FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Fourth part, with hopefully more physical detail. Somehow though, this one didn't write out the way I had in mind for it. I mean it's the story I had in mind, but something about it is a little off to me. Parts of it were just not as entertaining to write as I had hoped. I'm finding out that reading science fiction like this is more fun than creating it in all it's detail...

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Stellar Wayfarer: Four

Head Engineer Nimir Durvael's star log: Coalition date 173.6.39.Thanks to the extra credits from stop'n those pirates, we got the relays and other bits the Auroras been needing. Got myself a 'lil extra on hand too. You know how things can get 'round here. Finally got the chance to pick up that replacement servo for my knee too. As good as it is to be able to' just swap out pieces parts like that, I'd much rather have my old body back. Maedallan science has come a long way, but it still can't replace the feel of natural skin and fur.

"Well, with that out the way I 'spose I should be getting back to work then." I say out loud to nonexistent auditory organs seated at my terminal in one corner of the engine bay. It's less of a control console and more of a desk these days. Most of the little displays and controls and buttons are all covered over with holo clipboards of manuals to this and that or bits of interesting news, as well as lots of small parts from various mechanisms and machines that need repairs.

By work, I mean just watching over the five or six other engineers on duty this shift. Most of the stuff that goes on down here is pretty automated these days, thanks to yours truly. I know when the ol' girl needs her checkups and the system lets everyone else know, so they can do all the boring mundane crap I don't want to. As long as it gets done I don't care what else goes on. When you've been doing this for more than 30 years like I have, things just stop bothering yuh.

Other than the couple 'o months after the accident that turned half my mouse body into a metal and alloy machine, I rarely spend more than a couple days away from my ship at a time. I dunno if it's because that just how most of us Maedallans are, or just 'cause I have trouble sleeping without the low hum of the warp drive or what. To this day I can't help but admire the Aurora's massive heart back here.

Most of the center part of this two deck room's upper half is filled with the mechanisms that start the fusion reaction. The meter and a half tall metal plated box attached to the ceiling, filled with the components that ionize the particles and send them out along a massive electromagnetically filled spiral taking up most of the outer sections of the room, down to the core where the real magic happens.

The true heart of the massive machine running down the middle of the floor from front to back, takes in the hydrogen at one end and fuses it, creating all the power she needs to get us going. All the little calculations and that are done by the ship's computer, and some of them are too technical even for me, but we're not actually traveling faster than the speed of light. Rather warping and compressing the space in front of us to be significantly shorter than normal.

Very little has advanced in the ways of getting space ships to travel much faster than rockets and thrusters in the two to three hundred years since the races of the Coalition, except the Resalvans who got the technology from the Avittans who accidently crashed on planet Resalvan about 195 years ago. What has come a hell of a long way is our ability to compress that space smaller and smaller. Sometimes I feel bad at the guys who had to do this in the old days, when the trip from Maedalla to Firnulf took nearly six months. A state of the art Coalition ship now can do it in under two weeks if the conditions are good.

"Gah, there I go reminiscing again." I state out loud, not caring who, if anyone can hear me over here I'm my corner. "Supposed to go get the doctor to put my new servo in today. I'm sure these guys down here can handle things for a while. It's not as they can't find me. Not real far you can go inside a ship."

Chuckling to myself as I get up and begin to make my way up a deck to the medical lab, the only Avittan in my engineering crew rushes over to stop me before I can get to the double doors on the port side of the bay. "Hey boss, heading out real fast?" Sie says, hearing hir talons clacking against the diamond plated metal floor. I dunno what it is about those avians, but something always weirded me about them. It's not like I'm racist or anything, but there's just something about them I can't explain. It's got to be the bright colors and feathers. Must be strange to not have fur and all that.

"Yeah, heading up to Ria to get her to fix my leg finally." I answer to the rather tall red and green bird in hir Coalition uniform, modified for the medium sized wings on hir back. "What'cha needed?"

