FSE

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"You want us to go WHERE?"

I couldn't help but wince a bit at the volume of the half-elf's shout in the small room. I simply crossed my arms across my chest and nodded again, trying to remain calm. For the most part I was doing fairly well too, I thought, apart from the involuntary lashing of my tail.

"Raksha. You were fine with it a couple hours ago when-"

He cut me off again, the smack of his hand against the ship's helm echoing in the small room. "If you didn't notice, I was a LITTLE preoccupied at the time with getting SHOT AT! Do you have ANY idea how far that is from here?"

"Gleet knows, Boss!" piped up a scarlet-scaled kobold, the third member of the little group. "Gleet figure if-"

"Shut it, Gleet," the half-elf helmsman glared at her, then at the golem-like creature whose shoulders she was perched on. "Anything you'd like to add too?"

The metallic being simply shrugged, and I found myself once more the recipient of the irate captain's glare. Things had seemed so simple yesterday...

Perhaps I should start at the beginning. I'm a member of a race of tauric felinoids called lyrians. For those who aren't sure what that means, our lower bodies are like that of mundane great cats, while our upper bodies resemble those of the humanoid catfolk that most are more familiar with.

In my case, being from one of the northern clans I happen to resemble a snow leopard in coloration and markings. Well, apart from the shoulder-length purple hair I acquired due to an accident with some magitech. If you ask me though, I happen to think it compliments the black fur of my ears and my blue eyes quite nicely, so I don't mind it in the least. Clothing-wise, we don't wear too much normally due to our fur, but since I am female and I was blessed(or cursed, depending on how you look at it) with a fairly large bust for my size, I usually wear a corset for the extra support. I have to admit, they can be fairly comfortable though, and the dark red one I was wearing was one of my favorites.

I had been studying artifacts and what we had come to learn were crashed spelljamming ships for a few years with an old friend of the family, but he had vanished a couple of years ago. I had carried on my studies, but a week ago a message had been delivered to me. It was from that same "uncle" and had carried an invitation to join him in Wildspace! I had jumped at the chance of course, and used the included writ to gain passage up to a waystation far above my homeworld.

It had turned out to be far from the ideal I had imagined. Following the suggestions of the letter, I sought a ship that I should have been able to get passage aboard, only to find it was docked at a portion of the station used for... quasi-legal dealings, let's say.

Not letting that stop me, I tried to make my way there, but nearly lost my life. Thankfully, I was rescued by a golem-like being named Ripclaw, who by a stroke of luck was a crewmember aboard the very ship I was trying to reach! He's the kobold's perch I mentioned just now. Imagine a man made of metal, wearing metal armor, and you pretty much have the basics. One oddity however is that he has a few pieces of a dragon-looking creature attached to him, including an entire head hanging off his back, though like the rest of him these pieces are all made of the same strange metal as well.

He'd helped me to his ship, the "Lazy Sue," where I met the previously mentioned kobold. Kobolds have always looked a bit dragon-like, which they claim is due to dragonblood in their lines. If there is any truth to that old rumor, Gleet is living proof, as other than her humanoid shape and her size(the tip of her head barely is as high as my lower back) she'd be a spitting image of a crimson dragon. Thankfully, she also turned out to have a gift for healing, and had helped me get back to something resembling normal in the past hour or so, after smacking sideways into the station wall several times.

As to why we were out here in space, crammed into the helmroom? You can lay the blame on the captain, Xane. At first glance he could almost pass for an elf, at least if he actually put out the effort, but his human side added a certain ruggedness. Apparently he'd decided to cultivate that image in the form of a goatee. If I were into that type, I'd probably consider him rather dashing, but considering that his arrival was in the form of him running from 50 angry guards with crossbows, while wearing nothing other than a swordbelt, that kind of puts a damper on things. At least he'd managed to find some pants since then.

"Alright, look." That passing memory of how he'd arrived back at the ship had given me a germ of an idea. If this worked, I was going to need a week-long shower to feel clean. Placing both hands on the other side of the helm, I leaned forward, my forepaws stretching out as well as I looked him straight in the eyes. "Surely there's something that can be done to convince you. I mean, you normally carry cargo right? Surely there's traffic that heads that way..." I let my voice trail off as I watched his gaze drop down to stare right down the cleavage of my corset. Just as planned, I thought to myself with disgust for what I was doing.

