FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Well, after over a year's hiatus I am finally returning to my space-opera storyline. This is both the longest running, and most words I've ever written in a story series, as I've passed the 50K words mark with this chapter!

I really really want to keep this going, and I can sort of see how this story is going to end in the next few chapters, and I really hope you will stick with me until it runs its course.

This Story Series Features Sex of most types and styles with Intense BDSM themes at times, but if you are looking for wall-to-wall sex, look elsewhere, you have to get through a lot of story to get to your sex. ;)

As always, if you are not of legal age to read adult stories, well, don't read this one. All characters here that resemble my friends, and others, are used with permission.

I have decided to post the entire incomplete story so far, with the hopes that this will get me motivated to go the rest of the way with the story. This is RAW, barely edited storyline, so please forgive the obvious mistakes.

If anyone wishes to work with me on this, I would welcome the help!

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Chapter 5

Watching a ship under repair through a view screen is an interesting affair. Dalarin could choose any of the hundreds of maintenance drones or engineering staff and tap into their camera feeds to get a close up view on any given ship repair he wanted. He could see the armor plates as the crew cut damaged sections away, especially the sections scorched and blackened where their opponents scored solid hits against their hulls. He could check out the new beam weapon load outs, or the specially requisitioned smart-system equipped missile systems with their sensor flare charges, or he could watch them carefully remove the remains of a fusion generator he hadn't realized nearly went critical until after the fight and the full damage assessment took place.

As Loftwyn approached, he could tell Dalarin wasn't watching any of those things. The image was a wide view, so the Driving Blow looked like a dark, grey, wounded beast in space, with hundreds, thousands of little light bugs swarming all over it. Each bright dot a piece of the work crews repairing the nearly mortally wounded cruiser in the council dry-docks. Loftwyn walked up and handed over a pad, which Dalarin took absently.

"Crew replacements," Loftwyn looked over the display, perhaps hoping to see what his captain did in the darkness, "the council approved all of your requests, of course...but there are still questions."

"Oh? And what do the illustrious families have to question about a ship's captain coming in after an unexpected...and rather unfortunate surprise engagement with pirates?"

"That's just it sir," Loftwyn continued, "many in the council find it hard to believe that any group of pirates, no matter how well equipped, could potentially damage one of our cruisers, much less nearly, well, cripple it."

Dalarin just smirked as he looked over the pad absently. He tossed it onto the padded bench behind. He gestured around,

"Second...what do you see?"

Loftwyn looked around at the tastefully redone viewing area for the main drydocks. T'sil'nith architecture used a lot of twisted, spindle and arching designs. Special materials enforced the innate structural stability of the arch-shaped architecture and provided support and durability that rarely, if ever required maintenance, or reinforcement.

"I see...beauty. I see an innate understanding of form and function. I see..."

"Superiority..." Dalarin interrupted, without even looking back to Loftwyn, "or at least, an overreaching sense of it. I tell you second, the council is stagnant. It is not unusual I suppose. Other than a few minor pirate incursions we haven't been in a war that required the mobilization of our fleet in over two-hundred cycles." He smirked, "The last time was the Tethians, and the council is convinced that they are wiped out and no one could be as great a threat again."

Loftwyn cleared his throat lightly, "Sir, do you really think these ships were that great a threat?"

Dalarin gestured out to the ship as it underwent repair in the distance,

"I think your evidence is right out there. If the captains of those ships had any real experience in space combat, I daresay that we wouldn't be here right now and neither would my illustrious cousin." Dalarin shook his head, "It takes infrastructure to build ships like that, especially in secret...and if they have such problems getting experienced captains that means they made the ships relatively quickly."

"Doesn't that make things easier then? We know that we can use their tactics against them if we fight them again."

Dalarin smirked, "Maybe....but if they are building ships fast enough that there are too many for their experienced captains, that means there could be a lot of them out there. If this is the first time we've encountered them someone is hiding potentially a hugely lethal fleet out there, and they are very, very good at keeping secrets."

Loftwyn tsked, "Sir, if that is what you suspect, why lie to the council? I would think they would expend all of their resources trying to locate a fleet of that magnitude. "

"If I go to the council, one of two things will happen. The first is that they will laugh me out of their chambers. After all, what do I really have? A few bodies? Some fragments of remnant beam weapons, or our sensor log files that we happened to discover were scrambled after the fight, and I'd love to find out how they did that."

Dalarin sighed, "The second, and probably worse option, is that they believe me. In that case all that happens is a lot of political posturing and envoys going back and forth between us and the humans. We insist, they deny, and whomever assembles this fleet finds out that someone out here is aware of them. Since I haven't the slightest idea who is doing this, if they are part of the human government, or some rogue element, I can't even hazard a guess what they will do when they discover someone has found them out."

Loftwyn pondered that a moment;

"Well, what are we going to do?"

Dalarin gestured to the pad, "We try to get more information. Everyone I requested to re-build my crew is someone I trust implicitly, with a few very...special doctors and biologists who 'volunteered' for military duty when I made the request. They are going to take a look at those sleepers my dear cousin left us with, so we can perhaps figure out how they fit in all of this." He smiled slightly, "If I know my cousin, she's pursuing her own leads in this regard as well...and I also have a very special person looking into things a bit closer to the humans."

Loftwyn blinked, "Are you sure that's safe?"

Dalarin turned to face Loftwyn for the first time, and Loftwyn could see the signs of apparent exhaustion on Dalarin's face. Loftwyn had a moment to wonder just how long his captain watched the dismembering and reassembly of his ship before a very slight smile replaced the smirk on the older T'sil'nith 's face.

"Somehow I think that staying safe is just not going to be an option for much longer, for any of us."

*

Well, if they are trying to impress alien visitors, someone really needs to teach them about interior shipboard design.

Lilanthe tsked but suppressed an irritated tail-twitch as she disembarked and crossed the yellow and black striped "Warning, pressurized safety zone" as she crossed from the liner's boarding umbilicus to the station's dock proper.

When Lilanthe booked a stay at "the most luxurious vacation station in Earth orbit", she somehow expected that someone might have told them that the standard grey steel look of bulkheads and walls really did nothing to convey that a visitor was entering a romantic vacation spot. Of course, the fact that the line in front of her mostly consisted of humans, with just a few non-humans interspersed, dressed in various degrees of finery for the various species did a little to dispel that image. She sighed slightly and shook her head as she took her place at the back of the line where the various patrons approached a series of small consoles where they could check in.

Three weeks. Three weeks of routing and rerouting to various systems to muddy her trail before she finally boarded a human luxury cruiser at the edge of the system. The cruiser advertised a "stimulating and relaxing voyage of the inner system on your way to Earth's finest orbital vacation spot," another two weeks on a relatively slow arc across the Sol system, as the ship passed by planet after planet, while Lilanthe spent meal after meal answering the same inane questions.

"How many planets have you been to?"

"Are there a great many species out there?"

"Are there really races that eat other sentient races out there? How barbaric."

Of course, in her current guise, she had to play her part and indulge all their questions, as only a world-weary dilettante could. She completely fabricated stories of worlds of crystal, monsters that dwarfed whole ships hibernating in space, and suns that could blind or kill you with only moments exposure.

