Okay, someone is lying to me. How do you ink thinks to look nice with a sharpie, if it comes out looking this terrible?

HOW, I ASK YOU, HOW?

The music box had never been loud. In fact, the lazy, gentle twinkling of the notes could barely even be heard over the muffled churning of the helicopter. But to the bat who held it, the whispering melody was everything; her last, most precious memory of home. She held the wooden trinket to her chest like she would an infant, her large ears trained on the only comforting sensation her senses could detect.
All around her, and far beyond what her eyes could see, stretched the most inhospitable desert on the planet. It wasn't scorching heat that plagued the land, but unforgiving cold, as the latest chill down the bat's spine reminded her. She shivered it away, using her free paw to pull the thick, heavy coat that was draped over her shoulders tighter around her.
The antarctic snow and ice rushed below her, drawing her into a mindless stare. It seemed to pull her in, and she was forced to pull herself back, opting instead to gaze at the hypnotic spinning gears of the music box.
For the first time since the helicopter had taken off, the bat found herself smiling. The happy melody seemed to slowly melt away the world around her, until she had nearly forgotten where she was.
“We're almost there.” The young voice literally jolted her out of her meditative state, causing her to snap the box shut. The music stopped and was replaced once more by the engine's steady hum, allowing reality to permeate once more.
“You scared me...” The bat said quietly, adjusting her position in her chair in an attempt to regain composure.
“I'm sorry, Mom.” She finally turned to her son, and the younger bat flashed her a soft smile. “Didn't mean to. But the cold would be a worse shock than me, so you might want to bundle up before we land.”
She took a moment to respond, simply gazing at her child for a moment before slowly nodding and starting to slip her arms into the arctic coat.
“You know,” Her son began, crossing his arms as he spoke, “You've done nothing but hold that and stare blankly since we left Capital. Are you sure you want to do this? I can tell them to bring you home if -”
“I'm sure.” She interrupted. “I want to... I need to see it.” She wasn't even looking at him anymore. Instead, she was looking at the wooden box.
There was a shudder as the helicopter touched down on the ice. “Alright. Well, we're here. Come on.” He said, extending a paw to her.
She glanced at it before reaching out her own to take it, their gray fur an almost perfect color match. With a gentle squeeze, her son lifted her out of her seat and began to help her seal the front of her coat.
Pulling up her hood, the younger bat reached around and handed her a pair of goggles and gloves, then pulled his own hood up after pulling goggles down over his thick glasses.
“You'll need this,” He said, handing her a sleek, black muzzle mask, which was lined with ventilation slits. “We've been having trouble with radiation pockets down here.” He slipped his own on, and his voice became somewhat muffled. “Either leftover from the war, or from the old reactor. We're not sure yet.”
A similarly clothed individual padded up to the helicopter, and pulled open the side hatch. Immediately the biting wind filled the air, making the bat wince. Her son leaped into the snow first, before turning and helping her down.
The scenery here was much different than most of the ride over the continent had shown. The base camp they had landed at stood at the bottom of a massive ridge, which jutted high out of the ground and clashed with the relatively smooth features of the surrounding land.
“I told my men we'd be heading up,” He explained, his voice now shouting over the wind, “They got everything ready for us.” He motioned to a pair of packs that were lined up beside a small, two-seater buggy.
Mother and son made their way to the vehicle in silence, with nothing but the wind howling in their ears. The younger helped his mother into the passenger seat before loading the packs and climbing in himself and starting the engine. The buggy began to move, creeping along the snow toward the bottom of the ridge.
The buggy's loud diesel engine was not too unlike the rhythmic hum of the helicopter, and as it began to slowly climb up the artificial slope carved into the rock face, the bat found herself once again clutching at the wooden box she carried.
Her son noticed quickly, but it took him a long while to gather the words to speak. “You're holding onto it like you're saying goodbye.” He noted, turning his head as he drove to look at her, “Are you going to leave it at the top...?”
She shook her head, slowly. “No... It was given to me, and I plan on giving it to you, darling.” She took a deep breath, “I just want to... let him hear it, one last time.”
With a nod, her son turned back to his driving. Neither said another word, until the buggy stopped a small distance from the top of the ridge, and the engine cut.
“It gets too steep to drive from here.” The younger explained, “We're going to have to walk.”
She merely nodded as she opened her door and slid out onto the ground. She had to lift her free arm to shield herself as the stronger wind battered against her, staying still until her son came around with her pack and helped her put it on.
The two then turned into the biting air and, slowly but surely, began to trudge their way toward the very top of the rock face. The younger of the two moved ahead by a few paces, slipping in front of his mother and acting as a shield from the wind and allowing her to move faster. But, despite that, she never looked up. She only stared down at her child's feet, following him in silence.
Another few hundred yards, and they head reached the lip of the ridge. The younger bat climbed his way up the last few feet, before he turned and offered his paw to his mother once more.
She froze. It was there. Just on the other side. In this final moment, she began to have doubts. She wasn't sure if she wanted to see it at all. She swallowed, and almost turned away... but then she looked back at the music box in her paw. She knew that he'd want to hear it again. So, with a shaking arm, she reached out and took her son's hand, climbing up and looking out over the ridge.
The view was staggering. For what seemed like forever, a massive, rounded canyon stretched out beyond the ridge, leading right up to the opposite base. And, at the very bottom right beneath them, was the discovery her son had made. The remains of a massive, ruined vessel lay at the end of the canyon, as if the behemoth had fallen out of the sky and left the scar on the land in its wake, and had long since been forgotten. Wreckage was scattered throughout the canyon, but the ruin of what was obviously the most forward component, with a dome like protrusion of a cockpit or bridge, lay nearly in one piece, almost like it was staring back at them.
She couldn't believe it. How it could have survived such an obviously violent crash was beyond her, but nevertheless it stood. Her breathing began to quicken as she began to slowly sink to her knees, letting the music box slip from her glove and down onto the snow beneath her. With a trembling paw she reached out, placing it onto the lid.
“This is for you, wherever you are...” She whispered as she lifted the lid.
The music box began to twinkle its simple, gentle tune. And above it, the bat sobbed.








