Home, Sweet Home

by speedfweak

Grant and Chiana find themselves in an unusual situation.

1. Getting there...

TITLE: Home, Sweet Home

AUTHOR: player

RATING: R - Graphic violence, language, and some sexual situations.

SPOILERS: Season 1, and Season 2 up to OoTM.

SUMMARY: Sorry, I can't do it this time either. Anything I write would give too much away. Well, that's not entirely true. I CAN say that... Oh, never mind. I won't say anything at all. You'll just have to read the fic. :)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters, the Jim Henson Company does, and... Like I said before, yadda, yadda, yadda.

ARCHIVING: If you want it, ask me first.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth of ten fics in "The Grant Chronicles". Yeah, I finally came up with a name. I know it's not much, but at least it's something. And something is always better than nothing, right? Besides, I may come up with a new one someday. And you saw right. I said ten fics when I originally said six. I had this nagging thought in the back of my brain about the way I had originally intended to end the series. So, I came up with three more fics that will tie in with the rest of the series and will tie some plotlines up, and I came up a smut fic for some friends and anyone who wants to read it. However, the smut fic is not required reading. It's just for fun.

Anyway, the previous fics are "Going Home?", "A Mother's Love", and "To Kill For". Just like I've said before, "Going Home?" takes place two weeks after OoTM, so most of the events that happened after that never happened in this AU series. If you want to understand what's going on in this story, you need to read those other three fics.

Sharon, I can't begin to tell you how much you mean to me and how much you have helped me... But I can say I love you... Thanks once more to 13thNight and Aleria, and their "red pens" for being my absolutely fantastic beta readers.

Flashbacks denoted by asterisks.


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She punched the red triangular Peacekeeper practice dummy in front of her, denting the leather. Quickly spinning around, she backhanded it and, spinning around to the other side, she elbowed it hard. Instantaneously, she swung out her arm, backhanding it again. She immediately brought her arms up, protecting her torso against the enemy she imagined the dummy to be, and repeatedly kneed it in its center. After kneeing it one last time, she spun around and swung her leg out, kicking the dummy as hard as she could with a spinning back kick.

Stepping back slightly, she crouched and rested her hands on her knees. She stared at the beaten dummy and tried to slow her breathing to calm herself as her heart pounded in her chest. With a sigh, she slowly stood up and walked out of the bedroom to the stool in front of the strategy table at the front of her quarters. Sitting down with a groan, she rested her sore elbows on her sore knees and let her head fall. She silently thanked Talyn for showing her the Peacekeeper fighting techniques in his data stores.

'Are you okay?' Talyn asked worriedly.

Looking up, Natalie said, "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

'You stopped so suddenly. You've never done that before.'

She pulled the band holding her ponytail in place, letting her hair fall onto her shoulders. Smoothing her tousled hair back, she redid the ponytail and softly said, "I'm just tired, Talyn. I needed a break. And..." she paused as she spun around in her seat, facing the table. She activated it, holographically displaying the first set of equations in front of her, and said, "I need to get back to work."

'You've been working for the past seven monens, Natalie. Why don't you stop for a while, so you can actually get some rest?'

"I can't stop, Talyn," she answered with a sigh. "If I stop, the damn thing just might reset, then I'll have to start all over again."

'You could be right. But just think about getting some rest. Working that hard can't possibly be good for you.'

"You're starting to sound like my mother," she said with a laugh.

'That's not a good thing, is it?'

"Well... No, it isn't," she laughingly said.

'I didn't think so.'

If Talyn had a face, Natalie knew he would be smiling. With a smile of her own, she began to study the equations in front of her, hoping to find the answer. After a quarter-arn of studying the same equation, she yelled in frustration, "Frell."

She rested her elbows on the table in front of her, clasped her hands, and rested her chin against them with a sigh. She stared at the hologram, but all she saw was a blur of numbers and alien letters. She had had enough.

Shutting off the console, she sat up, closed her eyes, and reached up to rub her neck. "Hey, Talyn," she said. "I'm going offline for a little while."

'You're not going to break anything this time, are you?' Talyn jokingly asked.

Natalie chuckled and said, "Actually, I was thinking about breaking a couple of DRDs. You know how fun they are to beat up."

'Well, just be careful, all right? I don't want you getting hurt.'

"Don't worry about me, Talyn," she said as she reached for her transponder. "I can take care of myself," she added, as she removed it.

She pushed herself up off her stool and walked to her nightstand in her bedroom, pulling off the access chip that hung on a piece of insulated wire around her neck. Opening the top drawer, she inserted the chip into the lock on her lockbox, opened it, and carefully placed the transponder inside next to the spare.

With a sigh, she closed the drawer and walked to where the practice dummy awaited and separated the bedroom and the office. She walked up to the dummy and stared at it. She went over the depressions on its surface from her previous exertions after frustrating sessions of working on the encrypted data crystal, the one that John had given to her before Moya and Talyn and their crews reluctantly went their separate ways.

After D'Argo's funeral, everyone separated and went to their respective ships. Natalie had seen Crais holding his head up high in defiance as he walked to one of Moya's golden transport pods. A part of her had wanted to laugh, and she felt guilty about it. D'Argo's body had been turned into ashes and his skeleton had just been buried inside the chapel. It just wasn't right to laugh then. With Chiana by her side, she walked in silence back to Moya's transport pod she had piloted down with Talyn and Pilot's help. Once back aboard their Leviathans, John and Aeryn quickly gathered their belongings and transferred them to Moya. With Chiana's, Natalie's, and Crais' help, they also transferred one of the Marauders and three of the Prowlers.

Chiana had gone back to Talyn first using the umbilical between the Leviathans that was helping to transfer nutrients from Moya to Talyn, leaving Natalie on Moya. As Natalie walked up to the air lock leading to the umbilical, John stopped her and gave her a copy of the data crystal he had confiscated from Scorpius. He'd had Pilot copy all the information from the original bloodstained crystal to another they had on board. He knew the information was encrypted and thought that she would like to try to 'crack the code' as he put it. He said he would contact her if he managed to find the code to unlock the decryption sequence and access the information, and asked her to do the same if she accessed it first. She promised she would and took the crystal. After one last hug, she had walked through the umbilical to Talyn and had starburst away.

Now, seven monens later she was still working on trying to decrypt the information. In one of Moya's messages to Talyn, she said that John hadn't had any luck either. She said he wanted to break the code for her so Natalie could go home, not because he wanted to go home. He had made a promise to Aeryn and he was going to keep it.

She could feel the anger build inside her as she thought about all the days and nights she had spent in her quarters at her console, working on decrypting the information. She managed to answer the first equations that she hardly understood on several occasions by sheer luck. However, usually after she entered the correct answer for the first set of questions, she would get the first answer wrong on the second set of questions. Then the sequence would reset and she would have to start all over again with a different set of equations.

Suddenly, she punched the dummy as hard as she could with a yell, knocking it back slightly. As it came back up, she repeatedly punched it using different combinations: two rights and a left to the 'head'; a left to the midsection with two right jabs to the head, then a left hook; an elbow across the 'head' followed by another elbow to the midsection, then she jumped back with a left side-kick.

She punched, elbowed, kneed, chopped, and kicked the dummy as hard as she could, seeing the bag as each person she had been forced to face since arriving in the Uncharted Territories, from McDaniel to Kcrackic and his men on the commerce planet, to the Peacekeeper she had killed on the Gammak Base - the first person she had ever killed. She also saw the mine owners and their guards and gunners on the mining colony, Barig and Rallin on the commerce station, Dalek, and the Marauder and Prowler pilots. She saw the crew of the command carrier that had been destroyed. Then there were the Nebari whom she couldn't get out of her mind.

Drenched in sweat, Natalie slowed out of exhaustion and punched the dummy one last time. Her breathing labored and her heart pounding in her chest, she leaned forward against it and rested her arms on top of it, then rested her head on her arms. She closed her eyes and thought about those Nebari.


************************************


"Hey, Natalie, ya there?" she heard John ask through the comms.

She shot up from her seat against the right forward pylon on the floor. Running to the comms console, she said, "It's about damn time you contacted me. I've been going out of my mind up here."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, but we've got a big problem."

"What?" she and Talyn asked simultaneously, but John couldn't hear Talyn.

"There's a Nebari ship leaving the planet. They've got a copy of the data crystal. So, you're going to have to take them out, Natalie."

"Why?" she asked, hoping it was something she could refuse. "What's on the crystal?"

"Wormhole information."

She closed her eyes, letting her head fall, and thought, 'Damn.' She knew if the Nebari got their hands on wormhole technology they could screw the universe. She and Talyn didn't have a choice. "I'll be back in a sec," she said and closed the comms channel. "Talyn," she said, looking back at his beta channel. "Where are they now?"

'They're emerging from the atmosphere.'

Natalie sighed, turning around to look out Talyn's forward portholes, and said, "Well, you heard the man. Let's go get 'em. But be careful, okay?"

'Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself,' he said, sounding annoyed.

"Right," she mumbled. 'Typical teenager,' she silently added.

Catching up with the Expresser as it left the planet's atmosphere, Talyn formed up behind it and activated his main cannon. He targeted the Nebari ship and fired a single shot. The Expresser turned at the last second, narrowly avoiding it. The ship set course for the massive debris field that had been the command carrier in an attempt to lose Talyn, but Talyn changed course and stayed with them.

"Jam their comms. They may try to contact their host ship."

'They're already sending out a coded signal,' he yelled. 'I'm blocking the transmission now.'

"Do you know how much of the signal got through?"

'No.'

"Damn. Well, let's hope we cut enough of it off so the host ship won't come get us. I don't really feel like being mind-cleansed today."

'So, when will you feel like being mind-cleansed?'

Natalie chuckled and said, "You're starting to sound like me."

'Really?'

"Yup."

'I guess I'll take that as a compliment.'

"Don't. It's not a good thing," she deadpanned as she watched the Expresser enter the field, avoiding flying metal debris.

'All right,' he said dryly and increased his speed as he came up on the field.

"Be careful in there."

'I know,' he said annoyed.

"Just trying to help."

Targeting a large chunk of tangled wreckage as they entered the field, Talyn destroying it and said, 'I don't need your help.'

"Oh, of course you don't," she said with a knowing smirk as she looked back at his beta channel. Looking back out at the debris field, in surprise, she asked, "Where'd he go?"

Talyn slowed and began scanning the wreckage for anything that didn't match the metals and composites that Peacekeepers used in their ships. Weaving through the flying wreckage, he and Natalie searched in grids and were able to see around some of the smaller debris. Unfortunately, the larger pieces of wreckage blocked their view. Banking around a large piece of debris, they saw the Expresser directly in front of them with its main weapon at the ready. Before Talyn could do anything, the Nebari fired. The blast hit Talyn's main cannon, disabling it and many other systems, and knocked Natalie to the deck with small explosions erupting all around her. Fortunately, Natalie was okay and the gun and other systems were all still salvageable.

"Oh, there they are," she said as she gripped the console in front of her and pulled herself up. She smoothed back her hair and planted her hands on the console. She ordered, "Talyn, give me ramming speed."

'What?' Talyn exclaimed. 'I still have my secondary cannons...'

"Talyn, just do it, okay? I've got a plan." She turned to look back at his beta channel and softly added, "Trust me."

'I trust you,' Talyn immediately responded.

"Then give me ramming speed and do what I tell you," she softly said. Walking up to his beta channel, she reached up to touch him and added, "I promise that I'll try to not get you killed."

Natalie walked back to the right override console, bracing herself against it. Once he was certain that Natalie was ready, Talyn immediately started his run at full power, building speed and momentum as he raced head-on towards the Nebari ship.

"You know, someone once said that the hardest part about playing Chicken is knowing when to flinch," Natalie said offhandedly.

'Who said that?'

"I don't remember. It was just some guy in a movie I once saw. Are they targeting us?"

'No, they're just sitting there waiting for us.'

"They want to get us point blank," she mumbled, as the Expresser loomed larger and larger in Talyn's forward portholes. As the distance between the two ships shrank, Natalie saw a Nebari standing in the forward porthole of the Expresser. She thought she recognized the man standing there, but she was still too far away to be sure. In fact, she thought he looked like Meelak, and whispered, "What the hell..."

Breaking Natalie's reverie, Talyn warned, 'They're marshalling power for their main weapon.'

"I see it," Natalie said and looked down at the console. She looked back up and saw that the Nebari had disappeared. She added, "Hold your course."

The two remained silent for several microts as they sped towards the Nebari ship.

'They're ready to fire,' Talyn suddenly yelled.

"Dive," Natalie yelled back. "Target them and fire, now."

Talyn immediately dove to his left, targeting the Nebari ship as ordered, and fired at it with all four of his secondary cannons. All four blasts hit the Nebari ship as it was preparing to fire. The Expresser was heavily shielded, but the blasts overloaded the ship's own weapons system, causing it to explode in an immense fireball. The blast rocked Talyn and sent Natalie crashing to the floor.

Natalie gripped the console, slowly pulling herself off the floor, and asked, "Are there any survivors?"

'No. I'm not seeing any life signs.'

"How 'bout body parts? Is there any intact organic material that might help us to figure out who exactly was on board that ship?"

'No.'

"Damn."

'What's wrong?'

"Did you see that Nebari in the window? I could've sworn that was Meelak..."

'Are you sure? If it was, then John would've known... If he knew, then why would he lie to us?'

"I don't know..."

'Are you going to ask him?'

"No... It'll probably be for the best if I don't. But I do have to tell him something..." Opening a comms channel through her link to Talyn, Natalie solemnly said, "It's done, John. Talyn took 'em out."


************************************


With a sigh, Natalie tried to drive out the thoughts of the Nebari ship, but to no avail. She couldn't help but think about the Nebari she had seen in the porthole. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw the male Nebari's blurred face. If it weren't for the fact that female and male Nebari hair differed in color, she wouldn't have known he was male, and she probably wouldn't be going through what she was. Because of his hair, she couldn't help but think that the Nebari might've been Meelak - the man who was responsible for Zhaan's madness and for tricking John and the others into stealing the data crystal. A part of her wanted to know who he had been to clear her conscience, despite what she told Talyn. However, she still wasn't very sure if that's what she really wanted. But it was either that, or she wanted to kick John's ass for lying to her. She couldn't make up her mind.

Feeling something tapping her booted foot, she opened her eyes to see one of Talyn's DRDs bumping into her foot. "Hey," she quietly said with a smile, gaining the DRD's attention. "Stop that."

The DRD squeaked in response.

"I'm okay, Talyn," she said softly, knowing that the Leviathan was trying to speak to her through the small droid. "I'm just tired. But at least I didn't break anything."

The DRD turned around and scurried away out of the bedroom and into a small hole in the wall on the other side of the main room between the couch and rib

Unexpectedly, the hatch to her quarters opened, drawing Natalie's attention to it. As she straightened up, she saw Chiana standing there with a plate of something she couldn't recognize and a bottle of raslac.

Chiana stepped through the hatch, walked over to the table, and set down the plate and cup. She looked at Natalie and said, "You forgot about dinner again. So I figured I'd come to you."

"Yeah," Natalie said sheepishly. "I was just working."

"Oh, really?" Chiana asked sarcastically with a smirk.

Natalie pushed herself off the dummy, walked around the bed to her dresser, and said, "Yes, really."

"You're lucky, you know?"

"Oh, yeah?" Natalie asked as she opened the door to the dresser and pulled out a black t-shirt and a towel. She walked into the head next to the dresser and added, "How so?"

"If we were on Moya, your food would already be gone," Chiana answered lightheartedly.

Chiana's words surprised Natalie and she almost stopped dead in her tracks. But she walked up to the basin in the head, hoping Chiana hadn't seen her reaction. From past experience, Natalie knew that Chiana could still see her from her seat at the strategy table. She laid down her shirt and towel on the small table next to the basin and pulled off her sweat-drenched tank top and Peacekeeper bra, throwing them onto a large pile of dirty laundry on the floor. She pulled off the band holding the hairs that hadn't become dislodged as she beat up the practice dummy, then smoothed back her hair and retied it in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. Turning on the basin, she cupped some of the warm cleansing fluid in her hands and splashed her face.

As she washed, she wondered again why Chiana had wanted to come with her instead of going with Moya and the others. She didn't want to annoy Chiana, so she kept quiet about it and hoped that her Nebari friend would want to open up to her. But in the past seven monens, Chiana hadn't said a word. She hadn't even mentioned Moya until now. She hadn't been her usual brash self and was actually somewhat subdued. Part of it was because of D'Argo's death, that much was obvious. However, it was also something else. Was it her memories of D'Argo and what she had done to him on Moya that she couldn't face? Was it one of the others? Or was it something else? Natalie didn't know, and she wasn't going to push Chiana on it. She was going to give her as much time as she needed.

Turning off the basin, Natalie picked up the towel to dry herself and looked into the mirror. She watched Chiana solemnly pick at the food on the plate in front of her and sighed. She kept her eyes on the other woman and tossed the towel onto the floor with all her other dirty laundry, put on the t-shirt, and pulled her ponytail out of it. Turning around, she walked over to the console and sat down to eat, sharing the meal with Chiana.

"What is this anyway?" Natalie asked as she picked up a fork, pierced a piece of meat, and gazed at it.

"It's..." Chiana started, but was interrupted when the lights suddenly went out.

"Now what?" Natalie asked as she and Chiana looked up.

"It better not be what happened with that female Leviathan two monens ago," Chiana exclaimed.

"I hope not," Natalie said. "I swear he's just like a typical hormonal teenager."


=================================


"Direct hit, sir," weapons officer Tolin said as he scanned his console.

"Jasik," Lieutenant Yavis addressed from his seat at the Marauder's pilot console. He reached up to scratch the stubble on his cheek and asked, "Has the sleep agent taken affect?"

"Yes, sir," the squad's blonde tech answered as she scanned Talyn. "The Leviathan is powering down and his weapons are retracting."

"What about its outer doors?"

"They're still closed, sir."

"What do you mean they're still closed?" Yavis yelled. "The techs on the Vigilante said its doors should open as soon as the sleep agent took affect."

"Well, what do you expect, sir?" the grungy co-pilot said. Glaring at his female companion, he added in contempt, "They ARE techs."

"That they are, Corporal Welin," the Lieutenant responded, glaring in the same direction as his subordinate. "That they are."

Jasik could feel their glares, but she ignored them and continued with her duties. She knew they were bred to be ignorant grots, but she didn't hold it against them. She also knew that if it weren't for her, the rest of her crewmates would've died long ago.

Her console suddenly lit up, alerting her to the Leviathan's condition. "Sir, the hybrid's outer doors are opening."

"It's about frelling time," Yavis yelled as he turned back to look out the forward portholes. He activated a comms channel to the jump bay and addressed the other two members of his team, "Kosen, Div, get ready."

The Marauder sped into one of Talyn's treblin side docking bays. As it set down, Kosen and Div jumped out of the jump bay and onto Talyn's deck. They ran for cover beside the Marauder's large forward landing struts and scanned the docking bay for any threats with their night-vision monocles. Seeing nothing, they signaled their Lieutenant, who jumped down with the three other squad members almost immediately.

"Kosen, Div, you take the lower tiers," the Lieutenant ordered as they stalked to the hatch leading out of the docking bay. "Welin, Tolec, you take the upper tiers. Jasik, you're coming with me."


----------------------------------------------------


Chiana tried to watch from her seat at the strategy table as Natalie pulled a transponder out of the lockbox in her nightstand, but it was so dark she could barely see her. While her human friend reached up to replace the transponder, Chiana asked, "Anything?"

"Why don't you ask me that AFTER I've put the transponder in," Natalie answered as she reached up behind her neck to insert her transponder.

"Sorry," Chiana said emphatically.

With a sigh, Natalie tried switching transponder frequencies, but to no avail. "I can't see a frelling thing." Looking directly at Chiana, she added, "Talyn's out cold and so are his senses. Not even his DRDs are working. His calorics are working on minimum, so that means..." she trailed off as she walked to the hatch and palmed it open. Looking at Chiana she added, "We have door controls and manual overrides. But environmentals are working on minimum."

The two looked at each other and remained silent in thought for a few microts. They simultaneously said, "Peacekeepers."

Natalie immediately jogged back to her nightstand, pulled out her sidearm and a night vision monocle, and laid them on the bed. As she tucked her shirt into her black cargo pants, she asked, "Do you think you can make it to your quarters?"

"Of course, I can," Chiana coolly answered as she watched Natalie pick her belt up off the bed. "But it won't do us any good."

Natalie instantly looked up at Chiana as she buckled her belt around her waist, and asked, "Why not?"

"My gun isn't in my quarters. It's in the maintenance bay."

"You haven't fixed it yet?"

"No," she answered sheepishly. "I just didn't feel like it."

