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Tales of the voyage chapter 11: By Raven Fox and Shetland: William is captured by the British and is Trishs' prisoner. Russell is settling in as Janices' roommate and doesn't mind it at all. Riku is at our Earth explaining to NSA about what happen to a military prison bus.

Our earth known as sol 3.

Riku watched as Kessler closed his cell phone and the human looked at her. "Alright, I just told the president of what's going on. Would those British do anything to our Earth?"

The vixen thought for a moment and replied. "No, because you're military can put up a good defense. That person didn't get the data of the fighters my people use. One thing, as I explained earlier, my ship is an older class and I refuse to see it get decommissioned, plus it's the only one of its kind in commission. My ship might have its quirks and sometimes it creaks and groans when taking off on a planet surface, but I love the old machine."

Kessler being a Captain of the U. S. Navy reserve just spent a deployment on an Arleigh Burke class destroyer as the commanding officer saw the look in the vixen eyes. He knew that look of his fellow officers who commanded surface commands. Talking to other naval officers, they told him that they prefer being in command of a surface ship or sub than a base. "So, what do we do now?"

The vixen was about to reply when Sera walked up with a worried look. "William is missing; a couple foxes seem to be the culprits. I think, they're British, but why would they want William?"

Riku thought for a moment and sighed. "We managed to make friends with the rats, minks, weasels and ferrets. The British made friends with those felines, but neither of us went back to Joans' world." The vixen looks at Sera and saw Joan walking up to the group.

Joan looked at her superior with a look. "I think I know why they're interested in my world. William made a comment that there was a very large deposit while we were getting fuel for your ship. He thought that he might be getting a bogus reading because he was inexperienced at the time operating your equipment. Are we going to go get him back?"

Looking at the NSA agent, Riku shrugged. "I am sorry, but we got to retrieve our kidnapped crewmember. That human gets in these situations, but now I think Joan is not going to let him out of her sight from now on."

Joan shrugged pulling her lips in to a canine grin. "So Riku, are you going to make him a crewmember after this?"

The artic vixen turn to the feral vixen to say something, but the ground shook and alarms started to go off.

Joans' home world.

William followed the group in front of him looking at the humans and anthropomorphic beings. He noticed Trish walking near him. The human remembered the female wolf having sex with him the night before. William felt guilt submitting to her advances.

Trish grinned to herself knowing that William is out of Rikus' clutches for a while. She remembered the reports from the ship at the felines' planet. The Empire now has a presence at that planet, but Rikus' person also has a presence at the rodents' area. "Well, its sucks that I couldn't study that fighter, but our experts have an idea for a fighter." The wolf mussed to herself knowing that this planet will be in Empire control soon.

The human looked around keeping an eye out for any groups that will cause any troubles with the group. William still remembered the last time he was on this planet with good memories and bad ones. He meets Joan on this planet and lost his virginity to her. Streaks of light got the attention of the human and some high altitude flashes. William knew a battle when he saw one.

One of the humans in the group worked something exclaiming. "We just lost contact with the Explorer."

William looked where he saw the flashes watching something falling from space. Now he knew that he's stranded on this planet and looked at Trish with a disappointed look. "I think I see the Explorer." The human said pointing at the fireball nearing a mountain ahead. William knew what powered Rikus' ship. "Hit the ground!!"

Trish yelled the command and hit the ground. The wolfess covered her head and the ground shook. She saw a mushroom cloud in the distance. "What the???"

"That's the core letting go. Riku told me a bout that and that's the reason her race has put that class of ship out of service due to the core becoming unstable after a crash. Now, no one can't go in that area till the ground is decontaminated. If any one goes at that area, they'll be dead in hours from poisoning. Congratulations, now the inhabitants in this area are going to check the crash site and get ill and die. You better break out some detectors and keep the locals out of this area and hope that Riku comes looking for me. She will have the machinery to decontaminate the crash site, plus we better hide near that mountain doing evasive stuff to keep whoever destroyed the Explorer from finding us." William said to the wolf.

Trish looked at the human nodding. The wolfess looked at the mushroom cloud dimensioning and got the group together under her command. "Since you have been on this planet before, any advice?"

