Nakar Gabab Presents

A FanFic Production

Nakar Gabab's

Forsaken Brethren

All quotations of Mogel appear in his work, On Everything

This work and its author are fictional, as are any works not attributed to a Terran

Other quotes attributed to their respective works

All characters that are © Nintendo remain so and are used for a non-profit purpose

Pre-Chapter

"What I am, I am. You can destroy my body, destroy my works, destroy my people, but you cannot destroy the fact that I exist. Or can you?"

-Patrick Mogel, PhD

It began as a simple message. A question, no less, but what it meant was something inexplicable at the time.

"Corneria... Corneria, do you still exist?"

This message was first brought to the ears of Merck Klinden, a mouse working at the Cornerian Department of Interstellar Communications research station somewhere south of the resort city of Carecuk.

She tapped her headset a few times and strained to hear it. The ambiant noise was great, but the words themselves were rather clear.

"Corneria, do you still exist? Corneria, do you... exist?"

"Doctor Grey?" She finally said, puzzled. The aging wolf approached the terminal and noted his assistant's grave look.

"We're getting something from the ana radial... it's a message of some sort."

He nodded and pointed to her headphones. "Let me hear it."

He placed the listening device on. The words floated in quite clearly.

"Corneria? Do you still exist? Do you still exist?"

He returned the apparatus and tuned the message onto the P.A. system of their room. The static was horrid and Merck tuned it out, concentrating on the wavelength that contained their message.

"I think something's up. This's in our language... so it can't be some new race. What is it then?"

Dr. Grey looked at the starmap hologram on a table, rotating it towards the radial in question.

"Could it be a lost cruiser?"

Merck sighed. "All Lylatian ships are accounted for. That doesn't fit the question anyhow. Someone obviously hasn't been around here in a while."

He nodded. "An outpost or colony we forgot?"

She laughed. "Not an outpost, there aren't any in that radial. But a colony? C'mon, the Cornerian Colonial Movement died 100 years ago. The last ship of prisoners and colonists went out well over 5 years before that. There's nothing out there that still belongs to us."

She giggled again and swung her hand. Quite by accident, she turned on her monitor, which was printing something. Both stared at it.

"That's not the same as the audio message..."

It read "THIS IS A COMPRESSED MESSAGE ON SEVERAL WAVELENGTHS. THE STATIC IS NOT STATIC. IF YOU ARE READING THIS, AND UNDERSTAND, PLEASE CHECK WAVELENGTH 3952 AND REDUCE THE SPEED OF THE MESSAGE BY 72%."

Merck looked at the Doctor. Grey closed his eyes and nodded. She complied with the message.

Indeed, the static wasn't static at all, but a longer message. A somewhat Cornerian in accent voice came through.

"The previous message was just to attract your attention. We are well aware of your continued existance, Corneria, much to our own discontents. A century ago you sent us out, told us to wait where we ended up, thrive, and you would soon follow with the government we loved and the society we knew. You did not. Our greatest thinker, the one we admired, came with us, half as a prisoner and half by his own will. Through his works and your faulty judgement we managed to do as you asked, thriving to a state at which we could return to check on what happened to the promises of our fathers. We are no longer Lylatian. We are no longer the same people as you are. And we are returning to show you just what happens when you forsake your brethren."

The message ended. The noise stopped. Merck could not even ferret out the original message. Dr. Grey shook his head and his ears twiched.

"A hoax... certainly a hoax. Th... this means nothing, I'm sure..."

Merck stared at her mentor. "What does happen when we forsake our brethren?"

Dr. Grey stopped coldly. "Child, I'm 87 years old, and when I was a boy there was a saying even older than I was:"

"Forsake your Brethren and Die Alone"

Chapter 1

"Laws for labor clearly state that no one should be forced to work 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. But then, when you're working 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, you usually don't study much law."

-Louis Dreyman, Cornerian Mechanic, Memoirs

"Splash Welder."

Louis's assistant nodded and passed a large tool to the young otter. Sliding out from under his bulldog fighter, Louis slid a pair of goggles over his eyes and made a motion to switch the welding machine on.

His fighter... not really his, as he didn't fly it. He never really wanted to fly anything, but he'd have taken any job over what he had now. The work was grueling, and they taxed him as much as possible. The joys of being a prodigy... he sighed and began welding the panels on the damaged ship.

It had been hit by an asteroid chunk - the worst possible damage in this postwar system. He'd looked forward to the end of the war, a break in the work, a chance to go home. But his ships were still waiting, even now.

He thought of them as his ships the way a mother thinks of her children. He didn't control them, but they were under his eye almost all the time and he was the only one to care for them. Pilots took for granted the vaulable contributions that mechanics such as Louis provided for the Navy. He was only a Lieutenant, nothing serious, but his position was supposedly "senior mechanical expert". In truth, it was something along the lines of "maintenance robot with flesh". The work was all basically done by him, and that would be the way it remained... for a while.

Sparks flew. Metal assimilated into metal. A few minutes later Louis slid out from under his art and mopped his forehead with a dirty shirt. He wondered when there might be two minutes for a shower within the next few weeks... resignedly, he glanced up at the clock.

Five minutes to 2000 hours. Just enough time to replace the tools and get to bed. With a sigh he dismissed his assistant and trudged across the bay, toolbox in paw.

---

"Commander, we are now capable of launching the probe."

The figure, illuminated only in the darkness of the monitor, turned to the meerkat standing at a raised platform, the somber face of his leader lit from below by the starmap showing various arc routes on the way to Corneria. It raised, nodded slowly to him, and returned to its vigil.

The creature pressed a button on his panel.

Deep in the bowels of the ship, lights blared.

PLEASE REMAIN IN POSITIONS holograms flared on about the lower decks. Two large doors opened, the light of a faraway sun glinting on the hull of the probe.

With a screaming rush it flew out of the bay and into the vastness of the void.

---

Fox McCloud laughed and slapped Peppy on his back. The StarFox team had been drilling again, and once more Peppy performed a trick which Fox had yet to emulate.

"Where'd you figure that one? Cut the engines and pull back? You turn straight over! Forget u-turns, that's the way to go there..."

Falco shrugged. "I bet it wasn't that hard."

Slippy disagreed. "It puts tremendous strain on the stick. It's not as bad in space... but here in the atmosphere you pull almost 20 Gs trying it."

Fara smiled. "I bet you couldn't take 20 Gs, Falco."

The bird glared at her, still walking. "Sure I could. I was going to do that one today, but I got caught up in the target drones."

Fox saw an otter mechanic walking briskly into Falco's path. "Uhhh, Falco..."

It was too late. Louis ran headlong into the falcon pilot, littering the floor with tools. Apologetically Louis began retrieving his devices.

"I'm really sorry sir! I'm sure that was all my fault."

"Yeah," Falco agreed, "me too."

"Falco!" Peppy shouted.

"Oh... sorry. It's really my problem. I should've been looking."

Dreyman stared at Falco angrily. "Watch it then. I only get four hours of sleep a day and you've already shaved 2 minutes off of that."

Fara and the others stopped. "Four hours?"

He nodded. "To put it nicely, my job stinks. I suppose you're too busy to see..."

"Not at all." Fox said. The others nodded.

He led them to a wall of lockers, one of which was large and angular. Louis pulled it down off the wall.

"This is my fold-down cot. I sleep on this..."

Slippy noticed the smell of the dirty sheet. "You don't have a pillow?"

"Please, don't make me laugh." He opened a locker beside the bed. Inside were a few engineering books, a worn-down pencil, a stack of unsent letters, and a photograph. Fara removed it, dusted it off slightly, and examined. In it were four otters, built alike.

"Your family?"

He nodded. "Yeah. The big one's my father, that's my mother... and that's my sister Lyla."

Fox nodded. "You're the head mechanic around here, right?"

Louis shrugged. "Yes and no. I'm the one that does the most work, but the Major, Deck Officer Bradman, doesn't let me call any of the shots. Shame too, I have to make all my ship modifications in secrecy."

