Echo-1 The Whale

49: rokoVokor

The Banga was lonelier and less eventful. Nidi moved all the pups into the temperate rainforest. The one with a large population of Lutung monkeys. They lived in a primitive fashion in a den at its center. 

Blunt was the only non-Mega Therion allowed to enter. Nidi asked that I not go there. She was teaching the young ones to defend their territory and felt it was good preparation for life on the new world. Blunt took the pack on hunting expeditions on the frozen sea. 

He convinced Dixon that the existence of a top predator was crucial to every ecosystem. She turned a blind eye to blue penguins being eaten, but she was a long way from letting them eat mammoths. Blunt suggested that when they went to the planet they would need to know how to stalk and kill a mammoth for food. Dixon wasn't happy about it but she got the big picture.

Nidi gave birth to a litter of five. Three much-needed males came as part of the group. Blunt and Dixon were there for the birth. It was several weeks later before they all came to visit the whales in the internal-external communication port. Jonas, Henry, Veronica, and even Vronsky showed up to see Nidi's puppies. They were white little fuzz balls, just like she was when X first brought her aboard. Except for one female that was brindle colored that Nidi named Cindy, much to the joy of the crew. 

We had lost some members, but Nidi was putting the family back together onboard. 

Charlie and Charisma brought gifts for our new crew members. They built a transport vehicle that could easily move twenty adult wolves. Its controls and seats were altered to accommodate their claws and body types. They also constructed a new model wolf space suit. It was based on the black metal armor suit the Vedma used but was made out of the white metal alloy of the Banga. Harrv showed up wearing one. He looked like the white knight of the space werewolves. 

"That's almost too sci-fi." Everyone looked at me. I was a man out of time making jokes X would have loved.

Blunt laughed anyway, I think he had read enough about Earth history that he may have actually got it. He was a good guy, that big Gila monster.

Harrv befriended Uzi, learned basic English in no time, and was given the rank of lieutenant. It turned out he was not only a serious soldier but also an ace pilot. He was working with Charlie and Uzi on designing a new Banga fighter, especially for Mega Therion pilots. He was Uzi's new best friend. They both had red eyes. 

Harrv was 10 years old. Just past the mid-life crisis for a Mega Therion. His mate had died two years ago in a space battle. His children were dead too. Probably, in the battles with the Banga, but that was only a guess. He didn't hold any resentment toward us about it; an amazing quality for such a ferocious looking animal. He did have a desire to return to Mega Therion and work to free his people from following the Vedma. He blamed them for everything. 

We were together for hours on end learning to construct space suits, ships, and other mechanical marvels in Charlie's workshop. Charlie was the teacher both of us had been looking for and we soaked up lessons. 

We helped take down the rust shielding from the central computer. We looked on as Charlie designed a miniature version of the entire unit and placed it as a mini five-deck structure inside the chest of the Diamond-robo-combat suit. 

In the event of a hostile takeover, he was now able to transfer control of the Banga to the indestructible suit. He built out living quarters in the stomach and thigh areas. It was designed to house an Ursa Minor skeleton crew and their families. The suit was completely motorized. Charlie planned a large-scale rocket pack attachment that could be used for short-distance space travel. 

We focused on the new Banga fighter. Bulked up the center with spacious front and rear seats. Added dual-stick manual control based on old World War II planes. I used the ship's computer to generate images of Earth fighter planes and Harrv loved them. He wanted to put in a gunner seat, like the ones on ancient bombers. We added a small seat with a gunner dome over it and removed the top wing. The gun turret swiveled 360 degrees and utilized a long-range turbo cannon with a huge ammo store.