Chapter 26: Their tails between their legs

Warmth... she was enveloped by it, and a familiar spicy fragrance that made her purr. He was holding her, she realized, and snuggled up to his chest to be as close against him as she could. Questions of why and how melted away in a fog of contentment. She didn't want to deal with any of that world beyond this blissful vacance, for she knew it would only bring pain and regret. Just for now... for this moment... let me have a few minutes of happiness and quiet. I've suffered so much...

But as the seconds wore on, she awoke a bit more, and the nagging worries of her life refused to let her be. What happened... why am I in Busby's arms? Is something wrong? Vague memories of trouble had her eyes flickering open, and she found herself gazing into the face of her First Officer as he watched her fretfully. His lips were moving, but his voice sounded a million cubits off. She wanted to know what he was saying, as among all the people close to her right now, she trusted him completely. Reaching up to stroke his face, she whispered, "Oh, Busby... you... thank heavens it's you... you wonderful--"

His body flashed with an uncomfortable warmth, the sour musk of embarrassment welling up from him... why? What was wrong with being with him like this? And then she realized he had spoken loudly over her. "Yes, Captain, I have you here on the bridge."

Her mind was slow to recover completely, but then it all came back to her at once, so forcefully that she jerked in reaction. 'Oh my God... and everyone's watching!' She said as loudly as she could, "Uhm... yes, put me down, please." Her heart was pounding as the First Officer eased her down to stand on unsteady legs, and as he began to ask again about her condition, she waved him off, accidentally jabbing him in the chest with a nail. "Sorry," she muttered as she gripped the railing beside her chair to steady herself. "Just... give me a moment."

It was a struggle to sort through the countless memories vying for her attention, and as badly as she wanted to see about the one she needed desperately to be true, she knew she had to take things in proper order, saying a bit hoarsely as she stared at the floor below, "Ship's status."

"The Phoenix II is secure, and repairs from the battle over Visceron are well underway," Busby replied curtly. "We're still in orbit over the planet, but we need to see about getting the heck out of here, before an even bigger Cragmite battle group shows up."

"How much time?" she asked.

He gave her a shrug. "Hard to say, but it may be as little as twenty minutes. We really need to--"

"Scout," she interrupted as another unpleasant memory came to her. "How is he?"

"We're reeling him in right now, and he looks pretty beat up," he informed her. "He isn't responding, but I don't think anything's critically wrong with him."

"Act like it. Treat him like any other medical emergency," she ordered. When he spoke his compliance, she touched on another issue dear to her. "Talwyn... what's her status?"

He blinked in shock. "Oh, crap, I totally forgot about--"

"Busby...!" she growled, her voice rising angrily. "Lola, raise the Odyssey Beta if she's in normal space." She cast her gaze to the main screen where the cockpit of the starfighter was still on the display. 'And then, Ratchet,' she thought to herself, 'if you don't talk to me, I'll fly there and wake you up myself, and you won't have any choice in the matter.'

"And there," the Port Boss pointed to a scorched place in the tail, "the starboard engine nearly took a direct hit, and that might'a sealed yer fate."

Talwyn listened distractedly as the officer ran through the laundry list of damage the ship had suffered in the ordeal to make it here. None of it was enough to keep her from flying, exactly, though it would have to be tended to soon or it would, but her mind was off in three other places just then. She wondered sadly about Ratchet's fate. She worried about Sasha and the Phoenix, and how they were fairing. And she was nagged by thoughts of a brash, reckless, handsome young racer punk who dared to kiss her so forwardly, and then run off on her before she could respond. "I wonder if... I should..." she murmured to herself.

"I could waive the safety issues, for a small fee."

She looked up, realizing what had just transpired in their conversations. He was inviting a bribe in exchange for an early exit from the port, and it had some appeal. "I might," she offered. "What can I get out of her?"

"Oh, jump itself shouldn't be a problem, but I wouldn't run those engines past an ay you," the robot advised her. "Might be bad."

An Astronomical Unit... three hundred billion cubits. But if she could hitch a ride on the Phoenix, that wouldn't be an issue. "Okay--" she began, but was cut off by a beeping from inside her ship. Her heart jumped; someone was calling.

"Take me in there, Zephyr," Cronk told his friend, as they hadn't had time for repair yet. "If it's that kissy-faced yahoo, I'll give him a piece of my--"

"Oh no ya don't," Talwyn snapped as she rushed up the ramp past them, sending them spinning to the deck below. She tried not to look excited or flushed as she answered in case it was him, but it was hard to calm herself. "Hello? This is..." Her voice fell silent as she saw the Cazar's face appear on the screen, and she fought to keep disappointment from showing. "Ha-hey, Sasha! How are you doing?" she asked, running her fingers through her hair absently. "Does this mean the fight's over?"

"Yes it is," she replied in obvious relief. "But... you look flushed. Is anything wrong on your end?"

"Oh, uh..." she began in a fluster, shaking her head in hopes of calming down. "Not really, it was just... an adventure making it here. I'll tell you about it later. But, listen... it was a little rough. I was wondering if... you were coming here anyway, that maybe I could hitch a ride?"

Sasha chuckled, "That's just what I was calling about--" She stopped short as what Talwyn said finally hit home, looking at her in concern. "Wait... does this mean you were chased there by that Cragmite Cruiser?"

"Yeah..." she replied a bit vacantly at first. "But... a couple of friends took care of it."

From off screen, a man said, "Wow, those must be some friends! Odum doesn't have much more than a couple of rescue squadrons."

Talwyn chuckled, gazing in the direction Slab and Crunch flew off to make their pizza deliveries. "You... have no idea. Anyway, when are you going to arrive here?"

Sasha looked back into the screen. "I've been told it shouldn't take more than forty-five minutes."

Talwyn blinked in amazement. "Forty-fi... it took me a couple hours!"

Sasha gave her a lopsided smile. "Well, the Navy knows a few tricks. Get ready, and we'll rendezvous then. And... have that talk. Sasha out."

Talwyn stared at the screen in relief as it went dark, for more than one reason, though she stopped herself as she began to open up a message. She would seem eager if she called just then, and she hated seeming eager to anyone, besides Ratchet. Still... he was the first male besides the Lombax to spark any response in her at all, and who knew when they would be free to come back this way? And he wanted to see her again so badly... didn't she owe him something? Her fingers poised over the console time and again, and finally she grumbled at herself, "Oh, for crying out loud... compromise!" She did so, opening up the texter and typing a short message:

Leaving soon. Really sorry. ~ Tal

She wanted to say more, as much as she chastised herself for it, but it was hard to keep from dwelling on that rare, warm moment with him. As she began to drift off into a reverie, the sound of a throat clearing from the ship's ramp brought her abruptly back to the ground. "Err... Miss Apogee, if you'll just wrap up business, you'll be free to do as you please."

"Right! Right," she blurted out, intending to make the fastest transaction this side of an inside stock trade, so she could return to her seat and wait for him to reply. And if he was any kind of a man, he'd hurry back there so she could take that swing at him. And then, if he was any kind of a man, he'd understand, and respond... appropriately.

As Sasha clasped her hands to her face, smiling with relief, as well as a bit of mischief, Busby edged to her side, taking a moment to admire her beauty one more time before he opened his mouth and spoiled the mood. "You, uh... didn't mention anything to her about Ratchet."

Her smile widened a bit as she murmured, "No, I didn't... but it will make for a nice surprise when we meet." She gazed up at the screen which still held the cockpit view of Ratchet's ship, and the hangar roof above it. "Lola," she said quietly to her Communications Officer, "trace that signal."

"Already on it, ma'am," she replied, trying not to look smug. Like the rest of the Bridge crew, she was catching on fast.

As Sasha looked to the screen, she read the message typed out to her:

Captain Phyronyx, Ratchet is well, and is resting quietly. Please calm down, and don't worry. This is Aphelion, Ratchet's ship. I will have him contact you as soon as he awakens. He has gone through quite an ordeal, and hope you understand.

She picked up her keyboard and typed in response, doing her best to contain herself, Thank you, very much.

The reply came back promptly, You are most welcome.

She knew she had to get moving, but a thousand issues were burning in her mind, besides the obvious one of who Ratchet favored among the three of them. May I ask you a question?

Certainly, and I shall reply to the best of my ability, came the response.

She had to take a few breaths to calm herself before she formed her inquiry. What happened on Visceron?

There was the slightest pause, as if the ship was collecting herself as well. That is a tricky subject, and some things I doubt I am at liberty to say. But essentially, we invaded Zordoom Prison in order to secure the freedom of someone who could assist Ratchet in his quest to locate and free his friend, Clank, who had been botnapped under unusual circumstances a month ago. Things went fairly well until a Blarg named Drek arrived in a beast of a warmech. It was a difficult battle, but Ratchet was able to defeat him. However, being the bighearted nitwit that he is, he insisted on going to the wreck afterward to assist Drek, and the monster tried to kill Ratchet, very nearly succeeding.

Busby looked to Sasha who stiffened in a sharp gasp of alarm, cupping her face in her hands. "Oh, my God... just like I dreamed it..."

He leaned close in surprise, murmuring, "Sasha, you never told me--"

She waved him silent as Aphelion continued, not wanting to be distracted, even if this was in text. Miraculously, Ratchet survived, though Drek did not. We are currently at a location I cannot disclose while Ratchet recovers from his ordeal, and I receive some much needed maintenance.

Sasha placed her hand to her bosom, trying to reign in emotions that had her gasping for breath. "Oh, God... that stupid, stupid..." She picked up the keyboard again, typing frantically, is ratchet injured?

After a slight pause, the reply came back, Not seriously. Do not worry.

"Don't worry, she says," Sasha muttered sourly, beginning to type again. I'll try. It's not easy, especially after what I just learned. I care for him a great deal.

I understand, believe me.

Sasha muttered, "I just hope they understand enough to let us accompany them." She continued typing, May I ask you another question?

I will answer, if I am able.

She wondered for a moment whether to let on how much she knew about the Zoni, finally typing, Does Ratchet have any idea how to find his way to Clank?

At the moment, we are still gathering information on that.

Sasha was incredulous. "Is she serious... they're still in the dark?!"

"Well..." Busby began, "just think of what they're trying to accomplish. Exploration of other dimensions is pure theory right now. We're still learning stuff about the wormholes and black holes, and so far, all we can do is use them for is speed runs across this universe."

"Yes, but Busby... he's just getting started... and it's already killing him!" She had to fight back a moan as she clenched her fists, remembering that dreadful line once more, 'Death hates to be cheated, and I'm sure he has a grudge against you already.' "Oh... why do I have to be so prescient sometimes?" she muttered as she began typing. So, what is he going to do? What is his next move?

The reply was rather surprising. If I did know that, I still couldn't tell you. I am sure he will figure something out. He has a knack for that sort of thing.

She gave a wry smile at that, muttering, "Good grief... he even puts his very own ship through that torment." She felt a twinge of sympathy towards the starfighter as she typed, So you're as much in the dark as we are? At least we're not suffering alone with that.

Her response was quite humorous. Believe me, I've let him know how much I'm enjoying these little "surprise trips." ;-)

She had to laugh, wiping back a tear as she settled down to leave a parting message. We're going to be in hyper transit for a while, but please, have Ratchet message me as soon as he possibly can.

I will, I promise you that.

She typed with a heavy sigh at not getting to speak with Ratchet directly, Thank you. It means a lot to me. It was a pleasure "speaking" with you.

The feeling is mutual, Captain Phyronyx.

"She seems very much like another unfortunate girl Ratchet is leading on a wild goose chase," she remarked. Call me Sasha, she typed with a thin smile.

Very well, Sasha. Be safe.

And you, and Ratchet as well. She placed her keyboard aside with a little sigh of regret as the screen went dark.

"Maybe she is," Busby remarked. Sasha had lost track of what he was referring to, giving him a blank look. He added somberly, "Someone being led on..."

"I see..." She wilted as he looked aside, stinging inside as she understood his innuendo. She had a lot of things to get moving, saying to the Helmsman, "Dakkar, plot a course to Odum, and get us to the jump point pronto."

"Already plotted, ma'am," the Helmsman replied as a deep rumble signaled the ship's engines coming to life. It was gratifying to see her crew anticipating her orders.

"Well, we've been through it," Sasha said to Busby with a lopsided smile, hoping to keep him nearby. "And we haven't sprung a leak."

"Yeah, but we might have to stop at a gas station yet, if this keeps up," he replied with a smirk, recalling his earlier joke. He added quietly, "So... what will you do now?"

She glanced at the screen, seeing that in short order, the Phoenix would make the jump point. "Something I've been meaning to all day," she answered, motioning for him as she headed for the exit. "Follow me."

He stiffened like a corpse as he nodded, muttering as the doors opened for them, "Captain's leaving the bridge... nice knowing you all." A multitude of fears swam through his mind as he paced behind her, wishing that he could enjoy the sight of her tail swinging back and forth, her hips swaying in time with her movements, but all he could think of was the image of a convict being led to the gallows. It was the dreaded time he would be thrown aside like old clothes. 'It's not fair that women have this much power over us!' he complained inwardly, wishing that there were witnesses of his last moments of life, but prior to jump, the halls cleared as the crew secured themselves and the ship.

He swallowed as she led him down the corridors to an alcove lounge, cringing as she said distinctly, "Private." In response, a door closed across the entrance, turning opaque and sealing them inside. She cringed as she turned to him, as his body gave off every indication of a man facing doom. 'Oh, wonderful...' she thought, clasping her hands together. 'He's like a frightened child now... what do I say to him in this condition?'

'Well... this is it, the moment all men fear, as the woman they trusted with their soul grind them under their heel like a burned out cigarette,' he thought to himself bitterly. As she began to speak, he blurted out, "Could I at least have a blindfold?"

She blinked at him in bewilderment. "What?"

"I mean," he spat out, scrambling for something more appropriate, "I'll resign!"

"Busby!" she exclaimed, gaping at him irritably. "Why do you men have to be such drama queens?"

He replied more than a bit defensively, "Because you women have to make a big production out of ending a man's life as he knows it!"

That caught her as abruptly as a slap to the face, and Busby cringed before the outburst that was sure to come. As he expected, when she found her voice again, it was loud. "At ease, mister!" she cried, beginning to pace as he clasped his hands behind him and stared directly forward. "Why do you have to make things so difficult? I'm trying to salvage something very important to me."

Now he was confused, and he looked down at her, asking tentatively, "What?"

He jumped as she exclaimed, "You!" She wrung her hands, adding more quietly, "Us... ohh, I had a speech half thought out, and now it's gone to pieces... why is this so hard?"

"Because..." he offered, "it's not easy to let a guy down gently?"

"Busby, shut up!" she snapped at him, and he resumed staring forward. She gazed at the ceiling as if for guidance, and wondered what her mother did when her father was being a pain. "Listen... and don't say a word until I'm finished speaking. Please. You're making this harder than it needs to be, and things have been difficult enough around here."

"I'm sorry, Captain," he murmured regretfully, again all stiff and proper.

"Sasha," she told him insistently. "I have a name, and I like my friends to call me that. It was such a breath of fresh air when you did."

"Okay... Sasha..." he said tentatively, beginning to loosen up once more. "So... what do you want?"

Like a small child, he forgot the order told him not ten seconds ago, but it didn't matter to her just then. In fact, it was one of those things she found so endearing about him. "I want..." She fell silent as she looked into his eyes, at the wistful gaze in them, knowing what he was feeling. It was in his scent, in every facet of his being, and it made it difficult to continue. She wanted to take a different tact anyway. "Busby... when you first saw me, what did you think?"