"I... suppose..." Xane responded hesitantly as his eyes never left my chest, rising and falling slightly with each breath that traveled my upper lungs. "Something could... be arranged. However, I will need something from you."

And here it comes, I thought. It seemed my initial low opinion of this captain was being confirmed. "Yes?" I asked with false baited breath, my ears folded back in disgust as I prepared myself for his inevitable question.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped back to mine. "You'll have to learn how to handle the rigging, since we're short a rigger right now, and I will not risk my ship in wildspace without full control over it. I happen to have a contact in Giasinspace who MAY have a cargo headed the direction you wish."

Trying to hide my confusion at the sudden change in his attitude, I simply nodded, straightening back up. "O-of course. But I've never-"

The ginger-haired half-elf cut me off with a wave of his hand towards the two spectators to our recent confrontation. "Gleet can show you the ropes, figuratively and literally." While Ripclaw seemed as stoic as ever, was it just my imagination or was Gleet trying to suppress a grin? "As for me, I need to get some real rest. Ripclaw, you have the conn."

"Aye, I have the conn," the metallic Forged responded, taking Xane's place as the half-elf captain walked around the crystalline helm, still pulsing softly with suffused power. I turned myself slowly, watching him uncertainly as he walked out, not sure whether to be grateful I wouldn't have to prostitute myself to get where I needed to go, or insulted that I apparently didn't rate high enough to be of interest after all.

"Oh," Xane paused a moment at the doorway, the smirk he was no doubt sporting obvious in his voice. "And thanks for the lovely view, but I'm not -that- easy." Without even waiting for a response, he disappeared down the corridor.

I could feel my fur bristle in indignation as Gleet burst into giggles. That- that- that sly fox! He knew exactly what I was doing, and played along anyways! Lashing my tail angrily, I felt my cheeks redden underneath my silvery fur in embarrassment at having been read so easily.

Feeling a pat on my flank, I twisted my upper body back to see Gleet giving me a sympathetic smile, her apparent amusement under control again. "It alright, catlady. Captain smarter than most give credit. You not first to try that trick, probably not last either. You think Captain could stay captain if captain thinks with wrong head all the time?"

I took a deep breath and let it out with the frustration that had been building. While my idea hadn't worked, at least we were going to start heading the right direction. Flicking an ear in amusement at myself, I reached back and rubbed the little scarlet kobold's head. "I guess I got too caught up in the moment. Anyways, why don't you show me these ropes of yours. It can't be any more complicated than disassembling a field generator's flux resistor..."

*******************

As I stared at the mass of cables, levers, and cranks surrounding me, I found myself regretting my earlier words. The room was centrally placed, and had obviously been intended to serve as a focal point for all the controls for the ship's direction. Someone, however, had obviously ripped everything out and replaced it at least 3 or 4 times, and hadn't been very neat about it to boot.

"It not as bad as it looks," Gleet said reassuringly as she squeezed around my bulk into the room as well. "Just need to know what does what. Like this rope part of main after-sail." Hopping on a support to reach it, the diminutive kobold gave it a tug, only for the rope she tugged to fall free, not tied to anything. "OK, maybe not as good as Gleet thinks either," she added in a bemused tone as she looked at the rope section in her hands.

"That's not helping," I shot back in a slightly exasperated tone as I tried to trace the lines visually. Most of the lines that were unattached at one point I quickly found would wind through several others, then come out unattached on the other end. "If I'm going to have to handle this, then we're getting this thing cleaned up."

We must have spent several hours after that sorting through the ropes. I'd track them to see if they went anywhere, then Gleet would use her size to scamper up there and untangle it from the rest. We had a pile of cable about as big as Gleet before a rumble from my stomach reminded me of how long we'd been at this.

I waited until Gleet came scrambling down from the rafters with the latest rope we'd tracked, then caught her before she could dart up again with a gentle hand on her shoulder. "We've been at this a while; whaddya say we go get some food?"

"Gleet think that sound great!" she said, nodding her head so exuberantly that I had to hold back a giggle. "Cat-lady may be good at following things, but Gleet doing all the work!"

