Warp

The alarms overhead didn't stop, even though the Great Fox was at warp. They only changed. Disorientation, noise, and pain filled Fox's entire world as, every so often, the ship would shudder as the unstable envelope of normal space around it shifted, putting massive stress on the hull as its protection from the compressed space around it strengthened and waned.

"WARNING: WARP DRIVE USTABLE. CURRENT TRAJECTORY COMPROMISED. FAILSAFES UNRESSPONSIVE. MANUAL SHUTDOWN REQUIRED," the computer repeated every few seconds.

Rob, in order to save Fox, had managed to get the ship to warp, but he'd had to do so prematurely. They had still been too close to Bayoon's gravity well. Worse, when the bridge got hit, several of the ship's systems had taken damage, including the failsafes that would normally bring the ship out of warp in the event of a rough jump.

Fox hobbled down the passageway toward the lift that would take him down three decks to engineering. He had no idea how to shut the engines down, and nobody was there to walk him though it. He'd had to hook his wrist unit into the ship's computer and download the emergency protocols, which now shown on its screen. It said to make his way down to the engine room and manually shut down certain systems in a very precise order in order to bring the ship safely out of warp. He barely understood what it was telling him, but he knew that if he screwed this up, say by accidentally shutting down the system that maintained the normal space around the ship, when the space around them re-expanded, his ship would go with it. The molecules that comprise himself and everything around him would be stretched over several hundred thousand miles of vacuum.

His breathing came in shallow, painful rasps as he forced himself forward, one step at a time. His leg shot fresh agony through him whenever he applied weight to it, and he was having trouble staying focused. Every so often his head would spin harshly, and he would have to brace himself against the bulkhead until it passed.

"Orian," Fox rasped.

"I'm here Fox," Orian answered, sounding very concerned, "please, you need to lie down, at least until I can determine what is happening in your body. If you continue to push yourself…"

"Can't…stop," Fox said, "if we don't…don't shut down the warp d…drive, the ship'll rattle itself…ah…rattle itself apart," he stopped to let himself breath for a few moments before forcing himself off the bulkhead, and continuing his march, saying, "that happens…we're dead anyway."

"I know, I know," Orian returned, "but, well, you remember what I told you back on Bayoon? There's no telling how the nanites are going to respond to your current condition, and all this moving is increasing their rate of circulation…"

Fox kept going, despite the warning, but he was every bit as concerned as Orian. Back on Aquas's moon, before Warren had woken up, Orian had told him something disturbing. At some point after their contact with the marker signal, the medical nanites which Orian had injected into Fox back on Titania had evidently reactivated. According to Orian, these nanites were used to implant something called 'anima', which was some sort of adaptive tissue. It supposedly took on the qualities of whatever material it was bonded to, and Orian had used it to patch what was left of his damaged internal organs after the worm had injected him. After their job was complete, the medical nanites in his body deactivated, and were meant to be naturally passed out of his system.

Why they were still in his body, or why and how they had reactivated themselves, Orian didn't know. He said they weren't responding to his commands, and were operating independently. At the time, he had assured Fox that they didn't seem to be doing much of anything, but had warned about the potential for 'mutations' if the nanites began spreading anima where it wasn't needed. Before he could elaborate, Warren had woken up.

"Has there…been any signs," Fox managed as he limped into the lift, and hit the button for the engineering deck, "of those…possible…mutations you…you mentioned earlier?"

"No," Orian said with obvious relief, "none so far. The nanites are designed to navigate your body, and apply anima, but they have no way of producing it, so, as long as you aren't given any anima, the chances of them spreading excess material are very low. As I said before, as they are, they shouldn't be able to cause much harm. My concern is why they reactivated in the first place, and why they are ignoring my commands to shut down. They refuse to even communicate with me, so all I can do at the moment is track the signals they are exchanging with your brain."

"Signals?"

"Yes, impulses traveling from your brain to the rest of your body. Your cerebral implants receive these signals as well, and the medcial nanites seem to be receiving information from them, and then, well, reacting…."

The lift began its decent as Fox asked, "what k…what kind of information?"

"Just regular impulses, pain, and fluctuation caused by emotional disturbance, worry, anger, that sort of thing. So far they don't seem to be doing much of anything productive...as far as I can tell, anyway. In your current state, though, the amount of chatter is chaotic. The nanites seem to be rather frenzied."

