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Chapter 7: Exams

Worn crimson paint against a charred silver backdrop wrapped round the Phoenix. Hanging as it was in the endless void, while hurtling around the small blue-green planet nearby, the craft's bay doors were pulled slowly open in allowance of a smaller craft and it's escort to land. The usual veins of blue across the skin were dark, black lines weaving a calculated web around the ship's battleworn surface.

Within the hangar bay, the small vessel approached the deck slowly, gear down and as each foot touched the ground they stuck in place magnetically. The four towering walkers set down likewise, magnetic soles attaching them to the base of the smallish ship. The hatch on the transport hissed softly and opened to reveal a tall figure with silvery gray fur. Garbed in metal and flexible material, the short lupine muzzle of a Sirian wolf strode with purpose, each foot carrying him further through the ship. Cradled, almost delicately in his armour-clad arms, a shivering bundle of white fur, a head smaller than the wolf, curled into him.

A young boy, eight years of age, stood just past the hangar. He gazed up as the Sirian walked past, his charge calm but quivering softly. Through the inside doorway stepped the Captain of the ship, kneeling down to hug the boy happily.

Somewhat out of breath she greeted, "Hey Atty,"

"Who's that with Uncle Jay?" the boy asked, not hugging back and completely focused on the strange fox-man that his uncle bore. The quivering violet gaze of the cold and frightened kit fox met with his for but a moment and though the young boy knew not why, he knew something was wrong with the fox.

"Don't worry about it Atty," spoke the father who throughout the entire operation had stayed behind, patting the back of his son's head as he looked down to his wife. "Are they going to the infirmary?"

"Yeah, take Atty to Shan please," she asked of him, and slowly stood up. Reaching thin fingertips up to her ear, she spoke purposefully into her headset. "Reese, tell the station operators we just got new information and need to head out right away. Have them release the clamps and set a course away from here. Any heading."

"Any heading ma'am?" came the reply, as the woman began to walk towards the infirmary with Mati, Aura, and the brothers.

"We need to go away from the known worlds. Set a course for..." she thought a moment, then smirked a little "Do we have enough power to make a round-trip to the uncharted parts of Andromeda?"

"Barely, but we can always swing by Cerberus to refuel if we have to."

"Do it, maximum available stream. When they find out they'll be all over us," came the insistent order from the woman's lips. Stepping onto the rightmost lift she punched in the middle deck and rode the short trip with Mati and Aura. "Let me know the moment we've left orbit."

"Aye ma'am,"

The boys glanced between themselves and Mathieu asked mildly, "We're going into uncharted territory? Isn't that dangerous?"

Anyone who knew the nuances of Slipstream travel knew that even if inside the slip the special forces of gravity were not relevant to speed, they still had cracked hulls. Passing close to a black hole in slipspace is what had doomed the Corona Class that jumped to Sirius before the battle at Falla.

Phillips gaze was calm and focused. She looked with gentleness at the way the boy suggested they were in danger and after a moment brought a smirk upon her lips. "Mathieu, my boy. It just well might be. But I'll tell you what. Better that then get caught before we know what we're dealing with. At least they'll be as blind as we are if they know where we're going."

Despite the quick trip up a deck they had stayed briefly longer in the lift to speak; spotting the doors to medical closing, though, and the vulpine brothers gliding toward it soon afterward, the Captain shook her head. "Mati, Aura. Sit this out please. I-"

"Don't worry, Phil. I'm sure you could use Mati here on the bridge. I've got something I should check in on," Aura spoke and though the husky would have argued, a quick elbow nudged against rib silenced him.

She strode off to medical with no further hesitation but a nod, and stepping in she sighed. The medic on duty blinked his eyes several times with amazement at seeing this flight-armoured wolf carrying a quivering, naked fox. Epsilon's fur was still moist, but it was much dryer than it had been. It was likely he was cold, and not so much afraid anymore.

Looking away from Jasyn a little, the fox met his curious gaze upon the doctor and the man just stared back entranced.

"Doctor... I need you to run a genetic series. Compare to records retrieved from the Sirian Resistance," the captain spoke as she walked in the door. "You should also run a neurological scan of somesort, I want to know if there is any irregularities in his brain."

The wolf just had no words to speak, keeping his bewildered gaze on the fox in some fruitless attempt to understand. Although he knew not why he should bring Epsilon to medical, he did know enough to bring him there. As the doctor neared, the fox held closer to the wolf again. The wolf spoke sofly and just soothed the freightened boyfox. "Don't worry... we're just going to run some tests. It's alright. I'll be right here..."

It seemed to work, and Jasyn slowly put him down on his own feet. The doctor and the wolf slowly lead their patient away toward one of the beds as Delta asked quietly of his black-eared brother, "I thought you said he didn't understand what the wolf said?"

"He doesn't know the words," said Gamma with a sigh. "It's not what he said, but how he said it. It's the same with lesser mammals, especially docile ones. When you speak softly to them they tend to calm down. He feels comforted."

Jasyn held the fox closer as the doctor stuck him with a drawing needle and quickly extracted a blood sample, causing a soft whine to leave the feral's throat. Deep sanguine filled the small tube and the needle was quickly removed.

The dull thud of the docking clamps being released resonated around the ship, reverberating through walls and causing a slight jolt. The noise was loud enough to cause the fox to jump from nervous fright.

Following a shipwide ping, the message "The Ship is leaving Dry Dock, all active crew report to your posts," came in Reese's voice over the intercom and the captain sagged her shoulders.

"That means me too," she sighed, "Do good by him doc, or I'll have you thrown into slip in an EV suit," she half-joked as she left the medbay quickly.

