Chapter 17: Drums

—September 20, 2018—
—13:15 GST—
Kai Chan was sitting peacefully at the table, staring out the windows in the mess hall at the stars outside the ship when he heard the footsteps of the others arriving, later than usual but all at once as expected. He was sure they were up to something; Private Beecher always had that little smirk when they were up to something. The seven of them sat down at the table again, and Kai Chan wasn't especially surprised to see Minmei tagging along just a few steps behind them, chewing a fresh wad of bubblegum. She was obviously in on it.

"Hey Lieutenant! We got you a gift!"

Beecher and Aziz placed a large wooden box on the table in front of him and Beecher opened it. The box contained an old UN Spacy uniform, dyed hot-pink with a frilly edge around the waistline. "Cute," He grumbled, "real cute."

The entire squad laughed, and Minmei was almost rolling around in tears. It took a full minute and a half for all of them to catch their breaths. When they all stopped, Kai Chan stood up to leave, but the squad was not finished with him yet. "Seriously Kai, what is the deal with you? Admit it, you're totally gay!"

"Seriously, I'm not!"

"Prove it." Minmei said, pushing her way through the group. She sat down on the table next to his tray and put her hand on his shoulder. She popped her gum twice, stared at him coyly, and said, "How about a test?"

"What kind of test?" Kai sounded nervous, and given the momentum of his companions for now, he had good reason to be nervous.

Minmei grinned playfully. "I dare you to kiss me. And I don't mean just a little peck-on-the-cheek grandma kiss... a big ole smoocher! Heck, you can even use a little tongue action if you prefer. What do you say?"

Kai Chan raised a brow. "You can't be serious..."

"I'm dead serious," She looked around at the others, who had gone from joking and playful to stone-cold still in the grip of suspense.

"Is there any other test I could go through? Is this the only way?"

Minmei shook her head. "This is the only way. Why? What are you afraid of?"

Kai shrugged, "Nothing, I'm just not a very good kisser."

Aziz asked out of genuine curiosity, "According to who? Men or women?"

The last thing he wanted to do was be honest. The last girl he kissed was his ex-girlfriend's cheek at her lesbian wedding almost six years ago. But before that, if she was any indication, he was a horrible kisser. "Well..."

"He's not going to do it," Minmei said, and chuckled, "That figures."

Kai Chan sighed. This game had gone on entirely too long and now, he decided, was the time to end it completely and decisively. "You leave me no other recourse," he said dramatically.

There was no preparing Minmei for what happened next, or anyone else in the room for that matter. With a sweeping movement of his arms Kai Chan grabbed Minmei by the collar, dragged her down on the table and locked his lips onto hers in a kiss that could end a thousand ice ages. A bolt of lightning struck her in the face, shot from her lips into her brain, down her spine and along the front of her neck, squeezed her heart and sharpened her fingernails, and left such a powerful surge in her loins that if no one else was watching she would have reached up and clawed his shoulder blades clean out of his back. The moment seemed to last for an eternity, and a blissful nothingness brought a stillness to her mind that all but erased her identity entirely.

When it was over, she found herself breathless and quivering on the cafeteria table, stretched out there as if she had fallen from the ceiling. Kai Chan smoothed a wrinkle in his shirt, then stuffed his hands in his pockets and said, "Like I said, I'm not very good."

Minmei uttered a string of incoherent half-words in reply. Kai Chan nodded apologetically, and then—as if to prove a point—blew a bubble with Minmei's gum as he walked away.

Beecher and the marines stood around her for a few moments, utterly speechless, not sure what else to do or where they could possibly do it. A few moments passed before Beecher took the initiative, "Well that was unexpected..." She said lamely, then reached down and peeled a half-melted Minmei off the cafeteria table. They sat her up on one of the benches, and Aziz held up his hand and showed a number, "How many fingers am I holding up?"

She stared at his hand, blinked a few times, then looked at Beecher, blinked some more, then back at Aziz's hand.

"That's not good," Beecher said, "Let's get her home before she passes out or something."

