"Excuse me, my darling, but it's time I go and take care of giving Serena a lift up," Max said, kissing the side of her cheek and then pushing his chair out from the table.

"Why should that be your job?" Liz didn't mean to sound whiny, but she wasn't ready to have her new fiancee taken from her side for anything. "Why can't, umm..."

"Well, I thought that I would do better than Maria, or Tess, in impressing her with the idea that she needed to keep well in line," Max explained. "Don't want to send two people just to collect her - might give her the impression that we're really afraid of her. So..."

Liz really was a bit afraid of Serena/Lonnie, and not just on her own behalf, but she knew that trying to tell Max that she was scared for him would probably not have the right result. Even if Max was afraid, if he thought that showing no fear was the right thing to do, he would act accordingly, every step of the way. "Alright, just... just be back soon, and come on over here Maria!"

"Hey, what?" Maria had wedged her chair partly into the space between the two dinner tables, and was listening to some story of a winter vacation up in the Aspen area that Isabel and Alex had been telling her. "Umm - why?"

"Well, if that story is fascinating enough that you don't have time for your oldest friend, then don't," Liz said, as Max got up and made his way around the back of the table, smiling, "but my fiancee is leaving me, and I sort of wanted to talk to a wife of the Antarian nobility about what to expect, since it seems like I'm set to become one myself."

"Noble?" Maria stood up with a slight nod to Isabel and Alex, and struck a dramatic pose. "Michael? Are you kidding me?"

"Come on, you know what I mean," Liz said as Maria headed over. "Isn't he a son of the house of Selezir, and favoured friend to the Crown, and all of that, over there?"

"Oh." Maria sat down in the chair that Max had vacated. "You're talking about the aristocratic lifestyle, as opposed to a noble temperament and demeanour?"

Liz giggled, wondering if there had been something mood-altering in the drink, or if she was just high on the love. "Yeah, I guess I mean that sort of thing. Aside from - well, from spending time with D when you can, and going to a few of those fancy parties that you showed me pictures of, what's your life like on Antar, and what do you think of Michael's?"

"Well, probably more like yours here than you'd have expected, in that a lot of the time is taken up with classes and homework and so on." Liz blinked in surprise. "Yeah, I'm still learning a lot, both with tutors who come to teach us inside the castle, and actual lectures at the Royal Academy. That's a pretty small school by Earth standards, actually, partly because it's very exclusive and secure - every student and teacher has to have extensive background checks and so on."

"Okay." Liz thought about that. "I guess when the regime changed from Kivar to Max and Vorjal, they had to do a bunch of housecleaning there, huh?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah - except for anybody who was so entirely apolitical that neither side would object to them. There were a lot of people with definite Kivarian sympathies who had to be forced out - and a number of equally qualified Liaretians who had been kept out and could be let in. I don't know that many of the details, though; I wasn't really involved. Don't think that there was fighting in the school or anything like that, relatively quiet transition."

"Alright," Liz said. "So, what kind of things are you learning? Antarian culture and history? How to use your developing powers?"

"A bit of that, but also stuff that's more specific to my own interests," Maria said. "A lot about Antarian musical forms, and those of the nearby and colonial planets, even a few that are further from Antar than Earth is."

"Oh, man, too cool!" Alex exclaimed, pulling his chair a bit closer. "You have to tell me more about that..."

"Okay, but not now, Alex," Maria called back. "This is a semi-private conversation, and it will not be derailed from the topics that Liz sets me." Isabel reached out and pulled Alex's chair back in, which made several people chuckle.

"I don't mind hearing more about this," Liz admitted, smiling broadly. Alex didn't move to come closer again, but he seemed to still be paying attention. "Do you want to actually try being a - well, do they have anything like our popular musicians on Antar? Recording artists whose work is mass-distributed to millions and millions of customers?"

"Well, yeah, it's not that different from our system," Maria admitted. "Except - well, it's a bit less... less materialistic than the American economy? No, that's not quite the right... they're not so much about accumulating disposable goodies like CDs." Liz nodded. "There are some permanent recordings, but it's more about something a little like a cross between the radio and Napster."