It also seemed like every human male, attached or not (and quite often the females as well,) just had to try their hand and attempt to 'bed' the alien.

She must admit, if they weren't so very...parochial she might have been tempted, but the self-superior way they talked about their species and their planet more then turned off any attraction she might have had. Well, that and the ache still felt from leaving Ryrst really killed any interest she might have had, even if it would have solidified her cover.

A_h well, I'm sure I will have plenty of opportunities to be what they expect me to be._

Lilanthe let her mind drift a little in the line while she maintained the idle conversation around her. She also spotted at least a half dozen security devices...all trained at the little embarkation platform.

M_mm, paranoid lot, aren't they...well, that just makes things a bit more fun._

Lilanthe stepped up to the console and pressed her ID to the sensor. A moment later and the screen blanked from a map of the station to a simple "please wait" display. She merely smirked at that response from the terminal, as she suspected she knew what she waited for.

Two humans confirmed her suspicions when a side door slid open quietly and they approached her, wearing the crisp outfits that screamed 'authority' to Lilanthe's senses.

"Excuse me, miss...ummm, Saeleith? Would you please come with us for a moment?"

Lilanthe feigned surprise, which for her species ends up showing quite a bit of teeth, but was interested when it did not provoke a reaction from either human, "Oh ummm, goodness...." she tried in their language, "I certainly hope there's nothing wrong," she professed, trying to sound as innocent as she could.

One of them looked to the other, which Lilanthe noted, before they responded, surprisingly in Lilanthe's own language, "Not at all honored person, there just is a slight...discrepancy I am sure we can clear up if you will come with us." Their accent was atrocious, but they spoke relatively well, and Lilanthe nodded and responded in kind,

"Of course, I wish to clear up any misunderstandings,"

The male whom the other deferred to gestured to the side, towards the side door, ignoring the curious looks of the others in the line, "After you please, honored person."

*

Why do holding cells look the same no matter what species makes them?

Lilanthe suppressed a laugh as she knew she probably had the same thought, every time she ended up in one of these rooms.

This one was pretty typical, table, chairs built for the local species (though obligingly they'd given her one with an open space for her tail,) and a great mirrored window which no doubt let anyone see into the room without the occupant seeing out.

So Lilanthe was unsurprised when the door opened and let in what could only be station security (the badge was a giveaway) and Mr. "in charge" from her greeting at the embarkation point. They surprised her though when the security guard took a spot at the door, and Mr. "in charge" sat down in the seat in front of her. Usually it was the other way around.

She brought her attention back to 'in charge' when he coughed. She was relatively new at reading humans, but she was a quick study, she could tell he was a touch nervous, despite his calm exterior. His eyes also followed her neckline down as she leaned forward, which she noted before she began,

"Excuse me sir, I don't have any idea what's going on, am I in trouble?" she spoke in her own language, and when the security man frowned, Mr. 'in charge' leaned forward.

"Please, if you could speak standard, I'm afraid not everyone here on the station has studied other cultures as well as I have."

Interestingly, when he said 'standard' he spoke in the Human's tongue, another aspect Lilanthe noted as the male continued,

"I'm sorry to have to detain you, but I'm afraid there has been a...discrepancy in your identification."

"A discrepancy? I'm not sure what you mean...I am here on vacation, and I just had to see these new hoomans, that other species talk about so much."

He smiled, somewhat dangerously Lilanthe decided before he slipped forward a data pad, on which was the falsified record for a 'Lilanthe Saeleith' with her rather flimsy background and family history.

"This is you then?"

"Of course, who else would it be?"

"Oh, you see...this is curious to us, because according to our embassies, you should be about 3 cycles old, which would hardly be an age for travelling, don't you think?"

Lilanthe played the part and ducked her head with the provoked gesture of embarrassment of her species,

"I am not sure what you mean then..."

He slid forth another data pad, which also had a picture of her on it, but clad in a much more conservative jumpsuit, surrounded by several others at some social function or other.

"You see...this looks much more like you...but this is a record for a Lilanthe Saerath, quite an interesting discrepancy don't you think? Such close names, too."

Lilanthe gave a tailflick of a sigh, "Well...my sponsors said they'd set me up with a good identity, who would think they'd get lazy," she straightened, drew her head up and changed her body position into one much more...aggressive in "tone". She noticed with some satisfaction the security man, and even Mr. 'in charge' straighten up a bit in response.

"I don't understand though, why the false pretenses...you should know that someone with your connections would have little problems visiting here, we could have even prepared for you."

"Mmmm, that's rather the point though isn't it," Lilanthe commented, then changed directions with a toothy smile, "my investors wanted an...unbiased review of your facilities and capabilities, and I could hardly get that if everyone knew who I was, correct?"

Mr. 'in charge' changed as well, and a smile crossed his face, "oh...I see...your investors are interested in some of the businesses here are they?"

Lilanthe nodded, "Very...some of the materials coming out of your facilities have been of exceptional quality...in such cases they send me in to find out what dirty secrets might be hidden that could interfere with the...profitable partnerships they try to form."

If anything Mr. 'in charge's' smile broadened even further, or at least Lilanthe could see more teeth as he pulled back the second data pad. That data pad had her very carefully prepared secondary identity, the one that confirmed she was actually a corporate fact finder for one of the largest, most profitable investment and materials refining conglomerates in the galaxy. Mr. "in charge" just nodded conspiratorially, while Lilanthe smiled to herself,

"Well then...I guess it's a good thing then that we have no idea they sent in their number one advisor, who might enjoy a completely unbiased look into our facilities...yes?"

"Oh yes," Lilanthe smiled in response, "It's probably a very good thing."

*

Four days later had Lilanthe internally snarling in frustration as she went over her very secure personal data pad. She'd quite easily found the several data taps and bugs throughout the room but she left them in place, since there was no way they could break her personal encryption between her various devices. In return though she'd managed to plant a couple of data taps of her own on the various "tours" she'd received of the orbital shipping and docking stations in orbit.

With her second cover in place, (reinforced by a couple of modest bribes to discover that the Sol government managed any dealings with outside species,) she was afforded quite the tour. They even gave her short trans-orbital hops to the high-orbit refining stations that processed the asteroids flung in from the system's local belt. At each location, they regaled her with the efficiency of their processing techniques. They kept reiterating how they were always looking for new markets for their refined materials among the other races.

Her data taps hadn't acquired much additional data. She volumes of data on refining techniques she could receive in any dictionary and the data readers she snuck into the refining plants fed her the volume of processed vs. refined ore. All of which was data they would have happily given her in the process of her cover's investigation. In fact, she was meeting with Richard (Mr. In-charge) over dinner rather shortly in order to discuss those very things, including her 'recommendation' over the humans joining the conglomeration she supposedly was sent to represent.

She'd also spent quite a bit of effort trying to get some extra information out of Richard regarding potentially exotic materials, and high value consumables that might be available as a...different sort of commerce she just might be able to represent, if he or anyone he knew might be so inclined. In that regard, he seemed almost depressingly straight-laced. She still wasn't fantastic reading human expression, but he deftly directed the discussions away from anything that might even hint at anything that might seem illegal. One thing certainly was not hard to read, and that was his obvious interest in her in a more...personal manner.

