Chapter 18- Arrivals and Departures

It was the last night before their arrival at AlphaCen, about 0400 hours ship time. Though, to Nick and Judy's chagrin, that would be about mid-day local time. Neither Nick nor Judy had travelled much, and so they had listened to Barker's advice and tried to spend much of the day before arrival napping. Which meant they hadn't been very sleepy that evening-

Judy snuggled closer to Nick. "Well, at least we've had some time to ourselves," she murmured.

The bed was designed for a single human, meaning it was ample for both of them. Even when they had gotten a bit, ahem, athletic. "Yeah," said Nick, stretching his arms above his head. "Maybe we should go on cruises more often. Though, you know, without killer lizard-bugs."

"They do kind of put a damper on things," Judy agreed.

"Incoming call," said the room AI. "Shall I put you on video?"

Nick narrowed his eyes at the ceiling. It always got it wrong- "Sure, go ahead."

Naturally, this was the first time the room listened.

Judy gave a squeak of surprise and embarrassment and burrowed under the covers as Nick felt his ears heat up. Bonnaire's eyes widened, then she chuckled. "Oh, my. Room AI strikes again, does it?"

"Hello, Wendy," said Nick, fighting the urge to hide like Judy. "What's up?"

"Well, Yankee Delta squadron and I wanted to invite you to a little going-away party in the officer's club. Sorry we called so late- they just got off patrol."

Nick sighed, but he clearly wasn't going to get any sleep. "Sure. Can Judy come?"

Bonnaire smiled. "Yeah, in fact I was going to insist you bring her."

Judy carefully peeked over the covers. "You were?"

"It's not just Yankee Delta," said Bonnaire. She moved slightly over and a broad, grinning face appeared.

"Hello, talking dog! Hello, tiny bunny!" said Maksimov jovially.

Judy dove under the covers again.

"It's not often that you get Marines in the same room as pilots," said Bonnaire. "So you two should come for the rarity value if nothing else." She leaned forward conspiratorially. "Technically the enlisted aren't supposed to be here. We paid off the bartender."

Nick grinned. "We'll be there."

From under the covers came a muffled voice. "Speak for yourself. I think I might just stay under here forever."

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After some cajoling, Nick had persuaded Judy to get dressed and follow him to the O-club. He found Barker arm-wrestling one of the pilots, a sight that made him blink in surprise. She suddenly tensed and slammed down the pilot's arm, eliciting groans and cheers. As money exchanged hands, the pilot- Margretthe, he recalled- massaged her arm. "That's not fair," she complained. "She has big claws."

"The better to beat you with, my dear," said Barker in satisfaction, sliding over a wad of bills towards her. She caught sight of Nick and Judy and seemed slightly embarrassed. "Hopps, Wilde."

"Barker," said Nick slowly. "Decided to let your hair down a bit?"

She shrugged. "Last night, after all. Might as well live a little before we do all the boring diplomatic stuff."

Nick walked up to the bar and clambered up on a stool next to Bonnaire, who smiled and raised a drink to him as Judy hopped up to the seat next to him. "What'll you have, fox?" asked Bonnaire.

"Whiskey sour?" The drink appeared and Nick sipped it appreciatively. "Hey, that's not bad."

Bonnaire smiled. "This isn't an ordinary celebration, Nick." She stood up and tapped a spoon against her glass. "Your attention, please."

Gunnery Sergeant Sadowski, standing by the door, cleared his throat. "Ten-hut!"

Silence fell. "At ease," said Bonnaire. She smiled at the gunny. "Not bad, Sadowski. Even my pilots shut the hell up."

"It's all in the inflection, ma'am."

Bonnaire turned back to the room. "It isn't every day that a brand-new, wet-behind-the-ears newbie pilot scores his first stick-time and first kill on the same mission. We have here one pilot who accomplished that. Officer Nicholas Wilde, please stand up."

Surprised, Nick stood up on his seat. "Um, what is this?"

The pilot just winked at him before turning her attention back to the room. "Generally, we don't give someone a call-sign until they've passed flight training, but Yankee Delta came to me unanimously with regard to young Mr. Wilde here."

"Not that much younger than you," muttered Nick.

