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Once Dana and her boy had left the Medical bay they where at the lift in no time, the mink holding her boys leash until they where safely in and out of the sight of prying eyes. The doors had not been closed 2 seconds before she called out for main engineering and turned to curl her arms around him, pulling her boy to her in a loving embrace as she whispered with happiness in her voice. "My sweet boy you have no idea of how proud I am of you, just seeing how tender you where with that kit pleased me tremendously. I know from personal experience that Morgan is very hard to impress and I don't think she or Fire could have been any happier with you. You my little human are a true blessing, you know that?"

Nova just smiled and very softly curled his arms around her in return as he blushed all over from her praise, he had honestly only wanted to help the little one and the fact that he had pleased his owner at the same time was more then he could have hoped for. As he snuggled in close and enjoyed the softness and warmth of his owners fur in this embrace he timidly whispered "Thank you, Mistress, It is my joy to serve."

What Dana had just hinted at but not come right out and said was how impressive and valuable a male with nurturing skills was in Anthro society. Given the gender imbalance between males and females there was always competition between females for even the weakest and most unattractive males to sire the next generation, but a male shown to be good with children was highly prized. When a male child reached his first rut or sometimes even before that, females where always competing to gain his favor and the prestige of being his first life mate and the matriarch of there family. It was Anthro family custom that this matriarch made all the important decisions and ran the household, even when a second, third, fourth or even fifth female was added to the family they where always bound to be subordinate to the first mate and respect her wishes. For most males this meant a life of leisure and child care with the rare exceptions that chose to pursue careers to better themselves or to increase there value as potential mating partners. It was easy to tell witch professional males where the runts trying to prove themselves or witch where just trying to gain skills and better themselves, it always showed in there aggression and competitive nature.

As the mink held her boy close she could not help but think that even as wealthy and respected as her family was, if nova had been born an Anthro she would not have a chance with him. With just the skills she had seen from him in the last few days she knew for sure that all the females in her home village would have been fiercely competing over him before he was even out of his first fur. That and the fact that he was so submissive was more then a female could normally hope for, even thou the Anthro culture was a matriarchy, within families most females had to be submissive to there males needs and desires in order to keep them happy. In this human she had found the mate most Anthro females spent there life dreaming about, it was just so unfair that the law would never allow her to be joined with him. That was something that Anthro culture was still struggling with from ancient times, the law would not permit genetically incompatible races or same sex couples to be legally mated. Recognizing that the heart was rarely bound by the propagation of the species alone, the law had adopted domestic partnerships for those who where in love, but in most cases they where looked down on because no children could come of them.

It was only a few minutes before they reached the engineering deck but the slave was so lost in the warmth of his owners arms that he never got the chance to kneel, the lack of affection in his life causing the boy to savor it whenever it was offered to him. When the doors did open it still took a few seconds for the mink to disengage from her slave, she softly kissing his cheek before taking his leash and leading him across the hall into her home away from home. The first thing nova noticed before they even entered the room was the doors to main engineering, they looked 3 times thicker then even the cargo bay doors and it took almost 10 seconds for them to fully open. He was idly wondering why they would need such thick doors when a tug on his leash told him his Mistress had started moving again, it causing him to look forward into a room with computer panels lining the walls that emitted sounds the boy had never herd before.

Wile the slave was trying to keep his curiosity from being obvious as he looked over this new place he could not help but lift his eyes at the sight of a massive cylinder in the middle of the room, it filled with swirling lights that just seamed to dance like sun light reflecting off crystal blue water. As amazing as it looked it was also framed by three smaller cylinders surrounding it, two of them where filled with what looked like gray tinted water and the third one with a much deeper blue shade of the mystery fluid. What really caught his attention was that the two clear ones had very large and beautiful translucent crystals fixed in the center of them and if he looked very close he could see the outline of the same crystal floating in the blue one as well. With the constantly changing colors of the lights in the center cylinder and the way the light reflected off the crystals all the boy could think was how beautiful it was, that and the fact that it would make an interesting night light if it was a lot smaller.

Feeling the tension on the leash after entering engineering Dana looked back to see if her boy was ok, a smile parting her muzzle at the adorable look of surprise on his face as he stared at the FTL drive and the ships main power cells. Deciding to tease him she lifted her long bushy tail and softly brushed it over his chest as she chuckled "I see you noticed my baby." When she called it her baby that was not far from the truth, Dana spent so much time with this drive and was so protective of it, it might as well be her child, she had even been known to threaten the dock rats at the ship yards when they tried to touch it. As for the 3 smaller cylinders they where the ships main power cells, also a source of pride for her she had gone the extra mile to have the crystals custom cut by her parents to get that little extra efficiency no other ship in the fleet could match.

This was one of the major advantages the Anthro's had over most of the other species in the interstellar community, they had never had to pollute there world by burning chemical fuels to produce massive amounts of power. Over 9000 years ago a very brilliant female deer, Hope of clan Dawn, had discovered a metal on there world that when properly refined remained in a liquid state, when combined with natural crystals this mineral would produce large amounts of power with no toxic side effects. These HD cells as they would come to be known where the building blocks of all Anthro technology, they powered everything from slave collars to star ship drives and even family homes. Because of this clan Long-tail, Dana's family had been renowned crystal cutters for generations, there home village sitting right on top of the richest deposit of natural crystals on all of Anthro prime.

