To the Stars

by Jay David

Last of Their Kind

From the moment they had entered the medical bay, they had been in stunned silence. Sunset was standing to the side, staring at the egg intently, quietly satisfied that, if nothing else, they'd rescued an innocent from the clutches of a criminal. Twilight, for her part, was engrossed in her usual scientific curiosity, circling the egg upon the medical bed and scanning it with her bracer device. As for Fluttershy, though she was clearly out of her depth when it came to caring for such a life-form, she nevertheless appeared to be fawning over the as-yet unborn alien. After a while though, Sunset sighed, looking to her chief scientist. "Well, Twilight? What's the verdict?"

Deactivating her bracer, Twilight looked to her captain and offered a small smile. "By all accounts, it appears to be healthy. No signs of any damage to the egg, nor any fluctuations of the life-signs within."

Sunset breathed a sigh of relief, then glanced to Fluttershy. "And you're certain that this creature is what you said it was?"

Fluttershy nodded with great enthusiasm. "Oh yes! There's no mistaking it! I recognise this little cutie from my zoological studies back home. This is definitely a Drakkon!"

Twilight maintained her smile as she looked to her more medially-inclined friend. "I've heard of them. Humanoid reptilians. No spacefaring, or any technology of any kind, but strong and ferocious." She chuckled briefly. "Rumour has it that they can even breathe fire."

Fluttershy giggled. "Oh. I'm sure that's just embellishment from the early explorers to their world. You know, make their excursions seem more exciting for the books?" She then looked to Sunset. "I hope we'll be heading back to the little one's home soon? I don't think it's good to be away from their parents for too long."

Sunset smiled back to her. "Don't worry, I've already send word to the bridge. We're heading to planet Volcanus as fast as we can." She then re-focused her attention on the egg. "We've also received a return signal from the rest of the fleet. Another ship will meet us there to take Caballeron and his crew off our hands."

Fluttershy placed her hands upon her hips and let out a huff of disapproval. "Hmph! Serves them right for being so mean!"

"Especially since we can now add 'poaching' to their list of crimes," Twilight remarked.

Sunset nodded in agreement. "Don't worry. They're secure in our hold. They're not going anywhere."

Before anybody could say anything else, Sunset's own bracer started beeping at her, causing her to raise her forearm and press one of the buttons upon it. As soon as she did, she heard the familiar voice of Rarity speaking to her. "Captain. We're approaching Volcanus now."

"Good," Sunset responded. "The egg seems to be in good health, so as soon as we're in range we need to arrange a teleport to send it and a team to the surface to return it to its parents."

There was a brief pause after that before Rarity responded. "Captain...you might want to come to the bridge. There's been...a problem."

The tone of her voice made it clear that this was something requiring her attention immediately. So, without a word, Sunset turned and left the medical bay, leaving the egg in the care of Twilight and Fluttershy. She set a good pace, heading straight back to the elevator she'd used to come down to this level to begin with. Entering, she set it to return her to the bridge, and her concern rose with every moment of the ascent. Before long, she was back, Rarity rising from the captain's chair to yield it back to her. "What's happened?" Sunset asked.

Rarity looked quite upset about something, then turned away from her, gesturing to the main viewscreen. Sunset followed her gaze, seeing that there was an image of a planet just ahead of them. She knew it was Volcanus, even without being told, as the world seemed to fit the general description of what she'd heard about it. Heavy volcanic activity, leading to many bright patches of red and orange all over the surface of the world. How any life could survive there, let alone originate there, was beyond her. But that wasn't the issue, as Rarity soon informed her. "As soon as we got close enough, we began scanning the planet. We wanted to see where there was a large enough concentration of life to try and predict where the egg needed to be delivered to."

Sunset nodded. "Did you find anywhere in particular?"

Rarity seemed unable to say the words, but eventually steeled herself to do so. "Captain...Sunset...there's nobody."

Sunset was, at first, unsure of what her communications officer was telling her. But then, a creeping feeling of dread began to set in for her. "Wha...what do you mean there's nobody?!"

"I mean there's nobody!" Rarity repeated, again gesturing to the planet. "We've done a sweep of the entire surface, and from what we can tell there's no life down there. Not even any tiny microbes!"

Rainbow, turning in her chair, gave Rarity a dark look. "Rares...give her the really bad news."

A long sigh escaped Rarity, and she nodded to her cohort, then offered a data pad to her captain. Sunset reluctantly took it, knowing she wasn't going to like what she saw there. Sure enough, her eyes widened, eventually becoming a look of horror upon her whole face as she took in the information that had been given to her. "...Atmospheric changes?"

Rarity nodded, quietly clasping her hands together. "From what we can tell, there have been a number of recent alterations to the planet's air. Too many for life to be sustainable." As before, she looked to the now-dead world of Volcanus. "Whatever chance that world had of supporting life...it's gone forever."

Sunset's grip on the pad tightened, and her teeth clenched. "The Drakkons...suffocated to death."

"Down to the last child," Rainbow added with uncharacteristic sadness in her voice.

Rarity shook her head. "I cannot even imagine what could have caused such changes so quickly."

