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<UEDF Io Spaceyard>[March 21, 2086]

Canith had been on the 'yard for about a week now, and a few issues were already trying his patience. It was natural, under the circumstances, that the project had not even truly begun yet. Engineers and technicians of all stripes were going over the plans with a fine tooth comb, constantly either making comments about one space or another, specific systems and parts, or any number of other facets of the ship that Aura had designed. Each one brought up his 'complaints' about a civvy being on the design team (if they were of a military background), an outsider with no know schooling or training being on the team (if they themselves had such training), or why he particularly was on it, as he had come from a retrofit yard and 'had no place at the design table'.

To the first he pointed out that their higher-ups deemed his plans and presence was appropriate, which shut them up with their real complaints- if not their personal issues with him. To the second group, he simply pointed out that the plans, as they were, had been thoroughly vetted by all the appropriate agencies with no changes. That normally didn't happen, as there were always changes made to the originals. This shut them up as well, and left their unspoken thoughts of him being 'too good at brown-nosing to know what's what', well, unspoken.

As for the last group, they had the only truly valid point, so he had to prove, over and over and over, why the 'brass' decided to have him in a lead position on this massive project. He gave out explanations for any question anyone had, often surprising them to no end with his boundless energy and seemingly limitless knowledge of what seemed to be every system on the ship. He hadn't heard it directly from anyone, but the general rumor mill suggested that there was a bet out for who could find a fault in the design, and another for someone who could catch him not knowing what he was talking about.

So far both bets were unclaimed.

He, of course, had Aura backing him on this one. Together, they had went over the plans for weeks on the Tiamat, sometimes stretching things out through the use of Data Dives. In down time on the way to Earth they had also discussed the plans, both with each other and with the crew back on the Tia'. The plans had been refined to absolute perfection in their eyes, and everyone around him was just trying to find that one weakness. It was the whole purpose of this phase of planning, after all.

But slowly, without anyone else's knowledge of it happening, he was slowly sifting through the roster. Some were outright hostile, so they went in one column. Some were not hostile on the surface, but deeper looks showed the tell-tell signs of fanaticism and the hate towards anthros that put them in the same column as the first. But occasionally, he would run across one or two who were not openly hostile or internally belligerent to anthros.

Those were placed in another column, to be examined further.

With all the designers, navy techs, and yard-masters, was a small subset of engineers that at first glance had nothing to do with the rest. It was these, however, Canith had the majority of his attention on. They were, after all, a mix of engine specialists and antimatter scientists that would bring the reactor to life, and some of them would need be turned.

As luck would have it, though, not one but two of the scientists seemed perfect candidates for it. They were a married couple, and had no relatives or children. He had openly asked about that, and learned that over the course of their research one or both of them had been damaged by exotic particles, rendering them sterile. They had looked into means of restoring their fertility, but so far nothing seemed to work or be viable.

When he heard this, Canith had Aura hunt down their medical files and delivered them to Snow to look over, along with the dialogue of the problem. He had gotten back a lot sooner than Canith would have thought, telling him that, yes, the tech for turning one into an anthro could theoretically solve the infertility. And that in addition, similar exposures to radiation and other fertility reducing circumstances had been reversed with the tech already. So the precedent was there.

He did not tell them as much, but only informed them that their help on the project was of tremendous help, and that he would, as project lead, personally try to find a cure for them, regardless of the cost. They readily agreed with him that no cost was too great to have natural children, and inwardly he cheered. Because forefront in both of their minds was exactly what he was looking for. They clearly thought that, if it came to it, forfeiting pure status for a 'cure' was well within an acceptable cost. A slightly deeper look even revealed that the husband had even thought to have it done just to himself in need be to please her, while the wife was of a similar mindset to the husband as she would be first in line if that is what it would take.

