Kershala had been gone seemingly for hours, when in reality, it was only about ten minutes. Kale braced himself against a console as the last volley from the Shironian ship grazed the Sironia's shielding. Kale was starting to feel a bit of nausea from the constant flying around. He could see the motion on the main viewer, and it was more than any roller coaster he had ever been on.

"Atondra, I can't stay ahead of them. They must be running some sort of predictive algorithm. It is like their weapons are predicting my maneuvers," explained Jelani tapping away at her console.

"Become unpredictable then, Jelani we are not out of the fire yet," Atondra remained calm Kale figured she likely had a strong leadership background and was doing as any good commander would do under the circumstances. The ship shook violently, and sparks flew from overhead as the ship took another heavy volley.

"I'm sorry Atondra, that just came out of nowhere."

"The barriers are down!" exclaimed Rotabu as his hands ran over his workstation. Kale felt a strange sensation behind him and turned as the light from a teleporter began to form.

"Look out!" He called immediately acting as the Shironian soldier formed in front of him. Kale body checked the soldier and knocked him off balance before striking at him like Kershala had shown him during their training.

"Atondra to all hands we are being boarded!" Atondra called before turning and subduing another of the invaders that had boarded.

"With the barriers down we will be overrun!" called Jelani. Atondra and Rotabu engaged with attackers as Kale had done. Kale could also hear an energy weapon discharge several times. He now grappled with the Shironian that had the advantage of armor over him. Kale had struck it several times but the armor both hurt his hands and stopped him from doing any damage to it. Kale gave everything he had and thrust the Shironian into a wall before it went limp. He took a step back as it fell to the ground seeing that Omall had killed it with an energy weapon along with two others.

"I have activated a scattering field throughout the ship. They will not be able to teleport in or out, but they have managed to get thirteen of them on board. You will need to deal with them," explained Anubis.

"Then we must clear the rest of the ship. Omall, come with me," said Rotabu.

"No, I need Omall to monitor our status with you gone. Take Kale and find Sashir just outside." Atondra interrupted as Omall stood to leave. Rotabu looked at Kale, he could tell that the man wasn't happy about it, but he also knew that Rotabu wouldn't disobey her. "Do you mind Kale?" she asked making eye contact with him.

"Of course not." Kale composed himself and let Rotabu take the lead.

"Kale take this!" Omall called and as Kale turned to him, he tossed him one of the energy weapons. It was small, and heavier than he expected it to be. The training he had undergone with Kershala had made mention of these weapons and having caught a glimpse of how Omall operated it, Kale was confident he would be able to use it reliably. As the door to the corridor opened Sashir joined the two of them and upon exiting Rotabu sealed the door. Sashir made eye contact with Kale, he knew that the security team had a bit of mistrust for him, but the man smiled at him thanking him with his eyes as they descended to the lower level.

As they approached the lab, they see a very large creature attempting to pry the doors open along with two smaller soldiers. Sashir acted seemingly on instinct and opened fire on the large creature. The beam from his weapon left a sizable hole in the creature's armor and it fell to the ground. The other Shironians quickly turned their attention to them opening fire with the pulse weapons that Kale had seen them use on Kershala in his memories. The three of them ducked before cover, Kale and Sashir dove behind a double workstation and Rotabu behind crates across from them. Kale tried to get a good look at where they were but started blind firing from behind his hiding place. A firefight broke out with the two Shironians firing at them and seeking cover themselves long enough for Sashir and Rotabu to return several volleys not hitting their attackers. Kale listened to their fire patterns and watched where their weapons fire landed he could tell they were aiming high so he rolled our going prone and firing several shots at the two of them he managed to hit one of them before rolling back into cover.

"One left," said Kale looking at Rotabu and then Sashir. There was suddenly quiet as the Shironian stopped firing. Kale tried to pier around their cover when Sashir stood to fire again. There were several weapon discharges in rapid succession, Kale watched as Sashir was hit multiple times in the chest. He watched the young Daoran fall backwards and rushed to his side.

"Sashir!" Rotabu stood to fire but as he did the lab door opened and a strange force blew the Shironian against a wall before it was killed by another energy weapon. Elara walked out of the lab carrying what looked to be like a rifle with a wide muzzle and Lenari ran to Sashir. Rotabu joined them at his side. Kale could see life in his eyes as he looked up at him with tears streaking his face. His eyes were strained and there were burn marks in his uniform that had burned clear to the skin. Kale was sure he was looking at open muscle. Lenari had a medical kit with him and used it to scan him.

