Hey there, I hope you are all doing fine. Or at least that things aren't too bad. Spring is approaching (at least in the northern hemisphere) and let's hope that we will leave this dreadful winter behind.

Well, this story is well past the half-point now. Yes, we are approaching the end, even some of you might think that it doesn't feel that way. What does that mean? That there will be 10 to 15 chapters left, depending on how things will play out from here on out.

Now I want to remind you that this story, while a sequel to my other one, was never intended to be an epic tale like the first story. It's more of an over-glorified epilogue with a hefty dose of slice-of-life added to it. Please read it as such. Other than that: Stay healthy, stay well, and stay safe.

Chapter 28

Like a fish in a barrel

The City of Augustgrad was a city of splendor, of beauty, of architectural majesty. It was a massive city, and you couldn't even see where it started and where it ended. Over the last thousand or so years styles had been changed, old stuff had been replaced by new stuff. The steady influx of people (including a healthy minority of Protoss) had kept the city alive. In a way it was the human version of the Swarm: Always shifting, always changing, always growing. It was more like an actual organism, more than the sums of its parts.

To many people Augustgrad was less of a city and more of a symbol. And not just because it was the seat of the government and the home of the Imperial household. If you flew past its magnificent skyline, you had to be impressed. Everything was so big, so shiny, so impressive. But, like always, if something is really shiny, then the reason for that is most likely to cover things up. And Augustgrad was no different.

There was probably no capital in human space that cared so little about its own past. What was old was worthless and should be demolished to make room for something new. It was what had turned Augustgrad into the go-to-place for people to find their happiness. Or at least try. In a way this place felt as if it didn't care about its own past. Or that it didn't want to be reminded of it.

Still, while almost nothing of the "old" Augustgrad remained, there were some parts around. And one of them was the Imperial Palace.

The building stood out like a sore thumb. It was surrounded by buildings that were made out of clear crystal, sparkling in the evening sun, and plazas that contained lush gardens and were immensely popular among the population. All of that was a sight to behold.

And then there was the Imperial Palace...

It was ugly.

There was no other way to put it or to sugarcoat it. The Imperial Palace was a big ugly monstrosity of a building. It looked like the tower of an evil wizard. Which wasn't actually that far removed from the truth if you asked the right kind of people. Only that it wasn't an evil wizard who resided in this place but the current administration. The Imperial Palace was the seat of the government. It was not the actual home of the Emperor (or Empress, depending on who's in charge). No, that guy (or gal) usually lived in the imperial residence. So the Emperor was usually only ever in the palace when he would introduce a new administration and hand out the letter of appointment to the chancellor, who was actually the guy (or gal) running the government. Or if there was an important announcement to be made. Or during the Christmas ball.

Especially during the Christmas ball...

Gosh, the imperial family sure loved their Christmas balls...

If there was one thing Tesson...pardon me, "Chancellor Harding" would love to get rid of, then it was the goddamn Christmas ball.

"Chancellor!" Tesson's/Hardings's secretary spoke up as the head of the government entered the outer office of his, well, office. "Sir, the imperial household has tried to reach you. It is about the Christmas ball and wherever or not you...uhm...Sir?" the man asked as two more men followed the Chancellor. Harding walked straight up towards the door of his office, opened it, gestured the two newcomers inside and then looked at his secretary.

"Ah yes, the Christmas ball, the one thing that seems to be more important to the Emperor than actually doing his job. How could I have forgotten?" Harding sighted. "I don't have time for this right now. It can wait."

"The Emperor...can wait?" the secretary asked, a baffled tone in his voice. That actually brought a smile to Tesson's face.

"He sure does." the Protoss-in-disguise whispered before he turned serious again. "Still, I have more important things to worry about now." he then nodded at the two men that had entered the office. "Do me a favor, Dellin, can you call Chief Pollart? I'd like to discuss the new security protocols that he wanted to show me." He winked at his secretary, hoping that the man would notice it. Tesson/Harding could see the confusion on the man's face. But it only lasted for a second and was replaced by understanding. And fear.

"Uhm...yes, Chancellor, Sir. Is there...anything else I can do?" Dellin asked.

"No. Just call Pollart. Oh, and Dellin?"

"Y-yes?"

"Once you've done that, take the rest of the day off. Go see your family. I'm sure little Ben will be happy to see you. Yes?" Tesson told him. His secretary nodded and Tesson flashed him one last smile before he closed the door. "Don't worry, you won't miss anything important here. I'm going to tell you about it tomorrow."

