FSE

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The hours passed reasonably slowly, as time always does when one is actually excited to do something. I idly wondered if I actually made the pretense I was dreading the moment, that time would speed up in accordance to Murphy's Law, but time was smarter than that, and was not fooled. Regardless, eventually Samis broadcast over the intercom. "Facilier, we're coming out of planar jump. You are required for piloting. Attention all crew, we have a novice at the controls. Please tie down all loose items and form an orderly queue by the sick bay."

I rolled my eyes and scaled the ladder to the upper floor. Upon entering the bridge, Samis was sitting in the captain's chair, and the vacant pilot seat was waiting for me. DAIN turned and gave me a thumbs up, where as Celiana paid no attention to my arrival whatsoever. Under the watchful gaze of the dragon, I sat down in the pilot's chair, keyed in the appropriate commands that someone much smaller than Samis was sitting at the seat, and took the controls firmly in my paws. I took a deep breath.

"Ten seconds to conclusion." Celiana announced in a very authoritarian voice. DAIN took firm hold of the console, and Samis grabbed the sides of his seat. The arrival was typically violent, as the red hyperspace look disappeared in an instant, to be replaced with the glowing sun of a new galaxy on my right, and the starless existence on my left. One large red rock planet hung, hovering in space, in the distance. As I felt sick from planar passage, I also felt wonder at this new planet. Both were dispelled in professionalism a second later. I brought up the trajectory displays for the planet, and swung slowly onto a reasonable intercept course. The Dolphin arced beautifully, and I spoke over my shoulder.

"Hell of a ship, you've got here, Samis." "Thank you, Facilier. Cream of the crop." "Permission to try a few manouveres?" "Permission accepted, but call them, so people can brace." he turned on the intercom. "Our novice is going to demonstrate his fighter skill, so this ought to be entertaining. Don't unbrace just yet."

I executed a few lazy sideways rolls, and a complete loop the loop. It was the fourth one that got people to worry about serious bracing. "I'm going to do a slightly more advanced move, Captain. It's called a cobra. Dogfighting technique to shake a pursuer." He DID give me clearance. He might have said no if he knew what it was.

In a cobra manouvere, the pilot flies forwards and up with a very high angle of attack. The rush of air hitting the flat surface of the underbelly slows the craft dramatically, so in theory the enemy overshoots and as the plane resumed level flight, the hunted becomes the hunter. Now, yes, in space you can't do that, there is no air, so instead one used controlled bursts of the thrusters, as if executing a hard and rapid landing.

The Dolphin twisted upwards, and then all it's landing thrusters ignited, practically stopping the ship in mid-space. With the weight crushing me into my seat, I flicked the nose down with another thruster burst, and pushed the throttle to max, stuffing me further into the seat along the trajectory I had set previously. "All people who actually DO need the sick bay, please form an orderly line behind the dragon." I heard on the intercom, and I slowed, looking behind my seat at Samis. Dain was gripping the console like a vice, and Celiana was staring daggers at me, the blue skinned humanoid just letting go of the console. Samis, on the other hand, was grinning.

"If there are any eyes on us from the planet, and I DO hope they are, Lieutenant, then I hope that they are suitably perplexed." I wasn't sure whether this was a compliment, and settled for "Sorry, sir." Belvedere entered the bridge, stormed past Samis, and slapped me on the muzzle. "You are tidying up the mess you just caused. What kind of flying was that?" I was nonplussed. Stunned, I just rubbed the area where the paw had struck.

"Uhhh, I do fly fighter aircraft, Kitty. And Samis did say this was a demo." "Then he can join you in tidying up too!" Kitty scowled at the dragon, who was now trying not to laugh. Acheron was leaning against the door to the bridge, his tail flicking back and forth. "On the plus side, Ramon," he said," you've firmly established yourself as a skilled pilot. What percentage were you in on Vulpini?" "Top five." I said modestly." And too be honest, with this ship it really isn't hard. Caboose said it handled like a gem." "Don't compliment the lunatic!" Bel whirled at her brother.

