Chapter Text
Durrin was soon in full view and in all of her glory.
However, easy entry into the planet’s mesosphere was currently easier said than done. It was very early in the morning cycle by the time the Great Fox II arrived within the federal planetary border and the ship had to stop. Faith was still in bed when the issues had truly started, and she overheard Krystal and Fox discussing their gripes about a situation outside of her room while they made for the bridge to help ROB sort it out.
Despite not really knowing what was happening, Faith was peaceful as she lay under the sheets of her warm bed while watching a documentary about shepherd moons on the holo-tablet Fox had given her. She had fallen into a micro binge of sorts watching informative videos on ringlets and the ring systems of various known gas giants when first waking up a couple of hours prior. A few things had been keeping Faith awake; a big one was Geoffry’s death, but it was most likely her salon appointment keeping her too excited to keep her eyes closed.
Of course, that all depended on whether or not the ship could ever receive the clearance to even land on Durrin. While Faith had been content with letting the fox couple sort things out, her curiosity began melding with her anxiousness. Eventually, when it felt like ticks were starting to bite the back of her neck, Faith closed the tablet up and mustered the will to swing out of bed and leave her stateroom to see what was happening up on the bridge.
After a mindful walk to the other end of the ship in her PJs, Faith ascended the staircase that led to the command deck, where she found Krystal and Fox lingering around looking discontented. Their heads turned the moment the door opened, and their muzzles brightened up with a dial click. Krystal had sensed her approach beforehand, but she was nonetheless pleased to see Faith make an appearance.
“Good morning, Faith,” Krystal said brightly with a flicking tail, effortlessly taking Faith’s breath away. “Did you sleep well?”
“I did. Thank you,” Faith replied with a smile, decently hiding her bashfulness. The spectacular sight of the planet outside was strong enough to divert Faith’s attention for a time (but her eyes would always return to one heavenly body in the end, regrettably). Durrin was a dazzling green and blue world; it had several continents packed with dense jungles and arid planes, and its vast oceans were a deep blue with a thick blanket of white clouds drifting over the planet’s surface.
Only the top half of the planet could be seen from this point in the bridge; the left half side of it was currently the dark side, but it was a captivating visual all the same. “Wow, look at that…” Faith gawked in wonder, walking over to the window to have a better look. Despite its overwhelming size and presence when compared to them and the ship, Durrin was actually half a size smaller than Corneria―Faith had found that out when she looked it up. And since its composition wasn’t as rich in dense metals, its gravity was lower than Corneria’s―8.3 metres per second squared to be precise, as opposed to Corneria’s 9.7. This, conversely, made the radiant blue atmosphere appear a little larger than the view of Corneria’s since gravity was lighter.
“Pictures hardly ever compare to the real thing in person,” Faith concluded, marvelling at the world directly ahead.
“She is a pretty thing, ain’t she?” Fox agreed with crossed arms as he too looked out, but his muzzle had a hard time making a smirk. “It’s a shame it’s taking a little longer to embrace her than expected.”
Faith then looked at him inquisitively. “Yeah. So, what’s going on?” she asked. Fox then silently grabbed a pair of telescopic binoculars sitting by the window and handed them to Faith.
“Have a look over there,” he pointed several degrees downward at the front end of the port. Faith did as he said and put the binoculars to her eyes. Their range was incredible; one could see up to thirty-thousand kilometres at max settings, but currently, the binoculars Faith held were set to over a couple of hundred metres―as indicated by the digital gauge on the side of the scope. This was the precise amount needed to see two cargo ships in the far-off distance broadsiding each other.
“You see those two freighters down there?” Fox wondered.
“I do,” Faith said. “What’s wrong with them?”
“The defence grid only permits one ship at a time to pass through, and those two ships believe they deserve to go before the other,” Fox exclaimed, sounding annoyed. “We’ve been on chat with the defence grid, and all they’ve told us is to hang tight until they can sort this petty little feud out between those ships. Their captains cannot stop barking at each other, and I do mean bark.”
‘Hmm. Dog jokes,’ Faith thought with a fragment of childlike amusement, which also amused Krystal.