—13:20 GST—

Generally speaking, the massive expanses of space between the star systems was empty, cold, and extremely dark. There were few reference points one could use for navigation, but it was also the perfect hiding place for anyone attempting to assemble a large scale fleet. Gallaron had used these inter-stellar gulfs numerous times to hide things from Lacul's forces, such as relay stations for communications and supply depots, but this time they would use this emptiness as the last stop on their way in towards Kaladan. The entire fleet was already gathered for the attack, all of them ready for battle and fully stocked with fresh mecha and ammunition. Gallaron's meager force of two hundred and fifty ships weren't much of a threat to Lacul's armada on their own, but a second group was approaching now, a group of nearly two-thousand vessels of the Zentradi 182nd Botoru Fleet. These were all the ships Gyzol could spare from his offensive to assist with the Kaladan attack, but his transmission had also included some very good news. In one massive push he had managed to not only cut off enemy reinforcements from other parts of the galaxy, but he had even been able to drive the enemy all the way back to Bokata-Delcaan. His fleet had arrived in the system only moments before, and he gave Gallaron his assurances that the battle would be brief and that he would soon be sending reinforcements to help them finish the enemy. He also expressed some anxiety that Lacul's command fortress had been sighted in the area, but he took this to mean only that Kaladan was the only other place left for them to run to.

The attack was imminent, it was foremost on everyone's mind as the time drew near. Early in the morning of that day a flash in the midst of them provided a somewhat welcome distraction. Twenty ships defolded into an opening next to SDF-09, a group of nearly a dozen destroyers and a few ARMD class escort carriers, and at the lead of the group was one of the new Zjendiel class gun destroyers, seemingly fresh out of space dock. Imura had heard of it by reputation only, the new gun destroyer Varcus had christened the Perseus and commissioned for his own personal use. After only a moment the ship hailed the Victory and Imura found herself staring at a strangely content Dr. Varcus. "Sorry to be late, Captain." He said lightly. "We had a hard time following the trail of smashed battleships. You didn't leave much of them at all."

Imura smiled. "To what do we owe this pleasure, Varcus? Don't you still have work to do at Alpha Factory?"

"Actually, I came here at the request of the Elders. Dumokai Verten is unhappy with the way you've been treating his favorite daughter."

"So sue me. Sekkai is incompetent and I'd be surprised if she follows half of her orders."

Varcus sighed. "Imura, truth is I've been asked to relive you of your command and send you back to Gallaron to explain your actions to them. Obviously I'm not going to do that now or in the near future, but since I understand the council's reasons making such a request, I have come here to take Sekkai off your hands once and for all."

Imura smiled broader. "You're taking her back with you?"

"No, not exactly. Actually, I'm placing the Gladiator and all three of the other prototypes off your hands completely and placing them under my direct command. We'll run fire support for the main fleet, and just for the hell of it I'll let Sekkai command the Gladiator on the front."

"Really?" Imura could already sense Varcus's motivations for this decision, in fact she could almost read his mind from here. Varcus had surely been cashiered by the Elders after they were flooded by Sekkai's complaints, and the council had very strongly advised him to take action to avoid embarrassing Verten and his family. She knew this was a matter of pride for the Elders, that they were hoping to contribute something to the war effort that was truly native to Gallaron and not the influence of outsiders, even though they all knew that without the help of the Megaroad colonists they would have nothing to contribute in the first place. Varcus's decision was intended to remind them of that, even if it cost the lives of the ship's entire crew. "Good luck on your gamble, Varcus. I hope when this is all over we can put all this nonsense behind us."


—29:14 GST—
"It goes something like this," Ash tapped a beat on the table with two fingers, a frantic yet hypnotic rhythm that immediately had all of them nodding in time with it, "and then we bring up the intro a little... do this sexy, spunky lead in with the sax, then cue the full band. What do you think?"

Enki shook her head, "It's got a good sound, but you can't really put lyrics to music like this. Maybe some kind of instrumental, or an interlude or something. Those are popular, ya know."

"Every album we produce has at least four of those," Larz said, "But right now, we're getting a reputation for being one of those BGM bands. C'mon, we've actually got a lead singer who can carry a tune!"

"Hey, Sabrina wasn't half bad!" Gretta protested.

"Wasn't half good either." Amon said, "Not to disrespect the dead or anything... Look, Ash is right, we've got alot of melancholy material so far, we need something high paced. And a high paced song needs high paced lyrics. Obviously, the one thing in this band we don't have is a good songwriter."

Ash shrugged, "Enki and Tical used to write all the songs for Z-Z..."

"Tical did most of the lyrics. I wrote the music." Enki sighed close to giving up, then something occurred to her, "Minmei, you've been in the business longer than any of us, do you know any really good songwriters we could tap?"

Minmei said nothing, just sat there motionless staring off into space, her chin resting on her palm. The other band members stared at her for a moment or two, then Larz kicked her under the table, "Minmei!"

"Huh?" She looked up suddenly, coming back into her head, "Uh... wha... uh... songwriters?"

