Chapter 14

Mysterious Space Station

The Great Fox cruised out of Lylat, its massive plasma engines roaring in the vacuum of space as they propelled the ship to its top interstellar speed. Fox sat on the bridge in his captain's chair, enjoying the rumble the engines made in the hull. It had been a long time since they'd had reason to travel outside of the Lylat System, and Fox was looking forward to entering some unfamiliar territory, even if it was a region that Andross had sullied with one of his machines.

"Do you think he's there?" asked Fara Phoenix, her image displayed on the main screen.

"No way of knowing." Fox held up his hands in a noncommittal gesture. "His last log entry indicated that was where Project Iron Fist was being moved to. But that was more than ten years ago, at the beginning of the Lylat Wars. Given the way Andross's people scattered like rats when he died, I have a feeling he's moved on. It's the best lead we have though."

On the screen, Fara considered it, then said, "Project Iron Fist. Well, at least we know the name of what he was working on now. Miyu and I have been combing through the data you sent us from Papetoon."

"Have you found anything?" Fox asked.

"Not much." Fara sighed, the sound crackling in the ship's speakers. "Most of the data is irretrievable. Even most of the logs have been corrupted. Miyu thinks it probably had something to do with Slippy's attempt to gain access."

"Yeah." Fox frowned, his ears drooping a bit. "Katt made the same assessment."

"Katt? She's working on this?" Fara gave him a surprised look. "How did you afford her rates?"

"Um. Well..." Fox scratched the back of his neck, trying to his mask his anxiety. That wasn't a question he wanted to answer.

"Forget it, I'll pay for it." Fara sighed again. "I don't have to tell you to be careful, do I?"

"No." Fox shook his head. "You have any idea what Kelba 7 might be? Other than a space station built by Venom in the middle of galactic nowhere?"

"Not really." Fara glanced at something off camera for a moment, the focused back on him. "But if Andross built it, it's probably dangerous. Try not to blow it up though. I'm already hearing people gripe about the Papetoon research station being a total loss. There could be vital information there."

"Yeah. I'll do my best." Fox smiled. "No promises though."

"Uh huh." Fara rolled her eyes. "Anyone ever tell you that you're a blunt instrument?"

Fox crossed his arms and mock glared at her. "Now you're just hurting my feelings."

"Sure." Fara chuckled. "Look, I better go here. Miyu and I are going to be running another series of tests on that probe we found."

"Any idea what it is yet?"

"I'd tell you if I had the faintest idea." Fara growled, some of her frustration showing through. "It's inert. Completely. I don't think we'll be able to figure it out unless we turn it on."

Fox flicked his ears. "Something tells me that would be a bad idea."

"Probably. Find Yarus. If we can find him and foil whatever plan he has before he has a chance to execute it, I'll be happy to leave that probe a mystery," Fara said. "Good luck Fox. And tell Krys I say hi."

"Will do. I'll be in touch."

The transmission terminated and Fox leaned back in his seat. He glanced over at Peppy, who was working at the operations console. ROB was at the helm, dutifully piloting the ship, and managing the task of deep space navigation with his usual mechanical perfection. Earlier in the day he had spotted the robot talking with Pinky. The two of them seemed to get on surprisingly well. Must be nice for the two of them, having another robot to talk to.

Standing up, Fox said to Peppy, "Can you watch over things here?"

Peppy gave him a thumbs up and replied, "Sure thing."

Fox nodded and headed off the bridge. It'd be a day before they reached Kebla 7, and he intended to make the most of the quiet. Stepping into the turbolift he pressed the button for the training deck and the lift kicked into motion, smooth and silent, unlike Katt's elevator at the Rig. It was a nice change from the way the Great Fox had been only a couple of months ago. Rickety, held together with duct tape and spit, and relying on Slippy's free and ingenious maintenance. The ship's transformation was something Fox would never take for granted. He knew how bad things could get when there were more expenses than there were jobs.

