A/N: Greetings my friends, and welcome to the first adventure of the Great Fox III. This chapter is of course the beginning of a journey that will take our band of heroes into the past, one that is quite different from the time they live in. Let's hope they can manage to not screw up and cause some sort of paradox. But without further ado let's get on to: Star Fox Past Tense. Enjoy, and try not to think about the science and such, trust me you'll go insane. And as always Read and Review!

Star Fox Past Tense

Chapter 1

The Anomaly

Fox was lying on the bed of his quarters aboard the Great Fox III reading a book, his wife Krystal was sitting and talking to the AI Serina. It never ceased to amaze Fox how most everyone on the crew, himself included, seemed to just love talking to Serina. And for an AI she seemed almost to interesting to talk to, her curiosity though had caused a few awkward moments in the past though. Looking up from his book he saw that the stars outside seemed a little unfamiliar. "Hey Serina, are we still in the Lylat System?"

Serina looked at him and said "No sir, we passed out of the system three hours ago. I thought you knew."

Just as Fox was going to ask why exactly she had thought that his comm badge chirped, reflexively he hit it. "McCloud."

Fiora's voice came back sounding excited in the extreme, her duties as science officer had, until now apparently, been rather unexciting. "Fox you have to get up here! There is something absolutely amazing that you have to see. I'll explain when you get up here."

Fox looked at Krystal; she shrugged and said "Well let's not keep her waiting." Fox nodded and the two walked out the doors. The two headed for a turbo lift and got in. "Bridge." As the lift began its trip to the bridge the two rode in a comfortable silence, then Krystal hit the stop button and kissed Fox for no apparent reason. Fox just decided to play along, when they were done he asked "And just what was that for?"

Krystal smiled "Nothing much, just for saving me so many times. And for always loving me, just the usual." Fox smiled and kissed her again then let the lift resume. It stopped again and Krystal hit the lock button "Miyu is out there, I want to see how long it takes her to figure out there really is a lift here."

Fox pinched her butt and simply said "Naughty, naughty Krystal." She giggled and smiled.

"Then feel free to punish me tonight love. Alright we better let her in, I think her hair is going to catch fire." She disengaged the lock and the doors opened to show Miyu, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), and seriously pissed off. Yeah she has a serious temper.

"I should have known it was the two of you." As she stepped in she looked around the floor and then asked "What? No condoms?"

Krystal and Fox looked at her, then Fox said "What are you insinuating?"

Miyu looked at him and smirked "So I guess that really was Falco and Katt."

Krystal looked horrified "They had sex in this lift? I already feel nauseous."

Miyu laughed and replied "Nah, I was just kidding, but what makes you nauseous? GO TO THE GODDAMN BRIDGE ALREADY!" she yelled at the lift in response to its lack of movement.

Krystal and Fox laughed, then Krystal answered Miyu's question "The thought of Falco naked. What else?"

Miyu shrugged "He's kinda hot, for a birdie." The doors to the lift opened and the three stepped onto the bridge. Fiora seemed quite engaged in her console screens and was continually hitting buttons. Fox and Krystal walked over and saw that she was running an analysis on some sort of anomaly.

She looked up at them after a few moments and said "You are not going to believe this. We have just made the most amazing find in the history of science."

Miyu walked over and said "So what is it?"

Fiora looked at each of them in turn then said "Have you guys ever heard of a temporal anomaly?"

"No I'm a doctor, not an astrophysicist." Said Miyu in response to the question.

Fox shrugged "You're looking at a guy who failed everything that had to do with physics at the academy."

Krystal thought for a moment then said "I think I read something about them on the internet. Aren't there a whole bunch of theories on them going around, but no one can prove them since we've never seen one?"

Fiora smiled "Thank sis, at least someone on this ship isn't a total idiot. Basically from what we think we know is that they can appear anywhere in the galaxy and they can send you to any time period. Be it past or future, or maybe even an alternate timeline. But since no one has ever seen one or gotten sensor readings on them before we can only theorize and make guesses."

Fox nodded "Well then it looks like we've found one, and I think we might as well have a look. If you want to, but before we do I want to know if there is any danger in getting close to this thing, so is there?"

Fiora shrugged "I don't think so, but you never know. Of course risk is part of the game if you want to sit in that chair Fox."

