p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Out in deep space, /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"2 years/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" later…/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"A small, lone spacecraft, devoid of all but two people, cruised slowly. Inside, the ship was deathly quiet. In the sleeping quarters, the ship's occupants slept peacefully. They were none other than Claude C. Kenni and his wife, Rena Lanford, now renamed Rena Lanford-Kenni. The human and Nedian were now married. Claude was still a member of the Earth Federation, but he opted to travel alone with Rena. All of a sudden, the alarms from the cockpit rang throughout the ship, and the ship rocked violently./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Claude and Rena were both shaken awake. "What's going on?" Rena asked, still sleepy. The ship rocked again, and the couple fell to the floor./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"I think w/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"e're being attacked." Claude said. Leaping to his feet, he sped out of the quarters and hurried to the bridge, Rena hot on his heels. Once there, Claude looked out of the large viewscreen. A /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"large/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" ship was firing at them. Who they were, neither knew. The ship rocked wildly. The shield warning alarm started sounding. "Shields are fading. Hold tight. I'm gonna take us to warp speed!" He took manual control./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"How long will it take?/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"" Rena asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"A few moments/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;". Can you get to the turret and cover us?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Sure." Rena hurried to find the turret, strapped herself in, and began firing. Claude struggled to find the /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"time/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" he needed to punch in some co-ordinates. He then spotted an asteroid field and flew towards it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Claude! What's taking so long? I can't hold them off forever!" Rena shouted from her position./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""I need time! I can't do it with them shooting at us! Just hang on! I'm gonna try and lose them!" he replied. He wove the ship through the rocks, searching for a hiding-place. The swordsman then spotted a large asteroid with an opening that seemed to fit his needs and flew into it. "Okay Rena, get back here! You've done enough!" he called to his wife./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""On my way!" she replied. The defense shield that had been protecting the ship began to regain strength as they were out of the blaster fire. Rena showed up in seconds. "Why the wait, Claude?" she pressed, sitting in the seat next to her husband./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Going to warp speed isn't easy, Rena." Claude explained, quickly setting a course before they got interrupted again, "It's not like a switch that you can flip. You need to set a course and make sure you have the co-ordinates right. One mistake could spell disaster. Worst case, we end up by a star or in front of a black hole." He finished the task and pulled the ship up. "This gonna be tricky, but I'll need to time the jump when we reach the exit of this asteroid, otherwise we may pull it along with us."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"He rested his hand over the lever he needed to pull, but couldn't stop it trembling. Rena placed her hand on his. They looked at each other, then nodded. The two waited until the last second, then pressed the lever. The stars became white lines, and the ship shot forward, Claude and Rena being pressed into their seats by the sudden acceleration. Once in warpspace, Claude noticed he'd been unknowingly holding his breath and exhaled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Okay, I think we lost them. I've set a course for Expel. You doing all right?" he asked, looking over at her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Rena was looking a bit green and breathing deeply. "Uh, you okay?" Claude asked again./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Leaning back, Rena shut her eyes and kept breathing. "Still not used to the jump?"/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"His wife shook her head. "I don't know if I ever will be." Her voice was quiet./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Claude got up and moved next to her. "How about we lie you down?" Nodding, Rena slowly got up and leaned against him as he took her back to the sleeping quarters. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"As the ship flew on its way, /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"the two/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" didn't know that they weren't alone. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"T/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"he ship/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" that had attacked them/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" had launched a probe, which had attached to the/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"m/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" and was tracking their /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"p/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"rogress./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Author's note: Rena doesn't wear her robe in this story and Precis' father is excluded./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Inside /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"the attacking/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" ship, a commander was reporting to their leader. "My lord, we have done as you requested. The probe has /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"attached/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" on their ship and is monitoring their every move."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Good. Just what I wanted to hear."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Do we see where they go and attack then, my lord?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""No, that would be unwise. We cannot alert the Earth Federation to our actions. We will wait until the /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"E/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"arthling and his friends gather in one place, then we will strike. Go back to the bridge and await my orders."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Yes, my lord." The commander bowed swiftly and left. His leader sat back./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Soon, my friends, we shall meet. Defeating the Ten Wise Men may have been difficult, but you shall know something far worse than them."