He didn't even disguise his interest in Lilanthe's body, and several times over the past several evenings she'd adroitly deflected his approaches, though she never truly closed the door on the possibility of a tryst between them. It helped smooth things along those evenings, and if she were completely honest, he wasn't entirely unattractive, on a purely physical level.

She hmmed and looked over at the dress she'd chosen for that evening. She smiled wickedly as she considered the effect the simple one-piece backless dress might have on him, especially given the low bust revealing V in front and that it just barely covered her ass in back.

I think tonight we might just see what you have to hide.

She smiled wickedly as she unfastened the shipboard jumpsuit she usually wore, and reached for the skimpy piece of fabric as she moved to get ready for her dinner 'meeting'.

*

"So, Ms Saerath, as you can see, we have quite a bit we can contribute to your investors, if they were to accept us as a proper partner in this...venture."

Richard had a confident smile on his face, and his hand rested on Lilanthe's hand. His thumb stroked against her inner wrist as she held onto a pad he'd offered her as they'd met in his quarters. Compared to standard shipboard cabins his was positively palatial, with full suite layout including a separate full water bathroom. Next to the table was a rolling tray, placed there discreetly by one of the stations' chefs shortly after she'd arrived.

She was not wrong about his interest. When she showed up in the dress, his eyes nearly glued to the interesting ways it accented her body as it moved. The poor thing had even almost tripped over and spilled all the luscious smelling food as he'd asked her to sit down with him. She secretly smiled as she leaned forward enough to give him a glimpse down the front of her dress, under which she wore no undergarments, while she considered the pad in front of her. On it were a lists of raw vs processed materials produced, with shipping volumes reserved for both out-system trade and internal use reserved (of course) by the government for necessary expansion and construction.

Something about the numbers seemed off, but she couldn't quite figure out what. She suddenly realized she'd stared at the data pad too long, and Richard's finger stopped moving. She looked up, noticed his slightly confused look, and realized what kind of expression must have been on her face, depending on how well the human could read her. She quickly recomposed her expression and put the tablet on the table.

"Of course, this, along with all that I've seen so far regarding your facilities is all highly impressive, and should make some very interesting reporting to my...patrons."

Richard smiled, and for a very brief moment, Lilanthe felt hesitation at what she was about to do, but she quickly shook it off when she remembered the message that sent her on this path in the first place.

"Oh, wonderful! Then you will be heading off shortly to return to your patrons? How soon after should we expect a more...formal offer?"

"Well, I am not leaving right this instant," Lilanthe tilted her head and casually brushed her other hand over Richard's, "my mmmm, cover still is supposed to be on vacation enjoying the facilities here for another week or two. If I were to come back too quickly, it might seem a little unusual. I guess that means I have an excuse to enjoy myself here for a bit longer." As Richard's expression brightened Lilanthe responded in kind, even letting a tongue slip past her muzzle in a suggestive lick as she looked at the male, "I suspect that there are a few things here that might keep me busy."

"Oh of course, of course," Richard rapidly agreed, "we should celebrate then, and we can start with the finest food the chef here on station can offer, I'm sure most will meet your discerning palate."

He reached over and lifted one of the covers, letting the scent waft across the room, which did indeed smell delicious to Lilanthe. She mentally checked herself, and work or not, decided to let herself enjoy what she knew she was doing with the attractive male, even if it was entirely part of her deception.

"Yes, let's celebrate. All this station hopping means I haven't had the chance to really...indulge yet while I've been here. Let's change that, shall we?" She responded with another sly smile, even as she leaned forward a bit more to give Richard an even more, accessible view.

*

Lilanthe looked over on the rather spacious bed as the human male snored next to her, asleep, nude, and tangled in the sweat covered sheets from the activities that took place naturally after the flirting was over, the food had been consumed, and more than a few intoxicants were imbibed. She mmmed low in her throat and stretched out her body slowly. She ached slightly in the good way after a nice hard fucking, and she had to admit that the male had some skill. He'd seemed fascinated by their differences, as well as their similarities, and he'd made a genuine effort to learn all the spots that gave her pleasure, made her squirm, even made her cum. In return, she'd had fun with his brawny masculinity. Most of the males of her species tended towards lithe, with thin, long cocks, so his thicker, blunt cock had fit into her and sent a different kind of pleasure through her body as he'd slipped between her thighs and filled her again and again.

She even squirmed a little and touched the dampness between her thighs where he'd finally cum, and then to her surprise had even kept going into a second...and well, a third round almost immediately. She idly wondered what he took to accomplish that, but then dismissed the thought as she finished her stretch and lightly brushed the sheet off her body.

Even wearing nothing, Lilanthe always had a couple of data taps and access to her pad handy. She glanced back to the bed, and seeing Richard's chest rise and fall in the rhythms of sleep, she lightly brushed a specific spot at the back of her ear. A couple of moments stroking and the friction-releasing adhesive gave out and she captured a small tap onto her finger. She walked over and attached the tap to his personal pad. Luckily she made the tap the same color as the pad, after watching him use it for several days, eventually the separate adhesive on this tap would wear out and fall off on its own, while the data tap deteriorated.

While it was in place, it opened a connection to the pad in her quarters; encrypted in such a way that the humans' best technology would take decades to pierce. The connection in place, her pad would immediately start cracking Richard's security, in that way at least, their technology was way behind the tech that Lilanthe had access to from her various contacts.

In the meantime, she slipped back out to the table and picked up the data pad Richard showed her before and settled down into one of the seats as she looked over the numbers again. There was something...wrong about them, she could tell, but she just could not seem to figure out what it was. She had some knowledge of mining and refining as part of her cover, but this was something...else, something more basic.

She cursed under her breath as she suddenly realized what seemed wrong.

The numbers were off from all of those stupid statistics she'd spend hours studying in her own quarters.

What her data taps reported directly from the refining plants about volumes, types and distributions of various materials was wrong when compared with what he gave her.

It wasn't unusual for a corporation or government to hold back, well, as much as they wanted of their various materials produced for 'internal use', but they generally reported all of their production, especially when they were looking to strike a deal as a partner. After all, what they were willing to sell was often different then what they actually produced.

Why then, would they lie about their production? It only makes them less attractive as a trading partner.

Lilanthe hmmed slightly,

Where is this stuff going?

If she were right, some rather high-quality, expensive, and exotic materials were just...vanishing somewhere between the refinery plants and their final destinations. Some of this stuff; she didn't even know how it might get used in regular manufacturing.

Her tail whipped back and forth behind her as she looked at the numbers and dredged some of the comparable numbers out of her sex-fogged memory.

If you were building ships...sure, you'd need a lot of some of these materials, but some of this? Some of this is going to be toxic to pretty much any species with DNA...why would you make it, disappear?

She was so preoccupied she almost didn't hear the door open behind her and the footsteps as Richard walked up behind her.

Lil casually put the pad down just as his hand slipped around and caressed over the front of her chest. He lightly cupped her nearly-non-existent right breast and slid over it in a way that sent a shiver through her even as he ducked in and kissed the side of her throat.

She tilted her head to the side and purred, even as he chuckled as he spoke quietly into her ear,

"Checking numbers again hmm? I would have thought you might have wanted to put off work at least a little longer."

