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The crew finally get to rest. no, for real this time.

Edited: Spelling/grammar/phrasing/continuity fixes

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Leph waved at the airlock as it closed behind Captain Prax who was departing the ship. Even after Prax was gone, Leph continued to wave, a smile on his face, eyes closed. Serleah was standing next to him, and she nudged his shoulder. “Leph, he’s gone.”
Leph’s shoulders slumped as he heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank god, I thought he’d never leave! That’s the worst part about getting into trouble in space, the endless questions!”
Serleah chuckled. “I think it’s just because Captain Prax likes me, and he didn’t want to leave.”
Leph glared at her. “Well anyway, it was nice of him to let us use his medical facilities, my scar is completely gone! Too bad he couldn’t fix this damned headache… stress my ass.”
Serleah tried to suppress her laughter. “You might want to rephrase that…”
“Whatever. Who knows? Maybe Prax was right, maybe what we need is a vacation.”
Serleah bound down the corridor. “I’ll go tell everyone!”
“Wait! I said maybe…”
But Serleah was already gone. Leph sighed to himself and wandered off to his cabin to sleep. He changed into some pajamas and sat on his bed, the day’s events weighing heavily on his eyelids. He was about to flop down and pass out when there was a faint knock on the door, causing him to jump. “Leph? You awake?”
It was Leena. “Yeah, come in peach.”
She entered his room timidly. She was also wearing pajamas, and Leph had trouble keeping his eyes from wandering. “What is It?”
She sat on the bed next to him. “Um… About yesterday…”
Leph kissed her on the cheek. “I have no regrets. I love you, Leena. I just didn’t know it until recently, sorry for making you wait.”
Leena giggled. “It was worth the wait. So… we can be mates? That’s not a problem, I mean, because I’m your subordinate?”
“Nah, it’s not a problem. If we were serving on a government ship, things would be different, but I make the rules on this ship, and I say it’s allowed.”
Leena smiled. “OK. But what about… I mean… we aren’t… compatible.”
Leph frowned. “What do you mean?”
She searched for the words. “I mean… you’re a wolverine and… I’m a fox.”
It dawned on Leph. “Oh. We’ll jump that hurdle when we come to it.”
Leena nodded. “You’re right. There was one other thing.”
“Shoot.”
“Well, you remember how Tsu said that it would take twelve hours to prepare the ritual or whatever?”
Leph could guess what was coming, and somehow he wasn’t surprised. “Yes?”
Leena fell back onto the bed. “It only seemed to take an hour. They told me all sorts of things. They asked me to summon the evil gods to come save me. Then they explained how after the ritual… they’d… there’s no way to sugar coat it, Leph. They were going to cook and eat me.”
Leph was shocked, he didn’t see that coming, or, then again, maybe he did. He lay back beside her. “Are you OK? They didn’t hurt you?”
She shook her head. “Tsu saved me in time. I think it was just a scare tactic, though.”
Leph stared at the ceiling as he tried to pin down the strange feeling he was having. “I’m not so sure.”
They lay in silence for a while, enjoying each other’s company. After a minute Leph turned his head towards Leena, and she turned to look at him. “What are you thinking?”
Leph grinned. “I’m thinking it’s late. Time for sleep. Common, back to your bed.”
Leena crawled under the blankets. “But it’s so comfy heeeeere~”
Leph crawled in after her. “Alright, if you insist.”
He planted a kiss on the back of her head. “Goodnight, peach.”
“Goodnight.”

