SINE of DESTINY (Ratchet & Clank AU SI)

Tangent · Monday at 10:15 PM

tangent_sine___fastoon_armor_1_by_tangent_rambles_dmd323a-fullview.jpg

With prereading and editing assistance by Tatsurou

There was a flash of light and a crack of thunder, both blinding and deafening in intensity, and so close together that it was impossible to tell which happened before the other.

Alister Azimuth rolled into where he remembered the nearest cover would be, then shook his head and rubbed his ears as he tried to recover his sight and hearing as quickly as he could. That lightning strike had come out of a clear blue sky, and had struck down far too close to him for it to have been any sort of coincidence.

As his vision and hearing cleared, Azimuth swore he could still hear the faint crackle of electricity, accompanied by pained whimpers from a way too young voice. Taking a risk and poking his head out from behind the rocks, bushes, and partial wall he had ducked behind, he looked towards where the sounds were coming from and almost gasped in horror.

There on the ground, right where the lightning had struck, lay a young, orangish-red Lombax kit, barely older than a toddler, with electricity still arcing across her body and a carbonized outline with negative space matching her silhouette underneath her.

This wasn't an attack, this was an emergency teleport gone very very wrong! There must have been a receiver located here at some point in the past. One that this child's parents or guardian knew the address of and still expected to be here, even if that had proved not to be the case after all.

Azimuth quickly rushed forward and gathered the child as quickly and carefully as he could before retreating behind cover again and arming himself. Everything about the situation screamed emergency to him. For one thing, an adult should have come through first to ensure that the receiving area was safe. The fact that the child had come through, naked and alone, spoke of very bad things happening at the origin point. And the more time that passed without an adult, or indeed any, Lombax following the child through the teleport spoke of even worse possibilities.

After an hour, Azimuth carried the child further back and took shelter in what turned out to be what was left of an old foundation. Solid enough to provide better cover without restricting any avenues of escape. The child, for her part, stayed mostly quiet, barring the occasional spark of discharging electricity followed by a pained whimper. Something would have to be done about that soon…

Azimuth kept vigil over the area where the child had appeared for several more hours before giving up on any other Lombax (or anyone else) showing up, friendly, hostile, or otherwise. The girl showed signs of recovering from what he assumed to be severe teleportation strain, brought on by both extreme distance and lack of a proper receiver at this end. Fortunately, the ruins they were holed up in were what remained of an old Lombax settlement that had been abandoned hastily just prior to being attacked. No bodies, thankfully enough, but not much left to search through on the surface.

Several of the crumbling foundations did turn out to have concealed entrances to underground bunkers, workshops, or just plain old storage cellars, and it was among these hidden rooms that he found clothing, tools, and other supplies to help him take care of the girl. Azimuth even thought he had a solid clue to who the girl's father had been. Or at least an uncle or older brother.

Vector Sine had once had a laboratory/workshop/garage relatively close to where the child had appeared, and there were definite signs that there had once been a fully intact teleport receiving pad present before the attack had destroyed it. Not much was left in the way of readable notes, unfortunately, just some barely legible scribbles, a photo ID badge for the Center of Advanced Lombax Research that looked enough like the girl to be a relative, and fifteen cases of those damnable Tasty Lombax Snax!

Really, if Azimuth ever met whoever this Frumpus Croid was who had somehow mislabeled Lombaxes as a highly advanced species of domesticated pets, he was likely to do something violent.

And, of course, Tachyon continued to allow Tasty Lombax Snax to be made even though there were supposedly no Lombaxes around anymore to feed them to. Damn brat probably thought it was funny.

Not being an idiot, Azimuth made sure that every package in all fifteen cases was thoroughly scanned for contaminants, degradation, or poison. Then he added them all to the sledge that he would be dragging back to his ship. Rations were rations after all, and Tasty Lombax Snax would keep damn near forever as long as the packaging remained sealed.

And the girl seemed to love them, which was another sign that she was probably related to Vector. He couldn't stand the things himself, but they did supposedly have everything a Lombax needed to stay healthy…

Assuming, of course, that she didn't eat herself sick by shoving an entire bag's contents into her mouth all at once!

"Stop that! You'll choke if you eat like that! And not so much! We have to make those last until I can find someone trustworthy to get supplies from!"

The girl, with great reluctance, stopped stuffing her face and carefully closed the bag, pressing it to drive as much air out as she could before rolling the open end shut.

"That's right, little one, save the rest for later. Here, I'll tie some string around it to keep it shut for you so that you don't have to hold it constantly…"

"T'nk 'oo," the words obviously came with difficulty, and the girl still showed signs of disorientation and discomfort, but at least the random sparking had stopped.

"Ah, she speaks!" Azimuth declared in false cheer, hoping to raise the child's spirits after her traumatic experience. The slight, brief giggle he heard turned his fake smile more genuine. "Anyway, I'm General Alister Azimuth, Four-Bolt Magistrate of the Lombax Praetorian Guard. You'll be safe with me until I can get you back to your family. Now, do you have a name, little one?"

There was a pause, and then the girl mumbled quietly. "Tang'nt…"

A math pun.

That solidified it in Azimuth's mind. Tangent had to be either the daughter, niece, or other close relative of Vector Sine. He'd make a point of searching the ruins carefully for any sign of the Sine residence so he could gather as much of her heritage as they could reasonably haul back to his ship. An exile and a failure he might be, but he was the only one around who could care for the girl… for Tangent…

The thought was daunting, but he would not turn away from his newly self-appointed task.

Alister would not fail again!

The two spend another week or so in and around the ruins, making numerous trips back to Alister's ship to drop off supplies as well as things for Tangent. Not a lot, just some clothes, learning aids, a few games and toys, and a starter tool set. The last of which she got into more than the toys, but that wasn't unexpected for a young Lombax.

They had also, much to Alister's disgust and Tangent's apparent delight, hauled back every single case, box, or package of Tasty Lombax Snax they could find, just so long as it was unopened and thoroughly scanned for health hazards. Sadly, every single bag registered as clean to Alister's scanner, and he was too much of a pragmatist to lie about it just so that he wouldn't have to pack the obnoxious things into his ship.

On the other hand, they had found some Omnitools of various types and designs that had been left behind by the previous residents, and Tangent seemed to have taken particular interest in a long handled Omniwrench that was practically a glaive. It was far too early in her physical development to do any serious conditioning, but light play fighting should be harmless enough for now. It also gave her a way to help out against the occasional horny toad or other small but aggressive animals that he would otherwise clear out himself, but were minor enough nuisances for her to safely deal with given her new advantage in reach and leverage.

"Take 'at! An' 'at! An' 'at! An' 'at!" The underaged Lombax swung wildly at each horny toad around her with reckless abandon, barely hitting any of them at all.

"If you keep flailing around like that, you're going to lose control of your… and there it goes." Azimuth stood up as Tangent's Omniwrench left her hands and went sailing into a fortunately shallow ravine.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" the little red Lombax ran screaming from the horny toads now chasing her. Not that they'd have a hope of actually catching up to her as fast as she was going.

"As amusing as this is, I can't let you lot actually hurt my charge," Azimuth commented as he spun his double ended Omniwrench around and swiftly launched each toad a fair distance away in mostly random directions. There wasn't any real need to kill them, as a single hit was usually enough to dissuade small creatures like this from sticking around.

"Iz't safe?"

"Yes, I dealt with all of… How did you get up there!?"

"I'unno…" Tangent called down from the top of a tall spire of stone.

"Can you get down on your own?"

Tangent looked carefully around herself, shuddered, and gripped the top of the spire tighter. "No…"

"Hold on, I'll see what I can do to help you down…"

Tangent · Tuesday at 4:05 AM

SINE of DESTINY
A Ratchet & Clank fanfic by Tangent
With prereading and editing assistance by Tatsurou

Chapter One

Azimuth knew that he was staying on Lumos much longer than he had originally planned prior to Tangent appearing in his life. Not that he was too worried about being discovered by Tachyon's forces as the newly self-proclaimed "emperor" of Polaris was still in the process of consolidating his hold on the galaxy now that the Lombaxes were apparently extinct. A former Lombax colony world that had already been abandoned by the time the Drophyds had rolled through and leveled everything left behind just wasn't high on the Cragmite's priority list.

Whereas Azimuth's motives for being on Lumos had suddenly shifted from half-hearted nostalgia while rooting through the ruins of the world where he and Kaden had gotten into so many teenage misadventures on, to an intense and thus far mostly unfruitful attempt to discover as much as he could about the Sine family. In part to try to discover any clues about where any of them may have gone off to had they chosen not to go to Fastoon to be sent to the other dimension, but also so that he could tell Tangent about her heritage once she was old enough to actually care about such things.