Giving her smooth-scaled head a gentle rub, I couldn't help but smile. "That you did. Well, where do you get a meal around here?"

"This way!" Lowering her head, she ducked below my underbelly, slipping between my rear legs and out into the corridor. Even with what was probably half the rope removed, it was still fairly crowded in the rigging room, so I backed up into the corridor before turning, just in time to see her little red tail disappearing around a corner.

Picking up my pace a little, I caught up with her easily enough, and in fact almost ran her over as she came to a halt in front of another door. Thankfully I managed to stop in time, though I still skidded a bit on the hard wooden floor before I extended my claws for extra grip. While Gleet opened the door, oblivious to our near-collision, I glanced down and was surprised to not even see any marks from my "braking." Whatever the floor was made of, it certainly wasn't normal wood!

The room she led me into wasn't very large, but then neither was the ship itself. A small table dominated it with several stools, while a cooking stove graced the back next to what had to be the pantry and larder. Moving a stool aside, I lowered my rump to the floor, curling my tail around my legs while Gleet dove headfirst into the food storage.

"Catlady like potatoes?" she called back.

I grimaced a little. "Please, no. Eating roots isn't my thing."

"No carrots then. Cabbage?"

I rolled my eyes. "C'mon, do I look like a giant rabbit?"

That at least got a draconic chuckle from her as she continued to rummage through the containers. "Maybe catlady like some goblin legs? Stringy but very tasty!"

"You-you're kidding, right?" I responded, ears half-flattened. I was pretty sure the kobold was just pulling my tail, but I also had no idea what a creature supposedly related to dragons would find tasty.

"Gleet just making joke!" she called back, and I let out a quiet sigh of relief. "And Gleet found the lamb meat!"

At that, I perked up. "Now that's more like it!" It had been a while since I had the opportunity to munch on that sort of meat, but just the memory of it made me lick my chops. "Need any help getting it out?"

"Gleet.. oof... got it," she responded as she backed out of the storage, dragging a chunk of meat about a quarter of her size behind her. "Cat-lady... just wait... Gleet ship's cook too."

"If you're sure..." Placing my elbows on the table, I rested my muzzle in my hands and tried not to drool as I watched the diminutive kobold start preparing the lamb hock. "So, if you don't mind me asking, how did you all get together anyways? I may not know much about life out here, but you still don't seem like a typical crew."

"Gleet not know about Ripclaw, but Gleet was saved by Boss from death. Gleet have nowhere else to go, so Gleet join Boss on ship," explained the kobold as she sliced at the hock, dropping the strips into a pan already on the stove.

"Sounds like an interesting story. I know back home kobolds aren't exactly welcomed with open arms-" More like with drawn swords, I added mentally- "so how'd you catch his attention?"

"Gleet used to be servant of Great Wyrm Kalendrixthorys. Great Lord was wise and powerful, and ruled Gleet's island for many lifetimes. Great Lord had many demands on his time, and often had to visit Great Council on Aerie. Humans not welcome at Io's Blood, but Council knew of Crystal Spheres and made deal with spacers for trade. But not all spacers good spacers."

She paused a moment, the silence filled by the sound of the sizzling meat, before continuing. "Great Lord's regent had made deal of her own. Orc lady named Kita made deal with pirates to have base and hid them from Great Lord. They not content though and start causing trouble on neighboring islands. Council called for investigation and they find leads pointing back to Great Lord's domain."

As she spoke the first batch finished cooking, and I found myself munching on some quite delicious lamb as she continued her tale. "Boss was hired by Council to find source, and got lost while investigating. Boss run into Gleet's clan, and Gleet chosen to help Boss by Great Chief of clan. While we looked, rival dragon clan Wildfire got impatient and came in force. We found it but so did they. Wildfires charged in and burned everything... including Gleet's clan."

I halted mid-bite as that last bit caught me by surprise. Forcing myself to swallow, I gave her what I hoped was a sympathetic look, rather than the horror I was feeling at the thought of losing your entire family. "That- that's horrible. What happened then?"

"Council censured Wildfire, but they not care. No proof either way, so Great Lord lost standing and became not-so-Great Lord. Great Lord knew Boss tried his best, and asked that Gleet continue to serve him as reward. Gleet not mind though. Gleet see many interesting things since."

