• Chapter 2: Ice to meet you

    My world was black in that stupid pod; I felt the speed as it shot towards the planet that was meant to be my grave. It wasn’t long before it hit the ground with a huge thud that felt like it nearly broke every bone in my body, after the pod hit the ground nothing moved for a moment, then I was forced out of the pod by the seat that seemed to through me out the hatch and my world of black gave way to a world of icy gray cold. I tried to get back into the pod but something from inside shot at me so I was forced to run, I ran out into the blinding snow and as soon as I did I knew that it would only be a matter of time before I froze to death in this hellish ice world.
    I don't know how long I lasted out in the snow, but just as I collapsed and thought that I was going to die I heard something in the wind, an engine maybe? Was it help? Or was it just my mind playing games with me, giving me a hope for rescue? It didn't matter anymore I knew I was going to be dead in a few minutes any way. That when I saw him, or at least I think I saw someone, someone who was dressed in white who seemed to come right out of the snow, now I knew I was hallucinating.
    But as soon as I closed my eyes for wait I was sure was the last time I felt some one, or something, picking me up. I tried to open my eyes and see who it was but my eyes wouldn’t open, slowly I lost contact with what was going on around me, I though I had died. I felt like I was in a dark tunnel for what felt like an eternity, but that eternity finally ended, and I started to open my eyes wondering if I was alive or if I was waking up in paradise.
    Slowly the fox lying on the bio bed began to wake up, she stirred and started to open her eyes a little bit. She was in a room with low lighting, she realized that she was somewhere but she didn't know where she was. As the fog started to clear from her mind and eyes she could see the room around her, there were medical tool on a shelf to her right below half a dozen closed cupboards. She turned her head to her left and saw him, an orange hedgehog avian hybrid sleeping in a chair agenst the wall of the room. When she saw him she nearly screamed in shock, but stopped she self at a gasp.
    She feared what would happen if she woke whoever he was, so she remained quiet and lied still. She didn't know who he was or where she was so she was afraid of what he might do if she woke him, then again he was a total stranger he might not even do anything, better just to stay quiet and not find out. Suddenly the strange hedgehog moved slightly, she closed her eyes afraid to let him know she was awake. Phoenix slowly opened his eyes and looked around the medical bay, slowly his eyes returned to the fox girl he rescued the night before; he walked over to the bio bed and checked the read outs at the head of the bed.
    Phoenix silently study the display showing her vital readings, she had made it through the night but her vitals were still weak, at least she was alive. Phoenix let out a soft sigh, he was glad that the girl had made it through the night, he glanced down at himself and realized that he was still in his cold combat armor from last night, looking at her vitals one more time Phoenix decided that there was nothing more he could do fore her right now so he decided to change and eat something. Phoenix walked to the door of the medical bay and looked back at the unconscious fox one last time before leaving the medical by closing the door behind him.
    Oh thank god he's gone, thought the fox, but now what? I'm probably trapped wherever I am or being watched, maybe it would have been better to die then be trapped and not even knowing your captors. She slowly tried to get out of the bio bed, but her legs failed to work, she could feel her legs so she knew they weren't crippled, but they were completely numb and she couldn't get them to move at all. Her legs felt heavy as she continued to try and move them, they felt like they were dead weight attached to her body, but at least she could still feel them.
    Did he drug me? She thought, No I've felt like this before, but then it was my arm and I could still move it in a little bit and I could move it after an hour or so. But do I have that much time? What if he comes back and I'm trying to escape and he dose something to me?
    The fox tried to move off the bio bed again, she succeeded in getting her legs swung over and off the side of the bed, but the moment she tried to stand her legs collapsed beneath her and she fell to the floor with a thud. The fox just lay their stunned for a moment, but before she could try and get back up she heard a low alarm going off in the room and knew that the hedgehog hybrid would be back. Meanwhile one deck above Phoenix was changing out of his cold combat armor, he was glad to be rid of the bulk and weight of the armor. He decided to shower off before getting dressed and going to the small mess hall in the Star Dragon for something to eat, but before he could even enter his bathroom the medical alarm he had set to alert him of any change with the fox in the medical bay went off.
