Among the Stars

Chapter Ten

By Roofles

“I’m positive Raph would want to hold a wedding on the ship,” Isaac beamed at the thought as he sipped his morning coffee. “No parents. No distant family members to deal with. Just us, the crew and Raph.” There was only one person Isaac would even want to invite from his family. His mom. She sadly had passed away a long time ago. “I wish you could’ve met her.”

“Me too,” Typhon said knowing that Isaac would’ve liked that.

The two were having morning coffee at the small, quaint café at the end of the lobby. Outside the room, down the hall was a cute café they’d passed by. They just needed to veer off to the left and there it was. It looked as if someone had picked up an cliché hipster café and plopped it down onto the ship. The carpeted floor turned to polished wood that matched the chairs and tables as they walked inside the place without walls.

Creamy coffee color table cloths and napkins rested over the hardwood tables waiting for people to be seated at them. The chairs were just big enough for Isaac to be comfortable in. Clearly Raphael had picked out each and every piece of this place to add in, playing SIMs with his ship. It was something Isaac and Raph had liked to do together.

Even with the vast distance between the two, Isaac would video chat with the Moth and the two would talk about everything until late into the night. Talking about trivial things, what had been going on in the others absence and even about how they would want to remodel their ship. Something Raphael had dragged Isaac into helping him out with.

It was one reason why Isaac had been so surprised by all the changes Raphael had done since they’d last talked. It was as if the Motha had changed everything last minute to surprise the Terran, and yet… Isaac felt as if there was something else going on behind the scenes.

He just wished to be important enough in Raphael’s life to have been a part of it. Very few cared at the end of the day what a lone Terran had to say. Except for the Saberwolf across the table from him fidgeting still.

Typhon was struggling to stay in his chair as he fussed and fidgeted with the thing. Getting up, turning around like a dog that couldn’t find the right spot to curl up in. Then sitting back down. Grumbling as he fussed with the back cushion, then the one on the seat. Pawing at it as Isaac held back his laughter.

“What about you?” Isaac asked around the cup of Cappuccino he had gotten. Oddly, it didn’t cost anything as if everything on this “cruise” had been compensated for in advanced. The coffee was a warm, creamy delight after the long night the two had together.

The perfect pick me up that he’d needed to get going after the very strange and vivid dreams he’d been having. Dark corridors leading nowhere, the sound of ice cracking beneath every step he took. The chill air around him. Still and lifeless, yet there was something there. Somewhere deep and dark, unseen by the light.

Beating.

Beating like a pulsing heart. That thumped louder and louder the closer Isaac got to it.

He knew it was a dream and yet Isaac still wanted to find it. Drawn to it. As if it were calling him. Somewhere deep and buried, within the ship. Beating…

Isaac had woke up in a sticky, sweaty mess. Out of breath, he’d spent the first five minutes trying to stop the pin and needles going through his left arm. The left arm he didn’t have any longer. Lost, discarded and abandoned for its newer, better replacement.

He touched the mechanical arm, gripping it tightly. The cold metal forced Typhon to sleep on his right side. Despite what Typhon said, the Saberwolf hated the thing. The mechanical arm was unnatural and such a doctrine that Typhon had grown up with was hard to abandon overnight. Or even the years they’d been together.

Typhon had just learned to hide his distaste for the thing better.

Isaac had gotten up. Planning on cleaning up before Typhon woke up, sneaking into the bathroom an hour early. Only to rediscover his changes in the bathroom mirror. The cracked image within was hard to tell the specific details, at first. Until Isaac realized his hair was a completely different color. He, of course, had rightly blamed Typhon for what had happened to him. Practically screaming at the sleeping Saberwolf who had leapt out of bed and barreled into the bathroom thinking something was wrong.

After much reprimand from a very annoyed Terran, the two had ended up showering together. Isaac was sore, exhausted, his hair was blue, and that creepy ass dream had been the last nail in the coffin as far as he was concerned.

“Let’s just take today off,” Isaac had practically begged Typhon for. “Just a day with no whispers in the mirror, no looming threats, without any other people. Just us. I don’t want to deal with being captain or-or running a ship. I want to just enjoy my break. My vacation. I deserve one after all these years, right?”

“If it was up to me? Every day would be like that, with you.” Typhon grinned at the idea, tail wagging as he rested more against the table than in the chair. “I’d steal you away from this. All of this.... Go to some remote planet, on some remote island and build us a house. Oh, we’d keep the ship of course. Be able to go wherever we wanted to, whenever we wanted. See the worlds, see the universe… knowing we always had a place to come home to.” The Saberwolf nodded at the comforting thought. “Or, maybe, we’d just sit on the beach and watch the waves…”

Typhon had come from a barren, harsh would without natural vegetation or water. The idea of seeing a vast body of water where you couldn’t see the end of it? Was a miraculous sight for his eyes.

