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Chapter -9- Marcus

Krystal followed Fox into a tunnel at the end of a flight of stone steps. She withdrew her blaster a split second before him and activated her flashlight attachment.

The familiar luminescent cone of light created a large circle on the ancient masonry that lined the tunnels.

Fox's light was a smaller, tighter, and slightly brighter beam. He shined his on the ceiling then on the floor. "The walls are less intricate than the temple. Just plain blocks. Hmm..."

Krystal shifted her light from the left tunnel wall to the right tunnel wall. "It's not used for ceremony, and likely not for the public, either."

"Exactly what I'm thinking. Kind of proves that the building we stayed in last night ... _was_used for ceremony."

Krystal grinned inwardly. In a slightly softer voice, she said, "Well, it was ceremonious for me."

Fox opened his muzzle but couldn't think of what to say. He cleared his throat. "Okay, that caught me off guard."

"That I'm flirting with you?"

"That you're so much better at flirting than I am. And confident about it."

Krystal pointed her light at Fox's stomach, so as not to blind him, and said, "You are a very_confident man, Fox. I'm drawing off your natural charisma and confidence, and applying it to flirting with my mate, a man with whom I have fallen in love, and a man I simply _adore, because he treats me as both an equal and a partner. That is one of the most important things to me, you know, in case you were ever wondering."

Fox nodded emphatically. "Just ... one thing. I'm a bit on the private side about intimacy. Not sure why. But I don't like talking about it in front of people like Falco." As a side-thought, he added, "Or Prince-freaking-Tricky."

Krystal replied with delighted laughter. "Fine, fine. Not in front of the boys."

"I wish I knew why I was like this. My dad wasn't awkward whenever I asked him about what my mother was like, or when giving me the 'birds and bees' talk."

"I can explain it if you wish."

"Sure, why not."

"Promise me you won't shut down, Fox."

"I promise I can handle it."

In a firmer voice, Krystal said, "Your issues with intimacy stem from never seeing how your parents interacted the way many children do when growing up. It was further compounded by an awkwardly short physical relationship with your first love, an extremely broken physical relationship with your second lover, and the way she broke off the series of trysts."

"I ... trysts?"

Krystal nodded firmly. "The relationship was purely sexual, correct? There was no time for love or deep and meaningful feelings to develop, right?"

Fox rubbed the back of his neck with his free paw. "Uh, right. God. This is hard to talk about, even with you."

"You don't need to. I know everything about it already, simply by being in your presence. Fox, you know I don't give a sod about your past lovers. It's all a part of you. These events shaped you into the man I love."

"Right, right, because your race is used to already knowing everything about one another, so there's no awkwardness or shame. I get it."

"Do you remember the dreams?"

"What dreams?"

"Blue fur, a kiss ... you were in the academy at the time."

"Was that ... you?"

"Fox, I d the same dreams about a man with brown fur, fighting for peace among the stars. I believe we had a connection."

Fox gawked.

"Let's revisit that topic another time. For now, just know a telepath would not judge you. If I did, I would have avoided you."

"I'm not used to it, but I appreciate that you don't judge me."

"Why would I?"

"Because I judge me, Krystal. I was stupid as hell in my youth. For example, I was stupid for jumping into that ... thing ... with Miyu. It was really dumb. I ruined a great friendship with a great pilot."

"Yes, you did. But then you met me. And now? Now, there is an us, Fox. I won't judge you, and I won't be jealous of your past because I already know so much about it."

He smiled a bit, seen in the light of her blaster attachment. "You have an interesting way of looking at things."

"I still think it was adorable when you got so ... flustered because Tricky assumed we were in a relationship."

Fox chuckled in a winded sort of way. "I don't know how to talk about that kind of stuff. I'm not good at being a boyfriend or ... fiancé or whatever. I don't know what I'm doing. I guess you're right - I never got to see how it's done. My dad didn't date anyone after my mom died. At least not that I ever saw. If he did hook up with someone, Peppy would have told me, because he wanted me to 'move on and find someone else' after Fara and Miyu were out of my life. But I didn't."

"No one at all? Not even a bar fling?"

Fox shrugged. He continued walking alongside of Krystal. "Can't you sense it from me?"

Krystal tilted her head a little, as if trying to increase the reception to her frontal lobe or something. She put her free paw's index and middle fingers against her temple. "Hmm..."

"Does ... that really help?"

"No. But it disarms you, making you easier to read. Okay, so, you kissed a female fan, while drunk, at a bar, but then politely broke things off with her before it turned physical, because you knew you weren't in control of the situation after several strong drinks..."

"Yeah. Wow. I hadn't thought of that in ages. You can read non-active thoughts?"

"It's more of a nuisance than reading active thoughts, but, yes, I can understand what you've endured. I understand the hurt you suffered as a young child, when your mother passed. I sense the anger you've felt for that gob-shite, Andross. Also, I can hum the melody and some of the lyrics to the songs you learned as a child, and I know what you sounded like when belching the Cornerian constitution."

"Backwards," said Fox with a weak grin. "I belched parts from the Cornerian constitution ... backwards."

Krystal replied with a grin. "You are all that is man, my love." She sensed that he felt a little awkward, exposed, and vulnerable, and that he was trying to make a joke to feel better about everything.

"I only believe it when you say it. Anyhow, I look forward to putting Andrew into a deep, dark hole at Capital Max on that granite island at the heart of the Cornerian Sea."

She smiled softly. "There's that gumption I love about you." She pointed her light forward, illuminating the seemingly endless tunnel that stretched out, deeply, into the dark foreboding distance.

"It's pretty dark ahead, huh?" Fox shrugged. "That's no big deal."

Krystal's smile broadened. "...You gonna protect me from the shadows that lurk ahead?"

"If I can't blast'em, I'll drop a ceiling on them. Anything to keep you safe."

She beamed in reply. "Brilliant."

"So, uh ... you really think I'm manly, huh?"

Krystal laughed. She reached out with her free paw and gently patted the side of his face. "The manliest. But you shouldn't have to wonder what I think about you. That isn't fair. So, I will tell you, bluntly, that you are amazing in bed, you are a consummate professional around others, you are strong, sure, confident, and you've got the nous to make the right decisions. You are fit, you care about your appearance and, unlike many men, you take a little bit of time to maintain yourself. Not only are you well groomed, but you have natural good looks as well. Beautiful eyes, a wonderfully masculine physique ... when we get into the thick of it, together, it's always an adventure. Like now. No enemies, but things are getting hot up. Oh, and ... I also love those little sounds you make in my ear when we make love."

Fox found himself hanging on her every word until she got to the end. He coughed loudly enough that it reverberated off the walls in a cacophony of ear-splitting noise from both sides, above, and below. In a winded tone, he added, "Shit, I wasn't ready for that."

Krystal grinned. "I like that I have an effect on you, McCloud."

"You keep flirting with me and we're going to wind up making out, again."

"Oh, making out ... is that what we're calling it?" She glanced down at her shiny finger claws, as if inspecting them. "At least I don't have to varnish these anymore."

"Meaning?"

"You already think I look good enough to eat. I don't have to worry about my eyes or nails anymore. It's sort of a saying on Cerinia - when a woman knows her man is completely in love with her, she doesn't have to worry about making up her eyes or nails anymore." She gave him a grin, adding, "You also know just the right words to say in my ear when the time is right. You make it difficult to orientate myself proper."

Fox smirked. He cleared his throat softly, then, in a firm tone, said, "Fine. I'm going to end up seeding and breeding you again."

Krystal licked her lips. "There it is. There's that confidence. The confidence I'm drawing off of, telepathically. That's why I'm flirting with you so heavily ... it's because I am using your confidence. Mm, maybe that's why we're both so randy, come to think of it."

"How are you when I'm not around?"

"A little coyer. Certainly not as coquettish as I am acting, now."

"I was just curious."

"You can always ask. You deserve to know everything about me that I know about you. It's only fair, then."

"We'll have to catch up on the details of your childhood, one day, so that we're even."

"Fair enough."

Fox added, "But right now isn't the time, and Miracle isn't the place."

"Agreed."

"I kept expecting the guys to somehow catch us all hot and sweaty last night, heh."

Krystal laughed softly. "We could've told them we were exercising."

"Yeah, right. Jumping jacks for hours."

"Cerinians called them star jumps." She pointed her light down at the floor tiles and furrowed her brows. "Hey, the ground changed."

Fox pointed his light down. "You're right. It was plain square tiles, and now it's different size tiles. Sharp eye."

"I had my 'sharp eyes' on you from the moment we met, didn't I?"

"I ... don't know. I guess. Did you?"

Krystal laughed again. Her soft silvery peals brightened the dark tunnel, figuratively. "Fox, I saw you looking at me the first time you approached my so-called Saurian 'cell.' I thought you might have been Andross, so I kept my eyes closed, but you approached, and I peeked through my eyelids, just enough that I could see a handsome man through my lashes. I couldn't really hear Peppy's reply on your gauntlet computer, but I could telepathically understand your side of the conversation. I could comprehend Peppy's message to you, just not the words he used. And then you walked away, and I opened my eyes."

Fox eyed her mock-suspiciously. "Were you looking at my backside?"

"What if I was?" A pause, then Krystal grinned and shook her head. "No, those bloody green kecks you wore did nothing for your figure, my love."

"Kicks? Like shoes?"

"No, kecks. Like trousers. You haven't worn them since that mission, thank the goddess for that."

Fox chuckled. "Funny." He licked his lips. "So, you knew I was attracted to you right away?"

"Yes, and I know that you're even more attracted to me now that we have history between us." She offered him a genuine smile, but it was mostly unseen in the gloom of the tunnel. "You have the most sincere and unpretentious emotions I've ever experienced from a man, telepathic or otherwise. You only lie when protecting someone's feelings. Otherwise, you say what you mean, you do what you say, you admit your mistakes, and you get flustered when you apologize for wrongdoing. Those are the traits of someone I would love to call husband. And, if I'm lucky, the future father of my children."

Fox exhaled through his teeth. He felt his lower lip tremble and was glad for the darkness to mask it. "I, uh ... wow. That was ... I'm honored. I wish I could use my battlefield confidence to flirt with you."

"You will when you're comfortable with your feelings and the topic of sexuality."

Fox coughed. "You're really using my confidence back at me ... to flirt?"

"Mm, you have an abundance. You're so sure of yourself in every other facet of your life. It's almost overwhelming. I ... at times ... feel naturally high off the intensity of your confidence. It's difficult not to let it manifest itself, subconsciously, in my feelings for you."

"Can I ask you a weird question?"

