A/N: I'm siting here, eating a small bowl of sweet and sour rice with lots of soy sauce on it…. And I'm trying to listen to Rush Limbaugh and write this at the same time… is there something severely wrong with me that I multi task like this…? Not really… I'm doing it, aren't I?

So how do you like the story so far….?
Chapter Nine
"TREYA! YOU FOOL!" growled Zanathos. He slapped her across her face and she sailed across the room. Dark red blood stained her lips. "You had the one I needed in your grasp and you walked away!"

Treya was frightened. She cowered in a corner to get away from Zanathos. "I… I couldn't help myself… I just thought I should walk away." Her voice quivered as she spoke.

It hit Zanathos, then. He calmed himself down as he walked away from Treya. The green haired girl had pulled the one trick that he knew an empath could do.

"Treya—go clean yourself up, eat, and assemble a team—we're going to destroy the strangers before they can help the Tirateem," Zanathos said.

Treya stood up, bowed, and then walked out.
"What did you do, Freya… she just put her weapon down and walked away!" said Commander Goddard.

"What are you talking about? I don't know what's going on. One minute, my brain blinks out and the next Radu claps me on my head." Freya said.

"Where's Suzee and Harlan?" asked Rosie.

"They were taken by Tavik and Miss Davenport back to the Christa. Harlan needs to be put into the sickbay repair pod for a while," said Commander Goddard.

"We had better get ready—the Zeeks will come back for retribution." barked Feera.

"Feera—what did you mean when you said that that girl would follow us no matter what—that she knew the forest," asked Radu.

Feera sighed. "Treya… is my sister. She was once a Tirateem instead of a Zeek. She was taken to the Zeeks and there she stayed when she was very young."

"So, she knows the forest. Damn it—this isn't the way to win a battle…" groaned Commander Goddard.



Suzee woke up. She was in the sickbay. She saw THELMA attending to someone in the restoration pod. THELMA moved over and Suzee saw Harlan lying in the pod.

"THELMA?" Suzee croaked as she sat up.

THELMA walked over and smiled that blank smile she always wore. "Yes, Miss Suzee?"

"What am I doing here?" Suzee asked.

"The Tirateem people helped Miss Davenport bring you and Harlan to the Christa…." THELMA said.

"What about the others? Where are they?" she asked. THELMA gave her a blank stare. Suzee sighed. "Rosie… Radu… Bova..?"

"They are with the Tirateem…." THELMA said. "Helping them prepare for battle…."

Suzee nearly fell off of the bed she was on. "WHAT?!"

"They said to keep you and Harlan here until they contact us." THELMA said.

Suzee felt like banging her head on a bulkhead. "They can't be serious." she groaned. "That Zanathos alone is enough to deal with."

"What is wrong, Suzee?" THELMA asked her.

"I was the key to all of this mess." Suzee groaned. "The leader of the Zeeks used a… telepathic device… something that transmits a message directly into a person's brain by using a telepathic range. It's too weird."

"The only problem I can't figure out is… he completely freaked out when he noticed Freya, but she wasn't affected by the device like I was. I wonder why." Suzee said to herself. "She is telepathic…"

"Freya is not telepathic—anymore—that function was shut down when her implant was shorted out." THELMA said. "She is empathic."

"Meaning that she can read emotions, right? But why did he go nuts when he noticed Freya coming….. I felt him in my mind when I was asleep… then I noticed that Freya and Radu, and someone else… and Commander Goddard had showed up… He went nuts and snapped out of my brain…" Suzee said.

Suddenly, the computer sounded off. "Incoming message…." The computer said.

"Relay," Suzee commanded.

Commander Goddard came onto the screen. "Suzee! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Commander—what do you need?" asked Suzee.

"If you are up to it—could you come out here and help us?"

Suzee considered it. She didn't want to be captured again, and she knew Zanathos would want her back. She also wanted to help them, for she was fine now. She still felt like her head had been detached from her body, then thrown against a wall for an hour, and then put back on her body.