She turned her head up and looked up at his body. He was still nude, and already his malehood was started to lengthen again as he lightly brushed his hand around to the back of her neck. She gave her draconic smile and twisted her tail around. She wrapped it around his thigh and lightly ran the underside across his sac as she winked and he mmmed in pleasure.

"Just putting together what I am going to say in my reports...so I can really treat the rest of this trip like a vacation. I hope you don't mind?" She asked questioningly as she ducked her head down and lightly kissed the tip of his phallus.

He started to answer, but had to stop and let out a groan as her long tongue slipped out and traced the underside of his cock from the very base all the way to the slit at the tip, flicking off the end with a little flourish.

"Mmm....not at all, I like that you're dedicated to...work," he responded, but then panted as Lil slid her muzzle down and engulfed the full length of his rapidly hardening length between her lips.

"I quite...appreciate your...enthusiasm," he continued to gasp out as she quickly bobbed her muzzle up and down on him, taking him to his base quite easily and withdrawing just to the tip, while her tongue snaked and twisted around his heated flesh in quite the effective distraction from whatever else he might have been thinking.

He groaned and reached down to her and gently coaxed her up until he could pull her up against him. She gasped as his fingers reached her warm sex in return and gently probed the entrance, exploring her for a moment with one finger before he grinned in response,

"Let's just channel that enthusiasm into other things for the moment, ok?"

With that, Lilanthe had to agree.

*

Lilanthe pored over the data retrieved from the data tap on Richard's pad, crossed with the public data on ship transfer schedules, and the actual information on ship departures and cargo shipments to and from the planet compiled through her own resources. She knew she was narrowing down where the missing materials were going; it looked like there were two real directions where the 'lost' resources went. Good chunks of the raw resources were definitely going out system.

It didn't take much to find out that there were many more ships going through out-system provisioning and launching then were reported by the orbital station master's public records. It took a little knowledge of shipping. With dreamspace jumps covering interstellar distances in mere moments, ships travelling to other systems actually took fewer provisions then vessels staying in system. The ones in system usually had to stay in real space and travel for weeks, sometimes months before they picked up additional supplies. That made them easy to mark, since they rarely took anything along besides foodstuffs and basic supplies, which gave them a rather distinctive mass range.

On the other hand, raw and refined materials had a lot of mass, but seldom was it very regular, since it all depended on where it was going for sale. A couple days close scrutiny (interrupted only by continued visits with Richard, though with their business 'concluded' he showed up much less often,) and she rapidly picked up the pattern of in-system and out-system launches. As she learned that pattern, she soon found that they never recorded one in four or five out-system launches; they perhaps never even reported them to station systems. Without flight trajectories she swished her tail in agitation as she tried to think of a way to sneak a quantum entangled beacon onto one of those ships, but she didn't really have any excuse any longer to look at the shipping docking station again.

The exotics were a touch harder to track, since there were shuttles going up and down to the various orbital stations all the time, and they didn't really have to report their inventories, since all shuttles had to be sanctioned by the human's government. Lilanthe idly wondered when the humans let their government take so much power over their off-planet movements. Most races that made it to contact with other interstellar races tended to welcome the exchange of beings and information that came from different species coming and going. So far all she'd found indicated the humans went the other way. No non-human races went to the surface, and they had less than half the population their orbital facilities could support working in orbit.

What little public media she consumed from their various sources seemed to do everything to dissuade ambition to leave the planet. They talked mostly about the security of living on a balanced biosphere, that they shouldn't want to disturb the 'rightness' of being human, and that outside corruptions could only lead to ruin.

Lil had to smirk at that, since she had obviously 'corrupted' Richard...assuming he hadn't already indulged his apparent xenophilia with other visitors to their fine station.

She shook her head and returned to her analysis. So, humans came up and went down, but no aliens went down. Supplies went up, generally processed materials and the final products that could only come from orbital installations went down. (Zero G cultivated crystals were her favorite targets when doing a little personal acquisition.)

There were many landing facilities across the planet, but most landings occurred near the equator and then shipped from there to save boost costs, since it looked like they still were mostly using archaic rocket propulsion for heavy lifting to orbit. Using rockets meant many of those launched ships tended to land near their launch points for re-use.

A few idle gestures cleared all the landings that took place at those facilities, since there were no way they were diverting materials through those massive ports, inevitably some over ambitious bureaucrat would have caught and reported the activities, leaving some kind of trail.

That left a few less obvious places, the outskirts locations where 'private' government vessels lifted to reach orbit using technology bought from other races. Those ships usually carried nothing but human cargo, so they generally didn't have much mass, since the beings using those vessels tended to throw their weight around and wasted lift and drop mass just carrying themselves.

A few swipes eliminated most of those from the list of potential landing sites. That left only three potentials.

Well, I suppose you could always gamble and try your luck...

Lilanthe's tail gave a flick at her exasperation as she leaned back in her seat and rubbed her eyes. Hours of analysis, three potentials...but what made each of the potentials different?

She brought up the three landing sites; none of them had anything to distinguish one from the other. All of them received multiple drops with mixed enough mass that they weren't likely passenger craft. None of them registered anything resembling a cargo manifest, getting by on government credentials. So...could the missing materials be going to all three?

Quite possibly...in which case, which one do I visit? I'm not exactly going to get more than one chance at this...

Lilanthe's eyes narrowed as she looked at the three landing points.

Little boy skipping water...

she recited in her head a poem from her youth,

tail slapping as you go, how many ripples before you sink...

she closed her eyes and groaned.

Not the best way to pick. Well, ok, where are these places in relation to me?

Lilanthe brought up a globe, and placed the three landing locations on it. One she immediately crossed off, as it was a near polar location, completely off the stations' near equatorial orbit.

_ Two left..._

She rotated the globe and looked at them for a moment, and then paused.

Wait... isn't that, that looks like that landing location is right in the middle of one of the 'nature preserves' all the humans propaganda touted.

She quickly brought up an overlay and nodded,

Right in the middle of an area where there aren't supposed to be any humans for kilometers around. So, what are they shipping there that they don't even want their own beings finding out about?

A toothy smile crossed her muzzle as she traced the station's orbital path; it took her close enough to that location for her equipment.

Well, miss Lil, you always claimed to be the best, I'd say a one-way trip onto a planet where you will be the only alien on the entire surface, getting out intact should certainly be the evidence to prove it.

*

Getting to the outside of a space station, when not occupying a shuttle or other 'authorized' transportation, is not the easiest of tasks. Generally, internal systems don't respond well to sudden exposure to vacuum such as from blowing a hole in the bulkheads, not to mention it's not the lowest profile way of leaving the station.

Similarly, just getting into a space suit and wandering out through the airlocks is generally frowned on as well, not that Lilanthe wanted to try that anyway in the bulky things the humans called space-capable suits.

Money buys many things, including a few bounces through third parties until some of that money ended up in the hands of a bored maintenance tech quite willing to skip a regular maintenance, but keep the job on the books so that someone else could take it for...whatever reason they chose. That, plus stolen access codes from Richard's pad (along with mild guilt, and a message that she was going to take a shuttle to a polar station for a couple of days for a different view,) let Lilanthe find herself in airlock 3A, prepping her gear for a little bit of atmospheric surfing.

