Into The Exile

An Animated Series
by

Delicious Vodka
DeBlair
In the first year of the reign of Queen
Anastasia Vashti Osmium Tessellah
Hallvavy-Ventura came I to the royal courts
to record all which had transpired in the
previous 4500 years under the reign of
Queen Pantera Karin Absolsia Ventura, and
the successive reign of her first daughter
Queen Pantera Delicata Entoncia Ventura.
This is chronicle of the events leading to
the rescue of the betrothed Tigressa
Suzanna Malika Antella Hallavy by the new
Queen Pantera Delicata Entoncia Ventura...
This is the story which I was commanded to record...

It was a dark and tumultuous time in the land of

Thenpor, a time where wars raged around the galaxy and
plague and corruption were rampant when Queen Pantera
Delicata rose to the throne. Her mother Queen PanteraKarin
had passed in a fierce battle and her beloved Suzanna and
her sister Marina had been taken captive along with many of
the court of the third palace in Torth.

The mighty warriors of Thenfor were at a loss as to

whence the princess and her court been taken, only that
there was no request for ransom and because of the beauty
of the princess and the choir of Torth in the court of the
princess, apparently they were the prize such a foe had
sought to attain.

It was clearly understood: the only resolution would be to

search out the land and perhaps the galaxy to find and
rescue the the princess and the court.

General Panterra Neptunium Westinghouse was to lead

an elite group of hunters, but
2

since it was the beloved betrothed of Queen Pantera Delicata,

she had determined to set forth on this campaign her self...

Chapter One: The Beginning of Woes...

"So..." Queen Delicata propositioned form her throne in the grand throne room, "There is no evidence as
to who has done this or for what purpose..." she trailed off.
"It presently appears that way my Queen," General Neptune replied calmly, tail twitching absently.
"I would be less absorbed with this if it were not for the simple fact of this being my betrothed and her
sister you realize."
"Yes, my Queen."
"I trust you will not be bothered my my leading this event personally then."
"Not at all my Queen."
"However, you feel that I should be handling matters of the state, including the funeral of my mother?"
"Well," General Neptune began, "There is that..." trailing off under the penetrating stare of the Queen's
sapphire blue eyes, only the bloodline of the queens bore this remarkable trait, along with their superior size,
psychokinetic powers and physical prowess...
"You're nervous Neptune," she said as if warning.
"Why do you..."
"Because you continue to address me formally."
"Oh" General Neptune had a sudden expression of surprise, dismay and relief all flash across her face
at once.
"It is unbecoming your normal confidence, General," the Queen said toyingly.
 "My humblest apo-"
"Don't."
"Huh?"
"We've known each other as cubs, played together, hunted together, almost fell in love..."
That one hurt Neptune deeply. She was indeed jealous of Suzanna, the Bengal who had captured the
heart of Delicata just when Neptune had thought she was the object of the then princess's affections...
The expression was inevitable and this had brought a form of chastisement to the Queen, "My apologies
this time..."
"My Quee-?" began a startled and confused inquiry.
"I sometimes forget my self when reminiscing, it was not secret to me back then your feelings for me,
and who knows? Perhaps if things had been different..." she sighed, "Indeed... Who ever really knows?"
General Neptune could only sigh in response to this.
"Come. We have work to do. I have to announce the agenda in 5 tenths."
With that, they left the queen's private chamber down a blazing white cathedral hallway of pure white
marble toward the grand stateroom.

In the grand stateroom, 273 representatives of the far reaches of the Tothian dominion gathered for the
emergency meeting concerning the abductions from the Eastern Palace.
Heads of various departments were at hand, as well as legislators, parliamentarians, regional viceroys
and the like. The vast expanse of the grand stateroom was abuzz with the voices of conspiracies and fears alike.
Most of these theories pointed to the Estat, a band of beings from another planet in the Tothian realm
but not officially under the flag of the dominion with which there had been an uneasy peace for about 450 Tothian
years. The Tothians, being a much longer lives species led to a certain sense of inferiority and resentment from
the Estat and although they were in many ways similar, the Estat simply could not be satisfied with the result of
the natural causes of their genetic history. They had on many occasions attempted to cross breed (by force) their
selves with the Tothians only leading to miscarriages, stillbirths and a host of other tragedies.
The Tothians held that this was a curse pronounced on them by the goddess Vashti for defiling the holy
race with their impure and wicked bodies.
It was well to note that although the Tothians were in many aspects the superior species, they were and
always would be very few in number, even it was said, genetically limited somehow by the goddess Vashti lest
they become too powerful and grow beyond the means of the universe to sustain them.
This was not so with the Estat. The Estat reproduced at an astonishing rate and there were billions upon
billions of them across the galaxy and even millions more on the fringes of other neighboring galaxies.
The Estat were a swarming race, the Tothians were a race of a few very powerful individuals and a
somewhat larger sub-class of the intellectually advanced.

"Your attention will be drawn to the forth," Queen Delicata announced,"Our business is now at hand."
Hushed murmurs came from the crowd as they settled in at their respective tables.
Estat servants scurried here and there serving a brunch from gilded trays and ornate crystal decanters
so made as to accommodate the dining manners of the Tothians and Estat feline physiology.
To the edge of large long stemmed crystal glasses was a smaller cupped area reminiscent of a landing
pad, which served as the place where one lapped the beverage, since it was impractical for either race to drink
as humans do.
Instead of forks and knives, the races used their deft claws to handle foods and their culinary reporte
reflected this in that everything was either of its self whole, in chunks, or served on some form of bread like item
so that it all amounted to unending hors-d'œuvres.
"Since this recent event has involved my own family directly, I have taken it upon my self to lead the
recovery expedition personally." the queen announced flatly.
This elicited a chorus of gasps and thick heavy murmuring from the assembly.
"I have already arranged for General Neptune and Administrer Osmium to handle normal events in my
absence."
"The funerary services will be postponed until this situation has been resolved."
More murmuring in a lighter tone followed.
"I shall remain in contact should other emergencies arise, so I do not anticipate that I will ever be far
from the palace should any new eventualities from these unknown aggressors arise. however, it is clearly
expedient as always that we make a swift and decisive end to this and return all things back to normal as
immediately as possible."
The Fourth Regent Agailia stood and bowed...
"Yes Regent Agailia...?"
 "My Queen..." looking a bit flustered and self conscious, "Why-?"
"That should be quite obvious Regent, there really is nobody more capable or more likely to achieve
success than I. Even General Neptune concedes on this fact."
"Yes, My Queen," Agailia humbly bowed and sat back down, looking forlorn and tail twitching pensively.
"Are there any other questions?" the queen required of the group.
Argent Hepsilan stood and bowed.
"Argent?"
"My Queen, in light of this, should we assume it is a faction of the Estat who have brought forth this
affront to our people?"
"To be honest Argent, as valid of a question as this is, at the moment, it is not wise or prudent to cast
about pointing suspicious claws into the jungle." she paused with a measured stare and a placed breath, then
continued, "People of the high Council," looking around making eye contact with as many as possible with her
deep sapphire blue eyes to the normal golden eyes of those around her, "Let us not forget how tenuous and
uneasy this peace we have had is. Politics are an unsteady venture at best.
"Let us not do or say anything rashly.
"And forget not that it is most likely that spies and infiltrators are amongst us even now.
"Keep your guard up, your tail down and your ears perked." This old saying from Queen Karin made the
people feel somewhat nostalgic as well as melancholy.
Just a few turns back she was speaking publicly to the adoring cheers of her loyal subjects, and today
she was in cryogenic freeze waiting to be entombed in the Chamber of the Queens along with her ancestresses.
There was a very somber mood in the air...

