Misadventures of the Red Herring 1 - Discordant Beginnings

by fanaic123

Halden's a Hookbeak trying to run away from responsibility, Faira, Thugg, Mok, and Phil are hoping for a better captain. Despite their divergent paths, fate conspires to bring them together. But when they're assigned to an old ship brought back into service, a lack of trust threatens to tear them apart. With danger lurking in the shadows, will they be able to come together in time?

Carranus

On the surface of a forested planet, that looked like a fireball from space. A vessel shaped like a blue bird with a large thruster jutting out the back, stood on the grassy plains.

Overlooking the border of a forest.

The ship's rear was exposed, with an unfolded ramp that led into the ship's cargo hold. Where two Hookbeak's worked on packing up a bunch of medical equipment. Though in reality, only one of them was working. The other one was more of a nuisance.

"For the love of Spode's arms would you knock it off! That is a highly advanced piece of medical equipment not a toy!" exclaimed one of the Hookbeak's, the elder of the two avians dressed in a waist length coat, and pants that hugged his legs and tapered off at the base of his tail.

Reaching over, and swiping away a slip-on mechanical surgical implement from a noticeably younger Hookbeak. Dressed in a dark unzipped overcoat, form fitting pants, and a stitched together cap sitting loosely on his head.

"Medical equipment? Really that?" asked the younger Hookbeak, gesturing to the tool which the annoyed doctor held in his hand. Appearing like a wearable mechanical prosthetic with a host of serrated appendages where a hand would be.

"I thought the cure was supposed to bebetter than the disease, not worse" said the Hookbeak, as the medical officer scowled while putting away the implement in a storage container.

"It can be both, Phil, depends on whose hand it's in".

"And in yours?" Phil asked, as he got his hands occupied with some of the other things that consisted of the ship doctor's equipment. Some kind of fairly large bone drill, requiring two hands to wield.

"Depends on the mood" replied the medical officer, as he put away the surgical implement only to snap his attention towards Phil, and swipe away the bone drill before putting it away.

Phil ended up getting his hands on something more elaborate, medically invaluable, and playing around with it like a 5-year old. Inciting a never-ending series of strife for the doctor, who cursed the captain and his decision to assign Phil as his assistant.

---

Approximately 4 kilometers away, outside the perimeter of a tribal camp overlooking a dense forest of scarlet trees. Was a pair of inconspicuous bushes, with a pair of binoculars sticking out of one of them.

"Thugg, what's the situation?" asked the smaller of the two bushes, as the larger one responded with a viscous layer of annoyance.

"The warriors of the perimeter continue to maintain their position, like they've been doing for the past hour".

Thugg shuffled within the confines of her disguise, shifting amidst a sea of discomfort that'd been brewing for a while.

"So the situation hasn't changed..." mused the one hidden in the smaller bush, as Thugg managed to assume a slightly more comfortable position, inside the paradoxically large yet cramped space.

Thugg uttered a groan, and made her personal sentiments known, without thinking "and it probably won't captain, unless we do something like a distraction".

The being in the smaller bush, Thugg's superior, scoffed at the idea.

"And like I've said before, it'd be too risky. There'd he Drell to pay if we broke the Galactic Code by exposing ourselves to a non-space faring civilization" the captain said, whose words were mouthed mockingly by Thugg as she envisioned the distasteful picture of her captain - a Hookbeak like herself, but of a relatively smaller size, be forced to endure her present brand of misery. Shoved into a tiny box. Sealed, and forgotten.

"Fine, but can I at least find a bigger disguise?"

"What part of 'risky' do you not understand? And besides, you're a rogue, last I checked. You can handle it".

And so, the image of her captain changed from being imprisoned in a cramped space to being tied down to a stretcher, and being pulled apart from the limbs. Matching the searing pain that throbbed across much of her lower body.

---

Within the confines of the shapely blue vessel, a Hookbeak garbed in a zipped up coat, and dark pants that hugged her slender legs while ending at the base of her tail. Sat at a table off in the corner with a truckload of paperwork, each divided into manila folders that the Hookbeak read through with nauseating boredom.

The details of the paper she was reading went largely ignored, having been tuned out by the wants and criticisms that'd been brewing inside her mind. The frustration incited by which was advertised on her face, manifesting as the edges of her short beak scrunched up and her eyes stared fiercely at the paper.

"What are you trying to do? Burn a hole in the file with your eyes?" asked Phil, as he appeared across from the Hookbeak who looked up with a startle.

"Ah Phil!"

Phil leaned back his long, lanky neck in recoil from the exclamation and replied "yeah, that's my name". Before blinking, and asking after swiftly regaining his composure.

"You alright Faira?"

Faira let out a long drawn out sigh, as she let go of the edges of the open folder that sat in front of her, and ran a hand through the long bits of feathery fuzz that jutted off of her scalp, and draped over the sides of her head – like hair.

"No, I am not".

Phil leaned over, and skimmed through the contents of the file that Faira was buried in.

"Didn't realize you were into…interplanetary expense reports?"

Faira groaned, as she pulled her hand out of her hair and then dropped her head on the file.

"Captain Kussak told me to file through our interplanetary expense reports to make sure our end of the year tax filing would be accurate. On top of a long list of other busy work that isn't part of my job description".

"Wait, isn't that the captain's job? All the meandering bureaucratic nonsense?" asked Phil.

"It should be, but now it's mine – apparently".

"Wow, takes an extra special kind of jerk to do that".

Faira blew out a puff of hot air, and said "yes, yes it does". Before blinking, and tilting her head to the side asking "anyway, what are you doing here? Thought the captain assigned you to help Helna with the medical stuff".

"He told me to take a hike, after I accidentally zapped his head with a heart starter".

Faira giggled, and asked "how'd you get it on his head?"

Phil smirked, and replied "I threw it at him, told him to 'think fast' and he was neither fast nor thought".

"Yeah, I can see why he'd tell you to buzz off".

"Hey I'm not complaining, I was more than happy to be kicked to the curb".

Faira uttered a longing sigh at the notion of freedom, when Phil asked "by the way, have you seen Mok? Was gonna see if he'd be up for a game of Road soldier 5, but he wasn't in the engine room".

Faira blinked, and asked "he's not in the engine room, you sure?"

"Think I'd be asking you if he was?"

Faira pursed her beak, and thought back to what everyone's assigned tasks were.

"He should be though, he's supposed to be running some all-important diagnostics and then wait for additional orders".

"Well he isn't, so I'm gonna go look for him – wanna come?" asked Phil, as Faira perked up at the idea before slumping.

"I don't know if that's a good idea, I don't want to get yelled at for 'abandoning my post' or worse…" said Faira, putting air quotes on 'abandoning my post'.

"…getting a poor score on my performance report" whispered Faira loudly, as an expression of dread flashed onto her face.

Phil was about to leave Faira be, and head off to look for Mok since he'd already disregarded the captain's authority. But the look she gave right as he was about to compelled him to try and push her to tag along.

"Faira, this is Mok we're talking about. Is it ever a good thing when he's not in the engine room? Or MIA?"

Faira blinked, and let that question be thoroughly taken apart and brewed into a warm mug of starting realization in her mind.

"Alright, let's go" she said, as she got up and relented to Phil's request. Who smirked, as Faira flashed him a relieved smile while moving around the table and booth chair she'd been slaving over for the past hour.

---

Having searched every part of the ship for their missing colleague. The duo of Phil, and Faira found themselves outside the last place they've yet to search. The washroom. The door's occupancy indicator light was broken, and had been broken for as long as anyone could remember – meaning that Faira had to give it a couple knocks and ask politely "Mok, you in there?" And after that failed, Faira turned to Phil and said.

"Alright bud, you're up".

Phil blinked, and asked "why me?"

Faira looked at Phil bemused.

"What'd you mean 'why you'? You're a male!"

"So? You think I want the image of whatever it is Mok's doing in there burned into my mind?" asked Phil casually, as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at his compatriot.

"And you think I want to?!" exclaimed Faira, before stopping herself from getting anymore worked up and rubbing her hair-like derivative.

"Either way, you're male so it'd be less of a shock for you".

"What, never had any brothers you had to take care of?"

"Nope, am an only child".

Phil scoffed, and replied "talk about lucky".

"You had siblings?"

Phil uttered a meager groan as his response, then added "a whopping five brothers".

Faira whistled, and said with a bit of shock "wow, that's a pretty big family".

Phil summoned a sarcastic chuckle, and said "you don't know the half of it".

Turning to face the door, Phil pushed the button to open it as Faira stepped out of the way of the doorway. Shielding her eyes from whatever sight that might've awaited her.

"Is he in there?"

"Nope, it's empty".

Faira glanced at the edge of the opened doorway, the parallel wall of which she put her back against.

"You're not messing with me right?"

"Like I'd risk getting an HR complaint filed against me just to prank you".

"Point taken" replied Faira, as she stepped into the washroom intrepidly and sure enough it was empty just like Phil said.

"Well now what? We've looked all over the ship, and there's no sign of him" said Faira, as she walked around the washroom. The talons of her feet clacking against the tiled floor, as she checked the inside of the standing shower, and briefly caught her reflection in the mirror over the sink.

"You don't think he left the ship, do you?" asked Phil, as he stepped out and scanned the hallway.

"Doubt it, his aversion to the outdoors is rivalled only by his obsession with cheese balls" replied Faira, as she walked out of the washroom and shuddered at the image of the aforementioned cheeseballs. Which were green unappetizing balls, with blue chunks and an army of tiny pores.

"Yeah, he sure loves his cheese balls" affirmed Phil, as he remembered all the times he caught Mok stuffing his mouth with cheese balls in the past.

When an idea popped into his head on how they'd discern Mok's whereabouts.

"Faira, I think I know how to find Mok".

Faira looked quizzically at Phil, who simply grinned in response.

---

Two hours had come, and gone as Thugg reached a palpable boiling point. Her arms and legs screaming for some kind of release, one that the captain was unwilling to provide.

The guards covering the perimeter showed no signs of breaking formation, at least no time sooner than before Thugg's legs would fall off. And something had to give, and in no time flat something did.

Fueled by a deep frustration, Thugg pulled out the weapon that was strapped onto her back. A two handed cannon, which she used to fire a metal slug at a distant tree. An action which yanked the captain out of his useless thoughts, and over to his subordinate.

"Thugg what the Drell are you-" was all the captain was able to say, before Thugg leapt into action the second there was an opening - when some of the tribal warriors went to investigate the noise.

She moved without giving up her disguise, dashing into the camp and into one of the buildings. A place that was guarded by 2 warriors, who failed to act out of a deeply paralyzing confusion.

The same went for the healers inside, as they saw a bush burst into their den of sickness and spit out a metal can. Which exploded upon hitting the ground, releasing a green mist that consumed everything inside.

The guards outside stepped back a little from the hut's front entrance, through the gaps of which seeped out a couple green tendrils. One guard wanted to rush in, while the other didn't - and amidst their brief indecisiveness, Thugg made her escape. Darting out of the hut, and settlement altogether with 6 warriors around the perimeter giving chase.

"Damn you Thugg!" exclaimed the captain, as he joined Thugg in running like the dickens.

"Do you have any idea what you just jeopardized?! The monthly performance review is just around the corner, and..." began the captain, as he poked his head out to yell at Thugg. Who in turn stuck her head out, and dwarfed her captain in size.

Feeling the wind in her face, and the muscular displeasure get swept away now that the bush only covered her waist - with her tail exposed. It felt refreshing, even if it was accompanied by the grating voice of her angry captain.

---

"I'm not doing that" said Faira flatly, as she stared at Phil who held 2 bags of cheese balls in each hand.

"Come on man, its fool proof!" Phil replied, as the two of them stood in the hallway that connected the crew quarters together.

"How is shaking 2 bags of cheese balls around, and declaring loudly that you're gonna eat them, gonna draw out Mok?!"

Faira tilted her head, and asked in addition "and why do you have 2 bags of cheese balls in your room?"

Phil grinned, and replied "well I'm glad you asked my dear Faira".

"About why you keep cheese balls in your room, and not the fridge in the common area?"

"Not that, the thing before that".

Faira nodded, as Phil continued saying "anyway, it's common knowledge that Hookbeak's have excellent hearing, right?"

Faira nodded, as Phil continued.

"So, it stands to reason that if we broadcast that there's cheese balls, and it's in short supply - he'll come running".

Faira's skepticism undeterred, she crossed her arms over her chest and said "that'd only work if he's undeniably obsessed, which I doubt he is".

Phil frowned a little, and rightfully asked "well you got a better idea?"

Faira took in a deep breath, and sighed saying "fair enough. Give me a bag".

Phil grinned, as he handed his fellow shipmate a bag of cheese balls. Who begrudgingly accepted the bag, before they got to work enacting their plan.

For the next couple of minutes, Faira and Phil retraced their steps throughout the halls of the craft. Shaking their bags of cheese balls like musical instruments, and shouting to the high heavens on their diminishing supply. Phil got a bit too into it, doling out increasingly elaborate lies more fanciful than the last. Really putting his spine into the role.

Faira was far less enthusiastic, leaving Phil in the hallway outside the crew quarters to go searching in an adjacent hallway, passing by the Weapons Room and reaching the hall's end with a fairly bland demeanor.

"There not gonna last forever Mok, I'll eat every last one of Phil's cheese balls, from his secret personal stash that he apparently has" said Faira, with very little conviction behind her voice.

Still carrying the doubt she had towards this plan of Phil's, when a voice came from the ceiling to dispel that notion.

"One sec" the familiar sound said, before one of the ceiling panel's shifted out to reveal the empty space where all the wiring lived, and out of which dropped down a green feathered Hookbeak. Notably smaller than Faira, and draped in a patchwork cloak that covered everything below the neck.

Faira blinked, as she stared at Mok with a surprised expression. Surprised that Phil's plan worked, and surprised that Mok was in the ceiling of all places. While her mind finished processing all of that, Mok wasted no time swiping Faira's bag of cheese balls from her, and ripping it open.

That got Faira's attention, and Mok offered a cheese ball in response which she declined.

"Eh, suit yourself" said Mok, as he tossed the cheese ball into his gullet.

Snapping to her senses amidst the backdrop of a cheese ball being crunched to bits. Faira asked "Mok, what were you doing in the...ceiling?"

"Doing some repairs" Mok replied nonchalantly, as Faira looked at him with a mix of confusion and intrigue.

When Faira's wrist-bound radio buzzed to life, and from the other side called Phil saying "yo Faira, any luck finding Mok?"

Faira brought the wrist radio over to her beak, and pushed a button on it before saying "yeah I found him, he was in the ceiling, apparently".

"Wha-the ceiling? What the Drell was he doing in the ceiling?"

"Doing repairs" Faira answered flatly, as Mok indulged himself with his cheesy goodness.

Phil from where he was leaned his head back a bit in surprise, and understandably asked "what kind of repairs?"

"That's what I want to know" said Faira in agreement with Phil, as she turned her attention over to Mok who crunched down some bits of a cheese ball.

Lowering her wrist-radio, Faira asked "Mok, what kind of repairs were you doing?"

Mok looked up at Faira, a cheese ball in hand, and said "wiring mostly".

The ridge of one of Faira's brow-less eyes quirked up, as she pressed "wiring?"

Mok nodded, and replied "yup, the wiring connecting the data-cables from some of the ship's subsystems".

Faira blinked, and asked "seriously?"

Mok nodded, and said "yup. From the looks of the damage, I'd say it all happened the second we touched down".

"Faira, where are you?" asked Phil from his end, to which Faira answered "in hallway 2". Before turning her attention onto Mok, and asking "so you think the damage might've happened when we landed".

Mok nodded, and replied "absolutely".

Faira frowned slightly, as a familiar realization dawned on her. One that served to make her more frustrated than anything else.

"I knew it" Faira hissed, as Phil came walking up from behind. Catching an earful of Faira's aggravation.

"Knew what?"

"That I shouldn't have gone manual".

Phil blinked, as he moved beside Faira and looked at her quizzically.

"You landed the ship manually?"

Faira nodded begrudgingly, as Phil said "huh, y'know that explains a lot. We don't usually have rough landings, I wasn't going to say anything mind you".

Faira worked a cynical smile, and cast a sarcastic gaze onto Phil. Who returned a smirk of his own, as Faira returned her attention back to Mok.

"Okay so, what kind of wires were banged up?"

"Nothing major, just some bundles connected to the cargo hold".

"See? Nothing major…wait, the cargo hold?" asked Phil, with a hint of concern while Faira breathed out a sigh of relief. Prompting Phil to look at her with a confused expression.

To which Faira could only respond with a dismissive shrug.

"Its fine dude, like I said it's nothing major" said Mok aloofly, when a notification came up on his wrist radio. An automated voice that monotonously broadcast "ENGINE DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE".

"Gotta go, diagnostics are done" said Mok, as he headed down the hall and out of sight with Phil going after him saying "hey wait, what about the cargo hold?!"

All while Faira rolled her eyes, before uttering a sigh after making the sobering realization that with Mok found. The moment's exciting distraction was gone, leaving nothing to logically stop Faira from returning to the tedium from before.

---

Thugg, and her captain ran for a very long time. Both disproportionally tired with the captain having reached an exhausting level of physical wear, while Thugg was still raring to go. But with a single unintentional misstep on the captain's part, the two went tumbling down together like a pair of surprised dominoes.

With no time to get up, and resume their retreat. They retreated into their bushes, assuming their failing façade right as the warriors approached. Stone axes drawn, as they encircled the two bushes. Curious, cautious, and gripped with an adrenaline-derivative coursing through their veins.

