Turbulence
Fox stepped out of the shuttle and the cold hit him in the face. His boots stirred up a dusting of snow on the tarmac and his breath formed small clouds as he exhaled. He guessed it was a few degrees below freezing, but still having his thicker winter fur under the flight suit, he was nice and warm. The same could not be said for Slippy, whose skin seemed to take on a bluish hue, despite him being dressed in a thick puffer jacket and with a scarf around his neck.
Side by side, they walked towards a hangar, and Fox surveyed the complex. There was a row of low and boxy buildings along the runway, built with grey metal and concrete, except for the terminal in white and glass. A handful of personal vessels and small freighters, most only capable of atmospheric flight, were scattered on the landing pads. A small control tower stood in solitude against a backdrop of mountains. It looked like any small regional airport, albeit old and worn, with flaking paint and the odd crack in the asphalt.
A good cover for a secret testing facility, Fox mused as he approached the hangar entrance with his tail wagging behind him. He was looking forward to the day's activities, as well as to meeting the lady waiting for them. Fara Phoenix was smartly dressed in a dark woollen overcoat and a beret with generous openings for her fennec ears.
"You're looking good, Fox." She took her hands out her pockets to embrace him.
"You too," said Fox. He was about to give her a bear hug, when he felt a bump against his stomach. Holding her at arm's-length, he stared at the slight bulge on Fara's coat. "Are you...?"
"Smooth as always, Fox." Fara laughed softly. "Yes, we're expecting."
Slippy shook her hand, and Fox's eyes were drawn to Fara's finger. It was adorned with a diamond wedding ring, larger and surely much more expensive than the one he had given Krystal. Fox smiled. Years ago, he might have been jealous seeing his old flame from the academy pregnant and married to another man, but now that he had his own family, he was thrilled that Fara would have the same experience. His smile turned into a smirk. "I'll tell you, kits are hard work though."
"Pfft, you only have one!" Slippy rolled his eyes, yet grinned his face off at the same time. "Try having four."
They entered the hangar and Fara nodded towards the middle of three ships lined up in its centre. "Still, it's the reason why I won't take that baby for a spin myself."
Two young women with familiar faces, both dressed in flight suits, stood in front of the fighter craft. Fay Collins's spaniel ears flapped about as she turned to face Fox and stood to attention, while Miyu Cabbot had a cheeky smirk on her muzzle as she looked up to salute Fox.
"Enough of that, my friends," said Fox with a smile as he returned the lynx's greeting.
"How is Krystal?" Fay asked.
"She's studying for a civilian pilot's licence and hates the theory with a passion." Fox shook his head. "She just wants to jump into the cockpit and wing it."
"That sure sounds like her." Miyu chuckled.
"How does she feel about you taking on test flights?" Slippy asked. "She does know, right?"
Fox shrugged. "She knows enough."
"You're not keeping secrets from her, are you?" Slippy gave Fox a quizzical look.
You assume that I can, Fox thought, but she rarely used her secret powers on him anyway, and never to pry. He had told her that he had accepted a consulting contract with Space Dynamics, in addition to his job at the academy, and she had accepted his reasoning that they would be able to save up more money for any future expedition to Cerinia. She did not know that he would actually be flying. He suspected that it would not sit well with her. It wasn't fair that he would get in the air, while she was stuck at home. He knew that he was protecting her, like he had done after the Aparoid Invasion, but he had a reason. Marcus had a bond with Krystal that Fox couldn't and shouldn't compete with. The kit needed his mother more than his father. It was that simple, at least according to Fox.
Fox eyed the three starfighters, their sleek silver hulls and blue G-Diffuser pods were a familiar sight to him. After all, Fay and Miyu had flown them while seconded to Star Fox as part of the Light Arwing test programme. A scaled down and more budget friendly version of the original Arwing, the model was fast and nimble but lacked somewhat in weaponry and shield strength compared to his own Arwing II.
