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Hell Hound and Demon Cat Ride Again 2

Bane stood on the bridge of the Ascendo's Legacy, the ship vibrating as it's shields absorbed the impacts of the attack. Recognizably Empire technology but then it had Ron as the designer, so he would be able to figure things out. He had listened to the description of the bomb with disbelief. Something so destructive was almost inconceivable! He had had an omega bomb in his universe and its destructive power was more than anybody had ever imagined possible. He had only used it once on earth when it became an enemy stronghold and had banned its use ever after. This however, this was something more terrible than that. It had the potential to wipe out all life in the galaxy... Nay, the universe itself!

The wolf turned to Ron and asked, "Can you tell where the bomb is?" Ron's paws danced frantically across the keyboard of his station before answering, "They have managed to place it directly behind us. The enemy ships are breaking orbit and are headed away at maximum speed. They are fools if they think they can outrun the blast at all, much less at those speeds. I don't think they know what the bomb does, or they wouldn't even bother trying, so they have to be pawns in this." Bane filed away the comment for later and asked, "Am I correct that this ship uses slip drives?" Ron's eyebrow raised as he noted one difference between this Bane and his. He had developed that tech only recently from Scavenger tech. That meant that this Bane's universe had developed it before this universe's Ron had! That could help them find a way to do something! Ron said, "Yes but how could you have possibly known that? You were in that test ship, in cryo-sleep for some time and this is the first ship built with the slip drive." Bane continued to think feverishly, plotting possibilities and scenarios as his talent for battle stepped up. He answered, "That's because you were developing the exact same ship. Seems we have more in common than you realized and I wish we had time to explore this further but..." The fox nodded, extremely curious of what else they had in common but as Bane reminded him, that would have to wait.

Ron stood and stepped over to Seamus, leaning against for support and comfort as he asked, "Hun, we have a short time before the bomb detonates. There is nowhere to run. So... what do we do now?" Seamus considered the options before him and none of them were exceptionally good ones. Bane observed how much closer the two foxes seemed, than on his own timeline. He cleared his throat and spoke up, "I don't know if I have the right to intervene but I have an idea. Have the helm set a heading away from the capital and up out of the plane of the galaxy. Push the slip drives as hard as you can. Away from any mass, into as empty space as we can reach. If I'm right, as soon as we engage the engines, it will pull the bomb with us. Once we enter the slip stream space, it will put the bomb in a sort of suspended state where time isn't passing. That will buy us some time to come up with something and get us away from the capital."

Seamus agreed and he eyed Bane as the engines hummed to life. They really had nothing to lose and if this Bane was as good as his own Bane had been, there might be a chance. Bane was right but how could he possibly know this? He knew more than he was telling but there was no time to explain. The ship shuddered as it punched thru the fabric of space and entered the slip stream. Sure enough the bomb was being pulled along with them. The ship resonated to the vibration of the engines as it went faster and faster. Ron walked over to the engineering console, looking at the readings before saying, "The good news is that the bomb is following us. The bad news is that it's destabilizing the engines. I will head down to engineering and see if I can do anything to keep them running. We need all the distance we can get." Seamus nodded agreement as he said, "Agreed and I will be working on a solution for when we drop out of slip stream. I'm assuming as soon as we do the bomb will detonate? We need to have a plan of action for when that happens." Seamus grabbed Ron and hugged him before kissing him and asking anxiously, "Be safe!" Another kiss and the two parted to do what they had to do. Bane and Dasher watched it all without saying a thing, seeing further evidence that not everything was the same in this universe. Seamus motioned them to follow him as he headed into the Captain's ready room.

Seamus sat in the padded desk chair as Bane and Dasher sat on a sofa against the wall. Silence accompanied their thoughts before Dasher broke it by saying, "Seamus, I was told that you lost your Bane and Dasher? Even though we are not them, we are here and we want to help you in any way we can. This is difficult for us as it is you. You see, from our point of view, we have just lost our Seamus and Ron. It seems as though we can never go home and see them again, anyway. So all four of us find ourselves in an impossible situation. The best we can do is work together and see what sort of miracle we can pull out of our tail holes this time!" As intended, it broke the tension in a uniquely Dasher way. Seamus began snickering followed by Bane's laughter and Dasher joining in.

