Housepets! In space! Vengeance!

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Welcome back to the bridge of the SS Beagle as we pick up three years after the events of Housepets! In Space! We begin our adventure as Captain Allen Wist resides over the bridge, exploring the furthest reaches of deep space...

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Chapter 1: Deep Space

Allen sighed, moving a holographic card from one stack to another as he sat in the captain’s chair, watching emptiness slowly pass outside via the viewscreen. Three years of traveling from star to star, scanning and charting every planet at each.
Somehow, he’d expected the exploration division to be more exciting. He sighed and stood up, looking at the squirrel running the scanner. “Junior Lieutenant Cooper, you have the bridge.” His tail swished as he headed to the lift. “I’m going to my quarters. Call me if… anything at all… happens.”
The lift doors closed, and he asked it to take him to the officer’s deck. It stopped at the very next deck down and let him off, and he signed, walking along the familiar empty hallway to his quarters. Captain’s quarters were spacious and roomy; he had a huge bed, a sofa, a full kitchen, a bathroom, and a sitting room all to himself. He hated how much space he had knowing that some of the lower ranked officers had to share a barracks. More than once he’d considered violating fleet policy and letting them take individual rooms in one of the unused decks, but he didn’t really want to deal with the paperwork involved if he got caught.
A book sitting open on his coffee table flipped a few pages when he came in, and he sighed, walking over to it to see. The text on the page faded out to read “You’re supposed to be on the bridge.”
He sighed and patted the book lovingly. “I know, but there’s nothing happening. There’s never anything happening. I wanted this job so badly and now I’m bored out of my mind.”
The pages flipped to an entry about how to cast a transparency spell, and Allen sighed. “No, I don’t feel like practicing right now. I just want to boredom eat and stare at the ceiling.”
The book’s pages flashed red, and it rustled insistently. He sighed. He’d been halfway through this book for three years; it seemed that no matter how many pages he turned or new spells he practiced, he wasn’t getting any closer to the end of it. The demigod who’d given it to him had made no further appearances since insinuating that he’d managed to give himself a longer lifespan by absorbing a ball of celestial mana, but the book continued to function as if it were alive, even becoming pouty if he ignored it or angry if he tried to shelf it. It seemed to move around on its own, and was somewhat clingy, almost like a pet.
“Ugh… fine, I’ll do ONE.” He leaned forward and started reading. “This spell, unlike invisibility, makes solid objects appear to be made of glass. It can be modified to be one way by focusing on that goal while casting; otherwise, the object becomes transparent from all directions. The duration of this spell depends on the strength of the casting; it can take some practice to perfect the balance of the size of the object versus the amount of mana required to achieve transparency for the desired amount of time. This spell does not work on organic materials.”
The book pulled up the incantation, then popped up a pronunciation guide underneath it. Allen didn’t really NEED the pronunciation guide anymore; he’d learned enough spells to figure out how the language they were in worked, but he appreciated it nonetheless. Allen glanced around for something to cast the spell on, then decided the table would work. He focused on the table and pooled energy in his hand, deciding on the size of ball he needed for this spell.
Ever since the incident three years ago, pooling mana had felt natural, almost effortless, and the mana had glowed a slight green color as he gathered it in his hand, though still being invisible otherwise. He felt the warmth of the mana as it gathered, then spoke the incantation, pressing the energy into his coffee table. For a few moments, nothing happened; then, slowly, the table started to disappear, starting from where he’d put the mana in. The effect was like a hard line, heading out spherically from the center. He could see the inside of the table for just a split second before the line passed through. It was very odd.
After a few moments, the table was sitting in front of him with the change completely done. It DID look like glass. He touched it. It still felt like metal. “That’s… interesting.”
The book flipped a few pages and displayed a message. “You still have too much mana built up. You really should use some.”
He sighed and looked at his hand, watching it shake. “... all right. Show me a spell that’s going to burn off a lot, quickly.”
The book flipped backward and filled a page with text. He leaned forward and stared at it. “Fire jet? I can’t use this in here, there’s a fire suppression system. It’ll fill the room with foam again.” The book rustled, then flipped a few more pages. He leaned forward again. “Personal shield? Fine, that’ll work, I suppose.”
He sighed. For this spell, instead of a ball of mana in the palm, he needed to coat himself in mana. It could be done with just a small part of his body, but for burning off excess energy, the full body was better. It was dangerous, because if he took too long to cast the spell, it would cover his whole body in mana burns.
He focused, picturing a shell around himself and filling it with energy, forcing the power out as quick as he could before reciting the spell. As soon as he had, he felt himself lifting into the air, and grunted, nearly losing focus. “Forgot about that…” He looked down at where the couch still indented as if he were sitting on it, despite the fact that he was floating easily four inches over. He stood up, wobbling, as his paws also floated above the ground. The shield prevented anything from touching his body, and that included the floor and furniture.
It was really difficult to keep it up as he moved. “Okay, how long should I keep the shield up to burn off enough power?”
The book rustled. “Half an hour.”
He cried out in dismay. “I have to maintain focus on outputting mana for HALF AN HOUR?!”
The book rustled again. “Would have been five minutes with Fire Jet.”
Allen sighed. “Fine. It’s just really hard to move with the shield up, and I can’t eat or drink anything while I do it.”
The book gave an irritated rustle and turned the page. “Wanna start getting mana burn in your sleep again?” Another rustle, another page. “Maybe cause another power surge in the engines and send yourself five light-years off course?”
He put his ears back and grumbled. “... No.” He turned and walked away with careful, wobbly steps. Without being able to feel the ground underpaw, it was exceptionally difficult to move to the bed and lay back. Once he was laying down, he could hear the shield humming angrily as it held his whole body up in the air against the artificial gravity.
“Computer, set me a timer for half an hour.”
The computer beeped a confirmation. “Half an hour, timer starting.”
“Thank you.” He grumbled and continued to levitate four inches over the bed, focusing on maintaining his mana output.
After a while, he flipped over and snatched a book off his nightstand, levitating it over his hands as he clumsily opened it and started to read while he waited for the timer.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Glad that you have decided to come back to this series and we are going to see what is next for everybody! I do wanna ask if at anytime when the book got mad it threw something at Allen like maybe a dessert?

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

The book can't throw things, silly, it's a book. But there WILL be plenty of desserts. You know Allen's sweet tooth.

[Amazee Dayzee]

The book can't telepathically grab hold of anything and wing it at Allen then? If it can move on its own and have emotions it should be able to be capable of that.

Anyway I am glad that there will be desserts here and that Allen will indulge. However I insist that at least ONE whole dessert ends up in his face.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

It'll be in his face, all right. His face HOLE.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Sorry this is late today, I forgot I hadn't uploaded a chapter today because I got right into writing a different story. Oopsie!

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Chapter 2: Letters from Home

Allen’s intercom console beeped, and he sighed, sitting up, setting his book aside, and walking over to the console to answer it. “This is the Captain.”
The voice of the crewman on comms duty sounded. “Incoming message for you, sir, marked urgent and eyes only. Shall I route it through to your wristband?”
Allen groaned. He hoped it wasn’t another set of orders telling him to investigate some other star cluster next. He’d hoped to head back to the nearest space dock for some shore leave after they were done with their current star. After a moment, he pressed the console button again. “Yes, please. Stand by in case I need to send a reply.”
“Aye, sir. Forwarding the message now.”
“Thank you.” Allen’s wristband beeped the incoming message, and he walked over to his desk to answer it. A holographic raccoon head flickered into existence, looking down as if checking the recording, then looking up at the sensor that was recording her.
“Hello, Allen. It’s Katie. It’s been a while, I know. I wish it came with better news. There was an unauthorized data access. Specifically, your location, Allen. I think we both know who that is. I need you to turn your ship around immediately and get back here right away.”
A chipmunk head burst into view in front of the raccoon head. “He’s coming for you, Captain! He wants revenge for stopping his little evil plan three years ago!” A hand pushed the chipmunk’s head down and out of the way.
“Fleet Admiral, please. Have you been drinking coffee again?” The raccoon’s head had turned to talk to someone outside the sensor’s range. There were muffled voices. “Of course you have. You know it’s bad for you…”
Allen chuckled. Howard Rickie, former Admiral in charge of Earth’s orbital space dock and, apparently, the brand new person in charge of the entire fleet, hadn’t changed much since he’d last seen him. Although, the promotion was new. Good for him.
Katie turned back toward the sensor and cleared her throat. “Anyway, we’ve had security sweeping civilian tickets off world and haven’t heard from our…er… friend, yet, but it’s possible he slipped through before the data breach was discovered, or even on an illegal launch. Be on the lookout for anything suspicious as you get close. Send us a reply as soon as you can so we know you got this message.”
The chipmunk stuck his head back in. “Come home soon, we miss you! And also we don’t want you to die so… you know… come home!”
The hand pushed his head back down again. “Fleet Admiral, please.” Katie cleared her throat and looked at the sensor. “Admiral Katie James, out.” The hologram flickered for a moment as she looked down at the controls, then went out when she cut the recording. The fact that she hadn’t taken the time to edit out herself using the controls gave Allen a sick feeling in his gut. Katie ALWAYS took the time to edit out her use of the controls.
He ejected the sensor pod from his wristband and set it on the desk, adjusting its height until he could look directly into it, then started it recording. “Hi, Katie. It’s Allen. I received your message, loud and clear. I’m sending this off before I head back to the bridge to turn us around. It’s going to take us about two months to get back unless I use the… uh… technique that we discussed, but that’s not good on the engines, so I’d rather it be an order from you before I do so. Tell Howard that I say congratulations on his promotion, and that I miss him too and can’t wait to see him. I miss you, too, Katie. I hope we can have lunch together while I’m there, just like old times.” He smiled at the sensor. “Keep an eye out for our old friend, and let me know if you find him. I’m on my way. We’ll stop in 24 hours to await your return transmission, and will hold position for four hours before continuing nonstop back to Solaris-Gamma-Base-One. Captain Allen Wist, out.” He stopped the recording and sealed it in an eyes-only folder addressed to Katie, sending it back down to comms before standing up again.
As far out as they were, even the long-range communicators, which were normally nearly instant, had an eight hour delay. That gave Katie twelve hours after she would receive the transmission to send a response if she wanted him to be able to receive it; thanks to the doppler effect, the computer was not able to receive transmissions while traveling at more than half speed.
Allen stood up from his desk and straightened his uniform, making sure his ears were perky and his tail was as straight as he could get it; it had always had a slight curve in it thanks to some distant husky blood in his family’s past. He couldn’t show how nervous he was about the order he was about to give.
Once he had himself put together, he marched out into the hallway and back to the lift. “Bridge.” He commanded the computer, and it took him up the one floor.
“Captain on Deck!” Junior Lieutenant Cooper squeaked out, standing up and saluting, with everybody else on the bridge following suit.
“At ease. What’s the status of our scans on this star system?” He turned to the science station.
The ensign there glanced at his screen, then back at him. “Ninety-five percent, sir.”
He nodded. “Good. Log it there and shut down all the scanners.”
“S-sir? Yes, sir.” The ensign looked at him uncertainly, then turned and started pressing buttons on his console. It beeped and zinged at him as he did so. The computer didn’t like ending scans before they were finished, and it needed persuading.
Once the scanners were shut off, Allen addressed his bridge crew. “We’ve received orders from home base. We are to chart a course directly to Solaris-Gamma-Base-One and proceed there at maximum speed. In twenty-four hours, we will come to an all stop, wait four hours for a transmission, and then resume course. Log these orders to your console, Ensign.” He pointed to the ensign that Cooper had put in charge of running the navigation console, a fox with black fur. She nodded hesitantly and typed it into the console as a note, to be left onscreen until cleared.
Allen took his seat and brought up the star charts on his wristband, plotting the fastest course home before sending it off to the navigation console. “You may engage when ready, Ensign.”
The ensign nodded and, clumsily, input the course he’d set into the console. He waited patiently; most of the crew was still training, having come aboard just before setting off, and hadn’t worked every station before. This ensign in particular had managed to worm her way out of bridge duty for two years straight before getting assigned to the science station just six months ago, and had never worked the navigation station before.
When the ship still hadn’t moved in five minutes, he got up and walked over behind her. She was looking frustrated, pressing buttons and having nothing happen. “What’s your name, Ensign?”
She looked up at him. “Ensign Hillary McDuffin, sir.”
He smiled and leaned over the console. “You have to press ‘plot course’ before you can put in the course, see? Then you just drag and drop the course I sent you like this, then press engage.”
The ship lurched slightly and burst into motion, making Allen’s insides do the familiar backflip associated with hyperspeed acceleration. He dragged the speed slider up to the halfway point, then put in his authorization code to accelerate beyond that. “Normally, you would have to press this button here to send me the authorization request, but since I’m standing right here, I’ll just authorize it from here. You need captain’s authorization to accelerate beyond fifty percent capacity.”

