Part 2

The tram stopped on the engineering deck, the red line on the floor going off to the left and right, green and yellow went straight to an elevator. The human walked around the corner, he had been waiting for her to follow.

"That didn't take long." he said with a smirk. "It's better this way, trust me. The drones will have you and your attitude off this ship and back to whatever it is that you do in no time."

"It's not like I had a choice, those things are all over my ship. So where is the crew on this ship? Or can you not find anyone who can stand you." The human looked at her and sighed.

"Like I said, it's a re purposed mining ship. It's meant to operate with a skeleton crew, 12 people and two officers. The less people they have to put out here the more profit they can make. It's set up so one person can pilot it and run the drones. Most systems are automated, the drones do the bulk of the work, the controller isn't big enough to run the number of drones I need to repair the ship fully so progress is a bit slow. They were designed to maintain the ship, not rebuild it. I've reconfigured the mining tech to harvest and reclaim minerals from space, then it breaks them down and reconstructs them into materials necessary for daily operation and to repair the ship. It's really remarkable how well it's worked out, I can literally make anything I need from basic supplies and ammunition to major ship components, all out of space debris."

"Well aren't you the smart one." she smiled. "I guess I misjudged you." The human stepped back and folded his arms as Krystal spoke. "If you were really smart, you'd fly this scrapheap into the nearest star and do me and the rest of the galaxy a favor by going with it." The human pulled his weapon. He pointed it at Krystal's forehead. She froze, the nausea again. Her hands shook, she closed her eyes, here we go...

"I'm getting tired of you." he looked at her, his eyes narrowed, teeth clenched. "This chip on your shoulder is an act. You're not as cold-hearted as you make yourself out to be. I saw it in the research facility and I see it again now, the tears, the hesitation, the fear, and you were worried about the captives I rescued. Deep inside I think you're just a hurt, scared, little girl hiding behind a false name and a bad attitude and if you continue on like this it will get you killed. You drew that blaster on me down on the planet but you didn't have any intention of using it. Had I known you were a bounty hunter beforehand, I've have shot you dead without hesitation. They might have feared the name Kursed in Lylat, but out here you're just another nameless amateur going to meet an early end on some desolate rock."

"If that's my fate. I am willing to accept it." she said, struggling to remain calm.

"No, you're not. Or you wouldn't have gotten on that ladder and climbed into my ship. I am trying to help you, you need it right now. So make things easier on both of us and drop the act." he holstered his weapon and started walking down the hall, fists clenched.

"So you think you know me? You know what I've been through?" Krystal was fuming at the thought, she stepped out of the elevator. He was right though, and it pushed her over the edge. She wasn't going to shoot him, he saved her life. "I AM cursed. Had you not been of some use to me on that planet I'd have shot YOU dead. I don't know what you want but you're not going to get it from me. I lost the ability to care a long time ago, along with everyone and everything I've ever cared about."

"You're the only one in the galaxy that's suffered loss huh?" He turned around and began walking back. "Whatever you lost I never had to begin with, my parents dumped me in a trash bin in some back alley on a station I don't even know the name of. I was found by a cleaning crew and put in a military orphanage. I spent my entire childhood and most of my young adult life bitter, hurt, and angry just like you are now. When I was 18 I was pressed into military service where they recommended me for operative training, I learned alot in those years. I had no family, no friends, and no place I could call home, but I learned in my travels that for every one piece of murdering, thieving garbage out there there's a million decent people just trying to earn an honest living. With numbers like that, being like you, hateful and full of spite toward everyone is counter productive."

"Rubbish, it sounds like you didn't get the hint that no one wants you around." Krystal said. "My home planet was destroyed, my parents killed and the only person I thought loved me tossed me aside because he didn't want to see me hurt. My former allies used me then threw me away when I outlived my usefulness. The population I risked my life to save shuns me and the people I thought were my friends no longer speak to me. Everyone I've met since I began this life has either wanted to kill me or use me, I have seen the absolute worst people this galaxy can produce. There's no reason for me to show compassion or concern, the rest of the galaxy can sit and rot for all I care."

"So you spend you time running around, bitter and pissed off at the world for what?" The human looked at her, "So you can get killed picking a fight in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ask yourself, of all the terrible things that have happened to you, how many of them were by your actions? I stopped feeling sorry for myself a long time ago and I realized there are good people out there worth helping, I'm sorry you're not one of them. I'm giving you a chance to stay on my good side, please do yourself a favor and take advantage of it. You think I'm weak or naive because I'm kind, you're wrong. I'm kind because I choose to be, if you continue like this, I may change my mind. But you seem to go through life intent on making it worse for yourself and if that's the case let me know, I'll gladly put you out of your misery."

