FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This is chapter two of my book star hopper, that will be avalible on Lulu.com to buy (for around 7 USD) after all the chapters have been uploaded up here. Now, there are some typos that I probably didn't catch, after all I am editing this myself so bare with me. Just look past that and enjoy the book!

Also, the format changes whenever I uploade it so it's not supposed to have spacing, just letting you know. :3

2

Princess Colleen, shifted in her so called "bed." She couldn't get more than a half-hours worth of sleep every time she tried. Looking around she studied all the screens that were placed in the walls, the screens had replaced all the buttons and everything was electronic with touch screen controls. Only one button was traditional, and that was the start button. The idea just raced through her head like a rocket, and she slowly brought her paw to press it. The tips of her fingers rested on the big button and she closed her eyes, she didn't know how to fly a starship but she knew the coordinates of Ridlyyn her home. All she had to do was input them and it would automatically fly there, well that was her hope. She took a deep breath and pressed the button down. The engines rumbled and her heart rose, "Yes!" But they were immediately crushed by them shutting down then suddenly one of the screens turned on with Ian there.

"I told you not to try anything, but you did. Sorry."

The cockpit opened and the seat jumped up, it made her fly out of the cockpit. It closed suddenly behind her.

"Stupid."

She looked around and saw Bot lying out of reach on the top of the Star hopper, plugged in sleeping. She turned to the dark hallway of the mysterious station and strode up to it, the lights flickered on. She continued down the way looking at her surroundings, everything was so clean like it had been built yesterday. The lights illuminated the metallic floor; she could see her reflection and marveled in it. Her beautiful silver eyes stared back at her and her luscious orange and white fur shined in the artificial light. Colleen continued down the hall, "No doors?" She said to herself, "What's with this place?"

At least until she came up to the end of the hall, a large door stood in her way. It wasn't like the others that she had seen in the hanger, it was a solid color and not transparent. She slowly walked up to the door, it didn't automatically open, her eyes scanned around for a leaver or opener of some kind. There was a small red button to the right of the door.

"Ah here we go!"

The fox pressed it without hesitation, the door flew open with a whoosh and Colleen gingerly stepped into the room. A red hue from the sunlight came from the far away sun, it made everything look scary with dark red, even herself. To add to the creepiness the lights didn't automatically come on and Colleen stumbled through trying to find a light switch, she placed her paws along the closest wall and slid along them to find it. After several minutes of blind searching her paws hit what she thought was a leaver and found the tip. With a strong pull the leaver pulled down and a greenish glow filled the room almost immediately, along with computers starting up and multiple colored buttons and switches lit up with reds, yellows, blues, and greens. To Colleens right, at the other end of the room, a large glass box, big enough for three people, occupied a spot. It was illuminated by a green light. A little door lay on the other side.

"That must be were this green light is coming from."

Instinct and a little of her curious nature drew her to it, part of the center piece of glass was gone, it was a small space that required a bit of squeezing and on her first try she didn't make it. It was the same story with the 2nd try.

"Hmm, maybe if I take off the dress?"

Colleen flipped a claw out and reached behind her back and cut the fabric that held her outside dress on. It fell to the ground in a white pile revealing a much more comfortable flight suit. Ian was wrong, she was wearing a flight suit but he couldn't see it. She picked up her clothes and placed them on a computer console, then she undid the hair pin that held her hair up and placed it with the white dress.

"Finally, I can move a bit more freely."

She twirled on her feet and then moved to the hole, without the bulky dress she was able to get through it a bit easier. Once she got in she found that it wasn't much of anything, a glass box with small holes on the raised floor. She took one step and the high heel part of her shoe fell right through one of the holes.

"Ah, crap."

Loosening them, Colleen kicked them out through the hole without looking. One landed on a computer starting it via touch and the other landed on a slanted control panel with hundreds of brightly colored buttons. It slid down pressing each one until it hit one entitled "Engage."

By now Princess Colleen was standing in the glass box studying the ceiling. Before she could realize it though the glass opening that was once in the side had disappeared. It was now just a solid piece of glass just like the rest of the box.

"What!?"