Slippy perked up. "Modifications?"

Dreyman grinned. "If you've noticed the number of casualties going down, that's because of my work. Extra plating, tweaked shields, engine pods added into little nooks and crannies. No one can ever tell the difference, except your ship got gunned down and suddenly it's back and purring like a kitten, flying like never before. They never think to look here. They don't do that."

Fox was concerned. "They work you this hard? You never get pay, or promotions?"

"Never. See those stacks of paper? I used to use my sleeping time to write home. I never got the chance to send them. Major Bradman wouldn't let me go to the nearest mailpost, and I'm not clever enough to sneak it into his outgoing pile. I'm not paid either. I'll just work until I'm dead, then they'll shovel my pension into some general's party."

Peppy looked at Fox. "You know, Fox, we do need a full-time mechanic onboard the Great Fox. Slippy's fine when we aren't out, but if we do go on a campaign we won't have time between sorties for him to work and get rested up..."

Louis laughed and turned away. "Sure. Humor me. I have to get to sleep, really I do."

Fara pleaded. "No! We've got a lot of sway with General Pepper, he could probably reassign you to StarFox... In fact, I'll go check on it now."

She dashed off. The others surrounded Louis and directed him to Major Bradman's office.

"You'll love it, really." Slippy explained.

"Anything's better than this, I'd bet." Falco commented. Louis sighed.

"If only you knew, sir. You'd really never joke about something like this, trust me."

Fox pointed to the door and smiled. "No problem. We're going to wait out here until Fara comes back. If you get reassigned, I want you to go in there and tell the Major off."

They waited in deathly silence. At long last Fara ran back with a slip of paper. She looked hopeful and happy.

"You got the transfer, Louis! Congratulations, you're officially StarFox's mechanic."

Louis broke down in tears. "This... this really means a lot to me, let me tell you..."

Peppy shoved him to the door. "Forget that. Get in there and give him what's coming!"

Nervously Louis stared at the five who had saved him. Falco made a punching motion.

"You're never going to get another chance to do this, Louis."

He straightened. "Right then." Briskly he approached the door and knocked.

"Come in."

The door slammed shut behind Louis. Fox, Slippy and Fara pressed their ears to the door. The deep voice they heard belonged to Major Bradman.

"What is it Lieutenant Dreyman? This is your off-time. Why are you bothering me now? There are more productive things for you to be doing, like eating and sleeping..."

"...or," Louis snapped back, "getting a transfer."

The Deck Officer laughed. "Ha! A transfer? As far as I'm concerned, and you as well, Mr. Dreyman, you'll be working here your entire adult life."

Something, perhaps the transfer slip, was slammed onto the desk. There was a brief moment of silence, then Louis began speaking.

"Listen to me you raunchy, stupid excuse for a flea-carrier! I'm quitting this goddamn job and I don't care what you think! I've met people who actually think my skills are worth nurturing, instead of exploiting. Someday you'll be licking the crap off my car, Bradman, and I hope you gag on it!"

The door swung open. The StarFox team sat in chairs nearby, looking all to innocent. Louis steppd out, smirking.

"You're right. I don't think they'll ever let me try that again."

Laughing, the group walked towards the second hangar where Great Fox and the Arwings were kept. Fox explained the way things were.

"You can send off your letters now. And we'll show you your quarters - there's room for a dozen crew on the ship."

"I get quarters? You mean with stuff like a bed and desk?"

Slippy shrugged. "Yes, and maybe a computer console and access to the lounge and such."

Fara nodded. "First things first, though... you need a shower and a clothes change. What'll you say to that?"

He offered a greasy paw. "I guess it's Welcome Aboard, eh?"

None of the others shook, but they did shake their heads up and down.

Chapter 2

"What do I learn from solitude? That silence is never incorrect."

-Patrick Mogel, PhD

The cougar guard showed the young mouse into the control room. General Pepper stood at the large windows, watching ships come and go from the base.

"General Pepper, sir?"

He turned. "Yes?"

The guard saluted. "Miss Merck Klinden of The Department of Interstellar Communications. She's here to discuss a message recieved several days ago from what seems to be some sort of returning colony ship."

"Colony ship? After a whole century? That seems preposterous!"

"Perhaps, sir," Merck explained, "but it's very possible that it's a dangerous hoax. I thought I'd take it here, and have you investigate it, just in case it isn't..."

Pepper laughed. "Well I've taken on Andross, what's a little practical joker going to do to me?"

---

The dimly-lit figure at the podium slammed his fist down angrily. The whole of the bridge crew turned and staired. Their commander pressed a button, filling the screen with images of Corneria's control room, viewed from Corneria's own security cameras.

---

Merck finished playing the message. Pepper rubbed his chin and nodded to a lion officer nearby.

"Could you check the archives for colonial period records? I need something on a colony headed into the ana radial."

He turned to her. "Miss Klinden, I believe if we examine our historical records we will know for certain just what kind of hoax this is."

The officer returned a few minutes later, handed a holotape to the General and returned to his console. Sipping coffee and eating a sucker, he slid the tape into the holoprojector. The screen flashed to a date: 4TH QUARTER, 105 YEARS FROM TODAY'S DATE. Merck giggled.

"What timing! 105 years... that would be the final colony launch..."

She hushed. The hologram changed to an image of a meerkat at a stand. He was speaking to a large crowd in front of a ship that, by the day's standards, was huge. Merck noted the frailness of his thin body, yet was amazed by the fire of rage and dedication that burned in his words."

---

"And I want you to know this, my friends. We have reached the point in our evolution at which we have all but eliminated the vices of society - violence, disease and famine. Replication devices produce anything we want, feeding billions. More personal freedoms have given us less of a reason to perform violent crimes. A vaccine currently exists for every known anomaly we have yet suffered, save a select few! But we forget what these wonders that prolong our life will do to our population! It will balloon dramatically, my fellow Cornerians, and our great planet cannot sustain that! True, we have many choices in our own system - pristine Zoness, hardy Fortuna, and rugged Katina. The choices are not endless, however. Would you like to live on Titania? Venom, perhaps? There is, beyond our pathetic system, a multiverse of unimaginable homes for us. Some as good as our fair Corneria - some more difficult, but all conquerable by our people! It will not be easy, and it is true we have lost colonies, but are they gone? Do we know for certain that they are dead, or are they frantically working on a way to contact us? We must continue to support our colonization program. We must not abandon and forsake those brave souls that have already left this world for others! Without support, ladies and gentlemen, this ship behind me will be the last... please, support this most saving of causes."

A voiceover narrator continued, with occasional pictures flashing.

"Despite the rallying of Doctor Mogel, the majority of Corneria did not support the colony program, citing the loss of colonies as 'unacceptable'. It was voted on the evening of the final launch that the program would be instantly terminated. However, Mogel, his wife and his infant son had somehow ended up aboard the ship, and their charsimatic leadership caused the colonists to eject the Cornerian crew and bloodlessly commandeer the ship. Overriding Control, they left without mishap. Although technically capable of downing the rocket, President David Garmines deigned to do so, saying, quote "They can leave as they will, and we will support their mission, but they are taking risks for themselves. It will not be blood on Corneria's hands if anything should happen to the colonists when they reach whatever home they choose."

---

The hologram blipped out. Merck finished her drink and turned to him.

"It seems potentially realistic. There was a colony in that direction."

"We assume there was," Pepper claimed, "but it most certainly failed. They all did. We confirmed the first two and afterwards we stopped confirming. Mogel was a dangerously insane person, we're told. How he managed to sway those right-minded colonists is beyond me."

Sirens began to sound throughout the base. Pepper stood angrily.

"What is the meaning of this!? What's going on here?"

An officer turned from his chair. "Sir, unidentified object appearing on scanners now. We assume it's some sort of satellite, or perhaps a cruise missle of types. We cannot place it well, it has a very low signal."

Pepper nodded. "Deploy Fox and his company."

The flight control officer tapped a few keys. "Orders?"