Natalie put a hand on her hip and reached up to rub the bridge of her nose with a sigh. "All right," she said and looked back up at Chiana. "If we get out of this alive, you're going to fix that thing."

"Well, how the FRELL am I supposed to fix it without the PARTS I need?"

"Yeah, how can you fix it?" she asked rhetorically. She reached down to buckle the holster around her right thigh, picked up the monocle, and placed it on her head. Activating the monocle, she adjusted the light intensity and, with a sigh, added, "But it doesn't matter. Now that I think about it, we'll probably die whether you have it or not."

"Oh, that's comforting."

"I never was the comforting type," Natalie said dryly as she walked to the open hatch and pulled out her pulse pistol. She looked out into the passageway and aimed her pistol down one end then the other, checking for any threat. Hearing footsteps coming down the corridor, she spun back around into her quarters, running towards Chiana, and shut the hatch with her neural link. As she grabbed Chiana's arm, she whispered, "C'mon."

Natalie pulled Chiana to the small opening in the right wall leading to the access shaft the DRDs used to travel in and out of her quarters. It was the only place in her quarters that she was sure the Peacekeeper night vision monocles wouldn't be able to pick up their heat acoustics. Fortunately, the opening was large enough for a person to barely squeeze through. Chiana crawled in first and sat down against the bulkhead to her right. Natalie sat down on the deck and slid in feet first to her left. She saw going in feet first as the best way for her to be able to maneuver herself to look out of the dark access shaft. If she had gone in headfirst as Chiana had, it would have taken her several precious microts to reposition herself since there was hardly any room inside the shaft. Once in position on the deck with her back planted against the rear bulkhead, she raised her pistol and waited for the Peacekeepers.

The hatch suddenly opened revealing two Peacekeepers - a male and a female - in red and black special-ops uniforms with their pulse rifles raised and ready to fire. They slowly and silently stepped inside and swept the room. They checked under the strategy table, behind the manual override console, the office, and the bedroom. All the while, Natalie watched them from inside the access shaft with her pistol armed and ready.

Seeing an open hatch in the bedroom, Yavis signaled Jasik, who covered the rear as she walked around the bed. She planted her back against the bulkhead next to the open hatch to cover her Lieutenant. Yavis nodded at her, letting her know he was ready and, seeing her acknowledgement, entered the head with his pulse rifle raised. Lowering his rifle, he said, "All clear."

Following procedure, Jasik entered the head to confirm Yavis' statement. Seeing the dirty laundry scattered around the basin and shower, she said in disgust, "The captain's a slob."

"The captain..." Yavis trailed off quietly with a sneer as he knelt down and picked up Natalie's sweat drenched bra. "Is female. I'm going to enjoy this."

Chiana and Natalie had heard the Peacekeeper's conversation. They were disgusted by the male's comment, but Chiana tried to stifle a giggle from the female's comment about Natalie's hygiene.

As Natalie shot Chiana an irritated look, they heard the male say, "Jasik, I saw a data crystal in the port on the strategy table. Check it out."

"Yes, sir."

Natalie watched as Jasik walked out of the bedroom and over to the strategy table, but she couldn't see what the male was doing. She thought, 'He's probably trying on my underwear.'

Jasik activated the table and displayed the data crystal's information, but quickly found that the information was encrypted. "Frell," she said as she studied the equations in the hologram in front of her.

"What is it?" Yavis asked as he walked up to stand next to her.

"It's an access code, sir. I have to answer these equations to view the actual data on the crystal. And whatever the data is, it's important."

"Can you answer them?"

"I can try."

"Do it. If the data's that important, then First Command is going to want to see it. I'm going to find the bridge. When you're finished here, report to me there."

"Yes, sir," she replied as Yavis walked out of Natalie's quarters.

Natalie watched the Peacekeeper try to answer the equations and hoped that the tech would be able to unlock the information. She didn't think she was up to anymore late night sessions, working on trying to decrypt the information only to end up working out her frustrations on the practice dummy.

Jasik had made several attempts to answer the equations, each time she incorrectly answered one in the second set and was forced to start over again. However, this time she had managed to reach the fourth and final set and was studying the final equation. She reached down to input her answer, but was interrupted by her comms.

"Lieutenant," she heard Welin say. "We've searched the upper tiers and have found nothing."

"We haven't found anything either, sir," Div said over the comms.

"Frell," Yavis muttered. "I want all of you to get back to the Marauder and retrieve the equipment. I found the bridge and I've accessed the ship's higher functions. I'm ready to sever them. Div, I want you to bring me the laser saw. The rest of you, prepare the ship for the control collar. Jasik, report."

"I've almost completed the access code, sir," she answered.

"Good. When you're finished, go to the Marauder and help the others with the preparations."

"Yes, sir," she said and keyed in the final answer. The equation disappeared and a dizzying array of blueprints and other equations suddenly appeared in the hologram. "Frell me," she mumbled as she tried to process the barrage of information she saw. She didn't understand it, but she knew it was important and that it could mean a promotion for her.

A large smile grew on Natalie's face as she tried to read the hologram and thought about Jason and going home. Pulling herself out of the access shaft, she walked up behind Jasik with her pistol in hand as the Peacekeeper deactivated the table and pulled out the data crystal, placing it in a small pouch on the side of her belt. Unfortunately, Jasik saw Natalie's reflection in the strategy table and spun around to punch Natalie across the jaw, causing the human to drop the pistol. As the pistol slid to the right wall, Jasik immediately pulled out her own pistol and aimed it at Natalie's head.

"Stand up," Jasik ordered sternly. Seeing movement across the room, she ordered, "Reveal yourself, or I will kill your captain."

Not wanting to risk Natalie's life, Chiana slowly crawled out of the access shaft and stood up, keeping her arms outstretched.

"Stay there. If you move a muscle I will kill her, then you." Looking down at Natalie, she yelled, "I said stand up."

Natalie slowly stood as the Peacekeeper kept the pistol trained on her head and said, "I hope you realize it's not polite to point a gun at someone."

Jasik suddenly struck Natalie across the jaw with the barrel of her pistol, knocking her to the deck, and said, "Shut up. You will only speak when you are told to speak, understood?"

"Yeah, I understand," Natalie answered menacingly and rubbed her jaw as she slowly stood.

Jasik struck Natalie hard across the cheek, knocking her to the deck again, and yelled, "I said you will only speak when told to speak."

Natalie slowly stood as she rubbed her cheek and nodded in response.

She locked eyes with Natalie. Seeing the pain in her eyes, Jasik said, "You're not much are you? You're a slob...you're weak... You're pathetic and not fit to captain a vessel such as this."

"I may be a slob, but I can still kick your ass."

Jasik swung her arm out to strike Natalie again. But Grant blocked it with a chop to the inside of her elbow as she grabbed the tech's hand and pushed it, slamming the pulse pistol into Jasik's face. The Peacekeeper stumbled back slightly from the blow and dropped her pistol, but recovered quickly as blood trickled down her nose and slapped Natalie's ear, popping it.

Seeing Grant fall as she reached up to cover her ear, Chiana immediately ran to where the pulse pistol lay, but Jasik saw her and quickly pulled a black wrench out of the open tool kit strapped to her back and threw it at Chiana. The wrench hit Chiana in the head hard, knocking her out and sending her plunging to the deck.

Out of the corner of her eye, Natalie saw Chiana go down and looked up to see Jasik turning her attention back to her. She immediately planted her forearm against the deck to balance herself and kicked up into Jasik's abdomen, knocking the wind out of her and sending her back into the strategy table. As Natalie stood up, Jasik shook off the blow and pushed herself off the table, swinging around her arm to punch Natalie. Grant quickly leaned back, avoiding the blow and grabbed Jasik's arm as it swung past her. She twisted it around, forcing Jasik to bend over, then kneed her in the nose and knocked her back onto the deck with a broken nose.

As Natalie bent down to pick her up by her collar, Jasik instantly kicked up into Grant's jaw, forcing her to accidentally bite off a part of the side of her tongue.

"Shit," she screamed, covering her mouth and collapsing onto the deck at Jasik's feet with blood pouring out of her mouth.

"Like I said," Jasik said as she slowly stood up, wiping the blood off her lips and watching Natalie try to crawl to where her pistol lay. "Weak and pathetic. You are NOT fit to captain this ship." She strolled to where her pistol lay before Natalie could reach it, picked it up, and aimed it at Natalie's head, gently squeezing the trigger.

"Hey," Jasik heard from in front of her. As she looked up, Chiana immediately jabbed the Peacekeeper in the left eye with the wrench, driving it through her eye socket and into her brain. Jasik cried out as the wrench popped her eye, then fell to the deck as it penetrated her brain. Her body convulsed slightly as it slowly shut down and lay dead as blood flowed out of her eye socket.

Knowing she couldn't get Natalie to sickbay, Chiana knelt down next to Jasik and searched her. She hoped that the Peacekeeper was not only the squad's tech, but also their medic and had a med kit so she could help Natalie. She opened Jasik's red and black jacket and checked the Peacekeeper's pockets. In the inner right jacket pocket she found a small med kit and brought it to Natalie, not knowing Peacekeeper medicine and medical equipment as well as Natalie did. With just the two of them onboard, Natalie hadn't had any other choice but to learn even more about medicine since Chiana didn't seem to want to.

Kneeling next to Natalie, she laid her hand on her friend's shoulder and laid the med kit in front of her. She opened the kit and said, "Natalie, you have to show me what to use. I don't know what to do."

Trying to ignore the pain, Natalie shakily reached over and pointed to a vial of purple liquid in the middle of the left side of the case, then pointed to the syringe on the far left in the right side.

Chiana quickly removed the vial and the syringe, punctured the soft stopper in the vial with the needle, and filled the syringe with the liquid. She looked at Natalie and asked, "Where do I inject you?"

Natalie slowly reached up and pulled up her sleeve.

Chiana gently placed the needle in Natalie's arm and depressed the plunger, firing all of the liquid into her. Almost immediately, a wave of relief washed over Natalie's face and she closed her eyes and rolled over onto her back. She still felt some pain, but she was able to ignore it for the most part. Natalie slowly reached up and gave Chiana's arm a grateful squeeze in silent thanks. Turning her head, Natalie looked into the kit and reached over to pull out a small vial of red liquid. She reached out with her free hand, asking Chiana for the syringe. She gave the syringe to Natalie and watched as she depressed the plunger again, purging it of the small amount of liquid still inside. She punctured the stopper and released the plunger, filling the syringe with the medicine. Raising the syringe to her mouth, she gently placed the needle in her tongue and depressed the plunger. The shot instantly clotted her blood, stopping the bleeding, and also began to regenerate the tissue. Within a few monens, her tongue would be as good as new. Unfortunately, the shot would also cause the painkillers to wear off fairly quickly.

Tossing the syringe back into the kit, Natalie reached up with her other hand to wipe the blood from her lips and chin and, trying not to move her tongue, she said, "Thanks. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Trying to take Natalie's mind off of the pain, she jokingly said, "You know, you really should do your laundry."

She closed her eyes, leaned back against the stool, and said, "I'm too lazy to do laundry. You're good with laundry, why don't you do it?"

With a playful grin, Chiana replied, "If you want me to do your laundry then you're going to have to pay me."

"How much do you charge?"

"Seven brandar tiles per load."

Natalie looked at Chiana incredulously and said, "Frell it, I'll do my own laundry." Reaching over, Natalie grabbed Jasik's pistol and handed it to Chiana. She reached into the pouch on Jasik's side to retrieve the data crystal and asked, "Why don't you go up to the bridge and take care of that Lieutenant? I'll go take care of the rest of the squad in the docking bay."

Taking the pistol, she asked, "Why do you get the docking bay and I only get to take care of a Lieutenant?"

"Well," Natalie said as she slowly stood on weak knees, placed the crystal inside the cargo pouch on her left thigh, and walked to where her pistol lay. Picking up the crystal, she slowly stood up, locked her eyes with Chiana, and asked, "Do you want to deal with one guy or four?"

"I'd rather deal with those four guys, Natalie."

Natalie could see the concern for her in Chiana's eyes, but she also saw something else. It worried her. "Look, Chiana, just go to the bridge, all right?"

"Fine," she pointedly responded. Seeing a strange look in Natalie's eyes, she asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah," Natalie answered. She lied.


----------------------------------------------------


As the painkillers wore off, Natalie rounded a corner and passed through the access point leading to the next tier down and jogged to docking bay two. With no room left in docking bays one, three, and four with the Marauder, transport pod, two Prowlers, and various crates of cargo, she was sure that the Marauder was in bay two. She felt the stabbing pain in her tongue from her regenerating tissues as she ran, but she knew she had to put up with it if she wanted her tongue to grow back. Unfortunately, her jogging made things worse. It also made the lump in her throat feel like it was going to suffocate her.

As she rounded another corner to get to another access point, she saw a Peacekeeper directly in front of her, but she couldn't stop in time and ran into him, causing him to drop what he was carrying. Unfortunately, she also lost her pulse pistol - it had flown down the corridor and landed in the entrance of an adjoining maintenance corridor. With her eyes closed, she softly moaned as the pain in her tongue intensified, opened her eyes, and pushed her hair out of her face and found herself lying on top of a Peacekeeper who was dazed and didn't seem to notice that she was lying on him.

Shaking off the impact, the Peacekeeper finally noticed Natalie lying on top of him and locked his eyes with hers. He froze in shock, not knowing whether to kill or frell the beautiful woman. Natalie made the decision and quickly rolled off him. She spied the laser saw lying against the bulkhead and reached over to pick it up, aiming it at the Peacekeeper's head. Simultaneously, he unholstered his pulse pistol and aimed it at Grant's head as he planted his back against the hatch to the airlock.

Remembering the Lieutenant's orders, Natalie forced down the fear that nearly overwhelmed her and softly said, "You must be Div."

"Yeah, I'm Div. Who the frell are you?"

"Oh, I'm just a li'l ol' bitch who kills Peacekeepers."


=================================


Chiana stalked along the wall of the corridor leading to the bridge with pulse pistol in hand and the night vision monocle she confiscated from Jasik strapped to her belt. She had been forced to use the monocle as she made her way to the bridge as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for her, the lights on tier ten were still functioning and had momentarily blinded her after she opened the hatch to the access point to tier eleven. She had thrown the monocle off and rubbed her eyes, waiting for her vision to return, and hoped she hadn't damaged it.

Coming up to the hatch, Chiana planted her back against the bulkhead next to it. Turning, she peeked through the semi-transparent portholes and barely saw a figure in red and black moving from console to console and could barely see that the main consoles' front panels were open, revealing their inner workings. She pulled back, planted herself against the bulkhead again, and increased the power level on her pulse pistol, forcing it into overload. Realizing that the increased intensity of the pulse fire could severely damage Talyn, she decreased the power level moments before the pistol exploded.

Quickly reaching over, Chiana palmed open the hatch, slipped through it before it could completely open, and didn't draw the Peacekeeper's attention. She aimed the pistol with both hands at the commando and forcefully said, "Stop."

His Peacekeeper-honed instincts taking control, Yavis instantly spun around between the two main consoles for better access to more protected positions. As he spun, he unholstered his pulse pistol and aimed it at his assailant. Seeing that it was a female Nebari with only a pulse pistol, her legs akimbo, he relaxed slightly. A small incredulous grin grew on his face and he said, "Who are you supposed to be?"

"Does it matter?" she calmly asked with a small grin of her own as the hatch automatically closed behind her.

"No, it doesn't," he answered with a slight shake of the head, his grin growing wider. "But I like to know the name of the person I'm about to kill... Or frell, depending on the situation."

"Well, if you're going to kill me..." she started and pulled her left hand away from the pistol, spreading her arms out to her sides. "Then take your shot."

The Peacekeeper did nothing but maintain his aim at Chiana, his face blank. Ignoring the Nebari's invitation, Yavis asked, "Is there anyone else on board? Are you the captain of this ship?"

"No," she said with a giggle.

"No, there's no one else on board? Or, no, you're not the captain?"

Chiana's grin grew while she kept her eyes locked with the Lieutenant's. With a soft chuckle, she lowered her arms and hooked her thumbs into her belt as she held the pulse pistol dangling from her fingers.

"Dammit," Yavis yelled. Taking a single step forward, he planted his foot in front of him on the deck and leaned on it while he brought up his other hand to grip the pistol. "If you don't answer me, I will fire."

"Then fire," Chiana softly said, a haunted look in her eyes. She spread her arms out to her sides again and yelled, "C'mon, do it. Shoot me!"

Yavis did nothing. His blank face belied the confusion he felt. He opened his mouth slightly to speak, but immediately shut it and unsuccessfully tried to look as though he had only taken a breath.

Despite the Peacekeeper's calmness, Chiana could tell that he was stunned at her actions and said, "What? You don't want to kill me? I thought a Peacekeeper would jump at the chance to kill someone." She tilted her head and, hoping to surprise the commando again, she grinned and added, "Or, would you rather frell me?"

Yavis remained silent, but his silence only confirmed his surprise to Chiana.

"So, you do want to frell me?" she asked, acting as if his silence had meant 'yes' instead of indicating his surprise. Getting no response from Yavis, Chiana slid her free hand down her body to grab her crotch. "Is this what you want?" she purred.

Yavis licked his lips hungrily, lowered his pistol and, with a smirk, he said huskily, "Yeah, that is what I want, but I commed one of my men before you interrupted me. So, we only have a few microts before he gets here, but that's still plenty of time. And I think he'd like to have a turn at you, too."

"Well," she started as she lifted her hand away from her crotch and hooked her thumb in her belt. "Who says we only have a few microts? Maybe he'd like to watch, or even join in..."

"Maybe he WOULD like that," he said and holstered his sidearm.

Chiana immediately leapt across the bridge and onto the Peacekeeper, knocking him down to the ground and causing him to drop his pistol. She straddled his chest and pinned his arms to the deck with her knees as she wrapped her hand around his throat and pressed the barrel of her pistol against his forehead.

"You should've shot me when you had the chance," she said threateningly.

Yavis looked up at her coolly and said, "You know, you're absolutely right. I should've shot you." Lifting his forearms, Yavis grabbed Chiana's wrists, held her in place while he swiftly brought up his legs and, using his strength and momentum, flipped Chiana off him and onto her back above him. His momentum still carrying his legs forward, Yavis tried to flip over on top of Chiana, but she scrambled out of the way and behind the right front console.

Collecting his pulse pistol, Yavis spun to his left to aim his weapon at Chiana, but found that she had shifted positions while he momentarily had his back turned. With a smile, he slowly stood with his pistol out in front of him and walked up to the forward pylon and stopped. Checking the power setting on his pistol, Yavis saw that it was at maximum and lowered the power level to wound the Nebari instead of killing her. He wanted to teach her a lesson.

He took a single step forward and swiftly extended his arm to his right, ready to fire his pistol. But all he found was a dormant DRD. He turned, stepping behind the pylon and over the DRD and checked the space between the forward and second pylons. Not seeing her there, he stepped out into the center of the bridge and walked to the other side with his pulse pistol out in front of him.

"Where are you, little girl?" he asked as he walked under Talyn's beta channel.

Watching Yavis walk away from her to the other side of the bridge, Chiana pressed her feet harder against the dark gray bulkhead that made up the treblin side of the bridge and pressed her hands harder against the forward support pylon, trying to hold herself up out of Yavis' view. But her body began to shake from exhaustion. She let her head fall, giving her neck some much needed rest as she pressed her back against Talyn's ceiling. Eyeing the pulse pistol stuffed into her belt, she held her breath and tried to keep as quiet as possible to avoid drawing Yavis' attention back to the treblin side. But holding her breath only made her heart pound harder in her chest and she swore that it was loud enough for Yavis to hear.

Hearing Yavis walk back to her side at the back of the bridge, Chiana lifted her head and pressed it against the ceiling, and hoped that Yavis couldn't see the hair falling around her face. She knew she couldn't hide from him forever, her strength would never last that long. She had to act soon, not for her sake, but for Natalie's. The human would never be able to take on three Peacekeeper commandos on her own and Chiana knew she would need some backup soon.

Yavis walked to the front of the bridge and turned to stand in between the forward and middle pylons, directly in front of Chiana with his pistol pointed down at the floor. He menacingly asked, "Where are you?"

Pulling her feet away from the bulkhead, Chiana swung her legs around and kicked Yavis in the back, catching him off guard, and let go of the support pylon. She sent him crashing to the deck face first and caused him to inadvertently throw his pistol across the bridge. Chiana landed at Yavis' feet and next to the DRD as she pulled the pistol out of her belt, but her knees buckled from the impact and caused her to fall onto her back. Her breathing labored and her heart pounding in her chest, she quickly sat up and aimed the pistol at Yavis' back. Simultaneously, he flipped over onto his back and sat up, planting his hand behind him on the deck to support him as he laid his other arm on his bent knee.

