WARNING:  This story has been written and posted free of charge
solely for entertainment purposes.  Fox McCloud Jr, Falco
Lombardi, Peppy Hare, Slippy Toad, Venom, Corneria, Fara Phoenix,
General Pepper, Andross, and all other principle characters and
places created by Nintendo are copyright (C) 1993 Nintendo of
America Inc.  Used without permission.

     Star Fox is copyright (C) 1993 Nintendo of America Inc. 
Used without permission.  All characters and places created by
me, Theodore P. Perrotti, are copyright (C) 1995 Theodore P.
Perrotti. (However, feel free to use all of this story's
characters, events, and places as you wish as long as you abide
by the conditions described in the next paragraph.)

     This story may be redistributed, stored, or archived in any
way just so long as it is unaltered, this entire disclaimer
remains with it, and such action is taken free of charge.  In
short: DON'T SELL OR ALTER THIS STORY!  Also, please give me
credit if you use any of my creations.

     Parts of this story were based on characters, places, and
events in both the Star Fox video game and the Star Fox comic
which appeared in Nintendo Power.

     You may also notice a "Star Trek" influence in this story. 
This is no coincidence.  Specifically, this story has been
influenced by the original series episode "Mirror-Mirror", the
Next Generation two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds", and the
Next Generation novel "Dark Mirror".

     I welcome your comments.  Please e-mail them to me at
author@galaxycorp.com.
_________________________________________________________________

