The return home.

part 1

by Leanna

After Roland and Schwenk were taken away to be prosecuted, Mandora inspected the ship and started gathering evidence. "I believe this belongs to you," she said after picking up a box and looking inside and passed it to the lioness.
"Yes…thank-you," Leanna nodded grateful to have her weapons and insignia back.
"I'm going to need a statement from you as to what happened," Mandora replied gesturing to the lioness to take a seat in the pilot's chair, "And I'm also going to need to photograph your injuries".
Leanna looked over at Panthro who smiled and nodded, "alright," she said turning back to the officer.
"Panthro," Tygra said calling the panther over, "Take a look at this," he said pointing to the collar.
"I seen that," Panthro nodded, "It has thundrainum in it".
"Yes and it's also a shock collar," The tiger said finding the controller, "judging by the welt around her neck, he used it on her".
"That's when I first felt she was in trouble," Panthro nodded then noticed a bottle of medication, "Tygra what's this," he asked passing it to the tiger.
Tygra looked at the bottle, "It's used to treat radiation poisoning," he said then looked over at Leanna as she spoke to Mandora noticing her coloring was a bit off, "Panthro she needs to be examined…she still may be quite sick…. This stuff was just a quick fix to make her well enough so we wouldn't know she had been ill".
"But she seems fine," Panthro said looking back at his mate.
"For now, until this stuff wears off," Tygra said, "when this stuff took effect it allowed her to fully go into estrous and now that is over with she may become very ill very quickly".
"But there doesn't seem to be that much thundrainum in the collar," Panthro said picking it up carefully between his fingers then dropping it quickly as he started to become a bit light headed.
"Looks like that collar was made to subdue a male," Tygra nodded, " a collar for a female wouldn't have effected you…we had better get her home as soon as possible".
"Mandora we need to wrap this up quickly, we need to get home," Panthro said walking over to the two women.
"Very well," Mandora nodded, "I have what I need for now, but I will contact you for any further information and the trial date".
"Thank-you," the panther nodded and took the lioness's hand, "Come Lea, we're going home".
"Good," Leanna said quietly as she stood, "I'm so tired".
"You can rest when we get onboard the Feliner," Panthro said leading her outside.
"Why don't you two go rest awhile," Tygra nodded once they boarded the ship.
"You sure," the panther asked.
"Of course I'm sure," Tygra nodded, "you piloted the ship the whole way here, and you've hardly slept for two weeks, if you've even slept at all…now go get some sleep, we're tired of you being so cranky," The tiger winked.
"I have not been cranky," The panther snorted and stomped off to the back of the ship.
"We know better don't we," Tygra smirked looking at the lioness.
"Yes we do," she smiled and patted the tiger on the shoulder before she went to join the panther.

An couple of hours had passed since the feliner left the spaceport, Tygra want to make sure that Panthro and Leanna were both sleeping before he called third earth, he didn't want Panthro to over hear his concerns about the lioness until he knew more and what could be done.
He contacted Pumyra and quickly explained what was wrong.
"Has she shown any signs of being ill," the puma asked.
"No…not yet, she sleeping at the moment, but her coloring is off," Tygra answered, "I don't know if I should divert to Thundera or come home".
"Well… if she's not showing any signs of sickness, then it should be okay for you to come straight home," Pumyra nodded, "I'll have everything ready at the lair for when you get here".
"Thank-you Pumyra," The tiger nodded then hesitated for a moment.
"What is it," The puma asked.
" Well," Tygra said scratching his chin, "you know I don't pry into people private lives, but in this case it's just a question".
"Okay," Pumyra nodded.
"Well Panthro and I have been friends for a very long time and well it's just that….I know it's going to come up," Tygra raveled on.
"For Jaga sakes man spit it out," the puma said crossing her arms.
"Alright," Tygra sighed, "Leanna was in estrous…what are the chance that if a cub was conceived while she had thundrainium poisoning, that the cub would be alright".
"It wouldn't," Pumyra said sadly, "It's more likely that the poisoning would render her temporarily infertile, if not," she started to say then stopped, "Tygra either way there will be no cub this time".
"I was afraid of that, but I had to ask incase it came up, thanks Pumyra, we'll be seeing you guys soon," Tygra nodded and cut the transmission.

