A/N: Back again! HAHAHAHA! Watch out for the Water Planet, which will be appearing as soon as I can get my graphics together, so I can finish the site.
I've been scanning through the Infocore for stuffs. It's always a good thing to refresh your memory. I had completely forgotten that Harlan was a black belt and a gymnast. It doesn't surprise me, though. I would've had him fighting like that anyway. It just fits that they all learn self defense when they go into the Star Academy.
Chapter Twelve
Harlan growled at the console as he punched up the viewscreen. "Okay, that's it—no more mister nice-stardog."
The Sertina he had spoken with was on the screen in a second. The boy glowered at Harlan menacingly. "Get out of there, stranger!"
"And that's supposed to persuade me?" Harlan snapped. "You can do better than that! Some welcome you gave me. I have enemies with better personalities!"
"Come out of there now, before we tear your ship apart to get you!" the boy growled.
"No. You surrender or else I really WILL blow this place to smithereens." Harlan growled back.
"I don't believe an intruder like you!"
"Then, say bye-bye to your village, boy!" Harlan gave a mock salute to the boy and started fooling with the crystals on his console.
"WAIT!"
Harlan glanced up and tried not to smile. "You wished to say something?"
The boy looked like he was having an internal conflict. "Don't fire on us—come on out, I will show you to our chief. You may make your case to him."
"I think we can work that out." Harlan said with a smile. He made a mental note to make sure that he could see everyone around him incase they pulled the same stunt on him again. He wasn't going to be captured or killed.
He then, briefly, wondered if Freya was having as hard a time as he was. He put it out of his mind as he walked to the nearest jumptube and jumped in.
Freya swam through the tunnel. There were creatures she had never seen before swimming with her. She was very glad that none of them were very big. Not like they were on her home planet, which was completely covered by water except for tall mountains that came up from the bottom of the ocean. Those creatures were huge like the Earth whales that she had seen in the computer database.
The tunnel, however, was very dark inside. She had no light to go by except the creatures that made their own light. She was glad that she had some ability to see in near dark, but she really wished that she had the same nocturnal eyes as these creatures.
Suddenly, she broke through something and she had plenty of light to see with. She stopped swimming and glanced behind her. Behind her was a vast open area, but there was a strange dark hole with crackling light surrounding it. She was still in a tunnel, however.
She swam forward. She saw mainly plant life around her instead of the nocturnal fish. Then, she saw something that made her gulp down water sharply. It was a large, spiny creature with large black eyes and a gaping mouth. It had sharp looking teeth and it grinned at Freya horribly.
She glared at it even though it scared the life out of her. She summoned her power and shot a strange energy blast at the creature. Then, it ducked out of sight. She swam forward and went past where she had seen the creature.
Then, she sensed it coming after her. She made fins on her hands to help her move faster through the water. She could feel it coming after her. She saw a light ahead of her and she headed for it.
She breached the surface of the water. She felt her gills go back to the sides of her neck as she took her first gasp of air. The creature wasn't behind her any longer. It went back into the tunnel, seemingly afraid to come out of the hole.
She glanced around her. She was in a lake, but further on, she saw a beach with an even larger body of water attached to it. She and Suzee had been correct.
There was a small village next to the lake. In fact, she saw someone next to the lake, getting a bucket of water. They had pale skin, like the Tirateem, but the child's hair was completely white. He glanced up at Freya and stared at her with blue eyes. They were as blue as the water she was swimming in.
"Hello!" she said with a smile. She waved to the boy.
The boy just stared at her with those eyes of his. Then, without a word, he beckoned with his hand for her come closer.
She swam closer, watching the boy for any movement for a weapon of any sort. When she was a few feet from him, he put out his hand to her. She took it and he helped her out of the water.
"My name is Freya Zeetsil, what's yours?" She smiled at him cheerfully.
"Come with me," he said in a low, melodic voice.
Radu sat watching Feera sparing with Suzee. She was actually teaching Suzee how to use the weapons so that she could fight. Radu was taking in the moves as he watched. His light blue eyes were completely focused on Feera.
