Into the void
#1 of Into the Void
This is my first time posting, so feedback is appreciated.
Into the Void
Sean "Jet" Orsai was just a regular 19 year old teenager when his life took a downward spiral. In February 2011 his grandmother died and his family fell apart, his aunt left for America and his parents were killed on their wedding anniversary by a drunk driver.
May 2011, Mitcham, Greater London
Sean was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling, lost in his misery: "Sean? Are you there?"
Sean looked around to see his Uncle Shawn Joyce standing at the door; he was surprised to see him because his uncle lived in Ireland while he lived in London. "What are you doing here?" He managed to say. "I wanted to see how you were doing; I'm the only family you have left". Jet sighed "that's true", he sat up and swung his legs of the bed, Shawn came over and sat beside him. "You can't stay here; social services are going to move you into foster care." Jet stared at the floor" I know, it's just... it still hurts." "Losing family is hard, but we all go through it, no one lives forever" said his Uncle, trying to hold back his own tears. After a minute the older male said "Look instead of going into foster care, why don't you come and live with me in Westport, or maybe your Great Grandfathers house in Cashel. It'll be good to get away for a while and you'll be able to start again after you work things out".
Jet looked at his uncle and then looked out the window, thinking. He was right he needed to get away, and Derry Sella was a special place for him. It was where his Nan used to take him on holiday, there was a decent sized cottage that had been renovated recently. There was a shop up the road and it wasn't that far from the main road to Galway. "Ok I'll move in to Derry Sella" Shawn smiled at Jet; little did he know that this decision would change his life forever.
July 2011, Cashel, Galway
Jet was slowly making his way through the bog; something had killed some of the lambs on John King's farm last night and had struck Morchein Folan's calves the night before. Lugging the old Mauser Kar98k wasn't easy but necessary; whatever was attacking the farms was vicious and needed to be killed before someone was hurt and, if he could, he'd rather keep the beast at arm's length.
"That thing is nasty, it only got two lambs last night but there wasn't much left to know they were lambs" thought Jet as he moved over an irrigation channel. It had been month's since his parents had died but he'd settled down pretty quick, Derry Sella still had some cattle so he was looking after them in the day, but had an evening job as a bartender at Bolger's on Saturdays. Two weeks before a wild animal had started attacking the livestock in the local area, at first it was only small injuries, but now it was killing them outright. "Why does this thing just kill the lambs? Surely it's attacking them to feed itself?" Jet wondered as he came to the field just before the old road over the bog. Then he saw a hare sitting on a rock silhouetted against the night sky. Jet had developed a taste for hares since he'd first caught one, but he didn't like to eat them often only once in a while. As he shouldered the Mauser and flipped the safety off, a cry from the direction of the road startled the hare and it ran off. Jet was also startled by the sudden noise and after setting the safety again he set off towards the source. As he came to the old road he saw three figures around an electric lamp: the first was a man who couldn't have been older than him with dark brown hair, he had fallen into one of the gaps in the old road surface and was up to his knees in mud and sinking. The other two were just standing there jeering, being over six feet tall and of a large build, typical thugs picking on a little guy. And from what jet saw it looked like they had pushed the smaller guy into the mud. Jet came closer until he could hear the two thugs: "didn't get very far did yeh Runt? Looks like your gonna be stuck here, the humans don't come onto this road anymore because of the wild animal on the loose" the thug chuckled at that thought "Humans?" Jet thought, "you won't get away with this, my crewmates know I'm missing by know and they'll be looking for me" retorted the trapped male "we know you're the ones killing the humans livestock, and attacking them outside the local bars" Jet perked up when he heard that. "So? it's not like we'll be caught. These primates are too primitive to come close, any way the captain will just transport use from any human holding area when they're not looking" the second thug was looking rather smug at this while the trapped boy suddenly paled. "Your captain approved this" he said in a shaky voice. "Yep, but for obvious reasons he can't be seen too" the first thug crouched in front of the trapped boy, "but what to do with you? We can't have a runt like you blowing the whistle to the league can we?" the trapped boy tried to back away but was well and truly stuck. As the thug reached for him, jet stood up and levelled his rifle. "Back off right Now!" The two thugs spun round with their fists raised but their smiles vanished when they saw the rifle. "This doesn't concern you, leave now or you will regret this" the first thug advanced drawing some kind of combat knife, Jet fired dropping the thug and cycled the bolt before turning on the other "want to join him? Get out of here, now!" the second thug's courage failed and he ran off down the old road towards the bay shouting something into some sort of radio.
