FSE

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Sally smiled to herself as she brushed her hair in the mirror. The party had ended as parties usually did: the bored, the tired and the unsociable had gone early, and the reduced numbers had encouraged the others, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups, to go home. Sally had returned to her hut a little after dark to get some sleep. This morning she felt refreshed and ready to move on with her and Rotor's project. She put her brush down and sat at her computer desk.

Sally looked down at her workspace. Here were the things she'd used for years: a pot with pens and pencils, a stack of papers (used on one side but blank on the other), an aged computer on which the majority of her programming project was written, and a radio transmitter with a scratched and chipped casing - the closest the Freedom Fighters had to a telephone service. Altogether the desk and its contents had a familiar feel. It was part of her home.

Rotor had been working on the other half of the project and it was time for Sally to find out how far along he'd got. She checked her watch. It wasn't too early to call: Rotor would probably be awake and alert by now - he'd left the party before midnight. She picked up the transmitter and dialled Rotor's code. She waited for his reply, picking up a pen and taking a sheet of paper to write on.

A buzz of whitenoise, and then an answer: "Hi Sall-" Rotor seemed to have a croaky throat and Sally heard a rustle and a muffled cough as he turned away from his unit. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Good morning Sall-" He paused. His throat was clear, Sally guessed, but his voice still wasn't level. In a flash she understood: his voice had broke.

"Hi, Rotor," Sally replied, trying to sound like she hadn't noticed.

The walrus didn't reply. She could picture the scene in her mind's eye, Rotor holding his transmitter, feeling awkward and not knowing what to do.

He must be mortified, she thought. Sally quickly weighed up whether Rotor would appreciate her mentioning his puberty to get the subject out of the way, or whether he'd prefer just to get on with the work. She guessed he'd probably want the latter.

She pressed the button on her unit to speak again. "I called to ask how you're doing with the computer," she explained, trying to sound indifferent but at the same time wondering if that was really what he wanted.

"Okay," Rotor mumbled, and then fell silent again. Sally bit her lip, not knowing what else she could say. She didn't want to embarrass him.

Then, as she thought again about whether to mention it, he seemed to pluck up more courage. "I-I almost finished putting t-together the hardware yesterday afternoon. It just needs some re-tuning. If y-you give me until about mid-day I'll... be able to load it."

"Okay," she replied gently. There was a brief silence as neither spoke. Then, a buzz of whitenoise came from Rotor's end as he signed off.

xXx

Rotor left his hut timidly - he already felt embarrassed enough about his earlier conversation with Sally. But I'm probably gonna sound like this for a few months, he reasoned, closing the door gently so it didn't slam but so that the lock clicked securely shut. He couldn't hide himself away for that long. So he decided to go for a walk to stretch his legs and clear his head before getting back to tuning the computer.

Anyway, it was a pretty nice morning, so why not? It was still quite early and not many people were around, but that suited Rotor just fine right now. Soon he found himself in a clearing at the edge of Knothole, so he decided to sit down for a while and watch insects. He leaned back on his hands and watched an army of ants carry their grubs from one underground lair to another.

Their world was tiny. They all had their parts to play and the rest of the colony to help them. Rotor was pleased at the thought.

He hadn't been there long before Bunnie appeared. He heard her heavy, solid footfalls before he saw her, and he looked over in her direction to see her hold two branches out of the way and duck beneath another. That's what he liked about this clearing: it took a little effort to get into and was often deserted because of that. But now he had company.

"Oh, hi Sugah," she smiled, flicking her big, heavy ears out of her eyes.

He smiled back, suddenly nervous. He gulped as he realised he'd have to talk to her.

She gave him a worried look and walked over to sit by him. "Everything okay, Honey?" she asked, and touched his arm as if to see if he was all right. He looked at the floor before he answered. "Yeah." his halting reply came. "I-I guess." He felt his face warm a little. He risked a look at her to see how she'd react.

She looked a little surprised, but her look quickly changed to one of sympathy. She nudged his shoulder with her own. "Hey. You'll be okay, Sugah," she reassured him kindly.

He offered her a small, shy smile in response.