--

Always looking effortless, the ship's thrusters fired and propelled it within regulation away from the planet, quickly enough to properly break orbit but not hurtlingly fast. The spinning blue-green globe beneath shimmered in it's daylight as it grew smaller behind them.

Beyond the planet's gravity, a pinprick of light formed from nowhere and grew larger. Threads of slipspace wove and spun and curled into a bubble from that point and from this ball a vessel quickly slid. With it's engines roaring in silence, The TSS S. Lupus emerged in all it's splendid glory. The ship looked like the bones of a fish, with a long central shaft and six flanks, like three arrows, pointing in growing length out the sides. Like a massive aeroplane with three pair of wings, the Lupus would have howled through space like namesake would have were it not for the silence of the void. Along the back of each of the flanks, offset from one another only slightly, the lupus engines flickered and died to just the four massive P-AP rings.

Gleaming channels of blue wove their way along the Lupus' hull, and thick armour accompanied it. This ship was not the largest ship in the fleets, but it was big enough for war with weapons poised and read along the front sides of the wings, and the spine of the ship. Aboard her bridge, Captain Sota Kincaid gazed at his registry.

"There's a few beacons in the system you should know, Commander," grinned the wolf, looking sidelong at the poppy and black man lounging in the seat adjacent.

"Oh yeah?" enquired the other, peering over at the screen between them and grinning at the registry. "Oh! Phil's on her way out. Hail her quick and wish her a happy trip."

"Aye sir," came the standard reply, and both Aries and Sota stood and straightened their uniforms out.

The message sent, and pinged off of the Phoenix' hull. The screen blinked alive and Captain Phillips grinned back at the pair. "Captain Kincaid, Commander Levi. Nice to see you two! I hope you're not calling on official business," she mused, quite honestly.

"Oh no not at all!" broadly smiled the Captain, shaking his head from behind his glasses. "Simply saw that you were leaving and wanted to wish you well on your voyage. Where are you headed?" he conversed.

The delay was momentary and soon the woman thought quickly and half-lied, "Recon duty over in Andromeda. You're back round to pick up some cadets I take it?"

Aries smirked a little and half-bragged. "Well, my boy's finals are up and coming. First Sirian-Lyrii to graduate the Academy, he makes me so proud."

"Ma'am, we're at streaming distance." came a voice off screen, and Phillips gave a sigh and a shake of her head.

"I've got to be on my way boys; do give Atlas my regards," she smirked, and the communication cut. The view returned to forward and what Phillips had seen just moments ago was now what the pair of wolves were seeing before them. A ship disappearing into the tendrilled bubble of slipstream.

"I wonder what she meant by that..." Aries thought aloud, eyes glancing at his Captain.

"Maybe she just had to rush... Atlas can be remarkably slow with getting back to somebody," the Captain shook his head and with a wide grin he sat. "Helm, bring us into empty orbit and signal Flight Registry that we're ready to take on our new crewmates."

"Aye sir."

--

Gold and black fur twitched in agitation, crimson eyes darting about the listings as the mix-breed Wolflynx anxiously awaited his results. A large paw rested heavily upon his shoulder and he flinched and turned his head to spot his malamute friend sporting broad smile and brown eyes. Excited as they were, they were as tense as an all-boys camp. Ears flicking as their gazes returned to the screen, the pair finally saw the listing for the engineering graduates.

Fingers wrapped tight around their bags, having to be packed and ready to leave for whatever station they were assigned immediately after passing, the boys rushed forward past the folks who were leaving and scanned for their names. "Merid... Moltey... Morris... Levi, Zaivior. TSS S. Lupus!" gleefully exclaimed the boy as he turned his head and smiled to his companion.

"Guess where I'm going to be?" the husky enticingly laid out the question, crouching a bit so he could look the boy in the eyes.

"Wait... No way! The Lupus right?" he asked, and quickly Dante nodded. "That's awesome! We'll get to work together doing maintenance."

"Well... maintainence is going to suck; working with you is going to be great though!" grinned the 'mute, hugging his smaller companion.

Zaivior hugged back until the husky spoke in exclamation. "Shit! Our transport is leaving in a few minutes. Apparently your dad arrived early, cause we're headed straight for the ship."

"What?" the boy turned and jumped up and down a few times. "Oh cool," he laughed and then realized, "we need to hurry!"

Grabbing travel bags and sprinting off, the pair headed towards the appropriate pad departing from the Trian Academy on Earth.

--

"Captain, Command is hailing us," spoke the commsman on the bridge of the Lupus.

"Put it through," ordered the wolf, still seated in his chair. Sota looked from behind clear glass lenses at the live-updated status reports.

Immediately the screen flickered to life and the face of an old human admiral came up. Despite his age, he was handsome and dressed in beurocratic uniform. "Captain Kincaid. Consider your previous mission to be on hold. The Freebird Phoenix is now your top priority."

Both of the wolves looked upon eachother and then Sota sat up a little straighter and questioned, "Can you give us any reasoning, or any clearer orders, sir?"

"The European Government just forwarded us footage that clearly implicates Captain Phillips and her crew breaking into a high-security military installation. They killed several men and stole an experimental piece of technology. We believe former Resistance Leader Jasyn Emmit is with her."

"Sorry sir, you're saying that the Phoenix' crew broke into a military base and stole technology without any clear provocation?" Aries spoke up, unbelieving.

"That's correct, approximately thirty minutes before your arrival a squadron of ten walkers set down outside of the facility and within minutes they breached the wall. The E-u-G aren't telling us what was stolen, but at the very least they're wanted for murder. You are to apprehend them by any means necessary, is that understood?"

Aries looked at his Captain, and the gray wolf gazed back for a moment. "Yes sir. Could you have our Cadets routed here?"

