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Description

Edit: Fixed typos and rewrote some awkward bits.

A starship moved purposefully through the blackness of space, it's smooth, rounded lines glinting in the starlight. Inside only the night crew stirred as it trucked along.

The theme from Bonanza bounced through the darkened cabin. The only two human eyes on the ship shot open.   With a yip of excitement he threw the covers off his bed and shouted: "Answer!" A glowing holographic screen bloomed from the desk in the corner revealing a head and shoulders. A ridge of purple hair bisected the blue face from forehead to nose. "Blue!" Rover cried, a massive smile splitting his face. "You're a sight for sore eyes! Ain't talked to you in a coon's age!"
"Rover..."
The human laughed. "You know one of these days I'm gonna find out just how old them coons are and get this thing down to an exact science. You gotta call more often, Little Blue, we're already at the far end of our route and we ain't found a bloomin' thing. And sharin' a ship with these guys is about as fun as countin' sand. Of course we did run into this mini nebula...Oh! I gotta tell you about that! The funniest thing h--"
Flyspur's voice was insistent. "Rover!"
He cocked his head as he noticed the pulsing purple spots under Flyspur's eyes and his serious expression. "What's with the spots, Blue? Get your tail caught in the washer again?"
"It's Soorn."

Rover's smile faded a bit at the name of his guardian, a tiny twinge of worry touching him. But he was being ridiculous. Surely he was fine. "What is it this time?" He asked with a small chuckle. "The crops get another bout of fungus? The roof start leakin' again?" Soorn was always complaining about things like that.

Flyspur let out a tiny chuff through his nose. "He--he's been hurt."
Rover felt a lump form in his throat and his chest tightened.  It was probably nothing. He had probably just pulled something bending over all them plants. "He's alright, though." He couldn't keep the tremor out of his voice.
Flyspur closed his eyes for just a moment, bracing himself for what he had to say. "I found him in the field in a deep blood sleep.  He'd been cut on some of his farming equipment. I...I don't know how long he had been there. He's in the medical facility on Oojin. He--"
But Rover was already out of his chair and reaching for his hat. "I'm commin'!"
Flyspur's holographic face flickered as the connection faltered. "I'm not sure you have time. He was in blood sleep too long.  They say his hearts--"
"I'll be there! And don't worry none, Blue. He'll be fine."
----
"SOORN!!"   Rover charged frantically through the door, his boots thumping against the hard, grainy floor, a nurse trailing him and shouting for him go stop running in the medical facility. He completely ignored her. He dropped to his knees beside a shallow tank of water surrounded by holoscreens. Flyspur sat on the other side silhouetted against the picture window and the setting sun but Rover scarcely noticed him, his focus was entirely on the figure in the water.
A trembling hand raised out of the tank . "You came."
"Course I came." Rover took Soorn's hand and held it close to his chest, water seeping into his shirt. "Blue said you were hurt. You're alright, though, ain't you? Blue, he always worries too much."  But as he looked him over a knot formed in his stomach. Soorn lay on his back, halfway submerged in the warm water. His usually bright blue skin had faded to a dull grey and his golden eyes hung half-closed as if it were too difficult to open them all the way. But what worried Rover the most was the massive purple gash on his leg. It was gelled over already but with the Jssfloon's naturally thin blood he could only imagine how much he had lost. But he was in the healing house now. Surely he was on the mend. Nothing could keep Soorn down.
Soorn managed a small smile. "I've been better." His voice was as tired as he looked.
"How did you get here so fast?" Flyspur asked. He looked almost as bad as Soorn with purple rings under his eyes, his hair uncombed and his soul spots, the dots under his eyes that appeared during heightened emotion, seemed to be set permenently in place. "I thought you were clear at the end of your route."
Rover grinned. "Hitched a ride with an Andretti Speeder. Boy them puppies can go! They're only one-seaters of course so I had to ride with the luggage, but that don't make no nevermind. Soorn, you wouldn't guess what I payed him..."
There was a polite 'ahem' from behind and Rover turned to find the nurse who had been chasing him still standing in the doorway. "Are you the..."   The nurse looked Rover over in curious disbelief. He was certainly not Jssfloon. "...family?"
Soorn glanced at Rover with a twinkle in his tired eyes and said: "You're darn tootin'."
Rover chuckled warmly. He always loved hearing human sayings in Soorn's soft Jssfloon accent.
The nurse looked down sadly. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss."
Rover's eyebrows lowered suspiciously. "Run that by me again?"

"I wanted to convey my sympathies over the loss of your...father."