Colleen immediately ran to the wall and started pounding on it. She yelled at the top of her lungs hoping her voice would carry to Bot or Ian although inside she knew it was futile. Her pounding stopped with she heard a hissing sound, a single question echoed through her mind, "what's going on here?"

Her heart pounded like a drum and her breathing became heavy. On the opposite side a red liquid started to empty into the glass box and Colleen pressed her back to the glass, trying to stay away from it. The liquid, with a consistency like molasses, lapped at her feet like hands trying to grab something.

"No, no, no, no!"

She lifted one leg as her foot became submerged in the stuff, the level of it grew faster and faster with each passing second and soon it was up to her knees, and then at her waist.

"Somebody help me, please."

The red liquid was now up to her chest and encasing her neck reddening her white fur.

"Help?"

Was the last thing she said before the liquid wrapped around her face, she had taken a deep breath before it had engulfed her, but after only a minute of holding she let go and the red liquid rushed into the foxes mouth filling the lungs and stomach. Her body became equal with the buoyancy and she began to float in the middle of the tank.

Ian walked down the ramp of his Star Hopper and raised his paws to the air and stretched, a large toothy yawn followed in quick succession.

"Bot get up, were going to leave soon."

The small robot jumped up from his charge and bounded down to the ground, his metallic paws clicked.

"But first is first, breakfast. Go get the bread out of the ship will you."

"Yes sir"

He hopped away to go around the ship, while Ian went to check the pod where he thought Colleen went after he booted her from the cockpit, but it was empty. He looked far off into the hanger but there was nothing to see.

"Bot, you didn't happen to see the Princess go anywhere did you?"

The small robot called around from the other side,

"No sir, not a thing."

He muttered to himself.

"Computer! Get over here!"

A screen popped up in front of him, "Open for input."

"Access security files from last night."

Three dots appeared,

"Need security clearance, input code."

A box appeared,

"Shit!"

He had to widen his question,

"Did the female leave the hanger last night, and if so were?"

The computer responded immediately.

"Yes the female did leave, to west wing."

"What way is that?"

A map appeared on the screen and a flashing dot showed the room, the hallway that lead to it was right in front of him. Ian stepped away from the terminal and Bot showed up with bread in his mouth.

"Put that down Bot and follow me."

The robot dropped the food and followed as Ian ran down the hall.

"What exactly are we looking for sir?"

"Colleen, she's in a heap of trouble."

Ians pads clicked as they impacted the floor, but the sound stopped with both came to a large open door.

"This must be the place."

Bot cocked his head, "What place?"

"The west wing."

Both crept in, all that could be seen was Bots glowing blue eyes for the widows were covered. Ian ordered Bot to find the lights, he did and flipped the leaver. What both of them saw put Ian in shock, Colleen in the middle of a tank of strange red liquid laying face up.

"What is this?"

He shook his head, "no idea!"

Ian pulled his plasma pistol and aimed it at the tank.

"Ian what are you doing, you could hit the Princess!"

He snapped back, "She's already dead you idiot!"

He pulled the trigger and the bolt traveled and impacted the box cracking it. A crackling sound could be heard as the pressure began to be too much, then it burst into a billion pieces sending the liquid everywhere. Some landed in Ian's tongue, it tasted horrible, like licking rusted steel. But he didn't care, he waded through the liquid to find Colleen, there she was laying face up, eyes and mouth open. He checked her chest, it was still rising up and down and a strong heart was still beating. She coughed and some of the liquid came up.

"Colleen!"

Suddenly she shook to life, "Wha!" She scurried from under Ian and pressed her back to a computer console. Ian looked straight in to her silver eyes, except they weren't exactly silver anymore; each one had a red hue to it. He dismissed it as irritation from the liquid, whatever it is. Her breathing was fierce, deep and full of oxygen, her fur was dripping wet and between the orange and white was a thick dark red line. She was very reserved.

"Are you ok?" No answer.

Ian exhaled deeply, "can you stand?" She glanced at the floor and then tried to get up, almost falling.

"Look, this is strange. I thought you drowned and here you are breathing and standing."

He thought it over, "Colleen, what were you doing?"

She stared blankly back at him and shook her head.

"Colleen? Who is that?"

"Destroyed! Four Battleships, how is that possible!"

