Episode 50: Drawn In

"Adjusting course." Venture announced as he changed the ship's heading. Going around this anomaly might take some times, but at least no one would die in the attempt. Mark respected Wildstar's opinion that they should just bowl through whatever it was that was out there, but he couldn't in good conscience possibly sentence his fellow crewmen to death just because he was afraid to try an alternative solution.

Mark sighed as he steered the ship away from the strange object. They were fairly certain by now that the thing was emitting some sort of super-magnetic waves. Whatever it was, it had taken Sandor's scout plane and shaken it to death. At least the crew's EVA suits didn't have any metal in them. Otherwise, the XO would be dead now.

The Argo started to move away from the area.

Mark watched the instruments, expecting their functionality to improve. They didn't.

"Engine room, what's going on down there?" Venture demanded of Orion who was with the rest of the engineering crew.

"I don't know, Venture." The old engineer replied. "I'm givin' ya all we've got, but nothin's happening. I'll have my men check everything down here. It'll take a few minutes, but we should be able to find the problem quick enough."

"Alright." Mark replied, an edge in his voice. The longer they stayed here, the more nervous he got. There was something about this place that made him agitated. Maybe it was that his instruments couldn't tell him exactly what was going on outside. In a way they were sitting here blind. If a Gamilon fleet – or even a single ship for that matter – came upon them, they wouldn't know until it was too late.

Mark looked around the bridge, anxious. The Captain was calmly sitting at the back of the bridge – as usual. Sandor was fiddling with his duty station, trying to get anything to work correctly. Nova was doing the same thing with the radar unit. Homer was being his usual self and staring wide-eyed out the front viewport, watching for anything out of the ordinary.

Mark glanced over at Wildstar. His friend was leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head, eyes closed, with no apparent care in the world.

How did he do that? It was like Derek wasn't afraid of anything.

Wildstar had been like that ever since Mark had first met him. Nothing seemed to faze the gunnery chief. Except that encounter with whatever had taken over the ship and put most of them in nightmarish comas not too long ago. But Derek had gotten over that fairly quickly.

The navigator looked back at Nova. She was still trying to bring something up on the radar that didn't look like a swarm of ants running all over it.

She was an interesting person, Nova was. Mark had never seen Derek so interested in anyone before. Wildstar and Nova clashed on just about everything, but that only seemed to make Derek more determined to win her over.

It seemed like every time the two talked, they got into a disagreement about something or other, but when it came time to do or die, both of them did their best to keep the ship and the crew safe. At least that was one thing they had in common.

Mark was starting to wonder about Wildstar. After they'd picked up Nova and Rowland from the jungle world, Derek had been talking about the encounter his party had had with those giant cats. Every time he mentioned the incident he talked about how Nova had taken down one of the beasts with a spear. He admired her bravery, that Mark knew. And he could understand it. He was impressed by the slight woman's ability to fight off such a creature too. But Derek wouldn't leave it alone.

Mark sighed again, then looked back at the controls. Alarm shot through him.

"Hey! The display's disappeared!" he exclaimed.

"Relax, Venture." Dash's voice came from the other side of the bridge. "Orion's restarting some systems. You're station will be back online in a minute."

Feeling silly, Mark relaxed again, hoping that most of the bridge crew hadn't noticed his sudden outburst.

He stole a glance over at Derek and noticed the look of amusement on his friend's face.

"Relax, Venture. We'll be fine." Derek said, "Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Orion knows what he's doing. After all, there aren't any more gremlins in the engine, right, Nova."

Mark looked back at Nova. The radar operator's only response was to roll her eyes.

Venture looked back down at his station and was happy to find that his displays were working again, but none of them were functioning correctly.

He sighed again. At least he had practice flying with minimal instruments. He'd had plenty of time to do that when he and Derek were stuck on Mars. Not much else to do besides watch the sand dunes blow from one place to the other.

"Orion. Anything?" Venture asked again.

"Can't find anything, but we're got minimal power to the engine, which is more than we had. I'm givin' you what I've got. For now, you'll have to work with that."

"Alright." Mark replied.

The navigator pushed the ship to go as fast as she could, given her minimal power.

The ship started moving ever so slowly, but as she did, Mark noticed that she was listing a bit starboard. The disorientation wasn't getting any worse, so Mark didn't think anything of it until he heard Nova suddenly exclaim, "I've got radar!"

Then her voice fell, "It's gone again."

"Hey! I've got communications back!" Homer announced.

"Weapons are back online." Derek said.

"Helm's back!" Mark exclaimed as his station came to life and the contents of the various screens before him now made sense again.

"We're eighteen hundred megameters away from that object! We're being pulled in!" Nova exclaimed.