At the moment, the little red Lombax's interests seemed to mostly revolve around chasing bugs, running from bugs, turning over rocks only to find even more bugs, and climbing onto or into everything she could. And, of course, taking things apart that were best left alone so that she could see how they work. And then not being able to put them back together again in a functional manner afterwards because she didn't have the skills to actually do so yet.

Azimuth had also half hoped that Kaden would come back to their childhood home himself at some point, but the last he had seen of his friend was right after the exodus at the Court of Azimuth, when the last group of refugees had gone through the portal. Vashiir had not shown up, so Kaden had left to look for his wife and newborn son, taking the Dimensionator with him and refusing to allow Azimuth to accompany him as his honor guard.

Azimuth still second guessed himself as to whether or not he should have followed his friend anyway, despite their falling out. Maybe if he had done so, Vashiir would still be alive instead of being buried in a shallow grave marked only with her picture. He could only hope that Kaden and his son were still alive out there, somewhere…

"Fud!" Azimuth recoiled from the steaming plate of… something… that Tangent had shoved before his face. The little scamp looked inordinately proud of her efforts to produce… whatever it was, and her own mouth and chin bore evidence that she at least considered it to be edible.

It looked to have zugunut butter, tongo berry jam, mayonnaise, breegus nectar, and bits of what Azimuth hoped were jerky and not old shoe leather. All tucked between two somewhat burnt slices of instant toast. Knowing Tangent, it probably also had bits of Tasty Lombax Snax mixed in there somewhere, but he didn't really want to look at the mess closely enough to find out.

"Iz gud!"

"I'm… sure it is," Azimuth blatantly lied as he eyed the lunch his charge had prepared for him with suspicion and worry. "Now why don't you go wash your face off in the stream while I… eat… this?"

"Kay!" the little red Lombax called out, already running off to do just that.

As soon as he was sure that the little red Lombax was out of earshot, Azimuth quickly dumped the plate behind a rock and promptly shot the mess with his ion blaster to get rid of the evidence.

So far, Tangent's experimental attempts at food preparation were hit and miss, with some surprisingly good (if unconventional) results, some disasters, and one meal that had laid him out for three days and had proven to be the only thing he had ever seen that could kill a tetramite upon consumption (although, to be fair, he may have hallucinated that part while he was recovering).

Tangent had refused to even try cooking again for a solid month after that incident, and had gotten somewhat better about making sure that her ingredients were actually edible before she put them into whatever she was trying to make.

Still, the fact that she had even attempted to make him a meal meant that she was trying to cheer him up because he had been spending too much time brooding again.

He watched the little scamp wash her face in the stream, then come running back to him with… most… of the mess gone from her mouth and chin. Fishing one of the kerchiefs he had started carrying around out, he put some sanitizer on it before kneeling down to finish wiping her face clean.

"Wuz gud?" Tangent asked once Azimuth was done and stashing the cloth away to be cleaned later.

"Yes, Tangent," Azimuth lied again to spare her feelings. "It was good. But I'm a bit bigger than you, so I think I had best get myself something more to eat…"

"'Sokay!" Tangent replied cheerfully. "Made more!"

"You… did, did you?"

"Yup yup! Made lots!"

"Aheh…"

The Sine family was probably making waves in their new home, wherever they had gotten off to, just going by how quickly Tangent was learning her letters and numbers. At least if the Lombax educational and development guide Azimuth had found in the cellar of one of the ruins meant anything (he was far from being an expert in such matters). Sure the script used by Galactic Standard seemed to confuse her with the way that some letters, words, or even entire phrases, could be written backwards without losing their meaning, but she was definitely picking up the Lombax alphanumeric system easily enough.

Almost frighteningly easy, if he thought about it too much, given how much her current progress resembled that of Percival Tachyon when the Cragmite was at about the same stage in development…

But maybe he was reading too much into the comparison.

Gifted Lombaxes weren't all that rare after all. Both he and Kaden were considered as such, as had Vashiir and Lorna. Or any Lombax who qualified to be a member of the Center of Advanced Lombax Research, really.

It was probably just Tangent showing her heritage as a Sine. Nothing to be worried about.

TH-THUP-SPLAT! TH-THUP-SPLAT!

"Take 'at! An' 'at! An' 'at! An' 'at! Ahahahahaha!"

Upon investigation, Azimuth discovered that the precocious red-furred scamp had weaponized the automatic toaster to launch flaming pieces of instant toast at some piles of rocks that had obviously been set up as targets. Granted, she was missing her mark about nine shots out of every ten, but it was still impressive.

Whelp, time to lock up the tools and hide the technical manuals until she was older. Or at least until she was less likely to weaponize their basic camping equipment while they still needed it as basic camping equipment...

Azimuth had to admit to himself that he was moderately impressed. After a full year searching through the remains of every Lombax community and facility he could find, he had yet to find any evidence that suggested where any of the former occupants had gone. And that was even with him knowing that the majority, if not all, had most likely left for Fastoon to join the exodus.

He was, however, beginning to suspect that at least some Lombaxes had chosen to stay behind. At least in this dimension if not in the Polaris Galaxy itself. The biggest clue for this hypothesis wasn't in any of the information that he had found, but rather in the information that he wasn't finding. Specifically information about Lombax colonies and facilities, as the only records of such were of just the most commonly known ones that would have been available in any travelogue database. And even then, only those that happened to be within the Polaris Galaxy itself.

Everything else? Every colony, facility, or outpost in any other galaxy the Lombaxes had visited? Not a single mention about any of them, nor any mention that Lombaxes had ever left Polaris at all. A cover up of this grand of scale simply reeked of Cypher's touch, as Azimuth simply didn't know anyone else who could have pulled it off.

It hurt that yet another friend and associate hadn't trusted him enough to let him in on what was going on, but he couldn't really blame either Kaden or Cypher for their distrust given how enamoured he had been with the charismatic little Cragmite who didn't behave anything like the rest of his species had - right until the point where Tachyon had betrayed his trust.

All this suggested, to him at least (not that he was with anyone else who could provide an alternate opinion on the matter anyway - Tangent didn't count), that there were still Lombaxes who had chosen to remain in this dimension. Most likely in either the Bogon or Solana galaxies, if not both. And perhaps in either the Kavorian or Thyrullian galaxies as well, although neither of those was particularly likely for various reasons.

And there wasn't a damned thing he could do about this revelation!

Sure, his ship could technically make the trip to any of the other local galaxies, but such a journey in such limited confines would be a hardship for even a full grown Lombax, let alone an energetic child. Being essentially trapped in such a small space for the weeks or even months it would take just to clear the intergalactic void would be torturous to a rambunctious young Lombax!

He couldn't… wouldn't… do that to Tangent.

He'd have to wait until his charge was older before he went galivanting off to find any of the Lombaxes who might have stayed behind.

Getting a bigger ship would probably be a good idea as well.

However, it was probably time to consider moving on to a different planet. Maybe a few more weeks to let Tangent get used to the idea of moving first, and to make sure that what they couldn't take with them was well hidden while still being recoverable later.

Azimuth watched on in bemusement as the much abused automatic toaster ran by on mechanical legs that it hadn't had that morning, with Tangent chasing after it.

"No no no no no! C'm bak here! M'not done yet!"

Oh, and he definitely needed to child-proof the ship. And the tool chest...

Azimuth and Tangent looked up as they heard the low rumble of a ship flying high overhead, only a few short days before they had planned to finally leave Lumos. Which, oddly enough, actually lessened Azimuth's immediate worries as most modern vessels were much quieter. And, if nothing else, the ships that Tachyon had supplied the Drophyds with were state of the art.

They kind of had to be, because nothing else but the best could have pushed the Lombaxes so hard. Of course, the idiot Drophyds took it as another sign that the Cragmites favored them, when anyone looking over the actual history of Planet Zaurik could plainly see that the only reason the Cragmites had spared them when they had wiped out all of the native species that had been a threat to the relatively helpless Drophyds was that the Cragmites hadn't even known that they were there.

Granted, once the Lombaxes had banished the Cragmites, it took a long time for anyone visiting Zaurik to realize that the Drophyds were actually sophonts instead of regular fish. Far too long, really, as by the time anyone had found out about this important fact, the Drophyds had become widely renowned throughout Polaris as a sought after delicacy.

Not exactly civilization's brightest moment there, and just the sort of propaganda tool Tachyon could exploit to turn the entire Drophyd species into fanatically loyal soldiers. And then, after equipping them, aiming them straight at the Lombaxes under the claim that, as galactic leaders, the Lombaxes should have known better.