"Oh, I was hoping to be able to talk to you about something a little, well, personal." Sie replies looking down at me, head bashfully turned to one side. "You see, I've been meaning to ask you about being able to spend more time getting to know Catio a little better..."

Interrupting the bird's speech with my answer, I hold my arm out waving my hand to get hir to stop. "Whoa, I don't need to know all the details there. And you should know as much as anyone else back here, personal stuff like that isn't my business. Whatever you plan on doing, jus' don't let it affect your work."

"Oh thank you chief!" The Avittan responds, wrapping hir feathery arms around me and bringing hir flat birdlike chest up to my face, wings all stretched out.

"Yeah, sure." I reply, trying to get my tall crewman off me. "You didn't have to ask my permission or nothing for spending time with people."

Sie finally lets go and retracts hir sizable, but rather impractical wings back. There's some rare cases of them surgically clipping them down to be able to fit into starships better, but I haven't heard or seen any personally. "I know, but I still felt that I should ask. Usually most Avittans like to know, so they know who's with who right now."

There's a mental picture I didn't really need. It's like their whole race is like Ria, but much more socially official about it all. "Sure, sure. I'm going to get going. Don't want to keep the doc wait'n too long now."

"Okay then, see you later boss." I hear from hir stepping, though the doors and into the rather under colored hallway. Brown carpet and gray paneled metallic walls, with the occasional conduit access vent. Bhyrt and I keep say'n this place needs some green to liven it up some, but nobody can decide on a plant we all would like. Last time we tried to just put some out here they disappeared. Nobody ever owned up to it either. Bhyrt was pissed after spending nearly two weeks investigating that one. To this day there's still a 500 credit bounty posted on the mess hall's forum board.

I always get a kick out of seeing the med hall doors. They're just the same white and brown plastic covered doors like all the rest, but with the universal snake wrapped around a stick picture to show what this room is supposed to be. And graffiti. Nearly all of it sexual too. Zarrolth gave up trying to keep the thing clean years and years ago. As long as it was contained to the door, and didn't cover the Asclepius then it was fine he said. Cassa tried to get it cleaned when she showed up, but we all got a laugh at her when new stuff showed up the next day. And the day after that when she tried again. Eventually the mouse gave up.

"Hey, sorry I'm a little late." I call out as I make my way into the medical lab. "Got a little hung up talking with somebody. You got that new part right? I told Gilnei to have brought up here."

Hearing no response, I look around for the doctor. Usually she's in here, unless otherwise busy with a patient. It's not exactly a big room, considering the Aurora isn't a big ship. The med hall is twice the size of a normal sleeping quarters, taking up both sides of one of the center room cubes in the middle of the ship. The floors are a very smooth hard white "Sani-plastik," I think they call it. Some kind of easy to clean surface made standard throughout the Coalition for this kind of stuff. Same stuff on the walls and ceiling too. The uniform color in here would drive me insane if I were a doctor.

She's not in her side office, or at any of the half dozen beds either. Maybe next door in the science lab with Catio. Before I can get over to the door joining the two rooms in the middle however, the devil herself walks in.

"Looks like we're both late, Ria." I exclaim with a grin, taking a seat on one of the table beds. "So you ready to do this or what? My leg's been seizing up more and more these last couple of weeks. It's get'n hard to walk."

"Oh? And just how hard is it?" The busty brown and white rabbit wearing little more than her white lab coat responds. "I have just what you need then, if it's too hard. Gilnei brought it up here himself a few days ago. I think that mouse wanted a little payment for his work too, and as if by some magical coincidence I was stricken with an itch under my bra I couldn't scratch just as he was leaving."

I laugh as she brings the servo and tools over. "Alright my little mechanical mousy, let's see that bad 'ol knee. But you're going to have to take clothes off first though."

