When he regained awareness again, opening his eyes and turning his attention toward the teknopod that held the youngest of his brothers, the first thing that Spear took notice of was the fact that it was still glowing. Still the healthy, steady green that meant that the Teknoman inside was still viable. Spear was glad for it; he didn't want to lose even a single one of his siblings, not after the way the twins had been taken from him.

(Sam? Are you feeling better now?)

(Sam? Who's that?) his little brother asked, sounding so hopelessly confused that Spear couldn't help but feel sorry for asking in the first place. (And who- who are you?)

(I'm sorry,) Spear said quickly. (I thought you were someone I knew.)

Closing the link between them before he could inadvertently let something slip, Spear reached out for the one person that he knew would be able to explain to him just what was happening to his youngest brother.

(Lord Darkon? Is something happening to Sam?)

(Sam?) the ancient Warlord paused, and Spear got the impression of swift mental activity, as if he was considering his response; at least considering something. (Ah, yes; the youngest of your little clan. He is being prepared to take the final step into becoming a Teknoman. A proper one, you understand; nothing like those traitor twins we've been dealing with.)

(My younger brothers,) he mused, not particularly happy about hearing any of his family members being described that way, but unable to deny the truth of what his Warlord was saying. (Would you mind if I tried to persuade them to come back, my Lord? I think I might be able to get through to them.)

(As you will, Spear,) Lord Darkon said, though he didn't seem particularly sanguine about the idea. (Though I rather doubt that they will be willing to listen to you, particularly after the way they killed Gunnar.)

(Fritz is dead?) he repeated, his eyes opening wide in shock.

(Yes. He was killed by the elder of the traitor twins; the one with the green eyes.)

(Ness killed Fritz?) he blinked in surprise. (I wonder how Cain feels about that; he and Fritz were nearly as close as he and Ness are. Even though they didn't get to see each other quite so often.)

They'd have been seeing a lot more of each other, considering that he and Kathy were going to be getting married. Fritz would have been their brother-in-law, and there was no way that he wouldn't have taken shameless advantage of that fact. But now Fritz was dead, Kathy was somewhere he hadn't managed to spot yet, and he was dealing with the knowledge that one of his own little brothers had killed one of their closest friends.

What could have happened to them, that they would have even considered such a horrible thing?

(I'll still do my best to convince them, my Lord,) he said, feeling a bit shaken by the revelation, but no less determined to carry through with his plans. (But thank you for telling me this. It's… important information.)

(Yes; I should think so. Go back to sleep now, Spear,) Lord Darkon's command was unmistakable, and Spear found his body settling back down into the torpor he had only recently escaped from. (I will awaken you when the time comes.)

Spear's last conscious thought before sleep took him was to wonder just how he was going to handle his younger brothers; if Ness had been willing to kill Fritz, what might that mean for him?

1101010001

When he woke up, staring at the ceiling of the Space Knights' infirmary, Saber wondered just how he had managed to catch a Spider-crab claw in his torso when all he'd been aiming to do was bat the thing aside. Clearly, he hadn't quite planned that so well; then again, there hadn't really been much time for planning at all, just actions and the consequences that came with them. His arm and upper-chest were still a bit tender at the moment, so he tried not to move much.

It was hard, though, since the skin in that area was starting to itch slightly.

The sight of one of the doctors, coming up to him with a look of businesslike neutrality that was replaced with one of honest surprise when he saw Saber looking at him, drew a small smile from him.

"You're awake?" the doctor wondered aloud, blinking. "Well, I suppose you wouldn't have your eyes open if you weren't. How are you feeling?"

"Better than I did," he said, offering a small smile.

"Yes, I'd imagine so," the doctor said, smiling back at him. "Well, if you'll just hold still while I remove your bandages, you'll be free to go. I swear, you and your brother have the most amazing recovery-rates I've seen in my entire career."

Something else that the Radam could be thanked, or blamed, for again then. "Thanks. I was starting to get a bit antsy, staying in this bed for so long. Bad memories and all," he said, as the doctor came over to his bed.

Nodding with an understanding expression, the doctor looked down at him for a moment as if he was a particularly interesting medical case he had been tasked to solve. When the doctor pulled back his blanket and began to remove the bandages wrapped around the top of his right arm, Saber twitched a bit.

"Wait," he laughed as the man's fingers probed the sensitized skin under the bandage. "That tickles."

"Ah," the doctor said, with a soft chuckle of his own. "I do apologize, then. I just wanted to get a closer examination of your shoulder. You really are a remarkable young man; I don't know of any other person who would have recovered from this kind of an injury with the speed you have."

"Yeah, I'm funny that way."

"You are impressive that way," the doctor corrected gently. "And you're free to go now, Saber."

"Thanks," he said, levering himself up and out of bed, pausing a bit when his newly-healed shoulder complained a bit, but he was soon back on his feet nonetheless. "I'll just get out of your hair now."

"Try not to make a habit of ending up here, Saber," the doctor said, a wry smile on his face. "Your brother was in and out of here ever since he woke up this morning. I finally managed to get him to leave, but I had to threaten to sedate him and put him in one of the beds just to get some peace to work on you."

"I'll try to keep that in mind," he said with a laugh. (Brother, have you been pestering the medics while I was out?)

(Are you trying to tell me that you wouldn't have done the same if it was me in that situation?) Slade asked, and he could sense that his brother was somewhere very close by.

(No; I'm just saying that I would have been a bit more discreet about things, brother.)

Judging from what the doctor had said about his older twin's proclivities during the time he'd been incapacitated, he suspected that Slade was waiting for him just outside the door to the infirmary. When he walked through said door, he found that his brother was indeed waiting for him there. There was an expression of profound relief on his brother's face, and Saber smiled along with him.

"Nice to see you miss me when I'm gone, brother."

"It's nice to have you back again, Saber," Slade said softly, smile still on his face. "I've been waiting for you to get up so we could go have breakfast together."

"Ah, so it wasn't just the pleasure of my company you were hoping to have again, you wanted me up so you could eat," he turned a sidelong smirk on Slade. "You're not making me feel very welcome here, brother."

(You're such a brat, Cain.) Slade said, giving him a Look.

