You know how the disclaimer goes. Now read, and start taking notes for your review.

Sonic Junior pelted at full bore, feeling the adrenalin rush through his mind, focusing, feeling the wind, reaching maximum speed-

"Junior, you're going to break that treadmill in a minute."

Distracted by the sound of Amelia's voice, Junior missed a step and fell over onto the treadmill which sent him flying across the room into a wall. He recovered to the sight of Amelia standing over him.

"I'm impressed by your speed, I've got to say, but I think you need to… chill out."

Sonic Junior leapt to his feet and shook off the daze. "No way ma'am, I've got to find out exactly what my powers are, so when-"

Junior was suddenly cut off by an explosion, and he grabbed Amelia and hit the floor. The smoke cleared to reveal a small hole in the wall to the lab next door, through which Vulpis could be seen juggling a red-hot gun in her hands, which she then dropped. Sabre got up from crouching behind cover. "Well…" he said. "Maybe that wasn't the best idea, using hypercharged energy cells in my pistol…"

Vulpis cooled her hands off and looked at the gun on the floor, thoughtfully. "Still, Sabre, you can't go around using equipment from two centuries ago, no matter how good. We've got to find a way to update your battle technique…"

"I agree, but let's try and not get ourselves killed doing it!"

"I second that!" said Amelia, being helped up by Sonic Junior. "On both accounts. Nobody under my command is going to be using antique-"

Then Amelia was cut off by an alarm coming from her wrist console. She pressed a button and a holo-screen came up. Sonic looked closely, and Sabre and Vulpis looked through the hole in the wall. "We've got something incoming on scanners!" said Amelia, alarmed. "Quick, everyone to central! That's an order!"

The crew of the Star Thorn were soon assembled in the central room of the ship, uneasy. Amelia ran back out from the cockpit. "Scanners indicate a spacecraft heading towards us, which isn't transmitting any identification codes, nor responding to our hails. The Star Thorn is now in a state of yellow alert, ladies and gentlemen."

"Wait," said Sonic Junior, "You think they could be hostile?" Amelia nodded.

"I'm gonna go lock 'n load, boys." said Sabre, running back to the lab.

"Good idea." said Amelia. Then her wrist console beeped again. "We've got visual!"

The crew crowded around the holo-screen again, which projected an image of the spacecraft, which Amelia identified. "It's an expedition ship, like ours but bigger… looks beaten up, no identification… twenty, thirty crew by the look of it."

"I don't see any weapons." said Vulpis, looking closely. "Wait…"

On the other ship, a panel could be seen moving and turning over, revealing a torpedo launcher. And on top of that launcher was another black panel, emblazed with a skull and a pair of guns…

"Pirates." said Amelia. "Everyone, brace yourselves!"

The pirate ship launched a salvo of torpedoes at the Star Thorn, just as Captain Amelia and Sonic Junior leapt into the cockpit and set starboard shields at max. The torpedoes slammed into the protective force fields, exploding and violently rocking the ship- Sonic Junior and Amelia were strapped in and Crusher and Vulpis were holding on to whatever they could reach, but Sabre was knocked to the floor. The shields did their job though- none of the missiles got through.

"We can't relax yet!" said Amelia. "There'll be more where that came from!"

Sonic Junior started aiming the Star Thorn's own guns. "We'll give them some of whatever…"

Sabre ran back from the laboratory, in pain and muttering a string of expletives. "What the hell was that!"

"A warning shot." said Crusher. "If we don't surrender, they'll try to disable the ship, then board us."

Vulpis was picking herself up, in shock. "Oh my gosh… oh my gosh…"

"It's all right, Vulpis!" said Sabre, "I swear I'll find the SOB that fired that and…"

"Take this!" shouted Junior as he fired off two of the Star Thorn's laser cannons at the other ship. The shots didn't do much, but were absorbed by the pirate vessel's own shields.

Then the ship was rocked again, and the lights flickered. Sabre grabbed Vulpis as they hit the floor, and in the cockpit lights went red and alarms sounded.

"What have they done to my baby…" said Crusher, hoisting himself up.

"They're damaged our main power core!" shouted Amelia. "Now they're moving next to us- they're trying to board us!"

Sabre leapt to his feet and pulled out his other signature weapons- a pair of energy Uzis. "Let 'em come, I can take 'em on easy!"

Sonic Junior leapt from the cockpit and landed in the central room. "I'm with you, all the way!"

Amelia ran out. "Alright boys, but we're probably going to be up against twenty or thirty pirates here, maybe even more!"

Sabre smirked. "I didn't ask for the odds."

The airlock of the Star Thorn opened, and several large figures stepped through. They were three pirates, clad in armour and heavily armed. The lead one was a black sparrow with dirty feathers, an assortment of jewellery and equipment, a big black hat, clad in thick flak armour and holding a large gun. He stepped forward.

"All right, ya worthless Explorers, I'm Captain Blackwing, and now I own this puny ship, and all your worthless lives!"

Sabre and Sonic Junior were crouched behind makeshift barricades, Sabre muttering gruesome, expletive-ridden threats under his breath and Junior staring at the roughshod, dangerous-looking space pirates. But Captain Amelia Thorn strode past them, up to Captain Blackwing, and looked him in the eye. Sweetly but firmly, she stated "I'm afraid I have to disagree, Blackwing, for I own this ship and the crew are under my command, which I will not relinquish any time soon, and never to the likes of you."

Blackwing laughed. "Well then, little missy… I'm just going to have to take it then." He grinned. "Right lads?"

The two burly pirates either side of him chuckled.

"All right then…" said Amelia, stepping back. "But don't say I didn't warn you…" She drew her duelling laser pistol. A signal.

Sabre leapt up from the barricade and let fly with the energy bolts from his antiquated but still deadly submachine guns. "Yo ho this, pirate boys!"

Simultaneously, Sonic Junior ran up the wall on the other side of the corridor, and leapt at the pirate on the right- the last thing the buccaneer saw before unconsciousness was the bottom of Junior's red anti-friction shoe.

The infuriated Captain Blackwing brought his gun to bear, but his hat was shot off by Amelia's pistol, barely missing his head- and causing temporarily flash blindness. The pirate captain dropped his gun as he roared in pain, then he yelled "The rest of you worthless dogs, get the hell in here!"

Other pirates crammed through the airlock hatch and flooded into the ship. His eyesight returning, Blackwing looked back down the corridor- Sabre was being driven back by the onslaught, though still felling pirates with a withering hail of fire, while a blue bolt was leaping around the cabin, striking his crew unaware. Captain Thorn was nowhere to be seen.

Blackwing cursed and drew his energy cutlass. "I'll cut down that insolent wench myself…"

To be continued. Can the Star Thorn crew hold the pirates off? Will Blackwing get his duel with Amelia? Where the hell are Crusher and Vulpis? How long is it gonna take me to write all this? All good questions that will only be answered next chapter…