As for the engineers, one promising girl, in her early twenties, was also in the same column as the scientists. As chance would have it, during one conversation he had been involved with, one of the military techs spouted the senseless of having to build so large a ship, 'simply to exterminate those furry pests that society rejected.'. The group had all been affronted by how blunt and ill spoken then man had been, but most agreed with him that it WAS a pointless exercise, at least in part. The girl, however, did not say anything, but simply looked back down at her pad, while her mental voice, clear as a bell, drifted over to Canith.

(I hate how others look down upon those anthros. All they did was try to better themselves, and they receive nothing but spite and hatred from humans.)

That meeting had grated on his nerves already, and that comment instantly cheered him up. He was able to complete the meeting peaceably, and even managed a scathing retort to the offending man in the process. After, he had Aura shoot her a vague message that simply said, "Sometimes the walls have ears, sometimes they catch what is left unsaid. Your sentiments are welcome amidst a storm of viciousness. Never let that go."

Her response was somewhat startled to receive such a message, but after reading it, it deleted itself, so she was simply left to ponder the cryptic message, and could be seen with a shy smile around the table sometimes.

Unfortunately, there were not many other good candidates for the heist, at least this early on. He had that original director earmarked for after the project was well underway, under the pretense of 'a knowledgeable AI technician from Sygon Industries'. This was both to help out the poor soul trapped in the lower reaches of the company as much to tempt him with greater opportunities later.

The last he had found actually arrived a few days after he had. It was a strange situation, as the individual was one he had only seen in passing, and had an interest in Canith. The young ensign who had been on Luna Relay, the one with the scanner, had requested a transfer after the incident. He had been there long enough that it was approved rather quickly, and he found his way to the spaceyard, and into Canith's field of influence.

Two days after they had passed each other in the yard, the young man approached Canith in his office at the end of a long 'day'. The room was at the end of the hall, and all the rest of the offices were already empty for the day, so their privacy was fairly assured from prying ears. The man had knocked, and Canith told him to come in.

He had sat down and Canith, while appearing busy finishing up a form, had Aura silently lock the area down from electronic prying. Finally, he appeared to finish and looked up at the man. "How can I help you this evening?"

The man fidgeted nervously for a few moments, then seemed to resign himself to something. "Please don't take offense at this, but back at the relay I saw something about you, and I wanted to find out if I was just seeing things or if what I saw was true." From his pocket, he pulled out a piece of paper, and on it was a sketch. It was Canith, as a human, with a nebulous aura reminiscent of his anthro form cloaking him.

"Why is it, before the scanner was fried, that I saw something like this? Before you ask, no, I didn't tell anyone- after all, I have no desire to be imprisoned for false accusations based on a device that could not give evidence on what I may or may not have seen." Canith quickly probed the man as he talked, and determined that, like the girl, he did not actually have any prejudice against anthros, and that he even secretly admired the courage some had to fly in the face of what society saw was the norm and be themselves. With this in mind, he decided that he would roll the dice and see what came of it. As a last resort, he could block this man's memory of this meeting, and still be on the safe side.

"To be honest with you, that scanner caught me off guard. I know of a lot of tech out there, but did not think of an em field reader being a thing. As a result, I panicked. When I do, electronics have a tendency to . . . malfunction." He put on a bland smile.

"Uh, no. I don't believe that. That you did it, somehow, sure. That it was because you panicked, fat chance. Also, that story would hold water if your em field didn't have a distinctive shape. I couldn't for the life of me figure it out for several hours, but then I had the bright idea to do some digging. Among the paperwork we go with the scanner, one of the notes mentioned that if we happened to scan an anthro, that their field would, and I quote, 'react to the scan in rather unpredictable ways, but almost uniformly would show up as whatever shape they were.' This puzzled me at first, but I came to a realization. If a human could become an anthro, as everyone knows is the case with over half of them, then what is to stop them from appearing as human? There are reported cased of some anthros appearing 'almost human' after all."

Canith's bland smile turned to a frown, as the explanation wore on. Finally, he asked, "So what do you plan to do with that knowledge if I gave it to you?"

"Nothing." Was the simple answer, and the man's mind was in total agreement with the words.