     Chapter 2: Change of Command

     "Your shift has started, SIR!" a voice called out from behind Fox, the surliness in the voice
bringing Fox abruptly back to the present as he spun around to face Pvt. Toad, or "Tad" as most
called him.  
     Fox took him in, noting once again how the amphibioid's skin seemed to blend in with his
forest-green private's uniform, and how much he resembled his late brother, in appearance if not in
demeanor.  That the brother of one of his best friends never seemed to have a kind word for Fox
was something that he very much wanted to correct.  But he knew that would not be easy to
accomplish, and that, as base commander, he could not let insolence go unreprimanded.  "I know
that, Private!" scolded Fox, "And don't ever use that tone of voice with me again!  If you've got a
problem with me, we can settle it when we're both off duty!  Understand?"       "Yes, SIR!"
replied Tad, flashing a quick, almost mocking salute.  Fox returned the salute, minus the mocking,
and dismissed him.  As Fox headed for Command Central without looking back, he heard Tad's
receding footsteps behind him and thought about how glad he was to have received word that
General Pepper would be back in a couple of hours.  He much preferred pilot to C.O.  
     Actually, his command, with the exception of some confrontations with Tad, had been
fairly peaceful.  Most of the station personnel seemed to find him very personable, while at the
same time never forgetting that he was their superior officer.  He often talked with the engineering
and scientific staff members and the pilots, and was on a first-name basis with many of them. 
When he was not on duty overseeing a study of the wormhole or filling out a seemingly endless
supply of paperwork on the station's operations, he was enjoying his off-duty hours socializing or
writing to Fara via optic mail.
     Once a week, ever since Fox had arrived, he, Moe Sloane, the Chief Engineer, and Sgt.
Hoby Turly, or "Hobs", one of the pilots, met for a game of accaret, a Pearliod game Turly had
discovered while on leave on Titania.  It was with some irony, then, that Fox and Turly regularly
lost their proverbial shirts to Moe.  
     As Fox stepped into Command Central, he noted with some relief that no one had seemed
to take notice of his tardiness, while at the same time scolding himself for it.  He made his way to
the command chair and relived the Lieutenant that had occupied that position during the previous
shift.  
     "Anything I should know about?"  
     "Nothing much, sir."  reported the Lieutenant, swiftly standing up.  
     "Very well then, Lieutenant.  You are relieved."  Fox said, taking his seat.  He checked the
log readout on the arm of the chair, and, sure enough, nothing much had happened since his last
watch.  NOW COMES THE BORING PART: THE WAITING.  THE WATCHING OF
SCIENTIFIC PODS ON THE VIEWSCREEN.  WHAT I WOULDN'T GIVE TO BE AT THE
CONTROLS OF MY ARWING RIGHT NOW.  WHERE I BELONG.  
     The hours passed slowly until there were less than five minutes left in Fox's shift.  The
pods that were out studying the wormhole before were now back in the docking bay.  Then,
suddenly, it happened.  
     "Captain," said Lt. Graves, standing to Fox's left, "the General's shuttle and escort will be
landing in five minutes.  Also, the General wishes to confer with you, Dr. Greene, and 
Dr. Samuels in his office immediately afterward."  The two doctors, at their usual stations, turned
to Fox.  WE'VE ALMOST CRACKED THE CODE.  WE'LL BE READY FOR HIM.  
     "Good," Fox replied, "Tell Chief Engineer Sloane to expect them.  Also, tell the General
that I'll meet him down in the docking bay."  Just then, the shuttle and escorts came into view on
the viewscreen.  
     As Fox's relief arrived, he got up to report.  But then, one of the other scientists, who had
been eyeballing the output of a probe launched to monitor the wormhole blurted out, "Captain, the
probe's picking up an ionization surge from the wormhole!".  
     "What could have caused it?" asked Fox, rushing over to the console.  The woman's
alarmed tone of voice worried him.  
     "I once tested a working model of one of Andross' stealth ships during the development of
nightview.  We accidentally exposed the cloaking field to electromagnetic radiation, producing an
ionization surge just like this one!  Just like this one, except this one is much, much bigger!"  
     Fox turned to the viewscreen and saw nothing but the shuttle and it's escorts.  He then
turned to the tactical officer and comm officer and said, "Activate the nightview sensors and tell
the General's escorts to do the same!"  The viewscreen instantly switched to nightview mode,
showing a scaled-down picture of a ship Fox knew had to be roughly the size of the station!  It
seemed to be surrounded by a faint blue aura.  The ship seemed strangely familiar to Fox.  
     "Captain!" said the tactical officer, "the ship is on course to intercept the shuttle and I'm
reading a substantial power buildup inside it."  
     "Put me through to the ship," said Fox, all the while half doubting it would do any good.  
     Graves shook his head and said "They refuse to acknowledge us or identify themselves." 
     "Keep trying," Fox replied.  Graves did so several times, but each time was ignored by the
ship.  
     "Tell them that if they don't answer, we'll be forced to shoot them down!"  Fox said, clearly
agitated.  Fox then turned to his tactical officer, and ordered, "Charge up the main cannon and
take aim at them, just to show them that we don't make empty threats.  And activate the shields." 
     "Sir, I'm picking up some sort of electromagnetic beam from the ship.  It's focused on the
shuttle," said the Ops officer.    "Is it harming the shuttle in any way?"  Fox inquired.  
     "I don't think so.  The shuttle's hull's still intact, but I can't gain access to any of its
systems,"  reported the Ops officer.  
     Anticipating Fox's next order, Graves attempted to contact the shuttle crew.  No such luck. 
"Communications with the shuttle seem to be being blocked by the beam,"  he reported.   
     "Battlestations!"  Fox barked.  THAT SHIP OBVIOUSLY DOESN'T WANT TO TALK! 
"Fire on that ship with the laser cannon!  Launch all arwing fighters!  We've got to protect the
shuttle until it lands."  Then, using his hand-comm, said, "Capt. McCloud to docking bay, initiate
emergency docking procedures!  McCloud out."  
     A second later, a beam shot out from the laser cannon and lanced the darkness.  It
impacted on the ship and then, nothing.  The tactical officer looked up from his console in
disbelief,  "The ship is undamaged!"  The hostile returned fire, shaking the base badly.  
     "Continuous fire, all weapons!"  Fox ordered.  But, as before, the hostile was undamaged,
almost as if it had absorbed all their weapons' energy.  Seconds later,  several arwings came into
view.  The shuttle lurched violently as the hostile locked a tractor beam onto it and unleashed a
furious volley of laser fire, destroying the two fighter escorts with two shots and rocking the station
violently with a third.  
     "Communications array is out.  We're on our own!" said the comm officer, having
scrambled back to his station after being thrown across the room by the blast.  Several shots later,
the other arwings were destroyed as well.  Fox got up and put his paw behind his head.  He felt
something warm, and drew his paw back out in front of him.  It was red with fresh blood.  What
he then saw on the viewscreen made him feel even worse.  There was no sign of the shuttle or
arwings anymore, only the hostile bearing down on them.  It was going in for the kill!  Or was it? 
Fox could see a group of thin yellow beams emanating from the ship's underbelly, but they hit the
station with seemingly no effect.       "What're they up to?", asked the tactical officer, "If they
wanted to destroy us, we'd be dead by now!"  Fox was forced to agree.  MAYBE WE HAVE
SOMETHING THEY WANT, BUT WHAT? AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GENERAL? 