"That you were the damn sexiest--" He caught himself, though the truly humiliating part had already slipped out. Fighting back an awkward smile, he bluffed out, "Uhm... amazing Captain I ever saw. You know... like any First Officer would. A guy, anyway..."

She couldn't hold back an embarrassed laugh, her whole body flushing warm, shaking her head inwardly at the thought that he was like this from the start, but in a way it was gratifying. Pointing, she said to him, "That... I want that. I want the old Busby back. The man who is frank, even blunt, and even if it's the wrong thing to say. To lighten up. To... tell those crazy, terrible jokes and say those puns at the worst possible times." He grinned sheepishly, looking down, causing her to smile along with him. "And that: I want you to smile. I want you to be... you, all right? For things to be like they were when I first saw you... normal, somehow. And... I know, that's not going to be easy, with all that's happened between us..." Her voice drifted to an uneasy silence.

"You're darn right, it's not," he murmured, though he regretted saying it as he saw a look of torment on her face.

"I know..." she whispered, curling her fingers, wondering how she was going to wrap this up in a dignified, satisfying way that wouldn't cause much pain. "Busby... I suffered through a very bleak darkness for a time, and... I know that things became very complicated between us because of it. But... those moments, when you comforted me... I'm going to treasure them for the rest of my life." He looked down with mixed emotions, and she realized that her words sounded like a stale brush-off line. She stroked her fingers lightly along his arm, murmuring, "And... you, Busby... you too."

He looked back into her eyes, knowing that she would never lead him on, but he needed to see it for himself in her, and found it in a little glimmer. His voice was quiet as he said to her, "Uhm... thanks for that. It means a lot to me... like you do. I just... wish it could have been different, somehow..."

Even more unfolded in her expression at his words of regret, like a flower blossoming with a bittersweet fragrance. "I know, Busby... I know... but, we're Navy officers, and the Navy won't allow... certain things. On top of that... well, you know how I feel about Ratchet. But... that doesn't mean that we can't still share something... truly special."

He almost failed to notice the tone indicating the ship was about to jump, and then, to his surprise, as that little thrill of the ship's hyperdrive engaging ran through him, he caught a surprising sight. She noticed his expression, asking, "What?"

"Oh..." he began slowly, "when we jumped... in your eyes, I saw this pretty green glow."

"Really?" she asked, beginning to smile. "I saw the same thing in yours."

"Oh yeah?" He looked aside, grinning. "That's... neat. It doesn't happen with too many people, and they aren't sure why. I always thought it was because..." His gaze returned to hers as he finished, "They were kinda... special."

Sasha murmured quietly after a moment, "Busby... don't ever think you aren't..."

That was at once the most wonderful and most heart rending thing he had ever heard. 'If only I was special enough,' he lamented to himself. She looked to be growing emotional, as if his thoughts were apparent to her, making him cough self-consciously. "Listen... and you be quiet yourself for a minute," he interrupted as she began to speak. "Captain... Sasha, so I can finish a thought."

"Okay, Busby," she murmured with a demure smile, enjoying the sight of his discomfort at being so blunt with her, and glad for any emotional change of pace.

He began quietly at first, "Anyway... I know what you mean. This is really awkward, and I don't want it to be either. I wanna be able to see a lot more of you." Both their eyes popped open at his wording, and he began clumsily, "I mean--"

"Busby..." she giggled, looking down with a flush, "Just... never mind. I know what you mean, and I feel the same." Looking back into his eyes, she added softly, "You're much too fine a First Officer... and much too wonderful a friend to... let this all fall to pieces."

He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out as they stared at each other, his mind a blank, save for very vivid memories and spicy romantic notions. He didn't want the moment to end anyway, to let that last nail in the coffin seal the demise of such a precious if impossible dream, but he knew it had to. Finding his voice at last, he muttered, "Yeah, uhm... anyway, I'm... glad we had this talk. I'll see if I can make it work, the way it was, because... well, it was really cool, and... you're only the best Captain in the whole fleet." She looked down, murmuring her thanks, though it only served to drive a stake through his heart. He had to end this now before he said or did something he might enjoy for a moment, but regret for the rest of their lives. "Listen... I guess... I should head on back to the bridge. And... ya know, you could go lie down for a while 'til we arrive, if you want to. Nothing ever happens during jump, and I know you need to relax." He extended his hand to her as she hesitated, speechless, unsure of what else to do. "Chums, then?"

She stared at Busby's hand for a time, feeling lost, as if she'd just severed those ties with him she wanted so much to hold onto. She knew what he wanted, and perhaps in a sense what she did, but this was for the best, wasn't it? Still, as she forced her hand up to take his, made herself smile thinly, it didn't seem that way, not at all, but what choice was there? Her voice was quiet as she said to him, "Chums. Let's... get back to where we were, before all this craziness made such a mess of everything. It was really good... having you under me." When he gaped at her in shock, she realized what she'd said, her body flushing in embarrassment as she wiped a palm across her cheek. "Uhm... bad choice of words. I'm afraid I'm picking up your bad habits... sorry."

"If only," he whispered, clamping his teeth down on his tongue when she saw her glance up at him. "I mean... listen, you have a good rest and I'll..." Before he knew it, he was stroking his fingers along her arm, savoring the soft warmth of her fur beneath the fabric, and wishing he could feel that instead, the stupidest thing he could do. "Open," he blurted out a bit loudly as he jerked his hand back, the door to the alcove sliding away so he could escape. "I'd... better get up there, before they throw a party or something. See ya."

She watched hollowly as he marched briskly away. There was no good way to do this, she realized, and though there were no tears or raised voices, it felt as close to a disaster as could be. He was unhappy, and she was miserable, sitting on a sofa and hugging herself as she watched her First making his way down the corridor with his head lowered. More than anything, she wanted him back, wanted his arms around her, strong, supportive, caring... loving, even as she wanted as desperately to be with Ratchet. She couldn't imagine a worse predicament. "If only I could be two people," she whispered.

Her own scent was driving her crazy, she came to realize, as the pheromones from the battle and this dreadful moment were thick in her uniform. "I have to take a shower," she sighed, fleeing the alcove and hitting the ventilator, so hopefully no one else would catch their lingering, embarrassing riot of fragrances.

She was growing tired. It had been a long, grueling day, even without the combat, and she found it hard to keep her eyes open. 'Why won't you reply? You act like I'm the most important woman in the world one minute, and the next... nothing. And I really have to get moving before the Cragmites return to see what happened to their comrades, and they won't be happy about it.'

As her head sagged forward from the weight of a weary fog, her eyes drifted closed and she found herself dwelling on him; that reckless, devil may care, funny young male who captivated her so, and those warm moments they shared. She had to smile philosophically at how these relationships always seemed to go. 'Why is it that one moment, they're all over you, and the next, they could be in another galaxy? Men, I swear--'

A sound from behind reminded her that she wasn't alone, and she felt self-conscious from the romantic notions she was entertaining. "Guys... I'd kinda like some privacy--"

Her eyes opened wide in shock as something cold and metallic settled on her throat, and she thought briefly that one of the other two were pulling some evil prank on her. But there was a smell too, something sickly and disgusting that chilled her blood. She didn't have a chance to even cry out before it pressed inward, choking her painfully. And then as she grabbed at it, mortal terror eclipsed her pain as a voice rasped in her ear, "You really should be more attentive, my dear. You have no idea who might be coming up behind you!"

It was Tachyon, and he emphasized his words as he pulled the scepter into her throat cruelly. It was agony, and as she floundered at the snap securing her knife, she realized with horror that she was passing out, lacking even the strength to undo a little strap. As her ears began roaring from the pain of her impending death, she wailed her mind, 'Why aren't you here to save me! Why... where are you...?'

He tried to cry out, unable to stand it any longer, but the sound choked in his throat as he fell. Something struck him, and he looked around frantically for the cause as his world came into focus much too slowly. Ratchet cursed under his breath as he saw that he was back in Slim's Ship Shack. He had rolled off of the couch, and it had all been a dream, and once again, much much too vivid. 'I have to get that out of my mind,' he whimpered to himself, wincing at the horrible image of Talwyn being brutally murdered at Tachyon's hand. He wondered uncomfortably if there wasn't something to all these dreams he was having...

He began to rub his eyes, gasping as a sharp pain flared in his shoulder. 'That metal slug... I have to see about that, first thing.' It worried him, as he'd never suffered through a foreign object in his body before, although it was almost a relief compared to that terrible dream. He wanted to take his mind off of both issues, heading over to where Slim was working tirelessly on Aphelion. "He-hey, look who's finally up!" the modder declared. "I told ya to take it easy, and I guess you weren't kiddin' around."

"Whadya mean--?" he began, glancing at his chronometer, then he gaped at it in shock. "Eleven hours?!"

"Yep. Lunch time, champ," Slim remarked as Ratchet's stomach growled. "Sorry, but all I got to offer ya is yer leftovers."

"That's okay," he replied distantly, looking over the starship's fuselage. It already had a fresh paint job, just like it had originally. Slim didn't mess around when it came to the details. It felt good to have his mood lifting so quickly. "So, how far along are you?"

"Just wrappin' up, actually. It took some overtime to get 'er in top shape asap... ya put the poor girl through the wringer! She hadn't had her ten giga-kay inspection, either. And you bein' a Lombax 'n all? Shame on you."

"Well, I've been kinda busy..." he began half-defensively.

Aphelion added, "It has been rather hectic for a month or so."

Slim's eyes narrowed humorously. "Hey, just yankin' yer tail."

"Listen," Ratchet cut in, afraid that precious seconds were burning much too fast. "I need the name of a good doctor, someone who handles rush jobs."

"I gotcha," Slim told him knowingly. "Sorry I couldn't help ya out with yer... little problem, but I ain't got much more than Band-aids here, and anything I did might put ya in shock. But not to worry, I got just the doc for ya. Guy named Terwilliger, on Geisel."

"Terr... williger?" Ratchet was unable to mask a dubious squint. "Is he like... a real doctor, or one of those guys who got his schooling from old reruns of Doctor How?"

"Hey, come on, ya make 'im sound like a vet or somethin'. Though... it's not like he don't take in the occasional pet..." When Ratchet seemed even more reluctant, the Technomite added, "Listen, he's about as good as I am, and he's got a heart o' gold... if a little half baked here'n there..."

"Well... okay, as long as it's on your say-so," Ratchet muttered, still wondering what he was getting into. "Anyway, what do I owe you?"

"Ehhh..." the modder drawled out thoughtfully. "Nuthin', on the house. After all, ya did yank me from prison, outta the goodness of yer heart, 'n all." As sarcastically as he was putting it, a smile was still evident in his gaze. That didn't suit Ratchet, who went over to a payment station and inserted his Galactic Express, depositing three million bolts in the account. His eyes opening a bit, Slim asked curiously, "So... what's that for?"

"A tip," the Lombax replied with a thin smile as his wallet vanished back into the Manifestor.

The Technomite looked down with a grateful sigh, as he could really use the funds. "Ya know... yer gettin' soft in yer old age, Ratchet."

"Maybe I needed to," he said, his smile spreading. Nodding to Aphelion's open cockpit, he asked, "Can I hop in?"

"Sure thing," Slim replied, a pair of robot arms moving aside with a soft whine to allow him up. "I redid the upholstery too."

Feeling excited about getting going again, he did a flip, landing firmly in the seat as Slim rolled his eyes resignedly at the abuse his work would be taking. Settling into the flight seat, Ratchet gave a contented sigh. "Oh, man... this must be Luxurite!"

"You got a discerning... derriere, I gotta say," Slim told him with a smile in his voice. "I figgered this would be quite a road trip."

"Yeah, no kid--" Ratchet began, then he stopped short as he saw the open message screen, and the conversation Aphelion had with Sasha. He exclaimed, "Why didn't you wake me!"

As Slim looked up questioningly, Aphelion replied, "I'm sorry, Ratchet, but you were driving yourself to the brink of exhaustion, and you're injured to boot! Just think of how long you've slept."

"I'm fine!" he grumbled, reading through the text again anxiously, his dream nagging him. "Don't let me miss another message! She sounds so worried..." he sighed, his voice drifting to silence.

She decided not to let him know that the Cazar apparently fainted, murmuring repentantly, "I won't, Ratchet... I promise."

He groaned at his heated reaction, clenching a fist. "Aphelion... I'm sorry. It's just that... she means a lot to me."

"I understand," the ship replied, hoping that the message had been up long enough for Sasha to order a trace on it. Not that it was likely she would be able to arrive there before they left, but it could at least be a helpful link to her.

He tried to continue with this call, but the Phoenix was already in hypertransit. After the dream he'd just had, he wanted to speak with her desperately, in fact, all of them. But then... could that dream have been some kind of warning, about Talwyn specifically? He didn't want to lose any of them, but especially not her, not with that murderous scene still burning in his mind. He called out of the cockpit, "I have to go."

Slim's orbs bobbed knowingly. "I had a feelin' you'd say that."

"So... Geisel, is it?" remarked a figure as they consulted a star chart from a location just beyond detection range. "Maybe I should pay the good doctor a visit first."

Sasha lay her golden headpiece on the desk and stripped out of her clothes, throwing them into the laundry chute, glad to be rid of one source of disturbing scents. "Now, for the rest of it," she muttered as she went into the bathroom and entered the shower. They were still all around her, the fragrances of a dozen mixed emotions oozing disturbingly from her fur, and one in particular. She shook her head in dismay at herself, muttering, "What's wrong with me? I can't be wanting two men, especially not..." Busby, she thought inwardly, sadly. It was foolish to harbor such thoughts about the man. He was her First Officer, and entanglements with subordinates of any kind were strictly forbidden. And besides, she wanted Ratchet... of course she did! Still, her heart wandered in the other direction, and she found herself wondering how he would smell standing behind her, how it felt to be held by a furless male, how it felt to...

She growled scoldingly at herself, "Sasha, stop it! You know better... you just broke up with--" She stopped herself, growing exasperated. They had not been together, there was no breaking up, she insisted to herself, even though it felt entirely otherwise. "This is utterly stupid," she chided, grasping the knob. "Maybe I need a cold shower--"

She gasped sharply as the spray of water drenched her, feeling as if needles were jabbing her all over. It wasn't cold, it was downright frigid! She fought unsuccessfully to turn the water off without getting any more of it on her, grabbed a towel and made a mad dash for her desk, quivering and panting from shock.

Busby was leaning on his fist, staring into space and scarcely acknowledging anyone when they spoke to him, caught up in a melancholy funk. He knew it would have to end this way, or in some way much worse than this. He had known it all along, that it would come sooner than later, but the little kid inside refused to listen, hoping for some sort of miracle that would somehow keep them together. "That's what I get for listening to my inner kid," he grumbled to himself. "Of course, I always do..."

"Sir?"

He jumped as the voice of Lieutenant Mimo startled him from his sulk, and he realized he'd been speaking out loud. "Oh, uhh... just running over the... outcome of the last battle. Uhm... carry on, Helmsman," he said in his most dramatic voice, wishing he could run off and hide, though of course a ranking officer had to be on the bridge at all times. And then he very nearly lurched out of the Captain's seat when Sasha popped up on the small screen in front of him, looking drenched and clutching a towel that just managed to cover things he shouldn't be looking at. And as mad as he'd seen her yet.

"Busby!" she cried, so loudly that everyone on the bridge heard and turned to look. "Did you forget to reactivate the water heaters?!"