Serleah had outdone herself, when Leph awoke the next morning and went to the cockpit, he found she had everything planned. As he entered, she tossed him a data pad. “Look! It’s perfect.”
Leph scanned the contents of the pad. “The pleasure planet of Qoron IV? Experience the beauty of our crystal sand beaches, the flavor of our delicious seafood, and the challenge of our tall mountains? Serleah, this all sounds very expensive, I doubt many of the colonists could afford it.”
She twirled in excitement. “Ha! I knew you’d say that! Zach, tell him!”
Zach sipped his coffee and scratched his head. “Well, I called my parents and they said they’d pay for it. They said: “We always said you need to take breaks sometimes.” then gave me the money.”
Leph looked at the prices on the pad. “How much did they give you?”
Zach laughed. “More than what you paid for this ship.”
Leph sat in the captain’s chair, something he installed himself, as the old captain’s chair was just the pilot’s seat. “Why didn’t your parents just buy you a new ship?”
Zach put down his cup. His voice took on a lower, more reserved tone. “My parents… don’t believe in giving me much money, even if they are rich.”
Leph shrugged. “It’s understandable.”
“I guess. I mean, they’re really rich, couldn't hurt to loan me some money for a new car.”
Leph looked over the digital ad again. He was starting to like the idea. “How far is it? I don’t want to take too much of a detour.”
Serleah was already plotting a course. “It’s only three days off course.”
“I don’t know, three days?”
She whirled on him and gave her best evil eyes. “We haven’t had shore leave in a month! And even then it was cut short.”
Leph knew she was right. The colonists were beginning to get a little stir crazy. And after the latest incident, they were more on edge than ever. “Alright, fine. But don’t blame me if it’s run by some crazy cult, or if all the people there are Cyrus’s, or Zach steals an old guy’s wallet.”
“I told you, I didn’t steal Jenkins’s wallet!”
Leph chuckled as he flipped on the intercom. “Good morning! This is your captain speaking, and do I have some wonderful news for you! We are currently en route to Qoron IV for some much needed R&R. Data on Qoron IV can be found on file, but I assure you it looks wonderful. And don’t worry! Everything has been paid for.”
Leph switched off the intercom as the excited chatter from the colonists became audible.

The three days passed quickly, and soon The Frontier, the exterior of the ship looking like it needed a vacation as much as the people inside, dropped out of hyperspace just outside the Qoron system. Feldoh, Leena and Leph were in the cockpit, and Leena set a course to the fourth planet in the system. Feldoh was scanning the planet from the engineer station as he chattered excitedly. “I’ve never been to a pleasure planet before! Even before my days as a pirate… Oh, I hope they have balconies in the rooms. We’re all getting our own rooms, right?”
Leph searched the radio frequencies for Qoron IV’s hailing frequency. “Yes, yes. And they’ll have balconies.”
Feldoh looked over his scans. “Whoa, for a planet with an average population of a hundred thousand they sure spread out the facilities.”
Leena lay back in her seat as the ship flew towards the planet. “It’s to keep the population density low to prevent over-crowding.”
“Yeah, the downside of that is we have to split the ship into two groups, each one going to a different resort. Thankfully I’ve had plenty of time working out who goes where.”
The com beeped. “Hello! This is Qoron IV ground control, welcome to paradise! What can we do for you?”
“Yes, hello, we would like to set down for shore leave. We have a reservation.”
The man on the other end sounded almost too ecstatic. “Ah, you must be The Frontier! Four day stay, sixty eight persons, fifteen couples rooms, thirty eight single rooms, all expenses paid?”
“That’s us, yes.”
“Always a pleasure to serve the brave colonists, boldly going where no one has gone before! Ah, please transmit your reservation code and we’ll open a hanger for your ship.”
The transmission ended, and Leph transmitted the code and received coordinates for the hanger. “This is going to be fun.” Leph said to no one in particular.

Leena threw the door of the room wide open and ran inside excitedly. “Wow! It’s so nice! Whoa! Look at the bed, its huge!”
Leph came puffing behind her, lugging three bags with great difficulty. “Yeah… real nice…”
He dropped the bags and sat in an authentic Atriean made sofa. “Ahh, much better. What’s this?”
A bottle sat on the table, two wine glasses next to it. Leph picked it up and examined the bottle as Leena went out on the balcony. “Leph! The view is beautiful!”
She ran back inside and grabbed his arm. “You’ve got to see this.”
Leph opened the bottle and poured two glasses. “Compliments of the establishment.”
They stepped out on the balcony, wine in paw. From their high perch they could get a good view of the entire resort. The planet was very large, and eighty percent of it was covered in water, most of the land masses were large islands. The planet used to be wracked with storms and hundred foot waves, but a huge terraforming operation had made it habitable. The result of the strong weather was the finest sand and smoothest hills, and volcanic activity had created a mountain range along most of the equator, perfect for climbers. Looking down, Leph could see the building was only a few meters away from the beach. The beach itself was not crowded, and a seafood vendor was set up right in the sand. Other than that there was a water polo game going on (At least, Leph thought it was water polo), boats for guests to use, and children running left and right. The sea was completely flat, and tinged purple, the same colour of the sky. There was no wind and no water currents as a result of the terraforming, this meant no waves and no surfing, but was a tradeoff was worth it. Leph put his arm around Leena’s waist. “It is beautiful. Not going to drink that?”
Leph took a sip of his wine. Leena swirled her glass and looked into it. “I’ve never had alcohol before.”
“Just don’t drink too much at once, it’ll burn.”
Leena took one tentative sip. “Mm, that tastes good. It does kinda burn though.”
Leph downed his glass and placed it on the railing. “Let’s get down there, shall we?”