William shrugged and remembered what happened to him the last time he was here. "Yeah, have some personal on point armed; the locals have a tendency to ambush." He shudders of what Joan did to five big male humans. "One last thing, have at least five guards up and awake when we camp at night. This planet also has anthropomorphic life forms living with the humans like your home world. Oh, I forgot, you know Joan is from this planet." The human said to the female wolf and the group resumed walking to the crash site.

Feline home world, British embassy.

Russell stood his watch wearing a Royal Marine dress uniform watching as the staff go about their routines. The human smiled as Janice walked pass him answering her wave with a nod. He moved in the remains of the aircraft she's living in enjoying living with the female tiger.

Then the activity of the British personal started to get more hectic and a few more guards posted themselves at doorways. Willis walked up to him wearing a naval officers' uniform. "Just gotten word that HMS Explorer just went down on a planet nearby. Our ship has just been ordered to be on alert. Two of our ships are in route to rendezvous with our ship to check for survivors. As of now, we're on high alert till we find out what's going on. The two ships will be here in a few days."

The human nodded and saluted the male tiger. A minute later, Janice walked up to him asking. "What's going on?"

Russell told the female tiger what happen to one of spacecraft and replied. "If these British follow the same mentality as the ones on my Earth. I sure don't want to be the beings who down the HMS Explorer. Remind me to tell you about what happen to the Bismarck after she sunk the HMS Hood during World War 2."

Janice nodded and did a quick look around and gave Russell a kiss.

Rikus' ship between her home world and Williams' Earth.

Riku smelled the stink of ozone and looked at the status screens showing red sections of her ship. She felt a pain in her chest looking at the readouts. The vixen felt her eyes burning didn't know if it's from the smoke or knowing that her ship is dying.

They held off a group of unknown craft that attacked the secret area in Nevada, but it cost her ship. "One thing, we saved the Earth, but I hate the price I paid." She thought to herself looking at the debris of the unknown craft on one of the screens. The vixen now regretted being stubborn in keeping this ship in commission. Riku breathed a sigh of relief that no one was killed in the attack on her ship and on Earth. "At least Kessler still wants to be friends with us, but who ever did this attack just made a very nasty enemy...me." The vixen thought to herself looking at the lethal damage to her ship on the readouts.

Sera walked in the control room with black soot covering her sable colored fur. "The ship's done for, we'll be lucky to make back to the home world. Those laser blasts went thru the shields like they didn't exist. The hyper drive is damaged, but I might get one more jump out of the ship and that's it for the ship." The collie said to the artic vixen.

She looked at her life time friend. "Get ready to jump to the home world. I know Joan wants us to look for William, but this ship has had it. I have no choice but to cave in and accept a new one." The vixen said wiping her eyes.

The collie patted her friend on the shoulder. "This jump is going to be the last one; she'll break her back at the engineering space. Better have the crew be in here because it's going to be the only intact space left after the jump."

Riku nodded feeling a bad pain in her chest due to that some unknown enemy killed her ship.

Rikus' home world hours later orbiting station.

The commanding officer of the station looked out of the observation window watching a white colored field appear. "Riku is back, better let everyone know about this." The male fox mussed to himself as the ship appeared. He watched as the ship coast to a stop and broke in half. "Shit!, all rescue craft, head to that ship!" Clement yelled hitting a red button and klaxon alarms went off thru out the station.

Rikus' ship.

Sera looked at her friend with sympathy as Riku looked at the different craft heading to their ship with a blank look. The collie grabbed her friend and shook her. "Snap out of it, we got to abandon ship. We will make those bastards pay for what they did to our home!"

The vixen blinked her eyes nodding. "Come, let's leave her, she served us well." Riku said with a hint of anger getting out of the control room taking a last look of the room. She followed Sera down a passage feeling light headed due to atmosphere bleeding out of the ship and darkness.

Station medical hours later.

Riku woke up seeing Sera, Joan and Xander looking at her. "So, am I relieved for destroying my ship?"

Clement walked in the room in a business manner. "No, you, Sera and Joan are leaving in an hour to check out Joans' home world. Our spies on the feline planet just reported that the British at sol 4 just gotten word that one of their ships has just been attacked. The ship crashed on the planet and we might be cleaning up a code B."

