A/N: I'm getting back into Space Cases mode! ^.^ Be proud of me!

I am now on the Pumpkin Pie forum armed with my logic and good sense. Beware, H/Hrs, beware! I'm an H/Ger and R/Hr and I have proof that will knock your SOX off!
Chapter Ten
The battle went on. By the time the Zeeks were leaving, most of the village was destroyed. Freya collapsed next to Radu on the blood covered ground. He had burn wounds on his arms and shoulders. She looked almost as bad.

Commander Goddard limped over to them and sat down on the stone next to Radu. "How… on EARTH… did we end up in this in the first place?"

"Are you asking ME this question?" Radu gasped out.

"Not really. I was just trying to see if I was still alive by annoying you." Commander Goddard grumbled.

Feera trotted over and gave them a bowl. "Water. You will need it." she grunted.

Freya took it and handed it to Commander Goddard. He took it and drank heavily from the bowl. Then, he handed it to Radu, who drank just as heavily from it. Then, the bowl was handed back to Freya, who drank the last of it before handing it back to Feera.

"Good. Now, we must rest a while before we can retaliate." Feera then walked off.

"We're volunteering again?" asked Radu.

"Looks like it." Commander Goddard grunted.
Rosie and Bova moved large piece of wood from a caved in part of a hut. There was a small girl curled up underneath it, as if it was shelter. "Come on out, they're gone." Rosie said cheerfully.

The little girl nodded her pink and black haired head and jumped out of the area as though it were about to bite her. Then, Rosie motioned for Bova to another section of fallen house. They lifted the section of wood and found Suzee.

She had her hands clamped over her ears and she was rocking back and forth as though she was trying to shut something out. "Suzee? Suzee, are you all right?"

Suzee suddenly jerked her head up. She gazed at Rosie and Bova as though she had never seen anything quite like them before. Suddenly, recognition came back to her. "R-Rosie? Bova?"

Rosie nodded and smiled at Suzee. "Are you all right?"

Suzee leapt from her spot almost instantaneously. She was five feet from them when they turned around to talk to her. "We need help." Suzee said.

"The Tirateem need help." Bova drawled. "We need to find a way out of all of this."

"They need us, Bova. We can't just leave them to be destroyed by those Zeeks!" Rosie gasped.

Bova grumbled his response, but stayed silent. Suzee could still feel Zanathos' brain inside hers. She tried desperately to suppress it. It was working.



Harlan opened his eyes and gazed around him. He was in the hibernation chamber, but it was open. He figured that was why he was awake. He sat up and felt a minor pang of pain in his side. His face didn't feel like it was twice its size and his arms and legs moved freely.

"THELMA, are you there?" he croaked. He hadn't used his voice for a while. It felt scratchy as he breathed.

"T-THELMA?"

"Is something wrong, Mr. Band?"

Harlan fell out of the hibernation chamber onto his rear. He saw THELMA in front of him holding out her hand to him. He took it and was instantly on his feet. "THELMA, what's going on? Why am I here?"

"You and your friends came onto the Christa when you were very curious school children, then your teachers came on board looking for you. Then, we introduced each other and became—"

"THELMA, I meant about now. Why am I here now?"

THELMA smiled her vague smile. "Miss Davenport and the Tirateem people brought you and Suzee on board to recover. Suzee was called out by Commander Goddard and you have woken up."

"I gathered that," Harlan said quickly. Then, he realized what she said. "Suzee's back out there? Tirateem? Was that the tribe that helped rescue us from the Zeeks?"

"Yes."

"Where's Miss Davenport?" Harlan said as he glanced around again.

"She has just received a message from a Mr. Zanathos and she is now trying to formulate an appropriate answer in the classroom." THELMA suddenly jerked her head in a very robotic manner for Harlan to follow.

They walked to the nearest jump tube and Harlan jumped in. He came out on the right floor and walked to the classroom. When he walked in, he glanced around for Miss Davenport. "Miss Davenport? Are you here?"

He heard nothing. He walked further in and glanced around. The consoles on the walls were all showing diagnostics and one was showing static. "Miss Davenport?"

Suddenly, he heard a frightened sob from underneath the desk. He leaned over it and found Miss Davenport curled up underneath the desk. "Formulating an appropriate answer, eh?" Harlan grinned at her.

"Not that it's any of your business, Harlan, but what are you doing here." Miss Davenport said in an irritated sort of voice. She crawled out from underneath the desk and stood up stiffly.

"The chamber was opened, and so I came out." Harlan said. "What is going on?"

"Some boy showed up on the computer console in the infirmary and informed me that he was going to destroy the ship. Then, he came on that", she pointed to the console showing static, "console that he was going to destroy everything because I wouldn't give him an answer!"

"Okay," Harlan said slowly. "So what are we going to do?"

"Don't ask me! I haven't the faintest idea!" She growled at him indignantly and walked back to her desk and sat down.

Harlan growled impatiently and glanced around the room to the console screen that still showed static. Then, it struck him. "What did he ask you?"

Miss Davenport flipped her hand in an impatient manner. "I don't know—Something about Suzee and an empath! Honestly, what on Earth is an empath—As though I would give him Suzee, anyway."

"Wait a minute, he wanted Suzee?"

"Y-yes," Miss Davenport stammered as she gazed at Harlan uncertainly. "Why?"

"When I was caged up next to Suzee, she kept mumbling things about a person named Zanathos. When she woke up once, she started saying that it was all her fault that we were all here—that this Zanathos wanted her." Harlan was worried. He masked his worry, quickly, with a look of pure concentration. "I think the one you saw was Zana—"

"Incoming message," the computer suddenly spoke. The screen with the static went black suddenly as Harlan whipped around.

Nothing was coming up. Harlan realized who it might be trying to contact the ship. "Relay message."

