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Dark Origins: Kralken Four: Part 8: Pursuit

Lieutenant Matthew Thorn, like all Dorzeli, had excellent control over his body's functions. He was very thankful for that ability after the monitor was reset to the view ahead of the Pressat rather than the scene from the holding cell back on Kralken Four.

"At least we know Captains Richards and Bowman are having a good time."

He spared a moment after Jason's remark to glance in his direction and saw that he and everyone else had been affected by what they had seen. Even Freerah looked like she had been aroused by the sex scene between the two humans, the Komodo-like herm Jolle and their Dorzeli-An prisoner. He was able to hold down his own arousal long enough to lay in an intercept course to Shiru's ship but he knew that it was only a matter of time before his resistance broke down. The whole incident caused him to wonder if he had become so much a Dorzeli that any sexual act by anyone in any combinations of sexes could cause him want to do the same thing or even join in. And was not treating the prisoner like that against some law in the Kroon Empire?

He got a partial answer when Freerah spoke up, "I-I know what all of you are going through but you'll have to wait until I've dealt with Shiru before we can relieve...certain tensions."

The slight tremor he heard in her voice told him that even she was not immune to what they had seen, but it seemed that her thirst for revenge had precedence over personal gratification when she returned her concentration to the main screen.

He double checked their course and announced, "We're closing on him but at our present acceleration we'll be well into relativistic speeds just inside this system's Oort cloud before we catch him."

"I know," acknowledged Freerah, "But it won't take that long. Colonel Thorn?" He stole a glance at his sister and saw that, unlike her normal behavior, she looked tense which told him that she was still suffered the effects from what they had seen. "Activate all auxiliary weapons when we're within their range."

Jason grinned at his mate then asked, "Going to wound instead of the kill?"

She showed him a seductive smile, "You're getting better at reading my mind," then gave him an affectionate lick to his left cheek. He turned to reciprocate but she halted him with an open hand to his chest then whispered, "Later, after I've taken out some of my frustrations on him."

Matt's attention was brought back to the screen when he heard the alert for an incoming message. He was shocked when he saw who it was from but not by Freerah's deep throated growl before she told Feih to, "Put him on."

His impression of the very smug looking Dorzeli-Ki that was strapped into what looked to be a very comfortable seat reminded him of when he first met Daihas, but the upwelling of disgust he felt was so intense and unlike what he had felt then that it was all he could do not to growl when Shiru addressed Freerah.

"Hello Chire Freerah Braega. It's been a long time since last we met."

"I intend on making this the last time Chire Kateas."

He smirked, "Oh I doubt it."

Freerah showed him a very toothy grin "We will see in a few moments."

He chuckled, "I doubt that too."

Her outrage at Shiru's attitude boiled over with her shout of, "Enough of this. We both know that your ship is nowhere fast enough to help you escape what you deserve for betraying our people."

"I did what was best..."

"You did that not for our species but for your quest for personal power which ends now."

"Just like how it ended for your former mate Argent?" The shocked silence from everyone caused him to smile. "Yes I know what your mate did to him and I must admit that I didn't think it was possible for a transformed human to perform like a true Dorzeli Prime so soon after his or her transformation, but his actions served to let me not underestimate either one of you in the future."

Matt heard Jason growl in anger for only the second time since he had met him and felt the return of a deep and fearful suspicion about his commander and the actions he may have taken before they met on Dessla despite verified proof that he had seen for himself that went against them.

Freerah did give voice to her anger, "I don't know how you found out about that but I assure you that we're both capable of that and much more."

"Oh, I think I would be a more than considerable challenge for your mate or any of your new pets." He glanced at Sarah then Matt and held his gaze upon him for a few seconds before looking back at Freerah, "Since I had much more practical experience than my former trainee added to the fact that my efforts at gaining power have had some modest success."

Freerah was, at first, skeptical at his boast then gasped.

Matt and the others saw it too; his "fur" color had turned a slight shade of red then became almost purple.

Shiru smiled at their reactions. "As you can see I've learned a few tricks since the last we met."

