McCoy stared off in the direction of the view screen, his hands clasped together and his chin rested upon his knuckles. Though his eyes had direction, his mind was off somewhere in space. It was a very rare thing for McCoy to wish that he was out in space. But being grounded in such a gloomy uncertainty was enough to make him leave behind any conventional qualms he had with it. He wanted more than anything to have the answers as to how to fix a Starship; there had to be some remedy that the crew was overlooking in their struggle. However, that concoction was not formulated. Mr. Spock was running his tests over and over again; Uhura, Sulu and Chekov were tirelessly at the helm; Scotty had fully restored the reserve power on the ship, though the communication frequencies will still all jammed. The Enterprise was still caught in its web, being held by something out in the fog that no scanner was locating in certain. The only thing that was certain was Jim's wish to send out a landing party into the ravine in hopes to locate Skylar and Amelia, as well as the source of their captivity.

The morning sun had burned off a significant amount of the fog that had loomed overhead in a suffocating manner overnight. The ravine and the forest around the Enterprise could be seen almost clearly. The surrounding forest was actually a picturesque sight. It resembled much of an Earth-type "great outdoors" panorama; the atmosphere was warm yet not too humid, and the forest was lush in vegetation and small alien vermin that seemed curious about the ship – but not so curious as to check it out with all of the security personnel that Jim had Skylar's second in command rotate frequently. In any other circumstance, McCoy would have been ecstatic to have his shore leave here. He would have found himself a nice patch of grass beneath the shade of a tree and napped. Or he would have gone hiking around the area with Amelia in tow, ready to bandage any wounds she acquired on their adventure together.

Amelia …

McCoy was heavily conflicted. Now that Amelia was gone, he couldn't stop thinking about her. All he thought about as he made his way into Sick Bay to tend to the broken and worn crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise was the thought that maybe she had found herself back into the wreckage. Maybe she'd need him to patch something else up on her from her fall. Or worse … maybe he'd only find her body, recovered from the search … McCoy shook his head. That was the last thing he wanted to think about. Unfortunately, with the morale of the crew so low in general despite Jim's efforts to keep everyone alert and hopeful in the situation, it was hard to believe what his heart wanted to. Spock helped in this bitter reality as he continually fiddled with his scanner in an effort to establish any kind of brief connection with where the cloaking device could be. When he wasn't doing that, he was putting in his two cents to Jim about where the landing party should go in terms of finding the device. McCoy had not heard Spock mention Skylar or Amelia once since last night. The worst part about it was the fact that as much as McCoy despised Spock's apparent lack of faith in the search for Skylar and Amelia, McCoy saw the logic in what was happening. He was a doctor; he understood one hundred percent on what kind of injuries could be sustained from such a fall, as well as the outcomes of each probable injury. As much as it pained McCoy to have an once of pessimism on what could have happened to the girls, he only wished that if what seemed to be the inevitable had in fact happened, that it was fast. The last thing he wanted to discover was a mangled body with remnants of slow, agonizing pain. He did not want to know that they had to have gone through that … that Amelia had to have gone through that.

McCoy looked up as Scotty walked in through the turbo lift doors. He promptly walked over to Jim, a smile on his face despite the depression that was around him. His face was smudged with grim and his red uniform top was torn in a few places. McCoy knew that if anyone wanted the ship fixed, next to Jim, it was Montgomery Scott.

"Captain," Scotty greeted.

Jim turned from Uhura and her station to Scotty. "You look happy. Good news?"

"The best. Three hours."

"Three hours?"

Scotty nodded and sucked in his lips as though he was trying to hold himself back from exploding. "Three hours and I can have 'er purring again."

Jim placed a hand on Scotty's shoulder. "That is excellent, Mr. Scott. That also means you can have a restful break." Jim slowly turned around and rested his elbows on the back of Uhura's chair. "Even with all of your efforts our frequencies are still jammed. Our helm controls are locked."

Scotty's smile faltered. He leaned into Jim. "We need to find that device and break the bloody thing in half."

"Assuming it's a thing, Mr. Scott," Spock stated from his station.