Jet set the safety and went to help the trapped teenager. "Thanks for helping me, but you may have got yourself into a lot of trouble" said the boy as he was pulled free. "Don't mention it" Jet grunted as he pulled the boy from the mud. "Sorry I didn't get your name" the boy was looking at the dead thug, lost in thought "Huh, oh it's Jeremy, but my friends call me Jeep because of my initials" Jeep answered. "So who are they and where are you from? And why were they calling you runt?" Jet inquired. Jeep looked at the fallen thug, lost in thought "see for yourself" he answered.
Jet looked at the corpse and froze. The body no longer resembled the human he'd shot: the shoulders were broader; the head had lengthened into a short, broad muzzle, there were wire like whiskers growing form it, the man's hair had changed from a dark brown to a lighter tan colour and grown immensely, almost like it was a... "A mane? He's a lion?" Jet exclaimed. Jeep nodded and Jet looked over at him, dumbfounded. Jeep had also changed. His face had also lengthened into a muzzle but his was long and slim, his skin had erupted into light tan fur with occasional white markings with white cloves on his hands which now resembled paws and finally his ears had changed shape to look like a canines moving to the top of his head and had grown to be at least twice as large as they should be. "So we're not alone in the universe?" Jet asked, trying to keep his panic down. "No humans aren't alone, Earth has been monitored by space faring races since 1947 when a shuttle from the Galactic Republic crashed at Roswell. The crew set up some dummies before getting out of there and sending a distress signal. The incident brought the human race to the attention of the galaxy and the various governments have been watching you waiting for the time when you're ready for first contact" "And you're anthropomorphic animals rather than little green men?" asked Jet trying to take it all in. "yes and no, there are some planets where the dominant race is like something from your Star Trek programmes". Replied Jeep with a small smile on his face." "So where are you from?" Jet was understandably curious about what he'd stumbled upon. "I come from a planet named Voss in what you call the Alpha-Centuri system, there are four planets and five moons that are inhabited. The first is Voss, where I come from; the dominant species are anthro Fennec foxes, the second is Vulpis, inhabited by Kitsunes and yes they are the source of the spirit fox stories in Japan. The three moons are Arc, Vulpis Prime and Demeter. They orbit Alpha-Centuri A. The Planets that orbit Alpha-Centuri B are Tarantis and Valhalla inhabited by Red and Arctic fox species and their respective moons. All these planets are a part of the League of Planets. Originally it was called the Galactic Republic but the rise of a rival superpower called the Galactic Alliance caused the Supreme Chancellor to consider another name and the inspiration came from your League of Nations".
Jet was thinking this over when bands of light suddenly surrounded him and Jeep, Jet looked at Jeep in panic: "It's a teleporter that thug must have got back to his ship" next thing he knew, Jet was in a swirling vortex surrounded by these bands of light. Garbled voices and sounds came from all directions, a feeling of weightlessness and blurred images flashed past his face. It was too fast for him to take much in but two images stayed in his sight long enough for him to get a good look: a ship that looked like an armed freighter with a narrow bridge section, a long rectangular hull, multiple gun turrets and 3 oversized engines, but also the face of a blue furred vixen. The image was blurry in the vortex but Jet did a double take "Is that..?"
Jet was brought back to reality with a hard bump as his feet suddenly hit the deck of the ship he had been brought to. He stumbled and fell as his body tried to adjust to going for zero-g to solid ground without losing his lunch. "First times always the worst" came Jeep's voice from next to him. "OH Shit!" Jet looked up to see several large anthro lions aiming at them with rifles. Both put up their hands and a smaller lion came forward and searched them: removing several items such as Jet's Rifle knife and Bandolier as well as Jeeps comm unit, some sort of scanner and what looked like a small pistol. When these items had been removed and passed to one of the guards, the smaller mane less lion turned and both prisoners got a look at it. Jet realized this was a lioness, she signalled the soldiers and two came over and took a hold of jet and jeep and dragged them through the ship.