-2000 Years Later-


“Object in range. Two thousand meters.”
In this part of space, one found themselves incredibly alone. Not a star system for light years in any direction; one would be lucky to even detect a micron of dust while traveling this sector. But during a routine patrol, sensors had detected a small amount of debris. And when something is found in the middle of no-man's land, it deserves a closer look. Especially from an exploration vessel.
The feline's breath echoed around him as he drifted in his space suit, using ever so slight pulses with his thrusters to approach the slowly spinning object. His eyes narrowed as he crossed the final few meters of vacuum, and with a precision burst, he came nearly to a halt. He reached out a thickly gloved paw, taking the small object and bringing it closer.
“Sterling to Prodigy. I've got it.” On the left hand side of his helmet, a digital screen formed which displayed the interior of the Prodigy's bridge. Directly in front, two people sat absorbed in their consoles, the navigator and tactical officer. A few paces behind them, sitting on a raised chair, was the captain. The tall draft horse stood up, folding his arms across his black uniform.
“What'cha got for me, Josh?” The equine's voice always struck the lynx as surprisingly gentle, given his massive form. “Please tell me it's not another dead rock.”
“No, not this time...” Nearly all of Josh's helmet was now flashing with information as he ran various scans on the small rectangular object he held. “It's got artificial components. Casing's wood, from the look of it.”'
“Wood?” The captain's expression became quizzical, “They still make things out of that stuff?”
The lynx chuckled. “Not for the last five hundred years or so. But this is the real thing, no doubt about it. I don't think this is anyone's space trash.”
“Well... Bring it back on, and we'll have a closer look at it. No radiation, right?”
“Not from what I can tell.”
The horse nodded. “We'll just transport you back. At least now we'll have something to do while they're running those simulations. We are stuck on ion drive until they're done, after all.”
A laugh. “Right, of course. See you in a few?”
With a nod, the communications line was cut, and the screen disappeared. Josh slowly turned himself around with his suit's thrusters, and watched as the magnificent Prodigy came into view. For a ship designed for exploration, it was certainly nothing to scoff at. From the very tip of her nose, the hull extended back to form a long, thick cylinder, with many pinpoints of light shining from the vessel's fifteen decks. At the aft end, two long wings extended horizontally with smaller, supporting wings at forty-five degrees and vertical points, each emitting a dull blue aura from the rear as the ion engines propelled it through space.
The massive vessel began a slow turn towards Josh, and as it began to near, the lynx's whole body began to glow. The light became brighter and brighter, until with one final blinding flash, he was teleported on board.


Prologue





“Everything looking good, professor?”
From a pure, bright white, the environment fizzled in view to form that of a ruined cityscape. But just as quickly as it had appeared, it began to fade away again, accompanied by the loud sound of static.
“Getting a little bit of interference here. Check the gateways.”
“Roger. I'm getting a slight lag on the A/V synchronizer. Adjusting... How's that?”p
The static briefly became worse, before it cleared entirely. The environment steadied itself, and soon the feel of a light breeze, laced with the scent of smoke, began to flow.
“That's much better.” The young bat typed away at her holographic keyboard, studying the floating screen before her eyes. “Looks like we're stable. You can bring him in now.”
The screen disappeared, and a moment later a flash of static shot up from the ground. It lingered for a few seconds before forming a humanoid shape, which quickly solidified. The figure stood rigid and motionless, clothed casually. His draconic scales were an oceanic blue from head to foot, topped with shining bronze hair which covered part of his extending horns.
The bat began to approach, a warm smile crossing her lips. “You know, I really like this new archetype. He looks very natural, especially with this new hair.”
“Glad you approve.”
“I'll wake him up. Get ready for the simulations.”
“You got it. Let's try not to fry the processors this time. The captain wouldn't be happy if we had to run on sub-lights for another week.”
She chuckled, but otherwise said nothing in reply. She looked at the dragon before her for a moment, smiling as she reached out to brush a small lock of hair from his closed eyes. She then cleared her throat, giving him a gentle tap on the cheek with two fingers.
There was a slight wince in the dragon's facial features, before the eyes slid open. The bright green orbs expanded and contracted slightly as he focused, followed by a single blink and a turn of his head towards her.
“Good morning, Aneth.” She said sweetly, clasping her paws behind her back.
“Hello, Professor Reinhart.” The voice was masculine, but very monotone.
The bat huffed a little, bringing a paw forward again and wagging her finger. “Now Aneth, we've talked about this. I want you to call me Sarah, remember? My name is Sarah.”
Aneth turned his gaze forward again, training his empty eyes onto nothing at all. “My apologies,” He began, “It is a nature of my programming to treat you with the utmost respect, however you insist on me speaking to you in a casual manner. Given the circumstances, I believe it is most appropriate to address you by your title.” His voice was still monotone, but his words still had a matter-of-fact air to them.
Sarah seemed taken aback by the dragon's words. “Well, I'll certainly have to look into what's causing that.” She held out her paw again, the holographic computer display reappearing, and she started to take notes. “Anyway, we've got an exciting day ahead of us, Aneth. We're going to be testing your A-Armor and weaponry in combat. Sound like fun?”
Again, Aneth simply stared straight ahead. “As you wish.”
“Sounds like we need to program this guy a personality.” Came the male voice again.
“No kidding.” Sarah replied, rolling her eyes. “Oh well. Let's get started then, shall we?”


