The voyage chapter 5

Story by shetland on SoFurry

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#5 of The Voyage


The Voyage chapter 5 by Shetland and Raven Fox: A couple of weeks have past since the events of chapter four. William starts getting ill again, before he's put in stasis, a group of ships capture the canines and William.

Canines' ship, going thru space. Two weeks since the events of chapter four.

The gray black ship goes thru the blackness of space in sub-light. At the current moment, the female anthro collie Sera is doing some maintenance on the hyper drive engines.

Control room at the same time.

Riku, an anthropomorphic artic vixen glances at the screen that shows the view of the outside of the ship. She runs her black furred fingers thru her long blonde head hair in an impatient mood. "Sera, what's the status of the hyper drive?" The vixen says in the com device to the engine room.

A second later, a voice replies. "Five more minutes, I just got to re cover the access panel and we're on our way."

The vixen sighs and drums her fingers on the arm rest listening to her claws click. Her head turns to the entrance as another vixen sticks her head in the room. "Riku, William just passed out in the workout room. I can't wake him up and his breathing strange." Replied Joan in a worried tone.

Sighing Riku got back on the com unit. "Sera, we have a medical emergency at the workout room. We'll finish the maintenance later." The vixen replied looking at Joan giving the other vixen a grim look.

Joan looked back at her superior nodding. Instead of long head hair, she looks like a wild fox, but with slightly long fur at her neck like a mane. The vixen is a reddish brown being shorter than Riku. "If you half to do it, I'll go with your decision. Because I don't want him to get worse." She said as the two vixens leave the control room after Riku engages the autopilot.

Minutes later, medical bay.

The two vixens watched as Sera examined the young human laying on the examination bed. Sera ran a scanner over the skinny human with a slight muscular build. The collie looked at the reading shaking her elegant head. "He's still acting that he's not getting a mineral for his system. If we were at a fully equipped clinic, I might be able to do something." She replied in a dreary tone looking at Riku.

The artic vixen closed her eyes and sighed shaking her head. "I am not going to like giving you this order. But I have no choice, prep the stasis chamber." She saw the other females' expressions. "We have no choice, I don't want him to get worse, but it's the only option."

Sera close the scanner putting it away. She looks over to Joan mouthing. "I am sorry."

Joan leans over to William giving him a lick on the cheek. She looks over to Riku lowering her head. "Well, it looks like it's just the three of us till the end of this voyage." The vixen said to the other two females knowing what Riku said about the stasis units. They can only revive a being at a station with the equipment. The ship they're on doesn't have the equipment because the ship doesn't have the space for the machinery.

"Well, I'll get him prepped for stasis." Sera said and the ship started to shake. "What now!" The collie exclaimed. As the three female canines ran to the control room.

Riku sat in front of the screen adjusting the exterior camera. "It's our energy thieves." The vixen said with a growl as four ships bearing the same design had the ship in a bluish field. She cussed to herself knowing that they can't get away due to the hyper drive being apart and the weapons offline.

Three shapes materialized and the beings pointed hand weapons at the three fem canines. "Just stay where you are ladies." said a male voice. The source of the voice removed his helmet revealing his features causing the three female canines gasp.

Riku, Sera and Joan just stood in their place staring at a male black colored ferret standing a little shorter than Sera. The male must lid blinked his light blue eyes looking at the three females canines. "Well, well, what's the reason for you to pass thru our space? I am being rude; the name is Capt. Silva of the Tigra defense forces. What kind of ship is this, its' unknown to us."

Riku kept her anger in check and answered in a acidly tone. "Your ships are known to us, not long ago, one of them stolen energy from us causing us a lot of problems. So we did see one of your ships before." The vixen finished her monologue and glared at the ferret.

Silva sighed gesturing to the other figures near him and glared back at the artic vixen. "We don't steal energy from other ships. The minks have known to do that, plus months ago they have stolen one of our ships. You might call them outlaws or pirates."

Joan interrupted the conversation. "Excuse me, William is in bad shape and we need to put him in the stasis chamber soon." The vixen earned a glare from Sera and Riku.