Pepper thought. "Whatever it is, if it's not one of ours, shoot it."

---

Five Arwings took off into the atmosphere.

"StarFox, you have orders to identify the object appearing at the ana radial. Assuming it is not Cornerian, on the acquisition of an appropriate lock you are ordered to immediately fire upon it. Do you copy?"

Fox nodded. "Copy Corneria. Orders recieved. Falco, Peppy, Slippy, Fara, you take it slow and lock onto the object when you can. Prep Nova Bombs but don't fire. I'll ID the craft on a flyby and give the firing order."

"Roger." Falco noted.

"Over and done." Peppy intoned.

"Right Fox." Slippy said.

"I understand." Fara finished.

Fox engaged his boosters and approached the unidentified object at a fast pace. The others quietly acquired their bomb locks. Fox examined the hull of what appeared to be a large probe. It was dark grey and appeared to be formed from a single panel. Fox circled it several times, searching for marks. He sent an electronic survey into the device and data soon filled his comscreen. Fox nodded.

"Do not fire. Allow the probe to continue on its preset course. It's just passing through, according to it's coordinal instructions."

"But control said..." Slippy pleaded.

"Control is acting on fear. This seems too advanced to be Cornerian, or pirate, or even Androssian. It's something alien. I repeat, turn around and head home."

Disappointed, the locks disengaged. The five Arwings returned to the airspace of Corneria, having defied clear orders to destroy the probe.

Chapter 3

"What I cannot comprehend is their admiration for Fox McCloud. The pilot is brash, pompous and galactically unimportant. The Cornerian's near-worship of this entity presents me with yet more evidence that we have advanced far beyond their comprehension."

-The Diary of Durbin Mogel

The six pilots stood at attention before an extremly angry General Pepper.

"Were your orders not to destroy the probe upon confirmation of its alignment?"

Fox nodded and spoke for the team. "All the same, sir, but the probe appeared too advanced to..."

"I don't care!" Pepper blurted. "It's not for your own ideas that orders are given. You were told to shoot it. You ordered them not to do so."

He waved off all but Fox. "Get out of here. I understand your positions and realize you were obediant at the least. Fox... come with me."

Two guards collared Fox and walked silently behind the fox and the dog as they entered a narrow hall.

"Fox, I understand you've had your moments in the past, but this isn't Andross we're dealing with here."

"Sir, it could well be worse than Andross. Suppose the civilization that sent it is peaceful, but with powerful weapons nevertheless. Were we to destroy their property and start a war..."

"That is not likely to happen. Our colonial movement over a hundred years ago confirmed our suspicions. We're alone, at least the only civilization for many many light years. Fox, after the war you've started to drift. I feel that it's high time for you to cut back some."

Fox was shocked. "You want me to retire?"

Pepper shook his head. "Not precisely. But I do think you need to remain in the base for a good while, training yourself back into fitting service."

Fox couldn't believe what he was hearing. "All due respect, sir, but I don't think you can keep me here."

Pepper opened a door next to them, revealing a small cell. "That's what I expected. Get in there."

Resignedly, Fox allowed the guards to seal him into the small cell while Pepper apologized.

"Sorry to have to do this Fox, but you have to understand that any more rash judgements on your part might force me to court martial you."

The door clicked shut. Fox threw himself onto the cot, enraged. He wanted to cry, and to pound on anything he could, and at the same time end his life. But he could do none of them, for Pepper had cleverly insured there would be no means for such. Instead, he slept.

---

Fox awoke to the sound of the door lock clicking repeatedly. Someone was trying to break the code. He heard a grunt, a rustling sound, and finally a series of clicks and beeps. The door swung open.

"Louis?"

A slightly cleaner Louis Dreyman stood in the doorway with a sack of tools at his feet. He was dressed in a light grey shirt and a flight jacket similar to the rest of the team. The goggles Fox had seen him wearing earlier were still there. He flashed a small keypad device and smiled.

"I got tired of math, so I just broke the lock the easy way, with the electronic encoder\decoder I took from the labs around here somewhere."

Fox rubbed his eyes. "Why are you letting me out?"

Louis shrugged. "I owe you something, don't I? You got me out of that living hell. Freeing you is the least I can do. C'mon, we've got to get back to Great Fox without anyone noticing you've been sprung."

Fox nervously followed him out. They snuck down the hall towards the main hangar. They hadn't gone but a few doors from Fox's cell when alarms all over the base began to go off. Fox cursed.

"They really do want me locked up!"

Louis laughed. "Naw. It's a full basal emergency. Something must be up. We can use the confusion to our advantage. Run."

They ran. Together in a mix of scrambling personnel they were hardly noticed or acknowledged by anyone. In a short time they had clambered aboard Fox's cruiser. They sat in the lounge, and over a few cups of coffee discussed their next action.

"Where's the rest of the team?"

"On an excercise." Louis said, chuckling. "Pepper wasted no time. And you'd never guess who he appointed to lead them."

Fox rubbed his aching forehead. "Falco?"

"Nope"

"Fara?"

"Huh uh."

"Peppy?"

Louis shook his head, trying to contain his laughter.

"Slippy!?"

Louis broke out laughing. "Yep. They don't want anyone hotheaded, I suppose. I wonder what's going on..."

Louis switched on the holoset in the bar, adjusting it to the military frequency. A message came through.

"To all base personnel - While on a routine training mission, the StarFox team located an unidentifiable-class starship, undetectable to scanning. It is flanked by many fighters shaped much like the letter "C". Prepare for war. I repeat - prepare for war."

Fox looked grave. "That probe. This must be whatever sent that probe. But it looks like we're going after it anyway."

Louis ignored Fox. "C's? The cockpit must be dead center... that's a brilliant idea... yeah..."

Fox stood and threw his jacket on. "Where's my Arwing?"

"Falco took it. But he left his, natch."

Fox shuddered. "Probably full of mechanical problems."

"Not to mention feathers!" Louis yelled as Fox dashed out.

---

Fara clicked on her comm. "Formation check. Peppy, you've got the experience, how are those C's flying?"

Peppy retaliated. "It's an old formation. Older than me, even. It allows for easy dogfighting while protecting the mother craft."

"How many are there?" Falco asked.

"It's hard to tell," Slippy explained, "since they're also not showing up on scanners."

"They're not doing much, just flying. Shouldn't we be under attack?" Fara noted. An order came through.

"StarFox, engage fighters at will. Continue to fight until they are destroyed."

Slippy nodded. "Let's go get them!"

Eagerly they tore off towards the ship. Aboard it, the commander glanced to the flight officer.

"If they engage, order Alpha to return weaponry in kind. Assail until a retreat is opted for by the fighters. Do not destroy."

Alpha's head pilot slid her visor over her eyes and opened communications. "If attacked, note a change of weaponry. Use Fusion Diffusers with Flux... 247. Shoot to disable

or cause a fallback. Don't get killed, either."

Falco eagerly opened fire on one of the fighters. It banked left and the entire escort squadron split apart in an orderly fashion.

"Choose targets, StarFox." Slippy ordered. They too broke off from formation.

Numbers were never a problem. The enemy pilots, though numbering a dozen, never engaged one arwing with more than one C. Immediately the team ran into trouble.

"He's banking too fast!" Fara screamed. Within seconds it was behind her. Orange bolts lanced forth from the fighter, clipping her wing as she evaded. Her stick jerked.

"Something's not right here. I barely got scratched, but my left wing's engines are failing!"

"Get out of here then!" Peppy advised. "There's too much to risk if you don't."

"Will you be OK?"

Peppy laughed. "I got one dead ahead, and he's on the run."

The C, curving away from him, stopped instantly. The cockpit swiveled and the entire ship began moving straight towards him. Peppy's eyes widened.

He was hit several times and his ship sputtered to a stop, the engines barely keeping him alive. He watched as the fighter broke off from pursuit and ignored him.

"Finish me off already! What're you waiting for?"

Slippy was taking many more shots than Fara. As he turned for home, he saw another ship screaming out to replace him.

"Fox!"