“It's... a music box?”
The captain leaned over Josh's shoulder as he worked, while behind them the rest of the bridge crew worked in relative silence. The lynx leaned back in his seat, still looking at the open wooden box with several metal gears and pieces strewn about alongside it.
“That's the only thing I can think of, given these components. Bet it wouldn't take too much work to fix it up, either. I bet it sounds pretty nice.”
The equine gave a light snort through his nostrils, stepping back and leaning on the railing behind him and crossing his arms. “Well, seems like an awful waste of time to have stopped to pick something like that up.”
“Now, Paul...” Josh turned in his chair, shooting the horse a look, “This thing has to be... A thousand years old, at least. It's not some everyday item. That isn't exciting to you?”
“Never was all that fond of antiques.” The captain pushed off of the railing, taking a step and reaching forward to take one of the gears between his hoof-tipped thumb and finger. “If this is all there is to it, I can assure you that a museum would have a far greater interest in it that I would.” He said, simply dropping the metal gear back into the box. It landed with a loud thunk, causing a part of the box's base to flip upward.
They both stared at it, the horse looking over to Josh nervously and muttering, “It wasn't me.” The feline ignored him, narrowing his eyes and staring into the thin compartment that had opened. He hummed in interest, reaching beside the box and grabbing a pair of tweezers. He inserted the prongs gently, squeezing down and pulling them back out to find that a small, almost paper thin computer chip was now between them.
Both of them stared wide eyed as Josh turned it slowly in the light, before the lynx turned to look at Paul. “...Interested now?”


“It's just no good,” Josh said, pulling the chip off of the small scanner he held in his hand. “The hand-held isn't equipped with the right hardware to operate the chip. It's too old.” They had tried simply scanning it, searching through computer archives, and even attempted to interface it with a hand-held computer, but nothing could give them any information on what data the chip contained. “Face it, we're just going to have to interface it with the ship's mainframe.”
“I'm still not comfortable with that. We have no idea what's on it. Anything could happen.” The captain replied, rubbing his brow.
“Then we simply isolate a console. Though, I can't imagine anything bad could happen. Any software on this chip is more than a thousand years old. Do you really think a malicious program could even begin to wreak havoc on computers this advanced?”
The equine sighed. “Fine. We'll do it your way.”
The lynx grinned, once again taking a seat at a large console. “We always do.” The captain simply scowled, watching intently as Josh isolated the console from the main computer, then inserted the chip.


A line of soldiers, faces covered in black masks, fizzled into view across the street from where Sarah and Aneth stood. With a press of a key on the bat's panel, the men raised their rifles and opened fire at Aneth. The dragon simply lifted his paw, holding it up toward them as the bullets started to ricochet off of an invisible shield, small flicks of blue color flashing each time a projectile hit it.
The bombardment soon ended. Still with a completely stoic gaze, Aneth lowered his paw and crouched before breaking into a full sprint toward the soldiers. Reaching the first in the line, the blue dragon flung his arm back as a bright blue blade extended outward from his hand, as if it was part of his arm itself. The energy sword came back in, stabbing into the man's chest with ease. The soldier began to fall, and Aneth withdrew the blade with a wide swing, cutting down next two closest before either could react.
The blade disappeared as Aneth ducked and slid to the side, paw reaching for his hip. While there, a small handgun formed, which the dragon immediately lifted, firing three consecutive shots and finishing the last of the soldiers off with blasts of energy.
As the men slumped to the ground and fizzled out of view again Aneth dismissed his weapon, once again standing rigid and staring straight ahead. Sarah, meanwhile, was furiously taking notes on her keypad.
“Good, good!” She announced, still not looking up from the screen. “His reflex timing is impressive. I think we can skip the rest of the hand-to-hand tests. Let's see how he fares with a larger target.”
“Are you sure? He might not be ready for something like that...”
“Sure he is. He'll be fine!”
There was a soft sigh. “Fine, fine. Dropping battle-mech into the simulation field...”
With a loud crackle of static, a giant mechanical soldier formed on the street. It stood half as tall as the buildings to either side, and with a step that shook the ground, it began to slowly approach Aneth. The dragon said nothing, his only reaction being to take a defensive stance. Blue waves of energy began to form around him as he stared at the oncoming machine, waiting for the moment to attack.


“Okay, from the looks of it, this thing contains some sort of memory coding.” Josh said, squinting at the screen in front of him, “It's a relic from back in the days when they used to create composite scans of the memories of the dead.”
Paul blinked. “Why would they do something like that?”
“Well, it definitely helped murder investigations.” The lynx chuckled. “But aside from that, people would use them to be able to relive memories of a deceased loved one, talk to them, or even preserve historical figures.”
“...Think we have someone famous?”
Josh laughed. “Won't know until we try. But I can't activate the program with just the resources of this console-”
“Fine, already!” The horse waved a paw, “Disable the isolation. I want to see who's on this thing.”
“Aye, sir.” A few keystrokes later, and the feline had brought the program up. “Playing... now.”
His paw pressed on the console, and immediately it sparked, making him jump back. All along the bridge, power fluctuations began making consoles and lights flicker on and off.
Paul jumped up. “What the hell is going on?! Someone, report!”


