Dust 223

(A/N) I was hoping to get this chapter out before Christmas, but my internet provider thinks it's funny to screw with me. I'm using a temporary provider until Telstra can get their act together.

Stephen Adezio; EVE Online was my main inspiration, but as you can see; I've changed a lot of stuff and added some original content. Also, I swapped ship names around, so a Merlin in my story is described as being nothing like the Merlin in EVE. Thanks.

The warp bubble around Kaorin's ship was beginning to break down as they approached their target, the desert planet of Dust 223. All desert planets in the Milky Way Galaxy were called Dust and then given a number to differentiate between them. The Dust planets usually contained some valuable mineral that was mined by a small population, but the resource wasn't abundant enough to build a colony, so a small frontier settlement was built instead, home to maybe few million or less. The planets were terraformed to some extent and given an atmosphere, but little else was done to change the planet. Planets that were worthy of extensive terraformation were given a whole ecosystem based of Earth's. Rainforests, tropical islands, vast savannah plains and temperate forests were planted across the globe and beautiful cities were built in a few years, these were known as Colonial Planets.

Other planets, that had vast resources but were too close to a star or too far away, were turned into industrial worlds. Dedicated solely to mining and manufacturing, these industrial wastelands churned out everything from holo-screens to starship armour and everything in between. Those planets that were close to Colonial planets, but not deemed worthy of terraformation often became Agricultural worlds that could feed billions of people throughout the galaxy.

Dust 223 was a particularly lonely world. It's entire population added up to roughly a million humans. Most of them lived inside the walls of the only city of the planet, the appropriately named; Solitude. The planets only outgoing product was tin. A massive deposit was found there, but because the metal was common throughout the known galaxy, no attempt to turn Dust 223 into an industrial world was made. No station orbited this planet, two moons and a few satellites, but nothing as large as the floating cities above Colonial or Industrial worlds.

The newest addition to Dust 223's high orbit were two frigates. Floating aimlessly above the pale yellow world were the Thunder Horse and the Choice. On board the ships, the crews were preparing themselves for atmospheric flight. The Thunder Horse was the only ship with landing gear, so Vek would have to land them all. All seven of them were in his bachelor pad downstairs while Vek sat at his console.

"You let one on, then it's two, then it's seven. I should have learned my lesson sooner." he thought, trying to ignore the sound of all of them talking rose up the stair case. He was a little worried, he had never taken this ship down to a planet before, he was told it could handle it, but he wasn't sure. The man who told him a Hookbill could land on a planet also told him the elves orbiting his head were becoming somewhat rude to each other. And any man called "Porno Pete" who spends his days swatting away the invisible elves around his head and yelling at passers-by, should have his opinion taken as less than reliable.

Beneath Vek's feet, several metres down, Tomo was jumping up and own of his bed. Leaping into the air and touching the ceiling, she fell onto her back, the bounce back throwing her to her feet. "For a mercenary, this guy has a really comfortable bed. Not even the beds of the Hammer were this good. Bet you got up to a sorts of things in this bed, huh, Kagura?" she said between bounces, to Kagura who was watching her from the doorway.

"ah ha ha" she replied sarcastically.

"Oh yeah. I forgot you're a les..." she didn't have time to finish her insult, mid bounce Kagura jumped forward and pushed her to the side, sending her flying over the bed and crashing down on the floor next to it.

"I'm not. So shut up." she warned, leaning over the bed and looking at the dazed wildcat.

Vek spoke up over the ship wife intercom, "Everyone shut up and sit down. I'm going to take us in. I've never done this before; so by staying on this vessel you are agreeing not to sue should any of you suffer broken or loss of limbs." His announcement was less than comforting for the motley crew. Chiyo and Ayumu stuck together closely as the view out the window shifted as the ship moved towards the planet.

As the ship fell into low orbit, the computer presented Vek with several warnings which he moved to the side, focusing solely on keeping the ship together. There were some violent vibrations in the floor as the ship entered the atmosphere. A box jumped up on Vek's screen asking if he wished to disengage the ships artificial gravity. "Um …. Yes?" he answered. The vibrations stopped and Vek felt his stomach rise upwards. The sensation was the same for all on board, internal organs rising into their throats, the last meal being churned around and threatening to evacuate.