"That has already been taken care of, their transport should be arriving in a few minutes. Their fold-length suggests that they may have gone to the outer edge of the Cerberus Galaxy for cover."

"No sir, if I know Phillips, she would have tried to put us off their trail immediately. She told us she was headed to Andromeda for recon. She's headed to the Andromeda Galaxy, into uncharted territory more likely than not. She wants to be as far away from us as possible," started Aries.

"But then, wouldn't it be wiser to go away from where she said she was going?" spoke the admiral with a thoughtful gaze. The human was wise, no doubts about that.

Aries nodded sagely and grinned. "No sir. I know Phillips. I reccomend you keep your eyes open in Cerberus too, but the harm is minimal in sending one ship to Andromeda."

"Right then, commander. Captain Kincaid, you're to go to Andromeda and attempt to track down the Phoenix. Report to the colony on Gidera Prime in two weeks if you can't."

"Go over the logs from the time of Phillip's jump. Plot the most likely coordinates and set a course for the Andromeda Galaxy. Break orbit as soon as the Cadets are on board," Sota barked his orders, and then stood and saluted the Trian Admiral.

"Try to bring them home alive, Captain," he asked finally.

"That was the plan, Admiral. Kincaid out."

The main screen cut out, and changed to a view of the approaching transport. Aries slowly sat back and shook his head. "I should go and orient the greens,"

"Yes, say hello to Zaivior for me. I'll be watching to make sure you don't play favourites."

"Don't worry about that, Sir."

"Don't be harder on him either, Commander. He might be your son but he's still a member of this crew."

"I think he's hard enough on himself..." the wolf said as he stood and made for the bridge's rear exit. Walking through dull metal corridors, the deckplates beneath the wolf's boots clanked a little with every step. His ears swivelling forward, the wolf strolled through the hallway towards the lift.

The command deck was designed for function and not form, and the three tube-shaped lifts were flanked with several ladders. All around him he could hear the workings of the essential systems. Main Engineering, Navigation; the noise was blocked the moment the lift doors were shut. He pressed the button for the arrival deck and the little room jerked a little as he descended.

Aries' eyes closed and he just breathed deeply, concentrating on the sensation of air over his tongue. Meditation, he found, helped focus his mind. Reaching out slowly, he began to glimpse emotions. Anger, frustration, a pang of jealousy. There it was... the feeling of joy. His smile painted itself across his muzzle as he concentrated on the happiness he felt. 'Zaivior is joining the crew. I can't wait to see him again. It's been almost a year,' he thought.

The lift hissed to a stop and his eyes bolted open, watching the outside world as the doors opened onto the tan coloured deckplates. He walked through the corridors and to Airlock Five; the Main arrival hatch. Rounding the corner he saw seven figures of different shapes and sizes. A human boy with tan skin and vibrant scarlet hair cropped short to his head was bending down to adjust a strap on his overnight bag while another two, a black-furred wolf and a young Dane girl were talking with a smile. He looked among the others until he found a pair he recognized.

The Malamute saw him first, and jumped to attention. "Sir!" he saluted Trian and faced the wolf. All at once the other six jumped to attention and saluted likewise, in a line with bags forgotten.

Aries returned the salute, his pressed uniform bright in the light of the corridor with gleaming golden line shining brightly and stripes of Red and Orange cleanly cut across his chest. "At ease, Cadets; or should I say Ensigns?" the wolf asked after a moment.

"Ensigns, sir!" the Dane spoke up, as she folded her paws behind her back and stood down, the others following suit. Three yellow-violet striped chests, one blue-violet, three Yellow-orange. Engineers, a doctor, and pilots.

"Welcome aboard the Lupus, newbies. May I first say Congratulations on graduating," the black and red wolf looked them over, disciplined as they were. They stared straight, not one following him as he began to pace. "Now, you are going to go to medical and have a complete physical examination. Then you're going to report to your stations. You're going to tell your superior officers your name, rank, and serial number. You may want, over the course of the next few days, to report to Captain Kincaid."

In the few moments of silence, the recruits said in unison; "Yes Sir!"

"Move it Ensigns. You two," the wolf pointed out the golden-black and his friend. "Stay a moment."

"Yes, Commander," the entire group said, and all but Malamute and Lyrii-wolf stayed behind.

The Commander looked at the pair of them and smiled. "I'm proud of you Z," he grinned, stepping forward and tousling his son's hair. "You look good with that extra rank-pin."

Looking up, the boy half-scowled and tried to fix his hair. "Thanks Dad, but why did you ask us to stay?"

"You remember my old friend Shelby, right?" the wolf asked with a bit of a sigh. He picked up the boys' bags and began to walk. They followed quickly, Dante staying mostly silent.

Having to think for a moment, the gold and black furred boy tapped his chin a few times. Flexing his long and slender tail, the wolflynx nodded. "Oh! The woman with the glasses? The one that took over Uncle Jay's ship?"

"Yeah... We're going after the Phoenix Z. I just want to make sure you're prepared. We're probably going to be firing on your uncle's ship and I can't have you freezing up in a firefight."

The boy blinked and raised an eyebrow. "Unless I'm told to fire on the ship myself, I doubt it will come up, sir," he tossed the word around in his mouth, hated the taste, swallowed it anyway.

"Well, I can't have the people who keep this ship going unable to work. It would quickly devolve into chaos."

Dante looked between father and son and shook his head as they stepped onto the lift, for Aries it had been the fourth time in the last hour. As Zaivior nodded quietly, the husky glanced down at the bags. "I can carry those, sir," he offered with a smile.

"Nah, it's alright D. If there's one thing my cousin Axis taught me it was..." he trailed off for a moment and shook his head. The boys caught this and they looked down a little in thought. They knew what had happened after the fox had died. "It was how to carry your weight. These things are nothing."