Fox looked at Krystal who nodded an affirmative, then he looked at Miyu who gave him her signature whatever look. "Alright then, helm lay in a course to the anomaly, speed factor four. Engage." The helmsman nodded and laid in the course change. Fox went and sat in his chair, Krystal took her seat on his left, and Miyu sat in Fay's chair on the right.

Fox looked at the screen and thought for the first time that maybe, just maybe, a ship under his command would be doing something other than engaging in combat. It was a pleasant thought, after spending over a decade of his life fighting the bad guys and saving the universe it was nice to think that maybe his war days were over. Nonetheless he had a feeling that his crew was going to get a trial by fire anyway, even if it wasn't against a Venomian battle cruiser. "ETA to anomaly." He said to the helmsman.

"One hour present speed, sir." The helmsman a young feline ensign responded, the fact that it was a male feline told him it was alpha shift, which meant that Fay was supposed to be on the bridge.

Hitting a button on the right armrest of his chair Fox said "Fay to the bridge, on the double."

Fay's voice came back a moment later saying that she was on her way. Krystal looked at her husband; she could sense that something was giving him a bad feeling. She didn't want to read his thoughts without his permission though so she simply decided to ask "Fox, what's bothering you?"

Fox looked at her and said "I just have a bit of a bad feeling about this 'anomaly', I just get the feeling that something is going to happen because of it. It doesn't matter; I'm probably just being paranoid."

Krystal frowned "Fox, your gut feeling is almost as good as my telepathy; in fact sometimes I trust your gut more than my telepathy. If it's telling you something I don't think you should just ignore it."

Before Fox could respond the door opened and Fay replaced Miyu in her chair. Without looking at her Fox said "You're late."

Fay sighed "Sorry, I was having some trouble sleeping. So what's going on today?"

Fox shrugged and said "Well I guess we can skip the court martial for you this time. Otherwise were heading for the first ever seen temporal anomaly."

Fay adjusted the bow in her hair "A what?"

Fox looked at her and motioned to Fiora "Ask her, she knows what it is. We'll be arriving within the hour. Fay I'll be in my ready room, you have the bridge." With that Fox got up and headed for his ready room. The ready room was just off the bridge and Fox usually used it when he was on duty. That way he was close to the bridge, but could simply relax.

As he walked in he looked around, he had a couch against the wall next to the door. Two chairs in front of his desk, his desk was made of tinted glass, it was semi circular, with his chair half surrounded by it. On the wall just above the couch was a painting of the original Great Fox with four Arwings flying in front of it, on the top it was titled Star Fox Team, The Heroes of Lylat. It had been a gift from Tasha on his and Krystal's first wedding anniversary, he had been surprised when she told him she had made it herself, he hadn't realized that she was such a great painter.

He went over to the window that he had had installed and simply looked at the stars rushing past. He didn't know why but it always seemed to help him relax and think, he may have been a warrior most of his life but he never found himself growing cynical. No that was Miyu's job, he felt a smile form when he thought about when Miyu had started yelling at Whitefur about how the system was responsible for…well just about everything. Although, she was half wasted at the time, she always does that when she has too many.

After a few minutes he laid down on the couch and sighed, thinking that another hour or so was going to be a long time with nothing to do. Of course they were flying in a ship that could go fast enough to get them there in about five minutes at maximum. The thought became increasingly appealing after about a minute of just lying there. He got up and walked back onto the bridge "Helm increase speed to maximum warp." The helmsman nodded and increased speed, Krystal looked at Fox and raised an eyebrow. "I thought we'd save a little time."

She shrugged and said "I thought you like long boring road trips."

He shook his head "Not this time." He hit the comm button to Falco and Katt's room and said "Will Katt and Falco Monroe, oh sorry, Lombardi, please get their lazy assess out of bed and come to the bridge."

Falco's voice came back "Your playing a dangerous game, if you don't stop doing that I'm gonna put my foot in your Fox cut off the transmission and grinned. He knew it bothered Falco when he called him by Katt's maiden name, so he made sure to do whenever he could.

Fay tapped him on the shoulder and said "Do you two always try to piss each other off?"

Before he could say anything Krystal said "It's one of the many complicated factors of their friendship, and besides it's funny to see the birdie get pissed off."

Just then the doors opened and Fox said "Good morning Mr. Monroe, have a nice sleep. And before you say anything shut up and take the helm. Ensign take the rest of the shift off."