The following morning as the three suns broke forth in the sky over Toth, a small band of Tothians
gathered at the palace port and boarding a small armored combat shuttle dressed in black uniforms carrying
weaponry and extended travel supplies, the Queen came out from a small unassuming doorway which
materialized from a palisade in the wall nearest the shuttle.
Dressed in the same type of uniform, other than her immistakable size, she looked very much like the
rest of her Tothian party.
Not a word was spoken as they entered and took positions on the webbing along the hull wall.
The dull gray unremarkable looking snub nosed shuttle emitted a mechanical droning sound and
wheeled off to the west into the sunrise toward the thick humid inland jungles where it was best hoped there
would be signs of the missing royal court.
As the ship droned along near the tops of the trees, wistinars dashed upwards and away from the
approaching vessel in instnctual alarm, their beautiful luminous spirals emitting sparkles of light which cascaded
behind them, resultant of a bio-mechanical form of chemical rocket propulsion which made them spin and thus
drove them like a helicopter in any direction they so chose to go.
Some people would pay good money to come from the east just to see this spectacular sight as the
wistinars in this region were the last remaining in the wild and protected by royal decree here in the jungle
preserve nearby the Northern palace. Invisible high energy shields protected a bast range of the jungle set aside
just for these mystical and beautiful creatures often referred to as "spiral angels."
As the ship passed the barriers the beautiful light show of the wistinars ceased abruptly and intermittent
holes in the jungle appeared where people had come to collect rare types of wood which grew only in in this
region. Thankfully this wood was imperially marked and could only be collected on a tree by tree basis with royal
permission by tree. Usually only the sick and damaged trees were harvested, keeping only the strongest most
beautiful trees to continue to produce new seedlings.
The royal family had always been conscientious of their duty to the planet, albeit much of the most
radical improvements began in the reign of Queen Pantera Karin, and even then mostly at the behest of then
Princess Delicata.
The now Queen was very concerned about preserving beauty, health, vitality, tradition and culture along
with the advancements of technology.
For this reason, most of their world had a very ancient appearance and most of their technology held to
very traditional styling.
The only real deviation from this was combat vessels, made solely for war, they were made in all
practicality and with prudence, paying more attention to their function than their appearance.
As such, they had none of the amenities one expected from Tothian vessels of daily use.
As the vessel sped across the jungle toward Estal, the land became flatter and the trees began giving
way to lowlands and some small bodies of water appeared. Various flying animals passed beneath on occasion,
mostly stirred by the passing shuttle, but some just flying on their daily vigil to capture food as well.
Queen Delicata reflected upon this past while resting along with the others in transit but soon enough,
the shuttle began slowing and descending to a landing pad in Estal where they would then disembark and go
forward on paw.

Estal was a jungle community inhabited mostly by Estats who immigrated here to work the jungle for its
natural resources, as well as the many who performed various physical skills for the Tothians, and a small troupe
of entertainers who performed every night under a large canopy of synthetic material doing various feats of
athletic abilities on special stage rigging designed to maximize their freedom to perform stunningly beautiful feats
of gymnastic ability.
The queen had never once been to one of these events in person, but had heard of them often. It was
her hopes to some day have the free time from her monotonous life as a royal princess to go here, but it seemed
even farther from likely now that she had suddenly been elevated to the position of queen.
"Life is just cruel like that..." she thought to her self in resignation...
Upon departing the vessel, the pilot locked up the hatch by remote and bowed toward the Queen.
The pilot would spend her time looking over the vessel and along with the ship's mate make certain
everything remained in top working order.
Nodding her acknowledgment, she and the band of 12 troops straightway proceeded to an elevator on
the side of the landing pad and rode to ground level some 100 meters below.
At ground level there was much astir on the streets because of their presence, not that it had been
announced, but simply the fact one can not simply hide an incoming war shuttle.
People stood and stared, often panting from the heat, some cubs ran here and there chasing each other
as children often do, some people were hawking goods near the port, tourism being a decent means for some to
earn an income.
Disregarding the stares of Estatian onlookers the 13 armed Tothians paced off toward the edge of the
clearing where the barrier fields were humming with a faint but distinct red glow.
In minutes they arrived and with a press of a button the glow blinked out between two posts where a
road broke through the jungle northward meagerly withstanding the relentless press of the jungle to retake it and
everything else nearby.
As they strolled along the small road, cracked in places, covered with thick but traffic beaten roots, the
queen mused that it was about time to have these roads maintained and repaired.
They walked forward expecting no less than 3 days journey to where they would next rest and gather
potential intelligence.
They were aimed toward an ancient Tothian of great power in foresight and far sight who was only
known of by the royal family, and who had a sworn duty to serve with their special skills only those who were
given the great seal, the seal imprinted on the forehead of the royal family at birth or at mate bonding to a born
member of the royal family.
Reflexively, Queen Delicata rubbed her forehead on this scar literally burned into her head by a special
laser. In the wound the rare and priceless gem powder of the Achthural Stone was robotically injected as well as
specific chemicals which would encourage the scarring while preventing skin pigment to form. The result is a
beautiful glowing sapphire fire like light emitting from the foreheads of the royal family.
Too, she remembered the day so long ago when Neptune had so adoringly yet presumptuously
pronounced she would some day too bear this "Star of Achthural" as Queen Delicata's life mate. This made
Delicata a little sad, especially knowing how crushed Neptune was, but love being love, what can one do?