Sitting in his chair King Raidon scratched his ears and growled. His foot tapped nervously while his orange fur stood on end. The general who had just told him continued,

"We don't know but it was one powerful weapon because they were all destroyed at the same time. We do have records that show that one escape pod did make it but all we have is that it jettisoned other than that, nothing."

His face was covered with worry,

"What were they doing off course? What could be more important than bringing my daughter home!"

The general relaxed a bit,

"They were following the pirate Black son, he'd been able to escape our radar for months and when they suddenly came across him they couldn't just let him be. The pirate then punched to warp and the battleships read his signature and followed, then we lost contact."

Where! Where did you lose contact?"

The general checked his wrist computer,

"Galaxy A11-21-00."

Raidon lifted himself out of the chair and paced back and forth staying quiet.

"Sir, what do you want me to do?"

The king sighed,

"This is my daughter you know." The general nodded. "Ok, send in a Dreadnaught, I want her back home safe yesterday!"

The general stood back up at attention and saluted, "But sir, we only have four and that they aren't even fully finished!"

King Raidon stomped up to the general, picked him up by the collar of his uniform and growled in his face,

"Does it look like I care? Now go do it!"

He threw the wolf down across the floor and turned his back to him, his fox like tail swishing back and forth. The general slowly got up, "Yes sir, I'll get right on it."

As he left the room the fox king found his seat back on the throne and rubbed his eyes, after the General left, his queen came into the room. She was a lovely fox, it was obvious that their offspring would be perfect.

"Raidon, calm down. You don't need to be so mad, she'll show up, she's a smart fox. Takes after you."

He smirked and shook his head,

"Yeah you're right but she's with Black Son, at least I think so, and we don't know what he's going to do to her."

The queen climbed the three stairs to the throne of her husband and walked around it seductively, when she was back around in front of him, she leaned in.

"And if she doesn't come back, we'll need a new heir to the throne."

He looked straight into her eyes, "I would agree."

Ian stared deeply into Colleens eyes, both of them and Bot had returned to the hanger where Colleen was now sitting in the escape pod. The red hue had not left her eyes and the dark red line between the Orange and white fur was still vibrant. Ian thought about what to tell her, she had amnesia, but how'd she get it.

"Bot could you run a body scan, see what's making that red appear."

The cat robot jumped in front of the girl, his eyes grew lighter. Bot searched for any injuries and anything that could have caused the amnesia, but everything seemed normal. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Ian, there is nothing wrong with her, no head trauma, no internal bleeding nothing."

Ian leaned up against the pod with one paw,

"Look Colleen, do you remember anything? What you were doing?"

She shook her head,

"No idea, I didn't even know my name until you told me not five minutes ago!"

Ian sighed and walked away from the pod beckoning Bot to follow, they stopped by the Star hopper. Bot spoke first.

"Ian, I have no idea what's wrong with her, frankly there is nothing wrong with her. I vote we bring her back to Ridlyyn and the supremacy and pick up the reward we don't want to be in even bigger trouble for kidnapping the princess. Although, we probably already have been framed." He said the last part quietly.

"What reward?"

"I already searched the space database; the king is offering a one million credit reward for her safe return. No questions asked."

Ian spied back on Colleen; she just sat there patiently waiting to hear what was going to happen.

"I don't know. I mean what would we do?" He walked around in a funny manner. "Oh here's your princes back don't worry about the amnesia I didn't do it." His voice changed back to normal after his sarcastic tone, "Plus, basically the entire universe is after us."

Bot sighed, "Well, what do you want to do with her?"

Ian stole a glance at Colleen waiting, "well, let's just go along our normal activities for now, it'll be like having a new crew member."

The robot eyed Ian suspiciously, "Ok."

"Hey, Colleen!" Ian shouted, "Come on we're leaving!"

She got up, "Where are we going?"

"You'll see when you get there!"

She nodded and started the run over, Ian looked back at Bot, but he quickly turned back to Colleen.

"Colleen, watch out!"

But she didn't hear, her foot caught on a piece of rubble that had been shaken off of the pod. It made her lose balance and she fell face first right into the door of the pod that had been blast away. She skid off of it and Ian watched as it cut a deep wound in the foxes leg.