"Space Dynamics latest pride and joy." Fara beamed. "The army has placed an order of fifty craft. Bill Grey's Bulldog Squadron has already been equipped with theirs, and the Husky Squadron's allotment is on the production line."
He recognised Fay and Miyu's call signs painted on the fighters to the left and the right, and looked for anything distinguishing the third ship. "What's so special about this one, though?"
"What's on the inside!" Slippy gave Fox a knowing grin. "You see, I reverse engineered this tech from a Cerinian fighter, and-"
"Hang on!" Fox raised his voice and held up a hand to interrupt his friend. "I thought The Protectors destroyed everything."
"Well,... remember the ship that collided with Panther?" Slippy rubbed his hands as if trying to keep them warm. "It must've damaged the self-destruction mechanism, because we managed to salvage some part."
"And you decide to tell me now?" Fox clenched his fist, surprised at how quickly the anger had welled up from the depths of his mind. "You have no idea how desperate Krystal has been for any clue as to where Cerinia is."
"Easy Fox," said Fara and put a hand on his shoulder. He had to steel himself to resist the urge to shrug it off. "It was just components, hardware and some embedded firmware. Trust me, if we'd found a star map, we would've let you know."
Fox took deep breaths to calm himself down. He knew he should trust his friends. Still, it stung that they had kept information from him.
"But it's also the reason we need you," said Slippy and looked down, scraping the tarmac with a boot. "Climb in and I'll show you."
Fox harrumphed and glanced at the craft. Curiosity about the Cerinian tech took over and he climbed into the cockpit. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him except for an extra monitor, but then his eyes fell on a device in a holder. Intrigued, he inspected the contraption, which resembled a tiara.
"One of the parts was a chip with an embedded AI." Slippy leaned over the side of the cockpit. "We couldn't decode the program, so it's connected directly to targeting and flight controls, which have been integrated with the Arwing's computers. That's where you come in." Slippy pointed towards the additional monitor. "The interface is in Cerinian and there are only two pilots in Lylat who understand the language."
Krystal and myself, thought Fox. He flicked the switches to start up the craft's systems, and Cerinian symbols appeared on the extra screen. His brow furrowed as he tried to decipher their meaning. Krystal used her native tongue at home, since they wanted Marcus to be bilingual, so Fox understood the spoken language well, but the writing was a different story.
"Put it on!" With a smug grin, Slippy motioned towards the tiara-cum-headset.
Fox slowly placed it on his head, not knowing what to expect.
New wearer detected, synchronising..., said a female voice coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.
Slippy winked when he saw the surprise on Fox's face. "That's right, it's thought-guided."
Synchronisation complete.
"Are you ready, Wing Commander McCloud?" said Fay over the communication system.
He looked to his left and glared in jest at the spaniel in her cockpit. "That's Fox to you! I'll tag you for that."
"Well, you can try." On Fox's right, Miyu grinned back at him from her own craft.
"Don't worry, you'll get your turn," said Fox and commenced the startup sequence. Soon, the G-Diffusers were online and with a gentle pull on the yoke, the Arwing lifted off the ground.
The sight of a vast mountain range greeted them as the three Arwings eased out of the hangar. Scattered clouds sailed across the blue sky and light reflected off the snow-covered peaks, which the ships accelerated towards. Fox loved flying in the mountains, taking in the scenery as they navigated up a valley. He steered his craft with effortless movements, flying low and following the contours of the hillsides, just to amuse himself. Fir trees bent from the shock of the bow wave and the Arwings stirred up swirling snow clouds in their wake. He went even lower, watching the mountains' reflections on the surface of a frozen lake, barely ten metres below. A small river flowed into the lake through a series of rapids, and he aimed to fly his craft between its tree-lined banks.
Proximity alert, aborting! The voice spoke with authority without being harsh.
His craft jolted upwards to the relative safety above the forest.
"Hey, Slippy, did you see that?" Fox called out, startled by the sudden manoeuvre. "The AI just took over."
"Yeah, its prime directive seems to be to protect the pilot," Slippy replied. "That's actually something we want to explore. Are you up for some combat simulation?"
