Chapter Three
A Home Light-Years Away from Home
Fox, Krystal, and Falco got out of their small fleet of ships and were greeted by Peppy Hare, an elder rabbit and veteran of the original Star Fox team, and Slippy Toad, a youthful frog and the team's mechanic. "So," Peppy started in a gruff voice. "How was the mission?" "It was ok," Fox replied. "We met up with Star Wolf while we were there, though." "That's not good," Slippy commented with a squeaky accent. "But one of the locals saved us," Krystal added. "And Fox made him an honorary member." "I still can't believe you did that, Fox," Falco nagged. Fox just rolled his eyes in a way of saying, "Will you shut up about it?" As Fox, Krystal and Peppy headed of to the main deck, Falco continued, "Anyway, can you check out my Arwing whenever you get a chance, Slippy?" "Sure," he accepted. "What's wrong with it?" "Well," Falco started. "Before we were leaving, I noticed that my cloaking device was deactivated, and I thought it might be a short 'cuz of the rain." Slippy was a little puzzled; he had designed the Arwings to be resistant against any kind of weather, including rain. Hesitantly, he agreed and decided to get to work on it right away. Falco then thanked Slippy and rushed off to catch up with the others.
Falco caught up with the rest of the team on the main bridge where they met up with ROB 64, the team's android. He was kind of like what a normal robot seemed like: a thin wide sensor for an eye, a simple rod-like arm-and-leg structure, and a shiny metal coating to cover his bare wiring. "This is very perplexing," ROB 64 started. "What'd I miss?" Falco asked as soon as he came in. Peppy answered, "We don't know; we just got here, too." "According to the infrared cameras we placed everywhere in the ship," the android continued. "There is another being in the hangar with Slippy." The rest of the team was surprised, so Fox ordered, "Put the camera feed on screen." ROB then put in a few commands and, in an instant, a mostly red image appeared on the large computer screen. Sure enough, there were two different shapes around the same area; the blue one, knowing that amphibians are cold-blooded, was Slippy working under the hood of Falco's Arwing. The bright red one, however, was in the back of the ship, practically in the fetal position. Fox then commented, "I think we know why the cloaking machine was offline." "Hey, ROB. Do you think you can bring it to normal view?" Peppy requested. Without a word, ROB 64 pressed a button and instantly brought up a clear view of the hangar. To Fox's shock, it was the same one who saved him and the team last night: Roy McCormick.
Roy woke up from his sound sleep, unaware that the Star Fox team was watching his every move. He didn't know that he was in the team's mother ship, the Great Fox, primarily because he was still a little groggy. He knew that he wasn't behind the abandoned motel anymore, however, because instead of smelling compost, his surroundings smelled like steel and copper, and the air was freezing against his skin. His drowsiness went away when Shade's head popped up from his lap and quietly cried out, "Mew." Roy looked down at his lap and smiled, but his expression immediately changed when he heard a high voice call out, "Who's there?" Roy flinched and turned towards the voice, only to see a large metal wall. All of a sudden, Slippy's face appeared from behind the metal. His frightened eyes widen, Slippy asked loudly, "W-who are you?!" Roy was nervous and thought, If this frog goes and tells whoever runs this place, I'm dead. On impulse, Roy grabbed Slippy by the throat, wrapped his arms around his head in a sleeper hold, and squeezed. The frog flailed his arms and kicked his feet, trying to break free, but in a matter of minutes, his body went limp and Slippy fell asleep.
Fox and the rest of the gang all watched in horror as Roy, the savior-turned-stowaway, knocked their good friend unconscious. Fox dashed to the hangar, with Falco and Krystal following close behind him. Meanwhile, Roy was bent over to check and see if Slippy was still alive. He placed two fingers on the side of his neck and, thankfully, felt a pulse. Roy was relieved until he heard swift footsteps coming from the cavernous corridor. He strained his vision to find Fox, sprinting towards him with Falco and Krystal behind him. Roy was caught between a rock and a hard place; he could jump off the ledge and be a new paint job on the floor, or he could let Fox catch him and be turned over to their own authorities. After thinking for a brief moment, he leaped off the ledge and, suddenly, adrenaline burst into his veins, making time seem to slow down. Using quick reaction time, Roy grabbed a large pipe hanging from under the platform, using all of his strength to keep from slipping.