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 3: All Stop

The SS Beagle lurched to a rather sudden stop from maximum speed. Allen didn’t even look up from his game as he reached out to grab his glass as it tried to slide off his desk. He was sitting in his office just off the bridge, waiting for the message window to open. He finished his round, then opened the incoming message window and sat back, staring at it. Comms had orders to immediately forward any incoming messages for him directly to his wristband.
Minutes ticked by as he sat there nervously. After about ten minutes, he turned the alarm sound on his wristband up and turned off the hologram. No sense wasting the battery. He stood up and entered the bridge. “Status report?”
Ensign McDuffin stood up and saluted. “Sir! We’ve entered all stop and are waiting for delivery of message as ordered, sir.”
He nodded and stared at the viewscreen for a moment. “You know what? Resume course, one quarter speed. We’ll still be able to pick up the transmission if they send it, and we’ll still be cutting time off our final destination.”
She nodded, and he stepped closer to watch her put in the course this time. She got it right, so apparently she had been listening when he showed her. “Very good. You remembered “
She gave a weak smile up at him. “I'm… starting to remember the simulations from the academy, sir. It's been a while.”
He nodded. “It sure has. You've all been an excellent crew. I hope to continue to work with you after our rendezvous at headquarters.”
He watched the viewscreen for a few moments, then nodded. “Alert me in my quarters if I'm needed.” He walked into the lift, waited for the doors to close, then slumped against the wall, pulling his hand up in front of his face. It was shaking, badly, and his fingertips were starting to blister. He mumbled a healing spell to himself, then looked up at the ceiling. “Computer, command quarters.”
The lift revved up and stopped again before the motors fully cycled. He stumbled down the hall, mumbling the shield spell. He felt his paws lift off the carpeted hallway as he slapped at the door controls for his room. He stumbled inside and to the couch, nearly tripping over the still-transparent coffee table. “Book, help… it's getting worse…”
The book flipped pages. “Stress increases mana regeneration. Calm down.”
Allen opened his mouth to yell at the book, then put his ears back, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. After a few moments, he sighed. “Why is this happening? I shouldn't be able to generate more mana once I've reached capacity. You told me that yourself.”
The book rustled. “Celestial mana is more potent than mortal mana.”
“Celes- are you telling me this is happening because of that celestial mana I absorbed three YEARS ago?! Surely I've burnt all that off by now!” He sat back, redoubling his efforts on maintaining the shield spell. His hand had stopped shaking now. Mostly.
“Absorbing celestial mana while drained affected your energy core. Some of your natural mana generation was overwritten with the celestial energy signature. Over time, the corrupted bits of your core have been spreading their corruption.”
Allen read the book's explanation, watching as it demonstrated with an animated sketch of a ball slowly changing from red to blue, spreading out from a few blue points to nearly the whole thing.
“So, what, I'm turning into a celestial? Like the gryphon?” He tapped the finger of the shield on the table irritably. It didn't make any noise, but he could feel the resistance of it hitting.
The book rustled and flipped a few pages. “Your core is becoming celestial. Your body is still mortal. It's unclear whether your body will adapt to contain the new energy without damaging itself. In addition, your spells will become more potent as the new energy mix begins to assert itself. I recommend this spell.”
A few more pages flipped, and a page marked “burn resistance” appeared. Allen leaned in and read the spell, then cast it on himself. Once he had, the book's lettering changed. “It won't stop the shaking, but cast every six hours or so, it should burn off some mana in addition to protecting you from mana burn.”
Allen sighed. “Great. And what are we going to do if my body DOESN'T adapt? Just cast this every few hours for the rest of my life?”
The book rustled particularly ominously. “If your body doesn't begin to adapt before your mix reaches full celestial, you will burn from the inside even with the burn resistance spell, and die.”
He gulped, reading these words. “Uh… That's not likely to be good.”
The book didn't answer, and he guessed it was done speaking to him for now. He sighed and leaned back, pouring energy into the shield spell for over an hour, until his concentration was finally broken by his wristband chiming. He dropped six inches onto his couch and raised his arm to activate the holographic display. It popped up with an image of a sealed envelope to let him know he had an incoming message.
He flicked his fingers through it to open it, and KatIe's holographic head appeared. “Captain Allen Wist, you are to reduce your time to arrival by any and all means necessary. Any damage this causes to your ship will be repaired during refit. That is an order. Admiral James, out.” The hologram disappeared again.
Allen stood up. Instead of sending back a video message, he sent a text one. “Aye, Admiral. --Captain Wist.”
By the time Comms confirmed that his message had been sent, Allen was already in the lift on his way back to the bridge.
“Ensign McDuffin, on the bottom right-hand corner of your console, you will find a button labeled Gryphon Protocol. Press it and send me the permission verification.” Allen was speaking before he even exited the lift. As he spoke, he crossed to his seat and pulled his holographic display up.
He activated the intercom and addressed the whole ship. “Attention, all crew members. We are about to activate Gryphon Protocol. Stop what you are doing and sit on the floor. Hold onto something that's bolted down if possible. Doorframes, furniture, the aft wall, anything you can.” He deactivated the intercom again.
A moment later, the confirmation request appeared on his hologram, and he input his authorization code. “All right, McDuffin. Accelerate as much as you can.”
He watched the ensign slide the speed bar on her console up to maximum, then grabbed his seat, feeding mana directly into the ship through the armrest. The navigation console turned red, and the speed indicator digit started climbing.
Ensign McDuffin gasped. “Approaching two hundred percent Maximum… three hundred percent… four…. Five hundred percent maximum and holding.”
Allen waited until the inertia negators caught up with their new speed, then nodded. “What is our new estimated time of arrival?”
“Two weeks, sir. We'll be back in the Solaris system in two weeks.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Was sort of hoping when the speed ended up increasing that Allen would be flung around like a pinball. I know that would have been painful but he probably could handle it and have his injuries be healed.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I'm pretty sure it was implied that that happened when he discovered that fun little trick.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I know it was back then and he ended up learning from it but I wish it would have been written into the story. Since he knows he needs to brace himself, it obviously won't happen again which to me is disappointing.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 4: Solaris-Gamma-Base-One