"If you were serious, you'd have done it already." Krystal said. The human drew and fired, hitting the wall just to the left of her head. His face was expressionless, a cold, empty stare that sent chills through her body. Krystal touched the side of her head, the shot had just missed her, leaving a smoking hole in the back wall of the elevator. She became light headed and dizzy, she struggled to keep her balance, and then fell to the floor.

"How dare you!" Krystal screamed, struggling to get back to her feet, "I didn't do any of this to myself, it's all been out of my control. I...I..." she began breathing heavy, there were tears running down her face. She stumbled over to one corner of the elevator, hitting the green button as quickly as she could. As the doors closed she faced the corner so the human couldn't see her, she tried to hold herself together until the elevator could get moving.

"That's what I thought." The human said as the doors closed.

Krystal stepped out of the elevator and wiped her eyes. After her encounter with the human, she needed time to cool off. He had opened a wound she thought healed a long time ago. Her mind raced, so many bad memories flooded in, she couldn't focus. There was a rustling noise behind her, the turned and looked down. A small drone roamed the floor at her feet, scrubbing the the footprints behind her, she kicked it down the hall, it shattered as it hit the wall and came to rest in the corner. She turned and looked for her room, the hall in the crew quarters was well lit, clean, white, and polished. One door had a green light on the lock, the rest were red. She opened it and started to step inside. There was a buzzing sound down the hall, several drones had come out from the wall and began working on the one she had kicked. It now scooted around the floor again, good as new.

The first mate's cabin was the cleanest place she had been in since she left Star Fox. Star Wolf were tough and well funded, but they were slobs. Except Panther, but no matter how much he told her he loved her, she'd never step all the way into that room of his. She was just a trophy anyway, to all of them. A final insult to Star Fox before going on to best them one last time. Corneria was right to hate her, she took Wolf's bait during the war with the Anglars, and she took one of the best squadrons in Lylat and broke it apart. Had the 2 squadrons worked together as they did during the Aparoid invasion, things might have been different, lives might have been saved. Star Wolf didn't need her to win, they wanted her so Star Fox would lose and she played her part very well. The jeers of the general population gave her all the reason she needed, and it only took a few years to slip from memory. Even Fox didn't recognize her. The more time she spent alone the more she began to feel like herself again, the cold, hard, bounty hunter act was wearing thin. She just didn't have the stomach for it anymore, flying with a squadron gave her purpose and a family. This life, gave her nothing.

As she sat on the bed she listened to the sounds of the ship. Not another thought, there was no crew, just the hum of the drones and the ships enormous machinery. She knew her telepathy had been fading for awhile now, Wolf had suspected it, but she hid it as long as she could. It had given her an edge tracking bounties while it lasted. On this last run it was almost impossible to pickup even the most direct thoughts, she couldn't read that human at all, she wondered if he knew. Doubtful, he seemed too wrapped up in his own world to care who she was. She looked around the room, a large window faced the forward part of the ship. It looked out over the damaged hangars, where the drones were welding away. She pulled the blinds shut, the thought of being trapped on this wreck worried her. Someone could come looking, but who knew she was here? Where exactly was here? The human said Beta system. The coordinates her contact had given took her out of Lylat and into what she thought was just dark space. She needed something to take her mind off of it all. There was a small bathroom with a shower, she turned on the water, something on this ship actually worked, steam filled her nose. She locked the door, undressed, and stepped into the shower letting the warm water soothe her. There was a pool of brown water circling the drain, she needed the shower, that human didn't have to point it out, but she did need it.

Krystal stepped out of the shower and sat down on the bed, her body still ached. Life on the run was hard, there wasn't a place she could lay her head for more than a few hours. On this ship though, she was comfortable. No one knew she was here, and the sheets were warm and inviting. As she drifted off to sleep her life came rushing back. Her dreams had always been vivid, but this different than what she had felt before. Everything she had done came rushing back, Saurnia, Fox, the Aparoids, her departure from Star Fox, Panther, her time in Star Wolf. She remembered showing Wolf how to bypass the CDF security and land on Corneria, he assured her everything he was doing was legal. The flood of images continued, the Anglars, Fox pleading with her to return to the team, her answer. The people of Corneria booing her as Star Wolf returned triumphant, the hurt she felt again. She had spent years hiding from Star Wolf and the general public, Wolf didn't take kindly to her just walking out. She lived off the money she had saved from her time as a mercenary with Star Fox and later Star Wolf, but it didn't last forever. That's when Kursed was born, she would be like the public that shunned her, cold, brutal, and without mercy. It flashed forward, to her days on the run, so many nameless faces, strangers wanting to take her home, pirates wanting to kill her.