"Sure, I guess," said Fox, slightly uncomfortable with the thought of not being in complete control of his craft. He studied the menu system on the Cerinian screen closely, trying to remember the right words. He found a control labelled 'pilot assistance' and swiped to put it in its least sensitive setting. The icons for self-defence and targeting systems turned blue as he touched them, indicating that they were enabled, but he left the lasers offline. "Okay, let's do this. I'll give you a thirty-second head start, then I'll come after you."
"Roger that, old-timer," Miyu replied, drawing a giggle from Fay.
The girls hit full throttle and two rings of vapour quickly formed and dispersed behind their craft, as the Arwings went supersonic. Fox kept flying at a lazy cruising speed, watching the pair of fighters take separate paths where the valley divided in two up ahead. Soon, they vanished from his view. After counting down, he pushed his own throttle forwards. The landscape underneath turned into a white blur as his Arwing headed straight for the mountain at Mach 2.5, still only half of what the craft was capable of in atmospheric flight.
Always doing the unexpected, he didn't follow either branch of the valley. Instead he flew low and fast, and his Arwing shimmied up the left flank of the mountain. He spotted a gap in the hacksaw-shaped ridge, slowed down and flew through it, getting a superb view of the valley on the other side. Staying low to confuse his opponents' radars, he flew down the other side, scouting, soon spotting the reflection of something moving.
The 'enemy' craft flew low to avoid his radars, so he turned them off to not give away his own position. Hugging the tree line, he moved in on the other fighter, steadily closing the distance. It seemed a bit too easy, and he had a hunch as to why. He tapped his temple, where there was a switch hidden under his skin, making his bionic eye zoom in. Still, he couldn't quite make out the callsign, but he didn't need to.
The valley narrowed between two rocky outcrops, and his quarry gained altitude to fly over a hydroelectric dam up ahead, a mistake he used to his advantage. He increased speed and stayed low, speeding towards the concrete wall. A fraction of a second before he pulled the yoke, the 'pilot assistance' control flashed, and the ship turned upwards by itself. To his surprise, Fox found himself impressed. The AI would let him fly aggressively, while not do anything too stupid, something that would be very useful for a typical Cornerian Army pilot. Coming up from underneath, he focussed on the other Arwing and the targeting reticle locked on in an instant. He heard a yelp in his headset, which confirmed that his hunch was right.
"Gotcha, Fay!"
He caught a glimpse of the spaniel's surprised face as he zoomed past, before she barrel-rolled out the way. Her craft made a tight 180 degree turn with its wingtips barely feet over the water's surface, showing off her skill and the Light Arwing's manoeuvrability, before she dove down on the other side of the dam wall.
Fox had no problems keeping up. The Arwings engaged in a frantic dance, Fay swerving this way and that, but he stuck to her tail like glue. He soon found that he could focus entirely on flying. He only had to think of aiming at Fay's Arwing and the AI would do its job, making the smallest adjustments to his flight control inputs. Time after time again, the reticle would line up, and he could easily have worn her shields down and taken her out, had she been an actual enemy.
While Fay was a formidable pilot in her own right, Fox was in a league of his own, and tagging her was easy, too easy. He had worked with the girls and seen them work in tandem. Their skills complemented each other, but Miyu was a more daring pilot. He also knew their tricks. I bet Fay's the bait, he thought, keeping an eye on the radar screen.
As they rounded an outcrop, a contact appeared out of the blue, approaching fast. Miyu's Arwing dove down from the skies like a bird of prey, but Fox had anticipated the trap. Still chasing Fay, he let Miyu get closer to lure her in. At the last second, he rolled out of the way and the temporary force field from his ship's G-Diffusers deflected a surprise salvo of laser.
Enemy craft detected, preparing for combat, said the voice in Fox's mind as he chased after Miyu.
"Hey, that was unnecessary!" Fox growled into his microphone.
"What?" Miyu snorted. "Your shields would've taken that hit anyway."