She seemed about to say something else when a rhythmic breeze started to waft above them. Rotor looked up to see what was happening and squinted as he saw lurid pink: it was Starla, hovering. She lowered herself into the clearing and landed with a dancer's exaggerated grace. She drew herself up as if she knew she was being watched - and that everybody liked what they saw - and took in the sight of the two Knotholers.

"Oh." she said as she very obviously noticed Bunnie. She fluttered her eyelashes disdainfully and then ignored the rabbit with an imperious lift of her chin. Instead she turned to Rotor. "Hello Rotor," she said silkily, rolling one shoulder so that glossy pink hair and white light cascaded over it. With her hand resting on her hip that way, she looked like she was posing for a photo shoot.

"Hey Starla," he replied quietly, looking away and then back at her and hoping she wouldn't laugh. Not that he really expected her to, but-

Her jaw dropped and she goggled at him with her strange blue eyes. Then her slack mouth turned up into a grin and she started to laugh. "Oh my god!" she crowed. She put her hand to her face and made a big, theatrical show of trying to hide her glee. Rotor's heart sank like a stone. He stared at her pleadingly, although he felt his courage draining away fast. Please don't have meant that.

"You sound so funny!" she announced. Her tail flicked high with girlish excitement. "Oh my god, oh my god! Say something else!"

He looked away, his face really burning this time. Yeah okay, I know, it's no big deal. He didn't dare look at Bunnie, but he could see her looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey, come on now, Starla," Bunnie argued. "There's no need for thayat!"

The hybrid continued to giggle, wrapping her arms around her slim waist at the sheer hilarity of it all. "But it's funny!" she insisted.

Rotor felt rooted to the spot. Right now he wanted more than anything to get up and leave, but he felt like he couldn't. If he did then she'd see how embarrassed he was, and something told him she'd be pleased about that. And he'd have to face Bunnie later, and she'd know, and he'd know she knew what'd happened. He didn't want that either. So, feeling angry and humiliated at the way Starla had manipulated him, he stayed, and hoped Bunnie would do the talking.

"Well, Ah don't think it is," Bunnie snapped, and stood up. "Come on, Sugah," she said to Rotor, tapping him once on the shoulder.

Grateful for her decisive action, Rotor got to his feet and followed her out of the clearing.

Starla called mockingly after him in a deliberately uneven voice, "Hello my name is Rotor! Guess what's happened to me!"

He cringed as he followed Bunnie wherever she wanted to go.

xXx

Sonic dribbled a ball as he trotted along, testing his already lightening-reflexes. He loved the occasional kickabout - especially with Rotor - although Sonic was by far the better player. Up ahead he saw Starla, sitting (almost posing, actually) on the grass and making chains out of daisies. As he watched, she squinted at the flower in her hand and pierced a hole in the stem with one sharp claw. Her hair fell forward, hiding her cleavage.

Suddenly Sonic felt a little nervous and strangely keen to impress her. He flicked the ball with his toe and caught it, and quickly checked that his spines were laying smoothly. Then, the ball under his arm, he walked past her in what he hoped would be a nonchalant way.

"Oh, hey Starla," he said, as if he'd only just seen her there.

She looked up at him, shaking her head just once to make her hair fall back, and smiled. She stopped making the daisy chain and leaned back in a way that made her belly look even flatter than it already was. The chain draped across her stomach.

"Hello, Sonic," she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes and letting her wings fall back a little. "You look great!"

He felt his stomach flutter and tried not to look shy. "Uh... Thanks! How are you?"

"I feel great," she said, looking at him through her tresses.

Both went quiet for a second and Sonic shifted his weight from one foot to the other, not sure what to say next.

After a few seconds her face cracked into a grin. "Hey! You talked to Rotor yet today?"

Sonic hadn't been expecting that. "Uh, no," Sonic replied, scratching his head. What was new with Rotor? Whatever it was, Starla seemed to think it was funny. She was giggling.

"Our little walrus pup is growing up!" she said in a mock-motherly tone which somehow managed to annoy Sonic.

"What are you talking about?"

"He's turning into a man!" she said in a strange, lilting voice and a wicked grin, and then started to laugh again. Then Sonic understood, and wondered just why she thought it was so funny. He looked around: he suddenly felt like he wanted to get away from Starla. Now.

