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My New Life

Part 1: Realizations, Rescue and Acknowledgements

Almost instantaneous in another reality, a vast white sphere of light and energy appeared out of nowhere, then hazy shapes began to emerge, as the sphere shrank, soon firm shapes and details were seen.

Ships.

Warships.

Some sleek, elegant in design; others blocky, yet extruding strength and power. Amongst them, drifts a long sleek starfighter...

It felt like that I was floating in the darkness for an eternity, then suddenly I jolted forward, "Uhnff!," I woofed out as my restraints cut into my shoulders and sides, my right hand instantly letting go and over the joystick while my left hand throttled back the engines to stand by.

"What the hell...?" I muttered as I shook my head to clear it, and then keyed my comm, "Star Hunter calling Eagle's Vision. Come in, Eagle's Vision...Eagle's Vision, pls. respond..."

Silence over the comm.

"Not good, better see if can raise the other ships...Star Hunter to any member of Task Force Chrono-Storm, pls. respond..."

"This is the Warhound, Star Hunter, we're a-okay on this end, no problems so far and...all the other ships are relaying their status through us too; everyone except the EV have reported in, a-okay, no problems at all."

"Hmm...patch me through to the Andromeda."

"Give me a sec, boss...patching you through now..."

"Andromeda, I need two squads of marines in hazardous environment combat armor with tricorders, emergency rescue gear, and decon gear. I got the feeling we're gonna need them, but give me a minute while I try to contact to EV's AI avatar."

"Acknowledged, sir."

"Break. Eagle, do you read me, over?"

"'Squawk' Eagle here, Star Hunter..."

"Eagle, what's the status of our crew?"

"Sir, my crews are all unconscious, wait...alert! Initiating isolation protocols for engineering sections Alpha through Charlie, biohazardous gasses detected, scanning for source...source found in sections Alpha 10 through 30 and Beta 10 through 30, section Charlie also sealed to further containment...no life signs detected."

"Eagle, are you saying that the engineering sections containing the STD drive are source of the gasses?" I asked with a sinking feeling at the bottom of my stomach.

"That is correct." responds Eagle coolly. "What kind of gas or gasses are we talking about?"

"The gas is a form of bio-destructive material coming from the STD drive, from what I have gathered from my security cams and sensors in that area, it first comes out in a liquid state then turns into vapors within 5 minutes of making contact with air, these vapors when inhaled instantly begin to disintegrate you from the inside-out but this process takes only seconds so basically your dead and gone before you know it."

"Damn! Can you vent those sections? If not keep the area is to be sealed tight and no one can access unless in vacuum or hazmat suits."

"Negative on venting, general, the atmospheric purge vents are fused together due to the massive amount of heat being radiated by what's left of the STD drive, I'm lucky that it didn't create a cascading power feedback loop that could have destroyed me."

"Roger that, stand by while...WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY WHAT'S LEFT OF THE STD DRIVE?" I half-screamed into the comm when the words penetrated my dazed mind.

"Sir, from what my cameras, what's left of them, tell me the STD drive has suffered catastrophic meltdown with catastrophic side effects; the entire quantum research team bar two are all dead and gone, they probably died without feeling a thing."

"Shit, damn, and blast to the 10th power! That means we're stranded here, wherever here is 'sigh' Damn it!" I shouted angrily, then calmed myself, realizing that others will have to be informed of our 'situation', and decide the best course of action.

"Very well, Eagle, stand by to receive rescue forces, Star Hunter out. Warhound, have all COs and XOs meet me at Lex's lounge for an emergency meeting, expedite repeat expedite. Out."

I decided to jettison my STD drive just in case its in the same condition as the one in EV, so I queued up options list, selected 'Jettison STD attachment', and felt explosive bolts fire off then rotated my fighter to see if there is any damage to it; to my horror, it looked like it went through a magma dip minus a protective shell, I engage my gun-cam and recorded what I saw, knowing that the others will be asking for evidence of what I'm talking about.

They are not going to like my news...

30 min. later...

"Alright, settle down, guys. I got some good news, bad news and even worse news. First, the good news...the temporal jump is a success..."

Whoops, cheers and howls erupted from the group. I raise my hand for silence.

"However, something unforeseen has happened to the STD drives and as far as I can tell we've jumped 200 years into the future instead of the planned 2 years and it appears that we are also in parallel universe..."