"Yeah, but it tripped something in the AI." Fox noticed that the symbols for laser and EMP had turned blue, and quickly tapped the screen to disengage the them again. "We'd better be careful. I'm not quite sure what we're dealing with here."
Miyu let out a cackling laugh. "That assumes you can catch me first."
She put her craft in a tight half-loop and rolled at the top to complete the Immelmann turn, before she went supersonic with a ripping boom. Again, Fox had no problem repeating the manoeuvre, and followed the fleeing lynx in a high-speed chase down the valley, while leaving Fay in their wake. Miyu flew without regard for safety protocols, skimmed the mountain sides and whipped up swirling clouds of powder snow.
But it was to no avail.
Fox felt like one with his craft, and guided by his thoughts, the targeting system locked on to Miyu's Arwing.
EMP charged. Confirm to fire.
Fox glanced at the screen and saw that both EMP and laser were enabled. I was sure I turned them off, he thought, and fiddled with the controls to deactivate them again. Miyu used his distraction to veer off, but he set off after her and mere seconds later, he had her in his sights again. Even mid-turn, Fox's reticule stayed firmly locked on to Miyu's fighter.
"Damn, that was quick, Fox!"
Target acquired. Confirm to fire.
"No!" he yelled at the AI. His heart skipped a beat from the shock of seeing that the EMP was active again. "What the hell...?"
"Wait, what's up?" There was concern in Miyu's voice.
"My weapons are hot." Fox tried to keep his cool and poked the screen hard to disable the EMP and laser, only to see the symbols change to blue again after a second. "The AI keeps turning them back on. We need to abort. Keep your distance while I bring her home."
With impeccable mistiming, Fay chose that moment to swoop in on the distracted Fox. Her targeting radar locked on to his Arwing.
Second enemy detected. Emergency combat mode engaged.
It happened in an instant. The Arwing's nose suddenly rose upwards until Fox only saw blue sky. Using both thrusters and full-body airbrake, the craft decelerated violently, testing the G-Diffusers and pushing Fox into the seat. The moment Fay shot past underneath, the craft levelled out again with engines on full thrust. In the blink of an eye, the targeting reticle locked on to Fay's Arwing, without Fox even having touched the flight controls.
"Hot damn, Fox!" Miyu sounded impressed. "Never seen you do the cobra before."
Target acquired. Confirm to fire.
"It's not me," Fox growled and punched the touchscreen to no avail.
"What's going on, Fox?" Fay yelped, performing barrel roll after barrel roll in an attempt to shake Fox.
"The AI is going haywire." Fox yanked the yoke to no effect on the fly-by-wire Arwing. It followed Fay through a tight turn, reticle stubbornly locked onto her craft. "It's taken over. I have no control. Get the hell out of here."
Fay used every evasive manoeuvre in the textbook, and some she had learnt from Fox, but the AI didn't miss a beat and stuck to her tail like a bad smell. Miyu struggled to keep up.
Two enemies engaged. Confirm to fire.
"Hell no!" Fox shouted. "Slippy, come in. Where's the kill-switch for the AI?"
Fay steered into a narrow canyon, pushing her Arwing to the limit. Even with Fox focused on the Cerinian system menu, looking for something, anything to stop the AI, it navigated the passage at least as well as he could.
"Umm..." Slippy paused for a second, which felt like an eternity of agony to Fox. "I don't think there is one."
"What do you mean, 'don't think'?" Fox facepalmed and in the process nearly knocked the headset off, his one link with the AI.
Confirm to fire!
"Go up, Fay!" Fox rested his eyes on the one hard switch that was available to him. "I need to kill the engine and eject."
"But Fox-"
"No time to lose," he said, while a persistent voice pleaded to his mind. There are two enemies to disable. Confirm to fire. Please, confirm to fire. "Hurry! Before it decides to shoot by itself as well."
Fay ascended out of the canyon to the clear skies above. Just as he put his finger on the engine switch, his personal communicator buzzed on his arm. Annoyed, he swiped the screen to reject the incoming call from Krystal.
Confirm to fire!