“You’ve thought about this a lot.” Isaac smiled at that. It had been a long while since the two had a chance just to sit down like this and talk. No one else around to bug them. No tiny, cramped ship to deal with. “The others are family but…” Isaac veered off that topic.

He liked Juke and Samson. Even Sphinx. They were all part of his crew, part of his pseudo family. It was nice, at times, to be able to get away from that. To sit down and relax like this. To enjoy these brief, fleeting moments together.

If Isaac closed his eyes, he could practically hear it. The waves against the shoreline. To feel the warm breeze against his face with the smell of salt water in the air.

“An oceanside beach house would be perfect,” Isaac took a sip of his drink, savoring it before letting out a content sigh. “Maybe. Maybe someday, when we’re rich and not wanted men.”

It was hard as it was for them to do anything outside their ship. The Stellar Drift, with Sphinx’s aide, could outmaneuver any patrols in the sectors of space they traveled through. It was equipped with a stealth feature, confirming Isaac suspicions the ship had been originally designed as a scouting vessel.

Being stuck onside a ship for years on end would drive anyone mad and it was a miracle their crew hadn’t snapped or killed each other after Typhon burnt the toast for the fifth time. It wasn’t like they could open a window and let the horrible stench out.

“What about your people?” Isaac inquired, fishing for more information about the mysterious Saberwolf who’d accidentally found his way into his life.

“You mean family?” Typhon asked. The Saberwolf was struggling to hold the tiny cup and kept muttering darkly about it as the gears in his head tried to figure it out. His snout was too big to dip into the cup to lap at and every time he tried; foam would get everywhere. Over his face and whiskers and chin.

Isaac chuckled at the sight and reached over with a napkin to help clean him up for the third time without remarking on it. Sometimes, Isaac needed to let Typhon be Typhon. For the Saberwolf to figure things out alone.

“Yeah, your family. Not those in the crew. You never really talk about them, Typhon. I mean, I know about your parents…” Isaac apologized, not wanting to bring up sad news while they were having a nice morning together. “I just meant…”

“Water under the bridge,” Typhon set the glass down and went back to the eggs they were having for breakfast. The Saberwolf ate five times the amount Isaac did. Isaac was just glad they weren’t paying for any of this.

Usually, such a thing would’ve triggered a warning alarm in Isaac’s head. Doubting this was all free. That this all came at some kind of steep price that’d be revealed in the end. Those were just his survival instincts acting up again. Throughout his life, the dial on such an instinct in Isaac’s head had been turned to maximum output.

It had saved his life, sure. It was also extremely stressful.

He worried he’d die at a young age at this rate and needed times like this to be allowed to relax. Isaac needed permission to be sit down and just… forget everything else going on.

“Thirds,” Typhon said to a nearby server. The winged lion with a scorpions tail came over to take his plate, offering a new one in its place just as quickly as if waiting for Typhon to ask. “Bleh, fruit.” Typhon was already trying to sneak the pieces over to Isaac’s plate.

It was impossible to miss. Isaac let him have it. He actually liked the strange blue, spiky fruit bits. They were sour with a hint of bitterness to them. Spongey with a little bit of fuzz. A strange dish for sure. Something Isaac wouldn’t order again but glad he had a chance to do so at least once.

“All purpose deluxe paid for cruise,” Isaac couldn’t complain about free. No matter how much his brain wanted him to find something suspicious to find about such a thing. “What about siblings?” He pressed and Typhon looked up at him with a face full of eggs. His cheeks were bulging out and the Saberwolf gave a massive swallow, making Isaac wince at the sight. That had to have been painful to do.

“Nah,” Typhon picked the eggs off his face with his nails, tossing whatever he grabbed into his salivating maw. “Terran’s handle family situations differently than other races do. Saberwolves usually have tribal packs we stay a part of. Clans, they’re called. Spread out over the planet Saber.” Typhon rolled his eyes. “What good that does.”

“What do you mean?”

“Saber is a desolate rock. A whole hunk of nothing. No water, no vegetations. It’s just… gone after so many wars. There is no reason to stay there, yet everyone is too prideful to leave.” Typhon stabbed his fork into the eggs angrily tearing them apart with a low growl.

“You didn’t.” Isaac pointed out and Typhon’s ear twitched.

