Distant Fire

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 4

01/03/98:

Fox was standing in the dark of the _Phoniex_'s observation
bay, staring out into the stars, her paws clasped behind her
back. Her tail was slowly sweeping across the floor behind
her, showing her to be deep in though, or meditation.

I walked up closer her, stopping about a foot behind. She
still noticed me, turning her head slightly and glancing at
me out the corner of her eye.

"Hello Oria," she said, turning back to look out at the
distant stars, twinkling softly through the glass.

I nodded, trying to follow her gaze. "What are you looking
for?"

"Something, anything really. I'm so far from home, from
Earth, from anything."

I stepped forward, to stand even with her. "Are you afraid?"

She let out a barley audible sigh. "Of what we're about to
do, or of Grasion?"

"Both."

She paused, her tail draping behind her, it's motion lost.
"I'm worried about what we are going to do. Very worried,
there are to many things that can go wrong."

I umm-hummed, "and of Grasion?"

"I fear him, with every part of my body, every part of my
soul." she slumped slightly, "He scares me Oriana. Like
nothing ever has before. His soul, if he even has one, is
like a cloud over the whole of the multi-verse. He is the
only person I know of who would destroy it all, if he though
it would be fun."

I stepped closer to her, offering an arm, she leaning back
into it, resting her head on my shoulder. "Every time I face
him I pray it will be the last. Quite frankly, his touch
changes my life."

I nodded, "And mine as well this time."

Fox sighed. "Yes, he manipulates those around him to do the
work he wants done and plays with his enemies. The first
time I had encounter him, he had nearly managed to make the
head of the local law enforcement insane. The man didn't
even pose a threat to him, Grasion was doing his job so well
that no one even knew about it. All it ever was to him was a
game, some entertainment while things went along."

"I fear him too, I have sense we first meet back on Prid."

She nodded, pushing away from me and running her paws
through her hair. "We have very little time," she said,
chancing the topic. "We had better join the others."

I sighed, I had touched on a nerve there, but wasn't sure on
what. Maybe she just didn't want to talk any more, I wasn't
sure and I knew Fox well enough that asked would not give me
any answer at all.

Adjusting the band holding her hair back, Fox opened the
door of the room, and steeped out into the hallway. I winced
from the change of light as it flooded into the near
darkness I was in. Covering my eyes, I started after her,
not rushing, but just following, we both had the same
destination.

Watching Fox from behind, I was starting to find myself
amazed at how much more female she had become, every day
more about her match the sex of her body. She still had
miles to go before she looked natural, but still.

It left me wondering how well she will adjust once we get
back to our own bodies. Has she gotten to comfortable with
being me? Or will she just slip back into her old self... or
a thousand other things I couldn't think of yet.

She would be changed though, we both would. But her more so
then me. I've found that most of us on the ship think of me
as a female still, even if I'm in Fox's body, but everyone,
even I, think of Fox as a women. I wonder if she understands
that?

Or if she cares?

My thoughts came to an end as we both stepped into the
docking bay. the _Falcon_ was hosted above the floor, the
stolen shuttle being strapped to the underside of it, upside
down.

Both Page and Aster were standing below it, going over a
series of data padds, even few seconds trading with the
other. Terminus was waiting by the lift and was engrossed
with polishing the sword he had brought with him.

Milgrove appeared to be inside the _Falcon_'s upper-cockpit,
hir silhouette showing through the glass. Ken was not going
be with us on this trip, he would not fit inside of the
shuttle and Jadith had left us when we had reached Earth.
Fox had given us all a chance to not be a part of this, and
Jadith had taken it.

I would have as well, if it was not for this faith be dammed
spell.

Mil was not actually part of are little invasion, sie had to
fly the _Falcon_ and to launch us in the proper direction
and speed.

So it left the five of us against a dozen guards and one
mad-man.

Though, if the plan of attack Aster and Terminus had created
worked, the guards would be a moot point. They would all be
dealt with remotely, locking them into area's where they
could not leave from.

I rubbed my forehead, over my eyes. I understood that was
planed, but I didn't want go back down there again. It may
sound silly, and I'm pretty sure it us, but I just didn't
want to make this trip.

Fox waved over to me as she walked towards the lift that
would raise us up to the docking hatch on the shuttle. I
walked over quickly stepping inside the metal basket. The
others crammed in as well, filling the small thing to it's
capacity.

There was a lurch as someone started the lift rising
upwards. A series of hydrologic pumps raising us high and
high until we stood just even with the round hatch, already
open and waiting for us.

"Ok," Fox said, "this is going to be disconcerting. There is
a minimal gravity system install on the ship, just enough to
hold you onto the floor. But only where the floor is painted
red, every place else you'll end up walking on the ceiling."

There was general mumble of nonsense from everyone, this we
understood already, and were prepared for it. In theory at
least.

Fox hunched down and slid her legs under the railing of the
lift and inside of shuttle. Her legs stuck to the apparent
ceiling of the ship, the actually floor. She worked her way
backwards, until she was crawling, then back far enough to
stand upside down.

Being next to her, I was the next person to go in. I
repeated the same maneuver, getting my legs back far enough
until what little gravity there was inside took effect. It
was a strange felling, having one side of my body being
pulled downwards, and the other side being pulled up.

I just pushed back though, and got myself inside. My sense
of directing quickly reorienting so that I was upright and
the others outside where upside down.

Standing upright though, I had to catch my glasses as they
tried to fly up to the ceiling. Pushing them back down on my
nose, I held them there and looked at Fox.

She looked slightly annoyed, her hair was standing upwards
and reaching towards the ceiling. "Go up front, I'll catch
up as soon as everyone's inside."

