O'sixteen hundred rolled around, and Nichole stood with her hands on her hips, talking with Allerna. They were both in the same field and were discussing the history of the Andalite planet and Earth. The Andalite paused. /Shouldn't you get going?/ she questioned.
Nichole looked at the time. "Oh. Yeah. Well, I'll see you later, Allerna."
/Good luck!/ she called to the departing human.
"Thanks!" Nichole ran off to get to the docking bay.
She walked up to the Berenson, where the other two were waiting for her. Also there was a human woman and a male Yikik. She walked up to the blue-winged alien. He was working with his hands, using his claw-like black fingernails. His forearms were covered in feathers, as were his calves. His feet were shaped like paws, and his face was bird-like with feathers coming off around his face like hair. His buff form was covered in an orange uniform that covered his blue forearms and calves. "Kekeri? Listello?" She blinked, addressing the Yikik worker first. "Is everything okay with the ship?"
"Everything's fine," Listello replied. "We're just running a few last-minute maintenance tests. Nothing to worry about."
"Yeah, nothing to worry about," Kekeri added, turning back to his work.
"All right," Nichole replied, still looking a bit worried. This was the first mission she had been put in control of, and she wanted everything to go perfectly.
"Relax," Fellrik said, putting a red tentacle on her shoulder. "They have everything under control." He smiled.
"I guess you're right," she replied, shoulders sagging. Then she straightened up. "About how long is this gonna take?"
"Only another five minutes," Listello responded, not looking up from her work.
"Okay." She turned to her companions. Both wore wrist bands that were yellow, rather than the uniforms. Her green eyes flicked over Fellrik, looking over the red alien, noting his crimson stripes. How the crimson covered the tips of his six ears. His tail swished a little. She smiled at him.
Finally, Kekeri walked over. "Everything is all ready," he said.
/Excellent. Thank you./ The trio headed into the Berenson. Ishtel moved over to the consol and pressed a button.
A holographic image of a female Hork-Bajir appeared. "Ah. Ishtel-Arrepoth-Castant, Fellrik Zhin, and Nichole Marthes."
/Tabira Kharun,/ Ishtel replied with a nod. /We are prepared to leave for the alien planet./
"Excellent." There were sounds of buttons being pushed as the Hork-Bajir looked down at her work. She looked back up and spoke. "You are cleared to leave."
/Thank you./ He pushed a few buttons as the image disappeared and the view screen flicked on. Ishtel began to pilot the Berenson out of the Aximili.
The flight to the planet was rather uneventful. It took a few Z-space jumps, but other than that things went smoothly. Nichole spent her time reading up on her history. She chewed on her lip and tapped the toe of her right boot behind her as she read. Her brown hair fell around her when she heard the familiar hum of the ship stop. She looked up, frowning. "Are we th—" she began, then saw a Grinkin ship on the main view screen. It was long and black, shaped like the head of an arrow with round viewscreens.
Ishtel swiveled a stalk-eye around to look at Nichole. /Nichole, what should we do?/ he questioned.
Nichole pushed past him and contacted the ship. A holographic image of a Grinkin popped up. He was a pink-skinned bear-like creature with a smooshed face. He had eight legs and reared up onto two of them. Had it not been a hologram, she might have been more frightened of the eight-foot alien. The Grinkin had tufts of purple fur at random points on their bodies. They were not a united species, though. They were divided into six factions. Each could be determined by the tattoos they had. He had red tattoos, which showed he was from the Huliites faction, a faction focused on destruction and conquering. He bared his teeth at her. "What are you doing here?" he growled.
"We are explorers from the IAS Aximili. What are you doing here?"
He grinned fiercely. "We are here to conquer the species below."
"No! You can't!" Fellrik burst out.
"He's right," Nichole said with a wave of her hand to silence him.
The Grinkin laughed. "I would like to see you try and stop me in that thing."
She cut the transmission and turned to her companions. "Fire!"
Ishtel and Fellrik fired on the ship; the shredder blasts rang in their ears.
The Grinkin returned fire and rocked the ship. The group held onto the consoles as best they could as the ship shook and rocked. "Fire back!" Nichole screamed over the sound.
Ishtel slid across the floor on black hooves, then scrambled back to his consol. He and Fellrik fired on the ship.
Nichole gripped her consol as the Grinkin fired repeatedly at them. "Engine One is down," Fellrik reported.
/And Engine Two isn't far behind it,/ Ishtel added.
Suddenly the ship took a nose-dive. /We're crashing!/ Ishtel yelled as the three slid to the back of the ship and were pressed together as a jumbled mess of limbs, tentacles, and tails. Three voices melded into one as they screamed.
There was a sudden jolt as the ship came to an abrupt stop.