Merged Worlds 4

Story by shetland on SoFurry

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#4 of Merged Worlds


Isaacs adventure by Raven Fox: Fourth story of Merged Worlds series. A young human male captured by the Photinos gets away from them, but ends up getting rescued by a group of felines.

A planet of the Photinos, a month after the merge.

"These fat lazy pig morphs would have me wiping their fat asses after taking shit if they could." Said the twenty two year old human male with red hair cleaning the house. He rubbed his green colored eyes with flecks of yellow in the color. Isaacs's days since the weird events a month ago have the young human male light years away from his home at Seattle Washington being a slave to a pig morph.

He was in his fourth year of college at Seattle Washington when large ugly spaceships landed at the college campus. Black furred pig morphs stormed out of the ships captured thousands of young humans and herded them on the ships. Isaacs was chosen by a crewmember to be his personal slave and fitted with an arm band that heated up when he displeased his master.

The human male put away the cleaning equipment and started fixing the evening meal. Grog his master walked in the dwelling looking at his slave, "Slave, after the meal, we got to pack to leave in the morning. My commander has been ordered to help out eighth fleet due to those dam felines destroying half of our ships of that group."

"Yes master, what would your slave be doing during his masters' assignment?" Isaacs asked the Photino.

Grog scratched his ugly snout looking at the human with his beady black eyes, "You will be in charge in keeping my stateroom cleaned and fixing the meals for the crew. If were lucky, the trip should last only a month. Those dam felines are very sneaky, but were better at fighting. Should only be on this assignment for a month." The pig morph finished eating his meal and went to his living quarters.

Isaacs followed his master and helped his master get ready for bed. The male human went to the kitchen area and had his small meal and cleaned the dinning area, "Dam Photinos, they're lazy as CEOs of large companies." He said to himself as he cleaned up his masters' mess.

Two days later, orbit behind a class M planets' moon.

The ship exited hyperspace parking behind the moon due to the high iron content of the core screws up scanners on starships except for the feline ships that had their systems modified. At the bridge, the different breeds of felines looked at the female cougar sitting at the captains' station, "Captain, we're in position, what are your orders?"

The feline grinned showing her lethal teeth, "Hold our position, another squad of Photino ships are heading here. Those slavers are a little upset that we cut their eighth fleet size by half. Our orders are to take care of the ships heading here."

One of the crewmembers looked at the captain, "I heard that those swine has captured some humans from the planet Earth. What are fleets' orders if we run into them?"

The ships' captain growled in disgust due to the felines hating races that practiced slavery, "Free them, I've been ordered by the Admiral to turn any humans over to him. If we run into any humans, free them by removing that dam arm band and take them to sickbay. If any of them are forced to fight us, stun them, when fighting the Photinos, set the setting to our weapons to kill."

The bridge crew nodded and did routine checks and started to wait for their unwanted guests. Ever since the Photinos have captured a good size chunk of the Earths' population, the pig morphs started raiding other races outer colonies. They seriously screwed up by messing with the feline race. Photinos thought they were unbeatable by their military strength, but the feline race has a better trained military and better discipline. The Photinos relied on slaves to do the dirty low end dangerous jobs.

Felines never practiced slavery and had their officers and enlisted do the jobs the Photinos would never do. So the pig morphs that practice slavery are outclassed.

The Photino ship, the mess decks.

Isaacs stood over the pot stirring the evening meal. The human male looked around and spit in the pot and continued stirring the contents. He sneezed in the pot and continued his work.

Grog walked in looking at his slave and walked to a group, "What's the word captain?"

The older Photino answered, "We're three hours from the planet where we lost half of eighth fleet. The plan is to exit hyperspace above the atmosphere and render aid. Eighth fleet has chased away the feline ships and they are waiting for us to start landings on this planet. After this meal is over, we're going to battle stations. The slaves are going to their masters staterooms when the meal is over, things are going to get very busy here soon and the last thing we need is a bunch of slaves being in the way."

Grog grunted and nodded.

The feline ship, three hours later.

The female cougar grinned when the three Photino ships exited hyperspace and joined the other ships. She knew that the other feline ships didn't run away, they were ordered to pull back and wait for reinforcements. Right now those ships are parked behind hers with the others outnumbering the Photinos. She said some orders and very quietly the feline ships moved in to the other ships cutting off the Photinos from escaping. The felines are a nice friendly race, the Photinos rubbed their fur the wrong way by attacking their colony on this planet, "Idiots, if I was in charge, I would have a quarter of that squadron of ships in high orbit to scan for ships heading here." The ships captain hissed.

Photino ship.

The ship started to enter the planets' atmosphere with the other ships. In formation, the ships started their attack on the planet below. Unknown to the Photinos, the hunter just became the hunted.

Feline ship.

The female cougar ran a hand thru her gold blonde colored head hair and grinned at the readings, "Wait, wait, now! Execute the micro jump!" She yelled as the jump engine wound up for the short jump.

Felines always kept an eye on talent while a talented officer goes up the ranks. The ships' captain goes by the name of Arcadia and the female cougar has a very sharp mind. During her second assignment as an LTJG, the ship she was on was disabled by a Photino attack that made the hyper drive inoperable. The young LTJG was the sole survivor of the engineering department. She did some jury rigged repairs using parts off the impulse engine controls to get the hyper drive to work. Arcadia saved the ship she was serving on and the Admiral at the time jumped her rank from LTJG to Lt. Commander reassigning her to advanced training to serve as ships' XO. The felines serving under her knew that they couldn't pull one on her, but they knew that she'll get them out in a bad situation.

Photino ship.

As the Photino ship entered the atmosphere, a lovely sleek ship appeared one hundred yards behind the enemy ship. The other Photino ships had the same thing happened to them. Weapons fired at the Photino ships causing problems with the invading ships causing their destruction. There was still one Photino ship, the one with the human from Earth serving as a slave.

Isaac felt the ship lurch and alarms went off. The human male fell on the hot floor giving him second degree burns on his hands and arms. He ran out of the stateroom and ran down the passageway avoiding the whimpering Photinos lying on the deck. Minutes passed, Isaacs made it to the escape pod area and slid down a tube to an escape pod. The human felt the pod lurched as it exited the ship. Thru the portal, he saw a nice looking ship chasing the Photino ship thru the atmosphere firing weapons fire at the ship. Escape pods exploded as they emerged from the Photino ship due to them getting hit from weapons fire, "Why didn't they fire on me?" Isaacs thought to himself as the pod fell to the planets' surface.

Seconds earlier, feline ship.

Xander, a male bobcat trained the laser sight to a Photino escape pod looking at the life sign reading, "Human is on that escape pod."

"Hold you fire gunner, track it and tell me where it lands at." Said Arcadia and turned her head to the Master Chief in charge of security, "Send a team to that pod and bring that human to me. One thing, make sure that the teams' weapons are set on stun. Those aren't my orders; those orders are from the fleet Admiral Kang." She said to the male tiger who nodded and walked off the bridge.