“Well, yeah.” Typhon rolled his eyes as if it were obvious. “If I stayed,” he chewed with his mouth open. He jabbed the fork at Isaac. “Then I’d never have found you.” The fork drifted down to point at the silver band on Isaac’s wrist.

“You make it sound like you left to find me.” Isaac chuckled at the comforting thought. “No, really. Why did you leave?”

Typhon tilted his head. Swallowing, he tried to take a drink and frustratedly slammed the coffee down. With a roll of his eyes, Isaac got up to finally help him.

Glancing around the small café, Isaac took a big sip of Typhon’s coffee for him and, just as quickly, pressed his lips to Typhon’s. Tilting his muzzle upwards, Isaac fed the drink to the Saberwolf like a mama bird would to a chick. Stroking the Saberwolf’s throat so he’d swallow it all down as Isaac kissed him.

Wiping his mouth off, Isaac took a seat as Typhon gawked at him.

“You…” Typhon licked his lips.

“What? You were bitching so damn much,” Isaac rolled his eyes as he opened up the news app on his arm. A holographic newspaper appeared for him to read as he rested back. “I figured I’d help out.” Isaac desperately tried to suppress the growing flush on his face.

Typhon looked around. “But in public?” He asked, leaning closer.

“You were thirsty.” The Terran shrugged.

Typhon tapped a finger to his chin, thinking that over. “So, if I’m understanding this correctly… if I am horny, and I need help with it, we can do it in public?” The alien canine tried to reason out with a wag of his tail and a cheeky smile that spread across his face.

Isaac nearly choked on his drink. “What? No! Typhon.”

“Come on, I’m worked up after the thought of it. Just crawl underneath this bad boy,” Typhon slapped the table making a loud noise in the process. “And give me some of that sweet tongue action you’re so good at.”

“Typhon!” Isaac covered his face with a hand.

“What? You’re the one who said if we’re thirsty we can deep throat each other.” Typhon argued back.

“Please, PLEASE! Don’t describe it like that,” Isaac shook his head, rubbing his temple. He knew that had been a bad idea. Give this wolf an inch and he’ll take a mile. Isaac had been in such a good mood for a change he had let too many of his pre-built-up defenses down.

“Then why did you?” Typhon quirked an eyebrow, waiting for the Terran to explain this one away. It was amusing to see Isaac have a reason or explanation for everything. He thought he was so smart, but Typhon knew otherwise.

“I just…” Isaac blushed, sheepishly trying to find the words. “I’m in a really good mood and I l-love you, Typhon.” He nervously swallowed, unable to make eye contact. “I know I don’t say that a lot, or at all, really. I just… with my past and everything? With us? Being so different, I mean. It’s hard. Difficult to find the words or the time to say those words. These things. To process these feelings and form them into the appropriate words to be used to describe it all.”

“How would you describe it then?” Typhon asked, wanting to know.

“It’s a… rush.” Isaac felt that warmth creep back up to his face as he looked down at his cup of coffee. “Like the energy you feel in the air right before a strong thunder storm hits? An anticipation with an equally impressive payoff. The sound, the light, the feeling inside?” Isaac smile made his cheeks dimple. “It’s a rush I hope that never ends, is all…”

“In other words, you were trying to show me how much you wuff me?” Typhon teasingly said, grinning like a fool after. His tail wagged so fast it nearly knocked the chair behind him over.

“Shut up,” Isaac face was already heated enough without the Saberwolf teasing him like this. “I just, am glad… that you found me. Is all I’m trying to say. Jackass.” Isaac had to end it on an insult, or his face might’ve burst into flames from sheer embarrassment.

“Good thing the others aren’t here. You’d have passed out by now.” Typhon snorted, shaking his muzzle side to side as he settled back down. Resting on an arm, Typhon stared at Isaac. Watching him with those deep blue, almost black eyes. Looking like the night sky, filled with stars.

“What?” Isaac asked wearily.

“I don’t remember.” Typhon admitted and that took Isaac a second to figure out what he was talking about.

“You don’t remember leaving your planet?” Isaac asked slowly, trying to figure out the meaning behind that.

“Nope. Not at all. All I really recall is waking up in that hibernation pod…” Typhon looked away, thinking about it. “It’s another thing we have in common I’ve realized. Our missing memories to past events. Like something, or someone, reached into our heads and pulled out that information. Only on the important things, though. We obviously know how to wipe our own asses.” Typhon mused aloud, frowning at the disturbing thought.

He didn’t have to put it so crudely, but Isaac understood what he was getting at. That deep frustration that came without knowing.