The cool wind swept past him, making his curls gently move in the breeze. He had grown rather fond of his new hair. It looked a bit nicer than his long mop of hair, but he still missed having his old hair.
Then, Suzee hit the ground as Feera clapped her over the back of her neck with the staff she was using. Radu got up and walked over to Suzee as Feera knelt down next to her. "Are you all right?"
Suzee already had a headache from keeping Zanathos out of her mind. She couldn't even sleep in case he was able to penetrate her mind again. She could feel him laughing at her. It made her angry.
"I'm fine. Let's do it again." Suzee growled as she waved Radu and Feera away from her. Then, she staggered to her feet and held the staff in her hands like she before.
Feera eyed her as did Radu, who had a look of surprise on his face. She growled again and attacked Feera with the staff. Feera whipped around with the staff and threw it at Suzee.
Suzee dropped in time to avoid the staff and hit Feera behind her knees as she moved herself away from Feera. Suzee landed on her rear as she spun around to see what she did. Feera was on her knees and looking back at Suzee, smiling at her. "Very good, Suzee—you will become a warrior yet."
Suzee got to her feet and growled. "I don't want to be a warrior. I just want to still be alive when this is all over." She felt a little trickle of blood come from her mouth. She wiped it away vehemently and stalked away.
Radu glanced between a slightly indignant Feera and the angry Suzee. He rarely saw Suzee get angry. He was very worried now.
Feera mumbled indignantly as she stood, "Who wouldn't want to be a warrior!"
Radu trotted after Suzee and caught up with her after a few seconds. "Suzee. Suzee! Suzee, what's wrong!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around. He was promptly welcomed by the end of her staff to his face.
She wasn't really strong enough to hurt him, but it still hurt to get hit. He rubbed his face as he stared at her. "Suzee, what's wrong!"
Her face was a mixture of anger, exhaustion and fear. He caught the fear quite easily. She had tears in her eyes that she was fighting back. "Suzee…"
She ran off, dropping the staff at his feet. He just watched her run away from him. He couldn't think of what else he could do.
Suzee ran until she was too tired to run. That was when she tripped on someone. "OW!"
Suzee landed hard on the ground, the tears fighting to break through. She gazed at the person she tripped on. It was Rosie.
"I-I'm sorry, Rosie. I didn't mean to step on you," she said.
Rosie sat up and smiled cheerfully at her. "What's wrong, Suzee? Dust in your eyes?"
Suzee suddenly couldn't take it. She let the tears flow down her cheeks as she slumped onto the ground, her shoulders shaking with the force of her sobbing. "Suzee!" Rosie gasped.
Rosie put her hands on Suzee's shoulders and rubbed them gently. "Suzee, what wrong? Why are you crying?"
"I can't take it anymore, Rosie." Suzee said in between sobs with a shaky voice. "I just can't…"
Rosie patted Suzee on her shoulder. "What can't you take, Suzee?"
"Za-zanathos is trying to probe my mind, but I won't let him! He's evil and will destroy everyone if we don't get rid of him! I can't take all of this torment!"
Rosie had sympathy for her friend. She hugged Suzee around her shoulders and tried to calm her down. "You need to rest. When you wake up, everything will be all right again, you'll see."
Suzee sat up and gazed at Rosie. She knew it wasn't true, but she smiled anyway. In Rosie's way, she was telling Suzee to look on the bright side of things. "Thank you, Rosie."
"Anything for a friend in need!" Rosie smiled and giggled. "Now go to our hut and get some rest."
Suzee didn't feel like arguing the point. She sighed and stood up. She realized that she had run into the field just outside of the village, which was in a clearing. The trees grew tall around them, letting bits of sunlight through to shine down on the grass. It was calming.
"All right, I'll go," she said to Rosie before walking back to the village.
Bova and Commander Goddard were hard at work trying to figure a way to get past the main portion of the city. Actually, Bova was making weird comments as Goddard threw them out. Tavik was the one actually helping.
"We could go through this area to get to the main Zeek building." Commander Goddard pointed to an entrance on the map they had before them.
"And promptly get ourselves shot at by the guards that stand there." Bova drawled.
"Or maybe we can do what we did last time and go here," Goddard started.