Dead silence greets this announcement.

"And furthermore, I believe that we're also stranded here." I delivered that last bit of news sadly and heavily.

"Nathan...what the hell happened?" asked Capt. Steele breathlessly, knowing military protocol just got thrown out the airlock.

"I have no idea what happened but did any of you feel a jolt of sorts during the jump?"

All of them shock their heads.

Then Clancy spoke up "Err...Nathan? Is it just me or have you gotten younger all of a sudden, buddy?"

"Huh? What are you talking about? You're the one who looks younger..."

My voice trailed off as I realized that everyone in the room does look younger, so I decided to ask.

"How old do I look like, Robert?"

His answer came as a shock to me "Around 20, thereabouts. What about me?"

I merely grinned back. "No way! You're pulling my leg, aren't ya?"

I just kept grinning.

He must have seen his reflection in one of the view ports, because he was grinning back at me just as broadly as I am at him.

I notice that the Kilrathi officers among the command staff had clustered together at the sparring/wrestling mat used by the troops, pilots and crew who have an urge for some tousling, suddenly they began tousling with each other like overgrown cubs!

It occurred to me that they're quite pleased to be in young bodies again, youth yet aged wisdom, something most pursue yet never attain.

A quick but surreptitious check under my flight suit showed that my scars are still there but not as pronounced as they were before, then I unconsciously rubbed my left forearm feeling the solid yet warm sensation of my gauntlet, I couldn't shake the feeling that somehow we're going to make a big difference in this reality.

"All right, settle down, you lot! For now, the battle group is on stand down-stand by alert (meaning that on every ship the entire crew except a skeleton crew are off duty until further notice) until we can decide what our next course of action is going to be and...oh, yes. For now, we will decide everything democratically, everyone has their say, don't be afraid to speak your mind and opinions, right now, we're in this mess together. In the meantime, I'll be aboard EV to assess what the hell went wrong with the temporal jump and if we can salvage what's left to make another usable drive to get home."

"If we can't...?" asked Talbert ominously.

"Then we improvise...we can observe any nearby interstellar government and decide which is the best candidate for us to join in but we do so with active cloaking, we don't want to spook them too early to our presence."

"Sounds like a plan, old boy...I move that we make Nathan our overall battle group C-in-C, agreed?"

"Agreed!" came the unanimous response.

I acknowledge my new rank and status grimly, feeling the weight of my new responsibilities on my shoulders, knowing that every wrong decision in the trials ahead will cost us dearly.

2 weeks later...

"Comm, get me all the ship COs on laser link conference in my ready room in 5 minutes."

"Aye, sir", responds Lt. Fredrik Spencer, "laser link conference in 5."

In the meantime, I return to my cabin to get my compiled notes and data on what happened during the temporal jump and what interstellar governments we have observed and have rated as acceptable for us.

"Sir, laser link conference established, they're waiting for you in your ready room." reports Lt. Spencer.

"Thank you, Lt. That will be all."

I quickly went to my ready room, "Evening, guys. I've finally compiled everything I can gather on what happened during the temporal jump, plus on tonight's agenda, which interstellar government we will choose to join."

"Well, boss. I move that we choose the Stellar Federation, they seem pretty much the cutting edge of technology in this reality and are working pretty well together despite the differences in species and cultures; the others we've observed are too...messy for our liking," said Clancy.

Agreements ranging from nods to bowing of heads (for the Kilrathi, bowing of one's head shows agreement) to thumbs up indicate the unanimous choosing and approval of the Stellar Federation as the interstellar government we intend to join.

"Right, that's settled then, the Stellar Federation it is then. On to the next subject...from the data we were able to salvage form what's left of the STD data recorders; the opinions and theories of the remaining scientists, our combined science departments and I have been able to determine that what caused our inadvertent jump to this reality was a quantum energy pulse wave. This wave of energy is released on a regular basis by quantum black holes, until recently was thought to be relatively harmless to the material universe but what data we were able to recover indicates that the materials we used in the construction of the STD drives are surprisingly sensitive to even small amounts of quantum energy but the pulse that hit us was quantum energy in its rawest form, meaning that the drives took a massive quantum energy surge that they weren't speced for and which our shielding systems weren't capable of filtering off, thereby sending us this far into the future and to this reality. And that concludes my report, guys. What do you all think?"