"Why?"

"First, because if it was true one of several things would happen. One, you would probably prevent me from talking, one way or another." An image of him being murdered flashed through his head for a moment. "Even if I did talk, with no actual evidence, I would simply be laughed at by my superiors at the least, put in a loony bin is likely, or made to vanish if I was very unlucky." He looked Canith in the eyes. "Mainly, I just want to know that I'm not actually crazy on this."

Canith sat back and thought for a moment. He wasn't about to shift in front of the guy, and he couldn't outright admit to it. But to secure his allegiance, there had to be a way. Then it came to him. "Tell you what. I will explain a bit, but I would like your help in the future. Help me, and you will have job security, and a chance to advance the like of which you would not believe. Sound good?"

The man looked dubious. "But I'm military . . ."

Canith cut him off. "Irrelevant. I can have you assigned here if it serves our dual purpose. Do we have a deal."

The man swallowed, then steeled himself. "Fine, you have a deal."

"Good. Then I will answer this, but know that you risk your sanity of ever uttering it outside of this room and this company. The scanner was not wrong. I'm part anthro. But only a bit- and I have some of their unusual abilities. But not enough to trip the blood tests." Sure, it was a lie, but technically only a small one. Due to the abilities, and apparently his em field, he could be tagged as an anthro. But to a blood test, thanks to his L3S, he was undetectable.

The man's eyes grew round as he heard this. "So you are able to pass a blood test, but can mess up sensors with your em field. Amazing. I swear, I won't tell anyone. And true to my word, you have my help. Just say when."

As a precaution, Canith put in one of the more advanced conditional blocks that Snow had taught him. It involved tying it to a specific set of memories, then applying conditions on it's access. In this case, it was both a location and the fact that they had to be alone in the room. It also wasn't a full block, but rather a preventative block to keep him from talking or writing about it. He would remove it after the heist went down, but it was simply a bit of insurance.

"I'll let you know when, but it won't be for a while. After all, projects like this are not finished overnight!"

[April 2086]

After several weeks, the actual work finally started. Canith kept a lookout for more individuals that could help, both short and long term, but also made sure to cultivate the contacts he had already made. For the couple, that involved helping them get any equipment they might want or need, ensuring that any request they made was pushed through, and occasionally stopping by for friendly chats and technical conversations.

They knew that he was the origin of the plans for both the ship and the core, so if they had an idea to improve something, they ran it by him first. After a while, he had a special terminal set up for them and them alone, and told them to check with him through that if they needed to run anything technical past him. In reality, the terminal was set up so they could talk somewhat directly with Aura. With this in place, their work continued with no delays.

The young girl, who Canith later found out was named Bethany, or Beth for short, was actually easy to approach. She was working as a general engineer, and while her immediate boss was not one Canith could stand, he found that relaying through her was much easier. As time went on, he encouraged her to learn as much as she could from both her boss and the other engineers, with an eye at putting her in charged of them eventually.

He would do this in truth, but in name she would be the Engineering Coordinator. Fancy name, with not a lot of influence behind it. Her job title would allow her easy access to all the various engineering sections, while at the same time keeping her from actually being tied down to one specific one.

His ensign contact, however, seemed to be the one that developed in an unexpected way. Instead of being belligerent or disgruntled about the situation he found himself in, he actively went out of his way to prove he was helpful. Everything from making regular reports as to the security of the site to spot inspections that at first irritated his superiors, but as time went by those superiors were quietly moved off the project for negligence due to his findings. With a bit of help from Canith and Aura of course.

Eventually he was bumped up to Lieutenant, and was put in nominal charge of security. When he asked Canith about it later, Canith was able to truthfully say that, while some of the transfers that had happened had been with his help, the promotion was all his. This put his mind at rest, and the newly minted Lt. Brian was firmly placed in Canith's pocket.