Allen's hand shook a little as he watched two humans in spacesuits walk over the top of the bridge dome with docking cables in tow. He clenched his fist and whispered the shielding spell, focusing on his hands and head. It wasn't as good as the full-body shield for draining mana, but it would have to do. The captain HAD to be on the bridge for the docking procedure.
“Beagle, you are clear to cut your engines.” A voice came over the comm. After a moment, the constant hum of the engines stopped, and the ship lurched as the docking cables tugged on it, pulling it into the space dock, then suspending it for another set of cables to swap out and pull it vertically into the new designated embarkation bay. The Beagle-shaped platform closed around the ship, snugly gripping it level with all the airlocks on deck 6.
“Beagle, you are docked and clear to begin disembarkation at your convenience.” The voice on the comms announced.
Allen flipped on the intercom. “Crew, you may begin making your way in an orderly fashion to deck six to disembark and make your way to personnel to apply for shore leave or reassignment.”
He stood up and left the bridge, entering the lift. “Command quarters,” he ordered, then turned around to face the door again just on time for it to reopen. His fingertips tingled as he walked as quickly as he could to his quarters, the telltale sign of the burn resistance spell working. Once in his quarters, he began expanding the shield to cover his whole body. This time, he floated nearly a foot off the floor; he was really pushing out mana as fast as he could force it, trying to burn it off as fast as possible.
He let himself flop over to float above his couch, groaning. “Ugh… I feel awful.”
He levitated there for what felt like an eternity before the tingling in his fingers stopped and his hands steadied. Once he felt like he'd expelled enough that he no longer felt on the verge of exploding, he opened his holodisplay and started on his docking paperwork. He signed off on three hundred disembarkation forms, accounting for his whole crew, approved loading requests and work orders for supplies and to fix the engines, basically burned out from two weeks straight of magically enhanced speed boosts, and dozens of other tiny details that needed signed off on.
Once he'd finished, he noticed that he had a message. He opened it. It was in text form, from Katie. “Welcome home. I'm just boarding a shuttle up to the station. See you soon.”
He smiled at it, then frowned at the time stamp. This message had been sent two hours ago. Had he been trying to burn mana for that long? He felt himself drop to the couch and then sat up.
His door chimed to let him know someone wanted in. He cleared his throat. “Enter,” he called, and the door slid open.
Five seconds later, a four pound ball of fluff hit him right in the gut with an excited, high-pitched yell. “ALLENNNN!”
“Ooff-! Ahhh, owwww… hi, Howard. It's nice to see you too.” Allen reached down and gave a much more gentle hug to the chipmunk that was wrapped as far around his belly as his tiny arms could reach.
Katie smirked as she walked in. “Sorry. He's been particularly excitable since I told him you were on your way home. He practically dragged me aboard as soon as my shuttle docked.”
Allen frowned. “You've still been staying on the station? I would have thought as Fleet Admiral you'd be living planetside.” He looked at the chipmunk, who had climbed up to his shoulder.
Howard shrugged. “I'm the boss. What are they gonna do, make me? Besides, they built me a custom apartment in my size up here. I love it.”
Katie rolled her eyes. “It's portable, you know. We COULD move it planetside.” She cracked open the leather tome on the table. “Hi, there, Bookie. How have you been? Taking care of Allen for me?”
The book rustled and flipped pages. “I'm good, but Allen is-”
Allen slammed the book shut before it could say any more. He felt it resist and try to open again, and he held it shut. “Let's, ah, leave Bookie to rest. He's been getting lots of use lately. Er… have you located our mutual friend?”
Katie gave him a strange look, then hesitantly started. “Well… we don't know where he is, but he hasn’t been spotted leaving the planet in the last six months, so we're REASONABLY sure he's still on earth somewhere.”
Allen frowned. “Why the last six months? Why not longer back?”
Howard sat up straighter. “Because six months ago, we know for a fact he was on earth. He showed up at headquarters yelling about how he didn't do anything wrong and wanted the dishonorable discharge expunged from his permanent record. Apparently being kicked from the space corps for mutiny and attempted mass murder makes it hard to find employment.”
Katie snorted. “He had enough money to get himself plastered, though. I had to have security come and escort him off the premises. Apparently as they were dragging him out, he demanded to be allowed to speak to you.”
Allen hesitated. “So why call me back if you’re pretty sure he’s still planetside? I was out fifty light-years past the furthest station. No way he could have gotten me out there.”
Howard hesitated, sucking air through his teeth. “Yeah… about that…”
Katie sighed, rubbing her temples. “There’s more. Based on something he said six months ago, we started doing some checking. Apparently, he’d been waiting for some time to start his little coup, and you just gave him the perfect opportunity with that whole mess three years ago. He implanted a backdoor into the software that runs all the ships in the fleet. A kind of remote-destruct button. We’ve found the backdoor, but your ship needs to be in dock for us to rewrite the software.”
Allen felt his ears go back and his skin grow cold. “So… he could have blown up the Beagle at any time?”
Katie nodded. “Yeah. He’d need to piggyback the signal on a transmission already heading your way, but if he could do that- and there’s no real limit to which computer he could use, as long as he could access one of the same relay stations the message was going through- he could have caused your ship to backfeed fuel and explode at any time.”
Howard dangled his paws over Allen’s shoulder, kicking them gently. “So when he accessed your location three weeks ago, obviously we panicked. We routed all messages headed to the Beagle through as many relays it wouldn’t normally go through as possible instead of the normal route, to make it harder for him. We called you back so we could close the backdoor.”
Katie nudged him. “And because we missed you. We haven’t seen you since you left two and a half years ago.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Not seeing somebody for that amount of time can really make their heart grow fonder of that person when they do see them again. Though I think Howard might be acting a bit over the top. Are we SURE he isn't somehow related to King also since his neurosis seem to be almost like his.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Nah, he's just energetic. Small rodent, big coffees, very excite.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Should we be expecting one of these days for him to have a near-fatal heart attack then? That might end up giving him a much needed wake up call to maybe cut down from 6 cups of coffee a day to 4.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Nahhhh. That wouldn't be funny like him being hyped up.

[Amazee Dayzee]

What you find funny and what I find funny are two different things honestly which is why I will never see what I want to see. You find this funny but what I find funny will be seeing Allen get hit in the face with a pie.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 5: Shuttle

Katie stood up. “Anyway, pack up some stuff to bring down to the planet with you. It’s gonna be a few days at least before we can finish overwriting the ship’s operating system, and probably at least two weeks before we can fix the engines.” She raised her wristband and flipped through the reports. “How did you MELT the proximal ailerons?”
Allen gave a nervous laugh. That had been HIS mistake, forgetting to account for the newer, more potent mix of his mana while recharging the magic boost. “Ah, running it magic-boosted for two weeks? Give me a second, I think I have my bag around here somewhere.” He went into the bedroom of his suite and packed some street clothes, a spare uniform, and his toiletries. He came out again and snatched his magic book off the table, where Katie was fidgeting with its cover. He stuffed the book into his bag and zipped it shut. “All right, I’m ready to go.”
Katie gave him a look, then waved for him to follow. Howard skittered up Allen’s leg and resumed his perch on Allen’s shoulder. He followed Katie through the ship and out through the airlocks on deck six, sidestepping a repair crew coming in with some parts and tools. Once they were aboard the station proper, Katie turned to Allen. “So… Have you been feeling all right? Not picking up any alien viruses on your explorations, are you?”
Allen chuckled, putting a hand on the top of his bag when he felt the book trying to open itself from inside. “No, no, I’m in perfect health. No problems at all. How about yourself? Stress from riding the desk all day?”
Katie glanced at Howard, and Allen frowned. What was that look for? After a moment, she spoke up. “Honestly, I’ve never felt better. Artificial gravity was never really that great for me. Something was always off about it. The real stuff? I can sleep better than I have in years.”
Howard grabbed ahold of the edge of Allen’s ear with his tiny hand and leaned in a little to be heard over the hustle and bustle of people moving around the station to get to and from their ships. “I’m doing great, too. Honestly, this chipmunk diet has done wonders for my energy levels. Plus, my vet says I’m as healthy as a chipmunk a third my age.”
Allen chuckled. “That’s because most chipmunks your age didn’t start human.” He turned and paused at a desk to sign himself out of the station, then held up the clipboard for Howard to do so. Katie used the other clipboard, then followed Allen past the desk and onto a shuttle. She sat next to him and buckled the double shoulder harness.
“Allen-” She started, then looked up when the shuttle pilot interrupted on the intercom.
“Passengers, please fasten your safety harnesses, we are departing the station in thirty seconds.” The docking door closed, then hissed gently as the clamp disconnected. The shuttle free-floated for a few moments before the thrusters kicked in, propelling it gently forward.
Allen scooped Howard into his arms and held him, since there wasn’t a seat or harness his size on this particular shuttle.
Once the shuttle was clear of the station, Katie looked out the window at the approaching planet. “Allen, are you SURE there’s nothing wrong?”
Allen eyed her. He wondered if she knew, somehow, about his issue. “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”
“Your hand is shaking. It’s been shaking for a while.” She pointed down at his free hand. He looked down and focused on steadying his hand.
“Oh, it’s just a boredom tick that I picked up the past few years.” It was a pitiful lie. He knew it was a pitiful lie. Katie stared at him suspiciously.
“Allen. We talked to your book while you were packing.” Howard’s voice sounded from down by Allen’s chest.
Allen’s ears went back. “... Oh.”
Katie sighed. “Mana overload, Allen? How did you manage that?”
He flinched. “Well… you remember when I absorbed that ball of the gryphon’s mana three years ago? Apparently, it caused some kind of… odd… corruption, in my mana generation core. Or something. I don’t properly understand.”
Howard looked up at him. “How long have you been having trouble?”
“... About a year. I started getting the shakes, and then I started waking up with mana burn on my fingers.” He shook his head, raising his hand and trying to steady it. “It's difficult to burn mana off without setting off the fire suppression system. I filled my suite with fire suppressant foam once, it was more than enough for me.”
Katie huffed. “And you just decided not to say anything about it? Keep us in the dark? Allen, this is the equivalent of a serious illness! Bookie didn't have time to explain much, but from the sounds of it, it’s taking longer and longer to burn off excess mana every day!”
Allen slumped back in his seat. “Well… Charging the engines with mana helped for the past few weeks, but I'm dangerously high again and I can't do anything about it here.” He watched the planet outside. It filled the whole window by now and stretched on seemingly forever, gradually growing more and more detailed as it fell closer up toward them. He could feel an intense tingling in his fingers, and recast the burn protection spell again, just to be on the safe side.
Katie glared at him across the shuttle. “Anything else you're not telling us besides the mana sickness?”
He shook his head. “No, just the mana sickness, which I have under control. Bookie says it should resolve itself within a few more months.”
The book started jumping inside his bag, and he pressed his paw down on it to keep it still. It was not happy with him.
Howard climbed up and peered into his eyes suspiciously. “... All right, I believe you. For now. But no more lying to us about major magical maladies. We wanna know if you're sick, Allen, and not just because we NEED to know as your superior officers. As your friend, I wanna know if you're suffering, Allen.” He plopped back down as the landing strip came into view.
Katie stared at Allen, her eyes seeming to bore into his soul. After a few minutes, she sighed. “Fine. But if I find out you're hiding something else, I'm going to court-martial you so hard you'll be calling ensigns ‘sir.’ Are we clear?”
Allen nodded and looked out the window again as the pilot’s voice came over the intercom. “We are now landing on the Milton airstrip in beautiful River Ridge, home to the space fleet headquarters. It’s a pleasant sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit on the ground today. Please remain seated until the shuttle has come to a complete and final stop and the embarkation doors have opened. Please remember to take your personal belongings with you or we WILL try on all your clothes before we return them to you without any of the snacks you packed for your visit to our lovely planet. As always, we thank you for flying with us today, even though we know you don't really have a choice, and we hope you have a delightful rest of your day!”
Allen leaned down and scooped up his bag, clutching it to his belly as the shuttle rolled to a stop and taxied right up to the spaceport's docking bay, connecting just like it would if they were still in space. The doors opened, and the passengers, mostly humans, started to disembark.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 6: Planetside