With a ping the doors opened and Fox stepped onto the training deck. He thought about going to the holodeck to do some climbing, or maybe relax on an artificial beach front, but his legs ended up taking him to the gym. When he stepped inside he heard the sound of metal alloy clashing against metal alloy, and he turned his attention to the sparring section. His eyes widened at the sight of Krystal and Fiora, dueling with staff and sword. They moved with a fluidity and grace that Fox had rarely seen outside of choreographed demonstrations. They dodged, flanked, and parried with a speed and precision that came with years of training. Fiora's strikes were powerful and short, whereas Krystal's were full of sweeping motions that, despite having a longer arc than her sister's, displayed an equal economy of movement.

Fascinated, Fox went over and took a seat at the edge of the mat, crossing his legs and leaning back on his hands. The two vixens continued to spar, their speed and intensity increasing until Fox could barely track their movements from one moment to the next. His eyes bounced back and forth between the blue blur and red blur, and twice he saw them land touches on each other. From his sparring with Krystal, he knew she preferred fast, three touch matches.

If it were possible, the two vixens began moving even faster, and Fox sensed that they were evenly matched as they tried to find a hole in the other's defenses. Finally, a minute later, the two of them both stopped dead. Fox's eyes widened. Krystal had the head of her staff at Fiora's throat, and Fiora had her blade against Krystal's inner thigh, right where the artery would be. They stared at each other for a moment, panting, sweat dripping from their brows, then pulled back, bowed, and laughed. "Tie game," Krystal noted.

"We were always getting those," Fiora replied, walking over to the bench and wiping her brow with a towel. "I wish..." She paused and turned to face Fox. "Oh. Hi Fox. How long have you been there?"

"Not long," Fox answered. "You two are impressive."

"Many long hours of training together," Krystal said, walking over to Fox and planting a kiss on his cheek.

"I can tell." Fox nodded in approval. Then, curious, he asked, "What were you going to wish for, Fiora?"

Fiora's face was sad for a moment, but then she mustered a smile. "Our old sparring mats. Our old village." She took a breath, and Fox saw Krystal rest a hand on Fiora's shoulder. The blue vixen appeared equally sad at the mention of their lost home.

Fiora calmed herself and returned her gaze to Fox. "Sorry. Did you want to spar?"

Fox was about to say yes when another thought occurred to him. "Actually, I was thinking of going down to the lounge and taking a load off for awhile. Wanna come with? You could tell me stories about Cerinia."

The two sisters glanced at each other, and Fox sensed that words and thoughts were passing between them in private. Then Krystal said, "That sounds wonderful."

()()()()

Katt sat on the bed in her quarters aboard the Great Fox, working on one of her computers. She'd been going over every bit of information Fox had been able to give her about the probe that had landed on Katina, trying to wrap her head around the massive advancement in Claytronics it indicated. It boggled her mind. The raw computing power that would be needed to create such a thing...it was still beyond Lylatian technology, which meant either Yarus had invented a supercomputer to end all supercomputers, or he had a found a way around the massive computing needs required.

Her door whooshed open and she looked up to see Pinky hover into the room. The little quadcopter stopped in front of her and trilled a question at her. "I don't know. A few hours?" Pinky let out a series of concerned beeps. "I'm not avoiding him." A disbelieving blat. "I thought you hated him anyway." Pinky's response had the uncommon fortune of shaking her. "No. You're right. I don't hate him. You really think I should go see him?" Pinky chirped happily and bobbed up and down indicating a yes. "Alright. Fine. I'm not getting anywhere with this anyway."

Katt stood up and headed for the door. Pinky bleated in distress before she could hit the open button. "What?"

Pinky whirred over to her dresser, extended a manipulator arm, and pulled out some clothes for her. Katt looked down at herself, realizing she'd been working in her underwear. She thought about it for a moment, then decided it didn't really matter. "Leave 'em. He's only two doors down. And he won't mind." Pinky moaned in defeat, then settled on top of her dresser and put himself in standby mode. Katt shook her head. She might have programmed him, but Pinky had a personality that continued to surprise her. A testament to emergent behavior.

Walking out of her room she headed for Falco's door, moving as quickly as possible. She didn't want anyone to see her. Maybe she should have bothered with some clothes. She tapped the door chime and waited for a response. None came. She tapped the chime again. Still no response. With a grunt she opened the door and walked in. She almost walked right back out. Falco's room was a mess. Laundry was piled in one corner, magazines were strewn all over the floor, and the bed was completely unmade. "Falco! You in here?"