"Hey, let's play a game, whoever can hold onto their lunch the longest wins!" Tomo yelled out, seeing the expressions on everyone's' faces. Kagura nodded her head quickly, too afraid to open her mouth in case something burst forth from it. Chiyo and Ayumu were looking green and holding each other firmly. Kaorin and Sakaki were squeezing each others hand firmly. Yomi was clutching the seat fearing she would soon follow her guts upwards.

As the ship entered free fall over the planet, heat energy licked over it's surface. The view from the windows was hidden by the heated gas as the ship tore through the atmosphere. Tomo was beginning to feel the effects of her rising innards. Suddenly she felt very light, like she had inexplicably lost several dozen kilograms from her already lean body. She felt as light as a feather, like she could just drift away. Looking down at the seat, she realised she was drifting away. Already a few inches off the seat and climbing quickly.

The others were experiencing artificial zero gravity too. Lifted off their seats and into the air. Yomi was holding onto her seat, keeping herself firmly planted,her eyes were firmly shut as she focused on keeping the contents of her stomach where they were. Kagura was floating alongside Tomo, her hands clamped over her mouth in an attempt to keep everything down. Sakaki had a shocked look on her face as she rose, Kaorin still clamped on. Tomo seemed to be the only one enjoying herself. She drifted over to a wall and kicked off, propelling herself across the room, while she spun in mid air.

"Haha! This is better than the bed!" she laughed as she flew past Kagura.

Kagura grabbed Tomo's shoulder and pushed her away, causing Tomo to spin. Tomo laughed as her world swirled around her in a blur, then a dizzy feeling overcame her and then a feeling of terrible wrong. Tomo's body realised what was happening and decided it would have no part of it and began emergency procedures, starting with an evacuation of possible toxins she may have recently consumed. Tomo threw up.

The chunky sick hit the floor with a splat, bits of it floated away. Tomo managed to gag down a second eruption, curling up into the foetal position holding her unset stomach and floating away. "Do you think the merc will be upset about what I did to his floor?" she asked, groaning from the sickness inside her.

"I think you should get of the ship as soon as we land and before he finds out" Chiyo suggested.

Vek was ordering the ship to lift up but it wouldn't, it said it was doing as it was told, but there was no actual result. The ship was keeping itself at the correct angle for descent, but ignoring the rapidly approaching ground. Vek dragged the warning back into view and skimmed through them, hoping to find something useful.

"You are approaching a planet …. No, I already know that. Landing gear in folded position … Don't need that now. Autopilot … Yes please !" Vek activated the autopilot and the ship computer took control. Lifting the nose upwards and expanding the wings.

Vek's felt his gut fall back to it's rightful place and away from his lungs. Looking out the front view, the heat energy was gone, replaced by a huge blue sky and an ocean of clouds. Below, the seven floating females came crashing back to the ground. Yomi landed back on her seat, which had been hovering over for the last few minutes, Tomo fell and hit the ground only a few feet from her mess.

"Okay, ladies. I have everything under control. We should be landing within the hour, assuming I can find the place." Vek announced. Tomo still groaned as she lay curled up on the floor.

"You should clean that up, Tomo. Vek wouldn't like that lying on his ship." Yomi warned the groaning girl. Tomo slowly got her feet, her legs threatening to give way at any moment. She found a waste-paper basket in a corner of the room and scooped the puke into it, leaving a slick of vomit running across the floor and put it back in it's corner.

"There. I fixed it. Now be quiet and let me die in peace." she grumbled as she lay down on the couch and curled up again.

"This place is going to smell pretty bad soon. Do you think the acid could eat through the hull?" Ayumu said in her subtle soft voice.

"I don't think it's that strong, Ayumu." Chiyo responded.

"Yeah, but what if, like an alien, got on the ship and threw up. Would that burn the hull?" The small engineer said.