Feldoh stood in the lobby, completely lost. He looked around at the people walking back and forth, spotting at least five different alien species including Humans and Atrieans. Aside from them he saw Yerins and two others he didn’t recognize. Thanks to a rather high tech translation device he had been given, he understood all that was said. He was wearing a shirt Zach had given him, Zach said it was called a Hawaiian shirt, and Feldoh though it looked nice, but he was getting weird glances from some of the Humans. Feldoh looked around, unsure of where to go next. Up to his room? The beach? A bar? A restaurant? The sports courts?
A voice behind him made him jump. “Lost?”
He spun around. Standing before him was an Atriean woman, a pine martin with caramel colored fur and dazzling blue eyes. She looked uncannily familliar “Uh… no. I can’t decide what to do first…”
The pine martin smiled warmly at him. “Well, going by how exhausted you look, something relaxing, maybe?”
She extended her paw, and shook Feldoh’s. “I’m Teri, nice to meet you.”
Feldoh smiled back. “I’m Feldoh. I just arrived, and all this is rather daunting.”
“Well, I was just about to hit the beach. You could come with me.”
Feldoh was liking the vacation more and more, though something nagged at the back of his mind. “I’d like that.”
Teri and Feldoh strolled along the warm beach, enjoying the warmth. Teri’s loose clothing flowed. “So, tell me about yourself, Feldoh.”
“Not much to tell. I’ve been an engineer on a cargo ship called The Frontier for the past month. We’re transporting colonists.”
“Funny. I’m a fleet captain.”
Feldoh’s eyes widened. “Really?”
Teri laughed. “I’m the captain of a tiny cargo fleet. Took me a year to save up for this vacation. I started as a lowly pilot, but worked my way up, and now I’m here. What about before a month ago?”
Feldoh looked away. “Uh… I was… on a different ship…”
“Oh, common, what was it like? Tell me about your adventures!”
“There’s… nothing to tell.”
Teri slapped him on the shoulder lighthearted. “Oh, I don’t believe that for a second!”
“Well… I have no stories about my time before I got aboard The Frontier, but just a few days ago we ran into some pretty crazy stuff.”
Teri grabbed onto his arm and pulled him towards the seafood vendor. “Tell it to me over some giant shrimp!”
“Whoa! What’s shrimp?”
“You’ll love it!”
Soon Feldoh sat across from Teri with a large plate of shrimp and a glass of passion fruit juice in front of him. He picked one up and sniffed it. Teri giggled. “It won’t bite! Go on, try it!”
He took a bite, then began devouring shrimp after shrimp. Teri laughed and began eating her own shrimp. “See? Told ya.”
Feldoh stopped eating for a breath. “Man, this might be my new favorite food. What do they call this sauce?”
“It’s called cocktail sauce. I have no idea what it’s made of.”
Feldoh shrugged and dipped the shrimp in the sauce. “I don’t care what it’s made of. Anyway, crazy stuff.”
Teri clapped her paws together. “Yes, do tell!”
Between mouthfuls of shrimp Feldoh told the story the best he could. He finished the tale at the same time he finished the shrimp. “And that’s the story… Uuurp!”
Feldoh closed his mouth quickly, not quick enough to suppress the burp. Teri looked at him in mock disgust, the let out a burp of her own. They laughed at their own silliness. “He he he… this Leph guy sounds like quite the hero.”
“Yeah, I owe him my life…” Feldoh didn’t realize what he said until it was too late.
Teri smiled a grim smile. “Oh, that sounds interesting. Tell me about it!”
Feldoh looked around. “Uh… maybe later.”
Teri flopped on the table in an exaggerated gesture of frustration. “Come oooon! Stop being a tease!”
“Uhh…”
“Hey! Feldoh!”
Feldoh turned around, the relief plainly showing on his face. “Leph! Hi!”
Leph came bounding up, Leena In tow. They were wearing strange clothes. “What are you guys wearing?”
Leena tossed the ball she was holding to Feldoh. “They’re Human clothes. I think this is called a ‘Bikini’ and that’s a ‘speedo’. Who’s your friend?”
“Oh, this is Teri. Teri, this is Leph and Leena.”
“Oh, Feldoh’s told me about you. I’m a captain too!”
Leph’s eyes lit up. “Oh, really? You’ll have to tell me about it sometime. Hey! We need some players for beach volleyball, wanna join?”
Teri jumped up. “Yes! I love volleyball. It’s my favorite Human game!”
Feldoh tossed the ball to Leph. “Yeah sure. Just lemme finish my drink.”
Teri sat back down as Leph loped off. “Sure, don’t take too long.”
She sipped her drink. “Nice guy.”
Feldoh sipped his drink too. “He’s taken.”
Teri grinned mischievously. “By you?”
Feldoh laughed at that. “No, by Leena.”
Teri downed her drink and sprang up. “Then you have nothing to worry about.” she said with a wink.
She dashed off towards the volleyball net. Feldoh finished off his drink and followed her.