"Colleen!"

Ian dashed up to her as she rolled off her face. Immediately Ian brought his attention to the deep cut expecting to see blood gushing from the wound. He froze in disbelief, Colleen squealed.

"How bad is it?! I'm I going to lose too much blood? Will I need stitches? Oh god it hurts!"

Ian still sat there speechless, there was not a speck of blood spilt. It was as clean as before.

"Bot! You'd better take a look at this!"

He came over and examined the wound.

"Ian, cut her again."

He protested with Colleen.

"What, why she'll get hurt!"

"I know, just do it." He yelled

Ian flipped out a claw and placed it close to Colleen's arm.

Trying to make it as quick as possible Ian thrust his claw in and ripped the flesh open, it did not bleed although Colleen yelled in agony.

"Is this really necessary!"

"Yes, but that's enough. Go ahead and stitch her up."

Like a medical professional, Ian stitched Colleen up and brought her back to the Star hopper. He opened the hull and placed her on his bed, the rest were covered with junk. Then he gave her a sedative, he'd basically almost ripped her arm in half, she needed it and she fell in a deep sleep almost like a coma.

As he left the ship he noticed Bot coming back from the wing where they had found Colleen.

"What were you doing there?" He asked.

"Checking that red substance that Colleen was submerged in to try and find an answer to her amnesia and lack of blood and I think I have found the answer."

Ian sat down on the ramp,

"You think that the red stuff caused the no blood too?"

Bot nodded,

"Yes, what I think happened is that while she was in that tank it drained her body of its blood and replaced it with that denser liquid. Now that it's so dense she can't bleed although it does the same job of ferrying oxygen to her body, and her heart can still pump it."

Ian didn't understand,

"Why would they want that?"

Bot shook his metal head, "I don't know, Ian, I don't know."

He stood up, "What about her amnesia?"

"That was actually easy to figure out." He said, "You see when the brain lost all of its blood it basically reset itself. Except for basic functions like speech, walking, breathing and other things like that all the others were forgotten."

He sighed and nodded, "Let's just get out of this place."

Bot hopped up and unlocked the cockpit, it opened with a hiss.

"Couldn't agree more."

Ian got in and buckled himself in.

"Bot, mark this in your memory banks, I want to come back here."

"Can do."

Ian ignited his engines and lifted off the floor of the hanger, he maneuvered it around so it faced the shield and slowly inched out. He had his paw resting on the throttle and as soon as he was clear of the station he started to accelerate. He typed into the onboard computer the coordinates of Ridlyyn and was about to make the warp jump when a massive ship came out of warp directly in front of his tiny little ship.

"Holy crap what is that!"

Bot took the liberty to answer the question,

"I believe that it's a dreadnaught battle cruiser, the largest ships ever made, and only four have been made so far."

Ian was panicking,

"I was more of a rhetorical question Bot!"

He went to evasive mode and just barely got out of its way. Then his onboard computer displayed a message.

"Transmission coming in."

"Open it."

His entire view changed from space to the inside of the dreadnaughts bridge. The captain was the same wolf that had talked to the king.

"Black son, surrender. We have your ship on all scopes and all weapons trained on you, not even the highest shield generator in the universe can stop all these weapons. Now, when you surrender give us the princess and you won't be killed."

"Oh, come on! I was just on my way to drop her off at Ridlyyn. Why don't you meet me there?"

The wolf shook his head, he didn't appreciate the sarcasm. "No."

But Ian began to laugh to the surprise of both Bot and the General,

"What's so funny?"

He shook his head and finished wiping his eye.

"You see General, I've been at this pirate thing for about ten years now and you've finally got me. But all it took was the biggest ship in your arsenal. It's just funny."

The general growled,

"Shut the fuck up and get to the hanger now, we'll have guards waiting to take you onto custody so don't try to do anything funny."

Ian looked up at his friend, "Well it's been fun!"

"Yeah, it has." He answered back."

But just as he was about to head over to the hanger a warning signal came on.

"warning airlock open warning airlock open, warning airlock open."

Only one thing crossed Ian's mind, Colleen.

He heard clunking from above the cockpit and then he saw a face pop up right above him, Colleen, without a space suit.

