Putting that matter aside in her mind, she looked at her computer terminal and thought about her first day aboard the FireFoxx.

It started with the crew meeting aboard the Lion's Den with the announcement that entire Lion's Den crew was being "transferred" as command officers to the FireFoxx. That was followed by that 87.5 mile long ship, the Nightshade, appearing from "nowhere" and "swallowing" the Lion's Den like a dirt molecule. The transfer of command only took a half hour or so, but it seemed a lifetime in those uniforms. After that she was taken on tour of the bridge and surrounding areas that would be under her command.

It was when she was shown to her office that she got a reminder of how quiet and the type of leader that LionkingCMSL was. A crewfur was just putting the finishing touches on the sign on the wall next to the door to her office. It read "Cmdr. A. Powell" and below it "WeaDefSec" in gold lettering. She stood there with her finger tips touching the wall just below the lettering with a blank look on her face.

"Problem?" a voice queried.

With a small jump she turned to see LK standing there. He wasn't there a moment ago. It was this that reminded her how quiet the "Big Guy" was when he walked, even though he weighed in around 450 lbs. He very rarely made a sound, except for the occasional, soft, "swish, swish" of his robe. She regained her composure and said, "No sir. No problem, just thinking."

"Well, let's take a look then," LK said as he opened the door.

Altaica walked into her new office and her jaw hit the floor. "It's about half the size of the bridge on the LD!"

LK gave a laugh and said, "Well if it's any comfort, my office is the size of the LD's bridge. I'm going to get lost in there."

She then walked around the desk and tentatively lowered her 7' 6" Siberian tigress frame into the chair. It held her 375 lb. body without a squeak.

She must've shown surprise as LK said, "Adm. Fox had all the chairs replaced for those officers that are heavier than the average 'Foxx crewfur."

"Oh," she said somewhat distractedly.

"What's wrong Altaica? I know that look."

"Sir. LK. I don't know if I can do this. I mean I have 14,000 marines under my command. That alone is 1,000 times more than everyfur I commanded on the Lion's Den. If you add in all the other weapons and defense furs, my command is closer to 33,000 furs. I'm also responsible for the safey of this ship. All 6 plus miles of it."

LK sat on the corner of the desk, put his left hand on her left shoulder and said, gently, "Altaica, you can do it. I know you can. If I had any doubts of your abilities, you wouldn't be sitting in that chair. You have to remind yourself that while you have 33,000 furs under you, I have the full ship's complement to worry about. 65,000 furs.
"You also do not have to command each fur individually like you did on the LD. You have your Lt. Commanders and whole new chain of command. They will only pass on to you what is imprortant and pass your orders to all involved.
"You only have to answer to me and you know how I will react. I have to remember that I don't own this ship and I have to answer to, not only Adm. Fox, but the whole Vulpinian Navy brass. And I don't know how they will react to any given situation. Of course if you have any problems, you know that you can talk to me."

"Thank you LK. I guess I better get to work then."

"Yes, you better. I heard that the new captain is a strict task master," LK said with a laugh.

Altaica also laughed and remembered why she stayed with LK. He was always there, looking out for his "pride", his crew. He also had a kind word when it was needed.

Altaica and LK left her office together, but went their seperate ways. Her "Paw Padd" was taking her down to the billets for the marines. She was going to make an informal, get to know the troops type of visit. A formal inspection could wait.

While she was in one of the excerise areas, her sensitive ears picked up a lone, low voice saying, "Why did they put a female in a male's job?" She turned and walked to the owner of the voice, who at this time was being dressed down by the Master Sergeant.

"It doesn't matter who or what our commander is! You will not question that fact! You are on report and just be glad Admiral Fox wasn't here to hear that remark."

Altaica added her, cold, rock hard, "One thing you must remember, tigers have very sensitive ears as does a certain lion. I would suggest that you mind your muzzle when you have a comment."

The fox who made the comment almost melted and looked like he wanted to dig a hole in the deck plates. It was one thing to be dressed down by your master sergeant who was over a foot taller than you, but he was a male fox. To be dressed down by a tigress, who was bigger than the master sergeant, was almost too much to bear. Add to that fact that her canines were featured very prominently when she spoke only heightened his fear.

The master sergeant turned and saluted Altaica and said, "I'm sorry sir. Seems like some of my furs have forgotten their manners."

She returned the salute and said, "No problem sergeant. As far as I'm concerned, this incident never happened. Any discipline is up to you."

"Aye, sir."

As this conversation was going on, Altaica was sizing up the master sergeant. He was the biggest fox she had ever seen. He was about 7' 4" tall, had snow white fur, except for his ear tips, blue eyes and weighed close to 350 lbs. There seemed to be no fat on him at all. He was built like a bear, and seemed that he could give LK a hard time in a paw to paw fight. "What's your name sergeant?"

"Master Sergeant Burt 'Bear' Gonzalez, sir."

"Very good. Carry on."

"Aye, sir." And with a departing salute, he turned to face one fox, who was in big trouble.

Altaica completed her tour without any other problems. It seems that the news of her encounter with that one fox and his subsequent punisment, something about scrubbing his billet with a toothbrush, had preceded her arrival to the other areas.