Saber laughed; it'd been such a long time since he'd heard that name, and it felt even longer since he'd had it applied to him. It was good to know that, no matter what happened to the two of them, he and Slade would always be essentially themselves. Slade, a smile breaking out over his face, laughed along with him as they walked.

They both fell silent before they reached the cafeteria, though, not wanting to be bothered by people who would likely be curious about their good humor. Taking their usual table at the far end of the room, away from where the larger groups of Space Knights tended to settle. Setting down their trays, laden with all of the foods they liked, Saber and Slade began to eat with their usual gusto.

Once their meal was finished, Slade took their trays back over to the counter and deposited them and their load of used dishes into the pile with all of the others that were due to be washed. After that, with nothing else to keep them there, they left the cafeteria; their blast-furnace metabolism already going to work on their latest meal.

"What would you say to a bit of sparring, brother?" Saber asked suddenly, prompting a surprised blink from Slade.

"What brought this on?"

"Just thought it'd be nice to test my skills against someone who's not honestly trying to kill me," Saber said, offering a one-shouldered shrug. (Besides, it'll be kind of like the times when we all used to free-spar. I kind of miss that.)

(There used to be a lot more of us to free-spar,) Slade said, looking morosely down at the ground. "I guess; it'd be nice to get in some practice before we end up having to fight for real again."

"That, too," Saber said, putting a hand on Slade's shoulder as the both of them continued on their way through the corridor.

Just as they were about to start heading back to their rooms to get ready, though, Mac intercepted them.

"Ah, I thought I might find you lads out here somewhere," the rotund man said, with a somewhat jovial air. "The Blue Earth's in the shop again, and I was wondering if you lads would lend me a hand painting her?"

"Sure," Slade said, before he could make any kind of response, one way or another, on the matter.

(I thought we were going to take some time for a free-spar, brother,) he said, trying not to sound like he was too annoyed, even though he had kind of been looking forward to it. Like he'd told Slade, it'd been too long since they had done anything like that.

(Mac asked us to help,) Slade said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. (And, it kind of feels like we owe him something, you know? I don't think the Blue Earth got into nearly as many scraps as she has before we showed up.)

(You might just be right about that, brother,) he said, smiling softly as the three of them turned and headed for the service-hangar where the Blue Earth underwent her routine maintenance, and her swiftly-becoming-routine combat repairs. (So, is this some sort of Equivalent Exchange, or more like that old saw 'treat your ship like a lady, and she'll always bring you home'?)

(Something like that,) Slade said, turning to wink at him, just out of Mac's line of sight.

When they finally arrived in the service-hangar, Saber saw that there had already been scaffolding set up by the side of the Blue Earth that they were going to be working on. He also saw that there were three paint-sprayers, and three facemasks to go with them. The three of them climbed up onto the scaffolding, and Mac offered them a bit of help with the masks and sprayers.

He accepted it gladly; not just for the sake of his and Slade's cover, but because it'd been awhile since he'd used these things at all.

1110010001

They'd been working on the Blue Earth for some indiscriminate time or other, and the fumes were starting to make the inside of his nose itch. Of course, given that it was this bad for him, he didn't want to think of how bad it must have been for Saber. For some reason, both of them were allergic to the fumes from the specific type of paint used on spaceship hulls, but it only really seemed to affect either of them when the paints were being applied with a sprayer.

Looking over at Saber to see how his brother was doing, he found that his brother was twitching his nose slightly, the way he always did when he needed to sneeze but didn't particularly want to.

"This old boat seems to be sustaining a lot more damage since you lads joined the crew," Mac said, and Slade couldn't quite tell if he was just thinking aloud or not. "She seems to be spending most of her time in the shop now."

"Stop complaining so much, Mac," he said, though he did understand the sentiment. "We've all got a job to do around here."

Just as he finished that sentence, Saber sneezed three times in quick succession. He never seemed to be able to sneeze just once, it always seemed to be two or three times. There were even occasions, though they were extremely rare, when his brother would actually sneeze four times in a row. And anytime he did that, it was always a struggle for Slade not to laugh.

"You all right up there, Saber my lad?"

"Fine," Saber called back, his hand still on his mask from tipping it up. "I guess I must have just gotten a healthy lung-full," another double-sneeze. "There."

"Well, we're going to be done here pretty soon," Mac said, sounding a bit concerned. "You think you can handle this until then?"

"I'm sure I'll be all right," Saber said, grinning down at Mac as he flipped his facemask back down. "Thanks for your concern, though."

They worked like that for a couple more minutes, before Tina's voice over the comm. interrupted them: "Attention. Attention, Space Knights: report on the double to Comm. One for a briefing from Commander Jamison."

"Not again," Mac groused. "That man's got more briefings than the sun's got spots."

(Well, brother, I guess we're not going to be doing any free-sparring today,) Saber said.

(I guess not,) he sighed. (Sorry; I guess I just got a little sidetracked.)

The three of them climbed down from the scaffolding, and he and Saber handed their sprayers and facemasks to Mac and then dashed out of the room. Mac would be along soon enough, but he in particular was eager to find out just what the Commander wanted to brief them on. This was the first time he hadn't been called somewhere by the general-alert, so it was already a day of firsts.

He couldn't shake the feeling, though, that this wasn't going to be a particularly good day for them; probably the voice of experience speaking.

He and Saber met up with Star, Ringo, and Maggie in the corridors leading to the conference room, and the two groups blended easily into one.

"So," Saber asked, as they all continued on their way toward the conference room. "Anyone have any idea what this is all about?"

Before any of their fellow Space Knights could answer that question, though, they were all standing before the doors leading into the main room of the Command Center; or Comm. One, as he'd heard Tina say. Filing inside, the two lines of Space Knights divided down the middle to settle into a line in front of the huge screen that made up the far wall. Taking his place next to Saber, Slade patted his brother's right shoulder and was rewarded with a small smile.

Commander Jamison, standing at the forefront of the room the same way he'd done last time, waited calmly for them all to settle into place.

"What's the flying parade all about?" Ringo asked, as the Commander activated the screen, displaying a large number of ships, all flying in formation; he quickly recognized them as Beta transports, and judging from the way Saber discreetly squeezed his hand he did too, but neither of them were going to say anything.

