SECTIONS:

The Launch

The Battle Inside the Ship

Resolutions and Learning

___The Launch___

Fellows was laughing. "Did you see that! I've never seen anything like that! Stupid beast popped right into space. Damn, got your first look at the great beyond, did you?" She settled down, calming herself. "Now you know not to bother me. Don't! Got it?!" she growled, glaring.

She ran her fingers along her console screen, running final checks and starting the engines. The raccoon passenger towered near me and stared down at me in shock, seemingly unable to move.

The entire cabin was silent. Dead quiet.

Everyone was staring at me, gasping on the deck, and at the Captain, hiding a self-satisfied smirk.

"Station to Fleeting Minnow, departure in 30 seconds, confirm."

"Fleeting Minnow, holding steady, ready to depart." Fellows was still smiling.

"Captain-" started Kuril, twitching his otter whiskers.

Fellows growled a warning.

"Fleeting Minnow, detach in 3...2...1... mark."

The ship shifted as it detached from the station. I could feel the mobility thrusters maneuvering us away. I could see nothing from the deck.

I panted more, then managed to right myself on the decking. Still gasping, I crouched on the deck. Too stunned to think straight.

The ship moved away from the station, slowly gaining distance from the structure.

"Jump coordinates, Mr. Kuril," Fellows tersely instructed.

"Wait, Captain-"

"Coordinates, Mr. Kuril!"

He tapped his screen. His eyes were wide in shock as he kept looking between me and the Captain.

"They match mine, good. Let's depart." She keyed her console. "Station, this if Fleeting Minnow. Requesting jump clearance."

"Roger, Fleeting Minnow. Jump clearance in 10."

"10" counted the Station officer.

"9"

"8"

"Captain, I think-" Kuril tried again.

Fellows shushed him.

"5"

"4"

"Captain! Stop!" yelled Kuril, looking alarmed.

"2"

Fellows ignored him as she placed her fingers on her screen, readied.

"1"

Fellows' fingers slid up the screen, jumping the ship into FTL space.

My sensitive nubs were still out, so it was as if a blast of light and sound struck me at once.

I was still chirring in distress on the decking as the ship finished its entry and slipped into FTL-space. I shook and shivered, as my eyes drooped. I managed to pull in my nubs, but I felt pain all over.

My flock were flitting around the bridge, shock and alarm ringing back from the metal plating. Dave and Susan jumped to my side. The rest jumped away, disappearing. Dave and Susan hissed and glared at Captain Fellows.

"What? Get out you creepy pests! Or should I crush you?" She leaned forward with a nasty snarl.

Dave and Susan jumped away.

There was a sudden, loud sob. The young cat pushed his way through the foxes and fled the Bridge, Jimmy clinging to his shoulder.

Fellows shifted her footpaw, and I finally managed to jump away, just under the decking.

I recovered in the darkness under the deck. I could hear muffled sounds through the metal plates.

"Damn.... We may be in for some trouble now." That was Kuril's voice.

"I've heard stories.... You know what happens to ships that anger their finches...." Even Eigren sounded shocked.

"I don't care, let's just do our jaunt and get back without problems," I heard Fellows growl.

"Well, Captain. We'll definitely have problems now!" Kuril sounded furious. "I accepted this jaunt with you because I respect your father. This is your first time shipboard off the passenger list.... You have no idea what you've done." I heard him stand. "Don't bother calling me when things go wrong! It's your mess, now you've only got yourself to fix it."

I heard Kuren and Eigren mutter under their breath as they followed Kuril out. She growled to herself for a while, still sitting, monitoring the helm.

Eventually, I gathered my wits enough to jump to the nest, and I huddled there, miserably. I had a small cut on my wing. Nothing serious, but I was injured. By giant leopard claws....

The four adults and Jimmy hung worriedly to the sides. We all supported each other, but seeing a weak leader devastated their trust in me. If I were able to cry, I would have.

Mike was the first to approach me. "Leader, what do you want us to do?"

I trembled in relief, they still had enough trust to continue beneath me. I had chosen very good birds to join my ship. Now I had to think over what needed to be done. Mike waited patiently. They knew that I rarely made hasty decisions. It was partly why their trust in me was so strong.

