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I sat upon a padded metal chair in the observation deck on board the Jinorian, flagship of the Laeonid Seventh fleet, while people spoke back and forth above me and decided my fate. I barely heard any of it, keeping my eyes down. Staring at my chair, at the floor, at my paws. Anything to avoid looking up. Anything to avoid facing the reality of my situation. After every exchanged Human prisoner had been returned, processed, and reunited with their families save for me, there had been a single message from Nova Terra Domain.
“It is the position of Nova Terra that it is not possible for a Human soldier to be so radically altered.” The content had said. “Nadia Kantor was killed in action.” And that was that. Completely cut off. I let that sink in. I wasn’t sure what the brass were thinking. Then again, I never had been. Their government operated far and away from my homeworld. I knew nothing about the intricacies of their politics, save that when Nova Terra Domain called, you answered. That was how I had gotten tangled up in this mess of a war in the first place. A war I had never asked for any involvement in the first place.
I heard voices I recognized arguing back and forward. I heard Doctor Anjus and Captain Liantes. I heard someone saying I was the human’s problem, and should just be left behind. I heard Anjus countering that I was one of their own now, and that they had a responsibility to me. I tuned it all out. I had never felt so isolated and alone. I looked up as the officers made their points and cases to each other, and got up from my seat, approaching the viewing deck window and letting the light from the bright blue planetshine wash over me. That was a human world down there, twinkling in the blackness of space. It was not home, but it was the closest I had been in months. It was a hub of my people and a seat of my government. After all of my tribulations, was this as close as I would ever get back to Nyx? Would I never get closer than this window in space, hundreds of thousands of miles away from the surface? I felt my feline ears sag and lower as I bowed my head, resting against the cool armorglass, wishing to still my thoughts and cool my head. I could hear the sounds of the Laeonids conversation dying away, and then abruptly halt as the observation deck door opened, and a shuffling of paw-like feet as everybody in the room stood to attention.
That roused something within me. Still something of the soldier left in me after all, it seemed. I turned to face the newest occupant of the viewing room. A Laeonid, the tallest example of their kind I had yet seen, with fur frosted grey with age and an eye rendered milky white from his battle scars, stood before me. Even without the signifiers of rank upon his sleeves and chest, I would have immediately recognized this as someone not to be trifled with. He wore his scars as openly as human admirals wore their pins and medals. Treating them like totems of honor all the same. He radiated a certain presence that had me a little on edge, and a little fearful. The elder Laeonid officer nodded to Liantes and Anjus, one perfunctorily, the other respectfully. He made a cutting motion with his hand and thumb, and wordlessly, the room began to empty of its other occupants, and left me alone with this tall, intimidating man.
He didn’t seem to be in a hurry. I could tell on some level he knew the effect he had on others, especially someone like me, utterly lost in the world with no friends to call her own. He came to stand proximate to me, facing halfway between me and the window, regarding the planet below with mild interest. “Your home?” He asked me in a voice rendered harsh from a lifetime of shouting orders.
I shook my head, feeling my hair rustle against my fur. “No, but the closest thing to it I’ve had in some time.” I answer back, haltingly. “Who are you?” I suddenly blurted before I could stop myself.
He looked at me with something like amusement, then straightened his back and tucked in his tail. “Admiral Kypher Hellyx, commanding officer, HAS Jinorian.” He said. My ears flattened against my head. That made him master of the starfaring behemoth I was currently standing on. I stood a little straighter. It wasn’t ever a small deal for the master of a ship to come and speak to someone, especially a guest.
“First Lieutenant Nadi… Nadia Kantor.” I said, offering him a human salute, my fingers touched to my brow. He returned with his own Laeonic salute, his right arm hand rigidly parallel to his chest. I could see the bars on his sleeves. I knew enough from the Nova Terra mission briefings and my time spent among the Laeonids that he was high ranked indeed. Normally, he wouldn’t be dealing with someone of my position, but clearly, I was a special case.
