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Well, here we go! I promised that I wasn't done working on this series, and there was more to come, along with a big announcement or two.

Announcement 1:

This will be the last major chapter I post on Sofurry. There will be one more small chapter/epilogue that I post that wraps up some loose ends, and opens more, but this is the last chapter of Stellar Dreams for now. I need to take a break and work on other projects, open myself up to commissions, and continue some of the other series I currently have on Sofurry.

That is because of announcement 2, which is:

This is the longest running story/title I have ever written. At right about 120K words, to me it feels right to make this the first full-length novel I've ever written. To that end I'm in the process of getting the entire thing edited, and I am going to initiate conversations with an artist or two to provide illustrations to make this a full-fledged E-book. That said, I still have this world in my mind, and it does not end here. I hope to make this the first book of a series, it will take some time though to get everything edited, set up, and published, and that will give me the time to work on the other projects I mentioned above.

So, I hope you enjoyed the journey so far and stick with me with my other projects, short and long.

---

Chapter 9

Dalarin stood outside a door, two blank-faced guards stood at attention, flanking the doorframe. They tried not to squirm under his gaze, but since he was doing his best 'impatient military officer' impression, he could tell the two of them were quite nervous underneath their stoic exteriors.

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Dalarin demanded as he looked from one to the other.

The one on the right was Taelith Naroen, the officer N'Tanya bested on the Driving Blow. Dalarin suspected that he had informants on his ship, so he wasn't surprised when he transferred off the Driving Blow after N'Tanya's capture. Dalarin snorted internally,

*I hope guard duty is all that you hoped for,*

"No sir," Taelith said, with a somewhat...insolent tone in his voice. Dalarin waited a moment, but when neither guard did anything, he frowned even more.

"If I do not have to repeat myself, why is the door still closed?"

"Sir, councilwoman Kaelen made it quite clear that no one is authorized to visit our...guest." He grimaced at the word.

Dalarin hid his smirk. N'Tanya apparently outwitted the council temporarily again, somewhere between his message and their meet N'Tanya had stashed all of the implanted rescues somewhere else. Coupled with the fact that they were not able to interdict and capture the Starlight Dreamer meant that N'Tanya wasn't actually a prisoner. She was a 'guest' ordered to appear before the council.

Not that Kaelen didn't put on most of the trappings of a prisoner; guards, locked doors...if N'Tanya wasn't a prisoner she certainly was on the nicest involuntary vacation anyone ever experienced. Still, since she wasn't a 'prisoner' it gave Dalarin a few ways he could more directly address the 'guards'.

"Tell me Ta'raen Naroen," Dalarin began in his most stern tone of voice, "What rank does Councilwoman Kaelen hold?"

That startled them, and Taelith stammered a moment, "Well...n...none, sir."

Dalarin nodded and then pointed to the insignia on the edge of his uniform suit, "And what rank does this signify?"

The guard visibly gulped, "Ta'veth, sir...High Captain."

Dalarin nodded, "So tell me Ta'raen. What would be the penalty of someone in the military if they were to refuse a direct order from a High Captain, when there are no laws in violation or contravening that order?"

"D...dismissal...prosecution...assignment to a labor camp."

"That is correct...now then, what was that I asked about repeating myself?"

Taelith nodded jerkily and quickly turned to the door controls. When the door slid open silently on its rails. Dalarin swept past the guards, still projecting his presence as he went. He turned and caught the guard's gazes, he didn't even smirk at the combined fear and anger he saw in Naroen's gaze. He had no doubt that as soon as he was gone, a protest and report would go straight to the council, not that they could do anything about it.

N'Tanya's erstwhile prison was in the diplomatic section of the station, at least until the council representatives could show up to question her. As a result, they confined her to some of the more luxurious quarters in the station. She had a main receiving room, besides her bedroom and bathroom. She occupied a comfortable looking lounger in one corner of the room, where she wore a simple lounge robe and was reading a data pad. When Dalarin closed the door behind her, she looked up from...whatever she read. He could almost match the smirk she wore as she glanced to the door.

"Do you ever get tired of bullying the lower ranks cousin? Some day you're going to run roughshod over the wrong family, and they'll make you pay for it."

He snorted and gestured back to the door, "Him? I know his family, he is only in the military because he alienated his own bloodline, and couldn't find a position 'suitable for someone of his birth' among his own family."

Dalarin gestured around for a moment and made a questioning gesture,

"Yes, everything here is bugged cousin...they don't even make a secret of it. I suppose that is why they put me in the diplomatic section; they already have it well covered in their information gathering devices. Don't worry though; I don't have any secrets I particularly care if they hear."

Dalarin nodded and strode over, sitting on the receiving couch across from N'Tanya.

"You know the only reason you are not in a prison cell is that they were not able to capture the Dreamer, right?"

N'Tanya shrugged, "Even if they had, they would not have gotten what they wanted...the implanted were off the ship well before our little meeting."

Dalarin sighed, "You know I did not entrap you, yes?"

N'Tanya nodded, and another smirk crossed her lips, "I am quite sure you didn't...otherwise you would be in no condition to have this conversation. I also know how easy it is for the council to get an informant...well, onto any ship they wish really."

Dalarin tilted his head to the side, "If you suspected that would happen, why did we meet?"

N'Tanya's smirk cleared as she looked to Dalarin, "I think if you've had a chance to look at all of the information we gave you, then you shouldn't have to ask that question."

He looked at her, unlike most, he just couldn't read her, "Not that you've not had good justification, but before now...even with your mmm, crusader's streak you've always had your own best interests at heart. This is decidedly more...selfless then you've shown before."

N'Tanya shifted, got to her feet, and walked over until she looked him in the eyes. He met her gaze, and could see something there. N'Tanya always was intense, especially when she had a goal in view, or had some kind scam running that was going to make something for the Dreamer, or her crew. This time she had that same intense look, but something else projected from behind that usual hard wall of determination.

"The human on your ship, she's that convincing is she?"

N'Tanya simply nodded, "Yes...but that is not the only reason. This technology will change everything, and most won't care about the lives they have to use to facilitate the transition. Governments will create a whole new type of cattle, but from other sentient species," she snorted, "and some of them from even their own...if Samantha is any evidence of that."

He nodded, "You know they won't let you go until you tell them where you stashed the others."

Another smirk, "Let me worry about what Kaelen is going to try and do to me. You have the harder job, as I said. You have to convince the council that they need to mobilize."

He shook his head at that, "There is very little chance of that happening any time soon, I'm afraid. Even if they conceded that there is potentially a huge fleet out there, they will care more about experimenting on those implants and getting them to work for them then chasing down a mysterious fleet that may or may not ever actually attack us."

N'Tanya turned again and slipped back into the lounge seat, "Show them our information. Couple that with the reports you said you gathered on raids on all of the various races...they might actually be willing to see the logic...not that I hold high hopes for that." She smirked, "If all else fails cousin, bully them. I'm sure you have enough material to get at least a few influential ones to see the 'merit' of our argument."

Dalarin smirked in return, "You have a pretty high opinion of what kind of power I can offer this endeavor cousin. Besides a captain, even a High Captain does not "bully" the council into anything."

She turned and picked up the pad again, "I'm sure you'll find a way."

"Even if I do, the cost most likely will be the information you have. They will expect you to deliver the other implanted to them."

N'Tanya didn't even look up from her reading material, "That's not going to happen, find another way...or I will."

Dalarin looked at her and shook his head, "If you say so, though it looks like you won't be doing much for a while."

"That's all right; it's been a while since I've been a guest in one of people's facilities. I might just have to take advantage of all the wonderful amenities available to one of the council's 'guests'."

He shook his head and gave one last look at his cousin, who seemed to have dismissed him, as her head turned back to her reading, before he turned and left her presence.

*

Dalarin approached another door; this one had no guards. He snorted slightly at that idea, regardless, and hit the door chime.

"Come in."

Dalarin stepped through the door into another set of quarters, much less Spartan then the full diplomatic quarters, but in the same neighborhood. More for diplomatic adjuncts and secretaries, they were none-the-less just as bugged, if not more so then the actual diplomat's quarters.

Therefore, he was somewhat surprised when he saw Lilanthe casually lounging back in a seat in front of her terminal, a picture of the human girl pacing back and forth in medical quarantine.

Lilanthe turned, and Dalarin was a little bit perturbed she did not seem the slightest hint surprised at his arrival. He made a quick roundabout gesture at the room, she gave a toothy smile, and her tail swished behind her.

"Oh, don't worry...they've given up trying to repair the bugs in this room, or moving me to other rooms. Somehow all the bugs just happen to 'malfunction' soon after I arrive."

Dalarin shook his head and gave a rueful smile, then gestured to the monitor, "You know I should probably arrest you. Unauthorized access to station systems is quite a serious offence."

Lilanthe snorted lightly, "Then they shouldn't have made it so easy to get in, I should say." Lilanthe glanced again at the view screen. "Are all the precautions really necessary? She really is a sweet girl, if not a little naive...also, if she were an actual hazard N'Tanya probably would not have had her on the ship all those weeks."