Nova had been so transfixed by the beauty before his eyes that it took him a second to realize his Mistress had spoken, her long fluffy tail curling around his chest instantly snapping him back to reality and causing him to drop his eyes, his cheeks turning red in his embarrassment at having been caught looking. "I'm sorry Mistress, it ... it's just so pretty."

The mink just could not help but giggle as she led the boy to her office, in the almost 40 years she had been working on FTL drives she had heard them called many things, Mostly things to vulgar to repeat, but this was the first time pretty had been added to that list. When they reached her office Dana turned to remove her boys leash and noticed him fidgeting softly, his hands held in front of him with his fingers interlaced. Not knowing that much about human body language and hoping that she had not done anything to upset him she traced a finger up his chest, under his chin and used it to lift his eyes as she asked " Is there something wrong my sweet boy?"

Even though he knew it was what she wanted he just could not bring himself to meet her eyes as a deep red blush of embarrassment filled his cheeks. He had been trying his best to hold it in, but the cold of the ship had finally gotten to him and he was just not able to hide it anymore. As humiliated as he felt at his lack of control the power of her finger on his chin and the gentleness of her question just compelled him to confess in a soft whisper "No, Mistress, it's just...... I'm very sorry, but may I please use the bath room?"

Dana blinked and melted into another warm smile as she thought this was so sweet, her boy felt the need to ask permission for something as simple as relieving himself. Again she was reminded what a rare thing it was to have such a submissive male, any Anthro male would not even have given a second thought about taking care of his needs regardless of her whishes. The Mink gave her boy a soft kiss on the cheek and finished removing the leash, one of her fingers pointing to a door at the back of her office as she tenderly answered "Yes you may my little blessing, it is right throw that door." She did not tell him that this was her private rest room and no one ells on the ship short of the captain herself would dear even ask to use it. That is when it first dawned on the Mink, she had told him to use it without a second thought, why? Did she really care about him that much in such a short amount of time? As he gave his thanks and quickly moved toward it she just could not help but smile, this little human was just so cute and he tried so hard to make her happy, how could she not open her heart to him.

Once the door was closed Dana looked down to her cluttered desk and the papers that had over flowed on to the floor, the mess getting a sigh from the mink as she took her seat. Still displayed on her terminal was the ships power distribution system and a list of crossed out components, each one a mark of failure for her and her staff. In the hour she had been here this morning they had run 10 different tests on the energy weapons and test fired them once, whatever was causing the malfunction would not show it self until they had fired for 10 to 15 seconds, then the system would go into overload protection and not fire for more then 2 hours. This had been the bane of her existence for the last 3 weeks, they had installed this new, more powerful weapons array after the refit and it had worked for all of 2 days before the malfunction reared its ugly head. She had spent hours talking with the head of fleet engineering on subspace, changing out components one by one and running simulation after simulation and by the dark pit nothing they did made a darn bit of difference. Hoping for a merical or maybe just the distraction she had reviewed the power distribution system for the 30th time wile she was weighting for fire's call, it only lasting so long before her concern and the constant failure drove her to take a brake and go check on him.

The happiness she had been feeling right up to that point started to fade as Dana took her seat and started organizing some of the mess. She had only been at it a few minutes when her office door opened and in walked 3 of her staff, twin tan bunnies, a female and her brother, and a very haggard looking deer, all with a look of defeat on there faces. Wile the twin bunnies just flopped back agents the wall and slide to the floor with there knees pulling to there chests the buck took the only other seat in the office, the deer grumbling before Dana could warn them about nova "Chief we all took a vote and we give up. The next time we need to fight we will just hang out the airlocks with hand blasters, it will be allot easier then trying to track down whatever is wrong with this thrice dammed system."

Both of the bunnies looked up simultaneously in a way that only twins could pull off as they whimpered in unison " We second the motion."

This got a badly needed chuckle from the mink and helped restore her happy mood as she push some more papers off the edge of her desk in a gesture of surrender. The mink could not help but just grin and giggle as she mockingly joked " The motion carries. Mr. Brown-tip you are in charge of passing out space suits and both you cotton tails can distribute the blasters."

All four of them had just started laughing when the bathroom door opened and nova slowly returned without a word, the boy quickly taking his place on his knees next to his Mistress. Wile all three of the staff had known about nova after interrogating the mink on her appearance yesterday, none of them had expected to see him here, main engineering was a high security area after all. Even more shocking he was coming out of the chief's private bath, this making the female bunny think back to the time she had been caught using it and the chief dragging her out of it by her ears. As soon as he had taken his place beside his owner her paw lovingly found the top of his head in a tender petting action as she lovingly purred " Welcome back my sweet boy."

The deer, Mic Brown-tip was giving the boy a skeptical look as nova whispered back to the mink "Thank you, Mistress."

Just as Mic was opening his muzzle to ask what the slave was doing here he was cut off by the male bunny, the cotton tail poking his sister in the ribs and giggling " Well shave my tail, look sis, the chief's slave is our little helper."