Something struck him, as he pictured her face in his mind's eye, displeased from his hanging up on her: The AI's mind-voice spoke to him in Cerinian. Why had he not noticed before? He racked his brain for the right words and hoped he would pronounce them correctly.
"Abandon formation!"
Admitted.
As if freed from the grasp of an invisible hand, the nose dipped and his Arwing started falling until he took the controls and levelled out with the yoke in his trembling hand. One after the other, the blue lights went out: EMP, laser, self-targeting... Fox exhaled a deep breath of relief.
"What's your status, Fox?" Fara's voice cut in over the com system.
"I think I've turned it off." He leaned back in his seat and tried to settle his nerves by concentrating only on flying straight towards the horizon. "At least for now..." His communicator buzzed again, showing Krystal's contact picture. He swiped to redirect the call to voicemail. Still shaking, he felt the need to collect his thoughts before talking to anyone. "We're returning to base."
Slippy came skipping towards the fighter craft with two mechanics in tow as soon as Fox's Arwing had touched down, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw the fuming expression on Fox's face.
"Why wasn't there a kill-switch?" Fox shouted as he climbed down the ladder from the cockpit.
"Umm..." The toad removed his cap and scratched the back of his head. "It was just a slight oversight."
"Slight oversight?" Fox marched up to Slippy, his boots pounding the tarmac, froth forming at the corners of his mouth as he glared at his old friend.
"It was hard enough to interpret the signals from the AI chip and integrate it with the flight computers, so I didn't have time for safeguards." Slippy shrugged. "What's the big deal anyway?"
"Do you have any idea how many Lylat war conventions this violates?" Specks of saliva sprayed onto Slippy's scarf. Fox waved his hand towards Fay and Miyu's fighters as the girls ran over to join them. "There's a reason autonomous drones are illegal. The AI could have... I could have killed them!"
"We're working with cutting edge technology." Slippy's pitch rose as Foxed grabbed a firm hold of the toad's jacket. "We have to accept some risk."
"Did they!?"
"Yes, we did," said Fay and put a hand on Fox's shoulder.
"Besides, you saved the day, as we knew you would." Miyu did a thumbs up, still smiling. "That's why you're here and that's why we requested you to fly with us."
"What do you mean...?" Fox's fury ebbed somewhat and he let go of Slippy.
"Yes, we knew we could trust you." Fay's ears flapped as she nodded vigorously.
Fox's communicator buzzed again. For the third time, it was Krystal. She's not usually that persistent, he thought as emotions swirled in his mind. Anger mixed with fear and relief. For some reason, he felt he should really answer this time.
"Excuse me for a moment," he said and walked out of the hangar, the cold mountain breeze hitting his face. He swiped the screen to accept the call, but only with audio, so as to not reveal the surroundings and give away his location.
"Where the heck are you?"
The hologram wasn't needed. He could hear her anger clearly. "I can't say over an insecure channel."
"Don't give me that," she said flatly. Fox stared at the screen and recognised the caller id. Instead of her personal device, Krystal was using her old Star Fox communicator with military grade encryption. She changed tone. "How are you? I was... worried about you."
He was momentarily taken aback by the sudden concern. "I'm fine."
"Bollocks!" Again, Fox was surprised, since Krystal rarely cussed, unless she was upset. "You were in distress."
"Wait what?" Fox did a double take. "I wasn't reaching out. You mean you could sense it anyway?"
"Loud and clear, but I couldn't quite get through to you." Krystal paused. Fox was perplexed by her increase in powers, wondering about the cause. Maybe living together had made them more tuned in to each other? Heck, they didn't even know if her powers were normal or not for a Cerinian. "You have no idea how worried I was when you hung up on me. Please, tell me what's going on."
Fox sighed. There was no point lying; she would figure out sooner or later anyway. "I was test flying an Arwing with Cerinian tech for Space Dynamics and-"
"Cerinian?"
"They haven't found anything locating your home planet. I've already asked."
"You said you were hired as a consultant for them."