“I didn’t realize you were thinking about this as much as I was.” Isaac admitted. He always saw Typhon as a rather dumb canine than anything else. It was strange to see him in any other light than the bright, friendly alien that had kidnapped him over three galactic years ago.

“I wasn’t. Well, not at first.” Typhon sighed heavily, tapping a clawed finger on the table. “Meeting that other Saberwolf,” he growled low.

“Cyclone.” Isaac said the name Typhon refused to speak aloud.

“Meeting him had just gotten me thinking. A lot… About home. Life on Saber. My people.” Typhon snorted, looking off to the side as his brow stitched together in frustration. It looked like a dark blue fuzzy caterpillar was trying to crawl across the Saberwolf’s face. “My people are just so stubborn. They’d never had let some rookie recruit like me go on a ship. Let alone on a ship like The Stellar Drift. That ship wasn’t built by Sabers. It isn’t Saber tech…” Typhon chewed his lip. “That other wolf? Did you notice that he’s…?”

“Has cybernetic parts?” Isaac lifted up his left arm, looking at the metal prosthetic. “It was hard not to notice, Typhon. He was… so different than you.”

“All Saberwolves are blue.” Typhon suddenly said, as if that was a stranger notion than getting cybernetics, despite his people stigma against such things. Seeing such enhancements as unnatural and thus forbidden. “His fur was almost black, Isaac. That… that isn’t normal, for Sabers.”

“I didn’t even notice it was that big of a deal.” Isaac thought over such an implication. “You’re paw pads and dick are darker in tone until you become all glowy.” Isaac shrugged.

“I know my dick is perfect,” Typhon rolled his eyes. “Isaac, all Saberwolves are some shade of blue. Darker to lighter, but still blue. We usually become lighter in color the older we become, darkening only when our light goes out. He? That other Saberwolf? He’s at least thirty galactic years older than I am. Maybe forty. His fur should be a lighter blue,” Typhon held up a hand to look at the fur on the back of it.

Over the years, not only had Typhon grown in proportions, filling out with muscle as his fur became thicker. The fur had also lightened in color throughout the years, going from a deep ocean blue to a lighter surface blue. While his nails remained a darker tint. They changed with his mood, that electric blue energy would make every strand of fur on his body radiated with that neon blue light. It also counted for his finger nails and dick; Isaac had embarrassingly found out.

“Brighter.” Isaac said aloud, thinking it over. “Like that energy you can produced… that’s not natural, is it?” He dared to ask, looking up at Typhon.

“Every Saberwolf has a spark, inside them, Isaac.” Typhon touched his chest, next to where his heart would’ve been. “It’s like a core. A crystallized core, next to our heart. A part of our heart, really. It’s a part of who and what we are. It allows us to produce the energy we do… I just never knew I could release it.” He shrugged.

“Maybe it comes with age?” Isaac offered. The first time he saw Typhon turn blue was when they’re lives had been threatened on the mining planet.

Holding up a hand again, Typhon took a slow steady breath and let it out.

His fur stood on end, his dark tinted claws glowing softly as blue sparks jumped between his fingers like electrical poles. They grew in intensity as Typhon channeled the energy from his chest, his core, down his arm and to his fingertips. Lighting crackled between his paw pads. Each acting as a conductor for the energy bouncing around, keeping it somewhat contained.

Closing his fist, Typhon stopped. His fur slowly fell back down as the nearby silverware stopped scooting closer from the energy he’d been releasing.

Isaac had felt a hot warmth inside his own chest watching the display and touched the spot.

“Typhon,” Isaac asked. Wondering if, somehow, Typhon had shared a piece of his core with him. If that was even possible and what that would mean for a Terran’s biology. “Did you-,”

“He doesn’t.” Typhon snarled loudly, interrupting Isaac’s question. “That other Saberwolf? He has no spark! No core, no energy.” Typhon looked at Isaac as if he would understand. “Every single Saberwolf has a piece of the great spark.” He tried to explain, trying to calm down.

Isaac reached across the table and touched his hand. They both felt a spark, startling Isaac for a second. He laughed and the sound of it calmed Typhon down.

“It’s not natural, Isaac…” Typhon finally admitted the foundations for his worries and concerns. “That Saberwolf? Isn’t… a Saberwolf. At least, not a part of my people. There shouldn’t be any others out there in the universe. We are the only ones left… and we’re all blue wolves.”

“Your people never left Saber?” Isaac thought that was the strangest thing about all this. To think that people with spaceflight would willingly choose to stay on a barren world, in their home galaxy without ever venturing out to expand or colonize other star systems.