Having been distracted by the memory of her blunder in using the chief's private bath the female bunny had not really taken a good look at the human until now, her brothers comment getting her to take notice of his size, shape and the color of his dirty blond hair. Her eyes brightened and muzzle parted in a small grin as she recognized him, the female turning back to her brother as she replied " by the one true path your right, it is our little helper."

The two lapines shared a momentary look with each other then turned there attention back to there boss, both there expressions showing disappointment as the female started speaking "you know chief you should have described him better yesterday."

When she stopped her brother picked up the second half of her thought as he had since they where cubs. "After all he did to help us, we where worried when he disappeared and we could not find him."

Dana just smiled as her claws ran lovingly throw her boys hair, the mink arching an eye brow as she looked at the bunnies, then down to her boy who was getting that cute blush again and a nervous look about him. There comments quite effectively kicked her curiosity into high gear as she jealously asked "Yes this is my nova, may I ask how it is that you know him and what this little helper business is all about?"

Still a little vexed with there boss the female bunny started to explain "Do you remember assigning just the 3 of us to build the holding cells for the slaves that first night chief?"

Dana nodded with her claws still running throw her boys hair as she answered "Yes I do. I also remember you did a wonderful job of it a lot quicker then I would have thought."

The male bunny smiled and pointed to nova as he took over the story " Well we have our little helper to thank for that. We where having trouble moving the frames into place and he volunteered to lend a paw."

As her brother finished his breath the female bunny picked up the story, her ears folding back as she grinned "We almost made the mistake of ignoring him, but he addressed us as Master and Mistress and to tell the truth we needed the help, even as weak as most humans are he was able to hold the frames in place wile we locked them down and connected the power interfaces." Dana could not help but grin at that, it sounded just like her boy, the little blessing was always so eager to help.

Without missing a beat the male bunny was the next to speak as his sister took a breath " Yay chief our little helper worked his tail off for 4 hours in the first cargo bay and another 3 in the second one helping us build the cells and did not complain even once, thanks to him we finished in half the time it would have taken with just the 3 of us."

With a giggle the female bunny took up the story, a evil grin parting her muzzle at her brother referring to the human with Anthro terms. "Its not every day you meet a slave that well behaved and willing to work hard without even being asked, so after all his hard work the only reward we could really give him was the only single holding cell, we figured the least we could do for all his help was give him a little space to stretch out and maybe get a good nights sleep."

A bright smile crossed the Mink's muzzle as she pet her boy, if she had any doubts left her boy was meant to be a slave this was proof undeniable. Only a slave that lived for the joy of serving would not only help build his own cage, but in fact volunteer to do it. She was once again impressed with her boy as she looked back to the Bunny twins, a grin parting her muzzle at having found the missing piece of the puzzle that had started all of this. With a small chuckle she traced her finger under his chin and tickled softly as she interrupted the story by musing aloud "Well I guess that answers that question."

Just as the male bunny was drawing a breath to speak his ears flicked tall at this comment, as bad as the minks curiosity could be at times it did not hold a candle to a rabbit who thought there was a secret they where not going to be let in on. Both the bunnies where just about to ask what Dana was talking about when Mic got his revenge for being cut off earlier, the buck quizzically asking with a grin" and just what question would that be chief?"

Dana just grinned evilly as her ears wiggled in a suggestive manner, the mink purring as she replied " if you remember our talk yesterday I told you that I picked him because he perked my curiosity. Well what I left out was him being alone in that holding cell is what caught my attention, that and his impeccable manners, but if not for the mystery of him being all by himself when the others slaves where 8 to a cell I most likely would have just gone on home without even noticing him. I guess i was just lucky my little blessing was so willing to make himself useful, that and some other female did not snatch him up for herself before I found him."

The mink could see the looks of total jealousy in both the cotton tails eyes as the female poked her brother and teased " See, I told you we should have brought him home with us." As odd as it might sound for a brother and sister to take the same lover home to share, Dana knew that if the female had truly insisted her brother would have had to concede to her. As siblings serving together it was Anthro family custom that she was the matriarch and picking a lover for them both would always be a right he had to respect.

The male bunny knowing this and not being very happy about it decided to get back to the end of there story, his ears folding back to show his annoyance at the prospect of his twin bringing a new lover into there bed without even asking him. "Anyway that brings us to why we are not to happy with you Boss. At the end of our shifts we found out the slaves where only being given combat rashens, so we decided to go back to bring him a yummy meal. When we found him gone and no one could tell us where he went we got worried one of the slavers had taken him away to be punished for receiving special treatment, If you had added that last part yesterday you might have saved us both some gray fur thinking we had gotten this sweet boy hurt."

Seeing her brothers reactions the female bunny tried to lift his mood by poking him in the ribs and giggling "You know you did it again silly male, Humans have hands, not paws and as cute as the chief's slave is he does not have a tail either." As she expected this earned a tickle in retaliation and before they knew it both bunnies degenerated into an all out tickle war, the female pinning her brother to the deck until Mic picked them both up by there scruffs and told them to behave.