They maintained a safe distance between them, and the bushes. Producing indecipherable vocalizations that sounded like rattles, and chirps to one another. Crowd sourcing their next source of action, as Thugg shrank into the bush, tucking her head between her legs while her tail wrapped around to further minimize her size.

"What are we gonna do?" she hissed out quietly to the captain.

"We're um…we're gonna…we're gonna…stay put! That's it, that's what we're gonna do".

"Are you crazy? They're gonna kill us!" was what Thugg wanted to say, but instead of generating a subdued outburst for her captain's ears only. She restrained herself, and simply said with an irritatingly stern voice "sir, with all due respect I think that is unwise".

"If we move, weapons officer, then we'll break the Galactic Code and there'll be Drell to pay" the captain hissed back, as the warriors moved side to side with their weapons at the ready.

Thugg grumbled, and the captain added "and no weapons free either". Shooting down the only other option that remained for the weapons officer.

'Curse this captain, and the upcoming performance review!' Thugg thought, as the score she held briefly flashed onto her mind and she rued both the captain and the performance review.

Which was a poor, and hopeless sight. As hopeless as the current situation appeared to be at first, but in the following seconds was about to get a whole lot worse.

The warriors began to make their move towards the bush, having made up their mind on what to do. Thugg saw as much from the gaps in the leaves, and braced herself for a fight. Waiting with bated breath as the tribal soldiers got closer, and closer with their axes primed for a savage series of swings when the most curious thing happened.

The ground started to shake.

At first it was a single tremor, catching Thugg's attention and snapping the captain out of his hopeless detached praying. The warrior's paid it no mind, but after the second, and the third.

Everyone was on red alert.

The warriors looked around, their axes still readied to strike as the ground continued to rumble. Threatening to split open any moment, as the captain muttered fearfully "oh Spode there's an earthquake". Convinced that this was going to be his death bed.

Thugg rolled her eyes at her captain's frightened proclamation, but kept her ears trained because as far as she could tell. It sounded like the vibrations were…

…getting closer?

The deeply confused tribal warriors looked around for the source, as Thugg poked her head out from the bush to do the same. When in the distance, both Thugg and one of the warriors saw the origin of the rising tremors.

The sight of which filled Thugg with dread, as well as the warriors who vocalized their fear by screaming at the top of their lungs. Gaining the attention of Thugg's captain, who popped his head out of his bush and saw the image that warranted the screaming.

A mountain of flesh larger than buildings, with the size to bulldoze entire cities without much thought. Skin covered in foliage, with a ginormous flower adorned on its back. The monster lumbered forward with four muscular insectoid legs, segmented and sturdy. It saw the commotion of the tribal warriors, and was lured in with a fleeting curiosity.

One that turned into a destructive desire, and opportunity that pushed the titan towards the comparatively tiny critters.

"IT'S AN EPIC!" shouted the captain with his heart nearly jumping out of his throat.

"WE GOTTA MAKE A RUN FOR IT!" he exclaimed, as he abandoned his disguise with abandon with Thugg joining him but not before making one last remark.

"But what about the Galactic Code?"

Thugg's captain shot a quick glare saying "screw that – it's every Hookbeak for themselves!"

Before he and Thugg ran for the hills. The tribal warriors choosing to do the same, breaking formation and going in whatever direction they could fathom.

Thugg rolled her eyes, as he broke into a sprint. The fear of the Epic not that far behind them pushed back into her mind, more out of instinct than anything else.

"Thugg contact the ship and tell them to be ready for immediate take off!" the captain demanded, as Thugg followed suit. Not wasting a second to push on his decision to delegate during a crisis.

"Faira, this is Thugg. Get the ship ready for immediate take off over".

"Sure, but what's the rush?"

"We're being chased by an Epic!"

Faira had to do a double take at her wrist mounted radio, as her avian brain processed what the weapons officer had just said.

"An Epic?!" Faira asked, speaking into the radio.

"Yes an Epic now hurry!"

"Aw Drell" muttered Faira, as she replied "copy that, prepping for immediate take off".

---

The captain was already worn out before, back when a gaggle of tribal warriors who didn't know any better was their only problem. And not long after they began to run for dear life, the captain's legs basically stopped functioning – making carrying him Thugg's responsibility.

It wouldn't have been that bad, were it not for the captain acting like a backseat runner.

"Hurry, hurry! Peddle to the meddle Thugg! He's gaining on us, faster! Faster!" the captain bemoaned, as he saw the Epic charging towards them. The vibrations of its footsteps making it difficult to maintain speed, yet Thugg managed to persist.

'Why don't you…stop…yapping, and let me…run!' thought Thugg, as she suppressed her burning rage alongside her personal reservations of the captain, in lieu of keeping her pace and not slowing down.

The Epic behind her roared, it's large 15 foot mandibles expanding and generating a wave of sound so powerful, so fierce, it could be heard by the crew aboard the only ship within running distance.

"Oh Drell, that must've been the Epic" worried Phil, who was in the cargo hold helping the doctor finish up his packing.

"Then stop gawking and help me finish packing" demanded Helna, as he scrambled to put stuff away into one of the large metal containers.

"Maybe you shouldn't have kicked me out then huh?!"

"Oh shut up" said Helna, as he lightly glared at Phil before a secondary roar sent a jolt of fear through both of them. Motivating them to work faster, as Faira hopped into the pilot's seat.

Slipping her long slender tail through the hole in the chair's back, and her legs into the necessary grooves at the chair's base. Faira puts her hands on the controls, and flips several switches which powers the console on. The glass in front lighting up with a holographic AR display, showing everything she needs to know about the ship.

"Mok, how are we doing with the engines?" Faira asked, patching a line to the engine room at the push of a button.

"Engines are functioning at peak efficiency" Mok said from his end, as Faira patched a line to Phil asking "are you and Helna out of the cargo hold yet?"

"Almost, just got one last thing to pack up – some stupid folding sequencer".

"It's called a nano-expandable genetic sequencer and it's not stupid!" Helna disagreed in the background on Phil's end. Which Faira took to mean that the cargo hold was still occupied, as she patched a line to Thugg and asked "how close are you and the captain to the ship?"

"I see it…in the distance…not long" Thugg replied from her end in-between breaths. From the sounds of it, she was struggling and given the prior roars there wasn't much left to the imagination as to why.

Patching one more line to Phil, Faira said "give me a heads up when Thugg and the captain get in".

"You got it".

Faira got the engines up, and running. The energetic hum of which filled the engine room, and replaced the ambient noise of nature, and the looming monster that was headed for them.

The brakes held firm, keeping the ship from flying off into the sky, while the engine turned hot. Waiting any moment to fire off a stream of smokeless flame to blast off into the vacuous depths of space.

Time seemed to move unbearable slowly as Faira waited with bated breath, and anticipation. Gripping the throttle with her right hand, as her muscles lay relaxed but filled with trepidation. Wired, and ready to pounce any second.

'Come on…come on…' thought Faira, as she felt the weight of times excruciating march bear down on her mind. When at last her arm muscles were relieved of their mounting tension, the second Phil gave her the go ahead.

"They're here Faira, and SO IS THE EPIC!"

Not a millisecond to spare, Faira yanked back on the throttle and released the brakes. Letting the blue ship dart off into the sky, as if launched out of the barrel of a railgun.

The titanic quadruped having reached the spot where the ship used to be, as it hurled quickly into the air with the landing gear being quickly retracted. The denizens of the cargo hold saw the monster shrink below them, as it roared loudly while Thugg slumped back against a large container with the captain lying on the ground. Having been dropped unceremoniously on the ground, as Phil and Helna unconsciously wrapped their arms around one another the moment the sight of the giant came into their periphery and they bare witnessed its heart stopping roar.

Quickly the space in the cargo hold got very windy, as Thugg looked at Phil and furrowed a brow as he and Helna realized what they were doing and broke it off immediately. As the winds picked up, and the captain managed to get up before being pushed up against a large container.

"Now if you two are done sharing an emotional moment, think we should get out of here? And close the cargo hold while you're at it?" the captain asked, and ordered at the same time.

Phil nodding, before beginning to make his way over to the door which opened at his presence. Helna following close behind, with Thugg and the captain getting their bearings and onto their feet to leave the cargo hold behind.

When something large, and unexpected which narrowly made contact with the ship. Sweeping everyone in the cargo hold off their feet.

"What the Drell!" exclaimed Phil, as he luckily fell forward through the open doorway and into the hallway outside the cargo hold, landing face first onto the cold metal ground.

"CLOSE THE CARGO HOLD PHIL!" shouted the captain, as Phil scrambled onto his feet and saw just how bad the situation was in the cargo hold. Thugg was holding onto both the captain, and Helna. Using both her arms, while her tail hooked around the edge of the doorway.

Holding firm despite the turbulent winds that threatened to suck Thugg, Helna, and the captain out into the mid-atmosphere that rapidly thinned away.

"THAT WOULD BE NICE!" shouted Helna, as Phil scrambled onto his feet in spite of the pervading winds and put his hands on the cargo hold controls. A panel mounted onto the wall beside the open doorway, which consisted of an advanced touch display.

But no matter how many times Phil pushed the appropriate buttons, he could not get the ramp to close.

"I'M TRYING BUT ITS NOT WORKING!"

"WELL TRY HARDER!" shouted the captain, as the strain that was put on Thugg's arms strengthened rapidly. The load bearing on her torso threatening to rip her in half, thanks to the immense pressure that was pulling her out into the white misty yonder.

"Faira I need you to stop your ascension!" demanded Phil, after patching a line through his wrist-bound, bulky radio to the pilot.

"Why what's".

"CAN'T EXPLAIN JUST DO IT!"

Faira didn't waste any time abandoning their meteoric rise, bringing the ship to a dead halt in the upper atmosphere of the planet. The sudden stop breaking the tension in Thugg's muscles, and in an unfortunate turn of events. Breaking her grip on both the captain, and the ship doctor.

The recoil that pulsed throughout the ship from the dead stop, rippled throughout Thugg like a wave, and ended with her hands undesirably being forced open.

"Noooooooo…" screamed the captain, as he went flying out alongside Helna. The two slamming into each other, as they escaped out the rear opening and into the frigid sky outside. Their bodies hitting the ramp on the way out, before scattering amongst the translucent atmosphere. Descending rapidly towards the planet, and burning up in seconds.

Thugg would've joined them were it not for Phil, who leapt out and grabbed onto Thugg's tail before it lost its grip of the doorway. Thugg felt Phil grab tightly onto her tail, and use his body like a Hookbeak anchor. Slamming hard against the metal wall adjacent to the doorway, before securing Thugg's tail with two hands.

"I got you, I got you" Phil said, as he felt his arm muscles quickly stretch to their upper limit.

"I got you…" Phil wheezed, as his voice went high pitched. Anymore, and Phil might've lost his arms but thankfully Thugg was able to use her freed hands to secure her grip on the doorways edge, and pull herself out of the cargo hold.

Removing the strenuous burden of support off of Phil's shoulders, as Thugg slumped back against the metal wall of the hallway. Slumping down onto her rear, with her tail out of the way and lying slack against the ground.

On the other side of the doorway, across from Thugg was Phil who mirrored her state of exhaustion. An adrenaline-derivative coursing through both their veins, as the entrance to the cargo hold sealed up tight.

In the somber, calming silence that followed. Phil, and Thugg were at last allowed a break from all the excitement. The quietness quickly became deafening when Phil's radio cackled to life with Faira patched in from the cockpit.

"Phil what the Drell happened back there?"

Phil tossed his head back, his cap which miraculously managed stay on against all odds, shifted slightly to cover his eyes.

"I…think we're gonna need a new captain…" Phil responded bleakly, before uttering a dry cackle that spiraled into a full on laugh. Which from Faira's point of view, made her lapse back in her chair out of migraine inducing frustration.

Unsurprised at the vocalized outcome.

"Dear Spode…" Faira muttered, as she leaned back in her pilot's chair. Arching her neck back, and letting her fuzzy hair dangle to gravity's whim.

The laughter continued, taking up the background noise while Faira tried to rub away the aggravation that began to build up inside her frontal lobe.

"Oh, and a new doctor too…"

Those were the final words Phil uttered, before the radio cut with him signing off saying "…Phil out" as Faira let out an irritated sigh.

---

Talion

One Week Later…

Upon a planet defined by its lifeless rocky landscape, and within the deepest depths of a colony. A duo of spurious lovers barged into an unlit apartment room, their mouths locked in a deeply passionate dance of tongues as the apartment came to life when the motion sensors were triggered.

Revealing a lavishly furnished abode, and the two that had entered it. A Grannox female draped in a sleek black dress, and a Hookbeak in a scrappy unzipped red jacket, and black slimming pants. They continued to kiss, not minding the lights, the Grannox keeping her reptilian head firmly pressed against the Hookbeak's open curved beak, while he wrapped his arms around her long neck, as their tails wagged fervently.

They backed up into the living room, as the door slid closed and the female broke off before backing up a bit. Stretching her legs, as she scanned the Hookbeak up and down with lust filling her two eyes.

The Hookbeak glanced around, taking note of the expensive look and feel the apartment had. From the artistic chandelier that hovered in the air, to the set of decorative statues placed at the doorway to the bedroom, and at some corner. Fashioned out of stone, and carved with an authentic artistic integrity that only the wealthiest could've hoped to afford.

"Whoa, Welana you weren't kidding about your place" said the Hookbeak, as the arm-less quadruped moved closer and beside the Hookbeak. Brushing up her head next to the scruffy haired avian, who scanned all the enumerable valuable appliances, and decorations that adorned every wall. Like the jewels of an elaborately crafted crown.

"Well if you like that…" Welana began, as she leaned in close and whispered seductively "…then you're gonna love the bedroom".

She pulled back, and looked at with a devilish grin before turning around and sauntering playfully over to the doorway that led into her bedroom. Moving her tail side to side, alongside her hips like an anglerfish trying to lure in its prey.

Halden smirked, as he swiftly opened the locket that hung around his neck. Out of which he plucked a circular pill, which he quickly put in his mouth, before moving to close the locket.

When he found himself caught looking at the picture inside. A circular portrait of him when he was younger, and bug eyed with two older Hookbeak's beside him. A male, and a female. Both black feathered like him, with the only thing of note being the badge adorned on the elder male's chest.

While grasping the pill with his tongue, concealing it under the muscular appendage, Halden felt a pang of hesitation stop him. As he looked at the two older Hookbeak's with a somber slightly disgruntled expression.

"Halden…" called out Welana, before poking her head out of the doorway and giving him a deliciously wicked smile. Showcasing her many rows of conical teeth in the process.

The hesitation vanished, pushed away by firm resolution as he closed the locket and secretly moved the pill under his tongue. Before making his way over to the expectant reptilian, and planting a kiss upon her scaly lips.

Becoming the catalyst for an intense night of passion, where the two nearly tore off their clothes and went at it without restraint. Going non-stop for a solid hour, throughout which Halden managed to snake the pill hidden in his mouth, into Welana's. And after a roaring climax, both literal and figurative. Welana lapsed into a deep sleep, as the effects of the pill kicked in.

Soon the bedroom was filled with a loud snoring, as Welana slept soundly with her head curled nuzzled next to Halden's, their clothes somewhere in the room and shrouded mostly in darkness, save for the glimmer of light that slightly bled in from the living room.

Halden touched the locket hung around his neck, making sure for the 4th time in the past couple of minutes that it didn't get lost in the moment.

'Thank Spode it's still there…' Halden thought, as he gripped the pendant while catching his breath.

His legs felt sore, and so did his arms. The experience having caught him off guard. It took a bit before Halden felt comfortable moving, and the second that chance arrived. He first moved his tail, taking great caution to ensure that Welana was asleep by poking her a handful of times.

Each time she was unbothered, as Halden smirked and thought 'good, now just sleep it off'. Before carefully, and cautiously getting out of bed. Slowly, and surely he managed to with a great degree of difficulty leave the scaly lover all by her lonesome self.

The stiffness in his muscles still ringing from all the thrusting, as Halden craned his neck thinking 'it'll all be worth it, once I make off with all she's got'.

The darkness proved to be a worthy adversary for Halden's poor eyesight, almost as worthy as having intercourse with a Grannox was for his muscles. But with experience guiding him, he managed to discretely figure out where his clothes had gotten to during the somewhat violent coitus, as well as the dresser where the single promiscuous maiden kept her valuables.

Unlocked, and in easy to get to places – a compounding signifier to all the signs that had up until now painted Welana as an easy mark.

'Thank you, for covering my bar tab for the next month' Halden thought, as he scooped up all the jewels he felt inside the drawers and shoved them into his deep pockets. Before making his way towards the light.

Taking each step with slow deliberation, feeling out the ground to ensure that he wouldn't alert the sleeping Grannox anytime soon. And with each passing second, the light of the living room got closer and closer. The end of his mission was almost in sight, alongside the thought of drinking the remaining nights away at whatever place he fancied.

Were it not for the hands of destiny that conspired against him.

It shouldn't have been possible to have not felt a rubber stress ball lying around, especially given how slowly Halden walked, and yet he didn't. Worse still, the noise it made surprised Halden and fall backwards onto the ground. All while the ball went flying, having been kicked into the air when Halden fell, and bounced against the wall before striking an airborne chandelier.

One which hovered over the sleeping Grannox.

By the time Halden got up, onto his feet, he heard the sound of a loud object crashing to the ground behind him. Followed by the yelp of a Grannox, before a floor lamp turned on. Revealing much of the bedroom, including Halden, and Welana.