Freerah recovered and smirked, "So you've discovered the method to become a first generation Prime, but you should already know that you'll never have enough power to challenge either one of us."

All eyes went to the lower right hand corner of the display where a thirty second countdown had begun to let everyone know when they would be within range of all of their weapons. Matt smiled as he knew his sister was responsible.

Freerah grinned when she saw this. "And I'll prove that to you after we disable your ship."

Over his link he heard her order Sarah to prepare to fire all of their conventional beam weapons.

Shiru frowned as if he knew what she was up to. "No matter what you try there is very little you can do to stop me and you'll soon learn how fruitless this pursuit of yours truly was." He cut off all communications as the countdown continued.

Krassa could no longer hold back, "Are you insane, we'll never survive a direct hit from that ship!"

She almost regretted her outburst when he turned to her but was further puzzled when he smiled then told her that, "There is one thing that can."

"We've arrived Chire Kateas," announced his pilot.

She looked at the screen and asked, "Arrived? We haven't even left the system..." She went silent when she saw what was before them.

Matt saw a strange anomaly in front of Shiru's ship when it reduced speed, an act that had surprised everyone. He looked down at the magnified view on his personal screen and shouted, "There's something in front of his ship."

Feih looked at him then the screen, "The main sensors show nothing".

Freerah's shocked reaction mirrored everyone's surprise when the area in front of his ship shimmered then resolved into a very familiar shape. "Th-that's the Melnais. But he couldn't have..." When she saw that his ship was about to descend into its open upper cargo hold she shouted, "Fire!"

Beams from the Pressat's auxiliary weapons lanced out at the two ships, but they were all deflected by its shields while Shiru's ship docked within it and by the time they ceased fire the Melnais had turned to face them.

"Hold our course until they fire."

Unnerved by the calm he heard in Jason's voice Matt held off any evasive maneuvers and hoped that the Pressat's shields could cope with firepower that could be its equal when their opponent's main weapons flashed.

He felt the ship shudder when it was struck by the eight beams from the Pressat's smaller twin but nothing else occurred except some reports of minor system damage on his display.

Freerah smiled at her mate then gave the order, "Return fire."

Eight beams of intense light and power shot forth from the Pressat's wings, but they only managed to graze one the other ship's engines when it veered off course at the last second. An explosion from one of its lower outboard engines told them that they had penetrated its shields.

Shiru's, shocked and angry, reappeared on the main screen seconds later and he growled, "You have Cherrodons on board one of our people's ships?"

Freerah grinned, "That was my mate's idea and I'm glad that I allowed it." Jason also smiled at her just before she growled, "I'm giving you one last chance to give up."

Matt saw Shiru's smug expression return, although he still sensed some fear from him.

"You wouldn't dare destroy one of the only three ships our people have left in this galaxy."

"I'd destroy an entire star system." She looked to Sarah, "Full power!"

His sister attempted to follow through but nothing happened. "The fire control system must have been damaged when we were hit."

Shiru gave off the Dorzeli equivalent of a chuckle, a sound that Matt knew would have chilled him to the bone if he was still a human, and then announced, "I would love to wait for you to repair your systems but I have business elsewhere." The screen switched to the external view in which the Melnais hard turned to depart.

Feih tried to engage the weapons systems from her command chair but nothing happened.

Matt checked his systems while the others tried to find the source of the problem, saw a possible solution, entered a few commands and swung the nose Pressat so that it followed the course of the enemy ship. Caught off guard by this maneuver everyone looked to his station and were astonished to see the targeting display on the main screen.

He fired the main weapons just as the ship vanished from the main display. Their beams passed through the space where it once was and struck debris in the Kralken system's Oort cloud which resulted in multiple violent explosions along their path but none were strong enough to indicate that the other ship had been hit.

Freerah's growl-shout of, "Find him!" got them all to scan the entire system for any evidence of its last course or wreckage but after a five futile minutes they found nothing.

Matt had never seen her this angry before and became more fearful of her when she left Feih's position and walked over to his station, leaned down on his right side and stared at him with a degree of concentration that made him very uncomfortable.

He held his breath when she asked, "How did you do that?"