I nodded, carefully working my way through the small ship
until I was in the cockpit area. Through the main window I
could see the docking bay, upside down... I was starting to
feel a bit nauseas.

Closing my eyes I sat down in one of the two front seats in
the ship. To the right of pilot's seat, where Fox was going
to be sitting. Feeling around the edge of the seat, I found
the ends of the four point seat belt, and strapped myself in
as tight as I could.

A minute later Fox sat down next to me letting out a slight
yelp as she did so. Opening one eye, I glanced in her
direction. She was adjusting the seat around her self, from
the look on her face I guessed that she pinched her tail.

Suppressing a slight chuckle I closed my eye again, relaxing
my head against the well padded seat.

A few second later Fox called back. "You three strapped in
back there?"

Everyone grumbled a 'yes'.

"Right then, Aster, you set up?"

"Yes," the wolf called back. "I'm ready when you are."

There was a beep from in front of us. "Milgrove, you ready
up there?"

"She's going to a pig to fly like this," her reply came over
the communications systems. "But yes, everything is ready."

"Right then, I'm going to shut the gravity off in half a
minute so make sure you're in tight." Fox announced as the
who ship lurched downwards.

I hazarded a look, opening my eyes part way and looking out
the window. What appeared to be above us was open space, the
moon we where going to be landing on half light from the
light of there sun. We where rising slowly up into it, the
_Phoinex's_ docking bay vanishing below us.

After a dozen seconds there was a slight kick as the ship
above us start to accelerate, moving us into position to
launch. At the same time the small amount of internal
gravity turned of, leaving us floating in zero-g before the
force from the _Falcon's_ thrust pushed us back into the
seats.

"I wish there was a better way to do this," Aster said from
behind us. "Not that I don't trust you're ability to keep us
on target, but dropping us like this. Really?"

Fox chuckled. A strange sound to here from her. "Well, if we
could have waited a week or more longer we could have gone
up the way this was built for."

I knew that smirk on her face. She was being this vague to
have a joke at his expense.

"Ah, I see." He responded, clearly not what Fox had been
expecting, her face falling slightly.

The small room became silent from then on, the only sound
coming from the different systems inside of the small ship
as the shook and hummed. Eventually it was broken as a small
light on the patched together consul in front of Fox lit up.

Fox flipped the small switch under the light. "Go ahead
Mil."

"I'm ready to cut you loose in one minute." Sie replied
back.

Reaching up, Fox started a small countdown timer in front of
her. "Thank you."

There was a slightly pause. "Try to come back in once piece
ok? I don't want any of you getting to badly hurt."

She smiled. "Thank you again, we'll do our best."

The light went out as Fox closed the channel. "Everyone
ready?"

Everyone assured her that yes, they where still ready.

"Then hang on," she told us, watching the small clock as the
timer ticked down to zero.

There was a series of loud bangs in a series down both sides
of the hull. Each one was the explosive bolt on the straps
letting go, freeing us from the _Falcon_.

Out the window I watched as Milgrove pulled the ship away
from us, sweeping down towards the floating lights of the
_Phoniex_.

Reaching forward Fox open the cover on a switch, then turned
the switch blow it on. That ignited the ships main engine,
kicking us forward to the proper speed. Watching the timer
in front of her, Fox closed the switches cover after only a
few seconds, at the same time turning the switch below it
off.

Turning on a few more switches Fox took the control stick in
front of her in paw. Very carefully rolling the ship so the
underside was facing the ground. She made a few more
adjustments after that, then closer all but two of the
switches.

Leaning back she took in a deep breath. "Ok, we'll be at the
surface in five minutes." She turned to look behind us,
"Aster?"

The wolf looked up from the small computer before him.
"Everything is set up and ready to transmit."

She nodded. "Ok, I leave that in your paws then," she
responded, then sat back in her seat, looking back out the
window. Letting out the breath she had take she seemed to
slump back in the chair.

I leaned over to her. "Are you ok?" I whispered.

"'ie, just a wee bit nervous." She responded with a nod,
faking an accent I had never head before.

"Not a good time for it." I commented.

She nodded again, her ears swiveling a bit. "I know, it's
not, at least not as of yet... soon though I would expect."

I nodded myself, sitting back in my seat, watching as the
ground below us steadily grew closer.

"Are we inside the defense systems yet?" I asked.

Aster replied. "For almost a three minutes." He sounded
relieved. "You should be able to see the Slingshot's rings
by now."

I squinted. "I can't."

"Nor can I." Fox replied.

Aster let out an annoyed sound, taping at his computer. "The
rings should be light up."

"We have a little over a minute before we hit the ground.
We're are they?"

"I'm checking."

By this time the ground below us was taking up most of the
view. Then, with a sudden flash, a string a bright lights
lit up in front of us, extending towards the horizon. I
could see that they where rings, massive ones maybe a
thousand feet wide. One going under us every few seconds.

Fox swore. "We've overshot them." She squinted, looking
closer. "Hold on."

She gabbed the control stick, pulling it back towards her.
We started to descend inside the rings. Each one getting
closer as it skimmed below us. Suddenly there came a loud
screeching sound and the ship jerked, first up, then back
down. After that we were flying inside of the rings.

"System activated," Aster announced, "we're slowing down."

Fox sighed, leaning back in her seat. "Good... very good."
she checked the small timer. "We'll be landing in about
ninety seconds. We hope you have had a pleasant flight, and
would fly with us again soon. Welcome to Krein moon."

It was such an unexpected statement for right that we all
let out a small chuckle. It helped to relive the tension
that had been growing inside the cabin with us.

-----

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.