Enki nodded.

"Actually, I usually write my own songs. Sometimes I just need some inspiration, like... uh... you know that song, 'My Boyfriend is a Pilot?' I wrote that song for Colonel Ichijo after he joined UN Spacy. It was sort of a joke at first, but it turned into a big hit."

"Really?" Enki thought about this for a moment, then with a mischievous grin, "So maybe your next song will be called, 'Tonsil Hockey with a Marine.''

All at once, Minmei's cheeks turned purple, "Why do you keep bringing that up?"

"Because you've been acting all distracted and everything ever since the smooch!" Gretta laughed as she said it, "What's the story, Minmei? You falling for him or what?"

"No way! He's such a nerd!"

"So is Colonel Ichijo." Ash added, "And Max Jenius for that matter... dammit, how come the nerds end up with all the hot women?"

Amon nodded in agreement, "Aint that the truth. And Minmei is definitely a hot woman."

Everyone around the table nodded in agreement, even—strangely enough—Enki and Gretta. Minmei blushed even deeper, then took a deep breath and sat up a little straighter in her chair, "Great, we all agree about my hotness... now, how about we do something different for a change?"

"Different how?" Larz asked, "You think we should conduct these meetings naked?"

"Bingo!" Ash stood up, and with a single swift movement, pulled off his shirt and threw it on the table. "I feel better already!"

Amon dropped his head on the table, "Put it away, Ash, you're blinding us."

"Actually," Minmei said, trying to ignore the suddenly shirtless Zentradi rocker, "I was thinking about that gig we were planning to commemorate the victory at Kaladan."

Larz slouched a little, "Yeah, well... we're not really planning on what to do if we loose. If we loose, we'll probably be dead."

"Of course. But it means we're not guaranteed to play after the battle's over. You know what I mean?"

"Not really," Amon said, and paused to think about it for a moment, trying to grasp the implications of her idea, "You think we should just kill ourselves now?"

"No, I'm saying we should move up the victory concert by a few days, and run the performance during the battle, instead of after. We could fortify the concert hall as a kind of shelter, and then pump the feed to the other shelter capsules around the city. It keeps the morale high, keeps them from worrying, we might even be able to send a simulcast to the enemy fleet for song warfare. As for Ash's beat... well, give me a week or two I'll come up with some lyrics."

Ash stared at her, suddenly puzzled, "I'm not sure that's your bag, Minmei. Unless you're planning on crossing over to hard-rock, in which case my pants are going on this table."

Minmei shrugged, "Rack, rap, reggae... if it moves the crowds, I'll sing it."

Two seconds later, Ash's trousers appeared on the table next to his shirt. He stood up and flexed his muscles, posed, flexed some more, grunted like a professional body builder. Enki and Larz each stuffed a two-yulin bill into the band of his boxers.

Gretta simply turned away in disgust, "You guys are idiots."

"So a live performance, then?" Amon asked, "What do you think, Clem?"

The silent one of the group, the humongous hulk of a man had not said a word since he came in and sat down almost twenty minutes earlier. In response to the question, Clem cleared his throat, then took of his sunglasses. At the sight of this, Minmei actually caught her breath in amazement; Clem had the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen. "We'll call it, 'The War Drums Concert,'" He said softly, "We'll run it just before the battle, then repeat the a taping of it every four hours until it's over."

Everyone around the table nodded in full agreement, and with a clap of his hands Amon said, "Thus sayeth the Clem!'

"You know what," Minmei said, "I've never seen a black guy with blue eyes."

"Neither have I." Clem said, then put his sunglasses back on. "I'm colorblind."

Larz looked up at him curiously, "Really?"

Clem nodded.

"I guess you learn something new everyday." Larz stood up from the table, and walked across the room to one of the electric keyboards in the corner, "Stripper man, come over here and show us this beat you were talkin about."

"I can loose the boxers too if you like,"

"Better not, Ash," Enki cautioned, "You don't want me and Gretta fighting over you, do you?"

Ash looked hurt, "What about Minmei? I saw the video, I know she can get freaky."

Suddenly, Minmei's face turned as pale as a full moon, "What video?"

"Nothing to worry about," Larz said, "Some protocrans shot a video of you and that Richard guy during your honeymoon on Chatman's Hill. It's been circulating underground for a couple of years."

"And you watched it?" She looked at Ash with a look of horror, "The whole thing?"

"Of course. Haven't you?"

"Hell no! That's despicable! Why would you do something like...!"