"Of...of course, Sir. Thank you, Sir. And...good luck."

Tesson closed the door to his office and wondered if he had acted too obvious. But neither Dan Bowski nor Jerome Allagan seemed to have noticed anything.

"Well, Gentlemen. Take a seat! And please, don't put your feet on my desk, it did cost more than both of you will ever earn in all of your lives. Combined." the Chancellor declared, walked around mentioned desk, and sat down behind it. There was a short moment of silence. The look on Allagan's face was one of disbelief. He still couldn't accept what he had just witnessed. The expression on Bowski's face, however...

"The Chancellor of the Empire...is a Protoss." he mumbled. "I still have a hard time wrapping my head around this. How is that even possible?"

"It's called democracy." Tesson explained. "I took the long route, took on the persona of Tobias Harding, became mayor of a lovely little town on Shiloh, and from there on out it was actually quite the walk in the park."

"That's not what I mean...why? How? And how is that even possible? How can it be that you sit here and no one has found out yet?!" Dan snarled.

"People have found out." Tesson replied, which caused the other men to frown.

"What?" both Dan and Jerome asked at the same time. Tesson leaned back and pressed the fingers of his hands against each other. Ehhhh...having five fingers again was such a weird sensation.

"Haven't you seen that report on that outlandish tv-station? Xof-News? Where they claimed that the Imperial Family are actually descendants of the Queen of Blades? And that the Chancellor is a Protoss in disguise?"

"But...those were just idiotic conspiracy theories!" Jerome protested and then his face went pale. "Oh God...the Imperial Family hails from the Queen of Blades?"

"No." Tesson replied. "Don't worry, no Zerg ever had sex with any of them. There is only one offspring of the Queen of Blades right now, and you both already met her. Though more are on their way." Dan leaned forward when he heard that.

"So let me get this straight...Paula Kerrigan's mother is that Queen of Blades?" he wanted to know. "She really led the Swarm? And then...became a god?"

"Seems like that man Alexei Stukov told you everything you need to know. Yes, Sarah Kerrigan was once known as the Queen of Blades. But you would do well not to call her that anymore. Also, she's no god. Whoever she once was, this is not the Sarah Kerrigan that I know nowadays."

"Then what is she?" Jerome wanted to know.

"Someone who is very old and very powerful. And who sucks at parenting, obviously." Tesson explained. "Listen, I'm in no mood to explain to you the finer details of the Kerrigans and their family life." He then activated the computer embedded inside his desk and checked the messages. There was one notification that immediately caught his eyes. He opened it, read it, and then he smiled.

"So, what is this? Some kind of divine comedy? You planning to take over this place? Are the Protoss now running the government without anyone noticing it?" Dan snarled and leaned back.

"Ha! Hardly. The Protoss couldn't rule a wet paperback these days. Not that they could back in the day." Tesson chuckled.

"What?" Allagan asked and Tesson realized that these two still thought that he was playing games with them. Well, he was playing games with them, only not the way they thought he did.

"I'm not part of some sort of conspiracy, so don't worry." Tesson explained.

"Then why would a Protoss aim to become chancellor of the Empire?" Dan shot back and Tesson shrugged his shoulders.

"Boredom?"

"Boredom?!" both Dan and Jerome asked at the same time.

"If you have lived as long as I have, you start to pick up all sorts of hobbies. After I was done training Paula, I thought about looking for something else, something new. A true challenge. A place that would test my patience and where I would face the lowest of the lowest, the true scum of this galaxy, the soulless-"

"You became a politician." Dan cut him short and Tesson grinned.

"A-yup."

"But why pose as a human?" Allagan asked. "Wouldn't it be more reasonable to become a Protoss politician?"

"This might surprise you, but I'm not exactly a big fan of the Protoss." Tesson explained.

"But...you are Protoss!" Allagan replied.

"That depends on your definition of what a Protoss is. I don't even know why I am telling you this, but me and my people, well, we never truly saw eye to eye. I wasn't their biggest fan when I left, and I'm certain that no one missed me." Tesson checked his computer once more, and there was another message. And that's when suddenly a distant roar could be heard. Outside the window, you could see how a vessel was approaching the building. "Well, that was a truly interesting conversation but you should be on your way now, it seems that your ride is approaching anyway."

"Huh?" Dan asked. "Are you kicking us out?"

"I'm not leaving! This is outrageous! You will tell the people! I demand it!" Jerome Allagan barked and Tesson flashed a sardonic smile at them.

"Oh, aren't you two cute. You can, of course, stay here. However, I would strongly advise you to not do that."