Slowly, Sunset gave the pad back to Rarity, then cast her a serious look. "Rarity...I want you to send me all the files and records we were able to get off Caballeron's ship, then send them to my bracer as soon as you get them."

Confused, Rarity watched her commanding officer turn and head back to the elevator. "But...why?"

Looking back to her, Sunset scowled. "Because I can imagine what happened." And that was all she said to her before the doors of the elevator closed. "Brig!" she commanded, prompting yet another instant response from the device. This time, she felt herself descending deeper into the ship rather than rising, and as she did, her mid raced with fury and disgust. Feelings she knew were going to be shared by all of her crew before long. Soon, the doors opened, and she marched with renewed purpose down the new hallways towards the most secure part of her vessel. The officers on either side of the doors there saluted, but this time she said nothing to them as she entered. There they were, Caballeron and his crew, safely secured behind a forcefield within the small inlet that served as she ship's brig. They looked to her as she approached, and once she was barely an inch from the field, she said what she needed to. "You killed them!"

Cabelleron, for his part, just looked at her as though he were bored. "I'm a career criminal, Captain. So I'm afraid you'll need to be a touch more specific than that."

Sunset's frown deepened. "Volcanus!"

Slowly, the so-called doctor nodded. "Ah, yes, terrible incident. Good thing I got the egg out when I did, wouldn't you say?"

"You expect me to believe that you, a known criminal, had nothing to do with this? That, what, you just happened to be in the neighborhood?" Sunset retorted in an understabably accusatory tone.

"I most certainly was!" Caballeron insisted. "And besides, what evidence do you have to suggest otherwise?"

A beeping on Sunset's wrist alerted her to her previous request to her bridge crew, and she spent the next few moments looking over the new information that had been sent to her. Every passing second caused her greater rage, and before long she resumed her interrogation. "We've just been through your files, Doctor."

Caballeron almost looked offended. "I say, Captain! Is it standard procedure for officers of the Equis Navy to violate one's privacy like that?"

Sunset cared not for his faux sense of victimhood, instead continuing. "Your cargo manifest shows that your ship had a number of devices usually reserved for the purposes of terraforming uninhabitable planets."

Caballeron shrugged. "Perhaps I did. I move so much cargo around it's hard to keep track of sometimes."

Sunset paused before speaking again. "Including technology created specifically...for changing the atmosphere."

Here, her prisoner looked right at her. "If you're looking to coerce me into some kind of confession, you're wasting your time. I am completely innocent of any wrongdoing here."

The gall of this man was hard to stomach, but it soon tuned out that Sunset wasn't going to be the one who would make any kind of progress with him. For at that moment, the doors of the brig opened, and Sunset turned to see that it was, to her surprise, Fluttershy. But, unlike how she last saw her, her chief medical officer had a fire in her eyes she had never encountered before. A fury unmatched, by even herself. The new arrival marched straight up to the forcefield and, to Sunset's further shock, pressed the buttons on the side that led to their deactivation. Before any of them had a chance to question her, she walked right into the cell, grabbed Caballeron by his lapels, then hoisted him up and slammed him against the rear wall of the chamber. "MURDERER!!!"

Instantly, the other two criminals backed up into their respective corners of the cell, utterly terrified of this new arrival who was lifting up their boss like it was nothing. As for Caballeron himself, he too was unnerved by this, but not so much as to be unable to plead. "Captain! Are you really going to let one of your crew treat a prisoner this way?!" After waiting for a moment, and getting naught but silence from the young woman in question, he called out a second time. "Captain?!"

"I'm thinking," Sunset assured him.

On Fluttershy's side of things, her anger was not fading, and she glared angrily at him, staring right into his eyes as though trying to get to his very soul. "Everything on that planet! Gone! Because of you! Why?!"

Heartbreak and rage were mixed in her tone, but it was undoubtedly the latter which Caballeron was focused on right now. He'd likely been in dangerous situations before, given his particular line of work, but this looked like it was the first such instance where he genuinely feared for his life. As such, his terror finally cracked his earlier, confident façade, and Sunset saw, to her amazement, that he now started confessing. "Alright! I admit it! I did it! I let loose the atmospheric converters down there!"

The admission was all Sunset needed, but Fluttershy wasn't done, and she pulled him back from the wall slightly before aggressively forcing him back to it. "Why?!" She asked again, her grip tightening.

"For the money!" Caballeron blurted out. "A Drakkon egg is valuable! Really valuable! But I got to thinking, how to make it more so?!"

Both of Sunset's hands clenched into fists. "You wiped them out...ended an entire race...just so you could make this one egg...a collector's item?!" Caballeron said nothing, merely nodding frantically to answer her. Sunset, in just that one moment, actually considered letting Fluttershy do what she wished to this appalling man. But, her years of training eventually won out, and she sighed heavily before stepping forward, placing her hand upon her friend's shoulder. "Fluttershy...he's not worth it." When Fluttershy didn't look back to her, she continued. "We have all we need. He's probably going to spend the rest of his life locked up on Hades. He'll never hurt anyone ever again."