Faith removed the scopes from her eyes, readjusting to the normal field of view. “Why can’t we just go past them?” Faith wondered. “I mean…it’s not like we have to follow a road out here.”
“That’s normally the case, at least for our worlds back home,” Fox said. “Durrin is outrageously stricter about planetary entry. There are only a few thousand vetting ports around the planet which ships are only allowed to pass through. Try going through any other way and the orbital sentries open fire on sight.”
Faith frowned at that. “That doesn’t sound fair, or smart,” she said.
“Welcome to the Brokkr System,” Fox shrugged with dried-up enthusiasm. “And since Durrin is the capital world, every inhabited world in this system follows its rules. We had to go through similar security measures just to land on Kew.”
Faith’s frown sank a little deeper. “They must not work so well if Rankous was able to get through.” There was a bit of a dip in the shared spirits of Fox and Krystal after Faith said that, one that Faith wasn’t aware that she stirred. “When do you think the jam will clear?”
“They’ve been at this for a few hours now,” Fox said. “Last we checked some minutes ago, those old hounds were still yapping at each other. I think it’ll still be a little while before things start moving along.”
Faith’s frown persisted. She would have tolerated the inconvenience if she didn’t have an appointment down there on that planet. Granted, her salon date wasn’t until late in the afternoon, and Durrin rotated in a clockwise motion, so the dark side she was seeing―the region and hemisphere where the Great Fox II would dock―would be seeing Brokkr sunlight in an hour or two. Even still, Faith knew it took some time to land and situate the ship, and Durrin’s days were just under twenty-three hours.
“Well…nothing we can really do but wait, right?” Faith asked, looking at Fox.
“’Fraid so,” he shrugged, annoyed himself. Although a smidge annoyed, Faith was tolerant. She didn’t have any right to complain, nor did she feel she needed to.
However, Fox noticed this passive dissatisfaction in Faith, and he couldn’t help but feel a desire to help make it up to her in some way. Soon enough, a little idea popped into his noggin. He began to recall his early years as a fighter pilot and what he did to pass the time between lessons at the academy or when cruising between contracts. It made sense to him when it concerned someone who was trying to reclaim control over her life and herself. Krystal shot him a worried look, clearly picking up on the idea subconsciously, but Fox silently raised a reassuring finger at her before he decided to air the idea with his voice.
“Say, Faith,” he said, getting the collie’s attention, “I was about to go and make us all some grub seeing as we’ll be here for a little while. After that, how would you feel about shooting some pigeons?”
Faith knitted her brow in confusion, and also slight mortification. “…Huh?”
Realising quickly Faith wasn’t familiar with the jargon he was brought up in, he quickly corrected himself. “No, spume pigeons. Little disks to shoot at.”
“Oh,” Faith understood, relieved that Fox wasn’t suggesting to find unarmed and innocent pigeons and shoot at them. “You mean in that little shooting range downstairs?”
“Not necessarily,” Fox said, “though you’re more than welcome to opt for that if you find the idea of flying an Arwing by yourself a bit too much right now.”
Faith had no idea what she was doing.
It didn’t really hit her until the canopy clamped down on the Arwing II’s cockpit as the brief but sharp vacuum seal hissed securely. While not being directly in control of the Arwing herself―Fox would be remotely guiding it from the bridge―Faith was getting incredibly tense as the ship began lifting off from the platform by itself and began gently gliding towards the open hangar-bay door. Her initial curiosity and hasty excitement began fading quickly once she completely took in what was happening.
“You comfy in there, Faith? The seat straps still on tight?” Fox asked through the headset over Faith’s head, which initially made her jump a bit.
“Uh…yeah. Y-Yeah, I’m good,” she nodded quickly, eyeing the ominous sight of the vacuum of space approaching her as the Arwing closed in on the exit.
“We can call it off right now if you’re feeling scared.”
“No. No, I wanna try this out. It’s just…” Faith stopped for a moment, gripping her knees tightly as the visible energy shield keeping the air inside the hangar bay became more visible as the nose of the Arwing II approached it. “A-Are you sure this is safe?”