"Colleen! What are you doing!?"

He didn't know why he was yelling anything, she would have already been dead, but instead she winked at him.

"Bot, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

The mechanical cat just nodded without saying a word. Colleen maneuvered to the nose of the Star Hopper and then signaled to fly up to the bridge of the dreadnaught. In complete shock he did as he was told maneuvering the ship in front of the bridge. Another transmission came through,

"What do you think you're doing...wait...is...is that the Princess?"

Now everybody on the bridge was stunned, they could clearly see through the windows that there was their princess riding on a pirates ship without a space suit and perfectly fine.

"What did you do to Princess Colleen?!"

Ian held his defense,

"Nothing! She did that herself!"

While they were busy bickering back and forth Colleen floated the distance between the Star Hopper and the dreadnaught. She positioned herself right in the middle of the bridge window.

"Bot can you tell me how she's doing that?!"

"Sorry Ian, I can't!"

The wolf general slowly walked up to the large floor to ceiling widows and stared at Colleen on the other side, she was smiling and even waved. The general waved back with a half-smile just by second nature. While still smiling Colleen stopped waving and pulled out a claw from her paw and tapped the window.

"Helmsman, I think she wants in. Get a team together."

He still stared at the vixen, but then her smile turned sour and she drug her claw along the window. The general yelled at his helmsman to hurry up. But Colleen didn't want to go inside, instead after making an x in motion she pulled back her paw, ready to punch the window. The general laughed,

"Don't try that. Just wait for the rescue team. By the way it's impossible, not even the strongest plasma cannon can scratch this window."

But Colleen followed through and smashed her fist into the window, nothing happened.

"See Colleen, now let's get you inside."

He was going to say more but his thought was cut short by the cracking of the window. Large cracks appeared and then general's mouth gaped. Suddenly the window shattered into a million pieces and the differential in pressure made everything lose shoot out into deep space. Including all the crew on the bridge. Colleen pulled herself into the bridge just as the steel pressure doors slammed into place. Now inside several major alarms were going off as multiple comms were radioing in asking what had just happened, they would not get an answer.

Colleen walked among the dozens of consoles and computers until she found the navigators spot, empty of course. She quickly went to work typing in the coordinates of the giant star that was at the center of the system. When the dreadnaught had a direct course into the sun and after locking the controls Colleen found the blast door button. She pressed it and the steel doors guarding from the broken windows flew open. Again like before, the pressure difference forced everything that wasn't strapped down, including Colleen, to be flung out of the ship. Only she didn't drift off to the sun like the others, Ian swooped around in his Star Hopper and caught her on the nose. She crawled up and over the cockpit back to the airlock. While she was doing that Ian watched in amazement as the gigantic ship rocketed to its doom in the sun. Escape pods started to jettison from the tail end but Ian didn't care about them, he wanted to know how Colleen had been able to do what she just did. Ian reset the coordinates and then set his ship to autopilot, it asked if he really wanted to make the jump.

"Ah, yes! Why do you have to ask me every time?"

He pressed the "YES" button and the ship adjusted course with its small retro rockets. Then the space in front of the ship started to warp and the ship shot through the warp. Ian unbuckled his safety belt and squeezed his way out behind the chair, then he pushed himself through the small opening behind the chair to the center of the ship. It was so small that most people wouldn't realize that it's there if they were in the cockpit. He found himself looking at Colleen as she stood in the hull just fine, like what she did not five minutes ago was no big deal.

"Uh, Colleen how'd you do that?"

She shrugged her shoulders and her now reddish eyes sparkled.

"I don't know, I didn't even know them but, when the ship jerked it knocked me out of the bed and awoke me. I could hear your voice from the cockpit and it sounded troubled. I tried to get into the cockpit through the door but accidently hit the airlock and I floated out. I saw that gigantic ship and thought it was going to kill us so I did the best I could."

Ian sighed and straightened his face,

"I still don't understand how that could be possible!"

Bot jumped up onto the bed that was clean,

"Hey Ian let me take a sample of her new blood and maybe I could find out what's wrong."

Colleen jumped in front of the gray fox staring down the mechanical being.

"Isn't it me who you should be talking to and who says something is wrong!"