[May, 2086]

Canith was still receiving regular updates from the Tiamat, and their attempts to shake their tail. Apparently, whoever this pirate captain was, they were very good, as all attempts to lose them had only served as delaying tactics at best. It was at this point that Aura pointed something out.

:Canith, after cross referencing various sources, I have come to a conclusion I do not think you will like.: As Aura did not usually preface statements with that, it was sure to be bad.

:What did you find?:

Aura pulled up the clip from months ago, the one with Sean arguing with a vixen on a station. :You recall we lost track of your predecessor here. The was a loss of signal, and then they both were gone? Well, on a hunch I checked into who that vixen might be. At first, I couldn't find much, which is odd in and of itself. But after getting a good look at who was trailing the Tiamat I was able to uncover a few more details that might explain the chase.:

This time, a dossier pulled up in front of him, for a sleek-looking vixen in a jumpsuit, with a hard look in her eyes and confidence bleeding from her. The file covered the fact that she was the captain of a stolen military cruiser that had been renamed 'Andromeda's Fortune'. It had been stolen when she had been captured, and was being transported to a prison rig. Apparently, en route, she had somehow instigated a coop, and the resulting mutiny had left her and only an handful of the scruffier crew members in possession of the ship. She had went on to fill out her crew with others that were like minded, and made their living as pirates, smugglers, and occasionally as raiders.

She and her crew had a long list of felonies and offenses, but had not been caught yet.

:So you think that she might have gotten info from Sean? I would imagine if that was the case that poor fox is not in good shape after. Now that I know the hows of what Snow put on him, he would definitely take a strong will to break through the block. The mind beneath would buckle from the strain, driving them mad.:

:Assuming all this is true, she would still get the intel to chase the Tiamat, probably for the tech on E-deck alone. With that, she could probably cut a deal with UEF to get a rather large payout and then slip back into the shadows. And Sean would effectively have his revenge. Also, madness is not debilitating, if channeled properly. It takes will, of course, but it is possible Sean is still alive, maddened by the process, but still functional. As evidence to this, any time that Tiamat drops out of a warp tunnel, usually within minutes we are under a low scale digital assault on the firewalls.:

This was news to Canith, and it showed in the sending. :Is everything alright? Have we had any breaches?:

Aura simply made a snorting sound. :They might be decent, but even if it took their entire natural lives they couldn't break through me.: Aura sounded smug at this, and Canith relaxed at this.

:Alright, but keep me appraised on this.: Canith heard the affirmative from Aura, then went back to the paperwork in front of him.

[July, 2086]

"Director, that should wrap it for now. All the crews are in the process of laying out the initial framework, the technicians are all hard at work assembling the larger systems to go into place, the horticulturists are prepping seed beds to be installed as soon as the first of the hydroponics areas are finished, and the military detachment are reporting no disturbances. Everything is running as smoothly as possible." Beth was giving Canith the report as per her job title, and Canith was simply trying to relax in his chair.

A week ago, a memo from Sygon Industries had come up, commending him on the job well done sorting out any problematic issues in such a timely manner. It continued, stating that since he was now firmly in place there as their representative, that he needed a title to match, therefore appointed him as director of the project, in addition to project lead. It had surprised him, but Aura debased him of any notions that it had been rigged.

:I double checked the motion for this to happen, and tracked it on the way. They genuinely believe you are doing a good job, and are simply trying to garner your good will for the future. You know your parents and the board- they will not throw away a useful tool.:

As this lined up with what he already knew of them, he agreed to the appointing with no ill feelings. His musings about it, however, was interrupted by Beth.

"Sir, as you have not had a vacation in a while, maybe I should point out that right now, you could probably spend a week or two away from the project and not be missed. I mentioned it already, but as work is at the initial stages, it could be several months before the outer shell of the ship is in place, and several more before hydroponics are finished being set up. Factor in the time to build up a breathable atmosphere, and you are looking at easily half a year before the next opportunity arises for you to take such an easy vacation."

"Huh." He stated, and Aura backed up her findings.