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"A small, lone spacecraft, devoid of all but two people, cruised slowly. Inside, the ship was deathly quiet. In the sleeping quarters, the ship's occupants slept peacefully. They were none other than Claude C. Kenni and his wife, Rena Lanford, now renamed Rena Lanford-Kenni. The human and Nedian were now married. Claude was still a member of the Earth Federation, but he opted to travel alone with Rena. All of a sudden, the alarms from the cockpit rang throughout the ship, and the ship rocked violently./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Claude and Rena were both shaken awake. "What's going on?" Rena asked, still sleepy. The ship rocked again, and the couple fell to the floor./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"I think w/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"e're being attacked." Claude said. Leaping to his feet, he sped out of the quarters and hurried to the bridge, Rena hot on his heels. Once there, Claude looked out of the large viewscreen. A /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"large/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" ship was firing at them. Who they were, neither knew. The ship rocked wildly. The shield warning alarm started sounding. "Shields are fading. Hold tight. I'm gonna take us to warp speed!" He took manual control./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"How long will it take?/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"" Rena asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"A few moments/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;". Can you get to the turret and cover us?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Sure." Rena hurried to find the turret, strapped herself in, and began firing. Claude struggled to find the /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"time/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" he needed to punch in some co-ordinates. He then spotted an asteroid field and flew towards it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Claude! What's taking so long? I can't hold them off forever!" Rena shouted from her position./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""I need time! I can't do it with them shooting at us! Just hang on! I'm gonna try and lose them!" he replied. He wove the ship through the rocks, searching for a hiding-place. The swordsman then spotted a large asteroid with an opening that seemed to fit his needs and flew into it. "Okay Rena, get back here! You've done enough!" he called to his wife./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""On my way!" she replied. The defense shield that had been protecting the ship began to regain strength as they were out of the blaster fire. Rena showed up in seconds. "Why the wait, Claude?" she pressed, sitting in the seat next to her husband./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Going to warp speed isn't easy, Rena." Claude explained, quickly setting a course before they got interrupted again, "It's not like a switch that you can flip. You need to set a course and make sure you have the co-ordinates right. One mistake could spell disaster. Worst case, we end up by a star or in front of a black hole." He finished the task and pulled the ship up. "This gonna be tricky, but I'll need to time the jump when we reach the exit of this asteroid, otherwise we may pull it along with us."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"He rested his hand over the lever he needed to pull, but couldn't stop it trembling. Rena placed her hand on his. They looked at each other, then nodded. The two waited until the last second, then pressed the lever. The stars became white lines, and the ship shot forward, Claude and Rena being pressed into their seats by the sudden acceleration. Once in warpspace, Claude noticed he'd been unknowingly holding his breath and exhaled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Okay, I think we lost them. I've set a course for Expel. You doing all right?" he asked, looking over at her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Rena was looking a bit green and breathing deeply. "Uh, you okay?" Claude asked again./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Leaning back, Rena shut her eyes and kept breathing. "Still not used to the jump?"/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"His wife shook her head. "I don't know if I ever will be." Her voice was quiet./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Claude got up and moved next to her. "How about we lie you down?" Nodding, Rena slowly got up and leaned against him as he took her back to the sleeping quarters. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"As the ship flew on its way, /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"the two/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" didn't know that they weren't alone. /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"T/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"he ship/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" that had attacked them/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" had launched a probe, which had attached to the/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"m/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" and was tracking their /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"p/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"rogress./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Author's note: Rena doesn't wear her robe in this story and Precis' father is excluded./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"Inside /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"the attacking/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" ship, a commander was reporting to their leader. "My lord, we have done as you requested. The probe has /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"attached/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" on their ship and is monitoring their every move."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Good. Just what I wanted to hear."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Do we see where they go and attack then, my lord?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""No, that would be unwise. We cannot alert the Earth Federation to our actions. We will wait until the /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"E/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;"arthling and his friends gather in one place, then we will strike. Go back to the bridge and await my orders."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Yes, my lord." The commander bowed swiftly and left. His leader sat back./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.9pt;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-font-kerning: 1.0000pt;""Soon, my friends, we shall meet. Defeating the Ten Wise Men may have been difficult, but you shall know something far worse than them."/span/p