“Heh, of course it’s strange to you.” Typhon rolled his eyes. “I know we try not to mention it or bring it up,” Typhon said as he opened his fingers, allowing Isaac to slide his own between them. Typhon held onto his hand, staring down at it. Looking at the differences between them. “You Terran’s are the strange ones. You act like Tigerons. Wanting to explore the universe and forgetting where you came from. So very… strange.”

Typhon’s ears folded back as he stared at the smaller hand in his.

Isaac’s hand was half the size of Typhon’s, for starts. It was furless and the nails were blunt instead of clawed. He had a far more lighter complexion than Typhon darker, grayish skin and paw pads did. If it weren’t for the energy inside, Typhon would’ve had a far darker skin tone. Instead, it was as if he bathed in blue. It filled every strand of fur on his body.

It was why Typhon had instantly been suspicious of the other canine. He thought Cyclone was another species or race, similar to his own at first After the time they’d spent together, he quickly learned otherwise.

There was something wrong with that Saberwolf. Something… unnatural. Typhon worried such a thing could infect Isaac. Further than the Terran already had been by the void.

Typhon’s people and other celestials had a natural resistance to the void’s touch. Terran’s didn’t. It left them vulnerable to the things his people would only whisper about. The things that went bump in the dark were to be feared. Typhon never knew the risks until he met Isaac.  

“We’re so different…” Typhon sighed, admitting it to Isaac and himself. He refused to let go of Isaac’s hand when the Terran tried to pull it back subconscious of his shortcomings. “You’re so much smaller. Weaker than I am. Something that would only injure me? Could kill you!” Typhon began to become worked up. “I don’t hear or see the strange hallucinations or-or whatever those things are, that you do. I can’t be there for you outside of what I already am…” Typhon gripped tightened, and Isaac winced from the pressure.

Placing his other hand on top of Typhon’s, Isaac began to pet his arm.

“Typhon.” He said his name and the Saberwolf’s eyes jerked upwards to look at him. “Hey, it’s alright. It’ll be okay.”

“Will it…?” Typhon’s ears folded back, eyes growing larger.

“Yeah, it will be.” Isaac lied. “I know it’ll be a bumpy road, and it won’t be easy for us but… but I still want to be together, with you.” Isaac had to look Typhon in the eyes, trying to read what he was thinking. How long had these thoughts and concerns plagued his Saberwolf’s mind? “Even if something happens? It won’t be your fault,”

“Don’t say that. Don’t say that something like that could happen… Even in jest.” Typhon’s ears splayed out as he whined. “I…” Typhon hesitated, unsure what words to say. How to express the thoughts and feelings he had inside without just mounting Isaac against the table and ramming his point in.

“Typhon,” Isaac said and he looked up at him. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m feeling a lot better,” Isaac truthfully said. “Somehow,” he added touching at his chest. He could feel the arc reactor under his shirt working. “Somehow… I’m still me?”

Isaac knew what such kind of doubts and fears could do to a person. What it had nearly done to him. Those thoughts would eat away at you, from the inside. Your insecurities would build, creating a rickety foundation for self-hatred that running as deep and sharp as a knife.

It was like standing in a thick swamp. Slowly sinking. The more you struggled, the faster it would take you. Only when you accepted it, accepted how unfair life could be could you remain standing. If only for a little longer than you would before.

“I’m not dying. I’m not going anywhere, anytime soon.” Isaac laughed softly and the truth to that stung his eyes. He refused to cry, though. “I’ll be here for as long as you’ll have me, Typhon. As long as I can be, I’ll be here. If you still want to stay?”

“Where would I go?” Typhon sniffled loudly, snorting as he did so. It was an extremely unattractive gesture to do. Isaac never thought he looked as real as he did in that moment. Tears threatening to spill from his worried eyes as he scanned Isaac’s face. Looking it over for any doubt in Isaac words. “Where could I possible go if you weren’t here?”

“Oh, Typhon.” Isaac reached up to pet the side of his face. “I love you, Typhoon.” Isaac said Typhon’s actual name, using the name he had given on their first meeting. Lifting up his hand, Isaac kissed the back of it before looking up at him with a lopsided smile. “As long as you still want to be with this weak, foolish Terran. You’ll always have a place by my side. You’re my copilot, Typhon. How would I ever fly without you?”

Typhon’s tail wagged. He looked on the verge of tears but blinked them away, cleared his throat and ended up jumping out of his chair. Slamming his hands down on top of it, he pronounced to the world.

“Let’s go do something!” Typhon blurted out. Isaac pulled back, blinking several times.

“Uh, what?” Isaac laughed nervously at the sudden shift in the mood.