"The money was too good to pass up. We're gonna need it for an expedition to Cerinia... when we find it. Anyway..." He sighed before continuing. "The AI nearly shot Fay and Miyu down. I was afraid I couldn't stop it."
Krystal remained silent for a moment. She had few friends and Fox understood how much each and every one of them meant to her. "Typical of you to be more concerned about others than yourself."
He saw Fara approaching. "I've gotta go. The boss is here."
"Let's talk about this later."
"...Yeah."
With a heavy heart, Fox hung up. Fara watched him with concern.
"You did well," she said with an approving nod. "You're in trouble with Krystal, aren't you?"
"Is it that obvious?" His ears flattened.
"I might not be a telepath like she... was." Fara cast Fox a quizzical glance, but he kept a poker face. "But you've always been quite transparent, you know. Look, if she doesn't approve, you shouldn't be doing this." She put a hand on her pregnant stomach. "I always admired how independent you were, even stubborn, and how you put the life of others before your own. But I have gained a different perspective. You'll always be a Hero of Lylat, but more importantly, you need to be a hero of your family now. You need to be around for that."
"Thanks... I guess." He thought of Marcus and how the kit always greeted him with an excited smile every morning. Fara had a good point.
"I really want to keep you as a consultant on this program and Space Dynamic will pay for your expertise." Fara's professional voice returned as she stretched out her hand. Fox shook it tentatively, unsure if he should accept the offer. "But first and foremost, it has to be safe for you."
Krystal ran as fast as her little legs could carry her. After spending the whole morning collecting berries and herbs with her family and their neighbours, she finally had some time to play while the adults rested, seated on the roots of a massive tree. She dashed across a small clearing, heading towards a cluster of ferns on the other side. The darkness under the cyan fronds was a perfect spot for a game of hide-and-seek and she was sure that her best friend was in there.
But... What was his name again? Why can't I remember?
She jumped over the little stream running down the opening amongst the trees, but her sandal slipped in the mud and she fell face first in the grass on the other side. A hiss sent a shiver down her spine and instinctively raised her hackles. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the snake laying within arm's reach, perfectly camouflaged in the purple grass. A spiked frill extended from its neck as it raised its head, ready to strike with its red eyes fixated on her.
She was about to yelp and cry for help, when she somehow just... knew... that it was as frightened as she was. She looked back at it and, not moving a muscle, tried to think calming thoughts, just like her parents would speak to her in a soothing voice. I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt you.
The serpent moved its head from side to side, frill flexing and drops of venom glistening on the tips of its fangs. Slowly, it closed its mouth, lowered its body and slithered away under the cover of the grass.
A pair of hands grasped under her armpits and hoisted her off the ground, into the warm embrace of another person. Krystal buried her face in the nape of the adult's neck, her nose covered in long red hair. She soaked up the comforting scent. Mother.
"I'll make sure it won't cause any harm."
"No!" Krystal turned her head to the source of the voice and saw the muscular back of a blue-furred man, dressed only in sandals and loincloth. The geometrical patterns on his shiny brass-coloured staff glowed as he raised it over his head and prepared to fire. "Please don't, Father. It was scared too."
He lowered his weapon, but still facing the other way as he scanned the ground for the snake.
Please turn around. I need to see your face.
"Did she just... communicate with it?" he said.
"Such powers for her age." The woman's voice was like music in Krystal's ears. But what's your name, Mother? "She is a special girl."
The voice faded away as darkness closed in on Krystal. She clung on tighter, not wanting to let her mother go. She breathed in her scent, but it was different: musky, masculine. Looking up, she found Fox's green eyes staring at her mere inches from hers. They laid in their bed and she had her arms firmly wrapped around him. The first light of dawn filtered in through the curtains.
"You've been tossing and turning," he said. "Bad dream?"
"Just... intense." She loosened her grip, put a hand on his chest, and watched the fluff run through her fingers as she told him about it.
"Well, one thing is sure." He booped her nose. "You are special."
Author's note: Thanks to Erold (on AO3) for very thorough beta-reading.