Scotty shot him a dirty look at his back. "I don't care what it is. Take a phaser to it – Vulcan karate chop it or whatever it is you do. I want the damn thing off. She's a Starship; she isn't meant to be grounded."

Jim ignored the questioning look Spock gave to Scotty with the high raise of his Vulcan eyebrow. "Once the cloaking is off, do you think we'll make it to Lambda 5?" Jim asked Scotty.

"Aye. We won't be able to maintain maximum warp or anything; we may not even be able to keep shields up at 100%, but we'll make it. The engineers for the outer shell can take it from there once we dock. She'll be lookin' good as new."

"If there are any discrepancies in the device's frequency override, can't we just try to make it out then?" McCoy offered. "I know you all want to take a stroll out into the unknown –"

Spock turned around in his chair. "The discrepancies – if any – are exceedingly inconsistent and miniscule in length. We would only be able to hover up before being propelled back down to the planet's surface once the device intercepted us again."

Scotty's expression darkened. "We cannot take another blow like that. We'll crack for certain."

Jim ran his hand through his hair. "We need to find that damned device or we're not getting off of this rock." He looked over at Spock. Spock returned the stare.

"And what about Amelia and Skylar?" McCoy said after a moment. "What about them?"

Both Spock and Jim looked at him. Scotty lowered his gaze.

"Doctor, the probably –"

"I don't care about your probability bullshit, Spock," McCoy snapped. "I want to know what the captain wants to do."

Everyone looked to Jim. Jim looked back, his eyes going from person to person. He looked beyond at the exhausted personnel that worked at the stations around the bridge. He remembered the faces in passing, bloodied and bruised. No one wanted to be here. Everyone wanted – no, needed to be off of the planet.

"I'm going to send a large party out for the device," he said suddenly. "Mr. Spock will lead it. Myself and a small party will search the ravine." Jim saw a few confused expressions and some exchanges of glances. "I need to be near the ship, even though I will give Scotty the con. And despite the unfavorable probability, I want to be 100% sure." He looked to Spock. "I need 100%."

Spock slowly nodded.

:::::

Corvallis approached his father's throne, bent down onto one knee and raised his glance to Cobia's jaded face. "You summoned me, your grace."

Cobia waved a hand to Corvallis and the young man stood tall and went to his father's throne. "My son, how are our new guests fairing?" His hand pushed back some of the fallen strands of hair in Corvallis's face, revealing a newly formed bruise under his jaw. "My, my," he stated. He pressed into the bruise with two of his fingers, causing Corvallis to whip his head away in pain. Angrily, Cobia said, "You let her hit you again?"

Touching his wounded face tenderly, Corvallis seethed, "I did not let her. You underestimate her abilities, father. I had four men with me. We escorted her and her comrade out into the fields and she managed to take down three of them. The fourth finally got a hold on her and as I went to strike her, she managed to kick me in the jaw."

Cobia's lips twitched. "She is a very troublesome female."

"Workers are already beginning to stare," Corvallis stated almost gravely. "They talk in the halls. They watch her."

"No female is going to formulate anything, so help me," Cobia said coolly. "They would be severely unwise to challenge me. I can have them all killed." He paused. "However, this Skylar seems to be undoubtedly popular already. I shall see to it she is properly punished for her attack on you today."

Corvallis stared at his father, a grim expression over his face. "What of the Starship? There must be others out there. They will come looking for her."

"They would be foolish to risk their lives for only two," Cobia replied simply. "Besides, their frequencies will remain jammed until we release them. They will not be allowed to leave until we allow them to do so – and they certainly will not have such an easy trek as to find us unless they have usable instruments." He leaned into his son and continued firmly, "We are a strong kingdom. We have worked so hard to be so. No Federation planet – no female – is going to take this away." He gripped his son's forearm tightly. "I will do everything to see to it that Lt. Skylar Pike and Amelia Takashi are never found again." He released Corvallis, who stepped away from him. "A trapped Starship is excellent leverage, my son. We should be so blessed."

Corvallis nodded.

"Now, bring me the girl," Cobia commanded.