The ensign smiled and said "Yes sir, thank you sir." He got up and was replaced by Falco who was mumbling to himself.

Katt went to her station next to Fiora's, and put on her ear piece. Then she turned in her seat towards Fox and asked "So where are we going?"

Fox got up out of his chair and walked closer to the view screen, then said "Right here."

On the screen was an area of space that was occupied by a large formation of flashing and swirling lights. "Fiora is this it? Is this the anomaly?"

Fiora got up and walked towards him, "So it would seem, amazing isn't it?"

Fox nodded "Begin scanning take as long as you want. Falco maintain are position and…" just as he was about to finish his sentence the ship lurched forward and alarm klaxons started blaring.

"I don't think that's going to be possible, were bein sucked in. I can't hold are position!" the ship started shutter.

Fox got back in his chair and yelled "All engines full reverse! Fiora I thought you said this thing wasn't going to be dangerous."

Fiora seemed quite confused when she said "This things gravity is through the roof! You'll never break free!"

Fox realized if they kept fighting then the hull stress would become too great and the ship would break apart. This knowledge fueled his next decision "Falco! Cut the engines! Fiora tell Decius to get up here!"

As Falco cut the engines the ship surged forward and thus through the anomaly. As they went through Fox could hear the ghosts of his past in his head. And if only for a moment he heard the voice of his mother and father. Then it was over, the ship stopped moving and all that showed on the screen was the planet Corneria.

"Fiora, scan the planet, I want to know if that really is Corneria." Fox said. The doors opened and Decius a magenta colored Fox walked in and took his post silently at tactical.

After he was done reviewing his readouts he asked the obvious question "What the hell happened?"

Fox shrugged "Were trying to figure that out right now. Anything Fiora?"

Fiora nodded and said "That really is Corneria, but the atmosphere contains high levels carbon monoxide and fluorine, and that tells me…"

Krystal got up and walked over to her sister, "What is it Fiora?"

Fiora sighed "Well the pollutant content of the atmosphere tells me that we've arrived in the late twentieth century. And if I remember my history it means that almost none of these people have been on or seen a spaceship, of any kind."

Falco looked at her like she was crazy "So your saying we just went back in time, what, like two hundred years?"

Katt looked down at her console and said "She's right; I just picked up an archaic radio signal, not subspace, saying that it's about 1980."

Fox thought for a moment then said "That means we've traveled back in time 180 years. Incredible."

Decius raised an eyebrow "It would be a lot more incredible if we can get back, so Fiora my love, can we?"

Fiora tapped a few buttons then said "According to scanners the anomaly is still out there, but I can't guarantee that it will take us back to exactly the right time. Don't ask me to figure out a way because there is no way to determine it."

Falco looked down at the helm console, and then said "Uh, Fox. According to this are warp drive is out. I have no idea why."

Fay finally joined the conversation and said "I have a bad feeling about this; I mean a really bad feeling about this."

Fox nodded and said "I'm going down to engineering; I'll see what's wrong. In the mean time Falco move us to about 40,000 kilometers distance. That way they won't detect us, and we can beam down if necessary."

Falco nodded and did as ordered, well Fox entered the turbo-lift. "Engineering." The lift started moving instantly. A minute later the doors opened to the sight of the engineering deck. It was dominated by the immense engine core; the core usually glowed from the energy crystals within it, but the first thing Fox noticed was that the core was almost completely devoid of light.

The Chief on duty ran over to him, he was a middle aged canine and starting to get a bit of a gut. When he reached Fox he said "Sir, the crystals, there disintegrating."

Fox's gut clenched, if the crystals went, they would have no way to reach the anomaly, and from their home. "Chief, is there any way we can recrystalize them?"

The chief though for a moment then said "Maybe, if you can get me some radioactive discharge, from say a nuclear generator I might be able to use it to do that."

Fox nodded "How long do we have until there is no solution?"

The chief shrugged "Three days tops, sir. After that there's nothing that we can do."

Fox nodded and thanked the chief for his report, then headed back for the bridge. When he got there he walked in and said "We have to go down there, Miyu as much as hate to say this you'll be in command until we get back. The rest of you transporter room three."

Miyu nodded and the rest headed for the transporter room, Fox knew what he had to do, he had to get the radiation somehow, and at the same time try not to change the past. But the second task he realized had to be the most important, and it would most likely be the most difficult.