    Phoenix wiped around and grabbed the change of cloths he had laded out on his bed, he quickly changed into them and within a few seconds he was out the door of his quarters and down the latter that connected the first three decks, he slid down the latter to the next deck where the medical bay was located. Phoenix ran into the room and found the fox lying on the floor next to the bio bed; Phoenix hurried to the fox's side and started to help her up.
    "Are you ok?" he asked as he lifted her back on to the bio bed.
    "..." The fox tried to speak but nothing came out, "...?" Why couldn't she talk?
    "Here I'll see what I can do." Phoenix pulled out a hand held scanner from a pouch on the side of the bio bed; he held it up to her throat he scanned it to see if he could determine what was wrong.
    Looking at the scan results Phoenix became very concerned; the scan showed that her vocal cords had been strained to the point that they couldn’t work. The only way that could happen was from extreme over use at high pitches over a long time; in other word she had lost her voice form constantly screaming.
    "You've lost your voice, I'm not sure why," he lied. "But I have something that should help."
    Phoenix walked over to the cabinets and opened one, he took out a small clear cylinder filled with a blue liquid, next he picked up a rectangular device from the shelf in front of him. The device was a long rectangle with a circular hole in the bottom and a triangle on top, on one side of this triangle was a half sphere and on the other three small buttons, this odd looking device was called a hypo-spray, it replaced hypodermic needles over two hundred years ago. Phoenix turned back to the fox holding both the hypo-spray and the cylinder.
    "...?" The fox tried to speak again.
    "This should help you get your voice back at least; it might take a day or so to work." Phoenix inserted one of the tubes in to the hypo-spray and approached the girl, but she intently backed away.
    "It's ok, this won't hurt."
    "...nnnn..."
    "Huh? It’s ok; I've taken some of this stuff myself."
    "..."
    "If you don't want me to I won't, shake your head if you don't want me to. However you might not get your voice back for a long time, this will help get it back sooner." The fox fell silent for a long moment, then she nodded her head 'yes' and let Phoenix proceed.
    Phoenix gently tilted her head to one side exposing her neck, he set the hypo-spray's sphere 'head' on her neck and pressed one of the buttons on its back, there was a quiet hiss and then nothing. Phoenix replaced the hypo-spray on the shelf then turned back to the fox and just waited, soon the fox felt a warming felling spreading throughout her whole body then she felt her throat become wet again.
    "...th...than...thank...you."
    "Your welcome. Can you tell me your name?"
    "Aurora."
    "Aurora, my name is Phoenix."
    Aurora gave Phoenix a weak smile, still felling scared but not as much as before.
    "So...how did you wind up here?" Phoenix knew how she physically got here, a pod launched from a ship, but the really question was why.
    "Um...it’s...a long story." Aurora realized that she had nearly full use of her voice again.
    "Trust me; we have a long time before either of us is going anywhere."
    "What do you mean?"
    "Do you know what planet you on?"
    "Not really, but I would guess some where beyond the Inner Circle."
    “Inner Circle? Never heard of them before, where are they?”
    “I have no idea, I don't even know where I am.”
    “You're on a remote planet called Crystal, at the very edge of the Allied Federation of Species.” Phoenix Explained.
    “The who? I've never heard of them.”
    "And I've Never hear of the Inner Circle so I don't think either the Federation or this Inner Circle has had contact with each other."
    "I guess not, I've never heard of a Federation."
    "What about an empire?"
    "No, I guess we just thought we were alone in the universe, guess not."
    “Well trust me you're not, and if our civilizations have never met I'll bet good credits that you're a lot farther from home then you thought.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “This planet Crystal, its at the outer edge of the Federation's territory. I'm also guessing that its at the edge or beyond the Inner Circle.”
    “Probably, the government doesn’t want to exile its citizens with in its own realm.”
    "Wait, that’s why your here? You were exiled?"