"And suddenly realize that we're being redundant and the Zeeks find us and shoot us on sight." Bova said.
"Bova, if all you are going to so is make useless comments, then go outside and practice with Feera." Goddard said trying not to smile at the last comment. Bova was right; the Zeeks would have covered that area already.
Tavik was staring at the map. "We could go through all of them at once."
"What?" Bova and Goddard seemed to speak as one.
"There's an idea," Goddard said. "They won't expect everyone at once on everything, but do we have the people?"
"Yes, we will, when the Sertina get here. When the Lokalit come, they will just add that much more to our ranks." Tavik said complacently.
"Good idea, Tavik!" Goddard smiled. "Now all we need is for Harlan to contact us with good news. Speaking of Harlan, I wonder how he is doing."
Bova just shrugged.
"Is THIS how you treat an AMBASSADOR OF GOODWILL?!"
Harlan was backed into a corner by a bunch of surly looking Sertina boys. One of them stepped forward and glared at him. "You have no goodwill, infidel!"
"Who's calling who! I was coming here just to ask if some of ya'll would come to the Tirateem's aid!" Harlan growled.
"The Tirateem are nothing but rebels! They should be slaughtered, all of them!" said another Sertina boy.
Harlan couldn't take it any longer. He jumped and sprung off of the tallest Sertina's shoulders, vaulting himself over the crowd and landing fifteen feet from them. "Come and get me!" he cried.
Then, he ran toward the Christa with all the speed he could muster. He ran past several Sertina girls with their babies. They screamed at him and ran away as the several Sertina came after him.
Suddenly, several more warrior like Sertina were blocking off the way to the Christa. He vaulted over them and scampered off at a dead run to the Christa. Suddenly, he was hit with a bolt of electricity. He hit the ground and rolled as a low level of electricity surged through his limbs.
When he stopped, he was staring at a pair of sandal clad feet. He looked up and saw a tall woman with the same skin and long, straight blonde hair as the other girls. She was only slightly older than the girls with their babies. She was partly in shadow due to the sun being behind her.
"Hi," Harlan managed to get out before he blacked out, collapsing entirely at the woman's feet.
I've been scanning through the Infocore for stuffs. It's always a good thing to refresh your memory. I had completely forgotten that Harlan was a black belt and a gymnast. It doesn't surprise me, though. I would've had him fighting like that anyway. It just fits that they all learn self defense when they go into the Star Academy.
Chapter Twelve
Harlan growled at the console as he punched up the viewscreen. "Okay, that's it—no more mister nice-stardog."
The Sertina he had spoken with was on the screen in a second. The boy glowered at Harlan menacingly. "Get out of there, stranger!"
"And that's supposed to persuade me?" Harlan snapped. "You can do better than that! Some welcome you gave me. I have enemies with better personalities!"
"Come out of there now, before we tear your ship apart to get you!" the boy growled.
"No. You surrender or else I really WILL blow this place to smithereens." Harlan growled back.
"I don't believe an intruder like you!"
"Then, say bye-bye to your village, boy!" Harlan gave a mock salute to the boy and started fooling with the crystals on his console.
"WAIT!"
Harlan glanced up and tried not to smile. "You wished to say something?"
The boy looked like he was having an internal conflict. "Don't fire on us—come on out, I will show you to our chief. You may make your case to him."
"I think we can work that out." Harlan said with a smile. He made a mental note to make sure that he could see everyone around him incase they pulled the same stunt on him again. He wasn't going to be captured or killed.
He then, briefly, wondered if Freya was having as hard a time as he was. He put it out of his mind as he walked to the nearest jumptube and jumped in.
Freya swam through the tunnel. There were creatures she had never seen before swimming with her. She was very glad that none of them were very big. Not like they were on her home planet, which was completely covered by water except for tall mountains that came up from the bottom of the ocean. Those creatures were huge like the Earth whales that she had seen in the computer database.
The tunnel, however, was very dark inside. She had no light to go by except the creatures that made their own light. She was glad that she had some ability to see in near dark, but she really wished that she had the same nocturnal eyes as these creatures.