For a moment there was no response, then the bathroom door opened and he said, "Hey, could you give a guy like, five seconds to pee before you walk in here?"

"Oh. Sorry." Katt frowned, then went over and sat on his couch. She picked up one of the magazines and opened it to a random page. She got a face full of an indecent pin up model. Feline. That made her smirk. He really did have a thing for her species. "Porn rags? Seriously Falco? There's the internet for that now."

Falco walked out of the bathroom and sat down next to her. "Yeah, well, I don't need ROB knowing my internet history."

"Fair enough." Katt didn't mention that, had he been using the ship's intranet to connect to the Lylatian interplanetary network, she would have been able to find his search history with the press of a button. No need to scare him that much yet. "Did you wash your hands?"

"Huh. Oh." Falco walked back into the bathroom, and Katt heard the sound of a faucet running.

"Use soap!" she called after him.

"Yeah, yeah." He emerged again a moment later, shaking water from his feathered hands. She looked at those big hands for a moment, remembering how soft the downy, miniscule feathers felt. The way they tickled a little when he...Don't think about that. "There a reason you're in your underwear? Not that I mind seeing those tits."

Katt rolled her eyes and stretched out on his couch, then arched her back in a stretch, purring at the way her bones popped. "I was working."

"In your underwear?"

"I can do more damage in my underwear in an hour than you could do in a day with your Arwing," Katt replied.

"Huh. Programmers." Falco sat down next to her again and picked up the magazine she'd been looking at. Glancing at the model, he said, "She's pretty fine. I oughta look her up."

Katt glared at him. "Oh?"

"What? Not like we're together all of a sudden." Falco shrugged and leaned back, flipping through to another page.

"Not together?" Katt felt any good humor she'd been feeling towards the avian start to evaporate. "What do you call what we were doing in my office yesterday?"

"I don't know. Fun?" Falco didn't even glance at her from his magazine.

Katt's eyes widened, and she hissed to get his attention. He jerked his head away from whatever had been mesmerizing him and looked at her with that widened beak that told her she had caught him unawares. "Falco." She stood up and then stared down at him. It was about the only time she could be taller than him. "I don't just screw around. I'm not a cheap magazine whore." Katt ripped the magazine away from him and flung it across the room. "And I sure as hell didn't agree to join this mission out of the goodness of my heart."

"Um. Why then?" Falco looked up at her, confusion on his face.

Katt sighed. Did they always have to do this dance? She was getting sick of it already. "Falco. Did it ever occur to you that I might want to spend some time with you?"

Falco shrugged. "Who doesn't want to spend time with me?"

"Ugh." Katt craned her neck to look at the ceiling, then replied, "You have no idea how lucky you are, do you?" She gazed back down at him. She hated this. The way he made her feel. It was like knots all through her body, twisting and turning and tightening. Every moment she spent with him she found him more and more irresistible, and every moment she spent away from him started to feel like agony when she realized how far away he really was. And yet there was an equal part of her that wanted to slap him across the face and walk away forever. He could be such a jerk. He was insensitive. He was stupid. He was...perfect. "This isn't going to work, is it?"

"What?"

"Us." Katt turned to leave, her tail flicking behind her as she headed for the door. Then she felt his fingers wrap around it. She turned immediately. "What?"

He stood up and walked over to her, then passed her. He locked the door before turning to her. He held out his arms and said, "Um. I'm a pretty lucky guy."

Everything changed in an instant. All her anger and frustration and hurt went flying out the window. She surged forward and wrapped her arms around him, breathing in the scent of his body spray like a drug. She kissed the underside of his beak, purring as his strong arms wrapped around her. Part of her wasn't sure if this was healthy. She knew this probably wouldn't last. He'd be good for awhile, then he'd be back to being the same old Falco. But right now she didn't care. Instead, she hugged him close, and made the same promise to herself that she made every time he showed a little bit of self awareness. This time, I'm going to make it work.

()()()()

The Great Fox began spinning down its engines as it approached space station Kelba 7. Krystal sat in her Arwing, running through her checklist, and listening to ROB countdown the time until launch. She, Fox, Slippy, and Katt were headed over to board the station, while Falco and Fiora would fly a patrol pattern with the mothership to make sure no one interrupted them.