I started to nod, but suddenly a loud whine echoed through the room. I could feel my fur standing on end as I clapped my hands over ears folded flat. "Gah, what IS that?"

Gleet however, suddenly looked all business, though she had to practically shout to be heard. "That is proximity warning alarm. Gleet thinks we have no more time for trainings."

The alarm cut off a moment later, replaced by Xane's baritone. "Everyone to the helm, and I'll fill you in."

*******************

Before long, we had all crammed into the helm room for the second time that day, but without even the slight levity of earlier. Space is a harsh place, and even now enemies were closing in on our position across its black depths. Xane had used a minor illusion spell to create a map for us detailing what he'd worked out.

"As you can see, we have three personal guard-ships of the magistrate coming from here, here, and here." Generating a small glowing ball in his illusion, he used it to point out each of the three miniature ships, highlighted in red, as they inched closer to the blue icon of the Lazy Sue. "Whomever is commanding them knows his stuff; they're all inbound on three different vectors. Even if we start moving now, we'll have to cross the line of fire of at least one to escape."

"Now the nearest exit from the sphere is here," the half-elf continued as he added a swirling circle symbol in slightly down and to the left of our heading. "Naturally they expect us to run for it as it would bring us within range of all three of them at one point or another. If we actually are going to head towards Raksha however, we need to leave via this exit anyways." A moment later, an orange swirling icon appeared, a ways up and to the right a bit.

With a few more gestures, some lines appeared, detailing the path we would have to take to get there, and the paths of our pursuers. "As you can see, they obviously aren't expecting us to take the longer route, as only one of their ships would be able to intercept us before we hit Wildspace. Looks like you're getting your wish, Swiftie."

Normally that would have made me happy, but with the danger hanging over us I felt only a small sense of satisfaction, which was quickly replaced by trepidation as my eyes turned to the one enemy ship that could possibly stop us.

A few quick gestures from our half-elf captain brought up a scaled down image of the ship in question. Visually it appeared to be a giant insect, with the deck of a ship on its back. "Our opponent looks like a Dragonfly variant. They replaced the light ballistas with a heavy ballista. Thankfully, the Lazy Sue's got plenty of armor, but a solid hit will still do plenty of damage."

He paused a moment for that to sink in before continuing. "Gleet, you and Swift will both handle rigging. She may have the strength, but not the practice, which is where you step in. Ripclaw, handle our ballista. if you can, aim for their sails or weapons. We're looking to disable, not destroy."

Clapping his hands together, he looked over the three of us. "Well then, let's be about it."

***********************

I couldn't stop my tail from twitching as I watched the slowly changing display. To make it easier for us to steer, Xane had cooked up another minor image spell that mirrored what he saw. Thanks to his senses linking with the entire ship on taking the helm, this gave us a bird's eye view, so-to-speak, of the space around us. This was intended to allow us to see where we should turn, without the captain having to communicate every move.

Unfortunately, in this case it also meant that I had nothing to do but watch and worry as the red specks of the enemy ships moved toward our own blue marker on the map.

"It be all right," Gleet said comfortingly, giving my flank a pat from where she sat on my lower back. "Lazy Sue seen worse scrapes than this."

"It's just... are things always this slow?" I asked, a plaintive note creeping into my voice. "I thought it would be over quick and done, but this waiting..."

"A stern chase is always the longest, and longer it takes, closer we get to escape!" Gleet responded with another pat and rub along my side. "It not long before we leave those two behind. Then it just us and Dragonfly."

I nodded slowly, trying to force the butterflies in both my stomachs back down as I watched the red symbols behind us slow, then start drawing further away as the orange marker of our destination got ever closer. The third one however, behind and to the right some, continued to close as it's course changed to cross ours shortly before the crystal barrier. I could feel the hum of the helm through the wooden deck under my paws, but as I watched the two markers closing it became obvious that there was nothing we could do to avoid it.

Sighing, I lowered my belly to the floor, laying my forelegs over one another and crossing my arms under my breasts. I could feel the little kobold's weight shifting on my back as well as we got more comfortable for the wait.