Dana could not help but sigh, wile bunnies tended not to be the sharpest tools in the box given there playful and almost innocent nature at times, even they should have been able to put two and two together after she had told them about her boy yesterday. Honestly after how poorly behaved the other humans had been, she could not help but think it should have dawned on the bunnies that nova was the same helpful slave that they had returned looking for. Being more tactful then to come right out and crack a joke at the cotton tails blond roots moment she decided just to tease them, her claws extending to trace over the back of one of her boys ears as she said "O believe me there was no need to be worried, he was safe and sound in my cabin seducing me. He quite skillfully gave me one of the most sexually and emotionally gratifying nights of my life, that and you saw the exquisite job he did grooming me the next morning."

When she finished the mink looked down to see nova beat red with his eyes burning into the floor from embarrassment at her description of his service, it bringing a smile to her muzzle at how adorable this reaction was in humans. Dana was just thinking about what a gift it was to be able to read your lovers reactions so easily when the female bunny asked with big puppy dog eyes " Any chance of us barrowing him to sample some of that "skill" before we hit port and he has to go back, boss?"

Dana just grinned and shook her head, her ears flicking a few times as she answered "Not a chance bunnykins, the last thing I want is a pair of yiffy cottontails traumatizing my boy. Besides who said he is going back? He is very special and I am hopeful the captain will let me keep him, after that wonderful dinner he made for us last night I think I just need to work on her a little bit more to make an exception for him."

Dana had very tactfully left out the fact that no matter what nova would not be going back with the other slaves, given there discoveries about his past his next stop would surely be a debriefing by military intelligence on Anthro prime. Hopefully after that unpleasantness he would be returned to her, that is if she could talk the captain into making an exception to her policy of not allowing slaves on board so she could take ownership of him before that happened. Dana, in hopes of gauging nova's desire to stay with her, looked down to him with a tenderly purred "What would you think of that my sweet boy, would you like to be mine permanently?"

When she looked down to the boy she noticed him starring at a schematic of the power distribution system she had knocked off her desk, the cutest look of confusion on his face. The mink thought that was just so adorable, her boy was being curious and trying to understand what she did for a living. When he did not respond to her question she traced a finger over his cheek to get his attention, a gentle purr on her lips as she asked " Do you know what that is your looking at my little blessing?"

She could see his whole body go stiff when she touched him, his head dropping and eyes snapping to the floor as he whispered in a small and fearful tone " I'm sorry Mistress, I beg your forgiveness for looking."

Seeing her boys reaction made the mink wish once again she could get her claws into the ones who had beaten this much fear in to him, how could any owner punish there slave so harshly as to cause a reaction this severe for something as natural and innocent as curiosity. Forcing down the anger she felt welling up inside her so as not to add to her boys fear she leaned down and kissed him softly on the cheek as she whispered " My little blessing you have nothing to be sorry for, I enjoy intelligence in my slave, like when you found out what my favorite food is without even having to ask me. You will always please me tremendously when you show how smart and clever you truly are, exploring is just a natural part of that and I encourage you to do more of it."

At her soft kiss and her even softer words of encouragement nova visibly relaxed, it had been so long since his owners had not punished him for looking at things that where none of his business, it was just something that he automatically expected now. Very slowly the slave lifted his eyes to look into Dana's as he whispered "Thank you, Mistress, I'm sorry I let the mistake on the paper distract me. Serving you has been so joyful, It would be a dream I dare not hope for to belong to an owner as kind and generous as you."

At hearing this Dana could feel tears welling up in her eyes, knowing the little time they had spent together had given her slave joy was all the conformation she needed that he really did want to be with her. She was just about to curl her arms around him in a warm hug when his comment about the error on the schematic clicked in her mind, she had been so overwhelmed at novas desire to be hers that the part about a mistake in the power distribution system had almost gone by unnoticed. For an instant she thought about just letting it go, but then she realized that since she had met this slave just a few days ago he had exceeded all of her expectations and had managed to surprise her several times. Maybe she had just discovered another of her little blessings hidden talents and if not she could always explain what he was mistaken about and turn it into an educational experience.

Very carefully she reached down and picked up the schematic, Dana setting it on the corner of her desk so that nova could still see it as she tenderly spoke " That's just what I was talking about my boy, I love it when my slave points things out to me. What we have here is a picture of the inside of our ship, it shows how the power moves from one place to another. We have been trying to track down a problem with it for weeks now, why don't you show me what you see and if you are mistaken I can explain why and help you understand it better."

Feeling very happy that his Mistress was interested in hearing his thoughts and that even if he was wrong, he would not be punished for it the slave could not help but smile as he slowly extended a finger and pointed at the schematic. "Mistress, about 6 years ago I saw something very similar to this, It was explained to me that these parts don't match because when the first two get hot it tricks the last one into thinking it is broken when it is not."

Dana blinked as one corner of her muzzle turned up in a grin, she and her staff of highly trained engineers had spent weeks going over this new and state of the art system piece by piece searching for a faulty component because everything was according to the specks they had been given when the array was installed. The fact that it might have been a design flaw had accured to her, but she had ruled it out because the head of fleet engineering herself gave her assurance this system had been designed by the best minds in the alliance. She could not help but think that if her boy was right it would give her bragging rights for years, she could just imagine that debriefing " best minds in the alliance my tail, my slave is smarter then them." Holding back a chuckle she looked down to her boy with a bright smile "My little blessing I don't doubt for a second that you are telling the truth, but this is a very complex system, would you please show me witch 3 parts you are talking about."

