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Chapter 5: All crew prepare to launch

Axis walked with caution to his step, his slender hips swaying lightly as they often did. He had always found those extra tails were heavy and got in the way, though he supposed they were a large part of his dear friend's attraction to him.

His Jasyn, his mate. The word tasted foreign in his mind, had the potential to become comfortable but just hadn't sunken in yet.

He'd been told often that the only reason he was alive was because of the number three. It was a prominent cultural number in Sirian spirituality. His three tails were a 'blessing' according to his parents. He'd hypnotized the wolf with them often.

Jasyn.

He could feel the wolf's presence like a tangible thing, as though he had his fingers wrapped in Jasyn's fur that very instant. No matter what happened, when he was near the wolf he knew for certain that he was safe; and in the moments that he stood just outside his quarters he felt that comfort wane.

'He'll be right across the hall,' the fox tried to reason. 'He's right there.'

But the thought of Jasyn being apart from him haunted him in a way that he had only just begun to feel. A big way that he was only just realizing.

But what had changed, except his admission of desire. Was it some primal instinct? He thought on that as he turned to look; his eyes passing over the dull metal and the clean, new carpet that seemed to be just right for the claustrophobic grey corridor. He noticed Jasyn hadn't yet entered his quarters either, perhaps he felt the same thing.

They had already bid farewell moments before, deciding that they had wanted to make a good impression for the Captain. The walk back from the bridge was also fresh on Axis' mind as he looked the wolf in his eyes.

The silence stretched for longer, growing tense and more unbearable.

'Why did we even say so long?' the fox thought, his arms hanging limply at his sides.

Jasyn's ears drooped slowly and the feeling of infirmity grew in Axis' chest until, finally, the tension snapped.

"I'm sorry, kit," said Jasyn.

Axis saw the way the wolf's face twisted, an expression of embarassment at knowing, 'no, thinking' that he had made a mistake.

"Why?" the small fox asked, and he turned more toward his wolf.

"I blew up at that... mutt because of how he was treating you," came Jay's admission.

Axis' ears dropped to the sides, and he dropped his gaze for a moment as he shook his head in reply. "Jayse... I'm not upset," he said a moment later, and watched the ears come up.

"You're not?" the wolf asked, more quietly than needed by the fox's measure.

Another shake of the head, and Axis heard his best friend's sigh of relief.

"I thought I did something wrong..." Jasyn admitted.

Axis started closing the space as the wolf continued, "and if you don't want me to do that kind of-"

A white furred fingertip pressed against the wolf's lips halted his admission. He spoke the words before he could think to stop himself. "Jasyn... shut up."

Again the wolf's ears dropped. Any other lupine and Axis would be against a wall, you never touch a wolf yourself. Never talk back, either; somehow he had scared Jasyn and he suddenly felt the warmth in his cheeks. "I know you love me. Thank you for sticking up for me."

Somehow he felt powerful over the wolf, strong in a way he hadn't expected. He sort of liked the feeling.

Jasyn's nose rubbed Axis' fingertip as he shook his head, and the sensation sent a shiver down the fox's spine. "Always kit. You make me feel good, I just have to keep you safe,"

Leaning forward, Axis' nose brushed the back of his own paw and he dropped his arm to the lupine abdomen. Foreheads together in the corridor, the fox could almost hear the wolf's voice inside his head. The phrases 'gods I love him' and 'this feels so good' were strong iin the back of the fox's young mind, and he whispered hotly on his Jasyn's lips. "How about I make you feel really good then, Jayse?"

He felt the swell beneath his pawpads as he pressed his hand against a lupine groin. Jasyn was excited, and he sensed the restrained press back against that exploratory paw.

Jasyn's lips quivered against the whispered breath, and his eyes grew wide with surprise as floating on the wings of a soft groan the wolf spoke, "I didn't want to push."

The fox's fingers rolled gently along the twill-weft cloth and he stroked softly against his young love's groin. "But I know you want to let me," the fox argued.

The wolf slipped his head aside as paws fell lightly on the fox's hips. His breath was hot on Axis' neck. "But do you want me to?" the wolf asked as the sudden pricks of sharp lupine teeth pressed into Axis' shoulder.

And he loved it; absolutely dissolved. He had felt that euphoria once before a short few hours ago, Jasyn's teeth against his skin. He was growing high off it when the sound of a loud cough brought him to the ground.