Photino escape pod.

Isaacs watched as the two ships grew small as the escape pod descended, "Who ever are piloting that feline ship is good. That took a lot of skill to exit a hyperspace jump one hundred yards from that ship and matching the speed of the Photino ship. No wonder the Photinos are getting their asses kicked by the cats, the cats are better starship pilots than them. That is one good captain to pull that stunt, which means the cats are not dumb and that captain has a very sharp mind. I wouldn't mind having a talk with that starship captain." Isaacs thought to himself watching as the Photino ship explodes.

Feline ship.

"Target destroyed captain, no other Photino ships left. We just destroyed the last one." Said the bobcat at the gunner station.

The female cougar had her lips pulled back whispering, "That's for the engineering department on the Nightsclaw you foul bastards."

Any crewmember who served with Arcadia knew about the destroyer called the Nightsclaw. It was her second ship that was ambushed by a Photino cruiser and was almost destroyed. Arcadia saved the ship by doing unorthodox repairs to the hyper drive allowing the ship to escape.

She shook her head and ordered, "Alright, coms, tell the Nightsclaw, Storm Mist, Lynx and Rapier to station themselves at high orbit with escorts. We knocked their blocks off, but let's keep our guard up in case they send us more targets." The last sentence earns her a few chuckles. Arcadia saw the personal stationed at scanners bent their heads to their instruments. She watched as a quarter of the fleet lifted to a higher orbit, "Does anybody know where that escape pod is located at?"

"Captain, it just landed ten miles South of Mt. Monza, the security shuttle should be landing there in two minutes." A male cougar replied from a scanning console earning a nod from the captain.

Photino escape pod, landing site.

Isaacs exited the escape pod glancing at the parachute billowing in the breeze. He slid onto the ground brushing himself off looking at his surroundings. The place he found himself at reminded him of Marysville Washington at home, "Well, find myself a place to give me shelter. Find a water supply and food, at least I can breathe." The human thought to himself taking the survival kit out of the pod and started walking away from the escape pod. He really didn't like the rations the Photinos use; to him they tasted like cardboard. Isaacs flinched as his burns were pulled causing him to yell in pain.

A few minutes later, a group of felines walked up to the escape pod and one of them looked inside, "He's on the move, all the survival stuff was taken out," Said Singin, a male feline who looked like a Siamese cat with brown markings. The feline who's an expert tracker looked around with his blue eyes. He looked at the side of the escape pod seeing a red smear with small bits of skin, "That human is injured, from the looks of it, I think the human has been burned. Looks like your services will be needed Isabella. " The feline said to female lynx who nodded.

"I am glad I took that course in the study of human anatomy. I heard we might be contacting them soon, but now they will be needing some major help. Any idea what happen to the Earth?" The lynx asked.

Singin shook his head looking at the scenery for any signs of the human.

"I bet the captain knows what happen to the Earth." Said another feline.

The group of felines walked around the escape pod and found a trail due to the cats being expert trackers. Singin grinned showing his sharp teeth and followed the trail, "Let's go find the human and free him or her." He said looking at the three female felines in the group.

A clearing half mile from the felines.

Isaac looked at the area seeing a large tree and walked to the shade. He sighed sat in the shade looking at the view, "This is a nice place to take a rest, I'll just rest for a few and see if I can find these felines. Maybe I might run into one of their towns..." The human muttered to himself falling asleep due to his injuries, the escape from the doomed ship and descent to the surface from space.

Minutes later, the group of felines spotted the human sleeping against the tree. They quietly walked up to the human male looking at him, "Such a shame to wake him up, but we have our orders." Said one of the felines.

The human male felt something kick his foot waking him up. He stifled a gasp looking at the felines looking at him causing him to raise his injured hands.

Singin looked at the burned hands and arms feeling anger at the Photinos. He did a gesture to the lynx who does an examination of the human. The feline watches as the med tech removes the arm band with a tool and spits on it after she threw it on the ground, "I bet the Photinos told you a lot of bad things about us. But we're more of a nice, kind and laid back race. What we did to that fleet of Photino ships was self-defense. Now we're going to take you to our ship and treat your injuries and our captain might be asking you some questions. Don't worry, she's a nice captain and very smart, if you can't answer any question, give your best explanation." Singin said to the human watching as Isabella smeared a burn cream on the humans' hands and arms.

Minutes later, the group boarded the shuttle. Isabella looked at the ugly yellow coveralls on the human, "Do you want to wear something different? We have spare clothing on this shuttle." The lynx said to the human watching as he removed his clothing.

Isaac hated the color of yellow and saw the different colors of the one piece uniforms on the felines. He heard some feline hisses and grows when he finished removing the coveralls.

Isabella saw different size scars on the skinny body on the human. There is wide scars from a device that heats up to cause that type of injury. She saw the thin scars of a whip that also heats up along with areas that small parts of where his skin was cut away, "I take it, that you're a fighter?"

The human looked at the feline and grinned, "It took them two and half weeks to get me to cooperate with them to be more obedient. The threat of castrating me made me decide to start cooperating and be a nice slave." Isaac said accepting a blue colored uniform.

Bridge of the feline ship.

"Captain, the away team has the human. They're on their way back, but the human was injured on the Photino ship. Isabella has to take him to the sickbay due to the humans' injuries." The male cougar growled when pictures of the whipped human are shown on his screen, "The pig bastards whipped and flayed him, I am glad that we blew their fat asses away just now."

"Stand down LT. we've been briefed of how the Photinos treat their slaves. This is the first time I heard of them flaying someone." Arcadia said walking up to the console looking at the pictures. Due to half to set an example of a ships' commanding officer, she had to restrain the urge of swearing and saying some phrases that would make a tiger fear her. The cougar looked at the condition of the humans' body knowing that he was starved to. She kept her calm demeanor and looked at the male cougar, "Include these pictures in the report." Arcadia lowered her voice to a whisper so only the com officer can only hear her, "Just to let you know, I feel like resurrecting the pigs so we just kill them again. I hate those Photinos a lot to because you know that they killed a few good friends of mine. I got to set an example as a ships' commanding officer of being calm in the presence of this crew and not loose it. I know that you want to find a Photino and rip his head off, so do I. Right now, file the report and don't forget the pictures, maybe we get a chance to free the humans that group of Photinos are holding. So relax LT. and file that report, maybe we will be in the group that frees those humans. Fleet admiral Kang I know will send a group to that planet where that human was held at. Because he has a grudge against them to because he was my commanding officer on the Nightsclaw." She walks to her seat.

Sickbay, minutes later.

The male human kept a straight face from the pain as bandages were applied to his hands and arms. He didn't want to show weakness to these felines as the female lynx bandaged his injuries.