As space-worthy technology improved among the various races, a particularly dangerous thrill-sport developed among many of the races with too much tech, too much time, and a large portion of bored daredevils.

They called it 'starfalling' and it involved using a very specially designed, minimum control surface personal envelope, designed to take a single passenger on an unpowered orbital descent through a planet's atmosphere.

They got the name from the brilliant streak of light the daredevils created as they passed through the atmosphere in materials specially designed to channel thermal energy along the carbon-nano-tube-and-crystal fibers that made up the envelope. If done right, it was a huge rush, and the various sophants actually rated a creature's descent on how brilliant a light they could make, and how long they could maintain the heat-trail.

If done wrong, very little remained of the 'star' once it made it back to the surface as the envelope and its pilot charred into powder.

Lilanthe had done the sport a few times, enough so she had a hang of the technique, before she turned it to her own personal use, along with some...modifications for the envelope.

The components for both her envelope and her suit made it on station through some very carefully prepared sensor-resistant hidden compartments...plus a few cargo pieces sent in well in advance, just in case she needed them.

Now, with the assembled pressure suit gently pressing in on all sides, which gave her a pleasant constriction as the under-layer heated water bladders both maintained her temperature and pressure, she quickly assembled the envelope on the metallic surface of the space station. The pressure suit wasn't quite proof against all the hard radiation exposure from being outside since it was not a full space suit, but it was enough for the short exposure she expected on this trip.

Assuming I live through this next part, I'll probably have to get some decon time in the near future,

she considered as she finished attaching and sealing the envelope.

ok...here we go...take it slow at first...

She picked up the envelope and checked her pad. The first part wasn't that sensitive, she crouched down, turned off her boot magnetics and pushed off from the side of the station. This part was one of the biggest risks though, since someone looking out a window at just the right moment would see a distinctly non-human shape drifting away from the side of the station.

She had to hope that her slow drift would take her away from the station at a pace that the automated collision sensors would ignore. Once far enough away she could make the next adjustment putting her on a long descent arc that would hopefully put her close to her mysterious landing station in the middle of the Earth wilderness.

*

Four hours of drifting and meditation later had her checking her pad as she snugged the orbital envelope around her body. She was close to atmospheric insertion, and the adjustments she'd made along the way had her on a good course...assuming she didn't make a mistake, burn into a cinder and die, of course.

At the very least, someone would take my disappearance as a warning signal....so they'd probably send someone to finish up, at least.

She checked her pad for the last time and switched the orbital path she'd calculated earlier to a display on her suit's visor.

She didn't have much longer to wait though as the envelope started the transition to atmosphere. Lilanthe felt it start as a slight vibration that built along the entire length of her body, translated through the envelope. As she felt the vibration, she reached down to her sides and grabbed the wire-controls to the very small wing/control surfaces on the envelope. It didn't give her much control on what was essentially a ballistic insertion, but that little control potentially meant the difference between intact dragon and charcoal.

Time for the fun part,

She couldn't suppress the wide grin as the vibrations increased as the atmospheric pressure built up, compressed and turned into heat at the nose of the envelope and shed down along the sides.

It didn't take long before the vibrations rattled through her entire body and she had to keep her jaw clenched to keep her teeth from chattering as the turbulence threatened to toss the envelope and burn it in the unforgiving atmosphere. She physically muscled the guide wires as she kept her flight path on the front of her visor in the form of a target cross, beneath which was the temperature picked up by the suit as it bled through the envelope wherever it was sealed not quite perfectly, or she just didn't keep it on the right path.

She could feel the sweat start to build up as she muscled the envelope and kept the crosshairs dead-centered as she fought every jostle, every bump and toss as the heat crept higher and higher. It went from green to yellow, then started inching towards red as she pulled this way and that, and even tried using her own body weight to throw the envelope that extra cm it needed to keep the cross in the middle of her visor.

From the outside, she probably looked like a streaking meteor burning its way across the skyline like any one of thousands of heavy rocks or space junk that fell from orbit.

She spared an idle thought to wonder if someone was watching her descent, maybe some kid with a telescope, or somebody watching a sensor board. The envelope suddenly jumped, and with a new sense of 'down' she watched her visor flip and twist until she was sure she was descending upside-down and the heat numbers passed through yellow and even nudged up against the red.

Hold it...hold it....hold it...

she exhorted herself through gritted teeth as she muscled the control surfaces over and managed to get things righted, even as she could feel the heat creeping through her suit, making her breath hard against another quick buck that left her body aching as she fought it.

Then it was over, she noticeably felt the air turbulence decrease and the temperature gauge dropped rapidly as she made it through the initial insertion and slowed herself to less...terminal speeds.

Not yet...not yet, can't let them see what's really flying through their skies.

She nosed into a more severe angle of attack again and steadied the thermal drop. She wanted to make sure she was still a flaming streak flying through the atmosphere for as long as she could.

She quickly switched over to a global map and glanced at her current trajectory, vs her target.

That's actually not bad.

If she was reading this right then she was going to land within 20klicks of her target, not bad for a barely controlled unpowered descent from orbit...which reminded her, about time for this little bit of orbital debris to break up before it hits the ground.

This is what made her personal envelope a little different, and a little riskier.

Usually the passengers rode the envelopes all the way down, and they had their own parachutes for retrieval. Hers had a...different method to disembark.

Lilanthe touched a control and popped a few very small, very safe explosive seal crackers in very specific parts of the envelope. When they went off the entire envelope 'peeled' away from the internal passenger and flew off in pieces of flaming carbon and mixed materials, leaving Lilanthe in her pressure suit in full freefall, with nothing else between her and sky.

She grinned, tucked her arms in against her sides, and dove in a straight line towards the green that stretched out beneath her.

She deliberately picked her drop time for just after this area reached full night, to give her the best chance of getting lost when the dropping 'debris' broke apart. This was another chance, that they weren't just indiscriminately shooting down anything that came anywhere near their little secret facility.

Lilanthe darted down towards the green foliage below. When she judged she just had about a thousand meters left she grabbed the wing-suit attachments to her suit and yanked them out from her sides. The super-strong material immediately belled out and yanked her back, changing her terminal-velocity-speed drop into a much more controlled glide.

Where to land...where to land...

Her eyes scoured the terrain behind her as she dropped lower and lower.

MMmm, there...

She finally decided as she winged over and dropped towards a small clearing in the middle of the evergreen forest. She idly remembered that they called this particular preserve the 'cascades' as she tripped a set of relatively small parachutes as she dropped to the last few dozen meters.

Between the wings and the mini-chutes, she was actually able to make a relatively controlled landing in the clearing. She barely skid and rolled as she hit the ground. She slid across the mossy, wet surface five or six meters and tucked into a ball as she felt hard objects as they smacked and cracked against her suit, which intelligently distributed the impacts, not that she wouldn't have a bruise or two.

She came to rest, flopped over onto her back, and immediately reached up and opened the visor on her suit. She panted aloud as fresh, relatively sweet natural air filled her lungs while she took deep breaths.

Well...landing on my back seems to be becoming a habit.

Lilanthe let a small groan escape her as she stood up and finally felt the aches from the exertion of her rather...precipitous flight from orbit. At the same time she looked around at the forest surroundings and checked her maps. She tsked when she saw she actually was about twelve and a quarter klicks from her target zone and looked up at the overhead moon.