The fox's eyes were open once more and his gaze snapped to his right, seeing the retreating leg of a crew-member as they stepped into another cabin. It suddenly struck him that he was in the open, with his paw almost flat against another person's most private place.

His ears grew warmer yet.

"Jayse... your room..." the fox said, almost like an order.

The teeth grazed teasingly as the wolf pulled on his hips, and Axis more than willingly followed him into the more familiar of their quarters.

He flushed as Jasyn brought his paw up, hitting the door controls with some instinctual precision and pressing him back against the now shut hatch. His cheeks burned; feeling a warm, wet muscle join the teeth; and he whimpered. "Jasyn."

The wolf just nipped and washed his tongue upon the cloth; wetting fabric and fur beneath, and Axis felt a furred ear flick against his face. Slowly he felt those teeth pull back and Jasyn's face lift up to brush his nose upon the white-furred cheek. With paws still holding the denim-clad hips, the wolf just stared quietly.

"Kit?" Axis heard his wolf ask.

"Huh?' he asked in reply, his thoughts still racing.

The wolf was quiet for a long time, but Axis knew his mind was running wild. Again that tangible feeling, the sensation of the wolf's presence felt almost uncertain; felt like Axis knew his wolf knew not what he wanted. Slowly silver fingers rose along the kitfox's chest and Axis heard the wolf.

"You're so great," Jasyn said, lamely.

Axis laughed boisterously, lifting paws to cup Jasyn's cheeks as he leaned closer in. Pressing his forehead to the wolf's again he just whispered lightly.

"You're kind-of awesome yourself..." the fox admitted with a gleeful smile on his lips.

Axis just leaned back, breathing in the musky scent of male that rose in the small room. His breaths were laced with the coupled arousal and he tried to calm himself. Neither saw the lighting change through the window-sized viewport until an alert came over the room's loudspeaker.

"All crew to assigned stations. The ship is preparing for launch. Repeat, all crew..." Axis recognized Varu's voice

The sound of the ship's systems grew louder, echoed from the hangar against the outer hull. Axis' ears folded back briefly and he grunted softly. "Jayse. You'd better go fly the ship," he said with a sigh.

"And you better make sure my engines work," the wolf quipped quickly as he tapped the door control again.

Axis stumbled briefly backward but with grace he caught his footing. In the corridor, the shipwide alert flashed blue and doused the corridors in a suffused cyan glow.

"Get going, or we'll both be screwed," the fox growled with an inward smirk, turning to jog away.

He knew the wolf's reply, even if he hadn't heard it. "I think I would enjoy that..."

The engine room was in the stern of the ship, and thankfully spanned a few decks. Axis jogged through the corridors with purpose, his tails fanned out behind him. Almost like a rudder, he flicked them to the inside of every turn, following the symbols drilled into the panelled walls.

He felt the ship lurch briefly and he guessed that Jasyn had made it to Command. His mind ran with slipstream calculations as he jogged, knowing procedure on the Falchion would be different than here. He simply hoped he could do well enough to survive.

The Slipstream Drive shone brightly above him, standing in brief awe of the size of the spherical room. Two ring platforms enclosed the core, and Axis stood upon the lower of them gazing up at a tiny pinprick of light enclosed in a calculated jumble of other machinery. Standing at the base of the ship's main reactor, Axis looked around at the working crewmen in attempt to find the Commander.

"Levi, we've been having trouble locking down the right Ion Ring. If it fails in the middle of a firefight we'll lose more than half of our manoueverability," Brackson began.

"It's a new ship!" the fox exclaimed, looking incredulous.

"It's a new ship that hasn't been completed yet, but we've got bigger concerns that that anyway," the man continued, hurriedly tapping at the display. "Half of our team are working on this problem. I need you to reroute power through the ship on a moment's notice. Even with the support we have, that ship will be troublesome."

Axis nodded and looked around at the displays briefly.

"The controls are on the upper level, be prepared to pull everything we have into any system on the drop of a hat," the man warned, as he turned towards another crewman who had called him.

Axis flew, metaphorically, up the stairs with an almost giddy anticipation. He listened for the commander to call numbers to him as he looked around the catwalk.

'There's a terminal there, but that's clearly for slipstream control,' he told himself, peering at the nearest console. Regardless, somebody else slipped into the station and he grunted.