Halden snapped back out of morbid curiosity, and came face to face with the Grannox. She shook her head, with a crystalline chandelier next to her, with a sea of crystalline shards all around.

"What the Spode…" Welana muttered, as she noticed Halden fully clothed and staring back at her. Frozen in the moment thinking 'Drell…'

The reptilian blinked, confused from both her newfound headache and Halden's sudden departure. Which quickly turned to anger, the second she saw the trail of jewelry that Halden left behind.

Her jewelry, that is.

Welana began to snarl, as Halden gulped thinking 'jig is up' before turning around to run with his tail in-between his legs. But the Grannox was faster, she grabbed what's left of her chandelier, and chucked it at Halden. Striking him square in the head, and sending him tumbling out the doorway, and lying face first on the ground.

The world turning into a blurry mess, before going black.

By the time he woke up, the scenery changed to the back of a cop car. A bulky machine, with tank threads for wheels that ferried the still dazed Halden in cuffs to a nearby precinct. During which one of the officers, a fellow Hookbeak, saw that Halden was conscious and began reading him his rights.

He had a headache from taking an oblong crystal-made chandelier to the back of the head, and it only got worse when the Hookbeak officer read him his rights.

'It's like being drunk but without the alcohol or fun' thought Halden, as he rubbed his head and hung it low. Barely able to think straight, as he was shuffled out of the land vehicle and into the precinct. The shadow of eternal night bathing him in the stellar blanket above, as he went through the motions of getting processed by the law.

Running through it all by muscle memory, up until the moment he was offered a phone call which he always took.

Having dialed the number on the touch-screen interface, Halden stood in front of the phone-box's camera. Doing his best to stand up straight, given the circumstances.

The uniform behind him, a stocky and bulky Hookbeak who oozed with confidence, a cocky grin adorned on his face. He'd been down this road before with a dozen other perps in the past, and knows by heart how most phone calls go.

And given the nature of his perp, he figured he had to be calling some equally scruffy, and downright shady figure. Not a well-dressed, orderly Hookbeak who gave himself away as a high ranking general, from the ornate badge adorned upon his chest. Large, and bright enough to be seen from where the cop was standing.

"Hey Kylden…" began Halden with a sheepish smile, as Kylden started with.

"Oh, Halden. What a nice surprise, you know I was just…"

Kylden blinked, as he tilted his head while seated at his desk. A wooden fixture that was as organized as the room it was in.

It took a second for it to sink in that Halden was in a police station, and when it did. Kylden hung his head, and ran a hand over his beak.

"7 days Halden, it'd been 7 days since you last got arrested" Kylden began, as he raised his head and locked eyes with his old friend.

"And for a week, a whole week you have me hope that that would be the last…"

"Look man, I'm sorry but I uh…I was late on my repayments and so I…"

"No, stop. I don't want to know".

Halden zipped up his beak, disappointment hanging on his heart but it was not enough to outweigh the desperation he possessed.

Kylden sighed, as he leaned back in his chair while thinking 'what the Drell am I going to do with this guy…'

From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a framed picture propped up on the left-hand side of his desk. Depicting Kylden, and Halden together with the latter having thrown an arm around the former. The two of them young, and full of smiles. Dressed in rookie blue uniforms, and brimming with possibility.

The image echoed a distant longing in Kylden's heart, as his eyes fell upon the document that sat in front of him. One he'd been drafting up for a new ship that was in-need of a captain, when an idea sparked into his mind.

"Kylden?" Halden asked, as the officer standing behind him informed "your time's almost up".

"Kylden!" Halden exclaimed, as Kylden blinked and left the confines of his mindscape at Halden's voice.

"Oh right, okay so…"

"Are you gonna bail me out or not?"

"I will…" started Kylden with Halden blinking in slight surprise – having expected some amount of pushback. And then he raised one of his two fingers, and said "…but on one condition".

'There it is' thought Halden unsurprisingly.

"There's this ship, new crew, new everything, but it's got no captain".

Halden knew where Kylden was going with this, and quickly but in without hesitation "no way, absolutely not. I'm not captaining any ship!"

Kylden sighed, and said "Halden…"

"I'll do anything else but that – how about a pilot? Does the ship need a pilot? I can be a pilot".

"They already have a pilot".

Halden was about to open his beak for a myriad of other possibilities, but Kylden shot them all down swiftly.

"And a weapons officer, and engineer, and science officer. And I would never trust you with a fork, much less a scalpel so medical officer's out of the question".

Halden sighed, and looked down more than a little frustrated at the situation he'd found himself in.

"So, you in or not?"

Halden mulled over the offer, while looking back at Kylden and seeing the pain in his eyes. Pain that was followed by a shadow of optimism.

"Alright, time's up" said the officer, more than happy to move forward and cut Halden off with a meager smugness which pushed Halden to blurt out an answer.

The obvious answer, "yeah, fine I'll do it!"

Kylden smiled softly, and replied "great, I'll send Talion's Chief of Police a heads up, and an escort to pick you up".

And just like that the call came to an end, with Kylden's image vanishing off the screen. Leaving Halden with a sour feeling in his stomach, and the officer an annoyed wretch. Getting more annoyed when he got a call not even a second after straight from his captain, that Talion's Chief of Police has issued a notice for Halden's release.

Whoever that maybe.

'How the Drell did this low life wind up being so well connected…' thought the officer angrily, as he begrudgingly removed Halden's cuffs and let him go.

---

Thumas

Revolving around a singular yellow star were a trio of planets, and only one of them held the right conditions for life to thrive. That planet was a vast blue marble filled with an endless ocean, with only one continent to speak of.

A continent that was a mat of dense jungles, bumpy terrain, and a dormant volcano. Which long ago was active, and threatened the feeble critters with its unpredictable wrath. But now a days, after the Hookbeak's managed to colonize every inch of it, that fear was long gone.

In the cradle of shadows cast by buildings standing in the path of a full moon, Faira slinked through the abyssal pools. Covered up in a magenta shirt, unzipped hoodie, and shorts that hugged her legs. She moved with a palpable exhaustion permeating every fiber of her being, one which stemmed from all the questioning and paperwork that she had to sit through in the days prior.

All throughout the morning, she couldn't bring herself to get out of bed. Pulled in by an excruciating weight of inhibition that was only moved when Phil invited her out for drinks alongside Thugg, and Mok.

So here she was, making her way towards the front of a bar that she'd visited many times in the past. A popular joint for all the students, alumni, and faculty of the Interstellar Aerospace Academy that the city she was in, was known for.

"Hookbeak's of a Feather" Faira read out, putting on a wry smile at the name before heading inside.

The scent of alcohol assaulted her nose, the effect of which had almost numbed from all the other times she'd been in here. Alongside the smell of booze, there was also the discordant symphony of chatter that barreled into her eardrums.

A thousand conversations all merging into one.

At a corner table Faira spotted Phil, sporting some combination of an overcoat, shirt, and pants with the same cap he wore every time adorned on his scalp.

"Hey" Phil introduced, as he waved with one hand while gripping a glass of beer with the other.

Faira responded with a nod, and glanced over at the drink while sitting down.

"Not wasting anytime eh?"

"You know I have no patience when it comes to beer" Phil replied, as he lifted his glass and chugged some of it down.

"Fair enough" the pilot said, as she made herself comfortable. Slipping her tail through the gap in the chair's back, as she sat down.

"Where's Thugg and Mok?" Faira asked, though she already had a feeling as to what the answer was.

"They couldn't make it. Thugg said she was gonna hit the gym, and Mok…well…he didn't actually answer so I just assumed he was gonna blow us off for some personal tinkering".

'Sounds like Mok alright' Faira thought, while finding Thugg's answer a little strange. But she didn't dwell on that for long, as the waitress walked by and Faira signaled to get her attention.

"How may I help you?" the Hookbeak waitress asked.

"I'll have a Shutzpah Bourbon with an espresso shot" Faira ordered, as the waitress nodded before asking "that's all?"

"That's all", and the waitress was gone.

In the background of audible chaos, Phil asked "so…did you get the ceremonial robes for the funeral?"

Faira's shoulders sagged a bit, while thinking 'really man? You invite me for drinks and ask that?!'

There were times when Faira wondered how Phil made it as an interplanetary relations officer, and this was one of those times.

"It's still in the mail…but I try not to think about it".

Phil let out a heavy sigh, and nodded before taking another swig of his drink.

A somber uneasiness befell the two after Phil spoke, and Faira wished her waitress had brought her drink already. So she could preoccupy herself with it.

"So uh…did you hear? We're getting reassigned to a different ship".

Phil put down his glass, and nodded.

"Got the email yesterday. Honestly, I'm not surprised. We've been through 4 captains in the span of 2 weeks on that old ship. What happened a week ago was probably the final nail in the coffin for it".

Phil took a sip of his drink, and added "what I'm more interested with is who our captain's going to be".

Faira let out a sigh, if only because she knew the answer and it wasn't to her satisfaction.

"All we got was a name".

Phil quirked a non-existent brow, and asked "only a name?"

Faira deadpanned, and replied "if you'd bothered to look at the personnel files sent over by Command then you'll know that it wasn't much".

"How much, not much?"

"Name, age, species, and brief academic history".

Phil blinked, and asked "no picture?"

"Nope".

"Previous occupation?"

"Unknown".

Phil looked skeptical, and Faira replied "take a look yourself if you don't believe me".

Phil shrugged, and chose to retreat into his drink for a bit. Taking Faira's word. Right as the waitress swooped in with Faira's order, which she was grateful for. The taste of bourbon sweetly burning a path through her gullet, for a moment numbed the tiredness in her soul. Making the air feel just that much more refreshing.

Putting down his glass, Phil then asked "alright, so what DO we know about our captain?"

"His name's Halden Abulen, and he was originally in the pilot program for the Interstellar Aerospace Academy before transferring to the captain program".

Phil straightened up once the captain's academic background was mentioned, "damn, he went from pilot to captain?"

Faira nodded, finding herself more than a little impressed at the endeavor.

"Apparently".

"And he graduated as a captain?"

Faira shrugged, and Phil asked "what do you mean?" before mimicking Faira's shrug.

"That's just it. All I have is that little tidbit, and nothing else. For all we know he graduated and went onto become a captain, or dropped out. I don't know".

Phil lowered his head, and rubbed the base of his upper mandible.

"Okay then what about the ship? Do we at least know what the ship is?"

Faira lowered her glass, and nodded. Easing the frustration that'd been flaring throughout Phil's beak.

"It's an old free-lance ship, back from the tail end of the golden age of space exploration".

Phil perked up at the mention of something old, and history related.

"Ooh, is it one of the great's?"

"Don't know, does the name Red Herring ring any bells?"

Phil looked at Faira as if she'd just made a joke.

"Are you serious?"

Faira nodded, as she took a sip of her bourbon.

Phil rubbed the base of his beak once more, and asked "you're telling me, our old new ship is called the 'Red Herring'?"

"Yes, and yes I know the obvious joke" stated Faira flatly, remembering the first time she read out the name and chuckled before realizing it was the actual name.

"So have you heard of it before?"

Phil had to drown his throat with some more beer, before answering "no of course not".

Faira shrugged, and sighed saying "well, that's the name".

Phil's stature lowered, his mouth filled with a river of searing brown while his mind was filled with questions surrounding the logic behind his new ship's name.

---

The night was still young, and littered with countless lights. From light poles to building windows. All of which illuminated the dark similar looking streets, which Halden walked down. Staving off the tedium of sifting through a stack of paper signing on a dozen or so dotted lines, and sitting through a mandatory interview led by Kylden.

Even though he was his friend, he kept things professional and didn't stray away from the seriousness of his position as interviewer.

'Somethings never change' thought Halden, as he made his way towards the one place he knew like the back of his hand. A pub he'd made his second home during his distant academy days.

Hookbeak's of a Feather.

The interior was as rowdy as ever, packed and full of life. The sounds of drinks being chugged, mixed, and Hookbeak's making idle chit chat filled Halden's ears. Alongside the burning, woody smell of alcohol that filled his nostrils.

Both a comforting sensation which made one thing certain – Halden was in the right place to forget the monotony that had been the past couple of hours.

Without missing a beat, Halden walked over to an empty barstool on the front counter, and hopped on. The bartender, a fellow Hookbeak garbed in a respectable suit and spiffy cloak. Cleaned a drink, as Halden studied the mixologist and his surroundings.

The male was new, and not at all like the one had he known from his younger days.

"Bar's come under new management eh?" Halden asked the bartender, who looked at him while cleaning and replied.

"Long, long time ago I'm afraid".

The bartender pointed to a picture behind him, showing the male that Halden remembered seeing many years ago. Standing next to the current bartender, a spitting image of the elder Hookbeak.

'Like father like son…' Halden thought feeling sad for a second, before punting those sentiments into the depths of his mind and ordering a drink.

"Glass of Bereaved Brew coming up" the bartender said, as he got to work preparing Halden's order while Halden scanned his surroundings with a peculiar eye.

Passing over all the males, and honing in on the females. Weeding out the ones dressed professionally, and composed in lieu of the ones that gave off the aura of desiring a good time. Preferably in the company of someone else.

But among the sea of many Hookbeak females that were scantily clad, and left little to the imagination. There was one who had spotted him, and looked with a sense of familiarity.

The second Halden's eyes made contact with this reserved Hookbeak in terms of attire, she averted her gaze as though she looked into the abyss. And the abyss looked back.

"See something you like?" Phil asked, looking around for what Faira had been looking at while Faira kept her eyes locked onto the table.

"Less like, and more I feel like I should know him".

Phil continued his search, asking "the Drell's that supposed to mean?"

Faira sighed, and replied "the guy at the counter, right on the very edge towards the entrance".

Phil locked onto who Faira spoke of, and blinked. Eyeing his casual sense of fashion, and equivalent demeanor.

"You know that guy?" Phil asked, with a hint of skepticism as Faira scoffed.

"No…I mean, I probably don't, but there's just something about his face…it's like I've seen it somewhere before".

Faira looked frustrated, and flustered. Something Phil noticed, giving him a marvelously devious idea.

"Well, maybe you just need a closer look".

Faira didn't have time to respond, before Phil got up and wrapped his tail around Faira's waist. Yanking her from her chair, and dragging her off in-front of Halden. Only letting go once he got her where he needed her.

"Let me go!" exclaimed Faira, as Phil let loose and turned around to face her.

"Phil what the Drell is wrong with you" Faira hissed, unaware of where she was as Phil backed away saying.

"I gotta use the little hatchling's room, be back in a sec", and with that Phil left Faira to the whims of fate.

Which was when it dawned on her that she was right in the path of her Hookbeak of interest.

'Well, that just happened' Halden thought, as he gave Faira a quick once over.

It was a combination of floor-level standards, and convenience that allowed Halden to convince himself 'eh, she'll do'. And hop off his bar stool, right as the bartender handed him his drink. Which he took a single sip from, before hitting the pub floor to approach Faira.

'Oh Spode he's headed this way' Faira thought, burying her hands in her jacket's pockets. Swept up in a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts on what to do that immobilized her so she did nothing at all.

"Excuse me miss, but I couldn't help but see that you look thoroughly confused" Halden began, as he walked up to Faira with confidence.

Faira uttered a sheepish grin, while ruffling her loose feathery hair.

"Y-Yeah I'm fine…" Faira said, mustering what little conviction remained.

'Low self-esteem…I can make this work…' Halden thought, as he took a leisurely sip of his drink.

"You sure? Seem a little rattled, allow me to buy you a drink to steel the nerves" Halden said, his words coming out with a smoothness that mathematicians would've killed for.

Any other female would've chomped down on the lure, hard. But not Faira. The uneasiness of spontaneous socializing vanished the moment Halden spoke, with the pilot thinking 'wait a minute…is he trying to hit on me?'

Halden looked at Faira curiously, while her expression shifted to one of annoyance.

"Nah, I'm good. Really" Faira replied blankly, as she took the moment to take a closer look at this sordid Hookbeak's face.

"You sure?" Halden asked, before moving around to Faira's side and putting on the moves on her – wrapping his tail around the pilot's waist.

Making her flinch bashfully.

What should've been an invitingly amorous gesture, was received as frustratingly uncomfortable.

"Yup I'm sure. Absolutely" Faira said quickly, before using her own tail to free herself from Halden's grasp. At that moment Phil emerged from the little hatchling's room, and Faira spotted her bemused cohort.

"Aaand there's my friend, who I came here with" Faira said quickly, before awkwardly waving to Phil and heading over to him. Leaving Halden by himself to shrug, and move on with his nightly escapade.

"So, how'd it go?" asked Phil cheekily, while Faira marched up to him and glared.

"You. Are. The worst!"

Faira proceeded to unleash a barrage of light jabs at Phil's shoulder, which he effortlessly endured.

"Did you at least get a better look?"

Faira's barrage ceased, and she replied "yeah, but I still can't place him".

"Maybe you need an even closer look?" Phil humorously suggested, much to Faira's infuriation.

"No way, back to the table. I got all the look I need, and I sure as heck don't need anymore" Faira claimed, before grabbing Phil and dragging him back to the table.

Not long after they sat down, Halden got managed to sink his social fangs into a Hookbeak female that he'd chat up in no-time flat. Effectively leaving the pub seconds after Faira, and Phil touched down.

"Well, looks like you've lost your chance to vet his ID" Phil remarked, while jutting a thumb in Halden's direction. Faira watching the fairly young, if shabbily dressed, Hookbeak head out with an eager female dressed for a good time.