Rover leapt to his feet and whirled around to face her. "What loss!?"
She took a timid step back, a little intimidated by the sudden reaction of the alien that now towered over her. "You didnt' know?"    She looked from Rover to Soorn. "He's dying."
Rover's mouth parted and he stared at her for a long moment before his eyebrows dipped in defiance. "No. NO! He just got a little roughed up is all. He's going to be fine!"
The nurse blinked in surprise. She had never encountered this reaction before. "I'm afraid not."
The human's expression darkened dangerously. "Then DO somethin' about it!"
Flyspur rose from his seat and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Rover, they..."
He shrugged him off "This is a hospital, ain't it?! Fixin' folks is your JOB!"
The nurse switched her tail nervously and retreated a few steps out of the room.
"Rover. I know you're upset but please stop acting like a child. They've done all they can." Even through the exhaustion Soorn managed to give him a demanding look.
"But..."
"Sit, please." He looked toward the nurse. “Thank you for all of your help.”
She nodded and gratefully left.
Rover lowered himself into the nearest chair feeling like he was going to throw up. Flyspur sat beside him. “It...it’s your hearts, ain’t it.” Rover pleaded. “They can restart them.  If they can do it for me they can do it for you.  They could even replace them! I know they can do that.” Rover's brows came together like a thundercloud as something occurred to him and he jumped to his feet again.  “They ain’t sluffin of because of that doggone Third thing, are they? Cuz I’ll march right out there and give them--”
“Rover...sit...down.” Soorn stabbed an insistent finger at the chair with one of his lower hands.
He dropped back down, in frustration and anguish.  The chair made for much smaller bodies, groaned beneath him.
“It’s not just his hearts. His heart string is going into a cascade failure.” Flyspur murmured. “They...can’t repair that.”
Rover followed Flyspur’s gaze to one of the monitors. On it was a vertical line with four circles equally spaced along it. The top one was still and only three were pulsing, a soft note sounding with each throb.  The second one seemed to be slowing down. Rover didn’t have to be told that they represented the four Jssfloon hearts.
“It’s alright, though.” Soorn said. “Both of you are here. With the two of you around I never feel like a Third.” He touched the side of the tank with both his upper and lower hand where Flyspur and Rover sat. “I couldn’t have a better family.  Your two remember that." His upper hand slid out of the water to touch Rover's hand, and his lower did the same for Flyspur. He squeezed them both.  "Family isn’t in the blood, it’s in the hearts.”

He let them go suddenly as he closed his eyes for a moment and with a small grunt a lower hand clutched his chest. When his eyes opened again he couldn’t seem to focus them.
The monitor’s second circle had stopped blinking.
Rover started to get up again. “No...no. I’m going to get the doctor. There’s gotta be somethin’--”
“Rover Finnigan.” Soorn’s voice was barely a whisper now but the double name stopped him in his tracks. “I haven’t the strength to shout at you. Please keep your tail...in that chair or so help me I’ll do whatever it is that human fathers do when they take their boys behind the barn .”
This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t happening. Rover thought as he settled back into his chair. It was a nightmare. Just another one of those horrible nightmares. Why sure. Any minute he would wake up in his bunk on the salvage ship, forgetting this whole mess as soon as he opened his eyes. But knowing that...thinking that didn’t stop the fact that his chest felt like it was going to implode.
Soorn beckoned weakly with a lower hand and choking back tears Rover leaned closer.
"The farm is yours now, Rover..."
"No…”
“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t make you work it.” Soorn's voice was growing quieter and he seemed to be struggling to keep his eyes open.   "I don't want you to keep it. I want you to sell it."
Rover shook his head, his mouth open but nothing came out. He loathed farming but to sell something that Soorn loved so much, he didn't think he could do it.
"Don't say 'no' to me, little traveler. You sell it, buy fancy ship you always wanted and fly off into that big beautiful sky you are so fond of." Soorn's wet four-fingered hand quivered as it reached up to touch Rover's cheek. "You find your people, your family...your mother and father."
Rover put his hand over Soorn's, tears finally slipping down his face. "You're my pa, Soorn. You. I...I don't need no one else."
A tiny smile touched The Jssfloon's mouth and his soul spots flushed a blissful purple. His lips parted to reply but the words never left him.  His face slowly relaxed and his yellow gaze settled somewhere over Rover's shoulder. His hand grew limp in Rover's grip and the first face Rover ever remembered seeing slipped under the water.

He didn’t have to see the still monitor, he didn't have to hear that the blips had gone silent.  He knew.
The first words in his memory swirled to the surface. “Hello, little traveler. I’m your friend.”
He bowed his head...and cried.

------
Sorry for that.

All Hi Ho Hyperdrive characters and species belong to me.

orig14.deviantart.net/ad3b/f/2…

Description

Edit: Fixed typos and rewrote some awkward bits.