"Caboose here." the bunny said over the intercom," I just saw the planet we're heading to out of the back window. Unless there has been a change of roles on this craft, I'm the tail gunner, right. I shouldn't be seeing things FIRST." Samis spoke, and his voice fell like iron on the argument. "Alright, that's enough people. I am aware that last move was a little more than ordinary, but the fox was demonstrating his piloting skill under my instruction. Now he has done so, we shall resume normal flight, land at the port and we will all do our chosen tasks. Acheron, can you help Silver with refuel?"

The firm interjection caused the tension to cease, entirely. "Certainly, Samis." Acheron replied. "Kitty, could you run diagnostics on the engines. Both me and Facilier boosted max thrust, could you make sure they were both smooth transitions?" "Err, ok, Samis? Will someone tidy up my work area? The railgun's gone on the floor, as has half the parts of the last few projects." Kitty said, reluctantly and quite shyly. "I'll give you a hand with the railgun after we dock, Facilier will help you after we return from our trip to the temple." Samis said calmly, while I focused on entering orbit. DAIN was chatting away on the communication bands, presuming talking with a Dromantis on the planet.

Kitty's rage having been deflated, she walked off the bridge past her brother, and the door hissed closed. Samis relaxed. "Nice flying, Facilier. No doubt riding an aerobatics craft with you would be very entertaining. But unless it's an emergency, we'll avoid those sorts of things from now on." "Yes sir. Sorry sir." I said, ears slightly drooping. I felt a bit ashamed at my showing off. "Don't be too sorry, it's good to know what you're capable of." the dragon replied diplomatically.

"We have landing clearance, Samis." DAIN politely interrupted, "Although I have been expressly told they would rather you had not heard of their planet. You are not at all welcome." Samis was all cheerful suddenly. "Excellent. I shall make a lot of people unhappy in the near future, nice to get things started." "Indeed, Captain, you appear to have already done so." Celiana replied, with a little frost in her voice.

"Oh my dear, did you not enjoy the lieutenant's display?" "It was showoffish, and entirely unnecessary." I buried myself in my seat. "Not entirely so. He is here because I needed a keen military mind for the fighting that IS going to come up. Knowing that he has a flying ability of that level is extremely useful information." "An ability he could have proved with a considerably less violent trick." The dragon chuckled. "I concede defeat there."

But the Azuri was not melted or mollified by the dragon's words, and she turned back to her controls. "By the way, you two, how long do you require to prepare for planet fall?" "Fifteen minutes." the Azuri replied. "I shall get my longcoat and day bag sorted." "A millenia, if the locals are anything to go by." I piped up while slowly getting into position to fly down into the atmosphere," but failing that, also about 15 minutes." Samis smiled, "Now you know how tough it is being me, Facilier. Or if not, you're going to get a crash course."

The Dolphin punched through the atmosphere with ease, and the usual vibrations were quickly shrugged off as I followed the data being forwarded to me by DAIN, the instructions and procedures of landing pretty standard. In the distance, I saw a five ship port, three of which were empty, and one of those which that had flashing blue lights. "Ok, rookie. Time to park this thing. Just remember it's longer than most things you've flown." I heard that. The flashing dock looked so very, very small compared to this supertourer, the ships in the other occupied bays were of Dromantean design, squat and hog-ugly.

"DAIN, confirm diagonal landing to the ground crew due to size of craft." I said, banking right slightly. The robot relayed this. "Confirm, we have ground entrance, so we don't have to line up with their hatches." Banking back left, I lined up from one corner of the square dock, and brought up the inboard radar. A 3d holographical representation of the ship hovered into view, allowing me to see the view out the front AND this view.

My paws worked furiously as I turned on the thrusters, all but disabling the main engines, using the thrusters to line the ship up directly above where I planned to descend. Blips appeared on the holo-map indicating how close the walls of the port were to the edges of the Dolphin. I induced a slow descent, the blast from the thrusters causing settled sand to whip up across the port bay. The Dolphin descended majestically, perfectly, responding to every minute calculation and guidance with ease, until it gently touched down, the four landing legs auto-extending. There was a bump, and a slight rocking sensation as the suspension in the legs sorted everything out, and the thrusters were switched off. Silence descended on the cabin as everything powered down, Samis speaking a checklist of kill switches and power-saving devices for us to initiate, until the Dolphin slept.