"Oh well, too bad so sad" replied Faira, while shrugging without a care.

Phil found Faira's response mildly amusing, Faira on the other hand glared slightly at her fellow shipmate.

---

General Kylden checked his watch for the third time, wondering 'what the Drell is taking Halden so long?!'

He'd figured that Halden would take his sweet time getting here, to the air-base on the very border of Thumas's capital. Given his blatant reluctance to accept the position, but even then.

He didn't imagine that Halden would take more than an hour. Maybe half that at most.

The other three in the conference room, Faira, Phil, Thugg, and Mok were all waiting patiently. Initially filled with anticipation, that had long since run dry.

Phil had his head thrown back, staring at the wall behind him while Thugg shifted her legs for the fifth time since sitting down. Clearly uncomfortable, but insistent on propping up the façade of normalcy. Mok busied himself with his wrist-radio, tampering with its internals using a screwdriver without a care, including the questionable glance Kylden threw his way. Faira, meanwhile, had meanwhile consumed her thoughts with questions revolving around the identity of their captain.

The enigmatic Halden Abulen.

Fortunately for her she didn't have to keep guessing any longer, because in the next handful of seconds the captain of interest entered the room. The door sliding open to reveal a black feathered Hookbeak in a crimson jacket, white shirt underneath, black pants, and a silver locket hanging around his neck.

He walked in with all the confidence of a lost child, uncertain he was in the right place until he saw Kylden. Filled with confidence lasting for a microsecond, until he saw Faira. At which point that confidence disintegrated.

'You've got to be kidding me' they both thought simultaneously, as Phil snapped his neck to look at Halden. Doing a double take, and smirking thinking 'ha!'

Thugg looked between Faira, Phil, and the new captain. Thoroughly confused at the looks the three of them were giving. Mok, meanwhile, couldn't care less. Glancing once at Halden, then getting back to his tinkering.

Kylden meanwhile, looked back and forth between Faira, Phil, and Halden. Getting caught up in the same kind of confusion that Thugg was steeped in.

He looked to his friend, giving him the brow-less equivalent of a 'what's going on?'

Halden replied with an 'it's complicated' shrug.

Kylden let out a sigh, not wanting to bother with whatever he's got going on, and instead focusing on getting the introductions out of the way.

"Everyone, allow me to introduce you to your captain – Halden Abulen. Halden, your crew. Faira Fesley, ship pilot. Thugg Solrek, weapons officer. Mok Vorra, science officer and engineer. Phil Dodendron, cargo manager and interplanetary relations officer".

Faira gave Halden an annoyed look when her name was said, Thugg gave a strong salute, Mok simple waved absent-mindedly, and Phil tipped his cap with a smug grin on his face.

Halden nodded awkwardly, before blinking and asking "wait, where's the medical officer?"

Kylden uttered a dry laugh, and replied "there weren't any medical officer's available so you're going to have to operate without one for the time being".

Halden blinked, and looked incredulously at his friend. His soon-to-be crew looking a little somber, and grim at the mention of a medical officer. Kylden gave his longtime friend an insistent look, and Halden sighed before nodding and taking a seat.

Keeping himself far, and away from Faira – much to Kylden's curiousity.

"Alright…now that the introductions are out of the way. Let's move on to the debriefing of your test flight".

At the table of Kylden's phone, the jewel like circle in the middle of the rectangular table glowed. Projecting a holographic recreation of the galaxy into the air, a dozen or so miasmic arms spiraling out from a white hot center. Always an awe-inspiring sight, at least to Faira. Zooming in on one of the arms, the planet they were on – Thumas was highlighted.

"Your mission is quite simple, transport several crates of red spice from Thumas to Nedira".

A line zipped from Thumas to Nedira, which was 52 parsecs away from the Hookbeak home world.

"As usual, the path you take is purely yours. How you get there doesn't matter, just that you do in one piece and vice versa".

The galaxy disappeared, leaving everyone facing each other.

"Understood?"

Everyone nodded, and Kylden smirked.

"Now for the fun part" the general said with glee, as he got up and led the way out of the room. The others following suit with intrigue, Halden included.

During the walk, Halden kept his distance from the crew, walking next to Kylden.

"Looks like you're gonna have a zillion more chances to figure out why he's so recognizable" whispered Phil to Faira, who pinched him in response.

Thugg looked at the two of them curiously, but didn't bother to press.

That being said, Faira continued trying to figure out why Halden's face rang with an uncanny resemblance. But with each step they took, Faira kept hitting dead end after dead end in her mind.

It was right there on the edge, within reach but also not. Needlessly infuriating is what it was. It was fortunate then, that Faira's mind was spared of an explosion of rage by their arrival to the large glass windows of the observation deck. Overlooking the hangar bay.

"And here we are, the Red Herring" announced Kylden, as he gestured to the aforementioned ship.

A vessel the crew + Halden lined up to see, expecting something impressive. Instead they were met with a subversively decrepit sight. A boxy scarlet middle of the line ship, wearing the marks of time's cruel passage like a participation trophy. Its general shape was that of an arrow, with a large cylindrical thruster protruding out of the rear. The front adorned with a large curved black visor.

'Well, it's definitely old' thought Phil, while Faira looked aghast at the ship's appearance.

'That's our ship?!' Faira thought, as Thugg did stood in place with nary a reaction to give. Mok looking up from his tinkering of his wrist-radio to take one good look at the ship, and say "lame" before getting back to his tinkering.

That last comment hit Kylden where it hurts, deep in his heart and what Halden said next made it sting even more.

"You're lucky I'm too broke to sue, cause this is blatant false advertising".

---

The crew + Halden were sent off into the depths of their new old ship, general Kylden watching them disappear into the loading bridge that connected the observation deck to the Red Herring.

In minute's time, everyone spent no time flat exploring every nook and cranny of the ship's interior. Spreading throughout it like water flooding a cave system.

Mok threw himself into the engine room, ravishing through the engine internals. Thugg doing the same to the weapons room, though with far less enthusiasm. Faira made a beeline to the cockpit, taking a seat in the pilot's chair and looking into the controls. Phil hovered about in the cargo hold, taking stock of the cargo and getting used to the hold's controls.

Halden, meanwhile, found himself stepping into the isolation of the room designated for him. Assorted into an array of rooms in the U-shaped hall containing the crew quarters.

It was fairly spacious, and made for one. A bed in the back, across from a closet. A window in the middle which showed the remainder of the hangar outside. Facing the door, in front of the closet was a desk. Paired with a chair that was very old. All of which was lit up with a single, potent ceiling light in the middle.

Out of everything in the room, it was the desk that caught his eye. Drawn to it like a moth to a flame, Halden walked towards it. As a memory from his past flickered onto the forefront, catching him by surprise. It was a compulsion that forced it back from beyond the mental block, the desk acting like a subconscious trigger.

With each step he took, that once hidden memory composited over reality. One where the desk was habited by a familiar face, an older Hookbeak who wasn't much older than Halden was now. Dressed in a similar fashion, zipped up red jacket, and black pants. The only difference being the badge adorned on his chest, a badge that Halden knew by heart.

The second Halden reached the desk, the specter vanished. Looking up from some make-believe paperwork to look at who'd come to see him. The memory finally shelved, Halden gripped the edge of the desk and hung his head low.

His shoulders weighed down by a realization that only now took effect, hammered home by the badge that lay on the dark wooden surface. Staring right back, the same exact badge the apparition of his mind wore. As well as the the male figure in his locket.

Halden clutched that silver item, finding his heart begin to race. The blockade in his mind threatening to crumble for a moment, before Halden closed his eyes and eased his nerves. Whispering to himself 'not again, it won't happen again'.

His heart rate back to normal, Halden opened his eyes and picked up the badge left for him on the desk. Taking a good look at it for a bit, before shoving it into one of his pants pockets. Leaving the desk behind, Halden explored his room finding the bed to be perfectly serviceable – being a white mattress upon a sturdy metal frame with a black blanket and pillow. While the closet housed an empty rack on one side, and a tall machine on the other. Equipped with a rudimentary display, and a bulky keyboard for interaction.

'He's seriously lucky I'm broke…' Halden thought, as he accessed the clothing fabricator and was unsurprised to find that it had only one option of clothing.

The standard issue uniform for a space captain, which was an unsightly blue jacket, and matching pants that looked like an onesie.

Halden groaned thinking 'he could've told me that the fabricators were this old…would've brought my own clothes if I'd known…'

Outside, in the common area that connected to the hallway of the crew quarters. Faira left the confines of the cockpit, and stepped into a modestly spacious environment with a functionally compact kitchen in a corner to her right, a round dining table nestled in the middle, and a slew of arm chairs and a bean bag near the cockpit entrance. Facing a wall-mounted display.

"Hey Phil, have you seen the captain?" Faira asked, as she approached Phil who exited the kitchen space with a sandwich in hand.

"Nope, but last I saw I think he went into the crew quarters" Phil replied, as he put his sandwich on the dining table along with its plate.

"And where did you get the ingredients to make that?"

"I have my ways" Phil replied cryptically, as Faira rolled her eyes.

"So what's with the interest in the captain? Still trying to figure out who he reminds you of?" Phil asked, as he pulled back a chair and sat down.

"No, I've put that on hold for the moment. Just that I got the clearance papers transmitted to the ship's computer, so I was wondering if he wants us to head out now".

Phil lifted up his sandwich to take a bite, giving Faira a thumbs up before doing so.

But before Faira left in search of her captain, Phil asked "by the by, I hope you brought your own clothes".

"What, why?" Faira asked, as she stood in front of the doorway heading into the crew quarters hall.

Glancing back as Phil answered "cause the fabricators are all obsolete. They can only make one thing, and are non-reprogrammable. Heck I don't even think they have Wi-Fi".

Faira groaned aloud, as Phil tore into his sandwich. The pilot leaving the common area with an even greater frustration than before, thinking 'is there anything in this ship that isn't ancient?'

Upon arriving at the door to the captain's room, Faira knocked a couple times for posterity's sake.

"Who is it?"

"It's me uh…Faira, sir…"

Referring to the captain as sir felt odd, not because of the use of phrase.

But because of the one she used it on.

Inside, Halden got up from his bed and looked both warily and nervously at the door.

"It's uh…you can just call me captain…"

Faira blinked, and nodded replying "okay…"

"So uh…why'd you wanna talk to me?"

"I got the clearance papers to take off. I wanted to ask if you want us to depart now, or sometime later".

"Yeah, sure. Let's go now, no point in hanging around here any longer".

Faira nodded, and replied "roger that" before heading out to the cockpit.

Leaving Halden to straighten himself up, and think 'you got this Halden, just don't make that mistake – that's all you've got to do'.

He still felt a considerable weight bearing down on his heart, but it was bearable enough to move.

Halden left the safe confines of his room, and into the common area where he planned to stay. Making himself comfortable upon one of the arm chairs, when Phil stepped out of the kitchen wiping his beak with his mouth.

"Captain, aren't you going to join the pilot for the tried and true tradition of seeing off the maiden voyage?" Phil asked with a coy tone.

"No, I decided it was best to just…stay here…where it's comfortable…" Halden replied, as Phil smirked.

"Oh is that it? I was under the impression its cause you and Faira have some unresolved tension" Phil replied, adding air quotes to the words "unresolved tension".

Halden was filled with embarrassment, as he got up and said "now wait a minute, that's not…"

Phil shrugged, and said as he turned to face the hallway which led out of the common area, past the infirmary, and engine room into the cargo hold.

"Maybe, but I wasn't there and I know everyone more than you cap. So word on the ship's gonna be for the foreseeable future, that the captain's got something going on with our beloved pilot".

Halden grumbled annoyingly, and stormed off into the cockpit.

"I chose to stay in the common area earlier, and not because of anything else!" Halden decried, as he left the common area. Putting a smile on Phil's face, who left for his post thinking 'and he's a sucker too. I'm gonna enjoy this'.

Faira sat down and began to go through the motions after strapping down.

'Okay, now just follow your training and this giant manual' Faira thought, with the aforementioned manual beside her on the armrest. Which she used as a guide to trudge through the pre-flight checklist like an ox-drawn plough.

When Halden's unexpected appearance threw a wrench into her plans.

"Gah, captain! W-What are you doing here?!" Faira asked, a sprinkle of nervousness leaking in as Halden came up beside her.

"I uh…it's…it's customary for the captain to be beside the pilot during the maiden voyage" claimed Halden with a shaky confidence.

"I know that but I…I just thought…"

"Thought what?" Halden asked nervously, as Faira nodded her head sideways.

A little flustered.

"N-Nothing, it's nothing" Faira replied, before doing what she often did best. Burying her feelings with something to do.

Halden rubbed the base of his beak in frustration, mainly at himself as Faira pushed through the checklist. Driven by a desire to get take off over with, so she doesn't have to be right next to Halden any longer.

But half way in, Faira got stuck. Some of the switches she was looking for just wasn't there, and the manual was the least bit helpful.

'Where is it? Where is it? Why can't I find it?!' Faira thought, as she began to panic.

'This is just sad' Halden thought, feeling incredibly bad for Faira. Whose exuberant consternation was made blatantly obvious.

"Here, let me…" began Halden, as Faira pushed back saying.

"Its fine, I got it".

Pushing past the pool of awkwardness, Halden pitched in reaching over the dashboard and showing where the switches Faira was looking for were.

"Over here's the inertial dampener switches, and over there's the ones for the anti-grav generators".

Faira blinked, stunned for a second at Halden's guidance.

"Huh" was all she said, as she followed the captain's instruction and flipped them on.

"That box right here is controls for the power regulation, and over there's the dials for the sensory arrays".

Faira nodded, and pressed the right buttons and turned the right dials. Reaching the end of her checklist in no time flat, thanks to Halden's help.

"Wow um…thanks…for that…captain…" Faira replied, as she closed the manual and stuffed it in the small shelf space under the dashboard.

"No…problem…" Halden replied, as he retreated to his place by Faira's side.

Taking extra care to keep his hands, and tail to himself.

'Guy was good enough to switch from pilot to captain…shouldn't be surprised he knows his stuff, even with a legacy ship like this' Faira thought, cursing herself for the first time in a long time.

For having been too accustomed to the conveniences of modern vessels.

Thankfully, the on-board radio was one of the few things that Faira could use without any trouble. Patching a line to the air traffic controllers on the airbase, Faira asked "tower, this is Faira Fesley of the ship designation Red Herring requesting for takeoff, over".

After a bit of static, a response came over the dashboard speakers.

"Faira Fesley, this is tower. Can you confirm pre-flight checklist is completed, over".

Pushing the button next to the microphone, Faira leaned in and said "checklist is done, awaiting clearance, over".

"Understood clearance granted. Papers authorized, opening bay doors now. Have a safe flight Red Herring".

The ceiling doors started moving, unfolding like a flower in bloom. Revealing the purple sky that Thumas was known for. As the light continued to bleed in from the enlarging opening, Faira patched into the ship's radio and connected with all her crew mates.

"This is Faira, how's everyone doing?"

"Thugg here – weapons are fully operational and so is the shield".

"Sup, its Mok. Engine's good, and so is the ISD".

"It's your friendly neighborhood Phil here, and the cargo's all accounted for. We're good to go".

'Friendly neighborhood…' thought Halden annoyingly, figuring that Phil was more like a black mailer than a friendly anything.

"Alright, then let's get on out of here".

Pulling back on the throttle, the Red Herring lifted off the ground. The landing gears, carbon fiber pads, receding into the ship's underside as it took off into the air. Darting through the wide opening in the ceiling, and ascending into the sky. Flying past a dozen or so layers of clouds, and increasing speed with each passing second.

Thanks to a combination of inertial dampeners, and anti-grav generators. The full force of the external weight that the ship built up, went unnoticed by the crew. What was noticed, however, was the sight that greeted them once they entered the planet's orbit.

The curve of the planet, matched by a sea of stars above. It was an astonishing sight, one that Halden had forgotten about for quite some time.

For a minute he was caught in its enchantment, something that Faira found both odd and amusing.

"First time being in space captain?"

Halden nodded, and replied "something like that".

'For a guy who made it to the captain track, he sure acts like he's never set foot in space' the pilot thought, further adding to the mystery of Halden Abulen.

But all of that was quickly replaced with the gaucheness that clung to them since last night, and without hesitation. Halden took his much needed leave.

---

The engine room, a bastion of technological mayhem and a home away from home for Mok. Was soon reduced to a personal therapy room for the ship's newly appointed pilot.

"I can't believe he'd just tell me to take the path that goes through the Vortex Nebula, and not the other one – which doesn't take us through some nebula, FYI" said Faira, as she marched back and forth behind Mok. Who kept his attention focused on the computer systems of the engine, overlooking a large cylindrical apparatus – the interior of which spun in a miasmic spool of plasma and deuterium isotopes.

"Uh huh" Mok replied, feigning interest while Faira continued without consideration.

"And when I bring up the whole 'there are space pirates in that area who've been suspected of using nebula's as hiding spots', he blew me off like I was crazy! Said that no ship can hide in a nebula without being large enough to be spotted a mile away".

Faira stopped her pacing, and looked at Mok saying with one finger raised.

"Which isn't technically wrong, but never mind the fact that the H.S.P has put out a warning to avoid nebula's, or that their investigation into the ship-jacking's imply that someone's found a way to hide a small enough ship in a nebula!"

Faira's tail wagged with enough ferocity to generate thrust, as she threw her head and neck back letting out a guttural groan emanating from the depths of her diaphragm.

