Vacation: Entry Point

                            By:

                        Fox Cutter

02/24/96:

Feet propped up, head back, lounging over the plastic chair
in the starport, I'm sure I must have been a strange sight
for the passersby. Not that I really noticed; all my
concentration was on the PADD in my hands.

"Fox," Oria said, "the shuttle docks in three minutes. Ready
to go?"

"Um-hum," I said, making a quick edit on my current story.

Suddenly Oria ripped it from my hands, "Fox, are you ready
to go?"

I nodded, sitting up, "Yep, ready and willing."

"Good," she said, turning away, her tail whipping a bit. She
seemed a bit nervous to me.

I stood and tapped her on the shoulder. "The PADD please?"

She sighed and handed it to me, "When are you going to let
me read that, anyway?"

I shrugged, saving the file, "When I finish it."

She turned and looked at me, "What exactly is it? You've
been so secretive about it."

I laughed evilly. "Just a story idea I'm playing with. It
looks like it might turn out pretty cool, but then again," I
shrugged. "However it turns out, it should be interesting."

Nodding, she handed me my backpack. At the same time the
voice on the intercom rang out, "All passengers boarding for
the cruise ship _Greythral_ please report to gate twenty-
seven."

"That's us," she said, picking up her own carry-on bag. We
also had two large suitcases apiece, which would meet us in
our cabin once we got onboard.

I followed as Oriana led the way down the crowded mall of
the starport, passing variouse shops, some vending machines,
the usual compliment of bathrooms, all the way to the end of
the docking pavilion.

Getting into the line at the gate, I noticed that Oria was
swishing her tail at breakneck speed. The tuft on the end
looking slightly frayed because of it.

"Something wrong?" I asked her.

She shook her head, her hair flying about. "No... no, not at
all, everything is all right. Just a bit nervous, that's
all," she gave me a forced smile.

I gave her a skeptical look, but she didn't notice. Giving
our tickets to the clerk we headed down into the shuttle.

The shuttle itself wasn't all that bad... it looked a lot
like an airplane back home. I sat myself down next to the
window for the hell of it, and Oria sat down next to me.

I looked at her, she was shivering a bit.

"Oria, are you sure you're all right?"

She nodded. "Fine," she said, setting her paw on top of my
hand.

I looked at her, worried, but she had turned away, and was
looking at the floor.

I sighed, and looked out the window, out at the open stars.
In the distance I could see the outlines of many ships, some
transport, most cargo.

Below us was a large green planet, whose name escaped me
right then. Circling it, shimmering in the sunlight, was a
ring of gas and debris. I could just imagine what it would
have looked like from the surface.

As I was thinking about all this, there was a slight lurch
as the ship undocked, and started to move. Apparently I had
missed the safety instructions.

A few seconds later there was a second lurch as the shuttle
started to move towards the ship. At the exact same instant,
I felt four sharp points of pain on my right hand.

Looking over, I saw Oria, her eyes closed. Her claws had
come out, and were digging into my hand, starting to draw
blood.

"Oriana, what is wrong?"

She shook her head violently, keeping her eyes tightly
closed, "Nothing is wrong."

I nodded, "Then what reason do you have for trying to gouge
out the knuckles of my good hand?"

In a flash she opened her eyes, and looked at what she was
doing. Slowly she retracted her claws, leaving four small
rips in my skin. "I'm sorry, Fox."

"Tell me what's wrong." I said, licking the wounds, while I
dug some adhesive bandages out of my pack.

She balled her paws into fists, and set them in her lap. "My
mind is telling me to run like hell off this ship."

I blinked, "Why? You've been on shuttles before. You didn't
have a problem then."

She slowly nodded, her eyes shut tight. "Something happened
while you were in exile."

"What?" I asked, leaning forwarded a bit.

A single tear rolled from her eye, and down the fur of her
muzzle, "Don't ask, please," she whispered.

I didn't.

* * *

An hour and a half later, we stood at the receiving area
aboard the cruise ship. Oria had regained her composure the
second she had stepped off the shuttle, though she was still
nervously swishing her tail.

Taking a deep breath, she started for the check-in counter.
There wasn't much of a line, as everyone one else had
checked in while Oria was in the bathroom, probably losing
her lunch.

It was a quick check-in, and we were both handed room keys,
"Room 27,483," the young wolf morph behind the desk said,
"Inside cabin, forward part of the ship."

I nodded, taking my key, "Thank you kindly." Then moved over
to Oria as she stood, waiting for the elevator.

I stood next to her, "Doesn't this ship have stairs?"

"Yes," she replied, "but I prefer the elevator."

"Ok," I said, "One of my fears this time."

She looked at me, perplexed, then 'ohhed', "That's right,
you're afraid of elevators."

I nodded, "Nothing that I haven't gotten over before," I
said, stepping into the elevator. "It's just gotten worse
lately."

Stepping in, she hit the button for our floor. "Why worse?
Another cable break on you again?" she grinned lightly.

I rolled my eyes, "That is _not_ funny."

She placed her paw on my shoulder, "Sorry, I was just trying
to make you feel better."

"I see," I said, literally jumping out of the elevator as
the doors opened on our floor.

Oria shook her head at this, "Who am I to complain!" she
said, rolling her eyes.

"Which way?" she asked.