Dalarin shrugged, "It was not my decision...very little has become my decision of late," he ran his hand through his hair, "the council, in all their infinite wisdom, has decided that this matter requires their direct attention, and of course, certain representatives get to represent the council in these affairs."

Lilanthe growled just a little, and then gave a little shake, "I wish I could say I was surprised."

Dalarin nodded, "I couldn't delay them any longer; they have secured the sleepers on my ship. I've been barred from returning until I answer questions directly, and I probably shouldn't be telling you any of that."

Lilanthe's muzzle returned to a bit of a smile, "I'm a data thief Dal...how much of that do you think I didn't know by now?"

Dalarin smiled and sat on the edge of the bed facing Lilanthe, "Then you know that my hands are truly tied when it comes to my cousin. You are my asset, according to the council, so that information you retrieved buys you a lot of leeway with them. N'Tanya though, she just has too many of the council that want her dead, or at least removed from the equation. I can't protect her at all."

Lilanthe mmmeed and leaned against the table, she tilted her head to the side and gave Dalarin a direct look, "Tell me Dal, when has your cousin *ever* needed protection...from almost anything?"

That provoked a rueful smile, "Usually it is the universe that needs protection from her...when she sets her mind to something."

Lilanthe nodded, "And I've never seen her this dedicated to something before." She hhrrmphed; her tail gave a bit of a slap on the floor, "even without you calling in your favor Dal, somehow I suspect that I would have ended up involved. There are too many connections; I would have noticed it eventually. Your involvement just...accelerated things somewhat."

Dalarin hmmmed, "What would you suggest then?" He gestured to the view-screen, where Samantha had apparently given up pacing and was just laying back on the hard medical bed. "They are equally scared and interested in her, and the others like her, and they are determined by get rid of their fear by controlling or eliminating the threat they pose."

Lilanthe smiled another small smile, "I actually don't think there's anyone like her right now...but regardless, it's up to you to convince them that the technology is not worth the cost, and that the people behind developing it are coming...sooner rather than later."

Dalarin looked to the monitor, "I don't think they see them as people anymore."

Lilanthe nodded again, "That's really what it comes down to, doesn't it? It's just easier that way for people to justify their actions. They are not people, they are just threats."

Dalarin tilted his head to the side curiously, looking to the back of Lil's head. "It seems like a little of my cousin's attitude about this situation has rubbed off on you."

Lilanthe turned back to look at Dalarin, her own toothy, draconic, rueful grin on her muzzle, "That's the thing about crusaders Dal...they are very good at recruiting those that believe."

*

Samantha looked out at the quarantine window and tried to catch a glimpse of either of the two guards they'd put outside the door. Ever since their capture, the (Insert race here) military kept her separated from Lilanthe, N'Tanya, or pretty much anyone else who might interact with her or answer her questions. They also had transferred her from quarantine room to quarantine room, each one essentially the same. A few meters on the sides, bathroom (usually without privacy panes, which caused her no end of embarrassment), some kind of observation window so her guards had a way to look in on her, and a simple one-person bunk. No exterior portholes or windows, no access to terminals or pads, nothing that would give her access to pretty much anyone or anything.

Sure, they always had some kind of speaker to the outside room available in the quarantine room, but after just a few tries, she gave up trying to get any kind of answers. It looked like they were not at all interested in providing answers, or letting her request anything, or pretty much *talk* at all.

Every once in a while a guard would arrive with food, leave her a tray of bland, tasteless emergency rations, and then leave again, also without even talking to her. The way they also pointed guns at her each time convinced her that trying to get past them, overpower them, or even really fight with them would likely be a very bad idea.

*Are you really so scared of me?*

She turned restlessly over in the bed and concentrated on her breathing, trying to reach that meditative state she and Kagami worked on repeatedly. Not only was it a good way of easing off her anxieties, she found that since they'd managed to use her immune system as a way to purge the hostile machines she was able to get sort of a general...feel of the unconscious moods of the people that slept while she meditated.

Kagami told her it was due to her close connection to Dreamspace, and the way the circuitry in her head facilitated the connection that gave her that perception, and Samantha didn't really know enough to contradict her. Kagami protested that she never received feelings like that, even when she was asleep.

Samantha felt her heartbeat slow, her breathing follow the simple rhythms of life as she lightly touched the machines inside her head. That was another change, ever since purging the other circuitry the machine seemed more...alive? It certainly seemed to respond faster, Samantha would almost think it was eager.

She opened herself up a little bit and let her conscious mind drift. It was rather like floating down a very slow river, she often let the currents carry her and guide her moods towards the mental moods she felt from others.

Overall, there wasn't much different in the 'mood' around her. She thought that there was more...anxiety perhaps, though with three destroyers and a battle cruiser docked at the station she figured that was not unusual. She could feel the currents of lusts, worry, happiness, anxiety, all the little things people processed as they dreamed. It was almost soothing, she could let her mind drift through those currents and get almost as much rest as if she slept.

*BUZZZ*

Samantha jerked up and looked over to the quarantine window. One of the goods stood at the intercom,

"Human, get up," he said, interestingly in her language,"The council members have arrived. You are going to answer their questions. If you try to escape, fight, or resist in any way, we have authorization to bring you along, or even use lethal force. Do you understand?"

Samantha blinked and shifted up into a seated position.

"Someone is actually here to see me? What do they expect me to tell them?"

"I don't know Human. I would not refuse the council's demands though. We are opening quarantine, do not resist."

Samantha nodded and squared her shoulders as she got to her feet and stood over by the door. The hiss of a positive pressure seal breaking caused her to shiver a moment, before the door slid up and the three guards stepped in.

"Hands," one ordered, while holding up a pair of manacles.

Considering two held rifles at ready, there wasn't much chance that Samantha was going to resist, but she had to protest somewhat,

"I'm not a threat, and no one's told me why I'm under arrest," complained as she held up her hands.

The guard looked at her and she thought his gaze was kind, "I was told you are not under arrest, you are some kind of threat to our entire race, to hear them speak of it." He snorted and looked her over as he finished locking the manacles, "How that could be, I don't have the slightest idea, but since I follow their orders, you come with me."

He tilted his head to the side, "You are not going to give me any trouble, correct?"

She shook her head. To which he nodded and gestured to the other two and said something in the language N'Tanya and Lilanthe spoke earlier. Samantha's enhanced brain was already picking it up quickly, so she understood that he told them that she would go with him, and they did not need to go.

There was a protest, and he said something, which she thought, sounded...insulting? The two guards looked at her though and nodded, and he turned back to her.

"All right, come along."

He grabbed her arm and guided her to the door. Once through he guided her down the hallways,

"Now then...just what did you do that supposedly is a threat to our entire race little girl?" He gave a warm smile, which cut the sting of the implied insult just a touch.

Samantha almost instinctively smiled back, "I don't think I'm a threat to anyone," she sighed, "I just...I have something that they want, so they are finding excuses to get me where they want me."

He nodded, "I wish I could say that I am surprised, but there have been rumors for years that some of those on our venerated council are more out for themselves then for their people." He tilted his head to the side, "Is it true that they captured you at the same time they captured *Va'hal'then* Tsarchon?"

Samantha blinked at the unfamiliar word, "Ummm...do you mean N'Tanya? Yes I was, but please, what does that word mean?"

He hmmeed, "*Va'Hal'Then*...I suppose it might translate to "Head of House" or maybe..."Queen"?"

Samantha stumbled for a moment when she tried to stop, and he continued walking, which meant he jerked her along at the sudden interruption.

"Wait, N'Tanya is a *queen*!?"

He tilted his head to the side, "Did you not know? She is the last of her house...one of the most prominent in our people before they were thought wiped out. She could claim a seat on the council, if she so chose."

Samantha blinked and shook her head, "So why is she captain of a *pirate* ship?"

He stopped before a door and looked to Samantha, "I cannot answer that...perhaps she would be more inclined to tell you?" He suggested, before he touched a control on the door.

As the door slid open, Samantha saw N'Tanya, Lilanthe, and three others she did not recognize sitting at a table. The guard pulled her in and sat her down in a seat carefully placed in the center of the room. He unlocked the shackles from each other and then locked them down to the chair. Before he finished shackling them though he leaned in and whispered lightly in her ear,

"I am Parin, I hope the council gets what they want from you and lets you go swiftly and safely."

He gave her a small smile, which she returned hesitantly before he stood again and left the room, closing the bulkhead door behind him.

*

N'Tanya looked curiously to the guard as he leaned in and said something to Samantha; he looked almost...sympathetic?

*Hmm, perhaps they haven't managed to get to everyone here yet," she considered, while she looked over the three council members.

None of them looked very sympathetic, though given that she'd just spent quite some time refusing to answer questions regarding the location of her ship, or the rescued dreamers, N'Tanya could somehow understand.

Of course, frustrating them gave her some small amount of satisfaction, especially since they couldn't really do much against her without proof that she harbored the dreamers. N'Tanya just hoped that Samantha had the insight to keep a few...important parts from the council's questioning.

"Human," councilwoman Kaelen started presumptuously, "do you understand me?" She asked insultingly in their language.

Samantha looked confused for a moment, before she hesitantly spoke up,

"I understand...little, not good with you language."

