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Part five, and this one I feel pretty good about. It was quite a bit more fun to do than the previous couple. They mostly just set up story for me to start with, but now things are starting to get into the world of exciting space exploration aventures. Or at least I hope. I've also been trying to present each of these stories as enjoyable on their own without any back reading.

While I had no intention in mind to write sex or yiff into this series, it doesn't quite have to remain squeeky clean. I'm not sure just how erotic a little bit of petting is, but it's so far been the extent of it. Other than suggestion and implication. Which has been making Ria an enjoyable character to write. Hopefully all the main characters can be just as entertaining to do.

A last thought before the main event: I did try to get as much of the science in this science fiction as correct as possible, but some was kind of made up to fill in the blanks. It's supposed to be entertainment, and not just a school lesson.

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Stellar Wayfarer: Five

Captain Merrolth Vhyrad's star log: Coalition date 173.7.13. I can't help but feel weirded out by that racism on Kanet. I mean, I know their ancestors were kind of wronged by the Maedallans a long time ago, but that was centuries in the past. It almost makes me a little sickened to be the same race as them, holding a grudge all that time. We've all made advances to get past things like that. Maybe I sound a little optimistic, but I hope one day the Linbadellians can be our allies like everyone else in the Coalition.

"So today's the big day, eh captain?" The younger brown fox morph calls out from his chair to my left, excited over our recent discovery. "Yeah, this should be so cool to check out. I don't know why miss serious mouse over there is so worried."

Commander Cassa sighs. "Because wormholes can be dangerous, ensign. There could be anything on the other side, and without sending a probe in first, we don't have any idea what we're getting into."

I grin embarrassingly at the Maedallans accusing glare. "Speaking of which, please explain again why we don't have any in the first place, captain. I'm sure it's all the justification needed to simply fly in head first."

"Well... You see..."

"Those things got to be too expensive to keep replacing." Sevin chimes in. "But I thought Gilnei still had down in the cargo bay?"

That little detail was one I didn't want her to know about. "Most of one," I quickly blurt out, trying to do whatever damage control possible. "We had to borrow some parts out of it for something a little while back, remember?"

"Ohhh yeah," he responds, snapping his little black fingers. "I remember that now. It took Catio days to figure out that hir discovery was little more than a couple of scrambled and encoded feedback units hooked up to a micro transmitter relay. That bird really thought sie found some kind of secret message."

As funny as that practical joke was, Cassa wasn't laughing . "Well captain, I hope your little fun was worth whatever we might come across on the other side, and that you're ready to accept responsibility therein."

"...But," I mumble, looking over at the uniformed mouse at her control console as shakes her head at me. "That one little probe was already broken beforehand. Nimir and Gilnei said it was okay to take stuff from it, because the thing wasn't worth fixing."

"And this suddenly makes it okay to take components that might otherwise have been useful somewhere it mattered?" She retorts. An awkward silence fills the bridge, dull humming of the ship and the lights of status readings being the things that dare speak up against the commander's rhetorical question.

It's been nearly three months, and these things keep happening to me. I wouldn't put it past Sevin to set me up like that, but somehow I don't see the commander as one to be intentionally finding ways to humiliate us. What am I doing wrong...

Cassa is finally the one to say something, shattering the veil of peace she had wrought at my expense. "Well Merrolth, your little hole in space is nearly close enough to get a visual look at." She punches a few dimly lit buttons and the large primary display screen at the nose of the room comes to life, bringing the first vague answer to the mystery we've been hunting down for the last few days.

"Kinda hard to make out still," Sevin comments, squinting his eyes at the emitted picture not but six meters in front of him.

"That's as good as it gets right now. Once the Aurora gets closer we'll be able to get a cleaner look," the commander answers, paws still busily working the angled, chest high controls. "I'd estimate approximately three and a half hours to arrival."

The small fox yawns and stretches his arms at her update. "Well, if it's gonna take that long I'm gonna go grab some lunch then. Wonder what the 'ol food bird made today."