I comply, soon sitting completely nude on table in front of her, my body a constant reminder of the accident that half of my crew didn't walk away from quite as lucky as me. Zerr and the Aurora were responding to distress call from a freighter that barely survived an attack from those lizards. They destroyed their escort, and the warp drive in the cargo ship was badly damaged. We were trying to patch the thing back together so she could make it to somewhere on her own power.

Everything was going fine until the pressure in one of their injector regulators started to spike. The thing was supposed to have been shut off, but apparently the valve got stuck open. I was much further away from it when the secondary injector blew, but from what I was told 8 crewmen between the two ships were killed, and 5 more injured. It wasn't till a week later that I woke up and found both my legs, and left arm and eye gone, as well as parts of my skull, hip, and shoulder replaced with cybernetic replacements.

"Alright Nimmy, let me know if feel any discomfort or other problems you need a delicate paw for." Ria says with a sultry grin as I slide back on the meter tall table bed, resting my thighs completely on the top of the soft padded surface. She begins unscrewing the metallic plate covering the front of my left shin and the little pieces aside on a wheeled cart under her tools. The process is completely painless, as I can't feel anything in my artificial parts.

The rabbit's long shoulder length brown ears both perk straight up as the faulty servo is pulled from my leg. Although I was trying to not move before, I really can't now. If you thought feeling ghost limbs was strange before, this takes it to a whole new level. "Let me have a look at that doc." I ask, reaching for the five centimeter long part. "Hmmm... Looks like the drive actuator is just about burned out. I think I could fix this and keep it as a spare for next time."

"It's too bad fixing everyone back up wasn't as easy as you Nim." She responds. "I'd have so much more time for other, more pleasurable things, if it was. There, the new one is all in. Try it out before I put the covers back on."

I hop down off the table, being careful not to knock my tail into Ria or the cart. Not that I haven't hit her with it before or anything. I mean that might be on the more tame end of things she's done with it now that I think about it.

Starting at a walking pace around the edge of the white room, I work my speed up to a brisk jog hearing the light clanging of metal toes and rubbery foot pads against the hard plastic floor. The notion that I was running around the room stark naked didn't hit me until the doctor whistled at me as I passed by her for the fourth or fifth time. The scene didn't bother me at all as I slowed down to walk back to Ria.

"Everything seems fine now Doc. You always seem to have those magic hands." I say to her as I hop back up on the white sheets of the bed.

"Well then, in that case maybe we should talk about your payment, huh?" The rabbit replies and licks her lips with her flat pink tongue. "How about my place after our shift is over tonight? I think we can work something out then."

"Yeah, I should be able to come by and pay the fee later." I chuckle as I continue to play along with Ria's game. "I'll let you surprise me with the choice of transaction. Thanks for your help though, I got a feeling I'm gonna need these today. The cap'n supposedly found something interesting he needs my help with. Him and Cassa didn't say what, but apparently they can't handle it themselves."

Ria brushes her paws up along her belly, lifting the pair of white E-cup sized breasts behind a tightly fitting black top that leaves little to the imagination, before lifting her arms into the air to stretch. "Mmm, that's too bad. I guess I'll just have to go back and see if Sevin wants to finish getting his checkup. When you sent him in here a couple weeks back with that black eye he got really uncomfortable with me and ran out after saying how unprofessional I was acting. I'll get that little fox yet though."

"Haha, that's too bad for him." I respond, laughing as I pull my black short sleeved jumpsuit up over the other leg. "I think I might have to tease him about that too now. But anyway, I'm gonna get going. Want to get this over with quick, whatever it is."

"Okay then Nimmy, I'll be waiting for you tomorrow." The flirty Resalvan says while I make my way out of the overly mono-colored room. It's great to not have to fight to get your own leg to walk again. Sometimes you take the smallest things for granted. My short trip down the rest of the hall to the bridge is a short one, and I take no time admiring the double wide metallic blast doors leading in.