"Larz," Ash looked over to his compatriot behind the keyboard, "I think the beat can wait. This takes priority."

Larz nodded in understanding. "I'll go get the disk."

"Oh my God..." Minmei melted into her chair, trying to turn invisible, "I'm going to kill someone, I swear it!"

"You'll be surprised, Minmei." Ash said coyly, "It's not as embarrassing as you'd think."

"I highly doubt that."

"I know you do. And like I said, you'll be surprised."

—29:20 GST—

As soon as he entered his quarters, Broli could hear the growling in his stomach. He hadn't eaten in so long he was sure he would soon be counting ribs in front of a mirror, but now at least for the time being he had some time to actually sit down and eat what could be mistaken for a decent meal. On the other hand, he was in no mood to try and cook something, so he plainly resorted to a spaghetti M.R.E. with a fruit salad. He usually found this satisfying, especially compared to the powdered protein-compounds of Zentradi food packs he had grown accustomed to after all these years. He poured some tap water into the heating pouch, sat back in a chair for a moment to let it sit before he became aware of a growling of a very different nature, as well as the feeling of something furry rubbing against his leg. "You hungry too?" He said, patting Sylus on the head. The tiny cat looked up at him with anticipation in her eyes, purring contently with the promise of another meal. "Don't worry, I didn't forget you." He leaned over to the freezer, pulled out a slab of leftover boneless ribs from the victory party three nights ago. Sylus almost seemed to be smiling; Broli had never been a huge fan of BBQ, but the cat couldn't seem to get enough of it. "It'll be up in a minute..." Broli suddenly remembered what he had actually come here for and pulled a note out of his back pocket. "Oh, that's right. Shikari needs to send a scout team..." Broli started the cycle on the microwave with one hand, opened his MRE pack with the other, then reached over and flipped on the vid screen on the table. "Shian, open a two way vid to SDF-05. Have them put it through to General Shikari."

"Right away, sir." There was a pause before the screen switched again, and the monitor switched to a hold screen while the Defiant's communications officers got in touch with Shikari, checking duty rosters and personnel locators to figure out where in the ship Broli could find her.

The microwave finished its cycle first, and Broli tore off a strip and dangled it over Sylus's head for a moment. She made no pretense of waiting, simply snatched the meat out of his fingers with her paws and started chewing. "Hey, slow down Sylus!" He grabbed a fork out of the cabinet and went to work on the spaghetti. He paused after a few scoops to drop Sylus another strip of BBQ, and he found himself glancing back at the still beeping vid screen on the table. "I wonder what she's up to? It never takes her this long to answer a call, even in her own quarters." Broli wondered if he'd caught her in the shower or using the head or something, but if that were the case she would have simply told him to call back another time. No, this time she was just being slow, which was a bit of a mystery for someone with so much energy.

When she finally did open the line on her end Broli noticed she seemed exhausted. Her face was flushed and sweaty, and her eyelids were drooping even as she looked into the monitor. But more than that, Broli also noticed that she was also completely nude except for the necklace he gave her for Christmas last year. "Captain speaking... oh, hi Kaalcha." she said sleepily.

"Morning, Shikari. Catch you at a bad time?"

Shikari shrugged. "Good as any."

"Great. I called to tell you about some tactical changes. SDF-09 will be leading with a culture attack, and Admiral Misa wants your forces to go back to fire support and advanced tactical support. You're gonna have to get a recon unit in there in the next couple of hours, and I'm not sure if you want to lead the flight yourself."

Shikari wasn't tired anymore. "Right now? Why so soon? We're still about 48 hours from launch time."

Broli took another bite of his spaghetti and talked out of one side of his mouth. "Misa moved it up. The Botoru advanced fleet got here twelve hours early." He swallowed his noodles, then reached up to the microwave to tear off another strip for Sylus, only to find that the little cat had already climbed up onto the counter and helped herself to her meal. "Slow down, Sylus, you'll get sick again!" He reached under the cabinet for a hand towel and dropped it on the counter for the cat to wipe her paws. "What do you think Shik? You going in?"

Shikari shrugged again. "Well, it's tempting but I'm a little busy right now."

Broli smiled. "No kidding. Speaking of which, let me talk to Harper."

Her face had been dark red before, now it almost turned purple. "What makes you think Matt's here?" she said shyly.

"What makes me think Matt isn't there?"

Shikari cleared her throat self-consciously, then moved out of the way of the camera and sat on the bed, and now Captain Harper moved into view. "Hey... uhhh... yeah, you got me Broli. I'm sorry if this creates a problem or..."