The vixen sighed at her commanding officer. "So I take it, that the ship I am getting is having that equipment loaded?"

The male fox nodded at Riku in agreement. "The ship you're getting has just been delivered to us."

"I didn't know that we had a ship ready for delivery, the last I heard the next ship wouldn't of been ready for another month." Replied Sera looking at Rikus' commanding officer.

"We were given six ships by the ferrets. You are familiar with that class of ship and so is Joan. They're a flight IV model put in production two years ago, plus they carry ten fighters of the Zeus type. There is a small problem, we only have seven pilots for the fighters on the ship we're giving you." Clement said to Riku and he looked over to Sera. "Can she go to her new ship?"

Sera nodded and gave Riku a hand to stand up. The collie watched as Riku gave her mate Xander a kiss.

Riku followed her commanding officer down the passageway out of the medical bay. The vixen looked out of a port seeing a familiar ferret made ship being larger than the ones she saw at their home world. She remembered when she first saw the sleek black craft flying away from her ship after it stolen energy. Riku felt her heart sank when she saw the remains of her ship moored at the ship breakers section. Space suited figures are cutting the venerable ship up. "Dam, I can't believe they're cutting her up." The vixen said in a whisper.

"She's a total loss, we're lucky the core didn't break open. We're going to save the forward half for a memorial to that class of ship. They served us well, but we got to check out to see who attacked you, the Earth and that British ship." Clement said to the vixen and the group turned to a different passage to the ferret made ship.

The group passed the ferret guard stationed at the airlock. Riku felt weird feelings as she boarded her new command. An all black colored female ferret walked up to the group saluting Riku and Clement. "Lt. Brittney reporting for duty."

"She's going to familiar you with this ship' systems. Doing a comparison as William will say, the Bane class is a Ford model A truck, this ship is a Ford F-150 Raptor. Your ship served us well, but we got to adjust to the times." Clement said to Riku.

Riku nodded, she defended when people called her ship a relic. The vixen knew if she wanted the bastards pay for what they did to the ship she loved. She'll half to adjust and take this new ship. "Lt. Brittney, how old is this ship?"

The ferret grinned. "Less than a month old, the ship yards just had gotten done doing the final adjustments to weapons and systems. We just had gotten done testing the weapons en route here. This ship is named Athena, some designers like using the Greek gods names on a new class of ship. There are twenty ferrets stationed on this ship along volunteers from your other ship. The machinery should be loaded in thirty minutes, plus the engines are in stand by."

Sera had the movements that she wanted to check out the engineering space. Riku sighed. "Ok, go check things out and report to the control room when done." The vixen chuckled at the sight of her friend going down a passage. She and her friend are familiar with the lay out of this ship design. "I am familiar with the flight III, what are the differences?"

"Athena is five hundred feet longer making her length 1050 feet long and the ability to carry fighters and four shuttles. The original flight III can only carry two shuttles. Other than that, there are not many differences." Answered Brittney.

Riku nodded following the female ferret to the control room. She heard Joan saying. "Don't worry William, we're coming."

Joans' home world, British camp site.

William looked at the sky seeing if there is any sign of Rikus' ship. He got his com device back from Trish, being glad it wasn't left on the Explorer. "Mother vixen, this is kit. Do you read me over?" The human said in the device.

"Don't worry colonial, HMS Guerriere should be here soon." Said a human male wearing a British Royal Marine uniform.

"SSgt, I know that Riku might beat the Guerriere due to procedures. Command won't send the Guerriere here till there are two other ships with her. Riku was sent to Williams' Earth to check out the prison bust we were responsible for." Trish replied to the Marine.

William turned to Trish with surprise. "Why would you people break prisoners out of prison? You're playing with fire when getting prisoners."

The wolfess grinned. "Got a pretty good batch from that group. One was a murderer who shot and killed a mercenary who killed a civilian. On my Earth, nothing would of happen to him; your legal system is messed up Yankee. Another one was a being in a severe fight; the other three were for various offenses. A little reeducation and an offer they can't refuse, they became new citizens of the Empire. One last thing William, the murderer is friends with a female feline you use to know. Think a certain female tiger with unique colored eyes."