She hated taking lives, it went against everything she had been taught on Cerinia. Wolf told her it would get easier with time, but it never did. On the ground face to face was the hardest, having to look someone in the eyes at their end, shooting at ships was much less personal. Bounty hunting wasn't about fighting ship to ship, it was hunting an individual down like an animal and killing them, for money. Not for the benefit of the galaxy, not to set right a wrong, just for credits, and it disgusted her. The memories shifted again to her time on the planet Kew, it was a planet tidally locked and in close orbit to a failed star just outside of Lylat. She was tracking a rogue officer of the Venomian army, he had left just before she arrived. It was hot, the winds were brutal, blowing dust and rocks, it was almost impossible to see at times in the dim light on the surface. She remembered seeing Fox again and wondering what he was doing out there. He didn't know who she was, or he didn't want to know it was her. Then it flashed to Issen and his facility. She was on her knees, the cold blaster pressed at the back of her head. In her 3 year career as a bounty hunter she had never come so close to the end. At that moment the one thing she wished for more than anything was a chance to turn in all around, to be whole again. There was a shot, Issen fell, then darkness. She had it.

Krystal woke up and jumped to her feet. She had no idea how long she'd been out. Her clothes were not where she left them, piled in the corner of the bathroom. They were folded neatly on top of a dresser on the other side of the room, clean and pressed. The door was locked, and she knew there was no crew. She tossed her clothes on the floor and waited, a small drone emerged from a panel in the wall and moved over to them, folded them and placed them back on the bed. She chuckled. A laugh, how long had it been? She walked over to the dresser and searched the drawers. Most were empty, but there were a few items leftover from the room's previous occupant. A gray jacket vest with about half a dozen pockets, a pair of dark colored pants, and a lose fitting gray shirt. The pants didn't fit, too long, she cut the legs off short. Not a bad look, she thought, much better than the worn and filthy Cornerian clothing she had worn. Her blaster was on the nightstand next to the bed, repaired and looking brand new. As she looked up she caught herself in the mirror, the purple color gone from her hair, she never liked that color anyway, her blue hair didn't blend well with the dyes. She got dressed, straightened her hair, holstered her blaster, and stepped out of the room.

Krystal walked to the elevator and looked at the panel. Yellow for command she thought. The doors opened on the command deck, the ship's bridge was right ahead. The room was massive with consoles and chairs for at least a dozen people. The ship's log hadn't been updated since the crew abandoned it, they had struck an asteroid trying to evade a pirate attack. The crew was rescued but the ship was too deep in the asteroid field and they couldn't get back to it. At the back of the room was a holographic map of the galaxy, it zoomed in on one small area where the spiraling arms intersected, a series of colored lines connecting hundreds of stars, all with labels she couldn't read. The human systems dwarfed anything she imagined, Lylat was one tiny star, the humans had hundreds. All this expansion, all that power, they could have rolled over Lylat anytime they wanted to but they stayed back and left them alone. Why? She remembered the captain's cabin was on this level too. The human was nowhere to be found, she had an excellent opportunity to find out who he really was.

Down the hall from the bridge was the captain's cabin, the door was unlocked, no one inside. She quietly slipped in and shut the door behind her. It was slightly larger that the room she had and well decorated with pictures of the ship against some of the most stunning formations she had ever seen in space. There was a small couch in front of a large panoramic window that looked out over the back of the ship, large asteroids floated silently past. She hadn't realized the ship was drifting. There was a dresser in one corner, a cluster of small pictures sat on top it. One caught her eye, it was the human dressed in what must have been a formal military uniform, standing next to a tall gray wolf female in a white dress with piercing blue eyes. They were smiling, arms wrapped around each other, her long, dark hair flowed down her back nearly to her tail.