"Oh yeah? And what happens if we ignore your advice?" Dan growled.

"Then, my dear Marshal, you will be facing roughly two dozen security officers who are currently outside my office, preparing to storm this room and take anyone out that isn't me." He noticed the shocked look on both men's faces and pressed a button beneath his desk. Next to them, a part of the wall opened and they suddenly looked down a secret passage. "So I suggest you take this way out and get out of here before you end up inside a prison for the rest of your life for trying to assassinate the chancellor of the Empire. Unless, of course, you want your fifteen minutes of fame."

"WHAT?!" Allagan yelled, panic in his eyes.

"Why are you doing this? Getting us here? And then let us go? What if they catch us and we tell them the truth?" Dan challenged Tesson.

"Haven't we been through this?" the Chancellor replied. "Two guys threaten the Chancellor and then claim he is actually a Protoss who happens to be the former teacher of the daughter of the woman that once was known to be the Queen of Blades. Tell me: How does that sound to you?" That's when he noticed the look of defeat on Dan's face. At least one of them seemed to realize the severity of their current situation.

"It sounds crazy." Dan muttered. He then looked at the secret escape-exit. The roaring of engines became louder and suddenly a vessel moved past the window behind Tesson.

"Ah, right on time. Lovely." Tesson chuckled. "You better get going. This exit leads you to the landing pad. You better hurry up, the chief of security is actually a pretty competent man, and he will use force to subdue you, probably even lethal force."

"Why are you doing this?" Dan snarled.

"I'm a politician!" Tesson replied. "If this story goes public, my poll ratings will go sky high! Also, if this means that I can skip the Christmas party this year, I'm so gonna take that chance!" And then he stood up and pointed at the door leading to the outer office. "You got approximately 20 seconds before the security will be here. So either get lost or get arrested. Or worse. If you want my professional advice, however..." Tesson then pointed at the secret passage. "...you want to take your chances out there." He could see the anger on Dan Bowski's face. He could also see the confusion and fear on Jerome Allagan's face. These two...they probably thought that their lives were now over. A smile appeared on Tesson's human face as he realized why Paula had decided to pick those two.

Yes, this had Paula's handwriting all over it.

And these two probably didn't even realize it.

"This is a nightmare! This can't be real! Let's surrender, then we can explain everything to the authorities and-" Jerome said to Dan, who looked at him in rage.

"THERE IS THE AUTHORITY!" he yelled and pointed at Tesson. "What are we expect to tell them? That the Chancellor is a Protoss in disguise? He's right. No one will believe us! Worse, they will lock us up forever, and throw you probably into an asylum!" And Dan then grabbed Jerome by the arm and pulled him towards the secret entrance. Before the two men vanished from Tesson's sight, Dan looked one last time over his shoulder.

"By the way: I voted for the other guy!"

And then they were gone...

The fact that the office of the Chancellor of the Empire had its own escape-path shouldn't come as a surprise to Dan. What came as a surprise was the nature of their "escape vehicle". Not because it didn't make any sense. A military-grade dropship sure as hell was the perfect get-away-vehicle. What baffled him was the fact that he knew this vessel. He knew it all too well.

And the same could be said about the get-away-driver...

"You gotta be kiddin' me..." Dan Bowski whispered as he stared at the man standing in the open hatch, gesturing them to hurry up.

"Come on!" Alexei Stukov yelled, a big grin on his face. "I didn't pay for a ticket!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Dan screamed over the noise of the engines.

"What do you mean? I came here to pick you up! That's what buddies do!"

"You ain't no buddy of mine!" How the hell did you get out of custody anyway? And how did you get here?"

"Haha, that's a funny story!" Alexei replied. "I can tell you about everything once we are space-born."

"Space? You're leaving the planet?!" Jerome gasped in shock.

"Hate to break it to you, whoever you are." Alexei told the other man. "Hmmm...you do seem familiar. Have we met before?"

"I don't want to leave Korhal!" Jerome simply replied.

"Well, hate to break it to you, pal, but it seems that this ain't your decision." Dan growled as he spotted some tiny black dots on the horizon. It seemed as if the cavalry was approaching. There was only one small problem. Or a big problem, depending on how you look at it...

...they weren't on Dan's side.

The Marshal knew that they were out of options. And that's when he heard the yells of men coming from the corridor he and Jerome had used. It seemed that the security had almost reached them. Dan imagined himself performing a glorious last stand, a brilliant shot-out that would end with him lying in his own blood, saying some nonsense the hero in a cheap holo-novel would say.