"Sashir can you hear me," Lenari spoke loudly while he scanned Sashir with one of the tools. Sashir nodded but couldn't appear to speak. "These wounds are deeper than most energy weapons. Elara can you look at this. See if your implant can make better sense of it. His nervous system is disrupted."

"Go, get the weapon." Elara dropped down beside the man and put a hand to her implant. Lenari walked over and picked up the weapon bringing it back to her. "These are more than just energy weapons." Elara looked over the weapon itself quickly. "These weapons have been tuned to disrupt the Daoran nervous system, his implant is destabilizing."

"Can you fix it?" asked Kale.

"Help me get him to the lab!" Elara stood quickly Rotabu stayed quiet as he and Kale lifted the man, Kale on his upper body Rotabu by his feet. They took him into the lab and placed him as instructed on the unit they had used to extract the shrapnel from Kershala's body.

"Atondra to Rotabu, we are detecting four Shironian life signs in the engine room. The AI has locked them out of our systems, but they can still do considerable harm to the ship from there. You must deal with them."

"Yes Atondra, right away." Kale could tell how distressed the older man was as he walked up to Sashir and touched his face. He put his forehead to the younger mans and turned to leave.

"Father…" Sashir struggled through pained breaths. Kale looked at Rotabu who stopped in his tracks and turned to face Sashir.

"Elara!" Rotabu looked at Kale.

"Go we need you to do your job. I will do mine," said Elara grabbing several tools and setting up her equipment. Kale recalled how important the implants were to the Daoran nervous system and was hoping that they had the technology to deal with the failure of one. "Lenari go with them!" Lenari nodded, seemingly knowing that he'd be better placed as a medic than helping Elara. They exited the room Rotabu walked quickly ahead of them as they headed to the engine room. They would need to take the lift down to the bottom level of the Sironia.

"She works best under pressure," Lenari whispered so Rotabu wouldn't hear him. They stepped into the lift and it began to descend. Rotabu stood stoically but Kale could see that he had tears in his eyes as they made eye contact.

"I'm sure she will save him," Kale said quietly.

"I know Elara will do her best." Rotabu and Kale both readied their weapons. "There is a small hallway before the engine room entryway. Ashal was to be stationed there." Kale could hear in Rotabu's voice that he did not expect to find Ashal alive and as the door opened, they prepared for the worst. They walked down the narrow hallway with their weapons drawn and Lenari waiting behind them. The narrow hallway opened into a larger room with a couple of workstations just before they came to the entrance to the engine room, Ashal was not in sight but there were signs of a struggle. Kale looked around quickly at first not seeing anything but finding at first a blood footprint. Then a few feet away a drag mark of a violet blood trail leading behind some boxes.

"Here." Lenari came running over they followed the trail and found Ashal's body laying face down. Lenari leaned down and turned him to be on his back. There was a single burn mark in the center or his chest and anguish in his face. There was blood streaking from his eyes that had rolled back in his head. Lenari scanned him although what had happened was clear.

"It's the same weapon. His implant is completely burned out. I …" Lenari stuttered. "I can tell from the scans it was slow…" Lenari put his medical scanner back in his case and stood up.

"We will come back for him. We have to stop them," said Kale. Rotabu stood at the door and put his hand to his implant.

"They are not watching the door." Rotabu lowered his hand and dropped weapon to the floor.

"What are you doing?" asked Kale as Rotabu touched the panel to open the door.

"I will show them what this old warrior is made of." The door opened and Kale barely got a glimpse of where the Shironians were as Rotabu jumped into action. Two of the soldiers stood at the core housing Rotabu took them first grabbing each of them in a different hand seeming to know just wear to grab a liquid sprayed from where he sunk his fingers into their flesh. Kale could tell he had his hands around their spinal column and crushed it as they went limp. One of the others turned to him when he threw a body at it and ran behind it. They seemed reluctant to use their weapons likely because if they were to hit something the whole ship might explode. The body landed against its teammate and Rotabu shoved his fist through both of their bodies. The last one turned to Rotabu but before it could do anything, an energy weapon went off and it dropped to the ground. Kale turned to see Lenari holding the weapon in hand.