Thrill ride's over though...guess it's time to get to work.

*

Several hot, sweaty, and generally frustrating hours of fighting through evergreen forests and underbrush, including an encounter with a rather large predator that stood on its hind legs, sniffed, and growled at Lilanthe before finally wandering off, saw her finally approaching what her system told her was the goal of her trek.

She'd already encountered a suspiciously well cared for dirt road a couple of hours ago. Rather than follow it and risk notice she kept to the side, deep enough in the foliage that no one from the road would spot her, but would give her a quick direction to go if she needed some clear running room in a hurry.

With the helmet popped and the seals and support dialed back since it didn't have to deal with vacuum any longer the suit was more like a light suit of servo-assisted armor now, built form-fitting enough that it barely hindered her movements. The water supply (contaminated by radiation or not, though Lil was pretty resolved to go through regeneration treatment after all this was over,) also was convenient over her hours' long hike. It kept her from dehydrating as she worked over the hills, through the valleys, and fought over downed trees and moss covered rocks on her trek.

She stepped over one more log and worked her tired legs up to the crest of the next hill, which when she reached it she quickly dropped down at the sight that met her gaze.

Well, what do we have here? You certainly aren't on any of the tourist brochures...

She looked over what looked like a large compound of some kind.

It looked like the local government cleared a compound a few square hectares in size in the middle of the forest. Smooth, narrow, but tall walls rose up a good eight to ten feet, and though there was a gate leading into the compound, she didn't get the impression it really was meant as a deterrent.

She could see sensor posts spaced evenly along the walls with cameras and other bubbles she could only assume were some kind of motion detection or thermal detection suites. They weren't pointed outwards though, they all focused inwards.

The compound had other facilities as well, a small shuttle sized landing pad dominated one corner of the facility. She could see a ramp going from the landing pad to one group of buildings.

She spotted two main groups of buildings. She fished around in her backpack, pulled out a small image magnifier, and looked more closely at the buildings.

The buildings closest to the main landing pad surrounded a central round courtyard area where she could see some kind of benches or seats...a break area perhaps? The buildings themselves were squat, two or three floor affairs, with blacked out windows facing outwards, though she couldn't tell if that was tinted, or one way material.

The other buildings across the compound were uniform. Each building had a single story, each one close to fifty meters long and maybe ten meters wide, with a single entrance to each facing into the central area. Those ones also had windows, but it looked like someone closed them all for the night.

What is this...it looks, more like a prison then some research compound...

She hmmed to herself as she scanned the compound,

Yeah...definitely more like a prison.

She stopped and focused on three humans that stood near one corner of the compound. She didn't have the full magnification she needed, but she guessed they were talking and it looked like one of them was blowing out some kind of vapor. Each of them had a rifle slung over their shoulders.

So...what are you guarding then?

Lilanthe dropped down the magnifier and looked over the compound,

and how am I going to get in there to take a closer look?

*

Lilanthe remained in her hillcrest perch overnight as she observed the facility and took very short cat-naps whenever she could. What she saw confirmed her suspicions that at least something interesting was going on in the facility that whomever built it didn't want anyone to discover. She saw several groups of guards round the perimeter throughout the night, only interrupted when an orbital shuttle dropped in. It blasted down out of the sky at a speed even she thought was risky, burning thrust way out of proportion to its size, so it must have dropped in at a very severe angle to necessitate t hat kind of speed reduction. She hmmed,

That kind of thrust would really blank out those sensors...especially if they do this at night.

After the shuttle landed several humans in coveralls hurried out to the shuttle with moving pallets. As she watched with her scope, they unloaded several hibernation chambers and rushed them into the main facility. Nearly as soon as they finished unloading, a second crew wheeled even more of the hibernation chambers back out to the shuttle. The entire process took less then ten minutes,when it finished the shuttle lifted off from the pad. It blasted off with enough energy that she had to wonder what sort of technology, much less power source they used to give it that kind of thrust capacity.

That has to be the least efficient...and what among the dreamers are they using for thrust?

She did not get an answer to that question, but she received an answer to another when the next day dawned over the compound. Almost as soon as the sun crested the horizon, she watched the doors on the long buildings open. The guards turned and watched, and Lilanthe focused on the doors as a single file group of...beings filed out into the courtyard. They didn't look like anything Lilanthe met before in her travels, which in and of itself was strange, as the creatures looked like they were just under two meters tall, with brownish green skin. Sunken eyes with dark surfaces glanced this way and that above a prominent bestial muzzle. It looked like they had a combination of hide and fur, with fur in a ridge over the top of their head, back down their neck and into a set of uniform jumpsuits they all wore. Fur covered the back of three-jointed, three-fingered hands with thumbs that were nearly as long as their main fingers. She could also see gender binary traits between them, which made things even more curious if this was a prison of some kind.

Not only had Lilanthe never seen them before, but they resembled almost nothing she'd encountered in her time among the various populated systems, which was very unusual for any space going race.

No aliens on Earth though...so my friends, how long have you been here then, and what, exactly are you doing? Hold on...what is...

Shortly after the single file group, another barracks opened and what could only be the young from the same race came out and joined the larger ones. They all walked over to a large center area with a round raised section. Some kind of design or insignia of intricate detail displayed on the surface of the raised section, and Lilanthe noticed with some curiosity that it only really showed up in the rising sun. Only the very shallow angle of the sun provided the right light to create the shadows that distinguished a pattern inscribed incredibly lightly onto the surface. She idly wondered if the same thing happened at dusk. When all of the creatures surrounded the patterns, adults, then young, all stepped forward as one and put their hands on the edges of the design. They stood there, practically unmoving, until the sun lifted enough that the shadows defining the design became muddled. Then almost as one, they stepped away. All of them, adults and children alike sat down at a bench that surrounded the raised area. Lilanthe noticed the guards looked particularly bored as a group of the same jumpsuit clad humans came out wheeling carts of stacked containers. The steam from them and the scents that eventually reached Lilanhte's nostrils told her exactly what was happening, even as her stomach growled slightly in protest.

After their morning meal, the aliens to Earth broke up, with a group of both (what she could only assume were male and females) headed into the various buildings near the landing pad, while the remainder, children included, just seemed to break up into various smaller groups.

The rest of the day generated two real piece of information, the first, was that the compound definitely was there as a way to keep the creatures Lilnathe watched secure. The guards spent nearly no attention outside the walls. The second was that the suit _really_pinched after a few hours of inaction. She spent almost as much time squirming, trying to find a comfortable position where the suit didn't irritate her or cramp a muscle, as she did actually observing the compound. The only break to the activities occurred when another shuttle came screaming down from orbit. During the landing procedure, and then the following loading and unloading, the guards ushered all of the adults and children outside the compound buildings into one section of the compound and held them there. Even then, the way everyone moved indicated to Lilanthe that the whole procedure probably was routine and more boring to everyone involved then really a disruption to their day. As she watched though, a stupid plan formed in the back Lilanthe's mind.