The Captain was the only Fur at issue here. I wouldn't endanger the entire ship and all my flock for vengeance. I thought back to when Kuren had asked me to keep things within reasonable bounds. He probably hadn't realized how quickly things would be going wrong. Right, we needed limits and a plan. I gathered my thoughts, feeling better nestled among the sleeping chicks. They needed stability. I needed to provide it.

"No fatal harm is to be given- None!" I halted rising protests. "I could have died out there, but I did not. We do not need to take such measures."

My flock settled, but anger was plain in their eyes and postures.

"When the ship exits into normal space-time in an hour, cut the engines and navigation controls. Leave everything else. Maroon the ship for a while."

There were understanding nods from the other five finches.

"We can survive a lot longer than they can. Any decent Captain will acknowledge this."

Now they looked grim but satisfied. Finches could survive many harsh conditions, more than Furs typically could.

"I'll deal with any negotiations. No songs for them, no relaxing moments. Let them deal with their own inner troubles for a while."

Jimmy shifted his red feathers. It would be harder for him, since he was just coming into his song and felt the instinct to expand it.

"Keep out of sight. Don't appear at meals. We'll survive on scraps for a while. How much food stores do we have?"

Dave nodded his beak, "We have extras for about three days on our own."

It was low, since we had been stuck at port so long. "it will have to do. Supplement as much as you can from their plates. Only when backs are turned or there are no Furs in the room. Do not participate in meals."

Several nods. We had a plan.

"We'll check conditions in the morning. Each day, we increase consequent activities."

This ship needed to be safe for every creature on board. This leopard's hostility invited chaos.

Fellows was bringing a finch war on her head.

___The Battle Inside the Ship___

Three days passed in our mini-war on the Fleeting Minnow. As any good spacer knows: keep the finches happy, and you too will be happy; anger the finches, and face your death in the depths of space.

Finches are diminutively tiny and their power to directly do things is severely limited. Their only capacity to influence the world around them is through their space-time manipulations. Finches can do much more than open tiny slits in space-time to slip through.

Captain Fellows was finding out the hard way.

On Day 1, launch day, we had cut power and control sectors in navigation and FTL drives. The ship was drifting in space. Space-time slices can eventually cut anything in the physical, tangible dimensions, so cutting wiring was simplicity itself.

Only Jimmy didn't have the finesse targeting required to cut the wiring. His space-time control wasn't that developed.

To her credit, Ruth did work to fix our messes. However, she worked slowly, especially once she'd heard from Eigren what had happened on the bridge. She did her work slowly and half-heartedly, knowing that as soon as she had re-wired something, it would be cut again within minutes.

The ship wallowed uselessly in normal space, and Fellows had been furious, yelling about her schedule to the crew. The finches no longer visited the crew in their quarters or in their mess. I think Jimmy slipped off a few times, but I chose to overlook it.

By the evening of the same day, I was physically recovered from most of the shock and could steadily jump through the ship. I observed the quiet boredom and frustration of the crew. I watched the surprise and the confused appearance of the leopard.

Dinner that night had been a silent affair. No finches appeared to help entertain the crew. The young cat sat without Jimmy, looking anywhere but at the leopard. Captain Fellows, Kuril, and the raccoon sat together, failing to keep conversation going. The leopard feigned confidence, due to her stuborn nature.

"They're stupid pests," she had said at dinner. "By tomorrow, they'll have forgotten what it's even about." Though even she did not look convinced by her own words.

On Day 2, with no response received, we stepped up our efforts. The finches jumped into the Captain's storage drawers and crapped all over her belongings. We fouled half the food that was served, jumping to hover briefly over each plate and bowl as it was served, especially focusing on the Captain's food items.

We jumped into food cupboards and sliced open bags and containers, spilling contents and mixing fluids.

We darted in and out of space-time, snagging fur and ears in our tiny beaks, upsetting everyone aboard. The poor cat quickly got upset and hid under his blankets, so I called off any further attacks on him. The rest of the crew were constantly switching between bored idleness and startling when a finch or two would pester them.