Zaivior leaned over a little and whispered up at his friend with a little pride, "If you look closely, the straps are slack."

Aries twin tails flicked back and he looked over his shoulder at the two. "Ensigns. Medical is amidships, on the port side." He held the bags out as the doors opened for the lift. "I need to continue to command. I expect great things from you," he warned them as they took their heavy baggage.

Medical was a relatively small area, and the other newbies were still being checked out. Thankfully, the examinations seemed painless enough to the two friends. A female collie wearing a long white coat, like an extra long version of the Trian Uniform stood ready before them. A stripe of blue-purple split the uniform in the same fashion, but the coat remained open. She spoke in a duskier and more sultry voice than either of the boys expected as she queried them, notepad in hand.

"New recruits, huh?" she began. She seemed to be on the edge of boredom, slipping into apathy despite her friendly voice. She peeked at the baggage the two carried and nodded. With a sigh she asked them, "Alright, names?"

"Ta'Zavior Levi," the Wolf-Lyrii answered quickly, spelling it for her when she stumbled on the name. His smile perked a bit as he added, "But uh... everyone calls me Zee."

"Yeah, right," she rolled her eyes slightly, as though the young hybrid had flirted, and looked at the Malamute. "What's your name?"

"Dante," the husky spoke simply, standing attentive but at ease.

"Dante?" she asked with a bit of a quirked head.

"Yes. Dante," he reaffirmed, looking past the woman quietly.

"Oh... you're one of those..." she said, shaking her head. "Come with me, Ensigns. I'll be performing your examinations." She led them towards a pair of beds and asked them to strip as much as they were comfortable. She then left to look in on a sample she was running, as the boys began to undress.

Dante, in his naked glory, sat upon the edge of the bed and smiled at the collie with his big brown eyes. She just shook her head as she prepared his arm for bloodwork. Her nurse had tied off his arm already and she was quickly wiping down a spot with antibiotic gel. Piercing his skin with the needle, she let the small tube fill up with blood and nodded as the husky winced only slightly.

Applying pressure with a ball of absorbant material, she patted his arm a little and grinned as she slipped the needle back out. "Alright, that's the bloodwork out of the way. I've got your deep-tissue scans from the Academy, and your immunization records. Turns out you're missing several important vaccines," she smirked softly back at him and shook her head. "On your stomach, I'll be back for you."

She turned and from a tray held by an orderly she retrieved another bloodwork needle and some antibiotic gel. The nurse had already tied off the wolf-Lyrii's arm for her and was finding a vein.

"I hate needles..." the boy said quietly and looked to his companion. The Malamute was smirking over at him, laying on his stomach as though sunbathing.

Despite Dante's willingness to be naked, the poor, formerly abused hybrid was wearing the high-collared and short-sleeved uniform undershirt and his underwear. "It's not so bad once you get used to them..." the doctor spoke, grinning up at the boy. "Look away," she advised, and without another word she slipped the little needle into the boy's arm.

He winced but tried to keep calm, and quicker than he imagined it was over.

"Keep some pressure on it," she advised and grinned as she turned back to Dante and took one of the few syringes the nurse had already prepared. "Enjoying your tan?" she asked, smirking at the Malamute.

"I'm in Italy..." the husky said, his eyes closed. "The weather is beautiful," he added.

"Well, stay there," she said as she plunged the first needle into the husky's exposed rear.

Zaivior winced and began to breathe slowly and evenly. His sangine eyes were allowed to close and he statrted to picture Lemkin again. His ears flicked back and his eyes darted open as he heard the husky yelp a little.

"Oi! That's a little close to centre don't you think?" he spoke, turning a little and shaking his head. "You could at least have bought me dinner!" he grinned playfully.

The doctor looked unimpressed, but she smirked a little and was certainly not bored. "Cocky recruits..." she muttered, and turned back toward Zaivior. "Don't flirt with superiors boy. You'll not like the outcome."

"H-how many?" asked the wolf-Lyrii.

"Just the one," smiled the woman, and she produced a syringe with a crystal clear fluid within it. "Standard crew innoculation. You're actually well-vaccinated," she said, then hiked her head back toward the husky. "Unlike your friend here."

Dante had turned around and was sitting with a small grin as he watched his friend. "Don't worry Z, it's just a little prick and then it's gone," he comforted, but with his eyes the boy could read the innuendo thickly.

'I've had worse...' the hybrid thought quietly, and then found himself quickly falling into Dante's eyes.

Deep pools of amber-brown, like dark ale, that he was comfortable within. Fur so soft that the feeling of it under his pads had put him to sleep on several occasions. He had it hard for the 'mute. Dante knew, of course. How could he not. He wasn't content to let Zavior throw into a relationship though. He wanted the boy to be ready and so whenever the subject was brought up he would quickly dismiss it with a joke and much to Z's chagrin, would say things like, "We've got our whole lives. It's not unappealing, but I'm still looking for a mom for my kids."

"All done," said the doctor with a smile.

"Huh... really?" the boy queried, looking around a little surprisedly. "When?"

"Just now, Z. What? Didn't you feel it?" the Malamute said with a chuckle.

"No... guess I was distracted..."

"Well, you can get dressed boys. I'll be back in a minute," the doctor smiled and walked off, her uniform fluttering slightly as she returned to the lab for a moment.

The white cloth of their uniforms was quickly zipped and folded into place and the boys stood attentive as the doctor returned. "Right, Ensigns. Now I give you your assignments, you groan with disappointment, and we part ways," she said with a grin, handing them a PDA each with their timetables already showing and walking away.

They took their assignments and immediately compared. Dante sighed "Looks like... Tertiary Engineering for me," the home of the ship's power station and atmospheric recycling. "Maintenence roster... You?"