"Like I've been saying magistrate Pereda, your colony wasn't even on our maps. We had no idea any of you had been out here." The ruby red fox in the long white cape says from behind the captain's terminal, as I make my way through the door. "Our ship had only just come across your world a few days ago while checking this system out. We can try and help out however we can, but the Aurora isn't a very big ship. Best we could do is send word back to the Coalition and the can bring in more foxpower."

Merrolth turns his head to face me, either not aware that I had come in, or unable to say anything till now about it. "Oh, good you're here." He continues, waving me over. "Pereda, this is our head engineer Nimir that I've told you about. He's the one who'd know how to fix your reactor."

The image on the large main screen at the far end of the room is that of a middle aged Firnulfian in a somewhat plain looking uniform of a very deep green sitting behind a fairly cluttered wooden desk in an lightly decorated office somewhere. The window off to his left side shows a few trees and green in the yard behind him, suggesting him to be fairly close to ground level. I raise my paw and greet him.

"So I guess the war really did end alright for everyone." The tan colored fox replies with a look of morbid curiosity about him. "That little conflict may have been almost 250 years ago, but there are still some people here who haven't forgotten or forgiven. They might not be too pleased at the idea of a Maedallan coming down here and helping them. Most of us stopped caring generations ago, considering it all happened so long ago and no longer has any bearing on our lives now."

Pereda pauses for a moment to look around his room, then back at whatever was transmitting his signal. "But some Firnulfians just won't let it go. We've been stranded out here for more than two centuries. Not even their grandparents were involved in the war, let alone remember it for what it was. It bothers me greatly that they just keep holding onto this as if it were some big thing that happened to them personally."

"Wow, I can't believe that some people would hold a grudge that long." The younger brown fox morph on the bridge responds, trying to make himself included in a conversation that really didn't involve him to start with. "So the whole colony hasn't ever seen a real live Maedallan before? I know one I'd like to get away from..."

First officer Commander Cassa slowly turns her gaze over to Firnulfian at the terminal on the left side of the room, giving the teen a look that could stare down a bear. "If you are having personnel problems ensign, then perhaps you should share them with everyone at the next review meeting. Or, if you can't wait another two weeks, then why not speak your mind in the mess hall in front of all your fellow crewmen?"

Despite the rather authoritarian tone of the mouse's voice, at no point does she ever make it sound as if lashing out at the boy. That level of cool-headedness I can respect. I'd probably sock him good again. Speaking of which, "hey Sevin, Ria wants to see you back in the med lab." I call over to him from next to the captain's position. The fox turns his chair around to look back towards me from the control console angled towards the front of the room.

"Her again...?" He moans, stretching out the words in opposition as he speaks. "But she's all weird, and..."

"Doctor's orders." I interrupt, trying to hold back my laughing. "You don't want to be sent there with another black eye, do yah?" Sevin gets up from his seat and starts whining as he heads out to his sudden appointment, brown and white tipped tail tucked between the light blue of his pants as he drags his feet across the floor.

The commander's black ear twitches as she waits for the sound of the metal door sealing before speaking. "Interruptions aside, allow us to get back down the business Mr. Pereda. How exactly can we assist you and your failing reactor?"

Magistrate Pereda pauses to think the situation. I can clearly see the tan colored fox hesitate to come to terms with accepting help, Maedallan help, for his settlement. "Well, the Kanet colony is down to one plant in recent years. And even salvaging the other three hasn't helped enough. My engineers tell me that unless we can somehow find some miracle fix, the magnetic containment field is going to continue to weaken to the point where the reactor will simply shut down for good."

"Sounds like your ion feed regulator is on its way out." I respond, arms crossing on my chest. "Now, we don't have 200 year old parts to replace yours with, but I think we should be able to patch the thing together till the Coalition can bring a real replacement out here."

"Exactly how much animosity towards Nimir and his crew are you expecting down there, magistrate?" Cassa asks. "How would you suggest we go about repairing your reactor with the safety of our crew in mind?"