Allen followed Katie through the maze of corridors full of doors leading to dozens and dozens of offices, conference rooms, computer labs, and break rooms full of people in uniform drinking coffee. Eventually, she led him through a door that led into a smaller maze, where the doors were smaller and the offices and computer labs were smaller but the coffee cups were the same size.
After a few moments, she turned and opened a door. “This is my office. Come on in.” Allen stepped in and set down his bag next to the door, looking around. Howard climbed down Allen’s side and climbed up onto Katie’s desk. In an environment closer to his size, his way of climbing around on things looked almost comical; from the floor, he couldn’t see over the desk, but sitting on the desk he looked almost too big to be there.
Allen couldn’t help but snicker as he pulled up a seat across from Katie. She smirked and gestured at the comic scene. “I thought you’d like that. He’s too small for the chairs, so he has to climb up on the desk.”
Howard rolled his eyes. “Oh, sure, make fun of the chipmunk, he’s too short to reach the desk unless he’s sitting on it.”
Katie leaned forward, her eyes hooded playfully. “You could always download Allen’s book and get yourself changed BACK.”
He put his ears back and blushed a little. “Well… I COULD… but… I kinda…”
“You LIKE being a chipmunk? Hmmmm?” Katie teased playfully, poking at him with a finger. “Don’t wanna get yourself turned back into a human? You could have coffee again…”
Allen reached across the desk and poked Katie’s nose. “Be nice to the rodents. They could bite.”
Howard huffed and punched at Allen’s arm playfully. “Get over here, Captain, I think I need to teach you some respect for your ranking officers!”
Allen snickered, swatting back at him. “Oh you THINK so, do you?!”
Katie giggled, then cleared her throat. “All right, let’s settle down and see about getting you into a temporary apartment, Allen, hmm?” She waved a hand over the desk, and a display popped up from it. She tapped on the image of a keyboard on the desk, and the display changed. She frowned at it. “Hm… Looks like we can get you into one just down the street. It’s sized for a ferret, but you’re not much bigger than that, so you should be fine.”
Allen knocked on the desk, and a copy of Katie’s display popped up on his side. “Hmm… yeah, I’ve lived in ferret apartments before. Cozy. And it’s only for a few weeks.”
His personnel file popped up, and a moment later Katie closed the display on his side. “I’m registering you to that apartment, but your file is going to have you in another address, just in case. Richard hacked our computers once, he can probably do it again. We still haven’t figured out how he did it the first time.”
Howard’s nose twitched, and his ears perked. “Ooh, that’s smart. I wouldn’t have thought of that.”
Allen hesitated. “You think he’d be stupid enough to try it again?”
Katie sighed. “I wish I could say I didn’t, but-”
Allen’s wristband chimed that he had an incoming message, and he frowned, looking around. “Who would be sending me a message? My crew’s all on shore leave, and you guys are right here.” He raised his hand and opened the message.
A photo of himself on the shuttle appeared, with the message “Welcome home, Captain” superimposed on it. His ears went back, and he felt ill. His eyes slowly drifted to the sender. He swallowed and read it again. “From… R. Richard.”
Katie stared at it. “How…”
Howard stared at the photo, twisting as if trying to figure out the orientation of the photographer. The photo was obviously trimmed, making it difficult to tell, but after a few moments, Howard looked ill. “The… the cockpit. That picture could only have been taken from the cockpit.”
Katie glanced at Howard, then pulled up a schematic of a standard shuttle on her hologram. Allen stepped closer and put his image in the seat he’d been sitting, then nodded. “He’s right. The angle it was taken from… this can only have come from the cockpit. But those shuttles are too big for a dog to fly… could he have gotten himself changed back?”
Katie shook her head. “No, it’s impossible. He tried while he was still in lockup, six times. After you got the manual to the changes published, he read it thoroughly and demanded we let him try to resume his original form. As best we can tell, he was form-locked when the gryphon punished him. By the final time, he was exacting in details, following the manual precisely, and it still didn’t work.”
Allen’s ears went back. “I kinda feel bad about that… but how did he get in the cockpit of a shuttle if he wasn’t flying it?”
Howard flicked his wrist up and stared at his hologram, sticking his hand out to make a call. The face of his assistant popped up. “Darlene, can you get me the number of that shuttle I took to the surface? We departed from bay seven at oh-three-hundred.”
The call was quick, and Howard jotted down the number of the shuttle, which he used to look up the pilot, then called the supervisor. “Can you tell me if he brought anybody with him today? A dog, maybe?”
“Yeah, he did. He just got himself a new pet dog, found him wandering stray around his house and adopted him. Apparently the dog’s always wanted to go to space, so he brought him with him today and let him ride in the cockpit with him.” The shuttle supervisor’s tinny voice spoke through the tiny speaker on Howard’s wristband. It was hard to make quality equipment small enough for a chipmunk.
“All right, thank you. When they finish their next run, can you have them pulled aside and put in a room for us? We’d like to speak to them.”
“Unfortunately, he’s already gone home for the day.”
Allen blanched. “Uh oh.”
Katie leaned in to get in the sensor’s view. “If I send over a photo, can you identify the dog from it?”
“Of course, Admiral.” The supervisor nodded. Katie fidgeted with her wristband for a second. The supervisor was quiet for a second, then nodded. “Yes, that’s him. How did you have a picture of him?”
Katie swore under her breath. “We’re going to need the address of that pilot. That’s not a regular dog, that’s a person of interest in a data breach investigation we’ve been doing, as well as someone who’s been threatening Captain Wist.”
“Oh, dear. Of course, I’ll have my assistant look it up and send it over to you right away.”
“Thank you.” She reached over Howard’s shoulder and hung up, looking like she might be ill.
Howard stared at her. “Is that… how he’s been getting in? Posing as pets of people who work here?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him.” Allen grumbled.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 7: Accommodation

“Okay, I understand. Thank you. Leave an officer undercover nearby just in case. Goodbye.” Katie took the earpiece out and slotted it back into her wristband with a sigh, looking across the car at Allen. “He’s not there anymore, apparently. It’s possible he’ll come back, but my guess is that he’s made himself scarce and won’t be back there.”
Allen put his ears back. “He could be anywhere, then.”
She gave him a sympathetic look. “We could make a last-minute change, off the books. Put you up somewhere else, so he can’t find you.”
Allen shook his head. “It wouldn’t help. He HATES me. He’d find me anyway.” He sighed and looked at his hand, trying to hold it steady. “Besides, I need to burn off some mana soon. I can’t be driving all around town.”
She looked at his hand and flinched. “Does that… hurt? You’re shaking like gelatin.”
He looked at his hand and clenched his fist. The shaking stopped for the moment. “It’s fine, it’s just a little shakiness.”
She sighed and looked out the window. “We’re at the apartment. Do you want me to walk you up?” She passed him the key.
He shook his head. “I’ve taken enough of your day for today. Lunch tomorrow?”
She nodded gently. “7-B, okay? I had someone run ahead and stock the fridge with some of your favorites.”
“Thanks, Kate.” He smiled and picked up his bag, climbing out of the car. He stood back as Katie stuck her head out the window. “If you need anything, call me. Day or night. I'll leave my wristband on so it'll wake me if you call.”
Allen nodded and gave her a thumbs-up, waving as her driver drove away. He turned and walked into the apartment high-rise, taking the elevator up to floor seven and apartment B. It was a nice enough apartment, more or less the same size as his quarters aboard the Beagle. He set down his bag on the coffee table-this one was actually made of glass- and fumbled with the zipper until his violently shaking hands managed to get it open.
He reached inside and pulled out his book, laying it open on the table. “I need that flame jet spell you had a couple weeks ago. I'm hurting pretty bad, bud.”
The book remained blank for several long seconds, then flipped a few pages. “You slammed me shut. It hurt.”
He sighed. He didn't have time for the book to be dramatic. “I wanted to tell them myself, not have you snitch on me. Now PLEASE show me the page for Fire Jet?”
The book rustled indignantly. “You weren't going to tell them. At all.”
“You're right, I wasn’t. I don't want them worrying about me. I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself.” He grumbled and lifted a hand shakily.
After a few moments, the book rustled. “You'll have to maintain Fire Jet for at least ten minutes. Fifteen would be better.” After a moment, the pages turned to reveal the spell.
Allen leaned forward and read hurriedly. “Fire Jet shoots a flame five feet in the direction the user points their palm. The color and temperature of the flame depends on the potency and amount of mana fed into it for the duration of the casting; this spell can be used to determine a caster's power level.”
The book displayed the pronunciation, and Allen crossed to the window, opening it and aiming his casting hand outside. The mana flowed to his hand almost on its own, and he spoke the spell, following the casting instructions.
He felt a bit of kickback as an orange streak of flame appeared, shooting out from his hand. He pushed a little more energy into it, and the flame slowly shifted to blue and maintained that color. He found he could actually FEEL the spell draining his energy- it felt like a balloon inside of him was losing air, releasing the built-up pressure and making him feel empty. It felt nice, like he'd been stuffed full to bursting and finally had room to breath.
While Allen pushed out the blue jet of flame, he experimented with it, adding more energy, less energy, even spreading the output over his whole hand and reducing it to a single spot, watching how it affected the size and shape of the flame.
After about eight minutes, the flame suddenly guttered, sputtering and switching from a steady flame to sporadic bursts. Allen frowned. He didn't FEEL out of mana, so why was the flame suddenly acting like it had no fuel?
Suddenly, the flame burst back to life, pushing back harder against his hand. He grunted at the sudden increase in pressure, looking over as the flame changed from blue to bright white, almost golden in color. He frowned, staring at it. Why the sudden change? And why did this new white flame feel like less effort to maintain, despite the fact that he could feel how much hotter it was than the blue?
Allen shook his head and forced the questions aside. He had to focus on feeding the flame.
His hand felt steady as a rock now, and he checked the time. Thirty seconds left… twenty…
He cut off the mana flow and waited for the flame jet to fade out before pulling his hand back in and closing the window. He paused and looked at his hand, then crossed to the book, blinking away the afterimage of the flame. “Hey… the flame guttered and then changed color in the middle. Is that normal?”
The book rustled and flipped pages. “Kind of.” It flipped a few more pages and brought up the page for the spell again, highlighting a section and enlarging it for him. “The color and temperature of the flame depends on the potency and amount of mana fed into it.”
He hesitated. “So, if my flame was blue, and then it suddenly changed to white…”
“Your mana mix has changed. You burned off the last of the old mix, and the new mix took over. It’s more potent, so the color changed and the flame burned hotter.” The book gave a nervous rustle.
Allen frowned. “What’s that about? What are you not telling me?”
The book flipped a few pages back and forth, as if considering what to say, then opened up and filled a page. “Your mana is mostly celestial by now. It’s going to start causing complications.”
He put his ears back. “What kind of complications?”
The book flipped back and forth again. “Celestial mana is far more potent than mortal mana. It tends to cause side effects for an unfocused user.”
He groaned, putting his face in his hands. “Ugh… what KIND of side effects? Am I going to turn purple? Am I going to grow ten feet tall?”
The book made a sound that Allen decided to interpret as the equivalent of sucking air through the teeth. “It may cause random things you think about to become reality while you’re casting, or if you lose focus otherwise. Celestial mana reacts to imagination, as well as predetermined spells. So things around you might start reacting to your thoughts.”
Allen grunted and let his head drop onto the table. “Ugh… Perfect.”