Jimmy refused to take any further part in the attacks. He perched with the cat in crew quarters all day. They soothed each other quietly while the rest of the ship would frequently quiet, then rouse in yelps and shrieks.

Ruth refused to work further, pointing out to the Captain that there was no point replacing something that would instantly need fixing again. The white and gray mouse settled down in Engineering and stoically took whatever punishments the finches dealt her.

Kuren and Eigren kept running around the ship, constantly getting ordered by the Captain to fix, clean, and deal with all the problems we started. They got more stressed and wearied as the day went on.

The raccoon passenger was threatening to cut pay, or even refuse to pay due to the unlivable circumstances the ship had degraded to.

The irregular attacks had all the Furs on edge. Their eyes darted around at every light fixture and every colorful object. The Furs built tension that was never relieved. Exhaustion approached them as the day wore on, elevated heart rates never settled.

At dinner that night, we had dive-bombed the Captain constantly, demonstrating that we recognized the source of our displeasure. We made quick space-time cuts on her paws every time she tried to raise her fork. We pecked repeatedly between her eyes. Each time, we appeared for a fraction of a second and jumped away again. She took to swatting the air erratically as she ate, but rested finches with nubs extended were easily able to avoid her.

She ate alone at the table that night. Everyone else had crammed together at the second table and had glanced at her angrily the whole time. The cat had not even shown up for dinner that night, and Kuren brought him food later.

Jimmy and the little cat seemed determined to not take part. They only spoke, very quietly, with each other.

After an unsuccessful dinner, Fellows, paws bleeding with small cuts dragged herself to the Bridge. I waited and watched, attached to a crevice in the hull. The Bridge was empty of anyone else. Mike jumped in after me, but after a head-shake from me, left to pester the other Furs.

She keyed a slip-space comms channel from her chair. "Executor Station, this is Patricia Fellows of the Fleeting Minnow,"

"Fleeting Minnow, this is Executor Station."

"Reporting urgent situation. Request a tow back to Station."

"State the nature of the situation Fleeting Minnow, you're hardly out of dock."

"Shut it, Station," Fellows growled, then softened. "We have... engine troubles."

"State the nature of the situation, Fleeting Minnow." The Station communications officer had an edge to his voice, "What is the state of your drives?"

Fellows hesitated, then grit her teeth, "The control lines have been cut."

"Fleeting Minnow, any engineer, and even most spacers can replace wiring." The Comm Officer's voice dropped its professional air. It was openly condescending now.

"We've replaced the wiring! ... Er... it gets cut again."

"It's a common tactic if you've really gotten your finches pissed off. Something you need to fix yourself."

"They won't be reasoned with! They're mindless pests!" she insisted loudly. "Come get us, it's intolerable here."

"Captain Fellows, any ship I send out there may get attacked by a furious flock of finches. I'll not risk sending another ship to make the situation worse. This happens occasionally and it's our policy to... not interfere."

Fellows paused, staring blankly at the console. She shook herself slightly, "Station, I wish to speak with your superior officer!"

"Roger, Fleeting Minnow, hold for Station Captain...." The officer was all business again... but I thought I caught a snicker from him just before the comm turned off.

A few long moments passed. Apparently no one at the station that we'd barely left wanted to jump onto the comm with an angry leopard.

"Fleeting Minnow, this is Executor Station Captain Michaels speaking. What seems to be the problem?" I thought I heard muffled laughing behind the station Captain.

"Captain, we're marooned just out of port. Request dispatch rescue tow."

"The Comms officer you spoke with said the source of your problems is the finches aboard your vessel?"

"Correct," replied Fellows, leaning back in her Captain's chair. I heard her whisper, "Progress..." to herself.

"No can-do, Captain," he said over the slip-space comms channel, also dropping official protocols. "See, finches are touchy creatures. If I allow your request and tow you back, at the very least the incident could spread to my own station. However much they fight each other, if some other species threatens them or theirs, they all join the warpath. If we interfere, the situation could inflame the finches on the station and the ships attached."

"But-"

"Captain! Are you asking me to risk the lives of everyone aboard my own station?!"

Fellows was silent.

"You need to figure it out yourself. The only advice I give Captains in your situation is: ... "

Fellows leaned forward.