"Orion!" Avatar tried to raise the engine room, "What happened?"

"Can't say, Sir." The old engineer replied. "One second she was dead. The next… she was chuggin' away again." Orion paused for a moment, then continued, "We're getting' a strange signal from the engine core. Like it's puttin' off some kind of energy."

"Well, whatever it is, let's use it to get out of here before that thing pulls us in any farther." Derek put in.

"I agree." Avatar said, "Venture, take us out of here."

Mark nodded and quickly reentered their alternate heading before setting the ship on it.

He accelerated slowly at first, then sped up as the engine got going.

His heart sank into his gut when he looked down at his indicators.

"Captain…" He turned fearful eyes towards Avatar and swallowed hard. "We're not moving."

"Yes, we are." Nova said, "But we're moving the wrong way. We're still being pulled towards that object."

"So whatever the engine's doin', it's not helpin' us." Eager commented.

"No, it is." Nova said, "Without – whatever it's doing – we wouldn't be able to use any of our instruments. It's cancelling out the jamming effect, but it can't stop the magnetic waves from pulling us in."

"We have to find a way to get close to that thing!" Derek exclaimed, then looked to the XO, "Sandor, you can't tell me you don't have any ideas right now."

The science officer tapped a thoughtful finger on his chin for a few seconds.

"I know of one way we might be able to get to it." Sandor finally said, "But I can't guarantee it'll work. I think we'll be able to get to the object, but I don't know if we'll have enough time to figure out how it works before…" He looked up at the Captain, "Before the ship is shaken apart."

"Do whatever you need to." Avatar gave the XO his consent. "Take whoever you need."

Sandor nodded, then looked at Derek, "Wildstar, we're taking the carbon fiber plane out."

"Huh?" Derek gave Sandor a skeptical look, "We have something like that onboard? How come I've never seen it in the hangar?"

"It isn't kept in the hangar." Sandor replied, "It's experimental. I haven't worked out all the problems with it yet."

"Okay, fine. Whatever. Let's just get out there and disarm – or disassemble – or whatever – to that thing." Wildstar got up and was at the door to the bridge in a few seconds, Sandor on his heels.


"Commander." One of Frakken's ships' captains appeared before him.

"Yes." Wolf replied.

"We think we found the Eratite ship. We received a transmission from one of our unmanned survey vessels out near one of the old gates – the one between Bemera and Balan."

"Good work." Wolf said, "Watch them for now. If they're still that far out, we'll have to wait until they get closer. That old gate isn't active yet, so they won't be using it to get here. I doubt they'd even know how to operate such a thing."

"Yes, Commander." The captain saluted and disappeared, the transmission ended."

Frakken looked around the interior of his flagship. It was quite cramped in the small space. His men were squeezed into their respective places, watching everything going on outside on tiny monitors.

There were not viewports, only a wide array of advanced sensors and a periscope that could be raised and lowered at will to take a look outside.

Right now the fleet was sailing through normal space, at no great speed. Stealth was their forte, and stealth required patience, not strength.

Frakken walked slowly from the front of the bridge to the back. It was not a long walk, about twenty feet in all. These ships were built for sailing beneath the surface of the visible dimensions. They were designed to delve deep into subspace – a place that few of his men had ever seen. Some of them had been aboard the prototype ship he had taken out just after Leader Desslok had given him this fleet.

Those few men who had seen that other world had great respect for it. It was not a place to take lightly. In it dwelt innumerable sights unknown to the visible world. There were things there that… he shuddered to think of them… had sent fear into even his stalwart heart. Subspace was no place for cowards. He'd made that clear to any and all who wished to serve under him.

Wolf looked at each and every man he passed. These were the best. They were the Etzuvim – men who had come through some of the most horrific times in Gamilon's history, and survived. If they couldn't face a few more devils in their time, then no one could.

Frakken brought up the engine room on the ship-comm. "Keep it steady."

"Aye." The engineer replied, "Steady as she goes."

Wolf's second-in-command, Gol Haini stepped through the door separating the bridge from the rest of the ship. "What's the plan, Commander?" He asked, his typical half-crazy, half-totally sane look on his face.

Frakken often didn't know what to do with Haini. The man could be reckless, but often times he was more careful than Frakken was. Haini had come highly recommended from Admiral Talan himself.

Frakken had been skeptical when he'd first met Gol. That had been the day they'd taken UX-01 – this flagship – out into the subspace for the first time.

Haini's reaction to seeing what so many others were petrified to face was laughter. Wolf had looked at Gol as though he'd lost his mind, and Frakken still wasn't convinced he hadn't. Wolf had asked Haini why he'd taken such sights as the ones in subspace so lightly.