    “Yes I was exiled because I have a different ability then others, I have the ability to...” Aurora's voice trailed off.
    “To what? You can tell me, believe me I've seen some strange things what ever you can do won’t be that strange.”
    Aurora seemed to think it over for a moment, and then she took a deep breath.
    “I can... control fire.”
    Phoenix just stared at her in mild disbelief, not because she could control fire but because she had been exiled because of it. She had something that was considered a gift and she had been punished for it, Phoenix gently placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke softly to her.
    “I have something to tell you,” Phoenix held up his other hand and lit a flam in the palm of his hand. “I can control fire too.”
    Aurora could feel her jaw drop, she never though that she would meet some one else with the same power as her. Suddenly she started crying, Phoenix gently wiped away here tears.
    “Its ok, things are different for you now, you don't have to be afraid.”
    “Thank you Phoenix.” Aurora said softly
    Phoenix gave Aurora a genital hug before continuing.
    “Aurora there’s something I don't quite understand, you said your 'ability' was different from others? What did you mean by that?”
    “Well you see in the Inner Circle just about every one who dose control an elemental and are excepted are those who control ice, and in a few cases earth and they are treated like heroes. But if you have any thing other then those two elements your an outcast. And the odds of having any other elements are one in one trillion.”
    Phoenix just stared at Aurora; she had a gift that was consider to be something bad where she was from. And on top of that her gift was astronomically rare as well; it was one of the greatest ironers he had encountered. After a moment of silence Aurora tried to get back out of bio bed but again her legs failed her, Phoenix didn’t even ask Aurora what was wrong. Phoenix pulled her back on to the bio bed and activated the scanner targeting her legs; the bio bed scanner thourly scanned her legs and discovered that fateg had set into the muscles. Phoenix had seen this sort of muscle fateag before, but he had only seen it on battlefields in solgers suffering from shell shock. Fortunately Phoenix knew how to treat the physical systems, but there was nothing he cold does for the emotional damage he knew was there.
    Phoenix turned back to the cabinets lining the wall; he opened a locked one labeled “Bio Meds” and found another glass cylinder filled this time with a clear liquid. Phoenix inserted the cylinder into the hypo-spray and turned back to Aurora, he looked at her and she gave him a nod telling him he could proceed. Phoenix injected Aurora’s right leg with the liquid from the hypo-spray, after a few seconds Aurora could feel and control her legs again.
    Aurora uneasily stood up next to the bio bed using the bed for support, Phoenix came up behind her and put his arms under hers to support her, suddenly Phoenix could feel Aurora start to pull away from him. Phoenix tried to hold Aurora up but she stumbled and fell to the floor, Phoenix knelt down and wrapped his arms and wings around Aurora a warm embrace, but beneath him Phoenix could feel Aurora shivering in his arms
    “Aurora, what’s wrong?” Phoenix asked pulling her back into a sitting position.
    “Its nothing.” Aurora said and looked away not wanting to meat Phoenix's gaze.
    “It's not nothing, I can easily tell something is wrong, you can tell me.”
    Aurora still refused to meat his gaze as a single tear ran down her cheek, her body continuing to tremble. Phoenix wanted to help Aurora but he didn't know what was wrong or how to help, Phoenix reached down and cupped Aurora's chin in his hand and brought her eyes to his.
    “I know something is wrong and I want to help you, but I can't if I don't know what’s wrong.”
    Aurora pulled away from Phoenix and nearly broke down crying, Phoenix grabbed her from behind and held her tight but genital. Aurora squirmed in Phoenix's arms but after a moment she realized that she couldn’t escape and she stopped fighting, she was sobbing now and Phoenix was still somewhat clueless as to what was wrong. Finally Aurora calmed down enough to be talked to.
    “Please Aurora, tell me what’s wrong.”
    Aurora looked into Phoenix's dark purple eyes and seemed to relax, if only a little.
    “Its just... when you came up on me from behind it felt like something else.”
    “Like what?”
    “It felt like when… when I was…” Aurora began to tear up again, but she looked into Phoenix’s eyes. “Like when I was raped.”