They both still had a role to play, after all.

"That is the convoy from Io," the Commander said. "One of Jupiter's moons," he added, with an aside glance to him and Saber. "Twelve Beta transports, carrying supplies vital to our defense: food, metal ore, and something that may prove even more valuable."

"Wait, Commander, those are Betas out there?" Star asked, and he quickly covered a wince as he realized just what the problem was that she had seen. "Those ships are designed for docking up on the Space Ring, not for coming down here and landing on the planet."

"If those ships try a belly-landing on Earth, we could end up with a crater big enough for the Moon and then some," Mac groused, clearly annoyed.

"Unfortunately, Mac, we haven't any choice now," the Commander said in his usual tone. "They took off from their development base on Io before the Space Ring was occupied by the invaders. We informed them of the risk they were running, but they decided to proceed, regardless. Not surprising, considering the convoy is commanded by Dr. Silas Random; one of the most determined, courageous men I've ever known."

The image of the convoy flickered as the Commander spoke about Dr. Random, then was replaced by the photo of a man; Slade tried not to see anything familiar about him, but he had that kind of a face- ruthlessly, almost viciously, Slade slammed his mental impressions into a tungsten box, welded it shut, and hurled it into the deepest, darkest pit he could find. He wasn't going to do this to himself.

"Sir, exactly how are the Space Knights involved in this?" he asked, not having seen the connection, or the necessity of their presence; sure, this was good information to have, but they could have just as easily been informed of this later.

The Commander, who he now saw was wearing a pair of dark, rimless wraparound glasses, turned to look at them over his left shoulder. "People, your orders for this mission have been issued by the President himself: rendezvous with the convoy and secure its cargo at all costs. In fact, your only objective is to see that those supplies make it down to the planet. Your lives, and the lives of the transport crews, are to be considered expendable."

He didn't know quite how to interpret the emphasis that the Commander placed on that last word, but in a more emotional person, he would have said it was disapproval.

"Of course," Saber groused. "Tell me, is anyone here surprised about that? Show of hands?"

Needless to say, no one raised theirs, but Saber's own raised eyebrow did make him have to bite back a smirk.

"Move out," was all the Commander said in response; the usual affirmative from the Space Knights was a bit more subdued than it had been in the past, of course.

Turning to leave the comm. room with his brother, Star, and Ringo, Slade sighed. He didn't like being thought of as just some toy soldier, to be wound up and pointed at whatever it was that the Allied Earth Military, or anyone else for that matter, wanted dead at the moment. And, from the almost palpable annoyance that was radiating off of Saber at present, he felt just the same.

As the four of them made for the Blue Earth's hangar, he couldn't help the momentary amusement that came at the thought of Mac's probable feelings on the matter. Here he'd just finished getting the ship all patched up and painted, and she was being sent right back into the field again. That was kind of funny, if you had a morbid sense of humor, anyway.

"Well, since you boys are probably going to end up having to transform before all of this is over, and since we don't exactly have time to stop off in the cafeteria and let you stuff your faces, I guess I can let you have those extra rations I laid in."

Those rations had been for them in the first place, given the high-calorie diets that they had both been placed on when the nature of their powers had been determined to depend on their own energy reserves.

"Thank you so much, Ringo," Saber said, with airily mocking, overblown gratitude. "I'm so glad to have you thinking about me and my dearest big brother when we're going to be going out into the big, bad 'verse with you." Saber batted his eyelashes, and Ringo and Star both burst out laughing.

"Nice comeback, Saber," Ringo said, grinning as they all made it up to the Blue Earth's pre-launch vehicle and quickly boarded the ship.

While Ringo took care of the preliminaries, he and Saber both headed for the aft storage-section and grabbed a pair of the prepared meal boxes stored there. Eating even as they made their way back to their seats, he handed Saber his empty container and glanced over as his brother stowed them away.

"You boys all finished?" Ringo asked, not waiting for a response. "Good. Star, signal the convoy our rendezvous-point in the asteroid belt. And please don't forget to transmit in some sort of code; I'd prefer not to have a bunch of Spider-crabs showing up to crash our party. That's really something I could do without."

"You know, Ringo, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were nervous," he said, as Saber snickered.

"Do you want me to come over there and give you a hug?" Saber asked, grinning; Ringo ignored him.

"The convoy's responding," Star said, sounding concerned. "But on an open channel, and they're not transmitting in code."

That wiped the smile right off of both his and Saber's faces. "What?" the both of them demanded, just as the Blue Earth launched. That didn't make sense; anyone who had been in contact with Earth for even a short time would know about the Radam, and just how dangerous they were.

No one could be so careless by accident; there was something more going on than they knew about, and he was going to find out what it was. A quick glance over at Saber confirmed that his brother had seen the same trend he had, and knew it for what it was. Clasping his younger twin's hand, Slade squeezed tightly.

000100100

No matter how many times he was forced to send his Space Knights into danger, it had never truly became easy. That was why he had worn his visor, to keep his Space Knights from knowing just how much he had detested the wording used and the orders he had had to deliver. His Space Knights were not expendable, not one of them could be so easily replaced as the orders he had received had so clearly implied.

Still, it was his duty as their commander to pass on the orders that he was given, and if he resisted too much he would run the risk of losing his command. It was not likely that his replacement, whoever they appointed, would be so moral as to think of his Space Knights as people rather than just one more exploitable asset to be used as the Allied Earth Military saw fit. Particularly Slade and Saber, who were the most vulnerable to exploitation by the AEM.

However, the thoughts of what his Space Knights might be doing were now interspersed with the memories of his old friend Silas.

He had always been one for lost causes; the lonelier and the more hopeless the better, to his way of thinking. He could still clearly remember how passionately Silas had argued against the initial formation of the Allied Earth Military, citing the fact that the Generals would be given unchecked power over the people they were going to be assigned to protect; of course, by then it had been too late to contest such a drastic reorganization of the Earth's various militaries. Even he had bowed to cold necessity at that point; he'd seen too much strife caused by the entanglements inherent in the old way of doing things.

Silas had looked at him when the decision was announced, just a simple look, but the expression on his old friend's face had been one that he would never forget, not as long as he lived. Silas had obviously seen it as a deep, personal betrayal; a betrayal so deeply personal that it had driven him to abandon not only his home planet, but his own family. He had left for Io not soon after the announcement of the Allied Earth Military's formation had been made.