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 8: Breakfast

Allen’s wristband rang insistently. He grumbled and rolled over, pulling the pillow over his head. “Hnng… Shut up, I’m on shore leave…” The wristband obnoxiously continued ringing, and he grumbled, fumbling for it. He heard it ding confirmation that he’d answered the call, and he rolled over crankily. “Hello, who is it?”
Katie’s voice sounded from the wristband on its charger, and her face floated over his head. “It’s me, Allen. You made the morning news with your little firework show last night.”
He yawned, looking up at her in momentary confusion. “Hmm? Oh, the flame jet… yeah, it’s my highest-burning spell.” He sat up and stood up out of bed. The hologram followed him.
“Well, it was stupid and dangerous. Fortunately, you’re not named specifically, but that apartment is compromised now. Are you not wearing pants?” She grunted and looked away.
He glanced down at himself. He had been sleeping in his fur. “Oh, yeah. It’s the darndest thing, I forgot to pack pajamas, and I figured I’m alone here, so…” He shrugged noncommittally, grinning. “What’s the matter, you embarrassed to see me naked? You didn’t seem to have a problem with a whole station of naked animals three years ago.” He dug in his bag for a set of civilian clothes and started getting dressed.
Once he had his shorts on, she turned back toward him. “It’s different when it’s someone I KNOW. And what if we had needed to get you out of there quickly last night? Were you just going to go outside in your fur like a feral?”
He shrugged, tugging on a tee shirt. It felt weird to be out of uniform; aside from bedtime, he hadn’t been out of uniform in nearly five years, since his last off-duty shore leave. “Not like it’s illegal. Besides, I choose to believe that my body looks pretty nice without clothes on. Particularly in the posterior region.” He flaunted his hips playfully.
She scoffed. “I didn’t see anything impressive. Do you need me to send around a car for you, or are you going to walk to do all that shopping you told me about?”
He considered it for a moment. “I think I’ll walk. We still on for lunch? That little shop on fifth?”
“Closed down two years ago. I’ll meet you at that corner though, there’s a better place I think you’ll like.” She grinned at him. “So you and your butt be there at eleven thirty, okay?”
He took his wristband off the charger and clipped it on. “All right. It’s a date.” He set an alarm for eleven to remind himself. “Is Howard coming with us?”
“No, he went back to the station. But Junior Lieutenant Cooper wants to come, remember her? Squirrel we found in the lift first thing during the incident?”
Allen snickered. “Of course I remember her, Kate, she’s on my crew, remember? One of my bridge officers.”
“Oh yeah. She wanted to go with you. How’s she been doing?”
“One of my best, actually. Always on time, extremely competent. Enjoys being a squirrel. She's dating another squirrel, from astrometrics, I believe.” He walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, looking inside before grabbing a bottle of juice and going to the cupboard. Katie's hologram followed him, floating just off his arm.
“Oh, good for her. She's adjusting well, from the sound of it. Not all the Transitioned that chose to stay are that lucky.” Katie's voice sounded thoughtful for a moment. She watched Allen grab a toaster pastry and pop it in the toaster. “Allen Zachariah Wist, you're not just eating pop-tarts for breakfast, are you? There's no nutrition in those, none.”
He stuck his tongue out. “I'm off-duty, I can eat what I want. Besides, I'm also having juice. That's fruit, it's good for me.”
She rolled her eyes. “I swear, if the mana overload doesn't kill you, your diet will.”
“You're just jealous because my figure is amazing even though I eat junk.” He stuck his tongue out again and retrieved his toasted pastry, bouncing it from hand to hand rapidly until he was able to drop it on a plate. “Hot hot hot… you know, raccoons are also known for eating junk. Maybe you have such a hard time maintaining your figure because you only eat healthy food.”
She huffed at him. “Don't make me pull rank on you for that comment!”
Allen snickered. “All right, all right. I'll also have…” he glanced around the room, then darted to the fridge and opened the door. “Some yogurt and fruit. Okay? Better, Admiral?” He held up the yogurt container to the sensor so she could see it, and she gave an approving nod.
“Much better. See that you DO eat it.” She waggled her finger at him through the hologram.
“Gross. But fine. Better than nutrient cereal supplement number twelve, I suppose.” He popped the sensor out of his wristband and set up the tripod, then dragged the hologram to sit across from him at the table. “And I never asked, how's life with your paws on solid ground? Had time to grow a personal life? Maybe find a nice racoon guy to settle down with?” He waggled his eyebrows at her.
Katie groaned and sat back in her chair, slumping almost entirely out of the holographic image. “It's better than running supply missions to Alpha Centauri. No running all over the ship, checking cargo manifests. Just endless meetings that could have been a holovid or e-memo.”
Allen put his spoonful of yogurt back in its container and smirked. “You're BORED, aren't you? Miss flying around space and seeing other places?” He popped a handful of raspberries into his muzzle, popping them against the roof of his mouth with his tongue and letting the juices run over his taste buds.
“I am SO sick of seeing the same view from my office every day. I've considered installing a screen to display exotic locations in the window. I bet Howard would even let me charge it to the fleet.” She sipped from a mug, eyeing Allen. “That's the third time I've seen you pick up a scoop of yogurt, hold it for a few seconds, and then put it back. You haven't actually EATEN any of it.”
Allen grimaced and stuck his tongue out, staring at the cup of goop. “Live microbe slime. Yummy. Bleh. How can you eat this stuff? It smells like spoiled milk and tastes worse.”
Katie laughed. “Oh, stop being so dramatic. It's good for your digestion. It'll help you process all that other junk food you eat. It's not even that bad. You like cheese, that's basically the same thing.”
“Lies and slander. Cheese is delicious and tasty, no need to add fruit preserves to make it edible. The only problem is it doesn't love me back, and it causes me to REALLY test life support.” He crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.
Katie laughed. “Eat your yogurt, Captain. That's an order.”
Allen glowered at her and scooped up a bite of the yogurt, popping it in his mouth and making fake gagging sounds, pretending to die right in front of her hologram.
“So much DRAMA! What are you, four? Grow up, Captain, it's just a bit of cultured dairy.”
“Never! I may grow old, but I REFUSE to grow up!” He waved his hand around like he was conducting an invisible band. “I'm going to be weird for the rest of my life, be it a week or be it a century!”
Katie snickered. “Oh, I see you've recovered from your yogurt poisoning.” She glanced aside. “I have a meeting in ten minutes, so I gotta go. Enjoy your shore leave, watch your back, and Allen? Finish your yogurt.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

So that is confirmed then when Allen eats cheese that he has stomach issues that really test his life support and result in him running to the bathroom. Would hate to go in there after he is done following him eating a lot of cheese. X3

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

But of course. He's a dog, after all. Cheese, eggs, and certain types of vegetables are bound to make him gassy.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I get that but perhaps not draw too much attention to it when it you are writing the stories. If I have to have a farting animal I would rather it not be the main characters or anybody related to them. Did not need to hear how those deviled eggs at Christmas had Scout turn the sheep barn into a gas chamber.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Nah, just the occassional gas joke, nothing explicit.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Let's try to make it REALLY occasional because I don't like the idea of having heroes or good guys having issues with their stomaches even though I know that everybody poops. Yes I am a prude but bad guys or villains on the other hand...