When Fox, Falco and Krystal made it to the hangar platform, they were too late to apprehend Roy. Falco went over to the ledge to see if Roy had hit the bottom, but it was too far down to see clearly, so he presumed he was dead. "It's a shame," Krystal eulogized. "He would have made a great comrade." Falco just grunted and said, "Good riddance." Fox and Krystal just glared at Falco, giving him an uncomfortable vibe. Fox then went over to Slippy and shook him lightly to wake him up. His eyes then slowly fluttered open and, after he sat up, asked, "What just happened?"
Everyone let out a sigh of relief when they knew their friend was still alive. Fox then turned his attention to the small kitten, Shade, in the back of the Arwing. He was confused, but at the same time, curious, so he held out his hand and gently picked up the kitten with great care. As Fox held Shade in his hand and looked into her eyes, he couldn't help but smile. He then turned to his team and commanded in a smooth tone, "Come on, let's go," and walked back to the command deck with Falco, Krystal and Slippy behind him, everyone's attention turned to the cute little critter in Fox's arms.
When everyone was gone, the only one left in the hangar was Roy, who was still straining to keep from plunging from his death. Starting to lose his grip, he had to find somewhere to stand on so he could let go of the pole. He took a few glances around and noticed a small platform just a few feet under the big one, just big enough for him to stand. Then, keeping from letting go, Roy swung back and forth, trying to gain momentum. He then let go of the pipe and landed right in the middle of the platform. After massaging his hands to ease the throbbing, he said quietly to himself as though his little companion could hear, "Don't worry, Shade. I'm still alive."
Roy was about to climb the nearby ladder, but then realized that there might've been security cameras watching everything, so he was pretty much up the river without a paddle. With another search, he noticed a ventilation shaft just wide enough for him to crawl through. Roy wedged his already aching fingers behind the cover and heaved, trying to loosen the bolts, making his fingers ache even worse. All of a sudden, the grid's bolts flew out of the screw holes and the cover smacked Roy in the gut, almost pushing him over the edge. He set the grid by the vent, crawled in butt-first, and pulled the grid back into the opening to cover his tracks. Roy then struggled to face the other way; when he finally did, he crawled through the vents, with the thought of saving his little friend in mind.
Meanwhile, in the command deck, Fox and the team came back to find ROB and Peppy prepping the ship for hyperspace. "Are we almost ready to head back to the Lylat System?" Fox asked. "Almost," Peppy responded. "At least everyone's present and accounted for." Fox hung his head and added glumly, "Well, almost everyone." Depressed, Peppy stood up from one of the control panels, walked over to Fox, and put his hand on Fox's shoulder, saying, "We all thought he would've been a great member, too, but we'll just have to move on." Fox let out a deep sigh and just slightly nodded his head. Peppy let out a little smile, but then turned his attention to the tiny kitten resting in Fox's arms. "What's that in your arms?" Peppy asked, reaching out to touch it. He then recoiled when her head jerked up and her wide eyes opened.
"This is the creature we found in the back of Falco's ship with the guy who knocked me out cold," Slippy answered. "We think it's like a domestic companion." "Her name's Shade," Krystal inserted. Everyone was confused, but then they remembered that Krystal was a telepath, so they assumed she read the kitten's thoughts. "Come to think of it," Falco started, petting the little kitten on her head. "She is kind of cute." Shade began sniffing Falco's feathery finger and, all of a sudden, let out a sharp sneeze. Everyone just laughed, and when the laughter died down, Fox commanded, "ROB, get us back to the Lylat System." The android then pushed a button and, suddenly, the ship jerked forward with a vigorous quake and the Star Fox team was rapidly soaring across the universe through the wormhole back to their galaxy.
Roy was still in the air vents, but he was just above the command deck when the ship entered hyperspace; he saw as the wormhole engulfed the ship and was almost knocked backwards by a few inches. After a few seconds, the Star Fox team stepped out of the command deck and back to their quarters. Roy waited a few more minutes, just in case someone stuck around, then kicked out the vent cover and leaped down onto the floor. When he landed, he stepped over to the control panel and noticed a digital diagram of the mother ship. Roy was speechless at what he saw; there was a sleek and streamlined design of a large ship with many rooms, even more routes to and from each room, and even the schematics of the other features, from the weapons grid to the ventilation system to even each of the crew member's quarters. With the press of a button, he was able to pinpoint where he was and where every other member was at that very moment.