Hamilton had gone to meet him at the launch-site, as any old friend wold have, but Silas had been determined to leave. He had stated that the formation of the AEM had sealed Earth's fate; that there was no future for the Earth, and he was going to found a new colony on Io. It was likely to have taken a great deal of work, terraforming such a volatile, volcanic moon as that one, but then Silas had never been one to take the simple path.

Hamilton often doubted that Silas would know what to do with himself if he wasn't struggling against something; he often wondered what Silas would have done if he had known about the formation of the Space Knights, and if he could have persuaded his old friend to join them. Things between them would have likely been different; still, there was nothing to do now but look to the future. The past was unchangeable, he knew that better than most.

01010001011

As the Blue Earth passed under the Space Ring, Ringo continued to check the scopes.

"So far, so good," he said, relieved. "No bandits on my screen; how about you, Star, your screen still clear?"

"Yeah."

"Good." He sighed in relief. "They must not have picked up on the convoy's un-coded transmission. Looks like we lucked out; they must've been tuning into the Salsa station."

"Very funny," Star said, in a tone that meant she was probably rolling her eyes at him.

"From what I've read about Dr. Random, he's not the type to make mistakes like this," Slade said, sounding suspicious. "You ask me, it's almost like he wants them to know what we're up to."

"What do you mean by that Slade?" he asked.

"My brother's saying that this seems too good to be true, so it probably is," Saber answered, turning to look back over his shoulder.

"Don't you think you boys are taking healthy skepticism just a little too far?" he asked, taking another bite of his chocolate bar.

"Once bitten, twice shy," Saber retorted. "Or, have you already forgotten about the alleged survivors on the Space Ring, and all the trouble that we got into from that?"

Ouch; point to Saber for that one, since Slade was still dealing with the aftermath of Gunnar's little stunt. A ping on the sensors let him know that he had more important things to think about than Saber's, or either of the Wonder Twins' for that matter, maybe-accurate predictions of doom. They were also moving toward the asteroid belt now, which meant that he'd have to keep an eye out for the, admittedly rare, stray asteroid.

"Convoy One, open your docking bay, please," he said, activating the retro-thrusters and matching speed with the huge, bulky Beta in front of him.

"Welcome, Blue Earth," Convoy One transmitted back. "You're cleared for docking."

Easing his ship into the Beta's docking-bay, Ringo began the shut-down sequence as the docking-bay doors closed and sealed behind them. By the time they had made it out to the boarding ramp, the docking-bay was filled with new oxygen, and they could all be on their way out of the ship. He was glad for it; too long with the Wonder Twins and their rampant paranoia could even make him start to believe that they were right.

Still, they'd been right once, so he'd at least keep his eyes open.

"The name's Ringo, sir," he said, offering a salute to the man standing before them; Dr. Silas Random, he knew the man from the photo the Commander had shown them back at the Command Center.

"I'm Star," his fellow Space Knight, and crack navigator, said.

About the only ones who weren't following proper protocol were the newest members of their team. "Boys," he chided, speaking softly over his shoulder to them; neither of them responded, though they did turn to look at each other briefly, but they were only doing the twin thing again. "These kids here are Slade and Saber, Doctor," he said, gesturing to the twins in turn as he named them. "Don't mind them; they're still kind of new to the team, and their manners aren't really the best."

0100100100

"Well, not being a military man, I prefer a handshake to a salute," he responded, with a gentle chuckle as he stepped forward to do just that. "I hope you don't mind. Welcome," he finished, shaking Star's hand.

He'd recognized Ulysses Carter's twin sons once he'd gotten a clear glimpse of their faces, but that didn't explain why they were using those strange names. Nor did it explain the scars he could see above and below Ness' left eye, or the fact that Cain's eyes had changed their shade so drastically. Silas wondered what had happened to them, but he wasn't going to speak of it in front of military-adjuncts like those other two.

"Am I right in assuming that you're the only one on this ship, sir?" Star asked.

"Yes; completely alone," he confirmed. "Each one of these transports is being staffed by a single crew member. But don't look so worried," he said, turning to smile at them over his left shoulder. "That doesn't mean you won't be well looked-after. For instance, how about a nice, hot cup of tea?"

Leading them deeper into the ship, Silas looked back at Ness and Cain, taking a long moment to assess them while the two military-adjuncts fell back to speak among themselves. He began to see things that he had been unable to discern while he had been seeing them merely at rest. Their stances were stiffer, their postures more closed-off, than the photos that Ulysses had showed him.

They moved almost as one entity, walking close enough that their shoulders almost brushed against one another, even in the relatively wide space of the shipboard corridor. What told the real story, however, was their eyes: neither Ness nor Cain's eyes rested for more than a few moments on any one object, instead quickly roving to take in every part of their surroundings almost at once. It was clear that they had both been though a terrible experience to make them so hyperalert to any potential, or imagined, threats.

The question still remained, however, just what that experience had actually been. It wasn't likely to be connected to those military-adjuncts he'd just met, since the twins' clearly habitual wariness actually seemed to decrease around them, even if only by the smallest fraction. Something else, then; likely several somethings, considering what he'd heard of the invasion.

Turning his attention forward, just before the twins' ever-roving eyes could fall on him, Silas gratefully made his way into the ship's lounge. Quickly setting about preparing a pot of soothing chamomile tea, since it would do this particular crew a great deal of good, he gathered the cups and saucers that they would be using while he waited for the tea to heat up.

Once it had boiled, he took the teabags he had gathered up, set them each in one of the five teacups in front of his various guests, and began to pour the hot water in.

"Here; you'll want to let it steep for a bit. Sorry for transmitting on an open channel," he said, to the clear surprise of Ulysses' sons and the military-adjuncts they were traveling with. "I know it's risky."

"That's putting it mildly, doctor," Ness said, his closed eyes highlighting his scars for a long moment.

"If the Radam had managed to intercept that transmission of yours, there would be Spider-crabs swarming you and the rest of your people by now," Cain said, fixing him with a sharp look.