"My subordinate is right Silva, may we continue this discussion in our medical bay. We have a problem and we half to put a crewmember in stasis or he will die on us." Riku said never taking her gaze off the ferret standing near her.

"What race is this William?" Asked the ferret with curiosity.

"He's human and for some reason he's ill from a lack of a mineral his body needs." Sera answered watching Silva's' reaction.

The ferret grinned. "Ah, let my doctor examine him. We know of these humans, some of our females are known to take some mates from a planet called Earth. There's a group who calls themselves furrys and they leave with our females with no arguments."

Sera grinned and gesture Silva to follow her leaving Riku and Joan with one of the guards. The two vixens remained silent staring at the guard who seem different. "Something is familiar about this guard." Riku stated. "Something is wrong about him..."

"He has no tail, he's human!" Joan shouted looking real close at the remaining guard. "What's your name and where are you from."

The guard sighed removing his helmet showing a young human male face with blonde hair with hazel colored eyes. "My name is Dave; I am from a place called Rock Springs Wyoming. Don't worry about your friend, these ferrets will make him better. They're a nice race, but the minks like to cause trouble once in while." He's interrupted by a commotion from outside the control room making him put his helmet back on with an index finger at the front of the helmet.

Sera walked shouting. "He's gone; someone has taken William from medical!" The collie shouted looking at the remaining guard standing nearby.

Joan bared her teeth. "Alright Silva, who has taken our crewmember?"

"Those minks, that ship that was stolen has stealth ability. It is a prototype stealth design. I apologize for what happen, but its best you follow us to our planet." Silva shrugs. "We'll help find your missing crewmember. The minks might be troublemakers, but they're not cruel. They will treat him; the females do like human males. One warning, a female will might fall in love with him." The ferret said with a sigh.

The female canines remained silent as Silva talked on his com device and seated himself at the control station. Riku bristled when Silva called the ship a museum piece.

An unknown place minutes later.

The last thing William remembered was a friendly sparring match with Joan when he finally woke up. "This isn't the Macon." The human said to himself using the nickname he gave the canines ship. Sera did tell him the name, but to him it sounded like a fox yell underwater. Joan seems to understand the strange sound of the ships' name. Groaning the human sat up and started to examine his surroundings.

"You shouldn't exert yourself human, plus you're lucky that we know your anatomy. I myself do like your race, but when you don't get this type of mineral vitamin. The human body starts shutting down causing periods of unconscious and illness. I've been watching you in the last four months after your ship left that fairly new world with the feral vulpine. Just relax for now, I just finished treating you." Said a female voice nearby.

"Who are you and how was I brought here?" William asked looking for the source of the voice. He was answered by a slim gray furred hand stroking his cheek. The human smelled a sweet musky scent of a type of rodent.

The female gray mink with long red head hair looked at him with bluish gray colored eyes. "I am Naomi; I just took you off that ship when the ferrets captured it. The ferrets are misunderstood because we're helping our weasel brothers and sisters from the rats." She said running her fingers thru Williams' hair making a chirring sound.

William remained still and relaxed while thinking to himself. The last thing he wanted was get involved in another war between sides. "Excuse me, I just gotten away from a country that was involved in a civil war." The human said to the mink.

Naomi sighed. "From what I saw, you're a pretty good pilot. We're stuck because we promised the weasels that we'll help them if they were ever attacked." She bends over gazing at him with bluish gray gaze. "I know you William; I've been on that ship of yours a few times. You know how binding an oath is, because the one we made with the weasels is just as binding as any human who takes the military oath of the United States."

The human nodded knowing that Naomi struck a nerve. He knew that his real father would join the minks in helping out the weasels. "Yes, I'll help you minks out; just help me out in getting those female canines out of ferret custody."

Naomi grinned. "Just to let you know it would take awhile. We got to find them and plan a rescue to get them and that antique ship of theirs."

William chuckled. "Just don't call that ship a relic around Riku. She gets upset at jibes about that ship."

"Oh, you mean that artic vixen that seems dangerous. I'll tell everyone about her, now rest William, we'll talk more tomorrow." Naomi said and walked out of the room.