"That is one tough human." Esmeralda thought to herself as she finished up treating the burns. The female lynx smelled the pain from the humans' sweat and saw it in his eyes, "Drink this, it will speed up the healing, we know human anatomy. It has a bunch of those vitamins and stuff you body needs." She said handing a cup to the human and let him lay down on the bed.

Esmeralda made a call to the captain and went to the office to fill out a report for the captain. She did see the condition of the humans' body when she did the pretreatment examination. The lynx wondered why someone would deliberately cause someone that type of harm on a life form. Esmeralda knew that she would half to do some more treatments to the humans' skin due to the missing areas where it was flayed off.

Twenty minutes later, the captain walked into sickbay. Memories went thru her mind of waking up in the Nightclaws' sickbay after she received a plasma shock after getting the ship into hyperspace. Arcadia saw a human male with red fur on the top of his head. The cougar sighed at the sight of both his hands and arms covered in bandages, "It's not your fault, it's the dam Photinos fault that he was burned. If they hadn't taken him as a slave, he would not have gotten burned and he will still be on Earth doing whatever young human males will be doing. I better see if I can get some useful information from him." She thought to herself.

Isaac heard someone clearing their throat and turned his head. Standing near the bed is a female cougar with a slim body looking at him with blue eyes with green mixed in the color, "Ah hello, my name is Isaac, I am from Everett Washington on the planet Earth. I bet you have some questions for me."

Arcadia nodded looking at the human male. She can tell that he's in his twenties by his late teenage gawkiness, "Be nice to him, he was a slave to those Photinos." The female cougar thought to herself figuring out how to start a conversation with the human.

He looked at those eyes and noted the mind behind them is very sharp and very intelligent. Isaac did look another look at the female cougar noting a few small white patches in the gold blonde colored head hair giving the appearance of highlights in the shoulder length hair. The human relaxed knowing that he just meet the starship captain who pulled that precise maneuver of piloting a starship hundred yards behind a Photino ship going thousands of miles an hour, "I think we're going to exchange tales." He thought to himself.

An hour later, sickbay.

Nodding to herself, Arcadia smiled to herself knowing what planet this human was at. Her race had an obligation to free the thousands of humans kept as slaves on that planet. It took skilful questioning of what showed up in the skies. Arcadia had the location down to two possible planets till the human told her of the appearance of a smaller green planet with white areas on the globe every two nights. She did a kind smile being careful of not showing her teeth.

Esmeralda walked up taking a look at the human noting his pallor, "Captain, I am sorry, he needs a few hours rest."

The female cougar nodded in agreement knowing better to start an argument with a ships' doctor. "Sorry Esmeralda, I just gotten engrossed talking with him."

The doctor nodded and grinned, "It's alright, don't want him ill when the Admiral talks with him."

Standing up, Arcadia turns back to the human, "I got to go, we'll talk when the doctor ok's it. As you might have guessed, I am the captain of this ship and I got to send a message about you to my commanding officer."

"That was a pretty neat move you pulled with those pig morphs. When I can, I'll tell you about the Picard Maneuver." Issac said to the feline and laid back on the sickbay bed.

She chuckled to herself as she left the sickbay, her people did picked T.V. signals from Earth. The female cougar was stationed on the Nightsclaw when the signal of that episode was broadcast back in 1987 finally reached her solar system. Arcadia found the maneuver quite neat in a tactical situation, "I'll let him describe it to me so I won't break his spirit, kind of cute for a human." She thought to herself.

Isaac relaxed on the bed and rested his head on the pillow. The human male watched as the female lynx walked up with a container with a straw. He accepted the container and looked at the feline, "I can tell from the look in your captains' eyes, you can't pull one on her. She must be very smart with a very sharp mind."

Esmeralda nodded in agreement taking the container after Isaac drank the contents, "You're right Isaac, she's the youngest captain in history. She had an interesting career, it will take a while to tell you that story. You noticed the white areas in her head hair, she has been badly injured on her second ship." The lynx looked at the container and looked back at Isaac, "If you ever wanted to get even with the Photinos, Arcadia will be backing you because she hates them very much because they killed a few friends of hers."

Hour's later, feline orbiting star base.

The older male lion morph read the report that was sent to him a few hours ago. Admiral Kang read the report for the second time taking in every word and look of the pictures of the whipped human. He knew the captain that wrote the report when she was an LTJG on his ship the Nightsclaw. The lion remembered when the young female cougar saved his ship and gotten injured in the process. He knew her father when he was taking orders from him, "She accomplished more than her father and outshined him. Adamson didn't complain at all, he just did one of his grins and said: That's my girl and I am really proud of her." Kane thought to himself filing the report and keyed the com, "Syeress, order the Lynxsclaw here when the Jaguar relives them. Tell Arcadia that I would like to have a word with her recently acquired human passenger."

Feline ship Lynxsclaw, heading to base, two days later.

Arcadia worked out in the gym doing some unarmed combat moves with one of the male tigers. The female cougar did some quick moves and ended up pinning the large feline on the floor.

"You must have seen something that has gotten your tail in a twist skipper." Said the command Master Chief.

The female cougar extended a hand helping the enlisted man onto his feet, "Sorry Master Chief, that human that was brought on board was whipped and flayed. He wasn't being cooperative with those pig bastards. It took a threat of castrating to make him obedient."

The Master Chief nodded brushing himself off, "They flayed someone?! When we punish someone we don't flay anyone. Flaying has been forbidden by our race for thousands of years, getting caught doing it is either exile or the death penalty. Anybody still doing it, I count them at the savage level." He looked at the cougar question ally, "You didn't show Admiral Kang the pictures?" Questioned the tiger and saw the captain nodding, "Now I know why we're going to base."

Arcadia turned seeing the human walking into the gym wearing a workout outfit. She wondered how Isaac talked Esmeralda into letting him do a workout in the gym. The cougar watched as the human did stretching exercising to loosen muscles.

Isaac looked at the captain while he stretched his muscles to loosen them up. He walked to a dummy that had the features of a Photino. The human took a several deep breaths and started going physical attacks on it.

The male tiger watched as the human no longer wearing bandages, but a type of sleeve on the arms and gloves did very quick attacks on the training dummy. He saw how the human blows would have done severe physical harm to anyone at the receiving end of the human attacks, "He's good, one thing he has is speed and discipline."

"With to much anger, got to teach him the lesson why you can't let anger control you." Said Arcadia walking to the human.

The human stopped his blinding attack on the dummy when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He saw the female cougar looking at him sternly, "I am not pushing myself maam."

"Those dummies cost a lot of credits and the tigers on my crew get very upset when someone breaks them. How about we go a few rounds to cool you off Isaac. If you beat me, you can bust as many dummies you want and I'll pay for the replacement ones you bust. If I win, when you want to bust something, you got to try to bust me up. One last exception, you will become a crewmember on my ship and become a member of Master Chiefs' division. He's chief of security of this ship and he can use someone like you." Said the cougar stepping in the middle of workout mat. She got in a fighting stance doing a come here gesture with one of her hands.