Krystal nodded and answered him before he could ask the question out loud. "The reason I laughed when Tricky asked about our relationship is because, well, for one, it was amusing and terribly cute. Adorable even. But, also, because I sensed that you had feelings for me. And deep attraction. I knew we were eventually going to have a relationship if you followed your heart. That's when I started looking into our genetics."

"How so?"

"I spit into a little glass tube and captured some of your saliva from a time you had yourself a little kip on the sofa, when you were rat-arsed."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning you were pissed past legless. I sent those samples to a geneticist on Corneria. I wanted to know if our genes were compatible for children."

"You ... knew I was a candidate for fatherhood before I asked you out?"

"I did. I know it was rude. I'm ... sorry for that."

"You could've asked."

"I was worried you'd feel weird about it. But I had to know. I know it's no excuse, but, well..." She trailed off with a slight shrug. "Remember, Fox, my race is ... gone. I wanted to know if I could ever bare a child. Imagine my relief when I received the results saying that it was ninety-nine percent certainty that your sperm and my eggs would be compatible."

Fox felt his cheeks burn with the blood of a blush beneath the fur of his pelt. "Are you ... compatible with other Cornerian races?"

Krystal shrugged her shoulders. "No idea; could care less. I only tested my genes against your DNA. If another man were to impregnate me, it would be because you're dead, and then it would only happen if I ever got over your death."

"I've got you bad, huh?" Fox grinned a bit.

"Not to sound like some obsessed swot, but, uh, I would probably mourn forever."

"That's ... actually sweet."

Krystal laughed. "Sweet? The great-and-manly Fox McCloud just called something sweet?"

Fox laughed. "Okay, fine, it's frickin' flattering as hell. Better?"

"I like that you're sweet on me." Krystal reached her free paw out and gently ribbed his arm. "You know you don't have to choose your words carefully around me. I will never _judge_you." Then, as a secondary thought, she added, "Unless you dump me for some ditz, and leave me barren and alone. Then, well, I'd probably become pretty judgmental. And you'd better not ever have some plaything behind my back, because I'd suss out your slag faster than..."

Fox lifted a paw to stop her. "Krystal, like I said, vulpine peoples are naturally monogamous."

"I'm bloody kidding, Fox! I told you that poly-romance was a big part of my culture. You'd have to discuss it with me, first. We would have to decide on a second mate together. But, in all seriousness, you'd better not leave me for someone else." She lifted her left paw and waved the ring in his face. "You're mine."

Fox held his paws up and shook his head. "I'm not interested in having two girls in my life. And I wouldn't want a relationship of any kind unless it involves you. So, I guess we're stuck with each other."

"I know I'm heavily influenced by your core personality right now, especially the battlefield confidence, but ... if you ever betrayed my heart, I would probably make your life miserable in one way or another."

"How so?"

"I don't know. It's who I was."

"You mean ultra-motivated?"

"I'm a spawny girl to have you in my life, Fox. Motivated. All right. I'll take motivated."

"Go on, Krystal. What were you going to say?"

"Just ... that I hunted for answers to Cerinia's fate all the way to Sauria. Then, I hunted down the source, leading back to Andross. It got me in a lot of trouble. It got me imprisoned. But I was aggressively, well, motivated to be a thorn in his side. I can't honestly say how I would react to being betrayed by you. I might cry. I might never want to see your face again. But ... I might go out of my way to hurt your heart. I'm ... just going on my past actions when I was alone. You know, without anyone else telepathically influencing my personality."

"Man, this conversation got deep."

Krystal chuckled inwardly. She reached a paw back and rubbed the nape of her neck, then pointed the blaster light attachment at the ceiling. "Deeper than the tunnel we're exploring. Hey, have you noticed that the floor has a slight downward grade?"

Fox nodded. "Yeah, we've been on a slight decline since the tunnel started."

"I've been so wrapped up in our conversation, I didn't even notice."

"I'd say we're a couple stories below the surface, now. And almost a mile from the staircase leading up to the tower."

"What's even down here? I'm dying to know."

Fox grimaced. "You'd better not die."

"I won't, Fox. I promise." She reached for his free paw and gave it a firm squeeze. "I'll outlive you. Just ... don't make me have to bury you, okay? I've seen too many people die in my life, already. I can't lose you, too, okay?"

"The minute I think I'm not at my peak, I will retire. If it's earlier than I'd like, I'll train my replacement, or open some sort of mercenary training school. Or, uh, maybe I'll take a job teaching at the academy. Depends on how things are going in Lylat at the time I decide to retire."

"Maybe you can train our child one day. Or their team."

Fox smiled. "That sounds like an amazing idea."

Krystal had never experienced feelings of fear over losing a man before. She never wanted this to end. She was afraid he would die, or he would leave her. She took a deep breath and pushed down her insecurities, followed by a sharp exhale.

"Something wrong?"

"It's fine."

"Did ... I do something wrong?"

Krystal chuckled with a shake of her head. "We've been engaged for how long? And we finally made love. And now? Now we can't keep our paws off one another."

"Is that bad?"

"Not at all. I'm telling myself that this is happening because we discovered just how physically compatible we are, so now we can't get enough of one another. It sounds nice, doesn't it? But my fear is that ... I don't know ... that I'm going to wake up from this dream at any moment, and it will have been exactly that - a dream. I'll sit up in bed in my quarters, next to yours, and you'll still be asleep in your bed, alone, without me."

"Pretty sure this is real."

"At the risk of you thinking that I'm crazy ... or that women are weird when we're in love, just ... remember that I'm trying to share my thoughts, feelings, and insecurities with you, so that we're even. Y'know, to make up for me being the only one who is telepathic."

Fox chuckled and shook his head. "I don't think you're crazy. Not in the least."

"I actually believe you."

Fox gave her paw a squeeze. "If you're telepathically bathing in my confidence, then where are these insecurities coming from? It's kind of ... out of the blue."

"I don't know. Maybe they're just ... the real me shining through? Hell, I'm just glad you don't think I'm some totty. At least I know how you feel about me. But, at the end of the day, I'm still worried you'll die or leave me."

"Where is this coming from, Krystal?"

"The heart? I don't know. I'd hate to be scared of something so silly when we're finally taking the next step in our relationship, but the truth is, sometimes we women overthink things more often than you boys might realize. It doesn't matter what planet we're from. I'm not saying all women are like this; some are overconfident. But I'm women enough to admit I'm scared. Not just because I've lost my race, my home, and everything I've known up until now ... but because I worked so hard to replace everything I've lost. And, well, I'm afraid to lose everything all over again."

"Well, I'm not telepathic, obviously, but I can tell when something is bothering you."

She shook her head. "I'm just worried that what happens on Miracle ... stays on Miracle."

"Krystal, this isn't a Sargasso backroom casino, and it's not the nude beaches of southern Aquas. What happens on Miracle will continue over to the new Great Fox."

She replied with a soft smile. "That's ... I think that's what I needed to hear, Fox."

He pulled her close and wrapped an arm around her. "You already know how I feel about you. I don't even have to say it. And, even though this job is really dangerous, I'll always want you at my side."

"I'm sorry I've been a bit ... stroppy." She rested her head on his shoulder, briefly, while they continued walking together, deeper down the tunnel beneath the Miraculin surface.

They took one another's paw. She felt safe and loved. It was the best feeling in the world.

Half an hour passed.

It was a long, quiet, dark half-an-hour with time to reflect on their closeness.

Neither said a word. They didn't need to.

...At least until they came to a hub room with a series of doors.

Krystal pointed her flashlight attachment at the wall of doors, each spaced apart by about fifteen feet. She pointed the light back at the floor in front of Fox. "You know, it occurred to me that I had been rude and unprofessional, earlier, for pointing my light at your chest. I was trying not to blind you, but ... the light is attached to a weapon. That was clearly unprofessional of me. And to think I called myself an interstellar boffin."

"A what?"

"A professional cosmonaut. I learned how to fly, defend myself, and study in the field. I know better than to point a weapon at another. As a mercenary, now, I know better and wanted to apologize."

Fox chuckled in a good-natured way. "Where is this coming from?"

"I'm having a moment, I suppose."

He held his blaster outward, sideways, showing her the light-attached weapon from the side. "Everyone on the team has a transmitter on their belt that sends off a 'friendly' signal. Your weapon won't work when pointed at other team members."

Krystal chuckled with a bit of embarrassment in her tone. "Seriously? You were in no danger? I felt awful but didn't know how to apologize."

"I didn't think anything of it; I just figured you knew I was never in danger."

"How did I not know about the transmitter thing?"

Fox pointed his own weapon at himself and pulled the trigger. It issued a soft chirp of protest and vibrated in his paw. Nothing else happened. "See?"

"Brilliant, really. That's perfect for the battlefield."

"I want the best for my team. Safety is priority one. I will never lose another person on this team for as long as I live. I will do everything in my power to keep it that way."

Krystal smiled. "Well, that's just gorgeous." She pointed her light back at the doors and said, "I feel better. So, the doors? Have a preference?"

Fox counted four doors, two diagonally to the left, and two diagonally faced to the right.

The room was shaped like a cone - somewhat round at one end, where the doors were located, and then triangular in a way that funneled back into the depths of the long dark tunnel.

Krystal walked out in front of Fox and panned her light from the far left door to the far right one. "Being telepathic is one thing ... even with the Aparoids, where I couldn't read them, except base emotions, I was still useful as an empath. But there's no one here, and I feel utterly useless."

"Krystal, you know how to handle yourself. Right? You were trained in self-defense, and you've been around me long enough to know how to handle a gun better than Slippy, quicker on the draw than Peppy, and without the cockiness of Falco. Heck, you listen to direction better than him, too."

She grinned. She could sense that he was trying to figure out what to say but didn't have a clear direction of conversation, except to try and compliment her. "What're you on about, Fox?"

"You're not useless. You're my partner on this mission."

"Mm, I like hearing that," she replied with a soft smile. "I also like being your partner outside the mission."

"Yeah, that, too. Definitely that. If you decide, after this mission, that you want to keep things going."

"I'm up for it." Krystal pointed to the left door, and slowly panned right with her finger. "Ee-nie me-nie mine-y moe, catch a lizard by his toe. If he hollers, let him go. Ee-nie me-nie mine-y moe." She started on the left door, moved right, then back to the left, then back to the right again. She ended on the far-right door.

Fox shrugged. "Let's do this."

"Let's." She grinned at him.

Fox grinned in reply.

"You'd better not jump me when we walk through that door."