Mok heard Faira's frustration, but couldn't bring himself to care for even one iota of a second.

"For the love of Spode, what kind of captain IS he?! I mean, who put him in this position in the first place!"

Finally, Faira crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.

"Guess I can add obstinate to the list of things our captain is" Faira muttered, before leaning against the wall behind her.

Blinking, Faira said to herself "I should probably go warn Thugg, tell her to be ready for a pirate attack of all things".

"Yeah, you absolutely should" Mok agreed, as Faira looked at him and smirked.

"Thanks Mok, you know. You've always been a real good listener".

Mok rolled his eyes, as Faira left the engine room and headed to the weapons room which was right beside the engine room.

It was far smaller than the engine room, with just enough room for 3 Hookbeak's. Across from the door was a desk which took up the entire length of the wall, host to a keyboard in the middle, a slew of old-fashioned computer monitors showing a variety of different information with a larger display above. Displaying the ship's radar, and all the rapidly changing celestial bodies that appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Thugg was found standing instead of sitting, the chair having been shoved into the corner. Out of sight, out of mind. The second Faira entered, Thugg glanced her way. The weapons officer wearing her usual sleeveless vest, all zipped up, and accompanied by a pair of bulky rugged pants. Heavy duty, and fitted with pockets. Her weapon of choice, the two handed cannon, strapped onto her back as always.

"Hey Thugg, just a heads up but be prepared for a dogfight, and possible ship invasion".

Thugg turned around, and gave the pilot a sideways glance.

"Captain forced me to take a route that goes through the Vortex Nebula".

She didn't have say any details for Thugg to know what was up.

Giving Faira a deep set expression of incredulity, Faira sighed and said "I tried telling him it was a bad idea but he wouldn't listen. Kept insisting I should just do what he says, it was like talking to a brick wall. Spode's arms it was infuriating!"

Faira could feel her nerves start to flare up with anger at the thought of what trying to convince Halden was like. And it would've spurred on another tirade were it not for Faira's sense of reason taking control.

Thugg rubbed the base of her beak, and looked down in a mix of both disappointment and annoyance. Reaching a similar place as to where Faira currently was.

'Great, our captain's a moron' the weapons officer thought, finding their distinct lack of a medical officer all the more distressing.

Pulling her hand away from her beak, Thugg gave Faira a nod of agreement before getting to work. Typing away on the keyboard, and flipping a couple of switches.

"I just hope that our on-board defenses and weapons are good enough to hold out" Faira hoped, as Thugg gave her a smile of confidence alongside a thumbs up.

"Really? Our weapons are at least half-way decent?"

Thugg's grin widened, as she gestured for Faira to take a look herself. Which she did, and upon being showed a list of all the onboard weapons available for use.

Faira was shocked.

"How the Drell did we get Proton Missiles?"

Thugg shrugged, and resumed her task of prepping the ship-board weapons for combat. Priming them for a dogfight.

"Wow…well, at least we can hold our own…" Faira said, as Thugg nodded before the pilot made her way back to the door.

"Thanks for the heads up" Thugg said last, as Faira gave her an "as always" before dipping out.

For a brief moment, a penitent shadow flashed past her dark hazel eyes, as she stared at the myriad of screens in front. Tightening her resolve, and reflexively wrapping the end of her muscular tail around the grip of her holstered cannon.

Passing by the engine room, Faira hollered into it "be ready for a pirate attack".

"Sure" Mok replied without missing a beat, only giving that possibility a minor amount of processing power.

Heading into the common room, Faira found Phil fast asleep on one of the arm chairs. His cap covering his eyes.

"Hey sleepy head, wake up" Faira said, having walked behind the chair and leaning in next to the relation's officer's ear.

Phil jumped to life with a startle, and gasped for air.

"What the Drell is wrong with you?" Phil asked, his cap falling off his disheveled head and being caught in one hand.

"Get ready for a possible pirate invasion" Faira replied with a hint of smugness.

"Pirate invasion?" Phil asked, as Faira left for the cockpit.

"Yup" she said, as Phil rose onto his feet while throwing on his cap.

"Hold on a sec, what'd you mean pirate invasion?"

"What do ya think, Phil?" Faira asked, as she left the common area.

Leaving Phil standing outside the door to the cockpit asking "why?"

"Ask Thugg" was all Faira said, as she retreated into the somewhat cramped confines of her cockpit.

Lapsing onto the pilot's chair, Faira stewed in her thoughts. One hand rubbing her temples, and the other lazing on an armrest.

'And on top of all that, why the Drell does he look so damn familiar!' Faira thought, finding herself constantly being drawn to that one singular question.

---

A luminous white glow drifted through the panes of several windows that lit up the interior of a spacious living room. Filled with a whole suite of Hookbeak's, mostly black feathered and clad in a variety of colorful attire.

"Halden, get over here and help me with the Kelzar roast!" demanded a middle-aged female Hookbeak, wrapped up in a comfy stylish shoal, which hid a simple white shirt and dull knee-length skirt.

Halden, in the prime of his young adult life, groaned as he arrived at the kitchen. Dropping off some bags of red spice on a countertop.

"Do I have to?"

The matriarchal Hookbeak scoffed, and said "oh it's fine. It's not like I gave BIRTH to you or anything".

Halden rolled his eyes thinking 'drama queen', and looking around for his aunt.

"Where's aunt Marka?"

"Marka's with Suse, their trying to get some purple spice for the veggies".

"We're out of purple spice?"

"Apparently!" Halden's mother exclaimed, as she opened the oven door and gestured for Halden to help.

"How the Drell are they supposed to find purple spice last minute?"

"That's what I told them, but you know how your aunt gets" Halden's mother replied, as she used her tail to guide Halden on what he was to do.

Lending a hand when it came to pulling out the aforementioned Kelzar roast in one piece, an easy dish going in, and difficult coming out.

"And you let them leave?"

Halden's mother chuckled, and replied "yes, cause otherwise I'd never get anything done".

Halden smirked as he slipped on the oven gloves, built for two fingers, and reached in to grip the handle of the tray.

"I don't get what the whole fuss is about, not like dad's gonna be here anyway".

Halden's mother gasped slightly, and said "Halden! You aced your transfer exam into the captain program. That is absolutely worth all the fuss – and your dad is gonna be through the moon to see you".

Halden uttered a cynical "ha", and added "just like all the other times I bet".

His mother frowned slightly, and asked "when did you get so darn cynical".

Halden smirked a little, and replied "must've got it from you".

The matriarch smacked her son slightly in the back with her tail, before saying "on 3".

"1…2…3".

Together the two worked carefully to remove the Kelzar roast from the oven, taking care to ensure that the roasted quadruped's exoskeleton would remain intact.

Putting the dish on the countertop, Halden's mother managed to drag her son to help out with everything else she had to do before the others arrived.

And as the moon outside rose into the pitch-black sky, the living room and the interconnected dining room filled up.

The rest of Halden's relatives from both sides of his family arrived, bringing with them their own brand of pleasantries. Kylden chief among them, as one of the only friends Halden cared to invite, as youthful as Halden with a greater degree of vibrancy.

But as Halden sat at the dinner table, with friends and family all around. The presence of a single empty chair, only served to feed Halden's low expectations.

'Why am I not surprised…' Halden thought, having long since accepted the reality that his father was going to be a no show.

Until he showed up.

The look on Halden's face was shock, his mother who was next to him. Tapped him on the arm, and said "told you so, Mr. Cynical".

Halden smiled, overflowing with gratitude which manifested with the Hookbeak perking up like a newly watered flower.

The newest addition to the table, Halden's father, was a spitting image of his son. A black feathered body, tall broad stature, all wrapped up in a zipped up crimson jacket and black respectable pants. All of which served to highlight the golden badge adorned on his chest – a captain's badge.

The patriarch walked up to the table, and sat down across from his son. Partaking in general pleasantries before giving Halden a pat on the head, and saying "good job on acing your transfer exam Hal".

Words that filled Halden with pride.

"Well what'd ya expect, he's your son" Marka said as though it was obvious.

"Thank you for your input captain obvious" Marka's sister replied with an ounce of sarcasm in her voice, while her sister responded with experienced eye roll.

Dinner flew like a rocket hurtling through space, a miasmic mix of seemingly boundless conversation. All centered on Halden's recent academic successes, future expectations, and his father's recent accolades. The gist of what was said didn't matter so much as who was involved in saying them.

Once dinner was over with, and everyone at the table had scattered into their distinct social groups. Halden's father pulled him aside, and dragged him over to an empty corner.

Putting a firm reassuring hand on Halden's shoulder, and looking him in the eye with an enthused expression.

"I always knew you'd follow in your old man's footsteps" Halden's father said, before pulling him into a swift, warm embrace. His tail clutching tightly the rectangular object he'd been holding onto this entire time, keeping it out of Halden's eyes.

"Told you I would dad, told you I would".

The older Hookbeak's warmth felt like the unearthing of a lost memory, a sensation that hadn't been felt in forever. But was inviting, and nostalgic the second it remerged.

The proud father pulled back, and gave his son a firm pat on the shoulder. Transitioning into a strong hold, as he said "I'm proud of you".

Those four words made every day of his father's absence feel like a vapid dream, and what he did next made any prior misgivings evaporate into an untouchable mist.

"And to celebrate, I got you a little something. Something to remember us by when you're up there in the stars".

Halden's father brought the gift he held in his tail's grasp around to his son, relinquishing it into his hands. The younger Hookbeak looked at the velvet box with bright eyes, a glimmer of excitement beaming in his orb's reflection.

He wasted no time opening it, and inside there was a silver locket bound to a matching sterling necklace.

Grabbing the oval shaped pendant into his hand, Halden brought it out of its foam interior and let it dangle from the chain.

Taking note of the meticulous care that went into its creation, the lines of which displayed the outline of tiny cellular critters, and miniature galaxies. All-encompassing the greater whole that was the locket.

"It's amazing…" Halden said in awe of the craftsmanship, and the definite weight which made it feel expensive.

"It gets better, see what's inside".

Halden opened the locket, and stared sentimentally at what lay inside.

A picture that was laminated, and embedded into the interior. One depicting a vastly younger version of Halden, with his parents beside him. Their tails hugging behind them, and holding Halden's hands with their own.

Halden's mother looked like she glowed, and his father with his red jacket and badge looked stoic but earnest. Paired with young Halden, they looked like a happy bunch. As if all was right with the galaxy.

It put a smile on Halden's face, as he closed the locket.

"This way, no matter where you are. You'll never be alone" Halden's father said, as Halden looked at him and nodded.

His grip on the locket tightening, as he said "I'll never take it off". Before promptly putting it around his neck to put his money where his beak was.

Right as Halden's mother emerged from the kitchen with desert, a large plate of pie covered in a blue-ish frosting, with five green berries around a larger oval shaped one that was orange and dotted with tiny blunt spikes.

"Desert's ready!" Halden's mother said happily, as Halden's father's wrist beeped. The blocky wrist-radio blinking an urgent red light.

Halden knew that color all too well, as a vacuous pit opened up in his stomach.

Halden's father looked at his son, seeing the desperation well up in his eyes. Halden's mother went over to the table, and put down the desert. Having already figured what was going to happen next.

"Come on dad…" Halden said somberly, as Halden's father answered the call.

"Kayden here".

"Kayden, it's urgent. The weakened blockade of the Dominarum has been hit by insurgent spies, it's all hands on deck for an evacuation effort we need you in the sky pronto".

"Seriously?!"

"Looks like there's going to be a civil war on the Dominarum's outer-rim, and the planets caught in the blast have signaled for an evacuation order. It's all hands on deck".

Kayden grinded his mandibles together, mentally cursing his misfortune.

"A transport's been sent to pick you up".

"I'll be there as fast as possible".

"Thank you, and I'm sorry".

The call ended, and Kayden rubbed the base of his beak in annoyance.

"That's a new world record for you honey, but at least this time you actually managed to get here and stick around for a bit" Kayden's wife said, as she walked over to her husband and wrapped a tail around his waist.

"Spode be damned, I'm so sorry I have to go – the stupid Dominarum's lost control of their blockade and all allied ships have been called in to evacuate Dominarum aligned worlds".

Halden grumbled something out of frustration, as his mother looked forlorn at her husband.

"Everyone knew that it was bound to happen eventually".

Kayden sighed, and replied "yeah, but I just assumed it'd happen some other time – not now".

Halden sighed, seeing the apologetic look on his dad's face.

"It's alright dad, they need you. The people, and your crew".

Kayden nodded, but before he left his wife nuzzled her beak against his for good luck. And the captain said to his son "cause a crew is nothing without their captain, and…"

"…a captain is nothing without their crew" Halden replied, having memorized those words since his hatchling days.

"That's my boy, you're gonna make a great captain someday".

Kayden gave his son one more embrace before he left.

"What, he's not staying for desert?" Halden heard Marka say, as she saw Kayden head out the door.

"Turns out the Dominarum's got a civil war on their hands" Halden's mother replied, as she walked over to the table where her sister stood.

"Darn, everyone told them that was gonna happen but did they listen? No…" Marka said sarcastically, as her sister sighed in response.

While Halden watched his father leave, seeing a figure of respect, honor, and love disappear from the living room. The second he left, the whole room turned dark and Halden stood in an empty void. Eyes overtaken by a suffocating sadness, which forced tears out of his eyes like two pressurized waterspouts.

It was painful, and anguishing.

And amidst all the agony, Halden could do nothing but scream into the darkness. His voice echoing forever.

---

In a darkly lit room, Halden arose from a deep slumber. Gasping for air, as he woke up screaming. His heart pounded like a drum deep in his chest, while his lungs heaved hard and fast.

"Lights! Lights!" Halden called to no avail, as he scrambled clumsily onto his feet and out of bed. He ran his hands desperately against the wall until he found a switch, and upon pressing it.

Finally, he was blessed with a calming luminance. One which cast the abyss into the tucked away shadows that was Halden's room.

Taking a couple deep breaths, Halden calmed down and got a grip on his nerves.

Rubbing the base of his beak, as he instinctively reached for his locket and felt comforted at the presence of its oddly warm metallic surface in his grasp.

'Stupid outdated hunk of junk…doesn't even have voice activated lights' Halden mentally criticized, as the pace of his heart returned to a more normal state.

In the silence that followed after his fear, and frustration subsided. Halden found himself in a pocket of clarity, in which he thought 'been a while since I had a nightmare like that…'

Looking at the entirety of his room, and then at his locket Halden understood.

'Guess I shouldn't be surprised…' the newly appointed captain thought, when a voice called out to him from beyond the door to his room. One which appeared after a couple of knocks.

"You alright cap? Heard you screaming for a sec".

It was Phil, Halden could recognize that much from his tone and cadence.

"Yeah I'm fine" Halden replied, after which Phil followed up with.

"Good, so uh…why the heck are we going through a route that takes us through a nebula? One that's possibly host to a band of space pirates?"

Halden sighed, and rubbed the base of his beak thinking 'good grief not this nonsense again'.

"I already had this conversation once, and I'm not in the mood to have it again – so for both our sakes just drop it".

Frustration rippled out to Phil's ears, and he stepped back from the door a bit.

"Captain with all due respect…" Phil began, having to momentarily and with difficulty swallow his pride as he continued "…if Faira says that's a bad route then it's probably a bad route".

Halden narrowed his gaze, and aimed it squarely at the door. Imagining Phil's smug mug on the other side looking back.

"She's operating on faulty logic, and besides. I'm the captain, and you have to do as I say".

Phil sighed, as he stood on the other side. The humor that once surrounded Halden like a cute shadow puppet fading to reveal a frustrating storm.

"But" Phil began, trying to convey appeal to reason unknowing that there wasn't any reason to be pled to.

"But nothing! I gave the order, now follow it" Halden hissed, getting so worked up as to stand up from his bed with his tail sweeping wildly through the air.

The sudden increase in volume made Phil jolt in place, and rebound with an angry stare that burned into the door to the captain's quarters.

"Yes sir" Phil replied with an edge of sarcasm ringing true in his voice, as he turned around and walked away. Storming off thinking 'never thought I'd think this, but I wish he died instead of our previous captain'.

Along with Phil's absence the silence returned, and Halden found himself too rested to fall back to slumber. Alongside the fear of having to see anymore twisted memories of his past drift into his dreaming consciousness. So instead he got up onto his feet, and cracked a yawn when the miasmic glow of the window to his right caught his eye.

'What the…' Halden thought, as he looked out and saw what looked like the inside of a nebula.

A whole swath of spectral tendrils running past like ghostly noodles in a cosmic soup, taking on a starlit pattern that swooped down. Its full picture beyond Halden's comprehension.

'Guess we're in the Vortex Nebula now' Halden surmised, as he took in the beauty of the ethereal picture.

Outside, Phil searched high and low for Faira. Having asked Mok, and Thugg to no avail. Eventually he found her holed up in the cockpit, sat down in the pilot's chair and aggressively perusing her phone.

"Faira" Phil said, as he slinked into the cockpit. Shimmying up beside her, and saying "Faira" a second time to get her attention.

"What?" Faira asked, as she lowered her phone from her screen and snapped to look at Phil.

"Why the Drell are we going through a possibly pirate-infested nebula?!" Phil asked, as he pointed to the nigh endless horde of celestial threads which appeared to funnel downwards in a spiral.

"Do I really have to answer that?" Faira asked, very clearly annoyed.

"Just take us the other way, why'd you have to listen to him – he's clearly being unreasonable".

