Wiggly Sprocket and the others stood on the lip of the damaged vessel for a long moment. Between the stranger’s looks and him speaking in coarse Equish, they had difficulty catching up to the present. With so many species from their homeworld, all three initially assumed the being was some genetic experiment. “Who or what are you?” Sprocket asked with her bewildered curiosity laid bare.
The being adopted a more formal stance, his hands were quite animated as he spoke. He squinted due to the enhanced sunlight passing through the coral above. “Forgive my impertinence, but I would greatly appreciate speaking to you on the same floor.”
There it was again. While the being’s words and grammar were correct, his speaking cadence was dry and rough to listen to. Were it not for his poorly veiled fear, it was as if he was a professor trying to put his class to sleep. Yet his appearance remained his most confounding feature. Full prosthetic bodies were rare, typically found only in the top three militaries. The heavy armed vessel certainly pointed in that direction.
Winter leaned over to speak to the siblings in a low tone, weary of using the radio next to an obvious cyborg. Such body modification must surely be illegal, I don’t care what nation he’s from. “We should take extreme care, and keep your distance.”
“He seems polite enough,” Live Wire commented with a mild refutation of Winter’s mood. “I can’t place the accent though.” Even with his attempt at diplomacy, he was unnerved by this unusual pony-esk being.
“If he’s the monster, he’s quite a looker.” Wiggly found the being’s exotic look rather striking, and dare she admit it: handsome. The idea of poking around the mechanical inner workings of such a flexible body was nearly intoxicating. “I’m going down there.” She spread her wings and hovered down towards the strange pony.
Winter reached out to her in a panic. “Wait, I should go first!”
But it was too late. Wiggly settled down heavily onto the shorn grass and waved a wing in greeting. “Heyya. I’m Wiggly Sprocket. Chief engineer and quartermaster of the-” Her face and ears fell for a moment. “The late Cloud Jumper.”
Now that she was on the ground, she could see this ‘friend of ponies’ was quite tall. But she couldn’t tell if it was simply because of his posture alone or if his legs were longer. The stallion bowed his head and upper body far more than she thought possible on such an unstable number of legs. “I have received your name, and will treasure it by giving you mine. I am Medica Atoma Morales. I am a gravitor second class and Mender of the CSV Akira.” He waved a paw-like hand at the ship around them.
By now, Winter was carrying Live Wire and set him down on the grass. She landed close by with her pistol holstered, but her hoof was hovering close to it. Live Wire was unsettled by the strange pony. He looks like a unicorn and a minotaur had a foal. “Name’s Live Wire. Pilot and chef of the same ship.”
Winter was unsure of what she could share. After bearding the ship’s prefix, she had a growing concern that this person was no pony, in spite of his similar features. “Winter Gale. Second Lieutenant of the INV Rainbow Dash… Fighter pilot,” she added after a hesitant pause.
“Ahh. If I understand correctly then, you are the only military member here. I presume you are the one in command then?”
“In situations like this? Nominally,” Winter admitted while giving Wiggly a firm look.
“I… hmm.” That left Morales unsure of who to focus his attention on, since the locals had effectively surrounded him. He wasn’t facing a weapon just yet so he kept his hopes up. He decided to focus on Wiggly since she was the first. “Forgive me, as first contact was not something I was trained for. But let me be the first to greet you all on behalf of the Cathrax Combine. I represent a union of six worlds and thirty two habitats.”
His proclaimed origin left the three rather confused. The Initiative and its brethren nations from Equiss had spread far and wide, and thus far, not one alien civilization had been discovered beyond the Stone Age. So each of them logically concluded that the Combine was cut from the same cloth as themselves. “Never heard of you,” Winter Gale stated with naked suspicion. She eyed his form carefully, seeing parallels in other natives of Equiss. A bit of griffon here, sphinx, there, and the obvious pony leanings. The only thing she couldn’t place were any signs of cyberization. “This Combine of yours. Is it a megacorp? I’d have heard of it, if it is as large as you say it is.”