"It's no problem, not yet." Broli noticed Sylus growling slightly, though for some reason she preferred to stay out of sight. "Got yourself some good old pussy don't ya?"

Harper blushed heavily, and in the background Broli could just make out Shikari complaining "Matt, I still don't know what that means..."

"Mathew old buddy, you've been a good friend to both me and my wife for a long time now, and I feel like I can trust you."

Harper cocked his head to one side. "Thanks, I guess..."

"But let me just make one thing strait. That girl sitting behind you there means alot to me, and I don't think I need to tell you that. If you mistreat her--even slightly-- I'll have your ass. Do you understand?"

Harper nodded slowly. "I understand sir."

"Good. You can have all the fun you want after this, but this also means you have to take care of her...

"Captain... Broli, I uhhh... we never told anyone this but I think you should know... ummm..."

"What?"

"After this battle's over, we're thinking about getting married. So you can believe me when I say I'll guard her with my life."

Broli could see through him like a glass house. "I see. Good luck on the line, Matt."

He closed the channel and Shikari moved up next to him, leaning up against the side of his arm with her head. He put his arm around her shoulder and walked with her towards the kitchen for some breakfast, but Shikari stopped him in the doorway and stood there in front of him. "You think he's angry?"

Matt sighed. "Probably. Not that I blame him though, he's only looking out for his little sister."

Shikari found herself facing yet another phrase she was unfamiliar with. "Little what?"

"Never mind, it's not important."

—29:40 GST—

No one knew what was happening at Bokata yet, but they all knew it was not good news. Somehow the Zentradi had surprised Sarron's decoy units and his fleet ended up in a running battle halfway across the sector, with the Zentradi simply massacring them thousands at a time. Everyone in the army knew, just as Lacul knew, that the Supervision Army could not stand against the Zentradi for any long period of time. It had been one of the great constants of the universe for over half a million years, that on a level playing field it was the Zentradi who held all the advantages in resources and materials, that the Zentradi could endure much longer than their adversaries if necessary. Even being able to repair their equipment as the Zentradi could not, the only way they had gone on this long was by avoiding open conflicts like this, by giving ground whenever they had to and taking only what losses were necessary to attain victory. Sarron was loosing ships thousands at a time now, and it didn't surprise anyone in the slightest. The only hope now was that Bennet's miracle maneuver turned out to be more than just a fool's attempt to save his reputation.

Kong arrived at Kaladan with the rest of the retreating vessels several days before, running a relay from Bokata to Vorhalas where Lacul could keep track of the battle as it unfolded. Kong himself had watched the retreat anxiously, watched the Zentradi storm in towards the system and the Supervision Army falling inexorably deeper and deeper into their territory. Kong had marveled at how bold Bennet seemed today, the way he had intentionally allowed them to surround his fleet and concentrated all of his reserves around what the Zentradi would have perceived to be their primary target. He had been watching eagerly for new developments when Lacul summoned him, and with every strong effort he drew his attention away from the signal from Bokata to report to Lacul's side.

He arrived there to find the giant of giants seemingly exhausted, as if his life had somehow drained out of him and he now appeared sluggish and immobile. Kong had rarely seen Lacul like this, only when the energy matrix that kept him intravenously supplied with spiritia energy malfunctioned, but he knew that was not the case today. Somehow, some way, Lacul's mood was s factor of pure anxiety. "You called for me, my lord?" He said, approaching quietly on one catwalk.

"I'm sensing a bad omen, Kong," Lacul said, ominously, "What I am about to tell you will not leave this room."

Kong swallowed and nodded faintly. He knew this was important and made an effort to swallow whatever it was Lacul wished of him, "Confidential, Lord."

"Jinai's wife and child," Lacul began, "I've had them in stasis for over half a million years, ever since Gepernich first captured him. For security purposes I keep them stored along with other captives, and keep a close watch on them to make sure they aren't reanimated and sent into combat. Now it seems I have misplaced them somehow, and I'm not really sure when or where."

Kong frowned, "We've been moving a great many of our reservists to the planet surface, Lord. Several have been reanimated for the breeding program. They might have been transferred there by mistake."

That was a reminder for Lacul. Sarride had dutifully reanimated about just short of one billion troops in storage, separated the men and the women and penned them in a variety of makeshift holding units around the various ruins of Vorhalas' cities. In their depleted state they were only barely conscious, but the males retained just enough consciousness to respond in predictable ways when locked in a room with four females. It was an old trick Lacul had learned eons ago and taught to Lazuli as a cost saving measure; it took more time, but it saved him the trouble of having to build and maintain new cloning chambers. "I do not think Jinai knows of this yet."