He nodded and dropped his salute, letting me do the same. He spared another few seconds looking at the planet below, then he treated me to his full regard. I could feel my fur bristle, and stand slightly on end. A feeling I was still unaccustomed to. “Lieutenant Kantor, you seem to have become a problem that I have to solve.” He said calmly. I could only nod faintly, feeling that that was the understatement of the century. His next words were heavy with weight and significance. “There are some in my command staff who believe that you should be left here, to the human’s tender mercies. They are your people, and we have no claim on you, so it would be a sensible course of action. I swallowed hard, the pain of my own family’s rejection a mere few hours ago still first and foremost on my mind. The idea of just being left here as a constant reminder of what I could never have again burned a pit in my stomach.
“I believe, however, that we are responsible for what has happened to you.” The Admiral said, continuing. I felt my ears rise slightly and my tail lose some of its tension. I wasn’t sure what he meant, but I thought I saw him catch a flicker towards the door. “It may have been cleaner if Captain Liantes had left you in the void. A simpler story to tell, of another lost soldier’s heroism. But our people do not abandon those who we can save, Lieutenant. Serjek made the decision to preserve your life,” he said, using the good Doctor Anjus’ given name, “and I refuse to let that decision be in vain.”
His words washed over me like a warm wind. Uncomfortable, but bracing. I wanted to speak, but I kept my mouth shut, waiting for him to finish. “On behalf of my people, Lieutenant Kantor, I am prepared to offer you sanctuary in the Laeonid Empire.”
I swallowed, feeling my throat tremble. “I…” I said blearily, before clearing my throat and trying again. “…Are you sure?” I asked uncertainly. “What about the Domain?”
He snorted, sounding like an ancient Terran lion. “You’ve seen for yourself that they’ve given up any claim on you.” He said with a clawed hands gesturing out the window. “It’s not out of charity that we make this offer, Miss Kantor. My people value honor and courage.” He said. “Liantes has told me of your mission, and the lengths you went to for a cause that was never yours, but were honor-bound to respond to.”
“You know nothing of me.” I said emptily, my eyes falling and my enthusiasm for this awkward conversation drying up quickly. I just felt so tired.
“Only what I see inside you, Nadia.” Said Hellyx, a soft air of dignity building behind his words. “The honor and valor with which your people forged the greatest stellar empire in the Alakon Crest.” He said this with no insults or mockery, his personal experience of fighting humanity filling his words. “I know that your people have refused you, but you still do not blame them or take them to task for it, because a human warrior is honorable and cares not for slights and petty insults.”
I felt him watching my feline face as conflict raged within my soul. Loyalty to my nation vied with loyalty to the ideas that had forged it. At last, I smiled ruefully, painfully. “…Nothing too difficult, I guess.” I felt a tear escape my eye, followed by more. It hurt, but it was a good kind of pain. The kind of pain I had not let myself feel. Kept bottled up by shock. The kind that once released, could actually let me begin to heal.
Hellyx smiled at me. “The Jinorian will be leaving this space in one hour, Lieutenant.” He said, taking a pocket computer from his jacket. “I’m giving you permission to take one of the landing pods off the ship. If you choose to take one, what you do from there will no longer be this Laeonid’s concern.” He said, pressing a touch-screen button and opening a hatch elsewhere on the ship. “You are free to remain on board, of course. Think it over.”
AAnd with that, he turned on his paw and marched out the same door he had come in through. The rest of the Admiral’s staff had cleared out while we were having our conversation, leaving me in the first quiet solitude I’d had in days. I looked to the door, and I looked to the planet below. Thinking on what choice did I truly have? A nation that refused me entry or citizenship, or an empire of strangers I had been raised to fight? Life was a ludicrous thing, apt to change at any moment, always when we least expected it. Now that I finally had the ability to choose once again, I found that I only had one true choice at all.
****
One hour later, the Jinorian, with all landing pods fully present and accounted for, pulled away from Nova Terra Domain space. I felt the engines burn and the G-force compensators kick in as the colossal flagship accelerated. From the aft viewing deck, I lingered in the view of the blue planetshine for as long as I could, as watched part of my life end forever. No matter where I went from now on or whatever I did, I knew things could never again be what they once were, and the thought filled me with as much nervous exhilaration as it filled me with fear.
The latest entry in the Maetra Origin series! This is definitely a favorite of mine. Wonderful background, and my favorite depiction of her tail so far. This art was done for me by the supremely talented VernandaMaulana00!