She stared into Yavis' eyes down the barrel of the pistol and saw his rage at being ambushed by her, someone he considered to be a lower life form. Smiling, she said, "I'm right here." She slowly stood, but kept the pistol trained at Yavis' head. "I thought you were supposed to be part of the elite. You can't be much if you couldn't find a 'lower life form' like me."

"I am part of the elite," he said threateningly. "If I wasn't, then I wouldn't be able to take that pulse pistol from you."

"You wouldn't be able to take this pistol from me? Well, I'd certainly like to see you try."

Surprising Chiana, Yavis quickly grabbed the pulse pistol with his left hand, pulling it out of her hand and simultaneously sucker-punched her across the jaw with his other hand, knocking her down to the deck. Grabbing the pistol with his right hand, he aimed it down at Chiana.

She propped herself up on her elbow, reached up to rub her bruised jaw, and said, "So, are you going to kill me this time?"

"Maybe."

"If you're going to shoot me, then do it," she quietly said, staring up at him with her face expressionless. "Do it. Shoot me, you welnitz. Kill me."

"Oh, I will," Yavis said and crawled on top of Chiana, pushing her down onto the deck as he knelt over her. "All in good time. But first..." he trailed off as he let his free hand travel down to her crotch. "I'm going to have some fun."

Reaching over, Chiana grabbed the DRD next to her and smashed it against Yavis' head, destroying the DRD and giving Yavis a fractured skull. He dropped the pistol onto Chiana's abdomen and fell back as he grabbed his head, the blood from his wound flowing down his arm and jacket.

Chiana grabbed the pistol and stood up at Yavis' feet, aiming it down at him. She said, "Like I said before, you should've shot me when you had the chance."

Squeezing the trigger, Chiana fired a single shot at Yavis' head, but he rolled onto his side and barely avoided the pulse blast. Immediately propping himself up on his elbow, Yavis kicked up into Chiana's gut, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to stumble back against the bulkhead and lose her pistol. She protectively wrapped her arms around her abdomen as she leaned back against the bulkhead, coughing and hyperventilating.

Yavis dropped his leg and sat up and watched Chiana as she choked. He contemptuously mumbled, "Stupid girl."

Turning around, he crawled to the pulse pistol lying near Chiana but, despite her pain, she managed to kick it out of the way to the front of the bridge. With her arm still wrapped around her midsection, she tried to kick Yavis, but he caught her foot and pushed her back, throwing her down onto the deck.

She turned onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow, keeping her other arm wrapped around her midsection as she coughed and tried to catch her breath. Seeing Yavis stumbling his way to the pulse pistol as he held his wounded head, Chiana slowly got up and leapt across the length of the bridge. She landed on Yavis' back, knocked his face against the red bulkhead under the forward portholes, and broke his nose. She saw the pistol lying on the deck next to where he fell and, knowing that Natalie still needed her help, kicked it to the side.

Ignoring the pain he felt from his broken nose, Yavis twisted around, elbowed Chiana in the chin, and sent her stumbling back against the open override console. She hit the console hard, crying out in pain, and fell to the deck, reaching behind her to clutch her lower back as a large bruise began to form on her chin.

Yavis reached up to wipe away the blood flowing out of his nose and down his lips and chin as he watched Chiana struggle to stand up with her hand on her back. With his hand planted against the forward bulkhead to steady himself, Yavis slowly stood and strode up to Chiana. He grabbed her by her bodice and picked her up, pushing her against the console.

"What a waste," he said, letting his gaze fall down Chiana's body. "I could've had a good frell with you."

"In your dreams," Chiana responded, using one of Natalie's expressions, and kneed Yavis in the crotch. As he howled and let go of her to grab his crotch, Chiana grabbed his jacket and flipped them both back over the console. They landed on the deck in front of the open console with Chiana standing over Yavis, her feet firmly planted on either side of his torso. She quickly reached up into the console before he could react, grabbed a bundle of synapses with both hands and ripped them out of the console sending sparks everywhere. She quickly jabbed Yavis on the forehead with the exposed wiring at the end of the bundle, electrocuting him.

Once she was certain Yavis was dead, she pulled the synapse bundle away from his forehead and slowly stepped back. She collapsed on the deck in front of the hatch in exhaustion, her breathing labored. Remembering another expression of Natalie's, she mumbled, "This sucks."


----------------------------------------------------


"YOU are going to kill me?" Div asked laughingly, staring down the barrel of the pistol he was aiming at her head. "C'mon, trelk. Who are you?"

"Why is it so important to you to know who I am?"

"The members of my squad prefer knowing the names of the people we kill."

"Oh, in that case..." she said, rolling her eyes, then flinched as a stab of pain shot through her tongue. "All right, you want to know who I am? I'm Doctor Natalie Grant."

"Who?"

"Who?" Natalie asked, mocking the Peacekeeper. "Who? What are you a frelling owl?"

"What the frell is that supposed to mean?"

"What the frell is that supposed to mean?" she repeated derisively, knowing full well that Div didn't understand her. Trying to get him to make a stupid move, she continued and hoped that she didn't anger him into shooting her. "What the frell is that supposed to mean? Just what kind of a moron are you to not understand what I said? Or have all those cesium fuel fumes turned your brain into mush? Or MAYBE you were just born stupid and the Peacekeeper's genetic screeners didn't catch it?"

Natalie saw Div move his shoulder to swing his pistol at her head and reached up, letting go of the laser saw with one hand and hitting his wrist with it to block it. Simultaneously, she jabbed the end of the saw into Div's abdomen, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to topple over. Fortunately, he let go of his pistol like she had hoped, but it was sent sliding across the deck, down the corridor.

"Too bad I didn't take up golf," Natalie mumbled, ignoring the pain in her tongue, and stood up with the laser saw in hand. Seeing that Div was still on the deck, trying to catch his breath, she faced down the corridor and aimed the saw down at the deck and held the grip like a golf club. She spread her legs, bent her knees, kept her shoulders back, and casually said, "I actually prefer hockey. The Stars are my favorite team. Yeah, I know that the Stars are in Dallas, BUT they're the only NHL team in Texas." Looking back down at the saw, she added, "And this is my first time taking a swing, so you'll forgive me if I don't get it just right."

Div managed to get up and tried to grab the saw, but Natalie saw him move and swung, hitting Div in the jaw. The strike flipped him over onto his back and knocked out a few teeth. Enraged, he immediately swung his leg around, kicking Natalie's legs out from under her, and sent her crashing to the floor. Once Natalie was on the deck, he swiftly pulled his leg up and brought it down hard across her abdomen. She cried out, wrapping her arms around her midsection, and rolled onto her side, facing Div.

He tried to get up again, but Natalie opened her eyes despite the pain and saw him. She swung her legs out in front of her as she rolled over, kicking him in the face with one leg after another. Her kicks flipped him over onto his back. Her momentum carrying her over, Natalie tucked her legs under her as she rolled over and pushed up, standing up on the other side of the corridor. Almost instantly, she spun to her right with her left hand extended down in front of her to block Div, knowing he wouldn't stay down.

Looking down at Div, Natalie finally noticed after a few microts that he had been knocked out and was now coming around. Over his soft groaning, she said, "Well, damn. I thought you'd put up more of a fight than that. But I'm not complaining...definitely not complainin'."

Kneeling beside Div, she unbuckled his belt, pulling it off him, unbuttoned the strap connecting the holster to the belt, and threw the holster away. She turned him over and put his hands behind his back, lacing his fingers together to tightly bind his hands, wrists, and forearms together with the belt. Natalie then turned him over onto his back, removed his shin guards and boots, and unzipped his trousers. She pulled them off and tied them around his ankles, but kept one pant leg free. She turned him back over onto his stomach and tied the pant leg to the belt, hog-tying him and effectively immobilizing him.

Softly groaning, he turned his head, looked at Natalie, and said, "I thought you said you were the bitch who was going to kill me?"

"Yeah, well, I can be a bitch...but I lied about the killing part," she dryly said. She grinned at him contemptuously and lightly tapped his cheek as she said, "I never kill on the first date. Maybe next time."

Standing up, Natalie turned to continue down the corridor, grab her pulse pistol, and get to the next access point, but instead, found herself looking down the barrel of another pistol. She looked up and saw that the Peacekeeper was a Corporal. She also saw, and smelled, that he could use a good bath.

With a disarming grin that belied his appearance, he said, "Perhaps you'd like to kill ME? Or perhaps you'd like to TRY?"


=================================


"And the plot thickens," Natalie said, placing her hands on her hips and shifting her weight onto one leg as she stared impatiently at the grungy Peacekeeper. "So, should I kick your ass now, or should I do it later?" Taking in the Corporal's appearance, she added, "Doesn't matter. I'll probably die of the stench long before I get to that. I've got a very sensitive nose, ya know."

"Very funny," he said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, I thought it was."

Ignoring Natalie, the Peacekeeper glanced at Div and ordered, "Untie him."

"You're kidding me?" she asked, feigning incredulity. "You actually want me to untie him after all that hard work I did?"

"Shut up and do what I said," he replied sternly.

"All right...all right," Natalie responded, putting her hands up. "I'll do it. Don't get your panties in a twist."

"Just shut up and do it," he ordered again, annoyed and not knowing what the frell she was talking about.

Kneeling on the ground, Natalie slowly untied Div's trousers from around his ankles and the pant leg from around his belt and asked, "So, who are you?"

"Why the frell do you want to know?" the Corporal replied.

"I'm just trying to be friendly," she mumbled sarcastically as she untied the belt from around Div's wrists.

Suddenly, Div brought his arm forward and swung it up, hitting Natalie across the jaw and knocking her back to the deck. Glaring at Div, she protectively cradled her jaw and tried to ignore the pain in her tongue, while he grabbed his trousers and stood up. Natalie furiously said, "You keep that up and I'll start thinking that all Sebaceans get PMS, regardless of gender."

"Get up," the Corporal ordered while Div went to stand next to him and put his trousers back on.

Natalie slowly stood up as ordered and kept her left hand behind her, keeping Div's belt (still in her hand) out of view. Glaring at the Peacekeepers, she asked, "So, what are you going to do now? Let me go?"

"Let you GO?" Div repeated in disbelief.

"Well, I would've asked if you were going to kill me, but that just seemed so cliché."

"You..." the Corporal started, but was interrupted as his comms came to life.

"Welin, where the frell are you?" Natalie heard a Peacekeeper yell through the comms. She brought her legs together, let go of the buckle, dangling it behind her, and hoped that Div and Welin hadn't seen it.

"I'm two tiers up and I just ran into Div." He smirked, looking at his comrade, and added, "He was having a trelk fight with some woman and got his ass beat."

Div hit a smirking Welin in the gut as they heard their fellow Peacekeeper laughingly say over the comms, "Leave it to Div to get his ass kicked by a trelk."

"Will you shut up?" Div asked, frustrated.

Welin chuckled and asked into his comms, "So, what do you want?"

"Me and Tolec need you to get your ass back down here to help us with this equipment. We can't move all this dren around on our own. So, quit frelling about with that trelk."

As the comms channel closed, Natalie brought her arm out, swinging the belt buckle across the cheeks of both Welin and Div. Weakened from his previous fight with Natalie, Div fell to the deck, but Welin remained standing and tried to charge Natalie. Before he could move an inch, she twirled the belt again as she jumped back, increasing the distance between them, and hit him on the top of the head. He stumbled back from the blow.

With her attention focused on Welin, Natalie didn't see Div get up. At the last microt she saw him charge, but not in time to move out of the way. Ramming her, Div mowed through Natalie, shoving her down to the ground with the wind knocked out of her. He turned around and lifted his foot to stomp on her head, but Natalie caught his foot, ignoring the pain she felt in her chest while she tried to catch her breath.

She coughed, then cringed from the smell and mumbled, "Damn, when was the last time you washed?" She swung her leg up, kicking Div in the gut. As he bent over she swung her leg again to kick him on the top of the head and pushed his foot, sending him onto his back on the deck.

Rolling over, Natalie stood up and turned around to face Welin who had already gotten up and had been watching her with Div.

"Impressive," he said.

Swinging the belt, she struck Welin across the cheek a second time, causing him to stumble slightly. She swung the belt up again and struck his chin and, feigning sweetness, said, "Thank you."

As Welin straightened up, Natalie swung the belt once more. But he caught the buckle and, quickly reaching into his belt, pulled out a knife and cut it off, causing Natalie to stumble slightly and drop the belt. "Shit," she mumbled, frustrated.

She heard a groan coming from behind her and turned her head slightly and saw Div slowly coming to his feet. She turned back to see Welin approaching her. Once he was a few feet away, she turned around, stepping back, grabbed Div's arm and swung him around, hoping to knock them both out. But Welin saw her move and pulled back his arm, trying to stab Natalie. Unbalanced by Div's surprising weight, she brought him around in front of Welin. Momentum did the rest as the blade slid into Div's lower chest all the way to the hilt. Div stared at his companion, shock written all over his face.

"Ouch," Natalie mumbled as she stood on the tips of her toes, looking down over Div's shoulder at the blade stuck in his chest. Glancing at Welin, she steeled herself and added, "Do you think you killed him?"

Seeing Welin trying to pull the knife out, Natalie shoved Div's now-dead body into the Peacekeeper and slapped his ear, popping it. He stumbled back slightly, but kept his hand on his knife, trying to pull it out. Natalie saw him and assumed that the knife was stuck on one of Div's ribs.

Still holding up Div's body, she threw a kick around him and hit Welin in the side of the head, causing him to let go of the knife and stumble to his side into the airlock hatch. Using all her strength, Natalie lifted up Div's body and threw him and herself into Welin, crushing him against the hatch. She threw a pantak jab at his forehead, disorienting him, and palmed the door sensor to her left. As the hatch opened, Div's dead weight sent Welin and him falling into the air lock. Natalie hit the door sensor and locked the hatch.

She slowly walked backwards to the other side of the corridor and leaned against the bulkhead, sliding down to the deck. She raised her knees, rested her elbows on them, and reached up to smooth back her hair with a sigh. She mumbled rhetorically, "What is it with Sebaceans?"

"Let me out of here," Natalie heard Welin's muffled yell through the hatch.

She lifted her head in time to see Welin punching at the porthole in the hatch, trying to break it. With a sigh she stood up, walked up to the hatch, and watched in pity as Welin struck the porthole and tried to pull the hatch open. She said, "Definitely has to be PMS."

"Let me the frell out of here," he yelled again.

"You know, you really should calm down," she said. "If you keep that up, you're just going to hurt yourself."

"Frell you!"

"Oh, that was intelligent." She sighed and added, "Look, I'm going to go to the maintenance bay and take care of your friends. When I'm done with them, I'll come back here, then we'll play some more, okay?"

Welin elbowed the porthole and glared at Natalie in response.

"All right, I'll be back in..." she paused and glanced up, thinking. "Oh, about a quarter arn. It could be longer." She smiled contemptuously at him and walked down the corridor to pick up her pulse pistol and head for the maintenance bay. As she walked, she yelled over her shoulder, "I'll see you then."


----------------------------------------------------


"Hey, Kosen, you finished yet?" Tolec yelled as he dropped a crate full of sensitive equipment onto its side. "I need your help with this dren." Frustrated, he added, "How frelling long does it take to make a call, anyway?"

"You better be careful with that," Kosen yelled from across the bay as he strolled back in, walking towards Tolec. "Jasik will have your ass if you break anything."

Bending over to upright the crate, Tolec said, "I'd love to have her ass."

Kosen stopped in front of him and replied, "You're kidding, right?"

"Why?" Tolec asked, looking up at him as he strained to upright the crate.

"She's just a frelling tech."

"And your point is?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot," he replied, bending over to help Tolec erect the crate. "You'll frell anything with an orifice."

Turning around to pick up another crate, Tolec said, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It is a bad thing," Kosen replied as he opened the crate they had just straightened to make sure the contents were still intact. "You could be contaminated."

"Oh, c'mon. Do you really think anyone cares that I frell trelks whenever I feel like it?"

"You should care," Kosen answered, looking at his fellow soldier. "We NEED to keep the bloodlines pure, and we can't do that if you keep frelling every unregistered alien we come across."

Throwing down the crate, Tolec looked irately at Kosen and said, "You know, I really hate people like you. You think you know everything and you tell everyone else what YOU think they should do. Well, guess what? It's not going to hurt anyone if I frell some trelk."

"So, you hate High Command? After all, they tell everyone what they think you should do, and they WERE the ones who came up with that regulation."

"No, I don't hate High Command because, unlike you, High Command actually knows what they're doing. And even High Command recognizes that that regulation is..."

"Excuse me?" Natalie interrupted as she stood in the open hatch to the docking bay. Sure that she had the Peacekeeper's attention, she continued. "Do you think you two could stop trelk-fighting long enough for me to get you the frell off my ship? Don't get me wrong; I don't mind that you're fighting. I just want you to do it somewhere else."

"Shit," she mumbled, seeing the two Peacekeepers pull their pulse pistols, and ran into the corridor for cover as they fired at her.

As she ducked out of sight, the two ceased firing and, looking at Tolec, Kosen asked, "Whose turn is it, yours or mine?"

"I'll go," Tolec answered. "I need to make up for the last time."

"Right," Kosen said, turning around to continue unloading the equipment.

Strolling to the hatch, Tolec raised his pistol, aimed to his right, and searched for Natalie, checking behind every "rib" and in every hatch. He slowly came up to a junction and planted himself against the bulkhead to his right, leaning over slightly to look down the left corridor. Natalie was standing in the corridor, leaning against the bulkhead with her pistol aimed at him. He tried to fire at her, but Natalie fired first.

Seeing the Peacekeeper duck as the pulse blast impacted on the Leviathan's bulkhead above his head, Natalie sweetly said, "Hello."

Tolec stood up and ran around the corner to take cover behind one of the Leviathan's ribs. He poked his head out, took aim at Natalie, and tried to fire, but Natalie threw a DRD that she had picked up at his head before he could. He dropped his pistol and fell back onto the deck with a fractured skull and blood flowing from his forehead.

Natalie strolled up to him and stopped a few feet away from him, her pistol aimed at his head. She nonchalantly said, "Sorry."

Confused, Tolec asked, "What?"

"I was apologizing to the DRD."

Turning his head, Tolec saw the DRD lying in pieces next to him.

"Talyn's gonna be pissed..." she mumbled casually.

Seeing Natalie looking at the DRD, Tolec wiped the blood from his forehead with one hand and tried to slowly reach for his pistol with the other.

Fortunately, Natalie saw him, kicked him hard in the shin guard, and scolded, "Hey. Look, but don't touch." As Tolec glared at her, she added, "You know, my son had the same problem when he was little. He was always touching things he wasn't supposed to..."

The Peacekeeper looked at her in disbelief, his eyebrow cocked.

"Yeah, why am I telling you this..." she said, looking at him. Stepping back, she ordered, "All right, get up."

Turning over, Tolec slowly got onto his hands and knees, then suddenly reached for his pistol. Natalie took a step forward and swung her pulse pistol, hitting the Peacekeeper in the face with the barrel and flipping him over onto his back.

She yelled, "You moron. I could've shot you in your frelling back before you got two inches." Noticing he was unconscious, she added, "And you're not listening to me." She got down on one knee, took out a cable she had earlier stuffed into her belt, and sighed, "Figures. Men never listen to me." Flipping Tolec onto his front, she pulled his arms behind his back and tied his wrists together with the cable. Standing up, she sighed contemptuously. "Men."


----------------------------------------------------


Reaching the hatch to the maintenance bay, Natalie planted her back against the bulkhead next to it and checked the power setting on her pistol. She sighed in nervous anticipation and flinched as a stab of pain shot through her tongue. "Dammit," she whispered, annoyed. With the adrenaline wearing off, the pain she felt all over her body was so intense she could barely move. And the nervousness she felt made sure that she wouldn't. She knew, however, that she needed to get the Peacekeepers off Talyn.

Forcing herself to turn around, she poked her head through the open hatch far enough to get a good look at the Peacekeeper inside. Watching him, she thought sadly, 'Damn, that's a lot of crates. You'd think with all their advanced technology they'd find a way to make their stuff fewer and smaller and actually use it to benefit others.' She also noticed that the Peacekeeper had taken out his pulse rifle and placed it on top of an off-center pyramid of crates that was nearly as tall as she was.

Crouching down with her pistol at the ready, Natalie quickly entered the docking bay and quietly made her way to a workbench, ducking behind it for cover. Keeping under the top of the workbench, Natalie tried to watch the Peacekeeper through its legs and other items in the way. She knew that, despite all the objects and the several yards that separated them, there was still a chance that the Peacekeeper would see her. The possibility that he would grew greater and greater every microt she stayed behind the workbench. But she was immobilized by the fear that was slowly overtaking her.