Fumbling frantically for the volume control, he blurted out, "Sorry Sash - Captain! I'll get right on that! I'll heat some and bring it down myself!" He felt his cheeks flushing when he realized what he'd just said, wishing he could somehow hide under the cushions as laughter came from all around the bridge.

Sasha began laughing herself in spite of her irritation. "No, thanks Busby, just... get it to a tolerable temperature quickly, please." Realizing that she was in a rather overexposed condition, she shrunk back in embarrassment, murmuring, "Uhm... later."

Busby squirmed in his seat as the message closed, grumbling, "Well... you heard the Captain! Get those systems back on line!"

"Yes sir," the Combat Officer replied through a chuckle as he set about checking over the ship's systems deactivated during the battle over Visceron.

"She sure doesn't make it easy on a guy she just threw away," Busby muttered under his breath, and despite his better judgment, he replayed Sasha's message, unaware that Helmut was observing him.

Sasha went back into the restroom and sat on the stool, shivering from both the cold and a fit of giggling. "I swear, that man... but, maybe a little chaos from Busby is just what we both need right now to get through this with our sanity intact." She watched the temperature indicator creeping upward from near zero, and despite knowing better, she couldn't resist imagining how it would feel for Busby to be holding her, sharing the warmth of his body.

Properly showered and dressed, Sasha felt a little better, but there was one more duty she had to tend to, one she dreaded. Going to the Engineering Section, she paused as one of the crew cried out her presence. When everyone rushed forward and snapped to attention, she gave the at ease, addressing Chief Engineer Tesla. "I came to see the casualties. How is Scout doing?"

"We're running diagnostics on him right now, though he isn't responding yet," Lieutenant Tesla replied as he escorted the Cazar to the robot maintenance area. "Evidently, there's some serious damage isolating the core from the rest of his systems, but we think he'll pull through all right. As for the other..." He looked forward to where the forms of Scout and Roby were lying on maintenance tables. "There's not much to look at."

Sasha came forward reluctantly, visibly wilting. Scout was a battered, shrapnel-pierced missile-like form, but the other was a melted wreck. She had to look away as his head unit seemed twisted in agony. She put her hands to her face, closing her eyes as she murmured, "Oh, my heavens... what... happened to him?"

"He, uhh... saved the ship for ya." A voice to her other side came to her, sounding strained, and she recognized it as Leftenant Pulverizer. "The ship lost power 'cause a main cable came loose... 'n... he used his body to bridge the gap..."

"Oh... my God..." she whispered, tapping her canines together as her eyes closed, and recalled the moment she cried out with joy at the surge of returning power, wincing from guilt. She found herself wishing desperately for Busby to come and hold her. "There are times I really hate this job..."

"Hey," Tesla said to her in placation, "this was a major battle we've just gone through. You saved the Phoenix, and thousands of lives. It could'a been a lot worse."

"I know, Mick," she began tiredly, "but--"

"C-captain?" Her eyes popped open as a robotic voice came over a damaged speaker beside her.

"Scout!" she cried, practically jumping to his side as Pulverizer and a crewman hastily wheeled the remains of the other robot to another room. "Listen... you should conserve your energy," she told him as she stroked his hull almost soothingly. "You've been through it, and then some."

Hu-how's the s-s-s-ship?" he asked in an electric stutter, one visual unit flickering with an intermittent glow.

"In one piece," she replied with a little smile, "thanks to you. Now, you idle down so that you can get patched up. Captain's orders."

"Aye-ay-y-y-ye, ma'am," he sputtered. "I want to return to duty as soo--"

She blinked as he abruptly fell silent, the glow in his eye flickering off. "Scout?" she asked insistently, then looked up as an amber light came on above them. "Oh, great," she muttered as the voice of Busby came over the speakers:

"Five minutes to arrival at Odum. All active duty crew report to duty stations."

"He's okay, isn't he?" Sasha asked the Chief Engineer nervously.

She heaved a sigh of relief as he nodded, consulting a display. "Peripheral systems are still wonky, but his core's intact."

"I... have to go," she informed Tesla as the repair crew set once more to the robot's recovery. "Make sure he's not another casualty."

"You can count on us, ma'am!" he called after the Cazar as she ran for the elevator, murmuring with a smirk, "Whatta woman..."

Talwyn shivered as she stroked her throat lightly. That dream had been much too real, even causing her to awake to a tender throat, choking. 'Damn... this adventure is getting to me, too.' She looked to her communicator screen with a sigh, hoping for a distraction from the nightmare. "Still no response?" Disappointment quickly became anger. "What's with you guys, that one minute you're all over a girl, and the next, you act like I don't even exist!" She lifted her hands to initiate a message, but then lowered them despondently. No, if he hadn't noticed her text message, it was because he was busy. "At least, you'd better be," she growled, "and busy in the right way! After the way you acted with me..." She fell quiet, not wanting to think of yet another male who had more than one girl on his mind.

She rested her head in her hand, wanting to cry. Was there any chance at all that Ratchet had survived? He was an incredibly lucky Lombax, but that message from Visceron seemed terribly sure. She closed her eyes, whimpering as she cradled her face in her hands, "Ratchet... somehow, by some miracle... please be alive. Fang... couldn't it be true? I just can't imagine life without him--"

She jumped in her seat as the communicator beeped, her mind torn between two people she wanted to hear from badly, but was once again disappointed that it was neither of them. Doing her best to seem excited, she smiled as the Captain of the Phoenix II appeared on the screen. "Talwyn! Sasha here. It's good to see you again. How are you making out?"

"Not too well," she muttered, looking aside wistfully. When the Cazar began to inquire, Talwyn added hastily, "I mean... fine, all things considered. I just need a little patching up here and there."

Sasha looked to her in concern. "You're going to have to tell me all the details when you come aboard. Do you need a tug to get you to space?"

"No, I should be fine," she replied with a headshake. "When is orbit?"

"Less than twenty, so if you want to prep for launch, I'll let you go, and we can talk when you arrive."

"Great, see you then," she said with a smile. "Talwyn out." It quickly faded as she saw that there had still been no messages. Her voice became a growl as she declared hotly, "I told you I was leaving... ohh, men!" Still sounding angry, she snapped over her shoulder, "Guys! Settle in, we're leaving!"

Zephyr hesitated, Cronk's head poised over the connecting ring on his neck, the two robots giving each other a wary look at the tone of her voice. "I think we'd better not ask--"

"Not a word," Cronk said over his friend in agreement.

Talwyn felt mixed up and still angry as she lifted the Odyssey Beta into space, her eyes spending most of the time staring at the communicator screen as she dared Slab to call her or face life threatening consequences. But as the ship achieved orbit and cruised to rendezvous with the Phoenix, the call didn't come. She fumed to herself, almost forgetting to keep her voice down, "Just you wait 'til I see you again! 'Melt me like chocolate,' my a--!"

"Odyssey Beta, this is Captain Sasha Phyronyx of the Solaran Navy Cruiser Phoenix II." Talwyn choked back her curse, jumping in her seat as the image of the feloid came up on the screen. "For the record, what are your intentions?"

"Oh, uhh..." she murmured as she tried to think of the wording for naval protocols. "Phoenix II, this is the civilian research ship Odyssey Beta, Talwyn Apogee piloting. I request permission to come aboard for minor repairs and replenishment."

Sasha smiled at the awkward start, saying to her, "Permission granted, Odyssey Beta. Proceed to landing bay three. I'll see you in a few. Sasha out."

The girl finally turned her attention to the starship she was approaching as she unstrapped for comfort, and had to double check her range. "That's the Phoenix? Wow... she's huge!"

As she maneuvered the little vessel to the underside of the behemoth, Zephyr pushed forward, still carrying Cronk's head. "Wow is right! Th-that thing's practically a dreadnaught!"

"Hold me up there, pardner, so I can see too," Cronk demanded, and as Zephyr apologized, he whistled in amazement. "No kiddin'! Why... I ain't seen anything that big since... err..." He cast his gaze up to his friend, asking, "When did we see a ship that size?"

"The last Cragmite War?" Zephyr offered.

"Exactly!" Cronk shouted, his head bouncing up and down. "It's about time we saw some o' that old glory--"

"Guys, don't crowd," Talwyn said chidingly, though with a smile at their contagious enthusiasm. "I have to land this bucket, remember?"

As Zephyr moved aside with an apology, Talwyn lined the ship up with the strobes running along the belly of the monstrous vessel, guiding her to the landing bay which opened as she approached. Her eyes bugged open at the signs of damage in the rugged hull. "Oh my gosh... they must have taken a pounding!"

"No kiddin'..." Zephyr remarked in wonder. "L-looks like they got smashed with giant baseball bats!"

"From some really hacked off giants," Cronk added.

Talwyn could only wonder what had caused the hull of the Phoenix to take such punishment as she guided the Odyssey into the landing bay, keeping her distance from the support ships suspended from their moorings, centering it in the front of the chamber where the ship's entrance was located. Unfortunately, as the massive bay doors slid shut, there was a loud bang in the rear of the ship and the tail swung upwards. "Oh, no no no!" she exclaimed as she struggled to fire the positioning jets with just enough thrust to nudge it back level, but just then the artificial gravity cut in, and the Odyssey slammed to the deck, flopping like a hooked fish on its landing gear.

"I, uhm... think we landed," Zephyr remarked dryly, his legs sprawled over the back of the co-pilot's seat.

"If you can call it that," Cronk muttered. "Hey, get me outta your armpit."

"Very funny..." Talwyn groaned as she struggled to pull herself up from the deck. "That's what I get for unbelting early. Ow, my tail..."

Sasha ran forward in alarm, trailing a few officers as she approached the stricken vessel. "Oh my gosh... Talwyn!" she cried. "Are you all right?!"

"Yeah..." the girl replied tentatively through an opening hatch, walking a bit gingerly down lowered steps. "Nothing that a little chiropractic care won't fix." She winced, emphasizing with a wrenching of her back and flex of her tail.

Sasha shook her head with a thin smile as she gazed up at the taller woman. "This is becoming too much of an adventure for everyone."

"Tell us about it," said Zephyr as he clomped down the walkway, carrying Cronk's head.

"Uhh... any wreck you can crawl away from...?" joked the First Officer as a headless robot tumbled down after them, falling to the deck with a crash.

"Hey now, ya young whippersnapper," Cronk grumbled, "that hits a little too close to home."

"Whippersnapper?" the bespectacled officer frowned. "Okay now--"

"Busby, please," Sasha told him, adding with a thin smile, "Chill... at least for now." Turning back to the newcomers, she said, "Well... first of all, now that the chaos seems to be over with, welcome aboard. Some introductions are in order. This is my First Officer slash Science Officer, Busby Birdwell. Beside him is Chief Engineer Tesla, Ensign Whipple and Senior Chief Petty Officer Sharkey, who are here to see to your ship's repairs. And, uh..." she added as Cronk's body struggled to find his feet, "your robot friend as well."

"Thanks, I'm pleased to meet you all," Talwyn said to them with a polite little bow. "These are Cronk and Zephyr, two old friends of my father who do their best to keep me out of trouble." She couldn't resist giving them a little tweak. "Although they seem to stir up plenty of their own..."

"Okay now," Cronk protested, if a bit feebly, "we resemble that remark."

"A bit too well, ol' buddy," added his friend.

Sasha giggled, "The pleasure is ours, I assure you."

"I just... uhm... hope this isn't too much trouble." Talwyn cast a concerned look to her ship which was listing slightly to one side, and making a quiet rumbling, popping noise to the rear. "One ay you... right..."

"Hey, a friend 'o the Cap'n's is a friend of ours, right Whip?" blurted out the Petty Officer a bit brashly, which was surprising since Whipple was his superior. Rules must be relaxed here, which made her feel a little more comfortable.

"Yes, but we'd better get on with it," the Ensign remarked, guiding a large tool chest to the rear with a remote. "She doesn't sound too happy."

The Chief Engineer followed them to the rear of the ship, giving a simple "Ma'am" and nod of the head as he passed Talwyn by. The First Officer seemed to feel out of place, saying a little quietly, "I... think I'll lend a hand to your robot, who's kind of beside himself. Literally."

As he helped Cronk's body awkwardly to his feet, the old soldier muttered, "I don't like leavin' my fate in the hands o' some smart alecky geeky type."

"Hey, come on now," Zephyr chided him. "He could finally give you a sense o' humor."

Cronk tried to glare up at his friend as they followed. "What's wrong with my sense o' humor?"

"Well, I guess if ya ain't got one, ya can't exactly say there's anything wrong with it..."

As the girls fought down another round of giggles, Sasha said to Talwyn, "You have some very... colorful companions, I must say."

"Yeah, they're characters, all right, but they really mean the world to me." She turned back to gaze into Sasha's eyes for a time, all sorts of emotions beginning to swim in her heart. "Boy... it seems like forever ago that we first talked. So much has happened..."

"I know..." Sasha murmured. "It's just getting started, and it's already so rough..."

Talwyn opened her mouth to say something, but before she knew it, she grabbed Sasha in a tight embrace, trembling with emotion. The Cazar was caught off guard, but had been struggling with similar feelings for far too long and returned it warmly. After a time, Talwyn released her and stepped back, snuffling and wiping a way a tear with an awkward smile. "I... don't know why I did that... I'm usually not this emotional, but... everything is just crazy, and I was so worried about you..."

"Oh, listen, girlfriend..." Sasha murmured, stroking Talwyn's arm lightly, "believe me, I understand. You don't know how close I came to a nervous breakdown more than once. When you wouldn't leave Visceron, I could have thrown up, and then when I found out you'd been attacked anyway..."

"Hey, I didn't want to leave," Talwyn informed her. "Besides, look what happened to your ship! It's a miracle you won from the looks of it. I was scared to death for you!"

"Oh, hey now, this coming from the girl who came limping back to my ship in that condition?" She grabbed Talwyn's hand, declaring, "We're having that talk, right now. What happened to you here?"

"Oh come on, that's not fair. You look like you went tearing sideways through an asteroid belt!" Talwyn exclaimed, grabbing Sasha's other hand. "You first!"

The Cazar smirked up at Talwyn in disbelief. "I can't believe we're arguing over who's going to tell their misadventure first... yesss, Busby," she added dryly, watching as the First Officer hesitantly crept towards them. "Make it snappy, we're... bonding here."

Talwyn fought down a laugh as Busby muttered, "Weee... have to leave."

But as she watched him, the humorous mood withered up inside her. Something was wrong, and naturally, Sasha noticed it too. "Busby, what do you mean?"

"Sash..." he began, then gave Talwyn a glance. "Captain, we gotta go. Right now."

"Busby, spill it," she demanded. Sasha bore an expression that hinted at dealing with a First Officer who gave things out in bits and hints.

"The Cragmites are going to invade," he confessed, and he seemed very sure of it from the intensity of his emotions.

Sasha was confused. "Why? We just left--"

"I know," the First Officer interrupted, "but they're going to come here looking for their lost ship. And when they find the wreck, they'll take it out on Odum, and any other habitable world in the system. They'll occupy, and claim it for the empire."

At first, Sasha was astonished, but then she mentally put her foot down. "No they won't, because we're going to fight them!"

"You're damn right, we are--!" Talwyn declared, but she faltered at the pained expression on the man's face, growing afraid.

"No, Captain..." he said quietly, knowing the reaction which was coming, "we can't."