"I think I'll pass..." he whispered to himself, grabbed Jerome Allagan, and together they ran up the ramp and inside the dropship.

"What are you waiting for?" he barked at Alexei. "The pizza service?" A roguish grin appeared on Alexei's face and he saluted before squeezing himself past Jerome and Dan and ran right into the cockpit.

"Hold on to your potatoes!" the man with the Russian accent barked as he jumped into the cockpit-seat and activated the ship's engines. "This is gonna be good!"

"Sit down, quickly!" Dan told Jerome and placed him in one of the dropship's seats before he too sat down right next to Jerome and fastened his seatbelt. He looked to his right, where Captain Shani Okoi sat. Gagged. And bound to the seat next to him. Her blue eyes looked as if she was about to murder him, he could basically feel the hate pouring from her every pore. Dan's eyes widened when he realized just how deep the shit was they were currently in.

"WHOA! WHOA!" Stukov yelled as he dodged another ramming-attempt by what looked like a ball of metal with two stubby arms attached to it. These things were fast! And nimble. He doubted that there was a human pilot inside, they were too small for that.

Their escape had been rather successful. At least for the first five minutes or so. Ever since they had left the atmosphere, shit had started to get real.

"And here I thought we had this!" Alexei growled before banking the dropship to the right, trying to avoid smashing into one of those darn drones. "They didn't even stand a chance down below!"

"That's because they didn't want to shoot us down over Augustgrad!" Dan yelled at him. The Marshal had decided to head to the cockpit, so he would be as far away from Okoi as possible. "We weren't that important to them, they didn't want to hurt innocent people when they would kill us!"

"That's quite the negative way to look at it, Marshal." Stukov chuckled. "Perhaps you shouldWHOA!" He didn't manage to finish that sentence and had to force the dropship down towards the planet as another drone approached them head-on. The whole ship was thrown from one side to the other as it bounced off the atmosphere of Korhal.

"Great! We escape from the surface only to die during re-entry! So much better! Where did you learn to fly anyway?!" Dan screamed.

"Military Academy on Titan. I was the best in my class. Of course that was over one thousand years ago, so I probably forgot one or two things." Alexei then pushed the controls to the side and forced the dropship into a gut-churning barrel-roll, mere seconds before one of those drones would have smashed right into them.

"WHOA, that was close!" the deranged space-pirate gasped. "What are these things anyway? They're like those zerg suicide-thingies. Remember those?"

"No." Dan replied truthfully. No one had seen or heard of "terrors" in ages, not even the Zerg themselves. "More importantly...WHY IS THE CAPTAIN BACK THERE, AND WHY DID YOU GAG AND CHAIN HER TO A SEAT?!" he screamed like a madman. Alexei looked at him and blinked a few times...

"You know, that's actually a funny story. It all started-"

"WATCH OUT!" Dan made him shut up and pointed at another drone incoming. And so Alexei commenced another evasive maneuver, this one even more insane than the last one. He pulled the dropship up, leaving the atmosphere behind while trying to get away from the pursuers.

"Whohahaha! This reminds me of that one time when I-" Alexei started.

"I DON'T CARE! JUST GET US OUT OF HERE!" Dan roared. Inside the compartment behind them, Jerome Allagan was whimpering in fear as he tried to hold on to his seatbelts. Next to him the gagged Shani Okoi was screaming in rage and trying to break free. And while she couldn't free her arms and legs, she managed to push the gag out of her mouth and let everyone know just how angry she truly was.

"Release me! RELEASE ME! I'M GONNA EFFIN' KILL YOU ALL!" When Dan heard the Captain raging, he looked over his shoulder and frowned.

"Asking to be released only to then kill anyone will not help your cause, lady!" he growled before he focused his attention back at the guy who was responsible for this whole mess. Perhaps this situation wasn't entirely Stukov's fault...

...but Dan would make sure that, if this would be his last moment in this cruel world, everyone would put the blame solely on Alexei Stukov.

"I will make sure that they put on your tombstone: "I'm responsible for all the evil that ever happened to the people I know and that I'm a horrible, horrible friend!" Mark my words!" Dan hissed into Alexei's ear, who flashed him a smile. "Why are you grinning like an idiot?"

"You called me your friend!"

"Yeah, a horrible friend!"

"But still a friend!" Stukov joked. "Should we not survive this, I want that they put our ashes in the same urn. I do feel a strong connection between the two of us, you know."