    Phoenix froze; he hadn’t considered that she had ever been raped. Aurora started to cry again, but Phoenix held Aurora again but much gentler and firmer but this time trying not to make her feel like that again. She didn't seem fazed by the embrace this time but she was still tense all over, trying to think of a way to help Phoenix had an idea.
    “Aurora, would it make you feel better to talk about it?”
    Aurora just looked at Phoenix; no one had ever been concerned about what had happened to her before now. But maybe if she did talk to some one it would help.
    “Are you sure you want to know?”
    “Yes, tell me.”
    Aurora sighed and looked at Phoenix, “Can we go some where else, other then the floor.”
    “Sure, I have an Idea.” Phoenix offered Aurora his hand and helped her to her feet, Aurora was still a little unstable as she walked and she leaned on Phoenix for support. Phoenix led Aurora to the forward crew lift, once they were on the lift he pushed a button and the lift rose to the top level. On the top level Phoenix led Aurora to intro a lounge area in the forward area of the Star Dragon, Phoenix led Aurora to a couch and sat down. Aurora leaned ageist Phoenix still trembling a little as she prepared to tell Phoenix her story.
    “Before I discovered I could control fire I had another set of problems, when I was twelve I was raped fore the first time. I was walking home and just grabbed off the street, things were never the same from that day on.
    “First I was labeled as a slut and other sex soliciting names, it stayed that way for the next year until I was raped again and that’s when all hell broke loose. I was now considered a sexual item and taken to some ‘special’ school for some kind of training, but I never got that far.
    “For the next four years I was sent around to all these different anthros who constantly raped me, then just over a year ago I discovered my flam element.
    Aurora stopped for a minuet and closed her eyes; it was obvious that she was trying to hold back a lot of bad memories.
    “Over the last year I was sent to these different 'clinics' to try and 'treat' my 'condition', but nothing ever did anything to my control of fire, I think they just did all that for there amusement. Then two weeks ago I was brought before some counsel that said I had been convicted of some crime of have fire element, and I was to be outcast beyond the Inner circle and put to death.
    “I was loaded into that damn pod and fed through a tube fore the next two weeks until the ship arrived here, the rest you know.”
    As Aurora finished her story she started sobbing again; Phoenix pulled her into a warm genital embrace wiping her tears away. At first Aurora just sat there, but soon she relaxed and nuzzled up to Phoenix. Phoenix just wrapped his arms and wings around her and held her, not wanting anything in return just wanting to make her feel safe.
    After what felt like serial hours, but it couldn’t have been more than one or two, Aurora looked like she had fallen asleep, Phoenix glanced at the LCD clock on the wall and was shocked to see that it was 22:30, no wonder he felt tiered again he must have not gotten up very early. Phoenix shifted his body out from under Aurora and laid her down on the bed so she could sleep. But just as he let go of her and started to walk out of the room, she called to him in a voice no louder than a whisper.
    "Phoenix?"
    "Yes Aurora?"
    "Please don't go," She said as she started to sit up. "I know that we don't know each other that much and all, but somehow I like having you around. Can you... will you stay with me?"
    Phoenix looked at her for a moment; he had to admit even if only to himself he wanted to stay if only to hold her through the night.
    "Sure, I'll stay. Just let me go change, I'll be back in a minute."
    "Ok..." Aurora wasn’t sure why she had asked him to stay, only that having Phoenix around made her feel safe some how.
    Phoenix walked into his room on bored the Star Dragon, it was a simple room built the same as the one Aurora was in but had some stuff in it. Phoenix walked over to his closet and pulled out a pair of gray slacks and an over sized olive green night shirt, he put his armor away that he didn't relies that he was still warring since he rescued Aurora yesterday. After brushing his teeth and reliving himself, he walked back to Aurora's room, she was sitting on the bed with her knees to her chest looking out the window, not that there was anything to see.
    "The view looks a lot better from orbit or even deep space."
    Aurora looked at Phoenix her face showing she was thinking about something.
