Distant Fire

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 3

I sighed, turing the air recycles up a bit higher, creating
a noticeable draft through the compartment of the small
shuttle.

My companion looked up from the plans he had been studying,
which where now flipping in the artificial wind. Chomping on
the end of his cigar, he glared at me. "Could you turn that
down, it's becoming an annoyance."

I snorted, leaning back in my seat. "When you put out that
vile smelling thing?" I said, motioning to the smoke
floating around the cabin.

He took it out of his mouth, looking at the end, then
smiled. "It's not vile, more of pleasant." He said, placing
it back into his mouth. Then, picking up a few small things
that where sitting around the cabin, weight down the edge of
his documents.

Stalemate, again. I had been putting up with his damn cigars
for over a day now. He always seemed to be smoking one
except for when he was sleeping, which was about half the
time.

He was one of Fox's friends though, so I was going to put up
with him and his smell until we docked with the _Phoenix_.
Which, as I check the small navigation computer, was in
about ten minutes.

Shaking the ashes into a small jar he had brought along,
Terminus looked up at me. "How much time is left?"

"About nine minutes now."

He smiled, running his finger over one of the plans. "Good,
I have some ideas I want to run past Fox after we board."

I couldn't help to have some interest, I was going to be
involved in this as well at the end. Sliding closer I looked
over the plans. "What?"

"These rooms are where the hostages are being keep," he
said, tapping on the page. "If we can drop these pressure
doors here," he pointed to each one, "we can cut of any
guards around it from getting inside. They will stay safe as
we go through through and clean up."

I squinted, looking closer at the plans for the moon base.
"You can learn all of that from just looking at those?"

He smiled. "Partly, one of the memo's we got suggested doing
something like that. I just had to find out which series of
doors."

I looked back down at the tan and black plans, looking
closer. He had marked down where all the guards where with
small red 'X's, each of the doors he had pointed to had been
highlight in blue as well.

This was all assume the reports we had gotten back from the
released hostages where all accurate. A dozen guards and
Grasion holding them all in the base. Not much to over come
if first we could get past the guards. Or at least keep them
out of the way.

"How do you make sure all the hostages are in that area
still?" I asked, pointing.

He shrugged. "Not sure yet. We still have a week yet, we can
think of something by then."

I leaned back in my seat, nodding to myself. Assume all went
as planed it would actually be a day over an Earth week.
Then a few more days back if what we had been told was true.

Terminus smiled, looking past me. "There she is."

Turing, I looked out the large window I had been sitting
behind. Hanging outside, a dozen kilometers away, was _The
Golden Phoenix_. As I watcher her come closer the shuttle's
navigation computer beeped, notifying me that it had hooked
up with the _Phoenix's_ computer, and was starting us in.

The communication system beeped a few seconds later. "Hey
guys, enjoy the trip?" Fox, no, I correct myself, Oriana,
asked.

"Not as pleasant as I would like," I responded. Behind me
Terminus scoffed. "How about you two, how are things going
with you?"

There was a pause, "good, mostly. Fox and I are both dealing
with this as best as we can." The pacing of the words was
defiantly Oriana's, even if the voice was Fox's. Something
though rang hollow, I wasn't being told something.

I looked out the window, watching as we grew closer to the
_Phoenix_, the docking bay we were heading towards growing
bright and better defined each second.

"I'll see you in a minute," I said then switched off the
com-system. Turing back around to look at my companion, I
found he had already packed up all the plans and documents
he had been reading. He was now leaning back in the seat,
looking towards me.

"What are we not being told?" He asked me as he pinched out
the end of his cigar and tucked it into his pocket.

I nodded, "you heard that too then?"

"Of course, I've know the pair of them for a long time. That
was definitely Oriana, and she was more the certainly hiding
something from us. The question is what?"

I shrugged. "Maybe we should ask them?"

He bounced a bit as we touched down inside of the _Phoenix_.
"I don't think that would be a good idea for now. We will be
told when they feel we should be told."

There a quick series of clanks as the shuttle settled and
the hatch opened. It slid back a few inches into the cabin,
then hit it self in the wall. Terminus was first out, his
paws full with the assorted papers. I got out right after
him.