A bit of a grain of truth there, perhaps. But really, who would think to check a semi-amphibious fish with fins that could only just barely function as manipulators, as actually having sophont level intelligence? It'd be like assuming a muse was as intelligent as a Lombax just because both were vaguely feline and happened to have similarly shaped ears!

Still, enough reflecting. It was time to see just who their visitors were.

"Tangent, I need you to… Where did you go?"

"Shhh!" whispered one of the nearby boxes, it's former contents spilled messily on the ground. "Hiding!"

"Good girl, because that's just what I was about to ask of you. But you need to pick a better spot."

"Kay…"

Azimuth palmed his face as the box Tangent was hiding in shuffled over to another box and two little hands reached out from under it to try to tip the other box over.

"I mean something other than a box that has had its contents dumped out!"

"Can't fit in full box…" Tangent pointed out reasonably, earning another facepalm from her guardian.

"Look, just stay here and out of sight while I investigate, okay?"

"Kay!"

Tangent · Wednesday at 4:06 AM

SINE of DESTINY
A Ratchet & Clank fanfic by Tangent
With prereading and editing assistance by Tatsurou

Chapter Two

Azimuth allowed himself to relax more as he drew close to where the ship had landed. He easily recognised the beings around the ship as Vullards, which were generally harmless despite their great strength, as they were culturally inclined towards personal pacifism. Not that they couldn't or wouldn't request or accept the assistance of someone more willing to be violent on their behalf if they felt that it was necessary, but in general they were not a direct threat to either Tangent or himself.

If a former Lombax world was to be picked over by scavengers and salvagers, the Vullards were certainly better than if any Nanophytes had shown up. Vullards could at least be counted on to be non confrontational. Unfortunately, their unwillingness to fight back directly tended to make them inviting targets to bandits and pirates. Not an immediate issue, to be sure, or the Vullards wouldn't have bothered landing at all, but definitely something to be wary of.

Still, Vullards would be safe enough to approach, and maybe he could get news on what was going on in the galaxy.

With this in mind, Azimuth chose to approach the scouting Vullards openly and in a nonthreatening manner.

"Hello!" Azimuth called out, drawing attention to himself. "I'd ask what brings you to Lumos, but I think we all know the answer to that."

"Greetings, stranger. We were not aware that there were any survivors of the attack on Lumos."

"I have yet to find any myself either, I was not on Lumos at the time. I have seen no reason to object if you are intending to set up salvaging operations on this world. I have already gathered as much as I would seek to claim and will be leaving shortly."

"Much appreciated, stranger. For what purpose did you seek this meeting then?"

"News of the greater galaxy, if you have any."

"Specifically, where Emperor Tachyon is currently concentrating his forces, I expect."

"That would be appreciated, yes. As would keeping my continued existence discrete."

"Understandable. For a small fee of, oh say, a thousand Bolts, I can give you an infobot that has recently accessed the Polaris Galactic Newsfeed."

"Done. I have the Bolts on me."

"Very well, stranger. Wait here for just a moment, I'll retrieve the infobot from my ship and we can make the exchange…"

Azimuth half listened to the news from the infobot as it followed him back towards where he had left Tangent. Tachyon was, of course, moving to consolidate his power in the Polaris Galaxy. One of his first moves after he had "wiped out the Lombax Menace once and for all," had been to seize control of the refineries on Coballia, the Gelletonium Capitol of Polaris, where the majority of the fuel used by hyperspace capable ships was produced.

This would complicate matters a bit for those who relied on travel, but there were other planets with swamps that naturally produced gelletonium, and not all of them were listed in the publicly available databases. There were also innumerable fuel and maintenance service stations scattered in various systems throughout the galaxy, and not all of them got their supplies from Coballia anyway, so it wasn't an insurmountable issue. Just one he'd have to keep an eye on.

The formerly Lombax owned Verdant Gardens Luxury Resort on Mukow had been leveled and was currently being rebuilt as the Imperial Fight Festival theme park. Which was a travesty. Both Mark and Lorna Cross, and later Kaden and Vashiir Gyro had spent their honeymoons at Verdant Gardens, and Alister had once had hopes that he and Candace would eventually do the same.

Not that Candace had stayed with him after Tachyon revealed his true colors and started his war against all Lombaxkind. Nor could he blame her for leaving him. He was just glad that she was safe, forever out of Tachyon's reach in another dimension. Forever out of his own reach as well, for that matter, but safe. That was what mattered.

Kortog, once a major tradehub world, was under occupation by Tachyon's Drophyd forces, with civilian traffic to and from the planet still being heavily monitored, with no end in sight. Stratus City University had been officially closed down, with no word on when it would reopen. Assuming it ever would, given that most of the deans, professors, and general staff were still officially listed as "Missing: Presumed Eaten by Ravenous Lombax Savages."

Nevermind that Azimuth knew for a fact that several of those listed as missing were actually Lombaxes themselves. Who were hopefully among those who had joined the Exodus. Fortunately the general lists posted by the media only showed their names, without noting their species or showing the pictures. So Tachyon did not have full control of the media yet.

Good to know, but not something to be counted on as a stable situation.

Hmmm… Professor Radian Sine.

Clicking on the name for the attached file and doing a little digging revealed that Radian was indeed a red furred Lombax (okay, so the media wasn't being quite as discrete as he would have hoped after all, but in this case their lack of discretion worked in his favor). Far too old to be Tangent's mother. Likely too old to have been her grandmother too, but great grandmother or a great grand aunt was possible. Doctorates in high energy physics and hyperspace geometry. Taught both theory and practicals for hyperspace travel before going on hiatus and never returning. A quick check on the dates showed that this was at about the same time that six other professors and several students and staff members had also left Stratus City University for "personal reasons." All prior to the blockade the Drophyds had set up around Kortog, so presumably they had joined the Exodus on Fastoon. No other information available in these files.

Azimuth would have to try to look up more information on Radian elsewhere if at all possible, so he could tell Tangent more about her when she started asking about her family. But at least he had another picture to add to the album that he would eventually show her, along with a name and a few details to go with it.

Azimuth looked around the gully where he had left Tangent, and while he saw plenty of signs of the little red Lombax's activities, he saw no sign of the girl herself. Many of the boxes had been overturned, spilling their (fortunately packaged) contents, and arranged into makeshift mini-forts. On which Tangent was not hidden inside of any of them.

"Okay, while I'm not happy that you made a mess of the supplies we've been gathering, I do have to admit that you've hidden yourself pretty well. You can come out now, Tangent."

"Up here…"

Azimuth looked up to where he heard the voice of his charge coming from, a small crevice located roughly halfway up the side of the cliff. "How did you get up there?"

"Climbed."

"And why, pray tell, did you feel the need to climb halfway up the ravine wall?"

"Hiding. Crate-fort iz distraction. Better hidey-spot up here."

"Did you at least remember to take a rope up with you this time?"

"Umm… maybe?"

"That would be a 'no' then," Azimuth sighed. "Hold on. I'll get you down…"

"Where goin'?" Azimuth heard Tangent ask as they took off from Lumos. The little red Lombax was already out of her safety harness, with her face and hands pressed up against the cockpit canopy, allowing her to stare at the planet below.

"We are heading for Torren IV," the elder Lombax replied as he grabbed Tangent by the back of her shirt and sat her back down on the seat beside him. "Now would you please stay seated and redo your harness? I'll get your books out for you or put on some music once we're safely on our way, but now is not the time for you to be loose in the cockpit."

"'Kay."

Azimuth allowed himself to relax as his energetic ward seemed content to settle down for the moment.

"We there yet?"

This was going to be a long trip…

Tangent · Wednesday at 3:53 PM

SINE of DESTINY
A Ratchet & Clank fanfic by Tangent

Chapter Three

General Alistair Azimuth transmitted a code sequence towards Torren IV as his fighter dropped out of hyperspace in the Vela Sector on a vector heading in the general direction of Terachnos. In the years since Tangent Sine had entered his life, it had become apparent that Emperor Tachyon knew that he was still around and somewhat active (the various bounties for his capture that the brat occasionally posted on the holo-net made that clear), there was still no indication that anybody the dictator bothered listening to knew that he had acquired a ward.

And Azimuth wanted to keep it that way.

After a few minutes, there was an answering code. Not from Torren IV itself, but rather from one of the planetoids in the sector that was serving as a buffer relay to potentially misdirect anybody who managed to trace the signal that far. Mentally deciphering the code, Alister sighed with relief, knowing that Tangent was safe, sound, and uncoerced. He transmitted another code towards Torren IV to let Tangent know that he had received her transmission and would be returning home soon.

