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Queen Arlan, the second strongest being in the known universe, had never felt so insulted in her long life. There was no way this young Kor'Ran could be her child. She made two eggs and only one hatched 15,000 years ago. Maza did not know enough of the old ways to have hatched the second egg he was charged with, nor could he have preserved it for 15,000 years. The whelp didn't even bother acknowledging her for more than 30 seconds before deeming the haunch of beast more interesting. This whelp needed to be dealt with, "how dare you soil my name with your false claims! I have one child, a son, and not some little whelpling like you!"

Sam wanted to smooth out her bristling fur and feathers but the blood on her hands was not something she wanted to clean from her fur later. As it was, the queen didn't look any happier to see Sam either. "Hey! Piss off you stuffy old crone! I didn't ask to be in this situation! I was not raised here and I was told you were my mother! If you don't like it, take it up with the Archiver! She was the one who made the claim! Now if you do not mind, my morning has been hectic and I am hungry."

Arlan corrected herself. Now she had never been so insulted in her life. She had never been spoken to in such an aggressive manner, even by her parents. It was as though this child thought itself equal to her. Troy quickly stepped away from Sam and everyone else stood ready to bolt through the main door. Arlan was fuming and Sam was practically ignoring her. At the moment, Sam was pulling strips of raw meat and eating them. Everyone aside from queen Arlan was trying to ignore that fact as well.

Arlan had had enough. She stomped over to Sam and flipped the table out of her way, rearing back to slap the child in front of her. As much as she wanted to swing as hard as she could at the insulting creature, such a blow would outright kill the most robust of Kor'Ran. The temptation was there but gentler ways to teach obedience were preferable. No one treated her as their equal!

Sam, on the other hand, was completely ready for the swing. The table had flipped off to the side, almost landing on Troy. The meat, however, did not miss. Sam felt sorry for him but she had more important things to worry about at the moment than 150 pounds of animal butt landing on her friend, particularly when he could handle it well on his own.

Frustration was clouding Arlan's mind to the point she never noticed Sam's arm come up and block her slap. The force behind the blow would have stumbled a large Kor'Ran like Troy but this mere child actually stopped the blow without budging. In the blink of an eye pain blossomed from her stomach accompanied with the sensation of flying backwards. She saw Sam's arm was outstretched palm out with a pale red aura. Arlan hit the floor hard before her senses came flooding back. The little whelp had hit her hard and fast enough to throw her back 40 feet.

Sam walked over to Troy to check on him. Sam could only imagine how embarrassing it must have been to have a haunch of some animal fly through the air and land on him. He wasn't in bad shape though, only rubbing his head where the hip bone had hit him. He started to reach towards Sam for a boost back into the upright position but had to pause at her current visage. Sam's muscles had rejuvenated from the meat supply and given her a much more athletic physique. Sam did not know it but she was now thicker than she had been since her changes, though there still was no fat on her body. Troy realized he was gawking and reached his hand out. Sam's muscles bulged under her short fur like cables under a sheet as she pulled him up. If Ishya had seen her like this he probably would have thought twice about messing with her.

Before Troy had a chance to react, Sam quickly picked up a large chunk of the shattered table and smashed it into Queen Arlan who was trying to attack Sam from behind. The force of the blow had sent the queen into the ground just long enough for Troy to scurry off as quickly as he could. Arlan got up this time without any effects from the hit and Sam was immediately on the defensive. After a few dodged swipes, it was apparent that Sam was the faster of the two by a large margin, but after ducking behind and around a stone pillar, her confidence wavered significantly as a large portion of the rock exploded into the air. There was not even a scratch on Queen Arlan's knuckles from the impact and Sam's reach was lacking far too much to attempt any counters against this woman who was over two feet taller than herself. Sam hoped Arlan would tire of trying to murder her soon but it didn't look like it was happening.

Much to Sam's dismay, Clara looked to be getting ready to pounce on Queen Arlan's tail. Sam hoped the cub missed but that hope was in vain as they passed too closely to the cub to avoid Clara's reach. Sam watched in slow motion as Clara's claws sank into the base of Arlan's tail. The queen completely disregarded Sam for this new threat, spinning at the waist and grabbing Clara by the neck. Sam screamed "no!" while diving for the cub. Sam knew this was going to hurt; knew she was going to pay for it; and she did. In the process of taking Clara from Arlan's grip, Sam opened herself to a direct blow. Arlan had already been rearing back to punt Clara and the attack didn't even need to be redirected to impact Sam's ribs. Most of the ribs on Sam's right side snapped and collapsed from the blow, sending rib shrapnel into her lung and collapsing it, some barely missing her heart and main arteries.

