tell me later." I
said, leaving it for that.

"He's a natural," a person half-way down the table said,
"and the field around the base will let a natural through.
Could he have been planning on using that to escape?"

Bingo, two points, there was a piece of this puzzle. "Yes,
you're right; when he had what he wanted he would have just
walked away." I looked around the table, "What other folds
can he get to without dropping the field?"

A pair near Rachel's side of the table looked at each other.
"There's only the one on the planet, but it's heavily
guarded and locked down tightly."

I shook my head. "No. Then there has to be at least one
more. Find it, check all the possibilities. You're right, he
would have used that as an escape. He would have a ship of
some sort waiting for him."

There was some slight whispering, then another person spoke
up. "If we find it?"

"You will find it, he's not going to try and jump in and out
of the other fold. You may get lucky and find some
information on the ship that can help us, it also probably
is a decoy."

Most of them sighed.

A young tigress sitting right next to me spoke up for what I
think was the first time in the conversation. "Your escape
was planned as well?"

I nodded. "Yes... it got me out of the picture as well as
disabling the one person who could get through the folds."

She nodded slowly, tapping the tip of her nose with a
finger. "What about the rest of you? Why did he let them
escape?"

I 'oh'ed myself, realizing what that bit I had was. "If any
of the Council members had stayed they would be able to do a
lot more than consult. The other two were helping me and
without them I would not have been able to get through the
fold."

Wait... there was that something again. Why let us go
through the fold at all? My death wouldn't have changed
anything if they could have gotten out, so why let me live
and switch me. What WAS it that made it necessary for us to
go through the fold!

I though back, ignoring the next questions presented by the
tigress. It was blurry, but I could remember most of what we
had done. The seven of us, the ones he wanted to escape and
the female wolf... why was she allowed to escape?

The door had closed right after the female wolf had gone
through. Everyone else was outside already... right? Yes,
Oriana had gone out before, to watch our backs as we left.

But that didn't make sense! Why then close it after her
unless she was meant to escape with us? How could he insure
that she did and the other captives didn't? Grasion could
not have known she would be with us.

Guards... there had to have been more guards, I seemed to
vaguely remember one at the end of the hallway. They would
have been there to keep the others back and let the wolf go
with us.

That wouldn't have been very easy though. He may have
expected her to actually be with us, why, though? And why
still let me use the folds? What was I missing?

"The wolf that was with us?" I asked, looking up.

"Sebe," Rachel answered.

"What did she know that made it imperative that she got off
the base? It wasn't an accident that she left with us."

There was a pause as they looked at each other. "She helped
build it," one responded.

I smiled, more things falling into place. "Which is why she
knew about the defense system. If she had stayed she would
have found a way out of his control and shut down the
system. Or at least the chance was so high that he felt it
would be better with her gone. Which is also why I was
allowed to use the fold and not just killed. If we had taken
the long way to the base she might have split off on her own
to shut down the system."

"But the fact that she didn't means we can't get back into
the base." someone said.

I shrugged. "Don't you have any way at all?"

"Oh sure," the same person, a large wolf, continued, "but we
need a ship that no one can build."

I shook my head. "Why not?"

He crossed his arms. "No pilot can glide a ship in from
space and it would take years to develop the computer
systems to do it. No one has ever bothered with it, it's
easier to do a vertical landing."

I blinked. "Wait... you mean a ship made to glide in, no
thrust except for adjustments, would be the only way to land
on the base."

He nodded. "Yes, the defense system isn't made to see the
impossible."

And idea was starting to bubble in the back of my head.
"What makes it impossible?"

The wolf sighed. "Because," he said with force, "no one can
remember all the different adjustments to bring it safely
in."

"Ah... seven, give or take two..." I shook my head. "Ok
then, I don't think I can do anything more to help the
situation."

Rachel stood up. "Very well, then, you can all go now." As
the others started to stand she walked around the table and
grabbed me by the arm, pulling me over to the side. "I saw
that look on your face. You know how to get that kind of
ship."

I nodded, very slowly, licking my lips. "Rachel. I'm going
to go back to the _Phoenix_ with Oria if she's up to it. I
want you to come over in twelve hours, we'll talk then."
Then before she could respond, I slipped away and out the
door.

