Telepathy note: I've finally decided that the various types of telepathy need explaining. Here's a key to what is what:

>standard text> 'Out loud' speech from Shadow and Spiketail, which humans can hear.

>italic text> 'Private' speech from Shadow and Spiketail, which only Aliens can hear. This is a new addition for this chapter, but I'm not going to go back and change it for the previous ones. Note that bits of italics or standard in the middle of speech are probably just emphasis.

¬italic text¬ Speech from the Queen. Only heard by Aliens.

¬standard text¬ Speech from the rest of the drones. Only heard by Aliens.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

>We're out of the danger zone in one sense,> began Shadow. >The Queen has agreed to a truce until we can reach our destination. Which brings me onto the more important point.>

With surprising delicacy, he pressed several buttons on the navigation console. A hologram of the surrounding area of space appeared, and zoomed out to reveal a sector map.

>We're here,> he said, stabbing a claw at a flashing point on the hologram. A sphere appeared around the point. >That shaded area is how far we can go with current energy reserves. As you can see, there is one blue system within that radius: SV-7210.>

"Blue meaning habitable, I presume," said Hector.

>Precisely.>

"But wait," said the captain thoughtfully. "The computer was adamant that there weren't any systems with habitable planets near enough to reach. How come…"

>The computer was still running on safety regulations. You see, there's a problem in the journey to SV-7210. The Kavash Nebula.> Shadow pushed another control, and a huge dark blot appeared on the hologram, blocking the way to the indicated system.

Hector's answer was short and concise. "No."

"The Kavash Nebula is a death trap!" said Holly heatedly. "I know next to nothing about stellar travel, and even I know that!"

I know the dangers. This is the only option.

"Would anyone care to inform those of us who know even less about stellar travel what the Kavash Nebula is?" asked Jake plaintively.

Hector sighed. "Nebulas are dangerous areas at the best of times – sensors are useless, communications non-existent. But the Kavash is even worse than most. A survey ship discovered some time ago that something in the nebula causes the subspace bubbles needed for E-space travel to disintegrate upon contact with certain areas. The result is that the ship gets spat back into normal space, usually the worse for wear, and the strain destroys the drive, leaving the ship stranded. Some cartographers once tried to map the locations of these areas, but they discovered that they're apparently randomly generated. I'm not taking the Charon in there."

>You forget, captain, that we're already dead,> said Shadow waspishly. >Staying here will only drain the power core further, and the recyclers can only be sent so far. There is no other way. Yes, it's risky. But we might as well die trying to get somewhere than just by waiting for the end.>

There was silence.

The doors to the main lobby of the ship opened, and a drone walked in. It held itself with a kind of vicious intent, as though hoping that someone would be stupid enough to attack.

>What's news?> Spiketail asked.

>They're considering it. They weren't happy, of course.>

>It didn't seem like a brilliant idea to me, either. Of course,> she continued, switching to audible speech, >if you don't like the idea, we could take over the ship and proceed without your permission.>

Hector blanched. "You said…"

>I made no promises, captain,> said Shadow. >It's not a point that I would have made unless necessary, but Spiketail has a fairly… direct approach. We are taking this route, with your agreement or without it. And if we do it without, you're little more than food and hosts. With it, we might be able to be… partners. Friends is probably too strong a word.>

"You don't say," said Holly darkly.

"It seems we have little choice," said Hector, biting off each word. "But don't think I'll forget this. For a while, I thought we could actually trust you. More fool me."

Shadow said nothing, but inwardly sighed. If only Spiketail hadn't barged in and ruined everything, they might have actually started to work together properly, instead of ending up in what was essentially a hostage situation.

Silence.

The hive had returned to its stasis pod, and the crew to their hypersleep capsules. Throughout the ship, nothing breathed.

The computer chattered to itself, meaningless bleeps echoing through the bridge occasionally.

It discovered that the ship had entered a bubble in the nebula, clear of stellar gas and debris. After cross-referencing with its internal database, it concluded that the system within the bubble was not on record. Carefully storing the information, and giving the new system the tag of 'NMR-752', it continued analysing the readings.

Closer to the system now. The computer noted that there were five planets, including one that appeared to be habitable. It analysed the atmosphere, and discovered that the planet was environmentally and ecologically active.

The computer stored the data, and then went back to analysing the local area.

It noted an irregularity within the E-space drives – a small imbalance in the power transfer matrix.

It corrected the irregularity, noting that the drain on the power core from the drives had increased slightly. It recalculated the maximum possible range, and compared it to the distance to the target. The distance was still within range.

Another irregularity attracted its attention. The ship was slowing. If the Charon went below a certain critical velocity, it would lose velocity and need to reactivate the E-space drives from scratch. Accordingly, the computer diverted more power to the drives to maintain speed.

Power drain increased rapidly. A tortured whining echoed through the ship as the power transfer matrix was strained beyond its normal limits.

And then, with an explosion that rocked the ship, the E-space drive overloaded. Warning sirens wailed throughout the ship, and the hypersleep capsules automatically opened.

Shadow, thanks to his Alien physiology, was the first to regain consciousness. The sirens wailing immediately suggested that something had gone wrong.

He could sense that the humans around him were too groggy from the hypersleep after-effects to be of any help. So he woke them up.

Jake yelled in shock as his mind felt the shockwave from the Alien's scream. Cries of surprise resounded through the chamber as the other humans were jerked awake.