"It's not the years, fox, it's the miles," said Bonnaire out of the corner of her mouth. She stood up and smiled down on the fox, holding a beer. "So, Mr. Wilde, I hereby dub thee 'Hustler'." There was a cheer from the assembled pilots and a decidedly boozier cheer from the Marines. Stepping forward smartly, Bonnaire pinned a flight badge to his shirt. "It's more a memento than anything," she said quietly. "But we mean it."

Nick blinked in surprise, but then grinned. "Well, I don't know what to say-"

"Just say thanks, Hustler!" called Rudaski.

He nodded to Yankee Delta's commander. "Thanks, then, I guess. It's an honor."

Bonnaire hefted the beer. "All right. Now, there's a little tradition we call 'wetting the wings'..." She held out the beer.

Nick reached a paw out to take it, only to have her up-end the beer over his head. He spluttered, shaking his head to get the beer out of his ears. Before he could get angry, though, someone clapped him on the back and put his drink in his paw. He sighed. It was all in good fun, he supposed.

He glanced over to see Judy giggling at him. "A little support here?" he said, though he was smiling.

"You should have seen the look on your face," she said, barely able to get the words out.

"Don't laugh too much, Miss Hopps," said Sadowski, stepping forward. "Mr. Wilde isn't the only one we want to honor." He smiled. "But Marines are too gentlemanly to pour beer over a lady." He held out his hand, ignoring Bonnaire's snort at the word "gentlemanly" in relation to Marines. "Thanks, Miss Hopps. And to you, Miss Barker. You two saved my life, much to the regret of the screw-ups in Foxtrot Company." He glanced over his shoulder with a mock glare. "Which is all of them."

"Not true," protested Maksimov. "I am glad talking dog and tiny bunny saved gunny's life." He paused. "Gunny owes me for poker debt."

Nick grinned, remembering la Mancha's probably facetious advice- then frowned thoughtfully. "You know," he said. "I think the next few rounds are on me."

Marines weren't that hard to get along with, it turned out. Not if you had enough money to get them utterly and completely hammered.

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Feeling a bit better than the last time he had spent the night drinking with Marines, Nick made his way into the shuttle standing on the Nike's hangar floor- deck, rather. Behind him, Judy was still walking a bit unsteadily. He looked back at her. "I told you to be careful," he said. "Your body weight is a lot less than most mammals."

She gave him an annoyed look, then winced as something clanged loudly in the hangar. "I was just trying to be friendly," she mumbled.

"Don't be friendly with Marines," he advised. "Apparently, they tend to think the best way to show friendship to someone is to feed them alcohol until they can't stand anymore."

She staggered to one of the chairs and sank gratefully into it. "I hate hangovers," she muttered.

Nick took pity on her and grabbed a towel from the small bathroom. He wetted it with hot water from the tap and gingerly placed it on Judy's forehead, folding her ears back along her head. "Feel better?"

She gave a pleased moan and sank further into the seat. "Much." She opened one eye and smiled up at him. "Thanks, Nick."

He smiled back. "That's why you love me."

"Do I?" She grabbed his paw and pulled him closer. "You know, I think I do."

From the doorway of the shuttle, Barker cleared her throat. Nick and Judy just looked at her. "What?" said Nick, annoyed. "Everyone knows we're together."

"It's not that," said Barker. "I just didn't want to embarrass you two, so I just wanted to let you know I was here." She made her way to a seat and sat down.

"Oh," said Nick, feeling slightly ashamed of his defensive reaction. "Thanks."

He settled in next to Judy. She immediately snuggled closer to him, murmuring something sleepily.

Barker eyed them with an odd expression. "Is it hard?" she asked, in a quiet voice.

Nick looked over at her. "Is what hard?"

"The, um." She stopped, looking unsure. Nick's eyebrows raised. Barker was unsure? She always gave off this aura of all-knowingness. "Your relationship. Different species."

"It's not always easy," said Nick. He looked down at Judy, her head now pillowed in his lap. "But it's worth it."

Barker nodded slowly. "Yeah." She settled back into her seat and looked out the window. "Yeah."

As Nick, curious, was trying to decide whether to draw out the wolf further, the cabin address came on.

"This is your pilot speaking," said Bonnaire. "Normally, I wouldn't set foot in this flying school bus, but I figured I might as well take this one last chance to make you guys lose your lunch. Lose your lunch again, in the case of a certain bunny who decided to try and outdrink some Marines."