“This isn’t like us. Sitting around moping! I don’t like it.” Typhon shook out his arms and head and body. Shaking like a wet dog trying to dry himself. To get these worrying feelings off him. “All this! It isn’t us. We don’t just sit around and cry. We do things! So, let’s go do things. Copilot.”

“Copilot? That’s not how that works,” Isaac laughed as he got up. He nodded towards the server standing nearby. “Where would you like to go Mr. Typhon?”

“Isn’t it Mr. Mayhew if I’m going to marry you?” Typhon wagged, but Isaac gagged.

“Mr. Mayhew is my father.” Isaac shook his head quickly.

“What do you call me then?” Typhon wasn’t even sure what marriage was. All he knew was that it was something special that he and Isaac could do together.

“What do I call you? Silly, Typhon.” Isaac grabbed his hand, already pulling him down the hallway. “You know what I always call you.”

“Dumb?” Typhon frowned. “That’s what Sphinx always says.”

“Ignore that arrogant, asshole of an AI.” Isaac pulled his arm, and Typhon was sure to follow. Down the hall, around the corner, down three flights of stairs and then another corner. Another hall. Skipping the elevator, the two ran together.

Panting, sweating, laughing as they barreled down the hallway. Hand in hand, caring for nothing else that was in their way.

“Wait,” Typhon easily kept up with Isaac. He still wanted to hear what he had to say. “What do you call me?”

“Typhon,” Isaac stopped long enough to get on his tippy toes and plant a kiss on the Saberwolf’s nose. “There is no one thing to call you,” Isaac smiled then. “For you are my everything. One name would never be enough.”

“Wait,” Typhon was left to ponder what that meant as Isaac stepped into the glass elevator. “Then what do I call you?”

“Whatever you want,” Isaac shrugged, looking out the glass elevator. “Whatever you want, Typhon.”

“Alright…” Typhon’s tail perked up as he watched Isaac looking out the window. “Then, I guess, for me? You’d always be my starlight… A guiding light that even in the darkest of nights, I could find to lead me home. To you.”

“That’s beautiful.” Isaac winked at him. “I’m stealing that.”

“Hey!”

“From now on,” Isaac took one of Typhon’s hands in his. “You are my starlight.”  

Outside the glass elevator was a large open room with multiple floors cut down the middle. On the bottom floor, there were large exotic plants and stylized marbled fountains. Water sprayed out the multiple spouts. Isaac was sure each spout were something else from how the carved figures of men were holding themselves. Spraying everything around them from lewd and provocative positions. Water spraying out into the pools around their feet. The marble statues glistening from the spray as the exhausted looking statues posed.

“Raph, you’re so lewd.” Isaac chuckled, practically pressing his face against the glass as he looked around.

There were numerous shops lining the floors. From a shoe store to a clothing store, to several different kind of drinks and food carts. Windows were filled with displays at the shops openly showed off what they had to offer. Some things were far more risqué than others. It was like each level had its own age rating and Isaac had to laugh at that.

“What is this place?” Typhon asked and Isaac grabbed his hand, already pulling him towards the door before the elevator finished opening.

“It’s a freaking shopping mall.” Isaac explained without explaining further. He pulled Typhon out the door and they were already window shopping by the time the elevator behind them went back up. Isaac had stopped at the first place, peering through the window. “Raphael had taken a freaking shopping mall and placed it inside his ship. I can’t believe it.”

“Why is that so strange? Isn’t that something these, what did you call them again? Phil-and-thro-pods do?” Typhon frowned, trying to recall if that was something edible or not.

“Philanthropist, Typhon.” Isaac rolled his eyes. He had let go of the Saberwolf as he jumped from window to the next, looking into the display cases to see what the store was all about. “Raphael had always wanted to strike it big. To become one of the rich fat cats that had always looked down on us.” He stopped, looking at a striking flight suit uniform in the window. “Yet, at the end of the day he’d still be that silly, flamboyant Motha I met. Wanting to go shopping, to sit at a cute café and read a book. The kind of guy that would spend far too long to pick out an outfit for a simple outing.”

Isaac ducked inside the store and Typhon was forced to keep up with him.

“Fat cats? How fat of a cat are we talking about?” Typhon had to take a moment to think that over, trying to picture it. “What color is the cat…?” He asked, as if it were some kind of guessing game and he was trying to get a hint for it.

“No, no. It’s an expression. Raphael had always wanted to schmooze with the rich and entitled people in the universe. To walk amongst them as an equal. For when you were as powerful as they were? Then they were forced to acknowledge you, forced to accept that you were there and part of their little club… To look at you. Notice that you’re real and not just a thing to be spoken about…” Isaac bitterly said. He cleared his throat. “S-sorry, just… the thought of those Celestials gets me all… worked up.”