    "How much Ice are we under?"
    "The sensors say we're under about three to five feet of ice and snow, but they could be a little off from the storm."
    "You said that this storm lasts for nine months?"
    "More or less, its only about seven months now."
    Aurora only looked out at the burred window, she let out a soft sigh and moved under the folds of the blanket and burred herself in there warmth. Phoenix powered down the lights until the room was completely dark, he moved towards her without a sound and sat next to her on the bed. She reached up and embraced Phoenix again, snuggling up to him.
    "I don't know why but I feel safe with you, even thou I hardly know you."
    "I hardly know you either, but I want to make you feel safe."
    Aurora snuggled up to Phoenix and lied down on the soft bed next to him, she felt safer then she had in years. The two of them held each other close in the dark and spent their first night together.
    Aurora opened her eyes, but there was nothing but darkness. Darkness and warmth, Aurora remembered where she was and snuggled ageist Phoenix taking in his sent, he smelled like damp spice she couldn’t place the sent but she enjoyed it. Phoenix slowly began to wake up and tightened his embrace on Aurora.
    “Good morning Aurora, did you sleep ok?”
    “Yes, actually I did.”
    Phoenix gave her a light squeeze and wormed her with his fire element. Aurora noticed the sudden heat and looked up at Phoenix, curious how he could feel so warm so sudden. She continued to look at Phoenix with sleepy eyes, then she noticed some light from behind her, glancing back she realized that his wings were glowing with fire. Aurora didn't seem to react to the fact that Phoenix's wings were on fire, all she did was snuggled closer to him. Phoenix had seen others run screaming after they had seen him use his fire element.
    “Your not scared?”
    “Why should I be?”
    Phoenix mentally chuckled, why should she fear him?
    “You shouldn’t its just that I've seen others scared half to death because I can control fire.”
    Aurora just snuggled up again to Phoenix and rested in his warmth and safety. The two of them just enjoyed being next to each other; Aurora was about to say something when her stomach beat her to it with a loud growl. Aurora’s cheeks went pink as soon as she heard the loud gurgling sound coming from her stomach.
    “When was the last time you ate anything?” Phoenix asked with a bit concerned.
    “I don’t really remember, before I was stuffed into that pod.”
    “Well let’s see about fixing that.”
    Phoenix got up and offered his hand to Aurora; she warmly accepted it and allowed him to lead her out of the room. Phoenix leads her down the short hall way to the forward compartment, where the ships gallie was located. Walking in the lights came on automatically with a warm yellow glow; Phoenix walked over to one side of the gallie and opened a metallic cabinet in the wall on the far end. In it was a wide verity of fruit in many different colors, Phoenix took out three round orange fruits and set them on the counter. He looked at Aurora for a moment and then took out two long smooth blue fruits.
    “Here, you might like these. What kind of food did you eat before?”
    “My home world had lots of different foods, just about anything will be fine.”
    Phoenix looked at the replicator built into the wall; he walked over and punched some buttons and a blue light glowed from its opening, a moment later two peaces of cooked meat were sitting in the opening. Phoenix gently picked up the peaces of meat and put one on each of two plates he had taken out, he brought the plates to a small table where Aurora was sitting.
    “Here you might like this, I know I do.”
    Aurora tenitivly took a bite of the strange meat, after chewing for a moment she found to her delight that she liked it. Aurora began to eat rather quickly, then faster and faster until she was cramming as much in her mouth as possible.
    “Hay! Hay slow down, you’ll make yourself sick if you eat too fast. Besides it's not going anywhere.”
    Aurora looked up at Phoenix, swallowed what she had in her mouth and continued to eat at a slower pace.
    “Thank you Phoenix, you’re the only anthro who has been nice to me.”
    Phoenix looked across the table at Aurora and reached over to take her hand in his.
    “You're welcome Aurora, I like being nice to you.” And I like you.
    With that the two of them ate the rest of their meal in quiet, each of them knowing that they felt something special for the other, but kept that to themselves, for now.