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                         Fox Cutter

01/25/97:

I laid on my back, looking up into the night sky, the stars
brighter and more numerous then they ever appeared from
Earth. It was an amazing sight, so pristine, so beautifully,
it did hint at the possibility that there might be some all
powerful god that created at all.

Not that I personally believed in that type of thing. I knew
there where god-like beings out there, some even who had
created life on a local level, but nothing more galactic
then that.

Still though, I guess believing in some sort of all knowing,
and all powerful god helps some people accept what they
can't change or handle, as that god's will. In fact, I was
once worshiped by a group who considered me an Herald of
there god because I was a natural.

Thankfully, that ended, and I've yet to hear about it again,
but you never can tell with the multi-verse.

Either way, I was looking at the stars, and still wishing
Oriana had told me to bring a pair of pants made for a tail
so I didn't have to rip mine up to do so.

It was a moot point though, I was happy, really truly happy
for the first time in nearly two months. It wasn't the
normal happy I got, but a kind of happy that made me feel a
bit like all was right with the universe.

Of course, if that was true, I would be back home on Earth,
instead of on this massive plain of grass that I was on.

Sitting up, I moving into a cross-legged position, and
resting my head in my paws, and looked out at the ocean
before me. I still couldn't help letting a few fingers run
over the side of my muzzle.

Funny, it felt so different to say that, my muzzle, my paws,
MY tail... that was the one that took a bit of getting used
to. Suddenly having a tail didn't mean I suddenly knew how
to keep it out of the way.

But still, it was part of me know, and would stay a part of
me for as long as what ever Oriana had made up lasted. I was
personally hopping it might be permanent.

I had to admit, it was also nice to not have to need glasses
anymore. Though I had to pull out my earring, the weight
felt wrong on my ear now.

The only thing left, that could have made it perfect, was to
start sleeping again.

It was on that troubled thought, that something distant on
the night sky cough my attention. It was a flare of light,
not very bright, but it seamed out of place. At first I
though it was a shooting star, but it wasn't moving right,
it was to high up, and growing brighter.

As it's brightness grew, it moved a bit sideways along the
horizon, slowly sinking a bit closer to the water below.
Suddenly it flared to a bright yellow light, which faded
down to a dull red colour.

I slowly stood, watching this spot of light, starting to get
a bad feeling. It could almost have been meteor falling into
the planets atmosphere, but it's movements where somehow
wrong, in a way I wasn't able to place.

The object continued to move accost the horizon, but it's
movements seamed to be slowing, it's colour become a bright
shade of red. It also seemed like it had gained in size.

Once again, the object flared into a bright yellow, as it
started to turn and head the other way. It felt like someone
had smacked me against the head, it was a spaceship, and
from the look of it, it was not trying to land.

As this revelation hit me, I also became aware of how the
ships course was changing. It's decent had speed up, and was
growing in size faster then before.

I walked backwards, to where I had my camp setup, and
bending down, started to shovel everything I wanted to keep
into my backpack. I was just going to leave the tent, and
hope I could get back to the fold with out to much
difficulty.

All that time I was watching the ship, as keep getting
larger, but as not as much as before, but it's rate of
decent was speeding up. I figured that it would land
someplace in the ocean that spread out before me, and I
highly doubted that a two hundred foot cliff would stop the
Tsunami that would result.

Closing my backpack, I heaved it up onto my shoulders. When
the light from the ship ross to a blinding white. I ducked
my head, throwing my arm over my eyes. Holding there for a
few seconds, I started counting off the seconds to myself.

Blinking back the tears in my eyes, and having to put up
with an after image, I looked back at the ship. It looked
like the explosion (what else could it have been) had
destroyed a good fourth of the ship from what I could see.

Keeping my count up, I turned, and started to run away from
the cliff as fast as I could. Over a minute and a half
later, the sounds of the explosion reached my ears. Making a
quick calculation as I ran, and hopping the numbers where
the same here as back on Earth, I guessed that the ship had
been twenty miles away when the explosion happened.

Looking back over my shoulder, I saw the ship was a lot
lower, and closer now, and falling much faster, though not
getting any closer. I was also partly amazed at how far I
had gotten in such a short time of running, apparently I was
in a lot better shape as a fox, then I was as a human.

It was almost the exact same time when I saw an object break
off from the ship, and head in close to my direction. It had
a level flight, and appeared to be under some more of
control. It could only have been a life-ship of some sort.

