Upon Wings Of Change

Chapter 48

A lot of spaceships were coming in today. We had already inspected eight of them, and they were cleared to land. There were at least five more to be checked. Normally, there are only two or three ships to check on an average day. Everyone and their dog must have arrived today.

I glanced at the captain who was talking with Tran as we walked through his cargo ship. I didn't know the name for his race, but he had thin brown fur and vaguely catlike facial features. Two other crew members accompanied us; one had dark brown fur and the other one had pale grey fur.

I wrinkled my nose. That grey one really needs better hygiene practices. At this point, I'm not even sure that a bath would help him. I shook my head to dismiss the smelly grey crew member. Tran and Vick walked nearby while four other Kymari followed behind us in case we came across something.

We passed through a room, and I raised my head to sniff the air more carefully. With a rumble, I stood up. All eyes looked at me as I scented the air. I growled and lashed my tail lightly at the faint scent. We kept walking, and the smell got stronger.

I murmured to Taureen, "Crawler."

It was only polite to let him know what we were tracking. We were walking through another corridor when I turned around on Taureen's shoulder to glide down to the floor in front of a closed door. I sniffed at the crack under the door and scratched at it.

"Tasha, to fist."

I left the door and returned to Taureen, who put me back on his shoulder. Tran opened the door; it was a corridor with cabinets on one side and a door on the far side. We walked down the corridor towards the door at the end.

Tran paused in front of the door as he said, "The sign says that the next room is half gravity."

He glanced back at us, knowing that I wasn't allowed in such a room.

Taureen replied, "I will wait here."

I always wondered what it would be like to fly with low gravity, but it was highly doubtful that I would ever get that chance, even if I asked Taureen. There were just too many rules and precautions when it came to my safety, especially when we left the city to inspect cargo ships.

The captain commented, "It's a large cargo bay; there are no other exits from it, unless you count the exterior bay door itself."

The two feline crew members lead the way into the next room as Tran, Vick, and the four Kymari guards followed them. The captain remained with us in the corridor.

The new air from the next room met my nose; I took a deeper breath and blinked as I shifted my weight slightly. That doesn't make any sense. If the crawler was in the other room, the smell would have been stronger, but it's actually fainter.

"The air from that room had a weaker scent than what is in here," I informed Taureen. "The scent is still extremely weak, though. It might be coming from an air vent or something."

I spread my wings and glided back along the way we came in, taking care to fly front of various air vents. It did seem stronger in one part of the room. I circled back and landed on the floor, sniffing at the bottom of one of the cabinet doors.

Taureen's heavy footsteps walked up behind me, and he opened the cabinet door. I hissed as I stepped back in confusion. The cabinet held a cylinder-shaped tank full of yellowish fluid with a crawler inside. Despite being completely submerged, the crawler didn't seem to care as it wiggled around while suspended in the liquid.

I squeaked in surprise as Taureen swiftly grabbed me, spinning to the side as fuzzy yellow energy blast hit the ground where I had been standing. My heartbeat picked up at the close call and I quickly spun my head around as I searched for the source. The captain had an energy weapon pointed at us, not hesitating as he fired several blasts in quick succession.