"Secondary engineering... I'm on the control roster," the boy said with some small excitement dashed with heavy disappointment. "Which means we won't be working together, and our schedules are going to conflict a lot."

The pair gave a groan of disappointment and the doctor grinned over from across the room. "I told you," she sung merrily, and began tending to her own independent research.

The boys shook their heads and took up their bags. "So, where are you going to sleep? Your quarters should be on there," the Malamute smiled to the Lyrii-wolf.

"Cabin F-39" was his quick reply.

"There's gotta be a mistake... that's my cabin."

"No mistake," the doctor said across the room again. She looked up and blushed, "Sorry, I hear everything. Crew quarters are cramped on the Lupus. We use all our space for important things like weapons, and shields. It's a big ship though, so you don't have to be on top of one another all the time."

The boys glanced at eachother, and then drew up their bags and left Medical with barely surpressed chortles passing their lips. "Who says on top of one another isn't fun?" the Husky chuckled. Despite the lack of an intimate connection, the two were often caught wrestling. They were close, like Sirians of old with pack mentality. Their own legends from days of Arthur and the knights of the round were strewn about with mention of packs of them 'crusading' together.

The two of them headed to their cabin to deposit their bags before going to their assigned posts. They were already in Slipspace by the time they reached their stations.

--

"So... what's involved in this examination?" asked Jasyn of the Phoenix' medic.

The man just shook his head with light frustration and leaned upon the bed that Epsilon had been put on. He stared across the nude fox to Jasyn and from behind hair the colour of a ripe apple, and eyes like caramel, the tan skinned man answered, "Well, we're going to attach these two nodes to his head, "he started, holding up a pair of gold coloured nubs with wires running from them into the table's console. He did not like to explain things, but he knew he had to anyway.

"And what are they supposed to do?" the grayfur asked, motioning to the man to continue. All of the brothers stood there, watching as well.

"Well..." the man returned, "we're going to electrocute him," he wryly retorted.

Jasyn reached over the table and grabbed the man's shirt, startling the fox beneath them. Scrambling up on his arms, the kitfox gazed blankly between the two, observing despite his body's urge to leave. "What did you just say?" the wolf growled at the man in his destroyed voice.

"I was joking!" the man gasped, the wolf's paw cutting off his air a little. When Jasyn released him a bit he resumed, "a little at least. They'll pass a low level electrical impulse through his brain. We'll be monitoring how his brain is wired by picking up the paths the signals take with the scanner."

Jasyn glared at him a little, and abruptly released the man with a push. "Hurt him... and you'll be dead before you can feel pain," the wolf warned, reaching down and taking gentle hold of the fox's paw.

"Jasyn...?" asked one of the brothers, Beta, as he stepped forward.

"It's okay Beta... I trust him," Alpha whispered, laying a paw upon the gloved fox's shoulder.

"And he trusts me, at least I hope he does..." Phillips spoke as she walked up behind the brothers with a catlike grace to her. "I've had this done to me. It's a little weird, but it's not going to hurt him."

The doctor affixed the small golden nubs upon the fox's skull. He very carefully brushed hair out of the way to do it and placed them as close to the skin as possible. The fox flinched a little, but a single pawsqueeze from Jasyn was enough to settle him.

"You're going to have to let go, sir," the doctor informed the wolf, slowly pulling something over the fox's eyes that looked similar to an NL band.

"It'll be okay, kit. I'm right here..." the wolf said, giving one final squeeze as he stepped back a little.

With a low buzz the machinery started up and the doctor began to scan the fox's head. "Alright... now I hope he stays as still as possible..."

Slowly, on the screen behind the doctor, the path of the electricity was shown. It was a very quick little shock that passed harmlessly from one side to the other, and the kit gasped a breath as it did.

"Alright, we'll let the computer deal with that for now..." the doctor told Jasyn as he pulled the machinery away from the kit. He looked up and asked quietly, "could you get him to come this way?"

The wolf pulled the fox up a bit and in only body language he asked him to stand. Thankfully, on an instinctual level, Epsilon understood and took a few chill steps towards a small patch of the medical bay that was a different colour.

"Could you get him to stand on that crosshair?" the doctor asked, pointing to a symbol painted upon the ground, right in the middle of the odd-coloured med-bay.

Jasyn led him onto it and the doctor asked him to step away.

A sudden white glow illuminated the fox from above and below, and he now stood, his eyes wide with quiet terror. Jasyn held up his hands and spoke softly to him. "Please... just stay still and we'll get through this..." he said, smiling comfortingly.

The fox watched him as this new machine shuddered to life. Thin bands of metal dropped from the ceiling and raised from the floor, quickly encompassing the fox and then just as suddenly disappearing. They seemed to do nothing, but the doctor grinned. "Oh yeah... that's beautiful!"

Jasyn blinked and looked over at the screen, and the doctor pointed at the spinning 3-D render of the fox. It seemed almost perfect, and the wolf smiled, and then looked surprised as the skin and fur faded and the muscles and organs were shown.

"Why did you need to put electricity through him to scan his brain?" the wolf asked. "I mean, if you can do this...?"

"Oh no, the electricity was to detect the paths inside the brain. The way that impulses pass when he's thinking normally. Since you can't possibly think using every single part of your brain at once, and we want to do this quickly, passing a low electric current-" the doctor began to explain.

"Forget I asked," Jasyn interrupted and pulled the fox quickly closer to see the scan. "So this is a Deep Tissue scan?" he asked.

"You've never had one?" the doctor asked. Everyone else had already crowded around. The technology was actually pretty new, and most people hadn't had one.

"Enough about my lack of personal medical attention. Why do you need this?"