Gol's response had been, "I've seen my share of devils and ghosts already, Frakken. There's not much else for me to see."

Frakken looked at Haini and replied, "For now, we wait. The Eratite ship is still too far off. But she's coming. When she's here, we'll do what we've been sent to do."

"But what if we can't find Princess Astra before we're discovered?" Haini asked.

"Playing Devil's advocate again?" Frakken asked.

"Someone's gotta do it." Haini said with a smirk. "You're too confident sometimes, Wolf."

Frakken sighed, "Perhaps. But I know what my crew can accomplish. I wasn't given Etzuvim for nothing."

"Aye. That's so." Haini chuckled and clapped his Commander on the back, "And we've all heard the stories about you too. It seems you come recommended from not only the Leader, but from the former Queen Talonka herself. That's quite a list of recommendations – even for one of us. The men respect you. You can't ask for much else."

Frakken nodded, "Waiting will be hard for some of them, but once it's time to strike, we will go in quickly and leave without a trace. That will be a challenging task for them."

"They won't take it lightly." Haini replied.

Wolf nodded, "I would expect no less."


Melda – Dara – fiddled with her communicator, trying to raise her father – Melda's father – but so far she wasn't getting any response from him. She'd been trying to call Dietz for some time now – off and on for over thirty-six hours. Surely he hadn't been away from any sort of communication for that long.

Dara thought back to her conversations with Emma. Everything the girl said was hard for Dara to hear, but though she understood Emma's plight, she couldn't agree with her.

She'd been reading through Melda's Book and notes over and over, trying to figure out exactly what the young woman had known when she'd set out aboard Cobel in the first place. Why had she come on that last mission? Surely she hadn't intended to kill anyone. And she most certainly hadn't intended to harm the Eratites.

Perhaps Melda had been the reason for Cobel's survival. Had the woman somehow sabotaged the ship so that it would leave the conflict early, thereby escaping destruction?

Dara racked her brain as she tried one more time to contact Gul Dietz.

She was just about to hang up when the face of Babette suddenly appeared before her.

"Melda! Dear girl, I'm so glad you've called!" the older woman's eyes were full of fear and she kept her voice low as she spoke to Dara. "Something terrible has happened."

"What is it?" Dara asked, concern rising in her at the housekeeper's words.

"Admiral Dietz… he's been taken away." Babette whispered, clearly petrified. "They – the soldiers – they caught him and his entire rebel group during a strike here in Belarus."

"What?!" Dara asked, sharply, surprised. She hadn't known Dietz was going to be doing any such thing. He hadn't mentioned it in any conversation she'd had with him.

"Something happened and he couldn't get away. I think he was trying to give his men time to get out of the area. He's… been taken to Leptopoda, the prison world."

"Leptopoda? I've never heard of it." Dara thought, then said to Babette, "Is he alright?"

"I don't know." The old woman replied, the sheen of tears falling over her eyes, "They won't let me speak to him. I even offered some of them bribes to let me see him, but they wouldn't take them. Please, Melda, if you can, make sure your father is alright. I hate to think of what Mad Dog Bozen might do to him – or any of the other rebels that were caught."

"I'll… do what I can." Dara replied, unsure of what she could do, if anything.

"Thank you, dear." Babette replied, looking just the slightest bit relieved. "Come home safe."

"I will." Dara nodded to the old woman.

"Take care of yourself, you hear." The housekeeper chided. "I have to get this house back in order before you and your father get home. Those soldiers trashed it."

"Thank you, Babette. We'll both be home soon." Dara reassured the woman, then ended the call. Her heart ached to have to lie to the sweet old lady like that. Melda would never come home, and the Admiral… well, there was no way of knowing if Dara could even find him.

"Computer, where is Leptopoda?" she asked.

"Leptopoda is fifty lightyears' distant." The A.I. replied.

"Could I get there in a fighter?" she asked.

"Negative. A fighter's fuel capacity is not great enough to accommodate such a journey." The computer drones.

"Then what does have enough fuel to get there?" Dara asked, a little frustrated.

"A scout ship retains enough fuel for one thousand lightyears' travel. Other options include – "

"That's fine." Dara stopped the computer. "Show me all the documentation you have on how to operate and maintain one of those scout ships."

Dara went over to the terminal set in Melda's room's wall and watched as a plethora of documents appeared before her.

"This is going to take a while…" she groaned, then settled in for a long night of reading.


"Ah… ladies." Warden Bozen greeted the three women he'd appropriated from the new arrivals. "You are all here for various… reasons."