Aneth was just about to crouch into another sprint, when suddenly a loud burst of static filled the air. The dragon tensed up, his eyes rolling back as he started to have what looked like a mild seizure. The program itself froze, and all along the simulation large blocks of static were beginning to degrade the image.
“Professor! We've got a problem! The environment is critically destabilized! Get yourself out!”
Sarah shook her head, typing away while keeping her eyes trained on the shaking Aneth. “I can stabilize it! I don't want Aneth to crash!”
“Professor!”
She wasn't going to listen. Her heart pounding, the bat entered line after line of commands, desperately attempting to restore the simulation. Suddenly, the entire area shook, causing her to stumble to the ground.
The static got louder and louder, to the point where she had to cover her large ears. She cried out in a sudden panic, curling in on herself defensively. She began to feel like she was losing consciousness, with only the static remaining in her senses. Everything was white that she could see, until out of the brightness came a blue paw. It grasped her arm, and in one smooth motion, lifted her up off the ground.
“Mother! Hang on!” Was the last thing she heard as darkness took her.



“Professor! Professor Reinhart!”
Sarah jolted up suddenly from the bed she was laying on, reaching up and pulling a pair of holographic goggles away from her face. She held her other paw to her forehead as she struggled to catch her breath.
The giant shark beside her put his paw to his chest, breathing a deep sigh of relief. “I thought you were a goner in there! What were you thinking? You could have ended up in a coma!”
“I'm sorry, I...” Sarah pulled her paw away from her face, staring into her palm for a moment. “What... What did Aneth say?”
“What?”
“Right before the crash. He grabbed me. It sounded like he said 'mother'”
The shark cocked his head. “I didn't hear anything. The static was much too loud on our end. Not that I was too terribly worried about what Aneth might have been saying at the moment.”
Sarah craned her neck to look up at the shark beside her. As Retlash'n went, he was short, but still towered over her at eleven feet. He had the build to match, weighing in at just over a ton, but his worried smile shook any illusion of brutishness.
The bat couldn't help but smile herself. “Thank you, So'Ru. At least someone on this staff still worries about me.”
So'Ru took a slight bow. “Glad to be of service. Should I start running the data?”
“Um... Yeah, if you'd like. I think I should go lay down.” Sarah slowly got onto her feet, taking a moment to steady herself before heading toward the lab's exit. “I'll be back in a little while.”
So'Ru lifted his paw in a slight wave, watching her go. As the doors slid shut behind her, he slumped his shoulders and breathed a deep sigh. “That woman is going to kill herself...”

Sarah rode the lift in silence. She was so deep in thought, that she almost forgot that she had to get off when it stopped at her level. Exiting after a moment, she strode quickly down the corridor, entering her passcode and stepping into her private quarters.
The room was simple enough, with a few chairs, a desk, and a small sofa being the only furniture besides her bed in the main room. Some would say that it lacked character, but the bat spent almost no time at all there to begin with.
She practically stumbled to her bed, laying down on it, but for a long moment finding herself unable to close her eyes and relax. Aneth had called her mother, she was sure of that. But it didn't make any sense. Not ten minutes before, he was refusing to even call her by her first name. And the way he said it expressed a level of emotional involvement that well surpassed the dragon's previous encounters with the bat. She soon found herself thinking in circles over it, and decided that the best thing to do was rest. She could study the recording later. And with that, she slowly began to drift off.



“So the power surge had an effect on you guys too?”
The shark on the monitor nodded. “Yes. It caused our simulation to crash, and from what the professor said, it might have even had an effect on Aneth himself. I won't be able to tell for sure until we run a few more tests, but I don't think its a good idea to run any more simulations until we get back to port.”
Paul nodded. “I see. Keep me informed. And make sure you get some rest. We're not going anywhere for a while.”
Another nod, and So'Ru's face disappeared. Josh turned in his seat, lifting a brow and looking up at the horse. “Are we seriously stuck?”
“With the way that chip shorted the entire bridge,” The captain began, “and especially since it had an effect even down in the research wing, I'm not willing to move us on anything but sub-lights until the engineers can assure me that it's safe.” He rubbed his brow. “Besides, at least now I can finally get some sleep. This section of space is so incredibly boring.”
As Paul began moving to the lift, Josh shot to his feet and jogged to catch up with him. “Might as well head down to engineering,” He said, “See how things are going.”
The lift doors closed, and a low, gentle hum filled the air as the platform began to descend toward the main decks. There was a moment of silence between the two, before Paul turned his head to look at Josh.
“...You're not actually going to engineering, are you?” He asked, lightly smirking.
“Are you kidding? This is the first downtime we've had in almost a week! There's a lot of important work to be done...” Josh started smirking too, “After the captain debriefs me.”
The two were grinning now, and they both leaned in to bump their noses together affectionately before the lift came to a halt. They shared a quick kiss before donning their most convincing professional looks, and the two exited the elevator and began making their way toward the officers' quarters, walking close together.