Judy glared up at the speaker.

"So, welcome to Air Nike. I will be your captain. My first officer is Ensign Jefferson. Say hello, Jefferson."

Another voice came on. "Hello, Jefferson."

"Too predictable," said Bonnaire disgustedly. "We will be taking off in about two minutes, from the strike cruiser Nike and travelling to Loronar Spaceport in First Landing. The total flight time will be about forty minutes, unless I can figure out how to disable the speed governor on this thing, in which case I should be able to drop it to five minutes. I think I'll just crack open this instrument panel here-"

Jefferson's worried voice interrupted. "Ma'am, I don't think you should-"

"No, no, don't worry. I'm pretty sure I remember where all these wires go. Hey, what's this?" There was a crash. "Huh. Hope we don't need that."

Barker and Nick exchanged looks. "I think she's joking," said Nick, a bit nervously.

The wolf shook her head. "Humans."

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It was the second world that Nick had seen from space, and again, he stared in awe.

It looked similar to Terra in a broad sense- the blue of ocean, the green of land. But there was less green, more yellow and brown, particularly toward the center of the vast continent they were heading towards. And- he squinted. "What's all that grey?"

Barker glanced at him, looked out the window. "Yeah, that's First Landing. The city is so large you can see it from space."

Nick's jaw dropped. Even the largest cities on Terra hadn't been visible, at least not from this high up. "It's that big?'

"Population concentration," said Barker. "They have a pretty sophisticated point defense system which provides the whole planet some protection, but the city is sort of where everything is focused. Doesn't mean a missile or kinetic strike can't get through, but they can frequently deflect or disrupt a minor attack. Out in the less populated areas, though- that's where the raiders frequently land. By the time the militia- that's sort of like a part-time military- gets there, the raiders will have killed or captured some portion of the population."

"So nearly everyone lives in the city," said Nick. "Are all human planets like that?"

"Most of them are," she answered. "Except planets where the population is too small to concentrate like here. You know Alphacen has only about half the land-mass of Terra, right? And it's all one big continent, so the interior is a big desert."

Nick shook his head. "No, I didn't know that."

"So they have about as much population, crammed into a much smaller living space as is, even without the defense considerations." She watched silently as the clouds rose around them, the shuttle making entry into the atmosphere. "I think it might explain a lot of their crime. Humans aren't herd mammals. They don't do well with crowding."

Nick contemplated that. Beside him, Judy gave a yawn and glanced out the window. She jumped slightly. "Are we already entering the atmosphere?" She poked Nick. "I wanted to see the planet from space."

"Sorry, Carrots. From where I was sitting it looked like you wanted to sleep and forget about that hangover."

She gave him a cool look and bounced over him to stand on the seat nearest the window. "Wow," she said, awed, as they broke through the cloud cover.

The city of First Landing stretched out below them.

With space at a premium, the humans had a strong tendency to build upwards instead of outwards. Vast apartment blocks, office buildings, and other structures whose purpose Nick could not readily determine climbed above smaller buildings. At first, it seemed much like any other city he had seen- just maybe more of it- but Barker shook her head when he voiced the thought.

"Wrong sense of scale, Wilde." She pondered for a moment as they drew closer. "Wait, there. See that?"

They were close enough now to the ground that Nick could make out a ship of some sort, miniscule next to a squat building near the shoreline. "Yeah. It's what, like a private yacht or something?" He couldn't make out any details on the vessel just yet.

"That's a supertanker," said Ruth dryly.

Nick blinked as he compared the apparent size of the ship versus the apparent size of the shoreline building- "That one building-" he stopped.

"Is roughly the size of, say, the Rainforest District back in Zootopia," confirmed Barker. "They call them arcologies- one building cities, essentially. And there's something like a hundred-plus of them in First Landing."

Judy looked at Barker, then at the building. "So those tiny buildings around it-"

"Are skyscrapers," said Barker. Her voice held grim fascination. "You see what I mean, though?"

"About what?" asked Nick.

"About being crowded." She gestured at the city. "Packed in like sardines into a city so large that the biggest buildings back on Zootopia look like toys. Unable to move out to the rural regions because of the constant threat. Look," she said, pointing. "That lake."