Fox's voice sounded over the comm. "Alright people, let's play this by the book. And by the audiobook in Falco's case."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Falco squawked back, indignant.

"If you read a book you would know," Fox retorted.

"Eh. Books are for losers." Krystal could hear the shrug in his voice, even if she couldn't see it.

"Yup. That sounds about right." Fox continued, "We don't have much intel about Kelba 7, but ROB has managed to locate what he believes to be their command center. We're gonna get in there, find the data we need on Project Iron Fist and Ivan Yarus's location, then we'll head back to Corneria and plan our next move."

"Plan our next move?" Falco again. "What happened to just goin' and doin' it?"

"Our current employer is more cautious than that," Fox replied.

"You mean Fara's a control freak and she doesn't want you doing anything without her permission," Falco responded.

"Pretty much," Fox agreed. "But she pays well."

Krystal smirked at that. She had asked Fox what her cut of the reward would be. When he'd shown her the six figure number she'd almost fainted. Fara did indeed pay well.

"'Least you're willing to admit it," Falco said.

"I am." Krystal could tell Fox was trying to gently shut the avian up.

"Was that why you broke up with her?" Falco asked, not getting the message.

Katt's voice came over the comm, "Falco, hon? Remember how I told you sometimes people want you to shut up even though they don't say it?"

"Yeah?"

"This is one of those times, little man."

"Oh. Sorry Fox."

"It's fine," Fox's voice showed a bit of frustration, but Krystal could sense his amusement at Katt's handling of it. Krystal got the feeling having Katt aboard would somehow make the avian more manageable. Not that he would be manageable, just that he would be more so than he was now. "Everyone clear on what we're doing?"

"Yeah," Katt said. "Heading over there and hoping they left another map."

"You think it'll be that easy?" Slippy asked.

"Oh Slippy," Katt chuckled. "When is it ever that easy?"

()()()()

Kelba 7 loomed over Katt as she hopped out of her Catspaw and onto the cold, icy, deck. Life support had gone offline on the station, and she and the rest of the Star Fox boarding party were wearing their Semi-powered Combat (SPC) armor, which had built in life support. Katt noted that all of them had different colors and vaguely different styles. Fox's was green and grey, Krystal's had blue trimmings and her tattoo markings painted on it, and Slippy's was bulky and completely green, with a tool belt around the middle. Katt's was hot pink, and had every computer hacking system known to Lylat inside of it, with Pinky in a slot on her back, chirping silently in the lack of atmosphere as he remained in ready mode. Her armor also had a big heart on its chest. Pulling her dual sidearms from their magnetic holsters, she said, "At least the gravity plating is still working."

"Thank the goddesses for small mercies," Krystal replied.

"How many goddesses are there in your religion, Krys?" Katt asked, curious.

A chuckle came over the line. "How many do you want?"

"Huh?"

"Cerinian religion is polytheistic, and, for the most part, decentralized. There are the Seven Great Goddesses, which include goddesses like Siona and Athrata, then there are local goddesses, often associated with whatever resources brought wealth to those regions in the past, and then there are household goddesses, unique to each family, usually ancestors of note, or matron deities of a family profession. All told? I think it's something in the millions. Every family had at least one. The number of household goddesses was part of the census, back in the day," Krystal explained, her tail flicking in its fully articulated sleeve.

"Wow." Katt had had no idea. "That's fascinating. What about..."

"Katt?" Fox said.

"Right. Later." Katt took stock of the hangar they'd landed in. Lighting was offline, so she flicked on her high power headlamps along with the rest of the team, filling the room with twenty meters columns of bright, white, light.

The bay opened at the top, with ships forced to ascend and descend to get in and out of it. Beyond that there was little of note. She didn't see any evidence of combat, there was no carbon scoring on the walls or floors, though she did notice something a bit off. "Where are all the ships?"

"Not here," Slippy said, putting his fists on his hips and shaking his head. "Shame, they were probably vintage Lylat War. I'd have loved to take a few for spare parts. They really knew how to build for interchangeability."

"I don't think that was Katt's point, Slippy," Krystal told the toad in a gentle manner. "Fox?"

"They must have evacuated." Fox shrugged. "ROB said he didn't detect any life signs, and power systems are at a minimum."