"If you are worried about issues arising, I could have transponder issued that will ping you if needed, so that you could get to a terminal for contact as well."

Canith thought about it for a second, then did a mental sweep of the area. No one was within hearing range, and the closest ones were thoroughly engaged with various tasks. With a scan from Aura for any electronic ears coming back negative as well, he decided to place a bit more trust in Beth.

"The transponder won't be necessary." He gestured to Aura, switched to a mobile form behind his desk and walked around to stand in front of Beth. As they still looked like a normal dog, she let out a cute sound and bent to pet them, only to stop as her hand passed through the hologram of fur and rubbed against the flexible plasteel that encased Aura's mobile platform.

"Uh, what is this thing. It looks like a dog, but that's a hologram of fur. Keeping it on the station like this, I would assume it is not biological, so it must be mechanical. Why would a mechanical dog help contact you?"

Aura answered out loud for this part, as they had kept track of what was going on the whole time and understood Canith's plan. "I'm actually a state of the art mobile platform for a personal AI. Pleased to meet you."

She froze when she heard this, and looked back up to see Canith smiling. "Wow, ok, that changes things a bit, but also doesn't explain how we could reach you."

Canith gave a low chuckle, then produced a small handset from behind him. "Easy- I have a quantum entangled communication setup I keep with me to ensure that my AI can always be in touch. I'll go, and leave them here. They can relay anything you need to tell me in real time, and I can be on the next ship back in if need be." Aura was not terribly thrilled at this, but they had discussed this as being an option prior, and as they were not 'technically' apart, thanks to the hidden crystal Canith kept with him, it would pose no actual problems.

"Well, if you don't mind them staying here as a relay, I guess I can work with that. What should I call them then?" They had thought about this, and Canith had come up with a rather elegant solution to this issue as well.

"I call them Aura. Similar to that AURA dive assist, but I liked the sound of the name, so I used it as well." Only a rare few actually knew that Aura was the predecessor of that same system, and most didn't actually attribute true intelligence to the dive assist. The perfect cover, and completely true at the same time.

"Well, I will take good care of them here. Where would you like to go for a vacation? I know a few good spots I could book for you, mainly from me listening in to others talk of them."

This time, Canith had to sigh a bit at how off the request would sound. "Maybe somewhere that is not very developed I have an odd fondness for hunting in the mountains. I would like to try that out. Not a lot of people though after Earth and all the relays I would like a bit of time to just stretch out and relax."

She thought for a moment, then pulled out a personal terminal and started tapping away. "I might have something- no actual hunting is listed, but it's quiet, almost entirely secluded, and if you don't mind the heat it's actually rather empty this time of year. There is this resort that caters to the whole 'back to nature' motif, and has the cabins set up that vary from fully wired to no electricity. I can get you one that has minimum activity on the absolute edge of their area, wooded area, even a small lake at the foot of a mountain. That sound good?" For a coordinator, she seemed more keen to be a secretary at this rate.

"That sounds perfect. Plus, if need be you know whereabouts I am."

[August, 2086]

"A few days to get out here, a week out here, a few back. Isolated as far as I can tell, no electronics or higher thinking life forms anywhere within several miles. Perfect." He slipped out of his clothes, walking naked over to the railing looking out over the small lake. This cabin, ironically enough, was not very popular this time of year due to the axial tilt of the planet making the temp here skyrocket during the day to close to 120 degrees. As if to mock that though, the nights then dropped almost to freezing. The trees seemed to not mind the fluctuations, as they bloomed most of the year, giving off wonderful fragrances. The water was warmer than most would want to use to cool off, but not hot enough to be relaxing. Overall, if it had been in a temperate area, it would have been perfect for most humans.

For Canith, however, It WAS perfect.

Lack of interest made it perfectly secluded, it was the tourist off season for this planet, so the rooms, while cheap, were vacant. It left him miles of wooded area clear of any prying eyes. He climbed onto the top of the railing, then with a jump that an athlete would envy sprung into the air and, spinning, dove into the water. If one would have a high speed motion capture of the final moments before entering the water, they would spot the shift into anthro, then feral just as his foreclaws touched the water. He swam in the chilly (to him) water for a couple hours, the deep lake offering plenty of cover if need be.