Knowing how quickly Samantha could pick up languages, N'Tanya had no doubt the human could probably understand most of what the council said in their language,

*Smart, make them talk in your language, their lies might be easier to spot.*

"Fine," Kaelen continues, "we'll speak your language." She glanced around, "Assuming everyone here has a passing knowledge of it?"

At the other councilmember's nods, she turned back to Samantha, "Now then human, where are the others that your people captures and infested with their machines?"

Samantha blinked and looked over them, "I don't know what you mean..."

Kaelen practically snarled, "There is no point feigning ignorance human. We have the reports from agent Lilanthe. We know that you took some two dozen or more weapons off the base you raided with...Captain Tsarchon...before your people destroyed the base."

Samantha's expression darkened a bit and she snapped back quickly, "I don't know how many *weapons* N'Tanya took off that base, but we rescued a lot of *people* before *whomever* is behind this destroyed them. But I'm certainly not the captain, so I don't know what happened to them after that." Samantha glanced over to N'Tanya.

N'Tanya gave the slightest smile and nod, before councilmember Jae'rith spoke up,

"Yes...well, regardless of the status of these...beings, surely you had some contribution to their care after waking them up...after all, these victims were subjected to the same treatment you were. I find it hard to believe that you would not have a vested interest in making sure they ended up somewhere safe."

Samantha shook her head, "N'T...Captain Tsarchon didn't tell me anything like that. I insisted that I go with her to meet her cousin, ummm...Captain Dalarin?"

The councilmember chuckled sympathetically which elicited a sharp look from N'Tanya, his tone was sympathetic, fatherly, a dangerous impression to give to someone like Samantha if trying to elicit information, "That is Captain Congrejo, but please go on,"

"Well, umm, yes, N'Tanya didn't want me going, I didn't have any idea I was going to end up someplace like this."

"If Captain Tsarchon did not want you to go, why did you insist?"

"Because I wanted to talk to Captain Congrejo...I wanted him to know how important it is to realize that all of the people involved with this are victims." Her hands clenched on the chair, "we're not weapons, or experiments, or tools, we're people and we had no choice, we need saving, not to be forced into becoming some sort of living, disposable component."

"Don't you agree though, that this technology is dangerous? As much as I admire your intent to protect people, you hardly can rescue them, shouldn't we take that responsibility?" Jae'rith replied, "And if your government is truly involved in kidnapping innocent citizens of all sorts of race, we have much more political influence to investigate and get them to stop."

"You don't want to save them..." Samantha's eyes narrowed as she looked from one to the next around the council members, "you just want to get your hands on something else you can use against each other." She looked from one to the other, "You're all selfish, self-absorbed, power hungry people...I can just see it."

Ti'neth the council member whom had remained silent until then gave a slow chuckle and looked at the other two, "I think this girl might have sniffed you all out...somehow I doubt she's going to tell you whatever you want now."

"Fine," Kaelen snapped, "it doesn't matter really, and we have all the sleepers on board that infuriating Captain Congejo's ship we can use to figure out how this technology works, "she then looked over narrowed eyes to Samantha," We've heard though that you're something different. There is something in the circuitry in your brain. I can think of one or two of our best scientist would just love to peel that head of yours open and see it working in real time."

Samantha gasped, and N'Tanya came to her feet in an instant, "You can't do that," she said, "she is a sentient being, and thus subject to all the protections our people agreed to with all the other races. You'd be violating dozens of treaties all at once."

Kaelen gave a casual gesture, "These..."people" are not citizens anymore, they are weapons, and we will do what is necessary to secure the safety and security of our own race." She sneered, "I'm sure analysis of the circuitry in her head will advance our understanding and our ability to counter these weapons, if they do decide to actually pursue hostile action." She finished the statement with a dismissal gesture, while N'Tanya dug her fingernails into her palms.

Lilanthe stepped forward and stood in front of Samantha, "Council members...please...what you have here is an unprecedented resource." She gestured to Samantha, "You might be able to learn some things from observing the circuitry in her brain, but from your own reports, such event usually kill the host and the biological components of the circuitry quickly die. Wouldn't it be better to work with her? That way you have a cooperative model to draw from?"

Ti'neth commented idly from his seat, "You know, she does have a point, especially if this human is one of a kind, as they suggest."

"Enough," Kaelen replied sharply, "We'll get what we need from our own scientists; we don't need the cooperation of one of them."

N'Tanya didn't hesitate; she stepped forward and swung at Kaelen's smug face. It wasn't her usual graceful acrobatics, or martial arts, this was a bar brawl swing at its finest, and it made a satisfying hard thump sound as it connected with Kaelen's face. N'Tanya stood over her, fists balled and rage in her eyes, even as Kaelen scooted back on one hand, while the other held the side of her jaw where a bruise blossomed almost immediately,

"Ohhh, that's it..." she practically shrieked, "you pirate filth, you *gal'na'vok*, striking a councilmember is treason! I have witnesses this time to...." she gestured to the guards, "Arrest her, arrest her now!"

N'Tanya growled low in her throat, and then looked sharply towards the guards that moved from their positions at the first sign of violence. Her look froze them on the spot, and as Kaelen looked frantically from one to the other, the other council members shifted away, ostensibly getting a bit more distance from the renegade captain.

N'Tanya could feel the bile welling up in her throat, and she spat onto Kaelen's chest, "If you're so blind that you can't see that this isn't just a problem for humans, or a way to further your own twisted little ambitions, maybe you'll understand this. You get Samantha, and the other dreamers under my care, over my dead body....but before you think that means you win...just know that before I go down I will make sure that not only do you not live to see me dead, but the entire council knows *everything* that happened over the Tal'fregia arms deal." She snapped her head to the guards, "Now get her out of those things."

"Don't you dare!" Kaelen shrieked, "You heard her, she threatened me as well! Arrest her, arrest her now!"

Ti'neth looked over from his council seat, "I would do what she says," he commented to the guards. When the guards moved towards N'Tanya Ti'neth held up a hand, "Not her...her." He gestured with his head to N'Tanya.

Kaelen had a suitably shocked look on her face, N'Tanya considered, before the guards stepped over and released Samantha's shackles.

N'Tanya walked over and gently pulled Samantha from the chair, "Are you ok?" she murmured questioningly. At Samantha's nod, N'Tanya placed a hand on her elbow and guided her towards the door.

"Good...because I figure I have about 60 seconds before Kaelen regains her senses, and regains some control of the situation...and I would prefer not to be in the room when this happens."

Samantha nodded, and N'Tanya noticed Lilanthe quietly moving in to follow in a position that would additionally let her block anyone trying to flank the threesome, before N'Tanya guided them to the bulkhead door.

N'Tanya spared one look back, two of the council members watched on with mild amusement, while Kaelen looked like she was about to have a fit. It was an appropriate look, N'Tanya mused, before the three of them exited.

*If only you could slam a bulkhead door...oh well, I suppose a bruised jaw will have to make my point well enough.*

*

"Do you have any idea what you set off with your outburst to the council members?"

Dalarin wasn't exactly screaming, but he looked like he was going to burst a blood vessel, Samantha thought, as he stormed through the door into N'Tanya's chambers where the three women sat around the table. Samantha carefully slid a pad the other women gave her out of his line of sight, though considering his expression; he probably wouldn't have noticed the proverbial elephant in the room.

N'Tanya looked at him steadily for a moment, and then folded her arms and leaned back in her seat. For a moment the gesture struck Samantha how the two races had such similar mannerisms, but she shook her head as N'Tanya responded.

"I think I have some possible idea of her response, yes...but why don't you tell me in detail?"

Dalarin tossed a scroll onto the table...an actual old-fashioned paper-looking scroll, with what looked like a wax seal on it,

"They got an emergency order and seized my ship," he continued with obviously suppressed anger, "right now my crew is confined to quarters, and their 'royal guards' are locking it down, taking it away from *me*." He narrowed his eyes, "and whatever protection you think your position gives you, you've burned it right out. You may not be in a cell right now, but that's only because they need a prosecutorial council to strip your family of anything it had left and consign you to a prison camp for the rest of your life. I guarantee you that if you *tried* to leave they'd find some excuse for you to end up in jail, or dead. They sent for enough council members to start the proceedings, so you better find some way to get yourself out of this lovely situation you've put yourself, and now me, in, cousin."

N'Tanya picked up the scroll and unrolled it, her eyes darted back and forth as she read the flowing script of official proclamations.

She tossed it back on the table and sneered to Dalarin, "That might mean more to me if the council had left anything of my family and house left to me in any regard. Their...'enlightened guidance' practically stripped it of any worth it had before I ever came back."

She snorted, "As for seizing your ship, what made you think they weren't going to resort to that eventually? You've been nearly as bothersome to them as I have, and now you almost openly oppose them."

Dalarin cut his hand across the air over the table, "That's not the point. If you hadn't forced the issue, I would have been able to handle the council. There are too many of them that owe me favors and know the real motivations before that group...I would have been able to reverse the edict about the sleepers. You should have given me time!"

"We've been telling you, we have no time," N'Tanya snapped, "you and I may see the same levels on many things cousin, but you play political games, and that takes too long. These people are not going to wait."