:::::

Skylar stood before an entire congregation of the women workers of Armaga Set-ta. She was bound with her hands behind her back. She looked over the dirty faces and tattered clothes to Amelia, who stood just beneath the podium. Two male guards stood next to her.

Cobia came up from behind Skylar and rested his hand on her shoulder. She attempted to pull away but Cobia dug his nails into the thin fabric of her worker's outfit. He began to laugh. "We have a new guest amongst our most productive class," his voice boomed above the crowd. "Because she is new, she is unfamiliar with the rules. Striking a male is a punishable crime, resulting in the same act used against her. Striking a royal – well, that is punishable by death."

Several murmurs erupted. Skylar heard Amelia struggling against her captors. She couldn't look down at her; her eyes were beginning to brim. Her heart was thumping. She did not regret her decision, but rather wished she had done some things differently. Her mind began to race as she waited for what Cobia's next move would be. She would have to figure out a way to be one step ahead.

"However," the king's authoritative tone caused everyone to go still, "I am a forgiving king. And because she is new, I am willing to offer her the consequences of the first crime. But because she struck a royal, she will pay more so." Cobia released Skylar and backed away as Corvallis approached. Skylar turned to him as he took his place before her. "Let this be a lesson to anyone who wishes to defy my kingdom," Cobia boomed from behind them.

Corvallis punched Skylar in the stomach, yelling out as he did so. The pain of the impact exploded as soon as the flesh over his thick knuckles indented into hers. But that was nothing compared to what happened next. Skylar fell to her knees as the wind left her body. Between a blink, she saw Corvallis's foot launching up at her face – just as how she had done to him in the field earlier – and his foot made contact with her jaw. She was almost certain her bottom jaw was going to shoot out of her mouth, or that all of her teeth would lodge themselves into her brain somehow. If she'd ever told Bones that, he'd probably laugh. Skylar wanted to laugh, but she couldn't. Her eyes closed and everything went black and silent.

:::::

Skylar blinked as water droplets rained down over have face. With consciousness came the realization – and the intense pain – that she had not dreamed any of which that had happened; the nightmare of being held captive on a strange, uncharted planet where females were slaves was undoubtedly real. Her body reminded her of this as her hands instinctively went to her stomach where Corvallis had kicked her –

"You've been unconscious for three hours."

– three hours earlier.

Skylar forced her eyes open wide as she matched the voice to the person's face: Leighland. Her face was s bit more decorated with smudges of dirt, yet she continued to radiate despite her haggard appearance.

"Shiiiit," Skylar remarked in an elongated moan. She felt another hand on her shoulder.

"Sky – are you okay?"

Skylar looked up as Amelia's face came into view. She, too, looked a bit dusty, but not in comparison to Leighland. Skylar recalled that they had not yet endured a typical day in the fields that women like Leighland and Havara encountered. However, despite only been out in the blazing heat for a few hours trying to act as though wanting to understand the native agricultural techniques while in actuality assessing and formulating a way to escape back to the Enterprise, Skylar and Amelia had experienced enough manual labor. The harassment from Corvallis and his men had not aided their situation, either. Skylar's retaliation was not something any of them had anticipated; well, maybe their had been some sort of desire to see the feisty young woman lose herself in a bout of anger, but none of them had expected to be so overpowered by a … woman.

Skylar mustered all of the strength within herself to sit herself up on the linen draped cot. She looked around and saw that she was in a small dome-shaped house that was meagerly decorated with a few small rugs – none as glorious as the tapestries that frequented Cobia's kingdom – and some small pottery. Some longer rugs hung from the ceiling acting as a barrier to what Skylar noted as a separate space, a room, perhaps. Smaller feet stood beyond it, but she disregarded it. Instead, she took in the very different expressions of the three women who sat around her: Leighland, who appeared highly concerned with her eyebrows arched high upon her forehead; Amelia, whose concern held a slight reservation; and Havara, who glared intensely at Skylar.

"I'm not used to waking up to women," Skylar attempted to joke, laughed and then cringed in pain as she placed her hands on her abdominals. "Where is that Bones when you need him?"