That sounds pretty good actually, and it'll get me away from making a fool of myself too. "I think I'm going to get some food too. Do you want us to bring you anything back Cassa?"

"Captain, you should know as well as anyone that food isn't supposed to be brought up here," the mouse replies without turning around to look at us. "The last time that happened, somebody, who shall remain nameless, spilled some of Chef's pot pie all over their controls and little brown lap. Had he not been yelping so loudly I think I'd have laughed."

"That's right," I laughed. "Poor little fox had to scrub everyone's terminal that evening if I remember right."

That same poor little fox growled and got up from his seat periodically alternating his glare between the two of us. He made his way to the door, and I followed suit heading down the elevator and back to the mess hall at the front of the Aurora just one deck below where we came from.

"Mmm..." I lick my lips at the pleasant aroma filling the table and chair lined room. Smells like... Pasta and chili today! I hope Chef added more peppers this time. Sie didn't have enough in there the last time and defiantly wasn't spicy enough.

"Hey it's the fox brothers. How're you both doing today?" the brown and black Avittan dressed in hir usual white apron and silly hat calls out from the other side of the kitchen's metallic countertop. "I'm sure you both smelled it the minute you walked in, but there's chili today. Gilnei got his hands on some new kind of meat we haven't had before, and so far everyone else has liked it."

I sniff the air a few times, trying to see if I can identify the mystery ingredient. "Hmmm, well, I'm sure it'll be good if everyone else has said so. Did you spice it up this time too?"

"You might be in for a little surprise," sie chuckles, scooping out a bowl for Sevin and I. Our usual seats towards the front near the large glass windows are taken today, so we have to settle for another off towards one side of the long triangular room.

It's been a goal I've been working towards since taking over, trying to get to know everyone's names and faces, but I still get some people mixed up. Or worse yet forget who they are out of the sixty something on board. Getting to know them all isn't easy. Especially when they're spread out over three shifts.

"The job of a captain isn't easy," I think to myself, stuffing the oddly spicy meal into my mouth. "But I've been getting better at it. Maybe not as good as my father was, but damnit, I'm trying. Listening to some of this old logs has helped a little. Given me another perspective on how to do things more professionally I think."

"So Merr, what'da yah think's on the other side of the wormhole?" Sevin asks. "I bet there's something cool over there. Has to be, for such an isolated wormhole like this."

My muzzle clamps shut on the spoon therein it as I savor the taste I can't quite put a finger on, thinking what to answer. "I dunno yet. We'll just have to find out the fun way. Better not be anything dangerous though, or else you know who won't ever let it go."

The young white mantled fox sighs, shaking his head. "Tell me about it. But whatever. I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Well, we'll see. By the way, what'd you think about Chef's new meat?" I inquire, getting up to take my empty bowl back.

"It's new, I'll give hir that. But I'm not sure I like it. Leaves you with a strange aftertaste."

I shrug and walk off. The flavor wasn't that strange, right? Wonder what it came from... No, scratch that. Knowing Gilnei I might be better off not seeing the donor animal. Who knows what exotic world it called home.

Sevin stays behind in the mess hall as I head back up to the bridge. Probably to hide from the commander till the last minute, as usual. Maybe she wouldn't be so hard on him all the time if he spent a little more time working, and not just trying to get away from her. Oh well. We might be close enough to get a good look at this thing by now too I bet.

"That didn't take you long captain," Cassa's round ears perking up to the sound of the bridge door opening. "Estimated time of arrival is less than three hours now."

"Can we see it yet? Better than before I mean?"

The light green uniformed mouse hits a few buttons, and the image on the big screen changes to the mysterious hole in space we've been after. There isn't that much visual clarity over the last image, but it's a little better. I can begin to make out the faint purple and blue glow surrounding the horizon of the tunnel.

"That's as good as it gets for now, captain. I still strongly recommend against just simply traveling though it until we know more about the other side," she tries arguing. Not that it does much good though. We're out here to explore and look for exactly this kind of thing. It's like telling fish they shouldn't swim, or a bird not to fly. Goes against their purpose in life.