He laughed nervously, she was different than before, more fierce.

"Yeah, do you mind?"

She shook her head and exposed her non-torn arm.

"Look Colleen, I can't take it from your arm it's going to have to be from your heart, I wouldn't be able to get anything then."

"Oh." Her voice had quieted from its obnoxious tone to a more quiet one as she got ready for the injection.

"Could you please look away." Ian didn't hear, "Ian!" He snapped out of his trance, "Yeah, no prob."

He swiveled on his pads while Colleen exposed her chest to the robot. Bot held up his paw and a thick needle extended from it. Suddenly Colleen wasn't so sure that this was a great idea.

"Uh...is that the needle."

Bot nodded his head,

"Sorry, but it is."

Colleen sat on the bed and took some deep breaths and shut her eyes, "ok, do it."

"Here we go."

Ian peaked back behind him just enough to see the thick needle penetrate her skin, his skin crawled. Colleen's breathing began to shorten as the "blood" began to flow through the needle.

"Is it done?"

After several seconds Bot answered. "Yeah." And he pulled out, this time though because the wound was straight to the heart, it bled. Compared to anyone else's blood it was a darker color, almost purpleish at best but a whole lot denser and thicker, plus it didn't really bleed it more oozed. Colleen was completely taken by it,

"Uh, What is that?"

Bot ran the substance through a series of tests inside his own little body and answered Colleens question. "That would be what is now your blood...and the answer to how you were able to breathe in space and stay pressurized."

Colleen placed her paw over the incision and winced at the pain that her heart now presented.

"Um, I've seem to have taken quite a bit of damage." Her of course referring to her leg and arm and now chest, but Bot dismissed it.

"You don't have to worry about that anymore, in fact about getting hurt at all. You see the substance that you now have running through you is about five or six times thicker than actual blood, meaning that it has the capacity to carry a lot more oxygen to your cells and actually speeding up the healing process."

Colleen was speechless, Bot continued.

"Also adding to the fact that it can carry more oxygen, it can at as a sort of storage place for it. The oxygen in the fabricated cells that make up the substance can carry ten times more than regular red blood cells. When it goes through the body it can hold it so when the body needs it and the substance passes through the lungs it just takes it and uses it to breath, without the need to inhale. Although you have to exhale.

By now Colleen was feeling lightheaded and ready to faint but still Bot continued.

"Finally the pressurization ability and the added strength, as it passes through your vanes and corollaries the substance acts as a barrier to the outside pressure. Using water in the liquid it has the ability to keep you pressurized right beneath your skin. Making it possible to even go underwater and breathe normally. It also makes your muscles harder and stiffer making it easier to punch things without pain."

"Well what about her new colors, the red line and eyes?"

Colleen looked closely at the thick red line that lined her fur,

"Ah, the eyes are easy to explain, the thicker liquid is easier to see through the iris. But the change in fur color is unknown to even my sensors."

All this news made Colleens head spin as if she'd gone on a million rollercoaster's, and she began to get a horrible sensation in her stomach.

"Uh oh, she's gonna blow!"

Ian raced around to find some kind of bucket and found salvation in a fuel canister. He thrust the canister at her and she did her thing, both of the two pirates looked away. When the heaving stopped Ian turned,

"Is it over?"

Colleen wiped her dirty muzzle on her good arm, "I think so." She burped. "I just don't know what to think."

She sat back down on the bed and handed the canister back to Ian, "Why are you giving it to me, you're the one that can go outside!" She gave a death look and Ian took it by the bottom and pushed it out the airlock.

"Colleen, I still want to know. Why did you do that, I mean, what you gave me wasn't much of an answer more like an excuse."

It looked like she was getting torn apart trying to figure out an answer.

"You know, I guess you could say I was reborn and reborn in your image. I know that I've been with you for just half a day now, but it's what I know now. Why do you ask, it's not like I was anybody of importance, right?"

Ian though about it as he looked Colleen down. Her clothes now were the torn flight suit. The orange fur seeped out of the cuts creating small slivers of vibrant color. Her eyes, now red, captivated him. Something about them made him want to keep looking. A thought emerged in his brain. "I would die for her."

She spoke, "I wasn't right?"