It began to rain as they slow marched along the road, and various flying creatures passed in and out of
view. It was tiny pest type creatures buzzing around looking for a meal of blood which irritated the most.
As they passed an outcropping of broken up rocks where the trees were thinner, something very large,
long and snake-like but more like a folded spring leapt up from behind some rocks at the group's point soldier.
The soldier reflexively swatted it away as if it were a a mere insectoid. Even being smaller than the
queen, Tothians were still not something to confront in the wild.
The strange folded animal bounced off the root covered roadway bleeding purple blood from claw marks
along what amounted to its flank, folded its self quickly and sprang back into the clutch of rocks from which it had
just come.
The constant drizzle and gray sky gave the queen time to think.
"Its just for a short time Suzanna," she has said to her beautiful Tigress, "I have to head up a delegate to
Corbin and oversee the transferal of a few documents and I will hurry right back."
Those were her parting words as she left for Corbin on a routine diplomatic trade mission 3 sets ago.
She had been on her way back from this easy mission when the message came in over subspace that
the Eastern Palace had been raided by somebody using cloaked mechanized body armor and that the palace
was taken completely by surprise.
 The Estat did not have such technology and openly denied being part of this, but it was public
knowledge the smoldering resentment many Estat held against the Tothians.
Memories of their warm embraces, playful picnic outings, tender kisses, all flooded in and brought a tear
to her eyes.
Now she may never see her beloved Tigress again...
"This is no way for the Queen Pantera to behave" she reprimanded her self...
Stiffening her resolve, she straightened her gait to that of a true queen and kept marching.

Arriving at the small cave entrance of the home of the Sacred Tothian known to must simply as Two-
Fang, the queen ordered her troops to stand outside in a semi-circle guarding the entrance.
Invoking a secret sacredly held ritual, she incanted some words of her native dialect which few even of
the Tothian race even knew, and those mostly the royal family and the priesthood.
A shimmering blue light congealed inside the cavern about a hand span from the outer edge, and
through this she stepped, vanishing immediately.
Inside was a vast white chamber with parapets high up along the walls.
Holograms floated at even intervals along a wide expanse of open white marble floor.
Above were arranged seven bluish white lights, six around a central one.
In the midst of the expanse was an island console which rose up in concentric circles to about her own
height, or about twice the height of a normal Tothian.
In the midst of this elevated console sat a very regal looking Tothian who very intently gazed into
monitors, glanced rapidly around the room at holograms, pecked at keys with deft clawstrokes and at the same
time casually greeted the queen as if it were a servant.
"You have a daunting task ahead of you little one..."
"Your words are not encouraging ancient one, tell me what is known."
Sighing softy, Two-Fang fixed her gaze on Delicata, "That's the real problem. They appear to have
technology far advanced of anything we have dealt with in the past."
"From the instant they appeared in the palace until the instant they vanished with the court, we obtained
mostly blurred outlines indicating that even in their un-cloaked state, they had some form of light bending or
phase shifting device operating the entire time.
"Everything about this stinks.
"The palace guards seemed unable to hit them with energy weapons, this device apparently allows them
to dodge what should have been direct hits.
"The guards do not carry particle or projectile weapons for the safety of the court..."
"And you think they knew this and took advantage of that fact?" the queen followed up.
"Precisely."
"We have particle and projectile weapons with us now, but what use they are to us is anybody's guess,
particularly when they can't be recognized by their appearances, DNA or any known technology in our
databases."
"I hate to admit this, but for the first time in my life, I've been utterly useless to you my-"
"Nonsense elder!" the queen rebuked, "This is the first time I have had a real challenge in my life and
without your critical information, I would be beyond lost in this situation.
"I can't imagine the origin of this technology but I can see now that what is needed is something not
technological but something spiritual and ethereal."
"I'm not surprised you feel that way." the elder mused with barely concealed excitement, "I have
something to show you which I have been working on for some time."

In a smaller, less well lit chamber hung an array of arms and wires and probe like appendages with small
points of light emitting from them.
"This, my queen, is a core essence manipulator."
"You indeed have been busy!" the queen appreciatively admired the device, "but how does it work?"
"It re-writes the molecular encoding structure of individual cells." the elder replied casually, "over time the
original being changes into the new body structure as the cells gradually adjust.
"I call it the 'regenesis device' because in essence, even though one is fully adult, it in many ways is like
being re-born, only at a recalibrated rate allowing for daily living so as to not interfere with what one is already
doing just to take time off to transition.
"Thus far, I have only had my self to experiment on, and a few jungle creatures of no account..."
"You should not test such equipment on your self elder," the queen reproved, "If anything went wrong,
there would be nobody to correct the problem."
The elder chuckled softly, exposing her unusual set of double upper canine fangs, the feature which
earned her the distinctive name.
"Don't worry about me little one, I have only done what it took to keep my self in the best health, nothing
more, and certainly nothing extreme."
"What would you consider 'extreme' elder?" the queen asked pensively.
Chucking again, "Little one, have you ever wished you has stronger spiritual powers...?"

As the cabinet adjourned in the upper concessions room, General Neptune collected documents and
memorandums from the various members of staff and their servants before heading to the dining hall for noon
meal.
Arial Dashtrider was waiting outside in the hallway and when the majority of the members of cabinet
passed outward through the double doors into the hallway, she quietly let herself in.
Neptune was not lax to see the tawny, silvery lynx in a shimmering silky gown sway toward her with
immistakable intentions of romance...
"And here you are again..." Neptune sighed...
"And here I am again..." Arial replied with mirth in her voice.
"Why do you keep pursuing me?" with a cold yet resentful tone.
"Why do you keep evading me?" came the insolent but playful reply, "Are you waiting to see if the queen
gives up this senseless pursuit of her long lost tigress?"
"Never speak like that again!" Neptune barked harshly, hackles raising, tail trembling.
"Ohhhhh..." purred the Lynx, "Did I strike a nerve?"
"I'll strike more than that if you do not cease insulting the Queen Pantera or her betrothed!" and with that
Neptune stalked brusquely away and off to lunch with a deep low growl in her wake. "Estats!" she spat under her
breath...
Arial giggled mischievously.

Deep in a dark chamber, howling in remorseful dismay, eyes swimming in tears lay the Tigressa
Suzanna Malika Antessa Hallavy, bruised and bleeding, chained to the bare cold hard floor.
It had now been 2 sets since being captured and brought here.
Her fangs and claws bared, it was pointless because her captors were in mechanized armor bearing
heavy weapons while she lay stripped nude face down spread-eagle.
Pulling against the shackles only brought pain and chafed more, but her animal instincts were overriding
her logical mind at the moment and she reflexively strained at them.
She refused to eat, speak or look at the guards.
Today was different because some new personage had arrived and stood nearby inspecting her naked
body making her feel so much more filthy and ashamed.
Somewhere in the shadows a very evil sounding voice chuckled in ice cold and hateful mirth.
"Oh you carnal carnal beasts you." came the self righteous tones of this unknown being in a tone utterly
alien to the Tothians or the Estat.
"You think your selves to holy and so good and so pure, but you're just walking beasts each and every
one of you." this voice was only angering Suzanna more.
"You piece of stinking shit!" she roared back.
"Oh you speak..." came in a very oddly contemplative tone.
"You will rot in the lowest depths of Kin-To!" she continued unabated, tears streaming down her face,
snarl unabated, hair all awash with sweat and humidity in the dank chamber.
"Oh my my my the kitty is upset..." came the voice now in a condescending tone, "I should give you a
ball of string to play with perhaps to cheer you up..." followed by ice cold laughter fading into the distance, cut off
by the whirr and crash of a heavy metal door.
"Please my love, please..." she sent forth with all her psionic strength in hopes her Queen would hear
and find her.