"Not bad at all, Ramon." DAIN said. "The ship deserves some of that credit, I think. It did what I wanted, when I wanted." I replied, relaxing and stretching my paws out. I quickly strode from the bridge, down the ladder and down to my room. Opening my wardrobe, I grabbed my uniform jacket and placed it on the bed, nicely stretched out. Putting on the undershirt rapidly, followed quickly by my uniform trousers, I surveyed myself in the mirror. I felt quite happy with how I looked. I slipped the uniform jacket on, and the medals glittered in the light. My epaulettes shone as I straightened my jacket, only to have Samis come in, wearing his long white cloak and his sword. In one hand was an assault laser rifle. It was a sleek weapon, gun metal grey, and a percentage bar along the side of the weapon in bright red that let me know how much charge was left in the core.

"You look very good, Lieutenant, but you may want this over one shoulder. We are emissaries, so we are allowed to carry weapons for our own safety." I graciously took the rifle and slung it over my shoulder, feeling comfortable with myself as the familiar weight settled on my shoulder. I took a deep breath, and Lieutenant Facilier spoke. "Ready and waiting, sir." I saluted. Samis smiled. "Very good, Facilier. See you at the cargo bay exit in two minutes. I need to have a word with Silver." I proceeded to the cargo bay, where Acheron was waiting with the documents for refuelling. He smiled as he saw me enter.

"You look pretty good, Ramon." "Thank you. Could you check my jacket tails? I'm pretty sure everything looks in order from the front, but the mirror in my room isn't large enough for me to see behind me." Acheron stepped behind me and fiddled with the back of my jacket casually, before I felt his paw on my ass. "That is not my jacket, cheeky." I replied. "Mhmm, firm military backside there. Kitty's going to have a field day with you." the ginger tom cat teased. "Clearly she isn't alone." I retaliated. "Less flirting, Lieutenant." Celiana said sharply as she walked in. I never knew it was possible to rhyme lieutenant with scum. Acheron's paw left my ass and he stepped away, while I stood to attention. "You will walk in front of me, Lieutenant." Celiana added. I nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

This got me a glare of suspicion, but I radiated honesty and helpfulness, so she went back to consulting a palm computer. I flicked a look sideways at Acheron, and he winked. I smiled inwardly, and relaxed. Samis arrived with Silver, the latter not looking too comfortable. Acheron pulled a big lever, and several clunks were heard as the locks disengaged from one another, and then the big ramp began to descend. The alien planet was hot, stiflingly so. A wave of heat washed over us through the slowly increasing gap, and Samis pulled his hood up, the disillusionment suddenly making him appear the same as when we had first met. He stepped forwards, and nodded at me. "Come on Lieutenant. Follow close."

He stalked down the ramp, his covered feet clanging audibly as he descended. I walked briskly after him, not quite a march but certainly a walk of intent. As I descended, the spaceport was revealed in the harsh light. Four giant walls of dark red stone loomed over us, although on the wall nearest the centre of the space port had a bank of dark windows that presumably had Dromantis peering at us through it. Another six were hanging around by a little refuelling vessel with several long hoses connected to it. They looked like green knights, their plated bodies looking very out of place in this desolate enviroment.

The insectoid heads turned to look at Samis, antennae swirling and multiple sets of eyes locking on to the tall figure in white. They did not pay attention to me or the other three behind me, they just watched the cloaked dragon, like prey watching a predator slowly advancing. Samis stopped not five yards from the nearest, and spoke in a guttural growl. "My craft needs refuelling, the feline here," Acheron stepped forwards," has the paperwork and necessary requirements. Acheron, Silver, if everything is not done as specified, let me know." he strode past the tanker towards a disembarkation archway, conversation over. I walked after him, Celiana behind me, while the gryphon and feline began their tasks.