"And risk a poor performance review, and pay cut? Besides, we're already knee-deep in it so not much we can do about it now".

"It's not too late to pull us out, and pay cuts are useless if we're dead!"

Faira was about to object, when Phil decided to take matters into his own hands and stop the ship's forward thrust by hitting the button that cut the engines with his tail.

Bringing the entire vessel to a dead stop.

"Phil!"

"Pull us out of this admittedly beautiful possible death trap, and head the other way" Phil demanded, as Faira sighed.

"Do it, or I'm not gonna let you".

Faira looked at Phil, and uttered a heavy sigh.

The tension only breaking when the ship's alarms began to blare.

"What the Drell?!" Phil asked, as he looked around at the red lights that blinked inside the cockpit.

Immediately Faira jumped onto the dashboard, patching a line to the weapons room, while locking her eyes on the ship's radar.

"Thugg what's going on?!"

"We have an enemy hostile at our 6, weapons locked!"

The radar confirmed Thugg's statement, showing a red dot moving fast towards the Red Herring.

"We're screwed, we're screwed!" claimed Phil, as he darted out of the cockpit and made a beeline towards the cargo hold where he belonged.

Passing Halden, who emerged from the hallway of the crew quarters and made a beeline towards the cockpit.

"Weapons, what's the situation?" Halden asked, as he patched a line using his wrist-radio to Thugg.

"We have bogeys closing in fast, and they appear armed" Thugg replied, suppressing the desire to say 'I told you so'.

Entering the cockpit, Faira restarted the engine and took control of the ship. Pushing it forward, and diving deeper into the Vortex Nebula.

"All hands battle stations, I repeat battle stations" Halden informed, giving Thugg the all clear to let loose.

Faira, meanwhile, patched a line to Mok in the engine room and asked "how's the engine looking?"

"She's ready for some action".

"Good, cause she's about to see it" Faira replied, hoping that the engine was as new as the weapons were.

The Red Herring sank into the nebula, and its infinite arms. Pursued close behind by a hulking behemoth of a vessel. A rust colored rock, armored up in ablative plates of carbon fiber, and equipped with weapons.

Halden checked the monitors showing the external camera feed, and couldn't believe his eyes.

'Mother of Spode…' Halden thought, as he saw traces of the enemy ship slip past the milky fibers of the nebula.

All while Faira saw the look of shock on her captains face, and felt both vindicated and angry.

'I told you so! I flipping told you so!' Faira thought, as she initiated evasive maneuvers.

Thugg took control of the Red Herring's weaponry, taking aim and firing a flurry of red lasers from the twin laser cannons that extended out from the side. Unleashing a barrage of scarlet blasts that zipped past the assailant, while the Red Herring bobbed and weaved to become a harder target.

Despite the visible bulkiness, the pursuer moved with a deceptive nimbleness. Dodging the laser blasts, and getting too close for comfort.

'Now' thought Thugg, as she unleashed a Proton Missile once the enemy ship was in range. Pushing a button, and firing the U-shaped ogive with a slew of anti-particle's and proton's suspended in a magnetic field, and primed for an explosive interaction.

Right as the assumed space pirates fired off a blast of electromagnetic energy, zipping past the Proton Missile. Both hitting their intended targets.

The sheer force of the Proton Missile colliding with the Red Herring's assailant, sent the ship tumbling back like a ball that'd been kicked away. It's ablative shielding crumbling, and breaking off into the fog of the nebula. Revealing bits of the ship's internals, that zapped like contained bolts of lightning.

The Red Herring, meanwhile, wasn't that much better. The electromagnetic blast struck the ship's rear. Ushering a wave of energy that overloaded the ship's primary power grid, causing lights to flicker and turn off completely as the vessel hurtled deeper into the nebula. Spinning, and tumbling as the crew was tossed around. As the internal gravity was shut off temporarily, sending everything flying.

Once the Red Herring ceased its rolling, the ship righted itself by chance. Halden hit the ground, having been slammed into every wall before being dumped onto the ground behind Faira.

The pilot spared from Halden's fate thanks to the straps of her seat.

The lights in the cockpit flickered for a moment, and then stabilized.

'Ow, my head…' Halden thought, as he slowly got up onto his feet. His tail helping keep balance, as Faira shook away the throbbing pain in her head. Before focusing her attention on the dashboard, and the myriad of monitors that she used to determine the state of the Red Herring's standard-issue systems.

'What the?' Faira thought, when she spotted something on one of the monitors and patched a line to the engine room.

"Mok, what's going on with the engine?"

"That's the thing, the engine's not receiving power. It's completely dead!"

Faira's heart sank at the implications, as Halden jumped in and asked "so we're not moving?"

"Exactomundo".

Faira then turned to look at Halden, who was right beside her. A glare aimed at the captain's face, with said captain's only response being to sigh with a hint of regret.

---

Inside the depths of a nebula shaped like two cosmic funnels spiraling into one another, the Red Herring drifted aimlessly in space. Its engines out of commission, and its power holding on for dear life.

The situation surrounding the ship was dire, but what was about to unfold inside would be even greater.

"I told you, I freaking told you that this was going to happen!" exclaimed Faira, as Halden dashed out of the cockpit with the pilot coming after him.

"Yes, I know" Halden replied, as he tried to make a hasty get away.

"I said that the H.S.P had issued a warning to avoid nebulae amid pirate concerns, I said that there were reports of ship jacking's happening around them…" Faira began, listing off all the points that put her above her captain by a significant margin. Moving swiftly around to block Halden's path, and hold him in place – in the middle of the common area.

"…I warned us that this was going to happen, but what did you do? You just ignored it all and now we're SITTING DUCKS IN A NEBULA!"

Faira had it up to the very base of her skull with all the nonsense she had to deal with, which not even the looming threat of a rotten performance review could subside.

"Yes, I know. I heard you back then, and I heard you now" Halden snapped back, anger flaring up through every fiber of his being as he turned around to continue his march into the engine room when Faira spoke. Unleashing all the frustration that had unknowingly been building up all this time.

"All you had to do was trust me! My job since I graduated from the IAA's pilot program was to navigate and pilot a damn ship! Why didn't you just let me do my job?!"

That was one of the two pressing curiosities that'd been burning in the back of her mind. Hiding in the shadows of her cerebrum, and eating away at her patience, even more so than Halden's lingering familiarity.

And be it the tension that muddied the chain of command between Halden, and the pilot, or the dire straits they had now found themselves in. The captain found his grip on his restraint vanish, as he turned around and glared at Faira with a murderous stare.

A gaze filled with a blood curdling power, which made Faira freeze up as though she'd been frozen.

"Like Drell I could trust you, I barely know you! And as far as I know the second I turn my back, you'd just throw me out the airlock when it's to your benefit!"

Faira's tail stood on end, as she nearly took a step back from the accusation.

"Y-You're right about the first part, mostly but…I'd never do something like that, none of us would" Faira argued, a little shaken from being called treacherous.

A hysterical borderline delirious cackle escaped Halden's voice box, making Faira shrink in size before the captain spoke with an unfiltered cruelty.

"Talk is cheap Faira, and you can never really know anyone. No matter how much time you spend, and don't tell me I don't know that for sure, because I do know".

Halden walked towards Faira, towering over her and leaning forward with a harsh gaze.

"And I know, because that's exactly what happened to my dad and his blasted crew! 10 years he knew them, and even then they stabbed him in the back without a second thought, so don't think that even for a second I won't think you and the others are as trustworthy as a two headed snake!"

Faira looked into Halden's eyes, mostly because there was nothing else TO look at, and in them she saw a sea of dark fury mixed in with a flicker of something that would've almost gone unnoticed to the untrained eye.

But was as clear as day to Faira, it was grief.

Halden, realizing what'd just happened, leaned back and attempted to recompose himself which was when Faira noticed the gaggle of familiar faces behind him.

The look on her face indicating as such to the captain, who turned around and came face to face with Thugg, and Phil. The two of them standing in the mouth of the hallway that branched from the common area to the rest of the ship.

Phil looked annoyed while Thugg looked angry. Her large imposing size adding a flair of intimidation as she gripped the edges of her folded over arms with a visceral clench.

Carried away in a whirlwind of misplaced emotion, Halden made a beeline towards the only place he could think of to seek refuge. His room.

Disappearing in a hurry into the hall of the crew quarters.

"What the Drell was that about?!" Phil rightfully asked, as Thugg growled.

"He thinks we're untrustworthy?! I trust all of you than I would any ounce of him!" exclaimed Thugg, getting the most vocal she'd ever been in a long, long time.

"It's official. This guy's the worst" Phil concluded, as Thugg nodded in agreement with that assessment.

Faira, meanwhile, looked perplexingly at the doorway that led to everyone's lodgings. Processing everything Halden said, and thinking 'what happened to you?'

---

Drifting aimlessly through space, the Red Herring had become a sitting duck. The captain having receded into the depths of his of room, where he appeared to remain till the end of time.

"…and then he holed himself up in his room until further notice" Faira said, catching Mok up to speed on the unwanted besmirching by their rage-induced captain.

Handing the engineer a torque wrench when he gestured for it, before the tiny green-feathered avian descended deeper into a section of the cylindrical engine bit that was always exposed in the engine room. The part that Mok could physically interact with.

Nestled into the normally cramped interior, which was spacious for Mok, he slithered and slinked past the many different wires, and intricate moving parts to get to some tightened, scorched bolts covering an access panel.

"Phil, and Thugg are upset. Understandable, I mean he called us all mutineers. Which is like, super off base and also rude and judgmental. He barely even knows us, and he's already made up his mind that we're untrustworthy!"

"Sure…looks like it" Mok replied, struggling hard to turn one of the many scorched bolts that secured the access panel. After pulling back hard enough to be sent flying from the undesired release of tension. He flew out of the exposed end of the engine, which faced the door to the room. Flying past Faira, who continued her ramble, landing on the ground behind her and thankfully on his feet.

"He sounded personal, there was sadness in his eyes but also anger…"

Mok shook his head vigorously, and got his head back in the game. His patchwork cloak undeterred, as he looked at the torque wrench still held in his hand which consisted of only the handle. The rest still adhered to the bolt to be removed.

With a narrowed gaze, Mok tossed the handle aside and pulled out his fallback when the straightforward approach failed. A welding mask, and a hand-held plasma cutter.

"…regardless, he's kind of a no show right now and I've gotta figure out how we're gonna get out of here…given there's pirates in the nebula looking for us, and the only thing keeping us from getting immediately got is that we're running off emergency power" Faira said, taking note of the severe dimness of the lights in the engine room – as well as everywhere else on the ship.

"Once the engine's fixed, it'll just be a straight shot out of here!" Mok claimed, as he jumped back into the engine's internals. Slithering past the cables, wiring, and mechanical doohickeys to get to his objective.

Turning on his plasma cutter, a rod with a rubberized handle connected via hose to a box of compressed air, where the ends of the rod consisted of two prongs that were microscopic needles. Which upon activation, fired a stream of gas from one end to the other, and turned into a stream of electrifying light that would've blinded Mok were it not for his appropriate eye protection.

As Mok cut through the access panel like a hot knife through butter, Faira mulled over in her thoughts about what Halden said in his outburst. Honing on the details in particular.

'Betrayal…his dad being a ship captain…' the pilot thought, as the ringing familiarity of Halden's face got louder and louder in her mind.

Mok sliced a sizeable hole in the access panel, and with care pulled it out and set it aside. Before removing his mask, and dropping both it and the plasma cutter on the steel floor. Peering into the dark cavernous shaft that expanded out into the rest of the engine, Mok flipped on a flashlight that was built into his wrist-radio and scanned what lay ahead before diving deep into the darkness.

Leaving Faira to continue the exploration of her mindscape, following the ringing of bells that took her down many corners past old memories, and trivial tidbits. The ringing got louder, and louder as she raced past snippet after snippet of knowledge until she came across the source.

Leading to a revelation that left Faira stunned.

'No way…' Faira thought, alongside Mok at what he found in the deepest parts of the engine.

"Yo Faira, we got a bit of a situation" Mok said, his voice cackling out of Faira's radio and pulling her out of her brow-raising thoughts.

"Huh? Yeah?"

"I don't think this ship's going anywhere anytime soon".

Faira blinked, and asked "what, why not?"

"Because the thing that's broken is a Gearoid Combobulator, and without it the whole engine won't combobulate!"

Mok emerged out of the engine, and stepped out with the aforementioned part in both hands. A cylinder with a transparent middle which showed a whole bunch of intricate moving parts that were shattered beyond repair.

"See?" Mok said, as he shook the Gearoid Combobulator to further emphasize his point.

"Ah bolts" was all Faira could bring herself to say after seeing the intricate work of mechanical art, now reduced to a peculiar oddity at a mystery shack.

Minutes later, in the common area. Faira, and Mok found themselves sitting at the dining table with nothing better to do. Phil assembling a sandwich.

"So what you're saying…" began Phil as he walked over to the table, and sat down with his sandwich on a plate being placed on the table.

"…is that were screwed".

"Basically" said Mok, as he shook the Gearoid Combobulator to add emphasis to his point.

"Stop shaking that" hissed Faira, as Mok did as she asked. Putting the demolished contraption on the table, as Faira looked down at the table. Eyes staring off into space, with her head being propped up by her hands.

A different thought taking up residence in her mind, one which was fueled by a cognitive hunch.

"It's at times like these, I wish we had escape pods".

"We're an S-class vessel – there are escape pods that are nearly half as big as we are" Mok pointed out, as Phil waved aside his point.

"Those things are over-designed, and you know it. Could be way smaller, and fit in one of these ships if they gave a damn" Phil remarked, as he took a bite out of the sandwich.

"Right Faira?" Phil asked, chewing on his sandwich bit before swallowing while Faira kept her eyes trained on the wooden surface of the table.

"Faira?"

"Hmmm?" Faira asked, as she looked up at Phil. One hand on the table, and the other still keeping her head propped up.

"Something on your mind?"

Faira sighed, and replied "nothing…nothing's on my mind".

"Funny, cause impending doom is on mine" Phil replied with a hint of sarcasm as he took another bite out of his sandwich.

"We're not going to die".

Phil scoffed after swallowing, and pointed his sandwich at her saying "I'd believe you if it wasn't for our engine being decommissioned, and our captain being not only an idiot, but also paranoid. Put that altogether, and you have space death all wrapped up on a pretty pink bow".

Faira frowned, not because of Phil's attitude but because he was absolutely right. Given their current situation, their chances of survival were slim. Sure, as it stands. The pirate ship likely wouldn't find them because of the nebula acting as a cloak suppressing their residual energy use with ionized noise, but from a purely numbers game. It was only a matter of time before they found a perpetually stationary target.

'He's right we're doomed…' Faira thought, almost cursing her captain for his combination of trust issues and terrible decisions. Only stopping when she considered what her hunch from earlier implied.

'Maybe I shouldn't judge…at least not yet…' Faira thought, when Mok posited something in his usual careless way.

"Wonder if the pirate ship has a compatible Gearoid Combobulator".

Phil, and Faira both blinked. The former in the middle of taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"Say that again?"

Mok shrugged, and replied "there's a chance that the pirate ship's engine could have a compatible Gearoid Combobulator. Chances are 50/50, but if it does and we can steal it. Then they'd be stuck here, and we could get away scot free".

Faira looked at Phil, while Phil lowered his sandwich and shrugged.

"It's worth a shot – but we're gonna have to board them for that to work".

That was the hard part, trying to get on the pirate ship to steal the engine part.

"Mok's got to be a part of the boarding party, while everyone else hunkers down in here. Trying to keep the pirates distracted" theorized Phil, as he took another bite out of his sandwich.

"But we're still gonna have to get them here…and not to mention that there's a lot of IF's to consider…" Faira replied, a part of her not liking the idea.

Especially the idea of potentially luring out the pirates by becoming bait.

"Well it's either that or we just accept our fate…and the former is a whole lot more appealing" Phil said, throwing his 2 cents on the table.

Faira nodded, and then got up from the table before turning around to head into the crew quarters. Phil watching her inquisitively, before asking "hey, where you going?"

"Just getting a second opinion".

Phil narrowed his eyes, and then scoffed before returning to his sandwich.

"Got any cheeseballs?" Mok asked, as Phil gave him a dejected look.

---

Halden lay on his back, a task made difficult thanks to his tail. But he was anything if not persistent, and so there he was. Staring at the ceiling, and steeped in an oddly satisfying pool of numbness.

Nothing seemed to matter in this unfeeling void, where Halden's resolve diminished and a single thought popped into the forefront.

'You really blew it Halden…' he thought, now that all the fight in him from before was long gone. Affording his mind a tablespoon of clarity.

He could've, and would've laid there in his own somber silence for hours until the end of his own making came. Were it not for a knock at the door that pulled him out of it.

"Yeah?" Halden asked, not bothering to move.

"Captain, it's me Faira".

'Ah Drell…' Halden thought, as he asked vacantly "how's the engine?"

"Not good, it can't be fixed".

Those words were the nail in Halden's coffin, as he uttered a dry "ah".

"But, Mok and Phil gave me an idea on how we could fix the engine. It's a crazy idea mind you, but it's all we got".

"Yeah sure, go ahead shoot" Halden said, not bothering to be invested in his reality anymore.

"We could lure the pirates over to our ship, have them board us to try and take it, while we infiltrate them and steal the component from their engine that we need replaced".

And just like that, Halden's investment in his reality returned.

"Are you out of your mind?" Halden exclaimed, as he rose up and looked at the door.