"I don't think we have to worry about that, Ayumu." Chiyo was trying to end another one of Ayumu's aimless conversations.

"Yeah!" Kagura spoke up, "If any alien got on this ship, I could take it." She threw a few punches in the air. "And if I'm not here, this tiger could" she prodded Tomo, who lay perfectly still until the athletic fighter pilot poked her exposed ribs.

"Bugger off, Kagura! I can't do this right now" she grunted, curling into a tighter ball. Osaka stood up and walked away for no apparent reason. She walked over to the window and looked out at the sky. It was bright blue all around, beneath the ship were mountainous clouds that rose up in many shapes.

"This reminds me of my home planet. We were a Dust planet too. I never thought I'd see the clouds from the other side, they look much better from this angle" she said without turning back to the others. "I always wondered what it would be like to fall through a cloud. Probably really soft." she pressed herself up against the glass.

Yomi watched, a puzzled look on her face. She turned to Sakaki, "She fixed your ship?" asking disbelievingly.

"She's a little strange, but put her to work on a ship and she'll find and fix any problem you can think of." Sakaki defended her dull witted companion. Ayumu's voice drifted back to them, but no one paid any real attention to her.

The Thunder Horse flew through the sky high above the desert planet. It had undergone a transformation once the atmospheric auto-pilot had kicked in. The wings and elongated and become more aerodynamic so the ship cut through the sky cleanly. Vek was running a map to try and find the settlement he was looking for. A small community, even by Dust standards. Home to some of Vek's old friends. He found it, a small dark speck on a wide screen of pale yellow. He typed in the coordinates and the ship began to fall through the clouds towards it's target. It only took a few minutes for the ship to arrive at the settlement.

The Thunder Horse blasted over the rolling dunes and did a fly by of the settlement a few hundred metres below. Vek ordered the landing procedure and the ship slowly lowered itself onto the soft sand. It came to a rest just outside the settlement, sand was blown everywhere as the powerful engines lowered the large ship onto the surface. The landing gear came down and the ship came to rest. Because of the ship's shape, it was at a diagonal angle with the bridge being at the top and engines at the bottom. But it seemed to hold so Vek shut down the ship.

A ramp opened from the underside of the ship and touched the sandy ground.

"Huh? That's new." Vek thought as he and the others walked down the ramp. Ayumu stepped onto the sandy ground. Her foot sunk into the soft sand immediately, she could feel the heat radiating off the ground. Heat was bombarding her from above and below.

"This is just like being home again." she thought aloud.

Three people were walking towards them from the settlement ahead. The heat from the ground made the shapes of the people wobble as they approached. Vek used his hand to shade his eyes as he looked to see who coming towards them. The locals were only a few metres away now. They were wearing little clothes, shorts and vests mostly. Their hats covered most of their faces, but features could be seen underneath. Vek stepped forward to greet them. A person on the left suddenly threw of their hat revealing a woman with a shaved head with two short mohawks running across her head. She was smiling manically at Vek.

"Oh crap!" Vek burst into a run with the woman in hot pursuit. The locals laughed at the sight, then turned to Yomi.

"Hi. My name's Zal." The tall man said, offering his hand to Yomi who shook it, unsure of what to do next. The man looked middle aged, maybe a hundred years old or so, but his features showed a long, hard life. Deep lines on rough skin and a stubbly beard. Distpite his rough appearance, his voice was friendly and welcoming. "No need to introduce yourselves, we already know who you are."

"Um, okay. Vek said we could stay here for a while." Yomi said, looking towards the settlement. It had a tall wall running around it, there was an arch above the entranceway.

"Yeah sure. Any friend to "Vek" is a friend to us" The man named Zal said, examining the group behind Yomi. "Come this way and we'll show you to your accommodations". There was a yell that caught everyone's attention. It seemed the woman had brought Vek to the ground and they were now fighting on the floor, kicking up a dust cloud.