It took Morales a long moment to place the word ‘megacorp’. When he did, his mood soured, but he made a conscious effort to hide it. “I assure you, the Combine is a legitimate government. In spite of my form, the Cathrax as a whole are not children of Equiss. We hail from what you refer to as Luna’s right wing.”
“The right wing?!” Winter cast her gaze upon the others, yet the two spacers only shrugged out of ignorance. “That’s far beyond our reach.”
The siblings clued in real fast, and Wiggly gasped. “Wait, you’re an alien?! Like a real honest to Luna alien?”
“From your eyes, I certainly am,” Morales stated easily. “I have been marooned here for five of your years, although I was in hibernation for the first four. As for how I can speak your language, I’ve been listening to your holo-transmissions. I must say I am a… fan of Cooking With an Angry Drill Instructor. I know your shows will go far in the Combine. Eh - should agreements be reached, of course.”
“Hybernation?” Winter asked with curiosity starting to creep in. She waved a wing at the ship. “How many of you are here?”
“Just myself and Mote, sadly.” Morales pulled out a small black tablet. The holographic avatar of Mote appeared a second later.
“Salutations: it is a pleasure to meet you all. I hope we can see more of your kind.”
“This is a really big ship for just one person,” Live Wire chimed in as he closely inspected the hologram.
Of the three, only Wiggly Sprocket did not unnerve Morales. Any time he had to look at the others, Wire’s obvious artificial eye and Winter’s more subtle bionic ones made his fur stand up. “Yes. See, the rest of the crew departed for the Great Wheel some time after landing here. I had not known them for long, but it has been a difficult time alone.” A thought occurred to him, and Morales was desperate enough to ignore decorum for it. “Say. All I have had to eat for months was grass, little morsels, and paste. I would do almost anything for something new.”
Live Wire above the others knew the pain of horrible food. He was quick to pull out a couple of ration bars. “You can have these if we can tour the ship. Assuming you can even eat it.”
A grin cleaved the alien’s muzzle, and he chuckled at finally having some processed food in hand. His eyes glittered like stars as he savored the moments before tearing open the wrapper. After a whole year of watching pony cooking shows, this unassuming ration bar was a herald of joys to come. “We believe the truest symbol of friendship is sharing one’s food. If I can’t eat your food, then let me die here and now.”
Upon setting hoof onto the ramp, Wiggly Sprocket was completely absorbed by her fascination. The dark hallways, lit only by Mote and the ponies’ headlamps, spoke to her. Of a life of desperation and tightly grasped hope. A narrow receiving room greeted them past the slimed airlock. It forked into twinned hallways that went up and down the entire length of the vessel. Just like the exterior, the ship was primarily a pale white with light blue being tastefully applied. Darkened screens lined the walls in between hatches that led to one room or another. Everything was compact yet taller.
Two things stood out most to all three ponies. The first was the lack of hoofholds or conveyors. Live Wire especially wondered how the crew navigated around the ship when they were off-world.
Secondly were the number of small gashes, cuts, and small missing chunks here and there mostly on the walls or floor. More than once Sprocket saw small speckles of old blood, something easily missable if one was overwhelmed by cleaning a larger amount.
“My apologies about the lack of lightning,” Morales said from the front. “I’ve been out of power ever since I woke up. I provide what I can to keep Mote active, but I can do little else.”
As Winter and her brother inquired further, Sprocket dragged her wingtips along the walls, trying to get a feel for the sleeping vessel through her suit. Poor thing. I bet you’ve seen a great deal. Tears welled in her eyes as she imagined the halls filled with crew and the sounds of life.
Morales guided them first to the control center. It had five positions, the captain, helmsman, comms station, gunnery, and an odd empty tube was placed behind the captain’s chair. A dense nest of cables and pipes snaked both from above and below the tube. The whole arrangement was as tight as a cockpit, making changing stations an arduous task in the middle of combat. So much so, that Wiggly had to hover over everyone’s heads to make enough room for them to see.
All of it looked impossible for the ponies to control. The buttons were far too small, levers were made with hands in mind, and the chairs would be uncomfortable to say the least.