The doctor blinked blankly as though he had no mind, and then startled himself and grinned, "Oh! This will show us any recent surgery. Anything that has been done to him before his body can repair itself will show up differently on this screen. It's because of the-"

"If they did something, we can see it. Gotcha," the wolf finished for him. The doctor rolled his eyes a bit and nodded. He turned his attention back to the screen and shook his head, then quickly whisked himself off to his office. The others followed, cramping into the tiny space.

Jasyn sat across from the man, with the young fox cradled in his lap, both looking at the doctor. Everyone else stood, and the doctor began to tap away at screens all around him, analyzing the results. "Well, it doesn't look like he's had many thoughts in his life. His brain is already making small connections with the thoughts he's had. He's taken no brain damage that I can see, however..."

Jasyn looked up from the top of the small fox's head. His eyes met the doctor's and the man continued.

"Well. His bloodwork is a perfect match for one August Levi," he said with a confused look. "An apparent casualty in the liberation."

"Augustus..." the wolf said quietly.

"What?" the doctor asked, leaning forward.

"His name is Augustus. Augustus Levi. The sole casualty in the battle of Liberty," the wolf said with a low growl.

The young fox looked up at the growl and shook his head. He had been given simple clothes, a cotton blend wrapping around him and restraining his fur. When Jasyn saw the response, he calmed down and the growl subsided.

"There is something else," the doctor added. "It showed up in the DT scan. He's had a few small incisions in his scalp. The pattern suggests an experimental procedure. It's been looked at for the last ten years, something called a Flash-scan. Basically, the procedure maps the chemical and electrical storage of memory and it stores them in a very massive file. Very complex."

"What do you mean?" asked Alpha, stepping forward and laying a hand upon the young fox's shoulder.

"Well, it would seem that his memories were copied by whoever had him before us. Maybe even erased. There's no real evidence of actual conscious memory. That's the strange part though. His unconscious memory is very complex for such an empty person..."

"That's what it was!" Gamma smacked himself on the forehead and shook his head. "The weird wiring was his subconscious. He has no real conscious thought!"

"It's possible they blocked his ability to access his conscious mind for a time," the doctor said, and then looked over the brain scan again. "Or maybe..." he squinted at the picture.

"What is maybe?" Phillips stood taller and looked through the brothers at the man.

"Yes... yes! That's what that empty space must be..." the man grinned and laid the picture flat. "The current completely avoided this spot in every test. As though that part of the brain was completely blocked off."

"So... what does that mean?" Jasyn asked, looking a little annoyed.

"Well, despite our experiments over the years... the brain is still a bit of a curious organ. But this section of his brain could be the part that makes him sentient. Blocked off from that, he relies on his instincts instead of his intellect."

"So..."

"Whoever he is, unless we can get rid of that blockage then he'll never be a sentient being. He might look like you, and move like you, but he's closer to Vulpes Vulpes than Siricanis Alopex," the doctor finished.

"His brain's more earth-fox than Sirian," Phillips said with a sigh.

"Yes, I'm not a complete idiot," the wolf sighed.

The little fox looked at the doctor and tilted his head. Alpha looked at him with an upset gaze and the others shared the look. The single-tailed pure-white brother raised an eyebrow and tilted his head a bit. "So... the comfort he feels around Jasyn is subconscious. He trusts him because of some inner voice?"

"I'm not a Psychologist, but in a nutshell would assume that's the case," the man said, leaning back a little.

Jasyn scooted the fox out of his lap and stood, nodding his head at the doctor. He began to walk out of the office and with just a single look between Jasyn and the others, the fox followed him.

Phillips slowly weaved her way through the departing foxes and stood over the crew doctor with an inquisitive gaze. "So... this means that he's not just an empty clone?" she asked with a tilt of her head.

"This gives very strong evidence that he actually is August Le-"

"Augustus," she corrected.

"Right, Augustus Levi. I don't think a clone would have to undergo those kinds of procedures to clear memory."

"Axis..." the woman sighed softly and turned toward the exit from the medical bay. "Doctor, keep looking for a way to reverse the effect."

"I can't give him any memories Ma'am. I don't have the training to fabricate them, nor the stored files to replace them."

"I want you t o remove that blockage, doctor. Let him become sentient again," she ordered quietly.

"Captain... I feel I should warn you. If I open his mind again, his active thought will start to register in memory. He may never be able to get his memory back if we do."

"Just get yourself ready to be able to do it. We might not have to. You should also start to train yourself in flash-scans."

"Alright Ma'am."

With that done, the woman took her leave, booted feet carrying her down the corridors and straight through the ship to the Mess Hall. She spotted the brothers, minus Epsilon who was probably in Jasyn's quarters, and strode towards them.

"Hey..." she greeted, half-heartedly as she sat down.

"What is it you want, Captain?" spat Delta, looking detestably at the commanding officer.

"Delta!" barked the pure white, who greeted her with a much warmer gesture. "What can we do for you, Captain?"

"So... Epsilon isn't a clone then," she said, phrased as a question but said as a statement. Her eyes watched Alpha and she shook her head. "Which means, Epsilon is Augustus Levi. He looks just like he did when I first met him..." the woman sighed a little.

"So then what? We're just genetic experiments? Altered copies?" asked the gloved brother darkly.

"Don't be so upset Beta. We always knew were genetic experiments," Gamma spoke almost soothingly, sinking down a little. It was a pleasant break from his bitterness.

The Captain tapped her fingers and looked out the window at the passing tendrils of slipspace, a kaleidoscope of colour passing before her eyes. "I hope that doesn't mean you're going to stop helping us..." she said with a determined voice.

"What do you mean?" Alpha considered, his ears swivelling forward to listen to her request.