He knew that he'd probably catch an earful later when he actually showed up in another day or so, but he actually did have business with Jarvis in Axiom City, and it was better to get that out of the way first…

Several blocks worth of side streets, back alleys, narrow ledges, gaps, uneven platforms, a change of clothes, and a casual stroll later, Azimuth finally reached his destination: a park bench where a lone Terachnoid was sitting, wearing the equivalent to the same "tourist" outfit that Azimuth now wore. A floral print shirt, shorts, and sunglasses.

Azimuth sat down on the same bench, with enough room to casually drape his arms on the backrest without disturbing the Terachnoid.

"The Ottsel flies at midnight…"

"Hello, Jarvis."

"What are you doing!?" the suddenly perturbed Terachnoid sputtered out. "Use the codes!"

"No."

"What if someone overhears us!?" Jarvis exclaimed.

"Then they'll just overhear two friends arguing over the use of holovid tropes in public conversations," Azimuth pointed out calmly, keeping his voice level, neither whispering nor speaking too loudly.

"I thought that you liked codes," Jarvis whined, finally settling down and slumping slightly where he sat.

"I do," Azimuth stated agreeably. "When they are used properly. Openly using a code phrase that is easily recognized as being a code phrase draws more attention than it hides."

"Really?" the Terachnoid responded with some surprise.

"Yes, really," Azimuth confirmed.

"So Zennywood holovids lied to me," Jarvis grumbled, slumping down in disappointment.

"Not so much lied, as emphasized certain points to make it clear to the audience what was going on," Azimuth assured his friend. "You do realize that most studios aim for the widest possible demographic when they script these things, right? Not every race has the blessing of being a Terrachnoid."

"Well, okay," Jarvis stated, immediately cheering up. "Anyway, I managed to get a line on a larger ship like what you wanted. It's a decommissioned corvette from the Great War. Needs a bit of work, but it's got two dedicated single starfighter hangars, a functional medical bay, living quarters, galley, cargo space, and enough geletonium reserves to get you to any of the other four galaxies in the local cluster within half a year. Of course, that doesn't include time gained or lost due to wormholes or other anomalies."

"Thank you…" Azimuth started, only to be interrupted.

"Thank me by keeping Candace, or whoever else it was that you found, safe," Jarvis admonished. Then cackled as he noted Azimuth's startled expression. "Oh, come on. It's totally obvious that you found survivors, and they aren't military. There's no other reason for you to want a ship that big with that much fuel already in reserve. You're leaving and you're taking whoever it is with you."

"Jarvis, I…"

"No, don't tell me who they are," the Terachnoid interrupted his friend again. "Let me imagine that it's Candace. You two were such a wonderful couple and if this is the last time I see you, I'd like to think that the two of you are finally going off on… Let's just say an extended honeymoon or something."

Tangent immediately stopped what she was doing as the small device she wore on her belt vibrated, then put her tools down and checked it. Da… Uncle Azimuth was back in the system! Hurriedly, she took the device off of her belt, checked to make sure that the coded text indicated that he was safe, alone, and uncoerced, then sent the confirmation code back along with the reply that conditions were the same on her end. A small part of her was impatient for him to just get back and felt that all this precaution was needlessly paranoia from an overprotective guardian.

Just a small part though, Tangent admitted to herself as she started packing away her various tools and securing her ongoing projects for either travel or storage. She knew from the murky memories of a supposed previous life that Uncle Alister's insistence of cautionary measures was entirely justified.

It had been several years since she had arrived on Lumos in what Uncle Azimuth had described as an emergency teleport gone wrong, and somewhat less so since her memories of her prior self had started to return.

Something that she had yet to inform her guardian about.

At first because he simply wasn't there when they had first started filtering in, being off on one of his many scouting missions as he attempted to find any trace of any other Lombaxes that might have been left behind, and she didn't know how to bring it up without causing him more stress than he was already feeling. Later on, she continued to keep her anomalous memories to herself simply because she couldn't see how revealing them would actually make the situation any better.

Either she was going insane or she was the reincarnation of somebody who had played a game series based on events set in this (or a very similar) universe. As neither revelation would do Uncle Azimuth's stress levels any good, she chose to ignore the developing situation and distract herself with her education, physical development, and various self-designated projects.

Such as the ones she had finally stowed away in various corners of the makeshift cabin she called home. Setting the timer on a small device, she quickly vacated the shack and scrambled for one of her many hiding spots. Moments later, the interior of the structure was coated with the equivalent of roughly half a decade's worth of dust and corrosion, with no sign that anybody had even entered the building in all that time.

Emperor Tachyon knew that General Alister Azimuth was still around. Even if he never made a public statement about it directly, just the fact that occasional bounties posted for Azimuth's capture were still infrequently filtered through the holonet were proof of that. However, there were no indications on the holonet that anyone even knew about the General's new ward, and Tangent intended to keep it that way.

Oh sure, some people besides Uncle Alister knew she existed. A few Vullard scavengers here and there, some Kerchu on Sargasso that she got along with reasonably well (in that she stayed off of their work platforms while she was on Sargasso, and they would make sure that the fields near wherever she happened to be staying were free of hazards so she could play outside). She wasn't sure how many Morts knew she existed (largely because she had yet to figure out how to tell them apart), but they were nice and friendly whenever she got to stay anyplace where they frequented.

Oddly enough, Uncle Azimuth wouldn't let her show herself to any Fongoids at all, even if they were friendly and unlikely to deliberately reveal her existence to Emperor Tachyon's agents.

The key work there being deliberately, as Uncle Azimuth insisted that most of them were rather flighty and not very good at keeping secrets. He had recorded enough verifiably unedited interaction he had had with various Fongoids and had encouraged her to review the evidence for herself. And he was right - Fongoids, while mostly nice folk, were really bad at keeping secrets. Like, hilariously bad at it. Super phenomenally bad at it. And it wasn't as if it was a malicious trait either. They just went on verbal tangents, and at any point their topic of the moment happened to intersect a secret that they had agreed to keep, out it went with the rest of whatever they were talking about before they even realized that they had let the secret slip.

Which was why he never took her along on any missions during which he might end up interacting with any Fongoids.

Not that Uncle Azimuth took her along for most missions anyway, but he was very particular about avoiding any chance that a Fongoid might see her.

Still, parsing Fongoid conversations did sometimes lead to useful data. Perhaps inevitably buried in a mountain of irrelevant information, but it was still there to find if you were lucky, persistent, or knew what you were looking for.

Setting up a formerly broken infobot to parse hundreds of hours of various discussions Uncle Azimuth has with different Fongoids for a few key words and topics had been an interesting project for a boring Sunday afternoon.

Tangent didn't even bother hiding it from Uncle Azimuth - she used it to record her lessons, homework, holovid game sessions, whatever.

Tangent · Wednesday at 7:42 PM

SINE of DESTINY
A Ratchet & Clank fanfic by Tangent

Chapter Four

General Azimuth landed his fighter in one of the caves he and Tangent had prepared as a hidden hangar bay, scanning the cavern as well as he could with the fighter's sensors while remaining as discrete as he could about it.

Not that he was too worried about bounty hunters being here, of course - Tangent would have warned him. Either directly or by any number of agreed upon signals or codes.

No, he was worried about how irritated his ward might be that he was only just now returning to her after having signaled her of his arrival in-system yesterday…

SPLAT!

Azimuth stared at the piece of toast now stuck to the outside of his cockpit canopy by an angry frowny face made of zugnut butter and tongo berry jam.

SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

Yes, his ward was irritated with him.

And had apparently learned how to spoof at least the low-end tier of his fighter's sensors.

SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

Okay, this was getting a bit excessive, but perhaps he did deserve it for worrying his ward…

SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

Alright. She's grounded.

"Look, I'm just saying…" Tangent began again as she wrung out her wash-rag and dipped it into the soapy water again before going back to cleaning Uncle Azimuth's fighter.

"No," Azimuth stated as he sat nearby going over the various homework assignments that Tangent had completed since the last time they were together.

"But it's a valid Lombax culture!"

"For bathhouses!"

"And swimming!"

"That only applies to some regional subcultures - which the Sine Clan did not originate from!"

"But I hate wearing wet clothes!"

"Then you shouldn't have launched a half-ton of zugnut butter toast at my fighter!"

"Argh! I hate that you have a valid point right now!"

"One: Thank you for acknowledging that. Two: You still have to wear at least minimal attire while doing assigned tasks."

"I'm gonna grow up to be a nudist," Tangent grumbled.

"No, you're not," Azimuth commented absently as he moved on to check his ward's next completed homework assignment.

"Bleh - I liked it better when you believed my blatant lies."

"And I appreciate that you never lie about anything actually important."

"And what lesson did we learn from that?" Azimuth asked as Tangent entered their make-do kitchen fully clean and in dry clothes.