I checked the numbers on the wall. "That way," I said
pointing to the left.

"Good" she said, picking up her bag and heading down the
hall.

Oria had barely gotten three feet before a door flew open
and someone ran out, crashing right into her. She went
sprawling, and the guy who had hit her fell right on top of
her.

I walked over. "Hello," I said.

The guy looked at me, his mane of hair (and I do mean mane,
he was a lion morph) falling around his face. "Hi! Sorry
about that, just in a bit of a rush."

"I noticed," I said, "and I'm sure Oriana did too."

"Oriana?" he asked, then looked down at her. "Oh, sorry,
didn't mean to do that." He rolled off of her, and stood up,
brushing off his pants.

I held my hand out to help Oria up, which she took ahold of.
"It's all right," she said, "I've done it before, myself."

He grinned, and stuck his paw out, "Steven Mason."

Oria shook it, "Oriana Shripon."

"Pleasure to meet you, and your friend as well. Your
boyfriend I take it?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me? Aren't you being just a
little too forward?"

He shrugged, "What can I say, that's me. Who are you?"

I put my hand out, "Fox Cutter, and if you must know, Oria
and I are just sidekicks of sorts."

He looked me up and down. "Bull!"

"No, really," Oria said, "I don't date outside of my
species."

Looking at her, he said, "That I believe. What I don't
believe is that this goof is Cutter."

Oria and I looked at each other. Both of us seemed stunned.
"You know of me?" I asked.

He scoffed, "Of course I know of Cutter! Who in the Twelve
Empires doesn't?"

I rolled that over in my mind. I had no recollection of ever
visiting anyplace called the Twelve Empires before. "What
did I do there?"

He stared at me, growling a bit. "Cutter," he said, spiting
my name out, "saved Meridia from killing off the source of
its one major export."

I blinked, then blinked again, then glanced at my left hand.
Even though it was nearly fifteen months before, I
remembered that VERY vividly.

"Pure luck really." I said, shrugging.

Steven shook his head, "Listen you little squirt, there is
no way you can be Cutter!"

"Really?"

He crossed his arms, "Really."

I pulled my passport out of my back pocket, handing it to
him.

He opened it up, and rubbed his chin (his mane was more like
short hair, as it didn't cover his jaw). His eyes moved back
and fourth, reading it (thankfully it was written in the
standard for this verse).

He looked at me, then back at the passport. "Shit!" he
looked at Oria, "Is this for real?"

She nodded, grinning.

He looked back at me, "I'm sorry, it just seemed impossible
for me to actually run into you here!"

I grinned, pocketing the passport, "I've been in the same
situation myself."

He ran his paws through his mane, "Damn, this has suddenly
become a very interesting trip."

"It may get even more interesting," Oria said, grinning at
him.

Steven raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

I shook my head a bit, grinning slightly, "Steven, you
heading anyplace?"

He shrugged, "Not really, I was just trying to get to the
upper deck for the send-off. I wanted to get there before
there's no food left. A bit late now."

"Ah, when does this send-off start?"

He glanced at his wrist watch, "In about an hour."

"And the food is gone already?"

He nodded, "It goes extremely fast."

"I bet. Oria, should we go to this?"

She shook her head, "I have stuff to do first, though if you
want to, you can."

I shrugged, "Sure, why not. I'll drop my stuff off in our
room and head up."

Oria shook her head slightly, "Just give me your pack, and
go. I'll get us unpacked."

I patted her on the back. "Thanks Oria."

"No problem," she said, picking my backpack up from where I
dropped it. "I'll see you in a few hours?"

"Ok," I said, as she turned and headed down the hall.

Beside me Steven chuckled, "Nice tail on that one."

I half grinned, "I noticed."

He let out a full belly laugh. "Come on, let's go get some
food!"

* * *

Three hours, and way too much food, later, I opened the door
to my room. Slipping in, I walked over to the bed and sat
down on its edge, "Oria?"

She stuck her head out from the bathroom, her hair wrapped
in a towel. "Hi, Fox. Sorry about not unpacking, I had some
problems with our arrangements."

"What kind of problems?"

She ducked back into the room, "Take a look around, and tell
me what's missing?"

I rolled my eyes, and scanned the room. There was the closet
on one wall, a bathroom off to the side, a small kitchen to
the other side, a desk, nightstand, couch, and a bed.

I blinked, "I see... one bed."

Oria nodded, as she came out, her hair still wrapped up, and
wearing a robe. "They had a mix-up and gave us one king-
sized instead of two twin-sized."

I nodded, "Did you call the front desk?"

"Yep, all the rooms are full. So we're stuck with it."

I stood, and walked over to the couch, "No problem. I spent
two years sleeping on a couch, two weeks isn't a big deal."
I reached over, and grabbed a folded up blanket.

"Really?" Oria asked, sounding a bit disappointed.

I nodded, "No problem at all."

She shrugged, grabbing some clothing, and heading back to
the bathroom. "Ok, if you say so," she said, closing the
bathroom door, sounding a bit peeved.

I tilted my head. "What's gotten into her?" I muttered to
myself. Then I shrugged, pulled my PADD out, and got back to
work.

-----

This story is copyright 1996-2003 by Fox Cutter. Hardcopy
reprints limited to one per 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.