Fox took off in pursuit of the C that was following Falco. With unusually cool grace the bird was evading fire.

"I knew you could do it. Someday, I knew you'd keep your head." Fox whispered to himself. He got behind the pursuer.

"C'mon... you're mine!"

He opened the bomb bay and released its cargo. The bomb flew towards the ship. Suddenly, the C began emitting rays, which slowed the Nova Bomb, stopped it, then sent

it back at his arwing. It was a dead hit. Falco stammered.

"Fox!!!"

Pieces of Fox McCloud's fighter were blasted in various opposite directions. Crushed, Falco engaged his boosters and turned for Corneria.

"This is Lombardi. Control, we've lost Fox."

Chapter 4

"In elder times the son had two choices - if his skill was inferior to his father's, he would apprentice to another master and make a name for himself in that other trade. If he was superior in ability, he took his father's occupation, and surpassed his teacher in both fame and skill. But how do I ply a trade when my father will always exceed me at everything?"

-The Diary of Durbin Mogel

Fox screamed. He shook himself violently and feared opening his eyes. He felt rough paws jerking his eyelids open.

He wasn't dead. At least, he couldn't tell that he was. He sat up. The room he was in was nondescript grey, with a console and a pad. The pad, he reasoned, was where he

had been laying before throwing himself to the floor. He looked up.

The face that he met was kindly. It was another red fox, much like him, but wearing a grey flight suit. She carried a helmet under her arm and sighed as she passed it nervously between arms.

"Pleasant to see that you survived. Not that we worried about failure - the Reintigrator never ceases to amaze me at how accurately it restructures forms."

"Then," Fox said, "I was blown up?"

"Well, yes, by molecular standards. However, it was not fatal, because the moment my defenses stopped your explosive we began to lock onto your molecules. Thankfully, it wasn't fatal. We captured you at the right time."

He stood nervously. "Fox McCloud. Corneria's finest."

She smiled. "Then I see we have nothing to fear. I go by Sara Dent. My grandfather was Truvil Dent, one of Corneria's prominent colonial supporters. You'll find that we're all descended from the Final Launch."

Fox nodded. "So your colony survived?"

She shrugged. "Why would it not? Hmmm... I see we'll be getting along well, Sir McCloud, but I must follow orders. Commander Mogel wishes to see you on the bridge, and one does not want to make him displeased. Believe me."

Sara led him to a small tubelike structure. The twin doors slid open and revealed a chamber that resembled an elevator.

"We're taking the lift?"

She laughed, the first time he had seen her do so. "A lift? Amazing! Of course we aren't taking a lift, Sir McCloud. We're being transferred to the bridge."

He wondered what this meant. In a few seconds he had his answer. The tube demolecularized them, then restructured their bodies in another room far above the area they had been. The doors parted.

The bridge of the ship was a dark nerve center. Over a dozen personnel worked at monitor stations flanking the sides of a raised platform. On that platform, his back turned, was the commander of the ship. Sara spoke.

"Commander Mogel?"

He turned slowly. Fox noticed bags under the meerkat's eyes, a tired, weary air about him. Nevertheless, he spoke with vigor and intelligence.

"Captain Dent. The pilot we rescued is here, I take it." He descended some steps and stood level with Fox. "I am Commander Durbin Mogel, the son of the esteemed

Doctor Patrick Mogel of many years ago. I understand you are Fox McCloud."

Fox was stunned. "How would you know?"

Durbin ascended the stairs again and pressed a few buttons on his large podium. He motioned for Fox to come up as well. Sara stood silently, not bothering to follow herself.

Durbin pointed to an elaborate holographic system that allowed him to view the ship from any angle, in any resolution or position. Fox was impressed.

"So you knew from the moment I was aboard?"

Durbin pressed several more buttons, illuminating various pictures of Corneria's Base, the interior of Great Fox, and other views.

"I have known since we have been in range. Your transmission waves have reached us through our elaborate probes and hearing devices. To be certain, in fact, we sent another probe. That was when we first heard you defy orders. You declined to follow up on the destruction of our probe, and I must say that was a wise descision. However, your rather incompetent leader cannot embrace his own errors. At this very moment he regrets doing to you what he did. Especially now that your planet mourns your loss and threatens to place themselves on an even level with us."

He turned to Durbin. "Commander... I never thought that they..."

Mogel nodded. "You were seen by one of your comrades to explode. You are, as far as they are concerned, dead. There is no way to recover you now."

"But you did."

Commander Mogel smirked. "Now you see why. We are far more advanced than you are. Our fighters are obviously superior, our tactics better coordinated, and our methods of retrieval foolproof. Let us assume the unlikely event occured that one of our own ships were destroyed. We could easily have retrieved the pilot, just as we retrieved you, could we not? Tragedy has no meaning any longer. I am suprised the Cornerians have not researched such practical advances."<P>

Fox looked at a scene on the hologram. "What's that?"

Durbin examined it. "I believe that what you are looking at is your own funeral... it is a fascinating thing to see, perhaps?"

---

Most of the team cried. The coffin was, of course, empty, but had been closed off. Having said their goodbyes, the team filed out of the small room. Peppy sniffled.

"I can't believe this happened. Why did they spare me and take Fox?"

Falco's eyes burned. "I'm going to kill every last one of those murderers. No matter how much it takes, no matter how many losses we suffer, I'm going to kill them for this!"

Fara could say nothing. Only Louis did not mourn. In fact, Louis wasn't even there.

---

Durbin led Fox down a hallway and into a large chamber. He began explaining many things to Fox while the two sat at a table and drank a warm, nearly coffeelike liquid. Mogel pointed to the drink.

"It's harmless. It is an extract of a fruit on our colonial world. To be exact, our world was rather friendly to us. The air required some thickening, but it was mostly breathable, and the variety of life allowed us to fit in without much trouble."

"So you did succeed."

"That's correct. We waited for Cornerian aid, and it never came, so we forgot you and began research."

"But..." Fox asked, "how did you advance so quickly? There were so few of you..."

Durbin conceded. "It would be logical that we would advance at the same or a slower rate. However, the experiment had never been tried before, had it? We were a small, like-minded group of scientists and workers. Without as many problems that an entire planet's population might have, we were able to concentrate on science. By doing so, we were able to advance past our home planet in technology. How far we have progressed in one hundred years as opposed to you is unknown. However, I must say that we were disappointed that your technological aptitude was that retarded."

Fox sighed. "I can't control that."

"Nor could I, Sir McCloud. Recall that it was my brilliant father that led us. He died twenty years ago, but nevertheless I had no choice as to my position. I was a child 100 years ago."

Fox was amazed. "You're over 100?"

Durbin nodded. "Naturally, we have advanced our medical and life-sustaining technologies towards such lifespans. Most of us are third-generation. Captain Dent, whom you

met, is about 30 years old herself."

Fox was suprised. Sara seemed only about his age. "I see... well then, let me ask what's burning in everyone's mind... why have you come back?"

Durbin coughed, "Two reasons. First and foremost, we wished to examine and contrast us, in a sense, to check up on you. Second..."

He paused, trying to word his sentence.

"We, we feel... that Corneria is as much ours as it is yours... and we are willing to take any measures we deem appropriate to return there."

Fox paused. "And what manners do you deem appropriate?"

Durbin sipped his drink. "Negotiations if we can help it. If not, we hope that at the very least we won't need to resort to violence. Just make a petitioned stand that this is our homeworld too and that it was unfair of them to declare war on us."

"But we never..."

Durbin stopped him. "Yes, you did. The first shot was fired by your wingman, Mr. Lombardi, therefore you initiated the conflict. And, I fear, this conflict will escalate further."

Fox was troubled. "As your... what is it, prisoner? Hostage?"

"Guest."

"Guest... intercessor, perhaps, between Corneria and your colony, I'd just like you to know that I'll take any steps necessary to prevent fighting."

Sara's voice from the door of the small room cut him short.