“You could not be in a safer wing, Faith,” Fox reassured, the image of his face appearing on the dashboard, where it showed him standing on the bridge operating the Arwing II’s remote flight controls. “I’ve got full reign over all the vital controls up here. All you need to worry about is where your trigger finger is.”
Faith swallowed a hearty lump in her throat as the nose of the Arwing two began crossing through the field dividing the interior from the infinite. “Okay…”
Faith watched intensely as the blue field shimmered brightly over the canopy, crackling with white discharge like the drizzling soap in an automated carwash before she fully passed through, and everything suddenly got dreadfully quiet. Apart from the very light ambient hum coursing through the Arwing, Faith could hear nothing at all aside from her own breathing. She had now fully crossed over into the vacuum of space where the soundscape was non-existent, and this was confirmed as such when Faith turned around in her seat (the creaking sound of the leather now deafening) and found that she was indeed now fully outside of the Great Fox II.
Faith felt incredibly strange being out there alone in an Arwing. She had never imagined finding herself in this particular situation, especially in recent years when it felt like she would never escape the living hell she was stuck in. All things considered, despite her total lack of any sort of acquaintance with these kinds of spacecraft, this was still a pretty sweet experience.
Fox remotely guided the ship away from the mouth of the hangar and leisurely took it around to the port side. Faith’s view shifted from the full glorious view of Durrin before covering her eyes to block out the bright Brokkr sun, where she was then treated to the endless eternal canvas of stars when fully turned around to face the rear end of the ship. As breathtaking as a view like that was, Faith’s eyes found themselves anchored to something wedged firmly into the corner of Fox’s dashboard.
It was a little photo of Krystal sitting in the sand of a golden beach somewhere, wearing a thin, sleeveless yellow summer dress, and her dark cobalt hair was shorter but still flowed in the seaside breeze. She was smiling happily in the photo, no doubt at the one who was taking it, and Faith thought she looked gorgeous.
Her bright teal eyes were striking, yet so soft and loving. Krystal truly did not need to do much of anything to look as beautiful as she was. It made Faith wish she had a copy of this picture to have whenever she needed encouragement. Nothing has ever warmed Faith as fully as the look this vixen gave so naturally.
Being that her arms were bare in the photo, Faith was soon able to spot strange patterned rings of white in the fur of Krystal’s upper arms. She tried studying them for a few seconds, making her somewhat oblivious to the Arwing slowing to a gentle stop. It made Faith jump when Fox’s voice chimed into the deafening silence of the cockpit, but it was a more guilty kind of jump that one would make if they were caught ogling somebody they shouldn’t be (which Faith was).
“Here we are,” Fox rang assuredly. “You still holding out good in there, champ?”
“Roger,” Faith replied, trying to sound like she knew what she was doing, making Fox smile to himself.
“Perfect,” he replied. “I’ve got a few dozen pigeons stocked up in the launch bay. Why don’t we try running through the first dozen and see if you’d like to fire at anymore?”
“That sounds good,” Faith nodded, content with that initial arrangement.
The Brigitte Class of assault carriers had both starboard and port-side pigeon launchers as a means to allow the squadrons housed in their hangars to hone their sharpshooting skills in a wing while out on a deployment. The pigeons used for this recreational activity were made of a dense but highly igneous foam-like substance that was especially weak to laser blasts like fire to dry grass. This was so that the debris caused by the exploding pigeons didn’t fly out across space and become a hazard for other ships. It was the main reason why Fox was permitted by the Durrin Orbital Authority to practice shots with his Arwing while they waited their turn for entry after he relayed it to them.
After a few more seconds of waiting, a thing rectangular hole opened up on the side of the carrier’s hull, but Faith had no audio cue to indicate it was happening until Fox drew her attention to it. “All right, it’s open. Let’s get you rolling,” he announced. “You got your hand on the joystick?”
“I do,” Faith confirmed, gripping the designated stick positioned directly in front of her with two hands.
“Sweet,” Fox replied positively. “Now, given that this is your first time working with twin T&B H3s, I’ve switched your aiming interface from manual to motion-tracked. That lens on your headgear tracks your eye; you won’t have to move the joystick in order to aim. Try moving your eye around and see if it works.”