"Uh, Starla, I'm gonna go now. I think I... forgot something," he muttered. He headed straight in the direction of Rotor's hut. He didn't look around at Starla. He had a funny feeling she was smirking behind his back and if she was, he didn't want to see it. Had she made fun of his friend? He needed to know.

xXx

Rotor's hut came into view when Sonic was still a little way away. The walrus was there, stocky arms wrapped around his knees, sitting on his front step. Bunnie sat by his side and Sonic saw her talking to him. He couldn't hear her words, but Rotor was mostly avoiding her eyes and occasionally nodded at the ground.

As Sonic got closer Bunnie looked up and nudged Rotor to let him know the hedgehog was there. She said one last thing to him, touched him on the shoulder like a caring sister, got up and left.

"Hey, man. You okay?" Sonic asked, and sat down beside his friend.

xXx

The plasticky click of the keyboard kept Sally company as she worked. She entered one prompt after another, working systematically down the list, and her scribbled notes guided her. For a few hours her entire world was a pale blue flashing cursor on a charcoal black background, the slightly too-cold inside of her hut (half an hour after she started, she put on her blue vest and felt warmer) and the slowly growing stack of text above her cursor. After a few hours her body began to feel stiff from the long-maintained position. Her eyes felt a touch sore from staring at the flickering light and her rear felt flat after so long on a hard wooden seat, so she sat back and took an oxygen level-raising sigh.

Almost half of it done. Not bad! She thought to herself and decided to celebrate with a glass of water, a slow walk around her hut to shake a little warmth back into her legs and a few minutes to gaze out of the window.

She filled a glass and then went to stand by the window to see the fresh greens and rustic browns and brightening blue outdoors. The sight alone was refreshing; Sally felt glad everything was going so well.

Then a scrap of pink appeared from around one of the huts. Starla, Sally thought and tensed. She'd forgotten about Starla.

She watched where the hybrid was going. Starla seemed just to be looking around for something to do, but then she looked straight in Sally's direction. Her ears lifted and she looked more alert. She headed for Sally's hut. Sally noticed that although Starla had seen her in the window, she hadn't actually waved hello or really acknowledged her.

Sally went to the door to unlock it ready for the other female, curious about what would happen next.

Starla knocked the door.

Composing herself, Sally opened it. "Good morning Starla."

Starla's expression could only have been described as tragic. "I need to talk to you," she said in a tone that despite Sally's hardest attempt to be charitable, was best described as a whine.

The princess found herself fighting the urge to look confused. You go from ignoring my request to confiding in me with nothing in between? "Okay. Come on in," she said.

Like most of the Knothole population Sally's furniture was mostly hand-me-downs, and she had only one soft cozy-chair. Starla headed straight for it and hiked her legs over the armrest, sending a little shower of white lights into the air that fizzled out before hitting anything. She settled her wings over the other arm and started twirling a lock of hair between her fingers.

"I want to tell you about my past," she said.

Sally steeled herself against looking irritated and sat down more or less opposite Starla instead, although the hybrid had already started talking. "My parents are rich and we all live in a big house in the city. I'm important because of the family I come from, but nobody's ever appreciated me for that. Daddy runs a cell phone company and never had much time at home when I was growing up. Mom was just a bitch."

Sally tried to work out how to respond to but Starla continued, which saved her the trouble.

"So instead of loving me they booked a tutor who taught me how to sing - I have a beautiful singing voice, by the way - and dance, and paint, and anything I wanted to do. They showered me with presents and arranged for me to go on vacations anywhere I wanted." She lowered her muzzle and her hair fell over her eyes. "But they never loved me. They just left me alone with this tutor and sometimes he asked me to help with tidying up." Starla's brow folded tragically and she looked at the floor. She looked lonely and exhausted and very, very sad.

Sally worked her jaw as she tried to think how to react. "That's... well, that's-" She struggled to understand quite where Starla's problem was. Maybe I don't understand because I didn't really have parents myself. Rosie was busy with all of us and left Knothole so early. Maybe having your true parents but not getting their full attention's more upsetting than I realised.