It all made the prospect of taking control over the vessel a daunting prospect. “Medeca Morales,” Winter began after rubbing a hoof across the tube. “What is this for?”
“Ah, that’s for me actually.” The alien stood a bit straighter and a proud grin took hold. “As the ship’s gravitor, I’m responsible for the transition into and usually out of hyperspace as well as using singularities in combat for defense.”
“Hyperspace?!” Live Wire asked with a stunned expression while the mares were left dumbstruck. “That’s only theoretical last I heard.”
“Oh it’s quite real.” Morales’ pride only grew, knowing his importance would mean he would avoid a bullet for sure. “Believe you me, I was just as surprised to learn that you transit via portals and mass reduction. Our peoples have much to learn in peaceful trade.” He turned to Wiggly Sprocket as if he was speaking to a kindred spirit. “I had hoped to meet a pegacorn as pretty as yourself in person.”
Although Morales was simply trying to compliment her to save his own skin, Sprocket took it as fully genuine, and blushed behind her helmet. “You’re easy on the eyes yourself.”
Live Wire’s brotherly warning bells rang on full alert, but he decided to bite his tongue over it. We won’t live for much longer anyway. Let her have her fun. Instead he chose to study the tube, which led his eyes to the dense forest of tubes and cables going up and down from it. A theory popped in his head. “Is the whole ship treated like an extension of your horn?”
“Quite intuitive of you.” Morales smiled and tapped the glass with a knuckle. “I’m more powerful when engaged, but the nature of Cathrax ships means even now I have to refrain from using magic or else I could accidentally slam someone into the ceiling. He stopped cold, as did Winter. In that moment he realized he could defend himself, and that he had accidentally revealed as much to the sailor. “No-not that I would ever do that with my harmonious friends,” he stumbled out quickly. An orbital bombardment surely awaited him even if he managed to kill them.
Too enamored by his looks and the compliment, Sprocket was completely obvious to the tension building in the room. “So what do you do when you’re not in the fish tank?”
Morales laughed harder than he actually felt like. “Ah well yes. I’m actually the ship’s medeca. But I like your word for it better: doctor. A -physician to be precise.”
“A doctor?!” The siblings shared a glimmer of hope.
Morales waved away presumed concerns. “Yes, I know it is not exactly the best thing to have the gravitor and doctor as the same person, but our options were limited.”
Live Wire took a step closer. “You’re familiar with gravity sickness, right?”
A professional mask fell over the bipedal alien, making him think it over. “Gravity sickness… We call it Gravitas. I’ve dealt with acute cases of it, but the remedies are quite simplistic. Just take the patient back into or…bit.” He closely inspected the three ponies’ posture, movements, and faces. An alien he might be, but the biggest symptoms were universal between them. Sluggishness, shallow breathing, and lethargy was all there except for Winter Gale. “Why do I get the feeling you are just as trapped on this moon as I am?”
“We are,” Sprocket admitted while waving a wing between herself and Live Wire. All of it before Winter could try to conceal the truth. “Pirates shot our ship down, and left us to die here. We survived, but… not for much longer. My brother and I are only able to move because of the meds.”
“You’re in that shape with medication?” Morales’ concern mounted. “I can only imagine the pain you’re in.” He kept a professional and courteous smile as he moved on from the news. “It would take considerable effort, but I could remedy your problem.”
Wiggly latched onto his offer for dear life, yet Live Wire remained skeptical. “How? If you could leave this moon you would have done so by now right.”
“What do you mean, how?” Morales studied the three carefully, wondering if by some chance they were joking with him. “Your species already had dominion over gravity. Why do you think I look like you?”
Bewildered confusion came from Winter and Wire, yet it was Wiggly who narrowed her eyes and spoke as if testing the waters. “Like us. And grav- no. You can’t mean…” She looked at the others to see if they were connecting the same dots. “Terracorn. That’s why you look like us, you’re half terracorn!”
A pleased look fell over the stallion. “Indeed. We call our xenotype terracorn as well in homage to the progenitor.”
