Dedicated to all my readers: yes, this means you!

Chapter 15

We grouped around the control panel. "We have a little bit of an advantage," Jake tried to pep us up, "in that they don't know who we are, who this ship is. So Rruyshah, do you think you could try and peacefully communicate with them?"

Marco was not convinced of this strategy. "Peacefully? What's she going to say, "Please let Ax go."?"

"She could say the Kelbrid wanted to deal with him personally for trespassing."

"Actually, that could work. But we need to get out of the way of the camera."

Matt proposed an alternative. "Or you could morph Kelbrid."

"Yeah, let's do that," Jake began the changes. I joined him: it got progressively easier. This was now our third time through. Marco waited until fully morphed to assist Rruyshah with the computer. Finally, an image flickered into view, one we'd never seen before. Another victim of The One. It greeted us in Galard.

Rruyshah professionally stated her demand. We waited anxiously, unsure how it was going.

It curtly instructed her to wait, and then the pixels began to flash. An altogether different alien was presented to us, but the same voice said something else.

Rruyshah and Matt both stepped back from the computer a little bit, Rruyshah somewhat farther. She replied to it vigorlessly.

((Do they know we're here?)) Jake asked.

"No, not you. Just me and Matrex."

((I want to slap myself on the head now. Unfortunately, I don't have hands.)) Marco had caught onto the fact that the alien could hear Rruyshah addressing Jake, and was now replying in Galard. She spoke back frantically, and I guessed he could hear the lie in her voice.

((Okay, Marco-)) Was Jake trying to make up for not going through Z-Space? ((fire at the engines.))

He tried to reach with his Kelbrid limbs, but wasn't flexible enough. ((I'd have to demorph.))

((Go ahead.)) Jake stepped up to the camera and very visibly did so as well.

I went along with the crowd. ((Is there time to find a shredder?))

"Nah." Our laser streaked towards the engine, incinerating it. "Nice aim!"

"Thanks," Marco stepped back. "Well, we've certainly made ourselves known."

Instead of returning fire, the other ship retreated.

"That better have been a good shot," Matt threatened, "because I sure don't want to chase them around the universe again."

"By the way, Jake," Marco seemed distant, and was staring into space. "When we-Jeanne and I-were poking around the ship, they, uh, they didn't get me or anything."

Jake forced a laugh. "I never thought so."

"Oh. Uh, okay. I just figured I should tell you know."

"It's fine. Try firing again-where are they?" They were receding rapidly: this time it had been their Z-space engines we'd disabled, not real space. Unfortunately, they were close to the planet they'd fixed their ship on.

But we weren't worrying about that at the time. As we sped towards the other Blade ship, it started to swerve oddly. Marco took a second shot, but this one missed entirely. "Rruyshah, take us out of this course!"

She struggled with the controls. "I can't!"

"They must've got our engines," Matt stood around and made no effort to be helpful.

Marco shoved Rruyshah out of the way as he grappled to steer. Agonizingly, we inched away from the path the ship had stubbornly insisted on taking.

"Why would they want to force us away from them?" Rruyshah mused. "I thought they wanted to absorb our minds."

((I don't think it's a they, I think it's more of an it.))

Matt leaned against a wall. "That made total sense."

"Whatever it is, it's getting away." Jake paced over to Marco and Rruyshah, although he couldn't decipher the technology.

"We could try the radio again." Marco's finger rose to the button he'd need to press, but didn't make contact.

"Sure, go ahead, whatever you want."

"Whatever I want? I could use some leadership here."

"Come up with it yourself." Jake didn't sound bitter, just "enabling".

"Press it." Rruyshah didn't even let him, going ahead and doing it herself.

Marco stepped back. That was evidently not where he had wanted leadership to come from.

We heard what seemed to be a distorted, childish voice over the radio. "Hello? Does this work?" And in the background, "Yes, it does."

Marco narrowed his eyebrows. "It could be a ploy, but I don't think that's The One."

"Okay," Jake nodded. "So there's another ship around here."

Then we heard a voice that it took me a while to recognize as Santorelli's. "Continue acceleration away from this system. We will dock with you once it is safe."

"You know we won't," Jake said defiantly.

"I know you, Jake, although not as well as I could. I know you value the lives of your friends. There is danger for both of us here. I can provide safety."

"What are you?"

"You want to know what I am?" The question was not meant to be answered. Santorelli backed away from the screen.

In the meantime, Matt was swearing. "We're drifting again!"

Rruyshah clacked her limbs in every direction. She had moved to another corner of the room and gave the impression she was thinking furiously. "They never told us how long ago the sun went nova…"

Marco fought a losing battle with the computer. "Whatever they did, it worked."

Now it was Ax's face imposed upon us, alongside the stereotypical alien that had had such an effect on Rruyshah. Jake chose to concentrate on him. "Is this who you want to rescue?"

"Yes," she said almost apologetically. It didn't seem like something Kelbrid did often.

((My prince,)) The One said as Ax. ((I would have followed you to the end of the universe. And here we are.))

That was all the stimulus Rruyshah needed. "It's a black hole!"

"And they're our only mercy," Jake put it all together. "Rruyshah, is there any other way to escape?"

"I'm not a physicist!"

((It's all gravity, right? So is there anything strong enough to pull us out?))

"I don't know how far we are in. But, we'd have to be really close to it."

"There's another ship out here, right? How close are we to it?" Marco guided the ship around a curve.

"Computer," Jake said sternly. "Turn on all exterior lights."

((How symbolic,)) taunted The One. ((Is that what you see yourself as? A light in the darkness? The good guy?))

"That's it." Marco pointed to a tiny craft.

"There's no way that's going to save us from a black hole!" panicked Matt.

((But we're going for it anyhow.))

We went for it. "Computer," Rruyshah tried to remain strong, "let us know when gravity will pull us to either the black hole or the other ship."

"The computer can do that?" Marco marveled.

"I think."

"Then self-destructing that other one wasn't so bad, I guess."

A step towards forgiveness.

The One was still messing with Jake's mind. ((Do you not regard me as honorable, that I would have let you die in the black hole had you not surrendered to me? A tactic I learned from Aximili.))

"Do you think I care about honor anymore?" Yes, actually, I did, but I wasn't about to tell Jake that.

((Now that you've so conveniently saved yourself, I'll have another chance to find out who you are.))

"If you're so obsessed with me, tell me this: what are you?"

((Why does there need to be such duality between us?))

Jake's answer was a surprise: "There doesn't." The One was too shocked to answer, so he continued. "We've both committed atrocities. I'll ask you the difference: what do you have to fight for?"

((I fight for you: with you in my mind, little pawn, I will need nobody more.))

"Gravity transfer complete: you are now in the domain of control of an unidentified spacecraft," the computer said casually. We were freed from the black hole, but now at the mercy of the other ship.

"Then we will destroy you," Jake sneered again. "We will bring you down."

And I knew in my heart he was right.