He knew the female tiger Janice, if it weren't for Joan, he would have gave in to her advances. William knew he would have to face Joan for the night he spent with Trish. But he heard of Joan having a bi experience with the female human named Trina. "So, she did that female human and I did Trish. I think were even Joan, so I should quit feeling guilty because of your bi experiences with Sera and Riku." The human thought to himself looking at the glowing light blue fire marking the Explorers' crash site.

Rikus' new ship Athena heading to Joans' home world.

Riku watched the displays as her new ship jumped to Joans' home world. The vixen missed the musky smell of her old ship with the noises it made. She drummed her fingers to make her claws click on the console. "It's not the same sound, plus this ship smells like a new car. Hasn't gotten the smell of the crew yet, I just hope this ship acquire that smell." Riku thought to herself.

Joan grinned to herself looking at her scanner. The resolution is a higher quality that the equipment on Rikus' old ship. She felt sorry for her foster sister losing her favorite ship. The feral vixen remembered when Riku answered her question of how she felt with a shudder. "Remember how you felt when William was ill and was taken by the minks? Multiply that pain ten times." Riku said to her.

A repeating chime got her attention. The feral vixen did an adjustment and felt hope. "Riku, I am picking up a small object. The computer I D it as an escape pod."

"Turn to intercept and drop the jump near that escape pod." Riku ordered. She grinned at the feral vixen. "It looks like we found someone." The vixen muttered to Joan.

Joan nodded hearing the ships' noises changed. She remembered the old ship shuddering when it dropped out of hyper space and the decelerating feeling when it exits a jump. This new ship you didn't feel any motion, it is smooth like the stealth ship she rode in three years ago. "Just got to get use to this ship like Riku has to." The vixen thought to herself.

A minute later Brittney exclaimed adjusting a scanner. "Life form in the pod is a male vulpine."

"Have a security team meet us at the hanger bay." Riku answered as she left the control room.

At the hanger, Riku examined the ball shaped craft resting on the floor. She relaxed seeing a few crewmembers armed. "Man, they even copied the escape pods." The vixen said out loud seeing the door opened.

The male fox climbed out looking at the different athros glaring at him. He raised his hands. "Major Henry of Royal intelligence." The male fox replied seeing the two vixens really glaring at him.

Joan walked up to Henry grabbing him roughly. "Where's William and what did you do to him." She said in a menacing tone.

"Stand down Joan, if you scare him, we wouldn't get anything useful from him." Riku ordered keeping discipline amongst her crew. She walked up to the male fox giving the vulpine a steely glare with her green eyes. "My world and your Empire are not at war, but a couple of your shipmates have taken a very good friend of mine. That friend of mine is Joans' mate and even thou he's human, she really loves him. So if you want to avoid getting injured by Joan, I advise you to tell me everything."

Henry looked at the artic vixen and at the reddish brown one fingering a sheathed knife. He cleared his throat and told Riku of how he and a friend took William from a club. The surprise attack on the Explorer and his escape from the doomed ship. "I was following orders from Trish, but William is on the surface with the landing party." The fox said to the vixens.

Riku sighed looking at Joan and back to the male fox. "You're confine to a stateroom under guard at all times. If you give me any troubles, I'll send you to the brig. So if you stay out of trouble, you'll be dropped off at the feline planet after we get back my crewmember."

The male fox nodded and felt the guards guide him out of the hanger. He shuddered at the glare he was receiving from Joan. "The guards are for my protection from her." Henry whispered to himself.

"You're right Brit; I suggest you stay away from Joan. She does hold a grudge and her punishments are really nasty." Said the male ferret next to him.

Hi Orbit, Joan's planet, Riku's new ship Athena, hours later.

"Come on William, where are you?" Joan said looking at the scanner readouts as they came up negative.

It had been nearly three hours since the British ship Explorer was tracked here and all they found was a radioactive crash site, even though the circumstances looked bleak she had hope her mate was still alive and with that dammed MI6 agent. She readjusted the scanners and tried again only to be stopped by another negative reading. With a stream of swear words that would put the most abusive person in the entire galaxy to shame she slammed her fist down on her console, a series of sparking and tinkling sounds reverberated from the console followed by her screen flashing as the computer tried to correct itself.