If what I was thinking about was in any way possible it was
going to break a dozen laws, and I didn't want the Council
in on it at all. _The Golden Phoenix_ was not part of the
Council, it was just registered on Prid.

The idea was almost insane. If it worked we could get to
Grasion, if it didn't... the Council would kill us.

Literally.

    Chapter 5

Leaning up against the door frame leading into the medical
bay, I watched silently as Oria carefully read through his
book.

His... it sounded so strange to think of her in my body, or
as anything else but a her. But here, when the proof was
right before my eyes, it was very hard to deny it.

Though he was still quite definitely Oriana. The way he was
sitting on the bed, hunched over and quietly reading, moving
his fingers over the lines of print inside of the leather
binding was very typical of her.

The book was the Book of Thryn. I had asked for it to be
brought over the night before. I knew that he was going to
need it at some point. At the least, just to look for
comfort, and maybe some guidance from it.

Chewing my lip slightly, I crossed my arms, pressing them
down against my breasts. Imagine, me with breasts! I've been
accused of being a girl before, but this was the first time
that I ever actually was.

Frankly, I was amazed at how well I had been ignoring all of
the changes. There were some basic things, most of them in
the bathroom, as well as adjusting to wearing a bra. It was
slightly uncomfortable, but I was very quickly forgetting
about it.

The rest I had put off, I wasn't ready to go exploring yet.
Though I was going to have to face it soon. Fur needs a lot
of maintenance, and I was going to have to bathe before too
long. Maybe before I met with Rachel, maybe not, I wasn't
sure.

Taking a step forward, I rapped my knuckles on the door
frame. "Is it safe to come in yet?"

Oria looked up from the book, his eyes red behind the
glasses. His expressions shifted around, finally settling
down into a neutral look. Jadith looked up from her own
book, then stood up from the corner she had been sitting in
and walked over to me.

Oria nodded, closing the book and setting it on the bed next
to him.

I walked over to the bed, dropping myself in the chair next
to it, pausing only a second to slip my tail though the hole
in the back. Jadith turned in mid-stride and retrieved her
chair, pulling it over to the other side of the bed and
sitting down.

"Is the book helping you any?" I asked.

He shook his head very slightly. "No, I can't find any
comfort in its words."

"I don't think this is something that could really be
foreseen."

He nodded, just as imperceptibly as before. "You seem to be
taking it far better than I am."

"Frankly, I'm just ignoring it."

"Sounds just like you," he said with a forced laugh.

I reached out, grabbing his hand in my paw. "Ken will find
out how to undo this. It's the kind of magic he was trained
for. This is his job."

Oria pulled his hand away, hiding both under the bed sheets.
"I don't know how long I can take this."

I nodded, agreeing silently.

"A few days, maybe a week." he said in a soft whisper,
shaking slightly.

I rubbed my shoulder softly with a paw. "I don't know how
long I'll last. It really hasn't hit me yet."

"Lucky you," he sighed.

The conversation concluded there. I didn't know what else I
could say to him and he wasn't in any condition to start
talking. Jadith went back to her book, being very obvious
about staying out of the conversation, or at the least lack
of it.

Eventually I finally gave up trying to say anything that
would help. "You up to a short trip?"

"Where?" he asked, looking up at me.

"Back to the _Phoenix_. Ken is there, so being with him will
help him to get his claws into the spell." I sighed softly,
"And we may be off to fetch something to get us back down
onto the base."

Jadith perked up now, leaning forward in her chair.

He shook his head. "I don't know."

"We'll be with friends, that will help."

He sighed. "Fox..."

"Oria, please." I was trying my best not to beg.

He paused, then let out a long sigh. "You're going to run
your errand with or without me aren't you?"

I nodded.

With an 'I can't believe I'm doing this look,' he sighed
again. "Then I suppose you and I should stay together if Ken
is to have any hope of finding a way to remove this spell
before we go crazy."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"No, not yet," he said, laying back down.

Yes, not yet for either of us. I really didn't know what to
make of his decision to return to the ship with me. It
seemed like it was a bit too easy a choice for her. I didn't
know what would happen; she was putting up a strong front,
but she really was worried.