William looked at her body as the must lid walked out of the room. "Involved in another war, oh well, I'll do it so I can get my friends rescued." The human sighed to himself falling asleep again.

Approaching the ferrets' home world.

Riku looked at the three large planets really close to each other on the screen. The vixen really thought the site is really beautiful. "So, which one of those worlds is William on?" She asked the black colored ferret operating the controls of her ship.

Silva looked at the three fem canines glaring at him. Sighing, he pointed at the planet at the right of the ship looking like a large version of Earth with a ring of rocks like Saturn. "He would be on that world some where. That's the planet Minsk, the mink's home world. If we try getting there, we would be politely told to leave or be fired on. Trust me; I wouldn't fly this ship to that world. They have some pretty nasty anti-ship weapons. The best thing to do now is go to my world and we'll try to get him back by stealth." The ferret seems to relax when he felt the tension of the air subside.

Joan looked over at the planet thinking of what William might be going thru on that planet. The vixen grabbed the chrome seatback bar behind Sera not trusting herself at the current moment. She remembered months back while prowling coming across the humans' camp watching them jeering the unconscious William. What set Joan off when the leader urinated on the unconscious teen setting her off. The vixen knew she has a bad temper and seeing someone she likes getting humiliated sets her off. After she killed the five lowlifes, she cleaned him off and frees his bonds keeping an eye on him because she felt sorry for the young human. Other than being bi-sexual, Joan has a soft spot young people.

Sera felt Joan grab the seatback on her chair hearing a deep growl from her. "Calm yourself my friend, we'll get him back. Let's hope the damage is light this time, the plane you destroyed in getting him last time cost 25,000 credits. So let's keep the damage to a minimum this time." The collie said to the vixen, earning a laugh from Riku. She heard Joan say something in her regular language, but Riku swiveled her ears at the remark.

"Keep that idea on hold Joan; we'll study their defenses before we try that." Riku said to Joan in the same yelling and barking sounds of a fox.

Joan stayed quiet and looked at Riku deciding that it's neat that her superior spoke same native language as her. Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt the ship decelerate as Silva steered to a large structure. "Uh, are we going inside that thing?" The vixen asked.

The ferret nodded and backed off on the engines by sliding the throttle levers back. "That's station 4589; it's a customs inspection area. I am letting you know that we will be meet by a squad of customs inspectors at the airlock." He looks at Riku question ally. "This ship has a docking port?"

Riku growled. "Yes it does Silva, on the port side fifty feet from the nose. You do know what side the port is or should I say the left hand side. It is marked with a red and white circle, so I think the station guys can find it."

Silva winced at the artic vixens' retort. He reminded himself to watch what he says around Riku. "It seems that any jab against the ship riles her. I better warn the station crew about her, but we build more high tech ships over this museum piece." The ferret decided to ask Riku a question with caution. "I noticed that this ship has a jump drive. Knowing jump drives, this ship can be at Earth with in hours."

Riku stayed silent for a few seconds and replied. "The primary computer that controls the jump drive needs repair. We don't have the parts and the ship has to be in a space dock to gain access to the parts." She looks hopefully at the ferret and her spirits sank at Silva shaking his head.

"I am awfully sorry, that type of computer is...obsolete due to the memory chips being unreliable." He looks at the artic vixen grinning. "We can try upgrading the computer, but we will half to do an inspection to see if your ship can take a newer computer." Silva said grinning at the three canines as docking clamps clamped on to the ship.

A couple of days later, the minks home world air base.

William followed Naomi as they walked to a fighter parked near a hanger. The human male examined the craft noting that it looks like a European fighter jet known as the Saab 35 Draken. It is different from the Earth fighter that was retired in 2005. This fighter has a rounded fin instead of the square cut vertical stabilizer.

Naomi laid a slim hand on his shoulder looking at the craft. "This craft here is our primary fighter. We've been using it for the last couple of years." The mink said looking at the silver gray colored fighter with pride.

William nodded looking at the fighter craft walking around it admiring it as he would a beautiful female. He placed a hand feeling the skin, instead of a cold metal like the fighter he flew for the north felines on the other world. The human felt a different type of material that felt like glass.