"It couldn't be helped, I'm afraid," he said, pouring the twins' tea and setting their cups back down in front of them. "We've been having radio trouble. You see, ever since we passed through the Van Allen belts, we lost the use of our coded frequencies."

"The Van Allen belts, huh?" Ness echoed, though he didn't seem to believe it, and clearly neither did Cain. "On every radio in the convoy?"

"Yes, strangely enough," he said, looking down for a moment as he sipped his tea.

He could still feel the intense scrutiny that the twins were leveling at him, and he smiled softly. Those two were indeed the sons of Ulysses Carter; they took nothing at face-value, and were clearly in pursuit of whatever deeper truth they might find here. And, they just might find it at that.

Once the tea had been finished at last, he stood up. "How would you like me to show you what we're bringing to Earth?"

"All right," the blond pilot, Ringo he recalled, said after looking to his colleague and Ulysses' sons. "I'd say we could all use a bit of a field trip."

"Right this way, then," he said, smiling as he lead them all out of the lounge and down into the storage section. The small greenhouse that had been built inside this transport of his had been placed farther back, so that it could draw power more directly from the generators that supplied the engines. None of them seemed particularly interested in the ores that he was carrying, which fit since none of them were miners or metalworkers of any stripe, so they by-passed those rather quickly.

"Though we cultivated these plants on Io, they should thrive on Earth," he said proudly, leading them into the greenhouse where the plants he and his people, the colonists of Io, had been tending to for so very long were stored. "In time, they'll produce enough to feed millions of people."

"Hey Doc, what's in that weird container up there?" Ringo asked, as they moved closer to the rear of the ship.

"That, is the 'Doomsday Device'," he said. "A little surprise we developed in our laboratories."

"A surprise?" Ness echoed, sounding curious, but also slightly more wary than he already had been. "For the Radam? Or us?"

"It could prove to be of major significance in winning this war," he said; he didn't like lying to them that way, but he was hardly going to speak freely in front of a pair of military-adjuncts.

"The Commander hinted you had something big on board," Ringo said. "What is it, exactly?"

"For obvious reasons, it's classified," he said, turning to speak more directly to the sons of his old colleague, and the friend he wished he'd stayed in closer contact with. "You'll just have to trust me on this," he said, placing his hands on Ness and Cain's right shoulders.

The eyes of the twins both flared briefly in surprise, and he thought for a moment that he had seen a flicker of something on both their foreheads. There wasn't time to investigate it, however; there were many things that he had to do before they reached the Earth. Foremost among them was to draw down the very danger that Cain had been so adamant about stating; to draw it down on his head, and his alone.

"Well, that's all I have to show you," he said, turning to smile at the entire group that had come out here to assist him with this mission of his. "If you want, you can all go back to the lounge and wait; it's all going to be rather boring from here on out, I'm afraid."

"All right," Ringo, who seemed to be acting as the groups spokesman, said.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Dr. Random," Star said, smiling kindly.

"You're quite welcome," he said, as he fell into step beside their group. "There's more tea, if you want it. And I even have tea cakes, if any of you feel like something sweet."

"Thanks," Ringo said, with a nod.

0101001000

Dr. Random split off from them once they had reached the lounge, continuing on to the cockpit and its transmitter equipment while they let themselves into the glassed-in room. As much as he hated to admit it, the Wonder Twins and their rampant paranoia might have just scored another one.

"Convoy One to all transports: remember, I have the D-Device aboard. Should we meet the enemy, it is essential that this ship get through!"

"I sure wish he'd stop transmitting on an open channel," Ringo groused, closing his eyes briefly as he leaned his head back against the headrest of the small, pale pink sofa he and Star were sitting on. Naturally, the Wonder Twins were standing side-by-side, staring stoically out the single window.

"His radio's damaged," Star said, trying to be reasonable. "He has no choice."

"I don't know," he said, still not quite convinced. "Something about this Random guy strikes me funny. He's way too calm and collected for the situation." Particularly considering the fact that there was basically a big, fat target on his ship, and the Radam would be all too eager to snap it up if they found out about it. "I'm not crazy about tea, either, come to think of it."

"Is that what you're basing your suspicions on?" Star asked, clearly amused.

"And this 'D-Device'; if it's so damned important, how come we've never even been briefed about it, and come to think of it-"

"Help me out here, you two, Ringo's getting paranoid again."

"Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you," Saber said, turning to look at them over his right shoulder.

"You weren't supposed to encourage him, Saber," Star said, sounding mildly annoyed.

Just then, though, something big, heavy, and likely affiliated with the Radam, slammed into the ship. They were almost knocked off their feet, but the Wonder Twins moved in quickly to support them. Ringo wasn't sure if he should be happy to have his suspicions vindicated, or pissed that they had been endangered by some guy's need to prove he could outrun the Radam if he just hoped for it, or whatever Dr. Random had been thinking when he had decided to keep transmitting on that open, un-coded channel of his.

"Oh, what a surprise; they found us," he groused, as Saber let go of his shoulder.

"Get to the docking-bay!" Star exclaimed. "We have to launch the Blue Earth!"

"Open the doors, Doc, we're outta here," he shouted, as they passed the man on their way out.

They ran; the Wonder Twins overtook them without too much effort, and they all ran hell-bent-for-leather down the corridors and then right back up the boarding-ramp. He was in the pilot's seat just a few seconds after the twins had settled themselves into their own seats, and he was already starting the engines before the doors had even opened. Even though he wasn't too fond of the guy, Dr. Random had at least let them out in time.

He at least had to give the man that.

1010100111

When the Blue Earth had made its way out of his docking-bay, firing it's forward laser-cannons into the massive swarm of Spider-crabs that Cain had predicted would come for them all if he continued with his plan, Silas glared fiercely at the creatures. He didn't know just who the Radam were, or what they wanted, but that was his planet they were invading and these were his people they were attacking.

He wouldn't let that stand.

This was indeed a swarm, just the way that Cain had predicted it would be, and now all he needed was to get those creatures to focus on him. He would ensure that all of his people got back to Earth safely, even if he had to die doing it. That was the true purpose of the D-Device, and also the reason that he had been so quick to broadcast its location: if the Radam wanted something to chase, then he would make sure it was him.