"Have a cleaning bot ready to go the next time I pelt your fighter with zugnut butter toast," Tangent replied easily as she started setting places on the table without being asked.

"Not quite the lesson I was hoping for, but I suppose that planning and preparation is still a good one," Azimuth commented as he used a ladle to check the stew he was cooking. Not that he didn't trust his ward's cooking (other than her tendency to try to sneak Tasty Lombax Snax into everything) - she had gotten much better over the years. He just wanted to cook for his ward.

"Wait until the cockpit is open," Tangent offered as she checked the cooler he had brought in and selected a couple of bottles of cooled tea.

"Do you want to wash the inside of my cockpit too?"

"No."

"Then don't do that."

"Fine," Tangent huffed as she sat down.

Once lunch had been served and at least half eaten, Tangent's curiosity finally overcame her bout of stubborn self-contrarianism and she finally asked the question she had wanted to great her da… uncle… with: "So, why'd you take an extra day before finally showing up? I was starting to worry."

"I needed to check with Jarvis about something," Azimuth started as he considered what to say next.

"We're moving again, aren't we?" Tangent sighed. It was a bit frustrating when Uncle Azimuth moved where she was being hidden every few months. Sometimes it was somewhere on the same planet, but just as often it was on another planet or in an entirely different system.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, this should be the last big move for a while," Azimuth offered.

"Really?" Tangent asked dubiously. "Because the only way I see that working with Emperor Doofus still hunting you is if… No way! We're going extra-galactic!?"

"Got it in one," Azimuth grinned at his ward. "I just spent a day going over the light corvette Jarvis had found for me and everything is set for us to leave Polaris entirely."

"YES!" Tangent cheered and then hopped up from her chair and began running around the table. "Yes yes yes yes yes!"

"Happy to finally be able to meet people and make friends?"

"Oh yeah, that too, I guess," Tangent stopped running in circles and tilted her head as she considered that aspect. "I was mostly excited about finally being somewhere long enough to commit to a big project."

Azimuth stared at his ward for a moment and processed what she had just said. "Wherever we end up, I'm going to see what schools, academies, and clubs are available."

"What? Why!?"

"You need to learn how to socialize with others besides just me."

"..." Tangent paused and tilted her head the other way as she considered that. "Okay, fair point. But I still don't like it."

Tangent · Thursday at 2:27 AM

SINE of DESTINY
A Ratchet & Clank fanfic by Tangent

Chapter Five

"This is the APF Nova Prowler," General Alister Azimuth announced as the relatively small starship came into view. It was mostly grey, with gold accents, and the signature split bow that was so common in many Lombax ship designs. "It is a light flightdeck corvette with a dual access aft-dorsal hangar, three internal decks, and enough automation support to allow a single crewmember to operate it although normal operations typically involve a crew of five to fifteen members. There are enough gelletonium reserves to get us to any of the next four closest galaxies within a year with enough left over to enable us to still operate for a few months once we get there, giving us plenty of time to locate and secure another supplier."

"Give me a week," Tangent said as she looked over the outside of the ship Uncle Azimuth actually brought her along for once to inspect before they moved into it.

"You haven't even seen the inside yet.," Azimuth pointed out reasonably as he slowed their approach and adjusted their trajectory for an inspection orbit. "What do you need a week for anyway?"

"Stripping, sealing, coating, priming, painting, and waxing."

"There are only two of us," Azimuth pointed out again, keeping his tone as reasonable as before.

"Oh, we're not going to be doing any of that," Tangent waved her hand dismissively. "I made some bots."

"How many bots did you make?" Azimuth asked dubiously.

"I get bored when you leave me alone for so long, okay!" Tangent huffed.

"You're evading the question. Do I want to know how many robots you made?" Azimuth asked with some concern creeping into his voice.

"Probably not, but I made sure not to pull a Von Neumann, so everything should be fine," Tangent replied easily as she continued looking over the ship. "Okay, we're going to want to fix the second port strut hardpoint before you mount anything on it. It's misaligned."

"Spotted that, did you?" Azimuth chuckled, already aware of most of the issues he wanted to fix before they actually left the system. "Who is Von Neumann?"

"John Von Neumann was a human polymath who had pioneered several important concepts as well as the associated risks. In this case, I was referring to self-replicating machines, which was a hypothetical exercise he had thought up. There are various pros and cons, but the biggest risks involve unregulated self-replication loops."

"I do not recall any of that being in any of the coursework I left you," Azimuth commented.

"I. Get. Bored." Tangent huffed and turned her head away from Uncle Azimuth.

"How much extracurricular material did you get from the Vullards?" Azimuth asked, guessing at the source of his ward's bonus education.

"Everything they were willing to sell me in return for Bolts and services," Tangent replied easily. "I also bought stuff from the Kerchu and the Morts."

"And where did you get the Bolts for all of that?"

"Uncle Azimuth, one of the books you left me covered introductory economics. I built a bot for locating and collecting loose unclaimed bolts and bringing them back to me. And then I built another one after we moved. And another one after the next move and so on. Nobody is getting robbed, none of the Bolts are coming out of anything structural, and anytime you move me back to a world you previously hid me on, I had a new stash of Bolts to collect."

"How much?"

"Mine! Go build your own Autonomous Bolt Collectors!"

"I wasn't asking you to give me any Bolts," Azimuth clarified patiently. "I was asking how many Bolts you've accumulated."

Tangent relaxed a bit, then tilted her head as she considered the question. "I dunno. Lots. Most of it is stashed on Sargasso, actually, with the next biggest stash in system here on Torren IV. Everything else is still spread out between the worlds you tend to hide me on the most. It's not as much as you might think though, considering that all of my deals with the Vullards, Kerchu, and Morts have been cash upfront, paid in full with no layaway."

"Tangent, you do realize that we are going to have to leave most of your ill-defined fortune behind when we leave Polaris, right?" Azimuth asked. "We can't take the time to go back to every world I ever hid you on."

"It's better if you don't, actually," Tangent replied dismissively. "Besides the security concerns you are likely worried about, leaving autonomous Bolt collectors running when we leave means that we'll have some decent sized stashes on most of those worlds by the time we come back. Sure, the ones that just run on batteries will stop functioning in a year or two, give or take a few months, but the ones with recharge stations should be good to go for the next five to ten years."

"And you expect all that to still be here when we come back?"

"Not really, no," Tangent shrugged. "Robotic Space Pirates are a thing here in Polaris, and once any of them find out about stashes of Bolts lying around for the taking, they're going to go looking for them."

"And this doesn't bother you?"

"Robot Space Pirates that are following rumors and vague traces looking for booty are Robotic Space Pirates that aren't raiding civilians."

"Fair enough, I suppose," Azimuth admitted. "Very well, I concede the point. Now let's go inside and see what you think of your new quarters."

With that, Azimuth finally brought his fighter in to land on the starboard half of the aft dorsal hangar bay of the Nova Prowler…

"There's room for two starfighters," Azimuth said as he performed the regular post-flight checks and also made sure that the corvette's hangar screen was maintaining field integrity. Not that he hadn't already done a more thorough inspection of the pertinent systems during his earlier visit, but it was never a good idea to develop a habit of skipping steps.

"We only have the one, and it seats two," Tangent noted, raising a brow at her uncle.

"I… may… have stored enough parts in the Nova's cargo hold for us to build you your own starfighter when you are closer to sixteen," Azimuth admitted with some reluctance. "If you promise not to try to fly it by yourself until I've made sure you are properly trained, maybe we can get started on that early as a weekend project?"