“This is weird.”
So'Ru, entering the lab from the adjoining lounge with a cup of coffee the size of most people's heads, turned as one of his assistants spoke. “What is?”
The lioness sat back in her chair, motioning to the monitor in front of her with a paw. “You told me to review the logs from the simulation, right? Well, right after the program started to go all wonky, the audio file becomes corrupted. I can't tell if Aneth really did say anything to the professor.”
“Well, that's not unexpected,” So'Ru said, “The whole thing ended up crashing.”
“That's not the weird part. I figured since the log won't tell us what happened, Aneth should be able to. But when I try to access his memory logs...” She hit a few keys on her console, and another screen popped up which displayed a flashing 'Access Denied' in bright red. “...this happens.”
“Huh. That is strange. Well, I should be able to override that, whatever it is. Just give me a second.” The shark took a large swig from his oversized mug as he turned and headed toward his personal workstation.
“I thought you said that coffee didn't do anything for you.” The lioness commented, watching him.
The shark swallowed what was in his mouth audibly, lifting his brows. “Special blend.” He replied, sitting in his chair and setting the mug down. “Besides, I'm trying to look trendy.” He started logging in, before he paused and turned to her hesitantly, “It... does make me look trendy, right?”
“Absolutely.” Came the reply, amidst choked back laughter.
With a disappointed sigh, So'Ru turned back to his computer. He spent a moment as his assistant came to join him typing away, A myriad of different windows popping up, each with different information displayed. “Now, my personal password should work... and... there. I'm in.” His eyes widened. “Whoa.”
“What is it?”
“His entire neural network is... Look at it!” On the screen, a network of lines was displayed, continuously branching out and forming new connections between each other. “Holy crap...! It's... Is it evolving on its own?!”
“How can it be doing that?” The lioness asked, her voice excited, “He's in sleep mode! We're not even running any upgrades!”
“It's like... every synapse in his brain is firing off at once!” So'ru was typing like mad now. “New connections are being formed... His whole neural map is changing!”
The shark became quiet for a moment as he became glued to the screen, watching the brances spread out and become larger and larger. Before long, his eyes started opening wide. “Is he...?” Suddenly, on all the monitors in the lab, giant red numbers appeared, displaying '5:00:00' on each, one at a time. Once each screen was activated, a single alarm tone rang out, and the counter began to turn back.
“Oh, dear gods...” The color drained from So'Ru's face as he looked around the room, before he began desperately pounding into his console. “No, no, no! He's trying to activate in auto-mode!” His eyes were filled with panic, “We have to stop it! He's not stable!”


The lights were dimmed, the candles were lit; the setting couldn't be more perfect. Josh had already taken the liberty of removing Paul's uniform top, and his paws had set about tracing the horse's muscular torso while his own neck was being slowly planted with smooth, wet kisses.
“Mnh... Paul...” The lynx shivered, pressing closer to the horse as one if his paws slid up and deep into Paul's mane. The horse just pulled him closer, tugging the collar of his shirt away and nosing into the feline's bare shoulder before kissing it.
“Josh... I've needed you... for so long...” The horse's breath was hot against Josh's fur, his tongue trailing a smooth line back up the side of the lynx's neck.
“I have all night...” The lynx cooed in reply, his paws sinking lower and lower, before trailing along Paul's waist and toward the buckle of his pants, “Nothing is going to take me away from you...”
With a simple flick, the buckle was undone. As his paw moved to pull the zipper down, the two were suddenly blinded as the full lighting of the room flashed on. Not a second later, an alarm began blaring.
“Oh, you cannot be serious...” Paul whimpered, gently headbutting against Josh's chest in frustration before he buckled his pants again, moving quickly to the nearest console and silencing the alarm before connecting to the bridge. “Report!”
“We've got a problem up here, Captain...” Paul recognized the voice of his helmsman, “You'd... better get up here.”
The horse rubbed a paw against his face. “Fine. I'll be right up.” He cut the connection, and his eyes turned to Josh, looking deeply apologetic.
“Hey, no...” The lynx stopped him before he could start. “There's time. I'll come up with you, okay? Let's get you dressed...”


“Two minutes until start-up!”
If Retlash'n could sweat, So'Ru would be drenched in it by now. He had spent the last three minutes typing faster than he had ever thought he could, trying line after line of command code, but it seemed as if Aneth had somehow locked all access to the auto-mode program after the countdown had started.
“One minute thirty!”
So'Ru rubbed his face. He knew he only had one option left; the fail-safe. But if he activated that, all of the work that the team had spent three long years on would be for nothing. All of the code Aneth stored would be totally wiped, and they'd have to start again from scratch.
“One minute to start-up!”
With a regretful glance down toward Aneth's maintenance bed, So'Ru opened up a new text window. He began to type out a Retlash'n phrase phonetically, one that only he and Sarah knew how to say. Once the code had been written, Aneth would cease to exist. But before So'Ru could finish typing, the phrase was interrupted by a break, followed by a new line of text.
Father, please stop.
So'Ru froze. He simply stared at the sentence for a moment, before hesitantly typing a reply in the line below. ...Aneth?
And again, a reply. They are coming.