Isaac stretched some more and walked to the mat seeing felines watching him. He did a curtsy bow to the cougar and got in a fighting stance. The human admired how the workout outfit hugged the curves of the lean cougaress, giving a view of her nipples on her breasts and the camel toe at her private area. Isaac calmed himself looking at the lean and well curved body of the cougar and started his attack and the next thing he knew he was on the floor. He quickly got back on his feet feeling anger surging in him, but he knew what the feline wanted, "She wants me go berserk and loose control. No, be calm and give this smart adversary a discipline sparing match." The human thought to himself.

Arcadia saw the flash of anger in the humans' eyes for a split second, but he calmed himself, "Oh, Oh, he learns quickly." The feline thought to herself as the human attacked her again. She fought him off and stepped out of bounds.

"Matched tied, captain one, the human one. The next match decides the winner." Said the Master Chief acting as referee.

The two combatants did the bow again and gotten in a fighting stance. Seconds later, Isaac found himself on the floor again with Arcadia pinning him on the floor again. He looked at the blue green eyes staring at him. In a whisper, the cougar said, "You would make a great mate and sire strong cubs." She gets off him and pulled him onto his feet.

The Master Chief didn't hear what the captain said to the human. He watched as Arcadia walked the human to him.

"You have just gotten a new recruit." Said the cougar.

"Not for a couple of days. I've been looking for you Isaac! Nobody leaves my sickbay until I say that they can leave. Isaac, for sneaking out of sickbay, you're going to spend the next morning cleaning my sickbay." Esmeralda said to the human and looked at the captain who nodded saying that the doctor can discipline the human. The lynx turned to the Master Chief, "Any chance to have extra security near the sickbay so nothing like this won't happen again?" She asked the tiger who nodded. Esmeralda grabbed the humans' hand and started growling and hissing at the human in the lynx's' native language.

"OH, I don't think that's possible for a human." Said the cougar who understood lynx language. She heard the Master Chief laughing from the way the medical officer was yelling at the human. Arcadia turned to the tiger grinning, "Well, since that's over, do you want to go another round?"

The male tiger nodded getting in a fighting stance, "You won two rounds and I only have one win. When this is over, we'll be tied."

"Oh, when this is over, I'll be the victorious one. You taught me everything I know Aaron." Said the cougar with a grin.

Aaron smiled at his captain, "You came a long way since you were my student on the Jaguar." The two combatants did the bow to each other and started the round. (Authors' note: Let the readers of this story come to their own conclusions of that round. RAVEN FOX)

The next day, orbiting star base.

Fleet admiral Kang looked at the female cougar wearing the dress uniform of a starship captain. He chuckled to himself, "So when your ships' doctor is is going to release Isaac from the extra duty? Should have warned him of the temperament of the lynx race." The lion saw Arcadia cracked a grin for a spilt second.

"I forgot to brief my human guest of Esmeraldas' temper. Didn't expect him to sneak out of sickbay to do some working out in the ships' gym. She'll have him released from extra duty at 12:00." Said the cougar.

He nodded and did a quick glance of the report. Kang was wondering why one of his best starship captains wanted a human as part of her crew, "She was always a loner, she was one when she was on my ship. I guess she likes him or feels sorry from what he went thru. None of mine business unless it affects her performance of an officer." The lion clears his throat and replied, "Alright, this meeting is adjourned till 12:30. Bring your new crewmember here at the time I specified. I need to get some information from him and I need to get with some planners to teach the Photinos that there are consequences in attacking one of our colonies."

Arcadia stay still for a second, "Sir, I heard rumors that something strange has happened to the planet Earth. When we free those humans, what are we going to do with them sir?"

The lion sighed and slid a report to the cougar, "This report was written by the Squibs. At the current moment they're helping a few humans looking for missing other humans. The Photinos aren't the only beings who took humans off the Earth, there were a few other races that were responsible of taking the humans off their home planet."

The cougar nodded flipping thru the report, she rather liked that race of canines, "They build pretty good starships, around the same quality as the ones we make. But some of my friends think that the glowing blue eyes are strange." Arcadia thought to herself as she read the report. She has a few Squibs on her crew as a crew exchange program with that canine race and made a note to have a talk with them after this meeting.

12:29, admiral Kangs' office.

The male lion watched as Arcadia walked in his office with a human male. Kang saw that Isaac is still wearing the light tan colored gloves on his hands to protect his healing hands. He saw Arcadia whispered something to the human and saw him relaxed.

"Tell him everything you told me. Don't worry, he's really a friendly guy." Said the female cougar.

Isaac relaxed and told Kang everything, from the day of his capture. The two and a half weeks of starvation and being whipped, burned by a device. Then the technique of one of Photinos taking a piece of his skin and cutting the piece off. He heard Arcadia growled when he told of the castration threat. The human saw the lion unsheathed his large claws for a second and saw the features go stormy. Isaac then told of the time on the doomed ship and his escape and short hike, "I was tired and decided to take a short nap hoping to find a town soon. But I was woken up by a security team from Arcadias' ship. The ships' doctor told me that she has to do three more surgeries on me to replace the skin that was cut off me." The human said ending his story.

The lion stayed quiet calming himself. He took an instant liking to the human and felt fury to the Photinos. Kang ran the names to the engineering department who were killed on the Nightsclaw and looked at Arcadia who was the sole survivor from that space, "Ok, I did look over the report Arcadia sent to me. You were in the middle of your fourth year of college of advanced sciences. Here's what I am going to do with you, you will spend the morning on duty and after the lunch hour, you will finish your course and go thru training." He looks at the female cougar and smiled, "Send me a daily report of his training, I am glad you figured out where that Photino colony planet is at. I should know in a couple of days if we can rescue those humans. You're both are dismissed." The lion saw as both Arcadia and Isaac went to attention and did a crisp salute. Kang returned the courtesy and chuckled when they did about face and walked out of his office, "We did have permission to rescue those humans, but the Squibs want in the fun." The lion thought to himself.

The couple walked down the corridor being quiet. Isaac broke the silence, "I guess admiral Kang has to await orders from the civilian government."

Arcadia nodded in agreement, "He does, this is the first time I found out that there is a two day delay for an answer. I guess humans being in the equation is making them cautious in that decision, don't worry Isaac, there's a ninety-nine percent that we will be doing that mission."

That night Arcadias stateroom.

She was about to get to bed when her communicator beeped. Arcadia opened the message and saw admiral Kang on the screen, "Got the answer early sir?"

The lion morph nodded, "We had permission since the morning, but, the Squibs want to be part of the rescue force. The rescued humans are going to be given a choice, returned to their planet or live with the Squibs or us. They already did a scan of that planet done to do a count of the humans and Photinos. One of their ships is going to dock with the station tomorrow afternoon with all the data. I think you would want to know your target before you do an attack. We're going to do the attack with ten ships, five of ours and five of the Squibs. Report to me at 1500 hours and I'll tell you the rest of the plan." His image vanishes on the screen.