A nearly perfectly circular lake could be seen through a break in the nearby buildings. "Looks pretty," said Judy.

"It is," said Barker. "That's the Crater Lake, caused by a bombardment way back when First Landing was pretty much destroyed in-" she paused, scrunching up her nose in thought, "-the Third Drexian War, I think it was?"

Mentally Nick and Judy measured the crater, then tried to imagine an explosion that could cause it.

"They're different," said Barker quietly. "They've been under threat so long, all alone out here in the galaxy, with no one to help them. They can be friendly, even kind." She shook her head sadly. "But don't forget the differences. At the end of the day, they have only one goal as a species."

The spaceport drew closer, orderly lines of craft approaching or leaving it. Nick and Judy watched as several fighters flashed past the waiting lines, engines screaming as they shot towards the sky above.

"Survival," finished Barker.

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Louis Wu bounced nervously on his feet as he waited in the spaceport terminal.

A few passersby gave him odd looks- nervous policemen never spell good news- so he forced himself to stand more calmly. The arrivals section of the airport was packed with people. He saw a burly Rodinian man, with an equally burly wife, herding not-yet burly kids along. Two businessmen with the soft, pale skin of Adamant walked slowly past, talking in low tones. Once he schooled himself to stillness, most paid him little attention.

His nervousness was partly because Hunter's email had left little room for doubt as to what would happen to him if any harm were to come to Wilde and Hopps. It had gone into exhaustive detail in sections, including words and phrases that Wu was more used to seeing in transcripts of autopsies. Hunter had probably been exaggerating, of course.

Wu considered several times where he had assumed Hunter was exaggerating and had promptly found out otherwise.

Hunter was possibly exaggerating.

He felt more than saw the approach of Mika Arrizondo from behind him and turned to look at her. She handed him a cup of coffee. "Any sign of them yet?"

Wu shook his head, taking the coffee gratefully. "They should be landing right about now, though." He turned to look anxiously back at the gate.

Arrizondo chuckled at his concern. "Hey, Hunter's bark is worse than his bite," she said teasingly. "Nothing a tough, street-smart sergeant like you needs to worry about."

Wu gave her a wry look. "Easy for you to say. You were one of his rookies. He always looks out for you guys."

"It's like having a guardian angel," confirmed Arrizondo. She frowned. "A crazy, sarcastic guardian angel, but I'll take what I can get."

Wu chuckled, but there was, in fact, another reason he was nervous. Though it was a good kind of nervous, considering. He sipped his coffee.

"So didn't you pair up with the wolf, whatshername, Barker, when she was here?' asked Arrizondo casually.

Wu, through intense training and experience, had learned to keep a tight rein on his emotions. So he did not spit out his coffee, but instead managed to swallow it and say, in a reasonably calm voice, "What?"

The younger cop gave him a frown. "As partners. You know, solving crime together. A boy and his dog."

"Do not call her that," warned Wu. He paused. "And don't call me that, either. I'm older than you and outrank you."

Arrizondo gave him an impish smile and continued watching the arrival gate.

There was a slight disturbance in the crowd up ahead. People stopped, gawped, some pulling out cell phones or even cameras.

Wu sighed. "That's them."

Sure enough, the crowd parted enough to reveal three Terrans, being escorted by a uniformed pilot- Wu blinked. He'd done his time in the Fleet when he was called up. He tried to remember the last time a Lieutenant Commander flew a shuttle and came up with "never". That was low-level duty.

The pilot saw them and all four of the new arrivals headed towards Wu and Arrizondo. Wu instinctively saluted as the commander approached. "Good morning, ma'am."

She returned his salute, amused. "You technically don't have to salute me, Sergeant."

Wu shrugged as he dropped his hand. "I was a Spacer First Class when I left the Fleet after my five-year hitch. I was used to saluting anything that moved."

"Fleet, eh?" She eyed him speculatively. "What ship?"

"The Oedipus, commander. We spent most of the time on the Karathi border."

"Call me Wendy, sergeant. You're not Fleet anymore- well, except on reserve status." She shook his hand. "The Karathi border, huh? Saw a bit of action, then?"

Wu nodded. "They never really let up, you know."