I sat upon a padded metal chair in the observation deck on board the Jinorian, flagship of the Laeonid Seventh fleet, while people spoke back and forth above me and decided my fate. I barely heard any of it, keeping my eyes down. Staring at my chair, at the floor, at my paws. Anything to avoid looking up. Anything to avoid facing the reality of my situation. After every exchanged Human prisoner had been returned, processed, and reunited with their families save for me, there had been a single message from Nova Terra Domain.
“It is the position of Nova Terra that it is not possible for a Human soldier to be so radically altered.” The content had said. “Nadia Kantor was killed in action.” And that was that. Completely cut off. I let that sink in. I wasn’t sure what the brass were thinking. Then again, I never had been. Their government operated far and away from my homeworld. I knew nothing about the intricacies of their politics, save that when Nova Terra Domain called, you answered. That was how I had gotten tangled up in this mess of a war in the first place. A war I had never asked for any involvement in the first place.
I heard voices I recognized arguing back and forward. I heard Doctor Anjus and Captain Liantes. I heard someone saying I was the human’s problem, and should just be left behind. I heard Anjus countering that I was one of their own now, and that they had a responsibility to me. I tuned it all out. I had never felt so isolated and alone. I looked up as the officers made their points and cases to each other, and got up from my seat, approaching the viewing deck window and letting the light from the bright blue planetshine wash over me. That was a human world down there, twinkling in the blackness of space. It was not home, but it was the closest I had been in months. It was a hub of my people and a seat of my government. After all of my tribulations, was this as close as I would ever get back to Nyx? Would I never get closer than this window in space, hundreds of thousands of miles away from the surface? I felt my feline ears sag and lower as I bowed my head, resting against the cool armorglass, wishing to still my thoughts and cool my head. I could hear the sounds of the Laeonids conversation dying away, and then abruptly halt as the observation deck door opened, and a shuffling of paw-like feet as everybody in the room stood to attention.
That roused something within me. Still something of the soldier left in me after all, it seemed. I turned to face the newest occupant of the viewing room. A Laeonid, the tallest example of their kind I had yet seen, with fur frosted grey with age and an eye rendered milky white from his battle scars, stood before me. Even without the signifiers of rank upon his sleeves and chest, I would have immediately recognized this as someone not to be trifled with. He wore his scars as openly as human admirals wore their pins and medals. Treating them like totems of honor all the same. He radiated a certain presence that had me a little on edge, and a little fearful. The elder Laeonid officer nodded to Liantes and Anjus, one perfunctorily, the other respectfully. He made a cutting motion with his hand and thumb, and wordlessly, the room began to empty of its other occupants, and left me alone with this tall, intimidating man.
He didn’t seem to be in a hurry. I could tell on some level he knew the effect he had on others, especially someone like me, utterly lost in the world with no friends to call her own. He came to stand proximate to me, facing halfway between me and the window, regarding the planet below with mild interest. “Your home?” He asked me in a voice rendered harsh from a lifetime of shouting orders.
I shook my head, feeling my hair rustle against my fur. “No, but the closest thing to it I’ve had in some time.” I answer back, haltingly. “Who are you?” I suddenly blurted before I could stop myself.
He looked at me with something like amusement, then straightened his back and tucked in his tail. “Admiral Kypher Hellyx, commanding officer, HAS Jinorian.” He said. My ears flattened against my head. That made him master of the starfaring behemoth I was currently standing on. I stood a little straighter. It wasn’t ever a small deal for the master of a ship to come and speak to someone, especially a guest.
“First Lieutenant Nadi… Nadia Kantor.” I said, offering him a human salute, my fingers touched to my brow. He returned with his own Laeonic salute, his right arm hand rigidly parallel to his chest. I could see the bars on his sleeves. I knew enough from the Nova Terra mission briefings and my time spent among the Laeonids that he was high ranked indeed. Normally, he wouldn’t be dealing with someone of my position, but clearly, I was a special case.