It was going to be a very hard time for both of us until Ken
found a way to switch us back.

* * *

Ten hours later I had finally faced up to the fact that I
looked horrible. Being in bed for fours days hadn't help
much and the lack of care I had provided for myself after
that hadn't done anything but make it worse.

So, with my fur beginning to mat in a few spots, I finally
broke down and took a quick shower. It was an in-and-out
type thing, just long enough to really wash my fur so as to
be presentable.

And even with all the complications of the changed bodies, I
found that I had missed doing it. I remembered from back
when Oria had managed to transform me, now almost a year
ago. There's just something about washing your own fur
that's extremely relaxing.

Either way though, it got my mind working over what I was
planning to do. I was going to need Page's help, that was a
given. She was the only person who could find out exactly
where the ship we would need was located and which one to
take.

I would also need her to rework its systems enough so that
it could be flown safely.

To be honest, the whole idea was absolutely insane, stupid
and ludicrous! But it seemed to be our only way to get back
down to the base and stop Grasion before he started
demanding a ship for the lives of the last few hostages.

I just hoped it would be worth it.

After finishing with the fur dryer, I walked back into
Oria's room on the _Phoenix_. We had done some talking on
the trip over and decided that for now it would be best to
switch rooms. They were already set up for our different
forms and it was far easier than trying to move everything
we needed from one room to the other.

On one of the walls of her room, next to the built-in
dresser, was a half-length mirror. I stopped in front of it,
looking at my reflection... looking at Oriana's reflection,
looking back at me.

I felt myself blush with embarrassment, then I started to
laugh. Walking over to the mirror, with a slight grin on my
muzzle, I pressed a paw against the glass and looked into my
reflection's eyes.

Eyes that were almost a colorless shade of ice blue!

I jumped back from the mirror, finding myself enveloped in
darkness. Pure black darkness, blacker than night, blacker
than even space, formed an endless veil over my perception,
which was, somehow, shifting and changing around me,
becoming something else, but still the same darkness.

There was no sound in the darkness as well as no light. Nor
was there anything to smell, or feel, or even taste. It was
as if my mind had been cut off from every sense in my body.

I wanted to fight, or at least scream, but nothing came of
the struggle. All I could feel was a deep crushing of my
ribs, growing worse with each passing second until I thought
I couldn't take it anymore.

Then, just as suddenly, it was over. I was standing once
more, looking at myself in the mirror. Except that it *was*
myself, my real reflection. I also was no longer on the
ship, but standing in my own room back on Prid.

Standing, looking over my real shoulder as I was digging
through my dresser.

A flashback! I was having a flashback. I wasn't sure to when
though, the room looked wrong in many ways. There seemed to
be more stuff in it than I ever remembered having, as well
as a much larger bed.

My attention was drawn away from that as my real self looked
up from what he was doing, his eyes seeming to lock with
mine in his reflection. The eyes, though, they were that
same shade of blue, almost clear in color.

He turned, his eyes still locking on where I was mentally
located. His stare was unnerving, it felt like he was
looking right into my soul, then through it, as if I was
nothing but a ghost.

"Fox," he said, "I know you're here, I remember this."

I took a step back, trying to say something, but unable to
make a sound.

The other version of me licked his lips. "Listen, you are
flashing forward a few months in time. We still don't know
why. It's important, though, you need to know this," he
paused, I could see he was thinking.

"There's a hole in your mind," he finally said.

Words to get my attention! 'What hole?' I thought, 'where?'

The other me must have remember the questions. "Ken will
know about it. You have to ask his help. He may not be
willing, but he'll give it."

Why couldn't I just tell myself!

He sighed, "Because when I was on your side I didn't. It
will make some kind of sense soon. Just think over your past
adventures, before you were exiled. Look for a place where
your memories don't match with what you remember
remembering."

The darkness came back again, wrapping around me just as
tightly as before, but not for nearly as long. It only
lasted for an instant and I was back again, standing in
front of the mirror, looking into Oria's green eyes.

Taking a few large steps back, I stumbled into the bed,
flopping down on it, holding my head in my paws. How could I
have a flashback in Oria's body? It was an inherent part of
being a natural.