"Make sure no individual line reads any more than ten-thousand volts," he heard the commander say, and he spotted a vacant terminal. Stepping up and tapping at the readout, he could see every individual circuit of the ship as it ran and branched through the corridors and back to Main Engineering.

"Hey, kid," he heard from beside him and saw another crewman with amber coloured hair tapping away at an identical console. "Just do what you're told and you'll be fine," he grinned to the fox, and Axis gave him a blank nod in return.

"Sure..." he said, almost too quiet to hear over the commotion in the massive chamber. Nervously, he tried to make sense out of the myriad of controls.

--

The ship had already lifted off the ground when Jasyn finally made it to the bridge. Somebody had clearly substituted in, and the wolf felt immediately that he'd be reprimanded for being late.

"Ensign Emitt, I'll excuse your lack of uniform for now but in the future you had better dress appropriately," barked Varu, who stood at the railed edge of tactical. He looked down over the navigation deck and Jasyn was sure he didn't even look up.

"Y-yessir," the wolf spoke nervously. He took a few tentative steps onto the bridge.

"Take over from Perez. All you'll need to know for now is weapon's range is 10 000 kilometres, and the big hand-sized button only works when we've calculated slipstream. The ship works on the same principles you're familar with," the Captain explained, very briefly, and tapped the railing.

Jasyn nodded a second "Yessir," at the man as he quickly stepped down the stairs and walked to the station in the centre of the bridge. He sat in the second seat and as he took the controls, Perez took to the basic navigation.

"We're a team, remember that," was all the man said, as Jasyn started to get a feel for the ship. He slipped the thin metal band over his forehead and he immediately could almost feel the air rushing past him as though his skin and the ship's were one in the same.

The Echo-Wind was currently somewhere over Africa, launching much more gently than an old-fashioned rocket launch, but all Jasyn knew was that he was starting to see the stars through the clouds.

"Bring us out of the atmosphere, the fleet says we're on the near-side of the planet to the enemy craft so our little-brother will take a bit to get here," Varu spoke, and Jasyn heard Kaine respond.

"As soon as we're past atmosphere we'll have them on the grid," he said, though Jasyn didn't know a thing about what he meant.

Finally breaking the atmosphere, the wolf pulled back on the controls and waited for a moment. Suddenly he could 'feel' the space around the ship. Almost like intuition, he knew where the Crag were without even seeing them, which was good because the Crag ship was barely a speck on the massive front screen.

"Signal the fleet. We'll be taking point," Varu started, and as though they thought with the same mind, Jasyn heard Kaine finish his sentence.

"Fire-control, bring the main batteries online. Shields up," the man's voice boomed, "get us just within weapon's range and launch fighter squadrons one through eighteen."

Jasyn punched the controls - metaphorically - the engines ringing silently (to him) into high-gear. He barely felt the momentum change, as the ship's bulky frame surged forward through space. He could sense the presence of everything, as though he were tied into the sensors. He heard an exacerbated sigh from beside him as Perez spoke up, "Close your eyes, newbie."

Jasyn hesitated a moment, then tested the request. All around him, on the inside of his mind, he could 'see' a grid of degrees around him. The centre of it seemed to be somewhere in his chest, and he flicked his eyes down towards a red mark in his vision.

Little lines jumped from the red mark as they approached, and sped quickly across the grid. Jasyn simply reacted, moving his paws on the controls to force the ship into a sidelong slide. Suddenly they had begun to strafe what he assumed was the enemy ship, and he heard in his ears more orders from Kaine.

"Mika," the man seemed to bark. "Signal forward batteries one through eight to fire on my mark."

"Aye sir," came a female voice far to Jasyn's back. He felt a strange tingle throughout his shoulders and kept his course, clearly feedback from the weapons charging. He adjusted the ship's yaw to face toward the enemy as they swung past.

"Mark!" the man shouted, and Jasyn saw little pinpricks fly away from him toward the clearly enemy craft. The Echo Wind glided almost elegantly through space around the Crag Vessel, and silently eight massive explosions rocked the Crag off it's course.

"Sir," Jasyn heard himself speak up. He had to think of something fast now. "I suggest aiming between the forward spires. Every other model I've been briefed on has had the fire-control relays there."

He heard silence from the man, as the bridge blared wild and angry alarms all around. Varu spoke up quickly, "Pull up and start a vertical strafe. Change directions as you think best but keep moving."

"Mika, target the next spread to the spot Jasyn suggested," Kaine said loudly. "Mark!"

