A/N: Bugger! It looks like fanfiction.net wants to mess with all of my story layout, instead of just most of it. Arrgh! Even the strs that I use for scene changes have disappeared! Stress levels rising! ..Points finger at fanfiction.net.. if you have any trouble reading because of the layout, it's their fault!

Chapter 7

The blade was poised for the centre of Murakht's chest. His eyes were closed as the cold metal touched his skin. He waited for it to pierce his heart. The moment never came – he could not do it. Murakht threw the blade across the floor and roared with anguish. Why could he not end it? It would be better for him to take his own life than to be considered a Bad Blood – even if only he knew that wasn't the case. Why couldn't he be as brave as the others – the daring souls that had passed through his life? Sitting cross-legged on the floor alone, he pondered this, before throwing the thought away completely: it would not help him to escape. His so-called 'brother', Kurath, had locked him in some of the ship's quarters but left him the sword, knowing that even if it was in his possession, he was too weak psychologically to kill himself. The door to the quarters began to open, and the hideous, sneering features of Nie'de greeted him. Nie'de glanced at the sword, and smiled grimly.

"Kurath wants you. Come with me," he commanded. For a moment, Murakht considered stabbing Nie'de in the back with the blade… but then thought better of it. Slowly he stood up, and complied.

.........

Nidrua leant against the wall in his quarters and let out the longest, most ragged breath of his entire life. He was alone: he would never show such weakness in front of his crew.

"What now? What must be done now?" He said to himself, sighing dejectedly. What had the Arbitrators' cryptic message to Besk'a meant? There was only one way to find out… but dare he risk going against the will of the Arbitrators? It risked everything he had dreamed of – an honourable retirement. But something had to be done. He stalked out of his quarters and immediately came across his second-in-command walking down the hallway.

"Jechonde!" Nidrua commanded. "I want you to take Kekhani and Me'gaht to the planet Korishta. Scout around; see what you can find. If you find any traces of yautja activity I want it reported. Take the spare ship – and all of your weapons. You have three days. Find both of them now, and if you come across Me'gaht, send him to me – though I expect he's on the bridge. I'm going there right now." Jechonde bowed and left without even asking any questions. Now, the rest will come with me to Earth – if indeed that is where the Bad Bloods are heading. I cannot spare any more manpower. Nidrua continued down the corridor in the opposite way of Jechonde, coming across Ah'ni'drin and Shar-Issq as he did so.

"Leader Nidrua!" Ah'ni'drin called, walking after him. "Is it true that the Bad Bloods are heading towards Earth? The pyode amedha home world?"

"You gather information rather fast, Ah'ni'drin," Nidrua replied without answering the question directly.

"Why are they going there? To slaughter oomans? Wouldn't it better for them to lay low whilst we are trying to find them?" Shar-Issq asked. Nidrua growled, frustrated.

"I don't know," Their leader muttered. Ah'ni'drin and Shar-Issq stopped, continuing the conversation between themselves. Nidrua began to get the feeling that these Bad Bloods had more in mind than just bloodthirsty carnage.

He entered the bridge, and found that Me'gaht was already in there. It was no big surprise, considering he was the ship's pilot.

"I don't suppose Jechonde has given you any orders, has he?" Nidrua asked him.

"I haven't seen him since I was in the lounge."

"Was Kekhani in there?"

"Yes," Me'gaht replied. Then that was where Jechonde had gone.

"Me'gaht…you're going to Koreishta with Jechonde and Kekhani." Me'gaht was deathly silent. He had been dreading that this might happen, ever since he and his leader had read the Arbitrators' message. Why did the Arbitrators want them to stay away from Koreishta? "Since Jechonde does not know anything – and I have no intentions of telling him we read a message specifically for Besk'a – I need you to be on guard even more than them." Me'gaht acknowledged his leader with a nod of his head. "Well? Aren't you going to speak? Say something!"

"Yes Leader Nidrua!" At that point, Jechonde walked into the room with Kekhani.

"And at the first sign of trouble, you are to leave!" He told them all, the stress evident in his voice. He did not know what the Arbitrators would do to them if they were found there. "Now you may all go." There was a flicker of a second when Kekhani's eyes and Jechonde's met. Neither knew what was happening, nor whether any information was being withheld from them. The moment passed before Nidrua could even challenge its existence. His three subordinates bowed their heads and left the bridge. Now, the rest of them had to keep on following the Bad Bloods.

.........

Kurath was waiting for him in the kehrite. Beside him was a pile of equipment, far smaller than what would fit the average warrior. On closer inspection, he noticed that the equipment was training equipment for young bloods. But the Ga'ed-a'rath was not a training vessel.

"How did you-"

"Never mind how I came by it," Kurath interrupted. So, stealing was another one of his crimes then. "This is the equipment that you are going to use to train the oomans with. It has been altered so that the power settings can be changed."

"I don't see any wrist-blades, or combi-sticks."

"Have you ever seen a pyode amedha in close combat?" No. He had not.

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Why all of this?"

"That's not of your concern."

"I'm going to train them, aren't I? You should at least tell me what for!" Kurath grinned malevolently. "You'll see. All you need to know is that they will be facing scores of kainde amedha."

"Do you honestly think that they'll be able to face any kainde amedha after a few days' training?"

"No – but time is short. They'll have to make do."