*

Dusk saw a ritual similar to the morning ritual. All of the alien creatures surrounded the raised, inscribed stone and lay their hands on the pattern. They looked almost meditative, Lilanthe noted, as they stood in place until the sun sank fully beneath the edge of the horizon. At that point, the aliens filed back into their barracks, or at least most did. A few of them went back to the buildings they'd left before their night-time ritual. Lilanthe watched as some of the guards went to stop them, but after what appeared to be a discussion back and forth, let them into the building.

I hope that doesn't change things.

Once the guards went back to their routine patrols, Lilanthe started the long process to get to the compound wall.

It was slow work as she worked her way forward. With all the compound lights pointing inwards there wasn't too much chance of being spotted, but she took deliberate care not to disturb any of the foliage or generate any sounds that might stir up curiosity from those inside the compound. She also kept glancing up into the sky and hoped she would not get to the wall too late.

The landings over the day and the previous night matched what data she had about the location. Shuttles generally visited this area twice to three times per day at various times of the day and night, she assumed to match when their launching stations were in the proper position for the high-speed drops the shuttles seemed to prefer. At this point, she could only hope the shuttle really did blind their sensors as much as she anticipated when they came in. If not, this was going to be a very short break-in-attempt. She still wore armor since she wanted some kind of protection against whatever weapons the guards had...not that she had anywhere to go if things did go wrong...unless she called in some very, very big favors.

Eventually, she made it to just outside the wall, and she watched the sky carefully.

If there is no shuttle tonight...I'm really going to have prob...wait, no here we go...

From high above Lilanthe saw the flare of light that signaled the arrival of another of the high-speed drop shuttles as it approached the compound with all the subtlety of a rampaging Caphon. Lilanthe watched and waited until she could feel the edges of descent heat on the suit before she moved.

Even with the additional weight of her gear and the suit, it didn't take much for her to reach the compound wall in a few quick strides and with a high jump she caught the top of the wall. She swung herself over and down as the flare from the descending shuttle's engines practically whited out her vision, and no doubt blasted the vision of anyone that tried to watch, at least if they weren't wearing a helmet that polarized enough to handle near direct sunlight in the vacuum of space.

From there it was a race, she could feel the heat from the engine almost unbearably through the suit. She hoped it wasn't being permanently damaged as she sprinted in an arc that kept the shuttle as much between her and the rest of the compound as possible. She reached the side of the building closest to the wall and flattened against it just as the shuttle's engines cut.

This was the next gamble, if they turned the sensors back on during this process they might spot the suspiciously warm figure against the wall of the building as her suit bled off all the heat energy it absorbed as she ran past the shuttle. She tried to keep her breathing level, even though she could hear it rasping against the inside of her helmet, she knew none of it would get to the outside, as she watched the crew run out to the shuttle to retrieve the hibernation chambers.

It wasn't the first set of chambers that was her timing though...when they returned to the building and she saw the chambers getting returned to the shuttle, she carefully counted off the number of chambers running to the shuttle. When enough passed that the same number went to the shuttle as came from it, she moved and quickly turned the corner. As she hoped, and watched the first time, the cargo crew left the loading door open, and she quickly ran inside.

Well, you're in...now what?

The inside of the cargo area looked very much like any other loading dock she'd visited in her various cycles. Boxes of all sizes and shapes occupied racks in various sections of the huge storage area, though conspicuously, there was also a wall where there was nothing but banks of hibernation chambers. From a brief glance, she couldn't tell if anyone occupied the chambers, but a quick glance back out the door told her she was running out of time, as the cargo workers wheeled the empty lifts back towards the dock. A quick glance around spotted the exit to the room, and she ran towards it as fast as she could, reaching for her data taps as she spotted the black flat box of a card reader. Simple enough devices, it wouldn't be hard to spoof it to think it received the right signal.

She reached out with her taps, ready to perform one of the fastest hacks in history, when the door slid open silently in front of her and on the other side stood two of the aliens she saw outside. They did not look at all surprised to see her, though she screeched to a halt and quickly reached to the stun baton she carried at her side when one of them held up a hand, and spoke in the human's language.

"Please, you are a spy, yes? Come with us quickly, we don't intend to harm you."

Lilanthe fingered the baton on her side and glanced through the door past the pair. She didn't see any guards, and no alarms went off screeching across the compound...but she hesitated still.

"They will be back from loading the shuttle very soon, if you don't come, they'll catch you...quickly. You need to trust us."

The second commented, which Lilanthe was mildly surprised was apparently one of the females of the species. She quickly glanced towards the loading door, and as the nose of a cargo loader poked through, she nodded quickly and ducked into the hallway, while the door slid closed behind her.

"We saw you at sunrise," the first one said as they turned and quickly strode away from the cargo area, as Lilanthe followed behind.

"It was very lucky," he continued, "if they were not in just that position, they would not have seen how the sun reflected off the edge of your suit. Luckily our vision is very good." He glanced back,

"If we had not spotted you, you would likely be in custody already. We took steps to make sure you could get in."

Lilanthe hesitated a moment, and stopped as she shook her head, but when she saw they were not going to stop she caught back up quickly,

"Why would you do that," she asked in the human language as she followed. She also tried making sense of the various room numbers and signs as the pair quickly led them deeper into the facility, but "Lab 1, Lab 2, Foundry 1, Foundry 2...etc." weren't exactly descriptive as she hurried along behind them, "and what it is this place?"

"The answer to both is the same...this is our prison," the female spoke as they continued on, "we have our families here, and we are allowed to live, but we cannot leave, and they demand we work for them. We provide them with our technical expertise, and they 'allow' us to stay as refugees, they say. In reality we are little more than slaves..." she continued, and the tone from her muzzle could only be 'disgust'.

"Ok...refugees from where though? I've never met any of your race before..."

The two glanced at each other, and they actually paused before the male looked back and humphed, "We are what most in the galaxy call Tethans."

Lilanthe quickly reached to her side for the stun baton again and stopped, she tilted her head to the side and looked to them, "I thought your race was gone, and after what you did, most of the galaxy is glad of that fact."

Another shared look and the male lowered his head and shook it slightly. The other gestured to Lilanthe, and after a moment, walked away. Lilanthe followed behind, reluctantly, as they continued deeper into the building.

"Yes...most of our species is gone after waging their war against the other races, but not all of us agreed with that war. They said we had no dreamspace, and so no imagination, but that wasn't true. We had no access to the other dimensions, true, but there was always a small religious sect within the rest. When it became obvious what was going to happen, we took as much record as we could of our people, and fled. We couldn't let all trace of us cease to exist."

At some unknown sign, the two of them stopped before a lab with the name "neurodimensionality" and opened the door. Lilanthe followed them in and they closed the door behind them. She found herself in a small looking lab, with consoles and computers all over. She could see what looked like waldo controls against one wall, beneath a huge bank of polarized windows.

"When our species fled, we found this world...it was not connected to the galactic culture yet, they hadn't discovered access to other dimensions. We thought it was a perfect place for us to isolate ourselves, and maybe find another home. So we approached them, we offered to help them populate and explore their solar system in exchange for a place here, and eventually a small colony on another world in this solar system," the male started,

"At first, according to our parents, the humans agreed...but they pressured us for more. More technology, more ways to expand. Their government used that to gain an advantage over the others, and eventually they took over economically, then politically," the female continued,

"when the other races found them, we were scared to death they'd find us....but the humans, they promised to hide us, as long as we just helped them a 'little more'."