“What did they do?” Typhon wanted to know more what had happened, so he could properly hate them alongside Isaac.

“Celestials just look down on anyone that isn’t part of their little group. It’s like a very tight knit click. Or social circle, rather. The echelon of society. Sure, they all hate each other. The one thing they can agree on? Is that they were better than everyone else.” Isaac grabbed the uniform off the mannequin in the window and brought it over to the changing room.

There weren’t many other people out and Isaac suspected most wouldn’t bother going to such a place. A mall inside a ship? A lot of the Terran military vessels had a civilian section to them. For the armed soldiers family and loved ones to stay at. It had a food court, movie theater and even a shopping center like this.

While it was clear Raphael had gone out of his way to put something like this in here, it wouldn’t be up to the standards of The Celestial Nations. They would expect to be serviced the second they walked into a store. Having champagne delivered to them, for someone to be there to carry all their stuff after a shopping spree and even have the car pulled around front after.

If everything was free? Then you couldn’t flaunt your wealth, status or power. When everyone was equal, then no one was.

There was none of that here. That privilege. Sure, the staff would come forward to help but with that eerie white mask on their face, Isaac chose to do it all himself.

“Bai’Tai was a Celestial,” Isaac said stepping out of the changing room in a turquoise color uniform. It looked somewhat like his old flight suit, and he knew he had to get it, if only for nostalgia sake. It was made from Spiderarian silk. An extremely rare substance after the peaceful, pacifist of an arachnid race had been wiped out. “Poor bastards never stood a chance,” Isaac sighed as he felt the fabric with his fingers. “It’s so damn soft.”

“What?” Typhon poked his head into the dressing room and Isaac mock slapped him for it. The Saberwolf rubbed the spot but didn’t pull his head back. “What?” He asked again. Isaac rolled his eyes.

“Nevermind that. Tigeron’s are part of the Celestial Nation.” Isaac continued to strip, and Typhon enjoyed the show, wagging happily. “They might act like they care for the other nations, but it’s clear after five minutes talking to one of them that they all think you’re nothing more than an… infant. Or a child, rather. That your kind is so young and naïve, that they need to hold your hand for you. To wipe your ass and tell you that two plus two equals four. They treat all the younger races like they’re stupid just because we haven’t existed since the dawn of time.”

Isaac paused at that, frowning.

“At the Academy, there was an exchange program. Bai’Tai was one of the exchange students there. Something unheard of. He was far smarter than everyone else there. That wasn’t the issue, even if it didn’t help matters. Ever since Bai’Tai walked into the place, he thought we owed him something. That we Terrans should be thankful that a Tigeron would grace us with their presence.

“I didn’t know that at first…” Isaac sighed, shaking his head as he tried to pay for the uniform he’d dressed in. The clerk refused to take his money, saying it was already paid for. “Thanks, Raph…” Isaac was glad for such a welcome gift.

He needed that right now.

Looking into the mirror on the wall, Isaac couldn’t even see what he looked like. The glass was cracked and broken as his reflection always was. In the recent year, it had gotten worse… until it had gotten better.

Walking towards the mirror, Isaac reached out a hand to touch it. Hesitantly, he touched where one of the cracks would’ve been. He didn’t feel it on the glass but knew it to be there. They weren’t as long, these marks. These cracked scars. They seemed to have healed, if only slightly. A soft blue glow keeping them glued together, preventing those cracks from expanding further or breaking apart entirely.  

“At the academy, Bai’Tai was an outcast. I thought it was because he was a Tigeron. I guess, in a way he was.” Isaac sighed, shaking his head and looking back at Typhon. “Kaira and I befriended him. You remember her, right? The darker skinned Terran I was with when we first met? We thought that if he had friends there, it’d be easier for him. We opened ourselves up and…”

Isaac words trailed away as he saw a flash of fur walk past the doorway to the store.

“And what?” Typhon asked, wondering why Isaac stopped.

Isaac ran past him, looking outside the shop and towards the way the white had gone. At the very last second, he saw a black striped tail tip move around a corner and down an adjacent hallway between two of the stores.

“Follow me.” Isaac ran after it and Typhon was hot on his heels.

“Who are we chasing?” Typhon sniffed the air. He couldn’t smell anything, or rather anyone. That in itself was strange.

“You know that jackass I told you about?” Isaac turned the corner and was already running down it. Typhon was right behind him. “I think I just saw him here on the ship!”

“Okay…” Typhon sniffed again. “All I’m getting is sweaty Terran and… nothing.”