A starship moved purposefully through the blackness of space, it's smooth, rounded lines glinting in the starlight. Inside only the night crew stirred as it trucked along.

The theme from Bonanza bounced through the darkened cabin. The only two human eyes on the ship shot open.   With a yip of excitement he threw the covers off his bed and shouted: "Answer!" A glowing holographic screen bloomed from the desk in the corner revealing a head and shoulders. A ridge of purple hair bisected the blue face from forehead to nose. "Blue!" Rover cried, a massive smile splitting his face. "You're a sight for sore eyes! Ain't talked to you in a coon's age!"
"Rover..."
The human laughed. "You know one of these days I'm gonna find out just how old them coons are and get this thing down to an exact science. You gotta call more often, Little Blue, we're already at the far end of our route and we ain't found a bloomin' thing. And sharin' a ship with these guys is about as fun as countin' sand. Of course we did run into this mini nebula...Oh! I gotta tell you about that! The funniest thing h--"
Flyspur's voice was insistent. "Rover!"
He cocked his head as he noticed the pulsing purple spots under Flyspur's eyes and his serious expression. "What's with the spots, Blue? Get your tail caught in the washer again?"
"It's Soorn."

Rover's smile faded a bit at the name of his guardian, a tiny twinge of worry touching him. But he was being ridiculous. Surely he was fine. "What is it this time?" He asked with a small chuckle. "The crops get another bout of fungus? The roof start leakin' again?" Soorn was always complaining about things like that.

Flyspur let out a tiny chuff through his nose. "He--he's been hurt."
Rover felt a lump form in his throat and his chest tightened.  It was probably nothing. He had probably just pulled something bending over all them plants. "He's alright, though." He couldn't keep the tremor out of his voice.
Flyspur closed his eyes for just a moment, bracing himself for what he had to say. "I found him in the field in a deep blood sleep.  He'd been cut on some of his farming equipment. I...I don't know how long he had been there. He's in the medical facility on Oojin. He--"
But Rover was already out of his chair and reaching for his hat. "I'm commin'!"
Flyspur's holographic face flickered as the connection faltered. "I'm not sure you have time. He was in blood sleep too long.  They say his hearts--"
"I'll be there! And don't worry none, Blue. He'll be fine."
----
"SOORN!!"   Rover charged frantically through the door, his boots thumping against the hard, grainy floor, a nurse trailing him and shouting for him go stop running in the medical facility. He completely ignored her. He dropped to his knees beside a shallow tank of water surrounded by holoscreens. Flyspur sat on the other side silhouetted against the picture window and the setting sun but Rover scarcely noticed him, his focus was entirely on the figure in the water.
A trembling hand raised out of the tank . "You came."
"Course I came." Rover took Soorn's hand and held it close to his chest, water seeping into his shirt. "Blue said you were hurt. You're alright, though, ain't you? Blue, he always worries too much."  But as he looked him over a knot formed in his stomach. Soorn lay on his back, halfway submerged in the warm water. His usually bright blue skin had faded to a dull grey and his golden eyes hung half-closed as if it were too difficult to open them all the way. But what worried Rover the most was the massive purple gash on his leg. It was gelled over already but with the Jssfloon's naturally thin blood he could only imagine how much he had lost. But he was in the healing house now. Surely he was on the mend. Nothing could keep Soorn down.
Soorn managed a small smile. "I've been better." His voice was as tired as he looked.
"How did you get here so fast?" Flyspur asked. He looked almost as bad as Soorn with purple rings under his eyes, his hair uncombed and his soul spots, the dots under his eyes that appeared during heightened emotion, seemed to be set permenently in place. "I thought you were clear at the end of your route."
Rover grinned. "Hitched a ride with an Andretti Speeder. Boy them puppies can go! They're only one-seaters of course so I had to ride with the luggage, but that don't make no nevermind. Soorn, you wouldn't guess what I payed him..."
There was a polite 'ahem' from behind and Rover turned to find the nurse who had been chasing him still standing in the doorway. "Are you the..."   The nurse looked Rover over in curious disbelief. He was certainly not Jssfloon. "...family?"
Soorn glanced at Rover with a twinkle in his tired eyes and said: "You're darn tootin'."
Rover chuckled warmly. He always loved hearing human sayings in Soorn's soft Jssfloon accent.
The nurse looked down sadly. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss."
Rover's eyebrows lowered suspiciously. "Run that by me again?"

"I wanted to convey my sympathies over the loss of your...father."

