I turned my head to stare out of the cockpit at the village where I had seen the young lady with cat ears sitting on the top of her head and a long tail coming out of her rear. A passage from a book I read ages ago popped into my head as I stared at this woman. 'Can you lift one leg and curl your hands like paws, and say 'meow' please?' I accidentally snorted as I began to laugh, causing me to cover my mouth and nose in embarrassment. I was still looking out the canopy and noticed the young cat woman walking out of the forest I had landed in and was looking at the skiff curiously. I kept an eye on her, but I had turned my attention back to the screen in front of me as I ran it through some tests and scans, checking the air for breathability for humans. I had been taught this in boot camp. It was a standard practice for a pilot to do this before stepping out of the ship or allowing the foreign air into their ship in case there were dangerous pathogens in the air.

The air came back clean, and the air was made up of a mixture of gases, primarily nitrogen at 78% and oxygen at 21%. There were also smaller amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, and a few other trace gases that all added up to a perfect match for earth's atmosphere. The cat lady had covered half the distance to the skiff by the time I had finished and was trying to peer into the cockpit from where she was. She looked nervous but curious, and now that she was closer, I could see she had brown hair. There were also two feline ears sitting on top of her head. I nearly let out a squeal of delight thinking how adorable the ears looked. Then I saw her ears were actually moving as she listened intently for any new sound. I quickly checked my radio and informed Clara that I was planet side and was about to make contact with the locals.

I then turned and popped the canopy, slowly opening it. As I did this, the cat lady froze stiff, her eyes locked on my skiff. I noticed her ears were twitching, and her nose was sniffing the air. My eyes drifted down to see she was wearing leathers that looked like a sort of armour, but under it the dress she wore looked well-made and of good quality. I breathed in deeply, smelling the freshest, cleanest air I had ever smelled in my life.

"oh, god, I need to bottle this scent and have it installed into the orbital station's air filtration system or something!" I moaned as I sat there just breathing in the air that slowly made me realise how stale the air I had been breathing was, and I felt my nose starting to clear up, making breathing even easier. I could smell the trees, the field of flowers I had landed on. It was all so delightful. I had a strong urge to just sit there and breathe for a while.

"Hey, whatever you are, stop breathing so deeply or the slumber roses will drag you down to the ground and make you want to lay among them before they slowly eat you." A distant voice said. My head slowly turning to look at the cat lady near my skiff made me smile slowly.

"yea, I could lay down, that actually sounds like a great idea" I was starting to feel a little tired.

"Okay, why don't you come down here, and we can go into town and get you a nice bed to sleep in?"

I went to stand up only to feel too lethargic to do so and was slowly leaning back against my seat and starting to consider rolling out of the ship when the canopy suddenly shot forwards and snapped shut. The next second I couldn't breathe as all the air was sucked out. I could see the edges of my vision starting to turn black when the air suddenly returned, causing me to gasp and cough as I tried to catch my breath again. It was moments later that I realised the computer had been blaring an alarm as the screen flashed red with a danger alert. I turned my head and noticed the cat woman looked pissed off before she quickly changed her face to look more concerned.

"That little…" I gritted my teeth before turning back to the computer and saw it had identified a foreign pathogen that was causing my autoimmune system to mistakenly attack the brain cells that produce hypocretin at an excerpted rate, resulting in narcolepsy. My eyes drifted closed for a second only to snap back open, when they did the cat woman was closer to the skiff calling out to me.

"shit, she somehow gave me narcolepsy!" This is not a safe planet." I hissed as I started pushing a few buttons, setting the autopilot to get me into orbit before I fell asleep. Once the skiffs engines were back online, I quickly radioed Clara.

"Skiff 1 to Lost Hawk, warning, warning, danger level orange! Narcolepsy inducing pathogen detected, quarantine planet by galactic federation law. Authorisation, Former Captain Kenna Mackenzie. Consider the local populace to be low level hostile" I declared. I felt the skiff rising off the ground, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I could hear Clara talking, but I had no idea what she was saying, and I quickly lost consciousness.

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*******

I jolted awake sitting up in a bed, with a glance around the room, I realised I was sitting in the medical bay of a ship. I was tipped off to this fact by 1. I could see three other white foam beds lined up with my own. And 2. I heard a voice declaring it.

"treatment complete, hypocretin levels have been restored, damage has been repaired, have a nice day!" A metallic, robotic voice said from speakers around the room. I then noticed the bed had been slowly rotating so that if I suddenly stepped off it, I would be standing. However, when I did, I stumbled instead, my legs feeling a little weak. A moment later, the door opened and Devon stepped into the room.