"I doubt he could know. Just locating them should prove to be a logistics nightmare."

"Even so," Lacul's face darkenned, "This is a bad omen. If and when we begin offensive operations against Gallaron, I want you to keep an eye on Jinai and make sure he follows his orders properly. You won't have enough time to contact me if he does anything... irrational."

"I understand," Kong took a small step back, "Will you forward me a copy of his orders from now on so I can evaluate how well he follows them?"

"Of course. Now I suggest you return to Bokata and complete your mission there first. I'll transfer you to Jinai's command after that."

Kong bowed respectfully, walked back down the catwalk to leave the chamber.

—29:41 GST—

With the entire Supervision Army gathered in Bokata-Delcaan, the Zentradi numbers advantage wasn't so overwhelming anymore, but the result of all the battles were exactly the same and the enemy was made to suffer. Gyzol had watched his fleet tear through the enemy's outer defense line as if they were nothing, and he had watched his main fleet chase the enemy forces across the star system towards the red giant in the center for several days. They hadn't even been able to slow them down, and even now he could just make out the shape of Lacul's command fortress in low orbit of the first planet of the system, barely visible against the star's radiation background. And still the enemy was retreating towards it, making a vain effort to defend their lord and master from Zentradi vengeance. "Run, little men, run." Gyzol said mockingly. "The Zentradi will chase you to the end of time..."

A comms window opened from Commander Barzam on the flagship of his offensive fleet, the smiling officer seemed to be in an impeccably good mood. "Lord Gyzol, enemy ships are now making a stand in front of the first planet. We're also picking up an additional group of twenty-five thousand vessels coming up on the far side."

"Only twenty-five thousand? He must be scraping the bottom now. Annihilate them for me, will you Barzam?"

Commander Barzam laughed. "My gunboats are standing by."

"Alright then. All ships, close to within 60 attacking range and prepare a full barrage. Set your targets to Lacul's command ship and prepare to fire!"

Ten-thousand gunboats opened their main cannons at once and began powering up to attack. It was only a tenth of the number used by the Bodolza fleet to destroy Earth years before, but then again Lacul's fortress was quite a bit smaller than the Earth itself.

Bennet felt a flutter in his stomach, a kind of excitement he hadn't felt almost all his life. The enemy had done everything perfectly closed right in just the way they were supposed to. And even as their gunboats charged up a barrage against the neatly-crafted asteroid sculpture of Lacul's fortress, he could only clench his fists from here and hope they didn't catch on before it was too late. Sarron was still down on the planet's surface in his battleship, but as soon as he gave the order he would activate the program and leave that place along with whichever of his ships were not acting as decoys. "Bennet to all ships, now standby for firecracker..." The gunboats all fired at once, crossing the space between them with their deadly beams and smashing the side of the fortress with their cannons. The blast knocked out a massive chunk of the asteroid and almost split it it two; it had done much more damage than Bennet thought it would and now he was certain they had only a matter of moments before the Zentradi realized they'd been had. "Sarron, initiate firecrackers one through four and get the hell out of there!"

Sarron felt his heart pounding and, hoping for a miracle, pressed the red button on his consol. All at once, his main computer uplinked to the fold weapons deep underneath the planet and, then the fold drives on his ship cut in and most of his fleet folded to the holding area on the other side of the system. His vessels emerged from hyperspace on the opposite side of the star, well beyond the sensor range of the Zentradi fleet. He knew they would not be able to detect the fold reaction for several minutes when the energy could reach them at the speed of light, but it would be over long before then.

Deep below the surface of the planet, all four fully charged fold weapons powered up and activated in sequence, delayed behind each other by exactly 9.412 seconds. The first fold weapon flashed as the booster units plunged it into hyperspace and delivered its deadly energies into it's target, and just under a second later the next one did the same...

The third detonation of the fold weapon was the first one who's effects could be seen by the Zentradi, but even then Gyzol did not have any idea just what it was that was going on. The star seemed to be pulsating inwards like a beating heart, growing brighter and hotter about every ten seconds before pulsing inwards even more. It was as if the star itself was contracting violently for some reason. "Commander Barzam, what in blazes is going on with the red giant? I've never seen a reaction like that before."