Very slowly he pressed his finger to the first component after the ships tactical power cells, the slave drawing a small breath as he answered " Yes, Mistress. I understand this is the symbol for a type L power coupling?"

This truly surprised the mink, her boy did understand the schematic or at the very least what there symbols meant, but how could he..... " Yes it is, nova."

Seeing the minks dumfounded nod nova slowly traced his finger along the circuit pathway to the next component as he whispered in a soft and timid tone " And this is the symbol for a type D power regulator? "

Distractedly the mink just nodded unable to reconcile this in her mind, cooking, cleaning and child care was one thing, but engineering? "Yes it is, nova."

The boy had to hold in a smile seeing the expression on his owner's face as his finger fallowed past the next to components in the circuit and came to rest on the last one just inside the new weapons array. "and this is the one that the first two tricks when they get hot, Mistress. If I remember correctly it is called a type 7 emergency surge cutoff unit?" Dana was completely astonished looking down to her boy, even if she excepted he had overheard others talking about this before, how by all that is good and right could he possibly know the Anthro symbols for these components. She knew perfectly well he could not read there language or even understand it without his collars translator, it was just to complex for most humans to comprehend. Weather it frighten him or not she was just about to ask how in the world he could possibly know there symbols, when it came to her, it was not just there symbols.

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Centuries ago when the different races had started sharing technology and trading with each other it was required that they create a system of measurements and component identification to make them universally compatible. This allowed all the races to improve and build on what each other had started, it eventually leading to the jump drive and matter energy conversion technology for the teleportors and dispensers. Unfortunately when the humans joined the interstellar community almost 100 years ago they had adopted these same standards, the humans technology having been very limited in the beginning it allowed them to incorporate the alien systems. If only the rest of the races had comprehended the danger of trading technology with such a young world the war and a lot of the problems now plaguing the Anthros might never have come to be.

What no one had even considered was how quickly it would allow the humans to grow into a super power, the shear number of the human population and there aggressive natures allowing then to turn out ships and space stations by the hundreds, the furless creatures building a massive fleet of warships in only a few decades. That was one of the reasons the other races did not like the humans and tried to warn the Anthros about them, the humans had bartered the technologies from these races and then used it agents them. They had basically become scavengers in the intergalactic community, any technology the other races where not willing to part with the humans acquired by praying on ships in open space and then denied having anything to do with there losses. This is why the Anthro's so closely guarded the secret of converting the raw Dawnium ore into the pure and clean energy source it could be, if the humans ever discovered how it was done it would allow them to move beyond there primitive anti-matter reactors and become a truly unstoppable force.

The proof of the humans true nature was finally gained less then a year after the war with the Anthro's had began, they had been caught raiding one of the Verrash's ship yards for a new engine design for there military ships. The Verrash, an insectoid race, had suspected the attack was coming and with the help of a few of there neighboring worlds laid a trap for the humans, the attackers suffering a great loss that day. Over 20 ships had been lost in the counter attack and then the base they had launched from was destroyed in retaliation. With the humans caught red handed it marked the end of there involvement with the majority of the interstellar community, only the most disreputable world still willing to deal with them. Wile being technologically superior to the humans these smaller worlds did not wish to bring there civilizations into the conflict between the two superpowers, there last official contact with the humans being to sign a non-aggression pack with them. According to the terms of this pack the humans where not allowed within 10 light years of any of the 6 races territories, unfortunately these territories completely surrounded the human's space on all side so if they wanted to expand there holdings it meant they had to go right throw Anthro space to do it. Many believed this was the true reason the humans had pursued the war so aggressively and why it would never end until they had completely concurred the Anthros or exterminated them.

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Dana moved her hand up to the boys cheek, one finger brushing over it as she spoke "You are correct about all 3 of them my boy, but they are all the correct components for this design." As she spoke she was looking over the schematic again and again, what could he mean by heat? She knew it was true that when components heated up it could affect the way they functioned slightly but how could that account for the system triggering overload protection? Nova said the heat was tricking the type 7 ESCU and the only way that could happen is if..... Dana's eyes shot wide open as it hit her like a bolt of lightening, the only thing that could trick the ESCU was a sudden polarity shift. With a gasp of astonishment she dropped the schematic and looked down to nova, her ears folding back as she almost shouted in disbelief " Dear sweet goddess he's right, how could we have missed this, it's so simple a first year student should have caught it."

Mic and the bunnies who had been silently watching this exchange where totally lost, but then again none of them had Dana's gift for remembering the technical specification of every system on the ship. As the mink leaned down and curled her arms around her boy in a warm hug to show how proud she was of him, Mic leaned forward and quizzically asked " Ummm, Chief? What is he right about?"