"And just why in flaming black hell can't we?" Sasha demanded. "This is a capital ship of the Solanan Navy!" Still, something inside her wilted, as she didn't expect a reaction like this from Busby unless it was deadly serious.

He drew a deep breath as he sought for something concise and definitive. "Because... they won't stop coming. Even if we beat them, another wave will come, an even bigger fleet, and if by some miracle we defeat them, an even bigger one. It'll be a war of attrition, one we can't win. Eventually, the Phoenix will be overwhelmed, and... well, it would be better to be destroyed than captured. And for the people of Odum, it will be..." He licked his lips, murmuring defeatedly, "Genocide..."

Sasha felt dizzy from the emotions seething through her small body, grabbing Busby's arm for support. She coughed out hoarsely in disbelief, "It just... can't be... there has to be another way!" She looked into her First's eyes defiantly. "We'll call for reinforcements--"

He grabbed her sternly by the arms, jolting her. "Sasha, listen. You're a Fleet Officer, schooled in strategy and tactics. No one will respond. These aren't Drophyd mercenaries, these are Cragmites. No one is ready to begin the next Cragmite War yet, you know that. The Confederation is still too fragmented, weak and afraid. Bogon and Solana are just in the early stages of preparation for war, and they'd only join in if it was absolutely necessary, and only when they were geared up for it. You know how it works. War requires millions of man hours of preparation. No one can afford to go in shooting blindly, or the loss of life would be horrible, and you'd be almost guaranteed to lose. So it's like this: either we leave and Odum suffers a small invasion force, or the Phoenix finally gets destroyed, and Odum becomes the graveyard spearhead in this region from three or four Cragmite fleets! The math is pretty simple." He couldn't bear to see the expression in his beloved Captain's eyes and let her go, turning aside to avoid her gaze. To drive the point home, he finished weakly, though he hated to say every word. "Sasha, come on... we'd... just end up getting everyone killed..."

Talwyn cupped her face in her hands, blinking back tears of horror. She couldn't believe what she was hearing, that they would just abandon the people of Odum to the murderous hands of those monsters... her friends... Slab...

"No..." She thought she'd said it herself, but it came from Sasha, as she couldn't muster the breath herself to speak. She jumped as the little Cazar clenched her fists and screamed, loudly, blinking back her own tears of frustration and rage. From around the rear of the ship, the other crewmen began to run forward, but halted when Busby put up his hand. As the outcry echoed through the nooks and hollows of the chamber still, Sasha stammered through clenched teeth, "I just... c-can't do this... I swore an oath to... to protect life..." But in the back of her mind, she dimly recalled something about the Cragmite Wars, of how they would sometimes sacrifice entire fleets with no regard to strategic sanity to reverse a defeat, and she knew in her soul that Busby was right. He winced as she dug her claws into his arm, whimpering desperately, "Busby... please... give me some answer... some other way..."

He cringed as he felt blood in his sleeve, but realized that it was from her own palms. He took her hands and held them gently, fixing his gaze in hers as she stood there, panting with emotion, and fought to keep it steady. "Sasha, listen... it would be a lot better to let this happen. This way, the people of Odum will live. I know it sounds cruel, it sucks, but listen. War is going to come. I've studied too much history to think it won't. When it happens, the Cragmites won't defend an out-of-the-way dirtball like Odum, and any residual forces, the Confederation will be able to handle. Heck, the people might be able to throw them out themselves if they stay." He felt disheartened when she gazed back at him, lifeless, and her eyes growing moist. "It's... all I can give you, Sasha... I'm sorry."

After standing there hollowly for a time, she drew away from her First Officer, shuffling around, as she seemed to lack the strength to lift her feet but needed to pace. "This... is intolerable. What kind of answer is that?" she murmured faintly, giving a plaintive look to Busby, who could only sigh and gaze downward.

"Slab... no..." Talwyn murmured into her hands, unable to hold back her own anguish any longer.

Sasha looked to her, asking weakly, "Is... this a friend of yours, on Odum?" She dreaded the answer she knew was coming, and Talwyn, being too upset to talk, simply nodded. For lack of anything else, she gave voice to her own perplexion. "I just... don't know what to do..."

He knew he had to get her to focus, saying gently but directly, "I told you what's gonna happen if we stay--"

"I know, Busby... I know..." she murmured hollowly, and it seemed ever so slowly, she was regaining her senses and her strength. "We have to let the Confederation know... warn the people of Odum what's coming..." She wiped a tear from her eye, but felt a different kind of moisture, looking at her hands and shaking her head in dismay when she saw blood, murmuring, "Oh, crapping hell..." She began fumbling weakly at the pouch strapped to her thigh for a towelette.

"Here, let me..." Busby appeared in front of her, wiping at her face with one of his own. Gratitude mingled with anguish as she gazed up at him, but in the midst of her turmoil, his closeness gave her a melancholy peace. She wished with all her heart that this was all a dream, a very twisted dream, except for this part, the caring touch of this man as he tended to her so gently, so lovingly.

"Is that all?"

The couple looked up to see Talwyn staring at them with an intensity that made Sasha blink. "Is that all you're gonna do? Just... run off with your tails between your legs and let those... monsters invade, and kill... who knows how many people? Just because you're scared of what they might do?"

There was a tone in her voice that worried Sasha, as she recognized it in herself earlier, when she was less than rational. What could she say to the girl, when she didn't want to hear it herself? "Talwyn... listen, I don't like this any more than you do. But... I just... can't take the chance that I might cause the obliteration of--"

"And you don't think the Cragmites won't do that if you let them do whatever the hell they want?!" There was a quaver in her voice that both of them knew indicated a girl on the verge of desperation. "Ratchet wouldn't run off like that!"

"Talwyn, hon... I know," Sasha told her gently, "but... he couldn't do anything about the invasion of Igliak, and he's in no position to do anything right now--"

"Don't you think I know that?!" she practically shrieked, hating to be reminded that her beloved Lombax was dead. "But I know... that he wouldn't just... stand idly by, while something like this was going to happen!"

Sasha clenched her teeth tightly, frustrated at how convoluted this whole situation was, and how hurtful that it was tormenting her friend. "Talwyn, listen, please... I want to... you must know how badly I want to blast every Cragmite in this galaxy, but... this ship, my crew... Odum... countless people are depending on me to do the smart thing... to keep them alive, and... I just... can't..." She was almost wailing when she ran out of words to speak, they were so painful.

"Fine. You don't have to." She took a step forward, telling them flatly, "Just let me go."

Sasha and Busby both gaped at her in astonishment, though she understood very quickly that the girl meant it. She was also painfully aware that it could well get her killed. "Talwyn, honey..." she began softly, "think, please. What do you hope to accomplish?"

"I don't know," she admitted, "except that one guy won't end up dead unless they go through me first."

Sasha gaped at her anxiously, worried that she may well lay her life down for a friend, and scrambled for something the least bit persuasive. "Talwyn... please, just think about what you're saying, and what this means in regard to rescuing Clank. I need you, and Clank does at least as much. He's depending on us. It's going to take all of us working together to solve this, and get him back somehow. He's my friend too, you know."

Talwyn seemed to waver for a moment, but only for a moment. "You can't just put the life of one friend before another," she said stubbornly. "Let me go, or I'll make you."

Sasha mustered up some actual outrage at that remark and snapped back, "Now see here, young lady. I know just how you feel, but you are not going to threaten me on my own--"

She froze, gasping as Busby clutched her to him tightly, their eyes fixed intently on the girl. Talwyn had drawn her blaster and trained it on them. "Sasha, I'm sorry, really I am... I know all the arguments, and how stupid this is, but... I have to do this."

"Now, what in tarnation is all this commotion...?" From behind the ship, Cronk peeked around the edge, still adjusting his head to his neck, but he had to see as he didn't like the sounds coming from the discussion in front of the vessel. And then he had to shake his head vigorously and take another look, not believing at first what he was seeing. "Oh, felgercarb..." he gasped.

"Oh, w-what are you felgercarbin' about--?" Zephyr began, stopped short as Cronk pointed towards the nose of the ship, and then he nearly lost his lower jaw again. "Holy hadrons! She's gone an' blown a fuse!"

"A whole dang bank o' fuses," Cronk murmured guardedly, to which Zephyr could only nod in agreement.

"Talwyn..." Sasha gasped, her gaze locked on that barrel aimed at her, trying to maintain some measure of composure. "Honey, listen to me--"

"Stop saying that!" she cried. "I'm not a child!"

Sasha nodded, licking her lips as Busby clutched her to him, the smell of fear growing thick all around them. "I know, I know... just hear me out, all right? There is no way you're going to commandeer this ship. There are too many safeguards. There is also no way you can leave without my permission, and I'm not about to let you throw your life away."

She leaned back into Busby's embrace as the girl tightened her grip on the pistol. "You don't have any choice. I'm leaving if I have to blast my way out of here."

"Hey, kid, be reasonable!" Busby exclaimed. "Your ship is all shot up. You barely made it here. There's no way you'll be able to outrun a Cragmite tugboat in that thing. You'll be stranded!"

He flinched back as she cried, "Don't call me a kid! I'm not helpless, and sure not as helpless as you are. I'll steal an Imperial Cruiser if I have to. Now... this discussion is over. Guys!" she called to the back of the vessel. "Have the crew button the ship down! We're outta here!" Sasha began to cry out but cut herself short as Talwyn raised her blaster threateningly. "Don't even." She couldn't have said anything anyway, as Busby practically smothered her in a protective embrace.

The pair of robots stopped in their approach to the ugly scene, turning and giving each other a shrug. "Well, there goes talkin' things out..." Cronk muttered.

"She always was headstrong, like 'er dad," Zephyr remarked.

"Oh, worse 'n Max," Cronk insisted. "She's a girl."

The other nodded in agreement. "Dang if you ain't right on that, ol' buddy."

Lieutenant Tesla approached them, asking, "What was that about closing the ship up already?"

He blinked as the pair of robots pushed him back, Cronk telling the officer in his fumbling way, "Oh, you didn't hear? We, uh, have to go back planetside for, uhh..."

"Th-the moss covered, three handled, family credenza!" Zephyr continued.

"Rare family hairloom," Cronk added.

"I've never heard of anything like that," Tesla said dubiously.

"See?" asked Zephyr. "I-it's downright priceless, I tell ya!"

"One of a kind," Cronk insisted. "You'd best get to buttonin'."

The officer still wasn't convinced, calling forward, "Captain, you want us to call it quits on this boat for the time being?"

When Sasha remained stubbornly silent, Talwyn squeezed her grip on the weapon, muttering, "Answer him, or--" The First Officer blinked in shock as the girl raised the barrel to his face, saying in an icy tone, "I'll shoot him."

Busby blurted out, wide eyed, "C-couldn't we settle this with rock-paper-scissors?!"

"I'm not talking to you!" she snarled. "Well?"

Sasha's heart lurched in her chest as both of them clung to each other in terror, afraid for Busby's wellbeing. She watched the girl's tail as it whipped back and forth in a sign of bound up tension. Any other time, she wouldn't suspect Talwyn to be capable of such violence, but this was different. "Go ahead!" she shouted. "Get 'er as spaceworthy as you can."

She began to pull away from Busby as if to confront Talwyn, and he held onto her tightly, hissing, "Wait - are you crazy?!"

"Let me go!" she ordered, jerking out of his arms to stand between him and the belligerent girl. "I'm not about to let you harm my friend either."

The anger in Talwyn's eyes finally subsided, looking instead to the Cazar pleadingly. "I know, just... please, don't keep me here. I have to do this... I just have to."

Sasha looked to the deck, at Talwyn's feet and legs, at the way her tail was swinging, trying to size things up, work out the odds of winning a scuffle with the larger girl, but she knew Talwyn was a seasoned fighter. It would be risky. "How did this all get so screwed up?" she whispered. Raising her eyes to look into the girl's face, she asked, "After all we've been through, as much as I need your help, you pull a stunt like this?" She took a step forward, asking quietly, "Talwyn... what am I supposed to do without you?" She ignored a hiss of alarm from Busby.

The girl looked pained and couldn't answer for a time, edging away to keep her distance. "I won't stay away... I'll come back when I can... I promise."

'Well, looks like sympathy won't make her crack,' Sasha thought to herself, but took another small step forward. "Like... your father promised?"

That seemed to sting an old wound in the girl's heart, and Sasha felt sorry for digging it up, but she had to try everything she could think of. "No! Listen... just stop it, okay? I can't just do nothing. Please understand..."

"Talwyn, hon, I do..." the Cazar said quietly, still pressing slowly forward, "but I can't bear the thought of you ending up dead for no good reason, when I'm going to need everyone's help to have a chance in hell of finding Clank. And after so many mishaps and disasters, to finally meet, just to have you run off when I want to get to know you, maybe to... never see you again?" She held out her hand, imploring, "Talwyn... please, give me the blaster. You know I hate this as much as you do... maybe we can work something out." She put all her emotion into the request, and it didn't take much effort, giving the girl a wretched look.

Talwyn felt torn, keeping her distance because she knew that Sasha would probably try to jump her, and a part of her wanted to be stopped, wanted to be kept there. It had been such a long time coming, something she was looking forward to. It hurt to think that she would be running off after just making it to the Phoenix and meeting this charming rival, someone she wanted to get to know very much, and to threaten her and her friend like this. But after the terrors she had experienced from Zordoom Prison, and what little she had seen of Tachyon's iron fisted rule, she couldn't stand the thought of leaving when Odum would be denied any kind of help. And Slab... if he died too, she knew the death of two friends would be too much to take. She shook her head regretfully, moaning, "Sasha... I just can't--"

"Hey!" The three of them jumped as an outcry came from the rear of the ship, and Lieutenant Tesla came running forward with the others, wielding tools threateningly, shouting, "Drop the weapon, ma'am!"

"Why you sneaky--!" Talwyn cried, leveling the blaster at Sasha, as she had been pressed around the nose of the ship into plain view. Busby's stomach lurched at the thought of Sasha getting shot and flung himself around her, throwing himself to the deck with a yelp of pain from the hard surface. "Hold it right there or I'll...!" she began, but her voice trailed off, replaced by laughter.

Cronk had run ahead of the trio, Zephyr trailing, and the pair had grappled the three men between them, linking arms and legs in a living trap of sorts. The crewmen struggled and cursed but were helpless to break the hold of the two robots. "The patented quadruple axis multi-target robometric entrapment maneuver!" Cronk announced.

Zephyr laughed, "Y-you even got the name right! This is just like the time we created it on Outpost Zenith!"

"That was one hell of a bar brawl," Cronk agreed. "The guys still owe us for savin' their hides when the empees showed up."

"All right, enough reminiscing!" bellowed Lieutenant Tesla. "Release us or you'll be tossed in the brig with Miss Apogee for threatening a flag officer with a deadly weapon!"

"Wh-why, I'll have you know that Miss Talwyn wouldn't hurt a fly! Without good cause..." Zephyr informed them.

"Besides, you young'uns 're in no position to be givin' anyone orders, least of all Lieutenant Commander Cronk."

"And Lieutenant Commander Zephyr," his friend added, rubbing a digit along Ensign Whipple's ribs for emphasis, who coughed out an objection before succumbing to a fit of laughter.

"Hey! This is a little too intimate even for the Navy!" Sharkey exclaimed. "Come on, this is against the Intercluster Convention on the Fair Treatment of Officers! And Whip, get that wrench out of my... jewels, would'ja?"

"Oh, like I can move anything!" the Ensign shouted.