A second picture of the wolf, looking over her shoulder smiling and winking. There was a wide vertical scar on her face running across her left eye, and a v-shaped cut in the tip of her ear. There were other scars just visible through her fur on her arms and around the edges of her dress. A note in the lower corner read in Cornerian, "Your's always, Miri." The picture frame was sitting on top of a small box, Krystal gently moved it and opened the box. Inside was a broken gold necklace, two rings, a data reader, a stack of data discs, and some other pictures of Miri. Krystal took the data reader out of the box, there was a disc already inside. She fumbled with the odd device, it flickered to life and projected an image on the wall. She watched as the recording ran. It was mostly pictures and exchanges between the human and Miri, daily updates and more than a few arguments. She couldn't read the human writing but Krystal did find what she was looking for in the audio. The human's real name was Jack Roberts, he was a prospector for the HSF's deep space mining operations. There was alot of talk about special projects and high risk zones, the information was vague at best, none of it was related to the commando type raid she had first met him on. She shuffled through the discs, knocking one of the rings out of the box. It rolled across the floor and fell over. She walked to it and picked it up, it was slightly scorched and discolored on one side. There was an inscription again in Cornerian, "Always brighter together." As she put it back in the box next to the other ring, it took on a deep shine, almost glowing. The last of the discs was in a case that had been opened many times, it was scratched and worn with corners chipped off. Kursed placed the disc in the reader and began the recording.

"Tragedy in the Alpha system again today," a female voice started. "as pirates from the notorious Black Venom Syndicate struck again. This time a passenger ferry taking workers between Alpha III and the Io orbital station. System security did manage to stop the hijacking but not without losses, the ship's hull was breached in several places and several escape pods that managed to eject had been shot, their occupants killed. The HSF has been powerless to stop the pirates who frequently hit targets in and around the Lylat restriction zone. Their motive appears to be a strong resentment toward human presence in this system. We have obtained a list of passengers and crew on board, if you have any relation to a name on this list, HSF system security my have information or recovered personal belongings for you." The names scrolled on the screen, hundreds of them, some in human text and some in Cornerian, about halfway down was Miri, her last name in human text. Krystal felt sick, looking at the scorched ring in the box. She carefully put the recorder back in the box and placed it atop the dresser with the picture of Miri on top of it's lid, then slipped out the door and back into the elevator.

She stepped into the elevator and took it back down to the hangar deck. A voice crackled over the intercom.

"You're finally awake. Meet me in the hangar bay and we'll talk about your ship."

She took the tram out to the hangar, the ship looked different this time, everything was slightly cleaner and stench in the air was almost gone. It still looked like a wreck on the outside though. The tram ground to a halt and Krystal walked toward her ship. The drones had swarmed it and it was difficult to tell what progress, if any had been made. The human was crouched underneath, looking at one of the lower panels. There was some kind of personal shield protecting him from the hot bits of metal the drones were creating. He stood up and walked toward her, stopped and put his hand on his weapon.

"You plan on trying to use that again?" he asked pointing to her holster.

"Umm...no. I think we moved past that point. I wanted to say I'm sorry." she turned her head down and shuffled her feet. "I wasn't really in the right frame of mind the other day and I may have lashed out at you unnecessarily. You opened an old wound, one that needed to be looked at again. I wouldn't have blamed you if you left me behind or shot me, I earned it."

"No worries." he smiled as he spoke, "I wasn't going to shoot you, not unless you pulled another weapon or attacked me. Put it in the past and let's move on."

"Just like that," she thought. "How could he just shrug it off?"

"I got you out of there, I feel it's my responsibility to get you flying again. Your ship is nearly ready, the drones have made excellent progress in the last 40 hours. The alloys aren't as complex as what they normally deal with on HSF ships, I've had to stop them from upgrading on a couple of occasions. The upgrades would make your ship a better flyer, but the drones would be the only ones able to repair it. They're putting it back as it was, or as close as they can get."

"Thank you, really. I don't know what to say. It's been a long time since someone did something for me without expecting something in return." she looked over the ship, even the paint matched. "I was out for 40 hours?"

"I'm afraid so, probably better that way though, you were a bit on edge. In my line of work, you don't get the chance to help someone very often, and you needed it. Besides, allies are hard to come by out here, everyone's either a pirate or a smuggler or working for one of the two. You seem different now, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I just needed some time to think. I did some soul searching while I was in the room you gave me. What line of work are you in exactly?"

"I'm an agent for the HSF, when they have a problem they can't fix with 800mm railguns they call me. Orion was a nickname the human pirates gave me back in the home systems, some ancient hunter of myth, I guess it scares them. Your target, Dr. Issen got the HSFs attention when he smuggled that toxin out of Lylat and into one of their systems. Though the Beta system is largely undeveloped, we still have civilians here. An uncontrolled bio weapon let lose on a colony is something we do not need right now."