"Lisa! Knock it off!" Zal shouted. The female attacker stopped immediately and got to her feet, leaving Vek in the dust. The woman known as Lisa followed the group back to the settlement. The ground in within the walls was harder than the loose sand that surrounded it. The buildings were made mostly of scrap metal and hardened clay. One building looked like it had been built out of a crashed ship, the name of the ship could still be vaguely made out on the side. They were taken into a building made mostly of clay. Inside was a rather nice home, it seemed quiet out of place in a town that looked like it had been built from the remains of another town. There were three bedrooms and a living room with a kitchen corner. A small holo-screen sat in front of the couch.

"If you need anything just find me or Paul here" Zal pointed to the second man who greeted the when they landed. The two men left the women to get used to their new environs.

"This is the second time the someone's house has completely bashed the stereotype." Kagura noted. They sat down on the old couch, no one talked for a minute. Vek walked in and joined them. He was covered in dust and bleeding from a small cut on his head.

"So … Does she always greet you like that?" Kagura asked after short silence.

"Who? Lisa? Yup, ever since we were kids." Vek explained, dismissing his attack as an everyday occurrence.

"Why? Did you do something to her?" Kagura probed deeper.

"That depends of whose story you believe, mine or the truth. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go repay the favour." Vek jumped up and left, leaving Kagura to wonder why he bothered coming in, in the the first place.

"Alright. Okay, Kaori. Explain why we were taken here?" Yomi asked.

"Ask Kagura. It was Vek's plan to bring you here." Kaori answered, turning the groups attention to Kagura.

"Um … Actually I'm not entirely sure. He said that he a friend here could help us get evidence on Tri-Systems or something. Or did he? I can't remember?" Kagura waved away the attention of the group.

The group fell silent. No one had anything to say or do, so they sat there in silence. A hot breeze blew past, causing immediate condensation on the faces of all the women. They watched the holo-screen while they waited. The heat made all of them dopey, drifting into a sort of half sleep, the sound of the holo-screen faded into the background. Time became a blur as they drifted between conciousness and sleep. Tomo suddenly awoke, she couldn't stand this waiting around so she swiftly left to explore the town.

* * * * *

Vek searched around for his attacker. It had been a while since he was last here, but he still knew his way around. There were only a handful a buildings for her to hide in. He rounded one building and saw an old man sitting on the porch. The man was staring off into the desert, looking to the horizon. His skin looked like leather, wrinkles dominated his features.

"Hey, Pete. Long time no see." Vek greeted. It took a while for the man to register that someone was talking to him. He looked up and saw Vek, his face lightening up immediately.

"Hey there, what are you doing down here?" The old man asked, his voice was as old as he looked.

"The usual. Running from the feds. How you been?"

"Not too good, my legs are goin' and Lisa knows me too well and there aren't a lot of ladies around here." the old man explained, looking sad.

"Yeah. Well it's about time you stopped chasing them around anyway. You still got your internet?"

"Hehehe, they don't call me Porno Pete for nothing. You want some?" The old man laughed.

"No thanks. You know what I'm like." Vek politely declined.

"Still? You're a strange man, Xarian. Wasting your youth like that, got a whole universe of fine women and you decide they're too complicated. I don't see why you think so much about it." Pete swatted at something around his ears, "Damn Elves, won't leave me alone."

"Xarian? Who the hell is Xarian?" Tomo asked, appearing from behind the building.

"A better question is; Who are you?" Pete asked, turning around to see the young fighter pilot. His eyes were already undressing Tomo, who unwittingly stepped closer.

"The name's Tomo Tankino." Tomo introduced herself, her voice full of pride as if her name were some sort of medal or trophy.

"Mmm, sounds interesting" Pete rubbed his chin as he examined Tomo from head to toe.

"Control yourself, Porno. She just got here, don't scare her off." Vek warned.

"You didn't answer my question; Who is Xarian?" Tomo reiterated.

"He's Xarian. Didn't he tell you his name?" Pete pointed at Vek with his bonny finger.

"No, he didn't. He told us it was Vek." Tomo looked at the mercenary named Xarian, her arms folded.

"Vek?" Pete looked puzzled. "You aren't still doing that, Xarian? I thought you grew out of that?" Pete scolded the merc.