"THANKS, DAD!" Tangent exclaimed as she gave him a tight hug. And then her eyes widened as she realized what she said, and she let him go again. "Um… I mean Uncle…"

"You can call me Dad if you want," Azimuth smiled down at Tangent and tousled her hair. "I'd be proud to have you as a daughter."

apf_nova_prowler_lombax_flightdeck_corvette_by_tangent_rambles_dmpfla4-fullview.jpg

ALLIED POLARIS FORCE NOVA PROWLER

Class: Lombax Flightdeck Corvette

SHIP SPECIFICATIONS & OPERATIONAL CAPACITY

Crew Complement:
- Operational Minimum: 1 (Pilot / Automated System Slave)
- Standard Complement: 5 (Captain, XO/Pilot, Chief Engineer, Deck Master, Sensor/EW Specialist)
- Maximum Capacity: 15 (Utilizing triple-tiered berths and 8-hour shift rotation / hot-bunking)
Hyperdrive: Yes
Intergalactic Capability: Yes (6 to 12 months continuous hyperspace endurance)

DECK LAYOUT & INTERNAL SPACES
UPPER HALF-DECK: COMMAND BRIDGE & FLIGHTDECK CONTROL
Command Bridge & Auxiliary Spaces

Multi-Pane Canopy Dome: Offers sweeping forward visibility over the split-bow hull.
Central Tactical Table: Located at the heart of the bridge deck. Features a large holographic projection display for fleet situational awareness, starfighter vector tracking, orbital scanning, deflector shield status, and intergalactic route planning.
Captain's Podium (Raised Level - Aft):Situated on an elevated platform directly behind the tactical table. Features a central command chair flanked by integrated armrest controls for an unobstructed view forward over the tactical hub.
- Master Override Console: Allows the Captain (or a sole operator) to pilot the vessel, control flightdeck hatches, or manage point defenses directly from the podium.
Dual Helmsman & Navigation Consoles (Forward Port / Starboard):Flanking the front of the tactical table facing the main viewports.
- Port Station (Pilot / Helmsman): Primary maneuvering, sub-light/hyperspace drive controls, and thruster vectoring.
- Starboard Station (Co-Pilot / Astrogation): Long-range sensor management, jump calculations, and automated flightpath plotting.
Tactical & Defensive Gunnery Hub (Aft Port): Positioned adjacent to the Captain's podium. Integrates ship defensive gunnery, weapon racks, armor maintenance stations, secure internal comms routing, and control over forward heavy blasters, wing hardpoints, energy shields, and point-defense systems.
Flight Control & Engineering Monitoring Station (Aft Starboard): Positioned opposite the Tactical Hub. Controls the sliding upper flightdeck hatch, gantry arm mechanisms, starfighter refueling/rearming status, and power distribution grids.
Captain's Office & Ready Room: A small command space attached off the bridge for log maintenance, private comms, and tactical planning.
Bridge Lounge: A quick-break area for the command crew, complete with legacy vending machines.

Flightdeck Operations & Launch Bay

Positioned directly aft of the command bridge under a sliding upper hull hatch.
Features twin recessed docking bays designed to service, fuel, rearm, and launch up to two starfighters (such as Azimuth's fighter).
Equipped with automated gantry arms, quick-rearm racks, and direct ladder access leading down to Deck 1.
Aft Maintenance Bay & Auxiliary Hatch: An integrated service workspace positioned immediately behind the primary launch racks. Features a dedicated auxiliary aft access hatch, allowing starfighters to be retrieved, towed, or loaded directly into the bay for heavy repairs without obstructing the primary dorsal launch hatch.

MAIN DECK (DECK 1: HABITATION & OPS)

Captain's Cabin: A private cabin located near the bridge ladder access. Features a primary berth (with fold-out capacity for up to three officers during maximum-crew surges), a desk/terminal station, and personal storage.
Crew Barracks (2 Cabins):Two standard crew cabins, each fitted with two triple-tiered bunk units (6 berths per cabin, 12 total crew capacity).
- Standard 5-Person Ops: Provides generous personal space and extra storage for long voyages.
- Surge Capacity (15 Crew): Accommodates two full 5-person shifts via an 8-hour rotation cycle.
Sanitation & Head: Shared dual-stall head and sonic shower unit positioned centrally between the cabins.
Galley & Common Mess:Positioned mid-ship adjacent to the quarters.
- Seating: Seats 5–6 crew members simultaneously at the central dining table, accommodating a full duty shift during meal cycles.
- Provisions Storage: Bulkhead-integrated storage lockers calibrated for 15 crew members on a 30-day patrol cycle (yielding years of provisions for a skeleton crew of two).
- Medical: Integrated environmental controls, food prep units, and basic medical/first-aid stations.
Flightdeck Lower Access: Direct ladder and hatch access leading straight up into the flightdeck launch bay for rapid pilot scrambling.

LOWER DECK (DECK 2: ENGINEERING, CARGO & FABRICATION)

Main Cargo Bay: The largest open volume on the vessel, spanning the middle-to-aft lower belly. Accessible via the large rear loading ramp, allowing for the heavy loading of supplies, fuel cases, salvage, and the deployment/retrieval of ground and ground-effect vehicles.
Engineering & Fabrication Workshop: Positioned adjacent to the cargo hold, providing a dedicated workspace for toolkits, bot maintenance, and heavy machinery fabrication.
Power Distribution Grid & Auxiliary Engineering: Occupies the rear quarter of the deck between the wing roots, housing main power routing cores, hyperdrive relays, and primary environmental systems.

HULL & EXTERNAL SYSTEMS BREAKDOWN
Forked Bow Systems

Gelletonium Fuel Reserves: Housed within the reinforced interior volumes of the forward prongs to isolate main hyperspace fuel reserves from living quarters.
Primary Sensor & Targeting Suites: Mounted on the tips and outer edges of the prongs, placing high-resolution radar, hyperspace scanner nodes, and optical arrays far ahead of engine interference.
Heavy Weapon Hardpoints & Ordnance Channels: Integrated into the inner channels and reinforced spines of the forks, housing forward heavy blasters or ion cannons, heat dissipation coils, and primary energy conduits.
Shield Projectors & Deflector Nodes: Anchored at the forward-facing tips to project the leading edge of the vessel's deflector shields.
Forward Crawlspaces: Narrow utility tubes and service hatches running the length of the prongs, allowing maintenance access to sensor arrays, hardpoints, and fuel linkages.

Wing Systems

Propulsion Systems: Main sub-light drives and hyperdrives mounted directly into the heavy wing assemblies and nacelles for structural stability and optimal thrust vectoring.
Ordnance & Sensors: Wing-underside weapon hardpoints, secondary sensor booms, and wing-tip maneuver thrusters.

Keel Sub-Systems (Sub-Hull Level)

Life Support & Keel Crawlspaces: Low-clearance utility channels running along the bottom hull housing primary life support scrubbers, gravity generators, landing gear hydraulics, and environmental processing units.

OPERATIONAL WORKFLOW & CREW DYNAMICS
Starfighter Patrol Matrix (2 Starfighters Launched)

Flight Complement (2 Pilots):
- Alpha Lead: Captain (or Lead Pilot)
- Bravo Wing: Executive Officer (or Secondary Pilot)
Bridge Complement (3 Remaining Crew):
- Corvette Helm & Command (Captain's Podium): Controlled by the Communications & Sensor Officer.
- Tactical Table (Center Deck): Manned by the Chief Engineer to track real-time starfighter coordinates, sensor telemetry, and environmental data.
- Defensive Gunnery & Flight Control (Aft Consoles): Operated simultaneously by the Flight Deck Master to manage ship defenses, monitor fighter fuel/ammo status, and execute hatch/gantry cycles for recovery.

Tangent · Thursday at 11:09 AM

SINE of DESTINY
A Ratchet & Clank fanfic by Tangent

Chapter Six

"Directly to the aft is the starfighter service and maintenance bay," Azimuth stated. "It has its own auxiliary access hatch directly aftwards facing so as to not interrupt normal operations for the flightdeck."

"So we'll be building my starfighter in one of the maintenance bay births?" Tangent guessed.

"Correct. We can do a more thorough inspection later, but for now we're just doing a brief tour for notes and to see which crew cabin you want. The captain's quarters are mine, of course."

"Yeah yeah, stay out of Dad's room unless invited," Tangent snarked. "You'd think that none of our hideouts ever had rooms specifically for you."

"They don't," Azimuth commented drily. "The few that did ended up with you converting my rooms into more storage space."

"Well, maybe if you didn't stay away for weeks at a time…"

Azimuth slumped his shoulders and sighed before gathering himself and straightening up again. "Look, I'm sorry I left you alone for so long so many times, but I had stuff that I had to do, and it was not safe to bring you with me for any of those missions."

"I understand that," Tangent grumbled under her breath. "I've always understood that. It doesn't make it hurt any less."

"Well, soon we're going to be stuck with each other for almost a year," Azimuth said encouragingly.

"Oh Gods, you're right!" Tangent's voice took on a note of panic. "We've got to make sure the ship's library is stocked with enough reading material and games, designate a space in the cargo bay for hobby materials, place a Lombax resistant lock on the armory…"

"Tangent…" Azimuth tried to interject. This was not the reaction he expected from his attempt to reassure his ward… er, daughter.

"I DON'T WANT EITHER OF US TO GO MAD AND KILL EACH OTHER!" Tangent wailed, hugging her newly redesignated father tightly.

"I'm going to have to review the reading material you've been purchasing," Azimuth concluded bluntly as he gently returned the hug and patted her on the head.

"The command bridge is just up ahead, but this door leads to the Captain's Office, which doubled as the Ready Room during the Great War," Azimuth explained after Tangent was calm enough to continue with the tour. "The opposite door leads to the Bridge Lounge, a quick break area for naps, snacks, or just some time away from the rest of the Bridge Crew if needed. There are some vending machines and a mini-galley, but nothing is currently stocked."

