Although this is technically the chapter for adults, nothing really "adult" actually happens, and they won't happen until someone asks for them. *hint hint

Meanwhile...

"Master Krux," the tall blue creature said pleadingly, "this time I have truly discovered something of value. I have found a way to defeat the young spectrobe master!"

"That is precisely what you said last time, but when I followed you to the supposed solution, it was a simple record of the humans' history." The cloaked figure said through his mask. It was obvious that he was disappointed in his new high krawl. It seemed as though good help was impossible to find.

As though reading Krux's thoughts, the creature said, "but Master, this information could allow you to build an army of high krawl."

Krux thought this over a moment. "Where did you find this information?" Krux asked suspiciously. "I sent you to scout the Nanairo system."

"While I was scouting," the creature explained, "I ran into a patrol cruiser. I thought 'why not' and I kinda... sorta... destroyed it..."

"Were there any survivors?" Krux asked, frustrated by the fact that no one listened to him.

"The escape pods launched, but there's no proof that anyone was inside."

"You imbecile!" Krux shouted. "Now they know that the krawl are still alive! They'll have the spectrobe masters armed and ready by the time we get there."

"I still haven't told you where I found the info." The blue creature pointed out.

"Continue, then." Krux replied, quieting down slightly.

"So, after I had destroyed the ship, I had completely lost my sense of direction. I mindlessly wandered into a portal. I found myself in a mysterious star system with very primitive ruins on each planet. I found a data record on an ancient computing device orbiting the big, stormy planet. After further inspection, I found it was a simple, four-letter code for turning any animal into any other animal." The creature managed to say in a single breath.

"Any animal into any other animal..." Krux said thoughtfully. "What is the name of this system? Does anything inhabit it any more?"

"From other databases, I found that the star is called 'Sol.' The only life forms that could pose a threat are an intelligent race of non-humanoid beings on the ninth planet from the star and on its moon. The ancient peoples referred to them as 'Ooblajig.'"

"Before we start the invasion," said master Krux, "I want you to return to the Solar System and find any information on ALL life forms. Especially the Ooblajig."

The tall blue creature slinks out of the thrown room.

Back in the NPP Medical Wing

Rallen and Jeena were still clinging tightly to one another. The events of the attack were still near the front of their minds. Was that thing really a krawl? Didn't they destroy Krux? What do they do now?

These questions could wait until later.

Jeena had finally woken up (three hours after she opened her eyes). She noticed something was... wrong... She looked down and noticed that neither she nor Rallen were wearing any clothes. "Get off of me!" she grunted at Rallen.

Rallen, who had been fully awake he whole time, said, "I-I didn't know..."

"What didn't you know?" Jeena retorted in a harsh whisper. "That we were naked or that I wouldn't like it?"

"Well, I though since... y'know... you were the one who came over to me..." He was completely hopeless.

"Just... stay on your side of the bed. 'Kay?" Jeena said a little more softly.

This surprised Rallen. He didn't expect a calm reaction after less than a few minutes. He very slowly inched towards Jeena and tried to whisper a question to her.

Jeena's initial response was to blush and force herself not to smile. Then she just pushed Rallen back onto his side of the bed. This time, they were both confused by her action. They both knew that that particular inside joke always made Jeena laugh, but for some reason, she didn't even chuckle. Jeena was more concerned by the fact that she was pushing Rallen away. Hadn't she always...? No. No, she was just not... or was she?

A medic ran into the room and threw a bundle containing a new NPP uniform for each of the cadets. "Quick-get-into-this,-the-commander-is-coming!" she quickly shouted as she ran by, not even noticing the position the two were in.

Jeena had no trouble at all turning away from Rallen to put on her uniform. Rallen however...

"Stop it, Rallen," Jeena said in her kind-of-frustradted voice, "I know you're looking." He tried his best to avert his eyes, but she was just so...

Rallena and Jeena were dressed and ready when Commander Grant walked in. They both saluted. Then the unexpected guest arrived. It was no creature either of them had seen before. It had a scaly face with huge lips around a giant mouth. It's back had a strange hunch and was covered in down. Out from the down came four large feathers on each side and a pair of butterfly wings. Its torso was just a thin tube, which connected its hunch to its enormous stomach region. Its three-part legs led to huge, human-like feet with nasty claws where nails should be. Then the tail. The tail ended in a huge club covered in spikes and was covered in protective plates.

"Commander," Jeena asked, "do I have permission to ask who our guest is?"

"I was actually hoping you would ask." Commander Grant said as he surprised them with a smile. "This is an ambassador from our new galactic ally. He has just informed us that the thing that hit your cruiser might well be a krawl."

The strange being spread out its feathers and bowed deeply. Its color changed from dark purple with icy blue patches to a vibrant green with red stripes. When it stood back upright, it went back to its 'normal' colors. "I underrstaand you twoo arre the besst krawl hunerrss in this sysstem."

Both Rallen and Jeena were taken aback by the fact that it could speak their language so fluently and by its strange greeting. Ralen reached his hand forward for a handshake. The ooblajig cringed. It relaxed when it realized Rallen's hand was empty.

"Sorrry, ourr speciess have not haad goood rrelationss with thee humaanss." Re reached forward and shook Rallen's hand. "I am Isaarf XXIV. One of myy grreat aancestorss wass the one whoo maade it posssible for humanss to livve lonng ennough to travell into the outerr gaalaxxy."

"He invented Advanced Cryo?" Jeena asked.

"No, he wass lonng dead whenn thaat was disscoverred. He invennted a sysstem thaat allowwed one of the nationss on the huumans' home worrlld to rreversre a nassty prrocesss called 'globaall warminng.'" Isaarf XXIV replied.

"But that would mea-" Jeena was interrupted by Commander Grant.

"We can talk about this later, now we have to focus on the krawl."

"Quite right!" said Isaarf in a completely different voice. "Now then, The Ooblajig have monitored human colonies in the Solar System since the humans invented the pointed stick. Four Kollin-days ago, we spotted a strange blue creature in the Gas giant's orbit. We thought we had misread the signals because the creature had no protective gear on. We scanned several more times before finally deciding to send a probe to the scene. Just as we launched the probe, the creature changed directions and flew into one of the abandoned satellites."

"Abandoned?" Rallen asked. "Why was it abandoned?"

"The entire Solar System was abandoned hundreds of thousands of years ago. None of the other empires in the Tristellar Alliance know what happened." Isaarf continued to babble. "When the creature left, we sent the probe to inspect the satellite. It found that the memory storage device had been activated."

"What was on this memory storage device?" Jeena asked.

"Just some basic information about the human G-nome." Isaarf replied.

"Basically, this was just the long-winded way of saying: the krawl are back and have information to use against us." The Commander stated bluntly. "I'll se you three in my office in three hours to discuss a plan. Isaarf, show these two to their new ship."

Isaarf bowed again and the two officers saluted as Commander Grant turned to leave.

Part of this story came from 92dragon's idea.

I don't own spectrobes or any of the spectrobes characters. I also don't own the Solar system. I do, however, own the entire Ooblajig species and Isaarf.

Please leave practical comments saying what you want to happen next. Remember only three will be chosen: two for the teen audience, and one for the adult audience. (usually one is for the child audience, but since this one was already technically for the teen/adult audience, I can't follow it with a children's chapter.)