"Back on our ship," Amelia answered crossly. "Which is where we could have been if you would have only kept your sass to a negative factor."

Skylar gritted her teeth. "I'm sorry I'm not a rug. I don't let people walk all over me."

"Being a rug and acting as a diplomat are two very different things," Amelia chided. "You have a lot of Kirk in you – and it's going to get you killed."

"You are so lucky I am in so much pain. I don't have the energy to make a salacious comment on the matter." She swung her legs over the side of the cot. "Besides, they were going to lock us up anyway. I wasn't going to let them do it so easily."

"You don't know that!" Amelia snapped.

"You both are foolish," Havara interjected heatedly.

All three of them looked to Havara who remained in her hard exterior. "I don't recall anyone asking for your opinion," Skylar spat.

Havara narrowed her eyes at her. "It does not matter what you want anymore; you are going to die." She stood. "You and your foolish ways will kill you. You will be made an example of. Cobia will not stand for your rebelliousness and your constant obsession of outranking yourself."

"Outranking myself?" Skylar repeated acidly. "Excuse me, in what galaxy does shit like this exist?"

"This one," Amelia muttered.

"It's barbaric and foolish to think that this is acceptable," Skylar continued. "I'm not going to be taken in as a slave because I'm a woman. Your king is threatened because he lacks the balls to learn the skills that I have. I'm better trained than most of the men on this planet."

"But those numbers outnumber you, Skylar Pike," Leighland told her softly. "It does not matter what your Federation has taught you or what you as an individual believe; here, there is only one ruling: Cobia's. And that ruling will have you killed."

Skylar looked around the room. Her gaze fell to Amelia. "So that's it, then, we just give up?"

"I won't give up," Amelia stated. "But I won't go about it your way. This has to be thought out logically."

Skylar rolled her eyes.

Leighland caught the reaction. "She's right. Cobia is a brute force. But logic – and your Federation secrets could be used as a tool against him."

It was Havara's turn to roll her eyes. "Leighland, you cannot be serious in your remarks. You are only enabling them."

Leighland turned to her almost dramatically. "Havara, they arrived here on a Starship. There has to be more of them out there."

"They will never find us," Havara retorted.

"I will give my life if I have must to make certain," Leighland replied passionately. She looked back towards the hanging rugs as the small feet walked out from behind the rugs attached to two young children – a boy and a girl. She looked back to Havara as both Amelia and Skylar watched the children with mixed expressions. "I will not have my daughter live my life; and I do not want to see my son stolen from me to join Cobia's army."

Havara eyed the children and then returned her look back at Leighland. "Then you condemn your daughter to being orphaned. Your son will forget you soon enough." With that, Havara exited the dome, letting in the sunlight of Armaga Set-ta as she passed between the curtained doors.

Leighland lowered her head as her two children placed two bowls of water next to Amelia and proceeded to their space behind the rugs. "For drinking," Leighland mentioned quietly. "You will become dehydrated without it. And Cobia does not like to have fewer hands in the fields or in his palace. He will take young daughters to replace the dead."

Amelia leaned in toward Leighland. "How did this happen? How did this planet become like this?"

Leighland looked at her, her face pained in years of memories. "For me, it has always been this way. My generation has not known freedom."

"How old are you?" Skylar asked.

Leighland looked up at her. "Twenty one."

Amelia gasped and Skylar's eyes widened. "Holy crap, you're four years younger than me and you have two children!" Skylar exclaimed. Her comment was met with Amelia slapping her shin.

"Wrong response," Amelia rebuked before returning her gaze to Leighland. "I am so sorry, Leighland. You are far too young – your children are far too young – to be living in such a nightmare."

"I was recruited to help with population expansion at fifteen. My mother had just died. She was not very old. The new life she had been dealt was not so easy to adapt to. She drowned herself in the welling system."

There was a moment of silence. Amelia broke it. "New life," she repeated vaguely. "Did she ever tell you what life was like before all of this?"

"She and her family were from Oryken 2."

Amelia was puzzled by this statement. "Oryken 2?"

Skylar looked down at her. "Didn't Spock mention something about that in the conference room?"