"So we check to make sure everything works, then decide how we want to stock the machines and what with," Tangent commented, nodding.

"No Tasty Lombax Snax, please," Azimuth sighed.

"One slot, set to a daily ration limit, restocked from a designated container in the cargo hold," Tangent countered. "We're not likely to be able to restock Tasty Lombax Snax outside of Polaris, so I want to make what we bring with us last as long as possible before I have to give them up completely."

"So you're not going to try to sneak them into my food then?" Azimuth asked hopefully.

"Nope! One Lombax, one bag a day, from a diminishing supply," Tangent rattled off tallying with her fingers. "You don't like them, so I'm not sharing. If you ever change your mind, we can discuss it then, like unreasonable roommates that have been stuck in the same apartment for too long."

"I've really got to review the materials you've gotten ahold of," Azimuth noted to himself.

Again.

"This is the Command Bridge, where we will be spending a lot of our time," Azimuth said as he led Tangent into the surprisingly spacious room.

"I thought that you said that the normal crew compliment was five people?" Tangent asked as she took everything in.

"It is," Azimuth confirmed.

"So why all the extra space? Isn't this a military craft?"

"It's a variable role corvette designed for a military force comprised of multiple species, genders, and cultures, with the Command Bridge being one of the social foci where the crew would be expected to spend a significant part of their duty cycle in close proximity with each other," Azimuth answered readily. "Allied Polaris Command decided early on to try to reduce stress by giving the primary workspace more elbow room. You'll find this sort of bridge structure formula to be fairly common once we get into that part of your education."

"Oh. Okay," Tangent tilted her head as she took that in. "Is this why the Bridge Lounge is so small and the Captain's Office and Ready Room are the same room?"

"Sacrifices were made, yes," Azimuth nodded, not bothering to mention that the reduced space for the auxiliary rooms were due more to the inclusion of the flightdeck than to how large the Command Bridge was. The space for the hangar and maintenance bay had to come from somewhere, and those two rooms were between the flightdeck and the bridge.

"Weird," Tangent commented as she started to actually look at the various crew stations.

"In keeping with the needs of a small flightdeck capable vessel which might lose one or two crewmembers due to starfighter deployment, each station can handle at least some of the functions of most of the other stations. The helm and Captain's station can handle virtually everything if need be, but the other stations can also provide cross-station utility if required."

"Makes sense," Tangent agreed. "Cross-station coverage is just good redundancy."

"Glad you approve," Azimuth commented drily. "The tactical display table taking up the middle of the bridge can project a large holographic display for fleet situational awareness, starfighter vector tracking, orbital scanning, deflector shield status, and intergalactic route planning."

"Cool, cool," Tangent nodded absently as she headed right for the table and began going over it in more detail.

"And yes, it can double as a work and study station, entertainment display, and holovid game console," Azimuth chuckled.

Tangent looked up at him, her expression a mix of both awe and being flustered over the fact that she had just been about to ask about those very same use cases.

"This is the Main Deck," Azimuth stated after they had descended to the next deck down. "It's where the quarters, galley, and other living accommodations are located. For larger crews, this is where anyone not currently stationed in the Command Bridge would be spending a fair chunk of their time when their duties don't take them elsewhere."

"So I get my own room?" Tangent asked as she looked around.

"Technically," Azimuth qualified. "The quarters are divided into a Captain's Cabin…"

"Which you are claiming, obviously," Tangent interjected.

"Obviously," Azimuth confirmed. "The remaining crew berths are divided between two separate cabins, each set up to easily transition between one to six occupants, although anything past two crewmembers requires hotbunk rotations."

"Which isn't going to be an issue for a while," Tangent noted. "I think I'll claim the starboard cabin."

"Any particular reason?" Azimuth asked, curiosity creeping into his voice.

"I like stars," Tangent replied. "Even if it's just part of a word."

Azimuth discretely sighed in relief as his daughter finally responded like the little girl she was.

Tangent · 2026-08-28T01:36:57+0100

SINE of DESTINY
A Ratchet & Clank fanfic by Tangent

Chapter Seven

"And here on the Lower Deck is the cargo hold, engineering, and the fabrication workshop," Azimuth explained as he and Tangent made their way down to the lowermost level. "Primary access when we're on the ground is via the lower aft bay door and ramp. Once we have ground or ground effect vehicles, they will be deployed and received via that ramp access."

"Wait, are the three bay hatches the only ways on or off this ship?" Tangent asked, tilting her head in confusion. "What about ship-to-ship or personnel accessways?"

"For ground-based personnel access, there's a hatch and ramp on this deck located directly between the forward prongs," Azimuth informed Tangent. "Ship-to-ship umbilical connection isn't usually done with corvettes and gets awkward for those with the flightdeck variation."

"Let me guess, ship-to-ship connections were located in the section that the flightdeck replaced," Tangent proposed.

"Correct," Azimuth confirmed. "The Nova Prowler can still do it, but the steps are more involved and take longer than the usual set up."

"I see we have a forklift," Tangent noted.

"Battery's dead, but yes, we have one," Azimuth nodded.

"That's an easy fix," Tangent waved that off dismissively. "How are we doing for tools and supplies for engineering and the workshop?"

"Engineering has just barely enough tools to count as having the minimum set regulations specify as passing for operational status," Azimuth informed his daughter, who winced. "The workshop has maybe a third of that, and supplies for both are currently marginal, but fortunately, we have a decent source to correct all of those issues right here in system."

"Torren IV," Tangent nodded. "We can buy just about everything we need from the Vullards living there, and I can reprogram some bots to salvage the rest."

"I'm pretty sure that I can just do everything via purchases, Tangent," Azimuth stated. "I'm not exactly strapped for cash, and I haven't really had much to spend on until now. Still, you mentioned reprogramming bots?"

"Drones, simple tasks, and the like," Tangent stated, shaking her head. "I've specifically stayed away from experimenting with self-awareness and sophont level programming."

"Not that I'm objecting, but why?"

"The only examples I've been able to get ahold of are all broken Robotic Space Pirates," Tangent huffed, sticking out her tongue. "And they're all goofier than wooden clocks!"

"So no chance that you'd be able to round out our crew with a few robots?" Azimuth prompted, prepared to accept either answer.

"Dad, sophont level programming is complex," Tangent complained. "Even if I started research and studying now, we'll already be in some other galaxy by the time I'd be ready to start producing test projects. We'd be better off salvaging and repurposing random bots or buying some used through a trusted source like the Vullarts or Morts. Morts would be better, but Vullards are here in system."

"We'd best head back to Torren IV then," Azimuth concluded. "I'll see what the Vullards there have available, and if they have nothing suitable or only two or less options, we'll head for Mort to talk to the Morts."

"You mean it?" Tangent asked cautiously.

"Mean what?"

"You'll take me along this time? Not just say 'wait here' and be gone for weeks again?"

"Tangent," Azimuth said, placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder, "If I had my way, I'd never have to leave you behind ever again."

"Yeah… Lots of luck getting that to happen," Tangent huffed in annoyance, then flipped her mood and hugged her father tightly. "Thanks, Dad."

It took a few weeks to do everything they could in system, and part of that involved moving the Nova Prowler to the surface of Torren IV so that the supplies and a ground transport could be loaded. Then it was a somewhat circuitous route to Mort that took several days longer than a more direct route would have.

Because, old or not, the Nova Prowler was still a recognisably Lombax vessel, and neither Azimuth nor Tangent wanted to give Emperor Tachyon any reason to consider attacking the Morts.

"We could probably have made the trip quicker in your starfighter, Dad," Tangent noted and she watched the color steaks of hyperspace flowing by the bridge windows for a moment before going back to the story on her datapad. She was sitting in the copilot seat, but most of the functionality of that station was turned off, with a quick restart available in case an emergency happened.

"We'd have been more vulnerable if anyone spotted us," Azimuth countered. "Besides, once we have the robots, we're going to be leaving Polaris right away."

"What? Why?" Tangent looked up from her datapad, tilting her head. "I mean, I know we want to leave soon, but we've barely reviewed any of the worlds we might want to try in the other four galaxies."

"That won't be necessary," Azimuth said, shaking his head. "I came across the name of one that reminded me of a different one that I remember Vashiir and Lorna talking about a few times."

"Vashiir…" Tangent repeated, furrowing her brows. "That was the wife of your friend, Kaden, right?"

"Got it in one," Azimuth confirmed. "We're going to be heading for Veldin, in the Solana Galaxy. Vashiir had been telling Kaden how much like Fastoon the environment and biosphere was."