That night, Zach and Yar sat at the bar of a pub, nursing drinks. They had both come to the bar with the same goal. Yar gestured to an Human woman sitting along in a booth. “What about her?”
Zach took a quick glance. “Her too.”
Yar looked at his drink in contemplation. “Are all Human females lesbian?”
Zach laughed. “What? Ha! No. Now her…”
Yar looked where Zach was glancing. A girl waved at him. “She’s totally into you, dude.”
He grinned. “Don’t look now, but she has a friend…”
Zach chugged his drink in one go. “Watch and learn my furry friend.”
He sauntered over and smiled broadly. “Hiya, ladies. Mind if me and my friend join you?”
“We were waiting for you to say that all night…”
Yar took a seat next to Zach and they began to introduce themselves. Soon Zach had ordered a round of drinks and was telling the two women about their last mishap. “And there I was! Cultists on all sides, there must have been thirty of them! Just me and my pistol. I held them off long enough to let me and most of our crew escape. We did lose someone, though.”
The two women made “Aww” sounds. One of them, Mary, placed her hand on Zach. “That was an exciting story. You know, there’s a really nice spot not far from here that’s really pretty at night. Care to join me?”
Zach grinned, drunk. “Sure thing, sugar.”
Yar didn’t even notice Zach and Mary’s departure. Mary led Zach down a corridor and around corners of the large building that held most of the restaurants and into a small back room. Zach grinned at her. “What’s all this about? Tryin’ something… Hey!”
Mary said nothing as she slapped Zach’s bare arm. “What was thaaaa… Wha…”
Zach looked at where Mary had slapped him. A small device was stuck to his arm. “Whad… ya… dooo…”
Zach fell over backward as the device fed alcohol into his bloodstream. Mary searched his pockets. “Now, let’s see what you’ve got…”
Zach waved his arms around uselessly. “Staaaahp…”
The last thing he saw before passing out was Mary scoffing at the contents of his wallet. “Pff. Atriean money. Should have known you were a furry. That’s a nice shirt though…”