Recollecting herself, Winter pushed her curiosity aside. Her heart demanded that Wire be saved, and that was all that mattered. “We can visit this later. You said you could help with their gravity sickness, right?”
“I can,” was all Morales said as he fished out Mote’s pad. “Those suits of yours don’t happen to have a strong power pack on them do they?”
“We brought six power packs with modular output,” Wiggly replied with desperate hope.
“Then I’ll need one brought here to run my ‘fish tank’ for me.” He tucked Mote’s pad in between some cables. “Would you kindly find out where a power pack would be needed to boot the system.” After the small avatar signaled her compliance, Morales turned back towards the ponies with his arms crossed, and his tail struggling to wag nervously in the tight confines. “While she works, I feel like we need to come to an arrangement. You desire my ship, a child could see that much. What exactly do you want to do with it?”
Thoughts of the Cloud Jumper raced back into Wiggly’s mind. She tried to hold back tears, yet they misted over in spite of her efforts. “No point in lying to you, doctor. But what I want is a home. I want a place where I can lay my head, to hear it thrum and groan with the engines’ heartbeat.” She gazed all around the darkened CIC and the empty hallway behind them. “The Akira lost its crew. It yearns to be filled with life again.” She returned her gaze to Morales who was taken aback. “What would it take to make that happen with you?”
Caught in a trap he had not expected, Morales was left flustered as he rubbed the back of his head while trying to collect his thoughts. “I… I owe it to crew and country to see my mission through. We were ordered to seek Equiss out to see if you had made it to the stars. And if you had, to open relations. If you help me with that, the ship is yours. As long as you don’t act against the Combine, neither I nor Static Carillon, the shipboard PI, will dissent.” He dithered with his words for a moment, trying to hide an eager grin. “I’ll admit, I’ve been wanting to see the Initiative ever since hearing about it. The idea of sampling a new civilization’s cuisine alone will make it worthwhile.”
The thought of food brought Morales’ attention back to his half eaten ration bar. He took a few moments to see if he felt any discomfort or worse from the bite he took. I’ll need to print off a poison detector at some point.
“It’s a deal!” Wiggly announced with more enthusiasm than her condition approved of, causing her to hiss in pain.
Live Wire chuckled at the thought. “I’d say we could give you fair pay, but between you being a doctor and an FTL enabler, you’re too expensive for our blood.”
“I believe a rescuer discount is warranted,” Morales replied swiftly. “Just so long as I can keep trying new food.” Clearing his throat to recollect himself, Morales passed a hand over his mane to smooth any errant strands. As he did so, Mote blinked on and waved cheerfully at the organics.
“Announcement: I have calculated the locations and power demands for the singularity projector. Displaying them now.”
A dim hologram manifested in between everyone. Morales saw a problem immediately: the measurement. “Ah, hmm. I don’t suppose you have the means of translating figures between everything, do you?”
Wiggly Sprocket puffed her chest out as best as her weakness allowed. “With a little doing, my tools can demonstrate everything from temperature to pressure.”
While Morales was left to finish his preparations, the ponies returned to the escape pods. The perpetual wind had died down after they had entered the greenhouse, so there was only a thin layer of red dust on the interiors.
As Winter leveraged her strength, and Wiggly used her magic’s mass reduction to carry supplies to another pod door to use as a sled, Live Wire lingered in his pod. With a solemn frown, he gingerly brushed the dust off of the mural that was hidden beneath. He used magic to dust more of it away to see his old favorite spot: a collection of lights denoting a toy store.
Wiggly dragged her head inside with a heavily fatigued look about her. The medication keeping them moving slowly weakened throughout the day, which compounded the late hour. “Hey, broham, we’re about ready to move.” She paused once she saw what he was focusing on.
He slowly pulled his gaze off the wall to focus on his weary sister. “Wiggs, do you think we’ll have a home again?”
“Of course we will,” Wiggly answered firmly as she floated over the lip to get inside. “The Akira is kinda sterile, if you ignore the damage. But we can make it work with the right paint and furniture.”