“Report.” Paul spoke before he even had a chance to step off of the lift. The viewscreen ahead of him was on, but it was showing nothing but empty space.
“Captain, we're reading a massive gravity fluctuation just ahead of us.”
The horse took a seat in his chair, “Source?”
“I'm... not sure.” The helmsman replied, “It's screwing around with all of our long-range sensors.”
“I'm on it.” Josh had already taken a seat, and started to review the data. “The anomaly seems to be originating roughly five hundred kilometers from our present position. I can't pinpoint it exactly... It's... like its pushing matter away from itself, instead of drawing everything in.”
“Is that even possible?”
“It's a phenomenon that usually precursors the formation of a wormhole...”
“Wormhole...” Paul's eyes shot open. “Full stop. Don't bring us any closer.” The horse stood up. “Is the slipstream drive online yet?”
The helmsman turned. “No sir, we still haven't gotten the okay from Engineering...” He looked slightly uneasy. “Captain, what is it?”
“Nothing other than a bad feeling.” The captain replied, shooting a worried glance over at Josh. “We need to override the safeties. Get us out of here, before we find out what-”
“Captain, look!”
Paul's eyes flicked back up to the viewer, where the endless splash of stars was being blurred out slowly. It started as a translucent haze of energy, but as it spread it began to blacken, finally gaining a small amount of purple before it all suddenly collapsed back in on itself with a bright flash of red. Reaching its own core, the energy suddenly exploded outward again with a bright white center, from which a large black object began to appear.
It formed slowly, pushing meter by meter through the light. The starship was completely colorless, save for the small flecks of light along its hull which revealed the location of windows along the ship's many, many decks. Easily five times the size of the Prodigy, the vessel pushed completely through the portal, the two massive wings on each side of the long main hull sporting two giant cannons each. And even they paled in comparison to the rest of the ship's weaponry, all emerging from hidden compartments as it turned toward the smaller research vessel.
“My god...” Josh's voice was the first to break the silence, “What... is that...?!”
An alarm rang out and interrupted the lynx. “They're locking weapons!”
“Shields, now!” Paul shouted over the sudden din on the bridge. “Move us away!”
From one of the opening compartments on the larger vessel, a missile detached, and immediately fired toward the Prodigy. Halfway to its target, the projectile burst into dozens of smaller pieces, each separating and hurdling towards different sections of the ship.
“Hang on to something!” Paul's warning came too late, as the missiles tore into the Prodigy's hull. Throughout the ship, small explosions tore through the walls and sent debris flying. Even on the bridge, the most heavily armored and best shielded section of the vessel, flames and sparks began to fly, causing power surges that briefly disabled a number of consoles.
“Status!” Paul shouted, desperately trying to climb back into his chair from the floor he was flung to. “Somebody talk to me!”
“Our shields were only partially charged when the missile hit, Captain!” Came the cry of Paul's tactical officer, “We're already down to forty-five percent power!”
“They're firing another!”
Paul jumped back to his feet. “Return fire!”


“There's another missile incoming!”
“Everybody get down!”
The first attack had thrown even So'Ru from his chair, as the team working under him all scrambled to get under tables and consoles for shelter. The shark was the first one to get back to his chair, and he had forgotten all about Aneth while he used his flickering screen to display sensor readings. Now the second volley hit, and So'Ru had to jump backwards as a piece of debris flew down from the ceiling, smashing his computer to pieces.
Sparks flew, and debris and furniture flew everywhere. So'Ru did what he could to crawl over to where his team was huddled, using his larger body to shelter them as he ducked and covered his own head.
The violent explosions that rocked the ship ceased more quickly the second time, but the lab's power never came back on. There was a brief moment of total darkness, before a dim blue light emanated from the center of the room and allowed everyone to see again. So'Ru uncurled first, opening his eyes and letting them adjust to the darkness.
The lab was totally destroyed. All around the room equipment lay smashed apart, with added components from the walls and ceiling adding to the rubble. Occasionally, sparks would flicker from the exposed wiring in the room, but the only consistent light shone dimly from the middle of the lab. From Aneth's bed.
Before the shark could even get up to investigate, a loud hissing sound came from the bed, followed by the sounds of the timelocks releasing one by one. The light suddenly brightened as the cover of the bed opened, lifting up into the air, and So'Ru froze where he sat. He watched, shaking, as a single arm lifted from the bed and gripped the side, allowing the blue dragon within to finally sit up.
At first, only Aneth's silhouette could be seen as the light from his bed shone on him, but a second later the dragon's bright eyes turned, and So'Ru could see clear as day that they were looking straight at him.
“Everybody... get behind me...” So'Ru swallowed, slowly rising to his feet while Aneth slid his own feet onto the floor, and began to slowly make his way toward the shark. He continued to move slowly, coming to within five feet of So'Ru before he finally paused.
Aneth simply stared at So'Ru, without blinking. Then suddenly he began to look around the room, as if surveying the damage done before turning back to the shark and speaking. “Father...?” He said, “Where's mother?”