Kershala had made it to his destination feeling like he had bathed in the blood of his enemies to get to there. He stepped over the bodies and walked over to the console that controlled the dampening field. Putting his hand to the implant he began to interface with it. It wasn't long before he had control of the machine and shut it off.

"Atondra, it is done you should be able get the engines back."

"Thank you Kershala, we currently have another problem though. Our barriers are down the AI is deploying a scattering field to prevent boarding parties, but it also stops our teleporters from working."

"I will handle it." Kershala looked around he had killed the entire engine room crew but knew it wouldn't be long before more of them would be along. "I will do one better." Kershala walked over to the main engine core he could see several connectors and tubes leading into it. He bent down and hardened the nanites around his fist and rammed it as hard as he could into the tubes and ripped several of them out. A blue light began flashing and a recording began warning of an engine breach in progress and to evacuate. A chemical haze began pouring from the engine core and Kershala took a step back. He jumped to the ceiling and crawled into a hatch. Kershala switched to his secure connection with the AI. "You should be able to drop the scattering field and bring me aboard."

"Yes Kershala. I detect that they will be unable to use their teleporters." The AI paused and Kershala waited for the teleporter. "Your actions here today may bring unforeseen consequences to our future."

"I will deal with them when the time comes." Kershala could feel the teleporter activating and he was pulled from the Shironian ship. A few seconds passed and Kershala was standing on the teleporter pad of the Sironia, Omall was at the control station and Kale was waiting to greet him. Kershala let out a sigh of relief at the sight of him and retracted the nanites as he stepped down off the pad into Kales arms. "I am relieved you are well." He kissed Kale on the cheek, he could feel his relief but also a lingering sense of worry.

"Kershala," the AI came over the communications grid, "I have assumed control of the ships and we are heading back to our destination."

"Did they notice the Arktora's vessel?" asked Kershala.

"No, it seemed to remain undetected. I was not able to determine if it had even been detected before I deployed the antidetection program into their computers." Kale pulled from their embrace and seemed to be waiting for the conversation to be over.

"Will that be effective on such a large ship?" he asked.

"It will wipe the sensor readings from the backup systems preventing any type of retrieval at a later date. Because of the engine core failure, the ship will be destroyed," explained the AI.

"Good, one less ship carrying their disease across the galaxy," said Omall stepping forward. Kershala looked at Omall every instinct in him echoing the sentiment. "Maybe that will pay for Ashal's and maybe even Sashir's life."

"There were casualties?" said Kershala.

"Sashir is in surgery. Elara and Lenari are working to save him," said Kale. "Poor Rotabu hasn't left his side since we cleared the ship. We found Ashal dead at the engine core."

"Where is Atondra?"

"On the bridge, she hasn't left it," said Omall.

"Come." Kershala started toward the bridge and walked out into the main corridor. Kale followed but Omall stayed behind, likely to mourn the loss of his ship mates in solitude. As they stepped out into the corridor Kershala could see the remains of the Shironian soldiers as well as the signs of the firefight that had taken place. The AI relayed information from the ship's internal sensors and Kershala instantly knew what happened in the fight. "You did well in the fight. I am proud of you."

"Thanks, I'm glad you trained me," Kale paused and Kershala could here doubt in his voice, "But maybe a little too good. If I hadn't of gotten that kill, Sashir may not have acted so irresponsibly. I think he was jealous that I did so well in front of his father." Kershala was relieved that Kale had performed well, he knew that he would at least be able to defend himself when the need arose.

"You can not hold yourself responsible for the actions of others." Kale smiled at him but Kershala could feel that the sentiment brought little comfort to him. They walked up to the door of the command center and it opened. The AI core had settled down onto the engineering station while Jelani and Atondra remained the only two on the bridge. The communications viewer was active and Zaree and Ralu, the two guards watching the Arktora's vessel were on the screen.

"Is Sashir going to be okay, where did these weapons come from Atondra?" asked Zaree. Kershala could hear a deeper connection in her voice than just shipmates.

"Elara is quite sure that he will live but the damage to his implant is extensive we do not know what condition he will be left in," Atondra paused, "As for the weapon you can be sure that Rotabu is going over every component of it to decipher where and who created it and if it can help us help Sashir."

"I cannot believe that Ashal is gone. I wish that they had granted him a quick death, he did not deserve to suffer so much. That was my post, if I had of just been content with staying on board…" Ralu trailed off. Kershala quickly accessed the mission report the AI filed, the information was worrying to say the least. If the Shironians had developed this weapon they could eventually find other ways to deploy it.