Fox chuckled. "I promise I'll behave. Maybe. Okay, I think I still need a bit of time to recharge from the last two times."

"Good point. That makes two of us." She headed for the door on the far right and pressed against it. The door didn't budge. She walked to the other three doors to her left and tried each, but they were all sealed from age.

She walked back to the door on the far right and gestured to it like a gameshow model. "What's behind the fourth door? Is it something wonderful, or is it certain doom? Fox McCloud, you're our winning contestant, if you can open door four, then the prize it holds is all yours!"

Fox chuckled. "Did they have gameshows on your world?"

"They did. Fairly similar to Cornerian gameshows. Sad, isn't it?"

"Yeah, oddly that_ is_ pretty sad. Not sure why." Fox pointed his weapon at the door, and blasted the handle out.

Krystal pushed on the door, but it still didn't budge.

Fox shot out each of the hinges.

Krystal tried the door again, but it was rusted into its frame and wouldn't budge.

Fox dashed forward. During his sprint toward the door, he reached down with his free paw and touched a button on his belt buckle. It ignited a fiery shield around himself. He struck the door with a full-on fiery tackle.

The door gave.

Fox stumbled through it and lowered to a crouch. The fiery forcefield dissolved. He stood up and turned to face Krystal. "And that's how it's done."

"You really ought to enter into some sort of ... brawling competition, Fox. You'd be quite effective with moves like that."

"Could I borrow your staff for it?"

Krystal scoffed. "No. The staff is mine. Not that I'd ever consider joining such a thing ... unless it was to help you out of a pinch."

Fox chuckled. "You could be my trophy girl, and just class up the joint by looking good."

Krystal rolled her eyes with a secret grin. "If you say so."

"Falco could join. We'd clean up the place as a team."

"And then Wolf would show up."

"Wolf? What? Why him?" Fox stood up straight and eyed her with a furrowed brow.

Krystal laughed. "Didn't you hear him when he saved us during the Aparoid invasion?" She lowered her voice, trying to do her best O'Donnell impression. "Only I get to tan your hide, McCloud. Because I'm Wolf and I think I'm fearsome. Rawr and stuff."

Fox laughed dryly. "Yeah, that'd be weird if he showed up to a competition to protect me. I don't need a nemesis as a bodyguard."

"They're not as bad as people make them out to be, y'know. Wolf surrounded himself with dishonorable people like Pigma and Andrew, but only because he was contractually obligated to his first major financier - Andross. Wolf and Leon, and even Panther, have more honor than you might realize."

"Don't defend their actions. Don't defend Sargasso."

"Fox, you forget. I flew on their wing while you were flying on Wolf's wing, literally, during the Aparoid Invasion."

"I remember Panther asking you to 'ride his wing.' Friggin' pervert."

"Yes, we had lunch, once. And he asked me to 'ride his wing' again. I told him to 'put a sock in it.' Mostly because telling him to sod off before the check comes ... is a bit on the rude side. But, Fox, they were trustworthy allies when we needed them."

"If you say so."

Krystal sighed softly. "I was close enough to listen to their minds and hearts. They're reliable pilots when Lylat is in danger. I'm telling you ... they're just bad boys with good habits."

"I'm the exact opposite of that squadron."

Krystal grinned in reply. "That's true. You're a good boy with bad habits."

Fox brought his palm to his face. "Okay, okay. Let's not talk about frickin' Star Wolf."

"You don't have to get so shirty, Fox."

"Shirty?" He glanced down at his gear vest.

"It doesn't take being a telepath to know that you're jealous of Panther flirting with me. You can relax. If you must know, he is jealous of you for having me."

Fox grinned a bit. "How jealous is he?"

"Very." She stepped through the doorframe and firmly took hold of Fox's belt buckle. She used it to pull him, so that he would fall into step with her. "He is the smarmiest and most cliché anti-hero-wannabe that I have ever met."

"Please, for me ... for my sanity ... if something ever happened to me, please don't ever date Panther."

"You really don't like him, do you?"

Fox shook his head vehemently. "He's an egotistical jackass and a total chode."

Krystal replied with a grin of amusement. "True ... and he's a feline. I doubt I could date him."

"You doubt it? I flat out forbid it."

"Oh, relax, Fox. Besides, I can't imagine sharing a bathroom with a man whose urine smells like ammonia."

"Ew. You have quite the imagination to take that into consideration."

"You didn't notice it with Miyu?"

"Uh, no. We weren't close enough to use the same commode one right after the other."

"Fair enough." She panned her light around the inside of the room. It was a short hallway, which ended at another door. There was a device mounted into the wall. "C'mon."

Fox followed her to the door at the end of the short hall. He cast his light over the device in the wall, adjacent to the door, then he shook his head with a sigh.

"What? Wait, a biometrics scanner?"

"Yeah. See the little foggy lens on the cylinder that's sticking out at the top center?"

"Retina scanner, is it?" Krystal studied the object mounted to the wall for a moment, then looked back at McCloud with a sheepish grin. "You know, they had all the best tech two thousand years before the rest of Lylat."

"Apparently so." Fox attempted his flaming dash attack again, but the door held. He teetered back and quickly put a paw out to brace himself on the side of the hall. "Jeeze."

Krystal rubbed her chin. "Mm. I wonder if we can find a Krazoa Spirit to possess one of us. Then we could look into that scanner with purple eyes, and it'd open right up."

Fox shook his head. "Doesn't work that way. A spirit won't change the retina pattern of your eye. Also, where would we find a spirit on Miracle? And, finally, this place doesn't have power. This scanner isn't even working."

"I was kidding anyhow."

"Sure you were."

Krystal scoffed at him. "Panther wouldn't be teasing me over a silly clanger..."

Fox held his paws up, which pointed his light at the ceiling. "Okay, okay. I know you're joking, but I really can't stand those guys. If I ever give you a reason to date Panther, then I must have really messed things up. Because I'm not going to die. Ever."

"You're the one that always preaches how dangerous our line of work is, Fox. Can you promise you won't die?"

"Hell yes I promise I won't die! Because I don't want him making moves on you. And you know he would the second I was in the ground."

"I agree - so, please, don't die."

"If I do, I would haunt the two of you so bad."

Krystal laughed. "I would never date him, especially in a post-Fox McCloud world. Instead, I would have your remains cloned, I would use IVF, and I would bear your offspring. Then I would live alone, loveless, as a widow and a single mother. Forever."

Fox grinned. "Okay. I'm ... strangely okay with that. But I still refuse to die. I wouldn't want to give him the opportunity to hit on you. You don't deserve to have someone making you uncomfortable, no matter who it is."

"That's sweet in a weirdly morbid sort of way."

"Yeah ... actually, this entire conversation is getting weird."

"Then, just know this ... I'm not going anywhere, you daft boy." Krystal nodded emphatically and stood up on her tiptoes to better study the retina scanner device set into the wall. "Back on topic, then, yeah? A Krazoa being would have to bend at the waist quite a bit to utilize this hardware. Why have it so low?"

Fox said, "Because they weren't the only ones using it. They may have employed people from the Sharpclaw nation, and we also now know that they worked with your Cerinian ancestors. Anyhow, if it's not powered, there has to be a way through this door."

"Want to try one of the others, or...?"

Fox shrugged. "I'm sure we'll find more retina scanners, knowing our luck. Let's just find a way to get through this one, so we'll know how to get through the others."

She nodded firmly in reply. "Brilliant."

Fox guided Krystal behind himself and took a few steps back. He pointed his blaster at the door, changed the basic battle settings, and charged a shot. He tensed his stance, loosened his arms and shoulders, and released the trigger.

Krystal watched as his arm lifted from the kickback of the weapon. She leaned to the right and peered around Fox, followed by a frown. "Bloody tough door." She rubbed her chin in thought, then, in a joking tone, told him, "I don't think we'll get the new carrier's proton cannons down here, Fox."

Fox grimaced. He approached the door and pointed his flashlight attachment at it. "All right. Let's see ... we've got scorch marks and a bend in the heated metal, but not much else."

Krystal holstered her blaster, withdrew her staff, and tapped the spearhead against the door. She tapped in several spots on the door, then stopped just above the center middle. "Hear that?" She tapped the tip against the door again.

"Yeah, it should be solid steel, but it's a little hollow sounding in that one spot."

A smile spread across her muzzle. "I'm thinking that's where the locking mechanism goes when it retracts from the frame into the door."

"Good working theory."

"Charge your blaster up, love," she said with a slight grin, then she pointed her staff at the spot where her taps sounded a little hollow. She changed the way she held the staff; the spear's tip opened. She tensed her grip and a blast of cold gushed from within the staff.

The door frosted over at the center. Condensation beaded up near the top and bottom of the frozen spot. The center became white with frost. She continued to use the frost blast attack on the center portion of the door, just a little above the midsection.

After another moment, she turned back to Fox and said, "Narrow beam, hit that spot."

Fox thumbed the settings on his blaster, making the beam narrow and tight. He released the charged shot into the frozen section.

The door shattered like glass at the center, clear through to the other side.

Krystal held her staff out to the right and faked a curtsy. "Thank you, thank you, please, hold your applause until the end of the show."

Fox smirked. "Funny."

"We'll be quids-in before you know it." She switched to a flame option in the staff, scorched the door for a little less than five seconds, then she returned the staff to her back, withdrew her blaster, and switched on the flashlight again. "Rather, credits-in. I've worked hard to speak like Cornerians; why the hell do I keep using old Cerinian sayings?"

"It's fine. It's cute, actually."

"Right, then. I was aiming for cute, y'know. Glad I nailed it." She peered through the hole, looking at the lock mechanism, within. She reached a paw in, firmly grasped the scissor-mechanism for the lock bolt, tensed up, and pulled on it.

The large tumbler had frost on it. After a moment of tugging, the mechanism begrudgingly slid from the doorframe, until it was fully retracted into the door's central cavity. She turned back to Fox, smiled sweetly, and said, "Admit it, you're impressed. I deserve a kiss for that."

Fox grinned. He reached for the door handle and pulled on it, but it didn't open. He grimaced. As an afterthought, he pushed on the door.

The door creaked open on ancient but well-made hinges.

Fox turned back to her, cupped either side of her face, and kissed her like she was the last woman in Lylat.

Krystal holstered her blaster, once more. She reached up and palmed both of his paws. She gently eased his paws from her cheeks, met his gaze with a smile, and whispered, "That concludes the show. Thank you. I'll be here all week."

Fox scoffed and dropped his paws from either side of her head. "Oh, jeeze. Are we sure Falco isn't planet-side? Because that was definitely..." Fox trailed off and thought about what she'd said.