What Azimuth wasn't saying was that heading for Veldin was basically him grasping at straws, hoping against hope that his best friend had gone to a planet his wife had talked about with some fascination. Because he had yet to find even a trace of Kaden anywhere he had thought to check in Polaris.

Maybe Kaden would still be angry with him. And Alister couldn't blame him if he was. The Drophid attack at Azimuth Square on Fastoon was the reason Vashiir was dead. And possibly Ratchet, their newborn son, as well.

But Tangent deserved a chance to get to know the only other Lombax that Azimuth knew for sure had not joined the exodus through the portal the Dimensionator had made. And even if Kaden never forgave him, Azimuth knew his best friend well enough to know that he would adore Tangent.

Still, it'd probably be a good idea to make sure he had medigel on hand when he finally caught up to Kaden…

Tangent was doing her level best to avoid hyperventilating.

This…

This right here was definitive confirmation that her memories from a prior life, as ridiculous as they were, were real.

Not in the "Oh Gods, I've issekai'd into a videogame" game sense, because that would be absurd. Instead, it was more in the realm of "my prior life had inadvertent insight into a reality close to my own via a really stupid medium," type of utter nonsense that was all the more real just for how implausible it was.

So she wasn't going crazy.

It was just the multiverse trying to drive her to drink.

At least the Morts made really good lemonade…

Tangent · 2026-08-29T00:48:35+0100

SINE of DESTINY
A Ratchet & Clank fanfic by Tangent

Chapter Eight

"Oh wow!" Mort exclaimed. "That there is a Lombax corvette if I've ever seen one! And I've seen plenty back in the day! Isn't that right, Mort?"

"Oh, you betcha, Mort! I haven't seen one myself outside of some old technical journals since Percival Tachyon threw his hissy fit and crowned himself Emperor of Polaris, dontcha know?"

"Anyhow, that's neither here nor there. Good to see you, Alister! And you brought little Tangent again! Only you ain't so little anymore, are you? I mean, look at you! You can't be older than ten or twelve, and you're already taller than a Mort! Ain't that right, Mort!"

"That's right, Mort! This calls for some lemonade!"

"Hello, Mort, Mort, and… Mort?" Alister hazarded uncertainly.

"Almost!" a Mort exclaimed. "I'm actually his brother, Mort! Pleased to meet'cha!"

"A pleasure, I'm sure," Alister replied hesitantly. Even with all of his experience with them, he still had trouble with Mort-speak.

"Anyway, it's been a hot summer minute since the last time you dropped by, Alister, and you didn't have this beaut with you then! That twin bow is a classic Lombax design preference! Why I was just telling Mort here that we hadn't seen one of those since…"

Alister sighed and settled in for a long and meandering conversation involving way too much of the word "Mort" and probably not really enough lemonade to compensate for it. But the Morts were friendly, trustworthy, and had kept tangent safe on numerous occasions so he was inclined to give them a lot of leeway so that Tangent's memories of them and their memories of him and her were good ones.

After all, it would be years before either of them returned to Polaris after this.

Tangent just smiled and sipped at the lemonade Mort had given her while her father was negotiating for three crew rated sophont level robots for their extragalactic trip.

Which was a whole new morally ambiguous thing she wasn't sure what to think about, because sometimes sophont level meant people, but some robots with that level of complexity had rather firm opinions that they were merely sophisticated devices intended for service despite being self aware. Sure, that was just part of how they were programmed, but they didn't want that part of their programming adjusted. They liked who they were, having a clear purpose. They took pride in it.

Tangent wasn't sure that they'd survive the… what were the calculations from here again? Oh yeah… She wasn't sure that the robots would survive the eight month trip from Mort in the Polaris Galaxy all the way to Veldin in the Solana Galaxy. Not because she was worried that they'd go mad or something implausible like that.

No, it'd be more due to her concern over her own urge to tinker with a set of bots that insisted that they weren't people despite their sophont status.

At least the bots she made really were just devices.

It never occurred to Tangent that she hadn't felt any anxiety about the prospect of meeting Ratchet in a little over half a year from now since being saddled with this whole new source of anxiety…

"That's the Bridge Lounge vending machines stocked," Mort said, checking off something on her datapad. "Robot conveniences in the machine furthest from the mini-galley, healthy snacks and light ready-to-eat meals in the one closest to the mini-galley, and beverages in the machine in the middle. The ration system is set to prevent excessive draws. Just enter your crew code and the item code in any particular order and the requested item should pop out in a jiffy!"

"Thank you," Alister said. "We really appreciate this."

"Oh, definitely!" Tangent agreed enthusiastically with frantic nodding. "Don't get me wrong, the Vullards are nice people, but they do not have a diverse snack and beverage culture. About the only snack I could get with any built-in variety was Tasty Lombax Snax, and they only have those because they trade it for other stuff."

"Oh, hey there!" Mort called out to Alister and Tangent as they were overseeing the supplies being loaded into the Nova Prowler's cargo hold. They had taken on all the tools and parts they might need back on Torren IV, but only about a third of the medicine and rations they would need. Largely because Tangent was right in that Vullards were not really big on dietary variety so they had decided to just get some staples they thought that they could tolerate having a lot of, then finishing their stock-up here on Mort. "Glad I caught you while you were still here! Mort was just over on Igliak, in the Praxis Sector and came across a fellow that needed to be out of there right quick. Of course, Mort brought him here to Mort because, hey, why not? We already have experience hiding and looking after people that need to stay hidden. Not that Mort called ahead, because why would he? He didn't know you were here, after all. I've no idea why some folks think that what one Mort knows every other Mort knows - Morts don't have a hive mind. Well, I suppose we could have. There was some discussion about it several generations back. A historical debate between Mort and Mort about Morts being Morts and why not. Got a bit heated for a hot minute or two, don'cha know? But hey, cooler head prevailed, and Mort and Mort hashed out their differences over a case of fresh Mort & Mort Leamonade and that's how Mort & Mort Lemonade entered history as the first Mort owned beverage company credited with stopping a civil disturbance during an ongoing debate!"

"Wait, what?" Tangent asked plaintively, having completely lost track of what Mort was talking about.

"Who did Mort find?" Alister asked, immediately focussing on the important bit.

"Oh, it wasn't Mort who found him. Mort was over on Coballia in the Cerulean Sector making sure that us Morts still had access to the processed gelletonium coming from there. Don't get me wrong, the Kerchu are nice enough folk, if a bit stand-offish, but having an alternate source available keeps the prices of gelletonium coming out of Sargasso reasonable. It was Mort who was over on Igliak - he was there to fix an ice cream machine at this interesting little fast food place originally from some galaxy named after a candy bar…"

"YOU!!!"

Tangent whipped her head around to stare at a yellow furred male Lombax wearing dark pants and a red-and-white jacket charge at her father…

And completely fail to make contact with General Alister Azimuth who casually stepped aside with an unimpressed expression on his face.

"You have a lot of nerve, showing your face anywhere, Azimuth!" the strange Lombax growled.

"Do I know you, Soldier?" Azimuth asked directly, keeping his posture straight but his limbs loose.

"Chief Engineer Sprocket of the Allied Polaris Forces. I served on the APF Comet during the Great War. Now stand still so I can punch your face in!"

"No."

"STOP TRYING TO HIT DADDY!" Tangent shouted as she started flinging bags of Tasty Lombax Snax from a crate she just opened at Sprocket.

"Wait, what?" Sprocket stopped his tirade at the implications involved in the most infamous (and last) general in Lombax history having a kid. "Wait, you look nothing like - STOP THROWING THINGS AT ME!"

"NO!"

After a while, Tangent ran out of bags of Tasty Lombax Snax from one case and started prying open another case for more ammunition to throw.

"She's… Not going to stop, is she?" Sprocket asked, all his rage and fury spent on the absurdity of it all.

"She gets like this sometimes," Azimuth stated calmly. "Ready to discuss your grievances like a civilized Lombax now?"

"Is she going to stop pelting me with… Are these Tasty Lombax Snax?"

"Sadly, yes. Tangent likes them for some reason. And I'd give her another case or two before she stops because she realizes that she has to pick all of this up and pack it away again."

"Why are you packing Tasty Lombax Snax?" Sprocket asked, trying to wrap his head around why a Lombax would ever even try a snack so obviously packaged as an insult to Lombax kind.

"Like I said: Tangent likes them for some inexplicable reason. At least they're actually healthy."

Sprocket has been aged up from how he appears in Rangers Rumble, as that game depicts him in his prime during the Great War. Which, at this point, would have been roughly thirty years ago, give or take.

SINE of DESTINY (Ratchet & Clank AU SI)

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