Faith followed Fox’s instructions to the letter like she had been and began to notice that whenever she moved her eyes, a subtle whirring sound occurring within the Arwing accompanied it. After shifting her eyes back and forth for another moment, Faith concluded that those had to be the corresponding cannons adjusting their aim with her eye movement, and she found that kind of interface a marvellous feature.
“They’re moving. I can hear them,” Faith radioed back.
“Perfect,” Fox chirped. “Gonna fire the first pigeon. I’ll push it out slowly so you can have your first baby shot.”
Faith giggled anxiously a bit under her breath after hearing that.
“Here we go,” Fox announced, only a couple of seconds before Faith spotted a large neon orange disk with luminescent green strips along the rims floating out of the carrier’s hull and into space at about fifteen miles an hour. “You got a lock on that, Faith?” Fox asked.
Faith’s eyes naturally followed the slow-moving object, which spurred the cannons to track it accordingly. “I do,” she answered, clutching the joystick in front of her with both hands again. “I just click the red button on the stick?”
“See for yourself,” Fox enticed.
Faith let the pigeon drift for a few more seconds before Faith squeezed the button hard, and two bright green streaks of laser energy promptly shot out from both the port and starboard side milliseconds before the pigeon exploded into a blaze before fading away just as fast as it combusted. “Whoa!” Faith yelped, jumping in her seat a bit as the cockpit quaked from the powerful laser discharge.
“Nice shot, Faith!” Fox congratulated. “How’d that feel?”
Faith’s hands were a bit jittery, but she otherwise felt all right. “I…I dunno. That sure was fast.”
“It’s what she’s built for,” Fox said, with a twinkle in his voice. “That pigeon almost flew out of your range. Why don’t you try turning the stick? It’s on an analogue joint; it’ll change your orientation.”
Still somewhat shaken by the experience of firing deadly laser cannons, Faith grabbed the joystick again and turned it to the left as instructed. At the moment she discovered it had a swivel, the Arwing turned accordingly, giving Faith an unwanted bask of the Brokkr sun. The tint from the cockpit kept the rays from being harmful to the eyes, but it was still unpleasant to be suddenly met with it.
“Ah, there we go,” Faith said, turning the stick from side to side, getting a kick out of simply turning the Arwing back and forth, and even pulling off an undaring and slowly paced three-sixty, marvelling at how smooth and responsive it was before Fox chimed back in.
“Handles like a dream, doesn’t she?” Fox said. “How about we shoot a few more pigeons whenever you’re ready?”
Faith glided her craft to a profoundly smooth stop before the pigeon launcher, feeling a simmer of eagerness that made her begin bouncing her knee. “Uh, sure. Let’s try a few more.”
Faith was enjoying this a lot more than she thought she would.
She became more confident with each pigeon that was jettisoned for her to shoot into oblivion. Fox shot them out at faster and faster paces, and Faith managed to obliterate each of them successfully―give or take a few initial misfires along the way. It was easy now for Faith to see why becoming a space fighter was such a coveted and highly sought-after job.
In the back of her mind, however, Faith had not forgotten the fact that she was currently piloting the very same Arwing that killed Geoffry. There was some poetry in this fact that Faith could recognise. A rite of passage, perhaps?
It never grew to that point where it got unsettling, thankfully, but Faith couldn’t help but imagine what it was like to hound Geoffry in this thing. To unload as much laser power onto him until the energy cells depleted. Faith had no sadistic mind or heart, even after everything, but the fantasy was still there.
What would it have been like if she got the opportunity to kill him like Fox did? Every humiliation, every choke of her neck, and every single one of his ugly fingers circling her navel and her breasts. Faith finally had the power to make him pay at the cost of his worthless life. As darkly satisfying as it felt and sounded given everything that was done to her by him, Faith wouldn’t allow the fantasy to rule her mind, even now.
She remembered what Fox told her last night cycle, and she would remain grateful that she didn’t need to be the one to bring the end to him. It hardly seemed like it mattered when compared to everything else, but it was a blessing that Geoffry didn’t get the chance to ruin her any further than he already had. Krystal could sense this resolution in the junior pilot’s mind, and she felt proud of her.