Lilanthe looked from one to the other,

"Help you do what?"

"Weapons..." the male stated in a tone that sounded flat, even to Lilanthe, "and...other things. The information is all here." The male offered a data crystal to Lilanthe, who took it gingerly,

"How do I know that you're not trying to give me misinformation?" Lilanthe asked, as she turned the crystal over in her hand, she did not have the device to read the lattice on her, so she could not tell what information locked in the crystal.

"Because of what you will see with your own eyes...here" the male said and touched a control.

Immediately the polarized windows cleared and revealed the other side. Lilanthe stood up and walked over to the windows, her muzzle opening and closing as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing.

On the other wide was a series of wide, round fluid chambers, perhaps a dozen of them, each of them occupied by a sophant of a different species she was familiar with from her travels. As she watched, automated surgical tools extended into the fluid and went about their duties cutting open flesh, inserting implants, devices, almost invisibly thin wiring along and underneath the skin, with the being's bodies splayed open inside the nearly clear fluid. What struck her though were the eyes, in every case the being's eyes were open, staring out of the fluid towards the glass.

"They are awake," the male said in a tone that suggested regret, "the implants have to go in when they are conscious, so we just use a neural paralyzing agent...it doesn't even deaden the pain."

Lilanthe tried to keep her voice calm, though she fingered the stun baton at her hip, and she tried to repress the angry lashing of her tail as she turned away from the display, while the male polarized the window again.

"What are you doing to them?"

"When the other races found the humans, and they learned about the other dimension you all traverse, they forced us to reveal our people's past, including some of the...adjustments we made to your races that let us use them in our dimensional jump engines. They've gone further though, with our help they've identified a small percentage of what you call dreamers that have a deeper connection to the other dimension. These implants are supposed to heighten that connection further when attached to the appropriate machinery."

"Why are you doing this to them? You could refuse to help, why torture these beings, why not go for help?"

The female looked to her coldly,

"Would you abandon your wives, husbands, and children? Would you try to contact a galaxy that fears your race so much that they tried to commit genocide? We would not, we do not wish to inflict harm on the others in the galaxy, but we choose our families over other race's strangers. We try to warn the others of what may be coming, but we do not do more."

The male stepped in front again and put a hand on Lilanthe's shoulder, which provoked a twitch,

"When we saw you, we knew we had to act...this is why you are here. We will give you the information, and we can attempt to get you out, but there is only so much we can do. I assume you have a method of escaping?"

Lilanthe grimaced and shrugged,

"I had the beginnings of something, but I didn't know for sure. If I can get back to orbit then I can get out of the system easily enough."

The two looked at each other.

"We can get you on the shuttle, but you will have to go with the other sleepers."

The male looked to the female, then back to Lilanthe,

"We can set one of the chambers to open automatically after a short time...but you will likely have to actually take the hibernation drugs, so you do not appear out of place."

Lilanthe looked at them askance,

"This sounds like a not very good plan,"

"I do not think we have much choice in the matter, nor do you. The overrides we managed to get into their system will not last forever, and then they will be aware of you. The shuttle is the only thing that comes into or leaves this compound. Your other option is to sneak out, and perhaps you could get over the wall again, but then what do you do?"

Lilanthe let a slight growl escape, before she reluctantly nodded,

"You have a point, I have some...friends I could contact, but if they came and get me it might provoke an...incident."

The male gave a slight nod as well in affirmation,

"They would know then, and we may not know their plans, but if they have used and expanded on our technology, it cannot be good for the other races."

Lilanthe looked to one, then the other,

"What do your people get out of this? Some might say you are just giving more justification why the rest of the galaxy nearly wiped you out, they might want to finish the job."

"We give you this in the hopes that you are willing to pass our request on for rescue and sanctuary, not all of our race participated in the war, and we just want a place where we can be left alone. The information on that crystal is a gesture of goodwill, and perhaps to prevent something even more horrible then the war between our races."

Lilanthe turned the crystal over in her hand and looked up to the two beings in front of her. They continued to watch her in return in an impassive way. In one hand held the crystal, and she had no guarantee that what was on the crystal was what she was after, or even was anything but misinformation from these creatures, and the humans. The other hand held the stun baton; she could try to stun them, do her own research, and try to escape on her own.

Trust and possibly getting out of here with no information, or worse, false information...or risk even more to get the truth in her own way, and likely have to do something rather drastic to get off the planet, or out of the system.

"All right," she started, her tone resigned, "show me to the hibernation chambers."

*

It turned out that the procedure for the hibernation chambers was not much different then Lilanthe had gone through before in other occasions where the transit time was just going to be too much to be worth staying awake.

"You will have to take off your suit, I am afraid." The male said as they opened one of the clamshell chambers and touched a couple of the controls on the chamber itself.

Lilanthe nodded, but waved off the female as she approached with a hypo filled with what she assumed was the cocktail most races had to take to get their bodies prepped for the hibernation process.

"I have my own, I've gone under more than once, sometimes it's helpful to have a custom mix tailored, just in case." She attempted a smile, but as the female nodded and backed away, Lilanthe unlocked and opened the pressure suit.

"We will make sure your suit goes up in the cargo with the other containers, we can tell them it is an experimental design."

Lilanthe nodded, and when she finished stripping the armor she also unselfconsciously stripped off the body hugging body-sleeve beneath. She sighed as she stretched out, and then pulled her own hypo out of one of the armor's compartments. She applied the drug herself, closing her eyes when the hiss of the preparation drugs felt cold against her hide from the hypo spray.

"I always hate this part...hangovers have nothing on post-hibernation sleep sickness."

She shook her head and walked over to the chamber, but not before taking a stun baton and another small box and tucking them into the bottom of the chamber, secreted somewhat against the outer edges of the chamber along with the crystal. As the male stepped forward, she gave him a look that stopped him in his tracks.

"I am trusting you, but my trust only extends so far. If you think I am going in there without some method of defending myself when I wake up, I will leave you both right now and take my chances."

He nodded and backed off,

"Of course...as you need, but please hurry, we do not have much time before the others arrive to take us back to our sleeping buildings, we received approval to finish our tasks late, but they get suspicious; especially when we work after our nightly observation."

Lilanthe nodded and settled into the hibernation pod. She immediately felt it mold in and conform to her body, the gel filled cushion snugging around her. She grunted, as a slightly...claustrophobic feeling started crept up, especially when the male reached in and attached the electrodes that would provide some level of muscle stimulation and monitoring, though she noticed he conspicuously left a few detached.

"We will only set this to hibernate for a short time, these shuttles hop quickly into orbit, so you should only be asleep a few hours, a day at most...but it is important you appear as the others."

"I get it, I get it...no letting them know one of their packages is actually awake," she grumbled.

He drew back and nodded, looking down to her one more time. He looked around,

"Please, carry our message," he said, before he touched a control and sent the clamshell closing down over her.

Lilanthe felt the claustrophobic feeling grow as the lid closed and she felt the hum of the machine coming to life. Lethargy passed over her nearly immediately as the hissing from the hibernation gasses filled the chamber. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe deeply, sinking into the blackness that crept up into her vision.

"I really, really hate this part," were the last thoughts that passed through her mind before the drugs overtook her and consciousness slipped away.

*