"That strong connection you're feeling are my hands round your neck!" Dan hissed once more and turned around before heading back into the rear compartment. Jerome had closed his eyes. His mouth was moving but he didn't really say anything. He looked as if he was praying to god or something like that. Dan didn't know wherever he too should pray, and wherever he should pray for surviving this mess...

...or to be put out of his misery as soon as possible.

Probably the latter.

"Release me! RELEASE ME AT ONCE!" Captain Shani Okoi hissed, her blue eyes sparkling with psionic energies. Dan wondered if she didn't free herself if she was psionically gifted.

"Trust me, there's nothing I would rather do." Dan growled before trying to get a seat to sit down. However, that's when Alexei decided to do another barrel-roll. "SONOFABI-" the Marshal yelled as up became down and left became right. He was hurled through the compartment, smashed into the ceiling, only to land on the floor again. Every bone in his body hurt and he tried to get back on his feet. Unfortunately Alexei wasn't done yet. Dan heard the other man yell something that sounded like "This is so much fun!", but he wasn't 100% sure. What he was sure of was that he would kill that man should they somehow survive this mess.

"MOTHERF-" Bowski managed to yell before he was thrown around like a ragdoll once more. He smashed into the wall, the ceiling, the wall again, the floor, some pipes, a few seats...

It was as if this place had been turned into a giant flipper machine, and he was the ball that was getting all the attention.

The only thing that was missing was a Protoss with some serious anger issues that wanted to beat him up. It would be the icing on the cake.

Sadly there was no Protoss around.

However, that didn't mean that there wasn't someone with some serious anger issues around.

"I think we got it!" he could hear Alexei yell, and when the roller-coaster came to an end, Dan landed flat on his face once more, with two nicely shaped pipes to his right and his left. Only when the pipes suddenly moved and wrapped themselves around his neck, Dan realized that they were, in fact, not pipes but legs.

Captain Okoi's legs, to be exact.

"EARGH!" the Marshal gagged when the Captain tried to squeeze the life out of him.

"I SAID GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Okoi screamed as she used her legs to cut off the air from his lungs.

"Oh, hold on, we're not out of the woods yet!" Alexei barked and threw the ship around. Dan's body was thrown high up into the air but his neck remained between Okoi's thighs, who was out for blood. He tried to free himself but that woman was strong. The whole situation was not just absurd, it was even more humiliating than getting beaten up by a goddamn Protoss. Crates came loose and flew through the air. He could hear Jerome scream "Watch out!", only to feel how something hard and heavy smashed into his back.

"You won't get away with this! I'm an officer of the imperial forces! You will release me at once!" Okoi screamed, but all Dan could do was tap on her leg to signal her that he was running out of oxygen.

What a shitty way to die.

"You...are...choking...me..." Dan managed to gargle.

"That! The! Point!" Okoi shouted. "I'm not going down without a fight, I'm gonna take you with me!" Suddenly Dan wished he was back on Flemmington, that he had accepted Sarah Kerrigan's offer to take away the memories of what had happened. He noticed how his thoughts and movements became sluggish as the circulation to his brain was squeezed off. If he had followed the older Kerrigan's advice, then he would still be on Flemmington, still be stuck in a dead-boring job and a boss that was so boring and obnoxious that he wished he had picked another job. But hey, at least he would be still alive...

Dan couldn't really explain it but when he thought about that option, he became angry.

All of this hadn't been his choice. That stupid git Paula Kerrigan had thrown him into a world that he thought only existed in cheap holo-novels. And then she had left him. Just like that.

Dan didn't like Paula one bit. She was annoying, yes. But what he really hated was that she had entered his life and turned it upside down without even thinking twice about it. She was acting like some sort of demi-god, not caring one bit about what she was doing to the people around her. And with Sarah Kerrigan as her mother, no one could stop her from doing whatever she wanted to do.

It was wrong.

And it made Dan furious.

Yeah, he had broken his fair share of rules and laws, and after today he would probably be an enemy of the state for the rest of his life. Strangely enough that didn't bother him nearly as much as the fact that Paula Kerrigan would get off the hook and probably ruin the lives of other people to come. This anger, paired with the pain of all sorts of stuff crashing into his body, gave Dan enough strength to fight back. He grabbed Okoi's legs and tried to push them apart, but her strength was impressive. So he decided to fight dirty. Dan opened his mouth and sank his teeth into the Captain's thigh, who screamed in pain.

"GHA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP IT! STOP IT, DAMMIT!" she screamed in pain. But Dan wouldn't let go. Not until she finally released him. A victorious grin appeared on his face but it only lasted for a moment. Now that he was no longer trapped between Okoi's legs, there was nothing that kept him from flying around anymore. Which meant that the rollercoaster continued. Big time.