Xarian, or Vek, was looking increasingly angry. His real name had been found out and he was being treated like a child again.

"Yeah, Xarian. It's very childish." Tomo joined in patronising the mercenary.

"You want to know some more stuff? Come here, I'll tell you." Pete motioned Tomo to come closer.

"Don't do it, Tomo. Trust me." Xarian warned.

"Why? Trying to keep more of your other secrets from me?" Tomo smirked, knowing she had the merc at a disadvantage.

Xarian gave sly smile and left. Tomo watched him leave then stepped closer to the old man to hear what he had to say. She leaned over for the old man to talk, but instead found his hand had gripped her rear end. She jumped and let out a small yelp of surprise, but the old man held on. She smacked away his hand and he let out a chuckle. Tomo backed away quickly, blood filling her cheeks. She ran back to the house the others were staying in, shouting back at Pete before he lost sight of her.

She burst through the door ands sat down heavily next to a sleeping Yomi. The couch pillow shifted and Yomi flopped over onto Tomo, who was quick to push her off. The manhandling awoke Yomi, throwing her back into the waking world.

"What? Huh? What is it?" She grumbled as her mind tried to figure what was happening.

"I just met the town pervert." Tomo informed her.

"Oh. That's nice." Yomi stood up and shakily walked into the nearest bedroom. She fell onto the squishy bed and fell asleep again. A cold breeze rolled through the open window, sending a shiver up Koyomi's spine. She curled up tighter and pulled the covers over herself.

*

A man sat at his desk in his cool office. He was lost deep in thought. He had just seen the news reporting on the escape of Captain Koyomi Mizuhara. His plan was falling apart around him, but it wasn't to late for damage control. He had to figure out a way to get his plan back on track, this current state of affairs was too unstable for him, but as long as the Captain stayed in exile he should have enough time to figure out a way to fix the situation. If he could find a way to track down that annoying captain and silence her, the Federation would be none the wiser.

The stern woman entered his office. "Sir, a ship orbiting the planet has just landed near the worker settlement."

The man looked up at her. "So?"

"It was a Hookbill. The same design that may have been involved in the bust out of Captain Mizuhara."

The business man sat up. "Do you think they could one and the same?"

"It is possible, sir. Do you wish to investigate further?"

The suit was quiet for a second as he thought over his options. "Yes. Send a small police force to investigate the worker settlement. If they find anything, have them report it in, but take no further action, is that understood?" He ordered. The woman nodded and left the office. The man stood up and walked over to the large window. He could vaguely see the settlement in the distance. From his position he couldn't see the ship his associate had spoken off, but he trusted it was there. A few drops of water hit the glass as the massive, dark clouds passed over headed for the settlement. He guessed the storm would break over the ramshackle town.

"Let's see how your little town deals with the first thunder storm this planet has ever witnessed." A sinister smile grew out of the corners of his mouth.

* * * * *

Xarian was walking through the centre of the town. Standing still for a second he felt a cold, strong breeze blow past him. He took no notice of it at first, but then something clicked inside his head.

"Wait, it's never cold here." he thought, he looked up at the sky and saw a massive, dark cloud moving towards them. The cloud light up as bolt of lightning was born and shot down to earth. "What the hell is that doing here?!" Xarian said aloud. Dust 223 had never had a weather system, it barely had an atmosphere. Clouds were rare and never dropped any rain on the barren earth bellow. Xarian wasn't the last to notice the dark clouds looming nearer. Zal had come out of his home and was standing next to Xarian.

"Hmm, how has that been there?" Zal asked.

"I was hoping you tell me that. There weren't any storms when I lived here, how long have you been getting them?"

"That's the first. Maybe those bastards at the Tri-Systems base finally got 'round to giving us a proper weather system."

"Tri-Systems? What are Tri-Systems doing here?" Xarian asked quickly.

"They own this rock. Bought a few years ago. What's wrong?"

"My current employer is at odds with them, that's all I'm saying. What are they doing?"

"It's a laboratory, I think. Mostly it's just administration for this section. They leave us alone and we leave them alone."

