Greetings, here is the next installment for the story, hope you like it. It took a little longer than expected, but it was because I have been busy with other things. Well, Enjoy.

NOTE: I do not own the DoP series. I do own my own characters however.

MONOLITH

The Hive mind became overwhelmed with apprehension, expectation, as it neared its destination, the system known as Alpha Sagittarius, also known to Human lore as Rukbat, or so its databanks read.

The system's one star was a yellow star, the planets orbiting it numbering six. The early gravitic data indicated that the sixth planet held an eccentric, erratic orbit, bringing it through the system only once every few hundred years. It also noted on its long range scans that the third world of the system was habitable for Humans, further indication that this system was populated as the Hive sensed.

As it approached the edge of the system, it pierced the field of material surrounding almost all star systems, the Oort Cloud, the Hive noted that it was infested with some kind of bizarre life form, apparently evolved to thrive in an environment nearly devoid of all energy input; The Rukbat star was only still a mere speck, too distant to provide adequate solar energy.

As it further entered the system, it detected several more vessels along with itself. The first two were relatively small in terms of size, Terran in origin, their current vectors taking them on a collision course with Rukbat. The third, slightly larger than the first two, was in geosynchronous orbit around the third planet. These ships all seemed to be very ancient ones, well beyond obsolete for Human standards. They posed no risk.

The fourth, however, was far more different.

It was of a more recent design, as well as being far larger than its present company. Its scans indicated it was armed, albeit lightly.

But this mattered little, as the vessels it had found were little match for Itself. It would have its revenge still.

It continued onward.

C.T.S. Sargasso, 0620 hundred hours, Tzu 1 Local Time

Captain Falcanar sat in the Ready Room, looking at the report that would save all of their asses, and wondering how he was going to break the news to the reception that would soon be arriving.

The LRIC Comm system had finally been fully repaired an hour ago, and the first thing he had done was attempt to contact the CTS High Command at Coranis Prime. All they had gotten on the general frequencies was static and more static. He was tempted to contact the Vegans, but seriously doubted that they would offer any help to their long time rivals.

After that failed, he switched to Plan B.

He wondered if the damned thing even still functioned, but his fears were all dispelled when the message he secretly sent it was pinged back, indicating it was still alive and well. It also pinged back its current location, in a system not far from their present location.

This was their last chance; there was nothing else beyond this point, He had known it since he was last in the Sagittarius Sector. Falcanar saw his opportunity to live on; He was going to take it.

The door to the Ready Room suddenly slid open, and five of the people he wanted to see entered.

Wing Commander Skye was the first. His crisply pressed dress uniform a far cry from the grungy service uniform he had been generally seen in for the last few days. The only thing the same was his black wraparound sunglasses.

Accompanying him personally were two pilots; one he recognized instantly as Lt. Falsner, the player that won the Hoopball game late yesterday. The second pilot was a young woman, whose name Falcanar did not know. The other two were Chief Engineer McNally and Chief Science Officer Todd Jukes. He had learned that Jukes too had lost family on Tzu 32, his brother to be precise.

These five immediately took seats closest to where Falcanar sat at the head of the table, not waiting for his prompt.

"Well," Skye began, "This must be something major to call out all the Brass like this. May I introduce my two best pilots, Lieutenant Falsner and Lieutenant Myassa Capris."

"Hello, Captain," Capris said, slightly whimsically as she sat down. Her apparent laid-back personality, deep blue eyes, and stunning auburn hair portrayed an aura of innocence, but if her standing record of twenty-seven kills during the Rebellion proved anything, that aura of innocence was little more than a facade.

"Well," McNally started, "Let's get to it, I honestly don't want ta' wait too long. I don't yet trust those replacement parts for the fuel gauging computers in th' engines yet. Don't want ta' leave 'em alone too long." He too took a seat.

"I apologize beforehand; you may be preoccupied with other business for the time being, this is both a meeting and a mission briefing."