"Hmm, interesting," Liz said. "Speaking of Napster, it's dead now, but I've got to show you iTunes before we go back."

"Fine by me, whatever that is," Maria said. "And actually - I'm sort of already on the music network on Antar. Because I was so interested, and already a sort of celebrity because of my arrival with Michael and our wedding and all that - this small production partnership took me on and I cut what amounts to a small album. I'd love to actually go on tour over there, but the Royal guard is worried about the possibility of assassins."

"Okay, well, that does tell me a lot," Liz said, trying to absorb all of it. "So, you've got classes, and recording your music..."

"That was nearly a year ago," Maria disclaimed.

"So you haven't done anything with music other than learn since then?" Liz asked.

"Umm - no, I've been working on writing some new stuff," Maria admitted. "Just over the past few months."

"Okay, so what else was going on in your life in between there?" Liz asked.

"Well - charity work, in a way," Maria mumbled modestly. "The advocacy groups for human refugees on Antar were after me to help them out, as a spokeswoman if nothing else, since the wedding banns were announced. I've tried to do more than that, to actually get my hands dirty helping to build houses and what have you."

"Okay, I knew that they have humans over on Antar, but they have advocacy groups now?" Liz asked.

Maria actually shot her an 'I know that you're really not that stupid' look. "These people were abductees, Liz - taken away from their homes and everything that they knew, interrogated for months or years to satisfy somebody's curiosity about humans and Earth and anything else they knew, and then dumped on Antar because Zan's father and his father had made a policy of giving them - not quite asylum, I guess, but allowing them to immigrate. Then Kivar took over."

"Ohh. Sorry, it makes sense now, but I didn't remember all of those details," Liz insisted. "Once Kivar was in charge, he wouldn't cut anybody a break if they couldn't do anything for him, humans least of all. Did things get really bad for them?"

"In places, yeah," Maria admitted. "In other provinces, Antarians were used to them being fairly decent neighbours and kept letting them integrate, though there wasn't as much funding for the programs to help new human arrivals get started. Of course, Max and Vorjal and the others have made sure to reverse that trend as much as they could."

"Glad to hear it," Liz admitted. "Say, we discovered a little while ago that my grandfather on my mother's side might have been abducted."

"Really? Crazy," Maria said. "Like..."

"We're still not sure of many details," Liz told her. "And I didn't really want to get us side-tracked..."

And then, they really did get sidetracked, because Max showed up in the doorway once again, with Serena right behind him. She looked about the same as when Liz had met her that morning, with short auburn hair, curled and tangled around her face, but her clothes were a bit more formal, knee-length silk skirt, and an open jacket over a camisole.

"Welcome back, Max, and welcome to 'Czechoslovakia,' Serena," Liz said, standing up, and offering her hand across the table. "I'm glad that you could make it."

"Well, heck, I wouldn't a missed the chance to beam up to a genuine Antarian starship," Serena admitted. "Still not one hundred percent convinced that you guys need my help to save the world, or whatever, but I said that I'd come check it out and here I am."

"Okay." Liz held her pose, since neither of them had moved to shake her hand, and after a moment Serena made the gesture, though without much obvious enthusiasm. She sat back down, and Max took the seat opposite her, Serena sitting down next to him. "Speaking of which, Max, do you have any idea how we're going to find the alien creature planted in Carlsbad?"

"The plan isn't to look for it ourselves, so much as to use bait and draw it to us," Max explained, and there was something about his voice and the look on his face that suggested to Liz that he didn't want to go into much more detail right then, (possibly because Serena was around,) so she took the hint and dropped the subject.

"Maria was telling us about life on Antar - the music that she'd made for the people there, and working with charities for human refugees," Liz explained to them. "It sounds quite interested. I'm actually looking forward to going back with you now." She had been looking for a safe subject, but looking at Serena again, Liz suddenly realized that she had probably opened up an entirely different barrel of worms. Oh well - maybe it was better to have this out with Serena now.

"So you're going back home soon, and taking little Lizzie with you?" Serena said, a bit grumpily. "Are the two of you engaged or ain't you, anyway?" She looked pointedly from Liz's necklace to Max's bare neck.