Delicata jerked awake from a terrible dream soaking in cold sweat, panting and growling lowly.
Her guard sentry spun to look upon her, "My queen!" she whispered in alarm.
"Never mind me," she replied between pants, "I'll be ok."
"Yes my queen." the sentry replied pensively.
Others had quickly stirred reflexively as catlike creatures are wont to do, but nobody else dare utter a
word and all of them gently lay back forcing themselves to not think about the potential strain their queen was
experiencing, even though in a manner, they too were suffering as well, for everybody lover their queen from
even long before she was coronated, and they loved her betrothed Suzanna as well.
There would be no real rest until this was resolved.
 As all thirteen moons rose in the western sky, Delicata sat up and gazed upon them in a most of muted
colors, depending on their mineral and ecological consistencies, often considered "The Lucky Thirteen" because
it was very rare to see all 13 of them in the night sky at the same time, Delicata looked around at her
companions and softly spoke it aloud... "The Lucky Thirteen."
Suddenly everybody sat up.
"You have all been awake listening to me." she said flatly in mater of fact manner.
A host of voices began apologetic protests but she cut them off, "We are the lucky thirteen."
This immediately caught everybody's breath.
Before they could think of anything to say she continued, "There was once a legend that a warrior
huntress spirit was born on each of these moons...
"And in the time of terrible trouble, these spirits would inhabit Tothians and lead the people to peace and
safety again."
A quiet, but hopeful murmur softly arise for the other 12, "I think this is one such time."
"We Tothians have come to a point where something new and evil has come upon us, something alien
and invisible.
"We need to rely on the thirteen warrior spirits to guide and strengthen us by the power of Vashti that we
may prevail.
"For this reason, I dedicate each one of us here tonight under these thirteen moons to be 'The Lucky
Thirteen'." looking around her with new resolve and a calmed sense of focus, "Let us all get some rest now."
With that, the whole of them all softly laid back down, a gentle purring tone embraced the camp falling
off one by one as they returned (save for the sentry on duty) to graceful sleep.
The last one to return to sleep was Delicata.
"I'm coming for you my love, hold in there..."

Neptune was busier than usual with the flurry of speculative business transactions because as the
security assessment was published to the cabinets of many outlying systems, orders for improved security
technologies flooded into the ministries of science and defense.
This became a bureaucratic nightmare.
Requisitions, documentation, meetings, travel, some times working entire turns and more without sleep.
And this Arial, only making it worse, pursuing as if in heat!
Neptune growled in response.
Arial was always trouble.
From a servant to a courier to a staff aide with clear aspirations for position. Arial was nothing less than
pure walking ambition.
Neptune could 'see with one eye' that this one was nothing but trouble and if there were a justifiable
reason, she would have had her banned from the palace permanently.
On top of that, Arial had a bizarre and unnatural attention for Tothians. Not just for power either. She had
passed by Arial's quarters as a child and seen Arial's room, filled with posters of Tothians of less noble demeanor
posing in very suggestive manners. From early on it was rumored she had been defiled and not only that but by
a famous Tothian who was now in exile for similar behavior.
Arial was shameless. She was ruthless. There was nothing she would not do if it advanced her personal
goals.
Neptune wished mostly that Arial would chase after somebody else..."ANYBODY else!"
Sighing and growling, she resumed her work reading a thick manual on cloaking technology in hopes to
see something, anything, which might lead to a means to defeat this.
The problem was, this could not be by any means certain to be the same means of cloaking.
There was no way to even know what race or species may have developed it or from where they came.
With so little to go on, it was only that much more stressful when the silver pelted Lynx kept interrupting
on an almost turn by turn basis with unwanted passes and clearly sexual advances.
"I just wish this would end soon so I can take a very long vacation some place far far from here and this
disgusting Arial!!!"
Rubbing her eyes, she laid the manual down and propped her claws before her gazing off into the room.
"You don't think your telekinetic powers may not be the solution?" came the clear cut question for the
annoying voice.
"Huh?"
"Its well known how telepathically capable Tothinans are..." purred Arial entering the room, "I think you're
clearly relying far to much on your civilized mechano-technical gadgetry and too readily ignoring your animal
spirit..."
"Oh...Vashti!" shaking her head both in disgust at the speaker and also at her self for not seeing it.
 Rubbing her face in exhaustion, "I hate it when you're right..." sighing.
"That's why they keep me around." the lynx playfully giggled, "I'm an indispensable fountain of wit and
wisdom!"
Neptune rolled her eyes.
"Oh my my..." she continued to shamelessly giggle, "I think I should be valued for my other fountains
even more though..."
"GET OUT!!!!" Neptune bellowed standing straight up and jamming a claw toward the doorway.
Arial sullenly slunk out the door, knowing she had pushed too far again with the blatant sexual
overtones.

Suzanan jerked into consciousness at the sound of a scream.

From a nearby chamber something terrible was happening to one of the choir and the evil words of the
strange voice gave her just the worst foreboding...
"I have to be strong for these girls!" she thought to herself, "I have no idea how, but I MUST find a way
to get us out of here alive and pure-!!!" with a sickening feeling of dread, "if its not to late!"
"I have to eat. I have to be strong. I have to survive!" she steeled her will and opted to eat the disgusting
pale pasty goo in the bowl before her.
She had to fight off the gag reflex. The disgusting taste brought tears to her eyes but she made herself
swallow the nasty goo all the same.
The guard chuckled from behind the helmet of the mechanized suit with contempt and apparent triumph.
"You beasts will become his lordship's personal pets in time. I think in time you'll grow to appreciate it."
She glared at him with vitriol but refrained from even growling.
"He has a fancy for beasts after all..."
With these words, the cold realization came across her: the voice crying out in the other room was
somebody being raped!
Somewhere within her came a new surge of animal power she had never before realized...The bowl
before her began ever so slightly to tremble and lightly dance around on the floor before her... She has never
before known that she had telekinetic powers and the sight surprised her and snapped her back into her normal
state of mind so suddenly the guard never had time to realize what had just happened.
But Suzanna did!
"I know what I can do! I know what I can DO!!!" the elation in its self was new strength in and of its self.