"Well, for one thing, this absolves you of negligence, since you covered all the bases in preventing any catastrophe from nailing all of us, then this natural occurrence came totally out from the left field and screwed up your safeguards completely so this isn't really your fault," notes Talbert reflectively.

"I agree," growls Kal Shintahr Marjakh hrai Cax'ki, "I studied quantum mechanics under my uncle's tutelage, he was fairly brilliant in this area of physics, was and still is a proponent of quantum pulse energy theory, not that I expected to have that theory proven right in front of my muzzle."

"Yeah," quips Commander Marle'har Grissom (her name has a Kilrathi inflection in it as she was born in one of the Border Worlds colonies near Kilrathi space which enjoys a brisk trade with a nearby Cat colony, thus influenced her parents to name her that way, in respect of their feline neighbors.), "My dad is a respected quantum theorist and physicist too, so I grew up in a quantum theoretical heavy environment and most of it I fairly understood even as a kid but this particular theory is new to me...never heard of it until now."

"Right," I interrupt gently, "we can discuss this later when we've settled down, when things are more relaxed, for now, this discussion on QPE theory can wait until sometime in the future, right now, I'm more interested on how we can join the Stellar Federation without getting shot at or causing a shitstorm..."

Suddenly, my wristcomm beeps urgently, raising it up to my mouth and keying the receive button, "This is Simba, go ahead."

"Boss, its Spencer. We just picked up a broad band distress call from a Federation civilian convoy 20 light years from our position, there are under attack by unknown hostile forces composed of 5 starships and 18 runabouts; their escorts are barely coping against an attack force this large, one escort is already out of action, and have already sent out distress calls to nearby Federation warships but the closest one won't get there until 20 hrs later even at their max warp and XO Kirha has recommended that we go to their assistance with the entire battle group at battle stations, full shields and charged weapons at the ready, and we have the advantages of speed and cloaking in our favor and we are less than 20 minutes from their position via Slipstream and Warp 20, sir, and I'm quoting him per verbatim."

"Thanks, Spencer. Have Kirha bring the group to battle stations and spread the word: 'All speed'"

"'All speed', aye, sir!" he responds quickly and disconnects.

"Well, looks like the opportunity we've been looking just dropped on our laps before we even looked," chuckling lightly as I said it.

They chuckle back appreciatively at my attempt at levity.

"All right, use your individual judgments on where things are the most critical, maximum coverage and arcs of fire, we are to minimize casualties on the convoy as best we can, so don't be stingy on weapons fire, and make damn sure enemy return fire does not hit the convoy's ships, use your ships as shields if necessary, our systems are all battle tested but theirs are not plus we have the advantage of battle hardened crews so let's make max use of our resources. God speed and...Ker'sha Nakt'hur! (Death or Glory!)"

They respond in kind especially the Kilrathi who swelled with pride at the compliment and disconnected.

I returned to the bridge and reassumed by captain's chair, "All right, people, you all know what we have to do; we do this rescue right and we'll come home alive. Red Alert! All hands man battle stations! Raise shields and ready all weapons! Set course for that convoy and...all ships, engage!"

As one, the battle group maneuvered to realign towards their destination, forming a loose delta formation, then in an eye blink, they were gone, with nothing more than a bright flash to even show that they were there...

Meanwhile, aboard the FSS Verne, Lt. Comm. Ivoneva Walker is not having a good day...

I nearly fall out of my seat for the dozenth time, as my Yeager-class frigate rocked from another grazing hit from one of the marauding starships, wondering for the millionth time on how we ever go into this predicament.

The Verne and three other sister ships plus one Maelstrom-class destroyer, the Logan, were supposed to escort a convoy of 18 colonization vessels to system TX785A, and were cruising at a leisurely pace of warp 2.9 when suddenly some kind of gravitic anomaly popped up in the middle of our course and were forced to drop out of warp to get around it.

Then the next thing we knew...we came under attack by a large group of 5 renegade Humans First starships and 18 runabouts, all heavily armed and shielded.

Before we could even react, they concentrated on the Logan and were able to cripple her before she got her shields up, right now she's adrift off our aft-starboard quarter as we're trying our best to keep the convoy safe, easier said than done, especially when the enemy has the advantage in numbers, time, and ship type on their side.

