Flight

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

04/28/97:

I heard a moan from behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I
saw Oria walk into the kitchen, rubbing her upper arm though
her shirt.

I took a sip of my tea. "A bit stiff?" I asked.

She nodded, sitting down. "I feel like I've been trampled.
Every muscle I have in stiff."

I shrugged. "Well, a lot of physical activity can do that to
you."

She frowned, she had spent most of the day before with Marn
doing an obstacle course. "At least it will be over in a
couple months."

"There is a plus to all this."

She gave me a sharp look. "What?"

I leaned forward a bit. "You'll be in better shape then
you've been in for ages, and I'm sure that, if you think
about it, most of what he is teaching you can come in handy
for the rest of your life, not just in the next few months."

She shrugged. "I suppose."

I nodded a bit, and went back to doing some work on the padd
that was sitting in front of me.

"What's that?" Oriana asked as she got up to make some
breakfast.

I smiled. "The flight plan."

That caused her to stop, then turn around to face me.
"You're going to launch soon?"

I checked my watch. "In about five hours."

She smiled. "That's great, you've only had the ship for a
year. So much for a few months work." She went back to
making her food.

I stood, stretching a bit, then picked up the padd. "I need
to go file this, then take care of the last few things. I'll
meet you at the bay then."

She nodded. "I don't suppose you actually have a name for it
yet?"

I laughed. "Ya... I've had one for a few months actually."

She gave me one of her pleading looks she's always been so
good at. I shook my head. "It's a surprise." Then headed
out.

* * *

"Fox," someone said. I opened my eyes a bit, blinking away
some sleep. I had been taking one of my short thirty-minute
naps that I had been living off of for the past five months.
I usual end up with one a day or so.

I stretched, standing up from the chair I had been relaxing
in. Standing on the other side of the control room was the
source of the voice, Rachel.

I smiled, rubbing the back of my neck. "Glad you could make
it."

"You are a friend," she said, giving me a smile, "and you
asked."

I grinned, "how could I not, you're the one rented me this
bay for a dollar a year."

She walked over to me, and pulled out a chair. "It's not as
if I had anything I could use it for. It was the old Council
Head's and he had gave it to me when he left."

"I didn't know." I said, checking some buttons on the
control in front of me. I was up in the control room for the
bay, doing some final pre-flight things. The windows out
into the bay had all been blackened down, as they had been
for the past four days. I didn't want anyone to see it
before I got the name and registration painted on the side.

"Can I ask a question?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

"How can you do that?"

I paused. "Do what?"

"Not sleep."

I gave a strained chuckle. "Ah... well, the my doctor said
that some part of my brain chemistry is out of wack for some
reason so I only will sleep long enough to clear the
accumulated toxins out of my blood. I can't seem to sleep
any long then that."

She rested her paw on my shoulder. "Must be strange."

I flipped a final switch, then turned to look at her. "Not
really, I have twice more time in the day then most people.
Not that it helps me get any more done." I said with a
chuckle.

A smile flickered accost her muzzle. "Fox, I was wanting to
ask--" she then started to say, but was interrupted by
Oriana.

"Hey Fox, hi Rachel."

Rachel looked over at Oriana, then stood up. "Hello Oriana."

I paused. "Where is Sora?"

"She got called by one of the instructors right before I
left. She told me to tell you that this wasn't as really
important to her as it was to you an me, and to go without
her."

I sighed. "Oh."

Oriana shrugged. "You can call and check with her if you
like."

I shook my head. "No, I believe you. She really hasn't been
as happy about this as I have been. If she says to go
though, we should go."

She nodded. "So, when do we get to see the ship?"

I shrugged, opening the door out of the control room and
down into the bay. "Right now, after you two."

They both smiled, and started down the steps, I after them.
As I watched them decent, there tails brushing through the
air behind them, I was struck by something. "Is it just me,"
I muttered, though enough so not to be heard, "or do I know
a disproportionately large number of women."

I shook it off (though remembered to check it out later) as
we entered into the bay.

My ship was in the center, standing proud. It's length of
seven-hundred feet had been painted a smokey grey, with the
registration and the name (written in standard) in a
prominent white in all the required places. Some running
lights along it length to highlight the lettering on the
side. There were breaks in the hall for the windows, and
other such things. Though seven airlocks were prominent out
along it's length, as each one had been outline in a bright
orange, as according to law.

I stood between then as they took this all in. "I present,
_The Golden Phoenix_."

"I'm impressed Fox, it actually came out rather well."
Rachel said. Oriana nodded.

I started walking toward the airlock nearest to us, they
both followed.