Delicata re-entered the lair of Two-Fang with her mind made up.
"Elder," she opened with, "My mind is made up. I want to go forward with this as far as it can possibly go
and right now."
With a surprised look, "Queen! There is a lot of unknowns-!"
"I don't care." she cut her off resolutely, "I know there is a risk to any new technology, but there is an
enemy out there we know nothing about who is presently beyond our abilities to defend our nation or our families
against. As a queen I can not allow that to be. Mot even to save my own life."
"You have your mother's resolve little one," Two-Fang replied with resignation, "I shall do for you as you
have requested."
"Thank you..."
"Don't thank me before it works my queen," she warned, "so far, results are slow and outcomes
uncertain at best."
"It worked on you-"
"I have merely cleaned up errors in my own codes thus far, activated a few segments of unused code
which proved helpful, but again, nothing astonishing"
"So how do you know how well it works?" suddenly becoming less sure of her idea.
"Let me show you."
They went not into the chamber with the device but into a subterranean world which very much
resembled the outside jungle, but one could look in on it through large observation windows.
As they descended many hundreds of meters to the floor of the chamber by hover pad, at the base they
followed a path to a small hut.
In the hut was a happy little cub sleeping by a warm hologram fire.
"Who is this?" the queen reflexively inquired.
"This is Murkah"
"Murkah? What a strange name for a Tothian..." the queen frowned.
"Murkah is my child"
"Child-?"
 "Dream child to be more exact,"
The queen was indeed puzzled. The elder was alone and far beyond the years of cubbing, so how could
she have produced a child at such an old age and by her self?
"I can answer that question my queen, and simply."
"You-"
"Yes, that too, is a result of inactive code being turned on."
"So- we-"
"Yes my queen, essentially we all can. In fact so too can Estats, but not nearly to such a degree as we
can." in a manner of lecturing tone she proceeded, "Their inherent source code is just enough different from ours
to prohibit certain neurological patterns we associate with the higher essential spiritual powers.
"They can never be much more than the illusionists and tricksters they are now."
"But..."
"But we can go places to nearly god-like powers."
"Wow......"
"Keep your tongue in your mouth little one," the elder chuckled, "Its a slow process and needs a lot of
refinement to perfect.
"If you today got 'the full treatment', it would take thousands of years for these traits to express
themselves."
"I'm still willing to take the chance that anything will be better than nothing..." the queen persisted calmly.
"I can't disagree with you there, but I can say this, your children-"
"Children..." she blurted out unconsciously because it was such a far thought from her mind at this time
in her life.
"Yes, children little one, now pay attention, because some day you will have them.
"When you do have them, they will come in a way they have never come to Tothians before."
"How so?" the queen was puzzled.
"Like I said before: I dreamt Murkah into existence."
"You wha-???" incredulous.
"Trust me little one," she said in a rather mater-of-fact manner, "Nobody was as surprised as me!"
Turning to the sleeping cub who simply popped awake with the biggest beaming smile Delicata had
remembering seeing in her life and leapt up into Two Fang's open arms purring loudly.
"She's 100% telepathic. You need not speak to her, she reads our minds flawlessly. She will
communicate with images, emotions and the like rather than in words, so it takes a little bit to get used to..."
"Murk-" she began but suddenly she gasped as images flooded into her mind from the exuberant cub, "-
uuuuuhhhh..." staring blankly transfixed breathing shallowly, she was enrapt with this new method of
communication.
What seemed like a thousand seasons was only in reality a few blinks, but it was like nothing she had
ever experienced before.
"WwwwwwwwOW!" she gasped in amazement, "ASTONISHING!!!"
Two-Fang lightly chuckled, "That's not all of it either."
On que, Murkah dashed outside in a flash and flew up into the air where she hovered effortlessly a good
10 meters from the ground like a little angel, her little dress fluttering in the artificial breeze of the ventilation
system.
Again on que, the cub vanished with a small 'whump' and re-appeared 20 meters to the left with a
'thump'.
"Teleportation!!!" the queen gasped in child-like delight.
"It gets better..." purred the proud new mother Two-Fang.
Again, on que, the cub lifted up some soil, by telekinesis and refined it into its basic elements purely by
thought and formed a beautiful flawless blue diamond from the carbon while converting the iron, manganese,
cobalt, nickel, and a little of the carbon into a perfect and beautifully sculpted stainless steel ring already
perfectly for to the queen's ring finger. Surrounding the diamond were 12 small flawless sapphires. the number
13 was glowing in radium from within the diamond.
"Vashti must be pleased!!!" the queen gasped in exultation...

Neptune had found time to get away for a couple of hours and took an armored shuttle out of the city
toward the mountains.
It was not as pleasant as the jungle, but it was less likely anybody would think of looking for her here.
As she left the shuttle and pilot on standby, she walked down from the flat spot the pilot had found for
touching down toward a crystal clear stream running down from the mountain's melting snow. Every dark it
would snow here and every light it would melt, turn after turn, year after year, returning through the jungle and
some of it off toward the ocean, the cycle was endless.
The water here was so pure, and the swift free flow made a distinct gurgling sound she found so
relaxing. On occasion a marine animal would pass by, and today not being an exception, this one was a very
tasty type and she leapt right in after it fully clothed.
With an exhilarating rush, the cold water shocked her senses, but not enough to keep her from landing
her prey.
Surfacing with an exuberant and joyful gasp, she paddled back to shore with lunch in hand.
Luckily the radios are waterproof.
She radioed the pilot to come join her for lunch of fresh cashtillion.
Despite the quizzical look at her wet clothes, the pilot politely said nothing and simply smiled at first.
Neptune smiled back and giggled and purred while splitting the cashtillion with her blade.
"Its nice to get out on occasion," the pilot mused softly.
"Oh, yes..." Neptune cooed in delight sinking her fangs into the light, cool sweet meat of the marine
animal, "I can't even tell you!"\
Despite the fact that Tothians don't actually blush the way one might think, the reputation of Arial was by
no means a guarded palace secret.
"Oh..." Neptune chuckled, "I don't suppose I have to, huh?" playfully nudging the pilot with her elbow.
Rolling a little with the nudge, the pilot shyly looked down smiling softly.
"By the way," Neptune asked quite informally, "What's your name?"
The pilot stammered in shy surprise, "Pu-pu-pu-pu-"
Neptune broke out laughing hysterically.
The pilot was deeply embarrassed.
As Neptune came up for air the pilot was setting down the unfinished cashtillion and rising to go back to
the ship.
"Waiiiiiiiiiiit..." Neptune pleased, "I'm sorry... come back here. I didn't mean any disrespect..."
The pilot stopped in mid turn and with a sad eyed look turned back toward Neptune.
"Really!" she pleaded, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes, "I'm really very sorry to have
embarrassed you, but it was so CUTE! I've never seen anybody react like that!"
The pilot was visibly shaken but she sat back down by the unfinished cashtillion on the rock and looked
slightly upward at the larger Neptune.
"I'm afraid..."
"Of me?" inquired Neptune incredulously, "what have they been telling you in the hangars?"
"Just...its just..." she could not say, she was flustered because she secretly admired the great General
Neptune of the royal high guard.
"Relax, relax, I'm not that bad..." she reached out and touched the cheek of the pilot who almost fainted
on the spot.
She began to blubber and cry like a cub
"Awwwww" Neptune was touched and she leaned over and embraced the young pilot, "Lucky I'm
already soaked!"
This made the pilot begin to giggle and soon they were both giggling.
"Oh..." Neptune suddenly blurted out almost in an irritated manner, "I could have simply looked on your
badge!"
"Pusheena. A very beautiful name, its one of may mother's favorite flowers."
*The Pusheena is a delicate, spindly but complex flower which glows violet in the dark and lives mostly
on insectoids it traps. It is highly valued in the jungle as it keeps away many flying pests.
Pusheena was speechless.
"Oh relax, I'm just a big kitten..." Neptune continued...."Rawwr..." she said playfuly.
Pusheena smiled and leaned her head on Neptune's slowly drying chest.
Neptune had to admit, she was a little bit smitten for this one somehow...