The female cougar grinned to herself in the dark while getting in her bed. She thought of the human she rescued from the Photinos and rubbed herself. Right now Isaac is in sickbay in surgery getting some of his skin replaced on his back. Ever since he's been on the ship, the human had to sleep on his abdomen, "I had to do that for three days in a star base sickbay. I know what you're going thru, maybe in a few days I'll invite you to my stateroom." The female cougar thought to herself working a finger inside herself and moaned minutes later.

The next day, 1500 hours, admirals' office.

Arcadia walked in the office giving her commanding officer a salute. She saw ten Squibs in the office with her. The canine morphs that looked like fennec foxes with sable color of a collie were going thru data slates looking at pictures.

One of the male Squibs looked at her with his light blue glowing eyes, "Captain, I am Ziane captain of the ship that just docked here. We have some reconnaissance photos of that planet with a stealth probe. The probe is the size of a two drawer filing cabinet. If any chance of a Photino seeing it, it will look like a piece of space junk."

The cougar smiled as she studied the photos on the data slate. There is an orbiting base that is set up like a small city. Arcadia saw humans in those ugly yellow coveralls being whipped while doing cleaning up of the town. Anger boiled in her seeing the pig morphs laying on lounge chairs having female humans hand feed them, "What a lazy bunch they are, how do they managed to operate starships?" She asked the group of canines.

Ziane shook his head grimly, "They have enslaved races build their ships along with some of my people they capture. I don't think they can build a starship by themselves because they don't expose themselves to dangerous situations like building stuff in the vacuum of space. There is a difference in the quality of a starship built by slaves compared to one built by free beings being paid and at a set working day."

Arcadia nodded in agreement by the quality of her peoples starships. The Nightsclaw has been under fire more intense then the recent Photino ship she destroyed above the colony. Right now the Nightsclaw is still serving her people after spending a year of repairs in a space dock. The Photino ship went to pieces and the pieces burned up in the atmosphere, "Along with the bastard master that treated Isaac like an animal." The cougar thought to herself and smiled, "I am glad that you got that data for us, because now we know that we got to rescue those humans on that station. It's about time we do a joint operation together as allies." She said in a kind way earning a grin and nod from admiral Kang.

Three days later Photino colony planet orbiting station.

At the station, the Photinos went about their routine of being lazy of having their personal slaves take care of their needs. Unknown to them, ten ships exited hyperspace at the polar region at the North of the planet. Squib reconnaissance reveled that there is a dead zone where no scanners or sensors work at.

Feline ship.

Arcadia grinned to herself looking at the other nine ships in her group on the scanners. The female cougar ran the attack plan in her mind and watched as the bridge crew went to battle stations. Right now, she knew that Isaac will be at his station getting issued his weapons. He told her that he's a U.S. Marine reservist and been assigned to a hostage rescue unit, "I'll see how he does during this mission. He would either do well or need more training. Master Chief Aaron is good at evaluating a new recruit." Arcadia thought to herself.

Photino space station.

Charles gritted his teeth while serving the female Photino, "I don't count those things as females." The male human with brown hair and green eyes thought to himself and looked at the group of female Photinos wearing skimpy clothing. He shuddered when one of them gestured him to come to her.

"Slave, another drink now! After that, you will massage my feet." Ordered the female Photino.

The twenty eight year old human male shuddered again and walked to the bar. He'll never make it to the bar due to a column of blue white light appearing in front of him in the court yard. A form materialized in front of him taking the appearance of a human male with red hair wearing medium blue uniform. Charles saw green human eyes with fleck of yellow in the irises, "What the hell....?"

"United States Marines, all civilians, hit the deck!" The figure yelled as more forms materialized.

The human male hit the floor face down covering the back of his head with his hands hearing a strange twang noise firing over him with the squeals of Photinos dying. Keeping his breathing steady, Charles listen as figures ran near him hearing strange voices telling the other slaves keep down. It seems like hours passed before a hand grabbed him. He saw light blue eyes looking at him framed by a feline features, "What the....?" The human male asked the female lynx.

Esmeralda helped the human on his feet running a medical scanner on the human. The female feline saw a human male standing the same height as her. He got her attention when she saw patches of blood on his back of those ugly yellow coveralls when he was laying on the ground, "Relax, you're safe, let me finish this examination." She said finishing up the examination on the human. Esmeralda contained a growl looking at the readout on the scanner and then removed the arm band throwing it on the ground spitting on it. The female feline gestured a medic to her, "Take this one to sickbay, he's been flayed like Isaac. Sedate him for now, when I can, I'll do a more thorough examination when I can." The lynx said to another lynx.

At the current moment, Isaac is finishing up taking the station from the Photinos. Minutes later, he was walking in the court yard looking at the view thru the force field bubble. In the view, the group of feline and Squib ships were finishing off the Photino ships at orbit, "Those small canines with the glowing blue eyes build pretty ships to. One thing, they're pretty nasty fighters." The human male thought to himself remembering that the Squibs didn't take prisoners to like the felines. Isaac is glad he didn't either have any those races mad at him. He then saw the Squib ships started to enter the atmosphere and some of the feline ships move to a defensive posture.

Hour's later, sickbay of feline ship Lynxsclaw.

Charles felt something on his bare back which cases him awake. He felt some warm liquid pour at points on his back and legs. There is cussing in the air as more work was done on his back.

"He's worse than Isaac, I got to do some skin grafts on him. It will take four operations for him to make a full recovery. There are four more like him other than the heated whip marks on the others. The leaders are going to get mad at the Photinos after this." The lynx said looking at the readouts.

"What's the verdict doc?" Asked the human muttering.

She walked around and looked at him, "You'll live, you're stuck in my sickbay till I said it's ok for you to leave. What ever you do, don't sneak out of here." Esmeralda said to the human giving him a look.

"Just to let you know, I had three months left before I finish medical school. I am curious, how are you going to do those skin grafts." Charles asked the lynx.

"Oh, when you were sedated, I took a sample of your DNA, then I take that sample to a solution tank and grow you some new skin. The first batch won't be ready for another twenty four hours. I can only grow so much in a batch and that's' why it's going to take four treatments." The lynx asked some difficult questions to the human to confirm he has had medical training. She made her decision regarding this human, "I am going to talk to my commanding officer to see if I can finish your training. It would be an advantage to us to have a trained human to treat other humans. You could be very useful to us in the future." Esmeralda said to Charles and they talked some more.

Captains' cabin, a day later.