"We are," Max told her. "But it's fairly recent, and I don't think I've even actually told Liz that she needs to get me one in exchange."

"Oh, yeah, okay," Liz said, suddenly seeing it. The engagement pendant might be an equivalent to a ring, but it obviously wasn't only for the women. She'd noticed Michael wearing two chains around his neck - presumably one for the engagement and the other for his actual wedding vows. Except - "Hey, Maria, why do you only have one pendant yourself?"

"Hmm?" Maria fingered the chain around her neck, and then she smirked slightly and brought her left hand up with her fingers spread. Liz and Max smiled, while a sullen look quickly came onto Serena's face.

"Of course."

"Yeah, I wore an engagement pendant for a little while, before the wedding, but it never really felt right, and I stopped. This is my true engagement token from Michael, and I need no other." Maria smiled a little smugly at Serena. "I know how to use it better now, too."

"Now, now," Max warned Maria mildly. "No taunting her, please. We're still trying to recruit Serena for a dangerous mission."

"Okay, okay." Maria sighed. "So where were we before getting sidetracked onto pendants and such?"

"Going back home," Liz prompted meaningfully, nodding at Serena and Max. "Oh, sorry, if that could be thought of as taunting, I didn't mean it to be."

"Yeah, right," Serena said unhappily. "So, how about it, Max? If I want a ride back to Antar, do you think you can oblige me?"

"Hmm... that's admittedly tricky," Max said. "Not that I particularly want to keep you 'stranded' on Earth if here's where you want to be. There might be a few tricky questions to answer back there - if certain people find out that you're from Earth and the circumstances, that is. We might be able to avoid that entirely... but the biggest problem is space. Not outer space, so much as inner - inside the ship."

"Oh, come on, I know it might be tough, but surely you can squeeze one more in," Serena said beseechingly.

"Frankly, I'm going to have to squeeze just to get - everybody I've been planning to take on the trip home," Max said softly. "And you being around was never in the plan, Serena."

"Then maybe I'm not around for your big battle," she snapped.

Max waited until she stormed to her feet and took the two steps through the doorway of the Royal mess. Then he called her name softly, "Serena," and turned his chair about forty degrees toward the door, so he still wasn't really facing it. By turning his head, he just managed to get her in peripheral vision as she turned slowly around to glare at all three of them: Max, Liz, and Maria.

"What's it worth to you if I can arrange travel for you to Antar, and back if you wish - but not quite immediately?" Max asked softly. "I'll see if there's a way to manage for this trip, but the other is my backup offer. Are you interested?"

"Yes, if you're not just yanking my chain," Serena grumbled. "If you're trying to play me, Evans, then I swear..."

"Then what?" Maria nearly clapped as part of Michael came into view next to Serena in the hallway, right up in her personal space, with a big grin on his face. "It's nice to see you - Serena. Just got out of the infirmary, foot's good as new again, and I just knew that I had to come find you and say... hello."

Serena turned her glare around to Michael and then swivelled it back into Max's direction, but by that point it wasn't holding up that well. Certainly the momentum of her threat had been disrupted by Michael's provident appearance, (and his somewhat threatening body language, belied as it was by his chipper tone and big smile.) Somewhat undone, Serena stomped back into the room and took her chair once again. Michael followed her in, paused at the chair on the other side of Serena from Max, then reconsidered and stepped between the two tables to take his place next to his wife.

"So, what have we been talking about?"

"This and that," Liz replied airily, sensing that nobody really wanted to rehash it all for Michael. "So, what kind of tactics are we going to need to take care of this alien creature?"

It was just the right question to ask. "I'm glad you asked," Max said. "The basic idea will be to surround it with protective fields, in order to keep it from making an escape, and to defend all of our people. It may be that the easiest way to get the kill will simply be to compress it with energy until its body is crushed..."

#

They didn't really talk about battle plans too long, just until Serena was upset and bored enough to excuse herself and stalk away. Michael had an impressive sequence of toasts to make on the occasion of Max and Liz's engagement, (Liz lost count at either nine or ten, but that was almost the end,) and Alex and Maria sang them a few songs.