After an eventful several minutes, the port side eventually ran out of pigeons to shoot, which delighted Fox. “Palpable job, ace-in-training,” he praised. “Looks like the stock’s ran out on your end. You’ve impressed me!”
That made Faith feel rather good about herself, but she tried playing it off. “Oh, I dunno. I think the interfaces did most of the work.”
“Nonsense,” Fox refuted. “A lot of newer cadets at CFA overshoot a lot with these eye-tracking gimmicks. You’ve exercised a lot of patience and focus; something the new kids are insufficient with.”
Faith smiled humbly to herself. “Well, ballet will do that for you…” She muttered that part to herself quietly, but Fox overheard a little bit.
“What was that?”
“Uh…I didn’t say anything,” Faith corrected, sounding casual enough for Fox, but Krystal, who had been standing silently next to him on the bridge this entire time, picked up on that utterance and filed that mental note away in her mind.
“Okay,” Fox said. “What’s your next call, Faith? Want to come back inside? Or maybe skeet shoot a bit more on starboard?”
Faith thought about her options for a few seconds. Still having a fresh rush flowing through her, Faith answered, “Could I maybe try a few more pigeons?” she asked. “This is kinda fun!”
“Aye, aye, ace. Just hang tight and I’ll cruise you on over there.”
Feeling satisfied with how things were playing out, Faith reclined in the pilot’s seat and laced her fingers over her stomach, tempted to cross her legs if that divider housing some switches wasn’t in the way. Fox was guiding her to the stern of the Great Fox II before making it around to the starboard side. All was going quite merrily until it met an unpleasantly abrupt end when a few dials inside the cockpit suddenly clicked off without warning, making Faith jerk her head to the dashboard.
Faith was still like a statue as she tried to figure out what just happened, scanning for any changes in the switch arrangements, when Fox began to add fuel to the maturing fire.
“Uh-oh…” he muttered weakly through the headset’s comm, confirming that there was indeed a problem.
“What happened?” Faith asked, growing more concerned.
“I don’t want to alarm you, Faith, but the remote controls just died.”
Faith no longer felt relaxed as she stood up. Then she noticed that the gentle ambient hum coming from the plasma engines was no longer active, yet she was still drifting through space, already cruising past the carrier’s giant aft propulsion thrusters. The video feed on the dashboard was out as well. A swelling panic began to rise within Faith as her heart rate started to accelerate.
“Oh no…” she quivered, gaping at the sight of deep space as she hurdled uncontrollably towards it. “I’m adrift?!”
“For the moment, yes, but―”
“No, no, no, no! Help me!” Faith hollered in terror, writhing inside the cockpit with the insatiable urge to flee when there was nowhere to go, making her panic even more as claustrophobia overwhelmed her.
“Faith! Stay calm! Just breathe! You’ve got more than enough oxygen!” Fox called back to her desperately, sounding frightened himself, but still calm enough.
Rather than succumb to the fear, Faith had been steadily gaining hold of herself over these last few days and forced herself to comply. She just did nothing for a long moment as she breathed slowly and heavily, trying to keep her strained heart calm. It was when she cracked an eye open to see the photo of Krystal on the dashboard did she finally start getting a hold of herself.
Trying not to dwell on the harrowing eternity that she was currently drifting out towards, Faith focused herself on the picture and the controls below it. “You okay, champ?” Fox asked through the comm after a time.
“I’m good. I’m good,” Faith nodded to herself, keeping her heavy breathing steady. “What am I going to do, Fox?”
“First thing you need to do is reengage manual controls,” Fox instructed resolutely. “You’re going to fly her back inside.”
“What?!” Faith exclaimed. “I don’t know how to fly this thing!”
“It’s a snap, Faith! Trust me!” Fox pleaded. “You already know how to work the stick; learning the throttle couldn’t be easier.”
Faith was still severely unsure about her capabilities, but she had no choice but to trust Fox, so she continued to hear him out. “Okay… If y-you say so,” she whimpered, scared but determined. “What do I do?”