Xarian saw a possible lead for Yomi's investigation. He returned to the house they were staying at. He found all of them asleep on the couch, except Tomo who had wandered into one of the adjoining rooms. Yomi was missing from the group. Xarian slammed the door and it made a loud crash that woke all the occupants of the room, except for one.

Chiyo jumped from her seat and let out a scream of surprise. Adrenaline pumped into her, but her surprise quickly faded once she found the source of the noise. The others were yanked violently from their sleep by Xarian's wake up call, Tomo re-entered the room, drawn by the noise Xarian had made. The small engineer still lay sleeping, a small smile gracing her peaceful face.

"What was that for?" Kagura asked, fighting off sleep.

"I've just learned something and someone wake her up" Xarian ordered pointing at the snoozing girl.

Chiyo shook the sleepy engineer gently. "Ayumu, wake up please." she asked, her shaking was more likely rocking the girl deeper into sleep rather than waking her.

"Tomo, stop slamming doors!" Yomi shouted, sticking her head out of the door.

"It wasn't me! Why do you always think it's me!" Tomo shouted back.

"Stop shouting!" Kaori shouted out, silencing both women and waking Ayumu.

"Huh? Who's shouting?" Ayumu mumbled as she slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Okay, listen up." Xarian yelled, trying to recapture their attention.

"What do you want, Xarian?" Tomo asked, smirking as she revealed Vek's real name to the group.

"Zarian?" Kagura looked to Tomo for an explanation.

"No, Xarian, with an 'X'." Tomo corrected

"How did you know I was thinking 'Z' and not 'X'? They sound exactly the same!"

"Don't you worry your squishy little head about it, Kagura. What was your little plan, Xarian?"

Xarian looked at Tomo with contempt in his eyes. He inhaled a long breath, then spoke, "I just found out that there's a Tri-Systems base about a hundred kilometres away. They must know something about the corporation's plans with Yomi. Yomi, I'll talk to you by yourself in a moment. Also, there's a big ass storm about to hit, just giving you a warning." He wasn't sure how much of his speech had gotten through to the half asleep crews, but reasoned that enough had been processed for them to know what was going on. He joined Yomi in her room and closed the door.

"What? Something about a big ass?" Kagura mumbled, the words from Xarian had gone by too quickly for most of them to catch anything more than a handful of words.

"He better not be talking about my Sakaki." Kaori said, holding the taller woman closer, using her bosom as a pillow.

* * * * *

Yomi sat on the bed rubbing her eyes while Xarian spoke.

"I don't know if the Tri-Systems guys know we're here yet, so I think we're safe for now. What I want to do is get a look through their computer, preferably one of the executives. Hopefully there will be one managing the base, if we can get in I'm sure I can 'convince' him to part with the info." Xarian talked while Yomi listened, her brain was still waking up, but she was absorbing as much as she could, focusing on each word her mercenary said.

"Any idea how we get in?" she said, her voice slightly groggy.

Xarian was quiet for a second, "Short of blasting our way through, I don't know. We would have to do some scout work to find a way …." he was interrupted by someone bashing on the door.

"Vek! Get out here quickly" came Zal's voice, it sounded urgent. Xarian followed his friend out, Yomi not far behind. "Look. They're coming." Zal pointed to a cloud of dust coming from the direction of the Tri-Systems base. "They probably just want to find out about your ship, but if your friends are in trouble, you're gonna want them out of sight."

"Is your storage cellar still around?"

"Yup, half full of sand, but they can hide in there if they stay low."

"Okay. Yomi, get the others and yourself in that cellar. We'll take care of the corp guys." Xarian said. Yomi listened, rounding up the other crew members and Zal directed them to his flooded cellar.

The entrance was hidden under a layer of sand and the interior was full except for a few feet of room at the top. Yomi was the last in, just before Zal shut the entrance, Koyomi got a clear view of the dark sky. She could feel the storm wanting to break, an electrical charge in the air. Zal closed the entrance way and covered it in sand again, hoping the investigators wouldn't notice the disturbed sand. Yomi and the others lay on their stomachs in the cool sand, they could hear muffled voices. Above them were the wooden floorboards of Zal's house.