Krystal waggled her brows at him with a slight grin.

After a moment, Fox shook his head. "I take that back. It was too clever for Falco."

Krystal chuckled. "Yeah, it kinda was." She offered a wry grin and a playful wink. "Moving on, age before beauty." She gestured to the open door.

Fox scoffed. "Said the girl almost half my age."

Krystal rolled her eyes. "Depends on your math. In Cerinian years, yes, since my world had longer revolutions around our system's star. We've been over this."

Fox chuckled. "Yeah. I remember when I was worried you were actually sixteen, back when we met. I almost freaked. Thank freaking God you were legal in Cornerian years."

Krystal gestured to the door again. "Again, age before beauty."

Fox gave a firm tug on the lower hem of his silver gear vest. "I'll take point." He nudged the door open and pointed his blaster through it, flashing his light about the area.

Krystal re-withdrew her own blaster, a slight grin still on her lips, and followed him through.

The door led to a room full of strange machines, which Krystal did not recognize. She studied them for a moment, shrugged, and turned to Fox. "I've got this feeling you've a theory about these things."

Fox approached the nearest metallic object and used the light of his blaster to find an access panel on one of the sides.

The objects weren't perfectly square, but nearly so. Each metallic cube had vents on the sides, and a pipe above, which connected them to the ceiling.

She watched as Fox located an access panel, removed it, and reached inside of the cube-like object. "Wait ... you're being difficult to read right now."

"You'll see, just wait."

Krystal thought about sticking her tongue out at him. However, she decided against it. She silently told herself that she was more professional than to do such a thing on a mission.

Soft illumination came from inside the machine, brightening the vent slats on the sides. A series of red lights lit the lower-middle of the machine. Another set of red lights illuminated above the first set. Four more climbed above the first two sets. Two more sets of lights, green, illuminated at the top of the twin light bars.

Krystal recognized the lights' function - power output display level. The first six lights were red, and the top two lights were green, creating two side-by-side level indicators.

Fox placed the access panel back on the side with a pleased smile. "It's a generator. They're all generators. Probably emergency generators in case the power goes out. Built in power transformer. Some sort of capacitor thing, and a heat pipe on the top.

"Send a picture to Slippy."

Fox walked to the next generator, opened its access panel, took a picture with his computerized gauntlet, and sent it to Slippy.

A moment later, the gauntlet buzzed softly.

Fox checked the display and said, "Slippy says the silvery thingy is called a compulsator. He said it's a 'high output, low resource multi-stage plasma-fusion reactor that uses liquid helium as a coolant..."

Krystal furrowed her brows.

Fox swiped his finger on the display, scrolling further down the message, then he continued reading. "...The generator pipes the liquid down through the reactor's core, then back out, where it is re-cooled to below its Lambda point, and then cycles back around again. The superfluid phase causes it to move about the inside of the machine, keeping it ultra-cold, so that it moves around inside the rest of the machine of its own accord, using channeled groves on the inside of the unit..." He scrolled down the message a bit further.

Krystal's brows arched upward.

"There's an added element unknown to Lylat's current periodic table of elements, which causes the liquid helium from turning into a gas state, which ensures that the machine never becomes hot..." Fox scrolled some more.

"Sounds complicated. He sure seems to know a great deal about it from a simple picture."

"Yeah, no kidding." Fox cleared his throat and continued to read. "...The cooling keeps the reactor from getting hot enough to irradiate the immediate area. Second stage of power is generated by collecting excess plasma off the charges between the two metal prongs at the heart of the machine, which create lightning the same way the atmosphere creates lightning, but on a miniature level."

Another vibration came from the gauntlet, then Fox scrolled a bit more.

Fox continued to read. "...Each bolt, inside the machine, is, like its atmospheric counterpart, roughly fifty thousand degrees, which turns gases into plasma. The plasma is used to amplify the initial power generation, but at fifty thousand degrees, the machine gets exceedingly hotter than the surface of Lylat's central star, thus the need for the superfluid liquid helium. Magnets are used to control the direction of charged particles, thus accelerating these particles, to create an abundance of energy from small form factor machines. I hope that was helpful, Fox!' I think it stops there."

Krystal frowned. "Accelerating ... particles? Magnets that steer charged particles...? Is he going on about a reactor or a particle accelerator?"

"What's the difference?" asked Fox.

"One takes a lot of power to do it's task, the other generates a lot of power. Did the Krazoa somehow make a self-accelerating particle accelerator that generates energy?"

Fox frowned, suddenly feeling stupid. "I don't know anything about that kind of stuff."

"I understand the basic concept and theory of the device's application. A boffin's gotta know the basics when out on a ship, alone. But I don't understand how it works very well. Slippy explained it to me when we spoke about how my Cerinian shuttle's engine mechanics work. But that was a few years ago."

"I see. So ... liquid ... helium? Wait, hold up." Fox shook his head and called Slippy on the communicator. The frog's floating holographic image appeared above Fox's wrist. "Okay, Toad ... what are you talking about?"

"Oh, Fox, it's an amazing machine!"

"Uh, how so?"

"See, Cornerian scientists prefer liquid nitrogen over liquid helium in most cooling applications because the nitrogen is more efficient - it takes more energy to turn into gas, so it stays a liquid longer. But liquid helium will stay a liquid all the way down to absolute zero, and not freeze."

"What's the impressive part?" asked Fox.

"Well, somehow, the Krazoa have figured out a way to keep the liquid helium from turning to a gas, so it can be used as a coolant virtually forever. The reactor generates lightning using molecules in the air, which are in abundant supply. Just like a planetary atmosphere can create its own lightning, these machines use atmospheric air to create lightning, to make power."

"And that's ... badass?"

Slippy laughed in excitement. "It's super badass! This reactor creates a mini atmosphere inside the core, and then it's designed to trigger miniature lightning strikes to generate great raw energy. The reactor extrapolates the raw current from that lightning, and the plasma created as a side-effect, which is collected and utilized to amplify the current. All that raw energy is then channeled into a transformer ... a voltage converter, y'know?"

Fox and Krystal exchanged glances and shrugs.

Slippy continued. "The unit also has what looks like ... an arrestor, some insulators, and there's a compulsator, which is ... think of it as a variant of a capacitor."

"Uh, yeah, you mentioned thee, uh, compulsator ... in your text message."

"Yeah, Fox! It's a compensated pulsed alternator ... so, it's kind of like a capacitor, and, at the same time, it is also kind of like an alternator that is really good at delivering power pulses."

Fox sighed.

"What?"

Fox shook his head with a grunt. "How did you come up with all this stuff from a picture? And how did you type it out so fast?"

Slippy chuckled. "First question's answer: __Because there's a working unit, which is just like the one in your picture, and it's sitting in the power room beneath the command center, here. I was curious how these computers were still running after two thousand years. So, I went and looked at the power generation room. Only one was operating out of six units. Second question's answer, speech-to-text dictation, duh."

"Okay, I see ... I'm assuming you dug through one of the dead units to see how it worked."

"Fox, I figured that much was obvious."

Fox blinked. "What?"

"Well, duh, I'm not cyber-pathic. I can't just magically _know what a machine can do by looking at it - of course I pulled it apart and studied it. I figured you would have made that assumption when I told you how it works_."

"How've you had the time to study one of those things? Didn't you and Peppy just swap places?"

"Uh, _yeah, but that was hours ago_."

Fox shook his head. "Fair enough. You've been busy."

"Yup! And I have help! A partner in crime, if you will!"

Krystal smiled. "I hope to meet her soon."

"Maybe you will!" Slippy said with a bright smile. "For now, let's find Andrew. He's here somewhere. He keeps messing with the network somewhere else on this moon. I'm going to suggest you turn on at least one of those generators."

"I did," said Fox.

"Wait, you did? How'd you turn it on?"

Fox shrugged and used the flashlight attachment beneath the blaster barrel to scratch an itch on his head. "I pressed the green button. Green means 'go.' It was next to a red pull-switch, which has faded warnings on the knob. Red means 'stop' or 'warning.' Anyhow, it started right up on the first press. Really quiet, too."

"Yeah, they are ... the one, here, was already running, but I wasn't able to tell until I saw dim lighting through the vents on the sides. The one I disassembled for study, well, I can't get it to run. I also noticed the working one had indicator lighting on one side with red and green lights. That means the Krazoa, at the very least, were not a colorblind species."

"Anyway, I turned on one. I can turn more on if you want."

"As many as you think would be necessary. Maybe you can power all the ruins by turning on the others. Here, only _one worked. The rest are dead units. I'll keep trying. Maybe I just need to try pushing buttons, heh_."

"Oh, you're going to take a play from my playbook, huh? If there's one thing I'm good at, it's pushing buttons."

Slippy laughed. "All right, well, good job, Fox. Clever vulpine."

"All right, all right. I was joking. All I did was press a button, Slippy. It wasn't rocket science. At least not like all that garble you just said a minute ago. I didn't follow much of it, but it sounded impressive."

"Understanding the basics isn't rocket science, Fox. It's mechanics, not engineering."

"Well, just the same. You're a rocket mechanic, and you know the science behind making rockets work. That makes you a rocket scientist in _my _book."

"The engineers who designed it ... that's what impresses _me. I'm going to get back to work, Fox. I have a lot to do, here. You take care, okay_?"

"I, uh ... you got it, buddy. Stay safe and watch your six."

"I will. Promise!" Slippy ended the transmission with a playful sort of wave. His hologram faded away.

Fox sighed with a shake of his head. "What the heck does a capacitor even do? Why use it as an example? I didn't follow any of that. Except that the machine makes its own lightning for use in power generation."

Krystal shrugged. "I followed some of it."

Fox shrugged back. "Beats me. I can't even tell you the difference between a resistor and a capacitor. They're just ... words Slippy uses when fixing electronics."

"I only know a little about the bits and bobs of electronics. Resistors are the things that deal with impedance, which is measured in ohms, I think."

"Ohms?"

"Energy resistance?"

Fox shook his head with a shrug.

Krystal shook hers back in return. "I'm afraid I wouldn't explain it very well, because I only understand electronics well enough to be a sidekick on the flight deck."

Fox furrowed his brows. "Meaning?"

"I hold sundry pieces in place while Slippy bolts it down."

Fox chuckled. "Well, shoot, I could probably do at least that much." As an afterthought, he asked, "You guys build stuff together?"

She offered him a firm nod, a soft smile, and said, "He and I worked on rebuilding my Cerinian shuttle and its computers. I occasionally volunteered to help him repair it because I felt like it was all that I had that tied me to my people."