He did his best to keep any nervousness out of his voice when he answered, "I saw that the navigation sub-systems were unaffected by the hit we took so I re-routed weapon's control through them." When he saw no change in her expression he added, "I thought you wanted me to open fire."

"I did." She looked at the screen as if she expected to see the ship reappear any second and frowned. "I'm willing to lose one of these ships if I can keep it out of the hands of someone like Shiru, but since I've failed at that put us back on course. I don't think he'll be foolish enough to follow us to where we're going." She turned back to him and smiled, "You did a good job." She leaned down and licked his cheek then glanced down. Her grin grew wider before she told him to, "Turn over control to the auxiliary crew and get back to your quarters before you burst your uniform."

Matt blushed as she stood up and, in a more serious tone, said, "And that goes for everyone here. We'll have a meeting after tomorrow's shift on some important information that I discovered in the encrypted section of the data core." She became serious, "You'll need to know what I've found before we arrive at our destination in three days."

He did not look to see if Jason or Daihas had the same "problem" until he had locked in, but when he did turn around he saw that Freerah had already left and Jason's tail pass through the doorway into the outer corridor and that Daihas and his sister were already on their feet and headed in the same direction. His eyes widened when he saw the size of the bulge in his brother-in-law's groin. Daihas caught him staring and grinned at him before he took off after his mate.

He turned to Feih who had just stood up from the command chair and saw her turn and run toward the exit with her twin tails raised and run toward the exit. He switched over his controls and took off after her. They had striped themselves and were on their bed before the doors to their suite had closed.

Elsewhere Krassa growled, "How dare they use Cherrodons in one of our ships."

Shiru chuckled as they watched the Pressat depart the system from the bridge of the Melnais, "You have to admit that it was a brilliant tactical move on their part to keep them a secret from everyone while they were here. The superior shielding of these ships combined with a Cherrodon's power made them invulnerable even to our own weapons." His eyes narrowed when he looked at her. "Too bad your contact didn't tell you about them."

She became nervous until he smiled again. "At least they played their part and allowed us to get away without too much damage."

Before she could say anything a subordinate turned from her engineering station to inform him that, "All critical repairs have been made Chire Kateas; the remaining engines will compensate for the damaged one until we can get it repaired."

He nodded to his fellow Dorzeli-Ki, "Good; set course to these coordinates." He punched them into the pad on his command chair's arm rest.

Krassa voiced her anxiety about their next destination, "I still can't believe that you're still going there. If Freerah or her mate eve3r found out..."

"I've," interrupted Shiru in a slightly raised voice, "received intelligence that there are stranded Soriss agents there that may have information that I can use since both their captors and I are enemies of those two." He calmed down and continued. "I have to make this move while they are occupied and if they don't survive what I know will be waiting for them where they are going I'll be in the perfect position to replace them as the most powerful Dorzeli in their home sector. I just hope that our friend can keep them busy long enough for me to complete this part of my plan."

She saw him give the Pressat a worried look just before it disappeared into subspace and acted on her suspicions; "You seemed very interested in those two transformed humans."

"There's something unusual yet familiar about them." He turned his attention back to his personal sensor readouts and frowned. "If my suspicions are correct it's imperative that we move as fast as possible."

"They can't be any threat to you. They're only normal Dorzeli-Ki like me."

"Maybe, but with Freerah involved I cannot take any chances, especially if our records on humans are correct and so far her mate has proven those old stories to be true."

She looked back at the screen as it tracked the Pressat and wondered if he new what he was doing now that she knew the dangers to them could come from more than just two very powerful individuals.

Satisfied that the programs that were on the disk that had been given to him had kept Shiru's cloaked ship off of the Pressat's powerful sensors and him hidden from the ship's security systems a human disconnected his portable computer from the ship's network and plotted his next move, one that he knew would have to wait until after the ship left its next destination. Shivers went up his spine when thoughts of what the fate of every human on board could be if the information that was displayed before him about that planet was true. His limited knowledge of Dorzeli was more than enough to let him know where they were headed when he looked at his screen and the name of their destination under the picture of that star system: Home.