Who Do We Think We Are ?

Cola fluffed up her pillows and sat down on her bed. She didn't feel quite like going to sleep yet, she'd had a disturbing day. She'd faced the first opposition to her rule and met the most magnificent buck she'd ever seen.

She dropped her head, feeling guilty about being attracted to another buck whilst she was carrying Gorden's litter.

"It's only a friendship." She said to her self. "I'm allowed that, at least." She stared at her toes for a few moments before her right hand stretched itself out and picked up her cup of cocoa from the bedside table.

She sighed, trying to reconcile her feelings. Her eyes stared holes into her toes and she sipped at the hot drink.

With another deep sigh she put the cup back down and picked up the sheaf of papers she'd dropped on the floor earlier. She spent a few moments attempting to put them into a better order than she'd been able to so far.

"This would have been easier," She said to the papers, "If you'd put page numbers on. Or even just written a simple narrative." Shake of her head, leafing through the pages. They were all on different shapes and hues of paper and the writing in an abundance of colours of ink. "This looks like the next one..." She said holding a sheet up.

"Once we'd buried the dead crew member, Spiron introduced me to the crew."

---*---

Marm was the six-limbed creature that I had first encountered. He seemed to be considered the Engineer of the ship, although the term is a little misleading - there does not seem to be anything recognisable as machinery onboard. His brother is Bov, who is employed as one of the Gunners. I fulfil the post of second gunner.

Vestock was our three-fingered navigator.

The scale-faced one was Kurl, he was the closest thing the ship had to a pilot.

The last member of the crew turned up just before we took off. To all intents and purposes he looked like a normal rat. Spiron named him Richard and he'd greeted me and run off into the ship before I realised that the translating-device had not kicked in.

Richard was a rat - and he spoke English!

"Vestock and Bov have finished repairing the port-side gunnery." Spiron told me as we wended our way around the ship. The ship seemed a maze of tunnels. Fine, as far as I was concerned tunnels were normality. But I prefer tunnels that are dug out of earth rather than ones which seem half steel-half flesh. They seemed to be metallic, but had the look of having been grown. No surface was as flat as the old floor in my comfy burrow, nothing was a smooth as the glazed window in the Heads' room at the warren.

"You'll be taking up the position of starboard gunner." Spiron continued, "Bov will be taking over the port gunnery." He turned to me, "I like to rotate people if I can - and he won't get jittery just because it was the place that Druf was killed in. I'm not saying that you would get jittery. I just don't know you and I know Bov." He turned away and started down the corridor again. "We're taking off soon. Once we get into orbit I'll get you into the autodoc and get the medical records updated. The autodoc needs to know all about your body before it can synthesize the communication implant."

We reached a door. Well, they weren't much like a "Phsst!"-noise making horizontally opening star trek door, but they weren't quite iris' like on a submarine film. This was the ship at it's most organic. The best description I would have for them (If you may excuse the term) is a sphincter door. I'll do my best not to mention this again. The door opened with a slurping noise. I cringed.

"Your species will not be on file." He continued as we stepped onto the bridge, "Your world has been interdicted for a very long time, no traffic is allowed to stop here so that your civilisations don't get muddied." He turned to me, "Quite frankly you're all quite primitive and, if you were just brought into the Galactic then you'd be a drain on resources. They wouldn't be able to stop with your planet and any Tom, Dick or Henry who thought there were sapient would be clambering for membership." H e motioned me towards a seat. At least it looked a lot like a seat, if it wasn't actually a chair. He sat down in one nearer the front of the room "Of course, the reason we stopped here was that the planet was interdicted and so we'd be best able to carry out repairs without the attention of the wrong sort of people."

Behind us I heard the door slurp once more. Vestock and Kurl entered the room and took up seats of their own.

"Please fasten your inertial damping field" Spiron said and Kurl began to press parts of the display in front of him.

"Inertial damping field?" I asked, confused.

"Umm," Spiron said, "A spaceship moves and accelerates at such velocities that your insides would get smashed to a pulp within you if it wasn't for a damping field which acts on your component parts." He held up one end of a strap that was attached to the side of his seat. He drew the strap over himself and plugged it into a socket on his left hand side. He pulled the end of the strap and it tightened over his waist.

I shrugged and copied him. I thought that this was a bit of a silly name for a seatbelt until I tightened it. It suddenly seemed like I had been dipped in strawberry jam. It reminded me of an incident I had as a very young buck.

I could move, but every movement seemed sluggish. My ears registered a noise and I realised that the front of the ship had turned transparent and I could see that the ship was rising into the morning air.

The pressure was immense, holding me like a vice. I felt as if I could barely breathe - then the blue gave way to black and the stars came out and I didn't care about breathing - the sight of so may stars so clear just filled me with the immensity of my actions.

I had left my world.

I was involved with a group of aliens who landed on a prohibited world to perform repairs. It was quite possible I'd just joined an intergalactic society - on the wrong side of the law!

---*---

Something was happening.

Cola finally realised that it was a knocking on her door. She jumped up and threw a dressing gown on and rushed to see what all the banging was about.

"Madam," Gilchrist enunciated rather than simply speaking, "I was beginning to worry that something had happened to you."

"Just reading, I'm afraid," Cola replied, "I lose myself when reading. It takes me a while to respond to the outside world again."

Gilchrist smiled, "I understand; the immersion in someone else's words is like a powerful drug." He cleared his throat. "I have come here for a reason." He stood aside and spread his hand. Behind him stood a large coney, nearly as wide as he was tall. He had strong thick fingers and his weight seemed muscle rather than fat. The word "Bouncer" sprang to Cola's mind.

"This is Fudge." Gilchrist said, "I've picked him as your body guard." He lowered his face to hers and lowered his tones too, "I have heard unsettling rumours of more resistance to your rule and I felt that it would beneficial to protect you before the rumours become truths rather than the other way."

Cola was about to disagree when she saw something on the burridors wall opposite her door. Someone had graffittied "Does Don't Rule" Her jaw dropped.

"Ah, I'd hoped you wouldn't see that trash." Gilchrist said between stiff lips. Fudge turned his head and glanced at the words.

"I'll 'ave them off in no time, m'lady." Fudge said. Cola wondered how she'd become a lady and whether Fudge really spoke like that or whether he'd just been brought up on too-strict a Thunderbirds regime and thought that was how a faithful retainer should speak.

Does Don't Rule

Cola gave an involuntary shudder. Not only did someone not like her. They could spell as well.

"Thank you Fudge." She said, her eyes were gripped by the graffiti now.

Gilchrist bowed, "Good night to you, madam. I hope to see you on the morrow." Cola nodded slightly. Her eyes transfixed by the words.

Does Don't Rule

Fudge's bulk broke the hypnosis of the most horrific three words she had ever read as he started to scrape the wall.

"Thank you, Fudge." She said.

"See you in the morning, m'lady." He said between scrapes. "I'll be sleeping out here when I've finished. Don't worry, " he said cheerfully, "I don't snore."

Cola shut the door behind her.