“Do you see three silver switches by your left foot?” Fox asked, directing Faith to look down, and sure enough there was a set of three silver-indented switches placed vertically on top of one another near the underside of the dashboard. “Those are going to prime the fusion transistors, and the large red dial close to them on top is the ignition. Flip the switches in sequence from bottom to top and finish off with a hard turn of the dial. That’ll get your wings flapping.”
“O-Okay,” Faith complied, entrusting Fox completely with what was being instructed. Quickly, but not too hastily, Faith reached down and pushed in the aforementioned silver switches before reaching up and grabbing the red dial and giving it a good turn to the right, and like magic, the whole Arwing rumbled to life with that familiar low ambience that Faith now found so beautiful and reassuring. Already she felt leagues better once she saw and felt her success.
“Ah, my wings are a-glowing!” Fox applauded in the comm, just as the video feed of him on the bridge flickered back on―revealing an ecstatic face. “I can see you from the bridge, Faith―you’re running hot and alive!”
Faith sat up higher in the seat to look back through the cockpit, and she saw the frightening image of the Great Fox II about six hundred metres away and getting farther. “Great! That’s great!” Faith replied, very much anxious to get back. “What’s next?”
“Now you engage the throttle,” Fox instructed. “See the big handle on your lefthand side by your seat? That’s going to give you the oomph you need to get moving again. You already know how to work the stick. Turn from side to side to steer, and push it forward or back for yaw.”
Faith grabbed the stick with her right hand and throttle with her left. “So, I push the throttle up to start moving?”
“Affirmative,” Fox confirmed. “Go slow and steady. You don’t want to rush this.”
Maintaining steady control of her buzzing nerves, Faith took another deep breath and slid the throttle forward a few clicks, where she then started to feel herself getting gently pushed back towards her seat, but it was very subtle. Figuring that this meant she was moving, Faith then turned the stick to the left in her right hand, and before she knew it, Durrin suddenly returned to full view again in front of her, along with the aft side of the Great Fox II and the glowing plasma coming off of its thrusters.
Seeing as she was heading straight for that plasma, Faith tensed up before turning the stick to the left, and she veered accordingly. Her ears began to perk up once she realised that controlling this thing appeared to be easier than expected. “There we go, champ. You’re getting it!” Fox told her with great approval.
Faith inhaled shakily as she adjusted to all that was now going on around her. “I, uh…I guess I am, I hope,” she expressed, nervous but also a bit excited. “Do I pull the throttled back if I want to go slower?”
“Affirmative,” Fox confirmed again. “The interface is very easy for first-timers. If you know the stick and throttle, you’ll become a master at the Arwing in no time.”
Faith looked ahead at the massive blue and green planet for a moment before looking up the Great Fox II’s starboard side a hundred metres away, which she was cruising past so quickly she almost passed the bow, where the mouths of both hangar bays came into full view. Faith grew an insatiable hunger for the inside when she saw them
“Okay. I’m ready to come back in,” she said to Fox. “What do I need to do next?”
“Why don’t you get a better feel for your new wings for a little while longer, eh?” Fox offered. “Slipping that inside can be kind of tricky, and I don’t really want you accidentally denting my wing or the garage of our mobile home.”
Faith completed eight total laps around the Great Fox II, and it was a life-changing experience for her to say the least.
The speed at which she could go in this spacecraft was unreal, and she didn’t even punch it to the max. The G-Diffusers were apparently a separate peripheral that required their own steps of activation, so Faith didn’t have them on. That meant she was able to feel the g-forces as she sped around open space around the Great Fox II, and she found the sensation very exhilarating. Being able to feel the speed was what made all the difference.
Faith also performed a few dips and raises once she trusted herself enough to utilise the analogue feature on the joystick. Her little run in the Arwing II was very safe and basic in hindsight, but Faith found it amazing at that moment. It was definitely one of the coolest experiences she ever had.
Faith also found it remarkable that she wound up learning how to fly an Arwing before she learned how to drive a car. She never got the chance to attend Driver’s Ed before she got dognapped. Life sure had a way of completely changing the script. Faith was all too wise as to how painfully true that could be, but she was very much liking where the winds were blowing her now.