"I guess that means our target isn't here anymore. Why leave a fully equipped research base though?" Katt wondered. Something about this place gave her the shivers, and it wasn't just the cold air.

"When Andross died Venom's forces fell apart. It was chaos. Most of the researchers and crew here probably figured it was best to get somewhere safe to hide, rather than wait for Corneria to find them," Fox said, leaving out the detail that he'd been the one to kill Andross, along with the majority of his senior field commanders. "First things first, I'd like to get life support up and running. Our suits don't have an infinite amount of oxygen. Slippy?"

Slippy pulled up a map on his wrist comm, built off of scans the Great Fox had to taken before they boarded the station. He studied it for a moment, then said, "Life support control should be three levels below us, near the atmosphere generators," he said. "Follow me."

Katt fell in behind Slippy, with Krystal behind her, and Fox bringing up the rear, all of them with weapons drawn. Slippy paused in front of the hangar bay personnel lift, then tapped the call button. Nothing happened. Katt arched an eyebrow. "Don't tell me the lifts aren't working."

The toad considered it for a moment, then reached for the seam in the doors. He tried to get his fingers between it, but they wouldn't fit. Krystal stepped forward and offered the services of her more slender digits. Slippy stepped back and made a 'be my guest' gesture. Krystal grunted, and then pulled the doors open. The military grade durasteel moved slowly, and Katt knew that if there had been an atmosphere it would have been squealing as it resisted Krystal's armor enhanced strength. Finally, with one more effort, Krystal got the doors open enough for them all to step through. The blue vixen went first, then turned to them with a smile in her voice. "I like this thing."

"Yeah, the SPC is pretty nice," Fox said.

"Why is it only semi-powered though?" Krystal inquired.

"Back before the Lylat Wars there were some experiments with fully powered armor," Fox said, tapping the button for the deck three levels below them. "It was a great idea in theory."

"In theory?" Krystal cocked her head.

Katt detected the grimace in Fox's voice, and she couldn't help giving one of her own. She knew where this was going. "The first guy to wear the stuff...didn't live very long. The armor was trying to enhance movement and physical reaction, along with strength, to too extreme a degree. His bones couldn't handle it. Beyond that, I'd rather not go into anymore detail."

Krystal stared at them all for a moment, then said, "I assume this stuff is safe."

"One hundred percent," Fox answered. "Slippy, why aren't we moving?"

"I guess the lifts don't have any power." Slippy held up his hands in a defeated gesture, then accessed the map again. "There should be an emergency ladder near here."

"Ugh." Katt curled her lip at the thought of having to climb up and down ladders everywhere.

"Come on Katt, it's just a little exercise," Fox admonished.

"I'd rather not lose my womanly figure," Katt groused. "Maybe I can get the power going remotely." Katt brought up her interface program and started querying for a system. Nothing. Not even a password request or handshake. Fox glanced at her and she wished he could have seen her stick her tongue out at him. "Okay, so the station's computer isn't running either."

"Shame." Fox put one foot on the ladder, then said, "Let's start climbing."

Katt followed, grumbling to herself all the while. No lifts. She didn't trust this place. Not one bit. She'd fought Venom during the Lylat Wars, mostly on her own, though she'd teamed up with Fox and his crew in a couple of battles. Because of that she knew just how slippery and unpredictable Venomian facilities could be. It was one of the reasons she'd gotten serious about programming and hacking. She'd needed the technological edge to help keep her alive on her own.

She'd made a sizeable portion of her fortune from selling information to Corneria on Venomian supply lines and base locations, hacking into their systems and stealing the data from right under the noses. One mission on Macbeth, where she'd stolen the plans for a secret assault bot the Venomians were designing for their attack on Corneria, had been so brazen and devastating, that it had caught Andross's personal attention. He'd sent a squadron of his finest hunters to ambush her. She'd nearly died. At that point she had sworn vengeance against him, and cut her rates for the Cornerians in half.

Thoughts of the damage she'd done to Andross and his followers warmed her pink kitty heart. Maybe she hadn't lost as much as Fox or Krystal had to Andross, but she knew they were cut from the same cloth, all seeking justice for injustices done, and all going about it in their own way. Katt had never said it out loud, but the day that Fox had refused a lucrative offer to become a part of the Cornerian Army Air Corps Special Forces had cemented him as a hero of hers. She respected his decision that he needed to continue the fight on his own terms, not the terms of a government and military that had proven ineffective on more than one occasion. Not that Katt didn't respect the uniform and all that, but she didn't feel guilty when she pointed out they'd needed her and Star Fox to pull their collective asses out of the fire on more than one occasion.