"He mentioned that we were flying through where the coordinates to Oryken 3 would have been," Amelia replied. Baffled, she returned to Leighland. "This sector of space has been dormant for quite some time, before the supernovae; Federation logs indicate that there was no life on any of the Oryken planets."

"There is a shield," Leighland explained. "I do not know how it works exactly. I only know that there was civil unrest about it and the power to control it. When the supernovae had hit, Cobia – then a general on Oryken 1 I believe – offered everyone from his planets and its sisters shelter on a ship he had been building. It was something either of the other two rulers expected."

"What do you mean?" Skylar asked.

"The ship – it was huge. It was not something to sustain life. It was meant to take it."

"Your mother took his offer?"

Leighland nodded. "She was told that anyone – especially those not of Oryken 1 origin – would be given a new life aboard his craft. My mother, even at her young age, considered it better than dying on Oryken 2."

"How did this planet survive the supernovae?" Amelia asked.

"I am uncertain," Leighland replied. "I only know that my mother was aboard the ship for quite some time; it docked upon the debris in the asteroid belt. However the planet survived or came to be, my mother speculated that Cobia was behind it. He worked the survivors on the ship. He started training and retraining men using his army that had been secured on other warlike ships. However, his numbers had dwindled considerably, my mother noticed. The Oryken 1 planet always had the stronger militaristic advantage, but the energy on Oryken 2 overpowered that."

"This energy that you speak of – it must have cloaking capabilities," Amelia said. "That's how this planet was shielded from our scanners."

"I do not understand this force, but I do know that the planets began to change as the knowledge of the supernovae began to increase. This is why each of them began to fight. Once Cobia took command as general on Oryken 1, the evidence of war was substantial. The only thing that stopped him was the supernovae."

"That occurrence gave him the greatest advantage," Skylar speculated.

"I agree," Amelia added. "He must have a very well rounded account of how it was all going to fall into place. This is substantially problematic to us, Skylar."

Skylar nodded. "There is a reason why he and the rest of the Oryken planets wanted to remain unnoticed by the Federation.

"Skylar, if we don't find out how to advert this power, no one will ever know what happened to us," Amelia stated gravely. "And he'd trap anyone who attempted to save us."

Skylar looked to Leighland. "Did he ever specify to the women on his ship why they would become the lower class?"

Leighland shook her head. "My mother only said that she spiraled from a human to a plague once she set foot on Armaga Set-ta. The responsibilities changed from worker to slave and birth mother thereafter. She could not handle it. After I was old enough to fend for myself, she took her life. She did not want him to seal her fate with his own hands … and she did not want to see me meet mine."

"Where is your father?" Amelia asked.

Leighland looked at her. "I do not know. He is a soldier out there, somewhere. He could be anyone. There are no family units containing a father. Women carry their seed only to bare sons. When they turn eight, they are sent to the barracks. Depending on the population of females, baby girls are either left with their mothers to learn their fate or … they are killed." Leighland looked back at the hanging rugs. "Oriah was born on a good year."

Skylar and Amelia eyed each other. Finally, Skylar said, "I can't stay here and be used to spawn slaves and soldiers. We have to figure out how shut done the cloaking device. Jim will come for us."

"But we have to do it my way," Amelia stated. "You will get us killed."

Skylar shook her head. "Whatever. Let's just figure this out."

"I want to help you," Leighland said. "I want to get my children off of this planet. They do not deserve this."

"It's better if you let me and Amelia handle this ourselves," Skylar said. "You could die and then who would take care of your kids?"

"I would entrust them in you both."

Skylar paused.

"I will do anything you wish," Leighland pleaded with her. "I want to see Cobia fall. The women of this world want to see Cobia fall. All they need is guidance."

Amelia and Skylar looked to each other.

:::::

Spock halted his party as the day began to fade into night. The fog was still heavy but they had all kept their bearings to the best of their ability. The party had moved considerably slow, too slow for his taste, but it was the most logical thing to do. The interception affected the abilities of their communicators. The farther they parted from the ship and the Captain's party that was now camped at the bottom of the gorge the harder it was to communicate clearly between communicators.

