Author's Note: Hi again. I know this fic is kind of slow in developing…I kind of planned it that way. It's probably going to be really long, so I just don't want anyone to get discouraged and give up on me. I'll have plenty of Jake/Cassie and Tobias/Rachel moments, so you hopeless romantics out there will assuredly get your fill. I know the PG-13 rating is a little high right now, but trust me, for upcoming chapters it is very appropriate. It actually might not be enough..but I'd hate to rate it R and get booted off the main page. Anyway, I definitely love all the reviews so far and I'd be stoked to get more. Also, no one's emailed em yet with any suggestions – I'd probably take them more to heart from the e-mail. It just kinda seems like it's idle curiosity in a review. Anyway, I don't want to you log off before you even get through this note, so on to the next chapter! Peace. Out.

Chapter 11

Rachel

I sat in the weapons chair, bored out of my skull. It was pointless to be on-station – if the Taruffs decided they wanted a fight, it's not like we'd be able to fly away without Ax. I played with the external cameras and focused in on Marco's fighter. I utilized the zoom and saw that he was outside talking to the crowd of humanoids. "What in the hell does he think he's doing?" I asked incredulously.

Tobias leaned over my shoulder and said, "Looks like he's trying to ruin everything in typical Marco fashion." Cassie covered her mouth with her hand.

I unstrapped, muttering something about killing Marco with a dull butterknife, and Tobias gently restrained me by putting his arms around my waist. "Where you going?" he said softly into my ear. Any other time I'd have relaxed into his grip instantly, but Marco had my blood boiling the way only he could.

I wiggled my way out of Tobias' grasp. "Where do you think?" I retorted a little more harshly than I'd intended. "I'm going to stop that idiot from ruining everything Jake's trying to accomplish inside."

"Too late," Cassie said. I looked at her questioningly and she merely brought up the camera view in full holo above the center console. Through the cloud of dust rising from his fighter, I saw the Taruffs jumping around like morons as Marco gained altitude and made a wide circle around our landing zone.

"Put me through to him," I said through gritted teeth to Cassie, who nodded and pressed a bunch of buttons. She handed me a headset which I placed on my head. "Messenger to Mako," I said as calmly as I could.

"Go ahead, Rachel," Marco said, trying to sound like nothing was wrong and not totally succeeding.

"Don't, Marco. Just don't. You might as well tell us now what you managed to screw up," I growled.

He dropped the 'who, me?' façade and said, "There's no delicate way to put this. I've accepted a challenge from a humongous Taruff who wants to shoot me down in the name of honor."

"You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me," I managed to say. I was about to target him with the shredders and shoot him down myself when Tobias took the headset from me.

"It wasn't my fault!" Marco declared indignantly. "I just went out to say hi! One thing led to another -"

"And you accepted a death duel challenge!" I roared. Tobias jumped in his seat and I felt guilty. He still wasn't really used to being around people, especially not loud, pissed-off people he'd spent years thinking were dead.

Cassie motioned Tobias, who said, "Marco, Cassie's picking up a launch. Looks like one of those fighter thingies."

Marco started a wide bank towards the rapidly accelerating Taruff. "Yeah, yeah, I see him. I'm not gonna kill him. You guys should just relax."

I would have stalked out of the cabin just then, but I was curious to see how this would play out. I halfway hoped Marco would get blown to hell so at least we could forget about him screwing anything else up. Then again, I'd miss him if he got himself killed. Probably.

"The Taruff is firing," Cassie said, pointing to the weird light show that went on for a couple of seconds before the energy was discharged. Marco saw it – had to see it – but held his course.

"Why isn't he maneuvering!" I raged. "What is he, some kind of a show-off now?"

"Marco knows what he's doing, Rachel," Tobias said quietly. As he spoke, the laser-ball thing launched toward Marco at incredible speeds –

-And a missle shot out from Marco's fighter at the same instant that he banked, shooting upward like a piece of paper thrown out of a speeding car. The missle collided with the energy ball and exploded. Marco drifted into the fireball right as it was starting to dissipate. As I lost sight of him, I heard him cry, "Yeeeee-HAW," as he emerged from the other side of the detonation almost directly on top of the Taruff fighter.

The Taruff, apparently thinking he'd gotten Marco, jerked downward toward the planet's surface as Marco took his own fighter into kind of a mutated drop-turn and ended up directly in the enemy fighter's thruster wash. "Quit playing around! Shoot him, Marco!" I yelled as Marco skillfully matched every evasive move the Taruff made.

"Shut up!" he yelled back. "I'm lining him up – there!" he cried triumphantly. The twin shredders stabbed out at the fighter and sheared it's right wing completely off. "Now he'll have to eject!" Sure enough, as the large fighter dropped like an unaerodynamic rock, the canopy blew off forcefully and a positively huge Taruff floated gently to the ground. The flaming remains of the Taruff's fighter narrowly missed the surging crowd of Taruffs rushing to meet Marco at his anticipated landing zone, and disintigrated as it rolled to a stop fifty meters in front of the building Jake had gone into. Small pieces of metal clanked against the stone structure, but otherwise did no harm.

"Messenger, I'll be heading over there shortly, and I'm going to have company. It should be friendly, but be ready just in case," Marco said. I snatched the headset off of Tobias' head.

"What do you mean, 'company?'" I demanded, but only static answered me.

"He's cut communications," Cassie said, sounding distinctly unhappy.

Tobias shook his head. "I don't know what Marco is talking about, but we'd better prepare the ship for guests. Maybe, just maybe, we can turn this Marco blunder into something we can use."

I rubbed my head to ease away a sudded migraine that had started my head pounding. "Yeah, you're right. I'll kill him later."

Cassie grinned. "I think that's the best we're going to get out of Rachel," she said to Tobias.