We already lost four of the convoy's ships but not their crews and passengers whom we were able to beam to safety and I swore not to lose any more but that promise grew harder and harder to keep especially against the overwhelming odds...

"Sir!"

I snap out of my musings and turned towards the source of the shout, "What is it, Mr. Gregory?"

"Sir, I just raised the Pegasus task group and they've been rerouted to our position but they won't be here for another 20 hrs."

The bridge's mood visibly darkens at the news.

"We don't have 20 hrs, we can probably hold on for another 2 hrs but that's best-case scenario, 4 if we're lucky. Tell them that."

"Aye, sir." He gulps as responded to my order, then suddenly...

"Sir!"

"Now what?!," I thought angrily but kept my voice even, "What's the problem, Mr. O'toole?"

"Sir, I'm detecting large scale space-time disruptions and unknown warp signatures above and behind us!"

"On screen!"

I watch in trepidation as ship after ship after ship come out of warp and what appears to be localized worm holes, all of them looking very hostile and deadly, far more deadlier looking than the ones we're facing.

"Oh, frak..."

Just when I thought that this was going to be our last stand, the new ships suddenly opened fired with a massive salvo of lethal energy and torpedoes that drove off or destroyed the most of harassing runabouts and annihilated one of the starships as easily as tearing paper to shreds, all done with such accuracy to shave with and no collateral damage to any of the ship in the convoy.

"Whoa!" I gasp in awe at the sheer amount of combat power unleashed so easily by this new force.

"Tactical, get me an analysis on one of those ships and hurry!"

"Sir, Tactical. I've selected one of the big sleek looking starships holding station on the convoy's right flank, it's called a Sovereign III heavy assault class cruiser. Shield rating is...holy shit...shield rating is level 10 or better! Armor...same rating! Weapons...damn...weapons rating as far superior to even our most advanced cruiser class, at least 20 generations better! Speed...the power readings I'm picking up indicate a capability of warp 30, 110% more impulse power and 150% more maneuvering capability than even our fastest and most agile starships! Crew capacity is at 1200! Damn, sir, this ship makes our newest cruiser class look obsolete and we're just looking at their cruiser class!"

"What about the other ships, what class are they?"

"Scanning...the smallest ones are corvettes, Defiant and Assault Missile-class, the ones with those big rotary cannons are Strike-class frigates, the ones with fixed armaments on their bows are Dagger and Excaliber-class destroyers, light and heavy respectively; the organic looking ones are Panther class light cruisers, the ones with funny looking protrusions on their hulls are Aegis class heavy cruisers, the saucer-under-a-wedge ones are Nebula VII special weapons attack cruisers (?), the big blocky ones with the battleship style turrets are Super-class battleships, the two ships near that big boxy fortress, or whatever it is, are Escort-class carriers and the big one is a Heavy-class carrier(?)."

"Damn, whoever they I hope this is just a task force and not the tip of an invasion fleet."

"Sir, this 'task force' could easily sweep the floor of Star Fleet. Hell, I've been the service long enough to know what our limits are, we'll be in 'way' over our heads if we try to take these guys head-on." quips 1st Lt. Troy Rogers, my XO.

Suddenly 2nd Lt. Gregory, manning the comm station, spoke up, "Sirs, We're receiving a low frequency broadband transmission from somewhere but I can't pinpoint where it's coming from..."

"Never mind that, what's in that transmission?"

"It says, 'Federation escort vessels, recommend that you fall back to the convoy and form a compact delta formation, Task Force Chrono-Storm can protect you more effectively that way, there is too much spacing and too many ships for us to cover effectively, especially with only a medium size battle group. PS. You better inform task force Pegasus about this new development cause I'd hate to order my people to return fire on your rescuers-to-be. PPS. If your thinking is somewhere near extreme paranoia, no, we're not the head of an invasion force; we're travelers from an alternate reality, and 200 years from our present, stranded here when the device we used for such travel melted down on us, so we wish to join the Stellar Federation but weren't sure how until now. This seems as good a time as any. Signed, Nathaniel "Simba" Lao, Brigadier-General, TCSF-SOCOM.'"

The bridge was deathly silent after hearing the message.

"Just a medium sized battle group?" one of the bridge crew said incredulously.

"200 year old tech that still that effective?" said another.

"From an alternate reality and they want to join the Federation?" said another still.