They were brought to the bridge, which resembled that of star destroyers. At the front window stood a massive lion. "Pride alpha", Jet thought, he suddenly noticed, as they were made to kneel, Jeep was trembling.
The lion turned round and approached the two prisoners the lieutenant had brought him. On the right was an average fennec fox that looked to be in his late teens and looked to be around 5'5, the fox was trembling but Oberst Krieger was expecting that, the other prisoner was a little surprising: he was a human male 5'10, with brown hair and of larger than average build. There was something about him that was different; he was afraid, being a lion Krieger could smell it but he was also alert and wary, defiant even. "So, these are the two responsible for the murder of my son" thought the older pride male. The lioness walked up to him holding Jeeps and Jets weapons. "This was all they had, sir" said the lioness as she handed over the weapons. The Oberst ran an eye over the items taken from the fennec: a comm device, pocket auspex and a pocket blaster, nothing out of the ordinary for an undercover away mission. He then examined the items taken from the human: torch, knife, bandolier and an ex-military rifle. "Obviously values the added stopping power over cheaper hunting rifles" thought the experienced officer. He turned to his prisoners: "You are responsible for the death of one of my crewmembers, specifically my second son" Jeep just started shaking harder. "So that's what he meant when he said their captain knew what was going on" thought Jet, the officer in front of him was basically an older, taller version of the thug he killed. "I killed your son; Jeep had nothing to do with it. He was killing local livestock for fun and was going to kill Jeep if I hadn't interfered and I'd do it again, scum like that get what they deserve..." he was silenced as the lioness clawed his face, the strike throwing him onto the deck. The captain held the lioness' hand as she went to strike again. "He has saved me the trouble of interrogating them, and he will pay for Leon's death." Krieger turned to the soldiers holding him "Take him to the port airlock and dispose of him" the soldiers acknowledged and hauled Jet away while he was still stunned. Jeep could only watch in horror as his rescuer was led away to be executed. Krieger turned to Jeep "And you can watch as he dies" Jeep was hauled to the port viewing platform beside the captain. "Say goodbye to your friend, and then I'll deal with you".
The two lions threw Jet into a small room, the turned and left grinning at the smaller human. When the door shut Jet looked at his new surroundings. "Airlock seal released" said a flat computerised voice. Jet only had time to hear the voice before the other set of doors opened and he was sucked into the cold depths of space.
"NO! You monster" cried Jeep as he saw his companion sucked into deep space. Krieger turned to reply, but stopped when he saw the fennec surrounded by lightning arcs. "Sir, a League frigate is approaching from the other side of the moon" Krieger turned to his bridge staff "Raise shields, all engines to half ahead. Helm take us out of orbit." The fennec could wait, now he had to leave before league ships could interfere.
Bridge of the LDS Defiant
"Captain, an alliance cruiser is trying to break orbit, it's the Steelfang" called Ensign Baker from the sensor station. "Have we retrieved our missing away officer" inquired Captain Richards "Jeeps just been brought over from the Steelfang, they didn't raise their shields until we had him" came the reply. "They just jettisoned someone out of an airlock, it's a human" cried Baker. "Lock on with the transporter and bring them aboard now!" ordered Richards, He knew they only had seconds to save Jet. "I can't, another ships already locked on." Richards looked out the viewing port towards a familiar looking old freighter.
Jet felt the air torn from his lungs as he was sucked out of the ship. Suffocating as he drifted through the emptiness of space. He just managed to look at down and saw a ship approach, the same one he'd seen during the teleport. Suddenly the bands of teleporter energy wrapped around him again, he blinked and the swirling vortex with its garbled sounds, voices and flashing images surrounded him again. He blinked again and collapsed onto the deck of a strange room, white with what looked like water filled tanks and examination tables, an infirmary of some kind. Jet was on the verge of blacking out, barely conscious of the voices around him: "He's in a bad way; we have to operate now" said a male "Help me get him on the table" two pairs of hands lifted Jet from the floor and placed on his back on a table. As darkness claimed him he saw two male anthros: to his left a grey wolf with flecks of white in his fur and to his right a male lynx reached over and placed an oxygen mask on his face. "You're going to be ok..."