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Star Fox: Inertia

Chapter 7

by Tempo

~ ~ ~

Hours later, Krystal found Fox standing on Space Dynamics station's observation deck--staring at the half-rebuilt Great Fox.

The interior of the station shone with steel and glass. They'd only been docked for the exact amount of time it took to run from the docking bay to the construction yards, ducking around and jumping over every worker and cleaning robot in his path, respectively. She considered herself in fine shape, but even she'd had trouble keeping pace. Her lover could move pretty fast when properly motivated.

At the moment, he stood, marveling through the window, his nose about a centimeter from the surface. Beyond, the keel and ribs of the ship swept like lines of a draftsman's pen--gleaming silver against the starlit sky. Through the skeleton of the massive carrier, drones zipped merrily, like robotic honeybees, toting in cables and panels. Here and there, groups of them worked to push new hull plates into place. The bridge, which had functioned as an escape pod, hung at the far end, hull plates still scored from countless battles.

With a deep breath of ionized space station air, the vixen stepped up behind her lover. Her toes tingled with cold. She hadn't even thought to put on warmer shoes. Another drawback of being an empath: it got that much easier to get swept up in the emotion of the people around you.

He didn't turn, familiar enough with her to recognize her presence. Whether by sound or scent or something else, she couldn't be sure. Non-psychics worked in mysterious ways. His paw closed around hers, which had settled on his hip.

Soaking up his complex emotions, she rested her muzzle against his cheek. She listened to his breathing, his state of mind. Reading someone's mind got easier once you yourself shut up.

His tangle of feelings shifted a little toward comforted, matched by a brush of his tail against her knees. "That ship was my father's legacy. Is."

She nodded against his shoulder.

"I mean, I knew I'd never see it again. I never had it as good as I did on that ship. I even met the love of my life there." He squeezed her paw. A tangle of emotions translated through his touch: disbelief, relief, hope.

She squeezed back, watching as his eyes misted. The bittersweet influx of emotion had her blinking back tears of her own.

He pressed his free paw to the glass, reaching as close as it would let him. "And now here it is again. Well, some of it. But we won't be stuck on that old carrier, scraping by. You know, that thing's not as cheap to run as I let Falco tell himself." He cleared his throat. "Sorry, I'm babbling."

"It's alright." Her whiskers traced along his cheek ruff. "How do you feel?"

He shuddered through a sigh, which fogged the glass. "I feel like it's going to take a long time for the desperation to wear off." A nervous chuckle escaped his muzzle. "Other than that... Well, I might need your help sorting that out." Tension left him in waves as he melted against her touch. Minutes passed in comfortable silence. He cast her a smile truer and more fragile than she'd seen in a while.

She leaned in to nuzzle him.

To one side, the door slid open just in time for Falco's beak. The bird himself sauntered into the room and glanced out the panoramic window athletes their long-lost home. "Huh."

Slippy and his father followed, croaking amiably about the latest trends in humidifier design. They waddled in like a pair of green potatoes. Beltino Toad looked virtually identical to his son, though Krystal supposed her mammal brain wasn't wired to spot differences between individuals within an amphibian species. Luckily, he wore glasses, a false mustache, and a permanent aura of puttering enthusiasm.

A couple meters behind, a cargo robot trundled in with a pair of supply containers.

Shields of determination and discipline snapped into place around Fox's psyche. He turned and crossed his arms. "What's in the boxes?"

Beaming, Beltino adjusted his glasses. "You didn't think the bridge was the only part of the ship to survive, did you?"

Slippy bounced a little. "Dad has ships combing the debris field of Aparoid homeworld!"

The robot set the crates down with only a minor clank against the deck plates. It then rumbled back into the hallway and off to other duties. Krystal watched it go. She always found automatons a little unsettling: they occupied the same spaces as people, but were emotional voids. Unless someone had imprinted strong feelings on them, she had to rely on vision and hearing to notice them.

The elder frog stroked his chin and pulled up the inventory on a tablet. "We recovered some personal effects: data cores, service medals, texts on avian reproduction--"

Falco raised a wing. "Those are mine!"

The foxes glanced at him with differing mixtures of amusement and resignation.

"What?" He shrugged, kicking open the crates and snagging the magazines. "I'm not lettin' him keep the things."

Beltino swept his hand dramatically at the crates. "Everything we found is in these crates."

Lombardi dug through the boxes, pulling out a tin of KeenPreen feather pomade. He scooped out a glop of it, worked the waxy substance into his crest, and swooped into an impromptu pompadour. Upon checking his reflection in the window, he pointed two primary feathers at himself in congratulation. After further digging, he quietly pocketed a bottle of clear goop labeled SnesGlide.