Fox and Oriana were both waiting for us. Oriana, in Fox's
body was dressed in a shirt and pants, but neatly. The shirt
was tucked in, the hair bushed and his beard trimmed.

Fox was next to him, dressed as I would never have expected.
Pants that where decently tight, with a shirt tucked into
them, and pulled over her chest. Her hair was tied back,
leaving a set of bangs to hang over her eyes.

They both smiled at us as we started walking towards them.
Something was wrong with Fox though, she was smiling wide,
quite happy to see us, but her eyes...

"I'm glad to see you two," Fox said, hugging Terminus, then
me. "We're going to need all the power we can muster, mind
and muscle, to finish this."

My companion smiled. "I've got the plans for the base, as
well as the most current reports from the released
hostages."

She smiled, "Great! We'll have to stick you with Aster, he's
the resented knowledge pool on the base."

This was all being forced from her, I could see it. Oriana
was acting strange as well. Watching Fox from the corner of
his eyes, working very hard not to look concerned, and
slowly starting to fail.

"Page," Fox said, turning to me, "I'm going to need you to
find out which Shuttle we're going to nab, and where it's
located at on planet. You'll have full access to ever
resource we can provide."

I nodded, having already been told this before I ever left.

"Also, it's important that all records referee to the
Shuttle as _Infinity_."

"Why?" Oriana asked, seemed a bit surprised.

Fox smiled, "when Earth is no longer listed as a forbidden
verse I'm going to make sure it joins the Council. So I
don't want anything they saying where we got this ship, and
giving it's name will be a good way for them to find out."
She crossed her arms over her chest, "so we'll rename it,
and not recorded where we got it from."

Oriana nodded, happy with this.

I spoke up again. "Fox, I have a question for you."

Terminus was suddenly far more tense, his back staffing like
a board.

Fox nodded, allowing me to ask.

I though carefully of how to phrase this. "My Father--"

She cut me off. "Father? I though you never knew your
father."

I nodded,"Actually, I mean my Grandfather. I grew up
referring to him and Grandmother as such. I only started
calling them my grandparents once I came to Prid. When I was
with Mil, sie told me to speak of them in what ever way felt
the most natural for me. I was quite happy to revert back."

"Ah, ok then, keep going."

I cleared my throat, "as I was saying, my Father had these
beautiful eyes, almost like crystals. He could stare right
in your soul. They seemed to be so deep that when you looked
into then you could drown. Your's though, there not deep,
there almost infinite, pulling all around them inside. Dead.
My god Fox, what happened to you?"

She looked to me, closing her eyes and sighing. Then turing,
walking out of the docking bay, her tail tip touching the
floor.

There was dead silence for a few seconds, then Oriana turned
and followed, Terminus right after him. I stood alone,
looking at the door Fox had gone through.

This was far worse then just a body swap.

* * *

12/28/97:

"Have you seen Fox?" I asked, leaning into the door of
Page's room. She didn't seem to notice, busy reading through
a stack of computer printouts. Evenly she seemed to notice I
was there, and looked up at me.

"Hello Oriana," she said with a smile. "Anything I can do
for you?"

I nodded, "Have you seen Fox?" I asked again, adjusting my
glasses back up on my nose. I had no idea how Fox could deal
with there weight all day, every day. Personally I found it
annoying and a hindrance.

"A few hours ago, she was heading down to look over the
_Falcon_." She responded, picking up another page from of
the printout.

"Looked there already."

She hummed softly. "She might be with Naomi. Fox mentioned
that she wasn't really doing enough with her lately."

I shook my head. "Newt is in a lesion with Ken."

Page shrugged. "Speaking of Ken, what is going on with that
pair? They seem to be avoiding each other like the plague."

I didn't respond. Fox had asked me not to tell anyone what
had happened, and what she had discovered. I was willing to
comply for right now, though it was getting harder.

She frowned. "Fine then, don't tell me. Why don't you just
ask Zen where she is?"

"I tried, he tells me Fox asked him not to tell anyone where
she was." I responded.

"I can't help then," Page told me, then quickly went back to
her printouts.