Pereda sighs and places his paws together on top of the messy desk in front of him, probably unsure if he can actually guarantee anything. "Well, the site is on the outskirts of our city, but I believe there are usually a half dozen workers in there at any given time. I don't know how all of them would feel about this, but I don't expect anything drastic to happen."

I roll my eyes at his 'drastic' remark. What reassurance that is. "Guess I should be get'n my tools and stuff packed up then. Hope this thing ain't beyond saving."

"I want to come with you Nimir." The captain looks over to me and replies. "Should be interesting to see a lost colony like this. And maybe you won't get hassled if I'm around."

While I think his heart is in the right place, I doubt he's really going to be able to help much if those people decide they don't like us be'n there. Oh well. Haven't been on solid ground in almost a year. Maybe I should just look at this as a little reminder of why I don't get out much.

Cassa suggested that we bring along a Resalvan and Avittan with me, so these foxes can get used to the idea of not being alone in the galaxy anymore. Not exactly a lot of choice for the avian here, but I settle on the younger of the two rabbits working right now. She could use the experience I'm sure.

It takes us three hours to pack up everything needed in the shuttle down in the cargo bay. If I remember my antique machines correctly, then the old regulator Gilnei had stored away might made to fit, with a little coercion and downtuning of course. Gotta figure out some way to throttle it down a bit too. Don't want to overload the rest of their generator with too much power.

Merrolth takes us out in our tan and black, almost teardrop shaped shuttle. I don't really want to fly this thing at my age no more, and I got a feeling that neither of the other two people with us could get us out of the hanger if their lives depended on it. These things may only have four seats, arranged in the most ass way possible, but I will admit the leg room is good.

The parts of the cabin not covered with displays and instruments for navigation are just all metallic plate coverings. Nothing fancy here, it's a 18 meter Coalition standard issue. Since the thing is fairly oddly shaped, the widest part in the back is about 5 meters from port to starboard on the inside. The room tapers to a point at the nose where the cap'n is sitting now. Two more chairs are behind him offset to both sides, and our large bird friend is seated all the way at the back wall with the cargo.

By the look of the planet from orbit, Kanet must be a fairly temperate world. Larger polar regions, fewer jungles and desert wastelands too. I don't know what the other side looks like, but this half is made almost entirely of very large islands. Almost like a series of archipelagos, but they're not little pieces of land. Most are kinda mountainous too.

The coordinates from Pereda take us down on one of the more medium sized, flatter islands in the southern hemisphere. I can't quite get a good look at the colony though the tree lines, but I'd say most of the metallic structures were probably built out of their ship when it landed. The others seem to be a composite of stone, metal and wood. These Firnulfians didn't waste any time industrializing this place. They must be using hydroponics to grow their food too, as large traditional fields like that would've stuck out.

We land several kilometers outside the city in the woods, where the reactors were installed next to a river not far downstream from a 20 or 30 meter waterfall. Magistrate Pereda is already there, awaiting our arrival at the main doorway of the rather large patchwork building. It looks like upkeep of the 35 or so meter tall metal and concrete patchwork building took a backseat to keeping the important parts running. There isn't even really much of a road leading out of here. Just a cleared path where the tall powerlines run through the forest.

"Ah good, you're finally here captain Merrolth." Pereda calls out to us as we all begin to unload the shuttle. "And I see you've brought... Some help." The tan fox continues, pausing at the sight of two unexpected guests.

"Yeah, we did." I reply from inside the craft. "That's not going to be a problem, is it?"

The magistrate looks over his big eared and big winged guests, trying to grasp the concepts the pair represent. "Commander Cassa, the other Maedallan you spoke to over the comm link, said we should bring them along. Supposed to get you all 'used to the idea of not being alone in the galaxy,' or something." Merrolth interjects before he gets a chance to speak up.