Raydeleen, an alien woman with a lot of presence in person, came in around then to tell Max that they were making the descent to Carlsbad. Max brought Liz up to the small 'bridge' of the ship, (well, actually they were standing right behind the bridge,) to watch through the front windows as they plunged through the clouds of the Earth's atmosphere and finally to a landing in the New Mexico desert. "Cloaking device working fine?" Max asked the pilot, getting an affirmative answer in Antarian, (all the crew seemed to have learned English, but weren't necessarily that comfortable with it,) and turned back to Liz. "Okay, well, it's probably a good idea to go to bed now, early morning tomorrow and all that." He started to guide her aft along the corridor. "Considering how crowded we're going to be for the night, I hope that you don't have any problem with... sharing my bunk, my dear?"

Liz giggled. "No, I actually think that I'll be okay with that, considering what else has gone on between us this day." She hugged his side and let out a satisfied breath. "That bunk is a little small, but I suppose that I'm okay with snuggling close to you, honey."

"Alright, and..." Max stopped in mid-stride, and Liz bumped her foot into his leg. "Sorry, I just thought of this - between all the Serena stuff, I didn't make sure that you packed a bag with anything you thought was essential for a few days. We can arrange some things with whatever's on hand and molecular manipulation, but..."

Liz shook her head. "Come on, Max, I'm not - what, fifteen still? When you left with Tess and said that Michael and Maria would be 'taking us upstairs,' I realized that it was time to pack." She thought about that as Max started walking again. "Well, actually, it wasn't until after I'd talked with Kyle and Ava some, and we started playing cards, that I clued in. I took ten minutes away from the game to grab a few things, and so did Ava. Kyle was a bit upset that it only came up after he was too far away from his own room, that Tess hadn't mentioned it when he was showing her around, but I think that he's determined to make the best of 'roughing it.'"

"Oh, okay," Max said, smiling. "So, where is your stuff, then?"

Liz tried to remember where she'd have dropped it after coming up. She definitely remembered grabbing it before Maria activated her orb. "Probably the rec lounge in the stern?"

"Okay." Max pressed a contact, and she realized that they'd gotten to his cabin already as the wall swung out. "Do you want me to go get it for you, or...?"

"No, come on, Max! I can get around the ship fine, where I know where I'm going - and you probably couldn't tell my bag apart from Ava's, if she left hers there too, or Isabel's as far as I know. I'll see you in a few minutes."

"Okay, but one thing first."

"What's that?" Liz asked, and was actually pleasantly surprised by the big kiss he planted on her. It was more than a minute before Liz was actually continuing on her way towards the stern of the ship.

Max was lying on his bunk and staring right at her when she got back and opened up the door. (If there were privacy circuits on these doors, he must have programmed his to open with her fingerprints or whatever.) "So, what, were you just staring at the door the whole time I was gone?" she teased, stepping inside the room. "Wasn't that boring?"

"Not the whole time, but about when I guessed you might have had enough time to go and be nearly back," Max admitted. "Because I couldn't risk looking away at the right moment, and missing a millisecond of watching you."

"That's cheesy, but sweet," Liz admitted, sitting down on the chair and letting the door swing closed. "Notice that you also found time to get into a nifty little pair of Antarian pyjamas." Max looked down at his nightclothes and then grinned back at her, not saying anything. "Okay, well, if we're actually going to get much sleep, then maybe you should - I don't know, look away, while I get changed into my own stuff."

"Oh, come on," Max exclaimed. "Like if I see you changing, we'll both be overcome by such passion that we couldn't keep ourselves from making love long into the night?"

"Well, maybe... I don't know." Liz hesitated, and then shook her head. "Okay, you wanna watch? Fine." And she stood up and started to undress, first tossing off her wife-beater, (leaving the pendant in place,) and then undoing her belt and letting the baggy jeans sink down to her ankles. Shooting one hand into the bag that she'd brought, she snatched out her sky-blue cotton nightshirt, and pulled it on, letting the fabric fall nearly to her knees as it always did. "Satisfied?"

"Well, not really, I mean, it hardly lasted long enough," Max said, a silly grin on his face and barely managing to stifle a string of chuckles. "And you've still got your shoes on; hope you're not going to wear them into bed."