Samantha felt a little like her head was the ball in a game of tennis the way she had to follow the conversation between the two of them. They were so similar, and obviously so stubborn it made her almost laugh, if she couldn't feel the almost palatable tension between the two.

Samantha's hand rose, "E...excuse me." she started, which immediately drew both of their gazes to her. Lilanthe, perhaps smartly, remained quiet. "The guard that took me to...where they questioned me, said that N'Tanya was the head of her house, and could have a council spot if she chose, does that have something to do with this?"

N'Tanya's eyes narrowed a little bit, and she turned her head away, "He should not have said that," she murmured, while Dalarin nodded slightly.

"But...why?"

Dalarin sighed, looked to N'Tanya, and then sat down at the table. Samantha thought he suddenly looked tired as he looked to Samantha.

"Our government is...different from yours, from what I understand. Your people choose representatives, and those representatives have an equal say in how your government works, is that correct?"

Samantha nodded, "Ummm, more or less, some would say a lot less, but that's roughly it, yes."

Dalarin nodded, "Our government is based on houses, and is much more...I think you'd all it much more, I think the term is medieval. Perhaps because of our race's life span, but most of us can trace our bloodlines back thousands of years, those with bloodlines with more prestigious origins, wealth, power, heroism, etc. each can choose a representative and send them to a council of houses. There are seventy-five houses in the council, though not all houses need be present for most government work."

Samantha nodded again, "What does that have to do with N'Tanya, and her being a Queen, or house head, or something like that?"

N'Tanya shook her head at a look from Dalarin, "You can tell her, if you want."

Dalarin turned back to Samantha, "Many cycles ago, N'Tanya's family was one of the most prestigious on the council. They had both a heroic bloodline, and held a lot of land, money...influence...they actually were rather popular to most of our people. Often their representative to the council was called the king or queen of our people, because when they took a stance on something the rest of the council almost inevitably followed suit." He smirked, "Even when those decisions went against their...best interests."

"What happened?"

"Someone decided to remove them from the council," Dalarin started,

"If council seats went to families though, how does that happen?"

N'Tanya looked up from a particular spot she was digging into the table with a knife she'd produced out of...nowhere. "Someone decided to kill us all?"

Samantha blinked, "An entire family, how does that happen?"

Dalarin responded, his anger seemingly somewhat subdued, "It's not as hard as you think...a council seat only belongs to the main bloodline. Cousins, those married off into other families, non-direct descendents don't count. That didn't make it any less of a massacre..."

N'Tanya nodded, "Dozens...perhaps more, assassinated in very carefully coordinated strikes, made to seem like pirate raids, attacks by other governments...by the time they....we realized we were actually under attack and tried to get somewhere safe, there were very few left."

"So few of the family remained that one more attack removed the rest...including, to whoever instigated the attacks, my Cousin here."

"I survived, despite their best efforts," N'Tanya replied sardonically,

"But the family was deemed dead...and with that, their seat went into 'trust' until the council could find a family worthy to replace it. And in the meanwhile, two or three of the more prestigious secondary families became the trustees of both the seat, and all of the property and wealth from N'Tanya's family."

"Which of course was ripped apart like a pack of starving *Lel'Neth* divided among the most greedy of the council members.

Dalarin nodded again, "It was actually...luck that the proceedings took as long as they did. Before they were able to finish, we...recovered N'Tanya."

"Ok...so why aren't you on the council then?" Samantha asked N'Tanya, "If they hadn't given the seat to someone else yet, and you came back, wasn't it your right?"

N'Tanya smirked, "They deliberately hadn't filled the seat, my lovely naive woman, as long as they held it in trust, and it gave those three houses unprecedented power on the power. My...reappearance crippled their plans."

Dalarin gave a half-smile as well, "The seat was immediately placed in hold for N'Tanya, whenever she was ready to take the position. And up until now, it's remained open, much to their frustration." Dalarin looked back to N'Tanya, his anger seemed abated, replaced with a sardonic humor, "You have no idea how many of their initiatives you've foiled just by 'abstaining' with your lack of presence Cousin. Though now you've given them the excuse, and the right to finally take that seat back, by stripping your house of any honor or position you had left."

N'Tanya's smirk changed into a grim smile, "I never wanted the position anyway, and if they think they can take what I have left, including the Dreamer, they are going to have a much tougher time then they expect."

Dalarin shook his head, "They have you hear cousin...and even I don't see how you plan on getting out of this in one piece, despite your incredible streak of luck."

N'Tanya tilted her head to the side and her smile broadened even more, while Samantha suppressed a smile of her own, while she lightly touched the pad she'd been revealing with the two women.

"I think you might have figured it out by now cousin. I always seem to have luck on my side for one reason?"

He looked to her indulgently, "And what reason is that?"

She glanced over to Lilanthe and nodded, "Because I bring my own," she replied.

Samantha swore it looked like N'Tanya savored the look on Dalarin's face, the look of surprise as he looked over to Lilanthe.

The dragon woman had by then made it over to the room console, and she gave a wide, toothy grin back to Dalarin.

"Just call me 'luck'," Lilanthe commented lightly, and hit a command on the console.

That's when the lights went out.

*

*I love it when I can catch him by surprise.*

The lights were only out momentarily, as planned, and soon came back up in the slow, dim pulse that showed that backup power provided the only source of power in the area. At the same time the *hisssthud* of emergency bulkheads clumping into place resounded in sequence spreading out across the station.

Lilanthe looked down at the controls and tapped in a few more commands, while Dalarin looked up at the ceiling...to his credit it took him only a moment before he faced Lilanthe.

"This is something you've done, isn't it...what is it?"

Lilanthe smiled innocently and tapped a couple of commands, before she slipped her personal pad into her jumpsuit pocket.

"I don't know what you mean Dal," she couldn't help he self-satisfied purr that crept into her voice; "I would say that there is some kind of power emergency going on."

Dalarin hmmed, "Power emergency, what kind of power emergency."

Lilanthe couldn't help it, her tail swished behind her, "The kind of power emergency where the fusion generators remarkably both suffered massive overheating at the same time, and the magnetic bottles had to seal them off while the backup cooling systems come online?"

Dalarin's eyes narrowed, "And how long will that take..."

"Oh...quite a while I would suspect...at least until someone can get to them manually to verify there is no overheat...and I hear those overrides are quite strict."

Dalarin then turned to N'Tanya,

"I'm actually glad you stopped by when you did Cousin, despite your inability to keep history to yourself," N'Tanya started, "it really makes it easier for us to take you hostage."

"Hostage..." Dalarin started,

"N'Tanya nodded, "Of course, how else do you expect us to get onto your ship, if we don't have the captain as our hostage."

Dalarin frowned, "Except my crew doesn't have control of the ship anymore..."

Lilanthe stood up and walked to the chamber door, "The royal guard are most likely tasked with securing the sleepers. There certainly aren't enough of them to hold down the entire ship, they would leave most of your crew in place. At the most, one, maybe two guards on the bridge, yes?" At Dalarin's sharp nod, she continued, "I'm also sure that your second in command will be very convincing that letting us on board with you will give them a much better chance of rescuing you, and taking us captive, then keeping us off the ship."

Dalarin crossed his arms again, "They might just shoot us."

"They may not like you much, cousin...but they are still soldiers, shooting a high captain is in very bad taste, even for royal guard." N'Tanya commented with a grin.

"I might have another suggestion, one that will at least get us onto the ship."

"Oh? Do tell..."

He looked over to Lilanthe, "How much of the communications system do you have locked down right now?"

She gave a casual tail-shrug, "It's pretty much mine whenever I want it, though I haven't done anything to it yet. There is lots of traffic about the 'emergency' right now."

Dalarin nodded, "Can you send a message out indicated that certain shuttles are being loaded with high-priority personnel and sent off-station for their own safety, just until the emergency passes, of course."

Lilanthe's jaw parted in a wide, toothy smile, "I think I can do that...yes." She turned to the console and started entering commands,

N'Tanya, for her part, just turned a raised eyebrow on Dalarin.

"It would be only natural for a High Captain to return to his ship during an emergency, don't you think? If I happen to have a few undisclosed passengers that make it on board, I'm not sure they can hold me completely responsible for that. Especially if later I tell them you made me do it."

A small smile quirked the corner of her lips, "Why cousin, you might have a bit of a pirate in you after all."

He shrugged, "It runs in the blood, what can I say?" He gestured to the door, "What about your guards? I don't think they will just go along quietly."

Samantha's hand rose, "I think we can take care of that...." She glanced to N'Tanya, and at her nod, she reached down and unzipped a few pieces of her jumpsuit. "They ummm, I think they were scared of me, so they didn't want to scan me with anything electronic. I don't know why though, someone with these implants needs to connect to a system for...whatever happens to happen."

A few slim tubes, followed by flat, semi-transparent pieces ended up on the table in front of N'Tanya, whom casually started to assemble them. The clear pieces attached to the slim tubes, and a small, black wand slipped into each of the tubes. When she slipped the rods into place they connected with a soft click, and the flat pieces turned light blue. Dalarin's eyes widened as he looked at the devices, as N'Tanya handed one to Lilanthe and picked up the other.