After they were all finally seated.

"As you know," the Captain started, "The primary reason we have been moving steadily away from CTS space is because of the fact that during those first few days, we were without weapons control, communications, and navigations. Many of these systems and their adjoining subsystems have either been repaired or fully replaced. But the one major problem that is confronting us, the main problems that prevent us from returning to the Confederated Terran States and kicking some serious Crosseye T'Hranii ass, is the fact that we no longer have enough fuel to reach CTS space, and the fact that we have no frigging clue what we will be getting into, because despite having Communications almost fully restored, We still cannot talk to the CTSGHQ."

Jukes suddenly started. "That last part about the trouble with communicating," He said, "It sounds similar to accounts of jamming and such during the Second War. If these are the T'Hranii, which seems to be the general consensus, they may use similar tactics as they did then.

"Nice," Lt. Falsner said. "We now have to deal with no radios in the cockpit."

"What about the fuel, whaddaya mean we got no fuel?" McNally interjected.

"Well," Skye began, "Explain what in hell happened to our generous stockpile of fuel."

Falcanar began. "At about oh-two-hundred hours this morning, the Fleet Refueler Pearl-of-Joy suffered a critical loss of its cargo. Four of its nine storage pods, for unknown reason, ruptured, spilling their stored cargo into space. This new development is only still known to, beside you and I, the senior officers aboard the other vessels. I have called the other Captains together for a briefing on a possible solution to resolve this mess." He tapped the report that lay on the table in front of him.

Skye looked at the file. The bluish color indicated that it was probably a communication, but with who? His CO just said they lacked contact with the CTS? The Vegans maybe? Would he actually be desperate enough to ask for help from an enemy state?

"The file there, what's it from?" asked Lt. Capris.

"This," Falcanar said, "Is from our salvation."

"Stop talking in tongues, who's it from?" Skye asked, wanting to find out, for himself as well as present company.

"What I'm about to say is to never leave this room, much of the actual facts pertaining to this is declared Top Secret, by both the CTS Government and the CTS Navy. After we get out of this alive, I suggest that you forget everything said, both for yourselves and your careers. Oh and another thing, don't interrupt until I'm done."

"Yes Sir," Skye and the others in the room said collectively.

And Falcanar began.

"Before the Farbanti Rebellion, before the Farbanti System and several of its neighbors attempted to secede from the CTS to the Vegan Empire, I had been an officer on a small freighter in the nearby Dulcimer system, running freight between the planets and bases out there. At about the time the Rebellion began, I was contacted by an old childhood friend, and you would have known him as Fleet Admiral William Baxter."

"The Admiral Baxter?" exclaimed Jukes. "The famed Admiral of the First Fleet? You were friends with him?"

"I remember saying earlier not to interrupt me," Falcanar said. He saw that Skye too was about to say something, but abruptly closed his mouth. The Captain continued.

"He called me, and asked if an old friend would have any interest in joining a, ah, 'group' that he was putting together. Considering the fact that if I stayed on that freighter instead, I would have been on a dead end assignment. So, considering the lucrative offer that had just been made to me, I willingly accepted it. About a month after the call, I was in the Farbanti system, the whole of the region teeming with revolution, but I wasn't there to take up arms with them, I was there to fight them.

"You see, I had been hired onto a group of mercenaries, currently employed by the CTS to act as 'Privateers' against the Farbanti Insurgency. To be clearer, we were little more than state-sponsored pirates, killing and raping and murdering our way through whatever was out there. And that old coot was the top dog of it.

"But to make a long story short, one of the captures we hauled in would eventually be the turning point of many of our careers, as well as the turning point in that damned Rebellion. What we captured that day was none other than a Super Servant Class Heavy Freighter, Those big sons'o'bitches that had been long rumored to travel between the Vegan homeworlds. No one in the CTS even knew what one looked like, and here we were, with one fresh from Vegan territory in our possession. Those Vegans don't attach names to their ships, so she didn't even have one. We just called it the 'Monolith.'