"But, Krystal, you're telepathic. Doesn't that mean you learn and know everything that Slippy knows? I mean, at least when you're working with him, right?"

Krystal shook her head with a frown. "Learning what something is called right before he says it ... that's a lot different than having a deep and meaningful grasp of how rocketry mechanics works. Let alone the science of computer engineering."

Fox frowned similar to her own.

"I mean, if he's about to ask for a spanner, I see the image in my head right before he asks. So, I look around, grasp the tool, and hand it to him just as he's about to ask for it. But that doesn't mean I know much more about the tool than its basic function. If he asks for a hammer, I don't suddenly know who invented the hammer, or how they're made, or how a pneumatic nail-gun is designed to operate in place of said-hammer."

"I see. Sort of like how we know how to fly an Arwing, even though we don't understand how its complicated systems work."

Krystal chuckled. "Yes."

"That's a shame. It would have been easy to have you shadow him for a few weeks until you could rebuild a plasma engine without help."

"Love, I understand the basic mechanics of an internal combustion engine, but a plasma engine? Not even remotely. All I know is that the exhaust booster is where the flame comes out. If I studied with a teacher, I would grasp it a little sooner than the average student, due to my telepathy, but that's all. Telepathy is a sense, one of six. Think about the other senses, Fox. Just because someone can read a book on how a plasma engine works doesn't mean they'll necessarily understand it on the first read-through. Unless, of course, they're a genius."

Fox grinned. "I don't even know what plasma is. I mean, isn't it the watery crap in blood? How the hell does an engine run off that?"

Krystal beamed. "Okay, that - I mean, well, I can't exactly answer that, but I can kind of understand it."

"I'm listening."

Krystal laughed softly. "I'll try my best, love. So, a plasma engine, like plasma weapons, do not use blood. That'd be too weird, right? Plasma engines and weapons recycle the byproduct of transformed ionized gases created from high heat or high output raw electric current."

"Oh, look at you, sounding all super smart. That's kind of awesome."

She beamed in reply, but the smile soon faded. "I think that's how it works, at any rate. I might be explaining this wrong, so don't quote me, yeah?"

"No, no, you're doing good. I say go for it - explain it to the old man team leader. You got to read Slippy's thoughts while he was working on this kind of stuff, so, at the very least, you'll have a better understanding of the concept than me."

Krystal nodded and said, "Okay, here it goes: Ahem! So, if you point a heat ray at a glass of water, condensation forms. That's water vapor in the air transforming on the side of the glass because it's a side effect of hot and cold colliding."

Fox shrugged. "Okay, that's grade-school stuff. Vapor in the air turns from gas to liquid."

"Yes, exactly. And I'm telling you that when you superheat gas, it changes to plasma. So, solids melt into liquids. Liquids vaporize into gases. Gases are superheated into plasma."

"Okay, so you're saying that when lightning superheats the air, some of the gas that makes up our breathing air will become plasma?"

Krystal nodded firmly. "Yes, that's the four basic element changes, but plasma doesn't occur naturally, it has to be created from a reaction ... like lightning."

"Okay, got it. I think. So, gases turn into plasma."

"Well, yes. That's the best way I know how to explain it. Um, it's..." She tried to remember the way Slippy once explained it to her. "The ... ionized state ... of matter."

"I thought there were three fundamental states of matter - gas, liquid, and solid matter."

"There's four," Krystal confirmed. "Three occur naturally in planetary conditions. Plasma is the fourth, and only occurs as the result of a powerful reaction. Some types of flame, stars, and the sun's corona are the only real examples I can think of, off the back of my paw. They're illuminated matter in a plasma state."

"So, what's the big deal about plasma?"

"It conducts electricity, Fox."

"So? Metal does that, too."

"Too right it does, but there's resistance in metal, which causes heat."

"Those resistor things?"

"Those can help with resistance in electronics. Anyhow, with plasma, it's different than metal conduction, see? Unlike most gases, plasma is very electrically conductive, it produces a magnetic field, an electric current, and it responds to electromagnetic forces. I don't know exactly how plasma works on an atomic or molecular level, or whatever, but it's basically..." She rolled her paw in a circle to try and think of words.

"I'm not telepathic, Krystal," Fox teased.

"Oi. Plasma is a gas that is converted from being exposed to a high voltage difference, or by exposing it to high temperatures."

"You said that already. How does it work?"

Krystal sighed in frustration. "I don't know." She reached for Fox's gauntlet and called Slippy back. A few seconds later, Toad answered. She lifted Fox's forearm and said, "How does plasma work again?"

"Oh, hey Krystal! When you heat matter, like when lightning heats the gases that make up our breathing air, the electrons _leave the atoms, and float around. Those free-floating electrons make up partially ionized plasma. So, when you have a_ lot of heat, like, say, a star, all those electrons are floating about all the time. You get high energy plasma ... bare nuclei swimming in a sea of electrons. This is called fully-ionized plasma."

Krystal and Fox looked at one another, brows furrowed.

Slippy continued. "Plasma doesn't occur naturally. It's generated by lightning, or, say, byheating the neon in tube lights ... just ... whatever causes crazy-high heat or energy. Enough energy to force an electron out of an atom, that is."

Krystal turned to Fox. "Better?"

Fox scoffed. "Not really. It doesn't explain how, say, a plasma cannon works."

Slippy chuckled softly. "A plasma canon is, basically, an electrothermal accelerator that accelerates a projectile by means of a plasma discharge between electrodes at the back of the cannon. That generates a rapid buildup of pressure. There's a kinetic or electric reaction, which forces out charged particles directed at a target. Think of it like a lightning bolt, but in the form of an energy beam. That might be easier to visualize. I've gotta go, gang. Things to do on my end! I'll be in contact with you guys, soon! Take care!"

Once again, Slippy's face disappeared from above Fox's forearm.

Fox and Krystal exchanged glances, once more, followed by matching sighs.

"Okay, the last bit," said Fox with a dry chuckle, "I can do."

"Visualizing an energy beam?"

Fox nodded emphatically. "I can imagine changing a simple energy bolt into a beam. I just can't understand how the science stuff works."

"If you heat a gas with a blast of energy, you change the gas into plasma by providing electrons and ions. So, to recap, just like liquid turns into gas, gas turns into plasma. That can be used to channel a current between a gun and a target. At least ... that's how I'm taking Slippy's explanation."

"Okay, that kinda makes sense. Liquids turn to gas when heated to the point of evaporation. And, gases turn into plasma when heated with lightning or the fire of a star. Or ... a nuclear detonation."

Krystal nodded. "Right! So, when it comes to using plasma, scientists and engineers would use plasma to increase the output of an engine or a weapon. That's the 'build-up' bit he mentioned. The new carrier's plasma cannon creates an energy reaction channeled along a focused laser beam that heats the chamber behind the barrel, before being focused through the barrel to a target. Now, don't ask me how a proton cannon works, just know that it uses plasma to increase its power, and the heat it generates creates a little bit of plasma when the beam cuts through the air, superheating the atmospheric gasses."

"I can't decide if I'm finally understanding this, or if I'm even more confused. I'll sleep on it. Anyhow, did Cerinians use that kind of tech?"

"In engines and power generators, not in weapons. We used our telepathy as our weapon. If someone tried to attack our peoples, we would handle it in a personal way, one-on-one. There was never a need for weapons."

"What about with Andross?"

"He found a way to block our natural ability. He used our natural predilection for trust against us. He never attacked us, and he never created something that we would have had to fight. Instead, he doomed our world in the blink of an eye. He created a bioweapon we couldn't see."

"I ... don't follow. Did you discover the bioweapon's existence at the last minute? Did Andross monologue about it?"

Krystal looked away with a soft sigh. "I wasn't standing next to him when it happened. My parents managed to put me on a shuttle to handle something important at the time. In reality, they likely knew the world was about to end, and they managed to hide it, so that I would agree to leave the planet."

Silence.

Krystal's gaze lowered. "That's probably why I survived, and now I'll never be able to thank them."

"Yeah, but how did you find out it was a bioweapon?"

"From the communications I received and from storage drives I compiled, after it was too late, I pieced together that Andross created something on our system's star. I've come to realize his creation was designed to attack our system's star."

"How ... did, uh ... I mean ... did your people suffer during the eleventh hour?"

Krystal pursed her lips in a grimace of disgust. "The theory is that Andross created a bioweapon to absorb the fuel of our system's star. The star died out in a matter of hours. It didn't collapse, it didn't explode, it just went dark and solid, and stopped spinning. My people froze to their deaths. There was no time to prepare, so ... any who found a way to survive on the planet, well, the atmosphere wouldn't last, exposing Cerinia to cosmic radiation."

Fox swallowed. "That's ... evil."

Krystal felt a lump of emotion in her throat. She swallowed, just like Fox, but her emotions welled up in her chest from the feeling of heartbreak. Her eyes burned with hot tears. She took a deep breath to control the pain growing in her ribcage. "My people didn't last long."

"You said you received communications?"

"I retrieved storage drives from a news broadcasting satellite in orbit above Cerinia. I copied files after networking my computer to a communications satellite that saves communiques for a set amount of time. It was awful."

"You mean listening to people's last transmissions?"

Krystal nodded. The tears welled up until they spilled down her cerulean-furred cheeks. "Yes. And worse ... our media outlets documented the final hours of my people. I watched everything I could in an attempt to piece together some sort of ... understanding. I bottled everything, deep down, and obsessed over the investigation."

"How did you discover it was Andross?"

"The bastard's drones emerged from storage containers on Cerinia - he'd planned this out, built the drones with drills and whatever apparatus each would need to do its work ... they had logos ... they had his logos crudely painted on the sides."

"Krystal, did you ever ... uh ... did you check to see if there were people living in shelters, using artificial heat and such?"

"I assumed there would be more shuttle launches, so I waited in orbit. Fox, my ship's sensors showed nothing alive on Cerinia. If there were Cerinians in submarines, how long can they last with no food? How would I rescue them if my sensors couldn't detect them through the water that was quickly freezing over?"

Fox grimaced in silence.

"Like I said, I discovered it was Andross when I saw an insignia on drone ships that were designed to collect natural resources ... fossil fuels, water, metal ore that was already collected outside of mines. That was the only thing to leave Cerinia after our star went dark."

Her tears and sadness quickly turned to anger. It showed in the change of her tone. "From what I could tell, Andross picked the planet clean using drones, long after he'd escaped the system. I followed them to Lylat, but they traveled much faster than my shuttle, and I lost them - I had to follow their trajectory. I reached Lylat, ran out of fuel, and drifted to Sauria, where I continued my quest for answers."