Sam held on to Clara as best she could until she slid to a stop against a pillar. The pain was excruciating and Sam could do nothing about it. Any slight twitch or movement sent blinding jolts through her body but she couldn't help but kick her leg in agony. She was vaguely aware of Clara slipping from her arms and nuzzling her face. Clara licked at her and mewed, trying to get her up. Sam finally got enough air into her chest to say a few words, "go... Troy." Clara pawed at Sam's face this time and she opened an eye to look at the cub, "go!"

Clara ran off and Sam noticed an enraged Arlan was only feet from where she was laying on the ground now. Arlan wrapped her long fingers around Sam's throat and lifted her easily off the ground. Sam didn't waste any energy resisting since it would only delay her body's natural healing and Sam could barely move at the moment anyways.

There was no sneer, grin, or smirk on Arlan's face. The Drakorna just looked pissed, "in 45 millennia, I have never met one so brazen or coarse as yourself. 45 millennia. That is a long time even for the Drakorna. What makes you think you are worth so much? You are nothing but a whelp and a liar!" Arlan grabbed the neck strap of Sam's dress and ripped it off. The tough fabric took an effort to pull away and it jerked Sam's body around but it yielded under Arlan's immense strength.

Arlan finally gave pause at what she saw. Sam did indeed have her family pattern and it was feathered instead of the usual Drakorna fur. In her shock and confusion, she dropped Sam to the ground and backed up a couple paces. Duke Kordo was the only Ren'Dal who had been able to make the patterns on Kor'Ran into feathers and was the only one who had been with her. This was her second child. A child who should not be alive, and definitely so young. Drakorna eggs typically do not last beyond six millennia.

That was also the same moment that Sam's ribs popped back into place and her lung sealed. Sam knew what she was about to do, but she didn't know the effect it would have. The "scream" that Ananda taught her was something to use as a last ditch effort. Unknown to Sam it was called the "Kul un'do" by the Ren'Dal, who were the originators of the art and many other energy based attacks, and translated loosely to "woman's call for help". It was meant to disable the attackers and warn the men that they were in dire need of help. Unfortunately for Arlan, Sam also has a much stronger pool of energy than any Ren'Dal woman ever had, meaning the scream would be many times stronger than if she had no Drakorna blood.

Sam took a deep breath as soon as her feet were under her. It burned but felt good all at the same time. Arlan was completely unprepared as Sam belted out her scream with an animalistic component that instilled a bit of fear in anyone who could hear it. Arlan recognized the scream the moment Sam started but the intensity was something no Drakorna could handle nor prepare for, forcing her to her knees immediately from the pain. By ten seconds in, Arlan could hold consciousness no longer and collapsed to the ground.

Sam dropped to a knee the moment Arlan lost consciousness. Pouring that much effort into the scream had drained her more than she expected but now she could see why Ananda had passed out from trying to knock Sam out. A shuffling noise to her side drew a glance away from the unconscious form of Arlan. Troy stood there with a shaking and poofy cub in his arms. At least Clara had listened to her. Small blessings in a rough world. Sam took a deep breath and shook her fur and feathers back into place. There was some blood on her side and across her face and neck that would need to be cleaned but more important was leaving and quickly.

A sharp whine broke into Sam's head followed by radio static. The intensity broke through Sam's resolve and forced her to hold her head briefly. When the pain faded, a familiar voice echoed in her head, "hello again, Sam. It has been a while. I see a few things have happened recently aside from upgrades on my end. Shall I prep the ship and your shuttle for departure?"

Lost in the moment, Sam forgot she was the only one who could hear the voice, "Kyle! Oops," it is good to hear you again. Yes, I would love a pick up from this place. How long until I can be back on my ship again?

Give or take, probably two hours? You want me to have the ship cleared and ready to depart by then?

Could you please? I may be bringing a few passengers.

Roger that. I will begin informing the last of the Ren'Indral they need to depart.