The mink standing next to him gave him a nod. "Go ahead, check out the cockpit."

The human grinned and climbed the stairs and sat in the fighter. First he felt was the seat felt like sitting on an air mattress. William gripped the side stick and looked at the three panels in front of him. The plane that had he flew before had a bunch of mechanical gauges and he smelled petrol plus ethylene glycol from the cooling system. "This craft is nice." William thought to himself looking forward in flying this nice fighter as he got out of it.

Naomi walked up to him looking at him. "Lessons start in the morning, in a few weeks; you should be flying with our interceptors." The mink said to him as they walked back to the barracks.

William looked back at the fighter feeling like the time he left that planet Joan was living on. He thought that he was leaving the vixen for good till she came out of her hiding place and told him that she was coming with him. "See you tomorrow." The human whispered to the fighter.

Ferrets' home world the next day.

Joan kept her temper in check looking at the city with vehicles flying thru the air. The vixen bared her teeth thinking of what her love William is going thru at the current moment. For the millionth time she wished she was in the medical bay when William was taken off the ship. "I would have stopped him from getting taken. That dam Silva had to distract me and my superiors while he was snatch from me." The vixen thought to herself hearing the door open.

Riku and Sera walked in seeing the feral vixen foul mood. The artic vixen looked at Joan. "Calm down friend, Silva has some spies on the minks' home world. They spotted William yesterday being escorted to one of their military bases..."

Joan turned away and yelled at the window. "Dam, will I half to fight him again! I was upset for two days from the last time!" She stopped yelling when a white furred hand touched her.

Sera gently squeezed Joans' shoulder. "Not if we do what you told Riku in your native language. I understand some vulpine words because I and Riku have been friends since we were pups. I know that she's six years older than me, but I also love her." The collie turned Joan around gazed at her. "Settle down Joan, we will get him back, but it won't take weeks like last time." She smiled when the feral vixen relaxed and grinned.

"I'll give these rodents four weeks, if they aren't taking any action.... I will get him myself." Joan replied and looked out the window again seeing the planet Minsk in the sky.

Sera looked at Riku who nodded grimly and she turned back to Joan. "Just be patient my friend, I'll help you myself if these rodents drag their feet." The collie replied and gave Joan a kiss.

Planet Minsk, a couple of weeks later.

William is really enjoying himself while flying the fighter the Minks use for defending the Weasels. The craft is a joy to fly due to the quick response to its controls. It took the human a while to get use to it because its way different from the fighter he flew for the Northern felines. "Just like comparing a Ford model T to a Ford Mustang." He thought to himself as he followed his wing leader, a male weasel name Chas.

"William, follow me to low orbit." The weasel ordered him.

The human grinned and moved his controls. He felt parts of his suit inflate to keep his blood from getting drained to his lower body to keep him from blacking out. The craft went to a high nose angle and the human felt the engines go to escape thrust. William saw the blue sky change colors as he went to low orbit.

"Over there is the planet of the Ferrets. Your canine friends might be on the planet." Chas said in his headset with his strange sounding English.

William nodded looking at the planet that looks like a large version of Mars with the exception of a few large blue areas of water. He looked at the planet wondering where his friends are on that planet. "Where would the ship be at?" The human asked the weasel.

There's a moment of silence and Chas answered. "That larger space station orbiting the planets' equator. That's the customs place; I use to work on that station before the rats started to attack us. I really don't mind the ferrets, but they elected mediocre leaders. The minks have it right by still having monarchs rule them like us weasels."

The human looked back at the minks home world admiring the how the planet reminded him of Earth, but with a couple of rings. He looked over at the third planet that seem smaller that looked like it's mostly water with a few land masses. William moved his head to rub an area at his neck line due to an itch. The helmet he's wearing is black and large with three hoses. Two of them were for breathing with the third blowing air thru his head. There is a slight smell of rodent when he first put on the helmet, but his oxygen mask was made for a human.

"Ok, follow me to my home world and we'll do a planetary reentry. Then do a landing at one of our bases and have some more class time and return to Minsk." Chas said on the radio.