Gradually, our little amethyst jewel in the heavens gets more and more lifelike, revealing the deep purple glow of light subtly bending around it. The entire phenomenon is only a few kilometers in diameter, and it's sheen another couple more.

Sevin sits staring at the piece of art, eyes wide open in admiration. "Wow, that thing's really pretty. What's making it glow like that?"

"Part of it is a small field of dust and gasses around the wormhole, ensign," Cassa answers with the same amount of admiration that we're all sharing. "And part of is due to the nature of wormholes to begin with. Because they connect two points in space as you're aware, a certain amount of light and energy gets passed though them."

She readjusts herself and long pink tail in the tan swiveling chair. "The beautifully colored glow you're seeing is that light as it exits the other side. There is no known association between energy and radiation from the far side and the display they make. While the number of wormholes the Coalition is aware of is somewhat low, they've all had a wide mixture of colors and hues."

"Sounds like you know a lot about these things commander," I respond.

"Everyone knows most of these things. It's what was taught at the academy."

I grin and turn my attention away from the picture on the display. "I think there's more to it than just an academic interest."

If Cassa played cards, I'd be going all in with the look on her face she was trying so desperately to hide. "Well, maybe a little," she blushes. "I guess you could say that I do enjoy some of the sights and scenes of these things out here. Some of them you really can't find anywhere else in the galaxy."

"Aw, I didn't know our commander Cassa had such a romantic artsy side too," Sevin teases, wasting no time trying to turn the tables on her for a change. "You're a softy like everyone else, aren't you?"

"If that's the case, at least I own up to it. Now who was that collar for that you've got on again?" The mouse grins, not letting the fox gain an inch of ground.

He growls and moans, trying to keep up the attack. "What about your secret love for organ music then, huh? I don't remember you just quite owning up to that."

"This isn't about the musical miss mouse," I laugh. "This is about the lovey little fox."

Sevin just keeps making noises and mumbles something under his breath. It's good to see everyone getting along so nicely again. We really are one big happy family in here.

"Well, how much longer to the wormhole then, commander?" I say, trying to change the subject. "We should almost be there, right?"

Cassa looks back down to her terminal, then back up at the primary screen. "Not long now. I'll send one last transmission out before we go through," she sighs. "The Coalition should already know the location of the wormhole already, but I really was holding out that you weren't going to do something so recklessly."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," I respond with the smug grin that's gotten us into trouble before. "I've never been though one of these before. Should be pretty cool."

It wasn't long until the Aurora was within spitting distance of the spatial anomaly, and the crew informed to stand ready. As well as maybe take a look out a window, if possible. Nobody was going to hold it against them for being a little curious.

Slowly the ship approached, and slowly she eased her way into the massive hole. Sevin tried to make some kind of remark about it being a tight fit despite the size of everything, but his words were lost to the amazing display we were witnessing. It was a veritable kaleidoscope of shapes and colors all flying past us, not unlike the lights of distant stars while traveling at warp, but so much more beautiful to see.

The whole experience lasted only a few minutes, but we knew that so much more distance had been crossed than the misleading amount of time we spent gazing out into it all. "That looks like the end of the wormhole up ahead," Cassa said, pointing out the almost blindingly bright golden yellow at the end of the tunnel. "Ready scanners shields and weapons, should it come to that."

The ship came out on the other side with a brief flash of light. Immediately everyone notices the dull yellow enveloping us in this strange new place. It's less of a light, and more of a haze everywhere the eye could see.

"Status report, where are we and what kind of danger are we in?" I call out, looking over the readings on my control console at the center of the back of the room. The three of us scan read and type away, trying to figure anything out.

"We're currently located in a solar system, not listed on any Coalition starmaps," Cassa soon answers. She doesn't bother to look up to speak, just keep busily reading. "Full bearings will take a while. I'm also not detecting any level of civilization out there. No ships, stations, or inhabited worlds. Sevin, what are you detecting about this system?"

He stutters a moment to get the words together. "Uhh... Trinary star system, seven planets, and an asteroid belt between nearly all of them."

"What kind of planets and stars?"

