Another explosion knocked Chisato off fer feet and sent her flying down the corridor, her camera floating along after her. Commander Revorse did not break her stride. The merchant had obviously been trained in ship combat. Chisato guessed that she could probably fight in all sorts of gravities and knew something about ship-to-ship tactics as well. The reporter knew nothing of such things. However, she knew she had to get pictures of the battle. Warfare in space... her people back on Nede, who hadn't experienced war for hundreds of years, had never seen such a thing. She couldn't imagine what the primitivcae people of Expel would think of it!

Her slow, painful progress eventually led her to the bridge, where she dragged her bruised, slightly space-sick body into a corner and began taking photographs.

"HOW MANY?" screamed Commander Revorse. She jumped into the high leather Captain's chair and plugged herself via several jacks in the base of her skull directly into the ship's computers. Chisato followed her finger to the display screen in front of them.

Hundreds of bird-like creatures surrounded the ship, attacking it with animal ferocity. Each one around twenty feet tall, their plumage was deep plum, each with two pairs of wings and a long plumed tail. Their razor sharp beaks and feathers ture gashes in the shields as they hurled themselves bodily at the vessel, their cries more like the grating hum of faulty machines than a bird's warbling. Sorougme opened their beaks and hurled waves of shadow energy at the ship from a source that Chisato could only assume was heraldic magic, the concentrated will of an intelligence too alien for her own mind to understand at all, let alone empathise with.

"Are those... the XINE?" she asked, bracing herself against the impact of another cluster of energy bolts. Commander Revorse nodded.

"The XINE don't attack in these kind of numbers!" cried the merchant, frantically running her hands over the controls, "You see bands of five or six... not three hundred!"

"It's like an army..." said Chisato, shuddering. She hated war. All Nedians did. They knew how many people it killed, jow many civilisations crumbled to dust under its bloody banners. She always assumed the XINE were just animals. But what kind of animals used magic? Was she really seeing an invasion fleet from an alien race?

"We can't hold out." said the merchant, "I'm taking evasive maneouvers!"

"But we're surrounded!"

"We have to try!" she yelled. With a keystroke, the ship's cloaking device flickered on. The XINE saw straight through the illusion - they were intelligent enough to know there was still a ship there - but a few more of them missed, not sure exactly where the ship was. Her keen eyes picked out the weakest flank in the swarm and and executed a complex roll, darting between the giant birds.

"Shields down 90!" she yelled. They were still being hit a lot. Chisato gripped her camera and prayed to Tria.

"WHAT THE CRAP IS THAT?"

Chisato jumped. Out of nowhere, a cluster of missiles whined into view and exploded around the ship, tearing apart around 30 of the XINE. The barrage was followed by a stream of laser fire that swept through the ranks of the XINE. Their broken corpses fell out into space en masse, clouds of feathers whipping up into a cyclone. The remaining XINE began screeching, blind panic showing in their grating voices as they scattered in all directions, trying to locate their new attackers. Suddenly, there was a low humming noise that vibrated through the ship and hurt Chisato's ears. She smelt rust in the air. With a word that sounded like a rather filthy expletive in an alien language, Commander Revorse grabbed a control stick and forced it downwards, plunging the ship into a nose dive. Chisato's stomach lurched. She grabbed the rail and hung onto it, her legs dangling in the air. She heard an ear-splitting roar like space itself being torn apart. The stench grew unbearable. As she looked upwards at the display, she saw a bolt of pure dark energy big enough to swallow the ship lancing across the sky, its core writhing with the raw power of a black hole. The XINE who failed to fly out of the way were instantly vaporised, reduced to their bare subatomic components, hundreds of them.

"Antimatter cannon." said Commander Revorse between swear words, "Someone's packing some serious firepower."

"Where's it coming from?"

"I don't know." she admitted, looking up at the retreating XINE as they were torn apart by another stream of laser fire, "Let's hope they're friendly or we can outrun them."

She cranked a lever up as far as it would go and the ship sped up. Jarred by the sudden jolt, Chisato really did let go of the rail and plummetted towards the opposite wall. Fortunately, she fell into the automatic door, which opened up for her so she could float down the corridor away from the bridge. She grabbed the wrecked vending machine for support. After a few minutes, the ship righted itself and she dropped to the floor. She felt nauseous, but realised that she hadn't eaten anything , so had nothing to bring up. She was, in fact, hungry. She hadn't eaten a meal since she set off into the Cave of Trials. She looked at the vending machine. It had almost been raided clean. There were a couple of chocolate bars left, which she unwrapped and ate. Where was Eruaqs, anyway? She was worried he had been hurt in the battle, or that Commander Revorse had wired him to the engine as some kind of macabre power source.

The first thing she found was her kitten. Lola was curled up in a small furry ball, asleep on a bed in the personal quarters. Black cat hair was strewn all over the white sheets. Lola mewed in protest as she was picked up.

"Have you seen Eruaqs?" she asked it. It didn't answer, but nuzzled her face and fell asleep again in her arms.

Chisato looked everywhere - in all the bays of the cargo hold, in the engine room, the living quarters, the bridge and the medical bay. Suddenly, there was a chime over the intercom. Commander Revorse was summoning her to the bridge.

"What's happening now?" she asked.

"We're being hailed!"

---------------------------

The communications channel was beeping. Commander Revorse gave the order to accept the incoming signal and a face appeared on the screen. It was a woman. Despite having a humanoid face, she was obviously not human. Her doll-like face was ageless, oddly pale, her hazel eyes never blinking, her mouth expressionless. She sat on a black leather chair, dwarfed by the mechanical towers she was plugged directly into. Chisato knew what an android was, had met one before, but never a friendly one that worked properly. Indalecio Gabriel, the most advanced AI on Nede, and his servants had almost caused the destruction of the Universe.