"Joan, it's all right we'll find him" Riku said placing a hand on Joan's shoulder causing her to jump; she hadn't noticed Riku had walked up behind her.

"I'm sorry I'm just getting frustrated, I can't find William down there and I'm starting to lose hope" she placed her head in her hands and started to weep. It was then that the console began to beep and a voice came over the comm.

"Mother vixen, this is kit are you there? Come in!" It was Williams voice quickly Joan locked on to the carrier wave and tracked the source of the transmission, with a sigh of relief she pinpointed Williams location.

"William, its Joan stay where you are we're coming to get you" she said into the radio before showing his location on the main screen.

"We better hurry" Riku said with worry as she checked the scanners again "We may have some company."

Surface of Joans' world hours later.

William looked at the sleek black ship admiring the lines. He felt sorry for Riku losing the Macon. The human remembered three years ago when Joan and the rat Tissare stolen a flight III because the ferrets build perfect stealth technology. "Looks like the Normandy from Mass Effect 2. But this ship looks meaner than the Macon, but why name this ship after the goddess of wisdom." William thought to himself watching crewmembers wearing radioactive hazard suits using the decontamination machinery at the wreckage of the Explorer and surrounding areas. There were no survivors at the crash site. He saw Trish under guard with Riku and Joan giving her menacing looks. "I sure don't want to be in her place, looks like Joan and Riku want to tear her apart. Joan I know will if she has the chance, but Riku has to set an example being a commanding officer of a ship. But I better see what's going on." The human thought to himself walking up to the two vixens.

Riku grabbed Joans' upper arm in a vise like grip. "Stand down Joan; we're going to drop her off at the feline's planet. We're not at war with the British Empire, we might need them. Remember what William says once in a while."

"My enemy is my friend, keep tour friends close, but your enemies closer. Joan, relax, I am unharmed. Riku is right; we might need the British against these unknown enemies." Said William walking up to the vixen and the female wolf. He saw relief on Rikus' features. "I am fine, how are you doing my friend."

The artic vixen grinned at the human who was a scared skinny teenager smiled at William. She hugged him whispering. "I am fine and doing better, just keep Joan busy and away from Trish. After we're done here, we're heading to the felines planet."

William gave her a kiss, even thou she has a mate. He had a few more sexual encounters with the vixen. The human released her nodding. "Major William reporting for duty." William said to his best friend giving her a salute.

Riku returned the salute. "You're now a crewmember on my ship till further notice. After we lift off, report to Lt. Brittney to familiarize yourself with the Zeus type fighter. Till you get new orders from Clement or me, you're a fighter pilot on my ship." She chuckled at the look of excitement on the humans' face. "Still acts like a kit." The vixen thought to herself as William walked away to assist her crew. Riku turned to Joan and Trish narrowing her gaze at the wolfess. "Like Major Henry, you're confined to a stateroom under guard." She did remember something. "We're going to search you for any recording devices before you board my ship. Failure to comply we will leave you on this planet till any of your kinfolk shows up, but I think it will be awhile. From what Joan told me, there are no wolf morphs on this planet. So I don't know what will happen if any of Joans' people sees you."

Joan was glaring at the wolfess fingering her knife. "They might mistake you for a Diablo, a monster who hunts us." The feral vixen said to the wolf.

Trish sighed handing Riku a few devices to the artic vixen. "That's all my stuff Riku." She said to vixen.

Riku looked at the devices and looked at the wolfess. She did a big grin looking the wolf over. "I'll do a more through body search later just like the last time we were together." The vixen said sticking her long tongue out with jaws opened a little.

Trish sighed as two ferrets took her in custody. She didn't like portraying a lesbian because she is heterosexual, but her people had files on Riku. The wolf did figure out that Riku has a revenge streak and she knew she screwed up by abducting William. A human Riku considers an adopted son.

Athena Bridge, leaving Joans' home world a day later.

Riku watched the scanner screen as the ship made its way out of orbit. Now that William was aboard it was time to leave, on the screen a series of blips showed a large object moving to intercept and from what the instruments were telling her this thing was massive and was faster and more agile than any ship she had encountered. If the Athena could make the jump to a new system before the other ship was on top of them they were safe but this thing was moving as if it were a predator chasing down its prey.