The investigators were getting close now, Xarian could now make out the vehicles they were driving. The Hover-cars were skimming over the sand towards the township, their grav-plates pushed up sand causing the dust the announced their presence. Zal looked up at the darkened sky, the lightening was getting close now, the thunder booms were loud and could be felt as much as heard. Paul had joined the two men awaiting the arrival of the investigators. The cars pulled up in front of the three men and a tall man stepped out.

He was wearing a professional uniform. Khaki shirt with body armour over it, khaki shorts and shoes well suited to walking in loose sand. His large sunglasses reflected the three men before him well. He stepped towards them and removed the glasses.

"Evening, Captain Falva. What seems to be the problem?" Zal asked like he asked many times before.

"Evening, Zal. Just showed up to see who the new arrivals were and to make sure they weren't bringing anything bad to your little town." The officer replied.

"Well, he's the only the arrival and you can trust us not to stand for any vices he may bring. Anything else?" Zal replied, nodding to Xarian.

"Sorry about this, man. Boss wants us to look around for anything out of the ordinary. You don't mind, do you?"

"Nah. Look around all you like. Porno Pete's a little out of it today. Just thought I'd warn you." Zal and the others moved out of the way to let the officers into the township.

The group of seven investigators broke up and looked around the small town. A young officer found Pete sitting in his chair watching the looming storm overhead. "Hey there, sonny." he greeted the officer.

"Hello." the officer replied.

"You seen those pretty things around town? My, my. If my legs were working, you wouldn't be able to hold me back, hehehe" Pete said, catching the officer's attention.

"What 'pretty things'?" he asked, keen to know if he had just found something important.

"A whole ship of 'em arrived! One was talking to me earlier and I got a little squeeze, hehe. Can hardly wait for the other's to come 'round." Pete began rocking in his chair.

"A ship of women arrived today? How many?" The officer was sure he had stumbled upon some valuable info.

Oh, about seven." Pete swatted the air around his head. "These stinkin' elves won't leave me alone, do you have anything to help?"

The young officer's hopes dropped. No information here, just one crazy, perverted old man. He cursed silently to himself as he moved on in search of any more clues.

Another officer entered Zal's home. Half heartedly looking around. Under his feet lay the seven women, six of the most wanted women in Federation space. As he stepped, dust fell down onto them. Yomi's heart was racing, as were the hearts of all six others. Ayumu's nose began to tickle as some fine dust fell beside her. Everyone knew what was coming. She held her nose and mouth shut as the first sneeze hit. Her body spazzed as the energy of the sneeze found a way out, another more powerful sneeze rocker her body. Then it was gone. She released her nose and took a breath. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as her little fit ended. She smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"AACHOOO!" KKRAACKK!! Ayumu sneezed loudly and forcibly. At the same time a bolt of lightning hit the water tower, creating a thunderous boom that completely hid her sneeze. The officer above them jumped at the loud sound.

"Bloody thunder" he mumbled to himself and continued his search. There was a tapping on the roof of the house that grew louder and more frequent. The first rain this land had ever witnessed was falling and falling hard. The sound of the rain pelting the roof was deafening for the officer, enough so that he decided to cut his search short.

Outside the rain was hitting the officer hard, but underground, the woman were facing a problem. The water was beginning to fill their small hideout, it was falling faster than the thirsty earth could absorb it. The water was already wetting the parts of their bodies that were touching the ground. They could hold their heads another foot higher, but that was it. The water was rising at a dramatic rate, quickly approaching an inch deep in only a minute of rainfall. Above ground the investigators continued their search, their range of view was being cut down by the heavy rain.

As the officers searched, the water levels rose. They were holding themselves up to escape the water that was now nearly six inches deep. An investigator had just found the entrance to the cellar, the sand washed away by the rain. He pulled up the trapdoor and looked inside.

(A/N) End it right there. That's ten chapters down, and hopefully ten more to go at least. Hope you all enjoyed reading.