I sighed to myself, walking away from her room and down the
hallway. I hadn't seen Fox sense early this morning, and was
getting worried. We were due to enter her solar system in an
hour and she was no where to be found. It didn't seem like
her.

"Oriana?" Zen said, breaking into my train of though. I
stopped walking and looked up to the ceiling. "Yes Zen?"

The computer gave a artificial sigh. "I'm about to break my
orders. Fox is in her room, in the shower to be precise."

I frowned, this was not like the computer. "Why are you
telling me?"

"Because," He reply, pausing for a second, "She's been in
there for almost an hour, with out turning the water in the
shower on."

I turned on my heal, and started walking towards Fox's room.
"Can you tell me anything else?"

There was a soft click as he changed speaks to address me
through. "From the analyses of the audio in the room, it
appears that she is crying."

"Thank you Zen," I said, turing a corner. "I won't mention
to Fox that you told me."

"Much appreciated," the computer chirped, then became silent
again. I keep walking towards Fox's current room, reach it
in a matter of minutes.

The door wasn't locked, opening as soon as I hit the switch
for it. Inside I could hear Fox's sobbing coming from the
direction of the bathroom. Walking quietly I moved to stand
just inside the door, looking in.

Fox sat, dressed, in the bottom of the shower stall. She had
pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her
legs, holding them close to her body. Her face was pressed
against the top of her knees, her hair spilling over her
head and down past her legs.

Walking closer, I bent down, reaching out to touch her on
the shoulder. I froze though, my eyes locking on a small
knife that was sitting in the stall next to Fox. I must have
made some noise, causing Fox to look up me through her hair.

I looked back to her, trying to find her eyes, then I looked
back down to the knife. Following my gaze, Fox whimpered
softly. Reaching up she lifted the hair from in front of her
eyes. "I didn't even know I was doing it," she whispered,
her voice catching in her throat ever few words. "I was
working on something in the _Falcon_, trying to get a grip
on what had happened. Before I really knew it I was in here,
holding that against my wrist."

She looked up at me, the fur around her eyes, and her cheeks
matted down from her tears. "I was barely able to stop
myself."

I nodded, sitting down next to her, not saying a word.

Looking back down at the floor, she keep sobbing. "What's
happening to me Oria? Why do I feel like I'm so off balance
now?"

"Maybe you need to face what you've been through in the past
week. First you where almost killed, then switched with me
and topped with finding out that you killed a man."

She let out a choked laughed. "Killed? I murdered him! I
murdered him with my own hands in cold blood."

"So have I," I responded, taking one of her paws in my hand,
squeezing it gently. "You just can't push that aside like
you the others, live every other pain in your life. I think
you should face this, face the pain it's caused. Understand
that it's never going away, and try to live with it."

She looked away from me, crying even harder then before.

I reached out, grabbing her chin, and forcing her to look me
in the eyes. "You keep running Fox. Away from everything
that hurts you, and you're not getting anywhere."

I could see the pain in her eyes as she looked back at me.
Like a shadow on her soul. "Maybe," she whispered.

"A lot more the maybe. You've got so much pain hiding inside
of you that it's starting to overflow out. This last week as
been the final thinks to fill it past it's holding point.
There's only so much that can be keep in one soul."

Fox seemed to pull tighter to herself. I sighed to myself,
decided to try a different track to the conversation.
Setting one hand on the floor, I wrapped the other over her
shoulders. "Tell me about you're gods."

That jolted her slightly as she looked up towards me,
sniffling softly and blinking back so tears. "My god?"

I nodded, "Yes, you seem to mention them so much when you're
angry, I want to know more about them."

She frowned, looking sad. "I don't believe in any of my own
gods, and worship none that I do know of."

I let a slight sound of astonishment slip away. "You can't
be serious Fox, how do you atone yourself for what you've
done. How do you face you're sins, and cleanse them from
your soul?"

She shrugged against my arm. "Never had to worry about any
of that. I just keep going on as I always have. Plodding
away at my life, atoning myself as I see fit. I do not
believe in a soul, the hear-after, or anything else that you
see fit to mention. So many gods are out there, most are
imaged, and the real ones either are insane, or work very
hard to keep the people who follow them believing that there
is something to strive for in life."