"Um, two of the three stars are orangish yellows, and the other is a tiny white star," the fox stares at his display, slowly reading it off. "And the planets are a terrestrial with no atmosphere, one with an ammoniated atmosphere, another with next to no atmosphere, then a gigantic gas giant, another bluish with two rings, a smaller gas giant, then another empty but huge terrestrial rock."

"Damnit, captain this is bad," the panicked mouse responds, digging her clawed digitigrade feet into the carpet below her. "You see this yellow all around us?"

"Yeah?"

Her eyes jump from small screen to small screen. "It's actually a rather thick amount of Bi-Mu radiation."

"So let's get out of here then!" Sevin worriedly looks over his shoulder to the Maedallan to his right.

"It gets worse."

The brown fox's tail wraps itself under the chair and his ears sink in terror. "Worse? How? Why can't we go back though the wormhole or something?"

Cassa sighs. "Because it was apparently one we're not exactly small enough to get back though. And in case you weren't aware, the warp drive doesn't work with this much radiation around us."

"What about the shields? Can't they protect us from it as we try and get out of here on sub-light drive?" I inquire, trying not to lose it like the ensign over there.

"Not enough. If my calculations are correct, we won't exactly make it out of here before terminal exposure, even with anti-radiation drugs."

I start rapping my fingers on the plastic and glass of the terminal. There's got to be something we can do, anything! This isn't exactly the best way to be going out. Death by radiation sickness is pretty unpleasant...

"Okay, how about we try hiding out in one of the planets' atmospheres until enough of it passes and we can make another run?" It's not my finest plan, but maybe it'll work.

The commander somehow maintains her stoic composure, even in the face of almost certain death. "Maybe, but there aren't exactly any planets with enough atmosphere we can land on. Going out of the system from where we are now, the third planet has next to nothing on it, and the Aurora won't survive long in a gas giant."

Sevin moans loudly at her response, supporting his head with both paws. "Uhhmm..." I interrupt. "Moons! What about moons!? Do any of them have enough atmosphere?"

"Scanning now..." she answers. "Maybe, the fourth planet has one with a thick atmosphere that should shield out enough of it to give us a break, or at the very least more time to think. But..."

"But what?"

"That heavy atmosphere is a raging snowstorm. It's going to be very difficult to land and take off again."

My hand runs across the top of my head as I weigh our options. Don't really have much choice here. Nimir's not going to like that kind of ice clogging up the exhaust ports, but I think he'd rather deal with that than the alternative.

_ "_Head for the moon then. Maximum speed. How long will it take us to get there, and what's the maximum amount of time we can spend out here before it's too late?"

Cassa lays in the course and we're off. "Not counting entry time, I'd estimate four to five hours," she uses her fingers to do the math in the air. "And fatal expose will vary from individual to individual. The small, young, and elderly would most likely be the first to go."

Her words couldn't have been any worse to the other fox's ears if she had tried. "Sevin, run down to doctor Ria and assist her in administering anti-rad drugs to the crew," the mouse says, not wanting to hear the Firnulfian whimper and whine.

"But..."

"Go, now. That is an order."

He drags his feet about it, but does get up and leave. I know this may have all been my fault, but there's no way I'm going to yet the commander make me put my nose in it. We've been though worse, I think. Or, maybe I just want to believe that little phrase to not feel so bad about doing this, again.

"Sevin's going to be busy for a little while, I'm going to go grab some medicine for us," I comment heading for the door myself. "Unless you need me here in the next couple of minutes, I'll be back shortly."

I don't think I know all that much about the symptoms of radiation sickness. Especially Bi-Mu radiation. Ria should though, and hopefully they're not too severe. Though somehow I think I'm going to regret having that chili a couple hours ago...

Nothing new and exciting painted on the medical room's white door today as it opens to let me in. Catio, Ria, and a couple of other medical and science crewmen from other shifts are getting a collection of hypos together for everyone, but I don't see the scared little fox.

"Hey Ria," I call out across the overly white and plasticized room. "Did Sevin show up? We sent him down here to give you a hand."