Faira smiled a little, having gotten a reaction from the captain even if it was confused shock with a smidge of annoyance.

"It's crazy I know, but it's all we got".

Halden then tilted his head to the side, and asked more pressingly "why tell me?"

"Because you're our captain, if we come up with a plan you need to know, and give us the all clear".

Halden went quiet, as Faira continued "because we're your crew, and even if you don't know us that well…we have to be able to trust each other to get things done…"

Faira stopped talking, and waited. Wondering what Halden was going to do next, but after an excruciating minute of ship ambience. The pilot was about to give up her bridge building, when Halden spoke.

"What would you do if I said no?"

Faira blinked, and turned around to face the door.

"Are you-" began Faira a little miffed, when she caught herself with a realization. One stemming from her earlier hunch.

"I mean…we'll drop it, cause I assume you've got something better in mind…because we have to trust each other. We have to".

Halden smirked, as he got up and before long the door slid open to reveal the ragged captain of this equally ragged ship.

"Hate to say it, but you're right. I don't plan on dying anytime soon, so we're all on the same boat".

Faira perked up a little, as she straightened up and gave a salute using her tail for once.

"So, are you going to make us veto the plan?"

Halden chortled, and replied "yeah right. That's actually a solid plan, it just needs some changes given who we're dealing with".

Faira quirked a brow, as Halden walked past her with the door to his room sealing shut.

Halden saw the look the pilot gave him so he replied "they're space pirates Faira, and most space pirates have a cut and dry modus operandi depending on the pirate".

Halden turned back while walking to face Faira, saying "ship jackers like this usually go for the engines, engage in a dogfight, knock them out, and then send a smaller craft like a 2-seater drop pod to enter from the cargo hold to take their prize".

Faira looked impressed, as Halden turned around the second he emerged into the common area.

Phil was taken aback from Halden's resurgence, genuinely surprised that their low bar of a captain was back.

"And here comes our fearless leader" Phil remarked, as Mok couldn't help but snicker just a little.

Halden heard the snarky comment of course, and right now he figured he deserved it. Since good public opinion had effectively run dry.

"Phil, Mok" Halden announced as he turned to face the table.

"I've got a plan".

---

Aboard the rusted rock of metal, and thrusters. Captain Grisma, a hulking brute of a beast with two hulking arms, and equally thick muscular legs. Stormed into the spacious cockpit of his ship. Clad in a patchwork armor fit for a king of trash, cape included.

Grisma asked his one, and only pilot "Krelp, you said you had something for me?"

Krelp, the Skeezelblorf pilot, a rotund creature with no neck, a reptilian snout protruding from the chest, a tail, and four legs that doubled as arms.

Waved his tail as a gesture of acknowledgement, as the pilot dressed in an unassuming shirt, and confusingly designed pants. Pushed some buttons on the dashboard in front, and said "I found the ship, captain".

His voice coming out like a nasally wheeze.

The pirate ship flew through the sea of nebulous gas, with the shape of the Red Herring – their prize appearing through the cosmic fog.

Grisma grinned, brandishing a thousand serrated teeth.

"Good work Krelp, I'll tell Satch and Billet to prep for boarding" Grisma said, as he punched Krelp in the side. Strong, and hard.

The pilot winced in pain, and nodded. Smiling as though it was fine, and that Grisma's punch didn't hurt at all.

"Of course…" Krelp said with his teeth gritted until Grisma left. Only then allowing for the pain he held down to be released, as a low agonizing hiss.

In the vessel's cargo hold, Satch, a Grannox with a large and muscular form. Clad in form-fitting spandex that was armored around the chest, legs, and neck. Checked the equipment on the 2-seater drop pod that served as him, and Billet's chariot.

A cramped ovoid shuttle, with a lift-up cockpit canopy and a small set of thrusters on the back.

The doors slid open, and in came Billet. The laidback Tarkan who strutted in like he owned the place.

"Satch, baby why you be digging through the pod? Worried about our chances in snatching up our latest prize?" asked the bipedal yellow-skinned creature, whose body resembled a banana.

Sliding up next to the Grannox female, who bared her teeth at her colleague of convenience.

"There's nothing to worry about, Billet. This job isn't going to be any different than the others, so long as you don't mess it up" Satch said, taking note of all the equipment that was stored inside the inventory on the side of the drop pod.

"Babe come on, when have I ever been known to fumble?" Billet asked, moving around to Satch's left side and absent mindedly throwing a skinny, lanky arm around the female's neck.

Satch didn't like that, snapping to look at Billet and growling with a murderous glare. Prompting Billet to back off, and pull his arm away and bring up his hands in defense.

"I have a list, and it gets bigger everyday".

Billet headed over to the cockpit, the armored glass of which opened up with a hiss when Billet approached. Satch having finished taking stock, before closing up the pod's inventory.

"Females first" Billet said while gesturing to the passenger seat, as Satch stepped into the chair and strapped herself in. Glaring at Billet the entire time.

Billet didn't care, having been used to all the annoyed and murderous glances Satch often threw his way. Climbing into the pilot's seat, and closing the canopy before signaling to the pilot that they were heading out.

The cargo hold open, the relatively tiny drop pod rose into a hover then blasted off. Flying out of the pirate ship which faced the motionless Red Herring.

"Just think Krelp, soon that ship will be ours and imagine what it could go for in the black market?" Grisma speculated, as he paced loudly in the cockpit of his vessel.

"Absolutely" Krelp replied halfheartedly at the prospect of stealing and selling ships, and not necessarily at his interest in the Red Herring. The ship had the capability to fire Proton Missiles after all, and it was far from military as far as Krelp could tell – so for an all-rounder like that to pack some serious heat.

Well, it managed to stir the pilot's deeper curiosities.

Outside the drop pod made it to the Red Herring's cargo hold, the ramp of which Billet got open by using the pod's wireless functionality to transmit a program which wrenched control of the hydraulics over to him. A tried and true tactic that worked 100 times in the past, and would work 100 times more.

The ramp unfolded, and the cargo hold exposed. The drop pod flew into the target ship's rear. Billet announcing to the pilot, and the captain via radio "entering the ship now, cool cat".

The drop pod managed to finagle itself past several crates of red spice, and touch down as the ramp was forced closed. The cargo hold re-pressurizing, and filling with a breathable atmosphere automatically.

"Love, we got air" Billet informed, as the canopy opened and the two passenger hopped out onto the cold metal floor. From the moment Satch hit the ground, she was on red-alert. Eyeing her surroundings cautiously, as Billet walked up to one of the crates without a care. Knocking on it, sniffing it, and then finally licking it.

"Billet would you knock it off!" Satch exclaimed annoyingly, having seen her forced partner-in-crime get a taste of steel.

"I think this crate's got red spice in it, alongside all the others".

Satch rolled her eyes, questioning her captain's choice of employment as she opened up the inventory and pulled put with her tail a slugger. A two-handed cannon that fired bullets the size of small rocks, which Satch managed to wield thanks to a creative application of her tail.

Billet walked over to the door, where there was an old bulky control panel adorned on the wall beside it.

"Man, check this out Satch. It looks ancient".

"This whole ship looks ancient" Satch shot down, as Billet pulled out a small blocky square and stuck it onto the control panel. Wondering for a moment if the device would even work on something this old, when the sound of metal hitting metal grabbed his, and Satch's attention.

"What was that?" Satch asked, as she took aim at the source of the noise. Billet simply looking in the direction the noise came from, with a cautious hand placed on the blaster holstered on his up.

"What was what sugar?"

"That noise nimrod!" Satch hissed, as she walked towards the sound with the barrel of her gun aimed forward, beside her head.

Billet kept an eye on his ever-cautious partner, while pushing some buttons on the device he planted on the control panel. It worked its magic, and unlocked the door leading out of the cargo hold.

Unaware of the shadow that zipped past him from the other side.

Satch closed in on the source of the noise, snapping around a spice container with her trigger tail at the ready.

To her surprise there was nothing there, other than the covering of a metal grate. Which looking up came from an overhead ventilation shaft.

'What the…' thought Satch, as a worrying realization dawned on her. But before she could capitalize on it, the drop pod they came on came to life.

The canopy closing, as the thrusters fired up.

"What the damn Drell?" Billet exclaimed, as he drew his blaster.

Satch wasting no time in firing off a couple shots at the pod. All of which hit, with none managing to stop it.

"Whoo boy, here we go!" said Halden excitedly, sitting inside the drop pod's cockpit. The flight controls in his hands, as Mok tapped into the pod's radio and made some much needed modifications. Connecting some wires from the dashboard onto his wrist-radio.

"It's done, now we can talk to Faira and the others while those two can't" Mok informed, before adding "my wrist-radio will block their incoming signals and stop them from reaching their ship".

Halden chuckled saying "gotta love radios, and their limited range". Absorbing, and adapting to the controls before him in the blink of an eye.

"Patch a line to Phil, and tell him it's time to open the cargo hold" Halden said, as Billet and Satch turned their attention to their shuttle getting jacked.

But all the rounds they fired, and the pleas they made for their captain wouldn't matter. For when the cargo holds ramp opened without warning, the Grannox and Tarkan were flung into the luminous depths of the Vortex Nebula. While the drop pod escaped the confines of the Red Herring, and made a beeline for the pirate ship.

"Aaand their out!" said Phil, who was grouped up with Faira and Thugg in the engine room. The door to which was sealed shut, while Phil typed away on the computer console that was only supposed to access the engine – but thanks to Mok's handiwork had a line patched to the cargo hold.

Thugg had her arms crossed over her chest, furious at the plan that was currently underway.

Sensing the tension, Faira put a hand on Thugg's arm saying "our captain knows a lot about how space pirates operate – for some reason, and Mok's the engineer. They were our best bet, and a drop pod is only made for 2".

Thugg grumbled, as the cargo hold ramp closed up.

"Hey I think it's great – this way if something bad happens to him on the way back. We can look forward to a newer, and hopefully better captain" Phil said, as Faira shot him a 'not funny' look.

Thugg, meanwhile, eased up at the thought.

"I ain't planning on kicking the bucket that easy" said Halden over the engine room's radio, startling Phil.

"Ah, hey captain…" Phil said sheepishly, as Faira smirked.

"And you guys better not plan on deserting me" Halden warned.

"We'll be right behind you captain" Faira affirmed resolutely, as Thugg and Phil both looked a little dubiously at. Neither one fully grasping the origin of Faira's change of heart.

---

Halden knew Mok had to be smart, he did double duty as both the science officer and the engineer. But he never quite grasped just how smart the little Hookbeak was, that he was smart enough to rewire his radio's circuitry to modulate their voices to sound like the swash-buckling intruders. Or rewire the Red Herring's computer systems, or hack into foreign radio channels. It seemed easier to list out what Mok couldn't do with tech than could.

Approaching the pirate ship's rear, the radio came to life with a single straight from the vessel in front.

"Satch, Billet…why the early return?" Grisma asked from his end, his voice echoing a lax daunting demeanor.

Mok, and Halden shared a look as Halden said "I'll be Billet, you be Satch".

Mok nodded, as Halden got himself into the mindset of someone like Billet, which just meant he had to be himself.

As sobering of a realization as that may have been.

"We need more firepower cool cat, cause that ship's backing some serious heat" Halden said, as Mok put on a performance.

"I hate to say it but the idiot Tarkan's right".

Halden blinked, giving Mok a perplexed glance. His voice conveyed such a convincing annoyance, it was surreal.

"What? I took acting when I was in secondary school" Mok whispered with the mic turned off.

"Really? The slugger and nettler you two carried weren't enough?"

"My pretty little nettler wasn't really a match for the six Hookbeak's armed to the teeth with T-46's".

"Type-46's? They were special forces?" Grisma asked with a hint of skepticism.

"Can confirm, they were T-46's and definitely spec-ops" Mok confirmed, maintaining his annoyed disposition.

"I see…" Grisma said, the skepticism waning as he added "I'll get the armory unlocked, and bring out some of our rarer amenities…"

He spoke with a palpable envy, like a starved child looking at a hunk of freshly cooked steak. Halden could almost hear the lip licking sound that would've followed.

The radio chatter died, and the cargo hold opened up for their drop pod to enter. After landing, and re-pressurizing. Halden and Mok left the drop pod, their only weapons being their wit and quick footedness.

In no time flat, Mok zipped away after saying "I'll go get the Combobulator".

"Mok we should aaaand he's gone…" Halden said to himself, as the cockpit canopy closed behind him.

The sound of the door connecting the cargo hold to the rest of the ship opening, and closing. Being the only indication that Mok's presence was elsewhere.

Letting out a sigh, Halden went after the little guy. Wanting to ensure that he didn't get spotted by the pirates. Sneaking a glance into the connecting hallway, and seeing that it was empty. Halden snuck into the passageway dimly lit by crusty lights, Halden skulked around like a thief unwanted. A role Halden found to be familiar, and fitting as took calculated risks ducking into each room briefly in search of Mok.

He didn't get far in the ship, as the second he got to the first door on the opposite side of the hall. The imposing figure of captain Grisma emerged down the hall, humming a quaint little tune where its pleasantness was highlighted by the depth of his tone.

Without thinking and with haste, Halden hit the control panel for the door and ducked into it to avoid getting spotted. Finding himself in a room that was obviously the ship's infirmary.

It was a little worse for wear, much like the rest of the vessel but not enough to be a piece of work to operate in.

'Saved by the door' Halden thought, as he took one single step forward and slipped.

"The…Drell?" muttered Halden, as he looked around and noticed the sea of bottles all around him. Scattered all over the floor.

'Is this what I tripped on?' Halden pondered, as he picked up one of the bottles and got up.

'It's a beer bottle…' Halden thought, as he looked at all the bottles and thought 'they're all beer bottles'.

By the examination table, a single three fingered reptilian hand gripped the comfy surface. Giving rise to a Kelzat female who rose to a fairly tall height of 5 foot 5. Her head normally a bulbous snout, until it opened to crack a yawn. Unfolding like a blooming flower, exposing a number of serrated teeth within.

But the teeth, nor the three emerald eyes oriented around the base of her mouth – which protruded from the entirety of her cranium. Weren't what grabbed Halden's attention, instead it was the robe she wore covering everything below the neck.

A garb of dark blue a faint white trim, and a bronze colored belt securing it around her waist.

'A Kelzat healer…' Halden thought, as the female blinked and rubbed the eye that was furthest on the right.

"Hey…" the healer said, while slumping her shoulders and head as though both were weighed down by an invisible burden.

"Uh…hi" Halden replied, as he put on his best poker face.

"Gods I have a headache…" the healer grumbled, rubbing her horned head. Which got more, and more spiky further back, ending with a pair of twin curved horns facing away from her face.

Glancing up at Halden the healer asked "think you could go over to that counter and get me a jar of Filbernap from the top?"

"Filbernap?"

"Green leaves that are circular with orange spots" the healer explained in a half-awake drone. Gesturing to the aforementioned cabinet, while waving her wrist.

Halden headed over to the cabinet, as the healer got her bearings and burped unceremoniously while Halden opened the cabinet and plucked out the jar that was requested.

"Here" Halden said, as he gave her the jar.

"Thanks" the healer replied, as she opened the jar and plucked out a handful of the stuff and unceremoniously shoved it into her flower mouth. She chewed on the ingredients, and swallowed with hesitation. Shuddering at the taste, but immediately feeling a little better.

"Did it work?"

"It'll take a bit of time…" the healer replied, as she placed the jar on the examination table.

"Ah".

An ounce of clarity in the healer's domain, she looked at Halden with a better more inscrutable eye.

"Y'know I don't think I've ever seen you around here, like at all…"

Halden chuckled sheepishly, dipping into the pool of charm he always assumed he has.

"Ah, yeah about that…see I'm kinda new".

"New?"

Halden nodded, and replied "yeah I uh…came aboard a couple days ago to handle all the cargo stuff".

The healer tilted her head to the side, before asking "what day is it?"

Halden blinked, and asked "excuse me?"

"The date, what is it?"

"You…don't know?"

The female scratched the side of her spiky head and replied "not sure, last I remember before blacking out it was Thursday".

An expression of shock flashed onto Halden's face, as the healer asked "I take it ain't Thursday?"

"It's been a whole week…" Halden began before rubbing the base of his beak saying "wait a minute, you meant to tell me that you've been out cold since last week?!"

The healer shrugged, and replied "that about sums it up".

'I shouldn't be surprised, given all the beer bottles lying around' Halden thought, as the healer drummed her clawed fingers upon the examination table before saying.

"So uh, welcome to the team and stuff…I guess…"

She was still far from over the hangover that clearly dragged her down, and Halden saw an opportunity to finally get somewhere.

"So uh hey, I'm still kinda new to this whole thing and the captain wasn't super clear, but he's like…kinda scary so I didn't want to make him mad so…"

"Yeah, yeah what'd you want?"

"Could you point me in the direction of the engine room? I was told to go there for something, but he wasn't clear on the directions".

"It's literally the next door over bud, right beside the infirmary".

Halden did a mental face palm, thinking 'me and my stupid luck'.

Before Halden turned to leave, another idea popped into his head, one that was a bit of a long shot than the first.

"FYI, you wouldn't happen to know the lockdown release code would you?"

"Lockdown release?"

"Just curious…see on my last gig I made secret beer runs for the boys when we were locked down for the night. It's how we smuggled in the good stuff without our captain knowing".

The perpetual lazy eye that the healer had was replaced with a renewed flash of interest after hearing Halden's words.