No, it was _caused_ by being a natural. If my memories were
moved perfectly, down to almost a genetic level, there was
still that potential for it to happen.

But why forward in time though, and how was that even
possible? How could I have memories to flashback to of
events that hadn't even occurred yet?

My head was starting to spin from all this. More questions
that I didn't have time to find answers to. Rachel was going
to be here soon and meeting her took precedence. I would
have to worry about all of this later, once we were
underway.

    Chapter 6

Aster let out a prolonged sigh. "Why are you dragging me
along on this idiocy?"

I turned from where I had been sitting to look at him. "Fox
has some kind of plan and if it works he's going to need an
engineer."

He rolled his eyes, "Rachel, I doubt he can find the type of
ship we'll need."

"Somehow I think he has already."

He snorted through his nose, and scoffed. "You are not
exactly the most unbiased person to decided that."

I leaned forward. "Implying?"

"It's not a secret that you two are fucking each other," he
said with a smirk.

I resisted to urge to slap him across his nose. "What we do
together does not affect my judgment of his abilities."

He scoffed again, "You just keep believing that."

I shook my head. "He does have a plan."

Aster growled softly, "He's got a hole in his fucking head,
that's what he's got! And this whole body swap is just
making it worse."

I ignored him, turning around in my seat and looking back
out of the window that was next to me, and into space. We
would be at Fox's ship in a few more minutes and I was
strongly regretting my decision to bring this boy along. His
tail was in so much of knot that I doubted he would be any
help at all.

Fox, though, he did have a plan. I just wished I knew what
it was and how he meant to achieve it. I also wished I could
shake the deep chill that had settled over me right after he
left the Council ship.

The rest of the short trip was uneventful, the _Phoenix's_
computer guiding us in for a smooth landing in one of its
cargo bays.

Opening the hatch out of the shuttle I was almost surprised
to see Fox waiting for me a few feet away. She was dressed
slightly better than before, but this time her eyes had a
look of deathly seriousness.

"Fox?" I asked, starting to step out of the shuttle.

"Wait," she said, raising one paw. "I want to make something
perfectly clear first."

Oh-oh, this wasn't a good sign. I set my foot back down
inside the lip of the hatch.

She took a step forward. "As soon as you step from that
shuttle until you return to it you no longer represent the
Council in any fashion. You are going to be involved in this
as a private citizen, officially representing no one other
than yourself. Do you understand?"

"Is it that serious?"

She nodded slowly, her tail twitching quickly behind her.

I took a deep breath; this had the potential to become very
serious. Then slowly letting it out, I stepped into the
cargo bay. "I agree, then."

Leaning sideways, she looked past me. "How about your
company?"

"He's going with you. I thought you could use an engineer."

She sighed. "Yes, I could. Come on, then, we need to talk
someplace a bit more private."

Aster grumbled something under his breath and stepped onto
the deck. Fox smiled slightly when she saw him. "Well, this
is a surprise."

He was the same wolf with whom Fox had the near argument
with a few hours before at the briefing. He just sneered at
her, his ears flat.

"So, what do you have planned, Fox?" I asked, clasping my
paws behind my back.

She walked over to me, her face falling into a worried look.
"As you might have guessed, I do know where we can get a
ship to get into the base."

Aster harrumphed.

Fox looked at him and shook her head. "Oh ye of little
intellect." She looked back at me. "We've been using a type
of them for about twenty years now."

I hoped I hadn't just heard what I thought I had just heard.
"We?" I prompted.

She nodded. "Humans, Earth, my home. We."

I swore softly.

Shaking her head, she rubbed her forehead. "I'm not planning
on trying to bring them into the Council in any fashion. I'm
just planning to liberate one of their space shuttles."

I glared at her. "Fox, do you have any idea what we'll be
doing! The *least* that can happen if you do this is that
the Council will have you and everyone on this ship
summarily executed!"

"I know that, but if we do pull this off and get down to the
base, people will be more interested in the fact that we did
it than with how. If we can retrieve the shuttle fast enough
and get it the hell out of the system before anyone starts
looking, you can classify the whole of it and we can all go
home happy."