Seamus imagined Dasher bent over, pulling an improbable device out of his ass, as he wiped the tears from his eyes. Was it possible that their universes were so close, that this Bane was an identical copy of his? He already knew that wasn't so but how close was close enough? How far apart were they in their life choices? He could now feel the connection between them, that he had felt before with his Bane. He had denied it as wishful thinking before but could feel it in Bane's mind too, so he and the other Seamus were obviously mates. He could feel that above all else. The fox fought a grin to look serious as he said, "What you say is true and I am very sorry for your loss. For me it's been three months. Three very long, hard months. I had just began to heal and now here you are...but it's not quite you. I would almost say the universe has a very bad sense of humor, if it was even remotely funny... "I'm sorry, I am so used to being open around my Bane and Dasher that I just forgot and started spewing."

That Bane was now chuckling and looking fondly at him, gave him true hope that maybe they could salvage something out of all this and it could be a new beginning. Ron walked through the door and took a seat beside Bane as the ship vibrated and power levels dropped slightly, causing the lighting to dim and return to normal. The fox sighed deeply as he sat back and closed his eyes for a moment. He rubbed his forehead, then opened his eyes to see all three looking at him. He chuckled, "I do hope you're getting to know each other because as far as I can tell, we are dead whenever the slip drive fails. I can't find a way to stop the bomb. The critical energy mass has begun feeding into itself and only slip space is preventing the final time when it goes off. Our shields will hold back the initial blast but that will be of little use to us as the universe tears apart around us. The resulting damage to an already weakened area of space, may result in the formation of a temporal vortex."

It was at this point he realized that there was a blank look on Bane and Dasher's faces. Ron wished he didn't have a clue about what was going to happen. He knew Bane needed to know this and explained, "As a result of the Omega bombs we set off, with the ones the Wolf Empire set off in testing, was damage to space itself. Its too complicated to explain without higher math but the reason I scrapped this project was because it would result in the formation of a vortex made of time. Normally these two forces are treated as one. When the bomb goes off, time will become separate from space and the boundary between us and the space between spaces will cease to be. It will erase this ship, then this star system, galaxy, growing and it won't stop, ever." Seamus leaned back in his chair and sighed, he understood better well what his friend was saying, having heard Ron explain it when he discovered the possibility.

Bane asked, "Ron, how long will the engines last?" Ron shook his head and admitted, "They may last two minutes or two days. There's no way to know but what I do know is that it will probably be sooner, rather than later." Bane sat back and rubbed his chin as he considered the problem. "Well, since we all agree there's nothing we can do about the bomb, what if we focus on the rupture/vortex? What if we think of it as a pluming issue? We let it pull us in, extend the shields to stopper the flow and then eject a power core to detonate and cauterize the breach shut."

Ron opened his mouth to disagree with Bane because the problem was much more complicated than that. The objection stuck in his throat and he closed his mouth as he considered what had been said. A look of dawning surprise crossed his face as he said, "Actually, that might work! We would have to eject our main power core. It would be the only core powerful enough to permanently seal the breach but timing is everything. Too soon and it won't work, too late and we couldn't get the level of power it would take to stop it's growth." Seamus trusted Ron to know so he nodded and said, "Alright then, go and make preparations. Try and have the secondary cores online and running before dropping their feed from the main. That will keep dangerous power surges to a minimum. We will also need to be able to reinforce structural integrity. We need to prepare for the shields to fail. In which case we will rely on the reinforced hull to protect us." Ron nodded, "I'm going to get on it. I think we should pull Talon and put him in the shuttle bay. We need to be prepared to evacuate and the additional shielding of the escape ships may protect them a little longer. I would prefer to have him there, where his presence can inspire calm." Seamus told him, "If he is willing to do it, then I say pull him. He should be helping out in medical right now, at least that's what he said the last I heard from him."

Ron blew Seamus a kiss and gave the other two a wink before leaving the three alone. There was nothing to do but wait now. Preparations needed to be made and Seamus' place was here. Bane abruptly broke the silence, causing Dasher to startle as his thoughts were interrupted by Bane saying, "You do realize if we survive this, what we have to do next, right?" Seamus blinked as he looked over and asked, "What?" Bane continued, "This means that you have at least one spy in your government and maybe more. Especially if this bomb was marked top secret." Seamus sighed and said, "Not only that, a prototype was never built and the plans and research information was stored on a local server that wasn't connected to the network. Ron's lab is a government black site. There's only one way in with bio-metrics, voice identification, and password requirements. Whoever did this either discovered this on their own, which is doubtful because I can count on one finger the number of individuals with the resources and ability to even develop the blueprints to such a device, or Ron's research was stolen. This means they gained access to his laboratory. Getting past a state of the art security system with bombs rigged all over the lab to flood it in case of a breach, isn't easy. This took major effort that only another government could attempt."

