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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1856842" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 48: One Thing at a Time“You could have explained how these things work!” Akan growled as Loki attempted to pull up. Yet again, he was doing the ‘press buttons that are probably weapons and hope’ routine. Except this time, it worked even less than before. They weren’t even firing this time, and Shadow said it was something to do with how the power was being routed to keep them alive. Keeping them alive apparently meant wild maneuvering and Akan wishing he could pilot because he was much better at this than Shadow was. Shadow was getting ready to yell something at him, but a loud explosion that rocked their ship could be heard. But it wasn’t Loki. As Loki pulled through a tight roll, Akan caught sight of the Lambda-shuttle spinning in a fiery mess before slamming hard into the sand below.    Sand was thrown up so it was impossible to tell the damage that was caused by the impact. However, Akan could still feel...something. So at least something was alive. Though, it could just as well be a native creature in the general area that had managed a lucky escape. But there wasn’t time to pay attention to that. Now, all of the turbolasers took aim on Loki, and hits on them were easily distinguished by painful sounds from Loki and the shaking of the ship itself.    “Hang on, Loki!” Shadow said through clenched teeth, trying to bring them down low over the rocks at the edge of the sand. It managed to keep three of the turbolasers blocked by higher rocks, but another two still had good sights on them. This was made apparent by a hard hit to Loki’s aft region, getting another mental yelp from the ship which was suddenly muffled and cut off when two more shots hit. The lack of restraints had surprised Akan, and now he was holding on to the edge of the chair tightly, claws digging in a little. Amazingly, when Loki’s nose caught a rock and they tumbled into a violent roll through a cloud of sand, the claws in the seat actually helped keep him in place.    Loki made no noises at all, and Akan assumed that the ship was unconscious. It didn’t cross his mind that it may not be possible FOR a ship to be unconscious. The continued jolts from what were likely rocks went on for another three minutes when they finally hit something large and hard in front of them. With that last jolt, they stopped. It was then that Akan’s equilibrium caught up with him, and he realized Loki was firmly dug in on his side. There was a long, strange silence before a yelp from Shadow and a ripping noise from both seats. The first noise was Shadow’s claws losing their grip, and the second was Akan’s losing their’s as Shadow fell onto him, sending him out of his seat and pinned against the consoles that were at one point, on the wall. Akan managed a whimper from hitting his head, but after having the finer points of morphing ground into him by Shadow(especially since she hated him getting hurt and letting it linger because she had to feel it linger), he remorphed the cuts and simply whimpered at the crushing mass of Shadow that was pinning him to consoles that were not designed for comfort.    Shadow made a grumbling noise, and got up. Of course, she got up by pushing down on Akan, getting a curse and a kick(which missed) out of him. She did her best to step on the less sensitive consoles, finding a section of the wall outside the cockpit that felt safe to stand on. [Loki...?]    Nothing responded.    When Akan got up, he noticed the lights and such were all out. He followed her to the hallway and said, “I think he’s out...”    Shadow just nodded, starting towards the hatch, which she knew was going to be buried from how they’d landed. Akan followed her quietly, then said, “I think we hit in the rocks instead of the desert.”    Shadow nodded again as she knelt next to the hatch that was now at her feet, “The last hit sent Loki spinning towards a canyon. I think we found the end of it.”    The hatch irised open to sand. Lots of sand. Shadow and Akan sighed at the same time. She looked to him, but said nothing. He knew she was going to do...and what he’d have to do. Shadow changed noticeably, her shape becoming hard to distinguish as she shrunk down to the same feline form she had used many times. She’d called it an Alarix. Distant cousins to Alraxians. Akan was starting to get tired of all the naming conventions being so similar, but that wasn’t nearly as annoying as the blue motif which, surprisingly, had not shown up in at least a month.    The large cat like creature padded to him, pawed at his leg, then turned back and started digging through the sand. Apparently, Alarix were very good at digging. As Shadow soon demonstrated. Though after a good sized tunnel was made, she padded back over to him, growled, and pawed more roughly. She wanted help.    [Damn right, I want help.] Shadow’s voice grumbled before going back to the digging. Akan sighed, and gave up on his procrastinating. He had no problem with basic remorphing of injuries and such, but something still bothered him about not being...well...him. Even though, of course, he hadn’t been himself as he was born for a while now. Sure, Shadow had taught him how to do it, and he was good at it, but he didn’t like it. Was it really surprising to want to stay in one body? To Shadow, apparently it was.    So, he was soon right next to her, a second feline with the metallic blue stripe assisting in the digging and trying to ignore the strange smells and such that the more sensitive nose was picking up. Thankfully, Shadow had nearly finished on her own, so it took only another few minutes to get to the surface. Akan was immediately morphing back to himself as he climbed out of the hole and dusted himself off. She was right. There were in a large canyon, rocks all around a random cliffs everywhere. After being growled out for attempting to help Shadow out, he stood back and looked to Loki. The ship looked as bad as the general area. Long scratches, almost painful to look at, twisted across Loki’s hull. Across the ground itself, many small pebbles and rocks were scattered. That finished the explanation of how many rocks they’d hit.    Shadow made a whimpering noise as she inspected Loki. Akan, however, was looking down the path they’d plowed through while trying to ignore the large black scorch marks near Loki’s aft. Off on the horizon, he could see a large amount of sand still in the air. It was impossible to tell if that was from the shuttle or Loki’s crash. He sighed and turned back to Shadow. One thing at a time.    “Will he be alright?” asked Akan, knowing Shadow knew to which ‘he’ was referred to.    Stepping back, Shadow gave Akan a strange look. Worry, “I don’t know...”    Akan just nodded slowly, “I’ll help where I can if you explain things.”    She picked up on his other thoughts easily, “Jen, Voort, and that Landau...”    “Will have to worry about themselves for now,” finished Akan as he looked over Loki one last time. It was a choice between friends, and he had chosen Loki. Not because Loki was worth any more than the three humans, but because Voort would likely be able to take care of the rest of them. This all depended on the fact that they were alive, but Akan did his best to completely ignore that variable for the time being.</blockquote>

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