The pulse batteries let loose another spray of energy, hammering the front of the much bulkier Craganii ship right between the forward spires. A large explosion flared and suddenly died out, atmosphere quickly leaking from the breach and electricity arcing between the sides.

--

The entire ship shook and creaked loudly and Axis felt his ears flick back at the sound. "Our port-side drive relay has been hit. We're losing Ring A."

"We'll be fine, I've sent a repair team. Axis, shore up the shields and give the weapons as much energy as you can." ordered Brackson.

Axis shook his head as another explosion rocked the ship. "Grr... They managed to get a salvo of missiles through a breach in the barrier. We've lost our main Communications array," he tapped at the controls as quickly as he could. "Ring A is back online."

A thought struck him, and he grunted loudly as he shunted more energy into the shields. "Commander. If we rotate our shields between delta and theta band frequencies, their missiles should have a harder time hitting us. Also, if we send out a low-frequency transmission on all channels we should block their missile's targetting further."

"How do you figure that, Ensign?" asked Brackson in a shout as several lights exploded overhead.

Axis explained as he tapped the controls. "I'm working with outdated knowledge here, but if they haven't changed in the last hundred years, the Crag missiles run on tracer systems." The ship shook again, and Axis stumbled backward. The man at the station beside him reached out and caught him quickly, bringing him back to his feet. With a nod to the man, he continued. "They use high-frequency light pulses to 'paint' our hull. The rapid switch between such different bands should shake their 'paint' off of us."

"Relay the suggestion to command, Reese. What about the communications?"

"Well, that'll just jam the missile's connection to their ship. They won't know who's doing what so they'll lose any other lock they might have," the fox said, grunting as he braced for another quake. It didn't happen. "If they start using pulse tech then... gaah! The next ship I'm on better have Armour Tech..." the fox almost joked.

"Focus, Ensign. If your theory holds I might just put in for a promotion for you. Reese, relay!" the commander spoke again. He himself was at a station next to the slipstream core, suspended in the middle of the upper ring.

"Rotating shields. Preparing to jam the enemy missiles," spoke another ensign from across the ring.

--

"-All hands brace for impact!" shouted Kaine as another volley of missile fire was launched against the ship.

The ship shook harshly and Jasyn's Paw-Pads slipped, moving the ship into a direct course with the Crag Empire ship.

"Jasyn, hard ascension, now!" shouted Varu.

"Sorry, Sir!" answered Jasyn, quickly pulling up and starting yet another strafe.

"Our forward fire control has taken a hit. Jasyn, pull us away quickly. Avoid the crossfire our friends are providing," Varu ordered abruptly, and the wolf obeyed without a question.

"What are you, Crazy? You're giving them direct access to our main engines!" Kaine argued, rightly.

"Crazy like a fox... They're firing!" the Nav-Captain spoke.

"Mika, point defense now!"

Jasyn was glad his eyes were closed. All around the ship explosions rocked them, the minor shockwaves tossing them from side to side. The grid before him seemed to light up as though they had just been engulfed in a massive explosion and truly they had been.

The light faded slowly, somehow they had survived. The fleet released a surprising volley of fire and almost all at once the Crag ship disappeared off the grid. Jasyn opened his eyes in curiosity.

"Mika? Did you fire at all?" asked Kaine.

"N-no, Sir, I didn't have time. The missiles just sorta shot off in different directions. I think the fleet took the ship out. I don't know how we survived that..." said the Fire Controller, recovering from the initial shock.

The enemy ship's hull had begun to crack, small explosions tearing the metal apart on the screen as the ship's systems all overloaded.

Jasyn just sat in his seat, he wasn't used to war. He didn't like this one bit. He'd been in tactical simulations before, had played a game that he called 'Trick', which was just a Sirian form of Laser-Tag. He'd even had to shoot at a creature that had attacked his team. All of these times Axis had been with him, and he was determined to not let anything scare him; but right now he didn't have the fox by his side, and he felt terrified.

"-enant Emitt! Snap out of it and join back up with the fleet," Varu interrupted his thoughts, and quickly the wolf shook back to reality.

Jasyn blinked before he moved the ship away, watching the Crag ship's hull crack and an arc of electricity flicker over the ugly ship's skin. 'Is it over?' he thought as he swung the ship around again to join up with the fleet.

"We're going to have to pass over the ship, sir," the wolf informed.

"Good. Mika, fire a salvo right into the breach," Kaine commanded.