I wasn't sure if that was meant as an insult against Thryn,
or what Fox believed was truth. I felt though, that Fox at
least respected my God enough not to so casually insult him.

"Then what do you believe in?" I asked, looking at her
closely.

She looked back at me. "Friends Oria, I believe in the
strength of my friends to help me through the trials of pain
of life. For without friends to share life with you have
nothing to live for."

I nodded, understand how much that explained about Fox. How
much she would fight for her friends, to help them, to
prefect them, to avenge them. I also suddenly understood how
much Ken's betrayal must have hurt her, on many more levels
they I understood. Ken was one of his closest friends, as
well as a lover. This had to be deviating for her.

I touched her ears, smoothing the fur on them flat. Fox
yawned softly in response. She was still crying, but not so
painfully as before. "How long have you been awake?"

"A day, maybe more."

"Well then, we're going to be at you're system soon and to
you're base there in a few hours. Maybe you should sleep
until then?"

She yawned again, and worked herself into a standing
position. I stood with her, offering my arm for support. She
took it willingly and I helped her to the bed. Laying down
she started to drift to sleep immediately. Her tears
slowing.

Bending down I kissed her on the head. Then I unburied some
of my own pain, the one that I've been trying to keep hidden
for to long, even over a short time. "I love you," I
whispered into her ear.

Half conscious, and almost into dreams, Fox still heard me,
and and she responded. "Thank you," she whispered. Then
quickly drifted off into a weak slumber.

* * *

Hours later I waited impatiently for Fox to return. She had
left a couple hours ago for Earth, with Terminus, Page and
Milgrove. It was made quite clear that I wasn't going to be
going along. Being in Fox's made it a bad idea to running
around on his world stealing things. They could trace it
back to her in some fashion, and they she would really be
screwed.

So I waited, trying to relax. Wondering around the base Fox
had created inside the asteroid belt of the system after the
HammerHeads. Though I don't think he ever planed on using it
in this such of a fashion.

I tried to sleep a time or two, but with out to much
success, and the company I was keeping wasn't much of a help
to keep me distracted. The others that had been left behind
was Naomi, for clear reasons, Ken, and Aster.

Ken was out of the question entirely, I didn't even want to
share a room with him, but I did what I must so he could
find a way to remove this spell and get us back to normal.
Naomi was sleeping in her room on board the _Phoenix_,
unaware of the events that where unfolding around her, or so
I hoped.

Which left Aster, who was buried inside of the plans for the
base. He was working out where to land the _Infinity_ as
soon we got back to his system. He needed to find a place
that would be safe to land at, yet get us to the defense
system to shut it down, and away from Grasion and his
guards.

Not exactly on easy task.

As for me, I worried about Fox. She had only gotten a few
hours of sleep, then was right back up and awake, hyper,
happy and ready to take on the world. It was a front, and
she and I both knew it. Her eyes where still, as Page had
noticed, dead. Maybe not as much as before, but still empty
none the less.

I felt trapped by her pain myself, there was nothing I could
really do to help her. I could speak to her soothing words,
but they did very little. She needed to help herself here.

More then that though, she was so clear on what her friends
meet to her, but she wouldn't tell them what had happened.
She said that she didn't want to burden them with her
problems, they already had enough of there own to begin
with.

That argument didn't hold much water with me. Much of my
religion was based on the idea that shared pain is lessened.
That is why we can share sin with others when we go into
Expulsion. It brings us closer to those we care about, and
lessen the pain the one of us feels. Making it less then
half of what it was.

Which is why Fox need her friends, she needed us! I could
not help her alone, nor could I bare the weight of trying.
She needed the others, so much so that it was starting to
kill her not too.

Fox once saved my from the death of my soul, the time has
come for me to do the same for her.

"Rejoice," Zen declared, his voice echoing around the rock
walls of the hallway. "for the mighty hunters have returned
with there pray!"

I couldn't help but laugh. Starting myself in motion for the
base's hanger. "Where did you get that at?" I asked the
computer.

Zen clicked softly, his version of a smile. "Page suggested
it."

"It does sound like her." I commented, turning a corner and
stepping into the bay. I drew a sharp breath when I saw what
we had go to all this trouble to steal. I couldn't help but
to laugh. Long and loud.