"I can't perform miracles Kurath!"

"You'll have to if you value your life!" Murakht hated being pushed into things he did not want to do – especially dishonourable things, and especially by his brother.

"And what if I no longer value my life?" Murakht sneered.

"Don't try my patience Murakht; you know how short it is!" Kurath hissed. At that moment, Nie'de quietly walked into the kehrite. He looked at both of them, and sensing the atmosphere in the room, he could tell that there was a good possibility of a fight breaking out. And if a fight was going to break out, Nie'de surely did not want to miss it. Casually, he folded his arms and leant against the doorway, preventing the door from closing. This would ensure that any of the other yautja would be able to hear and see the argument as well. This only further angered the two brothers.

"What do you want?" Kurath raged.

"The other ship is gaining on us again," he replied matter-of-factly.

"See? You won't be able to avoid the Arbitrators' wrath forever!" Murakht shouted at Kurath.

"Yes I will!" He shouted back, head-butting his brother. Murakht manoeuvred out of the way just before the collision, and hit Kurath square in the jaw with an upper-cut in return. Nie'de was not going to be disappointed. The two locked bodies and wrestled across the whole of the room, equally matched in terms of strength and skill. Ha-rauth poked his head through the door, ran off, and appeared moments later with the rest of the ship's crew, all of them cheering, rattling spears and stamping feet for Kurath. The two brothers tried to trip each other up, succeeding on some occasions and failing on others. They rolled and tumbled over each other on the floor, until none of the other crew members could tell which was which. One of them grabbed the other's throat and squeezed tightly. Did Murakht have Kurath – or did Kurath have Murakht? The cheering turned into shrieking howls as choking began to ensue. The bothers tripped over and kicked the pieces of equipment across the room, adding to the mayhem. They twisted and turned, digging claws on hands and feet into any skin that made itself vulnerable to attack. The violence rose again when claws slashed across necks and wrists, but never fatal enough to kill. Neon green blood was dripping down their muscles and onto the floor, causing feet to lose their grip for less than a moment. The more the brothers wrestled about, the more the glowing green covered the floor. Greeahnyau stopped his cheering and turned to Nie'de.

"I don't think that they're going to stop anytime soon… and we need both of them alive," he commented. "We need to make them stop." This soured Nie'de's mood.

"And do you know how we are going to get them apart? Do you want to get between them and stop it? I'll tell you now that you won't be popular with the others." Greeahnyau looked at the brawling twins and decided that an answer was not necessary. Nie'de suddenly perked up when he devised his own method of separating the two yautja. A devious grin spread across his face and he vanished down the hallway. Greeahnyau looked out to see what Nie'de was up to – and paid dearly for taking his eyes off the battle. Murakht and Kurath charged into him, crushing his against the wall under their combined weight. Greeahnyau couldn't even yell out. The others were enjoying this entertainment far too much to help him – and were too afraid for what might happen to them to go anywhere near the brothers.

Nie'de reappeared in the doorway with a net gun and an expression bordering on dementia. By now Murakht and Kurath had moved back into the centre of the kehrite, giving Greeahnyau time to gasp for breath. Neither had noticed what he was holding. He pointed the gun at the two warring brothers.

"Murakht! Kurath!" He called. They briefly glared in his direction – it was the moment that Nie'de had been waiting for. He released one net at each of them, trapping them separately.

"Well, that's one way of dealing with them," Greeahnyau admitted. The others booed and hissed at him, whilst Kurath and Murakht struggled to break free, throwing as many insults at each other as at Nie'de. "Did you have to net both of them?"

"Can you tell them apart?" Nie'de asked searching with his eyes for any distinguishing scars.

"No," Greeahnyau muttered.

"Well then." Nie'de swelled with arrogant pride; not only had he disrespected his leader, but that sickeningly prissy brother of his too. "Release them once they've calmed down," he ordered. It did not look like that was going to happen any time soon. "…Then we can try to distinguish which one is which."

.........

Jechonde, Me'gaht and Kekhani neared the planet Koreishta. None knew what they were meant to be looking for, or where to begin – and Koreishta had a wide area to cover.

"Where do we start?" Kekhani asked Jechonde during a yawn. He had shared the piloting duty with me'gaht, and had received even less sleep than the true pilot. "It's not as though we have very long."

"Then we'd better find something quickly and work fast!" Jechonde retorted angrily. Three days was not going to be long enough at all – but if Nidrua could have spared them any more time, he would have.

"If we scan for anything unusual, we can start our search from there," Me'gaht replied, hoping that the stress he was feeling did not show in his voice.

"Such as what?" Kekhani growled, stifling another yawn.

"This is meant to be a planet devoid of any technology, yes?" Jechonde told them.

"I think so," Me'gaht mumbled.

"Then scan for traces of technology." Jechonde folded his arms and sighed. In his opinion, they weren't going to find anything – but Me'gaht was not as sure about that as he was. "How long will it take?"

"On a planet this size? A quarter of a day." Jechonde growled again. He was growing impatient; he wanted to be helping Nidrua pursue the Bad Bloods and he was worried that the strength of the enemy could overpower the remaining crew. Three seemed too many to spare for a planet that seemed to hold no importance to their mission. "Well, we'd better make the most of our time," Me'gaht murmured dismally. Kekhani already was – he had fallen asleep.

End of Chapter 7