Live Wire’s face dropped as dark clouds fell over him. “That’s not what I mean. Apparently the ship needs a high-order AI to function, and we need Morales, or at least somepony like him too. Not to mention the ship is a frigate with a skeleton crew of at least ten, but better at twenty. The Cloud Jumper was a home. The Akira… it’ll be a place of work we’re just going to live in.”
“Who says?” Wiggly slid up to him and gave Wire a tight hug. It was a gesture he only sat limply in reply. “Morales is really sweet, and don’t you worry, he’ll be family before you know it.”
A blank look fell over Wire. He pulled Sprocket off of him to direct that look to her. “Wiggs…” he started dangerously.
“Don’t give me that.” Wiggly pulled back and got defensive.
Yet whatever argument Wire was going to have came to a halt when Winter Gale flew over and hovered just outside. “The sled’s loaded, guys.” She quickly clued in on the silent fight brewing. I know that look. Probably best that I make myself scarce. “Wiggy, you were right. The fuel pod beacons were on the wrong channel. Guess it was obvious the pods survived given the lack of mushroom clouds that trailed behind us on the way in. I’ll go fetch one, eh?”
Her eyes danced between the siblings who did not move their gazes. “Right. Well, good talk. I’ll see you when we all get back. I left another two doses of Accelatotian on the sled. You’ve got an hour before you can take them. Be safe you two.” Lingering a few seconds longer, Winter hoped the two would at least acknowledge her. Thankfully, Wire gave her a nod, letting the bat mare fly off with a bit of hope.
Going right back into the argument, Wiggly whirled around before Winter’s wing flaps fell away into the distance. “Morales is an alien. So what?”
“So what?!” Wire gave her a questioning look to see if she was being intentionally dismissive. “He’s an alien. An actual intelligent alien that’s wearing our face!”
“Uh, it’s his face too. Look, if he was trying to be some kind of infiltrator, the whole two legs and arms thing wasn’t going to work too well for him.”
“I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation here of all places. The only thing I’m worried about him infiltrating is you.” Live Wire developed a knowing smirk when Sprocket went still and turned away with red cheeks. “Uh huh. I knew it, you got a thing for him!”
Sprocket snorted at him and her tone grew smug. “And? It’s every explorer’s duty to rut the first alien we find.”
“Oh for the love of,” Wire groaned with extreme force. “You are not a space captain on the hunt for tentacled green alien stallions to rut.”
“You’re right, I’m the engineer, not the captain,” Wiggly snootily threw her nose into the air.
Wire instinctively tried to slap his face, only to worriedly hit his helmet a bit too loud for his liking. “Look. Morales knows a bit about us, but we know nothing of him or his people. Just be careful, alright? I love you.”
Unable to hold onto her irritation under such a brotherly assault, Wiggly exhaled heavily. “Alright, alright… I’ll be careful. I love you too.”
Throwing on a careful smile, Live Wire wanted to tousle her mane, but had to settle for magically rocking her head back and forth, much to Wiggly’s annoyance. “Come on. If we manage to get that oversized bird back into space, we’ll need the navy code box, so help me lift it out of here.”
As weak as she was under so much gravity, Sprocket tried for a shoulder check, but only managed a feeble tap. “Sure sure.”
They grappled with the code box, which was still connected to the mobile power supply. “I just don’t know why you got your nose so up in my business though. I didn’t give you this much fuss when you hooked up with Winter. You know the lifespan of fighter pilots can be short.”
Shaking his head, Live Wire stepped over the lip of the pod, easing the code box forward. “Wiggly Wiggs, I’m your older brother. It’s my job to protect you.”
“Older?!” Sprocket paused midway through stepping over the lip. “By like a lousy three hours!”
Wearing a teasing grin, Wire gently tugged at the code box to encourage her to keep moving. “Then maybe in three hours you’ll understand.” Sprocket took the bait and huffed with an eye roll. His grin widened. “Besides, those three hours were enough for midnight to pass, so I am legally older than you.” He stuck his tongue out, just to hammer it home.
“Oh whatever,” she grumbled before setting the code box onto the sled.