Seeing the confusion on her staffs faces the mink could not help but giggle as she rose and called up the schematic on her office panel, she knew none of them where going to believe something this simple had gotten by all of them for the last 3 weeks. "It's quite simple really, The head of Fleet Engineering and our dear Captain are both going to have to eat there words, all this is what happens when you let book worms with no real world experience design ships systems. Wile there is technically nothing wrong with the new weapons array they did not take into account the existing power systems that had to feed it. My little blessing here just pointed out that when a type L power coupling heats up, it can have a .4 to .5 positive shift in it's power output. The same goes for the type D power regulator, its positive shift can be .5 to .6 witch means a 1.0 to 1.1 total positive shift from the time the power starts out at the tactical cells until it reaches the weapons array. With the old array this was not a problem because it had a type 10 ESCU, but with the new array came the type 7 because it was supposed to be more energy efficient and ...................."

She never got to finish because that is when it clicked for the bunnies and they both bolted to there feet, the Lapines finishing Dana's thought in stereo as they slapped each others foreheads. " And a type 7 ESCU reads a +1 or more positive shift as a precursor to a power surge and triggers overload protection."

The Mink nodded and grinned as she laughed out loud " Exactly, that is why the weapons started working again after an hour or so and then overloaded again on the first shot, it's a design flaw or more accurately an oversight that I am never going to let Bell at Fleet Engineering live down."

All four of them broke out into another round of laughter at this, the staff knowing Dana and Bell where always poking fun at each other since they where room mates and lovers at the academy, each one trying to one up the other when it came to things like this. Nova not having anyway of knowing what they where laughing about just laid his head on the minks lap and hugged her legs softly so as not to risk messing up after pleasing his owner. Once the laughter had passed Mic was the first one to speak, the buck leaning forward in his chair as he asked " So how do we fix it chief, change out the type 7 for a type 10?"

The mink thought about it for a second, that would work but the ESCU was in a hard place to get to and there would still be the issue of the +1 shift that could cause them more problems later on. " I think it would be better if we switched out the type D regulators for type M's, it has a .4 negative shift when heated and will balance out the power coupling's positive out put."

With that the deer jumped to his feet grabbing his tool pack, the buck grinning down to the bunnies as he teased "Come on cotton tails, I will take the forward array and both of you take the rear one, I bet I will have mine done before either of you even get to yours." All 3 of the assistance then bolted from the chiefs office like it was on fire, each of them splitting off in a different direction to change the components in question.

Once they where alone Dana looked down to her boy with his head laid so lovingly on her lap, the mink thinking that if he was able to purr he surely would be doing it now. As adorable as this was there was something nagging at the back of the minks mind, she could except that her boy was a good cook, nurturing with children and even a skilled lover, but given what he had told them about his past she honestly did not believe that the butcher would have trained him in something as complex as star ship engineering. Even more disturbing was that he said he had seen this problem over 5 years ago, there ship was the first to be equipped with this new weapons system, 5 years ago this would have been highly experimental and not something the humans should even have known about. Even though she knew it would be best to just let it go for now and let the military intelligence types sort it out, the mink knew if she did not get an answer to this puzzle it would bother her for days. So being as gentle as she could she started running her claws throw her boys hair, her question coming in a very tender tone of voice " Nova? You told me you saw this same problem 6 years ago, is that when you where still living on star base gamma?"

She could feel her boy stiffen at her question, his arms curling a little tighter around her legs as he whispered " Yes, Mistress."

Feeling his reaction Dana reconsidered asking him about this, the butcher had put him through things she could not even bring herself to imagine, but it was important and maybe if she could get it out of him in a gentle way it would spare him from it being asked again by someone that would not be so gentle about it." My Little blessing it would make me very happy to know how it is that you learned about this, was it on a human ship or maybe a captured Anthro one?"

The boy just snuggled in close to his Mistress's legs, as much as he did not want to remember that time in his life she told him it would make her happy and there was nothing more important to him then pleasing the one that owned him. With a small sigh he closed his eyes and took a small breath, his answer coming in barely a whisper " I cant be sure because I only saw it a few times, but I think it was an Anthro ship, Mistress. I remember Master talking about how easy it was to capture because its weapons did not work, I remember he told the station engineers to figure out why incase it was a weakness he could use in future battles. Wile Master was away on his missions he allowed me to spend time with a woman he was involved with so I was not just locked in his quarters all day, her name was Mistress Christina O'Malley and she was in charge of all the stations repair techs. She was a very kind lady and I enjoyed helping her, even if I was just carrying her tools and keeping her company. "He paused for a few moments thinking about his lost friend, of everyone on star base gamma he hoped that she to had found a way off before it was destroyed.

After a few moments the sadness of not knowing her fate passed and he was able to go on, a few tears building in the corners of his eyes at not knowing if she was even still alive. " You might be happy to know that she worked on this problem for almost 2 months before she found the solution completely by accident, Mistress. Well to tell the truth it was kind of my fault, I was helping her and I broke the type 7 ESCU when I slipped and fell on it. It burned my hand badly and broke the unit so Mistress had to replace it with a Type 8 because it was all she had. I was punished quite harshly for that and not allowed back on the ship again, but 2 days later she told me that the ships weapons had started working. It took her another 2 weeks to figure out why and that is when she showed me the paper and explained about the heat problem and how changing the unit had fixed it, when I saw the same symbols on the paper here I just remembered what she told me."