"It doesn't look like you do your job very well. Commander Mogel, a Cornerian warship is poised to orbit the planet at attack speed and launch a coordinated tactical assault at our cruiser."

Durbin stood, finished his nourishment, and followed her, leaving Fox alone.

Things raced through his head. Thoughts of wonder, thoughts of fear, and most importantly, thoughts of the past. What had driven Dr. Mogel to leave on the last colony ship? Was he so well coordinated that he knew all about the plans to terminate the colonial program? Why, if Durbin was over 100 and still youthful in appearance, was his father not around? More importantly, what would happen when these two worlds collided? He probed his own mind to locate the source of his troubles. However, every time he tried his mind meandered to something...

It was midday, and Fox saw his father's car at a point in which he wouldn't have ever remembered it. His mother quietly walked up to it, opened the door and slid into the driver's seat. Fox knew what would soon happen, but his mind refused to turn away.

His mother searched silently for her keys, unable to immediately locate them. Fox cried out.

"Mom! Get out of the car!!! Mom!!!"

At last she located the keys deep in her pocket and slid them into the slot. She turned the ignition. Fox winced.

The car burst into flames and a great ball of fire engulfed his vision. When it had cleared, there was naught but a smoking wreck before him. There had been no remains of his mother, for she had been utterly and totally incinerated in the explosion. Fox began to cry, and it was then that he remembered that he was not back there.

"I can never do anything..." he sobbed, "I wasn't there when my mother got into that car... I wasn't there when Dad was betrayed and tortured... I wasn't there to set him free..."

"And had you been, you'd be as dead as they."

Fox slid his chair around. Durbin was standing in the doorway, almost in tears himself.

"W... what's wrong with you?"

The meerkat sniffled somewhat. "I know what you're thinking of. I assume you lost your parents tragically?"

Fox nodded. "My mother was killed in a car explosion... my father died on Venom... both because of Andross."

"Who?"

"Andross. Perhaps the most evil being ever to live. The antithesis of all that Corneria stands for. He waged war on us a few years back. I helped end that war... but even with revenge my life isn't complete. I can never bring back my mother or father, and there's worse. I have good friends scarred for life, mentally, emotionally, and physically. I've got a planet that's paranoid, angry and fearful. I've got you! I've got you and your colony, willing to talk, and my whole planet wants to destroy you!!!" He broke down and began weeping. Durbin sat across from him, consolingly.

"We all lose those we love. My mother had cancer. She died long before we found the cure for that, the most reliable cure. And my father... my father..."

Fox looked up at the sad brown eyes of his counterpart. "What happened to your father?"

Durbin sighed. "There were individual landers that hit our planet at various places in a general area. I was on one with my dying mother, and my father had taken another. His lander's pilot lost control, and it went screaming off course and crashed headlong into a mountain. We looked, but all we ever found was twisted wreckage and scorched, unidentifiable bodies. I always wondered, though... there was one less body accounted for. I always had hoped it was my father... that he didn't die but instead found some way out. But as the years wore on I lost any hope of seeing him again... but then..."

Lights blared. The battle had begun in earnest.

Chapter 5

"There was a time in my life when I felt that I could take anything in myself, learn the insides and outsides of science, the little intricacies and the misleading propositions. We disproved Spontaneous Generation. We disproved Absolutivity. And I felt that there was nothing I could not disprove... then I realized that I was making a mistake. I was trying to disprove when I should have been trying to prove"

-Patrick Mogel, PhD

Falco somberly led the formation of arwings before the Navy's fighters. The cruiser in the distance spat out C's in a quiet, lonely fashion. Peppy spoke.

"Slippy, do you really think this frequency will protect us from being disabled?"

The toad shrugged. "No way to tell, Peppy. But we'll just have to try."

Fara contacted the Cornerian Battleship. "Is the bomb ready?"

A groundhog on comms duty nodded. "It's a big one, as requested. Gonna blow those weirdos to the other side of the galaxy!"

"Then ready for launch." Falco decided, "All fighters engage!"

In her own cockpit, Sara contacted her wingmen.

"Alpha Group, assist Gamma Group in defense of the mother. Disengage and attack if attacked. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

Lasers lanced outwards between the forces. They clashed in a flurry of fire and a hail of ordnance.

Slippy banked to dodge a C that was dead on behind him. Saying a quick prayer, he rolled to the side and cut his engines. The C went zipping by and Slippy was able to tag it a few times.

"I didn't damage it, but I did get a hit!"

"This is for Fox you no good pirates!" Falco intoned as he launched a bomb into the midst of the Cs. Amazingly, they were merely deflected in many directions by the blast rather than destroyed. Falco punched his control panel and cursed.

"What can we do against those idiots?"

Fara smiled. "I guess we have to take out the source!" She opened her line to the crew of the battleship.

"Alright, launch the bomb now."

The Cornerian fighters broke off as a large, modified cargo container packed with explosives arced out of the hangar bay and towards the cruiser. Sara saw it easily and smiled.

"Take that out now. Lock on, Alpha 3. Fire."

Alpha 3 launched a small interceptor missle at the bomb. It and the rest of Alpha group darted into the void of space at a rapid speed to dodge the blast.

"Alright!" Falco said. "They're leaving! We won!"

Slippy's eyes widened. "Falco, something's headed after the bomb!"

Fara screamed. "It's way too close! It..."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...

The battleship was tossed aside, torn in half. Falco, Peppy, Slippy and Fara were annihilated, along with most of the fighters. Fox watched from the bridge of the cruiser in terror as a shockwave headed towards the ship he was aboard.

"That... that just killed my friends!!!"

"Your own men killed your friends with their brashness... and now they'll kill us."

Fox panicked. "Can't you do anything???"

Durbin watched the wave and sighed. "One thing, Fox." He pressed a button and a small pod with a paw pad rose at the base of the steps.

"This is my father's time drive. It was the project he was using when he... died... and all we could salvage were the plans. Now, we never perfected it... it will only work for 2 trips. It's set to return 100 years into the past, to the exact moment when Dr... er... my father's lander went berserk. I can't go myself, but I know that you can. If you can save my father, take him sometime into the recent past - a day, a week, as much as a month. But make sure you find him and keep him alive."

Fox approached the pad. The shockwave began to rock the cruiser. "But... why?"

Durbin shoved him onto the machine, which began to spark and fade. Durbin yelled over the din as the cruiser began to explode.

"Because he could end this conflict and save everyone involved! But only you can figure out how!"

Fox was gone in that second. And so too was the colony cruiser. The battle was a terrible war of attrition that ended in tragedy.

---

Pepper stood quietly over the rows upon rows of coffins. There were at least two dozen, but that was not what so disturbed him. It was the four coffins set out from the others that so fired his rage. Above each was a simple plaque.

Lombardi, Falco

Hare, Peppy

Toad, Slippy

Phoenix, Fara

The old dog general's eyes watered when he remembered how many had been lost in a battle a year ago. He recalled too how many had died fighting Andross. A million? Before him were all those coffins, seen and unseen, that so puzzled him, made him wonder if the demons of hate and warfare would never truly abandon his life for easier folly. He realized then that there was no easier folly. The demons had found a feast in him.

General Deson Motambo of the Cornerian Army began to walk down the hall, retreating from the coffins. Yes, it was sad, but had they listened to him things would be different.

He recalled standing in the command center with Pepper hours before.

"I definitely think we can handle them." Pepper said proudly.

"It's a waste of lives. If even one fighter goes down it isn't worth it, Pepper."

"Fighters do go down, Motambo! It's a fact of war."

"Need I remind you, sir, that we are no longer at war? As far as I'm concerned this is a big mistake of yours. Not as big as some, but still big."

"Don't remind me of Devoniay!!! So you were right there, Deson, but this is different. Corneria itself is threatened."

The marten shook his head. "We don't know that."

"Damn it, Motambo! Who's the most experienced here!?!"

He had grimaced. "You are, sir, but I mustn't remind you again that the military doesn't care how long you've served. All that matters is rank. You've got four stars on that uniform, and I've got four on mine. So heed my advice, Pepper, and don't send anyone out there. Let's hail them, try to talk."