“Report!” Paul called out once the second wave of explosions had stopped, covering his muzzle and coughing into his sleeve from the light smoke which had started to fill the bridge.
“We managed to destroy some of the missiles with our own...” The tactical officer replied, scanning his own panel intently. “But it wasn't enough. Shields are down to ten percent. We can't take another hit like that!”
“Go to slipstream! Get us out of here!”
“We can't!” Josh shook his head, turning to Paul with worry in his eyes. “That last shot took out our slip controls. The engines are still running, but its going to take me some time to bypass the damaged circuitry...!”
“We don't have time!” Paul shouted, gazing at the viewer in front of him, which showed the giant warcruiser was dormant for now. “Who knows when they'll decide to finish us off? We need to go, now!”
“Energy surge detected!”
All eyes turned forward. The enemy ship itself was still motionless, but the viewer itself seemed to be dimming. It started to flicker, along with the bridge's lighting, until just before the screen small flicks of light began to appear. They started to multiply, swirling quickly around each other and expanding to form large pillars of light.
“They're boarding!”
With a flash, the light faded. In place of the pillars stood five soldiers. Heavily armored, the figures at first resembled dragons, but closer inspection revealed the aliens were in fact much different. They sported the signature hearing membranes and long muzzles of the dragon, but covering it all was a layer of short fur, colored differently on each. Their eyes were slitted, but appeared different from a normal draconic, and the tip of their snouts were capped with a flat, broad nose which was hairless, but had the same color as the surrounding fur. The soldiers simply stood for the first few seconds, surveying the layout of the bridge before the one in the center spoke.
“Ki'tem.”
No one had any time to react. In the blink of an eye, the five men pulled out their sidearms and opened fire on the crew. Those farther back from the screen, Paul and Josh included, luckily had time to dive behind chairs and consoles to shield themselves, but the helmsman and tactical officer weren't so lucky. The bull and skunk barely even get to their feet before both were struck in the chest by green spheres of energy, sending them both to the floor, dead. The other three shots fired simply hit consoles or the floor, sending sparks flying in all directions.
Most of the remaining crew huddled in their hiding spots, cowering while the aliens fired over and over again, filling the air with sounds of shots and consoles being destroyed. But Josh had other ideas. They lynx crawled slowly on his stomach, keeping behind a row of chairs and a large computer, until he reached the far wall. He felt around on the floor, finding a hidden latch and pulling it open to reveal a small pistol, which he quickly grasped. He rolled back a few feet, jumping up on his knees and firing on the nearest soldier to him with a loud war-cry.
The shot flew through the air, striking its target square on the chest. The soldier recoiled, taking a single step back, but was otherwise unaffected thanks to its armor. It snarled, bringing its weapon up and firing a single shot at Josh, who tried to duck back behind the computer but was struck on the shoulder before he could vanish. The lynx cried out in pain, crumpling to the floor and clutching his wound.
“Josh!” Paul called out for him, making a daring dash across the floor of the bridge toward his engineer. Reaching him, the horse scooped him into his arms, almost cradling the feline. “Are you okay?! Josh!”
Josh couldn't do much else but groan in pain, but he was still conscious. In his worry, Paul failed to notice that the intruders had all but stopped firing, and that the apparent leader of the group was slowly making its way toward them, weapon at the ready.
The alien reached them, and Paul glanced up. There was nothing he could do, but he'd be damned if he didn't give whatever that thing was hell before he went. With a cry similar to that of Josh's, the captain lunged for the intruder. Unfortunately for the horse, the creature was expecting the move. With a few strikes and the sound of an arm breaking, Paul was in a lock and on his knees, crying out in pain. Once again, the alien lowered his weapon at the captain.
“Od'bi.” It hissed again in its harsh tongue. There was a sound of the weapon charging, but before it could go off, another shot rang out from behind him. The bullet flew over Paul's head and struck the creature right in the paw, causing his weapon to discharge against the floor and making the alien hiss out in surprise.
The soldier looked up for the source of the gunfire, only to be suddenly tackled to the floor by a flash of blue. The dragon pinned him to the ground, raising a bare, muscled arm into the air. The blue jewel set into the bracer around his wrist began to glow, and as he plunged his arm back down, an energy blade emanated from it, piercing straight through the alien's armor and through its chest. The alien let out a weak cry before falling limp, its entire body suddenly being consumed in a bright light as it was transported automatically back to its ship.
It was if everything stopped. Nobody moved as Aneth slowly lifted his head, his bright, passioned eyes setting on the rest of the invading soldiers. Moving quickly, the dragon leaped over a row of consoles, only to be hit in midair by a barrage of shots which sent him right back against them again, and to the floor.
Aneth remained slumped for a few seconds, before the jewel set in the center of his sleeveless shirt flickered back to life. He then shook his head, his eyes flashing lightly before jumping back to his feet and barreling straight for the closest soldier.
They fired again, but this time the shots absorbed into some kind of shielding, allowing the dragon to run right into the alien, pinning him hard against a nearby console. Using nothing but his bare fist, Aneth swing twice against the soldier's face, before giving him a firm uppercut and knocking it to the floor. As it began to disappear, Aneth turned, and from the jewels on his wrists formed twin pistols. He then fired on each of the remaining creatures repeatedly, causing all three to fall to the bridge floor. Panicking, one of the three screamed something in its native tongue, and all of them were immediately transported away.
The silence was almost deafening from that point. Aneth became motionless, his weapons disappearing as nothing but the sound of crackling sparks could be heard throughout the bridge.
“Captain!” A voice finally broke through the silence, as both Sarah and So'Ru came running towards the horse.
“Are you alright?!” The bat asked worriedly, putting a paw on Paul's shoulder.