After her informal tour, the next 6 hours were taken up with meetings with her officers and commanders of the departments she headed. By the time she was done, she had met with about 200 furs and had taken about thirty pages of single spaced notes. She was going to have to get herself a yeoman to help her with her note taking. Her job didn't multiply by a thousand or so. It grew by multiples of that. One good thing was that some of the 'Foxx's non-coms had come to her attention. High on her list was Master Sergeant Gonzalez. He seemed to be well liked, had good head on his shoulders, and had a handle on just about everything that went on in the marines. Altaica had made a notation to make him one of her advisors. She also learned that "Fire", the ship's AI, would handle most of the routine work load and took care of most of the targeting and fire control for the ship. All the "Fire Control Officer" had to do was pick out target, specify what kind of weapon, and punch a button. "Fire" took care of everything else.

So here she sat reviewing her notes for the day. Her head was whirl of all the new information she had gathered. Despite what LK had said, she was still harboring doubts about her ability to handle this job. Well, tomorrow would bring new meetings and the start of simulations. She was tense, so she got up and started to do some freelance martial arts moves to relax. It was fortunate that her cabin was almost as large as her office, so she didn't have to worry about hitting anything. She was in the middle of her first move when the door chime sounded.

"Come in. It's open," she said as she finished her move.

LK opened the door, walked in and said, "I'm not bothering you, am I?"

Altaica came to semi-attention and said, "Oh, no sir."

"Relax. This isn't a formal visit. I'm just checking up on everybody to see how they're doing. I know you had a busy first day."

Altaica relaxed and sat behind her desk again. "Yes, it was hectic. I haven't been so busy since I got out of the academy. LK, can I ask a question?"

LK smiled and said, "You just did. Ask away."

"Is there any chance we could go back to our old uniforms? While the Vulpinian Navy unforms are stylish and fuctional, the tight collar is uncomfortable. I know of a few of the other Lion Den's crew that feel the same way."

LK shook his massive head and said, "I wish I could, but I can't. We have to show that we are part of the same team. I had to convince Jason to allow the LD's patch on their, our, uniforms. From what I heard, he had a dickens of a time convincing his superiors to allow it. Just so you know, others have already asked the same question. I had a hell of a time with Lee. He wanted to go back to his jumpsuit."

Altaica smiled as she imagined that argument. For although LK was close to three feet taller than Lee and outweighed him by at least 275 pounds, that wouldn't stop Lee from giving LK a hard time. She had seen it on the LD a couple of times, a muskrat taking on a lion.

She thought of something and her smile faded a bit. "One other question. How can you get away with wearing your robe?" She knew that she could ask that question of LK without risk of being considered insubordinate. That was one of the things about working in such a small group on the Lion's Den, you could ask questions that might get you thrown in the brig on a larger ship.

"You know of my aversion to clothing of any type and my ability, which is not to be made general knowledge on this ship. That was another thing that I had to fight for." LK then smiled and continued with, "Also consider it 'Captain's privilege'. "

"Ok. Ok," Atlaica said with her hands up in mock surrender. "I guess I'll just have to wear this thing when I'm excersing and off duty."

LK tilted his head to one side, thought and said, "You know, when we are on board the LD for any reason, I can't see why the crew can't go back to their 'old' uniforms. By the way, don't think I never noticed how you look in your gi. It suits you. In fact if it wasn't for the fact you weren't already mated, I might be tempted."

A look of surprise came over Atlaica's muzzle. She never knew that LK even had thoughts along those lines. He hid them well. LK smiled and said, "I see I caught you flat pawed with my feelings. Don't worry, you're safe, as is your mate. Get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be busier than today, if you can believe it. Good night." LK then let himself out of the stunned tigress' cabin.

She truely didn't know about LK's feelings. She shook herself out of her shock and said, "LK is sure full of surprises." She turned back to her computer. "Well, time to do a couple more things, before I call it a night. Computer."

"Yes?"

"Have the communication protocalls from the Lion's Den been transferred?"

"Aye, sir."

"How many of the old Lion's Den crew used commo time to send messages?"

"There have been fifty messages from the new officers. All using Lion's Den protocalls as the Captain had ordered. No security lapses detected"

Altaica was somewhat taken aback. This computer had anticipated her next questions. "Very good. You can increase that to 51. Start a message for me to be sent using Lion's Den protocalls and encryption series E."

"Aye sir. Start when ready."

Altaica faced the screen and squared her shoulders. "From Commander Powell, Altaica. To Lt. Commander Powell, Albert; Communications section OutPost 1. No response required."

She gave a tiger's greeting "chuff" and continued, "Al, dearest, I hope this finds you well. I can't explain right now, but I will be out of touch for a couple of weeks. As you, and rest of the OutPost probably surmised, it has to do with the Vulpinians. When I'm able to talk to you more freely, I will explain everything. You will start noting increases in the deposits to our account. As always, my love to my favorite tiger in all creation. Love, Al." She finished with another chuff. "Okay, you can send that now."

"Aye. Sent. Anything else?"

As she took off her gi, she continued with, "Wake me at 0500, ship's time. Have a copy of my schedule, for tomorrow, downloaded to my Paw Padd. Lights off."

"Affirmative. Wake time 0500 hours, ship time. Download complete. Lights off."