"Ralu, when we get home we will deal with our losses. For now, I need you to stay strong and maintain your post," Atondra spoke slowly and almost motherly to the younger soldier before he walked off screen. "Comfort him Zaree, we will be back at the city ship soon." Zaree took a breath and nodded before the viewer turned back to that of their current course. Atondra stood with her hands behind her back before turning her attention to the two of them. "The AI assures us the Shironians won't be able to follow us." Kershala met her eyes he could see that she was stressed after having lost two of her crew in the battle. Daoran commanders would most often grieve in solitude to maintain strength and confidence in their subordinates. He could feel her pain but also knew she was hiding it from him he would respect her wishes and ignore it. "Thank you, Kershala. If it weren't for your willingness to go to that ship, we may have lost far more of our small family, or worse." Kershala nodded respectfully, he knew that it would more than likely have been worse. She smiled at Kale. "And of course, Kale, we could not have held this ship without your assistance. Thank you for showing us that you are willing to put your life on the line for us. May we return the favor some day."

"I wouldn't just stand by and watch knowing that Kershala was over their fighting," Kale stuttered slightly in his voice holding back emotions, "I had to give him something to come back to."

"Now if you will accompany me to the medical lab, I must check on Sashir and see if Rotabu has found any more information about this weapon," Atondra pushed passed them and headed for the lab. Kershala met eyes with Kale and then looked to the AI.

"Come with me, we must analyze this weapon and see if it can be counteracted," he said.

"Of course, Kershala. Should we end up in a scenario where you would be struck with such a weapon, I must have a way to defend against it." The AI core floated over to Kershala and he took it in hand before turning to follow Atondra down the hall.

They stepped into the lab to see Elara hovering over Sashir who was on one of the surgical beds. They had removed his body armor and all he was left in was his undergarments his bare chest and Daoran markings exposed. Lenari was running scans with the lab equipment on Sashir's nervous system. Kershala recognized the scans of the implant that were currently projected as large holograms over the surgical beds. Rotabu was at a close by workstation with one of the weapons in several pieces using his implant and scanning equipment going over every detail and working to save his son. Lenari was clearly distraught Kershala could see the tears lingering on his eyes the violet in them intensifying from the strain. Atondra walked over to Sashir and rested a comforting hand on his forehead. Kershala could see that he was restrained likely for the surgery that he had just come out of. His features seemed to relax but he did not appear to know where he was. His eyes rolling around in his head and his head moving erratically and his markings flashing in random patterns indicating severe damage to his nervous system.

"How is he Elara?" Atondra asked.

"I," Elara paused and looked from the schematic to the man on the bed in front of her and sighed, "I don't actually know. I can tell you he is not in pain anymore. But his implant is severely damaged. If its even possible to repair, it would require nano surgery to figure out where the exact damage is. He can hear us but doesn't seem to be able to speak coherent sentences. I'm not even sure if he hears us as we speak or if the words even make sense to him." As Elara stopped speaking Sashir jolted in the restraining field jerking his head from side to side and away from Atondra's hand grunting and making strange noises. "That weapon disrupted the implant so much I can't even tell if he perceives touch as touch or words as words." The AI floated over and scanned Sashir's body using two of its lenses. "I'm open to any suggestions."

"It appears that the weapon has scrambled the way the implant sends and receives signals from the body. It does not appear to have affected his passive brain functions so his internal organs will not be affected. But his cognitive abilities are severely compromised. He does not know what is going on around him because his brain currently can not make sense of it," explained the AI. "Your assessment is correct Elara. Nana surgery of the most accurate type would be required o repair the implant. However, your assessment that he is not in pain may not be correct. We do no know how he is perceiving the environment and what goes on around him." Kale stepped up beside the bed and touched Sashir's hand. He was calm for a moment before pulling away.

"Can't you guys just take the implant out? I didn't think all Daorans needed to have the implant to live," said Kale.

"We cannot. While you are right that not all of us have the implants, once we have had one installed, it becomes too entangled in our nervous system for us to just remove it," said Atondra. Elara looked over her patient and seemed to be deep in thought she let out a sigh before looking at Kershala.

"Your nanites could probably repair it, they're sophisticated enough," she said.

"While you are right, they are capable of the repairs. They would need to be directed on what to repair," explained the AI. Kershala stayed quiet. "We lack the technology on board the Sironia to be able to determine the exact issue. Until we can the nanites can be of no help."