Hearing footsteps pounding down the corridor, Natalie turned and was about to move to the hatch to see who it was. Suddenly, she heard Tolec yell, "She's in the docking bay."

"Frell," she mumbled. Just as Kosen looked up, Natalie stood up and ran towards him, jumping over and running around workbenches and crates. She saw Kosen reach for his rifle and she raised her pistol, firing round after round after round at him as she ran to keep him from putting her into a crossfire.

Hearing Tolec firing at her, Natalie ran up the crate pyramid and fired over Kosen to keep him pinned down on the deck as the pulse blasts from Tolec's pistol impacted on the crates she had climbed. Reaching the top of the stack, she saw Kosen crouching for cover and fired down at him as he tried to aim his pistol her. The pulse blasts impacted in his head and chest, instantly killing him and sending him falling to the deck. As she fired, Natalie caught the shoulder strap of his pulse rifle lying on the crate beneath her with her boot and kicked the rifle into the air. Jumping off the crate, she twisted in mid-air, grabbing the grip of the rifle and fired at Tolec with both her weapons. She saw the first few pulse blasts hit the bulkhead behind Tolec, but the next ones hit him in the chest, abdomen, and legs. Before she landed hard on the deck and the pyramid of crates blocked her view, she saw Tolec falling.

She lay next to Kosen's dead body as she tried to catch her breath. She softly groaned as pain shot through every part of her body, especially her back after having landed on Talyn's hard deck. With a sigh, she tried to sit up, but fell back to the deck. She laid there for several microts as she tried to catch her breath and regain her strength.

Finally sitting up, she leaned back against her outstretched arms and, ignoring the pain, said, "What I wouldn't give for a good massage right about now." Looking at Kosen, she asked, "How 'bout you? I used to have a great massage therapist back on Earth. Her name was Jeannie and she was a really sweet person. I know she'd love to help you. But you're a male..." Slowly standing up, she continued, "You're probably too macho for a massage, aren't you?" She holstered her pistol, stretched her legs and back, and said, "Thought so."

Walking up to Tolec's dead body, she saw the cable still wrapped around his wrists and noticed that it had been cut in half. She slowly knelt next to his body, turned him over onto his stomach, and lifted up the bottom of his jacket. She saw a small knife stuffed into his pants and pulled it out. Looking at it, she mumbled, "You'd think that after what happened between Welin and me, I'd learn to search you guys for these things." Looking at Tolec, she added with a shrug, "What can I say - I'm a slow learner."

Stuffing the knife into her holster behind her pistol, she slowly walked to the hatch as tears came to her eyes. She stopped at the workbench she had been hiding behind earlier and planted her fists on it, leaning on it with her eyes closed and tears streaming down her cheeks. But she couldn't let the grief take her. Steeling herself, she straightened up, wiped away her tears, and continued to the hatch, wishing for a drink.

She walked into the hatch and, without warning, a leather-clad leg swung out and kicked her in the abdomen. She stumbled back into the docking bay and onto the deck and cried out in pain as she wrapped her arms around her stomach. Looking up, she saw a bruised and bloodied Welin step through the hatch with a knife in hand.

She sighed, closed her eyes, and mumbled, "What is it with you guys and knives?" Sitting up, she leaned back on one hand as she kept her other arm wrapped around her abdomen. She cringed from the pain and, looking up at him and in between coughs, she hoarsely said, "You better not have done any damage to that hatch."

"Why won't you just shut up?" he asked, annoyed.

She looked up and away, pretending to think and, with a shake of her head, she looked at him and said, "I have absolutely no idea." Impatient, she asked, "So, do you want me to get up, or what?"

"No, you stay right there," he answered and stepped back to look on the workbench for something to restrain her.

"Good, you're learning."

"Don't patronize me."

"Who said I was patronizing? I was just complimenting you."

Ignoring her, he picked up a cable and walked over to her. "Get on your knees and put your hands behind your back," he ordered.

She did as ordered and said, "You know, I know some people who would pay good money for this."

"Oh, be quiet," he said, irritated, as he pressed the barrel of the pistol against her neck and carefully wrapped the cord around Natalie's wrists.

Suddenly, Natalie pulled her neck away from the blade and threw her torso forward, extending her leg up and back, and kicked Welin in the abdomen before he could tighten the cable. As he stumbled back, she stood up and pulled her arms apart, snapping the cable. She stared at him, anger burning in her eyes with a silent challenge, daring him to come at her.

He took her challenge and charged her, slashing at her in a wide arc, but she quickly pulled out the knife she had stuffed into her holster, jumped to the side and slashed at Welin's left side, slicing him open. He stumbled to his side, falling over onto the deck. He slowly stood up, glaring at Natalie, threw his knife into his other hand, and wrapped his arm around his abdomen to hold his wound and try to stop the bleeding.

He came at her, thrusting his knife, but she stepped to her right, grabbing his arm and pulling it down to give herself enough room to backhand him in the face, breaking his nose with the knife hilt. Recovering quickly, Welin let go of his wound and punched Natalie in the jaw, causing her to release his arm. As she stumbled back, she left herself wide open and Welin took advantage, swinging his arm down and slashing her across the gut.

He watched her fall to the ground with her hand pressing her abdomen, crying out in pain. Walking up to her, he stopped at her feet and said, "It's about frelling time."

"Hey," he heard a female yell from the hatch. He looked up to see a Nebari standing in the open hatch with a pulse pistol aimed at him. Before he could jump out of the way, she fired and shot him in the gut. He fell onto his hand and knees over Natalie with his arm wrapped around his abdomen.

He tried to crawl away, but Natalie quickly sat up and drove her knife into the hollow of his throat. As he choked and looked at her in surprise, she furiously said, "Yeah, it IS about frelling time."

She fell back onto the deck, brought up her leg, planting her foot against his shoulder, and pushed him away. Sitting back up and leaning back against one arm, she watched as Welin choked and spasmed and finally died.

"You okay?" Chiana asked as she walked up to Natalie, took her arm, and helped her stand up.

"Yeah," she answered, lifting her hand from her gut and looking down at her wound. "It's superficial. I doubt I'll even have a scar."

"That's not what I meant," the Nebari softly said.

Natalie walked over to lean back against the workbench, her hand pressing against her abdomen again. She closed her eyes and mumbled, "I feel like I'm going to throw up."

They remained silent as Chiana inspected the carnage in the bay. After several microts she finally said, "I can't believe you did all this."

"Yeah, well... I got lucky. That, and they were stupid and over-sexed."

Looking sadly at her friend, Chiana said, "That's not what I meant."

"I know." With a sigh, she added, "What about Lieutenant what's-his-name?"

"He's dead."

Natalie slowly nodded, taking it in, and said, "We should get to the bridge."

"Do you think you'll be able to walk that far?"

"Yeah, I'll be all right."


----------------------------------------------------


The two walked through the hatch before it completely opened and stepped onto the bridge. They made their way to the override consoles, shut the panels, and checked to see what they could get to work.

Glancing back at Yavis' body, Natalie whispered, "Moron..."

"What?" Chiana asked, looking at her.

"Nothing."

Looking at Natalie, she asked, "Can you get Talyn's senses working?"

"No, not until he wakes up."

"Can you at least try to find out where we are?"

"Yeah, I can try, but who knows whether or not it'll work," she said, using her neural link to bring Talyn's propulsion system online and spin him on his vertical axis as she looked out of his forward portholes.

"What are you doing?" Chiana asked, amused.

Still looking out of the forward portholes, Natalie answered, "I'm trying to find out where we are."

As Talyn turned completely around, a Peacekeeper Pantak class Vigilante appeared in the forward portholes.

Turning to look at Chiana, Natalie said, "Well, shit."


=================================



"Captain," Lieutenant Leic, first officer of the retrieval squad, said as he approached his commanding officer where she sat at her desk in her office. "The Leviathan is coming about."

"Is it awake?" the Captain asked as she went over several data spools containing information on Talyn and former-Captain Bialar Crais' project.

"Negative. It appears to be under manual control."

"Are they arming weapons?"

"No, sir. Our scans indicate that they do not have enough power to do so."

"Very well," she mumbled and looked up at her subordinate. "Arm the immobilizer pulse and disable their propulsion system."

"Yes, sir."


----------------------------------------------------


"What the frell are they doing?" Natalie mumbled, staring at the Peacekeeper vessel as a device between the two forward mandibles lit up. Coming to a realization, Natalie and Chiana looked at each other and simultaneously said, "They're going to fire."

Powering up Talyn's propulsors, Natalie flipped Talyn onto his bow and sent him into a dive, narrowly avoiding the immobilizer pulse. Coming about, the Vigilante gave pursuit and launched one of its four squadrons of Prowlers. They swarmed around Talyn and fired at him as Natalie pushed his power-deprived propulsors nearly to the breaking point. Trying to catch the Prowlers off guard, and perhaps take some of them out, Natalie suddenly pulled up slightly and reversed Talyn's propulsors, flipping him onto his back, his momentum carrying him backwards. Natalie immediately brought Talyn's propulsors to full power and dove to avoid the Prowlers.

Seeing the gunship suddenly change direction, six of the fifteen Prowlers performed similar maneuvers, flipping onto their backs and reversing direction, but the Prowlers in the rear of the formation didn't turn fast enough. Their speed and momentum carried them into the Prowlers at the head of the formation. Six were destroyed. Nine Prowlers, however, pulled up instead of turning and performed loops to stay behind the gunship.

Looking through the portholes to the far left, Natalie asked, "What does that look like to you?"

Chiana looked up, glancing at Natalie, then looked in the direction her human friend was looking. She replied, "It looks like a totally unimpressive rock."

"Well, I wouldn't say it's unimpressive. It looks kind of like Earth."

"Everything looks like Earth to you."

"Well, they do say if you want something bad enough, you start seeing it," Natalie said, and changed course, heading straight for the planet. She didn't see the sad glimmer in Chiana's eyes.

With engines straining, Natalie tried to outrun the Prowlers, but calorics were still working on minimum and weren't providing Talyn's propulsors with enough power. The nine remaining Prowlers swarmed once again, flying circles around Talyn while firing their pulse cannons. Natalie rolled Talyn over and over and dove and pulled up, trying to avoid the deadly Prowlers. Normally, Talyn would have been able to stand such an attack, but in his already weakened state, he was being ravaged.

With consoles, transfer conduits, and control nodes exploding all around them, Chiana worked to repair what she could while Natalie flew Talyn. Unfortunately, they both were forced to cease every so often as Natalie doubled over as the pain being inflicted on Talyn was transferred to her through her transponder due to neural bleedback.

"Well, this is fun, isn't it?" Natalie yelled through clenched teeth as Chiana helped her get back to her feet after the bleedback overwhelmed her.

"Maybe next time you'll listen to me and you'll stop at a pleasure planet like I told you to," Chiana yelled as she resumed repairing the weapons console.

Walking back to the override console in front of Chiana, she yelled, "And who said you wouldn't have gotten into any trouble there?"

"Get into trouble on Lomo?" the Nebari replied, looking at Natalie. "Are you frelling crazy?"

"Probably," she yelled. Without warning, a pulse blast rocked the gunship and they both fell to the deck. Standing back up, Natalie helped Chiana rise, strode back to the override console, and said, "That's it. The next time you want to stop at a pleasure planet, we're stopping."

"I knew you'd come around," she said, watching Natalie pilot Talyn into the planet's atmosphere.

"Please place your seatbacks and tray tables in their upright positions," Natalie mumbled as Talyn rocked and shuddered from the atmospheric friction. Flying into the planet's bonisphere, she leveled off and pushed Talyn's engines as hard as possible to try to get away from the Prowlers who were still passing into the atmosphere. But with their smaller size and, at the moment, more powerful engines, the Prowlers caught up with the gunship in no time.

"That looks promising," she mumbled, looking at a snow-covered mountain range through the right forward porthole as Talyn rocked from the impacts of the pulse fire on his outer hull. She banked Talyn and headed for the mountain range, hoping to elude the Peacekeepers.

"What are you doing?" Chiana yelled.

"It's kind of obvious, don't you think?"

"Yeah, it's obvious, but are you sure Talyn will be able to fit in there?"

Looking at Chiana with raised eyebrows, she lightly answered, "No."

"Krell," Chiana whispered.

Natalie flew Talyn in between two rows of mountains that dwarfed Mount Everest and rolled him to his right, flying him on his side. She kept him low to the ground and tight against the mountain walls to kick up the loose snow with the thrust from his propulsors to blind the Prowler pilots behind them. Unfortunately, only two Prowlers followed while the rest remained in the planet's bonisphere, waiting for Talyn to emerge from the mountain range.

Pulling up, Natalie turned Talyn to the right while keeping him on his side and passed between two mountains as they came to a dead end, a mountain that looked like it was as large as Rhode Island blocking their path. Suddenly, another mountain became visible in the forward portholes.

"Frell," Natalie yelled, and rolled Talyn onto his other side, banking to the left to avoid smashing into the massive rock. But Natalie didn't turn in time and Talyn's tail struck the mountain, shearing off part of it and causing an avalanche of snow and enormous boulders. Natalie cried out as the damage inflicted to Talyn suddenly woke him up and sent immense pain shooting through them both. Overwhelmed by the pain, Natalie nearly passed out, falling to the deck under Talyn's beta channel, and unintentionally sent him into a shallow dive. Talyn, unfortunately, was still too weak to control his propulsors and couldn't pull up.

Sliding up to Natalie, Chiana hefted her up, throwing her up against the center right pylon, slapped her hard across the cheek, and yelled, "Hey, wake up."

"Get frelled," she mumbled, leaning against the pylon for support as she pulled Talyn up slightly above the mountain range and leveled off.

"I'd love to," Chiana said while trying to hold Natalie up. "How's Talyn holding up?"

"He's starting to pass out again. He can't take all this shit," she answered, pushing off the pylon, and walked up to Talyn's beta channel, put her hand on it, and looked up at it. She quietly said, "C'mon, Talyn, I need you to stay awake. I know you're hurting, but you gotta stay awake. If you don't, you're gonna get dead, all right?"

'All right,' Talyn weakly said.

"All right," Natalie mumbled, gently patting Talyn's beta channel and walking to the override console. She and Talyn pulled up together and banked right, heading away from the mountain range, then dove, trying to increase their speed. They kept low to the ground in a straight course. Unfortunately, they were now out in the open again, giving the Peacekeepers the perfect opportunity to try to disable Talyn.

"We can't frelling keep this up," Chiana yelled as Talyn rocked from the pulse blasts impacting on his hull.

"Well, duh," Natalie yelled, frustrated. "If you know of any place where Talyn could hide, I'd be more than happy to take him there."

"You know, there's something I once heard you say..." Pausing, Chiana turned to look at Natalie with her head cocked to one side and yelled, "Why don't you get that FRELLING stick out of your ass?"

"Okay," Natalie said, apology and exhaustion in her voice. She turned to look back out of the forward portholes. She rolled Talyn left and right, trying to avoid the increasing pulse fire as the nine Prowlers slowly came up on them. As she rolled him, she looked out into the distance over the flat plains that repeatedly looped and rocked from left to right and said, "Is that a city?"

"Looks like it," Chiana wearily said, taking in the massive skyscrapers of different shapes and colors and the winding bridge structures surrounding and cutting through the city. "Maybe we should check the place out."

"You read my mind," she said, a smile growing on her face. Noticing the lack of air and space travel, she added, "If they didn't believe in E. T. before, they will now."

'E. T.? I hope you realize you're going to have to explain that to me later, now that you've said it.'

"I know," she said with a smile.

Nearing the massive city having towers at least one hundred fifty stories high, Talyn slowed down and pulled up to avoid flying into a complex interchange with jam-packed bridges running directly into and out of the buildings. He immediately rolled onto his side to pass between twin towers, shattering the windows in both towers with his propulsors. He leveled off and dove under another crowded bridge with people climbing out of their vehicles to run away or get a better glimpse at him. As he passed under them, many of the onlookers ran to the other side of the highway to watch him as he pulled up and rolled side-over-side, flying through narrow passages between buildings. As the lethal Prowlers quickly passed over them, surprising them, the onlookers ducked in fright and they covered their ears in pain from the volume of the ships' engines which shattered the windows of the vehicles on the road.

Talyn banked around a building, but Natalie took over his propulsors and turned completely around the building. He asked, 'What are you doing?'

"Just going on a hunch," Natalie calmly answered as they flew around the tower. Coming completely around the building, they found themselves behind the attack squadron. Looking at the Prowlers' engines, she whooped and yelled, "Those are some GREAT asses. They deserve to be slapped, don'cha think?"

Chiana glanced at Natalie, smiling mischievously at her.

As the Prowler squadron flew in between and over buildings, parks, highways, and terrified onlookers, the pilots had to visually search for Talyn - the large structures hid him from their sensors. Fortunately for Natalie, Chiana, and Talyn, the Peacekeepers didn't think to look behind their own ships, and Talyn increased power to his propulsors, ramming his nose into the back of the rear-most Prowler in the formation. The "bump" destroyed one engine and sheared off one of the Prowler's winglets, sending the small craft into a spin. It plowed through a bridge and crashed into the ground in a fiery explosion.

"Talyn, what the frell are you doing?" Natalie yelled, looking back at his beta channel.

'I did what you told me to,' he answered, confused.

"I didn't tell you to destroy it," she scolded. "Who knows how many people you just hurt and killed when that Prowler went down. After this, we are going to have a LONG talk, Talyn."

'Okay,' he sighed, annoyed, remembering all their past conversations. 'But for now, I think we should focus on the Prowlers that are pulling up to get behind us now, don't you?'

"Yes, I do," she said as the Prowlers pulled up in formation out of the field of view of the portholes.

The Prowlers dove on Talyn, their pulse cannons firing as they flew in behind him. Their pulse blasts impacted on his hull and the market place below, sending the thousands of panicked shoppers fleeing as what looked like the local military began taking up positions to protect them.

Suddenly, two missiles were launched, one after the other, from the roof of one of the shorter buildings ahead of them and hurtled towards Talyn. Staying on course, Natalie slowed down and let the Prowlers catch up as the missiles raced towards them. Monitoring Talyn's caloric level, she said, "I was wondering how long it would take those guys to start shooting at us."

Suddenly, Natalie and Talyn rocked to the left as the missiles came within a quarter of a metra of them, revealing the Prowlers to the tracking systems on the missiles. With Talyn flying on his side, one of the missiles passed by him and hit one of the Prowlers behind him, causing it to explode before the pilot could eject. Natalie then rocked Talyn to the right and increased power to speed away from the Prowlers with the other missile trying to stay with them. But the targeting system on the missile saw the Prowlers and locked on, ignoring Talyn. It sheared off one of the Prowlers' winglets, then fell and hit the Prowler behind and below it head on. The first Prowler crash-landed on a bridge, the pilot killed on impact, and tumbled end over end, ramming into people and vehicles before falling off the bridge onto the ground while the other was swallowed in a fiery explosion.

"You'd think they would've shot at us sooner than this," Chiana said, looking out at the city before them.

"Well, Earth's sort of the same way... Well... I'll explain it later," Natalie mumbled. She pitched under a bridge between two buildings to their right then suddenly banked right around one of structures and circled it, coming to a stop in the shadows under the bridge they had passed.

Glancing at Natalie, Chiana started, "What are you..."

"Just wait," Natalie interrupted, keeping her eyes on the forward portholes. They watched as the Prowlers ducked below the bridge less than a tenth of a metra in front of them, never seeing them in the shadows, then broke formation and began a search of the city.

"Frell me," the Nebari mumbled. "I didn't think they were that stupid."

"They're not," she said, looking at her. "We're just very lucky. Maybe now we can finally try to save enough power for starburst."

'Or maybe not,' Talyn said, drawing Natalie's attention to the portholes.

She saw three fighters, armed to the teeth with missiles, hovering in front of them with two more fighters flying under the bridge to join them. To Natalie, they looked like F-18s, but with delta wings and air intakes and shorter vertical stabilizers both above and below the wings. With a sigh, she said, "Figures."

"At least they're not the Peacekeepers," Chiana said.

"Yeah..." she said lightly with a small smile. "That's true. And at least Talyn's senses are starting to come back online."

Increasing power to the engines, Natalie propelled Talyn forward and caught the alien fighter pilots off guard. They barely got out of the way in time as Talyn banked right and sped away into the city. But the fighters collected themselves and stayed behind him, only following him for the time being as he wound through the massive towers.

Without warning, pulse fire strafed across Talyn's bow from the left, impacting on the building he was passing. Using Talyn's senses, Natalie saw a single Prowler turn out of an adjacent "passageway" they had passed and follow the alien fighters behind her. As she watched the Prowler try to get around the alien fighters, who were trying to get behind him, she mumbled, "Don't be stupid."