As amazed as he was, however, he wanted to go back to his own galaxy, so he did a quick check of the control panel to see if he could find the "cancel" button for hyperspace. He looked everywhere on the panel, but there were hundred of buttons, so it was confusing. Giving up, Roy put his head on his fist and quietly muttered, "This is hope--," but he interrupted himself when he looked down and found what looked like a thin book in a small compartment under the panel. He bent over and gently slid the book out of its cubby. When he read the front cover, he was confused. Usually when a book's title says "manual," one would expect it to be extremely thick. Roy opened the book and expected to find text, but instead, he found a table of contents pressed against each flap. What the hell is this, Roy thought. Is this a joke? Then he thought of something; in most sci-fi movies, there's usually either a desk or a computer that has a touch-screen monitor. He curiously and cautiously press the bar labeled 'Chapter One: Getting to Know the Great Fox' and, in an instant, a wave of information flooded the screen. He pressed his finger on the text and gently moved it upward. As expected, any text that seemed to be cut off appeared on the screen. Roy smiled at how easy it was; it was like using his old computer at home.
When he knew how to work the futuristic book, he pressed the return key and returned to the table of contents. He then scrolled through the list of chapters until he found the subtitle that read, 'Controlling the Ship.' Roy pushed the bar and a burst of instructions on how to navigate the ship. He scrolled around, hoping to find any information on how to take him back home. Eventually, he found the subsection on how to reset the coordinates. Propping the "book" up, he followed the directions and, in a matter of minutes, found himself on the hyperspace-reroute screen. He thought he was home free, until he read the last instruction: "When you're at the Reroute screen, enter the thirty-digit code of the area you wish to travel to." "GOD DAMMIT!" Roy shouted, pounding his fist on the keyboard. Hyperventilating, Roy quietly muttered, "I guess there's no turning back now. I might as well find a place to stay while I'm here." Then he remembered the schematics of the Great Fox.
Elsewhere on the Great Fox, Krystal was preoccupied watching Shade eat a slice of ham. She looked as though she were a child, lost in another world just by looking in a fish tank. Shade, unknowing that Krystal was reading her mind, thought to herself, "I miss Roy." "I know how you feel," Krystal added, startling the young kitten. "You can read my mind?" Shade asked, looking up at Krystal, her hair standing up on end. "How else was I able to know your name, Shade?" Krystal retorted. Shade didn't think of that, so she just calmed down and went along with it. "My name's Krystal, by the way," Krystal presented. The two then began talking about their histories: their old families (Krystal tried not to cry at that part,) what they did for a living, and the places where they used to live. Even though Shade had made a new friend, she still had a gaping hole in her heart, but she knew Krystal was trying her best to help her.
Meanwhile, Roy was crawling through the cold, dust-ridden ventilation shaft with the route memorized. Occasionally, he ran into a wrong turn, but he still managed to send himself in the right direction. After about an hour of silent creeping, Roy finally arrived at the storage room. He chose the storage room because he figured that there would be enough food to last him the trip through hyperspace and enough containers to hide himself from anybody. Trying his best to keep silent, Roy kicked the vent cover off the wall and leapt out of the cramped shaft. When he landed on his feet, he took a few glances to see if there was enough food for him to sneak a few unnoticed bites, and sure enough, to his own happiness, there was; there were countless bins filled to the brim with food, each with enough to last him for about three months. Roy would've begun helping himself to some of the food in the bins, but his first thought led him to sleep rather than food. He then stepped over to the nearest corner, rearranged the bins to keep from being spotted, and closed his eyes, hoping that he could get some well-needed sleep.
A few hours later, Fox was headed for his room when he noticed Slippy in his room working on his computer. From his eyes, it looked as though Slippy was searching through the camera feeds. Fox then knocked on the wall and asked, "What're you looking for, Slippy?" Slippy nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the knocking, but was calm when he saw that it was Fox. Clutching his chest, he snapped, "Don't scare me like that!" "Sorry about that," Fox apologized. "I was just wondering what you were doing." "You told me about the 'local' who knocked me unconscious and jumped off the platform this morning, didn't you?" Slippy asked. When Fox nodded, he continued, "Well, I've been going over the security feeds for the main hangar, and I noticed that the 'local' twisted his body when he jumped." Then, Slippy typed in a command to zoom the feed outwards to show what he was talking about. The replay showed the airborne Roy twisting his body and "disappearing" off the screen. It wasn't disappearing as in "walking off the screen; however, it was disappearing as in "hiding behind something." "Where'd he go?" Fox inquired. Without answering, Slippy magnified the feed to show a strange object dangling from under the platform. Pointing to the monitor screen, Fox asked, "What's that thing under the platform?" "That," Slippy responded, "is his leg." Fox thought about it for a few seconds, then his eyes widen with the realization of the truth, Roy was still alive.
