Chapter 21

Zoltar, Jason, and Tiny walked into the Ready Room, exhausted from their latest mission, but happy that the Federation was safe, once more. No one was more ecstatic than Zoltar, who was grinning from ear to ear at the thought that he had gone on a mission with G-Force and survived. And he had kicked Captain Doom all the way back to Urgos in the bargain!

It had been a good day.

Then, when they had returned to Center Neptune, Chief Anderson had wanted to personally come on board and escort the young Prince off of the Phoenix. A ramp in the back of the ship had been lowered, and Zoltar had gotten to walk off behind them, instead of taking the death-defying leap off of the top of the ship.

The Venusian Royal Family had been thrilled to learn that Prince Oolengin was safe, and had said something about presenting G-Force with medals for their bravery. The Spectran Leader had nearly keeled over laughing. The Venusian Royal Family wanted to present him with a medal! The man who had nearly blown their planet out of orbit! He desperately wished that he could share this delicious irony with someone.

Instead, he celebrated by helping Jason convince Tiny that they should be allowed to have Spaceburgers too, and toasting G-Force with soda cans held high in the air.

After Jason and Zoltar had finished eating, Tiny was just getting started. The Owl settled himself back in his reclining chair, a pile of Spaceburgers by his side. Jason leaned back on the couch casually, sending a sidelong glance in Zoltar's direction, then toward the ping pong table.

"Want to play?" he asked, raising his eyebrow in a challenging manner.

Zoltar thought quickly. He had researched ping pong on the Federation internet, and it didn't appear to be that difficult. Surely he could beat this arrogant Condor.

"Definitely." he grinned back at Jason.

The Condor jumped up, grabbing a paddle and tossing the other one in the air, so that it fell neatly into Zoltar's lap. Tiny looked over at the two, obviously settling in for a long match. This appeared to be regular entertainment in the G-Force Ready Room.

Zoltar stood up, paddle in hand, walking to the unoccupied end of the ping pong table. From what he recalled, he only had to hit the ball back over to his opponent's side, ensuring that it bounced at least once on the table after crossing the net. He also recalled that he could only allow one bounce on his own side, else he would lose the point.

Jason tossed a small, white ball into the air, gently tapping it with the paddle and sending it over to Zoltar's side of the table. It bounced lightly and Zoltar tapped it back. Jason returned the ball again, his wrist flexing in a smooth movement as the Condor bent his knees, getting into a kind of half-crouching position and bouncing up and down as he played.

The image was so comical that Zoltar had to laugh, and the white ball sailed past his ear.

"Point!" smirked Jason. "One-nothing!"

"Lucky shot!" Zoltar protested, and attempted to concentrate again. The ball passed back and forth between them for a few moments, then bounced on Zoltar's side of the table and hit him in the shoulder.

"Ouch!" the Spectran Leader cried, rubbing his arm.

"You're supposed to hit the ball with the paddle, Mark." Jason taunted him.

"You just wait!" Zoltar cried.

The 'Commander' grinned gleefully as he returned a particularly nasty serve of the Condor's, but unfortunately, the ball did not connect with his opponent's side of the table, and bounced onto the floor instead.

"Three-nothing!" sang Jason.

Zoltar growled.

Eight shots later, Jason had won, eleven-zero.

"Wow, Mark, what's going on with you?" Jason asked teasingly. "I don't remember the last time you played that badly!"

Tiny chuckled from his chair, his mouth full of Spaceburger.

Zoltar seethed. If the Commander could do this, then so could he. He had gotten the hang of it now, and he would be able to beat the Condor.

"Let's play again!" he demanded.

"Just what I wanted to hear." said Jason, a mischievous glint in his eye.

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Two hours later, Zoltar banged his hands against the Ready Room computer console in frustration. Jason had beaten him twelve times… in a row! Zoltar hadn't scored a single point until the seventh game, and even in the last game had only scored three points. The sight of the Condor's mocking, gleeful face filled him with rage. How dare he beat Zoltar, Leader of the Spectran Empire, and act so smug about it?

The Condor and the Owl had left, laughing at their Commander's ignominious defeat, Zoltar seething in their wake. He had finally been left alone in the Ready Room with access to a Galaxy Security computer… only he was too angry to make sense of what he was seeing on the screen, much less make a serious attempt to guess the Commander's password.

He laid his head down on the console, burying his face in his arms. He could barely comprehend that he had traveled all of these light years and infiltrated the G-Force team, only to suffer such a humiliating defeat at…. ping pong.

This game was so simple! A little white ball…

And Zoltar had been thoroughly beaten by a man barely more than half his age.

A moan of frustration escaped his lips, just as he heard the door to the room open.

"Mark?"

He recognized the voice instantly.

"Not now, Princess."

"I heard about what happened." she said, coming over to where he sat, resting her hand on his arm.

Zoltar groaned again. He supposed half the quadrant had now heard of the sound thrashing he had received in this ridiculous contest.

"Is it really worth getting this upset about?" Princess asked in surprise. "It's only just a game."

Zoltar looked up, staring at her in shock. A game? It wasn't just a game! It was a symbol of his fight against the Federation, his many battles with G-Force, his planet's…

He was being ridiculous.

It was just a game.

He had allowed his competitive nature to take over again, making this small contest the center of his personal universe. It was aggravating, the way this beast would rise up inside of him, demanding that all of his enemies be ground into the dust. It hadn't used to be that way, when he was a child. Nor even when he first became a man. It was only….

It was only after he had linked with the Great Spirit.

He had suddenly been consumed with this desire to thwart all who opposed him, to crush everyone who dared attempt to prevent him from doing what he wanted, taking what he wanted…

People like the Federation. People like G-Force.

That desire in him had been fading, over the past few days, but it had suddenly risen up again as he had competed with Jason in this meaningless contest of useless skill.

He looked at Princess, who was staring at him, concern radiating from her luminous green eyes.

Princess was the Swan… his enemy…

But suddenly, he didn't want to crush her into the ground.

He only wanted to crush her lips to his, as their bodies met in a furious passion…

No! This wasn't right either! He couldn't simply trade one unfounded emotional extreme for another.

Although, these feelings he had for Princess weren't exactly unfounded.

The confusion in Zoltar's mind settled, and he found himself smiling gently at the exquisite creature beside him.

"You're right, Princess." he said. "Thanks for reminding me of that."

She smiled back at him, squeezing his arm gently.

"I was just going to watch a movie." she said. "Do you want to join me?"

"I can't think of anything I'd like better." Zoltar replied, moving over to sit next to her on the couch.

Princess chose a movie from the database, and settled back on the sofa. Zoltar's arm moved from the back of the couch to across her shoulders, and she smiled, nestling her shoulder in the crook of his arm.

Zoltar paid no attention to the film, but merely enjoyed the feel of Princess' head lying on his shoulder, the warm, clean sent of her hair wafting up to his nostrils as she reclined in his embrace.

His original purpose for being on Earth was momentarily forgotten, as Zoltar found something much more important.

Peace.