“I'm fine, but...” He winced, cradling his broken arm, “But Josh...” He swallowed, looking down at the shaking lynx before So'Ru leaned in and scooped him up.
“We'll him to medbay. Don't worry.” He said calmly, giving a nod to the captain.
Paul shakily got back to his feet, using a nearby railing for support. He turned, staring at Aneth for a moment. “Is that...?”
“Yes. That's Aneth.” Sarah replied, nodding.
“I thought you said he wasn't functional yet... Not that I'm complaining, but...”
“He's not supposed to be. We really don't know what's going on. He just... woke up on his own, came and found me, and headed straight up here to save you.”
“I see...” The horse coughed again before continuing, “Do you suppose it has anything to do with-”
“Captain.” The two were suddenly interrupted by Aneth's voice. They both turned, Aneth facing toward the viewer. “The enemy vessel is coming about. I recommend we use the slipstream drive to escape.”
Paul looked, and indeed the warship was turning about. “We can't. Josh said the circuitry was damaged in the attack...”
Aneth finally turned to face Paul. His eyes had softened somewhat, and if the horse was not mistaken, he looked almost sad. Then, as soon as the expression had appeared, it disappeared again. “I think I can help. Please, if I may take the controls...”
The captain turned to Sarah. “We thought it might be a good idea to acquaint him with some essential ship functions...”
“Captain...” Aneth said again, as the first of the enemy cannons fired, causing the ship to rock as it hit the shields.
“Uh... alright. Go!”
Aneth didn't need to be told twice. In an instant he had taken the helmsman's chair, and began to type away furiously at the console. As the Prodigy continued to shake from the repeated firing of the enemy cannons, it began to turn away, main engines firing as it flew underneath its attacker. They began to pick up more and more speed, and the dragon at its helm continued to work, eyes fixated on the screen before him, never blinking.
The warship began to turn again, firing another missile at the Prodigy. It flew straight at her engines, coming dangerously close before Aneth slapped a single button, making the ship suddenly dive, the missile missing its target but still exploding close enough to send everyone to the floor again.
Another warning siren began to ring, this one's tone significantly more urgent than the ones that had been sounding previously. The bridge went almost completely dark, save for emergency lighting, and most of the remaining consoles flickered and went offline.
“Report!” Paul shouted from a crouch, holding his good arm arm out to shield Sarah and So'Ru, who was still cradling Josh, from the continuous onslaught of sparks.
“Captain,” Aneth spoke over the noise, his voice serious, but eerily calm, “It appears that the Prodigy's main reactor core has suffered critical damage. I estimate that this vessel will capsize within five minutes.” His bright eyes turned toward them again. “We should evacuate immediately.”
All eyes turned to Paul. The horse closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath before nodding his head. “Alright.” He said weakly. He made his way to the captain's chair, pushing and holding a button on the armrest. “General order nine has been issued. All hands, abandon ship! I repeat, all hands, abandon ship!”
As he finished a large panel to the left side of the bridge slid open, revealing the officers' escape pod. So'Ru quickly carried Josh through the doorway, while Sarah helped the injured Paul. Aneth brought up the rear, pausing at a nearby station to pick up the music box, which had been tossed to the floor.
They made their way through the passage in turn, So'Ru having to crouch to fit his larger body. The shark stepped into the pod first, laying the now unconscious Josh down on the floor before turning to help Sarah and Paul through. Aneth was about to step through when the ship shook violently again. From the ruined bridge, the computer's voice could be heard.
“Warning: Engine core temperature critical. Breach imminent.”
Aneth stopped. He looked back over his shoulder, toward the bridge.
“Aneth?” Sarah called to him, “Aneth, come on! We need to go!”
The dragon turned back toward her. He donned a pained smile. “Mother...” He glanced up at So'Ru as well, “Father... Please, forgive me.” He shoved the music box into Sarah's hands, stepping back away from the door and slapping the panel beside it, making it close and lock.
“Aneth!!!” Sarah shrieked in horror. She ran for the hatch, but So'Ru's powerful arms grabbed her and held her tight as the pod launched away from the burning Prodigy, joining the dozens of other pods that had already begun to escape.
The bat continued to yell and struggle, until finally she was released. She ran for the small console on the far side of the pod, quickly bringing up a communication link with the bridge.
“Aneth!” She called as the blue dragon took a seat at the helm once more, “Aneth, what do you think you're doing?! You have to get out!”
“Mother.” His reply was stern enough to make Sarah stop, “There is a very high probability that the enemy will turn on the escape pods once the ship is destroyed. I will not let that happen.”
“But how on Earth can you possibly-”
“The Prodigy's engine core is on the verge of collapse. The resulting explosion should be enough to disable the enemy vessel.”
His collision course laid in, Aneth got up from his console and moved to sit in the captain's chair.
“Aneth, please stop...!” Sarah pleaded, “You can't...!”
The dragon gripped the edges of his armrests. “I am... scared, mother.” He said, his expression matching his words, “I am so very scared... But I must save you. I have to!”
A massive explosion rocked the bridge, and Sarah's visual feed was cut off. “Aneth...? Aneth!”
“M-Mother...?” Aneth's voice still came through, though the connection was obviously weak, “Father...? Can you hear me...?”
“Yes! Yes, we're here!” Sarah called back, So'Ru moving up behind her and placing a paw on her shoulder.
“Aneth, we're here.” The shark said calmly, “We can hear you.”
“I love you both, so very much... Forgive me...”
With that, the audio cut. All eyes turned to the pod's window, in time to see what was left of the Prodigy flying straight at the front of the alien ship before exploding in a violent flash of light. The blast wave sent the larger vessel spiraling away, all visible lighting flickering before disappearing altogether.
The explosion cleared, leaving nothing but debris where a ship once was. Sarah slowly fell to her knees, eyes streaming with tears. “Aneth... No...” So'Ru crouched down with her, wrapping his large arms around her and pulling her in close. Both pairs of eyes remained fixated at the destriction before them, until the scene began to pull away, the space around them suddenly replaced with blue light as the pods moved into slipstream.