Minna made it all of thirty seconds before she moved to the front of the shuttle and overrode the autopilot. I felt a surge of speed and saw the ground speed by faster through the cockpit window. My claws dug into Minna's shirt a little more from my growing nervousness as we raced along.

It took about two minutes of Minna's piloting before the crash came into view. A jagged furrow cut through the street and yards, visible even from high in the air in the dark of night, and flames flickered randomly along the trail. The streak ended at the side of a building, where a ship the size of a building had slammed into the side of a large Kymari house.

More details became clear in the few seconds it took Minna to close the distance. A tree had been snapped in half in the ship's path. The material the streets were made of had turned a bright gray color, almost white, and had a huge chunk scooped out of them where the ship had traveled. Something that reminded me vaguely of a cleaning robot was smashed into a hunk of metal in the street. The yard the ship had come to rest in was ruined - dirt had been scattered everywhere, and the few clumps of grass that I could still make out were being consumed in smoldering embers cast off by the crash.

I wasn't sure what the ship was supposed to look like, but it looked damaged. The front of it had run into the building and smashed through the wall, leaving a giant hole in the side of the building, and the hull seemed to have been flattened in places that probably should have been curved. There were random holes in the ship where pieces were simply missing, probably lying somewhere in the swath of destruction leading up to the house. Smoke billowed up from the crash, but it was hard to tell just how far into the night sky it stretched.

Through the window I could see two other shuttles parked on one side of the yard. Several Kymari huddled near one of the shuttles, with most lying on the ground while a few moved between them in a flurry of activity. A group of what looked to be fifteen heavily armed guards formed half a ring around the building and the crash. As we flew over the yard I spotted a pair of injured Kymari and a heavily armed guard emerging from one of the jagged rips in the crash. The guard escorted the two injured Kymari through the ring and towards the parked shuttles, where one of the standing Kymari guided the injured Kymari to the ground and began running some kind of handheld machine over them.

Kymari triage? The equivalent of EMTs, helping the injured?

Minna guided our shuttle to an open area beside the other two. Some of the Kymari on the ground looked up as Minna flew towards the other parked shuttles, and one of the guards began to run towards us as we settled down.

I got a good look at the other buildings around this one as Minna messed with various controls on the console. They were all houses. Not the buildings the Kymari used for business. Not places that would be empty until morning.

Homes.

I felt more nervousness and pressure as I glanced at the neighborhood. I doubted anybody was still asleep after the noise of the ship crashing, especially this close to the source, but it would still mean there were a lot of potentially helpless targets for the sicora to go after. Could the sicora do that? Find its way into those houses and kill the people inside?

A quick check through the Blood Memories informed me that the sicora not only could do that, but quite happily would. Even if it was hurt from the crash, if it got loose in this neighborhood... people would die.

Unless we caught it first.

Unless I caught it first.

"Ivy?" I tried to reach the green dragonet again, but again only got the strange echo that told me my thoughts hadn't reached her.

The soft hum of the shuttle finished dying down. Minna tapped a button on the console and opened the door. I felt my claws dig deeper into the padding woven into her shirt as she climbed out of the shuttle. What was I supposed to do? Just track the sicora, but how did I do that? Was it like the smell that had been in the disk, the one Ivy had called a ktari?

I sniffed the air. There were a lot of strong scents in the air. Acrid scents of burned ozone, something I remembered from working with electrical wiring. Smoke. Melted plastic, or something close enough to it. Burning grass.

I tried to ignore those and focus on the subtler scents. I could smell fear in the air - a nervousness coming from Minna and from the guards nearby. I could smell excitement. I could smell flowers, some healthy and sweet and some dying and rotten, and I could smell squirrels and other small animals that lived in the city. I could smell stagnant water somewhere in the distance. I could smell the faint scent of whatever engine the shuttles used lingering around them. I could smell the Kymari themselves.

I could smell blood.

The scent Minna had trained me on was not present. I felt myself growing more anxious. What was I supposed to do? I felt a vague need to find the sicora and stop it, to kill it, but... how?

The Kymari that I had seen approaching the shuttle finally reached us and waved for Minna's attention. "Sorry to drag you out of bed this late, but thank you for coming. Did they fill you in on the situation?"