"How long till we can jump?" she said into the com before looking back to the screen, the thing was hot on their tail and looked like they would catch them in a minute or two.

"Nearly there just need a few more minutes" Sera's replied over the crackle of the com, as the Athena picked up speed, Riku looked at the scanners again and noticed something odd.

"What in the?" she asked herself before the sound of the bridge doors opening caught her attention, she turned around to see Joan and William entering the bridge.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" William asked as he looked around the bridge, he was like a curious child entering a room for the first time and that made Riku smile.

"I could use a lot of help right now, take the helm Will, we may need that fighter pilot skill of yours" she replied before calling Joan to her station. "Joan have a look at this, the computer says that the hull composition of our new friend is 90% organic"

"What? That has to be a mistake, there is no such thing as living ships!" Joan burst out as she saw the reading.

"Looks like we're about to find out, we have visual contact!" Brittany interjected and brought up the feed from the rear cameras.

At first the crew saw nothing then like a slow motion sequence a behemoth of a living ship came into view, it looked like it had been born in space not built like most ships and its curved lines made it look like a giant space monster with bioluminescent lights on most of its dark green carapace armor plating, in sections where the armor wasn't connected large sections of webbing were sprawled out pulsating blue as energy was shunted down it and finally sections of the ship seemed to be replaced with a range of asteroid chunks. The centre of the ship's bow opened out as if it were a flower and an orange light began to grow till it was a glowing yellow orb of destruction

"Brace for evasive maneuvers!" William yelled as he worked the controls, the Athena rolled to one side as a beam of amber light shot passed the ship grazing the shield causing the ship shudder.

Riku looked over to Brittney yelling. "Are there any rear firing weapons?"

The ferret grinned. "Yes, permission to fire anti-ship missiles at target?"

"Permission granted, destroy hostile ship or whatever it is." The vixen ordered. She looked at the viewer seeing four blue luminescent glowing shapes streak to the ship. It tried to avoid the missiles and deploy decoys, but the missiles struck and the ship exploded. Riku heard Joan say something in her native language.

William saw pieces of debris flew in different directions. He heard rumors of the types of weapons the ferrets have from Naomi, his mink mate. Right now the mink is at Rikus' home world at her job. The human watched as the smaller laser cannons are finishing off the remaining smaller ships. "This ship is more heavily armed than the Macon." William thought to himself looking at Riku at the command chair mouthing something.

"That's for my old ship you bastards." Riku said in a whisper in the fox's native tongue.

HMS Guerriere, orbit over the feline's home world, hours later.

The officer of the deck looked at the viewer watching as a white field appeared in front of the ship. His hopes of seeing two ships of the Empire were bashed as a large black sleek ship appeared from the white jump field. Fear gripped his gut as the ship turned towards his ship. "Action stations!" He yelled pushing a red button.

"British Empire ship, this is captain Riku of the Athena. We request a parlay so we can talk to each other. I am carrying twenty survivors from the HMS Explorer. We destroyed the ship responsible for the destruction of your ship. So I request talks with personal from your government because my people was attacked as yours." A voice emanated from a bridge speaker.

The young officer was to reply when the commanding officer walked up picking up a mike. "Captain Riku, parlay granted. I am going to send you coordinates to our Embassy. We will meet there so I'll take the survivors from the HMS Explorer in custody and then we will start our talks. It is night time at the Embassy, so I'll give you a call when they open for business. I heard so much a bout you and I am looking forward in seeing you in person."

Bridge of the Athena.

Riku looked at the com device with a look of amusement. "British humor, got to love it." She said to Brittney with a grin and cocked her head. The vixen keyed the mike. "I hope we have a jolly good time."

A few seconds later there was a reply. "We'll have morning tea during the talks."

The hanger, a few minutes later.

"Dam, that's one sexy fighter." William exclaimed looking at the black colored craft. He noted that the fighter has the same lines as the Ares he fly's, but the fighter is larger and looks meaner. "It's like the mink fighter Dragon on steroids."