Twenty or so torpedoes appeared on the screen, from the now-online forward batteries no doubt. They sped towards the ship before them, and in less time than it takes to blink, the Crag ship had collapsed in on it-self and had begun to bubble outward in several smaller explosions. Jasyn dodged the shrapnel of the much larger battleship and tucked the Echo Wind into a neat little hole in the spiralling debris. Smaller bits of metal impacted the hull, and he could almost feel them in his fur.

"Stand down combat readiness. Is the Nathaniel here yet?" Varu Asked.

"They're Hailing," said the man to Jasyn's right.

"Put 'em through, Perez."

In the bottom left of every screen on the bridge, except the main one, was a woman with fiery red hair. The eyes were hard to make out, however. She was sitting on a bridge that was nearly identical to the Echo-wind's.

"Captain Long of the Nathaniel here. Looks like we missed the fun you think?" joked the woman with a smirk.

"Nav-Captain Varu here. We managed, Nathaniel." Varu replied with a grin of his own. "Captain Long, are you about ready to get underway?"

"Aye, Sir. You seem to have taken a bit of a beating though. Sure we shouldn't stay for repairs?" she responded quickly. There was little signal lag, and Jasyn felt the other craft closing in, much stronger than the rest of the fleet.

"Yes, just a bit. We can repair on the way, the sooner we get there the better."

"Agreed, you lead the way, Captain."

"Follow us into slipstream, coordinates one-one-seven mark three-four, Polar twenty degrees up, equatorial five degrees to port."

"Copy that, good luck Echo Wind."

"Same to you Nathaniel," said Varu, and the channel terminated. "Jasyn, follow those coordinates and await the Nathaniel's signal before we make the jump."

Jasyn manoeuvred the ship away from the fleet towards the jump-point and replied with, "Aye, Captain."

--

"Axis, get up to the bridge and work the engineering terminal from there, I'll get repair teams going. We're jumping to Slipstream in a few moments," the fox heard the commander order.

"Aye sir," he replied, and dropping a Sirian Salute he quickly started to dodge and weave between the other engineers toward one of the upper level's doorways. He quickly jogged through the ship and watched the lighting change from the darkened blue he'd adjusted to into a bright white.

Sprinting through the ship, he ascended a pair of staircases and stepped quickly along to command.

--

"Alright Jasyn. Do you remember the big palm-sized button?" Varu asked over the mostly-quiet bridge.

"Yes I do, sir."

A loud ping sounded from one of the consoles on the bridge, and the phrase, "Course Plotted" played over the bridge speakers.

"Jasyn. Push the button."

Jasyn pushed, with surprising difficulty, and he could see the twisting thread-filled bubble of slipstream form from a bright spot in front of them. The filaments latched onto the ride hooks of the ship, and the strands of energy pulled them in, shooting them through the chaos that is slipspace.

The Nathaniel followed them, staying near, but not too near to the Echo Wind.

"Alright, Ensign Emitt, go get a bit of rest. Your espertise in this fight was invaluable."

Perez just sat there with a book in his hand. Many others had begun to do likewise as Varu took up a PDA device and started to asses damage, the wolf assumed. Jasyn slipped out of his seat, the ship going it's own way through the colourful space as he turned and walked quietly through the forest of consoles.

As the sound of his boots on the stairway passed over the bridge, Jasyn picked up on the hiss of a hatchway opening. Listening casually as he ascended the stairs, he heard Varu speak up. "Aah, Ensign Levi. Good thinking with the shield rotation. You saved us having to repair the engines."

"Thank you sir," the more familiar voice of Axis caught in the wolf's ears, and as he stepped up onto the Tactical bridge he peered at the fox. "Commander Brackson ordered me up here to work the engineering Console. I think he wanted me to help with repairs or something.

"There's plenty of time for repairs... You're relieved for now. I need you back in Engineering at 18:00 hours for the Night Shift."

Axis nodded, "Yes Sir!" and only then did he meet Jasyn's eyes.

"Ensign Emitt, your shift begins at 18:00 hours as well. Keep clever suggestions coming and both of you are in line for a promotion."

"Thank you sir," the wolf said, almost automatically. He heard the fox reply in kind, and then he began to walk from the bridge. Axis quickly fell in step beside him, and as soon as the bridge doors closed he took the fox's paw in his and squeezed it lightly.

That definitely brought him a tingle of good feeling.