Chapter 7
Anara had once again returned to her domicile, but this time, Buron was thankfully home, engaging the young in an intermediate learning exercise. they were doing well for their age, Anara thought. But she was so glad that finally, amid all the horror and confusion, their family unit could at last share one precious nocturnal period together.
At last, it was time for the young to be relaxed into their somnambulation cycle which took considerably longer nowadays. Since the caretaker had informed both Buron and Anara that they were having intense nightmares, it was necessary to perform an equally intense healing matrix so that they could observe a peaceful somnambulation cycle.

they spent two more diurnal periods which felt enough like normal ones to cause Anara to feel that their people were returning to some state of normalcy, and two blessed, blissful nocturnal periods in which they received all the nurture, rest, and companionship that they normally did. It was at the dawning of the new day, when the Navian suns had risen from behind the snow-capped mountain peaks that an urgent message came for Anara's from the medical and scientific bureaus, telling her that the sample that they had been cultivating into the antidote had been stolen. the lock had been compromised, and Anara saw it too...pieces of it were on the floor with laser scorches on them, and the refrigeration unit for the organic component had been tampered with, and the door to that was open. New security schemes and locking devices had to be obtained for the storage units, but the question on Anara's mind was Who, why and how.

the who she could already answer, she thought bitterly. At least she felt that it was Tristanius and his crew at work. Later that day, Pyrian intelligence had confirmed that tristanius was on the loose and on the move. It was rumored that he had a mobile laboratory, and he was using his shuttle for any lab work that had to be done as soon as possible. Others said that this could not be true, and still others said that he couldn't be on the loose, because those outlaws and radical factions that he chose to work for would need his services..
the pace sped up again as efforts were made to try to find tristanius's current whereabouts, but Intelligence came back with no answers and no leads on the location of the antidote. Meanwhile a second vial was being prepared, she learned, but it would take time for the virus to germinate and the antidote to mature. the diurnal periods had become long and busy again, and in some cases, more fruitless for her and her department as the science department tried to perfect another antidote vial. the only thing that gave them all a measure of satisfaction was that the first vial had been secured under a virtually unbreakable code.

It was on an unusually stormy day, when rain threatened and lightning forked intermittently through the Navian sky when an intruder was heard to speak over Pyrian coms channels. "If you desire your precious antidote, I desire to parlay with one Buron. I have the antidote, but your hope in the succor of your people rests in whether or not he will give himself over to me. It was by his device that my plans have been foiled, but I will return to continue your own defeat when my resources have been replenished. It is up to you whether your people shall be healed from this virus that has been loosed."

"Shalka," said Buron tersely, putting a protective forearm around Anara and her young. "I must call out the unseen Fleet."

"I regret to inform you that the time I have for this little game is not limitless. I will know in one of your diurnal periods. If you, Buron, have not come to meet with me on my own terms, your people will die, as this virus is contagious. War commander Vorak out."

Anara could detect the chill in the rough chitter that emanated from the com unit, which, thankfully, in this area, didn't have visual. Her eyes were filled with anguish as she turned to Buron, but also with a fiery purpose.
"Do not concern yourself," said Buron, "We shall implement a plan to keep war Commander Vorak distracted. I believe he is speaking out of disgust that he lost tristanius, and cannot seem to apprehend him. My sources tell me that he has been staying on the move in unclaimed space as much as possible."
At that moment, Buron looked into her eyes, and it was that dizzying quality of his own at that moment that took her breath away. Their backs were finally up against the wall. Buron, being one of the best pilots in the system, always told new pilots that it was a bad idea to let themselves get boxed if they could prevent it. Now this time, Buron himself was boxed. this was the terrible irony, and their people must have the antidote, but the Shalka were in possession of it.