"No, they don't. We got jumped by a stealth group about the middle of the Wolf 359 transit," she replied.

Wu turned pale. "You did?" he squeaked. His eyes ran over the fox and rabbit. "Is everyone okay?"

"We're fine," said the fox, looking surprised at his reaction. "I'm Nick Wilde, by the way. This is my partner Judy Hopps, and this is-"

The other reason he was nervous. Wu met Barker's gaze. "We've met," he said quietly.

"Hello, Louis," said Barker, her eyes dancing with amusement. "Did you miss me?"

He reached for her paw to shake, but found himself enveloped in a hug. "I, uh-" he gave up and hugged her back. "Yeah, Ruth."

She pulled back to study him. "You've been promoted. How remarkably reasonable of FLPD."

"Yeah, well, with Hunter gone the average sanity of the department rose about three points," said Wu. He looked her over. "You're looking well, too."

She smiled at him. "Thanks."

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Nick and Judy looked between Barker and Wu, surprise in their faces. Nick leaned closer to Judy. "Is it just me, or are they-"

"-looking at each other like you and I do?" finished Judy. "Definitely."

Arrizondo, seeing her superior distracted, knelt down to put herself at eye level with the two smaller Terran mammals. "Hi!" she said in the bright tones of someone talking to small children. "My name is Mika!" She held out a hand.

Nick smiled broadly and took it. "Hi, Mika! My name is Nick. I'm in my mid-thirties and have a confirmed space fighter kill."

"He does," said Bonnaire, who was watching Arrizondo with an amused smirk.

The young police officer flushed red with embarrassment, one hand flying to her mouth. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I guess I was doing my talking-to-kids bit, wasn't I?"

"Any minute now I thought you were going to offer me an FLPD sticker," confirmed Nick. "Or tell me what a fine-looking young mammal I was." He studied Arrizondo critically. "Well, you and Carrots- Judy- will get along fine."

Judy looked at him, a bit surprised. "Why do you say that?"

"Because she's as easy to fluster as you are," said Nick smugly.

Arrizondo stood up and fixed him with a mock glare. "Oh, I see. You're one of those. Is that Hunter's influence, or are you two just naturally similar?"

Nick narrowed his eyes at her. "Smile when you say that," he warned.

Judy rolled her eyes. "Don't mind him, we're still working on letting him out in public."

"Hey!" protested Nick. "I can be really charming when I want to be."

"The trick," said Judy, still talking to Arrizondo, "is getting him to want to be."

Arrizondo laughed. "Okay, yeah, you two are definitely cops." She glanced speculatively at Wu and Barker, still ensconced in their own private conversation, and from the look of it, their own private world. "I'll go get the car pulled around to the front. Meet you guys outside."

After she left, Bonnaire knelt down next to Judy and Nick. "Well," she said. "Looks like this might be it for a while."

Nick shook her hand. "Thanks, Wendy."

"For what?" she asked, surprised.

"For being a friend," he said simply.

She smiled. "You looked like you could use one. And speaking of things you can use-" she cautiously looked side-to-side and reached into a pocket of her flight suit. "Here."

Nick took the small device she held out. It was flat, with a button covered with a small sliding door that prevented it from being pressed by accident. "What's this?"

"My crew chief whipped it up," said Bonnaire. She handed a similar one to Judy. "It's essentially the important bits of that energy weapon you used in the boarding action. Well, minus a good chunk of the power cells. They're only good for about thirty shots, though it can be recharged with any wall socket." She grimaced. "Though don't ask about the power bills you'll incur."

Judy nearly dropped the weapon. "This is a laser gun?"

"Sure," said Bonnaire. "More or less. Look, First Landing can be pretty dangerous." She scanned the crowd. "Especially right now." She looked back at the two smaller mammals. "Especially for Terrans."

She stood up again. "I don't know if I'll see you guys again," she said, somewhat sadly. "So this is it."

Nick snapped a jaunty salute. "Thanks, commander. For everything."

"You watch your six, Hustler," she said. With that, she turned and left.

Author's Note: I very nearly gave Nick the call-sign "Starfox" but decided that if I was using the "Fox [Number]" call for missile launches they wouldn't give him a call-sign that could be confused with that. I think "Hustler" is a pretty good one for him, though.