"I'll be out there," she finally said. "Where should I go?"

"Go to the forest. Feera will help you get here," Commander Goddard said. "There's a rumor that the Zeeks are coming here."

When Suzee finally got outside, she headed straight for the forest. When she reached the edge of it, she immediately pulled inside by someone. It was a girl with short, black and red striped hair. "Shh—my name is Feera."

"Where do we go from here?" Suzee whispered.

"To the camp."

Feera led Suzee through under brush and she saw a small group of people walk past. They wore metal masks on half of their faces. "The Zeeks!" Suzee hissed. Feera clamped a hand over Suzee's mouth.

Suzee trembled. She saw the weapons they were carrying. They were modified laser cutters and pistols. They didn't completely burn anything while cutting through something. She had seen the blueprints of them inside the mind of Zanathos. She also saw something more whenever he came into her mind.

Just then, Feera grabbed Suzee's hand they were bolting toward a large rock. She followed Feera up the rock, scrambling just to keep up with the girl, and found herself staring over the edge of into the village below.

"We have to get down there and arm ourselves and the others," Feera said.

"Any ideas?"

Feera flashed Suzee a smile. "Only one." Then, she grabbed Suzee's arm and Suzee fell over the edge of the rock.
Freya walked out of the hut that was assigned to her and Rosie. One of the Tirateem had seen fit to make her and Rosie look more like the rest of the tribe while she was getting dressed. Now, her hair was shorter, just above her shoulders, and put into a complicated hair "do" with violet and blue feathers coming out of it and beads put into her hair.

Rosie didn't get out of it either. She had several markings on her head that seemed almost surreal to look at. Rosie had protested some due to her not wanting to burn anyone or anything, but in the end she gave up and no she looked like she was one of the tribe.

Even the boys were having things done to them. Bova was decorated with beads in his hair, making him look odd with his deadpan expression and the giant V antenna protruding from his forehead. Radu's now shortened curls were decorated with feathers and small shiny metal objects. He now resembled something more closely related to a Christmas tree than an Andromedan, much to his dismay.

"I feel so weird," Radu said as he and Bova walked up to the two girls. "M-My hair and all of these weird little trinkets—it just feels weird to be this decorated."

"I know what you mean," Rosie said, "Though, right now, I think I like it."

"You would," Bova snorted. "They forced me into a chair and tugged on my hair for ten minutes trying to get these stupid beads on my head."

Suddenly, they heard the screaming. They glanced to the large rock wall that was on the west side of the village. Two people jumped off of it and fell into a heap of grass. It was Suzee and Feera.

They ran over to see if they were all right. Feera was on her feet in an instant. "The Zeeks! The Zeeks are coiming!"

Just then, there was a blood-curdling scream from the other side of the village. Radu was running before he even realized it. He just needed to get over there to help.

Suzee watched Radu take off. She suddenly saw Commander Goddard run out of a hut with three Tirateem running after him. She would have thought it was amusing if she wasn't scared out of her wits.

Commander Goddard grabbed a spear and rammed the end of it into one of the Zeeks attacking one of the little Tirateem girls. The Zeek fell to the ground and the little girl ran away.

Suddenly, he was hit in the back by a laser pistol. His singed skin hurt as he regained his balance using the spear as support. He snapped around and lashed out his foot into the offending Zeek. They went down as his foot connected with their jaw.

Radu punched one Zeek on the jaw and thrust his elbow at another. With his strength, he could deliver power blows to these people. He ducked just as a laser blast shot out where his head had been.

He glanced over and saw Treya in her face mask and a malicious grin on her face. She took aim at him again and he jumped away as the ground where had been exploded.

Freya ran, grabbing a spear on her way and thrusting it at one Zeeks head. It broke his nose, causing the dark red blood to explode from his face. She spun around and whipped the pole-arm as she did so. It slashed another Zeek across the stomach, blood running over his body as he fell to the ground in pain.