Liz had to laugh at that point. "Yeah. Not to mention these pants still hangin' at my ankles." And she sat down again, taking off the shoes one at a time. At one point her right knee went well off to the side, and her shirt fell away from it slightly, baring a length of her inner thigh, and Max's eyes immediately focused on her exposed flesh. Liz laughed, twitched her other knee as if about to move it aside as well and give him another look at her underwear - and then resumed the task at hand. Soon her shoes, jeans, belt, and tank top were all neatly lined up on the floor next to the wall, folded where applicable.

Max only had time to say, "Well, are you quite...?" before Liz had crossed the space between them and was lying next to him on the edge of the bed. Because he had been lying quite close to the near edge of the bed, she didn't have much space to lie down at first, but he backed away happily enough now that she was that close to him.

"I love you, Max," Liz breathed, just because it was true and seemed to bear a lot of repeating just at this stage. "Just out of curiosity, what's Antarian thinking like on - well, consummating the marriage before the wedding?"

"Well..." And Max reached out his right hand to touch her left arm, (which was uppermost in the positions that they had taken,) and then stroke her left side affectionately. "That's a complicated subject, as you might imagine, and not to be explained in just one sentence."

"Could you please indulge me for a few of them, then?" Liz asked him sweetly. "It's a subject of considerable interest to me - not an immediate need-to-know thing, but still..."

Max chuckled. "Well, let's see... as far as I know there's not much of the same moralistic or religious condemnation that some people still have on Earth. However, it's seen as a tricky question of judgement and timing, in which the couple must navigate several temptations to make the decision that's best for them in the long term. Part of the difference, maybe, is that the act of - of mating generally has more serious psychological and emotional effects on the participants for Antarians than with humans."

"As Michael and Maria discovered, that summer before you all left," Liz pointed out.

"Well - yes. Of course, they were also dealing with the mating instinct driving them to get Maria pregnant, which as you might remember, it's possible to avoid triggering if you know how and are very disciplined about the regimen." Max sighed. "Anyway, even for a - a couple who would have a bright future together, making the decision to become fully intimate too soon might - affect their priorities, bringing their lives completely together before they're ready for it. There are some people back home who think that describes Michael and Maria, actually, but they've gotten good at ignoring doubters by now." He sighed, and Liz giggled nervously. "And - and this is just academic and not about anyone I really know, exactly - but there are cautionary stories about young lovers who - who aren't a good match - dysfunctional relationship type stuff, but get too involved and bond psychically before they realize that they'd be better off apart. There are ways for unhealthy links like that to be severed, but it's difficult, dangerous, and doesn't always work. 'Getting too involved' isn't always about sex, either - there are other ways for a strong link like that to be created, as I think that we both know."

"Yeah, I'm with you chief," Liz said softly. "Sorry, um - I know that I started this subject, but I just..."

"Don't want to hear any more of it right now," Max filled in. "I'm not too surprised, actually, and sorry if I dwelled for too long on the bad stuff."

"It's alright," Liz said. "Fair answer. Just - well, maybe we should concentrate on getting to sleep."

"Sure," Max said, smiling, and touching a contact on the bunk, so that the lights faded to absolute darkness. "Want to see my favourite way of drifting off to sleep lately?"

"Umm, I don't know what that even means," Liz said, noticing how the faintest echoes of his voice seemed to mix with hers in the darkness. "But if you want to show me something that you think I'd like, then sure."

It was about a second later that a sort of kaleidoscopic light sprang into existence between them. "It's called a Torrie-teng, a common way of using powers back home," Max explained, his mouth obscured by the lights but his eyes focusing on hers. "You just sort of stare into it and it makes you fall asleep really quickly - you generally sleep well and deeply too, but not deeply enough that it's hard for someone or something really trying to wake you up. A few minutes after I drift off, it'll fade away."

"How clever," Liz said, letting her eyes be drawn to the heart of the Torrie-teng. "It seems to already be working..."

#

Liz woke to the most incredible music all around her - vaguely orchestral in feel, but full of the sounds of instruments that weren't in orchestras on earth, and possibly didn't even exist on Earth - she particularly noticed the prevalence of something that had the tone of a woodwind, but slid from one note to another in the same way that a trombone or a fiddle could.