"Wow," I said in an awed tone of voice, then switching back to my command voice, "Alright, you heard the man, get our sister ships and the convoy forming that delta formation he was talking about, NOW!"

Startled back into activity, the crew quickly relayed the message and, in the space of 15 min, we were in the midst of the battle group who become our protectors and from inside this sphere of protection, the attacking ships found themselves in a bit of a predicament, any attempt to close on the convoy was rebuffed by liberal and accurate use of the battle group's more powerful and longer reaching weaponry and they already lost 3 of their number, one when this battle group got the jump on them and two of their largest ships when they got too close to the convoy, one of the big battleships single-handedly engaged both with a lethal broadsides, the upper turrets taking the one on its left while the lower ones the right and destroyed them both with just two salvoes of energy fire, now with only two ships left, they tried using hit and run tactics by closing with the convoy and firing long range torpedo volleys at the convoy but the four Aegis cruisers, to my surprise, were designed as missile interception vessels, easily and quickly swatted the torpedoes out of space like flies, then returned fire with one volley each of 4 bright blue missiles that easily pierced the shields of both ships and crippled them by destroying their warp nacelles and impulse engines, then suddenly the ships exploded, probably from rupturing warp cores.

Back aboard the Eagle's Vision...

"Sir, Sensors. I'm picking up some weird energy signatures near the crippled Logan, request permission to have one of the Defiants check it out."

"Permission granted, Sensors, expedite."

"Sir, Tactical. Cheetah is reporting in...shit...three runabouts playing possum, they just ignited their drives and are going for a kamikaze run on one of the convoy's ships...and they're too close to risk weapons fire from our cap ships!"

"What about fighters?"

"We didn't need to launch any, sir, when we came out of jump, our barrage nailed most of the runabouts by sheer dumb luck, all but eight anyway, five of them were destroyed by concentrated AA missile fire and three unaccounted for, now we know where they went..."

"Damn! Flight deck, ready Star Hunter, I'm going out there to intercept! Kirha, you have command, stand by transporters for emergency rescue retrieval, follow me as close as you can just in case."

I practically vault over the tactical station, into the turbolift which responds to my voice command of "Flight Deck, double time", come out into the corridor that leads to the flight deck, ran through the short corridor, in a fast sprint up the boarding ladder and hopping into the cockpit, pulling on my helmet, closing the canopy, goosing the engines to full thrust and then jetting out the flight deck, all what in seem like seconds.

I engage my afterburners and turned towards the three runabouts in an interception vector, I realized my speed advantage as soon as I saw the distance between me and the runabouts rapidly drop, I saw that they're inside the 'envelope' of my Photon torpedoes, selecting them from my ordnance screen, I lock on to the two rearmost, and pickle both off at a double launch.

I goose my afterburners, closing the range to 200 klicks to engage the last one with my guns, then two brief flares of light on both my port and starboard side indicating that my torps have slammed their targets, destroying both; suddenly two bright flashes of light caught my attention, I dropped in relative altitude and saw two torpedoes heading towards one of the lightly shielded convoy ships.

"Shit!" I yell as I pull up and fire my gatling 'smasher' cannons at the runabout's exposed belly, grinning behind my helmet as a scream came over the comm.

"Scratch that last pest, now for those torps!" I thought to myself.

Locking my throttle to sustained burners, I quickly caught up to the torpedoes but kept my distance at 180 klicks, then fired my nose-mounted pulse phaser, sweeping it in a tight arc that covers both torpedoes simultaneously, my first sweep hits one torp amidships and detonates it, it took two more sweeps to detonate the other, by then we're close to the target ship, too close for my taste and the explosion tore through the light shields, ruptures a hull section and see several bodies fly out.

"Oh, hell! EV, emergency! The ship has sustained a hull breach! Begin emergency rescue retrieval now! I'm getting out to see if I can rescue some of those ejected passengers...aw, hell...some of them are cubs! Now I really have to go, Simba out!"

Reaching back to the rear of my seat, I pull out a quartet of Deep space Emergency Rescue Packs; compact, portable, self-inflating, multi-specie pressure chamber designed to increase the chances of survival of one exposed and tossed into vacuum if gotten into the pack under 3 minutes, any longer meant certain death by nitrogen narcosis, or the bends in diver's terms.