Every step they took had to be recorded manually. It was almost barbaric. No one had died yet, so Spock could not call the operation entirely barbaric. Unfortunate and annoying would have been more appropriate – if he was human.

"We will camp here for tonight," he commanded to his small landing party. "We will rotate watch shifts accordingly. I will command each of them. I do not need to rest as of yet."

For the first time in his life, perhaps he was wrong. He sat upon a tree stump a few feet away from the camp. He stared out into the fog. It did not faze him. His mind wandered, though. He thought about the last couple of days. He recalled his last interactions with Skylar. He could feel the warmth of her body along his skin, as illogical as that was. She was no where near him; the feeling was impossible. Yet his mind – the encyclopedia that it was – had logged into its databank everything they had experienced, including something as simple as a touch. It was strange how his skin played such tricks on him. He had not felt like this before. After all, pondering over such things would only make the inevitable harder to accept. He'd seen Dr. McCoy before he'd left on his mission to destroy the cloaking device: the man was miserable despite his "faith" in the fact that Takashi and Pike could still be alive. Even the captain was swept up in such a belief that it allowed for fallibility in his command. Spock had no worries about that consuming him. He was a Vulcan; only men could be so weak … or so he'd thought.

"Spock?"

How his ears had not picked up the footsteps – as light as they were – was beside him. Spock's upper torso whirled around, his arms out as the female voice came out of the fog. Normally his first instinct would have been to defend himself or perform a Vulcan Nerve Pinch on his attacker. However, it was not attack mode his body went into … it was as though his arms wanted to wrap themselves around this female.

His dark eyes wide, he saw the face. She was young and donning a red shirt. She had dark eyes and hair that was … short. Spock immediately stood tall before the young ensign as she watched him with an almost fearful expression.

"Ensign," he greeted. His cheeks were warm. He was thankful for the darkness; the green in his skin would have been quite apparent presently.

"Sir, I did not mean to disturb you."

"You did not." A half lie. Well, more like a whole one. What was up with him?

"I know you are trying to sleep but –"

Spock's eyebrow raised. "Ensign, your observations deceive you."

"I called your name about five times, sir."

Spock sat in befuddlement.

"Sir, I wanted to let you know that Captain Kirk wanted you to respond to him immediately. Are you without it?"

Spock's hands went to his hip where nothing but a phaser hung from his utility belt. He bent over and searched for the communicator which he now found laying in the grass beside the stump. How he had not noticed this or the incoming contact from Captain Kirk was certainly a very disturbing thing.

Dismissive, he said to the ensign, "Thank you," and promptly picked up the communicator and hailed Jim.

"Spock, where the hell have you been?"

"My apologies, Captain. I believe it is time that I officially rest."

There was a pause on Jim's end. "Spock, is everything alright?"

"We have now settled down to camp out here tonight. I will have one of the ensigns send you our coordinates. We shall continue at dawn."

"I'm a little worried, Spock. If we lose communication …"

"If we loose communication, we will simply follow our trail back to the Enterprise once we have destroyed the cloaking device."

Suddenly, the tricorders around the camp and on Jim's end of the communicator began to light up and begin processing. Spock sprinted to the nearest crewman with a tricorder as everyone, now fully awake and wide eyed, grabbed their devices.

"We're getting readings, sir!" called one crewman.

Spock held the tricorder tightly in his hands. She will be on the readings, his mind whispered. He winced as the tricorder scan began calculating distance. Civilization, his mind corrected itself, Civilization will be on the readings.

Like a light switch being flipped, all of the tricorders went from being bright and responsive to their interrupted, dull states.

"Captain," Spock said into the communicator, "We have a direction in which to head. There is a civilization. Judging by my readings, it will take about four days with optimal tricorder productivity. Despite our disadvantage, we should still be able to make the trek in about five to six.

"Excellent," Jim replied. "I want your party to head back to the ship immediately. We need to gather supplies for the trek."

"Your statement suggests that you will be accompanying us."

"No. I will be commanding you. Sorry, Mr. Spock."