Arcadia read the reports of the recent battle from the different crews. Of the ten thousand humans rescued from the planet and station. Five hundred want to live with the Squibs, another five hundred wanted to live with her people, "With the rest going back to Earth, the one thousand are from the furry community. Five hundred were canine lovers wanted to live with the Squibs, with the other five hundred being feline lovers." The cougar thinking to herself reading Master Chief Aarons' report of how Isaac performed on the rescue. She found out that one of the formal slaves is a doctor in training and is in need of surgeries to repair his skin like Isaac. Arcadia did a call to someone to come to her cabin, "Can't wait, I need him, but I'll sweet talk him first. I am the captain of this ship and I can do anything I want, plus rank has privileges." The cougar thought to herself.

Isaac walked to the captains' cabin knocking on the door hearing the feline call him in. He walked in the cabin looking at his surroundings seeing the Captain sitting at a desk writing on a data slate. She looked at his gesturing him to sit on a chair before he can go to attention, "What can I do for you maam?" The human politely asked her.

"Your race must be very stubborn in order to cause the Photinos to flay slaves. Of the ten thousand we got off that planet and station, four hundred were flayed like you. One hundred are on our five ships, the three hundred are on the Squib ships. It turned out that one thousand of the slaves were members of the furry community." The cougar walked around her desk and stood next to him, "Are you a member?" She asked.

"Yes I am, I am what they call a feline lover...oh." He answered and was surprised when she sat on his lap facing him. Isaac is now looking at her features with her blue green colored eyes gazing at him. The male human gazed at the lean feline in front of him. He watched as Arcadia unzipped the uniform giving him a nice view. The male human saw different shades of tan of the belly and torso fur with a black bra containing medium size breasts.

"I just love feline lovers, are you curious and willing to try a cougar?" She asked and smiled at his nodding. Arcadia undid Isaacs' uniform top, trousers and underwear releasing the humans' harden member. Reaching back, the cougar removed her bra and removed her panties. She gave Isaac a kiss feeling him fondle her breasts. Arcadia stood up grabbing his member and sat on it feeling it enter her vaginal canal.

He was upset and feeling joy while having sex with the cougar, but his hands are still in the gloves due to his healing burns, "Can't feel those nice breasts and fur, but oh well." The human thought to himself as he returned Arcadias' kiss. Isaac hugged her running his on her back feeling some healed injuries on her back. He looked over her shoulder seeing a few areas where her fur is white.

Arcadia looked at the humans' back seeing pink colored areas where his skin was replaced. Anger flashed momentary in her mind wondering why a space faring race like the hated Photinos still use savage tactics like flaying on someone. The cougar put that thought out of her mind looked her lover over inspecting Isaacs' body. He has gotten some muscle back on his body giving him a nice lean build, "I am glad that he still has his equipment, but he's the same size as other felines. Never did like that barb or hook at the end of a felines' penis, prefer this smooth texture of human penis." Arcadia thought to herself feeling the human placing his face at her breasts.

Since he can't feel anything with his hands, Isaac placed his face at the cougars' firm breasts. Inhaling her scent, the human enjoyed the feeling of the soft fur and the firmness of the breast tissue. Isaac felt her hands massaged his scalp gently.

Sickbay the same moment.

Charles kissed the female lynx running a hand thru the long black head hair. He stroked the gray fur and stroked the firm breasts with pink nipples poking thru the fur. The male human looked at the blue eyes and heard her sigh with pleasure. Charles had made Esmeralda orgasm a couple times during this session of sex. He always loved anthropomorphic felines while reading furry websites, he did have fantasies of meeting a female tiger. At the current moment, the male human is really in love with this petite lynx loving her slim body, "Not to large or small, just a pleasant handful." Charles thought to himself fondling a medium size breast.

The lynx is laying on her back being at the receiving end of the humans' penis. She's relaxed at the current moment feeling tension of the last few days ease away from her, "Sex is one way to get rid of tension." Esmeralda thought to herself seeing her human lover made a face and then he yelled and she felt something squirt inside her.

He relaxed feeling his organ slide outside of the lynx and lay on his side panting, "Sorry, I need to relax, not quite recovered from being the Photinos quest." The human said looking at Esmeralda admiring the view of her.

Esmeralda relaxed and ran a hand on his chin looking at him with kindness, "Let's just take it easy because I got to do two more surgeries on you." The lynx said standing up and put back on her clothes looking at him. She does the finishing touches on her uniform and watched Charles put back on his clothing, "I can say, you're making a fine recovery so far. I would bet that you'll be making a full recovery in a week." Esmeralda said in a gentle tone and gave Charles a kiss, "I'll do another full examination tomorrow after I am done with my shift." The lynx walks out of sickbay,

Charles lay on the pillow of his bed grinning. The human prefers living with the feline race over the Photinos any day. He was offered a chance to return to Earth, but his relatives disowned him and his girlfriend broke up with him when he went to medical school instead of law school. Charles rather help people instead of defending crooks, "After rubbing those fat gross feet of female Photinos turned me off on human females. I still like females, but I prefer female queens or felines. But in reality, I have a thing with lynxes." The human thought to himself going to sleep.

Captains cabin, later that night.

"So, do you want to stay on this ship as my mate?" Asked Arcadia looking at Isaac with her blue colored eyes with green mixed in the color.

Isaac nodded at the naked cougar wearing her uniform undone giving him a nice view of her body. He found the sight erotic of her sitting on his naked lap. The site of the medium furry breasts caused his organ to harden again.

The cougar looked at the harden organ and grinned at him, "Looks like I am keeping in my cabin for a little bit longer."

"I see no problem with that." Isaac said to his commanding officer feeling a warm wetness engulfing his member.

Epilogue, a few years later. Star base orbiting feline home world.

Charles walked to the admirals' office nodding at the human male guard with red hair, "I take it, my mate summon you." Replied Isaac with a grin.

"Yeah, I got to give her a report of medical supplies for the fleet." The male human said going in the office.

Arcadia looked at the medical officer with a grin and her expression turned serious, "We're joining the Squibs in rescuing humans and Squibs at an outer Photino colony. It seems they're still trying to recapture and harass humans they spot on other planets. Some other species are getting pretty angry at them when they try to take humans off their planets where they say humans are protected. So we got to teach them another lesson, they got to get it thru their thick heads taking people off planets is illegal as hell. What's the medical supply situation?"

The male human spent the next few minutes telling the cougar of the readiness and a viability of medical supplies, "So when's the big day?"

The cougar stood up rubbing her pregnant abdomen, "In one month and this male cub will be born. He will be a cougar like me. I was hoping toward human because I never saw a human infant."

"Human infants are weird looking, hairless and chubby." Answered Charles with a grin, "Got to check on my wife and daughter. See you later admiral." The male human salutes and walked out of the office.

Arcadia sat back on her seat rubbing her abdomen. How she misses sitting on the command chair on a ship going to planet and planet, "You only get to sit on the chair once in your life and that's it. Oh to be sitting on the command chair of the Lynxsclaw again." She thinks to herself waiting till she can go home with her mate.