I shook my head. "That's a lot of 'ifs'."

"That's too many," Aster commented from where he still
stood.

She nodded. "I know, I really do know. I've already talked
to the others, they're all going to try and help, at least.
I just wanted you to know what we're preparing to do."

I sighed, thinking this over. There were too many problems,
more than I thought he could easily solve by himself. "Do
you think this is necessary?"

She nodded, "With Grasion, yes. The only chance we will have
of stopping him will be to force him into the end game
before he's ready."

"Why not just wait!" Aster said, stepping forward. "He's
trading one hostage every other day. If we wait long enough
he'll be out."

Fox growled, taking three quick steps to stand right in
front of him. She looked down her muzzle into his eyes, the
points of her teeth showing. "Because the last hostage, or
two, or maybe even five, will pay their lives for a ship. I
can guarantee they will be the most important people of the
whole group down there, and that they most likely will not
get out alive!"

He held his ground, looking back at Fox. "Are you sure? How
do we know he won't just give up!"

Her neck started to tense under the fur. "Because he wants
something and giving up will not get it. Did you hear
nothing of what I told you before? He will not just sit
around with his thumbs up his ass! If he didn't have a plan
of what to do with no getaway before, he does now, and you
can bet your life that he'll be able to pull it off, leaving
with what ever he wants, and whatever lives he decides to
take! The _ONLY_ chance we have of stopping him is to do
something he could not have planned on!"

He growled. "You are so far out of your fucking mind--" he
stared to yell, but was cut short when I slammed my clenched
fist into the side of his muzzle, sending him stumbling
backwards then falling onto the decking with a resounding
thump.

"And you," I intoned, glaring down at him, "are about three
seconds away from being spaced if you don't reel in your
attitude."

He glared up at me, rubbing the side of his face, but did
shut up.

I looked back at Fox with a sigh. "Sorry to leave you with
him, but he knows the most about the base's defense systems
and also how to get around the base."

"Won't you need him, then?"

I smiled. "No, we have Sebe on the planet. He was just
working as an adviser."

She nodded, "He'll have to do then."

"Now that he's been settled, how long will this take?"

Fox paused, her eyes bouncing softly as she thought. "We're
taking the long way around. Three days to the mega-fold,
then two days to Earth. One day for the pickup then the same
time back."

That was puzzling. "Two days? But the distance isn't that
far."

She nodded again, "Four point two light years, but we can't
use the hypo-drive. It's too damn noisy, and noisy in a
frequency that's commonly used. The hyper-drive isn't
exactly high quality in and of itself. It was only intended
to be a secondary system, made to use extremely low power,
not for speed."

"Still though, isn't eleven days a bit long? Grasion could
be done and gone by then."

She shook her head with a slight smile. "Not at all. He's
asking for a lot more than he actually wants, trying to
cover it all up. He's not going to be asking for it all at
once. He'll still be there, just a little more dug in."

I nodded, thinking of a thousand more questions to ask, but
realizing that she might not have the time to answer them.
"Then I need to go so you can start this."

"There is one more thing." she said, taking a step forward.

"What?"

She sighed softly. "I'm going to need Page's computer
skills. Can you have her meet us on a small shuttle this
side of the mega-fold?"

I nodded. "That should not be a problem."

"I'm also going to need Terminus as well."

This came as a slight shock, but I had been expecting
something like it since I had arrived on the ship. "He's not
allowed off Prid!" I protested, the words sounded slightly
hollow.

Fox nodded. "I know, but I need him. At the end of this
we're all going to be going down to the base. We'll need
more than what we have. He used to be a knight and will be
able to handle himself."

"Why not Kalie?" I halfheartedly suggested, "she's usually
who you take on your adventures."

She nodded, "and she also has a life. Last time we talked
she told me she was getting involved in some war games for
her government and wasn't going to be able to get together
for a few more months."

I sighed. "Anything else?"

"Pray?" she suggested.

I smiled. "I'm already doing that."

   To Be Continued...

-----

This story is (c) 1999 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.
'Milgrove' is (C) 1999 by J. 'Packrat' McCoy, and is used
with permission.