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I think that was the only one in this story.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Shame. Though I think that it would be humiliating for the good Captain Richard if when he gets brought down and he goes on a tirade, he can't hold it in anymore. I bet he liked cheese before and now that he is a dog eating it won't end well.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 9: Tailed

Allen hummed to himself as he strolled down the street, enjoying the simple things one just couldn’t get aboard a spaceship. The breeze ruffled through his fur, the sun warmed his head, and the smells of planetary life filled his nose. His tail swung happily side to side as he wandered, just enjoying being here. Being HOME.
Hovercars warbled gently as they passed up and down the street, and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, enjoying the sound. It sure beat the ever present humming of the engines and life support systems that he was used to.
He pulled up the holographic clock display on his wristband and grinned. He had three hours until he was supposed to meet Katie and Allison for lunch, so he had plenty of time to wander. After a few minutes perusing the options, he decided to enter a sweets shop, grinning at all the options. Chocolate, as always, smelled heavenly, a forbidden delight he wished he could taste.
He browsed the selection of sweets and ended up getting a caramel-covered apple, some sweet roasted almonds, and some white chocolates with sprinkles on them. As he was leaving, he noticed a dog with a jacket on, his hood pulled up. It was a little odd, since it wasn’t cold or rainy out, but he shrugged it off. Probably just some angsty teenager thinking he was being edgy.
Allen grinned and munched on his almonds- they were better when they were still hot- as he wandered into a bookstore next. He purchased a dozen or so books- he could get most books in digital form and read them on a holographic screen, but paper books were always better in his opinion- and noticed the same hooded dog staring at a magazine display as he was on his way out. He frowned. It could be a coincidence, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t.
Just to be sure, Allen went into a random store next, browsing through a selection of clothes he had no interest in buying while watching the door. Sure enough, only about three minutes after he entered, so did the hooded dog, who immediately crossed to a different display and started pretending to be sorting through it, looking for his size. The dog had made no purchases that Allen could see; no bags hung from his elbows or wrists, and his pockets didn’t seem to be getting more full.
Allen pulled up his wristband, pretending to be checking the time, then pulled the hologram down out of sight behind the clothing rack. “Do you have any plainclothes security on me? You or Howard?” He fired off the text message to Katie and started making his way to the back of the store to see if the dog would follow him.
Over the next five minutes, he meandered further and further back, making it look as though he was browsing, and kept an eye on the strange dog. Sure enough, once he got about halfway back and out of sight from the main door, the hooded dog suddenly seemed to lose interest in the display he was looking at and moved to a different one, closer to Allen.
Allen’s wristband beeped, and he subtly glanced at it. Katie had sent a response. “Just checked with Howard. Neither of us have anybody on you. Why?”
He palmed the holosensor from his wristband and raised his hand as if checking a price tag, snapping an image of the hooded dog and sending it to Katie. “This guy has followed me into three stores now, didn’t buy anything, and has been keeping close enough to see me.” He sent back.
“You think it might be Richard?” The reply came quickly.
“Maybe. I’m going to leave the store. Three could be a coincidence. Four is a pattern.” He shrugged, acting like he’d decided he didn’t see anything he liked, and casually left the store, turning and walking down the street. He switched his bags to the other hand so he could keep his wristband hologram open while he walked while making it look like he was just carrying his purchases. His other hand dangled, the holosensor hanging upside-down from his sleeve and pointed behind him. Less than a minute after he’d exited the store, the hooded dog stepped out and immediately turned in the direction he had gone.
Allen crossed the street and started going the other way, keeping his holodisplay shrunk to his palm and keeping an eye on it. Sure enough, there was the hooded dog again, following behind him. He twitched his fingers to pull up a call, watching it ring just once before Katie answered it.
“Did he follow you? What am I looking at?” Katie’s voice was quiet and hard to hear.
Allen spoke in a hushed voice. “See the dog with the sweatshirt, hood up? That’s him. I crossed the street and started going the other way. He followed me. I think he knows I’ve made him, though.”
There was quiet for a few moments. “I see him. He’s getting closer, Allen.”
“I know. I’m going to try to lose him by going through a shop to the next street.” Allen mumbled quietly, glancing down at Katie’s concerned face, floating in the palm of his hand.
Katie stared at him for a few moments, and he realized she wasn’t looking at HIM, she was looking behind him, at the dog that was trailing behind him. “Okay. How did he find you?”
“I’m not sure. I first noticed him at the sweets shop, but he may have followed me from before that.” He turned into a shop and immediately cut through to the back door, exiting and turning to walk along the street on the other side of the row of buildings. This was facing a parking lot, so there weren’t as many people here. He started looking for a way to cut back through onto the main strip.
Katie’s hologram smacked her forehead. “Ugh… of COURSE he wasn’t following you before then, he only had to wait at a shop he knew you’d stop by. You and your sweet tooth, Allen! I don’t see him following you right now…”
Allen cut through another shop and back onto the main strip, looking around. “I don’t see him anymore. I think I lost him.”
“I’m leaving in ten minutes for our meetup. Keep an eye out for him and stay where there’s lots of people. He won’t try anything if you’re in plain sight of lots of people.”
“You hope.”
“Yeah.” She was quiet for a moment. “Start heading over, I’m going to have a car bring me. Let me know if you see him again. And for Opener’s sake, stay out of shops you would obviously love unless you’ve got security with you.”
“Right. I’ll head on over. See you soon.” He was quiet for a moment, then noticed that she had hung up. He placed the sensor back on its slot on the wristband and started walking toward the spot Katie had agreed to meet with him. He kept his head on a swivel, but didn’t see any further signs of the hooded dog.
Eight minutes later, he arrived at the meeting point and sighed in relief, leaning against a brick building to wait. His wristband chimed, and he looked at it. Incoming message from R. Richard.
Allen gulped and opened the message. The text filled the air over his hand. “That was clever, Captain. Very clever. This was fun. Next time, you won’t slip away from me.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

If Richard thinks that he can get to Allen that easily then he might be a bit more of a dolt than I had him pegged to be. Of course he was going to pick up on him following him at some point which is why he needs to try a sneak-attack when Allen least expects it.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 10: Lunch

Katie read the message again, then waved her hand to flip Allen’s display back toward him. “Are you okay? No further sightings?”
He shook his head, craning his neck to look out of the car window. “No, I haven’t seen him since I cut through that store. I think I gave him the slip. It’s a little concerning that he was able to find me so easily, though.”
“Of COURSE he found you. You’re predictable.” Katie reached out and poked him in the chest. “You followed your sweet tooth right TO him.”
“If he’s so predictable, then maybe we can use that to catch Captain… er… I mean, Mr. Richard.” A small voice sounded from across the car.
Allen’s ear twitched, and he slowly turned his head. “Junior Lieutenant Cooper. I forgot you were going to be joining us.” He smiled and put his hand out to shake the squirrel’s hand.
She shook hands with him. “We’re off-duty, sir. You can call me Allison.”
Allen smiled. “Then you can just call me Allen. None of this ‘Captain’ or ‘Sir’ stuff.”
Katie shook her head. “Anyway, what were you saying about using the captain’s predictability against Richard?”
Allison blinked, then flicked her tail excitedly. “I was just saying, if Richard was able to predict the Captain… er… Allen’s movements, then we can just also do it. Send security to where we predict he would go next and try to catch Mr. Richard there.”
Katie rubbed her muzzle thoughtfully. “Hmm… It might work. Probably not, but we can try it. He’s smart, he’ll probably have switched tactics by now.”
Allen hesitated. “So what other tactic would an officer use? We know that he was trained in the space corps academy, so let’s just check the tactics they trained for following a suspect. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve had to use the apprehending fugitive classes, but…”
“It won’t work. We’ve tried all that. He’s good. We’ve had officers out all over town looking for him for weeks, and yet somehow he bypasses security and just appears in…” She trailed off for a few seconds. “... Son of a biscuit.” She pulled up her holodisplay and dialed Howard. “Fleet Admiral, I need you to do me a favor. Pull a list of all accounts that have accessed Captain Wist’s file in the last two weeks. I’ll have a look at it once I’ve returned from lunch with the Captain.”
“All right. What’s up?” The chipmunk hit a few buttons on his desk interface.
“I’ll tell you later. I gotta go, we’re there.” She hung up and motioned for Allen to get out of the car.
“What was that about?” Allen climbed out, letting Allison climb up on his shoulder. She was about twice Howard’s size and therefore twice his weight, but she wasn’t so heavy that he couldn’t carry her. She awkwardly settled in.
“I have a hunch. I’ll tell you later. For now though, no more work talk. You’re gonna love this place.” She grinned and motioned to the building.
Allen turned around and looked up at it. “You know, after spending two and a half years on a spaceship designed for someone my size, human architecture just looks enormous.” He shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun and squinted at the sign. “What the fluff is hibachi?”
“Hibachi” turned out to be a fancy way of saying “the chef puts on a show while preparing your meal.” They were seated at a table that basically amounted to a thin bar surrounding a grill, which in turn surrounded an area where the chef would stand. Once they ordered their food, a chef pulled out a cart with raw ingredients and cooked for them, juggling knives, setting the grill on fire, and tossing them bits of food.
Allen had a blast, his tail wagging furiously as he caught thrown shrimp and watched the chef juggle raw eggs, only to catch them on the end of a knife and crack them onto the grill with no hands and scramble in ribbon-thin shreds of steak. By the end of it, even Katie was laughing and enjoying herself. She paid using her fleet account and called the car to pick them up, giggling as she let Allison ride her shoulder back out of the building.
“I told you that you would like it! It’s expensive, but sometimes it’s fun to just have someone show off for you.” She grinned as she stood on the sidewalk, waiting for the car to pull up.
Allen snickered. “That fly shrimp. Allison fell out of her seat and caught it on her face like a game of horseshoes.”
Allison snickered and licked her lips. “And it was tasty, too.”
Allen’s wristband chimed, and he snickered, raising his arm to check the message. His laughter stopped abruptly, and his blood ran cold. The message was four words only. “Enjoy your meal, Captain?”
Katie reached out with a shaky hand and patted Allen’s arm. Allen looked up at her, then followed her gaze to a hooded dog standing across the street with his hologram open. He was just standing there, watching them. A car went past, and he disappeared.
Allen grunted. “Dangit, he did the cool thing! How do people do that?”
Katie punched him in the arm. “Allen! This is serious! How did he track you down?! Did he put a tracker on your wristband? It’s Fleet issue, it’s not out of the question he put a tracer in the software!”
Allen shook his head. “No, I had it scanned by security when I arrived, remember?”
She grunted, frustrated, and watched their car pull up. “Then HOW?!” She climbed in. Allen followed her quietly.
He sighed. “Maybe I should stay on the station instead. There’s only so many ways he can get up there, it’ll be easier to watch for him.”
Allison’s ears went back. “And lose your shore leave because he tried to kill us three years ago?! That’s not fair!”
“Life is often not fair, Allison. You should know that by now.” Allen sighed. “Let’s just go back to my apartment. I’ll pack up, and I’ll take a shuttle back up in the morning.”
“Hold off on that until I’ve had a chance to check that list I had Howard type up.” Katie waved a hand, then leaned to the front seat. “Take us back to headquarters for now, Ensign.”
“Aye, Admiral.” The driver said, and the car started moving.
Allen huffed. “What good is checking a list going to do us?”
Katie glanced around. “I’ll tell you once we’re alone. I have… suspicions.”
Allison glanced around conspiratorially, then nodded as if understanding. Allen tilted his head. “Whatever.” He picked up his bags, left in the car from earlier, and gathered them up.
The car arrived at headquarters shortly after, and Allison headed off with a wave. “I have to meet up with… someone… for a d- activities! For activities!” She skittered away quickly.
Allen watched her go, shaking his head. “It’s funny watching them try to be discrete. As if we actually care if they’re fraternizing with other crew members in different departments.”
Katie shrugged and started leading him toward her office. “Well, it IS technically against regulation, but almost nobody’s going to enforce it. Especially on the ships that are going to be out for years at a time. That’d just be cruel.”
He grinned. “Exactly.” He shut her office door behind them and leaned across her desk while she took a seat. “Now, what’s on your mind? What’s with the list? Spill.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