Isaac watched as Charles walked away and resumed his duty guarding his mate. He sighed thinking of his nights with his mate. When a female cougar is pregnant, they're very horny, "Don't mind it one bit, I love and care about her a lot. I am glad that her sire accepted me along with the other felines of her people." The human thought to himself as felines and Squibs walked pass him. THE END

Bonus short story.

Arcadias' trial.

Feline star base, years earlier.

Ltjg Arcadia walked down a passage to her new assignment the destroyer Nightsclaw. The female cougar stopped looking thru a view port at the sleek star ship moored at the base. She watched as shuttles maneuvered around the ship. Picking up her bag personal belongings, Arcadia walked up to airlock that leads to her new ship, "Ltjg Arcadia Adamson reporting for duty." The cougar said to the male lynx acting as officer of the watch.

The male lynx looked at the orders presented to him. He read the name and the orders, "Do you know Admiral Adamson?"

She sighed to herself because of her famous sire, "He's my sire."

"Don't worry, you should be honored of being the cub of him. He was my first commanding officer." The lynx said with a grin and talks on a com device. A minute later, he gets a reply, "Captain Kang wants to talk to you when you get on board."

The female cougar nodded and walked onto her new command. She knew this class of ship because she spent a week on this class of ship as a midshipman. Arcadia dug in her memory of the where abouts of the captains' cabin and started to walk to the cabin.

Captains' cabin.

The male lion heard the knocking of the door, "Enter!" The door opened and a young female cougar walked in smartly giving him a crisp salute. Kang looked at his newest crewmember over. She is the female version of her sire. The male lion saw blue eyes with green mixed in the irises looking back at him, "Her sire has blue only in the eye color. I think the green is from her mother. She's more like her sire from the way she's looking at me." He thought to himself and smiled, "We're leaving the base in a few hours to do a standard patrol of the gamma sector."

Arcadia nodded and listened to her new commanding officer. She already liked him already because he's not giving her any special treatment because of her sire.

Kang finished giving his newest crewmember the welcome aboard speech, "I am assigning you to engineering as the MPA because the MPA is transferring in a few weeks. (MPA is the abbreviation for Main Propulsion Assistant. The assistant to a chief engineer. RAVEN FOX)

The female cougar saluted and walked to her assigned stateroom unpacking her belongings. She knew that she had to be in engineering in an hour. Arcadia unpacked the final uniform and walked to engineering.

Dale the chief engineer watched as a female cougar walked in his space, she looked at him and walked up to him handing him her orders.

Arcadia saw the male bobcat looking at her seeing the Lt bars on his collar. She gave him her orders and watched as the male feline read her orders. The cougar watched the chief engineers' features as he read her name.

"So LTJG, you been on this class before?" He asked.

"Yes sir, I was on the Lionsclaw for a week when I was a Midshipman." She answered standing at attention.

"Just Dale or Lt. Arcadia, as long as you do your job and listen to me, we'll get along fine. Come on, I'll introduce you to the rest of the department." Dale said to her and led her to the department.

Five days later, Gamma quadrant.

Arcadia looked at the readings on the console as she did a glance at the readings. She loved this ship and liked the personal she's works' with. The engineering department treated her like another member of their group instead of an Admirals daughter.

The chief engineer watched as the cougar studied the consoles while holding a data slate. He heard that his newest MPA spends her extra time studying every switch and diagram of the engineering plant, "The way she acts', Arcadia will have my job in a year. I think she wants to advance thru the ranks by hard work and studying instead of help from her sire." Dale thought to himself respecting his newest member of engineering.

Bridge, a few hours later.

"Captain, we're receiving a distress call from a passenger liner near the outer boundary to the Photino sector." Said the com officer, a male lynx.

The lion at the command chair nodded, "Tell the passenger liner that we're on our way. Get a location of their whereabouts and program it to the navigation computer." A few minutes later Kang ordered, "Alright, step on it, raise shields and put the ship on Yellow alert." He watched as the stars streaked.

Hours later, the ship exited hyperspace. Kang ordered a sensor sweep of the area, "This is the coordinates of where the ship should be." He inquired the com officer.

"Yes captain, these are the ones I was given by the ships' com watch." The com officer answered double checking his equipment. The bobcat called the ship again and again.

Kang looked at the view screen running thoughts thru his head. An ugly ship suddenly appeared out of a hyperspace jump and started firing at the feline ship, "Raise shields!" The lion yelled as the ship shuddered.

In the engineering space, Arcadia is thrown against the console and onto the deck. She looked at the core area where the other members of the department were doing routine checks. There's the sound of metal tearing as the overhead disappeared at the core area and the engineering department was sucked out of the space. What saved the cougar was an emergency force field appearing saving the cougar from joining the engineering department into space. The ship shuddered again and Arcadia gained her senses and started repairs, "Shields, weapons, then fix the hyper drive." She thought to herself very fast as she reset the circuits to the shields and weapons.

On the bridge, the tactical officer watched as the shield indicator went from red to green. The female tiger watched as two laser banks came back online, "Captain, engineering has restored shields and we have two laser cannons back online. I think the torpedo launcher is damaged because we don't have it back online."

The captain on the command chair nodded, "Let's warp out of here, that's a Photino cruiser, without torpedoes, we don't stand a chance against that thing. Step on it, we need to get out of here."

The Squib at the helm station nodded and activated the controls, "Sir, the hyper drive is not working. We only have impulse."

"Engineering, we need wrap or we're done for!" Yelled Kang into the com pickup in his chair.

Inside engineering, the cougar, the only survivor ran checks on the hyper drive, "The command from the bridge is not getting here." Arcadia thought to herself and started to take the control panel apart. Inside the panel, she saw damaged circuits to the hyper drive. The ship shuddered again.

"Engineering! Is there anyone breathing down there!" The captains' voice bellowed from the speaker.

At the bridge, an officer looked at her view screen showing the outside of the ship. The female lion saw the exterior of the ship at engineering area giving her a view of the core that supplies power to the ship, "Captain, I don't think there's anybody alive in engineering." She moves the view to the forward one everyone on the bridge can see.

"There's got to be someone alive because we got some stuff restored." The female Squib at the helm station replied, "Sir, we just lost the impulse engines." As the ship stopped.

Kang turned his head to the security officer, "Take any personal who knows something about the power plant to engineering and get this ship moving."

The security officer left the bridge grabbing one of the Squibs from a science station and went to the turbo lift.

In the engineering space, Arcadia moved the impulse engine control circuits to the circuit to the hyper drive. The cougar wired the circuits to the hyper drive watching as indicators lights went green. Five security personal walked in the engineering space looking at the large hole above the core.

The Squib in the party saw a female cougar working on a control console as the ship shuddered. He rather admired the feline being the only living being in the space working while the ship is getting hammered by weapons fire. Peseta saw the large hole over the core thru the transparent force field, "What's the status of the hyper drive!" He yelled at the cougar.