"What's happening?" Jake yelled as the real sound of the sirens got through to him.

>I don't know!> Jake was horrified at the terror that sounded in the 'voice'. Shadow had never been anything other than completely calm.

>I need to wake the hive. Go to the bridge and work out what's happened!>

Hector staggered towards the bridge, with Jake following close behind.

The bridge was filled with smoke from the shorting consoles. Electrical sparks flew through the air, and even as they rushed in, they heard a resounding crash that suggested that more controls had blown out.

But it was not the chaos of the bridge that attracted their attention. It was the view through the bridge windows. The view of the nebula.

"I think we lost our gamble," said Jake with a mirthless laugh.

Shadow hammered the controls on the stasis pod, and the capsule slowly opened. Gases erupted from within, and the closely-packed, black shapes of the hive were revealed.

¬Did we arrive safely?¬

Shadow was saved the indecision by the ship's intercom activating.

"To all crew members of the Charon, this is Captain Hector. I'm afraid that things have gone wrong.

"We evidently stumbled on one of the disruptive phenomena of the Kavash Nebula, as we are still deep inside it. The ship is badly damaged, and although we have stabilised the problems, we are now trapped here forever.

"The computer has detected a habitable planet nearby, which we are now heading for. With any luck, we will be able to land and start a new life there. If we're really lucky, we might be able to coexist with our hitchhikers.

"Power reserves are low – maybe too low to make a safe landing. We may all die in the process. If we do, then I just want to say that I'm sorry. For this entire mess." The intercom clicked off.

There was silence, both physical and mental, in the cargo bay.

>Out of the frying pan into the fire,> said Spiketail quietly. >Escaping the nukes to die in a crash landing. Bit of an anticlimax, really.>

Shadow shook his head in a human reflex. >We're not dead yet. We should get the hive to the top levels – they'll be the safest.>

The Queen gave the mental equivalent of a nod, and the entire hive started to move into the air vents and cargo lifts.

¬You should go to the humans. See if you can help them. And deal with them if, for some unfathomable reason, they decide on treachery.¬

Shadow sighed, and moved back into the main lobby, with Spiketail close behind.

"You here?" asked Hector. "Looks like the old girl was named correctly after all. Charon. Huh. Boatman of the underworld, and she's taking us there right now."

>Why's everyone being so morbid?> asked Shadow. >We could survive the landing.>

Holly snorted. "Hector was being optimistic over the intercom. It's not that we might not have the power to make a proper landing. We won't. This bucket is going down like a ton of bricks, and we don't have anything to stop it with. We've used the last of the power reserves to steer ourselves for the place, and we'll drain the power core completely just trying to slow down to a reasonable speed. We're still going to be hitting the planet at about 500 km/h. And a starship is sturdily built, but not that strong."

Shadow didn't respond.

A little green orb appeared through the windows, growing rapidly. Just as it was possible to pick out each of the three continents visible, the ship juddered as the engines kicked in with reverse thrust.

"Skim it!" roared Hector. "We'll stand a better chance if we aren't hitting the thing dead on!"

The planet grew until it filled the view. Charon slowly turned so that it was aiming to skim through the atmosphere, and it looked like they would make it.

And then the juddering stopped. The engines had run out of power, and they were now flying a five-thousand ton glider without any form of aerodynamics.

On the planet below, the native life forms looked up to see a blazing star falling through the sky.

The heat from the star radiated off, and the trees closest to it burst into flame. Flying creatures swarmed away from the inferno.

The star continued to fall at an angle, dropping all the time.

And then it hit the tree line.

The trees of NMR-752-M1 were even larger and sturdier than the largest Earth trees, but they were battered aside like matchsticks by the five-thousand ton behemoth.

As the Charon ploughed into the ground, shockwaves resonated across the landscape. The ship created a huge furrow behind it, not being noticeably slowed by the landscape.

A huge cliff loomed in front of the fiery wreck, and it shuddered as the ship slammed into it, and finally stopped.

Nothing moved.

The forest slowly returned to normal, and the thing that had been watching the entire scene got up onto a rock pile on the cliff.

So. There were newcomers to the planet.

The wreck, and more particularly its occupants, where of great interest to the watcher. But he was patient. Patience was a trait he had learned during his five-year imprisonment on the planet.

Now, of course, he could leave anytime he wanted. But this place was a paradise for a hunter.

So he, and his clan, had stayed.

Ironic. Most of those shipwrecked on this planet wished to leave, but couldn't. He and his kin could, but didn't want to.

He sighed. Now that the smoke was clearing, he could see the shape of the wreck, and recognised the design. Nothing that he hadn't dealt with before. Not too much of a challenge.

These aliens were adaptable, but physically puny. They seldom survived for more than a week here. And they weretechnologically backward. They might hold some interest – they were cunning – but no challenge.

Not for a Yautja, anyway.

So. Welcome to planet Hades. The question is, who survived the crash? I'm afraid that I will be killing off quite a few characters here.And our first sighting of Predators – enjoy, as they'll play a big part later on.

Iconofcoolness: Glad I can provide a few surprises. In fact, originally Kail died as well, by various methods – not surviving the transformation, dying before meeting up with the hive… I just kept putting it off, as she was a useful plot addition. So we ended up with Spiketail… I wanted to keep the human-to-xeno characters to a minimum. Not to give too much away, their are going to be more at some point...