William grinned in his mask and formed on Chas right hand side and followed the weasel to his home world. When they passed the ferrets' planet, he saw the weasel extend his middle finger at the planet. The human chuckled to himself as they approached the weasel home world.

The rest of the flight went smooth; it only took two hours to fly between the planets. William kept his craft at fifteen degrees as he entered the atmosphere. He really enjoyed the plasma storm at his fighter flew thru the upper atmosphere. The human knew that like the canines' ship and shuttle, this wondrous fighter has a shield generator to protect it from the fiery temperatures of reentry.

That night, the Weasels air base after more training.

William knew there was something wrong when Chas and he were denied clearance to take off from the base. The Weasel and him were ordered back to a hanger and shut down their fighters. He watched as a total of ten male and female weasels armed the fighters with missiles. Ten minutes later, they were finally ordered to take off.

"William, there is a flight of enemy fighters heading to my home world. I am going to give you a quick instruction of how the weapons systems on this fighter. So follow my instructions by the letter and we should make it thru this battle with no problems. Naomi told me that you're a very good pilot and I noticed that you took to flying this fighter like a young one to swimming." Chas said gently to the human.

A cold fist gripped his gut and he relaxed when Chas explained how to arm the weapons on the fighter. William calmed himself as he listened to the weasel and glanced at one of the panels. It showed ten red blips heading to the planet near them. "What kind of craft is heading to us?" The human asked the weasel.

Chas typed on a keyboard near his right knee. The must lid scrutinized the blips and answered. "Eight fighters and two heavy bombers. I want you to take out the bombers while I fight the fighters. After you finished off the bombers assist me with the fighters."

William breathed in a gulp of oxygen and followed Chas to the group of contacts. He switched on his targeting computer and moved the cursor to the bombers. The human grinned when he got a steady tone and squeezed to button that launched two missiles out of the rotary launcher on his right wing.

Chas watched as two missiles streaked by him and hit the two heavy bombers. One was just too late in launching counter measures. The missile still impacted the center of the bomber causing to explode. He chattered to himself when six escape pods started to fall on his home world. The weasel informed the ground of the escape pods so that the rats would get picked up by security forces. Chas grinned at the sight of the human joining his wing. "Nice shooting human, you have two confirmed kills." He said to the human.

Space station 4589, the same moment.

Riku, Sera and Joan were following Dave to their ship when they noticed a bunch of personal looking out of one of the large observation portals. The human looked at the three fem canines replying. "There must be a fight going on near the weasels' home world."

Joan looked out of the portal seeing a sleek silver gray colored craft attacking a black colored craft that looked like a bullet off the fighter she flew for the southern felines. "What kind of craft are those?" She asked the human.

Dave looked at the craft and answered. "The black colored craft is a Sicci flown by the rats; it's lightly armed with only four plasma guns. That big silver gray fighter is an Ares flown by the minks." The human shudders as a rat fighter explodes. "It's one fighter you don't want to tangle with. Six plasma cannons with two rotary launchers carrying a total of twenty four missiles, plus it maneuvers like a hummingbird. The rats were at the advantage till the minks got involved, now every time they try to attack the weasel home world, it's a turkey shoot."

Riku watched as a Sicci got behind a mink fighter, but the Ares did a sideways pivot firing its cannons at the rat fighter destroying it. She turned to Joan who was shaking her head saying "No, no, William is flying that fighter." The artic vixen sighed looking at the feral vixen with symphony.

"We will get him back." She said to Joan in a firm tone and looked at the human looking at them.

Sera watched as William finished off the last Sicci and the Ares did an aileron roll. The collie sighs looking at Dave. "Well, let's go and check out our ship."

The four personal started to walk again, but Joan stops and watches as the two fighters streak by to the planet Minsk. She waves at one of the fighters and resumes walking with her group.

Planet Minsk, a couple of hours later, an airbase.

Naomi watched as two fighters land and taxied to assigned parking areas. She walked to the fighters as ground crews wheeled ladders to the craft.

William climbed down giving his helmet to a male weasel grinning. "I took down two bombers and four fighters."

The weasel grinned. "Good, I'll paint your kills on the side of your fighter William."