Predictably, the Prowler pilot opened fire on the alien fighters and destroyed three of the five while trying to fire on Talyn. The two remaining fighters pulled up, looping over into a dive and each fired a missile at the two ships.

"You moron," Natalie said to the Prowler pilot. Seeing a Prowler a few metras in front of her through Talyn's senses, she watched as the Prowler turned and headed straight for her, and said, "Let's hope you're a moron, too."

"Who are you talking, too?" Chiana asked, confused.

"The Prowler pilots," Natalie answered distractedly, keeping track of the Prowlers, the alien fighters, and the missiles heading for them. As the Prowler ahead of her began firing at them, the pulse blasts hitting Talyn's hull, she said with a sad sigh, "Hang on to something."

Pulling up at the last minute, Natalie and Talyn avoided flying into the Prowler in front of them, but the Prowler behind them wasn't as fortunate. The two Peacekeeper vessels collided, both breaking up on impact under Talyn's tail. Before the wreckage could fall to the ground, the missiles struck them. The massive explosion claimed Talyn's tail, further damaging it, shattered the windows in the buildings nearby, and created an enormous crater in the two buildings to either side.

Propping herself up against the override console, Natalie exhaustedly asked, "Hey, Talyn, you all right?"

'What do you think?' he weakly responded, annoyed.

"That's what I thought." She sighed, rubbed the bridge of her nose, and said, "We have to get outta here. Can you see anywhere else we can go?"

'No. I can't see anything past these frelling buildings.'

"Damn. Maybe we should stop somewhere and ask for directions."

"Oh, that would be good," Chiana said sarcastically, glancing at Natalie.

"Yeah," Natalie responded, a small grin on her face. Sighing, she added, "We go up, we don't have a choice. Talyn, think you're strong enough to pull up and try to outrun those Prowlers?"

'I can try. But don't blame me if we crash or if the Peacekeepers see us.'

Pulling up, Talyn flew between several more buildings and under and over several bridges, heading out of the city. Talyn and Natalie both saw the remaining four Prowlers rising out of the city to pursue them with a squadron of six alien fighters in formation following after the Prowlers.

Diving to the deck, Natalie tried to increase their speed and flew Talyn low to the ground as the fighters were catching up to them. Once in firing range, two of the Prowlers began firing at Talyn while the other two hung back to fight it out with the six alien fighters.

Watching as the two Prowlers dispatched the six fighters with ease, Talyn said, 'I wonder if they're smart enough to not send up any more...' He paused momentarily, then continued, 'We're approaching the coastline.'

"Yeah, I see it," Natalie said. "But what I can't see is any place large enough to hide you."

'We could try the jungle on the southern continent of the left hemisphere. I think I can see some sinkholes there we could use.'

"Then that's where we're going."

Speeding away from the coast, Talyn stayed low over the ocean, creating two massive "rooster tails", as the Prowlers pulled up, flying away from Talyn.

"What the hell are they doing?" Natalie mumbled.

'They don't want to bring us down over the ocean,' Talyn answered.

"I'm an extremely intelligent scientist," she said. With a sigh, she continued, "You'd think I'd figure that out on my own."

"Well, you're only human," Chiana said.

Looking at Chiana in surprise at the insult, Natalie saw the mischievous glint in the Nebari's eyes and smiled at her with an incredulous shake of the head. "Thanks."

'There it is,' Talyn said, drawing Natalie and Chiana's attention to the forward portholes as they approached the southern continent.

Talyn suddenly rocked as pulse fire from the Prowlers above struck his hull, and Chiana said, "And there THEY are."

"Damn," Natalie said, her voice full of wonder as they passed over the coastline while still keeping track of the Prowlers as they swooped in behind Talyn.

"What?" Chiana asked, glancing at Natalie.

"I've never seen trees with that shade of purple before."

"So, you've seen purple trees before?" she asked with a small grin as Talyn shook again from the pulse fire.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm sayin'," Natalie sarcastically mumbled, a smile still on her face.

Turning to look at Talyn's beta channel, she asked, "Can you see any sinkholes?"

'No. But even if there WERE any here, I doubt we'd be able to see them, anyway. There's something in the rock and soil that's frelling with my senses.'

"Well, at least now we know what those buildings were made out of."

Talyn banked left to round a small mountain and, coming around it, Chiana pointed out of the portholes and said, "There."

Looking out, Natalie saw a small, but deep, sinkhole in the ground that looked large enough for Talyn if he "stood" on his damaged tail.

'Looks like our luck is changing.'

"Are you sure about that?" Natalie asked.

Talyn remained silent for a few microts, then said, 'Not really.'

"Didn't think so. But those Prowlers are still right behind us." Thinking for a microt as more pulse fire rocked Talyn, she added, "Circle the mountain again. Let's play a little game of "Ring Around the Rosie", shall we?"

"Ring around the what?" Chiana asked.

"I'll explain it later," she responded as Talyn banked right, starting his run around the mountain.

"Yeah, right along with all the other thousands of things you promised to explain later."

"Hey, we've been busy."

"Busy with what?"

She remained silent for several microts as Talyn circled the mountain, increasing his speed with every revolution, with the Prowlers flying right behind them, firing at them, and finally said, "I'll explain later."

"That's what I thought."

After several revolutions around the mountain with the two friends remaining silent, Natalie said, "All right, Talyn, when I give the word, I want you to hit the brakes and reverse course."

Knowing Natalie, Talyn knew what she was thinking and said, 'Got it.'

"Get ready..." After a few microts, she yelled, "Now."

Talyn reversed thrust, coming to almost a dead stop and hovered with the four Prowlers pulling up and diving in every direction, trying to avoid ramming Talyn. Immediately after the Prowlers passed them, Talyn activated his propulsors, pulled up, and looped over the mountain. Coming to a hover over the sinkhole, Talyn pitched up and stood on his tail over the hole, carefully lowering himself inside as quickly as possible with Natalie's help, and powered down all systems except for gravity and environmentals with propulsion running on minimum to keep them from falling.

Seeing Talyn pull up, the Prowlers regrouped, flying around the mountain again to intercept Talyn. They couldn't find him. However, they did see a large sinkhole and circled it to scan it and visually inspect it. Fortunately, something in the ground blocked their scans and, with most of Talyn's systems powered down, all of his lights were shut off and he was far enough down inside the hole that the shadows camouflaged his black and red exterior.

The sound of Natalie's heavy breathing filled the bridge as she stood beside Chiana, nervously watching the lethal Prowlers circle overhead like vultures. The Prowlers continued taking sensor readings for nearly a quarter arn before moving on and Natalie breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"They're gone," Chiana said.

"Yeah, but what'll happen next? This place will cave in on us?"

"Probably."


----------------------------------------------------


Lieutenant Leic left his command console on the bridge, turning to approach his commanding officer standing behind him, and announced, "Captain, the Leviathan is missing. Our sensors cannot locate it anywhere on the planet."

She remained silent for several microts as she stared out of the viewscreen at the empty starscape before them, then calmly said, "Very well. Prepare our ground forces for immediate launch. I want them to search the entire planet starting with the area they were seen last."

"Yes, sir," Leic responded and walked away to carry out his orders.

Ordering the Colarta standing behind her, the Captain said, "Get your partners ready. I want you to lead the search for the beast. If you meet any resistance from the local population... Convince them otherwise."

"Yes, Xhalax."


=================================


"Shit," Natalie yelled, as the secondary control node she was repairing shot a shock through her body, sending her crashing to the deck. She cringed and wrapped her arm around her bandaged abdomen as pain seared through her wound.

'You better slow down, Natalie,' Talyn said. 'Just remember, when you rush, that's when accidents happen.'

"Oh, shut up," she lightly said. She stood up, tugging at her tank top to smooth it out, and got back to work, repairing the control node, a night vision monocle helping her to see.

'Just trying to help,' he said with a chuckle.

"I know," she sighed, turned around, and leaned back against the node. "I'm just getting very tired of the Peacekeepers. It seems like whenever we come across them, everything goes to hell, just like at the Gammak Base, the commerce station, and the old monastery."

'Well, everything turned out all right after all that happened.'

"How can you say that? What about John and Aeryn? What about D'ARGO?"

'Why should we care about them? They never cared about us. And I never did like D'Argo.'

"How could you say that?" she asked, shocked.

'It's true. They never cared for us; they only used us. Except for Aeryn, in the beginning. But after a while, she stopped caring, too. They even lied to us when we destroyed the Expresser. And D'Argo hated me. I can't say I'm sad to see him gone.'

She remained silent for several microts, taking in what Talyn had said. She finally said, "I'm sorry you feel that way." She looked at one of the DRDs helping her, letting Talyn see her sad expression, and added, "But they did care. You may not have seen it, but they did."

'Yeah, right,' he mumbled, watching her slowly going back to work on the node.

"Natalie," Chiana yelled, running up to her from behind, wearing a night vision monocle of her own.

"Hey," Natalie answered, still splicing wires. "How are the repairs coming?"

"I've done all I can, but..."

"After I've finished with this, all we have to do is wait for Talyn's tail and hull to heal and for power to build back up so we can starburst," Natalie interrupted, still thinking of Talyn. "The Peacekeepers may have some very advanced tech, but their electrical systems are still crap."

"Whatever," she said. "But the Peacekeepers are back."

Quickly turning to Chiana, she asked, "What?"

"Yeah, I was on the bridge and saw a bunch of Marauders and some Prowlers flying overhead."

"Talyn, why didn't you say anything about them?"

'What's there to say? I can't see them. Frell, I can't see anything because of this frelling sinkhole, remember?'

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Talyn. I'm just..."

'Yeah, I know. You're tired. Forget about it.'

"C'mon," Natalie said, turning to run to the bridge with Chiana.


----------------------------------------------------


Entering the bridge, Natalie ran to the forward portholes to try to see the Peacekeeper vessels invading the planet. She asked, "How many did you see?"

"I saw more than twenty Prowlers, and probably the same number of Marauders," Chiana stated, coming to stand behind Natalie in front of the override consoles. "I wasn't really keeping count. They were flying pretty low and slow, too, so I'm guessing they were loaded with Peacekeeper commandos."

"Frell," Natalie mumbled. She hung her head with eyes closed, but her back remained ramrod straight. Turning to look at Chiana, she said, "You know, I'd usually say something witty or sarcastic right about now."

"So would I," she said, looking at Natalie in understanding.

"So, what do you want to do?"


----------------------------------------------------


Lieutenant Arman Gurin watched as his forces marched most of the remaining population in two columns through the streets to the recently built base camp and detention center outside the city. He noted their appearance and cringed as the sounds of pulse fire went off in the distance. They all looked alike with their beige, featureless bodies, shoulder length hair, and flat faces with mere slits for nostrils and mouths. They all wore tan tunics and trousers as well. They looked disgusting to him, and he would have had them all exterminated in a microt. But he had his orders to search them all and find out if any of them knew the location of the beast. What made things worse, his orders were given to him by the Colartas.

The city's local militia had offered some initial resistance when they had landed, destroying several Prowlers and Marauders with their primitive aircraft and weapons. But most of the resistance had been quashed in record time. Gurin had been ordered by the Colarta, Vek, to commend his men for a job well done. Although they accepted the praise they, all of them including Gurin, were all disgusted. They didn't need an alien, especially a Colarta, to validate them for a frelling bug hunt.

"Sir," Sergeant Hasek Carel reported as she came up behind Gurin. As he turned to face her, she openly admired his thin, scarred face, lean physique, and bulging crotch. "We've rounded up nearly all the city's population. Our commandos are still encountering some small pockets of resistance made up of civilians with small firearms. But they are being dispatched as we speak. Teams in the other five cities on this frelling rock are reporting similarly."

He gazed at Carel's body as she spoke. It was just right - she had lean hips, ample breasts, a square jaw, and steely eyes. He loved her body and he loved frelling her. He said, "Very good, Sergeant. Once you've captured the remaining civilians, begin interrogating them."

"Sir, the Colartas have already begun," she said angrily.

"Frell," he yelled, turning around with his hands on his hips as he tried to quell his anger.

"Lieutenant, why is the Captain using those frelling things?"

Spinning back around to face her, he said, "Carel, don't even think like that. She is our Captain. I may put up with this dren from you because I've known you since we were children. But if anyone else hears you say something like that, you'll be brought up on charges of treason."

Coming to attention, she said, "Yes, sir."

He sighed, shaking his head with a small grin, and asked, "Are you doing anything tonight?"

"Yes, sir."

"What are you going to do?" he asked strolling up to her, his hands behind his back.

"I don't have you tell you that, sir."

"Yes, you do. As your commanding officer, I need to know where you are at all times."

Looking at him, she said, "I'll be in your bed, sir, and I will be preoccupied for most of the night."

"Very good, Sergeant," he said, looking at her with a small grin still on his face.

"Sergeant," a Peacekeeper yelled from behind her. She turned around as Gurin looked up to see two Corporals dragging an alien civilian between them. One of them was carrying a projectile rifle of the type the indigenous population used.

"Sirs," the rifle-toting Corporal addressed, dropping the alien to its hands and knees on the ground and handing the rifle to Gurin. "This piece of dren was caught on the roof of one of the buildings. By the time we got to him, he had already killed seven of us. I thought you would want to deal with him yourself."

"You thought right, Corporal," Gurin said. "Return to your posts."

"Yes, sir," the Corporals yelled, coming to attention. They snapped salutes and turned to walk back to their posts.

"What do you want to do with him, sir?" Carel asked, looking down at the alien who was glaring at her. Turning to Gurin, she added, "He might know something."

"He doesn't know anything."

"Are you sure?"

"If you keep asking questions like that I'll have to confine you to my quarters," he said offhandedly. "Besides, if he did know anything, he wouldn't have been up on that roof using this piece of dren rifle." Grabbing the grip of the rifle, Gurin aimed it at the alien's head and said, "I hate bug hunts."


----------------------------------------------------


"Vek," Gurin addressed as he walked into the Colarta's office in the command center of the Peacekeeper base camp, still carrying the alien's projectile rifle, and watched the alien standing behind a console, checking progress reports.

"You will address me as sir, Lieutenant," Vek slowly drawled over the screams of several of the inhabitants of the planet as they were 'interrogated'.

"Frell you, Vek. You're not my commanding officer. You're not even a Peacekeeper."

"What do you want?"

"We've secured the city. The other cities have been secured as well."

"I will inform Xhalax."

"You might as well tell the Captain that what you ordered us to do is pointless. These people don't know anything. And if you were smart, you'd see that we should be focusing our attention on the jungle where the gunship was last reported."

"We have already scanned the area," Vek said, continuing to scan the progress reports and ignoring Gurin. "The beast is not there."

"Frell, you are so stupid," Gurin mumbled. "You can't know if it's there or not if you don't look."

"We can't afford to waste time looking, when these people can tell us."

Without warning, Gurin raised the alien rifle, aiming it at Vek. The Colarta raised his own rifle and tried to fire, but Gurin fired first in a three-round burst. The bullets cut through Vek's body with ease and impacted the metal wall behind him. He fell to the ground with blood pouring out of the three large bullet holes in his chest, his two hearts punctured. Gurin strolled up to Vek and stood at his feet, taking aim once again, and fired another three-round burst into the Colarta's head.

Suddenly, five armor clad Peacekeepers burst through the door into the office from the adjoining comms shack, their pulse pistols at the ready. Seeing the Lieutenant standing at the feet of the dead Colarta, the lead Corporal asked, "Sir, what happened?"

"He died of stupidity, Corporal," Gurin replied, tossing the rifle onto the console. Looking at the other Peacekeepers, he said, "I am now taking command of this operation. Get on the comms and order all unit commanders to proceed to the jungle of the southeastern continent. They're to begin their search for the gunship there."

"Yes, sir," the Corporal responded with a salute and stepped back into the comms shed with his comrades, shutting the door behind them.

Using the console in front of him, Gurin opened a comms channel to the Vigilante and waited. After a few microts, Captain Sun appeared on the monitor and said, "Yes, Lieutenant?"

"Sir," he addressed. "Vek is dead."

"How?"

"Killed by one of the locals. But I have taken care of the situation and have taken command."

"I see," she said. "How is the search progressing?"

"Very well, Sir. We have reason to believe that the gunship is still in the area it was reported missing. I have dispatched troops to the area to search it."

"You are personally going to lead the search, I presume?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good, Lieutenant. I expect a progress report within the arn."

"Yes, sir." As Xhalax closed the comms channel, Gurin yelled, "Corporal, get in here."

Almost immediately, an armor-clad Corporal burst through the door and came to attention in front of Gurin.

"Prepare a Marauder," Gurin ordered. "I am going to lead the search for the gunship myself."

"Yes, sir," the Corporal yelled, turning and leaving the office to carry out his orders.

"Frell."


----------------------------------------------------


"How much longer do we have to wait, anyway?" Chiana asked, sitting against the bulkhead under the forward portholes.

"Just about another quarter arn," Natalie said from where she sat in front of the override console, monitoring the power build-up.

With a sigh Chiana mumbled, "I hate waiting."

"Well, we don't really have a choice. Unless you want to help the DRDs dispose of the bodies?"

"No thanks."

"How did you do it anyway?" Natalie asked, looking at the Nebari.

"Do what?"

"Handle the boredom. I know you guys didn't have much to do back on Moya. I've pretty much been running on full burn ever since I got out here. In the small moments where I've had to wait, I was waiting on news about one of you guys. I've never really had to do this before."

"Well," Chiana started, getting up and walking to the other override console to grab the stool under it. She pulled it over next to Natalie and sat down, leaning back against the console. "We didn't do much. We slept a lot. We needed the rest after having to go through all the dren we did. On occasion, we'd all meet in the center chamber for a meal. Other than that, we couldn't really do anything. Well, D'Argo and I..." she paused, looking away momentarily. "We just got through it."

"Chi, you..."

"Don't, Natalie," she interrupted, looking into Natalie's eyes and knowing what she wanted to talk about.

Natalie remained silent for several microts, studying the Nebari's expression. "All right," she said.

Several more microts passed as they waited. Breaking their silence, Chiana said, "This sucks."

Natalie let out a soft chuckle and said, "What is it with you and Talyn? The two of you are sounding more and more like me everyday."

"Yeah, I know. That's not a good thing," Chiana responded, a grin on her face. "That big mouth of yours has gotten you in trouble on more than one occasion."

"And what's wrong with having a big mouth?"

"Nothing, if you're me," Chiana responded, a mischievous grin growing on her face.

"Frell, don't you ever think about anything else?" she laughingly asked. "Yeah, stupid question. I know."

The smile faded from Chiana's face; she looked away and leaned forward, planting her elbows on her knees.

"Dammit," Natalie mumbled and put her hand on Chiana's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Chi... Maybe I should just get some sealant and glue my lips shut. It just might save EVERYONE some trouble, especially us."

A small appreciative grin on her face, she said, "If you did that, then I wouldn't have anyone to talk to."

"Well," Natalie started, looking out of the forward portholes. "If you want someone to talk to, I'm sure those guys out there would love to talk with you," she said, nodding at the Peacekeepers surrounding the circumference of the opening to the sinkhole, their pulse rifles trained on Talyn. Turning to look at her, she added, "Unless you want to leave?"


=================================



"There it is," Carel mumbled, looking into the sinkhole at Talyn's nose. "But who gets to go down there to get him?"

"Are you volunteering, Sergeant?" Gurin asked, coming up behind her.

"I don't think so, sir," she said softly, looking at him.

"Smart girl," he replied quietly, walking around her to another Sergeant from another team. He said, "Take two men, get some climbing harnesses, and get down there."

"Yes, sir," the selected Sergeant yelled, coming to attention. Addressing the two Privates standing next to him, he yelled, "You two, with me."

As the three commandos ran to the nearest Marauder to retrieve the appropriate gear, Gurin walked back to Carel. He asked, "Sergeant, what do you believe they're waiting for?"

"Sir?"

"Why do you suppose they haven't acted yet? They have to have seen us by now, and they have to know that we will be going down there to get them. Yet, they do nothing. What do you think they know that we don't?"

"I don't know, sir."


----------------------------------------------------


"Uh, Natalie?" Chiana said, glancing at her. "Why aren't we leaving?"

"I'm still waiting for power to build," Natalie replied, keeping her eyes on the power readout on the console in front of her. "Unless, of course, you want Talyn to be split off into three different dimensions like what happened to Moya?"

"No, I don't, but it's been over a quarter arn."

"Yeah, well..." Turning to look at Chiana, she lightly said, "Would you believe I was being hopefully optimistic?"

"No."

"Didn't think so."

"How did you find out about what happened to Moya, anyway?" she asked, watching as three Peacekeepers began rappelling down the wall of the sinkhole.