Somehow, as she had slumbered deeply, Liz must have turned around on the bunk, which meant that she was facing away from Max, into the rest of his room and towards the bed - but on the upside, this way he could spoon her from behind, his arm draped across her body in the most loving way she could imagine, and the length of his body pressing into hers from behind - including a piece of stiff anatomy that she was momentarily tempted to make a point of discussion, but unfortunately had to admit that the 'timing' for it probably wasn't right yet.

So she turned around to face Max, and could tell from the look on his face and the blinking of his eyes that he was just waking up too. "Nice music," she told him. "Did you queue this up especially, or is it just whatever was on the ship's muzak channel at this moment?"

"Oh, hmm?" Max had to take a moment to wake up more before answering, but he didn't ask Liz to repeat her question. "Neither, quite - it's a random shuffle from my personal music library. This is the North Tilles symphony, actually, playing a piece by the famous Antarian composer Jormader - but I'm not going to try translating the designation for you, if that's okay."

"No, that's fine," Liz agreed. "Though I guess I'm going to have to learn a lot of Antarian pretty soon."

"Yeah, I guess so, but we can leave that until after the primary mission," Max told her. "Actually, our trip back should be plenty of time."

"Right." Liz looked around the cabin. "And I guess, bearing in mind what you said about crowding to Serena, I'll be moving in here with you for the trip back."

"Umm, yeah, actually - why, is it so bad?" Max looked around the room. "It's really about the same overall area as Michael and Maria's cabin, though they spent more of it on the bed."

Liz had to smile. "It's a bit of an odd notion to get used to, especially since my room with Ava is at least three times the size, but as long as I'm with you I'll be fine - I really believe that." She felt, more than heard, a faint rumbling. "And surprisingly, after all the Antarian cuisine I put away last night, I'm hungry again. Does custom require that we should clean and dress before going out for breakfast, or are pyjamas and bed-head alright?" She stood up.

"How about... neither," Max said, crawling over to the edge of the bed and reaching for her hand. "As in, leave the others to fend for themselves for a while. I'll order us up anything you want from my personal food slot, and bring it to you for breakfast in bed."

"Hmm." Liz had to admit that she found the notion appealing. "Well, I guess for that to work, we'll have to switch places, won't we? Unless I decide that I'd rather bring you goodies."

"You don't really know how to work the controls yet," Max pointed out. "I'll teach you, and we can do it that way next time if you like."

"Next time. I think I like a lot," Liz admitted, and stepped back towards the bed, but Max waved her away with a gesture. So she backed away, and he got up and stepped away from the bunk in a different direction. Of course.

The breakfast was nice, but unfortunately in Liz's opinion, Max's sense of duty didn't really let him dawdle over it, or her. Soon they were in the shower, scrubbing each other's backs in much too businesslike a way, and so on. When they got out and back into the cabin proper, Max went to one of his drawers and got out a uniform similar to the one he had worn first when meeting her the day before. Instead of putting it on, though, he laid it on the chair and then gestured for her to examine the clothing.

"What?" When Liz examined the pieces of the outfit more closely, it was hard not to realize that even allowing for a reasonable stretchy factor, they were too small for Max - and tailored for a woman of something like her own measurements. "Is this getup for me?"

"Um, yeah - I didn't mention this before?" From the too-wide grin on Max's face, she knew that he knew it hadn't come up yet, though probably he had meant to and then been distracted by too many other things. "The best available in Antarian combat suits." She shot him an even more dubious look. "Yes, I'm serious. They're tight to keep anybody, or anything, from being able to grab you by an edge of your clothing, and drag you down. That'll be especially important against the beast, I think. By now it should have started to grow its tentacles."

"Okay," Liz continued, "but..."

"The material is deceptively light and flexible, so as to not impair your movement, but it's strengthened at a molecular level to prevent cuts or punctures, cushion you against impacts, and help divert or deflect energy attacks. Even your head and hands can be protected, with the hood and gloves, but that would interfere with your own ability to channel energy out, so it's pretty much a last-ditch defensive measure."