The human looked at Naomi looking at her slim body with medium breasts being squeezed by the coveralls she's wearing. He looked at her long dark gray tail with a black tip swishing around. The human looked at her grayish blue colored eyes. "Love this bird Naomi, she's a sweet ride."

The must lid grinned at William running a finger under his chin. "We call these fighters Dragons, but the humans who live with the ferrets call them Ares."

William kept his face neutral and replied. "The Greek god of war, fitting name for this fighter."

Naomi nodded gesturing the human to follow her. "I prefer dragons, but you males can use the term Ares. You made ace on your first combat mission, you got to get initiated. "

The human grinned and followed the mink feeling a playful pat on his back. "You did good human, you can fly my wing anytime." Chas said to him and William grinned to himself feeling like more a member of this team than the time with the felines. He didn't mind the time with the felines, but they taught him how to fight in the air, but they seem distant to him because he was the only human. Here, there are humans and he doesn't feel alienated, but part of a team to keep a race safe.

Rikus' place on the ferrets' home world hours later.

The artic vixen looked out of the window of her place admiring the view. She ran scenarios thru her mind that lead up to her current situation. "We should have gone to the Sirius system instead of going to the Milky Way. Maybe I should have found why the valve stuck instead of hitting it with a wrench or maybe I should have double checked the repairs on the main computer after the yard personal finished the overhaul." Riku thought of William and she felt something and she shook her head. "No, I am twelve years older than him. Would he want to have sex with a female who's thirty?" The vixen shook her head again wondering if she should get to spend the night with either Sera or Joan. "Argh, why am I thinking of that kit, he has ways of getting himself in trouble!" Riku shouted, but stopped when the door opened.

Sera heard everything and stroked Rikus' muzzle. "You should try him out soon, I and Joan can do so much and Joan was depraved as you. She went almost three months and you so far little over four. I can imagine the torture you're going thru." The collie looked at her oldest and best friend who has been like an older sister to her. "I got some news that you're not going to like, Joan is missing and I got an idea where she might be going."

"The minks home world to get William back, she wouldn't." Riku stated.

"I locked the controls to the shuttle and the ship, so she can't use them. I just spent all that time rebuilding it after William wrecks it, plus I don't want it getting shot down after all that work." Sera said to Riku.

The artic vixen nodded grimly. "Good work friend, I am glad that you took the initiate and locked out our systems from unauthorized use. We will deal with Joan later, because the ferrets have our ship still in that station. Even if we manage to get it out, after I saw how those mink fighters slaughtered those rats. Our ship doesn't stand a chance against them. This is the time to use diplomacy instead of a clenched paw."

Sera nodded and put an arm around her friend shoulders.

Weasels home world, at the current moment.

Tissare crawled out of the wreckage of his fighter being glad that he has no serious injuries. The male dark brown anthro rat remembered that he had a mink fighter in his sights and all of a sudden the fighter was gone and he was out of control. "I barely survived reentry." He mumbled to himself, but he was pinned to the side of his fighter with a sharp weapon pointed at his throat.

"You have two choices; either you help me get to the planet of the minks. Or I find out if you're edible, I use to hunt prey that looks like you." Said Joan pressing her bronze knife to the rodents' throat tighter.

The rat looked at the fox vixen pinning him to his fighter. He didn't want to get eaten by this fox because she scared the crap out of him. "I can get you to that planet, but we need a stealth ship. I heard of one that's on this world, but we must not get caught. My race isn't popular at this planet, so we got to be careful." Tissare said to the vixen.

Joan sheathed her knife and grinned showing her teeth causing the rodent to cringe. "Alright, I am an alien and you're my native guide. So let's get started."

The rodent calmed himself and gestured the vixen to follow him. He has been on this planet years ago when the four species lived in peace, but a series of disagreements cause his race to try to invade this planet. "That was a dumb idea of our leaders' part to try to invade this world, but I have a feeling that this war is going to end soon with the defeat of my species." Tissare thought to himself guiding the vixen to a base he visited years ago when there was peace at this area of the solar system. "Oh how I miss the good old days when we got along." The rodent thought to himself.

TO BE CONTINUED