"I... I see. Just how many other races are there besides us then?" Pereda finally answers, his forehead buried in one of his paws. I can see the fox isn't comfortable with this information when I bring the last of the stuff out. It's as if his whole perception of the universe has been torn up and thrown in his face.

"Uh... Let's see..." The captain responds, stroking the underside of his muzzle with thumb and forefinger. "There's the four races of the Coalition. The Linbadellians, a lizard like people we're at war with. Um... Then there's the Terrans, who're a furless people, and don't like anyone besides themselves. They might be really advanced, but I don't think there are too many of them out there. At least not in our part of the galaxy. Really weird people too..."

The Avittan picks up where Merrolth started to trail off with a chirp. "And more than a dozen other known space faring species not currently major players like us. On top of hundreds of worlds with races not capable of space travel yet."

"You've all have plenty of time to catch up on history later." I interrupt, beginning carrying the first load of tools to the large roll up garage style door on the side of the building. "We didn't come down here to chat. I want to get this thing fixed and go home."

"Yeah, you're right. All this standing around is boring." The red fox replies, crouching down to lift up the small crate from the grass with the new parts in it. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back to exploring."

The captain's statement forces a laugh out of me as I pass by him with my second load. "I don't know what you're thinking you gonna be able to do in there, Merr. Last I remember you couldn't tell a digi-spanner from micro calibration scan tool."

His embarrassing reaction only fuels the laughter from the rabbit, bird, and I. "Hey Pereda, you got a cart or something in there to toss on this stuff on? Don't think I've got it in me to carry this stuff much further today."

"Oh, yes. Let me open the door for you." He responds, seemingly still uncomfortable with the situation. I suppose it's not totally his fault. These foxes lived for centuries without any outside influence. And now here we are, total strangers to them and their way of life.

A couple of minutes later, the 6 meter tall door begins it's slow mechanized ascent and someone comments that it finally happened. Three Firnulfians greet us on the other side, the magistrate among them having gone in through the front entrance to open this one for us.

"These are the ones you were talking about Pereda? The ones who are supposed to help fix the reactor?" One of the silver foxes in a jumpsuit of a very similar deep blue to the magistrate's uniform says, looking us all over.

"So that means we didn't lose the war after all?" The other similarly dressed silver vixen driving the lift truck replies. "But do all the Firnulfians out there dress as tacky as you? Those clothes look like something straight out of a history book."

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with the way I'm dressed!" Merrolth responds.

The vixen laughs at him as we load the truck up. "When was the last time wearing pieces of armor and a cape was fashionable? And those pants don't even cover the bottom of your legs either."

While I usually do enjoy a good chuckle at the kid's expensive, I know that if I laugh at him, I laugh at his father too. And I just don't think I can bring myself to laugh at my late friend. Not like this at least.

"Wow, is this thing a mess or what." I state absentmindedly, finally getting a look at good look at their ancient machine. The main room we're in is at least three times the square meterage as the Aurora's engine bay, but large sections of it are filled with non functioning parts, and piles of torn up scrap. While the walls and floors are almost entirely metal and concrete respectively, they're not without some serious maintenance problems.

Their generator's basic spiral design is similar to ours, only a little larger. I'm guessing that all four of the reactors were up and going in here at one point, but in the attempt to keep something going only the one remains. And does it need some retirement. There is no way Kanet is run by this thing alone. Some kind of hydroelectric, or maybe fission power plant has to be helping.

"So where are you thinking to begin, Mr. mouse?" The other silver fox asks, watching me as I remove panels and react in horror at the level of jury rigging all over the place.

"My name is Nimir. You don't have to call me that." I respond with a sigh, my round brown ears falling limp. "And honestly, I dunno if I should be respecting you all for managing to do this or just lose my mind. I mean look at this relay. It's supposed to be running at 8.3jhz, but instead I'm seeing it partially bypassed in order to handle the loss in containment levels."