As I decompress my cockpit, my Hazard armor which also acts as my flight suit and EVA suit, a sort of multi-environmental combat armor unit, projects an timer on my helmet HUD to show me how long the passengers have been exposed to vacuum, the lower one shows me that the young ones have been in vacuum for a minute now, so I push out of the cockpit and fire my directional jets towards the cubs, noting that they're floating together in a rough ball, realizing that I could catch them all in one swoop, I inflate one of the packs in readiness.

As I reached their position, barely noting their species as I swiftly stuff them into the chamber and engage its atmospheric revival system, setting it to double earth standard, and its rescue transponder beacon.

I then turn my attention towards the adults, I realized that of the four adults that were ejected, only two were in close enough proximity to each other for easy rescue but the other two were already floating beyond my reach, so I concentrated on the closer two, radioing the EV at same time, "Kirha, I need you to get to the other two adults floating out of my reach while I focus on the other two, quickly while there's still time!"

"At once, Simba, but be careful. Out." EV responds professionally.

"Roger that. Simba out."

The timer began to blink red at 00:20, indicating that they were almost past the point of recovery, so flare my thrusters to increase my speed; at 00:15, I manage to snag both adults and stuff them into one pack each, given their body mass, and engage the revival systems at two and a half earth standard to increase their chances of survival.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I jet over to the first rescue pack which contains the cubs, looking through its single puncture-proof viewport, I saw them already busy at bouncing off the padded walls of their rescue pack in sheer fun, having revived much faster, grinning at their rambunctiousness; I push off again to check on the adults' rescue packs, which I brought along with me when I went to check on the cubs and for ease of retrieval.

I saw that both of them were already reviving, and was about to activate my comm when something about them caught my attention, turning my head back to one of the view ports, and gave the centauriod creature a once over, 'Hmm...feline based centauriod, around 5'8", black base with dark gray stripes, blonde mane (?), long tail, perhaps prehensile, large firm bust, penile sheath...ehh!? How could that be?! Unless...this centauriod is a hermaphrodite! Both male and female in one? Better check this out later after we get them to Sick bay for eval.'

I thought in surprise, then activated my comm, "EV, this is Simba, status report on the other two adults and I'm ready for pick up."

"Simba, Kirha here. The other two adults expired before we were able to retrieve them but we have retrieved their bodies for burial if anyone intends to claim them."

"Damn! 'sigh' Very well, retrieve the packs and I'll come back in on Star Hunter...and Kirha, can you request a full file download, especially medical physiology, on every species in the Stellar Federation, we overlooked that particular detail during our recon planning."

"It will be done."

I jet back into cockpit, repressurize, waited as the EV came over my position and tractor aboard the rescue packs, then engaged my engines and returned to EV's flight deck where the packs are being opened for ease of transfer to Sick Bay.

Kirha is waiting for me at the base of the boarding ladder and points wordlessly to one part of the bay, with a minicomp in his right paw.

I remove my helmet and gloves as I got up and out of the cockpit, leaving them in the cockpit as I clamber down the ladder, received the minicomp from Kirha, then walk stiff-legged toward the bodies but I stop half way there, turned on my heel, and walked towards the rescued passengers in a slow pace while accessing the downloaded data files in the minicomp.

Scrolling quickly through the data, I soon found what I was looking for, relevant data on the herm centauriods I rescued, a file titled 'An Introduction to Chakats', fast reading through the file, I discovered that Chakats are a genetically engineered race of hermaphrodite feline centauriods created from the best genetic traits of felines primarily plus some canine, human and several others as well.

They are designed with maximum survival traits such as fast healing, immunity to most poisons and diseases, capability to adapt to almost any environment, and an incredible self-awareness sense plus a passive psychic empathetic ability which acts as an built-in lie detector (now that's interesting...so you have to be utterly honest with them or they'll sense something's wrong...) but have no set fur coloration and patterning but eye color is predominantly golden-green (whoa! Completely random coloration and patterning, meaning that each chakat's fur pattern is quite unique, IDing should be no problem...).

They have an exact life span of 150 years and have full child-bearing capability until the age of 120, at which point they are called 'Mother Longtails' (their tails must probably never stop growing then...) and grow to a height of 5'8"+ at most.