"Talk it out with the little tykes."

"What?" it came out almost more of a yowl than a word.

I could hear the station Captain sigh, "Look. Your records say you're new to this. It's no use fighting the finches. It. Just. Doesn't. Work."

"What!"

"Captain fellows, whatever views you might have, finches are intelligent, and any flock leader can understand our speech. Try talking it out. It's what I have to tell every Captain who calls in like this."

Fellows growled something under her breath that sounded like, "Yeah, right. He'll tell me to speak with ants and rocks next."

"Good luck negotiating a truce, Captain. All you have to do is try." The connection ended.

"How rude!" the leopard said.

Well that was how I thought of her too.

Day 3 began with a screech... all through the ship. Furs leaped out of their beds as we attacked them furiously. Only Jimmy and the cat were exempt as they huddled in the crew quarters. Second Officer Kuril had apparently bunked in the crew quarters the night before, probably sharing the cat's bunk. Kuril squealed as his whiskers were immediately cut, right after waking.

We finches gave them little cuts everywhere. Paws and faces were the easiest, but backs and butts were also very satisfying to slice. Ruth still tried to hunker down and weather the discomfort. The raccoon passenger was furiously trying to fight off the finches, and he yelled obscenities at any crew member.

It all came to a head when I sang a song, pulling sadness, loss, death, and fear into its weave. The entire crew and some of the finches sagged and whimpered in stress. My song rose and I pushed emotions of needless deaths. I added the sensations of frozen strangulation I'd experienced in space. My song is very strong.

"All right!" screamed Captain Fellows. She turned to the nearest attacking finch, twitching every time a new cut appeared. "Where's your leader? I wish to... talk..." she growled as if she couldn't believe her own words.

I peeped loudly, and the attacks immediately ceased, though finches waited within Furs' sight, glaring.

I jumped and hovered in front of the Captain. Eying her warily.

"If you can understand me... grrr... Come with me to my quarters. We... we have things to discuss, don't we?"

I nodded largely, making sure she saw, then jumped a little ways down the corridor, leading the way to her quarters.

"I'm losing my mind.... Talking to birds!" She threw her paws in the air dramatically and joined me.

We would finally have a talk. We must.

___Resolutions and Learning___

Captain Patricia Fellows sat rigidly on her bunk, and I perched on her desk. She slowly poked and prodded some cuts, glaring at me.

The ship was silent as we eyed each other. Two generals at truce, hopefully discussing terms.

Both of us stared silently, warily at each other. Well, it wasn't like I could start the talking! She was the one who spoke words we could both understand. I wasn't about to sing my song and connect with her that way either; she was not nearly ready. I sighed and gestured widely and slowly with my wing. Hopefully she would take the invitation and start.

"Me?" she asked.

I tapped a tiny claw-tipped foot. It was a gesture I'd learned from vids.

"Fine. Look... you can understand me, right?"

I nodded.

"Ugh." She sighed, "Look, whatever I did... I'm sorry okay? We're good now, right?"

I shook my beak. No, we needed things to be clear.

"Okay, blue-winged rat, what do you want?"

I sighed. At this rate, we would all starve in space first or get attacked by space pirates. I sang a few fragments of song, simply and with emotions inlaid. A home lost. Safety, lost. I ended with a feeling of uncertain futures.

"Fine. You want a place? You can stay until the next station, then I want you all gone."

I shook my head. That was a big "no". This was our home. More than it was hers.

"You can stay. Everyone apart. We don't bother you, you don't bother us."

I shook my head. That wasn't right either.

"No-no-no! Be clear. What do you want?"

I just looked at her. There was no way I would be able to tell her like this.

At my "silence", the Captain stood and faced a tiny window overlooking space. "Look I don't know about finches, alright? This is even my first time on any ship."

I was really confused. How could she be a Captain when she had never been on a jaunt? I shrugged, lost in questions.

"Look, I've been planet-bound my whole life. My family never let me anywhere past the station. All I want is to explore space myself, be my own... individual. Make my own way and not depend on anyone else. Do you understand that feeling?"

I nodded. Hmmm... she didn't know about finches. Now was a really awkward time for her to learn too. Oh, well. I did have an idea.