"John told me," she answered, bringing Talyn's propulsors to full power with her transponder. "After my first starburst, I asked him if you guys had had any problems starbursting before. That's when he told me what happened. And I was so thrilled to hear that, too."

"Hey, you did ask him to tell you."

"Yeah, me and my big mouth again," she mumbled, looking out the forward portholes at the rappelling commandos.

"Well, your mouth has helped us sometimes."

"Name one," she challenged, looking at Chiana.

Chiana thought for several microts and said, "I'll get back to you on that."

"That's what I thought," she mumbled, checking the readout on the console. Looking up, she watched the Peacekeepers get closer and closer, then said, "Ten, nine, eight..."

"What the frell are you doing?" Chiana asked as the three Peacekeepers landed on the forward portholes, aiming their pulse rifles down at them.

"Oh, just counting... Four, three, two, one." She immediately activated Talyn's propulsors, sending Talyn flying out of the sinkhole with the Peacekeepers still on him. "We have lift off."

As they flew out of the hole, Natalie and Chiana watched the Peacekeepers as they were thrown down against the portholes and held on as tightly as they could.

"Bye-bye," she said, taking off her night vision monocle and sweetly waving at the commandos. She immediately cut thrust once they reached the lower bonisphere, letting Talyn fall back to the deck. The maneuver caught the Peacekeepers off-guard, causing them to lose their grip and let go of Talyn. She spun Talyn around, nose-to-tail, and activated Talyn's propulsors as they plummeted, trying to increase their speed.


----------------------------------------------------


Seeing Talyn falling back, Gurin turned to his forces and yelled, "Get the Marauders in the air. Force it back out into space."

"Duck," Carel yelled, throwing herself to the ground.

Everyone threw themselves to the ground as Talyn passed a few denches above them, heading away from the coast. However, four of the commandos didn't go down in time and were shoved into the sinkhole by the thrust from Talyn's propulsors.

"Move," Gurin yelled to his troops as he stood up and watched them get up and run to their respective Marauders.

Coming to stand next to Gurin, Carel said, "At least we know why they were waiting."

He turned to look at her, annoyed, and said, "Get to your Marauder, Sergeant."

"Yes, sir," she said, and turned to run to her Marauder, Gurin on her heels. Suddenly, they heard yelling from behind them and turned to see three Peacekeepers falling from the sky. They hit the ground not too far from them. Fortunately, their bodies weren't visible through the tall grass. They turned and continued to their vessel as the first few Marauders began taking off, paying the dead Peacekeepers no attention.


----------------------------------------------------


'Their Marauders are coming after us,' Talyn said.

"I see 'em," Natalie responded, watching the fifteen Marauders straining to keep up with them while still monitoring Talyn's condition from the override console.

'I wonder why they didn't send up their Prowlers.'

"We did destroy most of them. They're probably scared we'll destroy the rest. It is sacrilege, after all, for Peacekeepers to go without their coveted Prowlers."

"Don't YOU have a Prowler?" Chiana said, looking at Natalie.

"Yeah, but I'm not a moronic Peacekeeper."

"Well, I'm not too sure about the moron part," she said, a small grin on her face.

"Very funny."

"I thought it was," Chiana said, repeating one of Natalie's phrases.

Suddenly, they were thrown forward over the override console. The powerful pulse fire from the Marauders repeatedly impacted on Talyn's still healing outer hull as they passed over a winding river that flowed through the jungle.

"Ow," Natalie said, annoyed, and slowly climbed up as Chiana did the same. She then banked Talyn right to follow the river's path. "Was that good for you?"

'Oh, yeah, that was just frelling great for me,' he said angrily.

"Glad to hear it," she said, walking back around the console as she and Talyn banked and rolled, trying to avoid the pulse fire.

'Natalie, you're going to want to remove your transponder now,' he suddenly said.

"Why?"

'Just trust me Natalie.'

"Talyn, what are you thinking?" she asked, turning to look at his beta channel.

"What?" Chiana asked, thoroughly confused.

'I'm going to do something you're not going to like.'

"Well, duh," she said, exasperated. "If you tell me to take out my transponder, of course I'm not going to like it. How could I like it?"

'We don't have a whole lot of time so just take the frelling transponder out, okay?'

"Fine," she said, removing the transponder. "Happy now?"

'Yes,' he said, despite knowing she couldn't hear him, and suddenly cut thrust, decreasing his speed dramatically. As Natalie and Chiana were thrown over the console again, caught off guard, six of the Marauders slammed into Talyn's ventral hull while the rest of the Marauders pulled up, dove, or banked to either side to avoid a mid-air collision with the gunship. The Marauder's cesium full and chakan oil ignited in massive explosions microts after the ships rammed into Talyn, creating large holes in his outer and inner hulls. Talyn immediately sealed the tiers the breaches were on despite the enormous amount of pain he was in.

"That's it," Natalie said, standing up while steadying herself against the rib separating the forward portholes from the rest of the bridge. "When he gets better, I'm gonna give that boy a good spankin' and then I'm gonna ground him."

"And just how the frell are you going to spank a Leviathan with a really big gun?" Chiana asked, slowly standing up against the console.

"With a really big paddle," she answered, finding the transponder and placing it in its base in the back of her neck. As expected, a wave of pain shot through her body as she inserted the transponder.

She braced herself against the rib as she spun Talyn around one hundred eighty degrees, speeding him away in the opposite direction with the Marauders scrambling to catch up, and said, "That was a really stupid move, Talyn."

'At least we have four less Marauders to deal with,' he said weakly.

"How are you holding up?"

'What do you think?'

"Yeah, just call me Queen Obvious."

'You got it, your Highness.'

She looked at his beta channel, annoyed, and opened her mouth to speak, but she and Chiana were unexpectedly thrown forward against the bulkhead under the portholes as the pulse fire from the Marauders hit Talyn's hull.

"That'll show us," Natalie mumbled.

'Maybe next time you'll pay attention.'

"Me? You know, just forget it," she said, slowly standing up and moving to stand next to his beta channel as Chiana planted herself on a stool. Banking Talyn left to avoid more pulse fire, Natalie added, "We'll talk later."

'Then we'll talk later. But what are we going to do now? And there's no frelling way I'm going to let them slam into me again.'

"I'd never ask you to do that."

After several microts, he softly said, 'We're coming up on a waterfall. It looks like there's a large cavern behind it.'

"This should be interesting," Natalie said, turning around and walking to the override console to brace herself as Talyn banked right and flew towards the waterfall.

"Where are we going?" Chiana asked.

"Talyn says there's a large cavern behind there. He and I have done this sort of thing before, so it can't hurt to try it again."

"Krell."

Natalie planted her feet on the deck and her hands on the console and flew straight into the waterfall, the water cascading around Talyn's forward portholes and seeping into his fractured hull. As the water cleared from the portholes, Natalie and Chiana suddenly saw a massive cliff face in front of them.

"Shit," Natalie yelled and abruptly dove Talyn into the smooth, oval-shaped cavern below, skimming the river beneath them with the underside of Talyn's "wings" as two "rooster tail" waterspouts shot up from behind them. With the "rooster tails", neither she nor Talyn could see that only four of the Marauders had followed them in. She turned in relief to look at Chiana and saw her unusually calm.

Turning to Natalie, her eyebrows cocked, she said, "I thought you said it was a large cavern?"

Raising her eyebrows with her eyes darting to the side, she said, "I did and it is..." Looking at Chiana, she added, "But Talyn's still a growing boy."

As Chiana let out a soft giggle, Talyn said, 'I'm not a boy.'

"Yes, you are," Natalie said quickly and matter-of-factly.

Unexpectedly, Talyn rocked and shuddered, his ventral hull skimming the river beneath him.

"What the frell is that?" Chiana asked while Talyn continued to rock.

"The Marauders," Natalie answered, seeing behind them. "They can't see us through the water spouts we're making, so they're shooting blind."

'Just like we hoped they would.'

All of the sudden, pulse fire hit the cavern ceiling ahead of them, causing a cave-in ahead of them. Talyn increased his speed, trying to get through the collapse. But several large boulders slammed into his back, stretching his elastic skin to the point of creating large pits, before rolling off him into the river. The boulders stacked one on top of the other, effectively creating a dam.

The Marauders, however, couldn't see the forming dam with the "rooster tails" blocking their view. Unfortunately, two of the Marauders made it through the collapse, although, their hulls took a pounding from the falling rocks and boulders. The other two Marauders were buried under the massive stones, the cesium fuel mixing with the water creating a volatile solution that ignited from the sparks. The resulting firestorm reached out to either side of the dam, chasing the Marauders and Talyn with a lethal efficiency.

'Do you feel that?' Talyn asked.

"Yeah, it's getting hotter..." Natalie answered. Coming to a realization, she looked back at Talyn's beta channel and shouted, "Aw, dammit. I should've listened to my chemistry professor - water and cesium fuel don't mix."

"Don't you think you should've thought of that before we came in here?" Chiana noted.

"Oh, shut up," she lightly said. She suddenly stopped and looked up as she used Talyn's senses to look behind them through the "rooster tails". She saw the enormous firewall engulfing the entire cavern behind the Marauders. She watched as the two Peacekeeper vessels tried to pull away from the firestorm, but were soon engulfed in its powerful fury, their cesium fuel and chakan oil further intensifying the storm.

"Talyn, please tell me we can go faster," Natalie said, watching in terror as they followed the curve of the cavern, the storm quickly catching up to them.

'I'll get back to you on that, but at least we're almost out of here,' he said nervously, and shuddered hard as the fire consumed the tip of his still damaged tail and the tips of his wings.

"Shit," Natalie cried out, feeling the pain Talyn was going through as his outer hull was burned. As Chiana came to her side to try to comfort her, she steeled herself and tried to ignore the pain, focusing on getting to the end of the cavern less than a tenth of a metra away.

Talyn immediately shot out of the entrance to the fiery cavern on the side of a cliff face. He pulled up, evading a massive ball of fire boiling out of the hole behind him. The fire consumed the waterfall as well as the river below, the cesium fuel and water already mixed. Flying out of the way of the fireball, Talyn leveled off and came to an immediate stop as they saw a wall of the five remaining Marauders and at least thirty Prowlers.

Exhausted, Natalie said, "You know, there's a saying on my world that suits our situation perfectly."


=================================


"There's a saying on your world for frelling everything," Chiana said, still helping to hold Natalie up.

"We're eccentric like that."

"I don't doubt it."

"Hey, we're going there someday, so don't knock it. You just might like it."

"A world full of Crichtons and you..." she said, thinking. "Well, that has possibilities. But we have to get there first."

"It's always something," she said, looking at Chiana.

She immediately activated Talyn's propulsors, propelling him forward at the wall of Peacekeeper ships as they commenced firing their lethal weapons at him. Rolling left and right and flipping over, he managed to dodge some of the pulse blasts, but most of them impacted on his hull. The pulse fire didn't stop him, however, and he plowed through the wall, the Peacekeeper ships scrambling out of the way to keep from being destroyed. Fortunately, ten Prowlers and two Marauders were destroyed as they collided with each other in the unorganized frenzy.

Collecting themselves, the remaining Peacekeeper ships turned and gave chase to the massive gunship. They navigated the tree-covered mountains, flying over the fiery river below that was spreading over its banks and consuming the jungle around it. Unfortunately, they flew so low over the cesium fuel-fed fire that it slightly singed Talyn's ventral hull.

"Sorry, Talyn," Natalie said. "But the Peacekeepers aren't going to come anywhere near us or fire at us if they want their own asses to keep from getting heat delirium."

'Forget about it. After all that's happened, I can't feel a frelling thing right now.'

"Well, I promise, as soon as we get away from here, you'll get all the rest and whatever else you need."

'What I need is a good frell.'

"Yeah... Well, you don't have the interlocking part to frell with. I guess when the Peacekeepers frelled with your Leviathan genetics you were accidentally neutered. Of course, they probably didn't care since they think of you as just a ship. I guess that just gives you one more reason to want to kick their ass."

After several microts, he said, 'I wish my guns were working right about now.'

"I had a feeling you'd say that," she said with a smirk.

"Say what?" Chiana asked, trying to follow the conversation.

Looking at her, Natalie answered, "He wishes his guns were working."

"Ah."

"Well, you may wish you had your guns, Talyn, but I wish we had starburst," she said. "How much longer until we can?"

'All the hits we've taken have slowed down the power build up. So we still have less than a quarter arn.'

"Frell."

'Uh, Natalie?'

"Yeah?"

'Look.'

She looked up and saw what appeared to be a massive dam and hydroelectric power station in the distance. The firestorm was spreading down-river and through the jungle toward it. She said, "Aw, dammit." Looking at Chiana, she asked, "Just what God or Goddess did we piss off to get into this?"

"I thought you said you weren't religious?" Chiana asked, looking at Natalie, her eyebrows cocked.

"I'm not. But I need someone to blame."

'Do you think we could talk about this later? I mean, we don't want to be here when that place blows up, do we?'

"No, we don't. But I'm still trying to think of how we can avoid getting shot down by those Peacekeepers. It's not like we can just turn around and keep going back and forth. They'll figure out something eventually." Seeing the fire reach the dam, the scene growing larger and larger in the portholes, she added, "Or we can just pull up and hope we don't get shot and captured."

'I say we fight. But since we can't, I vote for pulling up.'

"Then do it," she said, sounding lighthearted as they approached the dam.

Before Talyn could pull up, though, the fire broke through the dam. The fiery river flowed freely through the opening and consumed everything in its path, including the power station. The equipment inside the station added to the fire and caused a massive explosion, adding to the conflagration that was eating away at the surrounding jungle. The fire reached up and slammed into Talyn's hull, throwing Chiana and Natalie to the deck. The explosion reached high enough that it claimed several Prowlers as well.

Not wanting to waste any more lives, the Peacekeepers reluctantly broke off, and each ship flew back to its respective base camp.

Concentrating on pulling up to avoid the fire, Talyn didn't notice that the Peacekeepers had broken off. He dove back down to the deck once he had passed the massive fire to increase his speed, continuing to try to evade the Peacekeepers.

After several microts, he announced, 'We can starburst. But it's never been done in an atmosphere before.'

Natalie, who had already taken her seat once again along with Chiana, yelled, "Just do it."

Talyn immediately initiated starburst, his outer hull glowing an orange-ish yellow as his two wings retracted and he was instantly thrust into starburst, disappearing in a brilliant flash of yellow light.


----------------------------------------------------


Once again, Leic found himself approaching his commanding officer. Only this time, he was fearful of what she might do once she learned of his news. Coming up to her as she stood at a console monitoring the ship's functions, he said, "Captain, the gunship... It has escaped, sir. It starburst a few microts ago inside the planet's atmosphere."

Once again, she remained silent for several microts, still monitoring readings. Finally, she calmly asked, "How?"

"Sir?"

"How could our forces let it get away?" she asked, turning to her subordinate, her scarred face devoid of emotion.

"There was a massive fire on the planet, sir. The gunship used the blaze for cover, knowing we couldn't fire upon it without risking bringing it down into the flames. Apparently, they started the fire."

She looked away, thinking for several more microts, then calmly ordered, "Recall all fighters and personnel. Once they're aboard, set course for the nearest commerce planet. We'll intercept them there."

"Yes, sir."


----------------------------------------------------


She found her in Talyn's galley, a drink in one hand and a transparency in the other, with several other transparencies spread out on the table in front of her. Chiana didn't say anything, though, and walked right up to Natalie who was sitting behind the table, facing the hatch. She saw that Natalie was so focused on what she had in her hands that she didn't notice her enter.

"Hey," she said, taking a seat across from Natalie.

Startled, Natalie jumped with a yelp, spilling her drink. She planted her elbows on the table, putting down the transparency, rubbed her face, and said, "Dammit, you scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry," she sheepishly said, reaching over to grab the silver bottle Natalie was drinking from and sniffed the contents.

"Hey..." Natalie warned.

"This is kylian," she stated, worriedly looking at the Human. "You're already drunk, aren't you?"

"Not yet," she said, reaching over to the take the bottle back. She took a large swig of the kylian and added "But I've stopped hurting." Natalie went back to reading the transparency.

Resting her arms on the table, Chiana asked, "Are you sure you should be drinking that? It's pretty strong."

"Raslac and fellip nectar just don't do it for me." Looking up at her, she asked, "What's with the sudden interest in my drinking preferences?"

"I'm just worried about you. If you keep buying that expensive dren, then by the end of the cycle you'll have sold everything you own."

"It won't go that far."

"All right," Chiana said. "So, how's Talyn doing?"

"He's alive," she answered with a soft sigh. "The dents in his back are starting to disappear. His tail is healing, but it's going pretty slow. So are the breaches in his hull. He still has a long way to go. But his guns are working again. At least we now have something to protect ourselves with."

"I'm glad to hear it," Chiana said softly, looking down at the table.

She got up to get a bottle of raslac and some roasted grilnac (small chunks of toasted dough that tasted to Natalie like popcorn) from the refrigeration unit and sat back down on the stool across from Natalie. The two drank and ate in silence for the better part of half an arn.

With a sigh, Natalie broke their silence. She put down the transparency and said, "Chiana, you need to stop this."

"Stop what?" she asked.

"This. For the past seven monens you've done nothing but wallow in silence."

"Natalie, don't do this," she said, looking away.

"No, we're doing this whether you want to or not," Natalie responded sternly. "Chi, I know that D'Argo's death hit you hard. It hit me hard, too. But you have to get through it. Let him go, Chi... Just let him go."

"How can I do that?" she asked. "How can I do that knowing that he hated me for what I did to him? Knowing that we didn't have the chance to work things out before he died?"

"I don't think he hated you. At least not when he died. I had a little conversation with him about the two of you before he was killed. I think I got through to him. He may not have shown it, but I think I got through to him." Reaching out to give Chiana's hand a squeeze, she added, "I'm sure wherever he is now, he's forgiven you."

Staying silent for a few microts, Chiana smirked and said, "I thought you said you didn't believe in an afterlife?"

Grinning at her, Natalie said, "Well, I've seen a lot of strange stuff out here since I got here... So, who knows? It just may exist. But don't change the subject."

"Natalie, I don't want to talk about this right now. I just need to work some things out on my own, okay?"

Natalie nodded, gave Chiana's hand another squeeze, and said, "All right. But if you want to talk, I'll listen."

"Thank you," she said, squeezing Natalie's hand in return. She let go, took another swig of raslac, nodded at the transparency in front of Natalie, and added, "What are you reading anyway?"

Glancing down at the transparency, she took a swig of kylian and said, "It's a report."

"I can see that. Of what?"

Putting down the transparency, she said, "It's a hard copy of what was on the Marauder's computer."

"And it's so interesting that it's keeping you away from the data crystal in your quarters?"

"Yeah, it is," she sadly said.

"If you don't tell me, I'm going to take those things from you and I'm going to find out for myself."

"They're mission logs," she said, looking at the transparencies. "They say that before the Vigilante intercepted us, they dropped off several bodies near Nebari space. They were Nebari bodies. And the Peacekeepers had recreated the effects of Scarran heat projection on them."

"What the frell?"

"That's exactly what I said. Then..." she paused as she looked for another transparency. Not finding it, she said, "I'll look for it later. But suffice it to say the report came out a few monens before the last one and all the others and it said that the Scarrans outnumbered Peacekeepers ten to one. With Scorpius dead and all his research destroyed, they needed a deterrent against the Scarrans."

"My people," Chiana stated.

"Yeah," she replied. "I guess the Peacekeepers figure that your people and the Scarrans will wipe each other out. Once that happens, they'll come swoopin' in and finish off whatever the Establishment and Scarrans have left. And they'll win."

Chiana remained in stunned silence, taking in what Natalie revealed. After several microts, she mumbled, "I have to warn them..."

"What?" Natalie asked, shocked.

Looking at Natalie, she repeated, "I have to warn them. I can't let them be slaughtered."

"Chi, these are the same people who wanted to mind-frell you. These are the same people who probably got your brother killed."

"Yeah, they are, but I can't just let them all be killed because the Peacekeepers don't want to fight the Scarrans."

Natalie let out an incredulous huff and said, "Excuse me? Don't you have any idea what they're going to do when you signal them?"

"Yeah, they're going to go after the Peacekeepers."

"No, I mean what they're going to do to US. Or have you forgotten what Salis was taking you back for?"

"Then I'll contact the Resistance. I have to let at least some of my people know, so that they won't all be wiped out. I can't just let them die."

"You can't do that either Chiana. If you contact them, they're going to come after us and kill us. We did, after all, kill some of them."

Chiana looked at Natalie, stunned. She mumbled, "How did you know?"

"You just told us," she answered, looking at her. "Talyn and I already had our suspicions, and you just confirmed them for us. And if you contact the Resistance, who probably already knows that we're responsible, they're going to come after us. We don't need any more people coming after us, Chi."