"You seem to always get the neatest toys cousin," he said in a mildly amused tone, "you know those are proscribed technology among our people, ever since the Judicial Consul's son burned out his brain using one a little...too regularly."

N'Tanya shrugged, "So our guards won't be a problem for a while...and since I doubt they will get their hands on any more, it shouldn't have any lasting effects."

Samantha looked from one to the other, "Ummm, what...exactly was I carrying? N'Tanya told me they were stunners."

Lilanthe grinned as she tapped a couple more commands into her pad and then walked over to the door, "And they are...after a fashion. Among most races they just cause a nice little neural overload by sending a charge through the brainstem and overwhelming the voluntary motor cortex...." She gestured to the two of them, "For them, their brains are wired a bit differently, and the overload gives quite a euphoric high, from what I understand."

N'Tanya nodded in return, "Low powered versions of them became our race's drug of choice for quite some time. At least until someone high enough rank's son decided to overdose...disabled his autonomic functions as well as his voluntary ones," she sounded mildly disgusted, "forgot to breath, heart forgot to pump, at least from what I understand it's a very pleasurable way to die."

Dalarin looked from Lilanthe to N'Tanya, "There are certainly worse ways, I suspect that there is a good chance we'll discover them if you're incorrect about just how good you two are."

*

It turned out; Lilanthe was about as good as she promised. Especially after she and N'Tanya disabled the guards outside their quarters. It wasn't difficult, overall. They opened the door, Dalarin stepped out first, when they turned to address him they slipped through and lightly stroked the clear parts of their devices across the guards' necks. Samantha could have sworn they both had beatific smiles on their faces, though it was a bit hard to tell, after they hit the floor.

"They should be high for a good twenty minutes or so, plenty of time." N'Tanya reassured Samantha, before they fled their improvised prison.

Lilanthe used the controls on wrist console whenever they reached a sealed bulkhead, overriding the emergency protocol and opening each emergency door in turn and then resealing them after the small group made their way through. Only twice during their transfer to the docking area did they encounter other station staff, and they were too relieved at being given a route through the bulkheads to a safe room to question the direction of the mixed group of travelers.

*

"This might be a little bit of a problem," N'Tanya glanced down the station corridor to a pair of males wearing the colors of the council guards on their body armor.

They flanked the main entrance to the docking bay housing Dalarin's shuttle, and despite the dim lighting, and the muted, slowly pulsing yellow of the emergency lighting, the two of them apparently had no intentions at leaving their posts.

N'Tanya hmmmed, "It looks like they don't trust you very much to follow their orders cousin," she muttered quietly to Dalarin.

He glanced past her and shrugged, "And whose fault is that? After all, I associate with such disreputable characters," he replied in an amused tone. "Why don't you just use your little toys there?"

She frowned, "Low charge, they are only set for two or three charges each, and they aren't going to function all that well through body armor. I doubt these two will be as cooperative as the other pair at giving us a nice patch of bare flesh for our stunners."

She glanced back to Lilanthe, "Speaking of which, how long?"

Lilanthe hmmed, "Depending on their tolerance...not long before those two recover, and I can only do so much to suppress any alarms they raise."

Dalarin nodded, "I don't recognize those two. I'm willing to bet that Kaelen made sure that her most loyal guards made it here...so they are likely not going to listen to *my* orders."

N'Tanya also nodded, "Well, that leaves us with rushing them." She smirked to Dalarin, "Assuming you can even run with all the time you spend in your command chair these days."

He snorted in return, "You must not remember every time you ended up on your back or out of the ring when we fought in the Val'Sheth."

"I've learned a lot since then."

Samantha coughed, "Ummm, if you two are done...maybe I have another idea?"

Both turned and looked at her, their expression nearly the same, eyebrows raised in a disbelieving look,

Samantha blushed and turned to Lilanthe, "I'll need your help though."

*

Samantha approached the two guards, though as soon as she rounded the corner the two of them snapped to attention and followed her as she approached.

She held the two separate stun wands behind her in hands damp from the nervous flush that she was doing her best to suppress, difficult even with the help of her computer-assisted brain. She watched them, despite their calm exterior, they looked tense, and she could detect very small shifts that showed they were much more nervous than they were trying to let on. They weren't dull though; the two of them examined her from top to bottom. The fact that she wasn't showing her hands obviously piqued their attention.

"Halt," the first one commanded in their language.

Samantha tried to look perplexed and continued walking forward.

"You there, halt, do not come any closer," he commanded again, while his hands drifted down to a pistol shaped weapon of some sort at his leg.

She dared a couple more steps forward, "I'm sorry, I don't understand...I need help." She started in the trade tongue, "I was cut off from my escort when the lights went out. I don't know where I am."

The two looked at each other, then back to her. "What were you doing in this area? The docking areas for visiting aliens are in another part of the station." They both stepped away from the door and approached her, "What are you holding behind your back?"

"My escort brought me here, I was conducting trade negotiations..." as the two stepped forward, she took a couple more steps closer, until they were within arm's reach."For these..." She brought her arms back around, showing the two batons.

The closer of the two actually reached for one, a surprised look on his face, when the second part of their relatively simple plan fell into place. Lilanthe triggered the door to the docking area behind them, causing it to whoosh open audibly behind them.

The combinations of distractions worked, and as the guards turned back for just a moment to look at the door, Samantha stepped forward. She managed to slap the closer of the two guards across the side of the head with one of the batons. The first one dropped immediately, as though his bones turned to water from the neural charge.

She wasn't as good with the second one though, he was a step further away, and as she moved towards him, he started turning back as she swung. The baton caught him half on the shoulder as he turned and flung and arm out, pushing Samantha away and deflecting most of the blow from the baton.

Samantha fell back and scrambled quickly as far as she could away from him as he staggered to his knees and reached for his sidearm.

"Halt...shoot...you." He gasped out as he fought against the stunning effect, slowly pulling his gun out from the holster.

Samantha scrambled over to the other guard, reaching for his sidearm, though she felt too slow...too slow.

N'Tanya, as usual, seemed to suffer no such hesitation. Samantha caught a glimpse of her as she raced past to the guard. She didn't hesitate, with him on his knee, she caught him right under his chin with her knee, snapping his head up and flinging him back to the deck.

"Well...it almost worked..." Samantha protested as N'Tanya turned to look at her. Samantha blinked though, as N'Tanya didn't have a disapproving look, as she expected, instead she had an amused one. She reached down and Samantha took her hand, getting back to her feet.

"It worked well enough," N'Tanya replied with a wry smile.

"W...well...sometimes the old idea are the best ones." Samantha continued sheepishly.

N'Tanya nodded, before she gestured Lilanthe and Dalarin forward.

"How much time?"

Lilanthe shook her head, "Not long."

"I suppose we better make this the fastest disembark this station's ever seen."

*

The message Lilanthe faked bought them the time to get off the station and across the distance to the Driving Blow. The three destroyers that escorted them in-system were gone, having returned to their assigned duties. A few patrol ships, all giant engines and bug guns gathered around the station as those on board worked their way towards disabling all of Lilanthe's computer hacks and re-establishing shipboard power.

After dealing with the guards it seemed their luck returned, as they no one molested the shuttle in the crossing over to the big ship.

Dalarin contacted the ship as they approached it for docking, while N'Tanya and Samantha carefully kept out of sight.

"Captain, we didn't expect you back so soon, last we heard you were still dealing with council business."

The view screen showed Loftwyn in the command chair, and the second in command responded to the shuttle's initial hails.

"Yes, well, with the current problems they are having with their emergency systems, I thought it was best to get out of the way, since they gave clearance to anyone with a ship to return via shuttles."

Loftwyn nodded and gave a meaningful look off screen,

"The council deemed it...prudent to install some additional guests on the ship. We have been instructed that we are not to leave station proximity, and that our sleeping refugees are now under isolation."

Dalarin responded with a nod, "You are of course to comply with those orders, as are we all. For now, clear us for docking."

Loftwyn looked off screen and touched a couple of controls, "You are clear Captain, docking bay 3 is ready to receive the shuttle, and you will have an escort when you arrive, apparently."

Dalarin smirked, "As I also expected. Thank you second."

The docking bay opened to space silently, but Samantha couldn't help but think it looked...hungry as the shuttle entered the main bay. N'Tanya gently fingered the gun she'd liberated from the guards in the station as the bay pressurized.

Dalarin glanced at N'Tanya, "I know why you are doing this cousin, but if you start shooting at my crew I'm going to have to take exception. Up until now I can at least agree with the principals of what you are doing, but you know how I feel about my crew."

She nodded and smiled, "About the same I feel about mine, I suspect. Do not worry cousin; I have no intentions of killing anyone I don't have to..."

The bay finished cycling and signaled the pressure equalization to the outside bay. N'Tanya took a couple of deep breaths, and touched the airlock door.

The door opened with a slight whoosh as the pressure differential equalized, and the small group found that two more people in the royal guard heraldry armor stood outside the airlock. They reacted quickly to the door opening and the sight of the strangers in the airlock though, what looked like rifles of some kind swung up and pointed at the four.

"Stand still..." one of the guards barked, "keep your hands where I can see them."