"What kind of stuff?" she asked lasciviously, her posture shifting to a suggestive tilt. Hip out to the side, with one hand gripping it firmly.

Halden grinned, and unfurled a verbal list of all the toughest, strongest, zestiest booze the far edge of the Sagittarius arm had to offer. He only got to his fourth pick, Raxxan Vulgarity before he was cut off by the healer.

"Damn I could go for a vulgarity right about now…" the healer cooed, sounding lustful at the mere thought of savoring a sip of what Halden named.

'I knew she was alcoholic but jeez' Halden thought, as the healer kept her eyes closed. Putting herself in her wildest dipsomaniac fantasies that bordered on disturbing, given how she started to rub her hands over various questionable parts of her robed figure.

"Hey focus" Halden said, as he tapped the healer lightly on the arm. Given that time was of the essence, and that for whatever reason. The sight of this Kelzat healer thoroughly aroused, turned him off faster than an asteroid in free-fall.

The healer blinked, snapping to back to reality and moving her hands away from her left thigh and from the inside of her mouth.

"R-Right, yeah…so I don't know it normally, but I did overhear the captain talking about it. I was drunk out of my mind, and passed out – Hezby had to drag me to the meeting room. It's 4327 Cagliostro".

'Huh, Cagliostro…' Halden thought, the name sparking an old bit of trivia about an old fabled ship from the golden age.

"Alright well, I better go – nice talking to you uh…"

"Kalya, names Kalya or Kal for short".

Halden nodded, as Kalya asked "and you?"

"Halden, or Hal for short".

Kalya tilted her head to the side slightly, watching Halden curiously as he left the infirmary.

Fortunately the decrepit hall was empty, and entering the engine room the captain came across the sight of a Skeezelblorf on the ground. Arms outstretched, spit drooling from his mouth with a wrench lying somewhere nearby, while Mok had his hands full trying to pull out a Gearoid Combobulator from an exposed bit of the rectangular engine. Wires holding the complex apparatus down.

"Mok what the Drell happened?"

"Had to knock him out, now help me!" Mok demanded, as Halden joined in. Seeing no other choice, while thinking to himself.

'Is he usually this efficient?'

Mok alone would've been unable to pry the Gearoid Combobulator free, but with Halden's help they got the much needed device without a hitch.

Mok looked at the device in his hands with glee, marveling briefly at the series of intricate gear systems that lay dormant waiting to be awakened with a stream of energy.

Halden, meanwhile, looked at the unconscious Skeezelblorf. Taking note of his larger size in relation to Mok, and thinking 'note to self, don't ever get on that gremlin's bad side'.

For a moment Halden chuckled at the spontaneous nickname, 'heh, gremlin…fits him perfectly'.

They left the engine room, and were on their way to getting off the ship without incident. Until they entered the cargo hold where they came face to face with captain Grisma.

A large 7 foot tall behemoth with two meaty arms, and equally meaty legs.

Armored up with a shadow of intimidation.

"Going somewhere boys?" Grisma asked sarcastically before shifting to a more menacing grimace.

He was armed, carrying a slugger impressively with one hand.

Escape seemed like a distant dream, but they were so close. So Halden improvised, grabbing Mok and exclaiming "lockdown code is 4327 Cagliostro" before lifting the avian half his size and throwing him over the space pirate with all his might.

Of all the things Grisma expected in response, throwing a Hookbeak over him was not on that list. Regardless, Grisma fired his weapon aimed at Halden who managed to sidestep the attack. A bullet striking the door behind Halden, as Mok landed on the closed canopy of the drop pod.

Halden started running around with swiftness behind his steps, dodging shot after shot from Grisma as Mok got the canopy opened and hopped inside. Grisma turned his attention over to Mok, taking aim at the engineer but before he could fire. Halden threw himself at the pirate out of desperation. Wrapping his arms, and tail around the larger biped. Who narrowly missed his target, with the bullet flying over Mok's head.

"Get out of here! Go!" Halden shouted, as Mok took control of the pod and closed the cockpit canopy.

"Arrgh, get off of me!" Grisma growled, as he ran backwards against a wall and slammed Halden repeatedly against a wall. Over, and over, and over again. Each time Halden uttering a pained "ow" which deteriorated with each slam.

After the 5th slam, Halden's grip slacked and he fell onto his rear. As the drop pod rose into the air, as Grisma took aim yet again. But the opening of the cargo hold killed that plan so Grisma grabbed Halden and lunged out of the cargo hold and closed the door behind him.

Avoiding Billet, and Satch's fate by a hair's breadth.

Halden slumped against the wall, haphazardly been thrown against it. His back was seeped with pain, and his head was spinning and his vision was fading. The sound of Mok leaving could be heard from behind the door, the loud rumbling of the drop pod's engines which got quieter and quieter in the span of seconds.

Soon everything turned quiet and his world turned dark. In the abyssal aftermath, Halden was filled with a fleeting sense of relief. One that sank amidst the pendulum of discomfort in his head, and was replaced by a more desperate wish.

'Come back for me'.

---

The world ebbed, and flowed into Halden's slowly opening eyes. Light bleeding in like a flashbang that dimmed to give way to a clearer picture. In it, Halden saw the beastly form of Grisma lift up the Skeezelblorf Halden saw knocked out in the engine room earlier.

"What do you mean the engine isn't working?!" Grisma growled, as he bared his teeth and blew hot air out of his nostrils.

"T-That's just it captain! The Gearoid Combobulator is missing, and without it the engine won't run".

Grisma roared, as he dropped the Skeezelblorf to the ground before punching the wall beside him. Putting a sizeable dent in the reinforced steel, and snarling angrily.

"That ship was putty in our hands, and now it's gone and we're STUCK HERE!"

Grisma got even angrier, and punched the wall even harder. Warping the steel even further, as he shoved his fist into the metal which bent inwards. And once he pulled out his hand, and growled with rage. He started pacing around, showing the deep metal crater he left behind on the wall.

But none of that was more terrifying of a thought than the affirmation that the Red Herring was gone.

"No" Halden blurted out in a moment of panic, attracting the attention of everyone in the infirmary.

"Well, he's awake" Kalya said, as she stuffed a bottle of beer into her flower mouth. Latching onto the neck of the bottle, and holding it with considerable grip.

Grisma glared at Halden as he marched over to the Hookbeak, before towering over him like an Epic. Making the bound captain regret making a sound.

"You!"

"Me…" Halden replied meekly.

"You infiltrated my ship, stole a Gearoid Combobulator, and left me and my crew here stranded!" Grisma growled, Halden's warped meager reflection appearing on the surface of the pirate captain's ivory dentures.

"I presume it's too late to say that, that wasn't me but my twin brother?" Halden asked with an itty bitty bit of sarcasm.

"I commend you captain" Grisma pulled back, no longer casting a dark shadow over the Hookbeak.

"Aha, I think you are mistaken. I'm uh…I'm not…"

"We found your captain's badge in your jacket pocket when we searched you for weapons" Grisma informed, as he showed the aforementioned badge he held in his hand. Clutched in the grasp of 4 meaty fingers.

"Oh".

"You risked life and limb to save your ship, sacrificing your life to bail out your crew" Grisma said with a dramatic flair as he paced around with hands behind his back.

Before walking over to Halden's head, and leaning in close to say "even IF it means them abandoning you and never coming back".

Halden's heart raced a little, the pounding matching the pervasive throbbing of his brain.

"No, they'll be back" Halden said, as Grisma saw the flicker of panic on Halden's face and grinned toothily.

"I'm pretty sure they're long gone by now, Hezby what was their last trajectory after we lost radar visual?" Grisma asked, as he glanced back at the Skeezelblorf. Who'd managed to get back onto his feet by now, and dust himself off.

"It was headed away from our ship, based on trajectory since last known position. They're probably headed out of the nebula".

Grisma grinned, and returned to look at Halden. Who looked a little mortified, but wound up laughing it off.

"They'll be back, I know they would".

"It's been over an hour since you were out cold, and we lost visual in the first 30 minutes".

Halden's bravado faltered, and his insecurities emerged.

'They left me…they actually left me…' Halden thought, as feelings of anger and hatred began to stir in his mind and heart.

Grisma enjoyed watching Halden's face contort in all manner of different ways, stretched apart by various emotions that took precedence in his mind.

"Now then captain…" Grisma began, as he dropped his casual demeanor and put on a more menacing façade.

"…tell me what you know about that ship".

Halden was about to spit a "screw you", when the entire ship shook vigorously. The lights flickering, cabinets opening with containers falling out, and everyone catching a case of imbalance.

"Hezby what the Drell is going on?!" Grisma exclaimed, as the ship calmed down.

Hezby, who'd fallen onto the underside of his circular body, quickly accessed the ship's computer using the screen of his wrist-radio. He worked in a panicked frenzy, until he came to a startling conclusion at the end of his pursuit for answers.

"Captain we're being attacked by a ship, it's the one we attacked before! It's returned, and has now locked onto us".

Grisma growled angrily, as Halden's worries faded away. A smirk of superiority taking its place, as Hezby added.

"Their sending us a short-range message".

"Put it on speaker".

Hezby did as asked, and from the speakers built into the corners of the infirmary. Faira's voice rippled throughout the airwaves.

"This is pilot Faira of the Red Herring, we have our weapons locked onto your ship and had made contact with the authorities prior. There's no escape so do us all a favor and surrender both yourselves, and our captain".

Grisma glared at Halden, who looked at him and grinned with a smugness that was deliciously punchable.

"Told you they'd come back".

---

Nedira

Spinning to the tune of a white dwarf the lonely planet, a blue marble of endless oceans. The only survivor among its siblings that wasn't spun out of the star's reach, or pulled into its excruciating embrace. Had long since been visited by the ship that planned on making it their last first destination.

The Red Herring stood upon one of 10 landing pads, its cargo ramp down with a slew of Hookbeaks and some Grannox workers loading the ship's cargo out using forklifts.

Outside the office of the harbormaster, the Hookbeak in charge of overseeing all matters surrounding his port. Faira waited with a burning impatience, wondering 'what's taking him so long?'

She looked to the two H.S.P officers that stood guard outside the harbormaster's office. Hookbeaks that were tall, and muscular. Nowhere near as large as Thugg, but still larger than Faira. They donned the colors of the H.S.P, a royal blue and white. Their eyes covered up by a sleek black visor which hid its visual advancements.

They were emotionless, expressionless, and Faira began tapping her feet upon the laminate floor made to look like wood. The space she was in invoking the office-core aesthetic. While waiting, Faira's phone rang for the 5th time since her wait began. The officers paying her no mind, or moving for that matter as she answered.

"Are they-" began Phil on the other end before Faira cut him off with a shadow of annoyance following her voice.

"No they're not done questioning the captain, they weren't done a minute ago, or the minute before then!"

"Alright I get it, yeesh. What's taking them so long anyway?"

"No clue, it isn't standard procedure to take this long. Especially when the pirates were already apprehended" Faira replied, slowly dying from the restlessness.

"Good thing me, and the others decided to head out when we did" Phil said confidently.

"Couldn't even wait for your pilot, and captain. Maybe the captain was onto something about us being mutinous" Faira joked.

"Hey you chose to stay behind, that's your decision" Phil replied, before ending the call with "drinks are here, Phil out".

Faira pocketed the phone into one of her jacket pockets, before resuming her waiting. Sitting on some large stuffy chair in a row of similar seats, which terminated with a tall potted plant.

The rhythm of her foot clacking into the ambient abyss for another minute or so before the door opened, and out came Halden looking absolutely exhausted.

Bored out of his mind.

"I'm sorry about all the questioning, I just wanted to be thorough" the one who did the questioning said, an H.S.P officer, and member of the anti-piracy division. Identified as such by the tag that was stitched onto his buttoned up long coat.

Halden waved off the officer's apology, as he walked up to Faira who stood up. Eager to finally be done with this place.

The harbormaster saw the officers out, before returning to his office as the police took their leave. Heading into the port to return to their ship, and head out.

"What took you so long?" Faira asked with concern, as Halden shrugged.

"Just a lot of questions, nothing not-standard" Halden replied, putting up a false front of confidence.

Faira looked a little skeptically at her captain for his response, as Halden said "Spode, I could use a drink right about now to wash all that down…by the way, where's everyone else?"

Faira shook her head, and replied "they gave up waiting, and went to a bar not far from here".

"Not a bad idea – why didn't you go?"

Faira shrugged, and replied "eh, I thought I'd wait it out. Besides, someone had to. So may as well be me".

Halden smiled in response, his heart touched by her words even if it was only for a moment.

"Thanks, I appreciate it".

There was a genuine sentiment to Halden's voice that Faira's ears picked up.

"O-Oh, uh…you're welcome" Faira replied, finding the authenticity a little jarring, but not necessarily unwelcoming.

"I could go for some drinks right about now, especially after all that questioning…" Halden said, his shoulders sagging when he mentioned all the questioning.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go".

Halden nodded, and replied "lead the way" before letting Faira be his guide.

All while thinking 'besides, there's one more thing I have to do and a bar would be the best place for it'.

The bar in question was a fairly musky place, a real sailors place. It wasn't so much seedy, as it was 'rough and tumble'.

The Tell-Tale Heart was its name.

Inside, past several clustered groups of Hookbeak's, the occasional Grannox, and the rare sighting of a Skeezelblorf. Were Phil, Mok, and Thugg. All seated, or in the case of Thugg standing, around a table in the back corner. A section of the bar that was dusty, murky, and vandalized. The walls scribbled incoherent gibberish layered on over the years, with one corner decipherable. Reading out as "THE GOD THAT WILL COME IS-", the remainder of the scribble being lost in the mass of graffiti that made up the remainder of the wall.

"And if it isn't our valiant captain" said Phil, as he raised his glass to the captain's arrival.

"And what am I? Chop liver?" Faira asked sarcastically, as she and her captain approached the table and took a seat.

"You're more like a chopped kidney, useful but a royal pain to deal with" Phil replied, as Faira responded in kind with a light smack using her tail.

"You deserved that" Halden said, as Thugg nodded in agreement with the captain, for once.

Everyone seated, Halden looked to his crew. Thugg with her arms crossed over her chest, and standing tall with an imposing stature given her status as a rogue. Mok still fiddling with his wrist-radio, a screw driver embedded deep into the device's internals. Phil sitting casually with a drink in hand, and Faira who was caught in a bubble of cheer thanks to Phil.

'A crew is nothing without a captain, and a captain's nothing without a crew' Halden thought resolutely, as he spoke.

"Everyone".

All eyes fell on Halden, all of which were confused.

Letting out a sigh, Halden continued saying "I'm sorry. I accused you all for being treasonous, and was the one who got us in this mess in the first place".

There wasn't an ounce of deception to be found in Halden's words, at least none that Phil, and Thugg could find.

"Yeah, we know" Phil replied with his usual brand of sarcasm before taking a sip of his drink, and adding "but thanks for acknowledging it". Thugg nodded in agreement with Phil's sentiment.

Halden sighed, and said "Spode damn it Phil, couldn't you just let me give out a heartwarming apology for my misgivings?"

"Nope" Phil replied in earnest, as Halden uttered an annoyed groan.

"Alright, whatever. Look the point is…I didn't trust you guys that much when I came on as your captain. And that was a mistake, one I hope I will never make again".

Halden put his hand out in the middle of the table, and said "I'll be putting my trust in you, and you're gonna have to put your trust in me. For a crew is nothing without their captain, and a captain is nothing without their crew. Alright?"

Phil, Thugg, and Faira all looked to one another. Mok too busy with his own business to look away.

"Absolutely" Faira said, being the first to put her hand on top of the captain's.

"Eh sure, you got us into that mess but you also got us out. So apology accepted or whatever" Phil said, as he chugged down most of his drink. Put the glass down, and put his hand on Halden, and Faira's.

Thugg rolled her eyes, and put her large meaty hand on the pile.

All eyes now fell on Mok, who was too preoccupied with his tinkering to care. Requiring Thugg to reach over, grab Mok's hand and place it on the growing pile.

"Hey" Mok said, as Thugg glared him into submission.

"Okay, okay…I'm in for whatever this is…"

"Great, now let's go rob that bank" said Phil jokingly, as Mok blinked and looked at the lanky Hookbeak with shock.

"What?!"

"Relax, we're not robbing a bank" Faira said to ease Mok's assumed fear, until he said.

"Aw, but I got this thing I built a week ago to jam electronics. This would be the best time to give it a field test!"

Faira, Halden, and Thugg looked at Mok in surprise.

"So, robbing a bank?" Phil asked sheepishly to the others, fully knowing what the answer was going to be.

"Well cap, it's your call" Faira pointed out, cheekily.

"I'm vetoing that plan by executive order" Halden said, he'd have said something more in-tune with the moment's humor. But from what little time he spent with Mok, he just knew that he was serious.

Phil pat Mok on the shoulder, and said "ah well, I'm sure there'd be other opportunities to rob a bank".

"Don't you mean test out Mok's invention?" asked Faira.

"No".

Halden sighed, thinking 'I need a drink'.

The night evolved into many rounds of drinking, as Halden and his new crew drowned themselves in spirits and merriment. All of which vanished into the night, and became one with the infinite stars. All brimming with boundless possibility.

A/N: I haven't written a fanfiction in a long time, and I only got back because I had this idea burning in my head after hitting space stage in Spore for the 3rd time. I want to make more short stories, continuing and expanding upon the crew of the Red Herring, so there'll probably be more.

I'm also going to edit this some more, so it'll probably change a bit in the future.