When a pair of strange lights, one bright blue and one bright green, came shooting out of the Blue Earth and then turned to engage the swarm of Spider-crabs that seemed to be growing increasingly vast by the second, Silas was puzzled. When the lights coalesced into a pair of armored figures, one white with red patches and one black with the same, he wondered if they could be some new weapon developed by the AEM.

Then, thinking back to the people that he had seen aboard the Blue Earth, he wondered if his old friend Hamilton Jamison, that he'd seen last as a Lieutenant in the AEM, had begun to dabble in some kind of bio-technological enhancement process. He would have been disappointed to hear of it, but he would hardly put it past the AEM to do such things. Even when they weren't in the midst of a war, those kinds of people could never be trusted to be truly ethical.

When he saw again the flares of light, both in the distinct colors that he had seen before: green for the white figure, and blue for the black one, he remembered just where he had seen those very colors not so much earlier.

"Ness? Cain?"

Indeed, given the way they moved, the way they seemed to anticipate each and every move that the other would make, and their clear concern for one another in the pitched battle that was taking place all around them, it could hardly be anyone other than the twins. That explained their wariness; if they were expected to go into battle against these kinds of odds at a moment's notice, they could hardly be expected to be able to relax properly.

The twins clearly outmatched the Spider-crabs in one-on-one combat, destroying them with the ease of what was clearly long practice, but this swarm would likely be enough to overwhelm even them and whatever strange power they had brought to bear. It still fell to him to save his people. However, that didn't mean that he wasn't grateful for help that was freely given.

"Thank you, boys," he said quietly, then activated his ship's radio and turned his attention to the next phase of his plan. "The D-Device must get through!" he shouted, making sure to sound as if he was on the verge of panic, as he broke formation with the others and moved off on his own.

The distinctive sound of a coded message alert broke into his concentration, and he looked down as the inset screen displayed the status of the message. It was double-encoded, and as his radio decrypted it, he wondered for a moment just who it was.

"This is a coded frequency, I'm surprised you were able to receive it."

Smiling for his old friend Hamilton, Silas told the story he had concocted: "Our radios seem to be working fine, now; one of the explosions must have jogged the circuits."

"You can't fool me, Silas, I know what you're planning. And I have to say, I'm glad to see you helping the Allied Earth Military this time."

"What?" He had to laugh. "You must be mad, if you believe I'm doing this for that bunch of militaristic megalomaniacs."

"Tell me why, then," Hamilton said.

"You don't have to wear a uniform to be a patriot, Jamison," he said, looking out at the Earth, surrounded by the Space Ring; he saw it through a swarm of Spider-crabs, but they were almost secondary to him now. "I'm doing this for the Earth."

11010100111

Landing the Teknobot on Dr. Random's ship, since it was the one the Radam were concentrating on, and the D-Device was obviously important to the war effort in some way, Slade lead Saber into the ship through a wide hole that one of the Spider-crabs had torn in the hull and ordered the Teknobot to follow them. Raising his teknolance as another of the swarming legions of Spider-crabs came into his line of sight, he bisected the thing and lead Saber as they dove through the closing air lock doors just before they closed.

Falling back a bit so he and Saber could run side-by-side down the corridor, Slade kept a watch out for any more Spider-crabs that might come after them. They encountered a few more on the way to the cockpit; he didn't bother to count them since he and Saber dealt with them as soon as they spotted the monsters, but he was fairly sure it was less than ten. As they cleared the last obstacle that stood between them and the cockpit, yet another Spider-crab, he and Saber raced over to the damaged chair where Dr. Random was still sitting as he heard the man moaning.

"Dr. Random!" he exclaimed. "Dr. Random, are you all right?"

"No, boys, I'm very far from all right," Dr. Random said weakly, and Slade noticed then that his shirt was soaked with blood, blood that was running down his torso to pool in his lap.

"Well have you out of here in just a second, sir," he said; trying to offset the knowledge that they were too late. Again. That he was too late to do anything but watch, again.

"Don't bother," Dr. Random grunted. "Too late for that." Slade closed his eyes in sheer, frustrated helplessness. "But there is something that you boys must do: you've got to pilot this transport and make sure she makes it safely through the Earth's atmosphere. The friction of reentry will set off an explosive device I've planted onboard her."

"You're going to destroy the ship, and all the Spider-crabs along with her," Saber said, sounding like he would have been approving if he hadn't been so horrified.

"All of them is being quite optimistic, but at least a good number," Dr. Random smiled weakly. "You have to admit, my little invitation seems to have provoked quite a response."

"So, all of that talk about a D-Device was just bait, to lure the Spider-crabs to you," he said, feeling stricken, but still having to respect Dr. Random's dedication.

"You wanted to make sure that the rest of the convoy made it down to Earth, so you gave the Radam enough information to decide that you were the one they should be focusing on," Saber said, and Slade knew that his brother was trying to distance himself from the horror that they were both feeling right now by immersing his mind in tactical considerations.

"Please, take this for me," Dr. Random said, unfastening the gold bracelet that he had been wearing on his right wrist and handing it over to him. "I'm tired," he muttered, his eyes falling closed. "So tired."

Slade took it, enfolding it within his armored right hand, and sighed. This shouldn't have happened; he was supposed to be better than this, he was a Teknoman for god's sake, and yet all he could do now was watch as Dr. Random slowly bled to death in front of them. It hurt; for all his power, he couldn't manage to save someone who was right in front of him. It wasn't fair.

Then again, when has fairness ever been part of the equation in my life? He mused bitterly. Looking over at Saber, just as the shriek of a Spider-crab echoed through the lonely, decimated cockpit of the damaged transport. He watched tiredly as his little brother killed the thing. Not since the Argos; not since the Radam, he corrected himself. Things haven't been fair since we met them.

Since then, he'd had to watch his younger twin, who Dad had asked him to protect back when they were both just normal boys, go leaping into fights with things that sometimes frightened even him. Even though those days sometimes felt like they were thousands of years away, and even though they had both eventually agreed that they would protect each other, he was still determined to hold to that promise. It was the only one of his promises from that time that he could still keep, now that the Radam had shown up.

Now that he only had one of his younger brothers left.