Chirping, I jumped to her persona computer tablet, laying on the desk. I tapped it with a foot.

"What?" she griped quietly, rubbing a paw across her spotted muzzle. "You want that? Keep it."

I shook my head and tapped at a button. The one I had in my study nook had been over-sensitized so that I could use it. This one was set much lower, so my tiny taps were overlooked.

She stepped over to the desk slowly, eying me. Bracing for a renewed attack, maybe. She sat at the desk and I hopped on my legs to one side. I didn't want to jump and startle her. I wanted to show that while we had no trust for each other, we could act civilly and unafraid under truce.

Whatever she thought and however she viewed this, she did not use the opportunity to swipe at me with her heavy paw.

She turned it on and cautiously followed my claw taps on her tablet. It was tortuously slow, but I directed her to an instructional video I'd found before.

She looked doubtfully at me, then leaned in closer to watch the tablet's screen. A video played for her.

"Hello, kids!" came the voice from an old stag.

Fellows gave me a spiteful glance.

I shrugged. It really was the best video for beginners.

The old stag continued, "Now throughout history, humans and Furs have been plagued by pests. They brought sickness and got into everything! When humans and some Fur dogs stepped onto the single habitable planet around Sirius, the dog star for the first time, did they see dogs?"

"Nooo!" yelled an audience of children.

"Right," the stag continued. "They saw birds. All sorts of birds. And not one dog! Anywhere. No mammals, just alien birds!"

"The dog Furs were upset. The dogs were under copyright. That means, children, that the dogs were called Sirius Dogs and no one else could use that name. To them, it was like a last name. Would you want someone to use your last name, just because?"

"Nooo!" yelled the children.

"Right! So, they renamed the little planet 'Deneb' after the bird star. And hopefully, they'll find dog aliens at the bird star instead!"

The children laughed.

When they quieted, the stag continued. "There were big birds and small birds. The explorers loved these tiny birds they called 'finches' the best. Course they're not finches like they had on Old Earth, but they were so similar. The tiny Deneb Finches were bold and they jumped through space-time when they were excited. It's like teleportation!"

"Woooow!"

"They sang such lovely songs, the human spacers and their companion Furs brought them to their ships! The little birds loved the ships and quickly got rid of all the pests! Great, right?"

"Yeah!" came a cheer.

"That's right! All the rats and mice and roaches that plagued humanity since the beginning of history - and Furs since their creation - were exterminated!"

"Not only that, they had benefits to ship-life too. They sang crew the to sleep, listened to people's troubles, and alerted the ship of dangers. Somehow, they could even help engineers with their FTL drives! That's pretty tricky stuff!"

"Woooow!" the children called on cue.

"Soon, children, something strange was discovered."

The young audience leaned forward. So did Captain Fellows. Somehow, this was all new to her.

"You see, humans and Furs still claim that they've found complex life, but no intelligent life. Not true. Deneb Finches are extremely intelligent. Maybe smarter than us! Hard to tell with those tiny brains!"

The kids giggled.

"On examination, their brains are incredibly dense. We still have difficulty measuring their brain capacity. But... it's hard for us to believe a creature is smart if it doesn't talk like us or has a little brain.

"Many humans and Furs still claim that finches are too small to be smart, too tiny to feel pain."

"Awwwwww!"

"So, if you meet one, always treat them like one of you, children. Introduce yourself. They may talk to you or even tell you their name. Some finches are better at communicating than others. Just like some of us are better speakers, right?"

"Yeeeaaahhhh!"

"Now, let's see if we can all make little paper finches to hang in your rooms. You-"

I gestured to the screen and Fellows stopped the vid. She stared at the frozen screen. Sudden chagrin dawning in her face.

"Is it true what he said in the vid? That you can do all that?"

I wanted to say 'that and more!', but better communication would have to wait. I tapped the screen again, and she followed me. We opened a vid file from Captain Ivanovich. Apparently, she'd dumped it into the tablet's trash, thinking it inconsequential.

"Hello, Captain!" An older human waved to the camera. "I'm Captain Charlemagne Ivanovich. I'm pleased to be passing on the Fleeting Minnow to new blood."