Normally I don't care for "riders" as such. Among Lyrians, it's considered a sign of trust and friendship, though that comes in part I suppose from the traditional way of making love among my people, given our taur bodyform. Today though, it was simple pragmatism. It lets her see exactly what I do, and at the same time she weighs little enough to not cause any discomfort.

I found myself watching the display without really watching it; gazing past it as I let my mind wander to distract myself from the upcoming battle, if it could be called that. I had wondered about the purpose of the sails on such ships, whether the wing or fin-like ones on the Lazy Sue, or the more traditional ones like the ones on the Dragonfly angling in slowly from above. The crash-course in handling the rigging I'd gotten from Gleet had made a few things clear to me.

One was that without the sails, turning even the smallest ships was apparently like trying to make a heffalump turn on a silver piece. With the helms providing all the motive power, any change in direction using just that meant you had to fight all the speed you'd built up in one direction with that same amount of power.

Sails however allowed some of that to be redirected. Sails I found are made out of a strange silken cloth that catches magic like the terrestrial canvas sails catch wind. By adjusting the sails, a ship can re-direct the magical energy that already went into moving them and provide finer and quicker changes in direction than the brute force turning done by the helm alone.

A faint *ting* sound brought me out of my reverie. While I'd been lost in my thoughts, the guard-ship had closed in on us. "Was that them?" I blurted out before catching myself. Of COURSE it was the other ship! "Never mind," I muttered, feeling my cheeks heat under my fur as I climbed back to my feet.

"Just ranging shots," Gleet responded tactfully, though there seemed to be a hint of a chuckle in her voice. "Gleet things we have another minute, maybe two."

"Then what?" I tried to keep the slight tremble of uncertainty I felt from my voice. "From what Xane said and what I'm seeing, we have no choice but to go straight for the wild-node, right? If he's doing all the pushing, and your resident golem is doing the shooting, what are we here for anyways?"

"Silly catlady." I found myself fighting down a surge of irritation as I felt Gleet's hand patting me on the head like I was a small cub, scared of the dark. "Much harder to hit target not moving in straight line. Gleet think it good you not experienced after all. Enemy not be able to predict inexperience!"

"'It's not the second-best swordsman that the champion fears, but the worst, because he has no idea what the fool will do.' I suppose that's as valid a strategy as anything," I mused out loud as the thought soothed my ruffled feelings somewhat. "But then why are you here, if the idea is that I don't know what I'm doing so they won't know either?"

"Someone has to keep us headed the right direction," Gleet responded with a grin that I didn't have to see to know it was there.

Interlacing my fingers, I bent them back, popping my knuckles a moment then shaking them and my arms to work out any kinks. I could hear a couple more weak shots bounce off the hull plating as I took a deep breath, then let it out. Calm. Focus.

Finally, the hull rang from a more solid hit as the red marker entered the circle indicating the edge of our effective firing ranges. "Anytime, girls," Xane's voice echoed across a Magic Mouth link that had been set into the aft-ward wall.

"Let's do this."

Reaching up to grab two different ropes that Gleet indicated, I wrapped each one around a hand and gave them a yank. With a slight creaking of the hull, the prow of the Lazy Sue dipped, then swung around to the right, bringing us out of line of our destination but also throwing off the fire from our pursuer. Quickly wrapping one of those ropes around a nearby post, I grabbed a third and loosened it, rolling the ship on its axis as the arcane flow from the helm caught in the sail-fins

I could distantly hear the twang of our own ballista being fired as we came about. Our own course was changing, slowly but surely, and I could feel my muscles straining to hold the ropes against the forces the sails were channeling to bring us about. Another spang of a more solid hit echoed through the ship as I tied off one of them and grabbed the fourth rope that Gleet pointed to.

This wasn't so hard, I thought as I grabbed another rope and gave it a yank. According to the display we were rapidly closing in on the Dragonfly, and it wouldn't be long before-

"Pull up!"

"Wha-?" It took a moment for Xane's shout to register, but Gleet was already jumping down and trying to press in a lever near the ground.

"We're on a collision course! Pull! Up!"

My eyes shot wide open as my brain caught up to everyone else's. Gleet didn't seem to have the strength or mass to move the lever, and I couldn't let go of either rope I was holding right now. Maybe...