"I...UNF!" he screamed before smashing into the opposing wall. "...GONNA...UNF!" Then the floor. "...FIND YOU...UNF!" And then the ceiling once more. "PAUL-UNF!" That's when another crate made contact with his rib-cage. He howled in pain and wondered if being trapped between the Captain's thighs would have been the better option.

Well, he was about to find out.

Because the next thing he smashed into...

...was the poor Captain herself.

"UNF!" Dan's face smashed into something surprisingly soft. It actually felt...kinda nice. Perhaps he could stay like this for the rest of the trip?

And why did he just have to think about his mother all of the sudden?

"You..." he heard Okoi's voice hiss. "...PIG!"

Dan looked up, still slightly disoriented, and looked straight into Okoi's eyes. Blue eyes. Blue eyes that were glowing. And only then he realized that he had landed face-first right between the Captain's breasts.

"I...didn't...mean...TOOAAAAAAGH!" He didn't get to finish that sentence. Okoi wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed as hard as she could. This was almost as painful as being devoured by your own innards. And he knew what he was talking about. However, this pain was actually rather different. On Flemmington his inner organs had tried to devour him from the inside. This actually felt as if Okoi wanted to squeeze his innards out of his mouth. And butt.

"Lady!" he managed to gargle. "Where did you get that strength in your legs! That ain't normal!"

"It's called leg-days!" Okoi screamed right back at him.

"You're gonna crush my kidneys!" Dan moaned.

"That's the idea, dipshit!" That's when Stukov evaded once more, and as a result a crate hit Dan once more and smacked him right into the back of his head, causing him to bury his head once more between Shani Okoi's breasts. It was this moment when Stukov managed to give them a breather and looked over his shoulder and into the crew-compartment. And what he saw...

"Hey! HEY! This isn't the moment for that kind of stuff, people! In case you haven't noticed, we are being shot at!" he barked. The urge to kill Alexei Stukov burned hotter than the actual pain from having his spine crushed.

"YOU! DIRTY! APE!" Okoi screamed and Dan pulled his head back once more. "Release me! RELEASE ME AT ONCE!" Her eyes glowed and she looked as if she was about to turn into a psionic nuclear warhead.

"Why don't you...use those...fancy psionics...of yours?" Dan managed to snarl.

"You want psionics? YOU WANT PSIONICS? I'M GONNA SHOW YOU PSIONICS!"

He just had to beg for more punishment, didn't he? Perhaps he was a masochist after all. Okoi released him for her legs, and he could actually feel how his blood rushed back into his feet. But that moment of respite was short-lived.

Dan Bowski didn't know why Shani Okoi, who was clearly psionically gifted, hadn't used her psionics so far. But he was about to find out just how much power she possessed. And while she wasn't as powerful as someone called Kerrigan (then again, who was?), it was more than enough to ruin Dan's day for good. It was as if an invisible hand grabbed him and tossed him through the compartment. He smashed against the opposite wall, harder than ever, and groaned in pain.

"YOU!" he heard Okoi scream.

"FILTHY!" Dan could feel how the raw power was pressing him against the wall. She was crushing him!

"PIG!"

Suddenly the pressure vanished and Dan sighed in relief. But that only lasted for a second once more, and soon he was tossed against the other wall, the ceiling, the floor.

"HEY! Keep it together back there! I'm trying to fly over here!" he could hear Stukov yell. Well, at least his suffering wouldn't go on for much longer. There was no way that he could go on like this. And what does a guy who's about to get royally screwed? Exactly!

He's asking for more.

"...'sthat...allyou...gotgirly?" he managed to pant and flashed Okoi a smile. "Com...come on...I took worse!" And that wasn't even a lie.

His masterful plan worked. He could see how Okoi's eyes basically exploded in light. Geez, so much power and she hadn't used it before? Why?

Not that it mattered though. Right now Dan had just one wish, the wish of a dying man.

"After you're done...with me..." he managed to gargle. "...do me a favor...and kill Stukov. I hate him."

"I promise!" Okoi sneered. And then she smashed Dan once more into the wall, knocking him finally out.

At last.

Took them long enough.

His last thought before his lights went out was...

...hopefully I just broke my neck.

Spoilers: He didn't.

"Uhnnnn..." So much pain. By now Dan should have gotten used to it, but nothing could be further from the truth. The moment conciseness crept back into his mangled body, his first thought was "Am I dead?", followed by "Why am I not dead?", followed by "I wish I was dead." So yeah, Dan was pretty certain that this year would become the worst of his life.