Her voice resonated through his head like a sweet melody. He wanted more, she had to say something, anything. He thought about her, taking her marrying her and among other things what sex would be like with her.

Bot saw Ian in his trance and thought he should tell her.

"Actually you're..."

Ian interjected,

"You're a servant to the princess, but she died in a battleship battle between the station and them, you survived and the station automatically brought your pod in and you met me. So yeah, you were nobody of interest."

Bot, now behind Ian, tried to speak over him but Ian fingered his off switch on his stomach and he powered down.

What's wrong with Bot?"

He laughed nervously, "Oh nothing he just had to plug in."

Colleen shrugged it off as nothing and finally got a good look at her surroundings, everything had been too hectic up till now for her to take notice. The inside of the hopper basically looked like the outside, dirty and old except for a few exceptions like one out of the four beds. The space was about the size of four bathrooms put in a square fashion, to put it bluntly not very big. Most of the peripherals were fold out like the table or the computer station and the beds were cut into the hull like little compartments. The three others were filled with space junk, robot parts, computer parts, and random ship parts. Sometimes even clothes caught the eye. The bathroom was a little closet in the rear of the ship and the small door to the cockpit in the front. The airlock was where you would expect it to be, in the front on the right. The main door though was below the cockpit hole, when opened a ramp would extend down from the front to create an incline in fact it kind of looked like a fox opening his mouth. Colleen wondered if he did that on purpose. As she studied the ship Ian picked up Bot and plugged him into the ships main computer. Suddenly a sharp pain stretched through her ripped arm, she grasped it in agony and inhaled sharply. "AHHH."

Ian whipped around at the sound of her, "What's wrong!?"

She hunkered down and cradled her arm, "It's my arm it suddenly hurts like the devil!"

He came around and told her to present it to him, she did so. He found that some of the stitching had come out from her little expedition, she must have not felt it because of the adrenaline.

"Colleen, I'm going to give you a mild sedative again, it should keep you asleep until we reach Aleendro."

Ian found the pill case in the medicine cabinet and administered it to the fox, she swallowed it quickly to get out of the pain and laid down in the bed.

"Ian, what's Aleendro?" She said with the last of her strength.

He replied with a sigh,

"No where special, you'll see soon."

With that she fell into a peaceful sleep that was hurt free. Ian watched her as she slowly drifted off and then swirled back around to Bot. He reached down and flipped Bot on, his blue eyes glowed with LED lights.

"...the princess...What did you do? Why did you turn me off!?"

His eyes turned red, but Ian stayed relaxed.

"I had to. I don't want to tell Colleen about her being the princess."

Bots mouth almost fell off its hinges,

"Well, why the hell not?"

The fox shifted his weight from side to side, swaying back and forth.

"Well, I want to start up a new crew. You see, ever since my old one got killed I didn't really want any more people around me. But then Colleen came around, and she's the first person that I've really talked to for more than like two hours in a year and I've enjoyed it. So I want to build up another crew and now that she doesn't have a memory now she's perfect plus the fact that she can basically go anywhere."

Bots eyes turned back to the welcoming blue that he was programmed with,

"Are you saying that once you get a crew you're going to throw me away? I mean I'm just a robot."

Ian picked up the small feline like robot and placed him on his shoulders, "No way, you'll just move up in rank and you'll always be on my shoulder like this."

He smiled, well the best way a robot like him could. But his eyes soon shifted to sleeping Colleen.

"She's bound to find out sooner or later. You know somebody is going to recognize her."

Ian opened the small door to the cockpit,

"Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it and I wouldn't worry about anybody recognizing her. Her silver eyes are now red and that thick almost bloody red line that run across her body will shut down anybody's suspicions."

He climbed into the cockpit and sat in the one person chair there, his tail popped out the little hole in the back.

"Now time for me to get some shut eye."

He closed his eyes and tried to relax, but Bot interjected,

"Why didn't you just clear off one of the beds in there, they are billions of times more comfortable then this chair!"

One of Ian's blue eyes opened and stared angrily at his friend,

"Just don't worry about it, I have my reasons!"

His eye closed and he shuffled around trying to get more comfortable, finally he fell into a light sleep while Bot monitored the ship.