So because fraternizing seems to be pretty big on the ships with crew members does this mean Allen will eventually do it too? Quite honestly, before I realized that Katie was a great deal older than him I thought THEY were going to become a couple.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

It's not out of the question that Allen might eventually find someone. It's a little harder for him, being a captain; there's a weird power dynamic there that makes it difficult to have a fair relationship.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I am sure that he will find someone at some point though obviously not one of his crew members since that would an unequal relationship. I was thinking somebody who wasn't involved in traveling through space.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

That's the problem, isn't it? He's out for years at a time. Kinda hard to date outside the ship when that's all the options you have.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 11: Conspiracy

Katie pulled up the list on her desk interface and frowned. Allen frowned at it as well. “That’s… a pretty big list for people who accessed what’s supposed to be classified information.” He tapped the desk to bring a copy of the display to his side.
Katie started highlighting names. “Let’s see… That’s payroll, that’s me, that’s Howard… these four are other admirals who were being briefed on the situation… leaving these six.” The list cleared except for the six names Katie indicated.
Allen frowned and pulled up the first file on his wristband. “Human. Enlisted for thirty-five years.” He paused. “Used to work under Captain Richard until his discharge three years ago.”
Katie nodded. “Same with the second name on the list.”
Allen frowned and squinted through three holograms to see the one she was looking at. “I recognize him. I broke his arm back on the station three years ago, remember? He was manning the command deck while they were rounding up the crew.”
Katie frowned at the image. “Yeah, I DO remember.” She pulled up another, then another, then another. “All of these people were part of Richard’s task force when we called headquarters for help.”
Allen pulled up the last name, then frowned. “Katie… wasn’t this your driver today?”
She leaned around the holodisplays to look. “Um… yeah, that’s him. He potentially might have just looked you up to be sure he picked up the right guy?”
Allen shook his head. “He worked under Richard, too. All of these people worked under Richard.”
Katie cross-checked the list with officers that had been out looking for Richard, then swore under her breath. “All six of them were on the task force I sent out looking for him. That’s more than half. No WONDER they couldn’t find him, they weren’t actually LOOKING. And if they DID find him, they probably just had a nice chat with him and sent him on his way.”
Allen grunted. “That’s how he disappeared right out from under our nose at the restaurant. He probably had a car waiting to pick him up. He would have only needed to grab onto it as it passed, and it would look like he disappeared. Then he only had to hang on for a block or two until it pulled over, or have someone pull him through the window.”
Katie typed frantically. “Yes, two of these guys asked permission to leave the base today, at about that time. Something about helping an old friend move.”
Allen slammed his fist on the desk, and the display on his side flickered. “No WONDER he was able to find me so quickly! He already knew where I was!”
“Allen, the desk. These things are expensive.” She looked up and swiped the screen away. “We need to put together a new task force to look for him. Restrict these six and any others we can find that worked for Richard to base.” She was quiet for a moment. “Your hand is shaking. Do you need to go outside? Burn off some steam, so to speak?”
Allen looked down at his hand. “Ugh… probably. It’s been almost a full day.” He groaned. “Ugh… like I needed MORE stress. You wanna come with? I’ll just be blowing a stream of fire.”
She stood up. “I think I’d better. There are at least six people on this base who have reason to try and hurt you, and I want to watch your back in case they try to sneak up on you.”
He nodded quietly and turned to the door. “Let’s go, then. I don’t have Bookie with me, so I’ll have to guess how long I need to burn. Last night it was ten minutes, but that was after hours of being overloaded.”
They started walking. After a couple hallways, Katie hesitantly asked, “What happened to that quick step technique you had? That burned lots of mana in seconds.”
Allen shrugged. “I can still DO it, but it’s much slower, and doesn’t burn nearly as much. I think that was mostly powered by the Gryphon, and with him gone, it’s faded.”
He went out into a courtyard that was set inside the building, just a small area of grass with no roof right in the middle, with hallways on all four sides that led to various places. He wasn’t sure why it had been included in the design, but it had always been there, since he was a new recruit years ago, and hadn’t been new then. Sometimes, he knew, the officers came out here to eat their lunches outside. Today, he was using it for the fact that there was no roof.
Katie sat back and watched. “All right, Allen. Let’s see you burn it out.”
He nodded and aimed his arm straight up, whispering the spell. The flame guttered to life, the bright white streak of flame bursting from his hand brilliantly, in an eerily silent display. Katie leaned on the wall and watched with casual fascination.
A few minutes in, movement in the corner of Allen's vision drew his attention. There was a human standing by one of the four doors into the courtyard. He continued the flame and turned his head. There was another by the door in front of him, and another by the door to his left. He couldn't tell who through the glass, but he had a good guess, just like he had a guess that there was one on the door behind him. “Katie? I need you to come over here.”
Katie frowned and stepped closer. She didn't seem to have noticed the predicament yet. He lifted his free hand, the one not currently shooting a string of fire, and held it out for her. She grabbed it, and he pulled her close. “Hold on to me, as tight as you can. We're surrounded. I want to try something.”
Katie glanced around, moving her head as little as possible, then put her arms over Allen's shoulders and grabbed herself, wrist to wrist, making herself into a loop. Allen immediately whispered the shielding spell, throwing up a shield around the two of them. Not only would it protect them if the men surrounding them were armed, but it would also help support Katie. Probably. Maybe.
He stopped the flame jet and pointed both hands to the ground, whispering the flame jet spell again. Twin jets of white flame shot out of him and into the ground. Nothing else happened for a moment. Allen groaned; operating three spells simultaneously, even when two were the same, was difficult. “Please, please…” he mumbled, willing his plan to work and pushing more mana into the flame jets. After a moment, the world started to fall away, spinning gently around them as they lifted into the air.
Katie squealed and held tighter, looking down as six men swarmed into the courtyard, looking angrily up at them. They were still so close that Allen could make out their eye color, but they were getting further by the second. He grunted and tilted one hand out, pushing them toward the roof. They drifted closer.
A sharp ping sound alerted Allen that the men had started shooting, but the shield was holding. For now. He could feel his mana depleting fast; a full body shield for two and two flame jets was an enormous ask for anybody to manage. Finally, they drifted out over the roof, and Allen cut the flames, allowing the shield to deaden the fall before dropping that, too. He panted. “Run. Get up and run.” He pulled Katie to her paws and pointed toward the nearest outside edge of the roof.
She took off running, and he stumbled after her, winded but all right. He wasn't sure he could cast another second of flame jet or shield if his life depended on it. She paused at the edge of the roof and looked at him. “How are we going to get down?”
He grunted, scooped her up, and threw her into an evergreen bush on the ground, waiting for her to scramble out before jumping in himself.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 12: Protection

Katie locked her office door and turned to Allen. “Obviously, we can’t have you here anymore. That was way too close.”
Allen sat in the chair and rubbed his temples. “Ugh… I wasn’t even sure that would work. I thought we were in trouble.”
She gave him a concerned look. “Are you okay? That seemed like a lot of mana. Are you depleted?”
He shook his head. “Not completely, but I doubt I have enough left to cast anything useful…”
She rubbed her temples. “I could put you up somewhere else on the planet, but given that he hasn’t actually DONE anything but follow you around a little, which isn’t illegal, there’s really nothing stopping him from following you THERE. And then you’d be farther away from headquarters so we wouldn’t be able to help you as readily if something should go wrong.” She tapped her fingers on the desk, turning her display on and off idly. “... Have you ever thought about taking your shore leave on Mars? I’ve heard they turned the original colonial biodome into a museum. Could be interesting to see…”
Allen sighed and leaned back in his seat. “Ugh… I just want to enjoy my first shore leave in almost a decade close to home. Why does he have to do this NOW?”
“You wouldn’t be HAVING shore leave if he wasn’t doing this stuff. Remember that. You weren’t due to be back for another two years.” She drummed her fingers for a few moments. “Then again, that might be why he was so obvious with accessing your file, to get you back here. Not as satisfying to blow the ship from a hundred light-years away.”
There were several moments of quiet between them, and Allen spoke. “There’s one obvious way to make sure he can’t get my position from the computers here.”
Katie put her ears back. “I was thinking the same thing. I was thinking, I hope we can think of a better way to keep you out of danger.”
Allen shook his head. “Maybe if we could trust our computers’ security, but we don’t know who, or how many people are working for him. The only way to be sure nobody’s telling him where I am, is for nobody to KNOW where I am.”
Katie’s ears went back. “I’ll send someone to collect your stuff and work on getting you a credit card you can use. I’ll file it under classified expenses, your name won’t be attached to it at all on paper.”
Allen nodded. “Can I stow stuff I’m not bringing with me here? In a locker, maybe?”
“Of course.” She sighed and pulled up her wristband, dialing a number.