"Hush up you young whelp, or you're next," Cronk said in as threatening a voice as he could manage.

Busby looked behind him, still lying on the deck clutching Sasha, who just managed to peek over his shoulder at the outrageous sight. "Hey... you mean I'm not gonna get killed?"

"If you keep holding me like that, you are," Sasha grumbled, as the man hadn't been too careful where his hands wound up.

"Oh! Uh... sorry!" he blurted out, jerking away from the ruffled feloid and repositioning his glasses in embarrassment. "I was just trying to selflessly defend your life." He added under his breath, "Besides, I couldn't get any satisfaction..."

"Not the time or place, Busby!" hissed the Cazar.

They both flushed with shock as Talwyn remarked, smirking, "Cute couple. Now, get up. We're going to the Deck Station."

Sasha was aghast. "Talwyn, come on, girl, see reason!"

She brandished her pistol at the Cazar, causing Busby to step between them. "Hey, I still have this, and it says I'm the boss. Now, march." As they began resignedly to head for the deck port airlock, Cronk and Zephyr tottered along behind, the men complaining loudly at the jarring they had to endure.

Sasha waited at the heavy dock doors, looking to the girl with a mixture of anger and worry on her face. "Talwyn, please... don't go through with this. Stay. We can manage... something..."

While she was still on edge from the larcenous treatment she was forced to use on them, her gaze softened for a moment. "Hey... nice try, and... I honestly appreciate it. And I'm sorry, really sorry, but... I'm just not the kind of person who can walk away from something like this. I don't know if you'll ever want to speak to me again after all this, or... if I can do anything to make up for it, but... hey, it's just got to be." She punched the large door button, and when the massive slabs of metal slid aside to both the Dock Station and the ship, she motioned with her pistol, saying simply, "In."

Sasha eyed the opening with a tightness in her throat. This was it, she knew, the last chance she had to keep this from going any further. Talwyn wasn't a killer, she knew that full well, but she knew what could happen when even the mildest of people became desperate. And she also knew what would happen if things got out of hand. Busby would do anything to protect her, and likely get himself killed. She withered inside as the image came to mind of his body sprawled on the floor in dreadful, morbid detail, and a tremor ran through her. "No..." she whispered, and meekly walked through the door, Busby positioning himself faithfully between her and the pistol wielding girl. That stupid, wonderful man...

"Okay guys, dump 'em inside," Talwyn ordered the two robots. They clunked within, jarring the poor prisoners further, and then unwrapped from each other as the three crewmen unceremoniously tumbled into the corridor. "Back!" she snapped as she could see Sasha trying to jump over the three men trying to get to their feet, but fortunately they made the perfect obstacle, giving her time to get the doors closed. The two bots watched in fascination as she whipped a silver-gray substance out of her leg pouch and slapped it into the seam between the doors. Then, adjusting her blaster, she fired a beam into the concoction which blazed gold for a moment, then faded quickly dark to a solid metallic weld.

"Woah," Zephyr coughed out, "y-you've been readin' your dad's diaries!"

"Well, yeah," Talwyn replied with a lopsided grin as she jammed a card into a slot on the Deck Station console. "Guys, go warm up the ship - and make sure it's intact!" she added as they went clomping off to it. She tried not to notice the shadows of the people crowded around the crystal panes in the doors watching her hack into the system.

Sasha pounded the door controls, growling as it buzzed yet again, a red Malfunction message appearing on the display. "What the hell did she do!"

Busby drew his hand back with a hiss as he touched the still hot metal near the seam. "I have a feeling that... these doors aren't gonna open for a while." He joined the others watching Talwyn at work on the console.

"Get some men on those doors!" she snapped to Tesla, bringing her wrist comm to her face as the engineer dashed off. "Bridge!"

"Bridge, Lieutenant Boil here," came the electric reply.

"Lock down Landing Bay Three, right this second!" she ordered. She didn't know whether to feel confident or not, when the officer called back a moment later.

"Captain... we've lost access to the bay. Something's locked us out!"

She jumped to the doors, pushing her way roughly to the window, just in time to see Talwyn dashing off towards her ship, casting a forlorn glance over her shoulder. "No..." she whispered, then shouted much louder, "Emergency lockdown on all three bays!"

She could see Talwyn running through her pre-flight routine through the front ports of her ship, and the rumble of its engines coming to life through the floor plates, along with the hiss of air being evacuated from the bay. She had the dreadful feeling she had lost her already when the officer messaged back. "Captain, it's no good. Bay Three is completely offline."

"I can't believe this..." she muttered as an alarm buzzed and the bay doors began to open. The gravity in the bay had shut off, and she could only watch helplessly as the Odyssey Beta began to slowly drift from view, and at the controls, a sad looking young girl.

Something occurred to the Cazar as she replayed the scene in her mind, groaning in dismay as she recalled Talwyn adjusting her weapon. "Oh, of course... she had her blaster modified. It was set to stun!"

Busby blinked at her in surprise. "Your friend modifies weapons? Well, that would have been nice to know when I almost wet myself!"

"Look, all I could think of was--!" You getting hurt, she nearly said, just managing to catch herself. Leaning back against the wall, she muttered, "I... couldn't think..."

"Hey... it's okay," he said to her quietly as he stood close, gazing at her somberly, and trying halfheartedly to keep his mind on business. "Any ideas? Wanna go after her?"

"Of course I do." She had to get away, literally, bolting down the hallway and calling over her shoulder, "Busby, follow me!"

It was a very quiet ride to the bridge in the elevator, and Sasha had too much time to think of all that had happened, and in particular, every nuance that involved Busby. All his emotions, his fears, when he held her, how he held her when he was scared to death Talwyn was going to shoot her, and countless things beside. He was nothing if not a bundle of unexpected surprises; sometimes exasperating, but mostly endearing, wonderful things. As she gazed at his chest, thinking of the warm heart that beat within, and the scents wafting from him in the enclosed space which she knew were inspired by her presence, she murmured, "I don't know whether to throttle you, Busby, or give you a raise."

He shrugged to her. "Well... a little of both wouldn't be so bad."

She erupted into grateful laughter, and when she regained control, wiping back a tear she asked aloud, "Oh, Busby, what would I do without you around? Rhetorical question," she hastened to add with a grin as the elevator opened to the corridor just off the bridge, and populated with traffic.

"Understood," he smirked as he set off at her heels, this time taking a moment to admire her.

"Captain'z onn der bri--!"

"You're relieved, Mister Boil," Sasha said over the brawny Security Officer, making quickly for her chair. "Where is that ship?"

"She's loitering below the Phoenix," Mister Mimo reported as she sat down. "That girl doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry."

"Well, that's not a good sign," she muttered under her breath as Busby took up his position beside her. "Lola, patch me through to her."

Talwyn bopped her fists on the console in frustration, a little harder each time, as the engines were slow to come to optimum power. "Come on, come on!" she grumbled. "They're gonna come after us, and we're just sitting--!"

She jumped as the console beeped, growling irritably at herself, “I'm getting seriously tired of that.”

Sasha appeared on the screen, looking understandably cheesed off. She was surprised that the Cazar didn't start with a royal chewing out, asking, "Talwyn, what's wrong? I thought you'd be trying to break speed records getting to Odum."

"Ohh... the ion feeder induction coils are slow to warm up, and it's holding the engines back," she admitted. "I'll be on my way in a sec. And please, don't try to stop me."

"Talwyn... don't you think that's a sign you're jumping the gun? Why don't you come back to the Phoenix?" She gave the girl a motherly look, if still a bit angry.

"Won't'cha just throw us in the brig?" Cronk asked, the two robots coming to either side of Talwyn's seat.

"I'm certainly tempted, let me tell you," Sasha grumbled. "But... no, you won't be imprisoned."

Talwyn began, "That's not the point!"

"I know," the Cazar interrupted. "If our roles were reversed, and I was worried about the safety of..." Her eyes flicked to the man at her side, and she continued a little quietly, "A friend, I'm sure I would do the same thing. Just as I'm sure you would do everything in your power to keep me from doing something crazy."

"Hey, I'd come along and help out," Talwyn said with a thin smile.

"I know you would," she replied with a brief one of her own. "But... you've never been a ship's captain, or you'd know what a heavy responsibility it is."

The girl's heart softened at the expression on Sasha's face as her eyes fell, and she whispered, "You want to, don't you..."

"Yes," Sasha confessed, tugging her lips into a lopsided smile. "But... you understand. And I hope you understand why it's so hard to let you go."

"I do..." she sighed, "and I'm sorry it had to end up like this." She stopped as a strange look came over the Cazar's face.

Sasha didn't know if it would make a difference, but there was a certain detail she'd forgotten. "Talwyn... there is one thing I've been meaning to tell you." She gripped the armrest as it was still an emotional matter to her as well. "Ratchet is alive."

She reacted as if she'd been slapped in the face, jerking and giving a loud squeal. "Ratchet... he's okay?! How! Where is he!"

"I'm not quite sure how he survived, but we've traced his position to an uncharted location where he's evidently recovering," Sasha informed her, adding for emphasis, "If you hurry up and rejoin the Phoenix, we can go to him, together."

Talwyn held her head in her hands, her cheeks burning and blinking back bitter tears. "Sasha... that's really mean, keeping that from me!"

She was sorry she'd said that as it clearly hurt the feloid. "Talwyn, honey... I didn't, it's just that it's been a little crazy around here. And your antics haven't helped in that regard one bit." She looked to the girl hopefully, asking, "Now... will you come aboard?"

She tried not to cry, but still the tears rolled down her cheeks as she felt torn in two, fighting to come to a decision. It had been such a long, hard journey, especially when she'd heard the Lombax she cared for so dearly had been killed. She was anxious to be with him, so much so that she was nauseous. But when it came down to it, what choice did she have? "A-after this," she managed to blubber out. "I have to make sure someone's okay, if Busby's right. You... go on ahead, and I'll hook up later. And be sure and give Ratchet hell for what he put us through." Just then, the engines roared to life as all systems began to perform, as if confirming her decision.

Sasha tried to muster up a smile, but it just wouldn't come, and she replied weakly, "I will... and you be careful, or I won't forgive you."

"Promise," Talwyn returned as quietly, looking to the controls and plotting a course to the starport she'd just come from. "I gotta go."

Sasha looked down unhappily as the screen went dark, murmuring, "Busby... for once, I hope you're dead wrong."

"Hey, how do you think I feel?" he asked quietly, putting his hand on her shoulder, feeling her body tense and shift as mixed emotions swam through her bosom. He drew it back as he realized everyone was watching them, and knew he had to nudge her to action, as they might not have much time. "So... are we going to that uncharted station Lola found?"

She looked out the forward viewport at the backwater world, and the streak of fire thrusting her friend into a potentially life threatening fate, hunched forward in worry. She was as torn as Talwyn was. It seemed that it had taken forever to get to this point, to finally know where Ratchet was, and not just vaguely, but at a definite location. How many such opportunities would she have? Still, she couldn't take her eyes from that slowly disappearing ship, and the girl aboard it who was racing towards such a frightening future.

The seconds wore on, and still she said nothing. "Uhm... Captain?"

Finally, she sat upright. "Mister Mimo, take the Phoenix to the blind side of the far moon."

The First's eyes bugged out, and he began warningly, "Uhh... Captain, I highly suggest you remember what I--"

"The matter is closed, Busby," she said in a voice that couldn't be more final.

"Well... I guess I shouldn't be surprised," he murmured, drawing his chair over with the remote and sitting beside her as the ship turned about and surged forward. "Listen, anything happens, and we're gonna be winging it. It's gonna be a real roll of the dice, and probably not as tidy as it was at Visceron."

Her stomach lurched when he said that, and he blinked in surprise as she grasped his hand, murmuring, "I know." Of course she knew that inside. How else could it be? But his warning caused her to face the matter seriously, and the terrible implications. The Phoenix was still battered from the last conflict with repairs still underway, and would be for some time yet. The spot on the chin where the hull was burned away would require a shipyard repair, and she had no idea when they would have time for that. What danger would she be putting the crew into? She gazed into the man's eyes silently, wanting to open up to him in the worst way, say things she really shouldn't, and his breath caught as she whispered hesitantly, "Busby, I..."

A beep from the helm console caused her to fall silent, and all eyes went to Mister Mimo. His voice was tight as he reported, "Ma'am, I have hyperjump signatures... ships inbound, dozens of them." Sasha clenched Busby's hand tightly as he said the only thing they could be. "Imperial Cragmite vessels."

Sasha's eyes bugged open as she scrambled to focus on the best course of action. "Orange Alert!" she cried, still grasping Busby's hand fiercely. "Full stealth!" They didn't have anything as sophisticated as cloaking technology, as it wouldn't work on anything outside of a lab, so they had to make do with quelling all lights and emissions. She prayed briefly that it would be enough.

"We're still three minutes away from Debble, ma'am, even coasting," the Helmsman said to her advisedly as the ship's alarm began sounding. "We'll be out in the open 'til we make the penumbra."

Her stomach twisted as she thought of another ship out in the open, hissing, "Oh my God, Talwyn..." Then remembering Mimo hadn't acted yet, she ordered, "Do it. Hopefully their attention will be on the planet." As the engines cut power drastically with the slightest sensation of drifting, she shouted to the Communications Officer, "Raise the Odyssey, and on a damn tight beam!"

"I'd... better get to my station," Busby said to her, squeezing her hand back. "And... I hope you finish what you started to tell me."

She stared into the man's eyes anxiously, praying that things would work somehow and she would have that chance to confess what was in her soul. "I will, Busby." She released his hand, afraid precious seconds were wasting, and waved him off, hissing, "Shoo!" Just then, the main monitor came to life as the link with the research ship was established.

Talwyn propped her head up with one hand, complaining to herself, "Why does life have to be so damned messed up--?" She jumped in her seat yet again as the console beeped and a call popped up on her screen. "I have got to stop doing that - what!" she cried, as once again it was the image of the Cazar. But her anger died quickly at the expression on the woman's face, replaced with terror at what she said.

"Talwyn, get to Odum as fast as you can, and away from major cities!" Sasha exclaimed. "There's a Cragmite invasion forced heading right for you at your six!"

"What?!" Talwyn practically shrieked, looking over her shoulder instinctively. "Couldn't you have waited a faqing hour?!" Realizing that Sasha probably hadn't messaged the planet, she opened an emergency channel to the main spaceport. "Odum Port Authority! Head's up! You have an incoming invasion fleet! They're Cragmites! Odum Port! Please acknowledge--!"

The robot Port Boss appeared on the screen, saying, "I have you, Odyssey Beta..." His voice trailed off as he somehow managed to look horrified. "You say Cragmites?" When she nodded emphatically, beginning to speak, he cut her off. "Oh crapping hell... lass, veer to port thirty-five up fifty - they're headed right for you!"

"That figures." Talwyn glanced over her shoulder, shouting to the robots as she changed course, "Cronk, man that turret, and for pity's sake, shoot where it counts! Zephyr, back him up!"

They blinked from their positions, having chosen sleep rather than suffer through Talwyn's emotional state. "Wha...? Why, a guy can't even sneak a li'l nap, with those dang Crageymites," Cronk moped as he unseated and made for the turret.

"Tell me about it," Zephyr agreed as he laced his digits into a foot lift. "Just like every war we been through with 'em."

"Yeah, a'course we lived through all o' them..."