Disembarkation was pretty easy, surprisingly. The dragon produced a folder of paperwork upon entering the archway, and three Dromantis armed with rifles next to a metal detector and X-ray scanner found the paperwork thrust at them. "We are emissaries visiting Terygota on private business. I am entitled to one assistant and one body guard." the dragon growled. The one with the folder flicked through the papers, scanning them quickly, and occasional his eye came up to scan me and Celiana, making note of my uniform and rifle, and her palmtop.

"All items are to be scanned." it clicked in it's nasty sounding speech. This did not take too long. The sword, rifle and palmtop were all scanned for evidence that said they were not what they appeared, and when that failed to yield anything, the three of us walked through another scanner. I idly wondered what the disillusionment cloak did to the scanner, but it didn't set off any alarm bells, and so the three of us were free to continue into the port.

Fortunately, this port was nowhere near as crowded as the Vulpini one, and after a brisk walk, Samis found a terminal for information.It was located in an ante-chamber off the main lobby. His claws danced across the keyboard, but after a few minutes, I got the impression he was not having luck. "Sir?" I said gently. "Nothing. They don't have any reference to Kraven or a temple in the database. We're going to have to do this the old fashioned way." he turned back into the lobby, and approached the desk where a very bored looking Dromantis was reading something. Samis rapped firmly on the desk to make him look up.

"I'm looking for a historian of this planet. I don't suppose you know where to go? Is there a library or something?" the growl caused him to sit up straight and pay attention. "Library? What business is it of yours?" "Important business." the growl replied. The Dromantis tried to stare suspiciously into the hood, and when that failed, he gave a chitter of disgust. "It's the black stone building down the street." he said, turning back to his reading material.

Samis turned back to the main doors, and opened them. From there, we surveyed a strange sight. The world in front of us was all red rock and ochre tents, the buildings doing their best to blend in with the landscape around them.It was peculiar because most of the locals were about as far from red as could be suitably attempted, but even though some buildings were of dark stone and grey stone and all sorts of beige, from the air, they all had roofs or tarpaulins that were dusty red.

"I spy, with my little eye, something that is red." Samis said to me as we walked down the steps of the space port. "Probably camouflage. Probably don't want to give the visitors any advantage if they can help it." I replied as the hundreds of Dromantis went about their business. I caught one or two of them scowling at me, but anyone who looked at Samis in his cloak looked suspicious, but unable to protest. I felt glad of the dragon's presence at that moment.

We went in single file down the street. Celiana followed close behind me, and me close behind Samis, as to forge an efficient path through the throng. There was less chance of some local taking exception with the three of us as tight as we were. However, just when I was thinking that very thing, Celiana was tripped by a stick by one particularly unsavoury green insectoid.

Samis turned. As his gaze bore down on the group of Dromantis, I helped Celiana up. She rubbed the dirt off her jacket, blew the dust off her laptop, and stood looking attentively at the dragon. "Celiana, please write "Assault on member of emissary, Lieutenant Facilier forced to open fire to defend us." in the report." he said very calmly.

I brought my rifle up, pointing at the Dromantis in question. There was an angry chittering around me, but the white cloak continued to stare at the individual who had lost all bravado. "You can pull that sort of stunt with a trader, but diplomats are to be feared. You can have a whole mob behind you, but what I can do with a few well spoken words will end many lives exceptionally painfully."

Suddenly, the anger was chilled. Samis knew his audience. He was here to see important people about important things, and if they didn't behave, they would have to answer to their own legal system, some of the laws concerning outsiders had been dictated by Kraven himself. And while they WERE xenophobic nowadays, the laws about diplomatic missions were very harsh. The dragon continued," So, either you take me to the library, or I will take pleasure in writing a letter of complaint to your King." That was a nice touch. The voice suggested "I want to watch you die for my entertainment, but if the problem were to go away...." and it had the desired effect. The Dromantis cast away the stick, and started leading us, chittering in his language urgently, breaking up the crowd surrounding us. I shouldered my weapon, and our journey resumed.

"You ok?" I whispered back to Celiana. "You mind yourself, Lieutenant." Again, what she said and what she meant did not line up. I sighed inwardly and kept quiet. With our new escort, we arrived at the building quickly, and Samis ducked his way in.