To Samantha's surprise, she could understand him! He was speaking her language, which meant they knew who they were. Samantha froze, her hands at her side, though she glanced frantically from Lilanthe to N'Tanya, and Dalarin. They froze as well, though she could see N'Tanya's hand creeping towards her sidearm.

"Pirate Tsarchon...do not reach for your weapon or I will shoot. I doubt you are fast enough to shoot me before I pull this trigger."

The guard commanded again.

The second guard kept his weapon at ready, though he did not look as...on edge as the first.

"I make you and offer," N'Tanya started, "Kaelen is a ruthless, selfish Na'Seth who doesn't deserve your loyalty. She's keeping these people, some of our own people here and is planning to use them as weapons. Put down your weapon and help us, and I will make sure that you do not suffer any reprisals."

The guard shifted a little, though Samantha couldn't see anything behind the helmet, she could almost see the derision in his pose.

"You are the traitor...holding this technology within your houses, no doubt until you can use it yourself. You will not profit at my family's expense, when these things," he commented with a gesture of the barrel to Samantha, "endanger our race."

"Contact the station," he ordered the other guard," let them know we have captured the Traitor Tsarchon trying to escape, and High Captain Congrejo in collusion with this pirate filth." He practically spat.

Samantha kept her hands still, watching the interaction, while she tried suppressing the fear. She knew their plan wasn't perfect, but to get this far...she glanced at the other guard. There was something familiar about his stance.

It was a fast movement, so fast she almost couldn't see it, but the second guard snapped the butt of his rifle-weapon around. It caught the first at the base of the skull; even through the helmet, it obviously slammed his head forward. He dropped hard to the deck, and with a quick gesture, the second guard stepped forward and planted a kick into the side of the first guard's helmet.

Samantha felt like she was trying to pick her jaw up off the floor.

N'Tanya, however, reacted much more quickly. She brought the pistol out of her holster and trained it on the other guard.

"Put down your weapon," she commanded.

The second guard shrugged and placed the rifle on the ground, then nudged it away.

"I would think you might have a little more trust from distant family, Va'Hal'Then Tsarchon," he started, then reached up and pulled off his helmet, "or should I just call you Auntie?" He asked, as he revealed a grinning face, one familiar to Samantha, since she'd seen it not so long ago.

"Parin?" She stammered as she looked to him.

He glanced to Samantha and gave a little nod, while N'Tanya smirked slightly and slipped the gun back into her holster.

"I thought I recognized you in the council chamber." N'Tanya started, striding over, while Samantha remained dumbstruck as the two exchanged a hug. "How did you end up here on the Driving Blow?"

Parin gave a little shrug and a grin, a gesture Samantha was starting to recognize as common in that family.

"Well, when I saw who I was assigned to, and who I was guarding, I was naturally curious...so when you had your ahem...show in the council room, I figured you had something in mind." He tilted his head to the side, "I've never seen you lose your temper...unless you wanted to get a reaction. When locking down this ship was the reaction, I figured it might be good for me to be here, just in case."

Samantha managed to close her mouth at that point, though she looked from one to the other, "Auntie? I thought you said your family was...was?" She started, but then hesitated...

"Dead?" N'Tanya replied, and then gestured to Parin, "My immediate family was all...purged, but Parin's mother is something of a distant cousin. They didn't bother with the branches that far out, especially when they were already married into other houses. How far you've come, making it into the royal guard."

Parin reached down and picked his weapon back up, while Lilanthe stripped the gear from the other guard.

"Not close enough to the head of a house to expect a role on the council, but of good enough blood to get through most of the barriers they put in front of those with less prestigious families," he replied ruefully. "I suppose in this case it has its advantages though..." he looked down at the other guard. "Though I suspect my career is about to be cut rather short."

N'Tanya responded with a wide grin and slapped him on the shoulder, "Don't worry about it nephew, you can always grab a berth on my ship...assuming you can stand getting your soft little royal guard hands dirty with real work."

Parin shook his head, while Lilanthe piped up, "I hate to speed things up, but they are going to notice we are gone very soon, and my hacks won't last forever. We still have to take the bridge, and get to the sleeper hold." She glanced at Parin, "Can we expect any other allies among the other guards?"

Parin shook his head, "I doubt it, and they've carefully picked who ended up in this unit so that they are completely loyal to Council woman Kaelen. I only made it in by virtue of some very loud griping about being passed over because of 'bad blood'." He grinned to N'Tanya.

"Are ALL of you so bloody devious?" Samantha suddenly complained loudly, "It's like trying to follow a spider web maze keeping up with all the plots and plans you seem to keep running without a second thought."

Dalarin looked a little startled at that, and actually paused, "Well...yes, don't humans have to deal with family too?"

Samantha's jaw dropped again, while Parin looked at N'Tanya, "What's a spider?"

*

"You know, you could just order your crew to take custody of the royal guard," Lilanthe said testily, while the guards in front of the bay that contained the still-hibernating dreamers took cover behind a makeshift barricade preventing the only access to the storage.

Dalarin's presence had helped them get through the ship quickly enough, but not so quickly that the reports of the trio's escape and flight to the ship hadn't made it to the remaining guards. The star base still fought through the emergency power-loss to their systems, but communication was back up and fully under the control of the council. Lilanthe kept them tapped in though, so they knew when the word went out to the guard to watch for N'Tanya and take 'any appropriate measures' to stop her.

"Maybe," Dalarin conceded before he glanced down the hall, "and they'd probably take that order, but then I'd be in the same boat you are in right now. So far I've not actively participated in your little act of revolution cousin," he commented with a glance at N'Tanya, "That might be my only saving grace that keeps me in charge of my ship, and with some influence with the council. I think once you run, you will have even more reason to need someone still in the council's good graces, am I incorrect?"

N'Tanya grimaced, but nodded, then looked over to Lilanthe, "I hate when he's right, but yes...after this we're going to need to run far and fast, we'll need him to help us stay a step or two ahead of them."

Dalarin hmphed, "For the appropriate...exchange of information, I hope. Since I suspect even after you rescue this group, you are not done with your little crusade."

N'Tanya shook her head, "Not until everyone realizes the threat, and these people don't have to worry about being turned into weapons again against their will."

Samantha piped up, "How much does it matter, if we can't get past those two?"

N'Tanya glanced at Parin, "Will these weapons do much against them?"

Parin shook his head, "Maybe with a headshot, but they don't give the guard weapons strong enough to penetrate the armor on other guard," a low chuckle escaped him, "perhaps to prevent situations exactly like this one."

N'Tanya looked over to Lilanthe, "Ok then...how much control do you have of the ship systems?"

Dalarin started, and looked to Lilanthe, "Yes...please, inform us, how much control do you have?"

Lilanthe grinned toothily, while her tail swished behind her, "Oh relax, your systems are much more secure then the stations...I was barely able to tap into your communications and secondary systems while I was here. You should be proud of your system's security."

N'Tanya hmmed, "So you can't do anything here?"

"I didn't say that," Lilanthe replied, "I can probably turn the lights off, or mess with the gravity a bit."

N'Tanya suddenly smiled, "Can you turn it off?"

Lilanthe looked curious, but nodded, "Not for long though, maybe 10 seconds? Then the emergency override will kick in, and I'm not in the system enough to prevent that."

Dalarin tried to look stern as he turned to look at Lilanthe, "You know, one of these days we're going to have a discussion about trust."

Lilanthe just grinned.

N'Tanya looked down the corridor, and then looked around them. "10 seconds should be plenty," she replied, before she turned to Parin, "how good is your Li'neth game play?"

"Top of my class," he replied, "why?"

*

Dalarin, Lilanthe and Samantha braced themselves against the ship bulkhead, while N'Tanya and Parin stood just past the corridor's turn, out of sight of the guards at the door. They both held the access plates from access panels further down the bulkhead, the steel heavy, square, and unwieldy in their hands.

"Not exactly the best balance on these things," Parin commented as he hefted the piece of heavy metal and spared a glance at N'Tanya.

"Afraid you'll miss?" She replied with a grin.

"Are you?"

N'Tanya snorted, closed her eyes and looked over to Lilanthe. "Ready whenever you are."

Lilanthe nodded and hit a couple of controls.

The lights went out down the entire corridor and the surrounding corridors, plunging the entire area into near pitch darkness, only illuminated by a few panel and running lights.

A moment later, N'Tanya felt the gravity cut out, signaled by the familiar twist of her stomach as it suddenly lost any sense of 'down'.

She opened her eyes, closing them left her with enough dark adjustment that the low light was still at least partially visible to her, and hopefully to Parin as well.

Almost simultaneously, the two of them pushed off and around the corner. They rounded it quickly and used the push as a way to turn their body movement into a twisting throw of the system panels that each of them held.

The guards obviously were wearing some kind of light enhancement, but they still acted surprise at the appearance of the two around the corner and the very rapidly approaching metal plates, obviously aimed for their heads.

N'Tanya and Parin used the twisting moment, they propelled themselves to the side wall, braced, and pushed off as hard as they could down the corridor, as they'd planned, charging the two guards at the end of the hall.