"We will be heading back promptly, Captain." Spock paused just as Jim began to signal the end of the conversation. "Jim …"

Jim paused. "We're leaving the gorge, Spock. There wasn't any readings of life around, except for small animals and insects." His voice was low.

"Spock out." Spock shut the lid of the communicator. His eyes lifted to the crewmen who all sat around, paused in a moment their stares directly at him. "You all heard the Captain. Gather up the camp. We leave immediately for the ship in five."

:::::

Cobia's hand swooped out and collided with Leighland's cheek. The blow caused her to fall back onto her side against the floor. "You filthy being."

Corvallis stood beside his father with his father's mpal in his hands.

"I should have you killed," Cobia seethed down at the woman whose hand was stuck to her face.

"Your enablement will have you and your newest peers executed," Corvallis added, turning his gaze to Havara, who stood observing the entire scene. She did not seem pleased. In fact, she almost appeared guilty for the display before her.

"Telling our secrets to the outsiders –"

"Your majesty!"

The entire party looked up to see man running in carrying a piece of paper. Cobia watched him closely as the man approached his thrown, quickly bowed and then looked up at the king anxiously. "My king, pardon the intrusion, but it is of utmost importance."

Cobia's eyes narrowed at him. "What is it?" he asked, genuinely curious to the alarmed stated of the man.

"Your majesty, we've picked up the other beings just beyond the Armaga Gorge," the man spoke between breaths. "There was a flaw in the system; brief, but enough for our scanners to pick up on their signals. It's quite possible that they have a destination."

Cobia held up is hand to stop the man. He glanced over to the guard that held Havara and nodded his head. The guard flung Havara towards the door, only stopping to pick up Leighland by the arm and hurl her in the same direction. "Filthy beings," the guard spat. "Back to your purpose."

"Leighland," Cobia boomed, causing the girl to turn around. "You can tell them. But I guarantee you that you shall bring death upon them. There is no hope for them … or their stranded friends."

Leighland turned and ran out of the room behind Havara.

Cobia turned to the man and Corvallis and the guard joined the huddle. "How long?" Cobia inquired.

"This indicates that they are traveling on foot, so I would estimate about five days, Majesty."

"They do not know the forests," Corvallis interjected. "They could easily get lost." He looked to his father. "Regardless, why not just send out a party to intercept them. I will round them all up and have them killed in front of our guests."

Cobia eyed him. He returned his gaze to the man with the read out paper. "What kind of hold do we have on them?"

"My readings indicate that their Starship is still being interfered by our tractor beam inhibitors. However, as their ship is regaining its full power, it has punctured our frequencies to an extent."

"An extent?" Cobia repeated angrily. "Explain this extent to me."

"W-well, sir, the Starship's active presence in our force fields weaken the frequency jam; the natural, short breaks in the jam have been progressively longer."

"I have had this energy confined and molded to my hand," Cobia boomed. "I have made it so that I can control it. This is the gift that was given to me through the planet's core and the enablement of the supernovae."

"I understand, your majesty," the man replied ruefully. "You are still in control of the inhibitors. However, our planet is not completely ready to handle such an advanced ship. The Federation's advancements –"

"I am quite familiar with the advancements of the Federation," Cobia interjected. "I know of their 'peacekeeping,' totalitarian-istic conduct. They mean to regulate the entire universe, but they have yet to understand and wield its powers. I did not settle here to have my reign taken from me. I have worked too hard for this." Cobia looked to his son. "We will not engage them so soon. Despite their advances, they do not know this planet and they definitely do not know of our own strength."

"Then we wait for them?" Corvallis questioned.

"They will not get into the kingdom. Corvallis – we do not know what power they possess in their ship; if we were to fail, they could very well send a transmission that would hail the Federation here, and our inhibitor would not be able to cloak us. They have the information they need to lead them here – and then we attack."

"And what about their filthy comrades here?"

Cobia smiled. "We will have our fun with them, I assure you."

"Sir," the man said carefully, "if the Starship continues to elongate the jams, they may be able to leave the planet."

Cobia eyed him. "At which we shoot them down." Cobia stood. "The Federation will never know what became of their lost Starship – and their lost female warriors."