"Talk to Fox McCloud's killers!? I would rather have my command taken away! We're going to bomb them utterly. Just you wait, we'll fill that space with dead corpses!"

Pepper was thinking of the same episode as he began to cry. How right he had been. How obvious it was that he was totally correct. He slowly withdrew his small officer phaser and examined it.

"What have I done? What... what can I do..."

Deson stopped at the sound of a click. He raced back to the 'dead room' when the phaser went off. But by the time he got there nothing stirred in the room. Sadly he turned away from the chaos.

"Two dozen dead with coffins... and one without."

---

Fox's mind was all that he had now. He was screaming through the universe, through truth, through all that he knew and did not know. Scenes played out before his fevered eyes, of things past, present, and future. Of things that had not happened and things he could not understand.

He was in his late eighties, walking slowly down a dreary graveyard avenue. With solemnity he paused at the four stones of his comrades, then walked on farther, to a larger headstone with the bust of a dog.

"General H. Pepper, Tragic Leader of Cornerian Navy. Took own life at age 54."

Pepper was gone, but Fox had expected this. Another grave was nearby, and this one's markings were a bit hard to read. He squinted, bent his old back and read.

"Grey, William. Commander of Katina Military for Cornerian Navy. Died under extreme torture during the sudden reappearance... 6 years after the apparent death of his arch-nemesis..."

He sighed, sadly wishing this were not true. Was this his future, to see all those he loved dead?

Thunder clapped and he turned around in shock. There, atop the hill, was a double grave with easily readble letters.

"McCloud, James... McCloud... Vixy..."

He knew this was a site he remembered. The twin grave of his parents, long gone from his life. Suddenly the stone of his mother began to crumble and deintegrate.

"Mother!?"

He spun around in wild circles as he looked for other signs. Bill's grave, Falco's, Slippy's and Fara's vanished. General Pepper's inscription changed.

"General H. Pepper, Most Highly Decorated of All Officers. Died at age 93..."

Fox smiled. He could never explain this sudden reversal of fortune. It was as though someone had returned all the hate in his life to him, and he had never felt happier. The emptiness, the dark mausoleum of his inner being was gone, lost forever and replaced with all the turmoil, grudges and anger that he had taken for granted. It was then that he realized that he was not incomplete at all, but rather was an amalgamation of all his feelings, good and bad, right and wrong. So long as he realized that there was nothing to be had from revenge he would be saved. Without a thought he began ascending a hill shrouded with black shrubberies and overcast in weeds. At the top was a grafitti-sprayed marker that he knew so well. A memorial placed by a sick sympathizer.

"Dr. Andross." It read, quiet and inconspicuous. Fox could have kicked it, toppled it in rage, and stomped on those polluted stones until they bled with the blood of the ape he so justly disposed of. But that was not what he did. As though some sickening force had siezed him, he bent on his knees and spoke to the stone.

"I can't forget what happened, nor can I forgive your deeds. But I can forgive you... no matter how badly I don't want to. You taught me, taught us all, that madness is it's own justice, that you longed for sanity and respect as much as we all did. You killed my family and shattered my life, and I thank you. You... you gave me justice in my life. I found, through you, that I was flawed, and by taking me apart you gave me the chance to put myself back together. Thank you, you despot. Thank you, you tyrant and terrorist, for everything your damned soul wreaked upon me. I've become more than myself because of it. I've become with such trouble what my father was so easily - a man. You made me into a man from a hot-headed boy... and that was your own undoing. Farewell, in torment or sick peace, whichever you despise more."

He slowly clambered down the hill and returned to an elderly fennec at the base of the hill. They joined paws and began walking.

"You know something, Fox?"

"No... I don't know anything now."

"You know a lot more than you think you do... time works that way. We lose our youths, our health and our opportunity, but we used them well, and now we can treasure our wisdom and experience... and each other. I love you, Fox."

He scratched her head and embraced her. "I love you, Fara. I don't know how long I have to wait for this moment, but..."

---

Fox was jerked back, headlong into the transport wall. Alarms rang all around him as frantic colonists began to panic.

"We've lost control!" Someone wailed. Fox ignored the fearfully ignorant people and fixed his gaze on an unnerving presence in the rear of the craft.

He was tall and wiry, a meerkat of age and wisdom. His glasses were pressed to the bridge of his nose and he still squinted as he wiggled wiring into place. Slamming the panel shut, he readied for transport. Fox yelled.

"Doctor!!!"

The meerkat rotated his head back some, and smiled.

"I see my plan worked! Concentrate on a place, sir, and go there! I can lock onto it and go there as well!"

Fox nodded, and thought of a quiet, lonely hill near Corneria Base, the evening before the conflict. Fox reached for the panel as Dr. Mogel did the same on his own pod. But as he touched it, his mind fluttered back to that sad, fearful moment in time that was as vivid as any real memory he had...

He reappeared in his own front yard. There was his mother, taking a seat in the driver's side of the car. She withdrew her key and moved forward in her seat.

"Mom!!!"

He was too late. But the spry, white-coated figure who tackled his mother was not. She dropped the car key under the seat and began punching at her assailant, cursing and threatening to call the police. Fox dashed to his aid. Vixy stopped dead.

"James! You're back already?"

Fox shook his head. "Mom? Are you alright?"

She scrutinized him. "Fox?"

"Yes! Yes, it is me, your son."

"But Fox, you're just a boy, a cub! You look so much like your father..." She angrily tossed the meerkat into the passenger seat and reached under the seat. "What's going on here?"

Dr. Mogel recovered, darted his paw beneath the car seat and snatched up the key. "Don't do this, madam. I think I know what our young friend is thinking."

Fox grabbed her and led her to the yard. "Mom, you left that car out the night before you died. Andross got hold of it and rigged it with a bomb for Dad. He forgot that you were out of town and you were killed when the car exploded. That sparked my worst fears of what would be. Then we lost Dad..."

She sighed. "I don't understand. You act like I'm dead, and say you're my son ten years after today or something?"

Fox grasped her. "Mom, I can't explain this..."

Dr. Mogel coughed. "I believe I can, Mrs..."

"McCloud. Vixy McCloud." She said firmly. Mogel nodded.

"Patrick Mogel. Charmed. What has happened is a strange turn of events. I am a scientist from about 85 years ago, the leader of the last interstellar colony. I was building a time drive aboard my lander when it began to crash. I didn't have time to finish the device, so after completing it I ran to the cockpit to send the plans to a safe lander. That, I knew, would be the end of me. Then, things changed. Those plans survived when I did not and your son somehow came back to rescue me. This was the time and place he ended up taking us to. When I saw his fearful gaze I assumed this was a tragic memory and tried to stop you. However, Vixy, beyond that I don't know what happened."

Fox took over. "Mom... Dr. Mogel... about 10 years from now the doctor's colony comes back... and we stupidly engage in war. They just want to talk, then come back to Corneria peacefully and without bloodshed. In a final battle we launched a bomb that your son's pilots intercepted, killing Corneria's troops and sending a shockwave that would destroy the colony cruiser. Then your son Durbin gave me the drive and told me to rescue you, Doctor Mogel, from the past, so that you could somehow end the conflict. But I think it's hopeless... my time drive is out of power."

Mogel pointed to a drive in the street. "Mine isn't."

Vixy smiled and laughed. "Then I suppose you should go back to wherever you need to go and save everyone! I'll stay away from the car."

Mogel, at that point, withdrew a syringe and stuck Vixy in the arm. She glared at him, then lolled back and collapsed in the front yard. Fox exploded.

"Why'd you kill my mom!?"

Mogel pleaded. "She isn't dead! I gave her enough memory serum to erase the past two hours. Here's what we'll do - we detonate your mother's car by rewiring your broken time drive to detonate the bomb. We'll depart for the future. Here's how history will change - your mother slept in this morning because she forgot to turn on her alarm. Thankfully she did so because the car accidentally detonated due to the bomb some maniac had planted in it. It must be done, Mr. McCloud. We can't let anyone besides ourselves in the past catch on to our time travelling, lest we disrupt and destroy the chronostream. Therefore, I propose this strategy. Do you accept?"

