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It was different traveling with so many Mrr'tani. The thought that just a short time ago, being surrounded by all the others who were constantly in motion, diligently working at their tasks to keep the Ferret on course and on time, would have been one of the most uncomfortable things she could imagine. There was a reason that she'd kept the gamekeeper cottage for herself when Lyria had passed on. It was far enough away from the rest of the estate that she could be on her own and not have to be around others, but close enough that it was a short walk to the main house.

Here, though, she was starting to find that there was comfort and even pleasure in being joined with so many minds and having the press of fur all about her, the scent warm and heady, reminding her deep down beyond her conscious thought of home. She was starting to realize that this was how it was meant to be among their kind, and the aversion that she felt for so long at the estate was her way of staying hidden. It made her wonder just how much of a part Catcher of Souls had in keeping her safe and away from the trackers for so long.

Even more recently, during her time at Mss'ranaw, she couldn't shake the feeling of claustrophobia, of too many bodies in too small of a space. It didn't seem to matter here, though. When Night Star had joined her and First Spark together for the jump after the humans had been left on the Zed 3 station, she managed to pull most of the others along into the joining as well, linking each mind to another and for a few minutes, the ship functioned as a single entity. With two AI's linked together, the calculations that should have taken an hour or two only lasted minutes and the inner workings of the Ferret were so efficiently performed that they caught the first wave that formed and configured everything so perfectly that they would be able to ride the wave to within only light minutes of where Strong Soul wanted to emerge at Mss'ranaw.

Overall, she was proud of the Mrr'tani on the Ferret. Despite their seething hatred for the humans they'd overpowered and taken prisoner, each of them had heeded Strong Soul's command to leave them be. The humans were left unharmed and awaiting the next supply shipment. Whatever happened to them from this point on would be their own fault or the fault of the other humans. The Mrr'tani had proved themselves to be worth of respect, and that filled Strong Soul with hope.

She found herself fully enjoying the company of the other Mrr'tani, and through her, it seemed that even Stargazer, usually so wary of everything around him, was starting to warm up to the new levels of connection. She knew exactly how he felt, though, after having touched his sheer joy at the Mrr'ouwff when they'd first met. She hadn't believed him when he'd told her of the history of the links and what they meant to the Mrr'tani, but having experienced them fully as they were meant to be, she found that she couldn't argue with him.

First Spark was even happier with the new Mrr'tani. Many on the Ferret were of the Desert clan, and when she wasn't helping in sick bay, she was often found wandering the corridors with others of her clan following close behind, each of them looking and feeling more content than Strong Soul had ever felt in another.

Being underway in the Ferret with the Pride tucked safely in one of the cargo bays left little for Strong Soul to do. She was used to having her place during jumps and taking watch during journeys. It was something Night Star always expected, but here, there were more than enough Mrr'tani to man every station without her help. Though she knew the ship intimately through her connection with Jules, just as intimate as the one she shared with Micah, she still felt she would be in the way and that she would disrupt the finely tuned cooperation the Ferret's crew had developed. It left her time to speak with all of the Mrr'tani on board when they weren't on duty, and she found herself frequently in the Pride's cargo bay, teaching others to use the bow or simply sitting and hearing their stories. Her classroom, as she called the Pride's cargo bay, quickly became one of the most popular places on the ship.

The one place she reserved for herself was her quarters on the Pride. She'd let them set her up a cabin on the Ferret, the quarters that used to belong to Captain Jacobs, but she found her most personal time spent in the quarters that had been her home for so long. It was smaller and less appointed than the cabin on the Ferret, but it still held all the reminders of Silverwell, and it also felt and smelled of home, something she had yet to transfer to the other cabin. While she did spend most nights in the Ferret's cabin, she found herself retreating back to the Pride on occasion, as even with the other Mrr'tani, only the crew of the Pride ever ventured inside.

Tonight, she was sitting at her table, looking through the windows in her cabin at the blank wall of the Ferret's cargo bay, her thoughts on what lay ahead of them all. She had so much she wanted to do, and only the most vague idea of how to accomplish any of it. She set her tea aside and turned to look at the hatch when she felt a familiar touch to her mind. With a press of a button beside her chair, she opened the hatch before Night Star even raised his hand to the panel.

"Thought I'd find you here," he said, stepping inside. His face was lit in his usual confident smile, and she returned it, feeling the matching contentedness radiating through him.

"I wanted to come home for a while," she said, gesturing to another seat at the table. She'd already filled the pot with her favorite blend of herb tea, a recipe she'd learned from Lyria, heavy on the mint. She loved the scent and the way that it cooled her tongue even when she drank it hot.

"Lucky we can just drag home along wherever we go," Night Star said, pouring himself a cup of the fragrant tea. "You know, for a crappy Alliance tug, the Ferret is pretty well-made. Looks like the humans didn't skimp on the amenities, at least for their fellow humans. We've almost got the food stores redistributed, and with some of the cargo on board, I think we'll be able to make some really good rations for everyone."

"Have we solved the crowding issue?" Strong Soul asked. One of the things that had appalled her when she came on board was the habit of housing thirty Mrr'tani to a single room, with only a bunk and a small cabinet to fold their uniforms. Since the humans had been offloaded, she'd made it a priority to retrofit every cabin except Firebreather's into more living space for the Mrr'tani. She'd mostly gotten her way, though the entire crew had overruled her on the number of cabins to be left untouched. It was now two. Hers and Firebreather's. She'd tried everything she could to get them to use the palatial captain's cabin for more space, even pointed out that it could be turned into almost three separate compartments, but they would hear nothing of it.

"Seems everyone's pretty happy with the arrangements. No one wants a room to themselves, to be honest, so it looks like the magic number is five to a room."