"They think a sicora may have killed the pilot on approach?"

The guard snorted. "No 'may have' about it. We haven't reached the bridge yet - somebody on the crew managed to seal off the front of the ship - but the traffic controller saw it happen on the video feed. We were waiting for you before going in. The sicora looked small, but there's definitely one loose in there."

I felt Minna's grip on my leash tighten a little.

"My name is Ketzel; I'm in charge here. They told us you would need armor; we have a set waiting for you. Do you have a team of guards coming?"

Minna shook her head. "No. I haven't been assigned to patrols yet; I don't have a team. Nate and I are still training, and like I told the person who called me, I'm not sure he knows enough to lead us to a sicora scent. I've only worked on a few easier scents with him."

The guard looked a little frustrated but nodded. "Understood. We'll assume that he isn't able to track yet just to be on the safe side. You're still giving us a lot better chance than we had otherwise. The armor is waiting in that shuttle. We'll go as soon as you're ready."

"Thanks." Minna dipped her head politely and went over to the shuttle in question. She sat me down and began putting on a set of the same plated material I saw the rest of the guards wearing.

I waited by the door and tried sniffing the air again in case I could make out anything. There was nothing new. "Ivy?"

Still no answer.

Minna finished dressing and placed me back on her shoulder. She took a deep breath... then took another. I could tell she was nervous.

Worried.

"We can do this. Just stay behind the guards. Keep hold of Nate's leash. Watch his reaction, watch for him getting excited, let him bring you to the sicora, and keep him out of the fighting. Easy. Just let him do what fire lizards do." She took another deep breath. "Easy."

Finally, she began walking out of the shuttle. "Okay. Let's catch a sicora."

Minna ducked back out of the shuttle... and the guard we had met - Ketzel - dove into a flurry of activity. He motioned towards Minna and began jogging towards the ship. Minna followed after him, and I slunk down lower to hold on to the armor now covering her shoulders.

Ketzel motioned at guards along the ring while we moved. "You, you, and you; with the handler, your first and only priority from here on out is her protection. You, you, you; maintain the perimeter and keep the injured and medics safe. Do not pursue any sicora you see; call it in if you see one. You, override the lockdown and open up the rest of the ship. Everyone else, move in and make your way to the bridge. All the passengers should be clear now; our priority is to get any remaining crewmembers out, then to track down the sicora!"

Each guard began moving as the orders were called out. The ring collapsed around us, with the exception of three Kymari with a depressingly large amount of ground uncovered in between them. The three guards assigned to protect Minna holstered the guns they had been holding and brought out long, wicked looking spears as they moved next to us.

I did not like the look of those weapons, and I did not know who any of these Kymari were, and I was already pretty nervous from the situation. My on-edge instincts overruled my calmer sense that told me they shouldn't be a danger. I began to hiss at them as they closed around us.

Minna brought one hand up and gave me a comforting pat. "Easy. They won't hurt you." She glanced at the guards and made a gentle shooing motion with her free hand. "Can you give him a little more space? He's not used to this, and I need to be certain he's reacting to a sicora if he gets agitated."

Our guards didn't seem to like it... but they nodded and put a few more paces between us. I relaxed a little and stopped hissing.

Ketzel slowed to run next to us as the rest of the guards made their way into the crash. To call what they were entering a 'door' was inaccurate - it may still count as a doorway, technically, but the crash had warped the edges too badly for it to still count as a door. It was just a giant piece of metal that had once been an airlock, and was now a flap hanging over a corridor into the ship.

"We'll move ahead and secure the path. If he detects anything, let us know. Don't follow it on your own, no matter how minor. I want somebody else going ahead of you at every point; I do not need to worry about having to rush to rescue you. Keep us informed of anything, and let me decide if it's minor or not." Ketzel looked at Minna sternly.

Minna nodded. "Got it."

"Good." Ketzel turned back to the crash and ran faster. He made a sweeping motion with his free hand and shouted to all of us. "Okay, let's move! Time to catch this thing before it gets anyone else!"

Ketzel ducked into the crash, joining the guards that had already gone in.

We joined him a few seconds later.

I still couldn't smell anything unusual.