"Rotabu have you found anything that might be able to help us out?" Elara seemed to move on from the topic right away as she turned her attention away. Kershala could tell that she was not used to running into issues she was not able to find a solution for. "Something in that weapon must contain a disruption frequency."

"I have not been able to determine it, though I can tell you this weapon is not only the Shironians technology. It is heavily modified," Rotabu sat the weapon on the table of the workstation he was at and leaned forward putting his hands on his head. "This cannot happen. There must be something we can do. I will not give these demons my son!" Rotabu slammed his first down on the table. Kershala walked over to the old warrior and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"May I take a look, Rotabu?"

"If you think you can see something I cannot then you must." Rotabu looked up at Kershala with desperate eyes. Kershala took the two main pieces of the weapon and scanned it with his own implant. He transferred the information to the AI and compared it against the records of the different weapons they had encountered. The power source for the weapon would reveal some troubling information.

"The power source this weapon uses are…" Kershala paused not wanting to finish the sentence fearing what the implications could mean for the immediate future of the war they were fighting.

"What is it Kershala?" Kale walked over to him and looked him in the eye, Kershala was unable to hide his concern from him. "I've seen that look on your face before." Kale whispered, only Kershala and Rotabu were close enough to hear.

"Why do you whisper, what are you trying to hide?" Rotabu's rage was clear in his voice. His emotions were starting to become unchecked and misdirected. Kershala could see it in his eyes.

"Out with it Kershala, what is it?" asked Atondra.

"We hide nothing, the energy source this weapon uses are the same as the Shirona Arktora that attacked earth." Kershala sat the weapon back on the table and turned to Atondra. He could see the look on her face was likely reflecting his.

"It was found out long ago, that one of the Shirona Arktora was a scientist," Atondra spoke and fear seemed to be shaking her voice, "Her experiments were said to be how the Arktora were created. They were the result of her great success in turning the experiments on herself." The whole room was silent except for Sashir's slight whimpering.

"They must be reuniting them. First, one tracks down Kershala, now we are finding their technology on common soldiers," said Elara.

"I have defeated one before," said Kershala with a low but confident voice.

"And that was alone," said Kale stepping forward and looking at each of them. "With all of you guys helping him he can do it again." Kershala knew Kale was exaggerating, if he had been caught completely alone, he would likely have not lived, but it seemed to change the atmosphere in the room. "If we have to, we'll destroy them one at a time."

"Are all humans like this or just you?" asked Elara breaking the silence.

"I don't know, to be honest," said Kale shrugging his shoulders. Kershala couldn't help but smile at Kale, he was thankful to have someone with his outlook to be around.

"Elara perhaps you should keep Sashir sedated until we reach the city ship," said Atondra returning her attention to Sashir. "Keep him comfortable." Elara nodded at the suggestion as Atondra walked to Rotabu. "As for you, old friend, you will do him no good by being in this state. Return to your bed chambers and get some rest."

"I will at least return to the command center and watch my station." Rotabu stood to leave.

"I am currently monitoring the ships systems in full, Rotabu," said the AI, "It is not necessary." Rotabu looked back at Atondra before conceding to her orders and leaving the room. Atondra shortly followed presumably heading for her private quarters.

"We can leave him here for now," Elara had administered a sedative to Sashir, "I will be notified if anything changes. Lenari go get some rest." Elara walked over to the door to the lab seemingly ushering them out of the lab. Lenari left his equipment running and walked away from the workstation. He made eye contact with Kershala as he left the room, he knew he would likely seek him out later. Kershala and Kale walked out of the room and the AI core floated along side them. The lab went dark as they left Elara headed presumably to her quarters and they headed to the chamber they had been assigned.

"Go to the bridge and monitor the ships systems from there," said Kershala ordering the AI off. "Keep us apprised of anything unusual. In the meantime, I would like to be left alone with Kale for awhile."

"Yes Kershala." The AI headed in the direction of the command center as Kale and Kershala retired to their chamber again.

"So, rough day huh." Kale walked over and immediately collapsed on the bed. He was exhausted, he had never been in a true combat situation before. Even with the training Kershala had provided him it didn't prepare him entirely for the mental strain that was associated with it. His hands still ached from punching that Shironians armor and finding out that another of the Arktora was active gave him an anxiety that he hadn't experienced before. Kershala remained silent and walked up to the window, Kale could sense that something wasn't right and stood up to comfort him. "Are you worried about that Arktora?" he asked.

