"May I ask... what you are? About your wings, I mean?" asked Joshua nervously, as they wandered through into the main living quarters of the ice-bound complex. It was the following day - or so the doctor maintained - the sun having made its brief appearance while Josh had been asleep.
One of the reasons he was nervous was because Joshua was sure that despite his own shocked state, his host hadn't had wings the day before.
"I'm an Angel," Kris replied, with a slightly sharp edge to his voice. "There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"Oh no," he replied hastily. "But you didn't have wings last night...?"
"No. I was afraid that waking up in the hands of a Creature would spook you on top of the aftermath of your revival, so I concealed them with a patch."
"Ah, I was just wondering."
"So was I," said the doctor in a faintly amused tone. "You still haven't really explained who you are, or how you came to be skulking around in the Arctic with a bullet hole in your chest."
Joshua was about to reply when a small black creature drifted slowly past them carrying two frying-pans joined together by a piece of string, clanging faintly as they banged together in the breeze. Kris froze and then went berserk.
"Kirian, what the HELL do you think you're DOING?" he screamed.
"Fishing," the little creature replied happily in a vaguely female voice.
The doctor put his hands over his eyes. "Put the pans back where you found them," he said in a voice of forced patience, as though he was talking to a small child, "and do not enter the kitchens again. That is an ORDER."
The thing didn't really reply, but floated back in the opposite direction singing some nonsensical words to herself. Joshua watched her recede until a faint beep from behind made him glance around.
"Yes, Dad?" said a tiny voice from Kristofer's wrist. The white wolf was staring at his watch and talking to it in a tired voice.
"Nilson," he said, "Your little... pet... has been stealing things from the kitchens again. Can you please try to keep her under control?"
"Not again," came the voice of the grey vulpine. "Where is she now?"
"Hopefully going back to the kitchens, but I'd like you to make sure she doesn't get distracted or something. Oh, and check that she hasn't been hoarding food again."
"Righto," he said and the watch fell silent with a burst of static, the tiny image of the fox's face vanishing to be replaced the time once again.
"What was that... creature?" Joshua asked in a tone of bewilderment.
"That was Kirian, my son's Warp-Aci," the doctor replied. "He summoned her as an end-of-year project while studying magic at university. She can be rather trying at times, although there's no denying we're short-staffed here. Still, I wish he could have summoned a more... psychologically stable familiar."
"Warp-Aci?" he replied, a faint air of suspicion and puzzlement in his voice. "Aren't they usually the preserve of 'cubi?"
"Not necessarily. Anyone with the right kind of magical know-how can do it. I'll admit it's a bit more difficult for us, Angels being better at Light magic and all, but it's not insurmountable. The main thing is that not many Creatures can be bothered to deal with their incessant whinging - or insanity.
"Now, I guess we could stand here all day discussing Kirian or Warp-Acis in general, and ordinarily I'd be happy to do that, but I do believe you were about to tell me who you are, and more importantly, what you were doing here."
"Is it really so important?" asked Joshua reluctantly.
"Yes. There are a number of people out to kill me. And while the fact that you were the one who was running leads me to suspect that you are relatively harmless, I don't believe in taking chances."
"All right," Joshua said. He would have sighed, but that ability didn't really work anymore... it was all he could do to make his voice sound relatively normal.
"I'm a spy. I was sent to break into a suspected weapons facility in the Northlands and see if it really was a weapons plant."
"An industrial espionage gig, hmm?" Kris' eyes narrowed. After my secrets, are you? he thought to himself. We'll have to see about that.
"More-or-less. The facility was being run by the Nagristi brotherhood."
Kris froze. "I see," he murmured, his eyes narrowing even more.
"That's not good. They're one of the groups who are after my head. But how did you end up here?"
"I went to the complex in a light aircraft, but unfortunately they had some of their own as well. I almost got caught while I was trying to leave the facility, and they pursued me by air after I took off.
"Their plane wasn't armed, but they still managed to put a bullet through the fuel line with small-arms fire. I was forced to make an emergency landing around here. Then they landed too, and came to finish me off.
"I lost them in the snow, but not before they put a bullet through me as well."
And then there's the other facility I was sent to find afterwards, he thought to himself.
Kris gave him a curious look, as if he had half-guessed that Joshua was holding something back, but he didn't press the husky for any more details.
"While we're on the subject, how did you spot me in all this snow?" the husky asked.
"As I said, there are a number of people who'd like to see me dead," said Kris, "so the complex has quite a tight security net. You were actually spotted by one of my falcons."
Joshua didn't really know what to make of that. "Falcons? What do you mean?" he asked, thinking of feral hawks, avians or perhaps some breed of Phoenix. But neither of these seemed particularly likely in this ice-veiled wasteland. The icy wastes of Hell, he thought suddenly.