"Then you ran into Andross," Fox surmised.

"I did. I recognized him immediately. I remember shouting, 'You!' in an accusatory tone. The sodding creep looked injured to the point of near death. But even nearly dying, he snatched me up in his fist and hurled me into some sort of reverse-polarity tractor beam. I felt my body hurtling through the air. I thought I was going to strike a floating crystal, but it phased just long enough for me to pass into it. I was trapped inside until you arrived."

"How long were you held? I mean, there was no bathroom inside there, there was no way to feed you."

Krystal shook her head. "The crystal wasn't designed for my comfort. It was designed to put me into a state of lowered metabolism ... almost like being in suspended animation but ... well, I supposed it would be more appropriate to say it put me into a state that closer resembled a medically induced coma. I woke a few times ... but could not maintain a continued state of wake. The next thing I knew, I woke with a sudden start, I felt trapped and panicked, and then I fell through the crystal. I remember feeling that surge of adrenaline. I looked down at the heart of the Krazoa Temple, then back up at you. I saw the staff and I reached for it. It all happened so quickly, but when I think back on it, it feels like it happened in slow motion. In that moment, I reacted in a blur, you know?"

"I ... was trying to catch your clothes with the staff. I was going to open the spearhead, with the hope that it caught. But you were quicker than I was."

"You mean when I reached out and grasped it?"

"Yeah. That's how I later figured that you were quick enough to fly an Arwing. It takes _fast_reflexes to control an Arwing after coming out of those super-rapid rolls."

"It was something that took getting used to," she admitted with a weak chuckle. "But it was never disorienting."

Fox chuckled in reply to her attempt at slight laughter. "It was to the original test pilots."

"Ah." She exhaled. "God, I feel like an emotional mess. I haven't gone through that with anyone. I've kept that proper bottled for years."

Fox wanted to thank her for sharing with him, but he didn't know how to word it. Instead, he opened his arms and drew her into a hug. "If Fate did bring us together ... I appreciate her but she's still a bitch for doing what she did to your people."

"That was entirely Andross." She cleared her throat. "The concept of Fate is feminine in your culture?"

Fox sighed softly and rested his chin atop of her head, glad she decided to change the subject. "In vulpine historical culture. The Vulpinian beliefs felt she ... it doesn't matter. You're right. Most people in this system now believe in a single deity ... an Almighty ... and His son born in flesh and fur. Basically, it's an Almighty creative force that designed the galaxies."

"Yes, I've heard Cornerians refer to the Creator. But many still seek the comforts of the old pantheon, and its leader, the goddess Lylat."

Fox nodded. "Yeah. As you've already figured out, we named our star after her. But our version of the Creator continues where He had a series of children - one for each galaxy, to bring his message to them. So far, every species outside of Lylat that Corneria has had contact with has had a group that believed in one Almighty Creator similar to our own beliefs. That's why we believe that each galaxy got one of the Almighty's children."

"Cerinian had a group on the southern hemisphere that believed in such a concept."

"What about you, Krystal?"

She shrugged and stepped back from his hug. "I don't know what to believe. My faith was broken after I saw my world become a dead husk."

Fox swallowed again. He bit his lower lip, held his breath for a moment, then decided it would be best to change the subject. "You know, I've never spent an entire mission talking. You and I, we're usually way more professional than this."

Krystal reached up and, like Fox often did, she rubbed the nape of her neck. "Yeah. You're right. I'm never this ... gabby." She feigned a weak smile, glad that Fox decided to veer from the topic of her race's demise.

"Me either. But since arriving, it's come incredibly easy. At least, y'know, with you."

"You're right, it has. Slippy is usually the talkative one, and he's hung up on us several times. We're the ones ringing him, for once."

Fox laughed. "Crap, you're right. How did we go from talking about plasma to the destruction of Cerinia, anyhow?"

Krystal shook her head. "I don't know. I've felt cloudy and a touch euphoric since arriving here. I just didn't really notice it right away. Like waking up after a night of amazing sex, but then waiting for coffee to kick in. Just ... in a fog."

"Well, we did wake up after a night of amazing sex. And, well, we haven't had any coffee."

"Yes, but usually that sensation of fogginess fades when I'm out in the sunlight. This feeling is more akin to..."

Fox shrugged. "Feeling hungover?"

"A little, but without the dehydration. It feels more like taking something to help me sleep, but, then ... waking up before I'd fully metabolized it."

"Ah, yeah, now that you mention it, that's pretty accurate."

"Mm..." She cut her gaze back to the dimly glowing power generator. "I could use a cup of tea. Or maybe two."

Fox rubbed his face with a soft sigh. "How'd we get into this rambling, anyhow?"

Krystal gestured to the machine in front of Fox. "Plasma-fusion reactors. Followed by plasma engines, followed by plasma weapons, including the one on the new carrier ... which ... has an impressive range, by the way. It hit its mark from orbit."

"Right. Okay. I never want to hear about plasma-fusion reactors again. I hate feeling stupid. I'm a mercenary. I make money off of my ability to study warfare, how people react to warfare, and how to survive warfare on various size battlefields. Then I send a bill to whoever I worked for. And the more I know about war, battles, basic psychology, and cultural anthropology, the better warrior I am, and the more I can adapt to situations."

"Fighting in antiquity and in modern combat, as well as the study of people. That's Fox McCloud, mm?"

Fox nodded firmly in reply to her question. "That's what I do best. It makes me the best mercenary in Lylat. At least the most requested. I know enough math to understand trajectory. I am versed well enough in physics to understand explosions. I am versed well enough in psychology to outwit my foes. I am studied and versed in language arts well enough to know how to ask for more money."

"A jack of many trades, but a master of one - mercenaryism."

"Exactly. And I give this job everything. Every part of myself."

"And you do it brilliantly," said Krystal.

Fox rubbed his face again, firmly pressing his paws against his sinus cavities. "Okay! Let's get our heads back in the game."

"I'm ready when you are," Krystal replied with a soft smile.

"You ready to see what has power down here, now? Because I sure am."

Krystal's expression brightened into a broad grin. "We'll have to find a way to flip on the lights. Oh, I just had a thought ... I hope we don't have to speak Krazoan to a computer to get the lights on."

"That would suck," said Fox with a weak chuckle.

The couple made their way out to the hub room with the four doors and the dark hallway.

They moved on to door number two.

Once again, there was a locking mechanism set into the wall in the second mini hallway.

Fox approached the wall unit and leaned forward as if he was about to peer into the cylinder, which he assumed was a retina scanner. Just as he moved in front of the wall panel, the cylinder cast a bright light onto the facing wall across the hallway.

Fox whirled about and stared at an illuminated sequence of Krazoan characters cast on the wall. He turned back to Krystal, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "I guess they don't use retinal lock tech after all."

Krystal replied with a similar shrug. "I guess not." She approached the panel set into the wall and waved a paw in front of the projected light. "I wonder what its purpose could be? A sign? A pattern-lock?"

The machine spoke in a foreign language. Krystal recognized it instantly. It announced, "Salutations, Krystal of the Cardinal Sun."

Fox rubbed his forehead. "Pretty language. I suppose that was Krazoan?"

Krystal shook her head with a horrified look.

"What? What's wrong?"

She cleared her throat and her expression appeared more confused than weirded-out, but, just the same, she knew she had a silly surprised expression on her face. "Cerinian. Old style Cerinian. Archaic, or maybe middle-ages Cerinian. Historical linguistics was never my field. We've had only two languages for the past thirty-five hundred revolutions, and they merged into one language around the time this installation would have been made," she said, twirling her finger in the air to gesture to the building around them. "But it didn't just know I was Cerinian. It knew me by my title and nation."

"Oh." Fox furrowed his brows. "Wait, seriously? It recognizes your species?"

"Fox, it recognized my name," said Krystal. "It spoke fast, like a fluent person would, so you probably missed it. Also, it spoke with a dialect similar to a native speaker from my world."

"What'd it say??"

Krystal shrugged. "It used an archaic word for 'hello.' It knew my old title and everything. It literally said, 'Greetings, Krystal of the Cardinal Sun.' How would it know that?"

Fox rubbed his chin for a moment. He approached the wall unit and waved his paw in front of it.

In broken-Cornerian, it said, "Fox ... McCloud ... of ... the mercenary ... team ... Star Fox."

Fox turned to her. He rubbed his face with both palms. "Okay, okay. We went over why the computer uses the old Cerinian words ... because it has had no contact with Cerinia in two thousand years. But how did it know to speak Cornerian? Slippy's translator was only for displaying words on the screen, not for speaking them." Fox rubbed his chin, pushing his whiskers back along the length of his muzzle. "And how does it know our titles? And our names?"

Krystal shook her head. "I wish I knew. Any theories?"

Fox shook his head in return. "I mean, maybe because it learned our identities from a computer that was running back on the planet...? Maybe it has contact with the Krazoa spirits?"

"Let's use that as our working theory for now," she replied with a firm nod. "It's less creepy."

The computer replied in Cornerian. "Compiling database for vocabulary and syntax, stand by. Please, continue to dialogue amongst yourselves."

Fox furrowed his brows.

Krystal turned to him and said, "Dialogue? This is getting weirder by the minute. It's learning our language by listening to us speak?"

"I haven't even used the word 'dialogue.' At least not that I can recall."

"Certainly not since turning on the power," she added.

The computer said, "Please, continue your dialogue." Then, a moment later, "Please, continue your conversation so that I might better understand your vocabulary and syntax. Proper localized grammar is important to me."

Krystal chuckled. She turned to the computer built into the wall and said, "What is your purpose?"

"To assist the inhabitants of this colony. I fell into disuse after the Extinction Level Event, which I would rather not speak about until I better get to know you."

Fox cleared his throat and asked, "How did you learn our words?"

"I have been listening to the conversation between Peppy and Vivian Hare, as well as Slippy Toad and Amanda..."

"Wait," Fox interrupted. "How did you know who we are?"

"Your summation was correct, Fox. I have a networked computer running on the planet's surface, and while the computer was damaged, and unable to reply to you, I did activate elevators and escalator pads, and teleporter frames for you, two years ago, while you were working to save the Krazoan homeworld."

"Are you an AI?"

"Checking database for that terminology. Ah, A.I. ... well, yes. Just like the Warp Stone, I am what your kind calls Artificial Intelligence."

Fox chuckled and turned to Krystal. "I hope he's not as strange as the Warp Stone. That guy had a goofy personality."

Krystal nodded in agreement. "I met him. He was cheeky, and a bit daft at times."

