Transient Events

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

02/05/98:

The water roared past my ears as it closed over my head, the
force from my dive sending me down towards the bottom of the
lake. The water was cold against my skin, rushing past as I
arched under the water, turning back toward the surface.

Breaking the water I took in a breath, stretching my legs as
I kicked to keep afloat. I never do swim enough and the lake
is perfect for just that, it never got very cold any time of
the year, even at night.

Diving back down under the water, I kicked down as deep as I
could, I had been out here for about an hour already, just
trying to relax. Things lately had been tense around my home
and on Prid in general. Sora and Oriana were at each other
again, nothing new with that. Though recently the jabs seem
to be more of habit then of spite.

The real annoyance was something I couldn't get mad about.
Newt was still be tutored with Ken on magic, she had to be.
Her power was growing rapidly and without control she would
be dangerous.

I've found for myself at least, I couldn't make myself hate
Ken, yes he had betrayed me in one of the most personal ways
of all. Still though, I couldn't not hate him. I could be
angry, I could be spiteful, I have throw away his
friendship, yet I couldn't not hate.

A state of though that has been described as 'Highly
Enlightened' by people who never really understood why I
needed that hate. Still though, it was another matter.

The general state on Prid was far more interesting, it had
been leaked out that Grasion had plans for a working version
of the Council's power system, and that he had succeeded in
making it.

Now, sense part of the Krein laws on hostage situations was
that all items giving in negotiations had to be listed for
the public to know. The idea is to keep someone from getting
a warhead or the like under the table.

This means everything Grasion got in exchange for the
hostages is know, though not the exact details of how there
made. Still though it's enough that if someone was willing
to experiment they could eventually piece together there own
version of the system.

So far, there have been at least seven thousand someone's
willing to try.

The Council's R&D group has admitted that with just what is
in the public and other assorted factors that it would be at
most five years before someone can replicate what he did.
Who ever did it would become very wealthy, very quickly.

The version that Grasion had actually built had vanished
almost instantly. The Council denies all knowledge of it,
and even the possibility of it's existence. I image it's at
there equivalent of Area 51 right now, where ever that might
be.

Not that I cared about it this time, thankfully no one had
noticed that I was involved in this little mishap. The fact
is there was no true hero's of the day, with the exception
of Aster. He had been firmly latched onto by the media and
was more then willing to help them.

As for myself, I wasn't to concerned with everything, I
still had bigger things to worry about.

"Hey Fox!" Sora called from the house as my head broke the
surface.

Pushing my hair from my eyes I tired to focus on her. "Yes?"

"You have company!" She called back.

"I'll be right there." I yelled back, diving back under the
water and kicking towards the dock.

Something felt wrong though, as I swam through the water I
could feeling a gently pulling along my skin, which slowly
got stronger. Just as I was reaching the dock it stopped, to
be replaced with a kind of light tugging all around my body
as the water moved past.

Pulling myself up onto the dock, I quickly saw what was
causing it. I had fur, and on a quick examination, a muzzle
and tail. I had become a fox-morph again.

This came as quite a shock too me, I had never expected to
look like this again, let alone to just have it happen!
Something must have kicked Oriana's spell back into action,
but what?

That could wait for later though, I could ask Ken to look
into it, he already had the experience on my body and
assorted changes.

I was also dripping wet and with fur that was a lot of
water. So I did the simplest thing, I shook my of it out.
Don't laugh! I've seen a lot of my friends to the same
thing!

Once I was reasonably water free, I grabbed my towel,
something that seemed a bit inadequate right now, and
started towards the house.

I got the first reaction before I even stepped inside.
"Fox!" Rachel said, standing up from the couch.

Page, who was next to her, smiled at me and rolled her eyes.

Sora turned and gasped softly.

"When did this happen" Rachel asked, walking over towards
me.

I sighed. "Just now, when I was coming towards the dock."

"Your colors are different then last time," Sora commented
as she looked me over.

I shrugged. "Listen, I'm going to go and dry off. I'll be
back as quick as I can." I said this as I was started up the
stairs.

Ducking into Oria's room I slipped into her bathroom. It was
also where I keep most of my clothing at, sense Naomi had
been given my room. Striping out of my trunks I spent a few
minutes in front of the fur dryer. I was going to leave
brushing it out for later, right now I just wanted to be
dry.

Once that was done I looked myself over. The coloring was
different, where last time it seemed to be more of a random
mix of red, black and white this seemed more controlled. The
majority of my fur was red, no black at all except for the
tips of my ears. The tip of my tail was white, as was the
sides of my face, from nose to cheek and around my eyes.
Leaving a swath of read up the bridge of my muzzle. My eyes
were slitted, as they should be, but blue, just as they
where normally. My eyesight was better as well, back to
nearly perfect once more.