When the transport Saber was piloting, since he had taken the controls right after he had killed that Spider-crab, began to enter the outer-edges of the Earth's atmosphere, the heat-shields on the cockpit windows began to slide closed. He knew they'd been coming; they were a standard feature on Beta transports, but it still felt strange to be isolated like this. Especially after he'd spent so much time in the Blue Earth's cockpit, even though none of it had been during reentry.

"I- I knew your father, boys," a quiet voice said, barely breaking the silence.

"You shouldn't try to talk, Dr. Random," he said, putting his unoccupied left hand on the man's shoulder. "You're hurt; you should save your strength."

"I knew him," Dr. Random repeated, his eyes fixing on Slade with an unfocused sort of intensity. "He was a good man."

"Yeah," Saber said thickly. "Dad was the best." His brother paused, sighing. "I don't know if he'd be too happy with us now, though; we haven't forgotten, the way he told us to. We remember."

And they did; even when it hurt, even when it felt like it would break them both, they remembered the people they had once been and the family they had once had.

"I'm sure he would be proud of you boys," Dr. Random said, smiling weakly at them. "What happened? The Argos mission?"

"The Radam," Saber said, all but spitting the name. "They happened. None of the crew made it out; the only reason Slade and I are even here now is because Dad pulled us out before… before anything else could happen to us."

"I'd wondered. Your names, that armor…"

"Please, Dr. Random, don't try to talk anymore," he entreated. "Save your strength. We'll be back on Earth soon."

Dr. Random was already unconscious again, though. At least, Slade hoped that he was only unconscious. They were so close to Earth now, so close to getting help for the man, their father's friend, that to lose him would feel like a knife in his heart.

One more in a long line of them, yes, but the feeling was still something he tried to avoid.

A quick look at the ship's chronometer told him that he and Saber had better find someplace safe to transform back. They only had five minutes left, out of the thirty that they could safely remain transformed, and he for one didn't want to cause the convoy or Dr. Random any more trouble than they had already run into today.

"Saber," he began, turning to look over at his younger brother, only to find him holding his head and moaning softly. "What's wrong?"

"I- I don't know," Saber said, shaking his head slowly. "I feel strange. Weak. Almost like I'm going to-"

The glowing crystal-field that surrounded either of them when they transformed into or out of their armored forms appeared around him, and his entire form was consumed by the light of his transformation. His armor vanished into the light, revealing his human form, and Slade moved quickly to catch his younger twin as he began to fall backwards.

"Brother," Saber muttered, as his eyes slipped closed.

Cradling his younger twin's head for a few moments, baffled about just what had made Saber transform back and then collapse like that, Slade remembered that he didn't have the time to speculate about that kind of thing right now. Standing up, he carried Saber over to the Teknobot and gently set him down next to the big mech's feet.

"Teknobot, open interlock-chamber," he commanded, just loud enough for the mech to receive the command while still being quiet enough to let Saber get the sleep he so clearly needed.

"Affirmative."

Once the chamber was open, he climbed inside and felt the remaining energy from his transformation drain away. The Teknobot opened up again once he was back in human form, but he didn't have time for more than a cursory glance over his younger twin before the computer began warning him of the imminent self-destruct. Cursing himself briefly for his slowness, Slade turned back to the Teknobot.

It was the safest place he could think of, since the Teknobot was designed to handle the kind of heavy-combat that he and Saber got into on pretty much a daily basis. That meant that it was probably at least as tough as one of them, and neither he nor Saber would have been adversely affected by an exploding spacecraft. Even a bulky Beta transport like the one they were in now.

First things first, though, he mused, knowing that he would have to transform himself to survive what was going to be coming. Transform, without the benefit of another meal and with very little rest between transformations besides. It wasn't the best situation, but it was better than dying in the explosion of a Beta transport.

Ordering the Teknobot to restore his transformation, Slade was forced to take a moment to steady himself, before he picked Saber up gently with his armored hands.

"Teknobot, please protect my brother," he said firmly, though he wasn't quite able to completely hide the quaver in his voice.

"Roger," the Teknobot said; he might have been imagining things, but the mech's deep, powerful voice had actually sounded kind then. He probably needed more sleep.

Still, as he cradled Saber in his arms, watching as the interlock-chamber opened again and he gently placed Saber's slumbering form inside the open chamber, he wasn't quite as surprised as he might have been otherwise when the Teknobot reached out to support his younger twin with its large hands. The Teknobot supported Saber until the interlock-chamber was halfway closed, then it let him go and sealed itself around him.

"Saber is safe," the Teknobot said; Slade blinked in surprise. "I will protect him."

"Thank you," he said, after a few moments of being stunned speechless.

Maggie had said that the Teknobot's A.I. would respond to his commands, and would eventually learn to anticipate them, but he honestly hadn't expected anything like this to start happening. Still, on the scale of strange things that had been happening to him lately, this was really one of the most minor. It was even benign, which wasn't something he could honestly say regarding a lot of the strange things that had been happening to him lately.

The Beta detonated around them before he could think anymore about those kinds of things, though, and Slade quickly flew onto the Teknobot's back before the two of them could become separated in the ensuing chaos.

Flying out ahead of the explosion, taking the lead ship's place at the head of the convoy, Slade tried not to think about just what was happening to Dr. Random. The cockpit had sealed itself into an escape pod when the ship's systems had gone critical, leaving him, Saber, and the Teknobot just outside, and so Dr. Random would have been protected from the ship's self-destruct, and the explosives that he himself had planted, but the wounds that he had suffered needed tending to.

Something that he wasn't going to be getting until they had all made it down to the Earth and back onto solid ground. He hoped that help didn't come too late, but he worried that it might. A wave of weariness that almost knocked him to his knees let Slade know that he probably shouldn't have transformed twice in such a short amount of time.

(Slade? Am I dreaming about being stuck in some kind of magician's box, or is there something you're not telling me?)

Saber. (It's good to have you back with me, brother,) he said, relief taking the edge off of the tiredness that was pressing down on him. (You're inside the Teknobot. The ship was about to explode, so it was the safest place to put you.)

(Ah. Well thanks, then. You don't sound very well, though, brother. Tired?)

(Yeah,) he chuckled softly. (I had to transform right away, so I'm running on no food and less sleep, it feels like.)