"Yes." Kale walked up behind him and put his arms around Kershala's waist resting his head on his shoulder.

"We'll be fine. I meant what I said. Now that you're back with you're people, and your suits recharged, I doubt they could stop you if they tried," Kale tried to be encouraging even though he knew it wouldn't be as simple as he made it sound. He felt Kershala take his hands in his and just sat in silence for several long seconds.

"Thank you." Kershala rubbed Kales hands seemingly feeling the scraps and cuts from his fight. "Your hands." He turned to face Kale and lift his hands to look at them gently examining one side then the other. His knuckles were scratched up and with a bit of dried blood on them, some bruises had started to form on the others that weren't cut. "How did this happen?" Kershala reached into a drawer beside the bed and pulled out a small tool. He guided Kale to the bed, and they sat down.

"Whatever that Shironian metal is made out of I guess is tougher than human skin," Kale laughed. Kershala took one of his hand and clicked a button on the tool, the tip of it lit up.

"This should fix it. It will not be uncomfortable." Kale watched as Kershala ran the lighted tip of the small tube-shaped tool over the scrapes. After a couple of passes the skin on his knuckles began to heal and it seemed to clean up the blood as well. It was the same type of bio regenerator that Lenari had used when they first came aboard only this one was smaller.

"How does it work?" Kale looked from his wound to Kershala.

"It tricks your skin into healing itself at an accelerated rate by stimulating the surrounding cellular tissue." The wounds and bruises were completely gone, as Kershala switched to his other hand Kale looked over his newly healed one. It looked like there was never a cut or bruise to begin with.

"I guess if you are going to do much hand to hand combat, we will have to look into a something to protect you," said Kershala finishing up with the other hand.

"That would be appreciated." Kale looked his hand over finding it in much the condition the other one was left in. "So, is this reaction typical of Daoran ship crews with Sashir being injured?" Kale imagined that Daoran ship commanders had to deal with loosing people often. The other Daorans for some reason seemed to lack Kershala's fighting prowess aside from the display that Rotabu put on in the engine room.

"No, this crew seems particularly close. Though that is because they are small, this ship should have a compliment of closer to twenty members not the ten that are here."

"Do you think that's because they don't have enough people to fill the crew? Or …"

"I do not know Kale." Kershala put the tool back in the cabinet beside the bed and stood to walk back to the window. Kale could tell he didn't really feel like talking about what happened to Sashir, so he decided to leave it be. He was curious to learn more but knew it would come with time. He grabbed Kershala's hand and pulled him over to be standing in front of him. Kale raised his free hand to Kershala's hip and with only a few hand signals was able to tell him what he wanted. Kershala knelt into a kiss and before long was straddling Kale with his knees up on the bed. Kale rested his head against Kershala's strong chest listening to his heartbeat for a few seconds. They hadn't really had much time to just sit and enjoy each other lately, briefly before they slept didn't seem like much at all. Part of him missed just being alone with Kershala all the time but he knew that wasn't likely to be the case going forward. Specifically, when they got to the city ship, he knew they would get busy.

"Are you excited to get back to the city ship?" he asked embracing tightly.

"I am happy to be back with my people, but I do not know how the elders there are going to treat us. My father had many friends and supporters but as with everything, you cannot please everyone," explained Kershala as he ran a hand through Kales hair. "I fear they won't be happy with us."

"Don't worry about us. Unless they drag me away kicking and screaming. I'm not going anywhere." Kale could tell Kershala feared losing him, he also couldn't blame him, everyone he had ever loved had been taken from him one way or another. "You'll always come back…" Kale paused and looked up at him. "But I'll never leave." Kershala smiled at him softly and leaned into a caress. The anxiety that Kale had felt had long left both of them, Kershala seemed to at least have his mind off the Shironian scientist for now and that was all that mattered. Kale leaned back on the bed and Kershala laid down beside him to face him. Kershala touched his backhand to Kales face in a gentle touch before running his hand through his hair.

"Your hair has gotten long." Kershala laughed as he tugged gently on a single curl of Kales blond hair that fell in front of his face. It was true Kale hadn't even noticed before now, it was longer than it had ever been.