"It honestly wasn't something I was expecting," she admitted, sipping her tea. "I'm so used to being alone or with the three of you that I couldn't imagine being stuck in a room with twenty other Mrr'tani."

"It takes time to get used to being alone for some of them, and others never really want to be alone. You and I are different. From what I understand, most Frr'a'narr'ahn wanted some time to themselves and they used to find places that were simply their own. I can see how that would be the same for you. And Frr'a'narr'oun, well, we're never really comfortable with any others. It doesn't feel right to be around all of them all the time. We don't have the clan links that they do. It's why most voids find things to do themselves. Some are trackers, some are freighter pilots. None last too long in places like this."

"No matter how much I want to be alone," Strong Soul said, reaching across the table to lay her hand over his, "I always want you with me. You don't take the same amount of mental energy to keep up with."

"We're a mated pair, love. It's about balance, and you and I balance each other out."

"I'm glad," she said, holding his eyes with a shy smile. Then she stroked his hand with her fingers, almost absent-mindedly and sat back in her chair.

"What's the plan when we get to Mss'ranaw, love?" Night Star asked, mirroring Strong Soul in getting comfortable, a habit he'd developed through such a deep joining with her. She'd just started to notice it after the battle, and though it was still disconcerting, something about it was comforting.

"Seems we have a lot of cargo that the fleet can use, so we'll leave the haul with Fire Thrower."

She'd gone through the manifest of what they were carrying not long after they'd crossed the hyper barrier. They had intercepted the tug on only its second stop, so it was still almost fully loaded for its run to the other planets and the cargo container it hauled contained a little bit of everything useful. There was enough food to feed the entirety of Mss'ranaw's inhabitants for almost two years in itself, and half of that was in easily stored and preserved ration packs, meaning they would provide a full safety backup for the fleet. There was also three compact terraforming units, usually used to establish an atmosphere on an asteroid for use in mining operations to keep the miners from having to wear the bulky EVA suits. She was certain that Fire Thrower would find a use for those.

Other odds and ends weren't nearly as valuable, but they would have their uses. There were tools and prefabs for structures, repair equipment and other miscellaneous supplies that would surely see use at Mss'ranaw. All in all, it was a respectable bounty from their first capture.

"After that," she continued, "I'm going to do exactly what I told the Ferret's crew I would do. Anyone who wants to stay at Mss'ranaw and live out their lives will be welcome to do so."

"Think many will do that?" Night Star asked.

"I doubt it," she answered. "I know there's a few that are too old or broken to work effectively. The humans pushed them anyway, but now that the Mrr'tani are running things, I've seen them taken off of the duty rosters, and First Spark's been taking care of a couple of them. One's pretty bad off, but she's sure that she can help him get rid of his pain so that he can at least walk around."

"Hope there's going to be enough to crew the Ferret," Night Star said.

"There will be, love. Firebreather is staying on, of course, and I know there are enough Mrr'tani at Mss'ranaw who are going to be happy to join up with us. I felt it the last time we were there. They want to do something, but there's nothing for them to do right now. I'm sure that we'll find enough to be getting on with."

"Seems you've got this all planed out."

"Not all of it," she admitted. "Really, I'm just trying to give the Mrr'tani some hope. If we can liberate enough ships with enough Mrr'tani, the word will spread, even if the humans don't want it to. Jessie said she'll make sure that any rumors that come her way of what we're doing get circulated as widely as possible. If enough Mrr'tani hear what's going on, maybe we'll see some ships coming in all on their own."

"Lofty thinking, love. I think it's going to be a little harder than that, though."

"You're right. Stargazer already has plans to stay on Mss'ranaw for a while and train up some kind of Mrr'tani marines. Seems like something out of a dream."

"That's Stargazer, though, and if anyone can do it, he can. It'll be good for him to have people to train. He's getting too old to be on the front lines."

"Don't tell him that, love. He'll start throwing you around the cargo bay, too."

Night Star laughed and lifted his cup with a wink. "Don't I know it. That's why I'm glad that he came up with the idea instead of us. You know that he's not going to let you go off by yourself, though, without some sort of guard."

"I'm sure he's already planning something like that," she said. "After what I felt from the humans here, I'm not going to argue with him. I would have when we were trying to stay under the radar, but now, with all the attention we're going to be gathering, I'm not so sure of going it alone."

"You're never going to be going it alone, love. Between the two of us, we can take on the whole galaxy, and there isn't a human in the Alliance that can stop us," Night Star said with a wink and one of his winning grins, the kind that won her over in the first place.

She opened her mouth to say something, but in the back of her mind, she felt Jules tugging at the link. They were almost at the exit coordinates.

"It's time, love," she said plainly, reaching her other hand across to his.

Together, they sank into the joining. It was just the two of them at first, but after a minute, they felt Stargazer and First Spark's consciousnesses joining them. They left the rest of the crew to their own duties, though they still couldn't manage to keep Micah and Jules from joining with them. Both of the AI's were eager for the touch of the Mrr'tani minds, and Strong Soul didn't think she had the heart to keep them out even if she'd somehow managed to find the ability.

Jules signaled Firebreather that they were prepared and the ship crossed over the barrier and into the asteroid field. Through a thousand eyes and with as many different reactions, she saw Mss'ranaw once again, some through scanners, others through viewports. They were all tied together, though, in their reaction. For all of them, they were home, and the combined minds of the others on Mss'ranaw joined them as they had before and Strong Soul pulled them all together for one joyous moment of welcome and greeting.

And beneath every voice, she felt Fire Thrower's mind touching directly to hers with a simple, happy message.

Welcome home, Keeper of Hearts.