Before long, Fox soon radioed to Faith that it was probably time to see how good her docking skills were. That part she was not ready for. When positioning herself before the port-side hangar entrance, she was able to gently glide herself in fine enough, but she knew she was going to need extensive oversight if she wanted to pull this final task off without a hitch.
Euphoric at the sight of the energised barriers slipping around the Arwing II as she entered, Faith grinned as brightly as the Brokkr sun when she at last returned within the Great Fox II and the beautiful sound of outside sound once more returned to grace Faith’s ears. No sooner did she do this, Fox then suddenly buzzed in on her comm.
“Hey Faith, good news for you!” he channelled. “ROB just helped me reestablish the remote controls on the wing. Must have been interference spurred by a solar flare. I can take it from here unless you’d like to see if you can pull off a―”
“I happily relinquish all control here to you. Please,” Faith vehemently insisted.
“Fair enough. I’ll take it from here,” Fox replied. “Just sit and relax until we come down.”
“With all my greatest pleasures…” Faith sighed, already closing her eyes and leaning back in her seat. As the Arwing moved about on its own without Faith’s input, she sighed with respite as she placed a hand over her heart. It got quite scary out there, but she couldn’t really say this was all entirely for nothing. In fact, Faith felt quite enriched despite the initial terror.
Sometime after the Arwing II landed and the canopy opened back up, Fox and Krystal soon emerged into the hangar bay, which made Faith open her eyes and regard them with a very happy and very triumphant wave of her arm. Both of them were equally jubilant to see their friend having returned without any issue, though Krystal restrained herself from backhanding Fox’s face as hard as she could at this moment for reasons yet to be voiced.
Once rekindling with each other after Faith ascended down the erected steps to the cockpit, she gave both of them a great big hug, overjoyed to be with them again after believing she would drift far off into space. “I think we might be looking at a future pilot right here, Honey,” Fox said to his wife, quirking Faith a pleased eyebrow. “Did you see how well she took to it?”
“Indeed,” Krystal agreed, looking over to Faith. “You have demonstrated incredible control and adaptability, Faith. That cannot be understated by any stretch.”
Faith felt fortunate that she had a furry face, that way nobody could see how intensely her face was flushing and she felt it was good that none of them could see it. “Yeah, uh… I guess I did all of that, didn’t I?” she said, putting a hand behind her head modestly.
“You see, there’s no real trick to it,” Fox said. “You just keep building up from the basics, and soon enough you start developing your own flying style. And hey, if you’re ever feeling up for it, and if Krystal here is willing, maybe you could take the Cloud Runner for a spin? She has a totally unique interface that is definitely worth a feel.”
Faith smiled tiredly at Fox. “Uh…maybe,” she said, more dismissively than willing. “Right now, I think I need to use the lady’s room. And then I’m going to eat more of your pancakes because they’re really good.”
Fox did not question her reason which he knew was valid either way. “Fair enough,” he shrugged, raising his arm towards the door to the lower deck hall. “You know where to go; we’ll meet you up there after I have a look at my wing for a bit.”
“Thank you,” Faith nodded, feeling satisfied as she hugged each of them individually. Krystal even snuck Faith a well-concealed peck on the cheek. She embraced that quietly before turning away and walking out of the hangar. Fox’s ears fell to the side of his head when he turned to see his wife completely abandon her loving demeanour and adopt a scornful glower aimed directly at her husband, wrinkling her nose and crossing her arms.
Krystal’s seething angry faces were as adorable as they were incredibly threatening.
“Hey, you played along,” Fox pleaded, raising his arms defensively as his tail dropped to the floor. “You knew she wasn’t in any real danger.”
Krystal continued to glower at her husband in menacing silence. The whole ruse of acting like the Arwing II’s remote controls had given out was not something she conceded to likely, and it took a lot of convincing on Fox’s part to show that the experience would have been incredibly beneficial for Faith. While not denying she was involved in this herself, Krystal still wouldn’t let this go so easily and took a few steps closer to Fox, who just watched with dread as she approached.
“This was your last wild card,” she warned with a rumble in her voice, tenderly pulling at the stringing tufts on the edge of Fox’s chin. “Don’t assume I’ll be so tolerant next time.”
Fox conceded as his arms sank to his sides. “Yes, dear…”