"Aboard it, we not only found invaluable intelligence that helped us with that war, but we found vast stores of weapons, supplies, munitions, and other equipment. There was enough aboard that tub to fight a war for months. Chances are, if we hadn't found and captured it and that freighter managed to reach the Farbanti System, the Rebellion as you know it might have turned out very differently.

"We used the captured freighter for the remaining months of the War, both as a Resupply Station and as a Command Post. Even after the war officially ended, and the usual die-hard insurgents were pissing around, it served as an effective launch platform for missions.

"After things finally settled down, I had intended to return to Freight, but our capture of the Vegan Superfreighter had made both myself and Baxter very famous in the CTS Navy Hierarchy. And before I knew it, I had been granted a command on the CTS Adriatic, which was one of our brand-new Battlecarriers at the time, along with the Sargasso. And it was like that up until now, our current situation. So that was a summary of the past couple of decades of my life."

Skye's response was not as immediate as Falcanar expected, though after a moment he did speak up.

"The freighter you claim to have captured, how come no one has ever heard about it?"

"Because, we never admitted to the fact we still had it after the war ended. Baxter had decided to hold on to that find, rather let it be scrapped for technology. He falsified a report that it was destroyed in the final month of the war, something about colliding with an asteroid and its antimatter reactor compromising. But that vessel is still out here, still filled to the brim with fuel, in orbit around nearby Alpha Sagittarius. And now," And he leaned forward toward the others at the table as he said this, "We're going to take it."

It had been nearly ten hours since the object appeared above Pern. And it had done little other than sit there in orbit above the Southern Continent, not far from where the Yokohama was now.

The Bridge of the ship had become crowded with Lord Holders, Craftmasters, Harpers, several Weyrleaders and Weyrwomen, and dozens of others who A'rak didn't even think even belonged there during a situation like this.

He had already told Masterharper Sebell, Benden Weyrleaders F'lar and Lessa, Mastersmith Fandarel, and at least a dozen others what all he had seen. Only that it was not there, and moments later it was. He actually never expected to meet so many famous people in such a short time, and especially under such circumstances.

His shift actually didn't end for a few more hours, but he didn't care. He wondered where those other two, Jenga and Ceras, could have gone. He decided it didn't matter. He was going back to the surface with his Lageth for some much needed rest. Let the Harpers and other Dragonriders figure the Vessel out.

The Vessel, as it was now being called, was simply beyond belief. It had to be several thousand dragonlengths long, maybe even more. The only discernible features from his post on the Bridge were the huge engine nacelles on one end. The other end tapered to a fine point.

The Vessel also appeared to reflect no light. It was completely dark, except for the engine nacelles which glowed only slightly.

As he walked down the corridor to the Hangar, he suddenly got a message from his dragon. Lageth was no longer on the Yokohama; he was outside it, clinging to the vanes that ran the ship's length, observing the Vessel through the clearness of space.

He saw an image of what his dragon saw, a clear image of the Vessel. But Lageth's view saw a series of strange lights on the sides, in a regular pattern. When A'rak reached a window and looked out he saw only it's inky black outline.

"I don't see anything, Lageth." He couldn't understand it. It must have something to do with the fact that dragons could see things their human riders couldn't.

The lights are there, I can see them.

"Are you sure?"

I am.

His dragon never lied. If there were lights on that ship, there were lights. But why has no other dragon seen them yet? It was because none of the other dragons was as restless as his and was willing to gallivant on the ship's exterior, he answered his own question.

An idea suddenly hit A'rak. He saw an opportunity.

"Lageth, go back to the Hangar, I'm going to come out with you. We'll go out and see what those lights are."

Well, that's a wrap for this chapter. I had to fix a couple of errors, but its good. Keep an eye out for the next chapter.