A/N: Ladies and gentlemen, here it is chapter four of the Second Sauria Crisis, please read and enjoy!

Chapter Four

Back Up and Running

Fox woke with a start as Miyu pulled on his ear. "OW! God Miyu how did they let you become a doctor?"

Miyu looked at him and said nonchalantly "I had skill, you can go as soon as you want, the growth gel took so your leg is fine again. But don't get shot again or I will make sure that you have to stay here for a week."

Fox smiled and said "Miyu, are you in love with me?"

Miyu smiled back and said "In your dreams, now get out of here and report to your wife and kid, I'm sure they're both wondering where you are."

Fox looked at her and said "I thought they knew I was in here."

Miyu shrugged "You were supposed to be out of here an hour ago, but you looked so cute when you were sleeping I was loathe to wake you up."

Fox hopped out of the bed and said "Just wait until Krystal hears that you think I'm cute, oh you will never hear the end of it from her."

Miyu looked Fox up and down and then said "I liked you better when you were asleep, now get out of here before I call Krystal and tell her you were late from some other reason."

Fox shrugged and left sickbay. As soon as he was out in the hall he said "Serina AI on."

Instantly the holographic representation of the ships Artificial Intelligence popped up next to him. "What do you want Fox?"

Fox raised an eyebrow and said "That's admiral to you, just kidding. Would you mind telling me where my wife is?"

Serina shrugged and said "Holo-deck four, what else do you need?"

"Just don't tell her I'm coming."

Serina nodded and then faded away, Fox smiled and got into one of the lifts and said "Deck ten." The lift started moving. As soon as it stopped and the doors opened he jogged over to the holo-deck, putting his hand on the touch panel he looked at the program that was in use. "Woodland pattern three? Somewhat normal for her."

Keying open the door he stepped in. The woodland pattern was a favorite among the crew as it simulated a Cornerian sub-tropical forest so well. Though he thought it odd that Krystal would be using it, she usually went for something a little fancier, like an asteroid with a nice view of a nebula, or more often than not, a combat simulator. As soon as the door closed behind him he called out "Krystal, where are you?"

A moment later her voice called back "Over here behind the huge tree in front of you, across the creek!"

Fox nodded to himself and made his way over to her. When he got to where she was he saw her sitting with her back up against the tree reading a book. Sitting down next to her he said "Miss me?"

Krystal smiled and kissed him, he responded by pulling her close to him and kissing her again with a great deal of passion. When they broke off she said "Yes, it was boring going to sleep without you last night."

Fox smiled and asked "Why?"

Krystal put her head on his shoulders and said "Because I'm used to cuddling with you, or playing around a bit."

Fox looked at her and said "Well I can promise that there will be plenty of playing around tonight. So, who attacked us yesterday?"

Krystal shrugged "No idea, but we think it was whoever took the Spell Stone, which reminds me, Fay wanted to talk with you as soon as you were out of the lair of Miyu."

"The lair of Miyu?"

Krystal laughed and said "That's what some of the crew has started calling it since she hasn't been out of there in a couple of days."

Fox laughed and said "Let me guess, and extremely delicate experiment?"

Krystal shrugged "She won't tell anyone. Now come on, let's go see Fay, to be honest I think that she can't wait to not be in command anymore."

Fox nodded and the two got up and left the holo-deck. When the exited and ended the program Krystal grabbed Fox's hand and said through her telepathy, 'Before we go and see Fay, would you like to make love?'

Fox thought about then said aloud "We should wait, besides, I'm pretty sure I'll need it more after I hear from her. Why do you offer?"

Krystal shrugged and said "I don't know, we are married, and you did just get out of twenty-five hours of growth gel therapy, thought you might want a little excitement.

Fox smiled and gave her a kiss, then said "I could use a little excitement, but I think I'm going to get really excited when I hear about what's been going on while I was in bed. And I don't mean that in a good way."

Krystal nodded and the two got into the turbo-lift and headed for the bridge.

The doors to the bridge slid aside and Fox and Krystal walked onto the bridge. The crew immediately snapped to attention at their posts, Fox simply said "As you were." Walking over to Fay he said "I believe you're in my chair."

Fay smiled and got up; as soon as Fox sat down she said "I assume that Krystal said I wanted to talk to you as soon as you were out of sickbay?"

Fox nodded and replied "Yeah she did, what's so important?"

"Maybe we should talk in your ready room."

Fox shrugged and got up, the two went to his ready room just off the main bridge. The room was meant for when the captain or in Fox's case, admiral, wanted to get off the bridge while still on duty. Sitting down behind his desk Fox said "Alright what is it?"

