Cyanos Geosynchronous Orbit; TET-2 Engineering Compartment

Friday – afternoon

The entire station which had been vibrating, shaking and humming with pent up power, finally released its supercharged beam of geomagnetic plasma in one long continuous heaving stream. A force now exponentially stronger than the core blast that TET-4 had tried and failed.  This time the blast was infused with fresh energy directly derived and sourced from the very core of the planet itself.   A deep and powerful surge of vengeful wrath, with one sole purpose and one purpose only – to settle a score not only for recent events, but also for the devastating planet wide events of many generations before. Events that had left the planet stripped bare and almost completely destroyed, events that took many seasons of hard toil by those left behind to make a recovery.

Both Blaze and Dieter watched the monitors as the core blast found its mark – this time completely destroying the Bugaarian ship from the inside, out.

Blaze nodded his head slowly in agreement – still awed by what he had just seen.

The condition RED lighting blinked off, and all the internal systems of the station returned to normal.

Dieter stood looking at the portal curtain, and could see the glowing core beyond and the single bright lode stone still spinning slowly in the centre – the other two had gone.  His next words were more of a statement musing to himself, rather than a question that he expected an answer to.

Even as Dieter said the words, they looked across to the reactor access portal and the lode stone had moved from the centre of the core, and had come right up to the portal curtain.   It was gently bumping against the curtain as if it were knocking to be let out.

And then, just like that, as if the lode stone had just been outside for a quick whizz on a tree and breath of fresh air, it sailed back through the portal curtain, and directly back to Dieter.  It landed with a plop back into his out stretched paw.  Its bright translucent colour slowly faded and it returned to an opaque, dull blue grey.

Dieter tilted his head, snuffled, gave a broad grin and put the stone safely back into his pocket.

Then he yawned.  A huge cavernous yawn that if someone looked carefully at the right moment, they would be able to see a little black spot right at that back of his pink lolling tongue.

It was not long before Dieter was sound asleep, too tired to even have dinner first.

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Cyanos Geosynchronous Orbit

Saturday – morning

Having missed out on dinner the previous evening, and just having slept for over fourteen hours straight, Dieter had woken up ravenous.   A helpful member of the crew had pointed him in the right direction of the food hall.  The closer he got he hardly needed further directions – his nose told him everything he needed to know.

Waffles. Lots of waffles. Bacon. Lots of bacon. Maple syrup. Lots of maple syrup.

There he met his sister Hanne, who was taking a well deserved day off.

Hanne and Dieter were finally able to have a proper catch up trading all their stories from what had turned out to be a rather remarkable week. 

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Orbit – Shuttle Indigo

Saturday – mid-morning

Indigo glided smoothly into the docking bay of TET-2 – this time perfectly visible to all.  Aboard, Jarvis had already collected two passengers, Jaak and Tag.   Once Jarvis had received confirmation of hard dock, and equalized internal and external pressures, the hatch hissed open and the stairs unfolded to the deck below.

Soon, one small and one medium sized neko-human boy bounded down the steps.

Dieter, Hanne and Commander Tova, along with a few of the other senior control room officers from the day before were waiting in the docking bay to greet them.

The resulting three way dog-cat pile that ensued, with ears scritched, paws bumped, hugs given, tears shed, long slobbery tongue licks doled out, and one wildly waving tail waved, took some time to disentangle.

Finally the three boys managed to make their way over in a happy tumble, to the others who were patiently waiting to meet them.

A round of introductions were made with the boys all receiving another round of paw bumps, hugs and ear scritches from the others.

With that Dieter grinned, reached into his pocket and took out his cyan stone.  It was glowing brightly.  Tag and Jaak also took out their stones and to the wonder and awe of everyone present, the boys stood a bit apart and made their stones fly around in a triangular pattern of blue light.

With that the crew hoisted Dieter, Jaak and Tag up into the air and carried them triumphantly towards the food hall for – in Dieters words… ‘the best early lunch ever’!

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Aoraki – CaSA Landing Facility

Saturday – afternoon

Following goodbyes, more hugs and more ear scritches, the three boys boarded the Shuttle Indigo once again for their return trip back to the surface.

A large crowd awaited them as they arrived back at the Aoraki CaSA Landing Facility. It seemed as if half of Aoraki had turned up to welcome them home.

Never one to miss an opportunity for an excellent photo-op, Chancellor Saxe was there with his best smile to congratulate the boys and shake their paws. Finally, after there were no more paws to shake and pictures to pose for, the boys made their way over to the Ambassador’s limousine.

Jarvis had made a quick switch from shuttle pilot back to limousine driver, and was already waiting for the boys with the door open.

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