He nodded and dropped his salute, letting me do the same. He spared another few seconds looking at the planet below, then he treated me to his full regard. I could feel my fur bristle, and stand slightly on end. A feeling I was still unaccustomed to. “Lieutenant Kantor, you seem to have become a problem that I have to solve.” He said calmly. I could only nod faintly, feeling that that was the understatement of the century. His next words were heavy with weight and significance. “There are some in my command staff who believe that you should be left here, to the human’s tender mercies. They are your people, and we have no claim on you, so it would be a sensible course of action. I swallowed hard, the pain of my own family’s rejection a mere few hours ago still first and foremost on my mind. The idea of just being left here as a constant reminder of what I could never have again burned a pit in my stomach.
“I believe, however, that we are responsible for what has happened to you.” The Admiral said, continuing. I felt my ears rise slightly and my tail lose some of its tension. I wasn’t sure what he meant, but I thought I saw him catch a flicker towards the door. “It may have been cleaner if Captain Liantes had left you in the void. A simpler story to tell, of another lost soldier’s heroism. But our people do not abandon those who we can save, Lieutenant. Serjek made the decision to preserve your life,” he said, using the good Doctor Anjus’ given name, “and I refuse to let that decision be in vain.”
His words washed over me like a warm wind. Uncomfortable, but bracing. I wanted to speak, but I kept my mouth shut, waiting for him to finish. “On behalf of my people, Lieutenant Kantor, I am prepared to offer you sanctuary in the Laeonid Empire.”
I swallowed, feeling my throat tremble. “I…” I said blearily, before clearing my throat and trying again. “…Are you sure?” I asked uncertainly. “What about the Domain?”
He snorted, sounding like an ancient Terran lion. “You’ve seen for yourself that they’ve given up any claim on you.” He said with a clawed hands gesturing out the window. “It’s not out of charity that we make this offer, Miss Kantor. My people value honor and courage.” He said. “Liantes has told me of your mission, and the lengths you went to for a cause that was never yours, but were honor-bound to respond to.”
“You know nothing of me.” I said emptily, my eyes falling and my enthusiasm for this awkward conversation drying up quickly. I just felt so tired.
“Only what I see inside you, Nadia.” Said Hellyx, a soft air of dignity building behind his words. “The honor and valor with which your people forged the greatest stellar empire in the Alakon Crest.” He said this with no insults or mockery, his personal experience of fighting humanity filling his words. “I know that your people have refused you, but you still do not blame them or take them to task for it, because a human warrior is honorable and cares not for slights and petty insults.”
I felt him watching my feline face as conflict raged within my soul. Loyalty to my nation vied with loyalty to the ideas that had forged it. At last, I smiled ruefully, painfully. “…Nothing too difficult, I guess.” I felt a tear escape my eye, followed by more. It hurt, but it was a good kind of pain. The kind of pain I had not let myself feel. Kept bottled up by shock. The kind that once released, could actually let me begin to heal.
Hellyx smiled at me. “The Jinorian will be leaving this space in one hour, Lieutenant.” He said, taking a pocket computer from his jacket. “I’m giving you permission to take one of the landing pods off the ship. If you choose to take one, what you do from there will no longer be this Laeonid’s concern.” He said, pressing a touch-screen button and opening a hatch elsewhere on the ship. “You are free to remain on board, of course. Think it over.”
AAnd with that, he turned on his paw and marched out the same door he had come in through. The rest of the Admiral’s staff had cleared out while we were having our conversation, leaving me in the first quiet solitude I’d had in days. I looked to the door, and I looked to the planet below. Thinking on what choice did I truly have? A nation that refused me entry or citizenship, or an empire of strangers I had been raised to fight? Life was a ludicrous thing, apt to change at any moment, always when we least expected it. Now that I finally had the ability to choose once again, I found that I only had one true choice at all.
****
One hour later, the Jinorian, with all landing pods fully present and accounted for, pulled away from Nova Terra Domain space. I felt the engines burn and the G-force compensators kick in as the colossal flagship accelerated. From the aft viewing deck, I lingered in the view of the blue planetshine for as long as I could, as watched part of my life end forever. No matter where I went from now on or whatever I did, I knew things could never again be what they once were, and the thought filled me with as much nervous exhilaration as it filled me with fear.
The latest entry in the Maetra Origin series! This is definitely a favorite of mine. Wonderful background, and my favorite depiction of her tail so far. This art was done for me by the supremely talented VernandaMaulana00!
Category All / General Furry Art
Species Feline (Other)
Size 2351 x 1567px
File Size 5.32 MB
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