They have fully functional male and female reproduction organs, with the male organ similar to that of a human but its thickness is three times that of a human in proportion to its larger body mass and at the entrance of the female opening is a ring of controllable muscle that is consciously controlled by the chakat, also chakats are not sexually mature until the age of 18 up despite early breast development at much younger ages of 8 onwards (meaning that when she, err, shi says no, shi definitely meant no...that also means that rape and forced pregnancy is quite literally impossible as shi can clench her vaginal muscles tight, provided that you don't get ripped to bloody shreds first...).

They are omnivorous (good, which means that we don't have to worry about what kind of foods they need...their biological requirements are similar to ours, only 150% more...).

They are a friendly, outgoing race with hugs being their normal way of greeting others especially other chakats, friends, family, etc. (hmm...greeting hugs rather than handshakes, they're definitely more physically expressive than humans...).

Their greeting formula is "I'm Chakat personal name, child of mother and father." (that's an interesting way of introducing yourself...)

Strongly protective of children esp. their own, can and will revert to baser instincts when cub/s or mate/s is/are in danger or threatened, and will have no control over their actions when enraged (which probably means when you piss off a chakat by threatening hir cubs or mate, you're gonna get one mad kitty with hir fangs and claws bared and ready to ripe through anything in hir way, ouch...).

They have no qualms about nudity as some, if not all, have a preference to going 'all-fur' but do wear clothing in their upper torsos (it must hell just to put on something on that massive lower body...) to placate prudish humans, however, one piece of clothing dominant amongst chakats are belt pouches to carry important materials such identity cards, credit cards, keys, etc. for lack of pants to store them in, for chakats, indeed most 'taurs, hate to wear anything on their lower torsos except for formal occasions...

I close the minicomp, satisfied for the moment on what I've read and discovered about chakats.

"Interesting bunch, these chakats, I better have every crew member bone up on the new species or we might have some accidents that could have been avoided if my crew are properly briefed..." I thought to myself, holstering the minicomp on my belt, and then glanced at Kirha, "Kirha, spread the word that all crews are to update themselves on every species in the Stellar Federation, I don't want any 'accidents' that could have been avoided."

"I'll get on it right away, Simba."

He turned to leave but stopped in his tracks and said, "Simba..."

"Yes?"

"Good work on rescuing the passengers, even if we couldn't save all of them." then walked off to carry out my orders.

"10-4, good buddy." I say at his retreating back, knowing that his acute hearing would pick it up, then walked up to the chakats being examined by the medics, the two adults looked at me warily, probably because I'm still wearing my combat armor, but the ball of 5 cubs, playing rambunctiously nearby under the watchful eye of the flight deck crews and the adults, stopped to look at me curiously, then one of them wiggled out and padded up to me.

I knelt down on one knee and extended my right hand palm up towards the little cub but stop before I touching hir, allowing hir to get a good whiff on my scent, then shi rammed hir furry little head into my hand, which I began to gently scratch especially around the ears and under the chin, knowing that felines just love being scratched there.

As shi purrs in pleasure, without warning, I was deluged and knocked on my ass by a small horde of cubs not wanting to be left out, causing the adults, medics and crews to laugh, as the cubs pile one on top of the other, wrestling each other, to get the most attention from me.

The problem with that is: I'm at the bottom of the pile!

Freeing my head and right arm, I put my fore finger and thumb at the corners of my mouth and whistle as loud as I can which caused the little furballs to stop and look at me, as I wiggle out of the pile and sit on the cold metal of the bay, I said, "Alright, listen up, you lot. I will give each a good long head scratch and tummy rub if you come at me one at a time. I only got two hands, you know, and I can't handle a horde of cubs like the lot of you by my lonesome."

The cubs, ranging from around 4-6 years old if I'm guessing correctly, grinning broadly, nod in agreement to my terms, settle down in a jumble nearby and wait expectantly.

"Oh, by the way, what are your names?" It occurred to me that I didn't know what to call them.

They barrage me with a salvo of answers "I'm chakat Firewind, child of..." "I'm chakat Blue, child of..."

"Hold on, hold on! Just give me your personal names, not the full formal introduction." I say hurriedly as they answered my request.

"Okay!" they say in unison.

"I'm Firecloud," said the cub whose coat did resemble a rolling cloud of fire.

"I'm Seashimmer," said the cub whose coat was white but hir eyes were the bluest that I've ever seen.

"I'm Snowwalker," said the cub whose coat resembled that of a snow leopard but with a white base coat rather that gray and dark speckles that looked like paw prints in the snow.