Rover leapt to his feet and whirled around to face her. "What loss!?"
She took a timid step back, a little intimidated by the sudden reaction of the alien that now towered over her. "You didnt' know?"    She looked from Rover to Soorn. "He's dying."
Rover's mouth parted and he stared at her for a long moment before his eyebrows dipped in defiance. "No. NO! He just got a little roughed up is all. He's going to be fine!"
The nurse blinked in surprise. She had never encountered this reaction before. "I'm afraid not."
The human's expression darkened dangerously. "Then DO somethin' about it!"
Flyspur rose from his seat and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Rover, they..."
He shrugged him off "This is a hospital, ain't it?! Fixin' folks is your JOB!"
The nurse switched her tail nervously and retreated a few steps out of the room.
"Rover. I know you're upset but please stop acting like a child. They've done all they can." Even through the exhaustion Soorn managed to give him a demanding look.
"But..."
"Sit, please." He looked toward the nurse. “Thank you for all of your help.”
She nodded and gratefully left.
Rover lowered himself into the nearest chair feeling like he was going to throw up. Flyspur sat beside him. “It...it’s your hearts, ain’t it.” Rover pleaded. “They can restart them.  If they can do it for me they can do it for you.  They could even replace them! I know they can do that.” Rover's brows came together like a thundercloud as something occurred to him and he jumped to his feet again.  “They ain’t sluffin of because of that doggone Third thing, are they? Cuz I’ll march right out there and give them--”
“Rover...sit...down.” Soorn stabbed an insistent finger at the chair with one of his lower hands.
He dropped back down, in frustration and anguish.  The chair made for much smaller bodies, groaned beneath him.
“It’s not just his hearts. His heart string is going into a cascade failure.” Flyspur murmured. “They...can’t repair that.”
Rover followed Flyspur’s gaze to one of the monitors. On it was a vertical line with four circles equally spaced along it. The top one was still and only three were pulsing, a soft note sounding with each throb.  The second one seemed to be slowing down. Rover didn’t have to be told that they represented the four Jssfloon hearts.
“It’s alright, though.” Soorn said. “Both of you are here. With the two of you around I never feel like a Third.” He touched the side of the tank with both his upper and lower hand where Flyspur and Rover sat. “I couldn’t have a better family.  Your two remember that." His upper hand slid out of the water to touch Rover's hand, and his lower did the same for Flyspur. He squeezed them both.  "Family isn’t in the blood, it’s in the hearts.”

He let them go suddenly as he closed his eyes for a moment and with a small grunt a lower hand clutched his chest. When his eyes opened again he couldn’t seem to focus them.
The monitor’s second circle had stopped blinking.
Rover started to get up again. “No...no. I’m going to get the doctor. There’s gotta be somethin’--”
“Rover Finnigan.” Soorn’s voice was barely a whisper now but the double name stopped him in his tracks. “I haven’t the strength to shout at you. Please keep your tail...in that chair or so help me I’ll do whatever it is that human fathers do when they take their boys behind the barn .”
This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t happening. Rover thought as he settled back into his chair. It was a nightmare. Just another one of those horrible nightmares. Why sure. Any minute he would wake up in his bunk on the salvage ship, forgetting this whole mess as soon as he opened his eyes. But knowing that...thinking that didn’t stop the fact that his chest felt like it was going to implode.
Soorn beckoned weakly with a lower hand and choking back tears Rover leaned closer.
"The farm is yours now, Rover..."
"No…”
“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t make you work it.” Soorn's voice was growing quieter and he seemed to be struggling to keep his eyes open.   "I don't want you to keep it. I want you to sell it."
Rover shook his head, his mouth open but nothing came out. He loathed farming but to sell something that Soorn loved so much, he didn't think he could do it.
"Don't say 'no' to me, little traveler. You sell it, buy fancy ship you always wanted and fly off into that big beautiful sky you are so fond of." Soorn's wet four-fingered hand quivered as it reached up to touch Rover's cheek. "You find your people, your family...your mother and father."
Rover put his hand over Soorn's, tears finally slipping down his face. "You're my pa, Soorn. You. I...I don't need no one else."
A tiny smile touched The Jssfloon's mouth and his soul spots flushed a blissful purple. His lips parted to reply but the words never left him.  His face slowly relaxed and his yellow gaze settled somewhere over Rover's shoulder. His hand grew limp in Rover's grip and the first face Rover ever remembered seeing slipped under the water.

He didn’t have to see the still monitor, he didn't have to hear that the blips had gone silent.  He knew.
The first words in his memory swirled to the surface. “Hello, little traveler. I’m your friend.”
He bowed his head...and cried.

------
Sorry for that.

All Hi Ho Hyperdrive characters and species belong to me.

orig14.deviantart.net/ad3b/f/2…