Suddenly, she broke through something and she had plenty of light to see with. She stopped swimming and glanced behind her. Behind her was a vast open area, but there was a strange dark hole with crackling light surrounding it. She was still in a tunnel, however.
She swam forward. She saw mainly plant life around her instead of the nocturnal fish. Then, she saw something that made her gulp down water sharply. It was a large, spiny creature with large black eyes and a gaping mouth. It had sharp looking teeth and it grinned at Freya horribly.
She glared at it even though it scared the life out of her. She summoned her power and shot a strange energy blast at the creature. Then, it ducked out of sight. She swam forward and went past where she had seen the creature.
Then, she sensed it coming after her. She made fins on her hands to help her move faster through the water. She could feel it coming after her. She saw a light ahead of her and she headed for it.
She breached the surface of the water. She felt her gills go back to the sides of her neck as she took her first gasp of air. The creature wasn't behind her any longer. It went back into the tunnel, seemingly afraid to come out of the hole.
She glanced around her. She was in a lake, but further on, she saw a beach with an even larger body of water attached to it. She and Suzee had been correct.
There was a small village next to the lake. In fact, she saw someone next to the lake, getting a bucket of water. They had pale skin, like the Tirateem, but the child's hair was completely white. He glanced up at Freya and stared at her with blue eyes. They were as blue as the water she was swimming in.
"Hello!" she said with a smile. She waved to the boy.
The boy just stared at her with those eyes of his. Then, without a word, he beckoned with his hand for her come closer.
She swam closer, watching the boy for any movement for a weapon of any sort. When she was a few feet from him, he put out his hand to her. She took it and he helped her out of the water.
"My name is Freya Zeetsil, what's yours?" She smiled at him cheerfully.
"Come with me," he said in a low, melodic voice.
Radu sat watching Feera sparing with Suzee. She was actually teaching Suzee how to use the weapons so that she could fight. Radu was taking in the moves as he watched. His light blue eyes were completely focused on Feera.
The cool wind swept past him, making his curls gently move in the breeze. He had grown rather fond of his new hair. It looked a bit nicer than his long mop of hair, but he still missed having his old hair.
Then, Suzee hit the ground as Feera clapped her over the back of her neck with the staff she was using. Radu got up and walked over to Suzee as Feera knelt down next to her. "Are you all right?"
Suzee already had a headache from keeping Zanathos out of her mind. She couldn't even sleep in case he was able to penetrate her mind again. She could feel him laughing at her. It made her angry.
"I'm fine. Let's do it again." Suzee growled as she waved Radu and Feera away from her. Then, she staggered to her feet and held the staff in her hands like she before.
Feera eyed her as did Radu, who had a look of surprise on his face. She growled again and attacked Feera with the staff. Feera whipped around with the staff and threw it at Suzee.
Suzee dropped in time to avoid the staff and hit Feera behind her knees as she moved herself away from Feera. Suzee landed on her rear as she spun around to see what she did. Feera was on her knees and looking back at Suzee, smiling at her. "Very good, Suzee—you will become a warrior yet."
Suzee got to her feet and growled. "I don't want to be a warrior. I just want to still be alive when this is all over." She felt a little trickle of blood come from her mouth. She wiped it away vehemently and stalked away.
Radu glanced between a slightly indignant Feera and the angry Suzee. He rarely saw Suzee get angry. He was very worried now.
Feera mumbled indignantly as she stood, "Who wouldn't want to be a warrior!"
Radu trotted after Suzee and caught up with her after a few seconds. "Suzee. Suzee! Suzee, what's wrong!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around. He was promptly welcomed by the end of her staff to his face.
She wasn't really strong enough to hurt him, but it still hurt to get hit. He rubbed his face as he stared at her. "Suzee, what's wrong!"
Her face was a mixture of anger, exhaustion and fear. He caught the fear quite easily. She had tears in her eyes that she was fighting back. "Suzee…"
She ran off, dropping the staff at his feet. He just watched her run away from him. He couldn't think of what else he could do.
Suzee ran until she was too tired to run. That was when she tripped on someone. "OW!"
Suzee landed hard on the ground, the tears fighting to break through. She gazed at the person she tripped on. It was Rosie.