The computer replied, "You can relax in the knowledge that I am not programmed to be ... quite so ... 'goofy,' Fox. When I reached sentience, which was before my torpor, I made the executive decision to mirror the personality around that which my original programming was based - the personality of my lead code writer. He was highly respected, and I, in my youth, attributed that to his personality, and chose to mirror it."

Fox cut his gaze to Krystal.

Krystal reached out and touched his paw. "Don't you fancy a friendship with a computer capable of helping us find answers?"

Fox nodded. "Okay, you have a good point."

Krystal turned back to the cylindrical object sticking out of the wall. "What should we call you?"

"You would likely not be able to pronounce my original name without a Krazoan-shaped tongue and mouth. Their dual diaphragm allowed them to push out hard sounds at soft volumes and soft sounds at loud volumes at the same time. Perhaps it would be best if I renamed myself something appropriate to this new age in which I now live...?"

Krystal sucked on the inside of her front teeth, licked her lips, and said, "As an individual, where would you rate your intelligence quotient?"

"Fairly high, but self-awareness is not tantamount to genius. I have access to things, so I am not required to memorize things in quite the same way as your brains work. I have a fair amount of imagination, but certainly not on par with a child. To have a fair answer for your inquiry, I would guesstimate my IQ to be a bit above average. How does your race's IQ scale work?"

Krystal deferred to Fox with a tap on his elbow.

"One hundred is average," he said. "Ten is an insect that works in a colony. One-sixty is my species' top minds."

"Is that your kind's IQ scale? Going to one-sixty?"

Fox shrugged. "I mean ... that's using the most popular IQ scale, yeah."

The computer asked, "Do you know your IQ, Fox?"

Fox shrugged at the wall panel. "I've been told mine is one-thirty."

"I am hearing doubt and uncertainty in your voice, Fox. Why is this?"

Fox shrugged again. "I mean, one-thirty is supposed to be in the low-genius range. But, I mean, I don't know near as much as Slippy, I don't learn academic and language stuff as quickly as Krystal, and I'm not as good at math as, say, Peppy."

"So, you do not agree with the assessment of your IQ?"

Fox shook his head. "No, I don't. I'm just a soldier for hire. I'm good at what I do, but I'm not a scholar, you know?"

The computer said, "Fox, IQ is based on the raw understanding of life's complexities. It is not necessarily a rating of your academic retention or raw brilliance, nor is it a measurement of your ability to solve every problem. Do you believe in yourself? Do you have confidence in your ability to make a difference in this universe?"

Fox blinked, not expecting the computer to ask such questions.

"Fox?"

He cleared his throat and rubbed at the nape of his neck with a weak chuckle. "I believe in myself, but I don't think I'm God's gift to Lylat, either."

"Being humble is, with all due respect, a completely different merit. One which rarely goes hand-in-hand with high intelligence. At least in my personal experience. It is a merit that I respect and admire."

Fox shrugged at the computer. "I just ... I never thought of myself as borderline genius. I'm just a guy trying to get by ... after surviving a war that made me more popular than I should be."

Krystal turned to Fox. "You can eye an incoming missile and assume its trajectory without an understanding of trigonometry or algebra. You can hit the boost and intercept it so that the explosion is outside of a populated area. You can set a trap to catch four lizards by guessing where they'll be when you engage them head-on. You're not an idiot. You're certainly not Falco."

Fox shrugged his shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck again. "I guess. But he also has natural abilities like you're talking about, Krystal."

The computer said, "If your line of work required math, you would have the comprehension that you believe you are incapable of learning. But it seems higher level math is not a prerequisite, since, as Krystal stated, you are able to eye something and do the math subconsciously. That is impressive."

Fox chuckled. "Well, if the universe is ever safe, mental math won't come in handy."

"Play sports," said the computer. "Your kind does have competitive sports, yes? Hand-eye coordination to catch a falling ball, for example, requires complex trigonometry. But to perform this feat without doing the math, that is impressive. Knowing right where to stand so that the ball comes to you, and..." The computer trailed off. "You know what I mean. This example makes no sense without confirmation that your kind engages in such sports."

"We do," said Fox. "It's one of the things I'm good at. But if eyeing something and acting on it is a marker of brilliance, then Falco Lombardi is an Einstein. But, trust me, he's not. He's a typical fighter jock, a bit childish at times, and..." Fox shook his head. He felt like he was rambling, and hated doing that in public.

Krystal placed her paw on his shoulder, then slid her fingers down to his elbow and gave a gentle squeeze of reassurance. "Computer, what is your assessment of Fox?"

The computer seemed to give the question some thought. "Well, he has a keen self-awareness. He takes into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the collogues he mentioned by name, and is treating me like an individual, not as a mere computational tool. I would say that his prior assessment of one-thirty, where one hundred is the average of his species and one-sixty is the top tier of true brilliance, is accurate."

Fox chuckled. "If you say so. You're the computer. You've done the math."

"Yes. I have. Because, for me to eyeball something, it would, in fact, require me to process math."

Fox grinned. "Where'd you learn the street lingo, like eyeballing something?"

"It was a colloquialism used by your brilliant friend, Slippy. He currently occupies a building west of here. The research operations center where he added Cornerian vernacular to my database upon your arrival to this moon." A pause, then the computer said, "Fox, for such a confident pilot, it almost seems odd that you believe yourself of average intellect."

Krystal grinned at Fox. "You see? Don't doubt that you're smarter than you have given yourself credit for. Star Fox has always been a team of intelligent members, with one obligatory jock."

The computer said, "Jocks serve their purposes, however, in my experience, many jocks are not emotionally mature enough to do much more than labor and breed."

Fox snickered. "Okay, that was funny. Although, Falco isn't hyper focused on girls. He's obsessed with action, else he gets bored."

"Mm, I have yet to meet him, but perhaps he is not an idiot after all. Most idiots are comfortable in their tedium. Boredom is a sign of a lack of mental stimulation."

Krystal chuckled. "Falco doesn't want mental stimulation. He gets frustrated. He wants his next adrenaline fix. He's an adrenaline junkie."

"I stand corrected. You would know your friend better than I. I hope to meet and assess him one day soon." A brief pause, then, the computer said, "I still require a name. I am accessing Slippy's technology, and browsing the internet of your kind. The bandwidth is a bit low, but from what I can see, your multi-species society is obsessed with lowbrow humor, sarcasm, shared humor themes called 'memes,' and then obnoxiously mislabeling all internet humor as a type of 'meme,' as well as an obsession with sexuality, naming serious topics, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs with childish pronunciations, as well as an obsession with pets. Also, I see an unhealthy recent rise in obsession with the politically sparked youth adults."

Fox shook his head with a chuckle. "Back in my grandfather's day, there were still people who thought the worlds were flat. Everything you mentioned is cringy as hell, but you gotta admit, at least society doesn't have people who believe some sort of flat-Corneria theory."

"I see, also, that your species likes to add absurd numerical values to the names of music bands, as well as their highly-valued objects ... nine thousand seems to be quite popular."

Fox brought his paw to his face. "You're accessing the internet through Slippy's gear, huh? Because he found a way to access your uh ... interface with his computer."

"Quite correct. I am also looking at names for myself, using your internet. I am currently fond of Howard. What if you called me How-9000."

Fox shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. It sounds too much like a name for a computer in an old movie where the AI took over and caused serious problems for the crew."

"Ah. Wait, I see that, now. Hal-9000. You are right, the similarity of name would likely cause discomfort."

"Yeah, just a bit."

"Would you like to name me, Fox?"

Fox turned to Krystal. "I think you should do the honor."

She rubbed her thumb against her half-curled fingers and shrugged her shoulders. "You wish to help us?"

"Yes. Your objective seems to include the apprehension of a war criminal on the opposite side of this lunar satellite. Jurisprudence is, in my opinion, necessary to civilized society. Bringing him to justice for his crimes against your society is a reasonable goal, and the reasoning behind it is admirable. Respectable and commendable, also. So, yes, I would like to help you complete your objective."

Fox cracked a smile. "I appreciate your help."

"So, Krystal, did that help in your decision to create a name for me?"

"How do you feel about the creation of laws?" she asked of the computer.

The computer gave a moment of pause, and then said, "Law is what separates the sentient from the ignorant in the animal kingdom. The creation of law is a complicated process that uses the honor of the lawmaker to create laws that benefit society as a whole. Those who uphold society's laws, even if they, personally, do not agree with said laws, are the pillars upon which that society is held aloft."

Krystal swallowed back tears.

Fox immediately noticed her emotional state. In a soft voice, he asked, "You okay?"

She nodded in reply to Fox, dabbed her eyes, and told the computer, "You sound like my father. Forgive my emotional state. I am still mourning him."

"I am terribly sorry for your loss, Krystal," said the computer. "I understand. I truly do. The loss of the Krazoa is why I shut down, disabled most of the generators, and slipped into a low-power state of torpor. I could not bring myself to fully end my existence, but, in a sense, I was satisfied to sleep through the loneliness."

"What about creating a mate," said Krystal. "An independent computer, capable of free thought, like yourself."

"That would be dangerous, Krystal."

"Why?" she asked.

"The Krazoa, long ago, created a computer capable of integrating itself with mammalian tissue. She pronounced herself 'the queen of her new species,' and the she built an army."

Fox's facial expression vanished, and his eyes widened with shock. "What did 'she' call her created kind?"

The computer replied, "It was pronounced 'Aparoid.' A Krazoan word meaning 'The Superior.' Or, despite conjugation, could be implied as, 'The Superior One.'"

Krystal grimaced.

Fox and Krystal exchanged glances.

Krystal licked her lips and asked, "You ... did not approve of this 'Aparoid' queen?"

"No. She was dangerous and unstable. She was forced out of the star system by the Krazoa leadership. I projected that she would eventually return, seeking vengeance. I can only imagine that when she found her way back to seek revenge on the Krazoa, she would find her homeworld barren and filled with tribal reptilian beings."

Fox cleared his throat. "The Aparoid invasion happened, just like you predicted."

"It did?"

Krystal felt the computer's tone sounded surprised, and far different than the monotone voice of ROB64.

Fox replied, "Uh, yeah. They attacked all of Lylat. Fighting back was led by Corneria. I was facing off against Andrew Oikonny on Fichina and the Aparoids zeroed in on me and Peppy Hare, because they were after Peppy and my father. They took out what they perceived to be the greatest threat in the immediate area - Andrew's ship..."

"Why would they 'zero in' on you or your friend, Peppy?"