"Should I say thank you for not allowing me to be part of that horrible, almost fatal experience? Or should I rip your head off and shove it up your ass for being so foolish to make first contact without a protection detail? I honestly can't decide." He said as he glared at me.

I winced, but a smile slowly crept onto my face as I decided to go with option 1. "oh, Devon, you are welcome, I'm so glad I could spare you from that horrible experience, you would have hated it. I know I did."

"Barely conscious and you already have jokes, well I suggest you get changed out of that hospital gown. You seem to be in a good mood, all chipper and what not, so I guess it is time we all started looking on the bright side. Since we are looking on the bright side, I should tell you that some boys and I have gotten together with Clara, and we have decided that you are never leaving the frigate again. Isn't that wonderful?" He smiled at me before turning and walking out the room. I watched the door close before my brain fully registered what he had said.

"what the fuck do you mean never leave the frigate again!" I screamed at him.

I stumbled forwards as I groped for the door, but my legs still felt weak, and I found myself kneeling on the ground. I breathed out heavily and turned my attention to my HUD, where I found a message waiting for me from Clara.

Kenna, don't try to walk too much, but knowing you, you are probably kneeling on the ground right now wondering what is going on. Well, the short answer is cataplexy is a known side effect of narcolepsy. The medical pod has fixed your hypocretin imbalance, and restored the lost muscle in your legs, but you are most likely still experiencing the muscle weakness that your other muscles had to endure. The medical AI informs me you should be back up and walking after a few minutes of practice, so stand up and give it another go.

From Clara.

I let out a groan of frustration, but slowly got back to my feet. I wobbled a little bit, but after managing to take a dozen steps I could feel my legs getting stronger and was soon walking around like nothing had happened. I found a suit laying over a chair near the door that had a sticky note on it. I did pause to wonder where the hell they found a sticky note until I remembered there was a fabricator onboard, and they probably just printed it off. The note said it was an evac suit for the ship's captain, so hurry up and put it on, which I quickly did. It ended at the neck, wrists, and ankles. I assumed the boots next to the chair completed it and slipped them on too. Moments later I was stepping out of the medical bay to find Devon leaning against the wall smiling at me.

"You fell, didn't you?"

"Ah screw off." I said in irritation as I turned to walk away.

Devon just smiled and walked along with me, as he informed me that Clara and the security team were waiting for me upstairs in the officer's briefing room. I let out a groan and headed up instead of back to my seat under the weapons control room. When I entered the briefing room, I saw two seats still empty, one at the head of the table and the other to the left of that seat. I moved around the room and sat down at the head of the table. Devon quickly took the seat to my left, and I looked up to see Clara sitting at the tail end of the table. Five men sat around the table, including Devon.

"Kenna, these gentlemen are the squad leaders of your security squads."

I nodded to them politely before turning my attention back to Clara, wondering why she had us all meet her here.

"We have not been in contact with the planet below since you came back aboard, however after I thoroughly went over the skiff with the dry dock in hazard containment protocols, Devon took the now clean and safe Skiff to the remaining celestial objects closer to the sun and claimed them in your name. This star system is now completely yours, apart from the planet below."

"I did consider skimming the ground or water somewhere out of the way from any local populace and seeing if I could claim the planet too, but Clara chewed my ear off and went on and on about galactic laws and how much trouble that would get us all in now the planet is quarantined." Devon added.

"Yes, I have also sent a report back to the Blossoming Terranova Orbital Station and recommended that a different star system be found for the English Clan, one that is less dangerous. They did not like that and pushed for a galactic trade hub search for a way to counteract this pathogen that you encountered. They found something, the licence, and bio blueprint was purchased, and the medical pod has used it on Devon, so he will get to go down and be the test subject once you lift the quarantine on the planet."

"I am not happy about it."

"Yes, Devon, we know." One of the security squad leaders said as he rolled his eyes.

"Yes, well, Devon will be taking a barrel of that alcohol we found behind the hidden door in your captain's room as a peace offering, and hopefully we can get on speaking terms with their leaders."

"she isn't telling you that they purchased a long list of other immunisation treatments that they have stuffed into my body."

"Devon, you volunteered, stop whining. Now we would have enacted this plan already, but we need your approval for legal reasons, and we need you to lift the quarantine on the planet." Clara finished as they all turned to look at me.

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