The screen suddenly showed a tired and bruised Commander Goddard. Someone next to him, who had short black and blue striped hair, was bandaging his arm. "Mr. Band, you're awake! Good. I need you to help us with a small problem that I'm sure you are familiar with."

"Zanathos and those Zeeks, right?" Harlan asked.

"Yeah—unfortunately, he ambushed us with more of his army and now we need reinforcements. What I need you to do is find a way to contact the other tribes and convince them to come here."

"Oh yeah—the easiest thing in the world except for one small detail—where are these tribes and how friendly are they with the—Tirateem was it?" Harlan blew air impatiently between his lips.

"Tirateem, yes. Their leader, Tavik, told me that they would stand with them if they were going against the Zeeks and their threshold." Commander Goddard suddenly winced at the bandaging on his arm.

"Erm—I'm a pilot, Commander, not a communications officer." Harlan said.

"You're neither, Mr. Band. You can move the crystals, I can't. Do what you can—I'll ask Tavik if the other tribes have the ability to get the signal. Commander Goddard out." Then, the screen went black.



Commander Goddard punched the compupad off and winced as another stab pain went through his arm. "OUCH!" he hissed at the girl working on his arm.

"Commander, if the Tirateem don't have the ability to send signals with electronic machines, how in the world are the other tribes going to receive anything?" asked Bova.

"I'm working on that, I'm working on that!" Commander Goddard growled.

"The Sertina have technology left over from the days BEFORE the great plague almost killed everyone. The Lokalit, however, don't. They have been isolated so long, I wonder where they are." It was Tavik coming over. "Your attempts are good ones, but getting the Lokalit and the Sertina together over here is another problem altogether."

"The Lokalit are the people of the ocean. As I recall, there aren't any oceans near us," said Rosie.

"And the Sertina live in a desert. Does anyone else see the big hole in this?" Bova drawled.

Commander Goddard scowled at Bova. "Yes, thank you, Bova, for that wonderful insight, but we still need to have a plan and this is as good as we can come up with."

"We're doomed," said Bova.
Zanathos sat in the console room, the many monitors blinking various images at him. He was watching the images that he had managed to get from Suzee's mind. He was manipulating them, causing the images to distort with his mind.

He heard the door open to the room. Treya walked in uncertainly. He smiled. He had managed to frighten her enough so that she was shaking as she spoke to him. "Zanathos—we raided the village and they fought back against us. They have lost many, but they will come after us. We have to come up with a new plan."

Zanathos jumped out of his chair and was on Treya in a second. His hand closed around her throat tightly and he banged her head against the wall as he pushed her up against it. "Who—who did you say will have to come up with a plan?" He smiled cruelly at her as a trickle of dark red blood fell out of the corner of her mouth.

"Y-you, sir," she managed to stutter breathlessly.

"Good." He let go of her and she slid down the wall to her knees, gasping for air.

"But, sir, we—cough—we need to find a—cough—way to counter them—cough—when the tribe comes after us!"

Zanathos stood silently. His form was now nothing but a lean shadow against the light of the monitors. "I shall think of something suitable. Tell the troops to be ready for an onslaught." His voice was deathly calm as he spoke.

Treya was petrified now. A shudder went down her spine at the chilly voice speaking to her. "Y-Y-Yes sir…" Then, she scrambled to her feet and walked out quickly.

Zanathos stood staring into the monitors. The image of Suzee's face showed on the one directly in front of him. He brought one long, bony finger to the screen and caressed it, the image suddenly bending as though the computer couldn't keep the image. He smiled slowly at it.
Freya sat at the edge of the lake that wasn't far from the village. She stared at it hard as though something might jump out of it at any moment. It was the same lake that she and Radu had gone to when they first came to the land. It was where she had seen the Zeek badge.

Suzee came up behind and sat down beside her, drawing her knees to her chest. Suzee watched Freya stare into the lake. "The Zeeks will be waiting for us to attack." Suzee said.

"Nothing like a good desperate battle for fun." Freya's voice was lower than normal. She didn't even look at Suzee.

"What do you supposed we should do? We can't leave these people to be slaughtered by those Zeeks." Suzee said. She stared into the lake as well; wondering how far down it went.

"As if I knew—honestly you need to be asking Commander Goddard that question."

Suzee stared at the lake. She was feeling something strange from it. She opened her mind to feel more. "Freya—you have gills for breathing under water, right?"

Freya turned her head and stared incredulously at Suzee. "Yeah—what about it?"

"Could you go under the water and tell me what you find down there?"

Freya wondered where Suzee was going with this. She sighed and stood up. "Sure. I'll go."

Then, she took off the jumpsuit, took down her now shorter hair and jumped into the water. It took a few seconds for her breathing to switch and then she could breathe in the water.

She swam through the water to the bottom of the lake, odd looking seaweed waving in the water. She heard the water fall near her and knew she was getting close to the other side of it.

Suddenly, she heard Suzee's voice in her head. "Go further in."

Freya suddenly realized what she was talking about. She swam further on and found the bottom drop a lot more. She swam down and found what she was suspecting.

She swam back as quickly as she could. When she surfaced, she waited a couple of seconds until her breathing switched and then jumped out of the water. "Interesting idea, you have, Suzee."

"I certainly thought so." Suzee grinned.

"Thought what?"

Suzee suddenly saw that Freya was playing with a strand of her hair and she had the now very familiar blank expression on her face. Suzee hit her forehead with her hand. "You've got to be kidding!" she growled to know one.

"Kidding?" Freya asked inquisitively.

"Nevermind—just get dressed and well go back to the village." Suzee said.

"Oh! You mean that nice place with all the happy people dancing around?" Freya giggled.

Suzee fell on her rear at the statement. This was going to take a while.