Fox nodded. "Call me Fox, doc."

Dr. Mogel shook his paw firmly. "Patrick will do for me, fellow traveller."

They worked quickly. They redressed Vixy in her nightgown and carefully replaced her clothes on their hangers. They shut off the alarm on the clock and crept out to the car, which they then rigged quietly with a timer. They were long returned to the future when it exploded, wiping the car out and bringing the police to the scene in moments.

James McCloud was cleaning his sunglasses when he recieved the call. But this time, he would not soil them again with tears.

"Honey?"

"Vixy? What's wrong?"

Her voice was groggy and broken. "James, some lunatic put a bomb in your car! Thank God I overslept, or I would've been killed!"

James began to breathe heavily. "Vixy, dear, stay calm and let the police take care of you. I think I know who's behind this... and things will be very different quite soon..."

Chapter 6

"We do not study science; it studies us. It has been said that science's purpose is to help us understand our universe. This is partially true. However, science is also a living entity, and all living entities care for their own survival. Science will not die so long as questions remain. Therefore I propose Mogel's Theory of Scientific Division: Everything cannot ever truly be learned because for every answer found, science generates a nigh infinite number of questions."

-Dr. Patrick Mogel, PhD

Fox and Patrick reappeared on the hill that Fox had originally intended to go to. The sun was setting, and Fox could see the cruiser in the night sky.

"We've got a few hours, Pat."

Mogel nodded. "Isn't there something you want to do?"

Fox smiled and grinned. They began to walk towards the base.

"Tell me something, Doctor Mogel. Why'd you build that time drive? Why couldn't you accept fate? Were you trying to disprove that God had a plan?"

He shrugged. "At first it was because of faith that I did it, yes. But that was because I was weak in faith. Did I trust God? Not in the least. I was as atheistic as any of those fools. How could God have given my Mary cancer? How could God have killed my dream, the colonial program? No, I thought God had it all wrong, and that someone had to correct his mistakes. That was when I realized that God was laughing at me, if God mocks people. It was his plan to have me try to change his plan! It all made perfect sense to me. I would work for the greater good of everyone." He sighed and looked up at the stars. "And now it looks like my time of glory has come. God, almighty God, you did it to me. You never tried to forsake me like my people have been forsaken. You trusted me to save myself because you knew I'd soon realize that it was you who really saved me. Look at the stars, Fox."

Fox looked up. "They're beautiful."

"Aren't they? But up close, they aren't quite so aesthetic. Burning, scorching orbs of gas. They're dead... they know it. Someday they'll collapse or explode and all that they supported will be gone. That's how it was with me, I think. But unlike stars I could come back. No star has ever gone nova and then resparked, preserving its planets and civilizations. In billions upon billions of years Lylat will be like that... Corneria a burned hunk of rock... Solar sputtered and cold. In that time we will realize why colonization is so important. We will say to ourselves, "Mogel and his fellows were right. Corneria, that legendary green planet, did indeed vanish. But we got a second chance and we're living on a hundred worlds that are green and friendly." And we go on, all civilization goes on, in unity and peace, all of us together as a single group. That is my dream..."

Fox slid his ID card into the base's door and held it open for Patrick.

"I can't agree more, doctor. But how are you going to end an imminant conflict of forces?"

"My gift, Fox, was speaking. I was a mediocre surgeon and diagnosist at best, but I could learn the facts inside and out, stand up to present something and knock everyone dead. I can end this without firing a shot, without calling in a single favor, and without fear of my plan failing. Now let's go to your room. I know what you're up to."

Fox opened the door and dashed to the answering machine.

"You have one message." It noted. Fox eagerly pushed the play button and found the sweet, wonderful voice of his youth returning.

"Fox, honey, I hope you're alright! Some rumor got out that you died in a skirmish with that mysterious cruiser. Oh God, Fox, I'm worried. I can't lose you and James. Call me back! Mommy loves you, Foxy!!!"

Fox sighed with relief and immediately called a familiar address.

"Yes? May I speak to Mrs. McCloud? This is her son."

He spoke to her over the private comm line.

"Mom? It's Fox. Yeah, I'm OK. That rumor was a communications error. They meant to say "The fix had died", you know... yeah! Exactly. Listen, I have an old... academy teacher over, and we're talking about ending this conflict through negotiations... ummm... yeah, I think that's him. You remember! Neat! Uh huh... I'm proud to have you as a mom, Mom... Love you too! Bye mommy!"

He clicked off the line and cried out of sheer happiness. Patrick beamed. Fox rose his soaked head and drew in a deep breath, then hugged the meerkat he hardly knew, grateful for what had happened.

"That was the greatest thing anyone's ever done for me, Pat. I have a mother again. I have my mom!!!"

---

Dr. Mogel paced himself just a few steps behind Fox as they passed through the many hallways of the base.

"I've been thinking, Pat."

Patrick smiled. "I didn't know you were capable of that, too."

"No, this is serious! If I didn't die then I should still be there aboard your people's cruiser, right?"

The meerkat nodded. "Yes, right..."

"So what do I do then? I can't just coexist with myself, can I?"

Mogel chuckled. "Perhaps not. But that doesn't mean this problem will be easily remedied. Listen to me, Fox. Once you and I have done our duties we're gone, lost forever into the folds of time. That's what it means to be a traveller. That's something you have to learn. Saying goodbye will be difficult, but I believe you'll realize that Fox McCloud isn't going to be going anywhere, even if you are. History will be different - if we succeed, you will never have been sent back, even though we know you were."

Fox pondered the consequences of a single mishap. "And if we fail?"

"If we fail," he explained, "you will go back again anyway. You'll have another chance to get it right... at least, until time collapses under its own weight."

"Really? It'll do that?"

Mogel removed his glasses and polished them with a clean labcoat sleeve. "Perhaps. But I cannot be sure of the truth when it comes to time travel. It's only been used twice now, and after this point it may never be used again. Promise me one thing, Fox. Whatever happens, do not ever allow a word of time travel to leak out from between us. Understand?"

He sighed quietly and briefly lowered his head. "I understand. There's a lot that should never've happened over the past twelve hours of my life."

They had reached the door to the hangar where Great Fox was kept. Mogel motioned to the door.

"This is it. The final moment."

"No," Fox disagreed, shaking his head, "It's the beginning of the end."

They walked quietly to the solemn, inactive cruiser. They had hoped to avoid detection as they stole the ship. They hoped wrong.

Fox stood on the bridge and looked at ROB.

"We have to launch, ROB. Is it ready?"

"Ready, sir. Punch it."

Fox smiled and hit the sequence that would send their ship into orbit of the planet. The engines hummed as the medium-sized cruiser began its slow but increasingly quick ascent into the now night skies.

The doors to the bridge opened with a whoosh. Fox spun around in panic. He knew he'd forgotten someone...

"Louis?"

"Fox? Seriously, what's wrong with you? I was certain you weren't dead. Nice work, however you escaped those vile folks. Who's the friend?"

Mogel grinned. "A negotiator. We think that those 'vile folks' might..."

"Be willing to talk?" The otter laughed. "Not hardly."

"Not talk," Mogel said, looking out into the starfield, "listen."

Fox approached his mechanic. "Louis, we need your help. We have to have the lasers of Great Fox at a frequency low enough to deactivate it in midflight. We then need to jam everyone's comm lines and pump our own communiques in. Can it be done?"

Louis slid the goggles he always wore over his deep-sey eyes. "I can get to work on it right away. How long have I got?"

"Thirty minutes, and not a second less." Fox warned. Louis nodded and darted off.

---

Falco somberly led the formation of arwings before the Navy's fighters. The cruiser in the distance spat out C's in a quiet, lonely fashion. Peppy spoke.

"Slippy, do you really think this frequency will protect us from being disabled?"