Despite the fact that Sally hadn't finished her sentence, Starla was looking at her and nodding agreement. "I know. I'm speechless too. It's been awful."

Sally felt such a strong pull to agree with Starla that she simply said, "Yes. That does sound awful." Although immediately after, she realised she'd been manipulated. She resolved not to let it happen again but realised with grudging respect the power of Starla's control over the situation. "Okay," the princess said, keen to impress some order over all of this. "So you come from a good family and your education's been excellent. But you feel like you just weren't loved as much as you should have been."

"They didn't love me at all!" Starla snapped, tears welling in her eyes. She slumped hopelessly in the chair and looked at the floor again. She closed her eyes which squeezed the tears so that they rolled down her cheeks.

Sally almost gave in to the urge to say, 'Oh Starla, don't cry. It's okay.' But she managed to hold her tongue. Instead she waited for Starla to say something, or for inspiration on what else she could add to the conversation.

Starla's tears dried up quickly leaving just the faintest salt marks on her cheeks, but she stayed sad and quiet for a moment. Sally looked around, unsure quite how to move the conversation on. And then she noticed that Starla's white star-stuff had started to pool around her back where she laid on the soft seat.

What actually is that stuff?

"How old are you?" Sally asked in an effort to try and move the conversation on. Starla was difficult to age, but the ground squirrel guessed she had to be around thirteen or fourteen.

Starla looked up sharply - maybe she hadn't been expecting that question. Her eyes darted back and forth. "Um- eighteen," she blurted. She lifted her legs up and hoisted herself over, and then settled again. She cut eye contact with the princess and fiddled with her hair again.

Sally's eyes narrowed. What did that just mean?

Starla had settled again and seemed keen to show off her figure. She seemed almost to pose in the chair, stroking her waist and re-folding her wings.

Sally coughed. "So you learned to fight? Is that where you got your knives from?"

"So I've got knives. So what?" Starla shot back.

"They're nice," Sally answered quickly, fairly sure that this would soften the hybrid.

It worked. Starla looked down at her right-leg knives and preened. "Uh-huh," she said. But she didn't elaborate. "My dagger-fighting teacher was hot!"

"Oh! Great, sure." Sally quickly decided to try and break through Starla's barriers by asking more about this. "So were you guys an item?"

That wasn't such a good move - the hybrid's brow creased again. "Yeah," she said petulantly and tossed her head. "You know Sally, maybe you shouldn't be so nosy. People are paying attention to me all the time and I get so tired of that. Why can't you just understand, huh?"

Sally's words caught in her throat as she tried to decide how to manage Starla's swift change of mood. She closed her eyes and calmed herself. "It looks like I upset you, Starla. If you don't want me to talk about the fighter then I won't."

Starla had taken on a haughty look. Sally's short speech hadn't calmed her down. "You don't have any idea what I've just been through! You know, I just got pulled out of my life and appeared here and I don't know where I am or who any of you people are. Can't you just lay off?"

Sally sat up with new interest. "Pulled out of your life? What happened, Starla?"

Starla didn't look any friendlier. She sat up too, folded her arms and wings and glared at Sally. "I was watching a movie and then this light just... came. It sucked me in and then I found myself in this dark place. I had to fly so I did. Then I saw another ring of light and went for it because there wasn't anything else to aim for."

Sally was speechless for a moment. Then: "Oh. Really?"

The instant she said it she regretted it.

"YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, DO YOU?" Starla yelled. "I knew it! You don't believe anything I say! Well, fine!" She stood up, shook her wings and flounced to the door. "You know, if you weren't so focussed on being so smart, Sally, you'd notice that I've had a very hard time and I need friends. But I guess you think you're too important for that so I'm going. And I'm not coming back to talk to you again," she announced, stepping outside. "Ever!"

xXx

Once she'd calmed down from Starla's surprising attack, Sally tried to think about what to do next. She thought there were both truth and lies in Starla's story. But I don't know how to find out the truth, she thought as she gazed out of the window. Soon enough she decided to leave that particular problem alone.

But her story about leaving her life... She lifted her foot and patted until she found NICOLE, and opened her. "NICOLE, report any recent tears in SpaceTime."

TO BE CONTINUED...