When the guards dozed off, which they tended to do soon after arriving in the cell, (apparently their
race/species was in much greater need of sleep than Tothians or Estats) she began using this time to practice
moving the bowl around and make.
Every now and then a sickening and outraging scream of pain could come and often followed by
whimpers of pain and shame.
Suzanna used her primal inner rage as power to drive her to push her skills to their limit each moment
she had.
In between would come the bowls of vile goo which she learned how to block the taste from so that she
could manage to survive long enough to free herself and her choir.
 As she got to where she could effortlessly lift and move the bowl any way she wanted, the only next item
in the cell was the heavy metal weapon the guards had.
She knew the weapon made a lot of noise if improperly moved, but she had to take a risk, so she began
with simply lifting it straight up a little at a time.
Over the passing turns, she grew more and more confident and a little at a time she would bring the
weapons over, visually inspect them and attempt to discover how they worked.
She had never been a mechanical type, electrons were her specialty, but right now, 'any port in a storm'
was the rule of the moment.
One time she accidentally lost concentration when a scream came and a part snapped back into its
resting position, but the guard only snorted a little and continued to snooze, ignorant that she had his weapon
before her.
One thing that came clearly to her was that a combination of small internal pieces worked so that if one
applied pressure with the paw, they could begin a chain reaction of events leading to a function which propelled
small metal pieces from a hole in the end pointed at an enemy, much like a weapon from home, but blockier, less
refined and more brutal.
In time she would have to also figure out the small pieces of the shackles holding her painfully swollen
and infected paws.
Luckily she figured out early on how to stop the blood flow, but there was something in her now which
made her feverish and this was definitely not good.
Fever was what most often killed Tothians.

As Delicata observed the cub, she felt heart warmed and somewhat lost track of time and began to
immerse herself in the life of this amazing little creature.
Murkah would dash around chasing air-fish as they would leap from puddle to puddle in search of the
very small insectoids they lived on. For Murkah this was not like other cubs who would run on the ground
because Murkah would fly around as graceful as a marine mammal in the ocean and simply swoop down on the
wiggling little creatures. They had no chance against this amazing little predator.
Delicata rememberes how as a child she tried catching them with bad results and how Neptune could
easily leap and catch them in her mouth.
The bony little creatures really had little to them, not very tasty, more like a wriggly crunchy noodle.
"You seem to be very absorbed with Murkah." pointed out Two-Fang, snatching Delicata back from her
reverie, "Some day little one, you too...some day.
"But right now," she slowly shook her head in emphasis, "Now is not the time for day dreaming my
queen, you have a lot to do and a very little time to do it in.
"Come with me, We need to get this done so you and your troops can get about the business of rescuing
Suzanna and the court."
They took the hoverboard up to the exit and Delicata embraced Murkah before leaving her private little
world.
They walked in silence to the room with the device and in silence Two Fang hooked all kinds of leads to
Delicata from head to toe claw.
With the adjustment of some keys and dials, a humming filled the air with a sound almost like a choir of
angels singing and the little lights began to blaze with blinding power...

When Neptune returned to the palace, dry again, she was walking with a much springier gate and
almost appeared to glow.
The morning's unexpected turn of events just seemed to change how everything looked.
People noticed it too.
Especially Arial.
For the first time ever, the smile and frown were on the other sides of the table.
As Neptune was pleasantly purring and reading manuals like it was her life's one desire, Arial rather than
prancing into her office uninvited like usual, came and leaned against the doorway looking as sullen as if
somebody had stolen her favorite toy.
"What?" Neptune jovially jabbed at her, "No slinky assault on 'The General' today?"
"A common foot soldier..."
"A common servant..."
Arial winced at that one.
"Not jealous are you?"
As she spun away, long silver hair flailing, she threw back, "We'll see..." a distinctive growling undertone
in her furiously jealous little Lynx voice...
 Claws extended and retracted reflexively as Arial furiously stalked down the hallway, tail inescapably
thrashing back and forth angrily and rigidly with each step, "She doesn't deserve her!!!" came a venomous hiss.
"I heardddddddd that..." Neptune's voice came softly wafting down the hallway after her...
Ducking as if being batted over the head, Arial frowned grumpily looking back over her shoulder and
continued stalking away.

The time had finally come.

Suzanna had mastered the mechanism inside the shackles.
She was feeling quite feverish, but for all of that, she continued to hold out and remain clear headed.
She knew if she did not do something soon however, she would die without medical attention.
The fates of her choir was clearly in bad shape as well. Every night long low moans and sobs echoed
through the ventilation shaft.
She just anted a chance to kill the piece of alien shit who had committed all these atrocities, but she
knew that the only real option was escape, if they would be so fortunate.
As the night guard finally fell into a deep sleep and the sobbing faded to a lull, she silently opened the
shackles.
Upon attempting to stand however, the full effect of the fever made its self felt. She nearly collapsed
again, the room was reeling and her heat exploded into agony.
Stifling a scream of pain, she crouched down and took long deep breaths.
If the guard awoke and sounded any alarm or operated that suit, she was dead.
Carefully focusing, she remained crouched and levitated the weapon, drawing it to her self.
Since she knew the weapon ejected the slugs with a lot of sound, she had to dispatch the guard some
other way.
With little time to think, she simply lunged forward and caught his armor plated throat in her mouth.
Even weakened and feverish, a Tigress Tothian was far more than a sleeping alien of this species could
deal with. Apparently the powered armor was only powered on when there was a perceived threat. Remaining
powered on would drain them needlessly under most circumstances and they usually started up quickly enough.
In this case, thankfully, not quite quickly enough.
The neck of the alien snapped under the power of Suzanna's fangs and the body slumped like a wet
cloth with the soft exhale of death.
The trickle of blood that crossed Suzanna's tongue almost sent her into a blood rage. As much as it
could in some situations be an advantage, in this one, it was only certain death and she used her will and her
powerful intellect to keep her mind focused.
With a little more figuring and examination, she soon worried the latches from the armor free and in
minutes was in the armor and for all to see looked mostly like a normal guard.
The suit was not cut for a Tothian of course, and her gait would surely be wrong, but in the quiet dark, it
would be enough.
The next trick would be when the guards changed.
One clearly could not open the door from inside and the weapons could not penetrate them either.
She simply chained the naked alien face down in the hopes it would not be extremely evident on first
glance until it was too late.
Right on time, the door began whirring open and just like she expected, the next guard came over to
shake her awake.
Only upon reaching down to shake her, she in turn reached up and broke the guard's neck.
She knew this armor was valuable so she stripped this alien as well and carried everything out with her
in her arms.
As she looked up and down the dark hallways, it became apparent one other problem: each cell had its
own guard.