     "Captain," said Dr. Samuels, "They're trying to gain remote access to our computer's data
files."  
     "Which files are they trying to access?" asked Fox.  
     "It's strange.  This is a scientific research station, and yet they're trying to access our
military files.  The ones on ship classes and so forth.  Also, they're accessing our personnel
records."  
     "If you want military info, you don't look for it at a science station!  We don't have much
military data here, and what we do have is protected from remote access," added Greene.  
     "If I'm right, these people probably have no concept of a purely scientific anything." Fox
said, bitterly.  
     His tone made the Doctors suspicious, so they asked, almost simultaneously, "Do you
know who they are, Captain?"  
     But Fox's mind was now on calculating his next move.  FOR NOW THEY'RE NOT
TRYING TO DESTROY US, BUT WHAT ABOUT ONCE THEY REALIZE WE'RE OF NO
USE TO THEM?  IT'S NOT GOOD STRATEGY TO LEAVE WITNESSES.  IT ALMOST
SEEMS AS IF THEY'RE ABSORBING OUR WEAPONS' ENERGY.  BUT, OF COURSE!  
     He smiled and turned to tactical.  But, just as he opened his mouth to speak, a laser bolt hit
the station, knocking him off his feet yet again.  He quickly looked over and saw the tactical officer
lying motionless on the floor.  He ran over to the tactical station, barely hearing one of the other
bridge officers say "The shields are undamaged!  The shots are going right through them!  They're
powering up again!"  
     Fox quickly turned dials and pushed buttons, and the shield bulged out, smashing into the
hostile like a ton of bricks!      "That got 'em!", yelled Greene as the ship, now visibly lit up with
sparks, scampered back into the wormhole, "That took out their weapons and cloak!"  
     "But, will it work again when they come back?  Let's start assessing the casualties and
damage to the station,"  Fox ordered, sighing with relief.  He then knelt down by the fallen tactical
officer, looked at his chest, listened and felt for breath from the man's mouth, and touched his paw
to the man's neck.  "Damn!", he said, which was enough to tell all the others of the man's
condition.  
     Graves then approached Fox and knelt down beside him and said, "It's a good thing you
came up with that idea, or else none of us would have survived.  What made you think to use the
shields as a weapon?"  
     "A similar trick got me out of a tight spot on Macbeth once.  Their ship absorbs energy, so
I gave them more energy than they could handle all at once.  I only wish I'd remembered it in time
to prevent this."  Fox said abjectly, never once taking his eyes off the cloak now being placed over
his officer's head.  
     "It's not your fault, sir, it's theirs."  Graves replied, motioning with his head toward the
wormhole image on the viewscreen, "Whoever they are."  
     "Yeah,"  Fox sighed, "Come on, we've got work to do."  Fox then peered at the image of
the wormhole on the viewscreen.  HAVE WE MADE A GREAT DISCOVERY, OR OPENED A
PANDORA'S BOX?