"Well... we don't know what we're going to face when they catch up with us," she began, her brown eyes following her finger as she traced a pattern on the tabletop. "I want to find the first breathable atmosphere available and hide for a little bit. We're probably wanted for murder and theft. But we might need your talents. And certainly, four heads are better than one; Axis might have been good, but you all act like one mind in four bodies..." she trailed off, splitting the last word over a few seconds as a thought struck her.

"Captain? Is something the ma-"

"Can I ask you four to undergo an examination like Axis?" the woman's voice rose quickly.

"No way!" Delta spat.

Despite their brother's detestment, Alpha and Beta agreed. Gamma weighed his answer and spoke softly, "Depending on what you find with my brothers... I may."

"Good! Meet me in medical after you get a good meal in. Tell the chef I said Bambino. He'll treat you well." With that, the woman stood and darted from the Mess Hall with several curious gazes from crew and the brothers alike. Before she left, she tossed the chef the universal hand sign for "FOUR!".

--

Alraune stared up at the decapitated body and shook his head as he started to look for ways to pull the armour off. Suspended in the middle of one of the labs on the ship by several rope-like wires, the armour he had snatched from the surface was poked and prodded as he floated weightlessly in the room. As he went, he was making vocal observations and recording what he saw in quick snapshots every few seconds.

Slowly, but surely, he rid the body of it's armour. The black skin of the soldier was dotted with sparse red tufts of fur and it, no he, was muscular beyond belief. He had been at it for hours, and by the time he was done he had carefully placed what of the armour remained, which was a substantial amount, in the zero gravity. He forgot completely about the previously depressurized body as he set about looking at how the suit worked.

Mathieu knocked on the doorframe between the human's vocal observations and Aura looked up with a bit of a grin. "Mati! This thing is amazing!" he exclaimed.

"So that's what you grabbed, isn't that one of those soldiers?" the husky asked as he pushed himself into the null-G environment. The door skidded to a halt and he peered curiously at the devices.

Long channels that were barely visible against the obsidian metal carved intricate, circular, and maze-like patterns all over the armour. They seemed to branch from small domes, the Barrier Tech Hubs that he had studied on starships shrunken down to personal level. The entire left arm below the elbow was a phase-pulse cannon. More a rifle attached to the arm and designed to fit around, the cannon seamlessly connected to the rest of the armour with channels all it's own. The only unfortunate missing piece was the armoured helmet.

Mati remembered the crimson glow these suits had shone when facing them on the battlefield and he ran his fingers over the charred and pitted metal. "Phenomenal..." he said, looking over to his mate as just the slight touch of his fingers on the armour caused it to spin a little.

"It's like an MPN Body Suit. Infantry sized, true exoskeleton," the human grinned sidelong with his bright hazel eyes. "I'm guessing the black colour was designed for stealth operations, but the red was probably put in for intimidation."

The glow of Barrier Tech could be altered effectively without changing the way it worked, lending to a wide variety of achievable colours. "They could hide in the darkness until their enemy came up to them and nobody would even notice until it was too late..."

Closer look revealed similar shaped channels, much thinner etched into the metal and Mati gasped. "Holy shit... It's actually got the same kind of armour as a starship. Much smaller scale, but still very effective. That's probably why we had such a problem hurting them."

The boys looked at eachother and giggled maniacally. "Do you think-"

"Let's do it." Mati halted the question and grinned quietly as he joined in.

--

The brothers each sat in the infirmary, Alpha and Beta on examination tables and the other two in chairs pulled in from the 'waiting room'. Their examinations had been long-past and the brothers were just waiting for the analysis.

Staring at the display, the doctor shook his head a bit and rubbed his eyes. He had been staring for a long while. "Both the conscious and subconscious thought channels are nearly identical, which is strange in two comepletely different people. They do share a few of the same genes, so there's likely a relation... But they can't be genetic manipulations unless they've had accelerated growth..."

He peered over at the Deep Tissue scans and shook his head. "But that shows up..." he spoke to the Captain quietly.

"Have they been flash-scanned?" she asked quickly.

"Well, there are traces of incisions that would suggest they had been, but it was at a VERY early state in their development, impossible for their apparent age if the procedure has only been about ten years in trial."

"Are any of the connections actually identical? Any parts of their brains wired the same way?" asked the captain again.

"We're right here you know," Alpha raised a valid point.

The two glanced over and showed embarassment on their faces. "Sorry guys," Phillips said and motioned them over.

"They're both wired similarly, like I said..." the man sighed and crossed his arms in exacerbation. "They do have DNA in common with A. Levi," the doctor appended a moment later, "I mean, you do," he added.

"So, what are we? Clones, siblings?" Alpha asked with an eyebrow raised. The other brothers voiced a collective "yeah" in a way that said they wanted to know too.

"The evidence is high, I'm afraid," the doctor admitted. He had yet to introduce himself but none were concerned about that.

"But the evidence I want isn't here..." the captain grunted and shook her head.

"What evidence?" asked Beta, looking at her critically. His gaze was met and she started to explain.

"Yeah, Phil. I wanna know what you're looking for too," the doctor added with a grunt.

"Well... when we were talking in the mess hall. I said something like... you guys act like one mind in four bodies... I thought that there might be a way to pull Axis' memories out of your heads. But now that I look at these scans... sure the two of you are close, and there's evidence of Flash-Scans... We'd have to do one to find out for sure... but we won't even know what the memories are about..."

"Couldn't we just look for common storage? Memories that show up the same in all of us?" asked Gamma. "Hell... if I tried hard enough I could probably find the memories you're looking for in... any one of our brains."

"No... that's useless. You'd actually remember us if you have his memories. It would be in a blocked off section, and I was hoping I'd find one on these scans but... I'm not," the captain said, looking close again.