Dasher spoke up and said, "In our dimension, that means the list would be Wolves, Foxes, humans and dragons. Bane's ears perked up at that last one. He hadn't considered that the dragons could be behind it at all. He trusted Talon but that didn't mean that there couldn't be a faction who was trying to overthrow his rule by striking at the Empire Talon had allied them to... Dasher continued, "You mentioned humans. Am I correct that you were forced to destroy the Earth too?" Ron told him, "Yes, a race called the scavengers invaded and used it as a foothold. There were no human life left and they were stripping the biome clean. We could not afford a long battle with them that we would have certainly have lost. We had no choice but to use the omega bomb and deny them that advantage." Dasher told them, "We went through an almost identical situation. I'm assuming you now have small groups of humans attacking seemingly random targets?" Seamus sighed and said, "And since they are the ones responsible for those attacks, they must have a backer who has many resources. They couldn't mount an operation of any significance on their own." Dasher nodded and said, "Bingo! They wouldn't have had the resources to break in to take the plans, let alone the resources to build such a complicated weapon."

The realization of this greatly worried Seamus. This was a major problem. It also meant they had people working on the inside but they had already figured that out. Someone on the inside had to have top secret clearance to even get near his lab and that was a very short list indeed. A sudden shudder from the ship brought him back to the moment. He stood up saying, "If we survive this, we will have time to worry about it all then." Bane blinked and rose as he asked, " We?" Seamus put his paw on Bane's arm and answered, "Yes, we. You may not be my Bane but I feel our connection and this means you're very close to him. I want to get to know you and go from there." Bane looked into Seamus' eyes a moment, then nodded. He was taken aback by that. He had began to feel something but hadn't realized what it was. He had also had this connection with his Seamus but the emotional trauma of recent events had clouded his mind to it.

Seamus exited his ready room, onto the bridge. After the customary and slightly irritating salutes, the fox took his command chair and took a seat. He called up Ron on the inter-ship communications and asked, "What's our status!?" A brief delay was followed by Ron's voice telling him, "Well, the engine power levels are all over the place. We are barely keeping them going and I doubt I can keep this up much longer. I have all secondary power cores online, shield emitters are charged and ready and we have the main core ejection procedures called up and ready to execute. All we have to do is drop out of slip stream." Seamus turned to his helmsman and asked, "Helm, are we near any planets?" The officer at the helm station turned and responded, "No sir, we are in the void, above the galactic plane, as directed." Seamus nodded and told Ron, "Alright Ron, since you are ready, I'll start a countdown to drop us out of slip stream. There's no point in waiting for the engines to fail. It will only cause unnecessary damage and unwarranted risk." "Well," said Ron, "I agree and I'm as ready as I'm going to get. Good luck Seamus and I'll see you on the other side."

Seamus told his communications officer to patch him into the ship intercom, where he announced, "Attention all hands, this is Emperor Seamus Ascendo. As you know, we were attacked while in orbit of the capital. Those ships posed no threat but they did launch a devastating bomb to take us and the capital planet out in one strike. We jumped into slip stream to drag the bomb away from the planet and get it somewhere more remote and give us time to try and stop it. In a moment, I will begin the countdown to drop out of slip stream and the bomb will detonate. I encourage all hands to hold onto something and may the gods be with us." With that the countdown began and Bane and Dasher buckled themselves into their seats. Zero mark was reached and the ship dropped out of slip stream.

The ship shook violently, tossing crew members about like rag dolls. Rear view camera views showed a twisting whirlpool in space, sparkling like black opal and Dasher cried out in recognition before the view was burned out. A massive, mind numbing explosion behind the ship sent off a shock wave in all directions. It didn't get far as a large vortex was formed and the explosion was sucked back into it! The ship lurched and shook as the vortex reached for them next. Seamus yelped as his harness broke free, sending him flying out of his chair to tumble over the helm console at the front of the bridge. Bane unbuckled himself and ran over to the fox, who was bleeding and unconscious. Bane groaned as he picked the fox up and put him back in his chair. Making sure he was alright, Bane assumed command and stood in the center of the room.