He gives me an embarrassed grin and my team and I all keep poking around. None of us realize just how much time has passed until the pair of silver foxes tell us their shift is up. Musta been a solid three or four hours, and I call a lunch break till the replacements arrive. Luckily Chef had some travel food packed for our trip too.

Normally I don't have a problem with the avian's cooking, but insta-meals always taste so bland. These 'just add water and serve' trays are awful. Meats rubbery, gravy's just bad, and I can't even tell what kind of green plant that was supposed to have been. Spose' I should be thankful it's not Coalition canned rations. Now those are just terrible. All that stuff gets crammed into there, it tastes like salty wet sawdust. In canned form...

"So I'm not the only one who wants to know just what kind of magic is keeping this machine running, am I?" The white rabbit asks, looking for anything to distract her from the taste of her meal. "More than a dozen coils are blown, at least two fuses have been hot wired open, and I've seen at least six places where relays have exploded or caught fire at some point."

The avian shakes hir head and agrees with the findings. "Honestly, there isn't any saving it I don't think."

"I know, I know. Let's just replace what few minor things we can, and get the new regulator in." I reply, trying to finish off the rest of my food as quickly as possible. "I figure Cassa already sent word these foxes're out here, and hopefully the Coalition will send some new stuff in a few months. At best, I'd give her another year, tops."

"I'd be surprised to see her still kicking when the new one comes." The Resalvan responds. "Poor old thing's way past its prime."

"Yeah, a shame the original builders aren't still around for us to congratulate for this one." The red and green bird adds, tossing hir empty food tray back into crate.

The rabbit and I follow suit, and she gets up to stretch. "I dunno where their new guys are, or Merr and Pereda for that matter, but let's just get this over with and tell them to hope for the best. At least till real help arrives." I say, standing up for what little good stretching does me anymore.

The hardest part, aside from having to do all this with only three people, is calibrating the replacement ion feed regulator to work with this old machine without overloading it. Luckily for us, the previous shift shut the reactor down before leaving, so we wouldn't have to figure that one out. The Resalvan and I spend nearly an hour tweaking this thing to work right while our avian crewman did the rest of the work everywhere else.

Let me tell you all about sitting on metal grating and sore asses. It's bad enough I have a hard time getting a good feel of where I'm stepping on these scaffolds running along the reactor, but having to sit on them while performing delicate adjustments just makes my day. Makes me glad the Aurora's got real stairs and platforms in her, not this wire mess garbage.

Fortunately I don't have to put it back in above my head. 'There were more places needing new parts than we had available' were the bird's words having made hir way back over to us. Sie can heft the part back into place, being the tallest of our trio by a little over one head above the lapin.

"Well, that just about does it then." I state out loud, watching the final panel get forced back into place. "Guess we 'ought to find out where the next shift is. Maybe Merr and the magistrate are in the front office or something."

We look around a bit, and it turns out I was right about one thing. The captain was up in the front. Not in the office, but out in front of the building. And he wasn't alone. Not even close. It seems that at some point during our little expedition some of locals decided to pay us a visit. And not the friendly kind.

"Where are they!? Where's the mouse and his friends hiding!?" Someone in the crowd of 10 or 15 foxes standing in front of the building roars as I open the door. "They're trying to destroy our colony now aren't they!? That's their plan isn't it!?"

Pereda, Merrolth, the pair of silver foxes from earlier, and a couple people more I don't recognize are all that rest between us and the heated mob. Mere meters separate the two groups, the captain's standing at the bottom of the stone stairway as we all step outside and get a better look at situation.

"You all are mistaken! We're not here to destroy anything!" The captain yells back, his ears drawn forward and apparently quite furious as well. "You all should be fortunate that WE found you, and not some other race like the Linbadellians. They wouldn't even have come down here. Your colony would simply have been destroyed from orbit if it were them."

"You're just trying to cover for them!" Another person shouts back. "Look! There he is now! It's the mouse and his friends!"

The sight of me must have been enough to send the crowd into a blood frenzy. Several fox morphs try and push to get to the stairs, the other side barely being able to hold them back.