"I can't believe you just did that," she said, shocked. "I can't frelling believe you just did that to me," she added and suddenly got up, storming out of the galley.

"Chiana, wait!" Natalie called after her. "Chiana! Shit..."

'I can't believe you just did that, either.'

"Ugh, what the frell was I thinking?"

'That's a damn good question.'

"Yeah, it is." She sighed and added, "Talyn, shut down the comms system. I don't want her to be able to access it."

'You don't trust her?' he asked, surprised.

"I trust her, Tal, but I also know her. I know she'll find a way to do what she wants if she thinks she's right."

'Then she'll find a way to contact them even though she can't access my comms.'

"I know. I just hope this'll give her time to cool down and think about what she's doing."

'Have you ever known her to do that?'

"Can't say that I have," she said and took another swig of the kylian.


=================================


'Natalie?' Talyn said, watching her through the DRD perched on the wall at the head of the bed, hoping to get her to wake up. He watched her as she slept on top of the blanket, fully clothed with her pulse pistol still strapped to her thigh and her long hair spread out over her shoulders and face. Seeing her passed out, he yelled, 'Natalie!'

She moaned softly in pain as she slowly roused from her unconscious state. She rolled over onto her back with another moan, bringing her hand to her forehead, her head pounding from her hangover.

'Hey, Natalie!' he yelled again.

She let out a loud groan and slowly drawled, "What?"

'Chiana just found out I shut down the comms and is on her way to see you. She's pretty pissed, too. She's already kicked two DRDs.'

"Great," she sighed. "Thanks for the warning. And be sure to keep the DRDs out of the way." Reaching up, she tapped the DRD above her and added, "If she's that pissed off, you may want to get outta here."

Almost immediately, the DRD scurried down the wall to the floor and disappeared into its small access shaft, the soft whine of its motor still slightly audible.

Bringing up one leg, she untied her boot, kicked it off, and pulled off her sock, throwing it over the end of the bed. She brought up her other leg, repeating the process. Then she unbuckled her belt, undid the buckle holding her holster to her thigh, and pulled the belt from underneath her, letting it drop to the floor. As she slipped her legs under the blanket and pulled it up around her, the hatch to her quarters suddenly opened and Chiana stormed in.

She stomped up to the end of Natalie's bed, stepping over the pile of boots and socks, and yelled, "Did you tell Talyn to shut down the comms?"

Natalie let out a loud groan, pulled the blanket up over her head, and moaned, "Don't yell."

"Sorry," she quietly said. Walking to the side of the bed, Chiana sat down next to Natalie, putting her hand comfortingly on her friend's shoulder, and softly said, "How much did you have to drink?"

Letting out a yawn, Natalie tightened the blanket around her and pitifully mumbled, "I don't remember."

Lightly stroking Natalie's shoulder with her thumb, Chiana asked, "Is there anything you want me to get you?"

"No, I'll be all right." She threw the cover from over her head, pulling her arms out from under the blanket, and reached up to rub her face and smooth back her tousled hair. Pretending not to know why Chiana was there, she said, "Why did you drop by anyway?"

Seeing Natalie's condition, Chiana hesitated for a microt (and only a microt). Trying not to aggravate Natalie's hangover any further, she softly asked, "Did you tell Talyn to shut down the comms?"

With a sigh, she answered, "Yeah, I did."

"Frell," she yelled, shooting up off the bed. "I can't believe you did that. I thought you were my friend."

Natalie pried open her eyes as she slowly sat up, trying to keep from reopening her wound, scooted back against the wall behind her, and said, "I am your friend, Chi, and I'm just looking out for you."

"You're looking out for me?" she yelled in disbelief.

Natalie cringed and motioned with her hand to 'tone it down'. She answered, "Yeah, I'm looking out for you. If you contacted the Resistance, they wouldn't only come for Talyn and me. They'd come after you, too, since you were there when John told me to shoot down that Expresser."

"They won't come after us," Chiana confidently said. "I'm Nebari. That gives us some level of protection."

"No, Chiana," Natalie began. She turned to sit on the side of the bed on top of the blanket as she smoothed back her hair. She rested her elbows on her knees, looked up at Chiana through squinted eyes, and continued, "That doesn't give you any protection at all. If they believe you were willing to let your fellow Nebari die, then they're going to come after you, too. They may go easy on you since you ARE Nebari, but they're going to come after you nonetheless. Talyn, John, Aeryn, Zhaan, the others, and me... We're not Nebari. Who knows what they might do to us. So we have to make sure that we don't draw their attention to us."

Natalie closed her eyes and dropped her head, reaching up to rub her neck. She let out a frustrated groan and mumbled, "You really screwed up this time, John."

Looking back up at Chiana, she said, "Please, Chi, don't contact the Resistance. We'll find some other way to get them the info. Some other way that doesn't involve us giving it to them directly, okay? Maybe we'll find someone at the commerce planet. With our luck, someone will probably find us."

"Okay," Chiana softly said. "How much longer until we get there anyway?"

"Talyn said three solar days," Natalie answered, then turned and fell back onto the bed. "So, we still have plenty of time to rest."


----------------------------------------------------


'I know you're "busy" with that wormhole info, Natalie,' Talyn said, watching her sitting at the strategy table in her quarters. 'But I figured you'd want to know that we're half an arn away from the commerce planet. You might also want to get dressed before you go down. I doubt you'd be very intimidating in gray shorts, a bra, and a bandage wrapped around your stomach.'

"No, I won't be very intimidating," she said, studying the wormhole information in the holographic projection above the table. "But I figured I'd just go down like this anyway and use a page out of Chiana's 'Trelks for Dummies' handbook."

'Trelks for Dummies?'

"Yeah," she said, turning off the strategy table and getting up to walk to her dresser. Taking her usual black attire, including her pistol and holster, out of the dresser to change, she said, "It's an Earth thing."

'I kinda figured that.' After a several microts, he asked, 'Are you excited about having the chance to go back to Earth?'

She thought she heard some apprehensiveness in his voice and hesitated for a microt. She said, "Yeah, I am excited. But I'm trying not to get my hopes up. According to that data crystal, we need some parts we don't have. And I'm going to try to get them when we get to the commerce planet, no matter the cost." Sitting on her bed, she put her socks and boots on, tucking her pant-legs into the boots, and added, "I have to get back to Earth, Talyn. I don't know how much longer I can go without seeing my family... Seeing Jason."

'So, what are you going to do when you get home?'

"You don't have anything to worry about, Talyn," she said, coming to a realization about him. "You are my home now. I'm not going to leave you - I could never leave you. Which is why you're coming with me."

'I'm coming with you?' he repeated, excitedly.

"Yeah," she answered, a smile on her face. "I'd love it if you and Jason could meet. Maybe the three of us could go exploring or something and see if there's actually anything near Earth. Then there's Chiana."

'She may not want to come,' he stated. 'And I've begun prepping the transport pod. It'll be ready in a few microts.'

"Yeah," she said, getting up and walking to the dresser. Opening it, she pulled out a body-hugging, floor-length duster made of a heavy-duty black cloth and put it on. Buttoning the coat at the waist, she zipped up the zipper to just below her neck, forming a 'v' at the base of her neck. She pulled her hair out of the high, standing collar that covered her transponder and hid her comms on the inside of its right side. She tied her hair into a ponytail and pulled out two strands of her bangs to circle her face, then said, "She's been pretty excited about contacting the Resistance."

'Do you think she'll want to join them?'

"She might," Natalie answered, walking to the hatch with her coat swaying as she walked, and palmed the hatch open to walk to docking bay one. "If she does..." she quietly said. "She's my best friend, Tal. It'll hurt to see her go, but she has to go where her heart takes her. But I'm not going to let her put us at risk at the same time."

'Speaking of Chiana, she's already at the transport pod waiting for you. We're entering orbit now, so you're ready to go.'

"Good," she said, rounding a corner.

'Do you really think she'd put us at risk?'

"She might. Unintentionally, but she might. She's too biased towards her own people no matter how much she may hate them for doing what they've done to us. Like she said, she can't just let them all die."

'Well, maybe she should.'

"Why do you say that?" she asked, unsurprised by his attitude, as she walked through an access point, down to the next tier.

'If the Scarrans and Nebari wipe each other out, we won't have to worry about them, especially the Nebari, frelling up the universe.'

"What about the Peacekeepers? They're not exactly the Federation Starfleet type."

'No, they're not, but at least they're better than the Scarrans and Nebari. And it's not like we have much of a choice.'

She came to a halt in the corridor and reached out to touch Talyn's rib. She said, "You're right, we don't have much of a choice. It's better to choose the lesser of three evils if we can't get rid of them all."

'Exactly.'

"But if that's what the Peacekeepers are doing, why are they still coming after you?"

'Maybe they want me to help clean up after the Scarrans and Nebari take each other out.'

"That's a possibility. But with their ships and technology, they shouldn't have any problems doing that on their own. It doesn't seem like they need you that badly... So why are they devoting so many resources to capturing you?"

'I don't know. And that makes me a little worried.'

"It worries me, too," she said, patting Talyn's rib. "Let's just hope we're overanalyzing this."

'Do you really think that's what we're doing?' he asked skeptically.

Hesitating for a microt, with a shake of the head she said, "Nope."

'Didn't think so.'

She smirked and chuckled softly. Suddenly, her comms came to life. She heard Chiana yell, "Are we leaving or what?"

Natalie winced, reached up to rub her ear, and said, "If you keep doing that, you're going to make me deaf."

"Sorry. But I've been waiting in this frelling transport pod for forever."

"All right, I'm coming," she said, pushing herself off Talyn's rib and continuing toward the docking bay. Turning off her comms, she added, "Jesus, sometimes it's like living with a nagging wife around here."

'Don't you mean teenager?'

"They're interchangeable."


----------------------------------------------------


"This place is a real shit hole," Natalie said, roaming the sandy market place, looking for parts to build the phase stabilizer that was outlined in the blueprints on the data crystal.

She and Chiana had already spent the better part of the day roaming the decrepit commerce planet, stocking up on perishables, intoxicants, fuel for their ships and weapons, spare parts, and anything else they thought they might need in the future. Once the transport pod was loaded, the two went their separate ways - Natalie looking for parts for the stabilizer and Chiana searching for anything that looked nice that she could steal.

'That bad, huh?'

"Yup," she said, stopping at a booth to inspect a piece of junk that looked promising. Putting it back down, she walked away. With a sigh, she said, "I don't think I'm going to find what I'm looking for here. I've been nearly all over this place and all I've found is crap. The rest of this planet doesn't look all that promising, either."

'Maybe we'll find something at the next planet.'

"I hope so. But I doubt it. The parts I need seem pretty rare. And even if we find them, they'll be pretty expensive."

'But you're going to get them anyway, right?'

"Right," she drawled, a smile on her lips.

'Maybe you could get Chiana to help you.'

"Maybe. But if she does, we may end up getting our asses kicked instead, just like the last time she tried to 'help'."

'You can't really say that was her fault. She couldn't have known that the guy 'tagged' what she stole.'

"True," she yawned.

'You sound pretty tired. Maybe we should leave, so you can get some sleep.'

"Maybe. But before we do... I could use a good drink," she said, looking at a bar.

'Don't hurt anyone.'

"Well, you know me..." she mumbled, walking up to the bar.

'Yeah, I do,' he said, amused.

She let out a soft chuckle and pushed open the door, stepping inside. The room was recessed, with booths in the back and to the far left, the bar to the right, and tables in the center. The bar was nearly packed full of loud, obnoxious, drunken people and trelks, and the stench was almost unbearable. But in a short while, she wouldn't notice any of it. She made her way down the dozen steps to the floor and slowly walked through the throngs of drunken aliens to the bar. She squeezed in between two aliens she didn't recognize - one with horns, the other bald with red skin - and got the bartender's attention.

"What do you want?" he asked, animosity dripping from his voice.

"I'm not a Peacekeeper," she answered. "And I'll take the strongest stuff you have."

"All right," he said.

She watched him turn around to mix her drink and could tell he didn't believe her. Of course, looking Sebacean and wearing the black duster didn't help. Unexpectedly, she felt a pinch on the side of her neck and everything went dark.


=================================


The sting of someone slapping her hard across the cheek slowly roused her out of unconsciousness. She was feeling extremely sluggish and had difficulty opening her eyes. She felt another slap across her cheek, accompanied by a sharp stab of pain in her sore and regenerating tongue, and mumbled, "Dammit."

"Wake up," she heard a male say.

She opened her eyes and cringed from the bright light in her face, immediately shutting them with a groan. She tried to raise her arm to shield her eyes, but found her wrists bound behind the chair on which she was sitting. Slowly opening her eyes, she squinted to try to see and said, "What the frell is going on?" Unable to feel Talyn, she added, "Where the frell is my transponder?"

A silent figure walked into her field of view. Her vision was still blurry, so all she saw was a blue-ish gray form. As her vision slowly cleared, she saw that he was a young Nebari and mumbled, "Shit."

"Why do you say that?" he asked.

"If you're going to kill me, then let's get it over with."

"I'm not going to kill you, yet. I want to talk first. Why did you say what you did?"

"I know you're with the Resistance." she quietly said, still sleepy from the drugs.

"You recognize me?"

"No. But you've got me here and I haven't been mind-cleansed yet..."

"Very good observation."

"I'm a scientist. That's what I do."

"You're a scientist?" he asked, sitting down in a chair across from her.

"Yeah, I'm a scientist," she answered, glaring at him.

"Not a murderer?"

"No," she growled.

"Then you're not responsible for the destruction of an Expresser and the death of six people?"

Natalie didn't say a word as remorse and guilt flooded through her.

"There's something I want you to see," he said after silence reigned for several microts. He got up, walking to her left to a small table, and pressed his finger on a small silver data chip lying on it. Unexpectedly, above the chip a holographic image of Talyn showed him flying head-on into a debris field that Natalie recognized as once being the command carrier. Suddenly Talyn dove to the side, firing all his cannons, and the image dispersed.

He slowly walked back to his chair, sat down, and asked, "Is that ship now in orbit? Are you not the Captain of that ship?"

"Yes."

"And you ordered that Leviathan to fire?"

"Yes," she sadly answered.

"Why? If you are a scientist, then why would you do such a thing?"

"I was told that they were with the Establishment, and that they had the data crystal you guys were after. I didn't find out your people were on board until a few solar days ago."

"So you killed them in error?"

"Yeah. But I had no reason not to trust the person who told me."

"What is this person's name? And where may we find this person?"

"Where this person is, I don't know. I haven't seen her or him since we left that area. And I will not tell you this person's name."

"Why not?" he calmly asked.

"This person is my friend. And I will not betray him...or her."

"You are very loyal to your friends?"

"Yes."

"You would die for them?"

"Yes."

She watched him stand up, pull a knife from behind his back, and slowly walk up to her. She steeled herself and glared defiantly at him. Surprisingly, he walked behind her and cut off her restraints. "Despite what you may think of me, I'm not a cold-blooded murderer."

Almost immediately, she elbowed him in the gut, causing him to bend over, and backhanded him across the face, sending him stumbling back against a pile of junk.

"That was for drugging me and slapping me," she said, standing up and glaring at him. Seeing her pulse pistol on a table to her right, she grabbed it, aimed it at the Nebari as she backed away slightly, and asked, "Now, where's my transponder?"

All of a sudden, the door on the other side of the room blew up and Natalie ducked to avoid being hit by the debris. As she straightened up, she saw Chiana bursting into the room, a pulse rifle in hand.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm all right," Natalie answered, relieved, keeping her eyes, and pistol, on the Nebari in front of her. "How did you find me anyway?"

Walking up to her, Chiana said, "I stopped by a bar and heard people talking about someone carrying you..." Seeing the Nebari on the floor, she stopped dead on her tracks, her mouth hanging open in shock. She shakily said, "Nerri?"

"Nerri?" Natalie repeated, surprised, looking back and forth between Chiana and her brother.

"Yeah," Chiana said, slowly walking up to Nerri as he stood up. As a large smile grew on her face, she dropped the pulse rifle and leapt into his arms, hugging him and laughing in happiness.

Natalie watched Chiana and Nerri's reunion and looked down, lowering her pistol and pushing aside one side of her coat to holster it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her transponder lying on a shelf behind her and quickly grabbed it. Pulling back her collar, she placed it in her neck and quietly asked, "Talyn, ya there?"

'Natalie? What happened? I felt that the transponder had been removed and I've been trying to find you ever since.'

"Well, you don't have to worry anymore. Chi found me. She also found someone else."

"Who?"

"Her brother," she answered, watching Chiana place her hands on either side of Nerri's face and ask, "What the frell happened? I thought you were dead!"

"I'm sorry, Chiana," he answered, as Natalie explained what happened to Talyn. "But with what I was doing, I thought you were safer thinking I was dead. I was wrong about that, and I am sorry."

Chiana shook her head, tears of happiness streaming down her cheeks, and whispered, "Don't you ever do that to me again."

"I won't, little sister... I will never do that to you again, I promise." Putting her down, he added, "But what the frell are you doing here?"

"I sent the signal saying that I had information for you," she revealed.

"God-dammit, I knew it," Natalie yelled.

"I repaired the comms in the Marauder we have and used that to signal you," she told him.

"You know, Chi," Natalie started, gaining the pair's attention. "I'm happy that you and Nerri are reunited and that what happened brought this about, and I know that you were only thinking about your people. But you really should've thought about how it would affect Talyn and me. If Nerri had been someone else, I'd have been dead in that bar and Talyn could be destroyed by now. So, next time, try to do a little thinking, okay?"

"Natalie, I'm..." Chiana started, but Natalie didn't give her a chance to finish and stormed out of the room. "Natalie," Chiana started after her, but Nerri held her back.

"Leave her be," he said. "She looks like she could use some time alone."

"We could use some time alone, too," Chiana said, looking at Nerri.

"Yeah, we could," he said. "This place is a mess, but we should stay out of sight for our own protection. And it will make it easier for your friend to find us."

"All right."


----------------------------------------------------


'Don't you think you were being a little harsh on her?'

"Not really," she answered, furious, walking out of the building she was in to return to the bar. "She almost got us killed, Talyn, so I don't think I was harsh on her at all."

'Are you sure? Are you sure you haven't been taking all that anger you've been bottling up out on her?'

Stopping in the middle of the street, Natalie took in what Talyn said. She moved out of traffic into the entrance of a small shop. "What makes you say that?" she lamely asked.

'Beating the dren out of that punching bag hasn't really been working out a whole lot for you lately, has it?'

"No, it hasn't. But she's my best friend. Why would I take it out on her? I have no reason to take it out on her."

'You're doing it because she's there; because she's vulnerable now which makes her the easy target.'

"Gawd, I'm so stupid," she blurted out, raising her hands to rub her face and smooth back her hair.

'Yeah, you can be. But you're only Human.'

She let out a soft chuckle and said, "Thanks."

'And I'd wait a while before talking with her again. She may not want to see you right now.'

"I was thinking the exact same thing," she said, walking back into the street. "I was also thinking I could use a drink."

'Are you sure you should be drinking so much?'

"Don't get your panties in a twist, Tal," she answered walking up to the bar. "I know what I'm doing."

'Like you've said on occasion, 'famous last words'.'

"Yeah, but so much has already happened, what else could possibly go wrong?" She quickly added, "Don't answer that."

'I didn't say a word.'

She opened the door and walked back into the crowded establishment and up to the bar once again. "Hey," she said, getting the bartender's attention.

"You again?" he asked. "I didn't think you'd live. So, did you kill the Nebari?"

"No, he's still alive," she said, leaning against the bar, her arms crossed on top of it.

"He's not going to come looking for you, is he?"

"No, you don't have to worry about him."

"Good. And you still owe me for your last drink."

Pulling out some Brandar tiles, she handed them to the bartender and said, "I'll have the same drink, by the way."

She watched him turn around to mix her drink. As he handed her a tall glass, she said, "Thanks." She took several large swigs and finished it in a few microts. As she tried to get the bartender's attention again, someone suddenly bumped into her. She turned around and slurred, "Hey, watch it, numb nuts." Seeing who it was, she said, "Aw, shit."

"You," Barig exclaimed, his single eye opened wide, the other covered with an eye patch.

She set down her drink, then turned back around to face Barig - one of the men who tried to kidnap her on the commerce station she and the others had been on, searching for Dalek seven monens ago. She said, "All right, let's get this shit over with."

"What?" he said, surprised.

"Hey, if you want to fight, then let's fight and get it over with," she yelled.

"You're crazy," he said.

"Hey, if you don't want to fight, then we won't fight. But if you're going to try to kick my ass, then let's get it over with."

"Frell... Too bad I didn't get you when I saw you," he said and tried to throw a punch at Natalie.