The smaller ship continued to come closer towards me, as the
main ship continued to fall. Looking back the way I was
going, I tried to speed up my run.

It wasn't more then three minutes later then the life-ship
came over me, descending itself. It was too high up for me
to feel it pass, but it was moving fast enough to leave a
sonic boom in it wake. The sound of the explosion, right in
my ears, caused me to stumble, and fall flat on my face in
the grass.

I suppose it was silly for something like a sonic boom to
cause me to take a nose dive, though at the time, I didn't
find it so funny. Slowly pushing myself up off the ground, I
shook my head, and looked over my shoulder.

The ship had gotten closer to the water, and I didn't know
how much time was left before it impacted. Out of the corner
of my eye, I saw an explosion of light. Blinking hard, I
looked onto the horizon.

Maybe three miles away I saw the life-ship, it had made a
most ungainly landing, crashing into the plain. There was
some sign of fire, bit seemed to be going out on it's own.

Getting back on my feet, I started running again, but this
time towards the life-ship. I felt some kind of obligation
to help who ever it was in there, even if I didn't have
anything to do with them crashing.

After maybe a minute more, the sky lit up light it was high
noon, I didn't have to look behind me to know that the ship
had finally crash landed, with some force, into the ocean of
this world.

I snickered to myself, wondering what kind of religion that
might be created from this, if there was any intelligent
life on this world.

I also counted again, wanted to get an idea of how far away
from me the ship had landed. I was rather sure I had put
enough distance between myself on the water to be safe, but
I wanted to know.

My answer came almost half a minuets later, when a massive
explosion filled my ears, as well as a wave of hot air. I
placed the ship as having landed about seven miles from my
current location, but that was a rough guess.

As the sound of the explosion faded, I could here the sound
of water starting to grow under it. It had to be from the
approaching Tsunami. I didn't know how long it would take
for the water to reach where I had camped, about a mile back
I would guess, but I was glad to not be there.

I slowed my pace down a bit, finding myself panting hard.
Giving up on just running, I moved to a slow jog, which I
found easy to sustain.

Panting still, I keep that up for almost twenty-five
minutes, only stopping when I finally reached where the
life-ship had crashed-landed.

More of landed then actually crashed, it looked like who
ever was flying it knew what they where doing, just not how
to do it fast enough. It had belly landed, and skidded about
twenty yards. There was some scorch marks from where fires
had started, but they all had been put out with some kind of
foam.

Walking over to the ship, I moved down it's length. It was
sleek looking, and built smooth, with most all it's devices
in the back. It definitely was from a species who had been
in space for a long time.

About half way up, I came to a hatch way inside. Grasping
it's handle, I found it easy enough to open. Sticking my
head inside I called out, "Hello?"

There was no answer, I figured someone would response from
hearing a voice, even if they didn't understand the
language.

Then, from behind me, I heard someone say something that I
could barely hear, then I felt something heavy and hard hit
the back of my skull. There was a brief shot of pain, then
nothing.

* * *

I felt myself let out a little moan, as I started to regain
my senses. Twitching my ears a bit (and being a bit
surprised that I could) I heard a muffled voice muttering a
few feet away.

Rolling my head, winching from the pain in the back, I
slowly opened my eyes. I found myself looking at the back of
someone, who was bent down and working under the controls
for the ship. One of the first things that drew my attention
was a pair of large leathery wings folded up against it's
back.

The second thing I saw was a very busy tail that looking
like it belong to a canine of some sort. Two things that
didn't go together normally.

Who ever the person was let out a curse, and fluttered there
wings a bit. From the sounds of the voice I guess it was a
female. She continued working on what ever it was she was
working on, muttering again, just loud enough that I could
hear her.

I moved a bit, finding that I wasn't bound in any way, which
in itself was unusual. Usually, when I'm knocked out, I wake
up rather well bound.

Finally, not knowing what to do, I cleared my throat. She
paused at this, then slowly turned around. Getting a good
look at her, I was a bit taken aback. She was female, that
was quite evident by the bust line she had under the toga
type clothing she was dressed in. Her face had a short
muzzle, maybe a bit more drawn out then I've seen before,
her ears where pointed, and short, with a small stud in the
base of each.

Her body was well formed, and was covered in a milky-grey
coloured fur, Which also covered her wings, though very
faintly. Her species was something I was totally unable to
identify. Outside of the wings, she was canine at least, but
didn't look like any species I had seen before, it actually
gave me a bit of a strange feeling.