"Confidence, guys," she called over her shoulder, though to herself she added, "but... what can we do this time? It's a whole damned fleet." She noticed that Sasha had cut the transmission, and felt even more isolated and in danger. She would follow that geeky First Officer's advice and hide. But, if it came down to it, and her life was threatened, would Sasha sit still and do nothing?

She cringed in on herself as the Port Boss began calling urgently, "Mayday, Mayday! Any ships of the Polaris Confederation! This is Odum Port Authority Captain Shlufski! We are under attack from Cragmite forces! We need immediate assistance!" Hesitating for a moment for any sign of response, he continued more loudly, "Any vessels of the Intercluster Alliance... anyone! We need assistance now, or this world is lost!"

He fell silent as an image appeared on his screen. He had the briefest hope that things had changed in the galaxy, that the appearance of the Solanan Heavy Cruiser meant the balance of power had shifted in their favor, but all hope was crushed at the expression on the man's face. "Captain Shlufski... I regret to inform you that... you're on your own. Make do as best you can. I'm sorry." Heaving a miserable sigh, the signal ended.

"So... ya won't even give your rank, or name?" the old robot muttered as he looked to the crimson skies of sunset, where the alien warships were bearing down on his sadly insignificant world. "Is there any hope left in this wretched universe?"

Commodore Shappley pounded his fist into the padded armrest of his command chair, fuming visibly as he struggled to contain his anger. "Damn it to black Hell! I knew something like this would happen!"

"Do you think the Phoenix II is involved?" his First Officer asked leadingly.

The commander took a breath to calm himself, trying to think logically. "I don't know... how can we know anything in this fuster cluck of a situation? It has been unusually inactive on the Imperial side after that first news that the Cragmites had returned somehow. They may have acted anyway." He added to himself as he began typing up a report, 'Still, this is coming close on the heels of the Heavy Cruiser's appearance, and that coincidence is hard to discount.' As he typed up his report though, he continued to be vague about the Solanan warship, keeping its exact identity and nature a secret. 'Captain, you had better be on the track of a solution, because I'm giving you enough rope to hang us all.'

"You are on your possession. Produce action of your best container. I am pathetic."

The Cragmite commander blubbered with flatulent laughter at the communication, and the mangled translation his system made of it as he squeezed a tension ball. "These soft creatures have lost all courage. I cannot believe such worms fought our people to a standstill more than once." Looking at the main screen, he bellowed out, "Observer! Tell me that this miserable stone is sending up some kind of weak force to try and stop us!"

Scanning over his instruments, the creature replied, "No Captain, in fact, all vessels are landing or leaving... wait!"

The commander watched in growing irritation as his subordinate fiddled with his console. "Well?"

Looking up a few moments later, the officer confessed, "Sorry, I thought I saw something."

"You thought you--!" The Captain hurled the tension ball into the alien's head. "Grow some better eyes, and don't get my hopes up for battle that won't come!"

As he slumped over his console, the stunned Cragmite failed to notice a brief signature of a starship's faint exhaust appear, along with the dark gray torpedo shape of its hull against the starfield as it drifted behind the curve of the far moon. "Well... there is a small scout ship ahead, Commander," he offered in placation.

"Show me!" the Captain bellowed, and saw on the screen a small research vessel. Snorting out a laugh, he muttered, "Eh... maybe some mother will cry when they don't make it to port... why not."

Cronk watched the display of approaching vessels, muttering nervously, "Sure are a lot of 'em--" He ducked when he saw flares on the screen, and just then beams of energy flashed past, a few of them sparking off of the hull. "Here they come!"

"I kinda noticed - shoot!" Talwyn cried over her shoulder, activating her communicator, but at a loss as to what to say. She couldn't give away Sasha's whereabouts, and knew she couldn't count on Odum for squat. As much as she wanted Slab to save her, she prayed that he was at the other side of the world completely. Instead, by some miracle an Alliance ship would respond, as they actually had mustered up a presence during the last Cragmite War. "Mayday, mayday! This is the civilian research vessel Odyssey Beta! We're under attack from Cragmite forces!" She ducked instinctively as a few rounds rang off the hull and there was a loud bang from the rear. "Please save us!"

"Talwyn!" Sasha cried, leaping from her chair and shivering in fear. She knew the girl wouldn't cry out like that unless it was really dire. "Red Alert!" she exclaimed, then hesitated, her eyes locked uncertainly in Busby's.

He didn't have to say a word; his expression said it all. He still told her faintly, "Just... weigh the consequences."

"Think carafully, mademoiselle," Raoul added from a corner of the main screen as the lights flashed red and a siren briefly sounded.

"I can't let her die," Sasha choked out, thinking frantically for some course of action that wasn't a direct attack. "Launch Spook," she finally ordered. "Position him one radius over Odum's north pole." Wringing her hands, she added in a voice just above a whisper, "And please, please hurry..."

"Aye aye, ma'am," Combat Officer Boil replied, launching the probe robot, the unit in line behind Scout. The probe employed all the latest tricks in sensor avoidance and subterfuge, and besides following the shadows of Odum's two moons, it gave off the signature of an innocuous cargo rocket. Knowing that the Phoenix would need reconnaissance of the Cragmite positions, it began pulsing data back to the ship at five second intervals.

Sasha blinked back tears as she tried to block out Talwyn's frantic pleas for help and focus on a plan of action. "Lola... lower that transmission volume, would you?" Then, gasping in pain, she clutched her stomach as a cramp stung through her belly. "Oh, crapping hell... it would be that time of the month..."

The First Officer looked up as the feloid walked gingerly over to his side, her eyes pleading to him as she said, "Busby, help me save her."

He nodded to her, trying to sound reassuring. "We will... both of us." He took her hand and guided her to an empty seat beside him, as she seemed to be more than a little distressed. "I like your idea."

Sasha flashed him a smile, murmuring, "Nothing surprises you, does it."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, but I am a pretty good chess player," he told her with a lopsided smile of his own. "Now, to work something out quick..."

Slab fidgeted the whole time he was in front of the customer's house, a fairly well to do man by the looks of it, and throwing some kind of extravagant bash. He must have been a meticulous businessman because he insisted on inspecting every one of his thirteen boxes. "Uhh, listen," the Leonid said, trying to sound helpful rather than urgent, "that pizza's way better fresh and hot."

"I have a good oven," the man remarked tersely. "I want to make sure this order is way right."

"Maybe if ya wouldn't make such whacked out combos, things would go better," Slab grumbled under his breath. "Whoever heard of a cappuccino pizza?"

"I have discriminating guests," he told the feloid without looking up. "If you can't handle the orders, maybe I should look elsewhere for my business."

"Uhh... no problem, sir, just... a li'l friendly word," he muttered. Despite his wish to get back to the spaceport, he was distracted by the sounds of the party going on inside, especially when a ravishing young woman curled a finger towards him invitingly with a look of raw desire. Leaning forward on the balls of his toes, he whispered, "Aww... I gotta be dreamin' this..." But he was brought back to earth abruptly when he realized he was hearing Talwyn's voice coming over his ship's radio, sounding urgent. And then his stomach knotted when she screamed, "Please save us!"

The man looked up in surprise to see the youth jumping into his ship. "Hey, what... don't you want your tip?!"

"Get it later!" Slab called to him as the canopy lowered and the engines spooled to life. "Not like you ever tip worth a crap anyhow..."

The man frowned as the young lady came to his side disappointedly. "Aww, he's leaving?" He began to chastise her when they were both blown inside, along with the pizzas, by the blast of the starspeeder's exhaust.

Trying to figure out how to open another communications channel, he was saved the trouble when his friend messaged him. "Slab, where you been, man?! Somethin's goin' down hard and your girlfriend's in it deep!"

"Where is she!" he exclaimed, terrified by the sound of her voice on the previous channel.

"Space, straight up!" Crunch informed him. "Sounds like a damn invasion!"

The youth activated the spaceflight systems, spotting a ship coming towards Odum with a distress beacon on it. He gasped as behind it, he saw triangles indicating hostile ships, dozens of them. And they just kept coming. "Flamin' hell!!" he cried, then gripping his controls to steady himself, he said, Okay, I'm on it! Form up!"

Well used to his friend's reckless behavior, Crunch asked tentatively, "Uhh... what're you gonna do about this?"

"I dunno!" he growled, "I'll figger somethin' out! Now go fast or go home!" Hitting the thrusters hard, he was crushed into his seat as the starfighter roared into the sky, blasting through the sound barrier and into the hypersonic within seconds. Screaming past a few ships as they fled to the remote safety of the planet below, the sky quickly went from blue to starlit black, and up ahead, there were flashes of light from the invaders as they unleashed cruel weapon fire on the girl he loved. Poking at the console, he said into the controls, "Talwyn, baby, hold on... just hold on! I'm comin'!"

She couldn't believe her ears, choking back a cry of relief. "Slab! Oh you crazy..." She yelped as a blast spanked off of the roof above her, reminding her what he was heading into. "Idiot! Get out of here!"

"Make up your mind!" he laughed nervously, trying to sound brave, as his display filled with ships, and around him, he could see flashes of blaster fire. He braked hard, and still they were coming fast.

"Slab, please! Turn around!" Talwyn called to him. Her own demise was bad enough, but she couldn't bear the thought of that young punk dying. "You can't take on an entire invasion force by yourself!"

"He's not by himself," came another voice on the channel.

"Ohh, not you too," she groaned, unable to recall his name in the chaos of battle.

"'Fraid so," Crunch told her with a smile in his voice as he formed up off of Slab's wing.

"Thanks, pardner," he said to his friend before Talwyn could berate them further. "Okay, follow my lead, like ten seconds after me."

"Uhh--" Before Crunch could ask what exactly that meant, the other starspeeder roared away, lifting just over Talwyn's ship as it lumbered past, going much too slow for a ship trying to escape pursuit.

Talwyn watched the black racer sail over her, crying, "Slab, you idiot... no!" Gripping her controls in frustration, she shouted over her shoulder, "Cronk, watch your shooting!"

The old soldier wondered out loud as he watched the two black starfighters streaking past, "Didn't we just go through somethin' like this?"

Lining up with the Imperial Cruiser closest, he watched the weapon drop indicator, his thumb poised over a cargo release button, and when the indicator signaled the prime moment, he pressed it, crying, "Bombs away!"

"Bombs?" his friend asked, as the channel was still open. Then it occurred to him what that meant, and he cried, "Hey, Slab... no, dude!"

The Cragmites in the lead Cruiser were growing bored with their prey. "First, it goes slow, then, it won't even try to evade!" the pilot complained.

The gunner nodded, tapping the fire button idly, then looked excited as an idea struck him. "I know... let's ram her a bit!"

"No!" the pilot objected, stroking the dashboard fondly. "I just had this thing painted." Then all eyes in the cockpit looked up as a warning buzz signaled an incoming object. "By the sewers of Zordoom--!" the commander exclaimed as several disc shaped objects splattered against the front viewshield, coating it with a sticky red substance like blood, follwed by a large object which shattered the crystal shield entirely.

Slab began laughing in jubilation as he wheeled around. "That's what you get for attackin' my girl--!" he began, stopped as the Cragmite Cruisers began firing at him, and as Crunch cut in with a warning.

"Slab, hey! You can't be throwin' our orders away like that! And the ovens too?! The boss'll kill us!"

"Dude, get a clue!" the feloid shouted back. "Do you really think anyone's gonna have time to complain about any o' that with a damn invasion goin' down?!"

Crunch shrugged back. "Uhh... good point."

"Okay, now are you gonna talk smack or help out!" Slab growled, yanking the nose around to target the next ship threatening the helpless girl.

"No, I'm in!" the youth grumbled, lining up on a Cruiser of his own, but beginning to shiver as blaster fire streaked fearfully close by. Word was passing to the other ships that a couple of fighters were daring to take them on in rather unorthodox fashion, and they began to focus on the two attackers. "Take this, you--!" he began, dropping an order with its accompanying heater, but was cut short as a bolt struck his nose. He screamed, sure that he was dead, and he nearly was as he caught sight of the approaching Cruiser, pulling away just in time to avoid a collision. Eying the nose where a red spot was quickly fading, he gasped, "Oh man... good thing we got that armor back on... it really works!"

Talwyn looked over her shoulder as the blaster fire stopped ringing against the hull, amazed that those two hoodlums actually managed to be pretty effective. But they weren't real fighter pilots, just kids her age, and she clenched in fear as she saw the formations of Cruisers drawn to them like wolves to rabbits. "Guys!" she called anxiously. "Don't mess with them! Just get out of there!"

"Not 'til yer safe, sweetheart!" Slab answered, causing both her and his friend to draw sharp breaths. "Couple more runs - we still got plenty o' pizza! Besides, when we quit... Odum's had it."

She blinked as a warning indicator buzzed, notifying her that she was entering the atmosphere much too fast, and she fired braking jets to slow down. "Slab, Odum's had it anyway! Look, I made it to the atmosphere! Just... Slab? Slab!" she called nervously, as the radio chatter died rather abruptly. But then she heaved a sigh of relief as bits of communication came through, as the ionized plasma caused by re-entry wrought havoc with the signal. "Damn it, I can't maser him... Slab!" she cried. "Knock it off and head home!"

"Uhh... doncha think she's safe enough?" Crunch asked nervously, looking over his shoulder at a trail of orange in the atmosphere where Talwyn was hopefully slowing for a landing.

"With all these bastards around? Not 'til I say so! Besides, if nobody else is gonna fight for our home, I will!" he called back. "Hey, whadya think Ratchet would do?"

"How the hell do I know!" the feloid snapped. "Besides, dude, get a clue here yourself! We're fightin' these guys with friggin' fast food!"

"Hey, we got ovens too," Slab reminded his friend as he dove on another Cruiser, straight for the cockpit.

"We got ovens too..." he chuckled mirthlessly, then gave a yelp as energy blasted into his ship's tail. Looking over his shoulder, he muttered worriedly, "Oh crap... Slab, I think we better go!"

"Whadya mean--?" his friend began, casting a look to the rear which had him gripping the controls tightly. "Hold on dude, I'm comin'!"

"I thought they said these worthless fools wouldn't put up any resistance!" a Cragmite said with a grin as he guided his Attacker through the formations of Cruisers. "Not only is there someone to fight, we get a chance to put the big boats in their place!" Lining up on the black shape of the starfighter in his display, he began firing.

"Yeow!" Slab exclaimed, veering off to avoid another salvo. "Great, now I got crap o' my own to deal with..." While the ship fire from the smaller vessels didn't seem to be as strong, they were more accurate. Turning to fly crossways to the formation of invaders, he hoped to user the onrushing Cruisers to break up his pursuers, though he would have to be very careful, or he would end up wrecking into one himself. His voice tight with anxiety as he watched the alien vessels rush towards him, he shouted, "Jink 'n run, dude! I'll be there in a sec!"

Crunch swallowed fearfully, using all the tricks in his arsenal to avoid the Attackers trailing him, but though the Cragmite ships were larger, these seemed to be very skillful pilots and hung to his rear tenaciously. And while his armor protected the craft well, he had to remember that it was also heavier. "Ohh man," he whimpered, "this isn't a lotta fun..." For lack of a better idea, he dumped an order of pizza with its heater as he jerked the fighter's nose up to evade the bow of a Cruiser.

The leader just managed to avoid getting splattered head on, still suffering some of the mess as it smeared his right side, but two of the craft following weren't so lucky. Their viewshields coated with sauce and cheese, they flew their craft blindly into the side of the Cruiser, exploding in balls of flame and disabling the warship. "Damn you, mangy rodents... you're going to suffer for that!" the pilot growled as he pulled a wingover, firing a stream of energy across the feloid's craft, some of it missing and sparking off of angry teammate's ships.