A few hours later the motion of the feliner starting to shudder woke Panthro.
"What in Jaga's name," he grumbled lifting his head from his pillow trying to figure out what was going on. He knew every movement of the ship from the sound of the landing gear retracting to the flaps on the wings. But this was a different feliner, the design was exactly the same and they used the same type of metal. But somehow he knew something wasn't quite right.
The panther tried to move his arm gently out from under the lioness's head without waking her, "Where you going," she asked groggily nestling her self closer.
"Go back to sleep," he whispered planting a soft kiss on her temple, "I'm just going up to talk to Tygra," he said as he climbed off the cot. "Okay," she mumbled and nestled herself in the blankets and fell back to sleep.
After Panthro put on his boots and shoulder spikes he walked up the short passage to the few steps that lead to the Feliner's cockpit. "Tygra what's going on," the panther asked taking the seat beside the tiger.
"I'm not sure," Tygra said checking the systems again, "looks like were losing pressure in the fuel line"
"Why didn't you wake me," Panthro asked as he started checking the systems himself.
"I was about too when you showed up, you got this thing hard wired to your brain that you automatically know when there is a problem" Tygra smirked.
"Hmm I wonder if that's possible," Panthro considered then looked at Tygra, "just kidding".
"I don't think were going to make it home," Tygra said as the shuddering started to get worse.
"How long before we reach third earth," Panthro asked.
"Another twelve hours," the tiger said.
"Okay we'll find somewhere to land so I can see what's going on," Panthro said.
Tygra nodded and started scanning for a suitable planet where they could make an emergency landing. "I've found a planet twenty minutes away, it's small but the air is breathable," Tygra said.
"Okay I'll go wake Leanna in case the ride get really bumpy," Panthro said getting up form his seat and going back down to the small sleeping area. "Lea," he said gently putting his hand on her shoulder, "you have to get up".
The lioness opened her eyes, "we home already," she asked sitting up and stretching.
"No, there seems to be a slight problem with the fuel line," the panther answered, "I need you to come up and get strapped in, were landing in a few minutes".
Leanna nodded and got up, as she walked past the panther, he noticed she looked a lot paler then she did when they first left the spaceport, as they made their way up the short passage way, Panthro put his hand on the wall as he grabbed the lioness around the waist to steady her as the ship started to shudder violently. He quickly led Leanna up the few steps and set her in the seat in behind the pilot and copilot seat, "strap in," he said as he quickly took his seat.
"We're loosing thruster controls," Tygra said as they entered the planets atmosphere.
"Come on you hunk of scrap metal, be good too ol Panthro and land in one piece," he said coxing the ship towards the ground.
"Engaging landing gear," Tygra reported as his fingers flew over the controls.
"Never send a Plummer to do a mechanics job," the panther scowled as the engines started back firing," I'll have someone hide nailed to the wall if they messed around with the fuel lines".
As they got with in sixteen feet of the ground the main engines cut out and the feliner landed with a heavy thud, "well any landing you can walk away from is a good one," Tygra smirked, "I hope you thought to bring along tools".
"Never leave home without them," Panthro grinned, "now lets see what's this girls problem, lea sit tight we won't be long".
After the canopy was raised the two males jumped out, they seen they landed in what looked like the middle of a desert, nothing around but sand as far as the eye could see.
"Let's hope this sand don't make things worse," Tygra said as a slight breeze picked up blowing some of the sand around.
"Yeah we really don't need sand getting into the intake valve, we would be grounded for days," Panthro said as he jumped up on the wing of the ship and went to check the fuel lines.
"How does it look," Tygra asked a few minutes later.
"Well the fuel lines look alright," The panther said, "It has to be something else," he replied scratching his head as he thought.
Tygra hopped back up into the cockpit, "what's going on," Leanna asked.
"We're not sure yet," Tygra nodded, "you feeling okay," he asked concerned.
"I'm alright," Leanna said quietly.
"Umm no I don't think you are, you know part of the code is truth," Tygra said looking at her.
"I don't want to worry Panthro," Leanna replied, "but I am not feeling very well".
"You should go back down and rest," Tygra nodded.
"No it's okay, if I'm not here Panthro will worry and he won't concentrate on what he has to do to fix the ship," The lioness said.
Tygra smiled, "you know him too well," he chuckled.
"Yes, I do and frankly I want to go home, the sooner the better," she nodded, "now go tell blue man I said to get moving," she smiled.
"Yes ma'am," Tygra winked and left the ship once again.
The lioness sat back in her seat and closed her eyes, trying to calm her churning stomach.

