Distant Fire

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Epilogue

01/19/98:

It had been a week and two days sense Grasion was arrested.
Arrested, handed over to the Council, pleaded guilty to all
charges and is now serving a six-hundred year sentence on
the maxim security prison in Prid.

The amazing part of all this is that he's *actually* serving
it! The man even refused to leave when one of his associates
broke him out of a holding cell ten minutes after he got to
Prid.

His reason for this miracle? "Prophecy," he believes that
his being arrested _this_ time fits in with the foretelling
of the future and will lead to some kind of partnership.

I think he's batty, but if it keeps him in his cell I'm all
for him believing it.

That was the simplest part of what had happened sense then.
First and foremost was the shuttle. We couldn't allow anyone
related to the Council to know we had it, and sense the
power system was involved, they where soon to be on the
base.

I did the simplest thing that I could. I called for help. I
had Milgrove bring the _Falcon_ down, strap the shuttle back
to it's underside and return to the _Phoenix_. Taking
Terminus with her so no one would ask questions about his
presence.

What followed that was a series of debriefings. A lot of
powerful people wanted to know what had gone on inside of
the base once we got back down. Most of them where content
with accepting that we found a way down, and didn't presses
for the how.

The three that decided they just had to know now believe
that transporters existed, and could be used with out an end
terminal. You never know, they may actually get the system
to work.

After that was all over we started back to my base in
Earth's asteroid belt. It was the only safe place to put the
shuttle at where I was sure no one would find it
accidentally.

Which still left the big problem of all of this, Oriana and
I where still switched. We had decided to stay at the base
until such time as Ken found a way to reverse the spell. It
had already been a month sense the switch started and both I
and Oria where wondering if there even was a way to undo it.

For me it wasn't very much of a loss if we it was never
undone. All that I would lose was my infrequent returns to
Earth. For Oria though the price would be for more
extensive. She would lose her world, the job she loves and
even her God. On top of that, it wouldn't get her out of the
Guild.

Also I had, at present, toned down on acting female. Oria
had confronted me about it after we had gotten to my base.
She had been right in saying I was 'shattered' by what Ken
did to me. It's hard to find any other way to describe it.

Honestly, I still didn't want to go back being who I was.
Oria was even able to guess that fact, I didn't like what I
had done and hated myself for doing it. The easiest thing
for me to do at the time was immerse myself into being a
female.

It was easy, so very easy, for me to do. I was always gender
neural in most ways, from my actions to how I dressed. From
that lack of a basic image about myself it was easy to shift
into a different role.

Oria made it clear to me that I had made the wrong choice,
and that she had been wrong to help me with it. That in the
long haul it would harm me to a greater extent then it would
help me. She told me that everyone around us though of me as
female now, where as she was still though of as a women,
even if her body was mine.

This was a revelation to me, I though I was still play
acting! That people where just humoring me about it. I never
knew it I had so changed myself in such a short time. It was
slightly frightening.

We both agreed that the best thing for me to do was to pull
back on trying to be female, not worry about more then I
needed, but also not to ignore it as I had done when we
first switched. In the end the simplest thing to do was just
be myself.

Which I found not as easy to do as I though, I had started
to mold my personally to match my new form. Now I had to
ignore that.

So went are time as we waited for Ken. Oriana had taken to
reading the Book of Thryn to pass the time, studying it's
passages, searching for a deeper meaning to all that has
happened to us.

I, on the other paw, was refitting the shuttle. I was
originally planing on giving it back, but I wasn't sure how
to do it in a fashion they would not be to dangerous.

One idea that had crossed my mind was asking Burke for his
help. Take the shuttle back about five-hundred years and
burying it under the Gobie Desert and send NASA a note about
it via SETI.

The idea though needed Burke's help and I really didn't want
to ask for it. He reminded me of Mr. Morden a bit to much to
trust him.

So, currently, I was sitting in the shuttle's wing working
one of the new jet mounting assembles. I thought sense I was
planing on using it myself I wasn't going to have the extra
stages needed to lift-off. So I was adding on a pair of high
gain jet engines and replace the tiles of the hull with
something more adequate for mach-5 speeds.

I was dressed in a type of small shirt and bra thing that
Oria told me to where and some shorts. Anything more would
have caused me to overheat from what was coming off the
engine as it shut down. I wasn't close to it though, I was
waste deep, head first, inside the wing checking the wiring
to see why it was running so hot.

It was only when something bounced off my back that I
realized that I was wanted. Extracting myself from the wing
I brushed away the hair from my eyes. "Yes?" I asked,
looking over the wing.

Standing below was Oria and just a few feet behind was Ken.

"Find something?" I asked, walking over to the ladder and
starting down to the floor.

"Yes," Ken said to my back as I settled onto the floor. "I
think I can switch you back."