The commander was pumping his tension ball furiously as he bellowed, "Quit playing with those bugs and finish them! We have a world to squash!"

"You heard our master," the pilot growled, opening his throttle. "Let's finish this dung off!" The rest of his squad followed, spreading out to rain down blaster fire on the frantically weaving Leonid, disregarding the outraged messages hurled at them as they blasted across their own ships as well.

Trying not to sound afraid, he shouted into his communicator, "Slab... I could really use a hand here!" Thinking frantically, he was at a loss. "Don't got any guns... and if I fly straight to splash 'em, I just get shot... what the hell do I do!" He did the only thing he could think of; fly as close to the Cruisers as he could. Skimming over the surface of one, he yelped in terror as his wing clipped an antenna. "Slab," he whimpered, "you can't be gone, man... or I'll be right behind ya!"

"Who said I was goin' anywhere!" came a message over his speaker with a laugh. When his friend began to cry out with relief, the feloid cut him off. "Do a loop around that ship yer over!"

Crunch tried to glance around between blasts of energy, but couldn't make out his friend anywhere. Still, he'd never led him wrong... well, for the most part, but this was no time to second guess. "Okay," he called back. "Hope you know what you're doin'." While it felt good to have a course of action to follow, and someone watching his back, it was still disconcerting to be left to wonder what the details were, as usual. Flinching with a yelp as a bolt of energy scored across the canopy roof, he muttered to himself as he hugged the surface of the massive Heavy Cruiser as closely as he dared, the numerous ships of the invasion fleet wheeling around the sky. "Okay, dude... what am I lookin' for?" His heart sank as he began to complete one orbit and still no sign of a rescue, growling anxiously through grit teeth, "Slaaab..."

A Cragmite commander watched this play out below him in growing irritation. "Those fools are wasting time. We should blast that living rug ourselves!"

"But they would shoot back when we missed," objected his navigator, who looked up when a glow began to shine at them with ever increasing brightness. Then the crew cried out in alarm as a starfighter settled on their nose, its landing gear down, and as the engines began to roar, the exhaust blasting right into the viewshield. The Attackers pursuing him overshot and sailed past in formation, the leader looking back in shock to see what was happening, muttering "Ohhh, Blarg poop..."

"Go down, you friggin' barge!" Slab exclaimed as he pushed his speeder as hard as it would go. At first, the Cruiser refused to budge, but gradually, then at an ever greater rate, the ship began to pitch downward.

Crunch caught the sight of a shadow coming right towards him, and just managed to cry out in shock before instinctively hitting the thrusters with all they had. "Move, girl - move!'

Sasha looked to Busby nervously as Spook's surveillance revealed what was taking place in near real time. "Those idiots aren't running for it..." she sighed. "We have to tell them now."

Busby's lips drew tight as he whispered, watching the battle intently, "Yeah, I know." Not wasting time with etiquette, he reached across Lola's console, opening a channel. "Slab! Crunch!" he shouted. "Go hard to port right now!"

Slab looked up in surprise at the unknown voice. "Uhh... which way is that?"

Busby was ready to scream. "Do you see the moon? That way!!"

"Oh, right-!" he began, then saw the reason for the warning, as trails of numerous missiles were coming from the planet below right for them, and he yelled, "Oh CRAP!"

Crunch looked up just in time to see the cataclysm about to erupt all around him, his own cry of terror joining with his friend's, when the Cruiser slammed into the warship and Attackers behind him. At the same time, the first missile exploded.

Sasha grabbed the First Officer's hand fiercely, her nails digging tenderly into his skin as she hissed, "Busby... please, tell me we didn't just kill them..."

It was even more painful to see her expression as he worked his hand into hers more comfortably, saying to her, "Hon - Sasha... I don't know, hold on and I'll see what Spook is sending us." The first glimpse wasn't encouraging though, as the area was a mess of flying debris and missile detonations.

A middle-aged man plopped into the sofa after a long five hour day at the office, and flipped on the threevee as he always did. His wife came into the living room, wiping her hands on a towel and making a face. "Are you watching Weather Net again?"

He began to retort that he most definitely was not watching Weather Net when he noticed that on the screen was a thin capsule shaped robot hovering over an image of the planet. "Uhh... I'm not quite sure what this is, Mabel."

The robot blinked in surprise when he saw that he was being watched, blurting out, "Good evening, planet, uhh... Odum! Yes, Odum, and welcome to... your evening forecast. As you can see here..." Spook extended a pointer from his left arm and moved aside as a cloud of triangles advanced towards the sphere of the planet. "The capital city of Fruma is going to experience several waves of invading Cragmite Cruisers, along with the outlying areas of Selbin, Posser and Brebil."

"Cragmite invasion?!" the couple exclaimed, gaping at each other, then bolted for the window, throwing it open and staring at the evening sky. Between spotty clouds and among the stars, other points of light were moving, lots of them. "Well," the wife muttered, "at least I got the dishes started..."

They both jumped back from the window as bolts of enemy fire struck the ground nearby, the energy causing the soil to explode into clouds of dirt.

Talwyn emerged from the ionosphere in the dusk of the planet's shadow, expecting to hear from the young racer punk as he called for her incessantly. But as she settled into the layer of cloud formations near the surface and headed for the port city of Fruma, her heart began to wither. Where was he? She scanned over the frequency bands, catching anxious chatter from hundreds of citizens and civil officials, but she could hear no sign of the brash young Leonid. As she made her way discreetly away from the spaceport towards outlying business areas, she returned to the channel he'd been on, calling his name haltingly. Still there was no answer. As she closed in on an old factory district, she was so upset that she could barely control her descent towards a gap between two buildings, tears blurring her vision. "Slab?" she blubbered. "S-Slab? You just... c-can't be gone..." The two old warbots crept to her side cautiously, eying each other uncertainly as the girl fought back her tears. Zephyr grabbed his friend by the arm and nodded towards their seats, trying not to overhear as Talwyn snuffled noisily, trying not to cry. She decided they were still okay, they were, simply because they didn't seem the type to do anything truly heroic. "They may be stupid, but they're not... that stupid..." she tried to convince herself.

She choked back a squeal, jumping in her seat as the speaker crackled. "Slab?!" she exclaimed, but there was nothing more for an uncomfortably long time. Then she heard another broken sound, then more, staccato and fragmented, but it sounded like a male's voice. Holding her breath, she leaned close, trying to fathom what it was. After struggling with the attempt to piece something intelligible together, it sounded like they were saying long, one syllable phrases. "Eee-ee-e-errr... aa-aaa-arr-r... uuuuu-u-uu..."

It sounded like him! But what was he saying? She sounded it out, and then blurted excitedly, "Oh, 'where are you!'" Wiping her tears away, she cried, "Slab! I'm in an old manufacturing...! Oh, wait, he might not hear me any better." Shaking her head to clear it and trying to calm down, she said loudly into the communicator a long drawn out, "South... west... of... space... port... factory... warehou--!"

She jumped out of her seat, her boots scarcely touching the floorplates as she ran outside, sure that she had caught the sound of an approaching spacecraft. As she leaped over the steps though, all she could hear were the civil defense sirens howling mournfully in the distance, warning of the impending invasion. As Cronk and Zephyr came to her side, she groaned, "Damn it... I could have sworn I heard a ship..." She fell silent as the noise of some distant craft sounded just over the sirens, and then it rapidly grew louder. She looked up to the darkened sky excitedly, crying the feloid's name. Then just as quickly, it turned to fear as a Cragmite Cruiser roared overhead, blasting some nearby target, followed by three more. "Ohmygod... get back in the ship!" she exclaimed, drawing her blaster, as much to bolster her confidence as anything. "Cronk, man the turret but don't arm it! For all I know, it'll show up on their sensors."

Zephyr showed up a few moments later, lugging his blaster, explaining in his usual halting manner, "Y-you shouldn't be outside here by yourself, Miss Talwyn, what with those Craggy-ite monstrosities runnin' lose."

"You mean 'Craggy-mites,' Zephyr?" she asked with a thin smile, feeling better about Slab being alive.

"I-I-I can mispronounce their name any dang way I want to," he informed her half-indignantly.

She couldn't muster up any more good spirit, as the sounds of invasion reached her ears plainly. Off in the distance were ever more rumbles of incoming attack ships and deep reverberant booms of explosions. Life as they knew it was over for the people of Odum, and the awareness was heartbreaking. And even worse was worrying over the fate of Slab and his friend. He was okay, she had decided, until she learned otherwise, but was he all right? What about the other one... Crunch? Was he even alive? She squeezed her pistol grip firmly, murmuring under her breath, "Fang... please, get these people help. This is just wrong. Stir something up against the Cragmites, won't you? And... bring Slab to me."

She didn't have time to complain about a lack of response, hugging the sheetmetal of the building and gripping her blaster tightly, as did Zephyr, and making sure it wasn't on stun. Another craft was approaching. "Please," Talwyn murmured over the growing roar, "please..."

She nearly screamed as the sleek black nose of a modified starfighter appeared around the edge of the building, and jumped out into the open, waving frantically and shouting at the top of her voice, "Over here! Slab!!" It was clear that he saw her as the craft rotated on its hover jets, lowering itself towards ground level, though it ended up making about as elegant a landing as Talwyn had, tilting to the left and landing awkwardly. "Ohmygod," she gasped, holstering her pistol and dashing for the stricken craft. It was pretty badly damaged, and as the cockpit was obscured with smoke, it was impossible to see if he wasn't as injured. Yanking the canopy release, she shoved it open the faster, waving away smoke and undoing the straps holding the feloid in his seat. He didn't seem to be injured, so she grabbed his arm, almost throwing him out of the cockpit as the ship sputtered and popped from countless bits of shrapnel damage in its rear. She swatted at the smoke wafting from his suit in case it was burning as she exclaimed, "Slab! Are you all right?! What happ-!" She stopped short as the Leonid removed his helmet, and she saw that it was Crunch, staring at him in disbelief. Then, realizing how she was behaving, she coughed out a laugh, trying not to sound disappointed. "H-hey! It's... good to see you made it back in one piece."

"You okay?" he asked, then began cursing under his breath as he slapped at his smoldering suit himself. "Sorry, it's just that... it was hell up there. And, Slab..." His voice trailed off as he looked into her eyes, at the crushed expression she bore, and he was almost afraid to speak. "You... hear from 'im?"

She forced to keep smiling, nodding her head as she replied a bit quietly, "Yeah, I... heard a broken message from him..."

The look on his face made her want to collapse. "Uhh... 'fraid that was me..."

She squeezed her eyes shut, gritting her teeth as she managed to hold back tears. "It... doesn't matter, okay? We'll find him. He has to be here somewhere, right?"

"Yeah... can't go anywhere else, right? Oh sh - crap!" he blurted out as a something popped in the cockpit and a light flared from within it.

As he jumped inside and began flailing at it, Talwyn shouted, "Use the fire extinguisher!"

"Uhh... kinda... left those out," he told her almost apologetically. "Extra weight..."

Groaning in exasperation, she tugged at Zephyr's arm as she ran for the Odyssey. "Come on! Cronk, grab an extinguisher! I swear..!"

As angry as she was at the foolishness of the youth, it was good to have something to distract her from the fear of Slab's fate as they sprayed the damaged systems down good with the fog of cold CO2. With the help of the much stronger robots, they were able to push the starspeeder into an adjoining nook between warehouses. Crunch gazed at it sadly, muttering, "Man... will she ever fly again?"

Talwyn bumped his arm lightly, trying to sound positive in the dismal situation. "Hey... you're a mechanic, right? You have to get her spaceworthy again if you're gonna do anything about these Cragmites."

From the city beyond came another distant boom, causing both of them to turn and look. The sky was streaked with trails from invading spacecraft as they wrought havoc on the essentially defenseless planet, and columns of smoke rose to the heavens from sporadic fires. Crunch sounded ready to cry as he moaned, "W...what're we s'posed to do! My ride don't have any guns, 'n if it did... it's only one ship!"

Talwyn grabbed his arm, fixing his eyes with hers. "Look, you can't give up, no matter what. This is your home, right? You have to do whatever you can to protect it. Besides... Slab is out there somewhere. We have to find him."

The feloid gave her a thin lopsided smile. "You... sound a lot like 'im."

She smirked back to him, "I hope you mean that as a complement." She drew her pistol, undoing the safety with a sigh. "You have a weapon?"

He blinked at her incredulously. "A... a gun? Me? Are you kiddin'?! I'm just--"

"Cronk, go get a blaster," she interrupted. When the warbot began to object, she gave him a stern look, and he wandered off to the ship obediently but reluctantly, muttering to himself.

Crunch shuffled around nervously, afraid of being forced into the role of a mercenary, especially after what he'd just survived. "Uhh... you sure about--?" he began, but was interrupted as Cronk returned, shoving the weapon at him.

"Look, Crunch... your world is in serious trouble," Talwyn reminded him. "There are a lot of scared people out there who need someone to help them. It's time for you to stand up for them, and your home."

"Just make sure ya know which end does the shootin', kid," the robot warned him.

"Hey, I ain't totally stupid, ya old..." he started to say, then became caught up in the wonder of holding a powerful weapon for the first time.

"Okay now, act like you know what you're doing, and be--" He looked up in surprise as she pushed his arm down slowly. "Careful with that thing. It's upgraded and really deadly. Keep it aimed at the ground or up in the air, and don't start shooting unless I do. Okay?" He nodded to her silently, and she continued, gripping her weapon as she looked to the city being blasted, "Now... come on, let's look for Slab, and see if anyone needs help."

He felt trapped in a fate he wanted nothing to do with as he followed the girl quietly, the two warbots resolutely bringing up the rear, and they made their way towards the war torn city. 'I ain't no soldier,' he fretted to himself. 'What the hell am I s'posed to do?' He wanted desperately to find out what happened to Slab. As crazy as he could be sometimes, his schemes usually worked out. But even if his friend had returned here, what chance did they have of finding him?

The Odum Planetary Council had been in session far too long to be arguing so heatedly over such a small tax windfall. Speaker Fundle banged his gavel on the podium to call the Council to order. "Lan' sakes, people! You all act like ya found an asteroid made o' Raritanium or somethin'! It's just a few million bolts!"

"So give it back to the people!" shouted one of the conservatives.

The saurian returned with a dim look. "I'm sure each household on Odum would love to tell us what to do with one whole bolt of tax rebate."

As the Council erupted into a shouting match once more, an assistant came up and tugged on Fundle's sleeve. He whipped around, exclaiming, "What!"

As the clerk looked up from where he'd fallen from shock, he replied, "Port Captain Shlufski wants to speak with you. Uh, Mister Speaker. Sir."

The Council head growled at the underling, "Oh, he prob'ly wants a budget increase. Doesn't he make enough takin' bribes?! Tell 'im I'm busy!"

Before the assistant could respond, the image of the Port Boss came up on the screen overlooking the Council. "It figures, the lot of you old fossils would be too busy haggling over a few bolts to notice yer world is being invaded!"

"What are you talkin'--!" Fundle began hotly as the furor died down from the news, and as the meaning hit them, they backpedaled in fear. Facing the screen nervously, he whimpered, "You mean... one o' those new rock bands, don'cha?"