When he was finally sure that he wasn't dead, he tried to move.

"Ghn!" Big mistake. It wasn't just his head that was hurting like hell. Parts of his body were the same. His back, oh dear lord, his back was hurting so bad. It felt as if someone had decided to give him a massage. With a sledgehammer. And his kidneys hurt as well, though he wasn't really sure why. The only part that didn't hurt was...

...well, no part didn't hurt.

"Mar...Bowski? Daniel?" he heard a familiar voice. It took Dan a while to recognize it. He opened his eyes and saw Jerome Allagan kneeling right over him, a worried expression on his face.

"It's...Dan. Not Daniel." Bowski replied.

"Oh, I...well, I always assumed that-"

"No, it's not the short version for Daniel. It's just Dan. Simple as that." he explained. "Where...are we?" He didn't ask the more obvious question. Which was: Why aren't we dead?" But who knew, maybe they were dead and this was the afterlife. Hell, most likely. Though he didn't really know why Allagan would end up in this place.

Guilty by association?

Knowing Stukov sure had ruined Dan's day.

"I...I don't know." Jerome replied.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" the Marshal asked and noticed the worried, downright scared look on Jerome's face. "Where did that madman take us?" Char. It had to be Char, and now they were all surrounded by Zerg who wanted to tear them apart.

"I don't know." That was the only answer he would get. And so Dan decided to get things into his own hands. It took him several attempts until he finally managed to get back up, and even then he only got on all fours. "Ooooohhh...feels like a tank ran over me."

"Maybe you should not stand up, the Captain did quite the number on you." Jerome said. The Captain. Right. What happened to her?

Dan didn't have to wonder for much longer. The Captain was actually right next to him. She had huddled herself into a corner and made herself as small as physically possible. Shani Okoi had pulled her knees all the way up to her chest and her head was buried between her knees. And she was...crying?

"Uhhhh..." Dan grunted as he looked at the woman. She was breathing, which seemed a good sign. But aside from that she didn't move. Dan didn't know what to do. Should he...fight her? Run away? Or ask if she was alright? In the end, he settled on trying all three things at once. Which, of course, ended in tragedy as he attempted to stand up, head for the exit, and check on Okoi. But those were at least two and a half things too much for him to do right now, and so he only managed to stand upright like a gorilla, grunting something like "...'skay over there...?" before a sense of vertigo overtook him and he landed on his face. Again.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh..." This time his groans were more annoyed than anything else. Was this how the rest of his life would now be like? If so, then perhaps he should ask for someone to FINALLY PUT HIM OUT OF HIS MISERY!

"Seriously...what does a guy have to do to get a bullet to the head?"

"Hand me a gun...and might just do that..." he heard Okoi whisper. Dan rolled his head to the side and looked at the woman that was still hiding her head between her legs. No, not hiding. She was holding it. As if she was in some serious pain.

"What's with you?" he growled.

"What does it look like?" Okoi replied without looking up. "I'm having a migraine. Thanks to you. Now go kill yourself!"

Migraine?

Dan wondered if that was the reason why she hadn't liquefied his brain when she had the chance. He wanted to ask her but realized that she would probably only tell him to shove his head up his own butt. Which was probably the only thing he hadn't done in the last couple of weeks.

"F-fine...suit yourself." Dan gasped and got back up, slowly this time. And when he was finally back on his feet, he was amazed just how much damage and pain a human body could survive. "Where's the goddamn menace?"

"W-who?" Jerome asked.

"Alexei. Where is he?"

"Oh! Uhm...he went outside to check where we landed."

"Landed? Where did we land?" Dan wanted to know.

"It's a planet. I don't know...Alexei told us to stay inside, and I didn't feel like doing otherwise. Wherever this place is...it's far away from home."

"Fine, whatever." Dan growled and walked towards the ramp that led outside. And what he spotted there was a world so completely alien that he didn't even know what to make of it. "What. The. Hell." He was looking down a plateau, with lush alien jungle surrounding everything. The ground beneath his feet was dark and looked as if it was of volcanic origin. Above him flew some alien-looking birds. Or bird-looking aliens. Or whatever.

"This...ain't Korhal." he said to himself.

"No, it isn't." When Dan heard the familiar voice, he turned around and saw Stukov, who walked around the landing gear of the dropship. "Finally awake I see. You do have a habit of sleeping when on the job."

"Go to hell." Dan replied, which caused Alexei to chuckle.