"They're patrol aircraft," the doctor replied. "F-16 falcons equipped with thermal imaging systems."
A puzzled expression crept over the husky's face. "F-16? I've never heard of that designation. Where do they come from?"
"Oh, I hired them from another world, a realm inhabited by humans. A little place called 'Earth'."
"Hired?" grinned Joshua, "Don't you mean 'stole'? I've heard of interplanar travel, but it's not like you can pay the lease by direct debit."
"No, I really do mean 'hired' - just not in the sense you're thinking of. These falcons are my employees."
"Employees?" he said - his voice making a passable impression of spluttering - "What on Furrae are you talking about?"
"They are not merely vehicles," said Kris, with a smile. "They're sentient machines. These poor creatures were going to be sent off to fight in some pointless and idiotic war in their home dimension and country.
"They were willing to do almost anything to avoid that, so I stepped in. Once I'd convinced them that I was on the level, they jumped at the chance and since then they have taught me virtually everything I know about robotics and artificial intelligence. They even helped me design your body, in fact."
Joshua was boggled. Perhaps it was because he'd been exposed to such an incredible amount of strangeness in so short a time, but - perhaps as part of his attempt to keep his hold on reality - he was once again wearing that cynical expression that had graced his features when Kris had told him he was a robot.
"Okay," he said. "For the sake of argument I'll accept that your complex is patrolled by true AIs in aircraft form. But the part I don't understand is this - if they came from a human realm, how did you wander around without attracting attention to yourself?"
"That's another patch," said Kristofer, and placed a small ring upon his finger. He shimmered and was replaced by a human.
"Nice trick," said Joshua, and clapped his hands. For a moment I was afraid you were an incubus, he thought, but he didn't say it - the doctor might think he was prejudiced against Angels as well.
"You know, Farlane reacted in about the same way you did," said Kris, removing the ring again. "He's the commander, by the way. I'll take you to him later, if you're up to it.
"But anyway. Naturally enough, he was skeptical of my claims of being a dimensional traveller. Only for him, I took the ring off."
He smiled, remembering the moment when he'd turned into a winged wolf-man right before the big aircraft's eyes, like some twisted circus act.
"And for an encore, I made five jetfighters disappear without them leaving their hangar," he laughed. "I wish I could have seen their commander's face when he found it was empty.
"But the real pièce-de-résistance was the guards." Kris touched his watch.
"What guards?" said Joshua. "I haven't seen any..."
Before he could finish, one of the bulkhead doors opened, and something large, black and snow-flecked, with glowing crimson eyes padded towards them.
"Come here, please," said Kris.
"Yes, Master," the creature replied in a stilted, obviously synthetic voice. He, she, or possibly it, was a robot in the form of a feral panther. The teeth and claws looked formidable, and Joshua shivered.
"Where is R-MAC?" asked Kris.
"He is inspecting the service bay, Master." the panther replied.
"Good. What time is it?" he added.
"It is twelve fourty-three, Master." said the panther immediately.
"Very good, you may go," said Kris and the robot padded off.
"Not very bright is it?" Joshua remarked, and to his horror the panther came to a halt and glanced back at him.
"He didn't mean it," called Kris. "They are my guards," he added for Joshua.
"They may not be all that smart, but they are sentient and it would not be a good idea to provoke them unless you wish to test my safety interlocks."
"Duly noted," Joshua replied, as they marched towards what he guessed was the service bay.
"Mac," called Kris, "are you in there?"
"Yes boss, coming up," called a voice that was rather different from the previous speaker.
Although the panther, when he finally emerged, looked almost identical to the other guard, the way he moved and the way he spoke exuded an air of intelligence that suggested he was at least as smart as Joshua - maybe smarter.
"What time is it?" Josh couldn't resist asking.
"Time you got a watch," replied the panther. "You're the new guy, right?"
"I guess so," Joshua replied. "And you are...?"
"Panther R-MAC," he replied, "while I haven't officially earned a name, Kris has very graciously christened me 'Mac' and upgraded me to full spec anyway. That's probably illegal, but I ain't complaining and besides, I'm not sure Earth laws apply here anyway."
"I'm not sure I follow," said Joshua.
"Okay, it's like this. We start off as grunts," he replied. "With the same basic memory set that was programmed in at the factory. Since you asked me the time I guess you've spoken to one just now.
"Anyway, after a few years of guard duty, we tend to learn and grow. Panthers who display a natural aptitude or accomplish a feat of loyalty, intelligence compassion or whatever are granted a name as a reward, and usually upgraded to support higher intelligence. Kris did it to me anyway, even though I wouldn't have qualified under Guild rules."
"Thanks Mac," said Kris. "But we'll have to catch you later. Right now, it's time for Joshua to meet Farlane."