Allen slung his bag over his shoulder and looked back at headquarters across the airfield. He sighed and put his ears back. Then, he turned and walked into the building, right up to the civilian counter. “I need a one-way ticket to Mars, Rockett City.”
“I’ll need a passport for off-world travel.” The attendant put a hand out, and Allen dug out the passport Katie had given him, with a fake name. He looked at it, frowning, then scanned it, looked at his screen, then shrugged and passed it back. “Enjoy your trip, Mister White.”
“Thank you.” He tapped the credit card he’d been given, then accepted the ticket, wandering off. He knew exactly where the shuttle would be leaving from, but he made a show of acting lost first, wandering around the terminal after going through security. He purchased a bag of popcorn and munched on it as he did so.
About an hour before his flight was supposed to leave, he reported to the terminal it was supposed to leave from and sat with his bag in his lap, jiggling his leg nervously. He kept his head on a swivel. He expected to see Richard any moment, popping out of nowhere and staring at him menacingly from a distance.
The last hour before boarding began seemed to drag by. Allen grunted. He’d forgotten how slow civilian travel could be. “Hurry up and wait,” he mumbled to himself crankily. It was all waiting, waiting, and more waiting. He desperately wished for some busywork to keep himself occupied.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the attendant started boarding the flight. Allen patiently waited as first class, then disabled passengers, then finally coach started boarding. He waited until his section was boarding, then joined the line, avoiding most of the bustle from other passengers that didn’t know how to follow instructions. He turned over his ticket to have the stub torn off, then took a seat on the shuttle. The actual ship was too big to land and remained in orbit on the civilian station; the good news was it would launch and the shuttle would dock directly to it.
The shuttle intercom sounded. “Passengers, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Mars flight 597 to Rockett City, we will be departing for the ship shortly. If you are NOT headed to Mars, you are on the wrong shuttle. Let the attendant know, and you will be escorted off. Once we arrive at the ship, you will be free to move around; you each have a room assigned to you on your ticket; you will be boarding in that room during the three day flight to our destination. As always, meals are complimentary during transit. Please direct your attention to the front of the cabin for your safety briefing.
Allen took it upon himself to ignore the safety briefing.
After the fifteen minute flight up to the ship, Allen sighed and waited for the rows and rows of passengers ahead of him to slowly file out of the shuttle, then grabbed his bag and exited onto the ship, glad to have a little more room to himself. He glanced at his ticket, consulted a map, and reported to his room.
Since they were traveling within the solar system, the ship didn’t have light speed engines; it was the slow, tedious impulse engines that took ages to get anywhere. As such, Allen suspected that he was going to be anxious the whole time.
He looked around the cramped room, then sat down and unzipped his bag, pulling the leather bound book out of his bag and opening it on his lap. It rustled a little.
“This isn’t your ship.” It stated matter-of-factly.
“No, it isn’t. We’re hiding out for a while.” He looked around the room. It was tiny, basically just a bed and a dresser and not much other room.
“Because that guy is chasing you?”
“Yeah. Katie’s gonna send me a message if they catch him, and when it’s time to come back. She doesn’t know where I am, for safety reasons.”
The book gave a slow, rustling sound. It sounded like a sigh. “You burned a lot of mana.”
He nodded. “I had to use magic to escape. We got surrounded, and I used Flame Jet to float Katie and I out and away.”
The book went blank for a few moments. “You shouldn’t have been able to do that. It must have been your celestial magic working for you.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

I am sure someone who is used to riding on ships that have high-speed engines going from one location to another would be really bored taking a slower ship to get anywhere. I am really positive that Allen is gonna start bouncing off the walls just as I am sure that Richard or someone working for him has followed him to the ship.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Well, he's already high-strung and tense. It's going to be an interesting flight.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 13: Civilian Travel

Allen had always pictured civilian ships as dark, moodily lit, and poorly maintained, probably due to his love of turn-of-the-millenium science fiction shows. However, the ship he now found himself on was roomy, ornate, and cheerily lit.
He wandered the atrium, casually trying not to look like he expected to be attacked and dragged out of sight any minute. The crew was not to be seen; there were flight attendants who would help passengers with needs, but for the most part, the ship was not unlike a cruise ship; there was a stage with shows to entertain, a theater where guests could watch movies using outdated screen visors, and a dining room where passengers could go any time for a meal.
Allen wasn’t hungry. He found a window and stared out at it; three hours into the trip, and he could still make out Earth, though it was about the size of the tip of his claw. Civilian ships were so SLOW.
A hand grabbed Allen by the shoulder, and he gasped, spinning around to look up at the flight attendant who was trying to get his attention. She gasped and jumped back to avoid his reflexively thrown claw. “Oh! I’m sorry to startle you, sir… You looked like you were feeling space-sick, and I wanted to offer you some dramamine… or a patch… something to help?”
He put his ears back. “S-sorry, I’ve just… It’s nothing, I’m fine. But thank you.” He felt like he should offer an explanation, so he thought up one quickly. “It’s my first time leaving Earth. I was watching it.”
The flight attendant nodded politely. “It can be a bit… daunting, the first time. Makes you feel really small, doesn’t it?”
He looked up at the human. He only stood as tall as her bellybutton at best; he felt small all the time when he was around humans. “Er… yeah. Tiny and insignificant.”
He watched the flight attendant give a polite little bow and excuse herself, then turned back to the window. It took a moment to locate Earth again; it had grown smaller and drifted a little to one side in the minute or two he’d been looking away.
Once Earth had faded to just another white dot in the distance, Allen turned from the window with a sigh. Only a hundred and twenty million miles to Mars orbit. Yippee. He looked at the theater. It probably wasn’t a good idea to cover his eyes with a screen visor if he was worried he was being followed. He glanced in the direction of the stage. Also probably not a great idea. He could get distracted and forget to keep an eye on his surroundings.
Both of his options for entertainment eliminated, he sat back in the corner and pulled up his holodisplay and texted Katie. “I’m off-planet. So you can stop worrying.”
There was a pause before she replied. “I’d ask where you’re going, but that would defeat the purpose.”
“Civilian transportation is so SLOW. We’ve been out for hours and Earth only just got too small to see.” He stared at the message, then deleted most of it. What he ended up sending was, “Civilian transportation is so SLOW. It took HOURS for Earth to get too small to see.”
“I wish you could have stayed longer. I stowed that stuff for you.”
“Thanks. I didn’t want to haul them all the way out here.” He stared at the sent message for a few minutes, then sighed and turned off the hologram. His ears went back, and he pressed his face into his knees. “Ugh… Why bother? If he’s going to find me, he’s going to find me…”
His wristband chimed, and he opened it up again. It was a photo of Allison, happily squeezing into the shot with another squirrel. “Good luck, Captain! Enjoy your vacation!”
He smiled at the photo. It made him feel a little better to see one of his crew members so happy.
Over the next few minutes, gradually, he started getting photo after photo of crew members wishing him well and showing him what they were all doing with their shore leave. He flipped through the pictures, not able to keep up. By the time the messages stopped coming in, he’d received a message from each and every member of his crew, most of them forwarded to him through the computers at headquarters. He sniffled a little and wiped a happy tear. They all looked so happy; some with loved ones, others on their own, all smiling happily.
He texted Katie again. “What did you do?”
“I thought you might need some cheering up, so I sent out a notification to your whole crew that you were going on vacation and wanted to see pictures of what your crew was doing on theirs. I didn’t tell them what was really going on.”
“Thank you. I really needed that.” He started to close the holodisplay, then reopened the messaging program. “I keep looking around and expecting to see him watching me. I know there's no way he's here, but I can't help it.”
His wristband stayed quiet for a few minutes, and he turned off the display again. Katie must have gone into a meeting or gotten otherwise distracted. He couldn't expect her to respond right away all the time.
He leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling far overhead. He'd never understood how humans could be comfortable with the ceiling almost half their height above their heads. He liked it best when the ceiling was low and he could almost drag his ears on it. It just felt safer that way. Here, it was so tall he could probably stack two more of himself on his shoulders and still not reach it.
He mused again how much smaller he felt surrounded by human-sized architecture than he did onboard the Beagle. On the Beagle, he was tall, strong, one of the biggest people there. Among humans, though, he was puny and weak. Even going among other dogs made him feel small- he had corgi in his lineage somewhere, so his legs were short, making him smaller than most other dogs.
His musing was interrupted by a flight attendant- a male one this time- kneeling down to his level to get his attention. “Excuse me, sir, are you all right?”
He blinked and looked at the attendant. “I… Um… do I not look all right?”
“Your hand is shaking, sir. I thought maybe you were having some space sickness.”
Allen looked down at his hand. It was, indeed, shaking. Already? He'd been mostly drained a few hours ago. “Oh, that. It's fine, it's just a medical condition. I have medicine for it in my cabin.” He stood up. “Thank you for bringing it to my attention.”
The attendant gave him a concerned look, but let him leave.
Allen rushed to his cabin and opened his book. “I need a discrete spell I can cast to burn off mana. I'm getting overloaded again.”
The book rustled, then displayed a message. “Your levels are fine. You're not in danger of mana sickness right now.”
Allen put his ears back. “What do you mean, I'm fine? My hand's shaking.”
“It's not from mana sickness.” The book flipped a few pages. “I'm not a psychiatric book, but I suspect your issue is from anxiety, not mana sickness.”
Allen grunted and put his ears back. “Anxiety? Me? Why… I mean… I've never had anxiety before…”
“You've never had anybody actively hunting you before.”
Allen stared at the message, then slowly closed the book and held it close to his chest.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I would say Allen should probably take something to calm down and relax him a bit, but then I realized that would be bad. If he is incapacitated in any way then that makes him an easy target! Hope he will end up getting some sleep at some point but from what I've seen he is so paranoid he would probably worry about Richard coming and holding a pillow over his face.