Fellows paused the vid. "Your last Captain was human?" she asked a little awed.

I nodded widely, obviously. Humans had become a rarity this far from Old Earth. They had stepped out, then mostly settled into nearby systems. Well, for now, anyway. They always reproduced like crazy, it just took them more time. Furs were a rarity near Old Earth now, I'd heard.

Fellows continued the vid.

"My Fur crew and I were growing old, and our children had taken other paths in life, so the Fleeting Minnow will pass out of the family with our retirement.

"Now, so much for the old stuff. Now here's the new stuff. The Fleeting Minnow is a spry jumper. She can cross from station to station in record time for a light cargo ship. 'Course it's not good for her to be taken so fast. She'll wear out faster. Still up to you, Captain!

"You have a top-notch flock aboard, you'll have no problems if you treat them right.

She did have the presence of mind to look embarrassed.

"Now introductions! This is their leader." He pointed to where I perched on his shoulder. "I can't say his name, and neither could you. I call him Glen, Glen Song. You can call him whatever you like, of course. His finch's song is a class above all the other finches I've met in my career. I'm guessing that's something special, and it means you won't have an invasion of strange finches making war on your locals every time you dock. Some ships get that, you know. It's completely distracting!"

Ivanovich chuckled on the screen. I really missed him in that moment.

"Now, for his flock, who've graciously agreed to appear for you. I call this guy here Mike."

Yellow Mike jumped up to the camera, eyed it and cocked his bright head.

"He's easy to recognize, all yellow. Next is his mate, Beck"

Beck's blue and green-streaked body jumped beside her mate. Their beaks met briefly in an intimate greeting, then they both jumped away.

"After that...."

A gray male finch and a green female finch jumped into view.

"Oh, this is Dave, the gray one... looks like he was too shy to appear alone, so this is his mate, Susan."

"Finally, this is Jimmy..." Ivanovich leaned in close to the camera, as if sharing a secret. "He's awfully young, so treat him carefully for a while." He leaned back again, "He's such a pretty red, though."

Jimmy jumped into view, sloppily then jumped again closer to the camera. He tilted his head curiously, and I could hear him chirp excitedly, "There's someone in there?! Helloooo?!"

"Well. I did invite them all down to the planet to retire with me," Ivanovich was speaking again, "but finches are much more comfortable in space, otherwise, I think they would be going with me."

He paused, thinking. He'd had no idea how tempted I'd been to go anyway.

"From what I can understand, being planet-side for them is like having wads of cotton stuffed in your ears and trying to peer through two layers of screen. Gravity warps space-time, you know. Life in space is so much better suited to them, that I hear there's hardly any left on that Deneb world."

Fellows looked curiously at the screen, tilting her head and flicking her whiskers. Well, at least she wasn't ignoring the whole thing.

"So you've met Glen. I call him Glen Song, and I think of his flock as the Song family. Their family structure is like that, you know."

"So. I know that a good Captain will take over for me and run the Fleeting Minnow well. Now that you've been introduced to the flock, just remember...."

Fellows leaned in close again, round ears perked.

"This is their home, even more than it is your home. The flock's success depends on your success. Glen knows this and will make sure your ship runs well. Farewell, new Captain of the Fleeting Minnow," he saluted the camera smartly. "I'm passing the helm to you."

In the vid, I jumped closer and gave my own greeting. I didn't block the view of Captain Ivanovich as he stood smiling as he held his salute.

Ah, I always forgot that I had a thin red streak running from the top of my beak to the tip of my tail, breaking my blue body in half. My chest was a vibrant yellow and my wingtips were green. The edges of my wings had been turning dusky from the strength of my song.... My chirps always sounded strange recorded.

The vid ended. I missed that old man....

Fellows leaned back for a moment, "Why didn't you go with him? You two sounded close."

I gestured widely at the ship with one green-tipped wing.

"Responsibilities?" she asked.

I nodded.

She leaned back in her chair, staring at the blank screen. I briefly jumped out into the corridor to let my flock know they could relax. Progress was being made.

They were relieved, and I could feel the whole ship relaxing as Furs and finches carefully approached each other again.

I waited on the desk as Fellows ordered her thoughts. A long time.