The toad shrugged, noticing some mild static that had not been there before. "No way to tell, Peppy. But we'll just have to try."

Fara contacted the Cornerian Battleship. "Is the bomb ready?"

A groundhog on comms duty nodded. "It's a big one, as requested. Gonna blow those weirdos to the other side of the galaxy!"

"Then ready for launch." Falco decided, "All fighters engage!"

In her own cockpit, Sara contacted her wingmen.

"Alpha Group, assist Gamma Group in defense of the mother. Disengage and attack if attacked. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

Lasers lanced outwards between the forces. They clashed in a flurry of fire and a hail of ordnance.

Slippy banked to dodge a C that was dead on behind him. Saying a quick prayer, he rolled to the side and cut his engines. The C went zipping by and Slippy was able to tag it a few times.

"I didn't damage it, but I did get a hit!"

"What can we do against those idiots?"

Fara smiled. "I guess we have to take out the source!" She opened her line to the crew of the battleship.

"Alright, launch the bomb now."

At that moment in the repeated history, three things happened. First, the bomb slid out of the chamber. Next, Sara acknowledged the existance of the detonator. And finally...

Every line went silent. Pilots tapped their headsets with confusion, examined electrical output, and ceased for that one moment to fight. It was then that they heard it. It was neither a clarion call nor a tinny whispering, but a strong and determined voice that would not accept their ignorance. The Doctor was to speak, and all present would listen.

"How many times in our lives have we wished we'd done things differently? If you still live years after this time, what will you think of yourself? Did you make a stand for your beliefs, or did you act upon sheer faith in your leaders? Leaders are, after all, just men and women like us all. This is the mistake that many of us make, believing that we are in some innate way better or worse than another. I came to you out of the lost mists of past and present, not to promote one side or the other, but to reinstate my belief that our involvement in the affairs of one another is, at best, a fool's pursuit. On one side of this conflict we have you of my long-departed colony, wishing to return at length to the home you abandoned so long ago. Have you any less right to your home? Did the son who returned to his father find himself turned away at the door and left destitute? And on the other side we have those who remained, those who felt that it was a waste to leave such a splendorous world as Corneria."

Aboard the colony crusier, Durbin's comm analyzer piped up.

"Sir, I think that's your father!"

The bridge burst into celebration. Durbin brooded over the holograms and wondered just how this could be.

"You are wrong. As are you who wish to come back. You are wrong because separately your ideas cannot stand under the close eye of logic. Why can't you accept each other? Does living in a separate colony make one any less your brother? Look at the protists, hidden under the microscopes of our universe. They live together in colonies, bound by the most ancient of desires - the desire to live. One need only look at the fragility of these unicellular eukaryotes to know that, as a whole, they are greater than the sum of their parts. One blue-green bacterium, one little moneran, was nothing to the vast organism-filled seas of the past. But when those bacteria clung to each other, one after another after another, they forged great floating colonies. And it is because of those colonies and other such beings - like stromatolites - that we can live and breathe on our own."

"The virus is our brother. The ameba our protector and friend. We are not individuals as we would have ourselves believe, but are members of that mammoth colony - the colony of Lylat. Every planet has a pulse, every star is a living being with thoughts and memories. What will our star remember about you? That you were obliterated because you turned on your own brethren? What will your mother Corneria think? She will not wail for the children that left her alone - she will go on, make more children, and your father the sun will forget your names and relegate your faces and existance to memory. The universe is a craftsman, and each time a flaw is found, its materials are recycled and the good carpenter or mason begins again. So it will be with all of us. Having said that, will you toss your life asunder, just to tear away what you think is a cancerous piece of your system? No! Cancer too is part of us all, and no matter how flawed it may be it still remains within us and goes on without a thought. Life was not meant to be destroyed - life was meant to be seen, to be felt, to be enjoyed. And I implore you, my fellows... enjoy what life we have, and that we have each other again. End this conflict now and there will be better things for us all. Thank you."

Sara, a small tear welling in her eye, banked to port.

"Alpha Group... disengage."

Falco nodded and breathed heavily.

"All Cornerians, disengage."

"Alright!!!" Louis screamed, glancing at the tired old meerkat with a much more respectful eye. ROB announced the bad news.

"Regardless of the situation, the bomb remains intact. Estimated time of detonation thirty seconds."

"Holy crap!" Louis shouted as he watched the container head for the colonial cruiser. Fearfully he began to reroute power into the Great Fox's modified laser battery.

"Twenty-five seconds." ROB warned. Louis pushed the button, praying that the bomb would be disabled.

The laser blazed through the vacuum of space and hit the bomb, clipping a corner. Although it turned many times in place and pulsed with electricity, Louis could see that it was not inactive.

"Twelve seconds."

Louis buried his head in his paws. Not now, he thought, not after we were so close...

A single fighter raced towards the explosive. Louis and Doctor Mogel raced to the bridge window in unison.

The ship did not appear to be wasting time, boosting at full speed towards the doomed apparatus. The pilot appeared to be on a purely suicidal run. Louis gasped.

"Four... three..."

"He'll collide with it and kill us all!"

Mogel laughed. "No, he won't..."

Fox, the Fox who would never spend his life away from friends, reached to a special button at the last moment. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he activated the time drive.

Sparks crossed betwixt the arwing and the bomb. Both faded at the instant ROB finished counting.

"Zero... there are no more seconds. My sensors indicate that the ordnance in question no longer exists. Although this paradox is beyond my electronic reasoning, I must assume it was teleported somewhere distant."

Mogel nodded and sighed. "Very distant... you'd probably never even recognize the place... but now we're here, here a place where, at long last, there is peace. And peace of mind to me is far more important than peace of diplomacy."

Mogel whispered something inaudible to any but himself and the brave traveller. "We all give of ourselves for our Creator. Let it be so with you, Fox."

Epilogue

"How long must we all wait to change,

this world bound in chains that we live in?"

-Terran Poet\Songwriter Kenny Loggins, Conviction of the Heart

Durbin paced through the park outside the base's perimeter with Fox and his father, Doctor Patrick Mogel. It was raining, and the doctor watched with joy as each droplet fell from nowhere. He lifted his face and felt the rain on his sandy-tan fur.

"If there's one thing I'll always miss, it'll be the rain. God, the rains of Corneria are the heavenly host. Don't believe scripture."

Durbin turned slowly to his patriarch. "Father, you said that in future tense, as though you won't be around. But you've reemerged in my life so suddenly..."

"As our people's ideas have reappeared in Corneria's public. I tell you, son, we'll all benefit from these advances. But, alas, I feel I can't be around to see them."

Fox turned to him, confused. "I never even realized that you'd escaped. So you say there was an escape pod?"

"Right," Patrick lied, "but it left me stranded in a stasis. How I drifted all the way back to Corneria in 100 years is unknown, I'll say that. Just lucky that I came when I did."

Durbin pleaded. "I know all that now. But why are you leaving us? That is what you mean, right?"

His father frowned. "Yes. That's what I mean. There's so much for you here, Durbin my son, so many who want you to lecture and speak. You're set for life my boy. But I am restless and knowledgable. I'm a sort of... traveller... now. Once you do it you can never turn away from that livelihood. I love you, Durbin, but I have to go, and relatively soon."

"Where will you go, Doctor?" Fox posed.

The genius meerkat blinked several times. "Wherever I'm needed. That could be as close as Katina or as far as another galaxy. Just don't forget I'm always around, watching and waiting. You'll never lose me so long as memory persists. But, in time they'll forget me too, as will all who dwell on this planet. And it's just as well... I don't belong here, should never have come. God I'll miss the rain, the hills, and you, son."

Fox perked up. "Well, can you stay at least for tonight? I'm having dinner with Fara and my mother... wouldn't you and Durbin like to come?"

Durbin smiled. "We'd be delighted!"

Doctor Mogel laughed and knew within himself what to say - the ultimate inside joke.

"Of course I would. I've had time to think of things, and it would seem that I've more time than anyone else would hazard to guess."

The End