"Been there. Wasn't fun." the other man sighed. "Well, at least you're alive so I don't have a dig a hole to bury you."

"Charming." Dan griped.

"I aim to please."

"Sure. And can you also please me by telling me just WHERE THE HELL WE ARE?!" the Marshal yelled. The moment he went quiet, the loud and angry roar of something...big echoed through the jungle. Dan's eyes widened in shock when he heard that. "What was that?" Alexei just shrugged his shoulders.

"Something that doesn't like it if aliens scream in its jungle? Dunno, you can go find it and ask it yourself." Alexei mused.

"I'm not joking, Alexei! Where are we?"

"I don't know."

"What kind of stupid answer is that? You were the pilot! Where the hell are we?"

"I said: I don't know." Stukov explained. He actually sounded annoyed. And...embarrassed. "In case you didn't notice before your little love-session with the good Captain came to an end, we were getting shot at. So I tried to escape."

"Tried?"

"Yes, well, I suppose I should have thought this through more thoroughly." Alexei muttered. "In my defense: I was out of options and they would have shot us down eventually. So you actually should be thankful. Yes, that's right! You should thank me for saving your life! Ha, I'm such a good friend!"

"Stukovvvvvvvvvv..." Dan hissed.

"Whoa, you do sound exactly like an angry roach. Impressive."

"Are you comparing me to a cockroach?"

"Not those roaches, the ones that bury themselves and...ah, nevermind." Stukov sighed before he faced Dan. "I did a blind jump."

"Oh. Why didn't you saaayYYYY WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Dan screamed when he realized what Alexei just had said.

"You don't have to yell." Alexei flinched and something deep within the jungle roared again. "Seriously, you're just begging for the locals to come and see if we are tasty." That's when Dan grabbed Alexei by the coat and looked him dead into the eye.

"Are you telling me that you performed a jump blindly, and now we don't know where we are?" A blind jump was probably the biggest insanity you could do while in space. Flying faster than light was one thing. Flying faster than light without any clue where you are going is on a whole different level. You could end up inside a star, or smash into a planet so fast that not even atoms would be left of you. You either had to be very stupid to do something like that, or very, very desperate.

"Yes, yes, yes, I know!" Alexei shot back and freed himself from Dan's grip. "Trust me, I'm not happy with that either. But it was either that or being a bunch of debris in orbit around Korhal. And I do prefer to be alive."

"We could be everywhere!" Dan snarled. "This could be the ass-end of the sector, or even beyond that! Have you any idea where we ended up?"

"No." Alexei admitted. "And...yes." That irritated Dan only further.

"Every bone in my body hurt, I feel as if my kidneys are about to explode, my head is a mess, and my career is basically over. So I don't have time for your cryptic BULLSHIT right now! Where are we?" That's when Alexei sighed.

"It'd be easier to show you. Come." Alexi muttered, turned away and walked into the jungle.

"First you tell me to stay quiet to not make the locals angry, now you just walk into their damn home?"

"Just shut up and follow me. You will probably love-hate what you're about to see." the other man sighed. For a moment Dan thought about grabbing Stukov and beating him up. You know, just because. It would be nice to be not on the receiving end for once. So yeah, he was actually thinking really hard about giving in to his desire to wreck that guy. Ultimately he decided against it, mostly because his whole body was still hurting like hell and Stukov would probably have kicked his ass in return.

So he followed Alexei.

"Do you at least have a hunch where we are?"

"Nope. But I found something that can help us figure it out. You might even say that we are lucky. In a way."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dan wanted to know as they stepped over a bunch of plants that seemed to have mouths. With sharp teeth in it. Oh joy!

"It means that I picked up a signal when I dropped out of hyperspace." Alexei replied.

"A signal? What kind of signal?"

"And IFF-signal. It was a couple of sectors away but the sensors still picked it up." Alexei explained. "I'd say that this is dumb luck of the highest order but the computer recognized that signal. Seems like it guided us home after all." And then Alexei stepped out of the jungle and looked down a cliff.

"What are you talking about, dammit?" Dan snarled and followed him.

"Look for yourself." Stukov told him and pointed at something in the distance. Dan frowned and had to squint his eyes. There were some weird alien structures out there. They reminded him of pictures he had seen of Protoss architecture...but not quite. However, what was far more important was that something was floating above these ruins. It was big. Really big. Dan's eyes widened when he recognized the vessel.

"That's..." he whispered.

"The Hyperion." Alexei confirmed, an annoyed look on his face. "It seems that you get your chance to meet Kerrigan again sooner than you thought."