Dana just smiled at that as she continued to run her claws throw his hair, it sounded so much like the boy she had come to know in the past few days to volunteer to help his owners friends with there duties. Even more he had just given this woman credit for discovering a design flaw that she herself and even the head of fleet engineering had missed. Even if he had discovered it throw pure dumb luck, anyone ells would have happily taken the credit for it if only to make themselves look better to there superiors or in nova's case, his owner. Deciding she had learned enough to satisfy her curiosity Dana thought she would just ask him the name of this ship before taking him on a tour of the engine room, when she told the captain about this the vixen would surely want to know that tidbit of information. "Thank you for telling me about this my sweet boy, I only have one more question then we can go see where I work. Do you remember the name of the ship you saw this happen on?"

The boy just smiled softly, he had been looking forward to seeing the rest of this place and learning more about it since he had first seen the beautiful lights in the engine core. With a small breath he answered in a very timid whisper, his eyes still closed to enjoy her paw petting him so gently "Yes, Mistress. I remember asking Mistress O'Malley about that when we where on the ships bridge because Master had told me to get the ships plaque for him. She had to cut it off the wall for me and when she handed it to me she told me it said "Hope For New Life" because I was not able to read it myself."

It's a very good thing the boy's eyes where closed or he would have surely been startled when Dana's shot wide open and she almost fell out of her chair. No, no this just could not be possible, her boy had to be mistaken. Not able to keep the surprise out of her voice Dana asked "Are you sure about that nova, "The Hope For New Life?"

The boy just nodded without even noticing his owners reaction " Yes, Mistress. I never forgot it because I saw that plaque almost every day in Masters office with his other trophies."

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The "Hope For New Life" had been an advanced prototype Medical ship rushed into service a little over 5 years ago. It being the state of the art in Anthro medical technology the ship was launched ahead of schedule on a mission of mercy to assist a colony world on the border of Anthro and human space suffering from an unprecedented viral outbreak. The Ship had disappeared without a trace in route, as a result by the time help did arrive more then 80% of the population had already lost there lives to the mysterious virus witch would go down as the deadliest plague in Anthro history. Even when help did arrive it proved to be pointless, any Anthro infected by this virus eventually died a very slow and painful death. The ships loss had become almost a legend in the intervening years, many Anthros having there own opinion as to the ships fate. It was the general consensus that the ship had fallen pray to the humans even though as part of the terms of war medical ships where exempt from attack. Of course the human military had thoroughly denied any involvement in the ships loss, even going so far as to offer there own ships to assist in evacuating what was left of the stricken population.

As part of the extensive Investigation this colony world was put under permanent quarantine, one that was even respected by the humans when they had seized control of that region of space 3 years later. As for the "Hope For New Life" no trace of it had ever been found by either the military or the civilian news organizations searching for it, some of them even having gone so far as to retrace the path of this doomed ship in hopes of finding anything to determine it's fate.

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Dana looked down to the boy in her lap and just shook her head, the mink realizing for the first time just what was likely to happen when they reached Anthro prime. After command found out about this they would most likely want to interrogate him in hopes of finding out if he knew more useful information, it would not be a gentle interview like she had been fooling herself into thinking it would be. Even worse If he new something as important as the fate of the "Hope For New Life" there was no telling what other valuable information he did not even know he knew, The mink knowing for sure that if she allowed them to take him from her she would most likely never see him again. The thought of them trying to force information out of him was enough to bring tears to her eyes, If she allowed it to happen it would do him more harm then he could bear. She would talk to the captain about this, there was no way she could hide what he knew, but knowing Kayla the way she did she knew the vixen would help protect this sweet and innocent soul.

Once she had gotten herself under control she slowly lifted his chin and looked into his eyes as she tenderly asked "how about I show you around wile we weight for my staff to finish replacing those couplings my sweet boy?"

With more then a little excitement in his voice the boy whispered "Yes, Mistress I would like that very much."

Seeing the smile on her boys face and the innocent happiness in his eyes the Mink Mistress could not help but smile herself, there was just something about seeing him happy that was to contagious to resist. With a small chuckle that she badly needed Dana picked up the boys leash and clipped it back into place, then led him back out of her office to start his tour of her home away from home. She had started with her pride and joy, the FTL drive, but after trying for almost 10 minutes to explain it to him in terms she thought he could understand she realized it was just to complicated for him. Then she moved on to the Dawnium or HD power cells surrounding it, this the boy seaming to get very easily. She had almost fallen over with laughter when he asked why the water in them looked so dirty, Dana explaining once she had gotten herself under control again that it was not water, it was a liquid metal that started out clear and the more it was used the darker it got until it could not produce power anymore. She had just started bragging that the converter crystals in them had been custom cut just for her and where almost 15% more efficient then the standard ones when Mic and the bunnies returned, the female sucking on one of her fingers as her brother teased her about trying to remove a power cell without turning it off first.

This got a playful swipe from the female that almost hit Mic when the male bunny ducked, the female grumbling "It would not have bitten me if you had turned it off, so let it go before I put you over my knee LITTLE brother." He was only younger by 2 minutes, but she would never let him forget it.

The buck just smiled as he turned his attention back to Dana, he grinning with a chuckle as he stated " The power regulators have been replaced and we are ready to give them a test run, Chief."