The two guards did not react nearly as well; the flying metal became their first target, and they jerked their rifles up to trap the rapidly flying target. In the zero gravity, the jerk turned into a tumble. One guard even instinctively pulled the trigger on his weapon, which popped as the air-charge fired. Their rifles used old-fashioned projectiles fired with extremely high compressed-gas, perfect for soft targets, but horrible against bulkheads and armor. The recoil pitched his tumble back.

Neither guard handled it well then when N'Tanya and Parin flew past their barricade and tackled them, carrying them hard into the back bulkhead on either side of the door.

They struggled for the guard's weapons, the lack of gravity sending them into the back wall, then up towards the ceiling. With the pair right in their faces the guards couldn't bring any weapons to bear, it was strictly brawling, which is where N'Tanya's experience fighting, both in low gravity, and dirty showed through against her opponent. She braced the rifle with her body, pressing it against his in an almost intimate gesture, but it kept the rifle and arm pinned enough that he couldn't defend properly when she chopped in with the V of her thumb and forefinger into the underside of his helmet, against his throat.

He choked and grabbed his throat, while she grimly shifted, drew back and rammed the base of her palm up under his chin. His head snapped back hard, at about the same time the gravity cut back in, sending them both to the floor, though with N'Tanya on top of her particular opponent. Not that he was struggling, the blow under his chin, and the return of gravity and subsequent fall knocked him out cleanly.

Parin, obviously, was having a bit more trouble. He was not as fortunate, or was fighting someone more experienced, as his opponent had tossed his rifle at the first sign the fight was switching to a close-quarters fight. Parin was also on the bottom when the gravity flipped back on, so when N'Tanya approached casually, the other guard was on top, one hand braced down on Parin's wrists, struggling to hold him still while the guard's other hand clenched around Parin's throat.

"If you come any closer, I'll crush his throat," the guard warned N'Tanya as she approached.

"Need any help there nephew?" N'Tanya asked mildly,

"Nope..." he gasped out, "Got it all...under control."

"Good to hear it," N'Tanya turned towards the cargo bay hold.

The guard glanced up, "Hey, stop there," he shouted.

Parin took the moment distraction and grabbed the other guard's wrist and elbow. He twisted his legs over and wrapped them around the other guard's hip, and twisted his body over while pushing away with his hips.

The movement worked, as the guard ended up twisted in two directions at once. His body went one way, while Parin's hold on his arm tried to yank him the other, which didn't end well for the guard as his shoulder and elbow twisted in a very unnatural way, accompanied by an audible snap.

The guard screamed and clutched his arm suddenly to his chest, though the scream cut off when Parin shifted over and brought a hard heel down onto the other guard's head, bouncing it, even in its helmet against the floor hard enough to knock him out.

N'Tanya turned back and looked over the now unconscious guard,

"That was rather messy, don't you think?"

Parin panted as he returned to his feet, "he's disabled, isn't he?"

"Maybe, but it too much too long, I think you need to go back to your training Nephew."

Samantha poked her head around the corner and looked at the two guards on the floor, "If you two are through...can we please help the sleepers now?"

*

N'Tanya placed a small device on the outer cargo hold loading dock and hit a couple of controls. A small red light started blinking slowly on the device, while Dalarin looked on curiously.

"What is that?"

"Signal beacon," N'Tanya shrugged, "the dreamer will be able to pick it up and come in right on top of us, ready to get the sleepers." She glanced over to Lilanthe, "if you would do the honor and send the signal."

Lilanthe had her wrist-device plugged physically into the ship's systems, and after a moment shook her head and looked up to N'Tanya, "It's a no go." She looked to Dalarin, "Your security people are_very_ good. I'm not going to be able to do it from here, I can still get in contact with them, but we need to get to the bridge."

Dalarin tilted his head to the side, "What are you going to do now then? A couple of guards here is one thing, but that's my crew on the bridge, they aren't going to just let you take over the ship from there."

N'Tanya smiled, perhaps a bit wickedly, "Well cousin, it seems you will have to live up to the term 'hostage' a bit more literally for while."

*

The bridge door opened swiftly onto a scene of tense preparation. The groups' progress from the cargo hold to the bridge went unhindered; it became rather obvious that when their destination became obvious someone cleared the decks on the route. N'Tanya glanced around quickly and assessed the situation. The royal guard, and N'Tanya noted four of them, faced the entrance, with their arms drawn. The rest of the crew remained at their duty stations, except for Loftwyn, who stood with apparent calm next to the captain's station.

From the other side, she hoped they were threatening enough. She slowly worked her way into the room, a pace behind Dalarin, gun leveled at his back, though with enough gap that they could not reasonably expect him to spin and disarm her. She tried to keep him between her and the guards, though from this position at least one had a clean shot, in her estimation. She could only hope Samantha looked threatening enough from her position next to the hatch with one of the liberated compression-ballistic rifles.

Entirely a bluff, in other words.

Loftwyn coughed delicately and looked to N'Tanya...she idly thought he'd picked up Dalarin's 'command gaze' rather well, before he spoke up.

"Captain Tsarchon, welcome to the bridge of the Driving Blow, if you will be so kind as to surrender your and your companions' weapons, I'm fairly certain we can get things resolved quickly. The council might even be a little bit lenient, given the right words from your...captive."

N'Tanya noticed Loftwyn glance at Dalarin, and hoped he could figure things out quickly, she would be horribly disappointed if he couldn't.

"I don't think that is likely to happen," she replied, in an attempt at a merry tone, "I'm fairly certain that if I take this gun off my illustrious cousin then the four lackeys serving the council here will make sure I never make it to any kind of tribunal."

Loftwyn glanced at the guards, "I don't know what you expect to accomplish then here, since you know that neither he, nor I am just going to surrender the ship to you."

N'Tanya shrugged, "I don't expect you to do anything except stay out of the way really." At a quick gesture at the hatch, Lilanthe stepped out and slipped up behind the pair. "If anyone tries to harm her, then I might have to put a rather unfortunate hole through my cousin, and I'm fairly certain even the council is not willing to sacrifice one of their most decorated High Captain's for the life of some pirate."

Loftwyn tilted his head to the side, "You don't expect me, or them," he gestured to the guards, "to believe that you'd kill your cousin, do you?"

N'Tanya shrugged and pointed the gun down and to the side, then pulled the trigger.

With a dull _whump_of discharging air, a hole appeared in one side of Dalarin's robe, then out the other. He cursed and dropped to a knee, clutching his lower leg, while around the hole a slow red circle started seeping into the fabric. Dalarin looked back, apparently shocked, while Loftwyn cursed and stepped forward.

He stopped though, when N'Tanya pointed the pistol at the back of Dalarin's head, "Now now, don't get hasty...my cousin may be family, but don't think I won't kill him to get out of here."

Loftwyn paused, then gestured to the four royal guards, whom hesitantly dropped their weapons, anger obvious in their expressions and their posture.

"This still doesn't get you my ship." Dalarin grated between clenched teeth.

"I don't want your ship...I want mine." N'Tanya replied, and then gestured forward.

Lilanthe stepped forward to the command station, and with a rather, unreadable look, Loftwyn stepped aside.

Lilanthe pulled the leads from her wrist pad and plugged them into the console. N'Tanya carefully swept the room, gauging the tense readiness of the various crew there. None of them looked ready to jump, at least not yet...but that might change in a moment...especially when Lilanthe hit a couple of commands and the communications board lit up.

Lilanthe turned and nodded to N'Tanya. "Connection's up."

N'Tanya reached up with her free hand and touched a spot gently on her right jaw line. She felt the minor bump there, the only evidence of a subcutaneous communicator linkup with some very...specific properties. She felt a spot on her jaw line warm as the small electronic device came up.

"This is the Captain...come get us."

The response was nearly instantaneous, bright red alert lights flashed up across at least four consoles, and an alert claxon sounded as the sensor officer swiftly turned to his station.

"Second! Something just appeared practically on top of us, it's...it's her ship!"

The view screen switched to a display centered just outside the ship. The distortion of a Dreamspace transition warped and twisted the view for a brief moment, and then the Dreamer_was just _there no more than a half dozen meters from the side of the battle cruiser. It already had boarding gantries extended, and with a shudder felt through the entire ship, it practically slammed into the side of the Driving Blow. Only a last second burst of thrust kept the contact from being destructive, they could still feel it through the feet, while N'Tanya grinned widely.

"And there's our transport," N'Tanya practically crowed, "as prompt as ever."

Lilanthe quickly grabbed the leads and ducked out the hatch, while N'Tanya kept her gun trained on Dalarin.

The guards snapped their rifles up, and she grabbed Dalarin quickly and wrapped her arm around his chest, keeping the gun planted in his side. He grunted, but didn't resist, as she hoped.

"We'll soon be out of your way...once we have what we want, and then you," she said with a gesture with her pistol barrel at the guards, "will never have to worry about us bothering with the council ever again." As they edged forward, she edged back, as she got closer and closer to the door. "You can have my cousin back as soon as I'm aboard ship." She grinned again, sighted, and fired a quick couple of shots above the heads of the royal guards.

The rounds weren't strong enough to get through their armor, but as she hoped, they ducked back instinctively regardless, giving her the opening she needed to duck back through the bridge hatch, practically dragging Dalarin behind her.