He ordered, "Helm, ease up on the sub-lights and let the vortex pull us in. Engineering, get ready to do your part. Somebody let medical know the emperor has been injured and to get a medic up here, now!" The crew scurried to carry out Bane's orders without question. To them he was Bane and which Bane didn't matter. Dasher had quickly made his way to Seamus along with the emergency medical kit and was tending to Seamus as best he could. Relieved of that worry, Bane walked over to the com station and called engineering. He called out, "Ron, are we ready?" There was a brief pause before the fox replied hesitantly, "Where is Seamus?" Bane sighed softly and told him, "Ron, he's been hurt and I've assumed command. Dasher is taking care of him for the moment. Now, are we ready?" The fox snapped back, "As ready as we are going to be." He then terminated the connection.

The wolf grabbed hold of the command chair as the ship shook. As they neared the exact center of the vortex, the shields were extended to touch the outer rim of the anomaly. Acting as a plug, the shields that protected them in slip drive were holding but it couldn't last long. Hopefully, long enough would see them thru and the next step would seal the vortex closed. Bane growled softly understanding why Ron was upset but right now he didn't have time to consider anyone's feelings. If he didn't finish saving all their collective tails, he would apologize in the next life. There would be time for the niceties and politesse later, assuming there was a later. The ship shook violently as the tidal forces pulled at the hull and drained the shields and engines.

Ron yelped as conduits and panels exploded all over the engineering decks around him. He carefully watched the shield strength and monitored the readout of the scanners. They were not out of the woods but it was looking promising. Ron yelped as the console next to him exploded in a cascade of sparks, catching his fur on fire. The other engineers were running all over the engineering decks, trying to keep the ship in one piece. Ron slapped at his smoldering fur, coughing from the combination of smells from burnt synthetic fur and natural. He would have liked to give the shields more time to disrupt the vortex but there was simply no more time to be had! He held his breath and entered the command for the core to eject. With a loud hiss and soft thud, the core shot out and was quickly pulled into the vortex. With the core ejected, the engines shut down while the ship's power was supplied by the blessed secondary cores. The ship lurched, shoving him backwards as the fox gripped his seat firmly. The core detonated and sent the ship shooting away from the blast, like a cork from a champagne bottle. The sudden release from the vortex' grip, tripped circuit breakers all over the ship as the power bounced thru the systems.

Ron groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. The light in the engineering control room was on emergency levels and so it was hit and miss. Hissing and popping surrounded him as he slowly sat up. He looked himself over and once he was satisfied that nothing was missing, he slowly stood up. His fur was singed, a couple small burns and an unknown number of bruises but overall he was fortunate. He walked over to his console and took a seat as he pulled up the data from the ship's sensors. As expected, a number of them were burned out or damaged but he began to get an idea of the ship's status. The vortex had been sealed shut. If it hadn't, he wouldn't be alive to worry about the ship and crew. The ship was badly damaged but it was in one piece! He was proud of his ship having survived beyond anything he had expected to put it thru. He pulled up the power systems and sighed as he saw that half of the power cores had been burned out in the blast. The ship's internal communications systems were fried, transporters were down, some of the lower decks had been opened to space. Most of the ship had completely lost power. His paws danced over the keyboard as he powered down all non-vital systems and rerouted power to the ships environmental systems. He then activated the ships emergency lighting.

Ron turned as a noise from the rooms door caught his attention. Two engineers forced the door open and stepped into the room. Ron sighed with relief as he stood up and walked over to tell them, "Guys, we are in really bad shape. I've got emergency systems online but we only have half power to work with. Thank god I put in redundant systems. They are going to save our pelts today. I'm going to make my way up to the bridge and see how they are doing. As far as I can tell, they are without any power." The two nodded and answered, "We will check on the other crew here and get started on any repairs we can make." Ron told them, "Focus on emergency systems only. There's no way to get the engines running again, so forget them." The crew acknowledged their orders and went to work as Ron made his way to the access tube for the bridge.

Bane groaned as he slowly sat up, rubbing his forehead with a paw. The pitch darkness was slowly replaced by the ship's emergency lights as his eyes focused. There were groans from all over the bridge as people were waking up or taking stock of their injuries. He looked behind him to see Dasher laying on top of Seamus, trying to protect him still. He gently pulled the cheetah off Seamus and then checked on them both. They were both alive and both breathing, if banged up, so that would have to do for now. Bane checked to see to those more hurt first, before ordering anyone who could to see what they could find out.