"My young little foxie-woxie? Yes, I handed him a pawful of hypos for everyone down in engineering," the brown and white rabbit morph with nothing but a white lab coat covering her undergarments answers. "He didn't look so good, and not even a big hug from his doctor seemed to help."

Good to know he didn't just run off and hide in his room or something. "Oh, well, I came by to grab some meds for Cassa and I. And I guess apologize for... getting... us into this mess."

She sets the little auto-injectors down on one of the tables that double as beds for patients and walks to me. "Oh it's not that bad. You probably don't remember because you were still so young and cute, but Zarrolth was getting us into trouble like this too."

The busty rabbit laughs, running one of her hands down the large brown ear on that side of her head. "I'm not too worried. Just hope for your sake you didn't have too much of that birdie's lunch today. I'm sure it felt so good going down, but probably won't feel nearly as good coming back up. And that's not the way I usually like things coming back out of me, if you know what I mean."

I don't know if it was the mental picture she gave me, or that the lapin had begun to pet and scratch the back of my head that made me more uncomfortable. Ria may know all the right places on me to rub, being my unusually personal doctor all my life; but this was neither the time or place. Not that those little details ever bothered her in the least.

"Well, just what does radiation sickness do to you then?" It's taking all my willpower to hold in the merring sounds I so desperately want to let out with the way her fingers are working. "What should we expect to happen, and how soon?"

"Oh, the first thing you'll probably notice is nausea and a headache." My fluffy red tail is behaving with a mind of its own, swishing the long white cape behind my back at this point. "Then comes that nasty vomiting and fever a little while later."

Apparently my body is beating out my mind at this point. I can't help but push my head harder into the rabbit's paw working its magic right behind my ear. I really don't want to be doing this with Ria, but I can't stop myself anymore. "Things are getting bad if you start to get really dizzy and disoriented, and feel oh so weak and fatigued. But it might be getting too late if you start to just bleed out with no apparent cause."

If my world didn't just end at the end of the rabbit's skillful white hand, I would probably have stopped this spectacle with the all the pointing and chattering happening on the other side the room. It's bad enough that I have to know this happened. Now Catio and them know too. I can only hope that Sevin isn't back yet.

"I do hope we can get out of this mess before you start to lose all your soft ruby fur, Merr. And I so love your fluffy white belly too." Oh no, don't start there too. I'm just supposed to be bringing medication back for Cassa. And not in front of all these other people. Look, I'll come back later. Just please don't take things this far right now. "It'd be a shame to see you without it all."

Much to my combined relief and disappointment I suddenly find myself back in reality, and not off in some fictional world of dissolute pleasure. "Well, I think that wraps up doctor Ria's little lesson on radiation sickness," She says, injecting my neck and handing me a hypo. "Feel free to come back later for a little extra credit."

I just nod my head and stumble for the door as if still on some kind of high. "That was fun! See you later captain!" Catio calls out.

"I think I can arrange some private lessons for you, if you're interested my blue feathered friend," are the final words I hear behind me before the graffitied up door closes. I stroll back down the hall to the bridge, still feeling strangely tranquil and great. Our whole situation doesn't even bother me right now.

And it'll take more than the first words I hear stepping back though the double wide metallic doors to the bridge to bring me back down. "Captain, what took you so long? It's been nearly twenty minutes."

"Oh, uh..." I stutter, casually walking towards the white and black mouse to hand her the dose. "I uh, was... Ria was explaining what the symptoms of radiation sickness were. Maybe you didn't miss out on much by not eating lunch earlier either I guess."

"I see," she responds, taking the medication. "Nothing against Chef's cooking, but I don't particularly care too much for hir chili. It's not spicy enough. And just adding more heat afterwards doesn't work. You have to cook it in."

Back in my own chair, I don't even notice my left paw beginning to stroke at the fur I didn't want Ria to touch earlier. "I was thinking the same thing myself," I respond, absentmindedly trying to keep the petting I had going as long as possible. While one's own hand isn't ever the same, it's a weakness of mine to enjoy these things. I don't know why. Hardly anyone else likes just being scratched and rubbed without taking it any further. Probably that rabbit's fault though. Her and those naughty fingers of hers.