She turned to the security personal, "It's fixed, you got to use the impulse engine controls to engage the hyper drive." Arcadia went to a com pickup, "Bridge, engineering, hyper drive is fixed. You got to use the impulse engine controls to engage the hyper drive."

At the bridge, the Squib at the helm station programmed the ship to the nearest star base. She slid the impulse engine control to full and watched as the stars streaked.

In the engineering space, the female cougar heard the hyper drive wound up. She grinned and looked at the security personal as a power conduit exploded behind her.

Hour's later, sickbay.

Arcadia opened her eyes finding herself lying on her stomach. She felt pain on her back and scalp, "Uh, what happened?"

A female lynx with blue eyes and black head hair walked up to her, "A power conduit overloaded and exploded behind you. The ship is still in hyperspace and is heading to the nearest star base. As for you, you have bad burns on your back and multiple lacerations on your scalp. The areas will grow white fur, but you can dye them back to your regular color."

"No, I am leaving those areas white, because after what I did, my sire would look down on me if I dye those areas. He considers marks like that, a badge of honor." The cougar looks at the lynx, "Didn't get your name."

"Esmeralda, my name is Ensign Esmeralda." Said the lynx looking at the cougar, "The captain should be here in a few minutes."

Arcadia nodded and saw a few other personal in the sickbay, "I am the only one from engineering in the sickbay." The cougar thought to herself as a tear slid out of one of her eyes.

Star base, a few hours later.

The smaller ships stood in standby for a damaged starship to exit here. The personal watched as a destroyer exited hyper space. They heard of how the sole survivor of engineering managed to get the hyper drive working again and the identity of the engineer who saved the ship. The engineers' sire is now in the star base waiting for the destroyer to moor at the repair section.

Kang saw the star base in the distance and the space tugs moving in position to tow his ship. Right now the ship doesn't have impulse engines to move the ship. The only personal that can reverse the repairs and restore impulse drive is now in sickbay laid up on her stomach, "The rest of the engineering department had gotten sucked out of the space. Arcadia was doing routine checks at a control panel because Dale ordered her to do those checks. If he hadn't ordered her to do those checks, she would have been with the rest of the department at the core." The lion shudders at the thought of what would of happen if he lost his entire engineering department, "Would have been slaves to the Photinos."

Adamson watched as the damaged starship moored to the repair yards. He looked at the damaged sections and saw the large hole at the engineering section giving him a view of the core. The cougar looked at the relief crew nearby to shut systems down and take over the jobs that the ships' engineering department would normally would, "The whole engineering department gone except for my daughter." The Admiral thought to himself as injured personal walked out of the airlock from the ship. An injured female cougar on a gurney was wheeled pass him.

At the bridge, Kang heard an announcement, "Admiral of the fleet arriving!" The lion tensed for the next few minutes as the bridge grew quiet. The turbo lift doors opened, "Attention on deck!" The security officer yelled as Adamson walked on the bridge making a beeline to Kang.

"What happen out there?" The Admiral asked the lion in his calm voice.

"We were ambushed by a Photino cruiser sir. We were lured to it by a distress call, we have all the recordings. If it weren't for your daughter sir, we will all be new slaves of them sir." He answered, he was telling the truth. While he was yelling at the engine room for hyperspace travel, Arcadia was calmly doing repairs to get the ship into hyperspace.

"You know that I got to do an investigation on this incident Kang." The cougar calmly told his friend watching the lion nodding.

A few weeks later, feline home world, a court-martial.

Kang sat near the judges looking at the different admirals and captains deciding his fate. The door to the court opened and a group of Squibs walked up to the judges with a pile of data slates, "We have evidence to exonerate captain Kang of the Nightsclaw sirs." Said a male Squib in uniform with the rank of a captain.

The fleet admiral shook his head taking the data slates and looked at the canine, "What you mean, that this evidence will help out captain Kang?"

The Squib click a remote and a star chart appeared showing the Gamma sector. Red dots were at some areas, the sable colored canine that looked like a fennec fox explained pointing at each dot, "Here is where the lizard race lost one of their newest destroyers. Here is where we lost an experimental destroyer and here is where you almost lost the Nightsclaw."

The tiger replied, "I get it, you and some other space faring races lost some armed warships at that sector and we almost lost a destroyer. This evidence is accepted for us to study and thank you captain."

Kang smiled at the group of canines as they walked out of the courtroom. He defense lawyer looked at him, "Be glad that you allowed their cadets on your ship sir."

"If I can turn back time before this happen, I will still allow Squib cadets on my ship." The lion answered as his trial resumed.

A week later, judgment day.

Kang walked in the courtroom and sat down. Arcadia sat down next to him looking at him, "How are you doing?"

The female cougar is still thin and he can see a thick bandage on her back under the uniform. Kang saw shaved areas in her golden blonde head hair, "I am doing fine sir, that was the first time I lost some personal under my command sir."

"It doesn't get easier Lt, you just got to keep going forward in life and learn from your mistakes. A good officer learns from his and hers' mistakes, that's what makes a good officer and captain. I should have had the shields up when we exited hyperspace," The lion said to the cougar.

"Sir, regulations state that a ships' defense shields be at fifty percent when on a rescue mission. I read that section of the book, after this, I bet there's going to be changes in the book sir." Arcadia answered and looked at the judges.

The tiger stood up and looked at Kang, "Captain Kang, you're found not guilty of the damage suffered your command sustained. Your record will have this incident as an ambush by a hostile enemy warship." The male feline looks at the female cougar with a grin, "There are going to be some revisions in rescue procedures by our ships because you were following the book when this happened. Your orders now are to return to your command and oversee the repairs to your ship dismissed." The Admiral watched as Kang and Arcadia stood and saluted him. They started to walk away when the tiger commanded, "LTJG Arcadia, stay here."

Kang put a hand on the cougars' shoulder, "Want me to stay?" He asked watching her nod.

The Admiral looked at the female cougar seeing her look at him not blinking. He read the report by the security team describing while the ship was being attacked, she was fixing the hyper drive of the ship, "She had her baptism of fire by losing shipmates and almost losing the ship. But she fixed the ship while it was being attacked, which tells me that she can still think under heavy stress. Need officers like her in command." The feline thought to himself and replied to the cougar, "LTJG Arcadia, I am jumping your rank to Lt Commander. Your next assignment is to the Squibs academy to see how they train ships' executive officers and then you will be assigned to a ship to have hands on training. You're a credit to the service, dismissed." The Admiral gives her a crisp salute.

Arcadia felt light headed and felt her commanding officer steady her. She heard a clapping and turned seeing her father grinning at her clapping, "Let's go to the club sir."

The lion looked at her grinning, "You're out of uniform, we better correct that discrepancy first Lt Commander." He said as they walked out of the courtroom being followed by Arcadias' father.

  1. THE END.