"So you're some kind of a special operative. The HSF? Is that your military?"

"Yes, I am. The Human Systems Federation, or HSF, is a central government for all human star systems, the military is part of it, but there is alot more. Your government granted us rights to settle in a few of the star systems near Lylat, though we can't land or send ships into Lylat itself. I think they're keeping us a secret."

"No doubt, I could imagine the panic if Corneria found out there was an alien presence settled around them after what happened. How long have you been here?"

"The HSF has been here about 10 years, I've been here since they first entered the region. I was on the exploration ship Particle Horizon when we first made contact with the Cornerian government. I've spent a great deal of time working to keep peace in our newly acquired territory. The cover is I'm a prospector for a deep space mining corp, people I know think I'm out scouting barren rocks for weeks on end, but really I'm out trying to stop large scale conflict before it happens. I've spent almost my entire 53 years doing this kind of work all over HSF space, it's all I know."

"53 years?" Krystal looked at him, "You don't look 53 years old. How long do humans live?"

"About 175 years give or take a few." He said, "Over the centuries we started living longer, at the start of the 21st century it wasn't uncommon to see a human living well into their 80s, jump forward almost a millennium later and we've more than doubled that. I'd say a 50 year old human is pretty close to Cornerian in their late 20s, we get into our mid 20s and the aging process just slows down naturally, it doesn't start to show again for almost a century." He ran his hand down the now seamless hull of Krystal's ship.

"This was a Cornerian fighter at one time, I recognize the hull design. When the Aparoids retreated out of our systems I followed them to Lylat as a forward observer. This was one of the ships that was in the squadron that finally drove the Anglars off."

"You watched the battle? You had all this firepower out here in space and you let us get slaughtered by the Aparoids?"

"No, the Cornerian government rejected our offer to send aid, they didn't want us in their system. Same thing after the Anglar War, we sat back and watched. We don't get involved unless we're wanted and we don't force ourselves into occupied systems, it causes too much trouble and our equipment and manpower are stretched too thin as it is. I volunteered to observe and render any aid I could without going in directly. There were alot of ships trying to get to the outskirts of the system, we protected as many as we could, even going so far as to house the ships and their crews in our carriers. When it was all over, every non HSF ship in our territory came to Corneria loaded with supplies. We did all that your government would allow us to do."

"I was in the squadron that defeated the Aparoids, but they took me off the team shortly after." Tears started to well up in Krystal's eyes. "The longer I sat grounded the more I hated them for it. I eventually joined another squadron and took some pretty nasty jobs. I became someone else, someone I didn't really like being. When the Anglars attacked, my old squad came for me, and I pushed them away. We won the battle, but I didn't get the cheers and adoration the rest of my squad had gotten, I let my real friends throw their lives away because I was bitter. I was branded a traitor, so I left. I've been on the run and alone ever since."

"I see." he looked at her, his dark eyes trying to hide his racing mind. "Time heals all wounds, even yours Kursed."

"Krystal. Krystal is my real name. I think Kursed died with Dr. Issen, I hadn't realized it until now."

"You can call me Jack, since we're on real terms now. Whatever is in your past, your true friends will forgive you. Telling someone you made a mistake is the hardest thing to do, it goes a long way though."

"I don't see how, I let them down. Betrayed their trust, I did everything I could to hurt them as deeply as I could, and I did it all deliberately."

He flipped her a large coin, about 4 centimeters in diameter. It had a green gem in the center of one side with a red blinking light and an image of the ship etched in the other.

"Go, find out. The worst they could say is no, unless you'd rather hold on to the hope and never know the truth. If it doesn't work out, give that a click. It will pinpoint the Prospect's location on your ships nav computer, make sure you have that transponder and you're the only one within 50km of the ship or the autocannons will tear you and any other ship near you to shreds. If I can get them working again anyway."

"What is this?" Krystal asked.

"It's what the miners used to mark their finds in a system. Click it once and it pinpoints my ship to yours and vice versa, click it 5 times rapidly and it calls out to my ship, letting me know to come to you. The miners used to send out small ships to scout a system and then mark the best finds to move the mining equipment to. It uses your ship's com system to send the signal so it doesn't work if you're not in your ship at the time."

"I'm not sure I like the idea of being traced." she said.

"It only works if you click it. When you do, you will know where I am and I will know where you are, but I will not come to you unless you call out. You have my word. If you decide you really don't want it, just smash it."

"Thank you again." Krystal said. "I think I'm ready to leave."