She bent down, and said something to me that I couldn't
understand, but I guessed was close to 'Oh, your awake.'

I shrugged, and said. "I don't understand."

She frowned, then let out a low growl, and slammed the flat
of one paw against the wall. She let out a string of what I
guess was swear words.

This was not what I needed, I needed her to speak normally
if the translator was to decipher her language. That was one
of the better of the translator, it could learn other
languages over time, which was a good thing.

While she cursed, I made a quick glance at my watch. At a
rough guess, I figured I had been out for around fours
hours.

Standing up, I walked over to where she had been working. I
had no idea what she had been working on, but I could see
she had been doing it for a while. The top of one of the
controls was off, and half a dozen bits had been pulled out,
and set aside. I could spot where most had come from, and
some didn't looking very easy to get to.

Picking one of the bits up, I rolled it over my fingers. It
looked like it might be part of some kind of hyperspace
radio, but I wasn't to sure.

Suddenly, the lady was standing right next to me. She
plucked the device from my paws, and started to scold me in
her language. She continued on for a few seconds before she
realized I had no idea what she was saying.

As she stopped, I shook my head. I motioned for her to keep
talking. She gave me a puzzled look, then frowned again.
Reaching up, I touched her lips, then mine, and said.
"Keeping talking."

She shook her own head (that's usual universal) and
fluttered her wings a bit. She started to say something, as
she seamed about to finish, I felt a click in the back of my
head, and the last word of her sentence fell into place.
"--Understand." Was all that I got.

I blinked, this was way to fast for the translator to work.
It usual takes a hour or two listening in on a good
conversation, I didn't know where it could have been picked
up from. Then it hit me, if she had been muttering to
herself the whole time I was laying unconscious on the
floor, the translator still would have picked up most of it.
There was enough time for it.

I smiled a bit, not showing teeth, as I wasn't sure of her
reaction to that. "No need."

She jumped back like I had punched her, her wings expanding
a bit. She moved back against the wall, actually shaking.

I took a step back myself. "Relax, relax!! The translator
took a bit to get you language."

She gulped, the fur in her ears a snow white colour. "Yo...
you... your not a demon then?" she stuttered out.

I shook my head. "Nope... not last time I checked."

She waved her paw at me. "Then where are you wings?"

I shrugged. "I'm not exactly a winged species, in fact, I
dare say, you've never run into humans..." I paused, that
was wrong, "or vulpine," there better, "before."

She blinked. "You mean... your an alien?"

I nodded. "I guess. I take it your race has yet to find
another."

She slowly nodded. "We though we where alone..."

I shrugged. "You may be, that fact is, I'm well away from
home, and taking a vacation."

She nodded a bit more, then slowly took a few steps over to
me. Raising one of her paws, she ran it over my muzzle. "You
look so much like me... I had though... no hopped... that
you where just some animal, or a local species... when I
found you out here... you had been hit by a tool I had
dropped while working on the antenna"

That explained what happened. "I'm far from local, and as
for looking like you," I sighed. "It's sadly temporary."

She furrowed her brow a bit. "What?"

"Don't ask, please. I saw your ship go down, I came to see if
I could help."

She paused a bit, then nodded. "Oh... um... yes. I was doing
a survey of the system, there was a system malfunction...
Tranisken though he could land it." she let out a sigh.

"Your the only one to survive then." I said, sadly.

She nodded. "The only other on the ship, when the drive
exploded, I came to the escape-ship, he was suppose to
follow me but, he never arrived, I had to go before it was
to late." She looked down at the floor, starting to tear up.

I shook my head, not knowing what to say, so I just settled
on the obvious. "What are you working on?" I asked.

She blinked a tear or two. "The radio, it got damaged when I
tried to land this. With out it I can't send a distress
call."

I nodded. "Hyperspace?"

She paused, and slowly nodded.

I looked back over it. "I think I might be able to do
something with it."

Her eyes (which where mostly a pale red) light up. "Oh if
you could?"

I nodded, this lady was trusting, which reminded me. "By the
way. My name is Fox Cutter."

She tilted her head, "Fox Cutttterrrr," she rolled the word
around in her mouth. "It is a very sweet sounding name."

I smiled. "Just call me Fox, and you are?"

"Oh... I am Sora, of the Draven clan."

I smiled again, accidentally showing a bit of teeth, she
didn't seam to mind. "Well then, lets see if we can get your
radio fixed shall we."