Fox grabbed his chest suddenly as sharp pain shot from his broken ribs. He fell backward against the wall, and sharply inhaled though clenched teeth. It faded, and after a few moments, he recovered, straightening himself up as best he could. He'd had broken bones before, but they'd never hurt like this. It was possible there had been additional damage. He brought up a hand to wipe away the spit that he felt at the corner of his mouth, but when he brought it down, the side of his hand was streaked with watery blood. His shallow breathing, faint burbling sounds as he exhaled, and now blood in his spit…had to be a punctured lung.

"Fox…" Orian began.

"I'll be fine," Fox said, mind beginning to swim, "Primary objective… is to disable the…the warp drive…"

"Objective?" Fox heard Orian ask, sounding confused. His voice was starting to sound like it was far away.

The lift came to a stop, and the door opened. Fox took a few steps, and his head spun again, this time much more harshly. He lurched on his feet, but managed to stay standing. His body was becoming heavy as he continued to will his legs to move, one at a time. Ahead of him, his world narrowed, and the passageway seemed to stretch on and on. He became vaguely aware of a faint warming sensation in his ribcage.

He had to reach the engines…he couldn't stop now…couldn't let his body shut down...if he allowed himself to die here, then he'd let Rob die for nothing...he would fail his friend completely. His vision continued to narrow as blackness encroached from the edges of his sight. He realized he couldn't feel the pain anymore. He couldn't feel his feet as they struck the deck. He was losing the fight to stay conscious.

…

…

No…

Not yet…he had a mission…had to complete…his mission.

The darkness crept back, staying just at the peripheries of his vision as some unknown reserve of strength seemed to enter his system. Step by step. Foot by foot. He moved forward. Driven more by instinct than willpower, the only sound was the beating of his own heart…his only thought, to keep moving.

. . .

She moved quickly, but quietly through the narrow passageways of McCloud's ship, making not a sound as the biomechanics of her suit adjusted under her feet to eliminate noise. Fox's position was displayed on the heads up display of her helmet's visor as she tracked him through the ship. Her suit's A.I. had managed to hack some of the ship's systems just in the nick of time. Another bloody second and that CDF ship's relentless salvos would have turned her into a very fine mist.

Uncle would have been rather upset, she thought to herself, if, of course, there had been enough of me left to identify…

This ship's shields had been all that had saved her, and they had failed a scant few seconds after she had gotten the external hatch open. She'd no sooner gotten it closed again, than all manner of alarm had gone off around her. At first she had thought the hack job had been sloppy, and she'd been detected, but she soon realized it was because she was standing in an airlock while the ship was preparing for warp.

Luckily enough, she hadn't been noticed in all the commotion, and she her suit now had access to the ship's internal tracking systems. Her A.I. was still working on security systems, and door controls, but the level of protection around these systems were more difficult, and after the bridge had apparently been destroyed, it had started to have problems, as the systems it was hacking had become damaged in some places. Still, this suit was the best money could buy, so if it couldn't handle it, it just wasn't meant to be.

The relief of realizing that Fox had, in fact, not been on the bridge when it had been destroyed was only just wearing off, as, ahead, her passageway ended at an intersection with another, much wider one. According to her display, Fox was making his way down that very passage, and should pass by this way. She pressed her back against the wall, and activated her suit's personal shield. McCloud was notoriously good with a firearm, according to his reputation, and she had no intention of getting into a firefight. She wanted him alive, after all.

He was also rather good at hand to hand combat, if memory served, but she knew he was hurt. He'd taken a graze from one of those clumsy Aquan hunters' nillium enhanced blasters before performing his rather impressive aerial stunt before, and she was wearing a suit of biotic armor. The bio-mechanical material the suit was made of enhanced her physical performance significantly, making her twice as fast as a bare opponent, and significantly stronger as well. She would just wear him down, subdue him, and finally bring this entire ordeal to a close. She was, of course, understandably conflicted when it came to whether or not to actually turn him in afterwards. This was Fox McCloud, after all! He was a hero…her childhood hero, leastwise.