"All of you need to leave and go back home immediately!" Pereda screams as he assists in holding the line. "I don't know what your problem is. None of you have ever seen a Maedallan before today, and the first thing you want to do is condemn them? Why!?"

"It's their fault we're here in the first place!"

"Those mice aren't happy with just stranding us on Kanet, now they want to make us live in the stone age too!"

All the baseless accusations and name calling is getting to me now too. Are these people really that backwards that they hold onto something so trivial from the past, unable to just move forward with their lives?

"Do any of you bigots even know what you're saying!?" I retort as a thrown rock misses me, striking the jamb of the door. "Listen to yourselves! None of you are making a damn bit o' sense! Why would we be coming down to destroy a power plant in such bad shape, and not something more important?"

"It's got to be some kind of plan! First the reactor, then everything else!"

Pushing and shoving from both sides has gotten to the point where we three have to join the line to keep them from overwhelming us. The last thing we need is a brawl, considering we're quite badly outnumbered right now. Unfortunately, violence may end up being the only thing these morons will understand. So blinded by senseless hate that words fall upon deaf ears.

One of the rioters strikes me across the face, and I quickly bring my left cybernetic arm to grab him by the muzzle.

"Listen pup." I snarl at the fox bound by my hand. "Unless you want your snout crushed, you and your backwards friends are going to be get'n out of here. You're not so alone anymore that you can just think the galaxy revolves around you and your outdated racism."

All this one's attitude takes to change is a little pain. Don't even have the balls to stand up for what he says. Pathetic. The sound of his whimpering and clawing at my arm starts to get to be too much for me, and I throw the defeated fox to the ground.

"Anybody else want a lesson in humility?" I say, watching the rest of the pack back off.

"You and your all mouse friends are going to regret this." My spineless assailant yelps in pain, lying on the grass at my feat. "Some of us haven't forgotten what you did and who you really are."

"None of you fools have any reason to be doing this!" Pereda responds, trying to brush off the scuffs and wrinkles in his uniform suit. "What did this Maedallan ever do to any of you? Nothing! These people came down to help us with a problem that didn't even concern them!"

The silver fox who was helping us earlier pipes in after the magistrate finishes. "You should be ashamed of yourselves! Instead of trying to be the better person and move on from something so far in the past, all of you just kept dwelling on how wronged your ancestors were. Well both your ancestors and theirs are long gone."

"Yeah, that was then and this is now." His vixen co-worker adds. "Like it or not, things have changed."

Slowly, the mob backs off with their injured comrade into the large field lined with high tension towers. Defeated, but not broken they disperse in their wheeled ground vehicles.

"Let's get out of here." I say with everyone turned to face me. "We fixed what could be fixed on your reactor. Hopefully she'll last till the Coalition brings a replacement."

"Wow, I didn't know you could do that Nimir." The captain replies, evidently impressed by the power I so shamefully wielded. "Could you really have broken that fox's muzzle?"

Merrolth's question coxes a long sigh out of me. "Yes, I could have. I don't like admitting the strength these things have. It feels so... wrong."

"While the colonists and I are very grateful for the help you've given us today." Pereda responds, trying to maintain his sense of authority and control. "I am deeply sorry about what happened here today. I can assure you that these people are a very small minority in the overall community."

"Not my problem anymore." I answer the magistrate. "Nothing personal, but I doubt I'll ever be back here for that to matter. Go load up the stuff in the shuttle you two. Let's get back to the ship."

I make my way back to our tan shuttle landed in the grassy field 30 or 40 meters from the building while the rabbit and avian head back inside to grab the tools. What a day this has been. At least the end of it with Ria should be much better than all this has been.

---

The ending feels the weakest to me. I'm not sure I was able to convey the emotion the mob and their targets were feeling. In addition, other parts seem dry to me. I dunno. Is it boring to read? Let me know.