Seamus groaned as he opened his eyes. He blinked a few times trying to make his eyes focus but they remained doubled. He rubbed his throbbing head as he looked around and tried to take stock of things. The bridge was in pieces, its crew either laying out to be tended to or tending to others. His ears were ringing and while he could see people speaking around him, he couldn't hear anything but that damned ringing. A fuzzy set of paws caught his attention. Bane was sitting beside him and was dabbing at one of several wounds that had been bleeding. The green fox burst into tears, wrapping his arms around Bane, where he sobbed into the wolf's chest.

Bane smiled and rubbed the fox's back. The air hung thick with burning electronics, plastic, fur and seared flesh. They had survived the blast but had taken extreme damage. Frankly, Bane wondered why they were still alive. He leaned back and just held Seamus. Inside him conflicting emotions warred against reason. Before him was the spitting image of his husband... yet it wasn't him. It was so confusing that it was yet was not Seamus. He had felt the connection between them just like he always had. It was weak at first, as if one of them was resisting but it slowly grew more and more. It was like he knew everything about this fox and nothing at the same time. Should he just accept this other Bane's place or was he even wanted that way? This Seamus and Ron had built something his pair had not, so was he getting in the way of that? So much to consider but his heart was already telling him to shut up and kiss this Seamus.

Seamus broke the embrace and wiped his eyes as he confessed, "I'm so very sorry Bane. I can imagine what you're feeling. My Bane has been gone for three months and I've had time to process and accept it. Yet to you, you just lost your Seamus. I can imagine the pain you must be in." Bane gave a wry chuckle and said, "You know...I was devastated at first. But I wasn't as grief struck as I thought I would be. Slowly I began to feel our connection. It was weak at first but its full open now. With that, I felt I still had what I had had before." Seamus blushed a bit as he admitted, "Sorry, that was me. I felt the connection when we found you but I completely rejected the possibility that it was you I was feeling. I shut you out until I woke up and saw you taking care of me." Bane smiled as he said, "That's completely understandable. This isn't exactly the most straightforward of circumstances. It's pretty unique, I guess." Bane and Seamus both looked over as Dasher groaned and began to slowly wake up. The pair of them moved over to him and began to check and make sure he was alright.

Everyone on the bridge startled and looked over as some rubble shifted and the door of an access tube was opened. A slightly singed Ron crawled out, looking around. There were crew members all over the bridge in various stages of recovery. Seeing who he was looking for, he walked over to Seamus, Dasher, and Bane, kneeling beside them. Seamus blinked at Ron trying to bring the foxes into focus in his vision. "How is everyone?", Ron asked and Seamus chuckled out, "I've been better. It would be so much easier to talk to you if there was only one of you."

Ron looked into Seamus' unequal eyes and pulled out his pocket scanner to scan him. Ron announced, "Well the bad news is that you have a concussion. The good news is you're alive to have a concussion!" Seamus chuckled and joked, "I would hate to feel this bad and be dead, and why do I smell burning fur?" Ron laughed and joked back, "A little recipe I was trying, fox flambe' that got a little scorched." Seamus shook his head, wanting to tend to it but unable and asked with concern, "How bad is it?" Ron caressed Seamus' cheek and reassured him gently, "It doesn't matter right now. I need you to just sit here and stay awake until we can get you to the medical bay. That is of course assuming we still have a medical bay."

Seamus focused on Ron and asked, "The ship? How bad is it Ron...please tell me." Ron reluctantly told him, "Half the ship is uninhabitable. We have lost four of our power cores but are running on the remaining ones at half power... It's enough to maintain the environmental systems, for now. Half the crew is dead, the other half are injured to various degrees but all who can are doing what they can. I ran into a medical crew who is slowly crawling through the ship, trying to save those they can. What's left of the engineering staff is trying to get more systems online but honestly, I doubt there's much left to bring back online. I have no earthly idea where we are, the navigation and communication systems are destroyed. I doubt anybody missed that explosion and I'm sure we have empire ships on their way as we speak, but who knows how long it will take them to reach us? None of them have slip drives and are using regular warp drive, so it will be a while."