Feera took up a pole-arm as well, joining Freya in the fight. When she had fought her way over to Freya, she stood to Freya's back. "I was wrong about you and your comrades. You fight like trained warriors."

"I'm not the one you should be congratulating. Talk to Commander Goddard—He's the one that trains these people." Then, Freya jammed the spear into another Zeek.

Suzee felt it. She heard the voice calling to her mind once again. She concentrated on trying to drown it out. She needed to get over to her friends. She needed to help.

Rosie was thrown onto the ground just as an explosion behind her occurred. She lifted her head to find Bova holding her down, burn marks on his shoulder.

Then, she saw it. She grabbed Bova and rolled to her right. The ground exploded, making dirt and rock fly everywhere. She stood up, pulling Bova to his feet and ran.

She saw Tavik coming out of his hut with a few guards around him. "TAVIK, RUN!"

Tavik turned and was thrown by one of the guards just as the ground exploded. Rosie ran over to them with Bova close behind her.

"Tavik! Tavik! Are you all right?" Rosie cried as she got closer.

Tavik sat up. Then, he smiled at Rosie. "Yeah, I'm all right." He glanced down and found his guard bleeding from burn wounds. "But it doesn't look like he is."

Radu jumped again as another blast from Treya's gun erupted the ground. He needed to get over to her and get the gun away from her somehow. He was having trouble thinking of what to do. He never could think straight in crisis situations.

Treya shot at him again. This time, He was thrown onto the ground as the blast hit his shoulder. Pain surged through his body as he hit the ground with a loud THUD.

Treya climbed down from the tree she had been perched in. Then, she walked past the people fighting. She shot a Tirateem in the chest with her pistol, letting his aggressor go and falling to the ground in a heap.

She walked toward Radu with that malicious grin on her face. She pointed the gun at Radu's head. Her finger was poised on the trigger. Suddenly, she was thrown with great force away from him.

Commander Goddard grunted as he tossed Treya away from Radu. He nodded to Radu before returning to an angry Zeek. He whipped the spear around and clapped the Zeek on the head.
Miss Davenport studied Harlan's face through the clear spot on the hibernation tube. He looked like he had been beaten within an inch of his life. He pretty much had by the sounds of what was in the report THELMA had made on his injuries.

"Internal bleeding, broken ribs, broken arm, broken leg, pierced lung," she read off his injuries aloud. "Oh Mr. Band, don't you ever quit?"

Suddenly, the console on the wall sounded off. "Incoming meassage."

Miss Davenport walked over and tapped a button of the console. "Relay."

Suddenly, an image of one of the Tirateem boys came onto the screen. Rosie came up next to him. "Rosie, what's going on?"

"We're under attack. We need help." Rosie said quickly.

"What do you expect me to do? I don't know how to fight and Mr. Band is certainly in no shape to help." Miss Davenport said in shock.

"I don't know. Commander Goddard, Radu, Freya—They're all in the fight." Suddenly, Rosie looked around and seemed to realize something. "Where is Suzee?"

"You mean she isn't with you?" Miss Davenport said quickly.

"She was, but I don't know where she is." Rosie said.

Miss Davenport chewed on her bottom lip. She was trying to think of something that might help, but her mind was a blank.

"Hold on! I think I—"

The picture of Rosie and the boy disappeared and was replaced by the face of a very pale boy with black eyes and pitch black hair. The boy grinned at Miss Davenport maliciously. "Who are you?" Miss Davenport said indignantly. "You just ruined a perfectly good conversation!"

"I want what's mine, Miss Davenport. Bring Suzee and the empath to me, or else I'll destroy that puny little ship of yours." The boy grinned at her evilly. Miss Davenport felt as though ice had been dropped down her spine.

"Who are you—what are you talking about!"

"Do it."

Then, the screen went blank.