The robot had no time to respond as the domed roof suddenly shattered above them, pelting the Council members with debris. Fundle shouted angrily as he picked himself up, "Damn rockers! Can't a one o' them lean how to drive...?" His voice trailed to silence, his throat clenching as he spotted the nose of an Imperial Cragmite Cruiser sliding from the hole it had made as it rammed the building, and muttered fearfully, "Ohhh, crapping hell..."

The Council people cried out in alarm and the Speaker flinched back as the screen above him filled with the hideous image of a slug-like being, threatening them with the most dreadful noises they had ever heard. It was translated roughly:

"Infestation of worthless planet. I am fearless Commander Haghharrer! I have the weary pleasure of reporting at you that your dustball is hereby conquered. Because you can't even bother to resist like little girls that you are except to fire a handful of missiles!"

Fundle was too afraid to make any kind of lucid response for a moment, and replied in the only way he knew how. "B-b-but... we have a non-agression treaty! W-we gave you--"

"--Hurled at your extensiveness the very most wealth we could sweep from under our dingy rugs in tribute! We have done no little thing to warrant you slapping us all over as such! We have no such weapons to even wave at you limply!" Which wasn't entirely true: Odum did have a token defense system, they just couldn't afford to use it.

The Commander roared with bulbous laughter from the poorly translated protest, as did his crew. "Listen to this scrawny hen cluck with fear! It's almost worth not seeing anything of resistance, other than those two fools throwing food at us!"

Fundle settled his bifocals on his nose in perplexion at that last bit. "Throwing... food at them?"

"So you say to us!" bellowed the Cragmite. "But, let it not be said that I am without a portion of mercy and gratitude for your... overwhelming generosity." Looking into a screen at his side, the Commander said with a grin, "Lieutenant Klernsh... reveal to the wretched bureaucrats our... gratitude."

The pilot of the Cruiser chuckled with anticipation. "As you command, my lord."

"Err... what do ya think he means by that?" Fundle murmured to no one in particular.

"I think it means--" began the assistant, when the building quaked from thunderous blasts, sending the two of them to the floor. "That."

"I gotta get outta here!" Fundle exclaimed, jumping to his feet, as did the crowd of bureaucrats as they ran for their lives. But realizing it might be his last moments as Speaker, he grabbed the gavel and rapped it on the podium, shouting, "Session adjourned!"

He stopped himself before fleeing with the others, and turned in the other direction. Praying that he had a few minutes before the building collapsed, he ran to his office and frantically poked at the keypad on his safe until it finally opened. Throwing stock certificates and other valuables into a briefcase, he cringed as the fire from the Imperial Cruiser blasted the building in a steady drumbeat of doom, measuring out the life of the old building with each attack, and raining down debris all around him. "Oh, pooping black hell!" he cried as an explosion outside his chambers blew his doors open, then another stunned him as it blasted him from his feet. He sailed through the window overlooking the formerly manicured grounds of the Planetary Council building, bouncing roughly down it's tiered sides until he finally landed face first in the lawn, his briefcase thudding beside him. He looked up to see the last of the people running past him and off into the distance, calling feebly, "Hey, wait... did you forget who authorized your last raise?!" Lifting himself gingerly to his knees, he whimpered, "All those mementos... and the first gear I ever made was in that office." He cringed as a massive explosion caused the Council building to collapse, gasping in shock as a brass gear smacked him in the back of the head, driving his face back into the turf.

He was still blinking back stars as someone pulled him up roughly and threw him over their shoulder. A blast from the Imperial Cruiser still hovering overhead brought his mind sharply back into focus, and he began to say, "Thanks, you young--" But he stopped short when he spotted his open briefcase, and the valuable documents scattered around it. "W-wait! My retirement!"

"Hey, you wanna retire for good?!" the other growled. "We gotta go!"

Before Fundle could utter a word of outrage, his eyes popped open as his briefcase disintegrated in a beam of energy, and the streaks of blaster fire began searing the ground after them, growing terribly close. "I see what you mean - faster! Faster!!"

Commander Haghharrer watched the display of the assault's progress a few moments more before ordering it turned off in disgust. "I wager those slackers want a commendation or something for this pathetic excuse for an invasion. It's like stepping on worms, and even more boring! Raise the port command for this wimpy dirtball, so I can land and officially ruin the lives of these impotent people forever."

The Port Boss was rummaging around in a wall locker he kept secured, because it held an old memento he hadn't so much as looked at for many years. Drawing out the relic of his past, he murmured as explosions rumbled not far away, stroking over the barrel, "Well... it's been an age since we saw any action, hasn't it? Figures, it would end up like this. But by my Designer, at least one o' these monsters is gonna regret the day they pulled this crap."

He looked up as his console came to life with a unique message he knew was soon to come. A voice growled over the speakers, "Where are you, you slackard! Or are you as worthless as every other little girl on this dustspeck?! Hey! I'm ranting at you!"

The old robot took his time sauntering over to the console, giving an inner smile at the furious expression on the Cragmite's face at being ignored. "Sorry, I had business to tend to. Now, what seems to be the problem?"

"Your business is finished!" the alien bellowed at him from the display, seemingly about to burst, as swollen as it was. "I am Commander Haghharrer!"

"How do you spell that?" Shlufski asked with infuriating charm. "For the record."

He tried not to laugh as a tension ball the Cragmite had been squeezing popped in his fist, squirting him with syrupy fluid. When the Commander finally became coherent, he growled, "I am delivering notice that your world is hereby taken from you!! And this--!" He held up the ruptured skin of the ball. "--Is going to be you, when I am finished having my way with you! Now provide my ships with the proper landing path to your port, or your people will suffer even MOAR!!"

That last syllable was painful to hear, not just from the volume, but the threat the Port Boss knew was all too real. "Seems I pushed the old slug a bit too far," he muttered under his breath, then said more loudly to him, unable to conceal the defeat in his voice, "All right, you've made your point. I'm sending up the landing corridor now." He initiated the computation which came up on another display promptly, coordinating the landing for the multitude of spaceships still above the planet so they would land without incident. But before he sent the data, he made a few alterations to it, overriding the warnings the system made to him. "There ya go. No need to be so grouchy about it. I just want to get along." The Cragmite raised one of his digits angrily in an ancient gesture of universal disdain before the screen went dark. The robot growled to himself, "The feeling is mutual, Commander, I assure you. And if luck of any kind is on my side, you won't be arriving any time soon... if at all."

After checking over the data for any tricks, the Commander ordered the fleet to proceed to the planet to secure it. "And don't blow up any more pretty buildings! I want one for myself!" he shouted, lapping up the last of the oily fluid from the tension ball. "And restaurants... I want a meal when I arrive. I just hope the food is worth gorging down."

The ships began lining up as they followed the Port Boss' instructions, forming a sort of flattened cone as they merged into a column of vessels, entering the atmosphere and roaring their way to the smoke filled skies over Fruma. The pilots wondered why they were taking such a low approach, but didn't mind as the afterglow of sunset and light of the nearby moon lit up the sea and islands, making for a lovely view. They chattered among themselves of what towns and villages they would be choosing to own, and hoping some of the people would put up at least token resistance so they could retaliate. The chain of islands leading to the port city were particularly striking, lit by a few houses which still had their lights on, as was one peak which glowed from within.

Shlufski watched the display nervously as the column of invaders flew over the volcano they referred to as 'Old Reliable,' as the eruptions from the magma gushing mountain occurred like clockwork. Unbeknownst to all but a chosen few, the eruptions were instigated by a massive pump Reggie Fundle had installed to attract tourists, and the old Port Boss had managed to finagle a manual control to it. When it seemed that the main body of the fleet was within striking range, centered around the Command ship, he pressed the pump activation button. "Come on, Old Reliable," he muttered, "Odum needs all the help it can get."

Commander Haghharrer looked over the landscape of the planet as his vessel came low over the surface, marveling at how even the most worthless of worlds still had beauty which could be desecrated. And then he rose in his seat as a glow began to grow brighter under the ship. "What is that? Put it on the main display!" he ordered. When he saw what it was, he nearly choked, waving towards the roof as his crew looked to him questioningly.

The Port Boss began to fidget anxiously as the volcano sat there, almost dormant. He pressed the button again, shouting, "Come on, you oversized barbecue! They're nearly past!" His digital heart sank as he saw the Command ship begin to rise in altitude, just as the volcano erupted late, spewing lava over the trailing support ships. "Just like a monument to a damn politician," he grumbled, heading for the locker. "Well, there's gonna be hell to pay now, no doubt about that..."

The Commander pounded open the supply locker for another tension ball as the shouts and cries from shaken pilots sounded over the speakers. "I swear that I am personally going to pull that hell cursed robot to pieces with my bare--!" He looked out the forward viewshield in dismay, wondering what was going wrong now. And when the sight finally made sense to him, he roared furiously as he burst this tension ball in his fist as well.

The lead ship slowed to a stop a few hundred cubits from the spaceport, then the pilot looked over his shoulder as a massive crash came from the rear, then another. As the crew looked behind them, their eyes bugged open as they saw ship after ship trying to grind its way into their spot. "Hey!" the pilot shouted into the communicator. "Back off! We're supposed to hold here!"

"The hell you are!" exclaimed the angry pilot to his rear. "We are!"

"The faq you say!" cried another. "That's our spot!"

"Shove off you!"

"Shove this!"

Commander Haghharrer could contain himself no longer, scarcely able to shout intelligible commands. "Land this ship if you have to go through them all to do it! NAOW!" His crew shriveled into their seats, having never seen their Commander so angry, shouting back their obedience, knowing they had better act on his command literally.

The pilots in the growing clump of Attackers and Cruisers looked to their rear with a start as a loud hornblast sounded, and the next thing they knew, the Command ship plowed right through the mass of starcraft, sending their ships plunging to the port waters below. Half a dozen unlucky vessels at the Spaceport were crushed under the bulk of the Cragmite vessel as it came down hard. The crew looked to each other worriedly, as the Commander liked to have silky smooth landings. "Uhh... apologies Commander--"

"Shut up and follow me!" he yelled at them as he extricated himself from his seat and struggled to fight his bulk through the otherwise spacious passageway to the exit.

The old robot looked up at the sound of the Command ship slamming roughly to the landing pad he had tended so dutifully for many decades, making one last connection and hurrying into position. "Well, this is it, my last stand as Port Boss, and perhaps the last moments of my existence. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna let these bastards walk all over us without a fight. Even if I'm the only--!" He gaped in horror as a very large claw tore through the front door of his office, watching in stunned disbelief as the walls and roof were torn open by immense taloned hands. Through the gap, a hideous face thrust itself forward, the thing's mouth seemingly rowed with fangs. He blinked stupidly as it rocked the small chamber with a deafening roar.

"Oh holy space--" he gasped, then remembered his trap. Stomping on a footswitch, a pair of charges fired shrapnel upward, piercing its face. He then fired a spear gun, a weapon which was intended to deal with any stray sea monsters which refused to be steered away from the port. He was gratified to see the shaft pierce the Cragmite in the throat and drive it back, chuckling in disbelief. "Well... that went better than expected--" he began in gloat, but stopped abruptly as the monster shoved itself forward again, struggling to force its way through the broken walls into the Port Boss' refuge as it grabbed the spear dangling from its jaw. He reached for his blaster rifle with a curse, but shuddered as something struck him hard, driving itself through his abdomen. He was badly damaged, and in a fashion was in agony as he fell back, stray currents going all wrong as his systems began to falter, but he was still conscious enough to see that he was pierced through by his own spear. "Ohh... the irony..." he muttered brokenly.

He blinked in shock as the Cragmite seized him in one hand and shook him, while with the other, jammed a device of some kind into the wall. As he began to growl and blubber in the repulsive Cragmite dialect, the gizmo emitted something intelligible. "You bastard... that hurt! About time! At least one of you has some fight inside!"

Catching his mental breath as he fought to get his systems to route around at least some of the damage, the robot muttered, "Well... it's always nice to make an impression--"

He was reminded how fearfully strong the being was as it slammed him into the wall with his one wounded arm. "Yes, impressed I am! You have been a lot of trouble to us! Taking down more ships than you have a right to! Making fools of us with your twisted instructions! I guess you fired those missiles at us too!" He puzzled over that for a moment, sure that Fundle couldn't tolerate the expense of wasting defenses with no chance of victory, when he remembered the Phoenix. He had no chance to dwell on this bit of knowledge as the Cragmite jarred him roughly back to reality. "I am going to return the honor of your little victories by doing many bad, hateful things to you, before I finally kill you!"

Shlufski withered inside at the knowledge he had of the cruelty of this race, how even robots wished to end their existence rather than endure another moment of torture at their hands. He collected himself around a small will to resist, to not give Haghharrer the satisfaction of seeing weakness, chuckling, and smiling at the incredulous look on the being's face. "You imbecile... robots cannot die," he half lied, for robots hated to expire, much like any living thing.

He cried out in fear as the Cragmite hammered his impotent body against the wall, bellowing with each impact, "Then! You! Will! Be! The! First!" He threw the dazed robot to the floor for emphasis, and seeing the blaster rifle lying there, made a point to stomp on it before he left.

He couldn't see because the Cragmite was dragging him by the head, but he knew what was going on. 'He's taking me back to some secluded place, full of those wretched monsters, where he can do those bad, hateful things, until he finally grows bored of it and makes an end of me.' In some respects he envied the living, because they could find relief in their own way, by going insane, or dieing of shock. So many ways that the organics were better than them, and even in their weakness, yet another advantage. He wondered what it must be like to cease to be, and wanted to cry badly. He could probably terminate himself, in fact it would be easier with so much damage, but there was still a slender, tenuous thread of hope he clung to.

There was a Solanan warship nearby, a big one. In some way he couldn't fathom, at least one other galaxy was involved in this, and if the Cragmites didn't know, there was yet a chance the tables could turn. Still, with each bump to remind him of his predicament as the alien Commander dragged him so cruelly over the rubble of his world, that line between hope and despair drew unmercifully thin.

To be continued...

Author's notes

I have to apologize for taking so long. For some reason, this year has been a SERIOUS drag, and going to my work desk at 6:30am is an ordeal I'd only wish on terrorists and pigeon molesters. Well... and a few people at work, but that's another story. Fortunately, the urge had been building in intensity, and I had a long Memorial Day weekend. It took a few days of mis-starts where nothing was working when suddenly the dam broke. I ended up with way over 40 pages of material, and I still had a long way to go! Yikes. As of Friday evening I was still writing, so I decided to try and consolidate it, whack it off at a suitable stopping point - i.e. cliffhanger - and throw something up. The consolidating didn't work, the rewriting of the last scenes didn't work, and even though it was becoming something of a soap opera, here you go.

I'm still happy with it, but then I really dig getting into these people's lives and exploring them. If nothing else, it gives you plenty to read while you wait for me to get my act together. For lack of anything else to put here, I thought I'd post the bridge crew so you'd know who is who.

UFS Phoenix II, CHC-119, Heavy Cruiser Class

Captain Sasha Phyronyx
First Officer/Science Officer Busby Birdwell
Security Officer Helmut Warhelm
Combat Officer Peter Boil
Communications Officer Lola Chatterly
Chief of Engineering Mick Tesla
Helmsman Dakkar Mimo
Ship's Computer Raoul!

Additional notes

Yes, I'm doing this in hunks, but this way, if I get bogged down, you'll have something more to read in the meantime. I know I'm doing this as a single chapter, so if you want to review this addition, you can pick another chapter you haven't reviewed yet or even log out and do an anonymous review. Hopefully the next addition will be the last and I can move on toour regularly scheduled quest to find Clank. With detours...