Over the next few hours Ria's predictions were becoming true. The euphoria she left me with had passed a while back, leaving me with a terrible headache that would not go away. The commander wasn't faring much better either. She may not have had lunch, but still had to use one of the buckets that were in the back corners of the room. On more than one occasion my mouth had started to salivate like I was going to lose it too, but somehow I managed to keep it down.

Neither of us knew where the little brown fox had went off to, but we really didn't care anymore. It'd come down to us both resting our heads, waiting for the auto-pilot to disengage once in orbit of the planet's moon. This was going to be the most difficult landing I ever had to do.

"I think we're finally here, captain," the sickened mouse states, her eyes not opening at the sound of the computer informing us of a successful orbit. "And thanks again for bringing up that water. I know it's not supposed to be allowed up here, but these extreme circumstances make an exception."

Below the Aurora is the complete antithesis of our colorful trip here; a white hellish wasteland. "Where's the safest place to land?" I ask, trying to work up the nerve it was going to take to do this.

Cassa hits a few buttons, and answers a little while later. "Near the equator, on the western hemisphere. The terrain isn't much better, but the blizzard is weaker there right now."

Atmospheric entry on larger ships like this is difficult enough on its own. A splitting headache and horrible sky conditions only make it worse. The ship calculates the optimal course for starting off, and we begin our decent on the next pass around the moon.

Even with the shields up to fight off the radiation, the turbulence is just awful. I hope not too many people had made a bigger mess of themselves over the forty minutes it took to finally touchdown on what probably was a hill of ice.

"There, I did it," I almost immediately bring my head back down to rest on the console with the job done. "Having to leave the shields up with enough intensity to stop the snow is going to take up more fuel than I'd like, but if we let it cover the ship I don't think we'll ever get back off."

"That's fine. Fuel can be replaced," Cassa was resting herself almost directly over the bucket, breathing heavily. "We'll have to talk to Ria later and see how long it's going to take to get enough of this radiation out to make it the rest of the way."

"I'm sure this old girl will be fine for a few days down here. I'm just going to take a little nap in here. You can head back to your room and yourself up."

The ill mouse moaned at my suggestion, but didn't feel like arguing. She clearly knew some rest was in order too. Cassa grabbed up her bucket and used her hand to follow the wall to the door. Ordinarily, I wouldn't dare lie down on these floors to sleep, but right now I didn't care.

According to the doctor and the calculations of how long it was going to take for us to get the rest of the way out of this dangerous system, we should be well enough to take off again in about four days. Thankfully, as we discovered in our much less frenzied examination of this place, the radiation grew more faint the further away from the suns you got.

Maybe Catio could explain it to me later, but somehow the trinary stars were giving off the Bi-Mu radiation. Maybe it had to do with the way little white one was so rapidly orbiting the other two. I don't know. I'm not a stellar scientist. It really doesn't matter.

The second phase of this journey was much more pleasant than the first. The distance to cover may have been greater, but even at the end of it I wasn't feeling nearly as bad as I was trying to land the Aurora. I may have been a little rash just jumping into all of this, but all the "I told you so's" aren't going to stop me now. Maybe get a little more careful still, but no way I'm going to just give up.

Okay, so I guess that after hearing just how far we had came I was a little nervous. We couldn't get spatial bearings till we were off the moon, and it turned out that this little one way ride took us from one end of Coalition space to the other. On the bright side, it gives us a whole new region of space to explore. And won't Cassa's superiors be surprised to hear this little change in their plans.

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Was this one better than the previous ones? Let me know what you think. I did go about looking up radiation sickness symptoms for this too. A fun little lesson Merrolth had I bet. Other than that, the rest of the science should be plausible enough to believe for the sake of storytelling.

If this was the first one you read, was it enjoyable as it's own stand alone work? If not, have they been tieing together well? I'm going to write one more Stellar Wayfarer, then do another thing not related to it. With more yiff in mind like the body swapping story, but maybe a different theme this time.