All four fold weapons had already gone off, their work completed and their effect irreversible. The star was no longer pulsing, now it was collapsing down towards its center at an incredible rate. Commander Barzan didn't need to ask his computers to know the collapse was accelerating, that the star was caving in on itself fast and faster every second, but like everyone else he had no idea what this meant. "Well Etoru? You have an explanation?"

Barzam's archivist stared at it for a long moment and shook his head in disbelief. "It doesn't seem to resemble any of our old battle records, but it does seem to resemble a scientific phenomena in our oldest archives."

"What kind of phenomena?" Barzam said.

Etoru searched his memory for the last time he had heard any reference to the notion of collapsing stars when suddenly the screens in front of them lit up with the light of a billion suns, blinding all of them to the chaos before them. All the material of the star had reached critical mass, now it burst out in all directions in a reaction a hundreds of trillions of times greater than any reaction warhead. The shockwave of material from the star swept towards them a thousands of times the speed of sound, closing on them so quickly they never even knew what danger they were in. The wave swept across all 300,000 ships of the Botoru fleet in half the time it takes a hummingbird to beat its wings, smashing every one of them down to subatomic particles instantly. Gyzol did not even have a chance to feel the pain before his body was reduced to a cloud of ions, neither for that matter did Barzam or his archivist. None of the Zentradi vessels in the system could have survived the blast, and as the shockwave swept through the system every planet in the star's gravitational field was soon to meet an identical fate.

In a few years that shockwave would begin to effect nearby starts and their planets, but for now the only effect was to inspire awe in the Supervision Army soldiers watching from a distance. As a child on Earth, Bennet had seen these things through a telescope a number of times and always imagined what it would be like to see one in person. Now he had seen it himself, and the reaction that burned it his heart began to work his mind into new shapes and forms. "Well Sarron," He said after a moment, looking at his monitor with a wolfish grin. "Are we satisfied?"

Sarron nodded slowly, still unable to turn his eyes away from it. "It's fantastic! It's like a microbe watching a reaction warhead!"

"That's exactly what it's like." Bennet pointed out. "There's enough energy in this blast alone to wipe out every Zentradi fleet that has ever existed at once, and yet we only needed it for one troublesome little band."

Sarron finally peeled his eyes away from the screens and looked at the data on his consol. "The shockwave will arrive here in eleven minutes. What course shall we set sir?"

Bennet almost laughed. This was the first time since he'd joined the fleet anyone had called him 'sir' without a tone of sarcasm. "The Gallaron fleet is moving on Vorhalas and an attack is imminent. How about we go and surprise them?"

Sarron counted off in his head. "That would be good, but this battle has cost us alot more than you realize. We've lost thousands of ships to the Zentradi and thousands more just for this decoy operation..."

"And the Zentradi are no longer a threat to us, so mission accomplished. In any case, there aren't more than 3,000 Zentradi ships still at large in this sector and most of them are with the Gallaron fleet right now. This fleet alone has nearly six times that number with at least as many waiting for them at Kaladan. Trust me Sarron, our good fortune is only beginning."

"I hope you're right, Bennet. And more than anything I hope it lasts. Fate, it seems, is annoyingly fickle sometimes,"

"Yes, but it always favors the bold." Bennet leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the consol. "I tire of this show, Sarron. I think I'll come back some other time and watch it again, but in the mean time you should set course for Kaladan and try and get there in time for the battle."

Sarron grinned. "In time? Bennet, assuming we don't take too much time between folds we should be able to make the trip in under two days, especially without the Zentradi to worry about."

"That's what I like to hear, Sarron." Bennet said, chuckling in his success as the fold systems powered up.

—29:52 GST—
Larz poured her another drink, and as with the others she drained half of this one in a single gulp, saving the others for the next gulp. The video was longer than she thought it would be, and far more diverse. And yet, she realized, the worse part had not even come up yet. "I'll tell you what, Ash, I am surprised," She said, slurred words slightly from a combination of alcohol and indignation, "Am I really that boring?"

Enki patted her on the shoulder, "What do most people do on their honeymoons? I mean, look at you... you went fishing, you climbed a few trees, sang a few songs, roasted a marshmallow, ate some small animals... that's a real life. We all have one, it's just not very interesting to see on TV."

"I don't get it," She said, and sagged a little, watching the tape play on. Presently, a slightly younger Minmei and a remarkably giddy Richard Powel were lying side by side on the top of the hill in a carpet of tall Gallaron grass, staring up into the night sky with a telescope, looking for Earth. They hadn't moved from that spot in fifteen minutes, and if Minmei remembered correctly, they wouldn't again for at least another hour when they were finally attacked by a pair of excessively large birds that had mistaken Richard's telescope as a nocturnal arc-worm. "This is some boring stuff. Why do so many people keep buying this tape?"