(Makes sense; I've certainly never tried something like that, but I imagine it would be pretty draining.)

"Teknobot, Saber's going to transform," he said. "Don't activate my crystal."

"Affirmative."

He felt a surge of energy under his feet, and then a burst of bright blue energy shot out of the top of the Teknobot. He sighed, knowing that he was one more step closer to getting the sleep he so desperately needed right now. Saber turned a flip in mid-flight, landing just behind him on the Teknobot.

(It's all yours, brother mine.)

(Thanks, Saber,) he said, grateful at last to be able to be getting the sleep he needed if he was going to function properly until the end of the day.

Flying under the Teknobot, Slade ordered it to open its interlock-chamber for the umpteenth time that day. Securing himself inside, he watched the chamber close around him and then felt the rush of energy leaving his body as his transformation faded away. He didn't know quite where they were in relation to the convoy anymore, but for the moment Slade was entirely too tired to care.

1101010010

When the Beta transport that Slade, Saber, and Dr. Random had been riding had exploded so suddenly, Star's heart just about leapt up into her throat. She'd heard them and Dr. Random talking, and she and Ringo both knew now that the doctor's plan had been to put himself forward as a target for the Radam so that the rest of the convoy could get through safely. She only hoped that poor, brave, determined man would manage to make it through his ordeal.

After that conversation, though, the twins had seemed to be having another, but the radio-link from the Teknobot to the Blue Earth had been garbled enough that they had only managed to pick out two words: we remember. Saber had said them, but she didn't know the context or who they had been spoken in response to. Ringo, of course, had decided that it wasn't important to him, but she couldn't help but wonder just what it was that the twins remembered.

Or who.

Flying out at the head of the convoy, taking the place that had been occupied previously by Dr. Random's ship, Star held onto her composure with an iron grip. She did the same with her faith in the twins; they had to have survived, they were stronger than a mere exploding ship, and they had made themselves too much a part of her life for Star to let them go so easily. They would come back; they had to.

When Ringo landed the Blue Earth on the beach, right next to the ocean they'd guided the Beta transports into so that the water would cushion the shock of their landing, Star took a moment to remind herself that the twins were alive. Even in spite of the fact that neither she nor Ringo had been able to spot them on their way down through the Earth's atmosphere, those two were the bravest, strongest men she had ever known. They could survive this; they had survived this.

Leaving the ship behind, she and Ringo spoke briefly with the military personnel unloading the Beta transports, informing them of the status of the convoy, and the fate of Dr. Random. She honestly hoped that the doctor himself would manage to survive until he had reached the medical help that was waiting for all of them at the landing site, but that wasn't the foremost thought in her mind at the moment. She was worried about Slade and Saber; the twins, her boys, or that was how she was starting to think of Saber, anyway.

What she was starting to feel for Slade wasn't nearly so simple, she knew.

"I have to believe they made it out," Ringo said, turning to her as the both stood together on the beach, scanning the skies for any signs of the twins. "Those kids are indestructible."

The Teknobot burst up and out of the water, and she saw that Saber had actually been riding on the mech's back. He flew off with a burst from his thrusters, landing on the Teknobot's right shoulder and actually sitting down there, still in his full armor, until the Teknobot had settled itself down on the beach. The light of his transformation, that strange crystalline-cage, enveloped him then, and Saber's armored form was subsumed in turquoise radiance for a few moments before vanishing to reveal his human form in the same pose: palms flat against the Teknobot's shoulder-assembly, lower legs resting on the mech's right arm with his ankles together, and his eyes turned toward the interlock-chamber.

"It's the Teknobot!" she exclaimed, unable to control her joy in the face of what seemed like a miracle.

When the Teknobot settled itself onto the sand, Saber leapt lightly from his perch and landed in the sand next to it. Running up to meet the mech as the interlock-chamber swung open, she saw Saber looping his left arm around Slade's shoulders, taking the weight of his brother with his right arm around Slade's waist.

"Slade! Saber!" she called happily, as she and Ringo both ran up to meet the twins.

"Hey," Saber said, smiling softly at them. "Nice to see some more friendly faces."

Slade was more subdued, but Star could just tell that he felt just the same as his brother.

"Compliments on a job well done," one of the squad leaders from the AEM said, driving up to their group in a Jeep; the smiles on both twins' faces disappeared like morning mist as soon as they saw him. "I've just spoken to High Command, and they're very satisfied with the results of this operation."

"Enough of the supplies got through all right?" she asked; she still wondered what was bothering the twins, but now wasn't quite the time to think about those kinds of things.

"Yes indeed," the trooper said. "Losses were minimal; some damage here and there, but considerably less than expected. All in all, the whole operation went off much better than we could have expected."

"And casualties, Captain?" she asked, resisting the urge to look over her shoulder at the twins; they'd been uncommonly quiet since the soldiers had shown up, particularly for Saber. "How many were there?"

"Nothing to speak of," the captain said calmly; Star almost thought she heard someone scoff, but that could have just been her imagination. "One man on the critical list, but that's about it. Only one man in the hospital," the captain said, turning to look at where she knew the twins were standing. "We could've had a whole lot more."

The twins moved forward almost as one; Saber's slap knocked the captain's head sideways, and Slade's follow-up punch flattened him on his back. The other trooper, the one who had stayed in the Jeep, leaped out and tried to tackle them, but Ringo intercepted him before he could take more than a couple steps. The captain, meanwhile, was demanding to know why the twins had just hit him.

"Just one man, huh?" Saber all but snarled.

"That was one man too many," Slade hissed, throwing something that glittered at the captain's feet; it landed between the mirrored sunglasses that Slade's punch had knocked off.

She wondered what was wrong, watching the twins for a moment as they stalked off, and turned to look down at what Slade had thrown down. It was the wristband that Dr. Random had been wearing; only now it was open, and she could see that there was a picture inside it. It was a family portrait: a younger Dr. Random, with someone that was probably his wife, and a little girl that looked so much like him that she just had to be his daughter.

Star understood now: the twins had been with Dr. Random up until his ship had exploded, speaking to him as he was suffering from his wounds; it was no wonder they had been so angry that his sacrifice could be that easily dismissed by the very ones that he had made it for.