"What's that over there?" Oria asked, pointing over to the
ill shaped construction of a space frame.

I smiled. "That is _The Falcon_ my next ship."

"Bit small isn't it?" Rachel asked.

I shook my head. "It's partly a shuttle, but mostly an
attack vessel. _The Phoenix_ here is more for exploration.
It's made to go down fighting, or run away. _The Falcon_ on
the other hand is being made for an assault."

"Doesn't look like any ship I've know, even at this stage."
Rachel said as I stopped to open the airlock.

"It's not. I've had the Brothers working on the designs for
months."

"Is the designs in the registry?"

I nodded, stepping inside the airlock. "Yep, _Red October_
class."

"Interesting name." Rachel said, steeping inside the
airlock, Oria on her heals.

"It's going to be an interesting ship." I said, cycling the
lock.

Oriana steeped out into the ship proper first. Running her
bare foot over the carpet. "This is new." She said.

I nodded. "Ya, had a lot of last minute things added in the
past week." I said, following behind her. I then glanced up
at the ceiling. "Zen," I called, "start all pre-flight
systems, and set the bay for zero-g."

The was a pause. "Right away," He chirped.

Oriana looked at me. "Is that the some computer?" she asked.

I nodded, starting towards the bridge. "Yep, same one as
before."

"He sounds... a lot less serious then I remembered."

I nodded again. "Ya, some of the new systems cause a bit of
corruption in the personality mapping."

She nodded a bit.

"It's not normal to name the computers in a ship." Rachel
said behind me.

I chuckled. "I was going to to, but he finally asked for
one."

She raised her eyebrows. "Really now, how did you get an
computer who could ask for a name."

I shrugged. "Came with the ship."

She paused for a second, then slowly shook her head. "I
see..."

"Why did you name him Zen?" Oria asked.

I looked up at her. "A joke, again. I named him after the
ships computer on _Blakes 7_."

She looked back at me, shook her head, then looked back to
where she was going.

I fell back a bit, pulling Rachel back with me. "You wanted
to ask me something?"

She smiled. "It can wait till later Fox."

"Alright then." I said, as we stepped onto the command deck
of the ship.

I walked over and sat myself down in my chair. "Let's get
this show on the road."

* * *

I won't bore you with the whole flight. It wasn't very much
anyway, more of a shake down cruise. We tested both the
hyper and the hypo drive system, as well as popping it in
out of a few megafolds. There were a few problems nothing
big.

A few hours after we returned, I was doing some small
repairs on one of the landing gear. It had jammed down on
lift-off, and I think I knew why.

It didn't take much work to fix it, it was something even I
could handle. Just a few lose wires, nothing major. Wiping
my hands off on my pants, I started back to the control
room, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

I turned, to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Maybe fifty
feet away, on the edge of _The Falcon's_ space frame sat a
male human, reading a book.

I frowned, and started over to him. "Who are you and what
are you doing here?" I asked as I got closer.

He looked up at me and smiled, snapping the book closed.
"Hello Mr. Cutter." He said with a slight pull in his voice
and an accent I couldn't place.

I stopped about ten feet away from where he sat. "That
didn't answer any of my questions."

He sighed, jumping down from the space frame. As he landed I
swore I saw his form flicker, letting me see, for just a
fraction of a second, what looked like fur. It only lasted
for a blink of an eye, then he was gone.

"Who I am, that's simple. Call me Burke. As for why I am
here, that is a far more complex question to answer."

I shook my head. I didn't like this guy. "Just Burke, no
last name."

He chuckled. "No... no last name. Just, plain, Burke." He
said, walking to stand a couple feet away from me.

"What do you want?"

He laughed, laughed hard, smiling all the time. "Oh...
that's so very perfect. It's not what I want, I want to be
here. It you who needs to answer that question."

I balled my hand into a fist. "I don't have to listen to
this."

He frowned, then in a blur, grabbed my wrist with his hand,
holding it tight. "Yes, yes you do." He said will deadly
seriousness. "I am in the unique position of being able to
help you, if you just ask."

I pulled myself from his grasp. "I'm not in the mood to play
this type of game."

He smiled. "You will be. You see, I've been sent here to do
this for you. My boss was rather keen on it, he even picked
the name, said it would remind you of someone."

I glared. "Get the hell out of here, now."

He chuckled. "Very well, for now." He said, starting to walk
away. He then stopped and turned around. "But first, ask
yourself. How can someone else find what at a distance, you
where unable to see."

"What?" I asked. Suddenly though, he had vanished into thin
air.

I groaned, rubbing my forehead. Yet another misery to solve.

-----

This story is (c) 1997 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.