Fay sat down on the other side of the desk and said "The ship that attacked us jumped to the Aparoid System, but we can't follow without both Command Council approval and presidential approval."

Fox sighed and said "That's right the quarantine. Alright here's what I'll do, I'll get on the com to Whitefur and see what we can do about it. In the meantime though I think we should try and find this ship, I would personally very much like to know how they got past the sensor grid that surrounds that system."

Fay nodded "Right sir, I'll start on that right away. How's the leg?"

"Perfect, completely fixed, I have to hand it to Miyu, she is a genius."

Fay laughed and said "Why? She just used some growth gel on you."

Fox smiled and replied "Well keep in mind that fact that she invented the damn thing. Now you have your orders, so snap to them."

Fay saluted smartly and walked out, feeling relieved at the thought that she now had something to do other than to wait for her orders. After all, if there was one thing she hated in life, it was waiting for anything.

As soon as she stepped back onto the bridge she headed to one of the computer terminals that were arrayed at the back of the bridge. Sitting down she keyed in her password to make sure she would get access to any and all files she needed, and started to sift through the data that would help her find the ship.

Fox hit a button on his desk and a flat screen monitor and keyboard revealed themselves from the innards of the desk. Fox smiled and said "Cool, I like this ship, all sorts of good stuff." looking towards one of the small holo-tanks he said "Serina come here will you?"

Serina appeared and said "Sir?"

"Get me a secure link to Bonny."

"Say please."

"Why?"

"Because I control life support. Sorry just kidding, link established, and may I say you look good today sir."

Fox smiled and said "Thank you Serina. By the way before you go one more thing. How many conversations are you having at this very moment?"

"Thirty-seven. Bonny will be waiting sir; best get him before he gets into a bad mood."

Fox nodded and made a motion for her to go away. A moment later an image of general Boniface Whitefur came up; Fox's long time friends looked at him and said "What the hell do you want?"

Fox smiled and said "Who said I want anything? Maybe I just called to see how you were doing; you know make sure Fara and James are all right. You know I am your friend, so I can be concerned."

Whitefur stared and then said "What do you want, more leave time? Because that is going to be a flat out no."

Fox shook his head and said "Alright fine be all work and no play. Look asshole stole a Spell Stone from Sauria yesterday and then attacked us. They went to the Aparoid System and from there we don't know. But obviously they either stowed it away there somewhere or they got rid of it there. But I need your OK to go there."

"No."

"No? What the hell do you mean no?"

Whitefur sighed and said "I mean you can't go there, at least not for awhile, mainly because I need to get presidential approval. And besides how would they have been able to get in there? The systems filled to bursting with sensor drones and all sorts of automated security measures."

Fox shrugged "Could have had a cloaking device."

Whitefur shook his head and replied "That wouldn't have mattered, remember we put a tachyon based detection net there, even a cloaked ship couldn't get in there."

Fox nodded and replied "Then they must have had the codes to get in or the detection net was offline. I don't know, but isn't the fact that they did get in there reason enough to check this out? I mean come on; we can't have ships breaching quarantines."

Whitefur shrugged and said "Find the ship first, then I might have reason enough to get you clearance. But why would anyone want to steal a Spell Stone in the first place?"

Fox thought about it, it didn't actually make that much sense. Scales had done because he wanted to grab power and rule over the whole planet, and of course he had been unknowingly working for Andross. But still, stealing just one that made no sense unless they were planning to steal the rest. "I don't know, they might intend to steal the rest but I really don't know why."

Whitefur nodded and said "Then it's all the more important that you find that ship, that way we can figure out who it is doing this and why their doing this."

Fox nodded and said "Alright, I guess I have my work cut out for me. But I would still like to get clearance for the Aparoid System."

Whitefur sighed and said "Alright, Alright, I'll work on it. You just had to make more work for me didn't you?"

"Yep, Fox out."

The communication ended and Fox leaned back in his chair and sighed, how long had he been master of this vessel? The most powerful ship to ever have been built, and crewed by the absolute best that Corneria had to offer, six days, that was how long it had been. It hadn't even been a week since they had cast off for their maiden voyage and they had already gone back in time and now they had to hunt for some lunatic who was after the Spell Stones. Fox sighed and looked at his watch, it would be four more hours before his watch ended, and he intended to have some fun as soon as that watch ended.

A moment his com badge chirped and he tapped it. "Fox here."

Fay's voice came back saying "We found it sir, satellite spotted it heading towards Papetoon."

Fox smiled and said "Copy that, get anyone on the surface back on board and then set course for Papetoon, best possible speed."

"Aye Aye sir, will do."

A few minutes later the ship was on its way to Papetoon, and everyone on board knew they had a mission to attend to.