Meanwhile, Roy awoke with a deep yawn and scratched the back of his head. Man, Roy thought. Sleeping on a metal floor really takes a toll on a guy's back. Roy then struggled to his feet while almost toppling over, when he felt something fall out of his coat pocket. He looked down and noticed his old family photo. Roy bent over, picked it up between two fingers and stared at it memorably. He smiled, and a tear trickled down his cheek. He was caught up in nostalgia when he heard Fox's voice boom through the intercom, "Attention! Everyone meet in the control room in five minutes for an emergency meeting!" Roy's smile vanished when the announcement ended, so when he put his cherished memory back in his pocket, he rearranged the containers so he could climb through the vent, scaled the crates, and climbed into the shaft towards the control room.
Ten minutes later, Roy was watching everyone standing around a large round table for the meeting already in progress through the grate. Unfortunately for Roy, the urgency of the meeting was about the fact that he was still alive. "Right now," Fox started. "We don't know where he is. What we do know is that he's traveling through the ventilation shaft, as shown by the feed on this camera." On cue, Slippy set the video to show the vent grate flying out from under the platform. "We also know," Fox continued. "That he appears to have memorized the entire ventilation system by the Great Fox map on the main controls." Roy was worried that he might've been found out, but all of a sudden, he noticed a small lump of black fuzz in Krystal's arms and knew that it was Shade. He was relieved to find his little friend alive and well, so he was more at ease. Suddenly, Roy heard a groaning sound coming from inside the vent. He didn't know what it was, so he stayed put where he was and kept listening to what Fox had to say.
Another groan came from inside the vent, but Roy ignored it and kept listening to Fox. "Everyone, we may be dealing with either the greatest asset to us or our worst enemy." Fox was going to say more, but he was interrupted by the same groan that Roy heard. Again and again, the creaking noise returned and grew louder with each moan. Roy was worried about the sound, but what made it even worse was that he knew what was making the noise; he figured out that the vent was warping, which would explain the noise. Roy knew that the vent was about to collapse, but found out too late. The metal under his knees tore in half and Roy plummeted onto the giant table.
Roy couldn't open his eyes, but could hear everyone around him. He could barely understand what they were saying, but one faint little cry from his little friend Shade helped him come around from his stunned state. It took a great deal of his strength, but Roy eventually got his eyes pried open. Ignoring the stares from the rest of the Star Fox team (not to mention Falco, who was pointing his laser pistol,) he sat up on the table, rubbing his throbbing head. Shade, excited to see her human friend again, leapt out of Krystal's arms and into Roy's lap. While Shade was affectionately rubbing against Roy's stomach, Fox complimented, "I have to admit, Roy; you certainly know how to make an entrance." With that, Roy's contentment instantly changed to worry. Half-heartedly, Roy asked, "I guess that you're going to send me back to Earth, right?" As if on cue, the Great Fox was spit out from the wormhole and into the Lylat System.
"Well, that's some bad timing," Falco complained. Once again, everyone, even Roy, glared at Falco with a piercing stare, giving him a nervous sensation. "We could jump back through hyperspace," Fox suggested, "but it would take another day for the round trip." "Besides," Peppy added. "It takes a great amount of skill to sneak through the Great Fox without being noticed by anyone, even ROB." "I think I know what the right thing to do is," Fox decided. Without another word, he motioned for Roy to follow him and walked towards the Great Fox quarters with Roy tailgating him.
After about a minute, Fox and Roy came up to one of the empty rooms. Fox then pulled out a keycard and slid it through an electronic key slot. Next thing they knew, the electronic door slid opened to reveal an empty-yet-futuristic room, complete with a metal-framed cot, a lone desk with a sleek desktop computer, and even its own bathroom. "The original Star Fox team," Fox said as he stared reflectively into the vacant room, "actually had six members, with my father as the team leader." Roy didn't understand what he was getting at, so Fox continued, "When my father died, everyone except Peppy retired, and years later, I took over the leadership of Star Fox to continue my father's legacy." "What're ya getting at?" Roy asked. "Ever since Krystal joined," Fox started. "We've still been shy one member, so this room's been empty for a while." Then he turned his head towards Roy and offered, "But I think that you should have this room as your own." Roy, his eyes wide with disbelief, said nothing. Fox then patted Roy's shoulder and said, "Welcome to Star Fox." Then he walked out of the room, leaving Roy standing in his new room. Before the door slid shut, Shade trotted into the room and rubbed against Roy's leg. He looked down at his little friend, picked her up and said to her with a smile, "I guess we have a new home."