Seamus grimaced from the stress and pain before asking, "So, what are our options?" Ron sadly admitted, "Our only option is to abandon ship. There's no other choice because the power cores we have left are damaged. I honestly have no idea how long they will last. When they go down, the air will slowly drain from the ship and it will get very cold quickly. There's too much hull damage for it not to. If we were in any other ship, we would be dead right now." Seamus attempted to stand up but quickly fell back to be caught by Ron, who told him, "No! You stay down. You can't help like this and will only hurt yourself further." Concern and a little fright washed across Seamus' face before he sighed and said, "We have to get the crew to the shuttle bay and save who we can...as many as we can." Ron stroked his face tenderly and told him, "I've already given that order... Frankly, until I got here I was operating under the assumption...." Seamus leaned into the caress, enjoying it as he told Ron, "I understand, you did the right thing." The fox then turned to Bane and the now alert Dasher to ask, "I need you two to get to the shuttle bay, check on Talon and get as many of the crew to safety as we can... Please, I'm trusting you two with this."

As Bane looked into Seamus' eyes, he didn't need the connection to know the desperation that the fox felt right now. The wolf knew how horrible it felt, how powerless it was to be in such a situation and lose many of the one's under you. Sometimes you couldn't do anything but that didn't make the pain any less. He smiled and told Seamus, "I promise I'll get as many to safety as I possibly can. You worry about yourself and let us take care of things. Ron will stay with you and keep you safe." Bane looked at Ron who nodded gratefully. It was so strange to be talking to Ron who wasn't quite the Ron he knew. One of the engineers came in with a box of old comm badges, handing them out with the explanation that with the ship communications down, these would let them talk with others. Command was channel one, medical was channel two and so on. Old tech but they were grateful to have it in this situation.

Bane helped Dasher to his feet and the two made their way to the access tube that Ron had opened. The wolf grumbled as he and Dasher crawled through the ships access tunnels. It wasn't that he was spoiled by transporters and people clearing the way for him. At the best of times, access tubes had always been a pain in the tail. Dasher grinned as he crawled in front of Bane, giving his hips an extra wiggle and he moved and making his tail smack across the wolf's muzzle at times, accidentally on purpose. He called back, "I know you're looking at my ass, wolf. Keep it in your pants, at least until there is more room, ok?" Bane laughed at the tease and told him, "Sorry, a force of habit I'm afraid." Dasher chuckled as he struggled thru a damaged section of the tube. He helped by using a bit of his magically augmented strength to shift some debris out of the way for Bane as he said, "I know this has been difficult on you Bane. You're handling it better than I thought you would." Dasher sighed regretfully, knowing personal losses in is life too. He spoke gently, "I'm really sorry that you are going through this Bane. You realize that you haven't completely lost them though, right? They are still Seamus and Ron. There will be some differences but inside, they are still Ron and Seamus, our friends and lovers. We may have to give up that last one tho, if I read what is happening here right. I think there is room there for us but it isn't going to be quite like before. Can you handle that, my friend?" Bane sighed softly and admitted, "I know... I knew when I felt the connection Seamus and I share, that he was very close to my Seamus. It's almost like I haven't lost him." Dasher smiled and told Bane, "Well, in a way you haven't. You need to focus on what you have rather than what you had. You can never go back, so you need to make peace with what has been and work with what could be. Besides, I'm ready to make the supreme sacrifice here." Bane looked puzzled at that and Dasher laughed as he told him, "With them together now, it might mean I have to take up the slack with a horny wolf. It's a tuff job but somebody's gotta do it!"

Bane laughed as he considered it and thought once more how it was always like the Cheetah to go out of his way to make him feel better. Dasher groaned softly as he crawled out of the access hatch and stood up, stretching out his bent back, "Why don't they cut these damn tubes out and just make inter-deck floor hatches, so that we don't have to crawl so damn far?" Bane chuckled and teased back, "Because then I wouldn't be able to look at your ass for long periods of time without having to make up an excuse." He gave a light slap and caress to the spotted rump, making Dasher roll his eyes and push back into the paw as they walked towards the shuttle bay.

Bane paused as they got closer to the large air-lock door that led into the bay. Dasher's ears flicked and he eyed the door as he asked, "Bane, did you feel that?" Bane stood beside his demon cat and answered "Yeah, the floor just vibrated." Reaching the door, Bane pressed the release and with a hiss and some metallic clanks, the door opened. A scrapping on metal noise preceded an unknown figure come flying quickly toward them. Dasher stepped out of the way as the figure hit Bane, sending them both into the opposing wall. With a groan, the wolf sank to the floor with a bloody fox in his arms. Dasher knelt down and looked the fox over as he apologized, "Sorry about that. Blame my cat like reflexes and aversion to getting clobbered." The fox was alive but could well have internal injuries. He had been wounded but was still alive. Bane was likewise still alive tho winded. Leaving himself as the designated fool, the cheetah stepped quietly into the bay and stood in complete shock at what was before him.