The ship shuddered, and its computer issued its warning about the warp drive again. Once she had Fox secured, she would head over to engineering and see if she couldn't get the ship out of warp. If she could access the main navigation matrix, then her A.I. should be able to guide this bucket back into normal space without a hitch.

Her 'friend' Jamie had spent days crunching numbers and cooking books to cover this suit's expense, as well as the cost of his assistance, but it had been well worth it!

It was time.

She rounded the corner quickly, prepared square off with the man who had, all those years ago, saved her life, but what she saw in front of her made her bite her tongue.

There was Fox. He moved slowly, feet dragging with each ponderous step. His eyes were flat, red, and lifeless, and they stared right though her as he marched slowly but steadily forward. His breathing sounded weak as his mouth hung slightly open, blood trickling from the corners of it and dripping steadily from his chin.

He continued his march without even seeing her, coming ever closer. Panic gripped her as she watched. Had he been hit? What was wrong with him?

"Fox!" She yelled, "For God's sake, man, can you hear me?"

He stopped cold. His eyes gained a bit of focus as they scanned around, and then found her.

"You need medical attention!" she urged, forgetting all about capturing him in his condition, "Come with me, we'll get you to an infirmary, and I'll try to shut down the warp drive…"

She trailed off when she noticed how he was looking at her. He was aware of her now, but there was something wrong. His eyes were locked on her with a savage intensity, like an animal about to strike. His body shifted into an aggressive stance, and his breathing slowed.

"Fox," she said with a deliberate, calm, but warning tone, "you're in no condition to-"

He moved faster than she thought possible. Her suit reacted, bringing her into a defensive posture. Even so, she only blocked the first strike. The second drove Fox's palm into her stomach, and was immediately followed by an upward sweeping kick to her head. The armor absorbed the entire trauma, so she barely even felt the blows, but the sheer force of it drove her back several paces, and the kick nearly toppled her.

His attack continued relentlessly, and even with her armor, she was having trouble keeping up. His attacks were vicious. Every opening she left was met with harsh strikes, and every missed blow she threw with staggering counters. At this rate, Fox couldn't do any real harm to her, but if he was as hurt as he appeared to be, then he would likely do more damage to himself. She had to end this.

She pushed the limits of the suit's agility with a low, sweeping kick. Fox wasn't able to keep up with the sheer speed of it, and it knocked his feet out from under him. He broke his fall, and rolled out of reach before she could attack, but that was fine. She only needed a moment to draw.

With a fine hum, energy flowed into her rapier as it flew from its sheath. It wasn't bladed, but the slender sword was charged, and right now she had it set to fifty percent.

"Stand DOWN, Mr. McCloud!" she warned, but, as she thought, he either couldn't hear her, or wasn't listening. Whatever was wrong with him, she was going to have to bring him down.

Fox began circling her slowly as she readied her stance, bringing up the tip of her blade toward her opponent. She allowed him to circle around to her left, appearing to leave herself open. He took the bait, charging in swift and low, but before he could get close enough to land a hit, she spun away, bringing her sword down in a lightning fast arch that connected solidly with the base of his neck. The energy crackled from the blade and jumped along his spine as he charged passed.

He toppled forward, but rather than falling unconscious, he caught himself, landing on his hands and knees. At fifty percent, her blade should have been able to subdue a man of well over two hundred pounds. That he was still conscious was incredible.

She readied herself for another pass as he slowly got to his feet. But, rather than attack again, he pressed a hand to his head, stumbled a few steps, and steadied himself…

. . .

Fox's head spun wickedly as he stood in the center of the passageway. The events of the last few minutes had felt like a dream, a haze, like he was watching his own actions though his own eyes, but they hadn't been his, like an observing bystander trapped inside himself. He turned to look at the bounty hunter he'd just been fighting, her stun-saber up and at the ready.

He tried to say something, but in the effort, he succumbed to a harsh, racking fit of wet coughing. He felt bits of something come up and out as he brought a hand up in front of his mouth and fell back against the wall.

When it passed, if felt like the whole world was flying in a sickening circle around him. He looked at his hand, and it was covered in a dark blue liquid. It felt like blood as he rubbed it between his fingers, with tiny chunks of grey tissue intermixed. He then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and fond more it.

"Orian…" he muttered, the spinning growing worse and worse, "Orian…what…?"

The darkness finally closed around his vision, and he felt himself go limp.