Troy was looking at her funny, "sorry, I have a mental implant that lets me communicate with my ship. It has been offline until just now." Troy was still looking at her funny but he also looked surprised now. Clara was no longer cowering in his arms and was staring at Sam longingly. Sam finally stood on shaky legs and walked over to Troy and her cub, taking Clara into her arms and holding her tightly.

Troy looked over his shoulder briefly before nodding to Sam, "I wish to join you on your travels, as do eight others. I promise you they will behave, though, I do not think that is a worry of yours."

Sam's heart leapt into her throat and she couldn't keep the smile from forming, "well this is a pleasant surprise! Thank you. There are a few things I need to get before my ship picks me up in 90 minutes. Maybe you could help me get them?"

The playful smirk that pricked the corner of Troy's mouth was a side of him she had not seen yet, "I think we could delegate that task and relax in the hangar for the time being. I don't think anything really requires you being there in person."

Sam cocked an eyebrow but didn't lose her beat, "well most of this could probably be picked up by anyone, but I need some pure thorium chloride and I doubt they will give that to just anyone in the amount I need."

"Tho... Thorium chloride? What do you need that for? It is very dangerous!"

"Relax. I just have a couple projects I want to work on that use it. Nothing will be exploding. Besides, for the truly dangerous work, I have engineering robots that can do everything with a precision impossible to organics. Could you write out a list for me so they can go pick it up? I actually can't write any languages from off my home world."

Troy stopped and looked at Sam. He thought she was kidding but noticed she was not joking, "oh, umm, sure, I guess. What else did you need?" Sam recounted the list of materials that Kyle had provided her and Troy nodded, "we should be able to get all of these without a problem. You don't need any structural steel?"

"Nah. I have plenty of that in my cargo hold. Unless the Ren'Indral used it all up with their meddling on my ship. We will see soon enough though. Shall we?"

The eight that wanted to leave with Sam were not far away. Troy was quick to take charge and send them on the errands, leaving him with Sam. Poor Clara was content to just stay in Sam's arms and not move around much. There was only one shop on the entire planet that sold the thorium chloride, and it was not very far from the hangars. Troy tried to be the macho one and get the material himself but the clerk refused since he had no idea what to do with the crystals that Sam needed. Sam wound up taking charge and bartering with the clerk to get them but he didn't have exactly what she needed. There was one perfect for her main project but not for the secondary project she wanted to do. Scouring the universe for this rare crystal was not on her to-do list and would be a pain.

Sam cut her losses and headed to the hangars to board her ship. A couple of the others were there waiting for her already and a glance back showed most of the rest. Things were running smoother than she expected at this point. A message came in from Kyle that he was landing and Sam couldn't help the smile from forming, "finally. As much as I love this planet, there is way too much drama."

Everyone glanced at each other since they had no idea what was going on. Sam walked through the security doors of the hangar which had just flashed green and interrupted their introspection. The ship in the hangar was only a 30 person deep space shuttle and did not impress anyone in the slightest. A few of them even sat in the back and grumbled amidst themselves. Their concern was valid but they hadn't bothered to ask. Why would anyone take passengers around the Galaxy in such a small craft. There was no quarters or shower. Not even a food supply and as far as they could tell, no star drive either. This was either going to be a very short trip with them demanding to be returned, or there was something up her sleeve.

"You know, I can hear you three in the back." Sam pointed through the front window of the craft, "that right there is my ship. This was just a shuttle to get us there. Believe me, there is plenty of space for food, showers, and sleeping arrangements."

A spherical drone detached from where the control console should have been and floated up to Sam while everyone stared in awe out the window. Sam ignored the drone until she got a message from Kyle, "oh hell no!"

Everyone freaked out from Sam's scream as the metal arm retracted from her temple. Sam writhed on the ground for the few seconds it took for the upgrades to her cybernetic system to finish. Troy was over her, trying to help but having no idea what to do but by now they were close enough to see the Ren'Indral shuttles leaving the ship and the open bay they needed to park in. Kyle was sending readouts to Sam continuously regarding the state and readiness of the ship. Sam was happy to see that they had not altered the ship much architecturally primarily upgrading the power grid and weapon batteries to be recent technologies.

With a shake of her body, Sam settled her fur and feathers back into place, standing up with Troy's help. Her ship took up the entire view screen of the shuttle now and all of the Kor'Ran had moved up to the front of the shuttle to take a look; every one of them had their mouths wide open.