"But, the Dragon doesn't have the cloaking device as the Zeus. This fighter carries thirty missiles and has eight plasma cannons. One more thing, this fighter has jump capability and goes twice the speed as the Dragon." Brittney replied and looked at the human. "You're drooling; close you mouth before something flies in. You'll get your chance tomorrow, the controls are like the Dragon, but she handles like them. So you will get the feel after a few training flights."

William regained his composure and relaxed. He remembered the first time he saw the Dragon on the mink's home world three years ago. The human ran the memory with fondness and he felt the same feeling because now he's going to fly a new fighter. "See you tomorrow." William whispered to the fighter.

Courtyard of the British embassy, the next day.

Russell watched as gunmetal gray colored sleek shuttle landed on the embassy grounds. Turning his head, the human looked at the British shuttle that landed a few minutes ago. He noticed that the shuttle that just landed is larger and more new by the looks of it. A ramp lowered giving Russell a view of an anthro artic vixen with a female sable colored collie with a reddish brown vixen. "So that's Joan, Williams' mate, but I am more of a feline lover." He said to himself as a male human walked down the ramp.

"There's William." Janice said next to him.

"I can see the reason you thought I was him. He looks like my twin brother other than a few differences. As I said to you during our first night together, I am a feline lover. Canines don't interest me." Russell said to the female tiger as two more figures were lead off the shuttle, a male fox and a female wolf. A second later, eighteen humans and different anthros were lead off the shuttle. Then the artic vixen and collie walked up to him looking him over.

"So you're the murderer from that prison bus bust." Said Riku to Russell, but Janice stood between Riku and Russell baring her teeth.

"He killed a mercenary who killed an unarmed civilian. If he did it on this planet, he would of not of gotten punish. Personally, the legal system in the United States is screwed up." Said the female tiger to the vixen.

Russell quietly chuckled at the sight of the seven foot tall feline looking down to the vixen being five inches over five feet. He shrugged when the vixen looked at him. "She really cares for me Riku." The human said to the vixen watching as William whispered to her causing Riku to look at the female tiger.

"Do you want to fly a fighter again Janice?" Riku asked the female tiger and she looked at Russell. "If I can arrange it, will you like to be part of a ground fighting unit?'

Janice grinned showing her lethal teeth. "I just might consider it, because when you're in the air, you're truly free. My senses miss the smell of the ethane glycol and the different smells of aircraft fluids."

Riku not being intimidated by the tiger calmly replied. "There is a difference in flying in the atmosphere and out in space."

Hours later, Rikus' quarters on the Athena.

Sera looked at her best friend sitting at her desk reading reports. "So, what are the results of the talks?"

The artic vixen grinned. "The British will let us use Janice and Russell, but they made a couple requests."

"Oh, what do they want?" Asked the collie with a curious look.

"They wanted a few ships like ours with some fighters." The vixen watched her friends' reaction and resumed her dialogue. "Clement did some talking with their Queen. My commanding officer and our leader is going to give them all six of the Camelot class with squadrons of the fighters we used before we got the Ares class. I just found out that we're getting five more of this class of ship. His exact words were; I don't care if they copy these craft because, I rather have them as friends instead of enemies."

Sera nodded as her friend talked. Riku was offered a ship of the Camelot class, but her stubborn friend kept the ship William called the Macon. The ships of the Camelot class looks like the Bane class but they're four hundred feet longer with a larger hanger and a safer more reliable core. "I've been on one, but they're not like the Bane class, you don't bump your head on the door openings." The collie thought to herself knowing right now there no whole ships of the Bane class left. "So, what's our next mission?" She asked Riku.

The vixen typed on her desk and an image of the galaxy appeared on the wall. Riku pointed at a section near Joan's home world. "Two hundred years ago, the ferrets sent a few robotic probes to this area. According to one of the probes, there's a solar system like Williams'. I've been ordered to just scout the system and report our findings to Clement. Our new hostile friends might be from that system, so we got to make sure the stealth system is in top shape."

The collie nodded and walked out of Rikus' quarters with mixed feelings. "It's been over two hundred years since our race was involved in a conflict." She thought to herself walking to the engineering space.

END OF CHAPTER 11

Lee returns in the next chapter along with Naomi. I am starting on the next chapter next week after a couple days rest. RAVEN FOX:)