"How's it going," Tygra asked hopping back up to where the panther was working.
"I'm not really sure what the problem is," The big panther said scratching his head in confusion, "I was in such a hurry I didn't install half the systems that were needed, I think I over taxed the systems getting to that space port," he sighed.
"I'm sure you can tinker around with this and get it up and running enough to get us home," Tygra nodded.
"Probably…but it's going to take a few hours," Panthro said picking up a set of wire cutters," I'm going to half to rewire and jerry-rig a few circuits," he said removing another panel, "and by the looks of things it will be dark in a few hours," he said looking up at the sky.
"Well we have emergency flood lights in the cargo hold incase it gets dark before your done," Tygra said.
"How's Leanna," the panther asked taking a circuit board out from it's housing.
"She's resting now," Tygra nodded
"Is she showing any signs of being sick," Panthro asked cutting a few of the colored wires.
Just as the tiger was about to answer a loud ear splitting scream echoed from the open canopy of the feliner.
"What in Jaga's name," Tyrga said taken by surprise.
"Lea," The panther shouted dropping the circuit board and wire cutters, he ran towards the cockpit with Tygra beside him.
"By Thundera, "the tiger exclaimed as the two men saw what looked like a giant worm going after the lioness. Tygra quickly took out his whip and unfurled it, with a flick of his wrist he send a barrage of fireballs at the large creature.
"Lea get below," Panthro ordered taking out his nun-chucks and putting himself between the giant sand worm and the lioness. "Back off you over sized piece of bait, "the panther growled releasing a screen of freeze gas towards the creature, the large sand worm reared back," I think that's done it," The panther said looking at Tygra.
"Panthro look out, "the tiger shouted.
Panthro turned his head just in time to feel the large sand worm latch it's sharp teeth into his arm, the panther yelled as he felt the teeth penetrate his flesh and hit the bone. The worm reared back with the panther firmly attached in its jaws and started to slowly sink below the sand.
Tygra wrapped his whip around the creature to try and stop it from dragging the panther below the sand with it. The tiger quickly jumped down and tied the whip to the landing gear of the feliner. "Hold on Panthro we'll get you out of there," Tygra said reaching for the panther's fallen nun-chucks.
Despite the pain he was in, Panthro started punching the giant worm in the head as hard as he could to get it to let him go.
Tygra threw everything that Panthro had hidden in his chucks at the giant worm to no avail, it had its prey and despite everything that was done to it…it wasn't about to let its food go. The tiger heard a loud roar and looked up just as the lioness leapt from the feliner with Kama's in hand and landed on top of the creatures head, "Let him go," she roared angrily and raised her arms, then brought both Kama's down on top of the giant sand worms head.
"Leanna what are you doing…you'll get yourself killed," Panthro said through gritted teeth.
"Sorry but my mate isn't going to be this creatures supper," she growled as the kama's broke through the sand worms thick hide. The large sand worm opened it's mouth and hollered in pain, dropping the panther to the sand, "Let him go Tygra," the lioness said leaping off the creatures back and soft landing beside her injured mate. Tygra nodded and quickly untied his whip and unwrapped it from the creature as is sunk below the hot sand.
"Hey, I'm the only one allowed to pull crazy stunts," The panther said sitting up and clutching his bleeding arm with his hand.
"Sorry, but it was the only thing I could do, he had the mind of a infant with two things on his mind, hunt and eat," the lioness catching her breath.
"Let me take a look at that," Tygra said kneeling beside the panther with the med kit in his hand.
"Just patch me up so I can get back to work," Panthro snorted..