Chapter 4

The room they had been given was actually a small, two bedroom apartment. With the limited computer access she had been allowed at the room's terminal, Princess had discovered that these were standard Officer's quarters on the ship. Checking the navigational data she had also learned that it would take them three days to get to the planet Spectra. Apparently this wasn't one of the fastest ships around.

Princess waited patiently while Jason finished checking the rooms for bugs and cameras.

"I think we're clean." he said to Princess. "I'm not sure why they wouldn't be monitoring us though."

"We're still thinking like G-Force." said Princess, "But they're expecting us to start thinking like members of the Spectran Military. They don't entirely trust us yet, but they also don't have any reason to mistrust us either." Although she wasn't whispering, she did make an effort to keep her voice soft and low.

"I can't believe we've lost our uniforms and our bracelets!" muttered Jason. "This is going to be a lot harder if we can't use Birdstyle in an emergency!"

"I did manage to set off a homing signal on my communicator before giving it to the guards." Princess informed him.

"Great." Jason's sarcasm was legendary. "The range on that thing is what…. 6 inches?"

"A couple of light years actually." responded Princess, "And it's better than nothing!"

"The Phoenix would have to fly awfully close by to detect it." said Jason, "But you're right, it's something. It's certainly more than I was able to do."

Princess knew that was as close to an apology as she'd get.

"Thanks." she grinned. "The team will certainly know that something's up when we don't return from Riga."

"But if they go to Riga there's nothing for them to find." replied Jason. "Certainly nothing to point them here. And somehow I suspect that the Spectran Army is the last place they would look to find us."

"Oh I don't know…" winked Princess, "Remember when Tiny almost joined up?" The two laughed at the shared memory. It broke the tension and relieved a little of the stress they had been feeling since they had awoken from sedation.

"So we're on our own then." said Princess quietly.

Jason nodded solemnly.

"So what do we do?"

"I think we have an opportunity here." said Jason thoughtfully. "They obviously have no idea that we're G-Force or we'd be dead already."

"Or being waved around as bait to get to the others." Princess added. "That's one of Zoltar's favorite tricks."

"It seems that they've bought into our Race cover story of being Rigan twins. Let's play along with that." Princess nodded at Jason's suggestion.

"About that…" she said, "Why did Mala want to know if we…. if we…." She could barely bring herself to think the words, much less say them.

"Were lovers?" Jason finished for her. "I don't know. Should we try it and find out what kind of difference it makes?" He grinned wolfishly at her.

Princess slapped his face with a pillow.

"All right, I guess I have my answer." he said teasingly, "But if you change your mind the offer still stands."

"In any case," he continued, "I think we should do what they want. At least, for awhile…"

"We will have access to a lot of sensitive information." Princess mused, "And we'd have a chance to destroy this new mecha Mala's so excited about. We might even be able to scope out their whole military installation. It seems like we should try to get as much information as we can." Her face fell with another thought. "But everyone will be so worried about us. And there's no way to contact them."

Jason's face took on a determined look. "If we have an opportunity to communicate with the Federation, or escape, we'll do so." he resolved. "But until then, we'll do as they ask."

"Agreed." replied Princess.

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"We are now in Rigan standard orbit." stated Tiny professionally. Although he wasn't used to flying the Phoenix in his civilian clothes it hadn't lessened his abilities.

It hadn't been a complete cakewalk getting there. Around the time they had reached the Crab Nebula 7-Zark-7 had contacted them on their communicators, asking what they were doing.

"Just some training Zark." Mark had replied. "Tell you what: since we're out here anyway, why don't we keep an eye on things for you? You can go take a twenty second oil break."

"Twenty seconds?" Zark had responded eagerly. Mark could almost picture his antennae popping straight up. "Thank you sir!"

Mark couldn't believe that he'd had to lie to a naïve robot in order to make it here. But they were at Riga now.

"Okay," he instructed Tiny, "I'm going to go down to the planet. You stay here and watch the Phoenix."

"What?" Tiny exclaimed, "Why do I have to stay?"

"Because we can't just leave the Phoenix unattended." said Mark reasonably.

"So much for 'the guys hanging out'!" said Tiny grumpily. But before he could continue another voice broke through the tension.

"I can watch the Phoenix Commander." came Susan's husky voice.

Mark and Tiny looked at each other, surprised.

"I have control of the piloting mechanisms that can keep the Phoenix in orbit. I'll contact you if there's any trouble."

"Works for me!" shouted Tiny as he leaped to his feet.

"Uh… okay." said Mark. He didn't really see any choice but to agree.

"Whoo hoo!" whooped Tiny, "I get to go down to the planet!"