"Harper, are you sure this is going to work?" Dylan asked suspiciously.

"Hey, now," I said, "Is Rommie hot? Are black holes big? Is there a babe alive that can resist the charms of Harper?"

"We're doomed," Beka groaned, face buried in her hands.

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks, Boss. I'll keep that comment in mind next time you want me to fix up the Maru. But seriously, why doubt me? All we need to do is hook up our back-up energy storage system to the gravity field of this net thing holding us, pinpointing the teseracting tangents, where the energy is the highest. Then we siphon off some energy from them, so we recharge our weapons, jump-start out slipstream drive and blast through the net all in one big beautiful stroke of genius!"

"Oh, that's all?" Rhade asked sarcastically. I didn't mind, though, because if Rhade was showing vague Nietzschean humor, he wasn't feeling cranky enough to kill me.

So as the skeptics watched, I hooked up the system, and flipped the switch.

"Kids, don't try this at home," I advised.

The control panel I was at began to light up with random sparks, which soon covered the entire Command deck. I scanned the stats of the systems recharge, but kept a close eye on how Rommie was holding up. I didn't want any stray proton charges knocking her out again. I built her tough, but two short circuits in less than an hour isn't healthy for anyone.

Soon the entire ship was lit up like a Vedran Asteroid Party, and just as a vague feeling of "Hmm, this might be a close call" began to cross my mind, everything stopped. The lights went out, panels shut down and for a gut-wrenching moment, everything was silent.

Then the lights came back on again and Rommie reported, "Recharging complete. All major systems fully functioning. Weapons at full energy capacity. Slip stream drive online and ready."

In response to the sighs of relief around the deck, I flashed my Harper patented smile # 27 (Worship-me.-You-know-you-want-to) and said, "See? Simple!"

Beka, in the pilot's seat, grimaced. "Yeah, great," she said. "It's all fine and dandy that I can fly in slipstream now, but that's no help if I can't get to slipstream! The net's still holding us in place."

"What?" I exclaimed. "That's not possible! I drained all Carbon and Sodium energy out of the stupid thing! What's it running on?"

"It appears to be under the support of a Hydrogen-based energy source," Rommie commented.

That threw me. "Hydrogen? As an energy source? That's crazy! It's too erratic! I've seen more rational things from Hisk'aine during mating season! It's like trying to harness the energy of a star for a simple net!"

"A star?" Dylan asked, throwing a suspicious look at Trance. I had no idea why, but if she knew how this worked, and never told, she deserved a suspicious look.

She gave a helpless frown. "They hadn't encountered anything like an energy siphon when I was last with them. I thought Harper's plan could work."

"They?" Dylan asked, and looked like he was going to say more, but was interrupted.

"An impressive attempt, Dylan Hunt, " the lispy voice said over our systems. "Completely futile, but highly amusing."

"What do you want?" Dylan snapped, looking very peeved.

"You have something of mine, which I lost a very long time ago. I want what is mine back, and you will give it to me, Dylan Hunt."

"Well, that depends on exactly what you want," Dylan replied, making a valiant attempt to sound reasonable.

"There is a foreign object approaching our ship," Rommie reported. "It is a large cloud consisting of millions of small, Hydrogen-based molecules."

With a slightly panicked look on her face, Trance spoke up.

"Seal the ship," she said. "Every single opening or port, we can't let that cloud in here!"

"Trance," I said softly, kinda worried about her terrified tone of voice, "This ship is airtight. It has to be so it can fly in space."

Dylan, probably sensing the same worry out of her as I did, asked, "This cloud, is it dangerous?"

Trance pursed her lips. "Not to you," she whispered.

So, it was pretty much decided this cloud was a bad thing. I don't think any of us were sure if when Trance said, "Not to you," if she was talking to only Dylan, or if she meant the rest of the crew. Either way, Trance, a girl who has probably traveled around the galaxy and seen the worst of the universe, was not a fun thing to see in a panic. Anything that would calm her down right now would be very welcome.

"The cloud has breached my hull and is traveling to the Command Deck," Rommie announced.

Thanks, Rom. Just what we needed to hear.

At this news, Trance seemed to steel herself against what was going to happen next. She straightened her shoulders and looked us all in the eyes.

"Things will change now," she said, quietly. "I'm not sure yet if the change is good or bad. Maybe you'll even like it. But after it happens, I won't be able to help you as much anymore, so I'm sorry. I'll never forget any of you. I don't know if I'll be there in the same way I used to be, but I promise to still help you in any way that I still can."

Now I'll admit, Seamus Harper can be an asinine, rude, SOB at the best of times. But Trance's little speech was doing some serious tugging at my heart. It sounded an awful lot like she was saying goodbye, and that wasn't very fair. No matter what form she was in, Trance was still a friend. Hey, I was even getting fond of this version of her, and the thought of losing Trance again was making my gut twist up into funny little shapes that reminded me of when I had those cute little Magog eggs eating me alive.

Wow. I'm growing soft.

"Trance, I don't know what's scaring you, but we're not going to let you get kidnapped by a cloud," Beka said. "I don't plan on –"

"Beka," Trance interrupted softly.

Just then, a huge golden cloud-thing entered Command Deck. It shimmered as it moved and I almost would have commented on how beautiful it was, if it weren't for the look on Trance's face. Dylan threw and accusing look at Rommie.

"I tried to stop it!" she said defensively. "Airtight seals apparently don't work as effectively as they're supposed to. The cloud passed through as if they weren't even there."

"It's supposed to," said Trance, as the cloud headed straight for her.

Now, Trance wouldn't be Trance if she didn't put up a fight before just giving up. And sure enough, when the cloud was almost upon her, she stubbornly raised her chin and said – to the cloud—"I'm not going back. I belong here."

Over the intercom, that lispy voice I had nearly forgotten about laughed a creepy, disjointed laugh. "You act as if you have a choice, child."

For a moment, the golden cloud enveloped her – but only for a moment. Suddenly, from beneath the cloud, came sharp, bright rays of light from…Trance! …fighting back against the cloud's hold. But the cloud withered like a living thing, and expanded, until nothing left of Trance could be seen.

Things became slightly fuzzy for me then. It might have been my lack of food for a day and my lack of women for even longer. It might have been the shock of seeing someone you've known and worked with for years suddenly turn into a giant flashlight. Then again, it might have been the fact that there was an explosion from the giant Trance/cloud thing a few feet away. Everything not bolted down – pretty much all the soft, squishy humans: seriously Dylan, we gotta do something about that – was sent flying. I remember hearing a very ugly crack as my head slammed into the floor, and the room spun around at a rate that would have made the speed of light seem a snail's pace. Trying to clear my vision, I saw the cloud dispersing, leaving as if it were never there.

And crumpled on the floor was Trance. She was beaten, unconscious – and as purple as a can of my Sparky Cola.

Vaguely, I could hear that stupid lispy voice, still on the stupid com unit, laughing that stupid disjointed laugh.

"You asked what I wanted, Dylan Hunt? I want Trance Gemini, and I shall have her. It's time my daughter came home."