Delicata was floating...floating in a sea of white light...euphoria...peace...calm, tranquil harmony...

And then it ended.
Suddenly her eyes popped open and she remembered where she was.
"Interesting feeling, isn't it?" Two Fang chuckled.
Delicata looked around in wonderment, "Indeed!"
"Be careful," Two Fang warned, "One can become addicted to this thing."
"I see!"
"Do you feel any differently"
"Well," she mused, "I could attribute that to the device..."
"You would be correct," the elder replied, "However, there should be some improvements you will detect
within the first few changes (* hours essentially, based on changing guards, not 60 minute time increments but
their equivalent for Toth) because I set up some of the less radical ones to begin rapidly."
She did seem to be a little lighter, more nimble feeling, but not so much as one would suddenly attempt
to leap over the jungle canopy or anything... Just a lightness and freshness in her step.
The first thing you will experience is your endocrine system will begin operating in a new fashion, and
over time new chemicals will begin to form in your body which will continue to progressively advance all the other
changes and support those already in place.
"So are there any negative side effects I should be aware of?"
With a chuckle, "Its kind of late to be asking that isn't it?"
"Not if this is reversible,"
"It is reversible, but I can't be for sure if there are any long term side effects, because I have not had
enough time to study the results nor have I taken it as far as you chose to go.
"I do know that anything that can go wrong will, so be certain if I've overlooked anything, eventually it will
show up on its own.
"Lets just hope that if it comes to that, we can catch it in the act and prevent it from advancing to a
serious point.
"One can not dance with Vashti and expect to come out unchanged..."
With a sigh, Delicata agreed.
"Well then little one, it would appear that at this point, it is time for you to go forward on your journey,"
with paws crossed in a more stately reverent pose, "I know you will keep me up to date as developments occur."
"Yes, and thank you for everything."
"It is always an honor and a pleasure." Two Fang bowed and Delicata bowed in response.
Delicata turned and paced away, back to her waiting troops on the surface.

Chapter Two: Into the Lair

Suzanna knew that time was against her on so many levels.
This would not be easy to say the very least.
With little else to do, she took a very bold move.
Setting down the armor and weapons, she quietly slipped into the next open cell where two guards
would be positioned and as fast as possible, she caught the outgoing guard by the throat and snapped it,
keeping him from crashing to the ground.
In seconds, she rounded the corner and dispatched the other. Although this time a gun clattered to the
ground and the prisoner gasped in amazement, there was nobody near enough to realize what had just
transpired.
Knowing only blinks stood between them and death, she unlocked the shackles on the girl and thrust a
suit toward her.
"Put this on now!" she hissed.
The terrified girl complied as quickly as her bruised and trembling body could go.
Stripping the guards of the armor, she instructed the girl to hold it in her arms.
"I need you to wait here, I will be back for you."
Hating to have to leave the girl behind, but knowing there was no other way, she had seen how the
guards used a digital signal to open the doors and as she stepped out, made as if she were just another guard
leaving the cell.
As the girls whimpers were drowned out by the whirring, the passing guard appeared disinterested.
"Fatal mistake." she thought, catching the guard from behind and snapping his neck before he could
respond.
"Now the only problem is that all the other guards are in their cells and these loud doors would surely
awaken them!" she was angry for not thinking of that before, but then she remembered how deeply they would
often sleep since they felt no imminent danger in their position.
"I just have to wait until I can hear the sound of their sleeping." These aliens made a distinct sound when
they slept, not a purr by any means, in fact very annoying. (we call it snoring)
With that, she simply crouched down and rested, and listened.

Neptune got word from Delicata updating her on the progress of the mission, and this also helped her
mood some.
She took lunch more frequently on the mountains these days, along with Pusheena.
 They would go with bathing suits and frolic in the cold mountain water and chase after cashtillions until
they caught one.
They talked a lot, and as time passed, they grew very fond of each other.
One day however, Pusheena had failed to report for duty.
A call was placed directly to Neptune by the hangar control asking if she was aware of any unexpected
causes for the young pilot to be absent from her post.
As potentially embarrassing as this question was, even if something untoward had been going on, cleary
there was by no means enough time to assume something had developed!
In any case, this was indeed alarming for Neptune who did not hesitate to do a more thorough inquiry
and send cadet officers to inquire of her residence in the city below the palace.
The response back was chilling.
"General, it appears that Ensign Pusheena has been poisoned."
"She WHAT!?!?!?" Neptune screamed in shock.
"We have her en-route to the palace medical facility, she appears to be in a coma."
"I'll be there in minutes!" she responded in a rather professional but urgent tone.
Dashing out of her office, she bowled Arial over without even looking back.
As Arial grunted in stunned pain, Neptune was already down the hall and rounding the corner.
With a dazed but malicious look in her eyes, Arial posed a wicked grin and began to laugh under her
breath, "Yes, indeed my General, we shall see..."