“It’s a deodorizer that Tigeron’s use. The air smells cleaner than normal, right? That’s because of a Tigeron. They hate the smell of their own musk, even if they sniff their farts. Smug bastards,” Isaac skidded to a stop and bolted down another hallway. “I just can’t imagine why he’s here. What are the chances of that?”

“Why is that strange?”

“The universe is a massive, massive place Typhon. You don’t just randomly run into someone!” Isaac slowed down as they began to catch up. Slowing his pace as he tried to keep their presence from being known. “Bai’Tai must’ve been invited here with other Celestials… or he found out about it and came here for something.”

“What do you mean?” Typhon wished Isaac would just get to the point.

Isaac pressed against the wall, looking around the corner carefully. Typhon mimicked his actions and looked over Isaac’s head down the hallway.

Sure enough, at the end of the hall in front of a locked door was a Tigeron. Four armed with white fur, black stripes. He was taller than Typhon was. The Tigeron had a haughty air about him and stuck his nose up as he waited for the door to open. As if the inconvenience of waiting for it to be unlocked was beneath him.

The door opened and someone on the other side apologized quickly, bowing down and stepping aside as the Tigeron headed in. The door shut and sealed behind him.  

“It looks like Bai’Tai,” Isaac rubbed his chin, lost in thought. “It can’t be him though… There aren’t many Tigeron’s with white fur though.”

“Why not?” Typhon peeked around the corner. Jumping, he moved back and quickly whispered out that someone was coming their way.

“Fuck,” Isaac could hear their footsteps. Before he had a chance to move away, Typhon pressed him against the wall. Leaning down, Typhon kissed him noisily. Wet slopping licks of a kiss that sucked and puckered Isaac’s lips. Literally lifting Isaac off his feet.

The footsteps stopped for a second, before continuing past them.

Isaac couldn’t see who they were but heard a soft chuckle before they headed back down the way they had come. Heavy plodding steps like that of a horse as they walked back into the mall. Only then did Isaac push Typhon off him.

Wiping the drool from his face, Isaac peeked around the corner. He could see a camera in the corner and cursed, pulling back.

“We’ll need Sphinx to hack the camera and the door.” Isaac was already heading back down the way they had come. “We should check in on him and Samson anyways, I’m worried we haven’t heard from the others yet.” Isaac lifted his left arm and tapped away on the top of it, pulling up a map of the ship for them to use.

“Wait, what about. Who was-, I mean! Bark! Bark, bark, bark.” Typhon said loudly as Isaac walked off without him. “Explain, Isaac. Explain!” He caught the Terran’s arm and Isaac looked back at him. “You said that was, yet couldn’t be Bai’Tai. Why is that? Why is your old roommate from the academy here? How is he here?” Typhon was getting a splitting headache from all of this. “It’s supposed to be our day off.”

“He isn’t. At least, he couldn’t be.” Isaac said, giving Typhon a look as if he were the crazy one here. “That person isn’t Bai’Tai.”

“Yes, but why!” Typhon wanted to shake Isaac until he revealed all his secrets. Maybe if he shook Isaac hard enough the secrets would just fall out of him.

“Bai’Tai couldn’t be here Typhon, because I killed him.” Isaac said and Typhon wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“Wait, so he’s dead… but he’s here? Is this some void shit again or like what?” Typhon scratched over his ears, wanting to howl.

“Maybe?” Isaac shrugged as he jogged back towards the space port. “We’ll pick up Sphinx and then go have a stakeout!”

“I love steak!” Typhon jumped on the idea.

“Not that kind of steak, Typhon…” Isaac rolled his eyes with a laugh, routing out a root for them to take to the spaceport. Wanting to get there as soon as possible. Even if he wanted to take the day off, a part of Isaac was excited to get to the bottom of all of this.

“It’s supposed to be our day off,” Typhon whined behind him as Isaac shushed him. The two laughing about it as if it were some kind of game to be played.

“If only I had spoken up then. To stop you,” a voice said watching them go. Keeping in the shadows, Cyclone rested against the wall. Watching as the two idiots ventured towards their embedding doom. “If I had spoken up?” Cyclone stepped forward. “Would that have changed anything? If I had insisted that we deserve a day off,” he followed after them. “Would that have made you mad? What if I had dragged you back to the room? To spend the entire stay here in there? Loving on you until the stars twinkled out?”

Cyclone held up his mechanical hand, looking down at the thing.

“If I had? Would I have prevented any of this from happening, Isaac? My starlight…” With heavy steps, Cyclone followed after. Already knowing where they were going and what was to come.