Seeing his movement, she reached back and grabbed her drink, smashing it against his head. Quickly pulling her bloodied hand away, she threw a Pantak jab at his forehead with her other hand, disorienting him. She instantly shifted to his side, grabbed the back of his head and pushed it down, smashing it against the bar. As he bounced back, nearly unconscious, she grabbed his collar, pulling him back as she kicked his legs out from under him and threw him down to the floor. As he hit, she kicked him in the stomach, then in the head, knocking him out.

"Frell this," she said and took out some more Brandar tiles, throwing them onto the bar. Slowly walking to the door, her arms outstretched to steady herself, she added, "Sorry about the mess."


----------------------------------------------------


"So, what was this information you had?" Nerri asked, sitting in a chair across from Chiana, holding her hands.

"Well, we managed to get away from a Peacekeeper retrieval squad a few solar days ago..."

"Wait," he interrupted. "A retrieval squad? There was a retrieval squad here a solar day ago. They left after a few arns, but they may still be in the area."

"Frell," she mumbled.

"You and your friend have to leave now," he said, standing up and pulling Chiana up with him. He gave her hands a squeeze and added, "You're not safe here."

"No," she whispered with a slight shake of the head. "I'm going with you."

He opened his mouth to speak, but a drunken Natalie unexpectedly stumbled in.

"What the frell happened to you?" Chiana asked.

"I ran into an old friend," she answered, stumbling into a chair.

Chiana pulled up her chair to Natalie and took her bloodied hand, inspecting the glass imbedded into her palm. Looking at Nerri, she asked, "Can you do anything for her?"

"Yes, there's a medical kit in the next room," he said, walking up to them and taking Natalie's hand. "You go get it. I have to stay out of sight."

"All right," she answered, giving Natalie's shoulder a squeeze, and ran out.

As Nerri sat down across from Natalie, she asked, "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"How did you know I would be here?"

"I didn't," he answered, looking at her. "Someone contacted us, saying they had some information for us. I wanted to see who it was, so I came here to check it out. Then I saw you in the bar. Call it luck, or whatever you will."

She slowly nodded, having trouble staying awake, and asked, "And why didn't you know Chiana was with me, or know who the others were who were with me when we blew up that Expresser?"

"Meelak couldn't inform me. He was under strict radio silence the entire time."

"Oh," she mumbled, looking down at her hand. Looking back at Nerri, she asked, "So, what were you telling Chiana when I walked in?"

"I was telling her you have to leave, NOW. A retrieval squad, probably the same squad that's after you, was here a solar day ago. They might still be in the area."

"Well, we can't leave yet. At least not until we find some of what I'm looking for."

"What are you looking for?"

She reached into a pouch on the left side of her belt, under her duster, and pulled out a transparency. Handing it to Nerri, she replied, "This."

He took a few microts to examine the list she handed him and said, "You may want to see Mivvaro." He handed the list back to her and watched her place it back in the pouch. "He owns a shop about a quarter metra north of here. He may have what's on that list. But don't spend too much time haggling with him. You need to leave soon."

"I finally found it," Chiana said, walking into the room, frustrated, and handed the med kit to Nerri.

He opened it and pulled out a retractor to remove the glass shards from Natalie's hand. She was flinching in pain, but tried to not move too much and make things difficult for Nerri. "So what's this information you had for me?" he asked.

"The Peacekeepers are starting a war between the Scarrans and the Establishment," Chiana quickly answered.

"How?" he asked, shocked.

"We found out that the retrieval squad had dropped off several Nebari bodies near the Nebari border. They looked like they had been tortured and killed by Scarran heat projection."

"Frell," he said, removing the last shard from Natalie's hand. He pulled a sealer out of the kit to cauterize her wounds and mumbled, "They want us to wipe each other out."

"That's what we thought," Natalie said as he put down the sealer and picked up a bandage to wrap around her hand.

"That's the best I can do," he said, standing up. He walked to a table and grabbed a towel to wipe the blood off his hands. Turning to look at them, he added, "Now, you must leave if you don't want to get captured."

"I'm staying with you," Chiana said, looking at her brother.

"You can't, little sister. The work I'm doing is very dangerous. You're safer staying with your friend."

"I'll be safer?" she yelled. "Are you forgetting about that retrieval squad?"

"No, but you'll still be safer on Talyn than with me. Trust me Chiana."

She grabbed him, pulling him into a tight hug. "I don't want to lose you again," she whispered, tears streaming down her face.

"I know," he said. "But we don't have a choice. You can't come with me." He pushed her back slightly to look into her eyes and added, "But we will see each other again." He let her go, slowly backing to the door. "I love you dearly."

As he disappeared through the door, Chiana tried to go after him, but Natalie shot up and grabbed her and said, "You can't, Chiana. He doesn't want you going with him."

"I can't just let him go," she whispered, looking at the human.

"You have to," Natalie softly slurred and pulled Chiana into a hug.

The two remained in their embrace for several microts, Chiana's muffled crying the only sound. With a sigh, Natalie broke their silence and said, "There's something I have to take care of, Chi; I have to see a guy about getting what I need." She pushed Chiana back to look at her and added, "Go on to the transport pod. I'll meet you there, okay?"

"Okay," she quietly replied, pulling out of Natalie's embrace and wiping the tears from her cheek.

The two walked to the door, picking up Chiana's pulse rifle along the way, and went their separate ways once outside the building - Chiana slowly walking to the pod, Natalie going to find Mivvaro.

It took her nearly half an arn, but Natalie eventually reached Mivvaro's shop. She opened the door and walked in, stumbling through the aisles and past all the tables, searching for what she needed.

"Can I help you?" she heard a deep voice ask from behind.

She turned around to find a large, bulky man standing a few feet away from her. If it wasn't for his yellow eyes and extremely small ears, she might have mistaken him for a Sebacean. She pulled the list out of the pouch, handing it to him, and said, "Do you have any of what's on that list?"

He inspected it and, with a nod, said, "Yes, I have all of what you need. But it will be expensive."

"How much?" she asked, taking the list back from him.

"At least ten thousand credits."

"Ten thousand?" she exclaimed. "How the frell am I supposed to get that much money?"

"I don't know," he innocently said.

"Well, maybe we could do some trading?"

Seeing her partially drunken state, he looked her over and said, "Yes, maybe we can do a little trading."

"Good," she said. "So, is there anything you want? I just might have it."

"Yes, there is something I want," he answered and strolled up to her. "You."

"Me?" she exclaimed.

"Yes, you for one sex act and five hundred credits. For that I'll give you what you want."

"Uh, no," she firmly stated and turned to walk out.

He suddenly shouted, "You won't be able to find any of what you need anywhere in this quadrant. And even if you could, I'll make sure that you can't get it."

She turned, fury burning in her eyes, and said, "You son of a bitch."

"You can call me all the names you want," he said, walking up to her. "But the fact of the matter is, you need me. And I want you. So what'll it be?"


=================================


'How are you feeling?' Talyn hesitantly asked as Natalie walked into her quarters, taking the money she had left and a data chip out of the pouch on her belt and tossing it onto the strategy table.

"Despite the hangover, cuts, and bruises..." she answered and pulled out the band holding her hair up, letting it fall around her shoulders. She unzipped her coat, took it off, and tossed it onto her bed. Unbuckling her belt and holster, she threw them onto the bed as well, then turned around, fell back onto her bed, and sarcastically groaned, "I'm just peachy."

'Well, at least you haven't lost your sense of humor.'

"Talyn, what's going on with you?" she asked, sitting up and leaning back on her hands. "You've been awfully quiet since I met with Mivvaro. I figured you'd have more to say about what happened."

'I just can't believe you did what you did.'

"Neither can I," she said, resting her elbows on her knees and clasping her hands. "But I was drunk and desperate, and I was going to go back to Earth no matter the cost," she added, mockingly. "So, I figured I might as well use that 'Trelks for Dummies' handbook."

'Do you regret it?'

With a shake of the head, she said, "No, I don't. I'm ashamed of it, but I don't regret it. He was telling the truth about making sure I didn't get what I needed. I could see it in his eyes. There was no way I was going to get the parts... I didn't have a choice."

'Yes, you had a choice, Natalie. You could've said no and found another way to get what you needed.'

"You don't know that," she lamely said.

'Yes, I do. You didn't have to frell that bastard.'

Cocking an eyebrow, she asked, "Do I detect a hint of jealousy?"

'No, you don't,' he firmly said, not leaving any room for discussion. 'And don't change the subject.'

"Sorry," she sarcastically mumbled.

'Like I said, you didn't have to frell him.'

"Talyn, I was drunk. I was desperate and drunk. I wasn't thinking right."

'That's no excuse.'

"Then what the FRELL do you want from me, Talyn?" she asked, furious, shooting up off the bed and stomping around her quarters. "Huh? What do you want from me?"

'I don't know,' he answered weakly.

She sighed, put one hand on her hip, and raised her other hand to rub her eyes. "Look, Talyn, what happened happened. We got what we want out of it, so let's just put it behind us, okay?"

'Okay.'

"Okay," she said, walking back to her bed to take off her boots and socks, leaving them strewn on the floor.

As she pulled off her tank top, tossing it onto the bed, and walked to the head to change the dressing around her abdomen, Talyn asked, 'So, you got everything we need?'

"Shit," she mumbled, seeing some blood seeping through the bandage. "Yeah, we got everything we need," she answered, unwrapping the dressing from around her midsection. "And we got away with our asses in one piece. When that Vigilante showed up, I didn't think we'd get back to you and starburst before they got to us."

'Well, we got lucky. How's the wound?'

She pulled off the bandage to inspect the gash and said, "If we were lucky, then those bastards would never have been there in the first place. And it's not too bad. I guess Mivvaro reopened it when he grabbed my sides."

'So, how are we going to do this? Go to Earth that is?' he asked, changing the subject as he watched her through the DRD on the wall next to the mirror.

She pulled out a med kit and wiped away the blood from her wound. "It shouldn't take me very long to build the stabilizer now that I have the parts." Placing the new bandage on her abdomen, she continued. "Maybe a weeken, maybe two. I've been studying how to access the wormhole network, so after I build the stabilizer, all we'll have to do is find a star with flare activity."

'Then we'll go to Earth?'

"Then we'll ask Chiana if she wants to come with us," she answered, wrapping a new dressing around her body. "If she does, then I'll do some testing with my Prowler. If all goes well, I'll stick the stabilizer on you and THEN we'll go to Earth. But we'll have to find it first."

'I didn't realize it would be that complicated,' he sarcastically said, watching her inject some antibiotics into her arm.

"Well, I doubt it'll be THAT easy," she said, cleaning up the head. She walked back into her bedroom and to her dresser, pulled out a black T-shirt, and carefully put it on, trying not to open her wound again. She pulled her hair out of the shirt and said, "Where is Chiana, anyway?"

'I don't know. She turned off her comms and disappeared as soon as you came aboard. I haven't seen her and haven't been able to locate her since. I can send my DRDs to search for her...'

"She doesn't want to be found," she said with a sigh and carefully laid down on the bed, her legs crossed and her hands behind her head. She closed her eyes and added, "So, don't send 'em looking for her."

'When should we?'

"When we have to."

'Could you be any less cryptic?'

"Maybe," she said with a smirk, her eyes still closed.

'Very funny.'

"Of course it is," she said, her smile growing wider. "I said it, didn't I?"

'That's pretty arrogant of you.'

"Yeah, well... What can I say? I'm just an arrogant bitch."

'Yes, you are.'

She softly chuckled and sighed contentedly, glad to be back in her bed with a chance to finally sleep.

'What is that?' Talyn asked curiously after several microts.

She softly moaned, then mumbled, "Your timing sucks, Talyn."

'I woke you up, didn't I?' he asked sheepishly.

"Luckily for you, I was only half asleep," she groaned. With a sigh, she asked, "What's what?

'The data chip on the table - what's on it?'

"It's a recording," she said, humiliated. "Mivvaro made a recording of what we did, for 'posterity', and gave me a copy."

'He gave you a copy?'

"Yeah."

'Do you want me to destroy it?'

"No, I'll do it. I have to do it myself. But I'll do it later after I get some sleep."


----------------------------------------------------


"Hey," Natalie said, walking into the galley and seeing Chiana sitting at the table, her back to the hatch.

"Hey," Chiana replied, popping a piece of sliced fruit into her mouth.

Walking to the refrigeration unit, Natalie pulled out a bottle of raslac and a tray with a slice of wamelon cake on it. She opened the drawer under it, grabbing the Uncharted Territories version of a fork, and walked around the table to sit across from Chiana.

"I thought you said raslac didn't do anything for you?" Chiana asked, watching Natalie digging into the cake.

"I lied," she said, taking a bite. "It does do something for me, but I sober up after a few minutes." As Chiana softly laughed, Natalie asked, "How are you holding up?"

The Nebari immediately sobered, putting the slice of purple fruit in her hand back onto the tray in front of her. She sighed and said, "I miss him."

"I know," she said, looking at her sympathetically. "But I have the feeling you'll see him again someday."

"That's what he said."

"He said that?" Feigning surprise, she added, "I don't remember that."

Chiana chuckled softly, "Yeah, he said that." She picked up a piece of fruit, ate it, and added, "You know, if you hadn't been there, or if you had passed out, I would've gone with him no matter what he said."

"I know. But can you honestly say you would've been any happier with him than you are here?"

"Yeah, of course I can," she said lamely, and Natalie shot her a skeptical look. After a few microts, she admitted, "No, I can't."

"You miss D'Argo too much?"

"Yeah," she quietly said, a small smile growing on her face as she remembered the times she had with him.

Natalie reached out, gave Chiana's hand a squeeze, and softly said, "I miss him, too."

She smiled thankfully at Natalie, squeezed her hand and let it go. The two ate in silence for nearly half an arn, then Chiana asked, "How's the stabilizer coming along?"

"All I need to do is install a few more circuits and I'll be finished," she answered, taking a swig of raslac.

"Finished already?" she asked, surprised. "That was fast." As Natalie let out a muffled laugh, Chiana grinned and asked, "What?"

"I'm sorry," she said, trying to stifle her laughter. Looking at Chiana, a mischievous glint in her eye, she answered, "But that just brought back an old memory.

"I remember this one time I was with Tom - Jason's father. We were in the middle of this field with a nearby lake at night because both our parents were home, and we were SO horny. He said that no one ever came to that lake, so we wouldn't have to worry about anyone finding us.

So, we stripped and started to make love in the middle of this field. Two minutes later, he came. I said the exact same thing you did and you wouldn't believe how red he turned. And the next thing I knew, my ass and our legs started itch. We looked down and saw we were covered from our feet to our hips in fire ants!" she exclaimed.

"I screamed SO loud that if anyone had been there, they'd have come running. Then we both jumped up and ran into the lake to get the ants off. When we came back out, we found that our clothes were infested with fire ants, too. We dumped them in the lake to wash them out, then put them in a plastic bag he had in his car.

"After that, we left and had to drive back home naked. We were both still dripping wet and we were STARK NAKED. It was SO embarrassing. Every time we passed a cop, we'd duck down just far enough so that they couldn't see us. When I got home I got lucky because my parents and brothers had already gone to bed. So, I snuck in, making damn sure I didn't wake any of them up, dried off, and went to bed.

"But the next morning, the lower half of my body was so swollen with ant bites that I could hardly fit into my clothes," she said, laughing so hard with Chiana that she started to cough. "I was so pissed off when that happened."

Stifling a fit of laughter and resisting the urge to ask was a 'fire ant' was, Chiana said, "I guess you haven't frelled in a field since, have you?"

"Absolutely not," she laughed.

After their laughter died down several microts later, Chiana asked, "Hey, how come you haven't asked me about coming to Earth with you, anyway?"

"Well," she started, a grin still on her face. "You've been so down lately that I wanted to wait until you were feeling better. But you look like you're feeling better now, so how 'bout it? You want to come to Earth with Talyn and me?"

"Frell, yeah," she exclaimed, a large smile on her face.


----------------------------------------------------


"C'mon, Natalie. What the frell am I supposed to do if you don't make it back?" Chiana asked, standing in the human's quarters and watching her take her coat out of her dresser.

"Well," Natalie said, putting on her duster. "Talyn and I have already talked about this. If I don't make it back, he'll give you a transponder - a temporary transponder - so the two of you can communicate while you search for Moya." Zipping up the zipper, she added, "He'll take you back to her and he'll stay with you guys until he finds a new captain. Or YOU can stay on as his captain and you can go wherever you want."

"You're kidding," she exclaimed, surprised, as she watched Natalie walk to her night stand to search for her occulars. "Talyn will actually let me be his Captain?"

"Yup," Natalie answered, walking past Chiana to the hatch, occulars in hand. As Chiana caught up to her in the corridor, she added, "Just don't go shooting off his cannon when it's 'that time of the monen'."

"Hey, I'm Nebari, not Human or Sebacean, remember?" she said, a smile on her face.

"It was just a figure of speech," Natalie answered lightheartedly, increasing her pace to a steady jog.

Walking through the opening hatch to docking bay one, her duster swaying, Natalie hurried to the workbench with Chiana right behind her. She quickly picked up the scanner without breaking her stride and jogged up to her Prowler to perform the preflight check.

As she watched Natalie scan her ship, Chiana worriedly said, "Come back alive, all right? It'll get pretty boring here without you."

"You don't have a thing to worry about," she replied, hearing the hidden grief in her words. She climbed up the ladder to perform one last inspection on the stabilizer, which was bolted directly behind the canopy, and continued, "There's no way in hell I'm going to deprive you of your fun."

"Thanks. And good luck."

Looking at Chiana as she opened the canopy, she softly said, "Like I said, you don't have anything to worry about."

"I'll see you when you get back," she said and turned to walk out of the docking bay and make her way to the bridge.

Natalie put on her occulars, adjusting them so that they lay above her ponytail and under the two bangs circling her face, and climbed into her Prowler.

Talyn said, 'I think our luck is changing.'

"Why do you say that?" she asked, starting up the Prowler's systems.

'Well, we did find this system with flare activity.'

"Would you open the outer doors?" As Talyn opened his doors, she said, "Yeah, we did find this system. But it took us four weekens to do it, and that's not counting the two weekens we spent looking for a system while I built the stabilizer." Lifting off, she retracted the ship's winglets, pulling them against the main body, and added, "That doesn't sound very lucky to me."

'You know, you're too cynical,' he said as the Prowler shot out from Talyn's docking bay.

"Well, you can blame that on living in the Uncharted Territories for more than a cycle," she replied, flying the Prowler out to a distance of two hundred metras from Talyn then powering down her engines to hold position. "Hey, Chi, do you read?"

"I'm right here," she heard Chiana say over the comms.

"How's the uplink holding up?"

Chiana performed a quick systems check to make sure the uplink was monitoring the Prowler's systems and Natalie's vital signs. She replied, "It's doing just fine. You're ready to go."

'I'm picking up a solar flare,' Talyn interrupted.

"Here we go," Natalie said nervously, powering up the engines and the stabilizer and starting her run. Suddenly, a wormhole began taking shape directly in her flight path, and she slowed, coming to a stop. "Oh, my God," she whispered, mesmerized by the swirling blue mass before her. Snapping out of it, she exclaimed, "I'm taking sensor readings. Are you getting them?"

'We're getting 'em,' Talyn answered.

"This is unbelievable," she said, fear tingeing her voice.

'If you're going to go in to get some more readings and see where it goes, then you better go now because it's already starting to destabilize.'

"In that case," she hit the throttle, hurtling the Prowler towards the wormhole. "I'll see ya on the flipside."

She entered the wormhole and was immediately thrown into the side of the cockpit, bruising and cutting her forehead, as the twisting wormhole tossed the Prowler from side to side. Grabbing the stick, Natalie pulled herself up and made sure the sensors were functioning properly as she tried to level off the Prowler. The wormhole continued tossing and rolling the small craft, then just as suddenly as the 'ride' had begun, it was over.

"Oh, Gawd," she croaked, trying to catch her breath as she reversed thrust, bringing the Prowler to a stop. She let out a loud whoop and said, "Damn. I gotta turn that into a ride." She reached up with a groan to cradle the bruise forming on her forehead from being thrown against the cockpit side panel and added, "And I gotta strap in next time."

She immediately checked the comm system and said, "Talyn, Chiana, ya there? Talyn, do you read me?" She received no signal and couldn't feel Talyn through her link with him. "Shit. I'm out of range."

Coming about, she spun the Prowler one hundred eighty degrees to the left, facing the wormhole. "As long as I'm here..." she mumbled and took some more sensor readings.

Unexpectedly, the collision sensors came alive indicating a large planet to her left and she peered out of the canopy to take a look. Her mouth fell open in shock as she gazed at the planet.

"Oh, shit," she whispered. "I wish you two could see this," she said to no one. "That's Jupiter."


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