"So maybe it's in our unconscious minds?" Gamma added in suggestion.

"Hey! That dream we've had before! You remember... the one where we're flying?" Beta chimed.

"Oh, yeah! And we set down on some cluttered planet. There's gunfire all around and-" Alpha added in.

"And some weird insect things are attacking us. We're running toward a weird spire. Then something about... cryptic algorithims?" Delta spoke quickly.

Phillips stared in slack-jawed surprise at their recount. "Tell me more."

And so they did, from the flight and the pilot being shot out of the sky, to the shock that pulled them all from the dream one by one. In the end, only Alpha spoke, and as he finished describing the stairs and the hexagon shape of the windows, the captain was stunned.

"You just recounted the battle of Liberation. The assault on the Craganii Palace," the woman told them, her mind reeling at the prospect.

"Isn't that the fight where that Levi guy died?" The Doctor chimed in, and he was met with several deadly stares. "Okay, I mean obviously he didn't die but that's what's in the official report."

"Wait... but we all get pulled out at different parts of the dream..." Gamma spoke up, with a bit of a grunt.

"And even I don't make it all the way to the top floor..." Alpha added in with a bit of a shake of his head.

"Regardless, you've got memories from the inside of the battle of Liberation. There's maybe a hundred people on earth with memories of that fight. I've heard it so many times from a friend of mine." Shelby looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe... the memories are in your unconscious minds! They're not blocked off, they're just in a place you wouldn't be able to find normally anyway."

"So they would know how to use their abilities... but they wouldn't remember how they learned? Make it an instinct, instead of a memory?" the doctor asked.

"It seems possible... certainly," the captain spoke softly. "Do we have the space to store the amount of data necessary for a flash scan?"

"Maybe one... if we put all of the ship's non-critical data onto removable storage we might have enough room for two... why?"

"I... I have a theory," the woman spoke finally.

"If you want us to let your doctor cut into our skulls for some crazy science experiment you've got another thing comin-" Delta started.

"Brother... I don't think they're going to hurt us. We may as well try to help..." Alpha spoke, ever checking his siblings' outbursts.

"But what if they wipe our minds completely, by accident?"

"Until he can garuntee that he won't then we won't do it," Gamma spoke reasonably.

They looked at the doctor. "I can't garuntee anything... I've never done this sort of thing. It's weeks of reading and preparation, I'm sure."

"We'll see... I'm sure they've sent somebody to catch us, but damn I'm glad we're fast..."

Alpha looked tiredly at the captain and at the doctor. He looked between his brothers and shook his head. "I think we should all sleep on this... We might figure it out better that way..." he suggested with a half-yawn.

"Right," the doctor said. "We've got a while yet until we're in Andromeda."

"Half a week, given our speed," the Captain affirmed.

"Then, we'll talk more in the morning..." Alpha said, and promptly left the room.

--

Deep inside the ship, a grey coat of fur lay meshed against a white one as two figures lay in silence. Jasyn had grown a little since Axis' 'death'. The wolf was taller by a head, and as he hugged the small figure identical to his lover close he felt dirty for feeling so deeply for one so young. He had the courtesy to have worn pants though, and just watched the smaller figure breathing deeply as he slumbered, curled tightly against his warm fur.

The feeling was incredible to Jasyn, after eleven years without the feel of fur against his own, to finally feel the softness he had lost so long ago once more. He had never expected to run his paws over the gentle curves that Axis' body presented him and he lightly stroked the kit fox's side in reverie.

Ears flicking at the smallest noises out of the fox, Jasyn felt him press his nose deeper into his chest and the slow breaths quicken briefly as though remembering a scent. The fox shifted just a little more and relaxed against his body, and once more Jasyn's heart leapt with it's own joy as his mind tried desperately to keep it down. He had been crying from the second the fox curled against him right up until that moment where to him time and space were inconsequential. Not a thing but this small fox mattered to Jasyn in the world.

He closed his eyes and lay back, just holding tight to the youthful package in his arms, and surely in his mind the choir or angels had begun to sing. He was as prepared as he would likely ever be to die happy. His ears swivelled and his eyes bolted open as he heard a pair of syllables in a voice he was never going to forget. "Jasyn..."

Looking down at the little fox, he was certain that his Kit had spoken, but he didn't know if it was just some distant memory haunting him. He watched for a long while as, without another sound, the small figure lay there in blissful sleep and he brought the thought to fore that, "I was hearing things..." Without a hesitation further he laid back once more.

He hadn't let his eyes be closed for more than a minute when he felt the subtle shift of fur accompany the fox's jaw moving, and the word repeated. "Jasyn..." the fox definitely spoke and he bolted alert again and looked down at the sleeping figure.

"A-Axis?" he muttered softly, his ears swivelling to pick up any sound they could.

The fox dozed for several seconds, and then the sensation came back. "Jasyn..." and he saw, in the darkness, the fox's lips move.

He shifted his body to try and wake the sleeping fox, and he called quietly to him. "Axis... Axis please wake up," he begged, and the fox woke and looked blankly upon the wolf.

"Axis?" he asked, hopeful as he gazed upon the vacant stare.

He got no reply. Nothing at all that could be seen as recognition. He made a pained look and tried again. "Axis? Axis it's Jasyn..." the wolf's voice pleaded, broken sounds scraping over one another as they spilled quick from his lips.

Again, he got no reply. The fox looked blankly, almost in an expression of inquisitiveness, at him. He sighed softly and settled back down, patting his chest a bit to coax the young kit back down, and the action came easily enough to the blank boy.

"I'm hearing things..." rasped the tired wolf, as he closed his eyes and held the fox close again. Despite his mind telling him that he had heard the word several more times afterward, he fell asleep soon after.