She could only imagine what was going on in her shipmate's head right now, but soon, her words had finally gotten through to her, as Fluttershy gradually set the man down. She turned, not even looking to Sunset, who watched her go and leave the brig altogether. Afterwards though, her stern expression returned, and she again regarded Caballeron and his men, the latter two helping their employer up from the ground after Fluttershy had released him. After just a moment, Sunset reactivated the forcefield, leaving the three men to themselves, before heading off after her friend. She didn't have to walk far, as it seemed that Fluttershy was just standing there in the hallway, just a short distance from the brig. When Sunset approached her, she turned, revealing the tears that were streaming down her face, her voice wobbling. "All those Drakkons...their children..."

Sunset nodded. "I know. But...the man who did it will never know freedom again. He'll never do something like this to anyone else."

Fluttershy held herself, looking away again. "That's...not enough."

"...No," Sunset concurred. "It probably isn't."

Before their conversation could continue, a beep on Sunset's bracer alerted her to an incoming transmission. Holding up her forearm, the captain awaited the message, which, by the sound of things, was being sent down to her by Rainbow. "The Camelot has just pulled up, Sunset. They're here for the prisoners."

Sunset nodded, then frowned again as she looked over her shoulder. "Acknowledge their request, then lower our shields so they can teleport them from our brig to theirs."

"Will do, Captain," Rainbow answered.

Lowering her arm again, Sunset awaited the distinct sound of a teleport from the other side of the brig's doors, as did Fluttershy. The somewhat high pitch of the technology was distinct even outside of the room, and before long it was over, with both knowing that those three men were no longer aboard their vessel. Nodding, Sunset again spoke into her bracer. "Send them a copy of all of the files we've gathered on this whole thing. Make sure Captain Armour knows exactly what Caballeron has done."

"With pleasure, Ma'am," Rainbow replied.

With that, the transmission cut out, leaving only the silence of Sunset and Fluttershy alone in that hallway together. The captain had no idea what to say to her friend and subordinate, and truly what possibly could have been said to make this any better? But, before Sunset herself had the chance to say anything, Fluttershy beat her to it. "Things are supposed to be better now." Slowly, she turned to look Sunset in the eye. "Fighting and killing and people doing terrible things for greed...we've supposed to have grown past that. How? How can these bad things still be happening?"

It was a fair question, and one that Sunset herself struggled to answer. But then, as she dwelt on it, a new thought came to her, and a small smile crept onto her lips. "Once, when I was learning at the Academy, I had a favourite teacher. Everything she said, I listened to. She was an inspiration to me, and I've tried to live up to the example she set for me." Fluttershy, though perhaps knowing who she was referring to, stayed quiet and let Sunset continue. "One day, after a class had ended, I went to her and I asked a question that had been bothering me for a time. Why do we still make ships with weapons when wars and violence are supposed to be behind us?" Sunset's smile widened slightly. "She smiled to me and told me that there will always be people out there who do not think like us. That, despite all of our great hopes for how the world should be, we must always be ready for when we encounter those who do wrong." She glanced to their side. "It is disappointing, she'd say to me, that those who harm are forever out there. But we can always make sure that there are others, like us, who will never be that way. Who will always strive to be better. Or, failing that, to stand in the way of those who don't."

Fluttershy had listened carefully, taking in everything that had been said to her. After a while, she looked down to her hands, where she'd been twiddling her thumbs. "If men like Caballeron are who we're going to meet out here...how do we cope? What makes it worth it?"

Before Sunset had the chance to answer, another beeping on her wrist alerted her to a further message. This time, it came through without her prompting. "Sunset! Fluttershy! I need you back at the medical bay!"

It was Twilight's voice, and the two knew there was only one thing she could have been referring to. So, they sped off as fast as their legs could carry them, past the hallway, into the elevator, and commanding it to take them back to the appropriate floor. They charged out, nearly knocking over another crewmember in the process, before again arriving at the bay. And here, they stood, stunned, at the sight before them. The egg on the medical bed had burst open, with shards of eggshell all over the floor. As the girls' eyes drifted to Twilight, they saw the source of this. A tiny, lavender reptile, with green bumps along its back, curled up in her arms, even letting out a yawn. Twilight looked to the two, having no idea what to say, instead just glancing down at the newborn she was carrying. Fluttershy, naturally, looked completely enamoured with this new life that had come into their lives, approaching carefully and looking down to the diminutive Drakkon, whom she could now tell was male. Sunset followed her, and after a long silence, the Phoenix's captain looked to her pink-haired friend and gently placed her hand upon her shoulder. "This, Fluttershy. This is what makes it worth it."

Comments

[TasermonsPartner]

That...was actually alot rolled up for a single chapter. Drama, mystery, intrigue, character development, and good heavens the pure emotion.

Good job!

Also, apparently the Phoenix is equipped with some kinda FTL drive, unless Volcanus was still inside their home solar system?

[Jay David]

11757306 Yeah, much like a lot of my favourite sci-fi stories, the details of where everything is and how far apart they are is gonna be somewhat fuzzy

[Frazikar]

Yay! Spike intro - done ...

[nightshroud96]

The fact that Spike is the last of his kind just like that is just.. yikes...

Will he be aged up enough eventually or is he just "googoo gaga" for the entire story or most of it?