Feldoh and Teri practically fell into Teri’s room laughing. “He he he! I still can’t get over the look on his face!”
Feldoh fell into a sofa, holding his aching ribs. “Ha Ha! You can’t blame him though, he he! He knows nothing about Human customs!”
Teri sat in the sofa next to him. “He should at least have read up on it a little before… You know…”
They burst out in another bout of laughter. When they finally stopped, Feldoh noticed Teri’s paw on his leg. She looked into his eyes. “Feldoh, you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Uh…”
Teri pushed him onto his back and lay on top of him. “Teri…”
“Shh.”
She began to unbutton his shirt, causing Feldoh to stammer. “Teri… w-wait…”
Suddenly she stopped, she had uncovered the large, jagged scar that ran down his chest, the skin had no fur, only a soft fuzz remained. Feldoh quickly slipped out from under Teri and hastily buttoned up his shirt. “Feldoh… I’m sorry I… didn’t know. I mean, I don’t care about the scar…”
Feldoh kept his back turned. “I have to tell you something.”
Teri sensed the serious air. “OK. I’m listening.”
“Three years ago I used to have a ship. It was a wonderful vessel, and I was her captain. Well, not totally her captain. I had a co-captain.”
Feldoh went back and sat on the sofa. “My wife.”
Teri looked down. “You’re… married?”
Feldoh shook his head. “No, not anymore. We were flying some passengers back to Atriea when we were unexpectedly thrown out of hyperspace. Have you ever heard about Nocto?”
“He was a pirate, every captain’s heard of Nocto.”
Feldoh interlocked his paws. “He boarded us. Instead of trying to do something about it, I ran and hid. I listened as he slaughtered my crew… my wife…” He sniffed.
“When Nocto found me, he forced me to join his crew. So I became a pirate. He mostly kept me locked up in the engine room, but I still helped him… Leph saved me. I stowed away on his ship and he helped me get away from Nocto. I thought, maybe I can atone by helping this guy, maybe I can stop the guilt…”
They sat in silence for a long time. Finally Feldoh spoke again. “Then we came here. When I first saw you I… Thought I was seeing a ghost… you look just like her. I thought the universe was mocking me. I can’t know you. I don’t deserve it.”
Teri looked up at him. “That’s not true! I don’t care what you did, and even if I did, it wasn’t your fault! There was nothing you could have done to stop Nocto, you would’ve been killed!”
“Sometimes I wish I was.”
Feldoh stood, and so did Teri, placing a paw on his shoulder. He shrugged it off and went for the door. “Feldoh…”
He left without another word.

The very same night, Leph and Leena sat at an outside table for a restaurant Teri had suggested they visit. Leph held up a shrimp. “They’re kinda good, I don’t know what Feldoh was talking about when he said they were the best tasting things in the Galaxy.”
Leena popped one in her mouth. “I like them, the remind me of arrowfish.”
“Huh, you’re right, they do kinda taste like arrowfish.”
Leena sipped her wine; she was beginning to get a taste for it. “I’ll have to thank Teri later for recommending this place. She’s a fun person to hang out with, and I’ve never had so much fun playing sports before today.”
Leph grinned. “Was it fun? All I could think about was how good you look in a bikini.”
Leena slapped his paw playfully. “Shush.”
Leph couldn’t help but smile. “You know, you remind me of my mother. She used to slap my paw when I was a kid when I did something wrong. I remember one time me and Serleah went climbing where we weren’t supposed to. The back of my paw was red for a week!”
“Where is Serleah anyway? I haven't seen her around.”
Leph waved his paw. “Oh, she said something about climbing the mountains with a bunch of nomads. She’ll be back in a day or so. You know, you haven’t told me much about your parents.”
Leena sipped her wine again, this time taking a deeper drink. “I never knew my parents. My mother died at childbirth and my father ran off someplace. I was shown pictures of them, but I don’t remember them.”
“Oh… I’m sorry for bringing it up.”
“No, no. It’s fine. Anyway, I’m done my meal, what do you say we get back to the room, I’m tired.”
Leph grinned at her. “How tired?”

Zach didn’t know what was happening. The sun shone down on his face, causing pain behind his eyes. He rolled over and realized he was lying on top of a stack of brooms. He stumbled to his feet. How much did he have to drink last night? He looked around. He was in a broom closet with a small window. He scratched his chest, noticing he wasn’t wearing a shirt, he sighed to himself. “I gotta swear off drinking for the rest of this trip.”
He stumbled out of the closet and promptly vomited onto the floor.