In the middle of the room was a massive, feral dragon! He hadn't seen one in years and that was another lifetime ago, on a different world. The dragon was solid black, with a large wingspan and a reasonably sized tail, with long claws and sharp teeth and he was pissed! The cheetah just stood looking at the dragon in complete shock, for once he was speechless. Suddenly his head was filled with a loud growling voice and it brought him to his knees, clutching his head in pain as the message came thru, "Who are you and do you too challenge me?" Dasher blinked tears out of his eyes as he breathed softly and answered, "No, I am not here to challenge you. Do you know where you are, noble dragon?" Dasher took great effort to remain on his knees with his head slightly bowed. Normally he would bow to no one;however this was no normal situation! They were in a ship that was dying and there was a damned big, feral dragon between the crew and salvation. There wasn't much room for error here, nor did they have the time it would take for him to tire out or the damage they would cause. The dragon looked around, then held his head high and wings spread as he declared proudly, "I am Talon Drago! Ruler of all Dragon kind! As for where I am? You have kidnapped me! You took me hostage! I should kill you at once!!!"

Dasher stayed in his position, head down, making sure not to move. He had little doubt he could dodge a fire blast or claw strike but a show of token submission to a noble dragon, would hardly hurt his pride. Offering respect and honor to a noble dragon was the only way to get him to listen to you before he decides if he will eat you cooked or raw. Dasher spoke calmly, "Noble ruler, we have not kidnapped you. You are on board the Ascendo, an Empire star-ship. We were in an accident and the ship is badly damaged... We want to save as many lives as we can. Would you allow me the honor of helping them to evacuate? I will be your hostage against our good intent." The dragon stood in place but folded his wings as he quickly considered the deal and said, "What you say is strange to me but I can tell you are being truthful. I shall allow you to complete your task if you answer me this...what of me? Do you intend to leave me here or will you stay and die with me?" Dasher considered this for a moment and crossed his fingers as he asked, "Your majesty, may I be granted the favor of asking you a question?" The dragon considered this for a moment and granted it with, "Proceed."

The cheetah chose his words very carefully before asking, "How are you projecting your voice into my mind?" The dragon snorted as if it were obvious and answered, "With magic of course! All dragon kind have and use magic." The cheetah bowed slightly, again considering his words most carefully before asking, "Your royal majesty, as you have magic... can you change form?" The dragon snorted once more, thumping his tail on the floor and causing it to vibrate slightly. He replied haughtily, "Of course I can! How could you ask such a trivial question of a majestic being such as me?"

The cheetah bowed slightly lower as he answered, "Your majesty, I humbly apologize. There was no offense intended. I was only concerned about your well being. If you can assume a... less majestic form, then I can ensure your safety. There is no air, no ground or water outside this ship. Your pardon but I think it would strain your powers to even try for long enough. You cannot breathe in space my lord." The dragon settled his nerves as he granted that would be so and conceded, "I see... Your consideration is appreciated and shall be rewarded." A bright flash of light filled the room and as it faded away, reveled the spitting image of Talon, standing where a massive dragon had just been. Talon approached the cheetah, moving fluidly but with power, this time speaking verbally to ask, "What shall I do to escape?" The cheetah very carefully stood up, keeping his head bowed but taking the risk to eye the nude form before him as he answered, "Your majesty, unfortunately I have to request your patience. You see the situation is rather delicate. We have to get as many of our crew here as we can before we can leave." The dragon nodded and walked over to a corner of the room and stood in it as Dasher activated his comm badge and called out to search and rescue teams, "Things are secure in the shuttle bay! Get down here, anyway you can and I mean now!" As he switched on the escape pods and set controls to remotely open the hanger door, he was very careful to control what he thought as the Dragon could still read his mind. This was a very delicate situation and it had to be dealt with as such. Still, he couldn't repress a quick thought to the possibilities of such a body in bed... He squashed the thought and admonished himself, 'Bad cat! He's as liable to use you for a cock sock on his full size body!' Another attempt to repress his normal nature was followed by a glance at Talon. The dragon was looking at him with a raised brow ridge and a tiny smirk.