"The Zentradi go nuts over it," Gretta said, a tiny note of bitterness in her voice, "I guess they're natural voyeurs."

Larz snorted, "That has nothing to do with it. This tape is so popular to Zentradi because to them, none of this is boring. They all think of you, Minmei, as sort of the living embodiment of microne culture, but until this tape came out, they all thought "culture" was just song and dance for special occasions. The day-to-day activities of the average microne gave them something they could relate to, something realistic."

Ash thought about the assessment for a few moments, then chopped it down in less elegant terms, "It's kinda like one of those documentaries, you know? Like, this is what real people do in their spare time, not like those movie dramas or those idiotic romance novels. It's an eye opener, I tell ya."

"Damn right," Enki said, regarding the TV image with renewed intensity, "Oh! This is my favorite part!"

Minmei watched and remembered what came next. The protocron photographers had paused filming to replace the power cells on their camera, and resumed again two hours later just in time to catch: "Campfire... campfire songs?" On the screen, the ancient camera zoomed in with startlingly clear resolution. The two of them were sitting on mats around the campfire, roasting hotdogs at the end of long sticks in the open flame. They were singing one of Minmei's old songs, trying to sing it as a duet, but Richard intentionally said the wrong lyrics, and each time Minmei slapped him on the chest and shouted, "Those aren't the words!"

"This?" Minmei looked at Enki in disbelief, "This is your favorite part?"

"Yeah, totally." She shrugged, "It took me at least two months to figure it out."

Ash grunted, "Yeah, me too. I kept wondering why you were hitting him, because you were laughing at the same time. It didn't make sense."

Now Minmei thought about it, and in some strange way it made perfect sense. The Zentradi, with no experience with any culture of any kind other than battles, rules and regulations, no exposure to any mindset other than the rigid framework of a military entity; the video of Minmei's first honeymoon was as alien to them as the Zentradi first were to humans. In a way, it was strangely ironic that something so simple could give such a pure glance look into micronian culture to so many people. The video dragged on like this for twenty more minutes until, at long last, Richard Powell kissed his drowsy new bride goodnight and the two disappeared into the tent at the end of the hill. "I never really thought about it that way... I mean, I guess I..."

"Here it comes," Ash said, then leaned forward in anticipation.

"Here what comes?"

Enki shushsed her and turned up the volume on the TV.

Minmei was completely unprepared for what followed; the next few images from their tent on the top of the hill were in daylight, the campfire still smoldering in its place where they had left it the night before. She could only just hear the dialogue across the distance from the camera to the campsite, but in a few seconds it no longer mattered. She watched herself strip off her clothes and toss them aside, then watched Richard to the same. He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her off the ground--an impressive feat in Gallaron's higher gravity--and Minmei wrapped her legs around his naked waist...

"You have until the count of three to turn this off or I'm calling Kai Chan."

Ash groaned, disappointed, "C'mon, Minmei, haven't you ever watched yourself do...?"

"One!"

Even Gretta protested, "Geez, Minmei, live a little!"

"Two!"

Ash resorted to pleasing, "C'mon! Please!"

"Three!"

"Alright, alright," Larz pressed a button on the remote and the TV image clicked off. The computer ejected the disk and the recording ended there. "Damn, you're such a killjoy!"

"Larz, how would you feel if somebody videotaped your...um... private stuff and sold it to millions of people?"

Larz thought about it for a moment, then glanced at Ash, "There's an idea."

Enki chuckled, "Why not? It'll give us something to do."

"Good idea." Larz took the Minmei disk out of the machine, then put another one back in.

Minmei put two and two together, "Let me guess... you two...?"

Enki nodded, "Like I said, you're a big inspiration for me."

"Unbelievable," Minmei stood up from the couch, felt the room spinning slightly from the influence of one too many beers. "I'm going to leave you perverts alone and go work on those lyrics. Does anyone else here work for a living?"

"Maybe later," Larz said, but before she could leave, caught up with her by the door and slipped the disk into her hand, "You might want to watch this," He said into her ear, "It'll help you out."

"How?" She turned around with an angry expression, "I'm sure you've got another copy lying around somewhere that you can humiliate me with..."

"You'll understand soon enough." Larz gave her just a brief flash of a very friendly smile, a sign that he was, in fact, sincere in his meaning. "When you're ready, you'll know what to do."