"Okay, okay, I'll give it a try," Liz admitted with bad grace. Stripping off her nightshirt again, (and thus revealing herself in underwear and and even worse mood than last night,) she first pulled on the dark navy pants with pink-purple stripes up the sides. To her surprise, they weren't a chore to slide up past her hips and to her waist, even though the material clung to her legs almost like a second skin. Intrigued, she climbed into the long-sleeved and high-necked top, which was a bit tougher, trying to cling when it wasn't in the right position yet, but still it didn't take long until she was fully dressed in both pieces of the outfit. They even seemed to join together at her midriff, though she could still tell that she wasn't wearing a single jumpsuit. It was an odd sensation.

"And don't forget the boots," Max said, as he pulled his own pants on. (He'd started with the top.) Liz had to look for a few seconds before noticing the footwear standing next to one leg of the chair, and she sat down to examine them and her bare feet before bringing them together. Black boots, nothing very extraordinary looking, with maybe a wide one inch heel, and a fake-leather kind of feel to them, only long enough to reach halfway to her knees, which she generally found a comfortable height for boots.

So she slipped her left foot into the left boot, not sure why she wasn't bothering with socks, and again felt the sensation of the cuff of the uniform pants bonding with the inside of the boot, not making a physical join, but ensuring that nothing would be able to attack her through the gap - that was it. It was something to do with the way these pieces had been designed to work as a single suit of armour, she had to assume. If she donned the gloves and hood that Max mentioned, presumably the same effect would 'bond' them with her top.

And that would be a good thing to know how to do, or at least... "Max? The gloves and hood - where do I get them?"

Max smiled at her. "Check your pockets." And he patted his own top in the appropriate spots.

Ah, okay. Liz had checked her pants for pockets from the inside, and found none, but hadn't made the same inspection of the top. There were curved stripes of white running from her shoulders to her stomach, and the lower thirds of these to where they met were apparently the outer linings of her pockets. Inside one she found two thin black gloves, and the other being a shape of fabric that could possibly be a hood. Well enough. She didn't really want to try them out now. "So what now?"

"Now we go out to the connected rooms," Max said with a big grin, "and see all of our troops gathered in their armour."

#

They made an impressive assembly, crowded into the Royal mess and the lounge, (both rooms now empty of tables or chairs.) Liz couldn't shake the feeling that what she was looking at seemed more like the origin story of a new Marvel comic superhero group than any other kind of army assembling for battle - though few superhero groups, she had to admit, would have their costumes harmonizing so well in terms of color and style. There were individual differences in the detailing of each outfit, but the basic background color was always the same dark blue, (was it the Royal color for Antar?) and the styles of extra touches seemed to follow the same patterns over and over, repeated in different accent colors.

Michael, Maria, Tess, and the three crew seemed to be quite as home in their uniforms as Max was, which seemed natural, they'd all have had opportunity to practice in them if not use them in earnest. (Max had mentioned his duel with Kivar - had they both been wearing 'armour' like this? Liz actually wanted to see video of that fight if anybody had taken some along.)

The other five felt about as uncertain of their new suits of armour as she did. Serena, in fact, seemed to be disgusted at her getup, even though she was mismatched from everybody else, which Liz figured would suit her more than conformity - her base color was midnight black instead of navy blue, and the bright fiery red patches and yellow piping didn't really fit the patterns. Liz supposed that her outfit would have had to be fabricated overnight, and Max or Tess had decided to make the stylistic changes. Ava and Kyle seemed to be well matched and happy in their complimentary suits, (which made them look to Liz unfortunately like the little super twins,) Isabel was constantly stretching and fidgeting in her own outfit as if worried that it hadn't really been made in proportion to her tall figure, and Alex...

"Hey, Alex!" Liz exclaimed, moving over to him and Isabel. "I - well, I hadn't actually expected to see you suited up with the rest of us."

"Yes, I know," Alex said with a long-suffering smile. "But I made my case, and everybody's signed off on it - well, except for the big guy, because he was so busy with his new fiancee, but I don't think that Max will mind." Liz giggled self-consciously. "Officially, I'm a lookout, not to get involved in the fighting, but I've been issued a uniform to help protect me if I wind up in danger despite all I can do to stay out of it."