The mink smiled and gave them a nod as she walked a few steps over to the Main Engineering control station and pulled up a diagnostic of the new components, her boy taking his place on his knees beside her wile remaining respectfully silent. It only took her a few seconds to confirm that yes the new components where functioning properly, but then again the old ones had tested good as well. She knew there was only one way to make sure that they had truly found and fixed the problem, her paw quickly reaching up to tap her com badge as she called out " Engineering to the bridge, have I got good news for you!!"

It was only a few seconds before they responded, Kayla's voice coming in a none to cheerful tone as she just about snarled " Bridge here, perfect timing Dana, I could use some good news right about now."

The mink smiled down to her boy as she practically purred to the Captain " We had a little help tracking down the cause of the overload problem and I am sure it's fixed now, Is there any chance of making a pit stop to blow up some targets and put it to the test?"

To Dana's surprise Drake was the one to answer, the burly wolf's tone showing his excitement at the prospect of blowing something up as he growled "You bet your tail sweet cheeks, we just cleared an asteroid field so give me about 5 minutes to prep the target drones."

Dana just sighed as the reason for the captains fowl mood became clear, that thick headed wolf was at it again. He had only been on the ship for 4 years and wile he had been pleasant at first, his lack of promotion and inability to attract a female had caused him to start acting more and more aggressively. In recent months it had gotten to the point that if he was not given a major attitude check soon Dana knew he would most likely find himself on another ship if not out of the service completely. With the full knowledge Kayla would put the wolf in his place after the test Dana kept the annoyance out of her tone as she replied " 5 minutes will work, the weapons will be warmed up and ready to go on your command, CAPTAIN." She then switched off her com before drake or anyone ells could reply, the Mink taking this time to configure the main control terminal to run continuous diagnostics on the new regulators and the old ESCU's so she could get a clear picture of how the new configuration worked and get base line readings for future comparisons.

She had just finished when the lights in the engine core behind her slowed down, the captains voice coming from the address system as the ship dropped out of FTL.. "All hands to combat stations, we will be conducting a test of the energy weapons. Damage control and security teams stand bye, this will be a full combat exercise."

The deer and both bunnies moved in closer as the crimson claw fired its target drones, the small and nimble probes starting a rotation around the ship much like neutrons orbiting an atom. Wile you might think hitting objects moving this fast would be difficult, with the ships AI assisted targeting software it was only a few seconds before the first 3 where blown into scrap metal, the second 3 fallowing them into oblivion a few seconds later. This was it, this is where the weapons had over loaded each time before, some times before the first drone of the last set was destroyed, some times on the second one, but they had never managed to get all 3 of them before overload protection kicked in. Dana closed her eyes as the computer sounded the discharge, the mink whispering a silent prayer to the Goddess, please, please let this work. Her answer came with a piercing howl of victory from drake and a cheer from the rest of the bridge crew as the Captain simply stated " All targets destroyed, Good job chief." Then as if she had reconsidered this Kayla licked her lips and commanded in a strong and confident tone " Mr. Ash lets put this to a real test, Attack pattern Alpha 2, open fire all batteries until overload protection kicks in or the primary tactical cells are depleted."

Almost afraid to look the mink kept her eyes close for the 5 minutes of continuous fire it took to completely drain the first of the ships 3 tactical power cells, the high energy particle beam weapons sweeping in large arc's as if they where trying to hit imaginary targets. When the sound of the firing stopped she drew a breath and slowly opened her eyes, a smile parting her lips at all the reading still being well with in acceptable levels. With her smile quickly turning into a smug grins she touched the com button on her control terminal and called out " Engineering to the bridge, all systems green, we can keep going if you like."

This time it was Kayla's turn to reply with a smile, the vixen growling in a happy tone this time "That will not be necessary Chief, you and your staff just earned a day off when we hit port. How about you meet us in my mess for lunch, we will catch up with you after this exercise is finished."

Dana nodded as if the captain could actually see her, the mink purring "Sure thing, we just have to replace the power cells that test used up but that should only take a few minutes." When the com switched off all 3 of the assistants cheered and both bunnies pounced nova with a squeal of excitement, this earning a startled yelp from the unsuspecting slave.

Hearing his cry the mink was just about to yell at both of the cotton tails when her boy broke out into deep laughter, the bunnies soft fur unintentionally tickling him as they hugged the slave and kissed both his cheeks. The female bunny was the first to let go of him as she giggled " The chief sure picked the right pet name for you," Her brother sitting up just in time to finish her thought "You truly are a little blessing."

All nova could do once he had stopped laughing was blush all over and pull his loin cloth back into place as he timidly whispered "Thank you Mistress and Master, it is my joy to serve."

Mic just chuckled at the boys modesty and tussled his hair, the buck looking up to Dana with a wide smile as he said " Boss why don't you and your boy here go ahead and get lunch, I think the 3 of us can handle changing out a few HD cells." Then he grinned at the female bunny and teased "I will make sure no one ells gets there fingers burned." He got a pink tongue for that and if not for the fact he and the female bunny had been lovers for the last 6 months, she most likely would have thrown something at him for it.

More to come..