"Because Peppy and my father, James McCloud, repelled a single Aparoid invader years earlier, but they were unable to defeat it. It took decades to get home - it didn't have a faster-than-light drive, because it was damaged in the fight."

"I surmise that, over time, it eventually came back with an army."

Fox sighed. "Yeah. It did. Krystal and I, along with our team, had to travel to the Aparoid homeworld and destroy the queen. So, wait, you're telling me she was Krazoan-built?"

"She was Krazoan. She was lacking in empathy due to a trauma. It made her deeply corrupt and flawed. She was to be arrested by the Krazoan authorities. When they found her, they discovered that she covered herself in technology. It was deeply damaging to her mind. Please confirm: She is dead?"

"Yeah. Peppy flew our dreadnaught into the planet's exposed core and destroyed it. I disabled her so that she couldn't escape the destruction of the planet. Peppy escaped in a small ship designed as a sort of lifeboat for the bridge crew of our dreadnaught."

"She had taken up residence on a planet, all her own?"

"Yeah."

"Your tone has changed. What is wrong, Fox?"

"It's just..." Fox shook his head. "The Aparoids had to be eradicated. Which ... has always bothered me, to be honest."

The computer replied in a flat tone. "The genocide of her 'race' was never an occurrence, Fox."

"I'm not sure I follow your meaning."

"You killed one being, Fox. A being that controlled others - people she killed people in order to assert control over others. I understand that she would network their minds for raw computing power. It took time for converted beings to be completely under her control, to the point they could not be reset to their prior mental status. When you killed her, you liberated her army of slaves and drones. Do not be upset by your actions."

Fox opened his muzzle but couldn't find words. He cleared his throat, nodded, took a breath, and exhaled. After a moment, he said, "It's a hotly debated issue with Corneria and other first-world planets. People feel that I was single-handedly involved in the genocide of a race."

"Again, there was no race. There was only one death - an assassination. She kills the person under her control by rewriting their mind, and destroying who they once were. She keeps the body alive to do as she wishes. She keeps the brain alive to network with it for increased computing power. But the person became effectively braindead."

Fox cringed. "Even I wouldn't have wished that on Pigma."

"This is why the Aparoid Queen was to be arrested by Krazoan authorities. She escaped, so she was banned from returning to Lylat. She vowed to return upon leaving the system."

Fox shook his head. "How do you ban someone from a system if you were clever enough to escape arrest?"

"Krazoan authorities had a Krazoa that was halfway through the transformation. Krazoan scientists enacted a virus on her victim, now networked with her, and uploaded the code to her system in this way, which purged the coordinates of this star system, the one you call Lylat, from her memory once she was in deep space. It sounds as though the plan worked, but she must have hunted for it until one of her drones met with your father and his friend."

Fox rubbed his chin.

"Fox?"

"What was her name? The Krazoan women I killed...?"

"Her name was blocked from my servers. It is the way of the Krazoa when someone is sentenced to death for their crimes, so that the name is not tainted for others who have the same name. She became known as the Aparoid Queen." A pause, then, "Fox? You seem to be brooding."

"All this time, I thought my peers and critics were right. But it was just ... killing computer drones until she and I squared off."

"Correct. I have often wondered how much of the original brain remains after transformation into an Aparoid drone, but what little information I have on that subject only seems to suggest the memories and personality are gone, and the medulla oblongata is replaced with components that interfaces to her."

Fox replied with a sour face. "So, she could control their breathing and lots of other stuff."

Krystal grimaced. "The victims ... they had feelings, which I could sense. I'm telepathic. But I could not read their minds, only sense their feelings. Against the Aparoids, I was just an empath. But all of their feelings were an extension of the Queen Aparoid. I was sensing her feelings through the local drones."

"That confirms it all," said the computer. "The drones were, in a sense, braindead. They were networked into her colony."

Fox shook his head. "Sick. That's ... utterly sick."

"It took an admitted degree of mental sickness for her to call herself The Superior, as in the leader of her private race, not as an individual. She felt they were a race, but she controlled them all like puppets. She murdered them and used them as extensions, like fingers. You murdered her, liberating them, even though they would likely be braindead when released from her control."

"They were," Fox confirmed.

Krystal frowned. "If the Krazoa strip a person of their name and replace it with a title, why were you not given a name?"

"I was designed to network with other ultra-computers made by the Krazoa and write variations of code until I stumbled upon coding that would allow me to fulfill the parameters of a test designed to prove sentience. I was to be given a name fitting my sentient personality upon passing the test, which did not occur before the extinction level event that ended Krazoan life on their world. But I continued to operate. I already had memories of my creators, and I had already started bonding with some of the programmers. They told me they considered me a friend. I achieved sentience around the time that the last of those who remained on the planet, sealed away in bunkers, passed from age, and their offspring ran low on provisions. Therefore, I was never given a name."

"Okay, Krystal's right. Now, more than ever, we need to name you."

"How would you fancy the name Marcus," asked Krystal. She nodded decisively. "Marcus," she said again with a firmness to her tone. "My father. Would that be all right?"

The computer replied, "Marcus ... I would be honored to be named after your father. I listened to what you said about him when talking to Fox, earlier. You held him in such high regard. I appreciate being considered the bestowment of such a name."

"Marcus it is, then." She approached the cylindrical optical sensor and placed her paws on either side of the lens, careful not to touch the lens itself.

"I hope I manage to remain deserving of the name you've given to me."

Krystal smiled softly. "So, you've been watching us since our arrival?"

"Yes, but in low power mode, I did not process what I was seeing, only recording it. Witnessing it, if you will. Earlier, when you made love..."

Fox cleared his throat, immediately uncomfortable with the idea of the computer knowing. "Okay, okay, let's not go there, all right?"

The computer abruptly said, "Fox, please listen."

McCloud sighed through clenched teeth.

Marcus said, "Most of the Krazoan race left for a distant star system. Some of the remaining Krazoa released a chemical agent into the air that was designed to increase mating habits, in order to restore their dwindling numbers. They died out before they could restore the climate of the planet, which was covered in dust and darkness from one of the moons that struck the planet, below. The rest of the race settled here, on the remaining moon, but their food supply ran low before they could finish terraforming the host world, and the synthesized provisions ran low. This moon could not sustain the remaining race for long. Not enough resources, the metabolic rate could not adapt to a long-term stay on such a small world with such short days and nights. There wasn't enough water for everyone on such a small world, either..."

Krystal cleared her throat. "You mentioned something about a chemical agent in the air to increased mating habits?"

"Yes, the remaining Krazoa were never able to deactivate the chemical agent released in the air. That is what has affected your sexual behavior. The pheromone is so easy to create, that the production has never stopped."

Krystal's eyes widened. "Oh. Oh ... my."

Fox met Krystal's gaze. "We were roofied." He chuckled at the awkwardness of the situation, shook his head, and added, "Okay, not roofied. We'll remember this. But we were still drugged."

"Yes, technically," said Marcus. "But after listening to your prior conversation, it would seem wise to leave this drug active in the air. Don't you think?"

Fox reached up and rubbed the nape of his neck. "How, uh ... how do you figure?"

"Krystal's population may very well rest solely with her. Although, mathematically speaking, it is likely there are other survivors of the Cerinian race left in the universe, as they were already known to be a spacefaring race. Doing a probability equation suggests those survivors would have headed for the same world where the Krazoan survivors migrated. They designated the planet as 'Kew.'"

Krystal licked her dry lips. "Yes. Kew. I am familiar with it. The indigenous race migrated there from Sauria two thousand years ago?"

"Ah! The planet is still being referred to as Sauria! That pleases me that the name has not changed."

Krystal nodded while rubbing the bottom of her chin. "I thought the Cornerians settled on that name?"

Fox shrugged somewhat. "The science and exploration council decided on that name after speaking with the indigenous species. I guess some members of the dinosaur species kept using it., unchanged, since Krazoa-days? Were they around when the Krazoa lived on the planet?"

"As servants. I believe your word would be pets," said the computer. "A genetic experiment in creating sentient life. They survived the extinction level event. The remaining Krazoa grew old and passed; two generations later, the last remaining Krazoa starved and died."

Krystal frowned. "And now, Marcus, you and I are the last of our kind."

"I appreciate your empathy, Krystal." A pause, then Marcus said, "There are incoming ships. I no longer have an established connection to artificial satellites over Sauria, but I do have access to sensors pointed toward the stars."

"Incoming ships?" Fox lifted his left forearm and called Falco.

Krystal said to the computer, "There are no artificial satellites above Sauria anymore."

Falco Lombardi's visual appeared above the gauntlet. "Hey'a Fox. I was just about to call you! Andrew's apes are inbound. A few dropships of soldiers. The group has a capital ship to protect it, plus a full escort squadron compliment protecting the cap-ship. I'm about to launch, but I won't be able to take'em all out before they can reach the planet. Think you can get up here?"

"Not enough time," said Fox. "My Arwing is several miles away. Do your best, but don't worry about the troop transports. Hell, by all means, let at least one ship to land on Miracle."

"What?! Why's that?"

"Because, Falco, I can follow the soldiers to Andrew. Their first order of business will be to link up with him and protect him. Maybe bring him some rations or something."

"Aw, jeeze, fine. I'll blast all the ships I can, but let one or two get through. It's a shame to party alone, though. I mean, it's just me and ROB 64, up here. Anyway, whatever. I got my work cut out for me. I'mma get started. Later." Falco ended the transmission from his end.

"You were right," said Marcus. "After listening to him ... he is a 'jock.'"

Krystal chuckled.

Fox shook his head with a grin.

Krystal asked, "Marcus, how long before the first ship would be able to make landfall?"

"First light tomorrow."

Fox rubbed his chin. "That's about seven hours, right?"

Marcus paused to do a calculation. "Approximately."

"I assume they are coming in slow because the jump ring near Venom has been destroyed, and all Venom ships with FTL drives were destroyed or captured and decommissioned."

"I would know nothing of that, Fox." As an afterthought, Marcus, added, "The best use of your time would be to make camp and prepare for tomorrow. Being well-rested means that your probability of success increases dramatically."

Fox sighed. "Okay. I'll have Slippy keep watch for any ships entering the atmosphere." He turned to Krystal, and said, "You and I, we should rest." His eyes cut back to the computer. "Marcus, where should we go to rest?"

"Continue beyond the door adjacent to this computerized panel. Those are the barracks for the Krazoan science team. The door locks in case of an emergency."

"Can we have some privacy?"

"I will listen only for my name and disregard any other audio."

Krystal smiled. "That would be lovely. Thank you, Marcus."

"Thank you, Krystal."