Turning to face him I was frowning. "You think?"

I must have been putting more emotion in my face then I
intended, because Ken lowered his head a bit. "I'm not
intently sure it will work, there might be problems if
there's anything left of the original spell."

"How likely is this?" Oria asked, moving to stand next to
me.

Ken frowned. "I say about one in four."

"But you can undo the spell?" I asked.

A ripple ran over his wings, a nervous twitch he had. "Not
precisely, it will take close to a year to find a way to
truly reverse the spell. Right now I just plan to preform it
again so as to switch you back."

"And if it doesn't work?" I prompted.

"You'll have to wait till I can reverse it." He said with a
sigh.

Oria shook his head. "If we have to wait a year, by the time
we could get back to normal we would have come to think of
these bodies as ours. The change back would be as bad of a
shock as the original change was."

I turned to look at him, frowning slightly. "So if this
doesn't work, should we just give up going back?"

"Of course not," he responded, surprised that I had even
suggested it. "but I do think we should stop trying to stay
ourselves."

I shook my head. "How about we don't worry about that unless
we have too."

"Lets hope we don't need to then."

I turned back to Ken, "Well then, let's get this over with."

He nodded, producing a small pill and holding it out to me.
"Take this, it's the basic components of the spell."

Taking the pill from him I swallowed it dry. "Better then
being shot with it." I comment as it worked its way down.

"Now, you need to be touching each other when I activate
this." He said, motioning with his foreclaws for us to do
something together.

"Will we pass out again?" Oriana asked, taking the paw I was
offering to him.

"Not this time," Ken answered. "The black out was from the
sudden and total change of bodies. Going back to your normal
form, it should be far less uncomfortable."

I nodded. "Well then, are you ready Oriana?"

He smiled. "Yes Fox."

Ken started to chant softly his eyes glazing over. Suddenly
Oria let go of my paw and grabbed my head, pulling me down
into a kiss. A second after are lips came in contact a sound
like a thunderclap echoed in my ears and through my skull. A
wave of blackness descended over my vision at the same time.

I winched, blinking my eyes, trying to clear them, which
they did in a just one blink. Feeling suddenly rushed back
into my mind and I found myself looking into a pair of green
slitted eyes. Oriana's eyes. Who I was currently kissing!

I broke off taking in a short gasp of air. Oriana smirked.
"I knew I would find a way to get you to kiss me."

Letting out a laugh I smiled at her. "So this whole thing
was just a plan to finally get me to kiss you?"

She nodded, grinning like, well, a cat.

"It worked then," Ken stated.

I looked at my former friend. "Yes it did. Thank you." I
meant it too.

He bowed his head, then, maybe sensing that he wasn't
wanted, turned and left us.

Oria let out a small 'yelp'. "I'm a mess!" she cried,
looking at all the dirt and grime in her fur.

It was my turn to smirk, "you expected less?"

She sighed and shook her head. "No, not really."

I nodded, running my hands over my hair, surprised to find
it short. "Listen, are we still friends after this?"

She gave me a look of utter surprise. "Fox! Of course we
are. Though I think it's a little bit more then that now. I
think we're past friends but not so much as to be lovers."

"Where does that leave us then?" I asked.

She blushed a bit in her ears, twitching them a bit. "Bonded
in some fashion I think. Maybe this is what the high priest
meant about how are souls are laid. Maybe he saw that
something like this was to happen. I think we now have a bit
of each other in our souls."

"I think you're right." I responded.

She broke into a small smile. "I better go get cleaned up,
my fur's starting to itch." Then with a larger smile she
turned and left me, heading for home I would suppose.

I smiled as I watched her go. I was glade to be back as
myself, but I did suspect I would miss being a women. At
least at times, it was quite interesting.

Slowly I walked after her, getting a feel for my body again.
Bouncing in my stride a bit, then something caught my eye.

Hanging on a hook at the entrance to the docking bay was my
jacket, the old green army jacket that I had been wearing
for years. I had grabbed it to wear when we stole the
shuttle, but left it behind for reasons I couldn't quite
remember.

Taking it from the hook I felt it's weight in my hands,
running my fingers over the collar. It was the symbol of me
actually, many people saw me wear it in my different
adventures. Honestly it was quite ugly, olive-drab green,
worn, burt, ripped, patched and singed.

I wasn't this person any more, not now, not after seeing
myself like I have. Balling it up I pulled my arm back and
threw it as far as I could into an empty corner of the bay.
It unfolded in flight, catching the air and landed with a
flump half way to where I was aiming.

I shrugged, It wasn't important to me anymore. So left it
there and went home.

-----

This story is (c) 1998 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.
'Milgrove' is (C) 1998 by J. 'Packrat' McCoy, and is used
with permission.