The Song of Change

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

11/06/96:

It was interesting, it had been almost three months sense
the HammerHeads had been defeated in a less then amazing
battle, and it was still in the forefront of my mind.

I didn't expect to have become some kind of hero out of it,
though the Prid media was trying to make me look that way.
All that happened was, I was to stubborn to let Jenner get
away, so I jumped down an elevator shaft to stop him.

Personally, in all truths considered, I doubt he is dead. In
the classic style of all villains, no one SAW him die. In
fact, the only thing that was found as a large red smear on
the bottom of the shaft. It may or may not have been what
was left of his body. I didn't trust it as such.

Funny though, that wasn't what I remembered most. Out of all
the struggling, and the fighting, I remember limping over,
with the aid of the officer who had rescued me. To watch
Rathal die before my eyes, his body looking like an out take
from one of the Hellraiser movies. Then passing out.

After that I woke up in a hospital. My leg had been operated
on to fix what turned out to be a shattered bone, and
someone had removed my destroyed prosthetic hand (which I
got replaced a few days later). I also found Sierra laying
next to my bed, watching me. Apparently no one knew how he
had gotten into my room, I guessed that it was the same way
he had disappeared when we got to the Hall's Communications
Center.

Having my leg done up was Oriana's idea, smart lady that she
is. It operation keep me from having to come up with an
explanation for a broken leg back on Earth, though I still
have a bit of a limp from it. Expect to have it for the rest
of my life.

Other then that, things had slowly drifted back to normal,
though Oriana and Kalie have become fast friends, and along
that line, Ken and Steven went back to there homes a few
days after it all ended. Rachel was working on reforming the
Council in some fashion, and Page was helping.

Then there was Marn... That one was hard to say. The last
time I saw him was a month after it all ended. He had said
his parting, then walked off into the city someplace, and no
one has been able to find him.

So there I was, thinking over all this as I headed down one
of the more crowded hallways, to where the new t-port
curtain to the house had been set up. I had moved it after a
few too many reporters tried to come over uninvited.

Slipping through it, I pushed my way through the door, and
into the living room. In the center of which, Oriana sat
cross legged, a book in her lap, a pen in her paw, and a
notebook sitting next to her.

Hearing the door open, she looked up at me, I saw she had an
ink mark right on the fur of her muzzle. "Fox! Where have
you been for the past two weeks?" She asked, smiling wide.

"Doing some work." I said, sitting down across from her.

"Where? Not on the ship, you haven't been there in a month,
and not back at Earth, you bio-drone is still out. Rachel
and Page had no idea wear you where at, no one did."

I gave her a half smile, a bit surprised she had been so
worried. "No, I wasn't on Earth, but I was close to it."

She sat down her pen, and perked up her ears. "Oh?" she
said.

I nodded. "After all that happened with the HammerHeads, I
realized that some day, something might happened to the fold
home. It could move some place I couldn't use it, or it
could go away entirely, or even be blocked by someone on
Earth, or an enemy of mine. So, I have spent the last two
weeks in a pressure suit, with a team of ten others, setting
up a small base in Earth's asteroid belt."

She nodded. Clearing waiting for me to tell her more.

"The first few days," I continued, "was spent moving a
nearby rock over the fold. It was about a mile or so wide,
and perfect for what was needed. The rest of the time was
spent carving out the base, with the fold in it's center. We
finished that yesterday, now all that is left is install
life support, computers, and some rooms. Then they will
assemble a flitter."

Oria bunched her eyebrows together, and twitched her ears a
bit. "A flitter?"

I rubbed my neck a bit. "A Flitter is a small in system
ship. I got check out on one right before I got exiled.
There pretty nice toys, good for the kind of hop I'm
planing. With how it's set up, it will at most take me about
twenty hours to get home. I hope I never need one."

She smiled a bit. "So now that you have all that done, are
you going to go finish the ship. When I checked you hand ten
shipments waiting for you to do something with them."

I nodded. "Ya, need to do that. Of course now that the
ship's computer has learned everything about the new
systems, it shouldn't take to much longer. If it wasn't for
the control system problems, it would have been done months
ago."

She nodded herself. "Ok."

I glanced down at the book in her lap. It looked like it was
written in her native language. "What you reading?" I asked.

"Actually, studying."

I raised an eyebrow. "What may I ask."

She gave me a wide smiles. "It's the book of Thryn. After
all that happened, I've come to see that I knew so little
about the god that saved my life. So decided it was time to
finally sit down and learn some of it."

I 'ahhed' noticing he comment that Thryn had been
responsible for her survival during the disaster back on her
home. It wasn't what she told me, but I had suspect she felt
that way after see told me.

I ran my finger over one of the pages of text. "You know,
maybe I should get a written language program set up for
your writing."

She snicker. "Fox, I doubt you would find this interesting."

I shrugged. "You never know, and anyways, I'm sure there are
a few good novels I could browse through."

She smiled, giving a pet to Sierra, who had snuck up next to
her during are conversation. "I'll see what I can do."

I stood. "Well, I'm going to make us some dinner. Sound
good."

Oria nodded, then paused. "You have some blood on your
hand." She said.

I glanced down, there was a small smear of blood on my right
hand. I wiped it off with my other hand. "I noticed that
when I made a quick trip home, before I came back here. I
guess I cut myself on something."

She shook her head. "Foxer, your a klutz. Now go make
dinner."

I snicker, and went upstairs to make it.