Krystal bent to find a high-heel boot, but found no sign of the other one. Some of the data cores might be hers --none were labeled-- but none of the singed books and tattered clothes were hers. She'd nearly resigned herself to reclaiming nothing when she glimpsed a green gleam in the bottom of the second crate. She pushed a square, grey game controller out of the way to find a large green gemstone set in gold. The chain was nowhere to be found, but her heart fluttered nonetheless. She'd been wearing this same necklace the day she met Fox. Her paw lifted it carefully, the warmth of remembered emotion radiating from it.

McCloud propped fists on his hips. "You could've told me my ship was being rebuilt." He showed a few more teeth than she was accustomed to.

"I assumed you knew! The insurance company started the claims process over a year ago--they said they'd notify you. We started the rebuild as soon as you dropped off the bridge." He poked at his tablet. "Corneria's defensive effectiveness drops by 19% while you're in that sub-optimal carrier."

Krystal watched with interest as her lover's outrage cooled to contemplation. He didn't feel completely reassured, but at least someone considered their importance to the system's security, even if he was oblivious to the team's insecurities.

A burst of bravado and joy rose from Falco as he tucked the magazines into his jacket pocket. Reunited with his treasures, he migrated to the far side of the room, crossing his wings as he leaned against a bulkhead. "Only 19%, huh? We must be gettin' rusty."

"Anyway, I assumed you wanted it kept hush-hush, so I assigned it to the hangar where we typically build ring colony waste reclamation units."

"I've been recovering pieces of it from the debris of the Aparoid homeworld. We've been salvaging all sorts of interesting things from there." He gave a little bounce. "They had some very interesting technology."

Krystal cocked an ear. "Is that...wise?"

"Oh, it's quite safe." He waved away the concern with a sticky hand. "The Aparoids all underwent apoptosis, which is--"

"--triggered cell death." McCloud cast him a weary glance. "We remember."

The amphibian smoothed his false mustache. "Well yes, so there is little risk of anything untoward happening. Especially compared to that giant robotic gorilla. Did you know the Aparoids built everything with honeycomb structures? Very strong for their weight."

Fox nodded, betraying no visible sign of his previous emotion. Even compared to other non-empaths, he could lock down his posture and facial expression fast. "What's our timeline for completion?"

"Oh, I'd say another two months. Many of the cabin modules have already been assembled separately. It's much faster than the first time around, I can tell you that. Not only do we have the schematics, but Slippy's been taking excellent shakedown notes."

"You got it, Dad." The young frog tossed his father a thumbs-up.

Beltino returned the gesture without a trace of irony.

Falco rolled his eyes. "So what do we do now?"

"We stick around." Fox straightened with a wave of delight. "Make sure Beltino doesn't fill the Great Fox with untested tech."

The engineer pushed his glasses up his wet nose. "The Great Fox has always been an important testbed for--"

"When the fate of the civilization is on the line, I don't want to bet our lives on a beta version." He pressed a palm to the glass, then glanced back over his shoulder at the frog a moment later. "Even yours."

"Very well." He gave a low croak of resignation. "While your ship's in for the rebuild, I thought we might convince your team to help with some tests."

A thin chuckle escaped Fox's throat. "We're not opposed to earning our keep. What've you got? Laser bazookas?"

"No, no." He shook his wide head. "Super Scope trials have concluded for the time being."

McCloud managed to pry himself from the window. "No tests tonight, though."

"No no, the Great Fox won't be done for almost two mouths." His false mustache bent up with his wide smile. "We'll have all the time in the world for science!"

Slippy bounced with glee. "Yay!"

Falco rolled his eyes. "Yay."

"Good, because I've had all the excitement I can handle today." Irresistible forces drew his muzzle back to the window. "I'm going to park the Great Fox II so I can see the Great Fox I from my quarters and get some rest."

"Oh, I assumed you'd be staying here." Beltino blinked. "I had the ambassador quarters prepared."

In the corner of his vision, Krystal raised her ears at him and mouthed the words "ambassador quarters."

The todd managed to turn away from his half-rebuilt ship, if only for a moment. "I guess we could take a look..."

~ ~ ~

Who knows where the story will go next? ; )

It's Sunday, and that means it's a Star Fox Sunday! I'll for the next couple months, I'll be posting an illustrated continuation of my SF series every weekend. : ) With special thanks to my patrons.

Art: Nuzzo (Used with permission.)

Edits: Kohaku Nightfang, Slate, Pharrox, Eljot001, SillyNeko345, StarFox94, CarlMinez

Want early access to my stories and to help me write more of them? Become my patron! https://www.patreon.com/Tempo

• Tempo