"Maybe I'll get a cut while we're on the city ship." Kale smiled at Kershala. Kale ran his hands over Kershala's back, he could feel what he was sure were knots in his back even though the musculature was different. "You're so tense." Kale began rubbing one of the spots in a circular motion and Kershala sat his chin on his shoulder.

"That is very relaxing. The strain of combat gets to me now and then. Usually a few targeted stretches are effective in releasing it. But since you are right here…" Kershala seemed to trail off as he spoke, he stood up crawling over Kale to lay on the bed. He laid on his stomach and looked back at Kale with a sweet smile on his face. Kale watched as he used the nanites to remove his body suit leaving nothing but his underwear on.

"That seems like a slight misuse of your technology," Kale smirked as he sat up on the bed and mounted Kershala. "Not that I'm complaining." Kale ran his hands along Kershala's bare skin, he was warmer than he expected him to be. He ran his hands along his body looking for the knots and as he came across a spot on his upper back, he applied a good amount of pressure and started to work the tense tissue. "Let me know if I'm going to hard."

"I doubt that you could." Kale thought it out briefly and realized it probably sounded silly, he doubted he could hurt him if he wanted to. He pushed a little harder onto the spot and Kershala seemed to twitch and move his head. He could tell the knot was deep and had been there awhile as Kershala let out a soft moan as the tension released. Kale moved across his back to the next spot and did the same thing. He watched as Kershala's muscles moved under his hands like fluid and applied more and more pressure to the tension point causing him to whimper.

"What was that?" asked Kale as he leaned up beside him on the bed.

"That was a very good feeling," Kershala smiled. Kale was surprised at the reaction he was getting, he never really considered himself a good masseuse. It had been a long time since he had given one.

"Is this your first massage?" he asked going back to the spot he had been working.

"It is," Kershala shifted his head lay on the other cheek. "This is what your people call a massage? I had seen reference to it in one of the physiological databases Anubis downloaded."

"Interesting." Kale smiled as he worked wondering if that database was a medical database or a sexual one. "How does it feel?" Kale ran his hands down Kershala's back slowly and stopped at the base of it, Kershala twitching the whole way down.

"That kind of tickles," said Kershala smiling back at him. "But otherwise it is very relaxing." Kale leaned down and kissed up Kershala's back and eventually to his cheek and then lips. Kershala nuzzled his face into the nape of Kales neck and let out a breath giving Kale chills.

"You're killin' me here boy," Kale laughed. Kale wanted to take Kershala right there but knew the likelihood of being interrupted was too high. Kershala smiled as he laid back down on the bed and Kale continued his massage. It wasn't long before he could feel Kershala relaxing under his hands, after a few minutes Kershala had dozed off. Kale gently laid down beside him kissed him on the cheek before trying to sleep himself. As he laid there, he felt like was suddenly wasn't really that tired, something that he had been plagued with while at home but hadn't been much of an issue lately. There had been nights where he'd lay in bed for over an hour just trying to fall asleep after feeling dead to the world before he got in bed. He found himself thinking of everything that had happened in the last two days. Life changing were the only words he could think of trying to sum it all up. From the second they left Earth he thought of everything he had done finding it hard to believe that he still hadn't waken up from a dream; or nightmare depending on what perspective he took. Kershala, faster than light travel, teleporters and machines that could make food seemingly from thin air; a dream. Fire fights, invasive injections, and giant anthropomorphic reptilian aliens; a nightmare.

Kershala awoke to a jolt that shook the ship lightly, Kale was sleeping next to him and the lighting had been turned down in the room. He stood up and looked out the window to see that they were docking with what he what assumed was the city ship.

"We have arrived at the Typhonus City Ship," said the AI in their private channel. The lights in the room rose to normal levels as the ship stopped moving. Kershala could feel an anxiousness rising in his chest about meeting with the elders of the ship. He did not know what to expect and this frightened him.

"Communicate with the ships AI and determine what our welcome might be like. I want a profile of the council by the time we are ready to meet with them," Kershala instructed.

"I am in the process of doing so."

"I also would like for you to determine what kind of control you will be able to exert over their systems. I do not wish to cause them harm, but should we need to escape I will not let them hold me." Kershala looked back at Kale and walked over to the side of the bed.

"Neither will I, Kershala." Kershala knew that the AI would determine the best course of action and wouldn't stand for any attempt to imprison him. Kershala reached down and shook Kale lightly who sat up quickly as if surprised that he had fallen asleep.

"We are here."