"I'm Blue," said the cub whose coat is quite bluish in color, hell, even hir eyes are light blue.

"I'm Darkcloud," said the cub whose coat is a mixture of black and gray with silver trimming reminding me a storm cloud, hir eyes are gray flecked with blue, then I notice that hir tone is that of a confused and bewildered cub.

"Darkcloud? What's the matter, little one?" I say to hir, my brows furrowing in concern, then gestured that shi settle down next to me by patting the patch of metal next to me.

Shi pads over and plunked down next to me, on the verge of crying, "I can't feel my parents!" shi wailed and began to cry, I wrap my arm around hir shoulders and comforted hir as shi leaned against my chest, tears forming a wet spot on my flight suit.

"There, there. Stop crying. I'll look for your parents, what are their names and what do they look like?"

"My mom's name is Luna, shi has a crescent moon on hir forehead and my sire's name is Desert, shi has the color of sand."

Shi sobs out as I hear the faint musical tink-tink of claws on metal, then I twist around, seeing the two adult chakats pad up to me, smiles on their faces, " Excuse me, are you the pilot who rescued me, my lifemate, and our four cubs?" asks the reverse tiger-pattern chakat on the right.

"That'll be me. And you are...?" I reply simply.

"I'm Lightning, and this is my lifemate Nightstreak." said the chakat with the white lightning bolt on hir forehead and gesturing to hir mate on the right.

Suddenly, both of them bent down and gave me a big hug in thanks, the thing was my positioning wasn't exactly optimal, so I ended up with my head being squeezed between both chakats' ample busts, not that I mind, but there was a possibly orphaned cub I had to worry about, so freeing myself from there embrace, I ask, "Which of these furballs are yours, anyway?" jerking my thumb at them.

"Cubs!" Both shout, and Firewind, Seashimmer, Snowwalker and Blue ran to their parents, which leaves Darkcloud...then it struck me hard in the gut.

I painfully realized that Darkcloud is already an orphan, I sadly look at her, then the part of the bay where hir parents' bodies are, then at the two other adults who apparently picked up my uneasiness and looked at me with understanding, one of them saying, "You did your best to save us all but you couldn't get to all of us, for that we're grateful. But you better let Darkcloud know what has happened to hir parents...if you want I could..."

"No, I'll do it...I've...I've been through the same thing shi's going through now, shi'll need someone to help hir get through the rough days ahead." I said as I turned to inform Darkcloud on hir parent's whereabouts.

"How did you lose your parents, err...?"

"Just call me Nathan. Long story short, I lost my parents during the Human-Kilrathi war, I was only eight then, when the Kilrathi attacked my home planet, they were part of the planetary defense forces, pilots, but the Cats attacked with overwhelming force, soon we were reduced to surface-to-space defense systems, surface-to-air point defense systems and ground forces, then they began their assault with a massive orbital bombardment, covering the troopships from our SS missile fire but the previous airstrikes crippled most of them already, except for the mobile ones. My parents were manning one near the empty camouflaged bunker where they hid me, but one of the gunners upstairs got lucky and made a direct hit on their unit..."

I choke and hold back the tears as I remembered those painful images seared forever into my mind.

"And you saw them immolated before your eyes." Lightning finished sadly.

"Yes. Out of a population of 7000, only 250 survived that ordeal including me. I waited another 10 years in my grandparents' care before I joined the military, where I discovered that I was a natural when it comes to piloting; I also discovered that, well, I thrive on the battlefield but I lost my hatred for the Kilrathi, I found that hate just takes too much time and energy to maintain, so I gave it up like a bad habit and realized that simple respect for my enemies took its place. It was then my grandfather's words of wisdom made sense to me, 'hatred is too much work; respect is simpler to do.' and so sustained me during the toughest days of the war."

I then realized that Darkcloud is giving me an expectant look. "Come with me, Darkcloud. I'll show you where your parents are, but I'm afraid that they're beyond speaking."

Hir ears perked up at the mention of her parents but shi looked at me curiously at my words.

Taking hir hand, I guide hir towards the darkened corner of the deck, followed closely by Lightning and Nightstreak, who left their cubs in the care of the medics.

Little did I know that my next decision will cause a radical shift of my life's course that will lead me to something that will affect the galaxy for centuries to come...

To be continued