Dressing quickly, I found that I was also smaller then
before, about two inches shorter then I used to be. I made
due though, grabbing a pair of cutoffs that were normally
snug I found them to be a lose fit. The shirt was the same,
hanging down half way to my knees.

Looking myself over in the mirror I decided that I was
presentable, though if this lasted very long I would need
some clothing in the proper sizes.

I proceed back down stairs and sat down on the end of the
couch. The others just looked at me before Rachel broke the
silence. "Are you ok Fox?"

"I feel great, though I seem to be shorter."

Page smirked.

"Do you find this funny?" I asked her.

She smiled. "oh no, I think you look just fine. Though the
eyes seem to be the wrong color."

I sighed. "Well, maybe we'll get lucky and find I can
control this. I think that would be the best result. For now
though why did you two stop by?"

Rachel smiled, handing me a small leather bound book. About
half an inch and the size of a paper back. Flipping through
it I saw pages of notes. She also have me a PADD. "This is
the data you asked me for," she explained. "The book was
found in Grasion's office on the base."

I stared to look over the PADD, but Rachel spoke up. "No
Fox, the book is more important."

"Oh?" I asked, setting the PADD down on the table next to me
and picked up the book. "What is it?"

"Read the first page, it's all in Standard if you're
wondering." Page said.

Opening the book I scanned over the first page. It had a
full fold number, about thirty digits long, half of page of
directions, the last line mentioned a super conductor of
some sort.

I flipping through the rest of the book, every page was just
like this one, listening different folds and items.

"What is all this?" I asked.

"Different bits of technology he's hidden around the
multi-verse." Rachel said, looking sightly concerned.

I chuckled. "I suppose you want me to go find all of them?"

"Actually no," Rachel answered, "we're sending hunters out
for most of them, there's about a dozen though that I was
hoping you would get."

Closing the book I set it down on the table. "What's so
special about these that you want me to get them?"

Page answered, "we don't know what a few of the things that
he hide are. Any official retrieval of anything in that book
will need to be announced in some fashion. What's left we
want keep under wraps until we know what it is."

I nodded. "I'm about as unofficial as you can get."

"Are you willing then?" Rachel asked, leaning forward a bit.

I smiled. "On one condition."

"We will pay you as normal." She said, looking a bit
concerned.

"And I thank you for that, but I want something more." I
sighed softly. "I've been talking to Malia, my engineer. The
_Falcon_ is under power for what I was originally planing it
for. That's why I've put it off."

She sighed. "So you want the power system then?"

I nodded. "As much as it will be safe. It is going to be
into the public in a few years, and my ship isn't going to
be for sale anytime soon."

"Right then, I'll see what I can do."

"That is good enough for now." I replied... then trailed
off. I was seeing things. On the far side of the room,
behind where Rachel and Page sat was a unicorn! I had to be
seeing things, there was no such things, but it was there.

I looked at me, it's eyes sparkling. Then it was gone, as
was everything else, my vision suddenly returning to it's
normal poorness. Reaching up to rub my eyes I found that I
had reverted back to being a human again as well.

Rachel was instantly at my side. "Are you ok?"

I nodded, blinking my vision clear. "Yes... what happened?"

"It was like you're body rippled then was human again." She
answered.

I nodded, sitting back in the chair. "This is strange."

Rachel moved back to where she was before, sitting down
slowly. "I think you're under stating things a bit."

"Right," I said, trying to remember where I had left my
glasses.

She seemed to nod, then turned to Page. "Listen, I would
like to talk to Fox quickly. I'll see you later?"

Page stood, "no problem." Then started for the door.

I watched as she reached for the door, then grabbed the PADD
Rachel had brought with her. Scrolling it all the way to the
bottom I read what the final analyses was of the data I had
wanted checked.

No one that came up from the base even knew Grasion had an
office.

"Page, wait a second." I said.

She turned to look at me. "Yes?"

I smiled. "You know, I just realized, I never found out your
last name."

She bopped her head a bit, "It's Arrakis."

That was a familiar name, I knew it, but from where?

"Bull," I responded.

She chuckled. "No... spice." Then before I knew it was out
the door.

I let out a sigh, Arrakis AKA Dune. How did she know that
though, I didn't think it was a real place in the
multi-verse. I would have to check though, but the way she
did that.

"Rachel, I want everything you have on her."

"Why?" she asked, sounding concerned.

I turned to face her. "Because, do you know who she is?"

She was speechless.

-----

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.