Balancing carefully with the help of the ropes, I lifted my left foreleg and placed my forepaw against the lever, then gave it a firm shove. Gritting my teeth I let out a soft growl as I tried to hold the ropes while pushing on the lever. I felt like my arms were on fire while the wood dug into my paw, but I could feel the lever turning and slowly our icon began to rise. A loud tearing sound echoed through the ship as our marker barely cleared theirs, and then we were past.

Jaw still clenched, I tied off the ropes, then freed the first one, slowly giving it a bit more lead and bringing us back around towards the wild-node's marker. Once we were lined up I pulled it back again, then tied it off before letting my arms relax.

Gingerly, I unclenched my muzzle, working my mouth a few times while Gleet gave me a thumbs-up from the floor. "A little unconventional, but not bad," Xane added in over the link. "You ripped a hole in their sails with that one, so they're not going to be following anyone for a while. Go take a rest; we should be good from here."

Backing up a bit and leaning my upper torso down, I offered a hand to help Gleet up. Once she had wrapped both of her scaled hands around mine, I lifted, then winced as a bolt of pain shot through my worn muscles. It was enough, however, to get her up.

"Thankies, Swiftie," she said, giving my foreshoulder a pat. "Want to go watch transition?"

"Not 'catlady' anymore, eh?" I gave her a tired grin, though my jaw-muscles still ached. "And what's so special about transition?"

"Crystal sphere like soap bubble," the little kobold explained as we made our way to one of the few crystal viewports in the hull. "Wild-node is weak point, and leaving like sliding needle through bubble without popping."

I froze mid-step, my upper body snapping around to look at Gleet as the ramifications of that bounced through my head. "So you're saying that just by leaving we could potentially destroy-"

"No, no, no," Gleet over-talked me and I let my words trail off as she explained. "Crystal wall too thick and sturdy. When ship goes through node, wall closes around and behind ship. If ship goes to fast, ship goes crunch. So transition go slow, and sphere make pretty colors." As she finished, she pointed to the viewport, where I could see endless miles of a clearish blue plain extending in every direction ahead of us, like a giant wall. "Watch and see."

Padding up to the port, I looked out as we neared our destination. It almost seemed to shimmer slightly, compared to the faintly visible blue crystal of the sphere itself. I didn't have a good angle to see the Lazy Sue's prow, but I watched the weaker portion of the wall bend outward, then spread around the front of the ship, covering it with a thin film of sorts. As we advanced, it continued to surround more of the ship, as if it was covering it in another bubble.

As it reached the viewport, I saw exactly why Gleet had compared it to a bubble earlier. It had that same iridescent glow; the same mixing of colors mixing and blending into a eye-catching rainbow. The way the light interplayed through it I felt I could sit and stare for hours.

And then we were through. As the film of crystal-stuff rolled off the hull to rejoin the sphere's surface, I found my eyes assaulted by a cascade of clashing colors. I very nearly bit my tongue in shock, not realizing my muzzle had been hanging open during the entire trip through the wall. They were unnatural and vivid, and some of them I didn't think could exist. I could feel my stomachs churning as I saw-felt-heard-tasted the colors outside the window.

"Don't stare at it too long," Gleet remarked, giving my tail a yank that brought me back to the here-and-now. "Wildspace takes getting used to. No two see it same way. Brings wisdom to some, madness to others."

"And you didn't think to tell me this BEFORE?" I asked, slightly incredulously, my toeclaws digging into the wood.

"Swiftie didn't ask. Besides, better to know now than later if mind strong enough."

"You- I- aurgh!" Resting a hand on the wall, I lifted the other to rub my temples, my ears folding back partway in irritation. "What else should I know?"

"Oh, plenty, I'm sure!" Gleet replied cheerfully. "After all, what's life without learning?"

"... you know what? Never mind." Still, I couldn't help thinking, why had Lythander left out such an important detail? What else hadn't he told me about this trip? Especially given the captain's reaction to where I wanted to go.

Well, I'd survived a trip along the outside of a space station without magical protection, escaped the guard-ships of an angry magistrate, and didn't go insane looking into Wildspace. It can only get better from here. Right?

Right?