The large man paced back and forth across the large room they now occupied. It wasn't ornate by any measure of the word, and Elisa was sure that this wasn't Bozen's quarters. In the low light Elisa saw several places on the dull walls where lights could be mounted and lit. There were sparse furnishings: a few small tables and several chairs. Across the room there were two simple beds lined up along the wall. A few other items littered the area and there was a small door near the farthest bed – most likely leading to a bathing area.

"I know you want to know why you're here." Bozen stated, leering at one of the other two women.

The man let out a gravelly laugh when the woman shrank away from him.

"Oh, don't worry too much, little prisoner." He grabbed the woman's chin and pulled her towards him. Elisa cringed and looked away as she heard the sick sound of the hideous warden kissing the frightened woman.

Bozen's footsteps sounded in Elisa's ears as she heard him approach the second woman, the one standing next to her.

"I am not a cruel host – at least, not to those whom I choose to favor."

Elisa fought the urge to be sick as she heard the man force a kiss on the other woman as well.

Her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest. The thought of that churlish pig laying so much as a hand on her scared her more than anything she'd ever faced before.

Her eyes still closed, she heard Bozen step in front of her. Head down, she avoided looking at the warden. Maybe keeping her eyes shut would help.

Bozen grabbed her by the chin, just like the first woman, and jerked her face upward so he could see her.

Elisa braced herself for what she knew would come.

"Well, well…" Bozen muttered, "Councilor, why do you not look at me when I'm trying to speak with you?"

Elisa, surprised, opened her eyes.

"That's better." Bozen let go of her face. "When I read your name on the prisoner manifest, I knew I had to have you." He leered at Elisa. "You will be the perfect candidate to assist me in my dealings with some of the higher ranking Cometine prisoners here."

Elisa's guarded face faltered and her surprise shone through.

Bozen laughed. "You really thought I was foolish enough to try to claim the wife of the great General Lysis? He would kill me where I stand." The warden chuckled. "You will be taken to your own quarters." Bozen motioned for two guards to come and take Elisa, then he said to the men, "If either of you touch her, you'll never breathe again."

The men nodded solemnly and guided Elisa out of the dim room.

Soon she found herself in a halfway decent chamber, alone. She went over to the bed and fell onto it, weeping with the overwhelming relief that both she and her son or daughter were safe – for now.


"Hey…"

Starsha turned around to see Adam walking up behind her. "Hello." She replied.

"Nice night." The young man said, coming to stand beside the Iscandari Queen as she looked out on one of the courtyards surrounding the palace.

"It is." She replied simply.

There was silence between the two for a long time as both Iscandari and Eratite were content to watch as the night deepened around them.

"What's that?" Adam pointed to a tiny light that suddenly appeared, then vanished again. "There's another one!" he pointed off in another direction.

All around them a host of tiny lights appeared.

Starsha laughed quietly, "Surely you have something like them on Erats – Earth. Alex has mentioned them before. I think you would call them 'fireflies.'" The young queen held out a hand and one of the little things lighted on one of her fingers. "Here." She held out her hand to the young man. "They don't bite."

Adam cupped his hand around the Queen's finger and took the tiny insect. "I used to play with these little guys at home… before the bombings started… Haven't seen one since I was about sixteen."

"The plague took my people, but it left the wildlife alone. Though there is no one else living here now, there are hosts of creatures here and on all the other islands. I've seen many marvelous beasts grace the palace grounds since my people were taken from me. The absence of people has made even the most timid of beasts bold enough to come near places they would once never had gone near."

"What kinds of animals?" Adam asked, curious.

Starsha pulled out her Interface and turned it on, then began bringing up images of some of the animals she'd seen as of late.

There was horses, several species of deer, birds of all shapes and sizes, something that resembled a lion, as well as other things – bears, hyenas, a wolf. All looked a bit different than the animals Adam was used to seeing on Earth, but all were just as magnificent as the ones he had once seen at home.

"Wow…" Adam said in awe, then he realized something about the images, "Did you take these pictures?"

"Yes." Starsha nodded, "I like to watch the animals come and go. There's no one else to see, other than you and Alex."

"You're a pretty good photographer." Adam said.

Starsha smiled, "Thank you, but it's only something to pass the time. There's no practical use for such a skill right now after all."

"You think you could show me?" Adam asked.

"I… suppose I could." The young queen replied, "But –"

The Interface went wild, flashing uncontrollably in brilliant bursts of light.

"Something's wrong!" Starsha turned and without another word ran past Adam back into the palace.

Adam could hear the Queen talking to herself in her own language. He caught most of what she said and realized that she was praying – calling on God to protect the crew of the ship that he and Alex were waiting for.

Adam ran after the woman, wide-eyed, adding his own prayer to Iscandari's, hoping that there was something that could be done to help the coming ship escape whatever danger they'd come upon this time.