Once the local star had passed the noon mark, he climbed out of the lake by his cabin, and sprawled out to dry and absorb a bit of the solar light. It was relaxing, being able to do this. :It also helps that issue we discovered, with the high stress environments causing partial reversions.: Aura chimed in, but otherwise not making comments.

He lay there for a couple hours dozing, but without having his shields up so that he could instantly detect anyone coming. Eventually, he rolled over to his back and let his belly warm as well. He stayed like this till sunset, then slowly got up, shook a bit to dislodge any dirt, sand, or leaves still on him or his mane, then padded softly into the cabin, 'kinetically moving his discarded clothes to his small travel bag that was not Aura in disguise. Then, he shifted down to anthro, padded to the bed, laid down, and went to sleep. He had a couple days of this, and appearing human was the least of his concerns for this.

Canith took the opportunity to visit the mountain area during his visit, and while he did not end up leaving a temple looking cave behind, he did manage something rather useful.

:I still am not certain that this is a good idea: Aura sent to him. They were standing in a fairly deep cave, and there was a target etched into the wall almost a kilometer away. Canith had came up with a heavy modification to the bow construct, and figured he could make it usable without the drawbacks.

He took a firm stance, then, like before, draped his tail over his shoulder. Reach up, and the bow materialized. Bring down into a draw. The difference this time, however, was twofold. The first was that the construct, while reinforced, was heavily toned down from what he did on the ship, and each part either shielded or resonating at the proper frequencies. Overall, however, it was maybe a 1/5 of the original's power.

The second major difference was not in the bow itself, but in the air just in front of it. He had created several concentric circles for the 'arrow' to pass through, using energy crafting. Lightning to be precise. As he held the draw, he felt the circles begin to activate and begin to rotate. They slowly built up speed, until they were nothing more than glowing rings. He sighted through them, made sure the power output for the bow was as low as he dared go, and then released it.

The arrow only traveled a fraction of a second before it hit the rings of glowing energy. As it passed through them, the construct became charged with magnetic force, causing it's already dangerous speed to be magnified by the alternating rings of magnetic force the energy crafting was generating. The arrow, which no longer looked like an arrow, shot out with so much energy that the target etched into the wall was obliterated, as well as about two meters of stone behind it. There was no blast back, however, as the rock was not hit with an explosive- it was disintegrated by the combination of the kinetic arrow and extreme temperature of what amounted to a rail gun shot.

He staggered back a bit, then sighed. :How does it look?: He mentally asked Aura. There had been relatively little sound from the shot, and no dust from the impact. Physically, he felt a bit tired, but fine. Nothing like the original test.

:From what I can scan through your uplink, there is nothing to worry about. Energy levels have dipped, as expected, but not to dangerous levels. The energy of the shot itself is indeed lower, but the addition of the magnetic acceleration array actually brought it up to a shot roughly 1/4 as strong as Holly's laser blast. As yours is more practical for combat, I would say your test is a success.:

Canith breathed a sigh of relief at this. He hated devising techniques or technology that proved too impractical to use. He slowly walked the length of the cavern to the impact point while Aura continued to analyse the area. :Thermal bloom was actually rather contained- no risk of accidental damage in the travel path with this. Looking at your energy consumption based on previous usage of your abilities, I calculate that as long as you do not use this technique more than three or four times in a short period of time you will not suffer any adverse side effects. Practice, of course, might extend this out a bit, but not by much.:

By this point he had reached the hole he had made. The sides were cleanly cut, as if by a laser drill. He ran a hand across them, but aside from only a little residual heat, there was no indication as to what happened. Smiling to himself, he made a mental note of how that shot had felt, and then left the caverns, making his way back to the cabin to enjoy his last couple of days.