Katt's feet hit solid floor again and she tried to conceal her pride at the way her breath wasn't even labored. She complained about having to exercise, but she knew that with eating habits like hers she didn't have much choice but to do it, or else risk going from having curves in all the right places, to having them in all the wrong places. A soft tumtum was about the only thing she allowed herself, and that was because her mother had taught her that kitties needed soft tumtums so boys could put their heads there to sleep. Falco certainly likes it. Miss ya mom.

"Alright, life support control should be just down this corridor," Slippy announced, walking forward before stopping when Fox put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll take point from here on, Slip," Fox told his teammate.

"Sure thing Fox."

The group made their way cautiously down the corridor, their headlamps lighting the way. Katt kept her blasters down and her grip relaxed, though she was ready to bring them up at a moment's notice. A few of the side doors along the corridor were open. Katt paused briefly and stepped inside of one, signaling her deviation to the rest of the team before doing so.

"What do you see Katt?" Fox asked, pausing with the rest of the group.

"It's a break room." Katt shook her head. Coffee cups were sitting on the tables, a few of them spilled, but one or two with their contents still inside them. There was even a plate with a half eaten sandwich. "They left here in a hurry."

The comm was silent for a moment, then Fox said, "We'll find out what happened when we get to the control room."

Katt nodded and rejoined them in the corridor as they made their way inside the life support control room. Slippy immediately headed over to a console and pulled out a wireless battery pack. Katt watched as he linked it to the main console. The control boards all lit up and the toad quickly set about tapping in commands. Katt glanced over his shoulder to see if there were any security layers he was having trouble with. "You're skills have improved, Slip."

"Huh?"

"You're handling the security systems pretty well," Katt specified. "Though you might not want to do..." She was too late. Slippy tapped the enter key on the control board and Katt winced.

"What is it Katt?" Fox asked, his voice calm.

The lights in the room flickered on, and her helmet scanners told her a breathable atmosphere was being pumped into the station by the oxygen generators. Heat was also coming online, and the temperature began to rise quickly above absolute zero. She looked over Slippy's shoulder, then turned to Fox. "I think it's alright. It was just an additional security layer I thought I recognized. It's..."

"UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO LIFE SUPPORT CONTROL. FACILITY ENTERING LOCKDOWN. DEFENSE UNITS ACTIVATED. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

The room filled with the sound of a masculine computer voice, and Katt grimaced. "Alright, so it's not okay."

"Whoops." Slippy shuffled his feet and appeared upset.

Fox's head turned from Slippy, to Katt, to Slippy, then back to Katt. He checked the charge on his blaster, then said, "From now on Slippy, you don't touch a foreign computer until after Katt has sliced through the security. Understood?"

"Got it." Slippy, who had set his blaster aside while he worked, retrieved it and thumbed the safety off.

Pinky detached from Katt's back and whirred next to her on his propellers. He chirped an interrogative that roughly translated as: Are we in trouble again? Katt laughed and booped him on his photoreceptor, making him bounce in the air and trill at her in excitement. "Of course we are! This is where the fun begins."

A/N:Ooooooh, they in trouble now! And remember everyone, everything is Slippy's fault. Everything. At least according to Falco.

A couple brief answers to some questions that have been asked (I'm gonna try and keep answers brief from now on)...

1. Cerinians still mate for life whether they are telepathic or not. It is a cultural expectation, and one that is rarely, if ever, strayed from.

2. What would Krystal specifically do in a telepathic battle? I'd rather not speculate at this point. But if you can imagine all the things the brain is in charge of...well, you get the picture. (Krystal: I'd never use those powers on my sister! Fiora: Thank the goddesses!)

As always thank you to everyone who followed/faved/reviewed over the last two weeks. It brings a smile to my face every time I get an alert for this story!

I'll see you guys in two weeks, and if you're in the ol' US of A a belated Happy 4th of July!

-furfrufrufrufrufrufrur