Delicata wasted no time in returning to the palace to prepare a general quarters briefing concerning the
disappearance of Suzanna and the court of the Eastern Palace.
Upon arrival, she was also briefed on the mysterious poisoning of a royal palace diplomatic pilot.
"Yes- Right- Understood." She responded to her ear radio, "Have my personal physician handle her and
if its too much for the doctor, have her sent to Two Fang immediately."
"Things have just been going from bad to worse lately!" she moaned to her self.
The day was jam packed with meetings in rapid succession culminating in a large collective staff
meeting between both military and political personnel.
"As you see," she concluded, "With the sudden and mysterious events of the recent counts, it is needful
that security be updated even further.
"As of this moment, I am placing all palaces and official buildings on full alert.
"All single off duty military personnel will be housed in palace and base barracks for their and the staff's
security until we can find the causes of these troubling events."
A soft groan erupted over the room but with the cold hard stare of the queen, it quieted down quickly.
"I do not need to point out to you that in a state of emergency we all have to look out for one another.
"Furthermore, you will have to share service staff duties as well."
This elicited a slightly quizzical tone from the group.
"Immediately as of this moment, I am sending all unnecessary personnel out of the palace.
"Because of this, many necessary personnel will have to do double duty as cool and wait staff for the
indefinite future.
"Furthermore, these duties will be scheduled by General Neptune and manged by her assistant.
"I know you shall all respectfully and dutifully comply and diligently fulfill your duties at optimal levels.
"That is all."
As the group rose to leave, the pained murmuring was much louder and groups were gathered in
bunches discussing the events.
Queen Delicata felt pity for them, but could not compromise any more on security.
That day several shuttles of Estat servants were flown from the palace, some in tears, some with looks
of anger, some looking of absolute despair, others with a mere look of dejection, but not a single happy face
among them.
With a heavy sigh, the queen had their various quarters strip searched for evidence of any wrong doing.
They had already been thoroughly body scanned as they left the palace for the shuttles, that was
automatic. Still, some times things could be carefully smuggled in by other means, it was known that its nearly
impossible to plug security leaks, especially in such a huge operation as a royal palace.
"We will get to the bottom of this eventually," She assured her self, "Eventually..."

As the guards all dozed off into the deep sleep their species was now clearly prone to do, carefully she
worked the doors one at a time, levitating them as much as possible to reduce the sound of the motor strain.
Some of the girls were destroyed mentally and emotionally, others were still strong and clear minded,
The stronger ones helped move the weaker ones along.
 At one point, in a exclamation of surprise, one girl screamed before knowing it was Suzanna.
Fortunately the guard was already dead and other guards were too used to the screams to think it
unusual.
Apparently already some girls were writing in nightmares, three were feverish and appeared in very dire
straits.
With a cool head, despite her own fever, Suzanna progressively located and released all of the girls,
putting all of them in to the suits of armor their captors had worn. Some were tight, some were baggy, they did
their best to adjust but they knew they had little time to do anything about it just now.
Those who could think clearly helped lead the way, carrying the weapons in the fashion they had seen
their captors use. Suzanna just hoped they could make good use of them as well.
When everybody was assembled at the end of the only obvious exit, where another large doorway
blocked their path, it became evident that a new plan of action had to be formulated.
"Madame Suzanna," one girl whispered through her helmet breather, "How do we open this door? We
can't just wait for guard change!"
"I'm working on it," was her only reasonable reply.

Delicata and her 12 guards now publicly deemed "The Lucky Thirteen" now boarded a somewhat larger
vessel bearing the Tothan national markings as a mid-light tactical strike lighter.
"The Nightwish" was captained by a seasoned veteran pilot who has seen the Beltherian war and was
as old as her late mother Queen Karin by a factor of 3 turns difference.
Captain Stonalia was a quiet one, polite, respectful, graceful, beautiful for her years but in a very mature
manner, and very reverent of the crown.
"My Queen," she bowed deeply, "It is an honor to serve you."
"Likewise Captain Stonalia," the queen bowed in return, keeping with the dignified formalities which
often took place in such situations.
"I see you have set course for a rim system, but it would seem-"
"Captain," the queen firmly but with respect interrupted, "This much we know: this is not a technology the
Estat could even develop.
"This technology clearly came from some non-felinius species."
"Yes My Queen."
"As much as it pains me to say we know not where it comes from, it is certain we need to begin where
we cease to know for certainty it did not come from."
"All of our collective intelligence has garnered enough information to prove where it did not come from,
so we have already been able to readily eliminate that much.
"From there, a large portion of the galaxy and outside of it remains in question.
"Let us just pray Vashti graces us with good hunting."
"Aye to that My Queen!" the venerable captain agreed, eyes sparkling like the gems on her uniform.
Turning to her much less ornate team of specialists, she smiled weakly, "Ladies, lets get comfortable, its
a long long ride to Opistar..."
As they all heartily smiled back and turned to the way cabins to unload their rucksacks and prepare for
the evening meal, sub-martial Stuzinak cooly responded, "We'd go to the lowest levels of Kin-To with you if need
be My Queen!"
"Let us hope it never comes to that..." she replied wistfully.
Everybody smiled and purred as they sauntered off to their cabins.

Arial screamed in rage, "DAMN THAT-!!!" but she stopped her self from saying Neptune's name.
General Neptune has assigned her to hygienic maintenance detail.
The terrible thing about it was that she herself had to enforce these work orders.
There was no way she could get away with skipping out on the job because if she tried to fake her
performance of her duties, not only would everybody know, but she would both be suspect of disloyalty and
possibly even connected to the poisoning of that sickening whelp of a pilot what's-her-name...
The girl was sick but not dead.
"Well," she tried to encourage her self, "At least I can't be brought up on murder charges.
"But then, what if she somehow knew...
"No, don't be ridiculous.
"Not a soul saw a thing. There were no witnesses, I had alabi's everything is free and clear.
"She'll recover eventually...or not...and in time Neppy will just have to move on with her life, right back to
me!"
As the days passed, Arial kept a secret tab on the condition of Pusheena, just to know the pulse of the
situation.
On occasion she would collect the gossip in the medical ward, simply absorbing the overall information
on everybody in the royal care without actually inquiring on any one patient. She simply filtered out the chatter
about anybody else...
So one day it was strange to not hear about Pusheena, but she was not able to actually directly inquire.
This was disturbing.
How could she get this information without exposing her direct involvement with the young pilot?

General Neptune was very glum.

Often she had personally visited the comatose Pusheena and even held her hand and spoken to her as
she lay motionless.
As it became more apparent she was going to remain in this situation, she contacted Pusheena's
parents Alibina and Delphi and made quiet arrangements to room Pusheena at their home in her childhood
sleeping quarters.
Often going on her 'usual' lunch breaks to the mountains, she would just clear sensors and direct the
cabin to fly to Pushina's parent's home in the Plains of Yin.
There she would eat fresh cashtillon with her parents and then spend time with Pusheena.
This went on a long time without anybody knowing.
However, as fate would have it, one day, Arial, who was quite suspicious of Neptune's regular outings
had bribed an Estatian machanic to secretly place a tracer cell in a landing pad of the transport and then bribed
another Estatian to use navigational satellite beacons to tract the cell while keeping the identity of the one being
tracked out of the conversation.
So it was no surprise when she found out the geographical destination was registered as a small village
farm in the Plains of Yin owned by the parents of Pusheena.
Seeing as this thwarted her ability to directly learn of the girl's condition, she was furious and set about
to find a way to regain her ability to spy on the helpless whelp who was still stealing her General from her even
on the very edge of death.
"Perhaps if somehow she were to catch a fever..." Arial wickedly thought...