"I-I'm sorry, Rosie. I didn't mean to step on you," she said.
Rosie sat up and smiled cheerfully at her. "What's wrong, Suzee? Dust in your eyes?"
Suzee suddenly couldn't take it. She let the tears flow down her cheeks as she slumped onto the ground, her shoulders shaking with the force of her sobbing. "Suzee!" Rosie gasped.
Rosie put her hands on Suzee's shoulders and rubbed them gently. "Suzee, what wrong? Why are you crying?"
"I can't take it anymore, Rosie." Suzee said in between sobs with a shaky voice. "I just can't…"
Rosie patted Suzee on her shoulder. "What can't you take, Suzee?"
"Za-zanathos is trying to probe my mind, but I won't let him! He's evil and will destroy everyone if we don't get rid of him! I can't take all of this torment!"
Rosie had sympathy for her friend. She hugged Suzee around her shoulders and tried to calm her down. "You need to rest. When you wake up, everything will be all right again, you'll see."
Suzee sat up and gazed at Rosie. She knew it wasn't true, but she smiled anyway. In Rosie's way, she was telling Suzee to look on the bright side of things. "Thank you, Rosie."
"Anything for a friend in need!" Rosie smiled and giggled. "Now go to our hut and get some rest."
Suzee didn't feel like arguing the point. She sighed and stood up. She realized that she had run into the field just outside of the village, which was in a clearing. The trees grew tall around them, letting bits of sunlight through to shine down on the grass. It was calming.
"All right, I'll go," she said to Rosie before walking back to the village.
Bova and Commander Goddard were hard at work trying to figure a way to get past the main portion of the city. Actually, Bova was making weird comments as Goddard threw them out. Tavik was the one actually helping.
"We could go through this area to get to the main Zeek building." Commander Goddard pointed to an entrance on the map they had before them.
"And promptly get ourselves shot at by the guards that stand there." Bova drawled.
"Or maybe we can do what we did last time and go here," Goddard started.
"And suddenly realize that we're being redundant and the Zeeks find us and shoot us on sight." Bova said.
"Bova, if all you are going to so is make useless comments, then go outside and practice with Feera." Goddard said trying not to smile at the last comment. Bova was right; the Zeeks would have covered that area already.
Tavik was staring at the map. "We could go through all of them at once."
"What?" Bova and Goddard seemed to speak as one.
"There's an idea," Goddard said. "They won't expect everyone at once on everything, but do we have the people?"
"Yes, we will, when the Sertina get here. When the Lokalit come, they will just add that much more to our ranks." Tavik said complacently.
"Good idea, Tavik!" Goddard smiled. "Now all we need is for Harlan to contact us with good news. Speaking of Harlan, I wonder how he is doing."
Bova just shrugged.
"Is THIS how you treat an AMBASSADOR OF GOODWILL?!"
Harlan was backed into a corner by a bunch of surly looking Sertina boys. One of them stepped forward and glared at him. "You have no goodwill, infidel!"
"Who's calling who! I was coming here just to ask if some of ya'll would come to the Tirateem's aid!" Harlan growled.
"The Tirateem are nothing but rebels! They should be slaughtered, all of them!" said another Sertina boy.
Harlan couldn't take it any longer. He jumped and sprung off of the tallest Sertina's shoulders, vaulting himself over the crowd and landing fifteen feet from them. "Come and get me!" he cried.
Then, he ran toward the Christa with all the speed he could muster. He ran past several Sertina girls with their babies. They screamed at him and ran away as the several Sertina came after him.
Suddenly, several more warrior like Sertina were blocking off the way to the Christa. He vaulted over them and scampered off at a dead run to the Christa. Suddenly, he was hit with a bolt of electricity. He hit the ground and rolled as a low level of electricity surged through his limbs.
When he stopped, he was staring at a pair of sandal clad feet. He looked up and saw a tall woman with the same skin and long, straight blonde hair as the other girls. She was only slightly older than the girls with their babies. She was partly in shadow due to the sun being behind her.
"Hi," Harlan managed to get out before he blacked out, collapsing entirely at the woman's feet.