The ship was an ugly white thing with a black belly. More
then a four-hundred feet long, with a pair of squat little
wings and a tail fin. It was sitting on a three of wheels
and looked out of place sitting as it was, next to the now
landed _Falcon_.

Fox steeped out of the _Falcon_ and gave me a stern look.
"Don't laugh, this is what's getting us to Grasion."

I nod, walking over to him, and restraining my laughter. "I
know, but it looks so silly!"

"I'll agree," Aster said, walking in from the docking tunnel
to the _Phoenix_, "can that thing actually fly?"

"Yes," Fox said, "though it's more of a glide."

The wolf nodded, walking closer to it, and running his paws
over the ship's belly. "What are these tiles for?" He asked,
tapping it with his finger.

She had to think for a few seconds. "Ah, there made to
absorb the heat from re-entry."

He began a nod, but stopped, turning slowly to face Fox,
then walking over to her. "This thing uses friction to slow
down it's re-entry?"

"Yes."

Aster seemed to grow red through his fur. "You idiot! This
whole thing is useless! How in the greater hells where you
expecting to land this on a moon with no atmosphere?"

She slowly closed her eyes, her tail dropping in sync until
it brushed the floor. "Maybe canalize some parts from the
_Falcon_. A gravity system or something, we could use it to
slow us by pushing against the ground as we descend."

"Which brings us right back to why we need this monster in
the first place. Even that type of system will be detected
and you would be shot down." He responded with a sneer. He
seemed to be quite proud of himself for finding such a
deadly flaw in Fox's plan.

"Do you have a better idea?" Fox snapped back at him.

He smiled. "As a matter of fact, I do."

Ten minutes later we where back in the _Phoenix_, inside the
small room Aster had taken for studying the plans for the
base. As he entered the room he walked to the stack of plans
and pulled one out. Moving towards the table in the center
of the room, he stood over it, unrolling the plan.

Setting some weights on the corners, to keep it from curling
back up, he pointing down at a section of the plan. The plan
it self was of the general surface construction of the base,
the spot he pointed to was a touch over three miles from the
base. A strip of land marked with a line of rings, going for
almost a mile.

"That is where we land," Aster announced, smiling with some
glee.

Fox looked up from the plans, giving Aster an icy stare.
"What exactly is it?"

He seemed to freeze for a movement, his eyes locked with
hers. Shaking it off with a small shutter, he ran his finger
down the line. "This is a Gravitational Slingshot."

Huh?

He continued, "it's not fully operational yet, but the
system system's gravitational rings are installed. If we can
navigate your ship inside them I can program the system to
slow us down, dropping us at the loading dock."

Fox shook her head. "Wouldn't Grasion notice that? I'm sure
the main computer would light of bright red if something
like that happened."

"That's the beauty of this," he said with a smile. "The
computers aren't connected. The two systems don't like
talking to each other, so we can accesses to control the
system safely, and before you say it, it's on a different
power system as well."

"You're sure we can use it?"

Aster nodded. "If Grasion hasn't already gone there and
disable the system, but unless he knew how far behind it
was, that's unlikely?"

"Find out will you?" Fox requested.

He nodded. "I'll squirt a request back home, they'll tell
me. Then I'll get right on a program to have it glide us
in." He though for a second, "oh! There is also an advantage
to this as well. There's already a tunnel to the base from
the loading dock. It comes out only a building away from the
defense system's control room."

"Great!" She said with a large smile.

I took a step forward, sense this to be a good time to
interrupt. "Um, not to be rude, but what exactly is a
Gravitational Slingshot?"

"It's a line of a ring shaped gravity inductors. The idea is
that as you go through each one it throws you harder and
faster into the next. When you exit the last ring your going
at a much faster rate then you could get from just lifting
off." He shrugged, "we're planing on using it to shoot of
some early supplies for the outer colonizes over the next
ten years."

That explained it some, but I still was confused by it. Oh
well though, if it worked, we had are ticket back into the
base. If not we where in a lot of trouble.

Lets hope that it worked.

-----

This story is (c) 1998 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) 1998 by J. 'Packrat' McCoy, and is used
with permission.