"This is Marietta la Verne, Director of the Battle Fortress Chronicle." She spoke through a speaker headset, "Your ship is entering our airspace without authorisation. Intruders will be met with deadly force. Please state your purpose or leave."

"This is Commander Revorse of the Trader's Guild of Fargett." replied the merchant, "Our intentions are peaceful. Our ship is badly damaged and we are running out of fuel. We request assistance and are prepared to trade."

"You will be met outside our border by a ship carrying fuel and supplies. Do not attempt to enter our territory."

"Received and understood."

The communications port was closed at the other end, leaving them to watch a small ship slowly approaching our own.

"They're hiding something." said Chisato. The merchant waved her away.

"There's nothing we can do about it in our condition." she said, "We're lucky they don't open fire. We're trespassing on their territory and we could be anyone."

"How do we know that's really an aid ship?"

"If it's not, I can always shoot it down." the merchant assured her, "In our situation, all we can really do is wait and see."

Biting back the hundred-and-one questions forming in her mind, she watched the screen. Stroking Lola helped to relieve her anxiety. The kitten wasn't at all concerned about their situation. She purred and rubbed her face against Chisato's hand. The ship soon arrived. A small white craft, it was armed but did not appear to be attacking. It opened up a communication channel and requested docking permission. Commander Revorse granted the request and the two of them headed down to the docking bay to open the doors. The ship maneouvred carefully next to the Revorse and the two locked onto each other. A slender, red-haired man walked through the doors, clearly Tetrageniont with his long, spindly limbs, pinched, angular face and the third eye in his forehead. He wore a black suit similar to Chisato's own. Commander Revorse met him first and proffered him a hand. He bowed gracefully and kissed her hand. Then his eyes met Chisato's and he gasped, frozen into place.

"You looking at something, pervert?" Commander Revorse asked, slightly annoyed.

"Chisato?" he asked, "Chisato MADISON?"

"How the hell do you know my name?" demanded Chisato.

"Chisato, it's me! Jan Orvue! Remember, from the 'Ask Jan' column?"

Chisato would have dropped her camera if it hadn't been on a strap around her neck. Her face went as pale as his own.

"Please forgive me. I thought... we all thought you had died on Nede!"

"We? How many..."

"Thirty-four. Thirty-four survivors. Not enough to run an orbital space fortress that isn't orbiting anything any more, but we've been on a massive recruitment drive."

"A what now?" asked Commander Revorse, her hands on her hips, "Do you two know each other? Stop chatting and get me my supplies NOW!"

"My apologies, Mrs. Revorse, your supplies will be delivered promptly." he bowed to the merchant, "Chisato, I think you'd better come with me."

Chisato looked over her shoulder. "Eruaqs..."

"What did you say?"

"There's another passenger... Eruaqs na Od... I can't find him and I don't want to leave him alone with that pirate... er, I mean, on this ship. I'm sorry."

"Chisato, we scanned your ship for life. There were two human-sized signals and one smaller signal - your cat. There's nobody else on your ship."

Chisato glared at Commander Revorse, fury burning in her eyes.

"Did you throw him out of the airlock?" she demanded in a cold voice. Commander Revorse shook her head.

"I've been unable to find him either. I wanted to take a better look at those ports - they're a model I haven't seen before, you know, and I'm rather a connoseur - but I can't find him since the battle."

"Since the battle..." Chisato scratched her head. Her face went white. A horrible thought had occurred to her. "Commander Revorse, do the XINE... take prisoners?"

"They're birds, Chisato. If they grabbed your friend, they'd have eaten him by now."

"Th... that's terrible!"

"Chisato!" Jan took her hand, "If Eruaqs is still alive, the Chronicle can find him! We have more firepower and better tracking devices than this... pirate ship!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" screamed Commander Revorse, pointing a gun at Jan's head, "GET OFF MY SHIP! OFF! ALL OF YOU!"

Chisato grabbed the young man's hand as he ran back down the corridor into his own ship. It was very different to the Revorse. Although it had none of the class of the Revorse, it was much more modern. The lighting was a soothing shade of cool blue and the music was upbeat dance anthems such as 'Preemptive Attack' and 'Moon Base'. It had proper holographic terminals and nothing was coin-operated or carpeted. A young woman with green hair waved at them, jabbing a fork into some kind of processed meal. He led her down the corridor and stopped at a door. He pressed his palm against a pad and the door slid open. He bowed and ushered her in. It was his standard-issue personal living quarters - it had a bed, desk, chair and computer. Beautiful holographic images played over the walls, a shower of fine crystalline raindrops that sparkled every colour of the rainbow. Lola tripped over a wire, became tangled up in it and fled under the bed. Jan laughed.

"Welcome to the ship. It doesn't have a name. It's just a ship."

"What in Tria's name is going on?" demanded Chisato, sitting on the bed. The Tetrageniont took her hands and looked at her with dark brown, serious eyes.

"I'm sorry you weren't told, Chisato. Communications must have failed before word could reach you. It happens to a lot of people lower down in authority - people like us. I only found out because I was in the Director's office at the time."

"Found out WHAT?"

"The Fortress Chronicle. Our space station." he said in a sad voice, "The Nede Chronicle had an evacuation programme planned twenty-three years before even the Government had any idea what was going on. We survived, Chisato. We're still broadcasting."