"Yes," Isabel said. "And despite all of Alex's protestations, I think that it's significant that a uniform in his size was available, without needing to be customized or tailored." Alex chuckled.

And right then, Max's most authoritative voice sounded. "All right, people, we're heading out and splitting up into small groups for drill. Kyle, Serena, you'll be with me, learning and practicing at making protective fields. Ava, you go with Swander and Michael, doing target practice and learning more about different ways to channel energy on the attack. Liz - you're with Eleeron and Tess to start, learning about ways to use powers to divert and distract the enemy. Isabel, you're to go with Raydeleen and Maria, practicing using telekinesis to roll with falls or take tough hits without hurting yourself as much. Alex, you can observe whatever group you like but you aren't participating, sorry. After two hours, we meet for a midmorning snack and rotate groups. Alright?"

#

By the time they came back into the ship for lunch, Liz did not feel 'alright', but she wasn't about to complain about the training regimen, especially since she realized that what she was learning might well save her life.

First, training with Liz and doctor Eleeron. She'd been almost worried that Tess was going to try to teach her the mind warp - that was one application of the power that frankly Liz didn't want to have anything to do with. But they didn't really touch on that directly, although some of the techniques of blinding an opponent or scrambling their other senses at a key moment seemed to overlap. (Before the foursome left, Liz had always gotten the impression that the mind-warp was a particular talent of Tess that few others could match, so maybe she couldn't teach it even if she wanted to.)

They had covered illusions in other ways, normally by directly projecting sound, light, scent particles or forces, so that the opponent would really be seeing/hearing/smelling/feeling whatever it was, even if that thing wasn't real. This was in many ways more difficult than sneaking false commands into the sensory channels of the mind, as Tess could do with the mind-warp, and could not be selective to only one person, though they had the advantage of not being so difficult to use against multiple points of view.

There were other techniques as well - confusion fields, small changes to the terrain a footstep away from the 'enemy', special ways of making dust float to make it an eye hazard for longer, and much more. Then, after a short break with a sweet and slightly spicy Antarian beverage and little cream cakes, she started working with Ava and Raydeleen on taking falls and impacts. Even though she'd learned a lot in that discipline, her body was sore and her bruises felt like they had bruises of their own.

"Anything I can do to help, darling?" Max muttered, coming up behind her, and she felt a surge of power coming into her shoulder, where the joint had been feeling particularly abused, and soothing the entire area."

"Yes, but if you're truly a considerate and gracious king you'll volunteer your talents for Maria, Isabel, and Ava as well," Liz told him. "Is there a particular reason why you had all the girls except Tess going through the falling and impacts?"

"Well - I guess I did want to make sure that all of you knew how to take care of yourselves as best you could before we got into a tough situation, honey," Max pointed out. "I know that women aren't completely fragile, but there are a few physical and biological reasons that you do need extra care. Kyle is going to get his turn this afternoon, and Tess will probably be drilling with him, though she's practiced this before of course. So has Maria, as you might have noticed."

"And what about you and Michael?" Liz pointed out. "I know that you're big strong guys and you know it already, but how about a refresher?"

"Probably a good idea," he admitted. "Last rotation this afternoon."

"So we'll keep going around - and I'll get to do the target practice?" Liz asked. "And the protective fields?"

"Yes, of course my darling - and then we'll join up into larger groups for some different lessons." Max opened the door to his cabin and pointed down on the bunk. "Strip and lie down. That'll make it as easy as possible for me to heal you."

"Oh, sure, sure," Liz said, turning around to wink at him. But she did step next to the bunk and start taking off her top.

And sure enough, as Max's hands played over her sore back, the bruises seemed to fade away. (He didn't even need to look in her eyes for this, she realized with some surprise.) "So, when do you think we'll be ready to start luring the beast to us?"

"Tomorrow, I guess, after Michael and Maria's reception," Max answered casually. "Now don't speak for a minute. I need you to keep your muscles still for just a little bit, okay?"

Liz kept herself still, with a bit of difficulty.