*

"You shot me!" Dalarin complained in a growl, as the group quickly moved down the decks back towards the cargo bay.

"Yes...well, what did you expect would happen?" N'Tanya asked lightly, "They had to think I actually would kill you...besides, I only grazed you."

Dalarin glanced over, though as he did it seemed like he...overemphasized a limp, "that's not the point, you know this bloody hurts, and I'm probably going to end up with a scar."

She snorted, "What, you think I haven't been shot? You're not the only one with scars cousin."

Samantha shook her head as she followed along, Parin and Lilanthe guarding their retreat through the decks, while N'Tanya kept pushing them towards where the crew of the _Dreamer_likely was transferring all of the sleepers even now into the pirate ship's cargo hold.

"A warning shot wouldn't have worked? I was wearing robes, after all," Dalarin continued his complaint.

It didn't look like the wound slowed Dalarin down at all in their fast, but cautious race through the ship's passages. They were all making good headway, though they spotted a few details of ship's crew following behind. The crew didn't seem extremely motivated to stop them though, and there were a few half-hearted exchanges of fire, though the shots were always well above the heads of anyone who might actually be hit by them.

"The blood sold it though, without it they might have thought the same thing you did, that I wouldn't hit anything."

Samantha just couldn't understand the banter between the two, especially considering she could feel her heart thumping hard in her chest. It seemed like the sheer personality of the two was a force she could feel pulling her along, and despite their apparent success at their rescue, she was beginning to question whether she shouldn't have just stayed on the station and answered questions.

Samantha was just about to ask their progress, when a sudden flutter in her chest and a pinhead of pain blossomed in her brain. She stumbled hard against the bulkhead, forced to stop by the sudden sensation, it was weak, and distant, but she knew in an instant what it was.

"Oh no...no no no...." the words stumbled from her lips, even as the others looked to her at her sudden stop.

"Samantha, what is it?" N'Tanya started, glancing back at the ship crew who'd also stopped just around the corridor corner.

She licked her lips and put her hand to her head, focusing on the feeling, "C...captain...I think, I think there's one of them, one of us...I mean...there's a device, or something here."

N'Tanya shook her head, "What do you mean, you're not making any sense."

"I can feel it, a hole..." Samantha said as she focused inwards, trying to suppress the piercing sense of 'wrong' that steadily grew in her head, "I think my people...they found us...I can feel a hole ripping open. It's not close...but it's getting bigger."

N'Tanya glanced sharply to Lilanthe, then touched her comms pad, "Dreamer this is the captain, are you picking up anything strange, another ship coming in, anything like that?"

Nasir responded almost immediately, "We're not picking anything up, but Kagami says she's feeling something, we don't have a net out, so we can only pick up real-time information."

Dalarin cursed and walked to a nearby panel, "Bridge, this is the Captain..." he started,

"Captain are you ok..." they replied, though he cut them off sharply.

"I'm fine, something more important has come up, get to our sensors, tap into the station sensors as well, we might have a weapon initiation nearby."

"C...captain," another voice cut in, obviously shaky and strained, "I can definitely feel something, it's not as bad as before, but I don't care what they say, there's another hole nearby."

Nasir's voice came in over N'Tanya's comms as well, "Captain, the station's comms all just lit up, anyone that's Dreamspace sensitive is practically panicking there, or has gone into some kind of fit."

N'Tanya and Dalarin shared a look, and nodded.

N'Tanya looked to Lilanthe, "How fast can you undo the station hacks?"

Lilanthe looked startled, "Almost immediately, but I need to get to your ship. I can't make that kind of connection with just my hand unit."

Dalarin nodded again, and then glanced at Samantha, "how close, and how big?"

Samantha put her hand to her forehead and concentrated on her breathing. The feeling was intense, but she found she could control her reaction somewhat, all the practice with Kagami paying off as she pushed back against the sensation.

"I don't know...but it's growing, wherever it is...I don't think they're using it as a portal."

Dalarin touched the control on the comms panel, "Attention all crew; we are at alert. We are under attack; do not hinder Captain Tsarchon as she returns to her ship. All crewmembers to battle stations. Con, get me some information; I want to know where this thing is now!"

Dalarin turned to N'Tanya, "That might be the end of my career, but right now we have new priorities."

N'Tanya nodded in return and clasped Dalarin's shoulder, "Sorry for shooting you cousin, I'll be in touch from the Dreamer as soon as we disengage."

Lilanthe slipped her arm under Samantha's and gently supported her, Samantha nodded to Lilanthe in thanks, "We have...have to hurry," she exhorted them through clenched teeth, "the hole is getting bigger."

*

Dalarin swept quickly onto the bridge; after leaving N'Tanya and the others, his crew met him as soon as he turned back towards the bridge. He didn't bother switching out of his formal ceremony robes as his eyes scanned the bridge.

"Report," he demanded.

Loftwyn was immediately at his side, holding out a data pad.

"We haven't located anything yet, but our probes are still spreading outwards. Station sensors are not much better, but we're looking back over the sensor records. Maybe there is some sign of when this thing got here."

Dalarin nodded, then looked to the comms officer, "What about the Dreamer?"

He reported immediately, "They have disengaged Captain, they umm...used airlock overrides, so they were able to get their ummm, target, without damaging our bay doors."

Dalarin half-grimaced, half-smirked, "Lilanthe is definitely going to owe me for all the havoc she's played with my ship when this is over."

Comms piped up again, "Captain, Council Woman Kaelen is demanding to speak to you as well."

Dalarin sighed and shook his head, "I suppose this was going to happen regardless...put her on."

"High Captain..." her face filled the view screen, "I am formally charging you with treason, sedition, and betraying your service oath. You are not only letting the Pirate N'Tanya Tsarchon get away, but I know you helped her!" The council member's glance flicked to the rest of the bridge, before she continued, "Ta'ne'Thel Orin, Ta'ne'Thel Recin, arrest the High Captain."

The two royal guards stepped forward, reaching for their sidearms in an obvious gesture to take Dalarin into custody.

Dalarin just smiled, but didn't move, as the sound of drawn weapons soon found the two guards facing more than a dozen crewmembers armed with various sidearms, chief of whom the Second Loftwyn, who held a plasma pistol steadily at the first one's head.

"I'm afraid, Council Woman, that I can't afford to be arrested right this moment," Dalarin said in a sanguine tone of voice. "I'm sure you are aware that there appears to be an attack in progress...in fact your attempt to have me removed during a time of military crisis is a violation of the regulations on the council's operational separation from the military. You might want to reconsider your order before I have you arrested."

Kaelen sputtered quickly as her face turned darker with her growing rage, "You are aiding and abetting a known traitor to the Council! I will have your commission, and you will spend the rest of your life at a prisoner camp with your miserable family!"

Dalarin tilted his head to the side, "I disagree, as you were never able to prove Captain Tsarchon actually abetted enemies of the empire, the tribunal never happened in fact. I have chosen to give her a field commission as a privateer under the auspices of the military, and as the only one approaching an expert in the weapons employed by the enemy I am giving discretionary command of the defense of this station to her." He gestured to the comms officer, "Captain Tsarchon, I assume you heard this?"

N'Tanya's face appeared in a separate window in the view screen, a positively feline grin on her face as she apparently made it to the bridge on the Dreamer. "I heard all of that Captain Congrejo, and I thank you for your vote of confidence. My pilot and the human with the most experience in these weapons are considering our options now, any information you can give us on the location of this weapon will be appreciated, and so we can serve the council and remove it from our skies."

Dalarin smirked and nodded again, while the council woman continued to sputter impotently, "Of course Captain." He then turned his gaze back to Kaelen, "As you can see, we have quite a lot to deal with right now, so we will address your little outburst when the crisis is over." Dalarin gestured to the comms officer, who cut the connection immediately.

"Any luck finding this thing?" N'Tanya asked quickly,

Dalarin looked to Loftwyn, who shook his head, "No...but we might have found when they inserted it. System monitoring system picked up something small, dense, and metallic entering the planet's vicinity several days ago. It was deemed too small to be a ship, and its trajectory did not put it at risk of hitting the station, so they considered it just another asteroid and didn't report it."

N'Tanya cursed, "So it's had days to get into position...wherever they wanted it?"

Loftwyn nodded, "Possibly."

Dalarin had a sudden thought, "Sensors, extend our probe net to the far side of the planet, specifically where the sun and this planet's moon occludes standard communications."

At Loftwyn's curious look, Dalarin looked to him, "There's a peculiarity in this planetary system. The star here puts out certain electromagnetic energies that tend to create sensory blind spots in this system in particular places unless you have direct line of sight, everything else gets distorted."

"That seems like a rather...inopportune security risk Cousin." N'Tanya observed from their still connected communications.

Dalarin smirked, "The planet is life-sustaining, and rich in minerals, it was considered an acceptable security risk...as always they intended to add line of sight sensors that would keep an eye on the occlusion spots...eventually."

"Captain...sensors are picking up something...putting it on the view screen now."

Dalarin nodded, and looked up as the view from one of their sensor drones came into focus.

It was still a long way out, but the shift of the objects in-screen made it obvious it was approaching rapidly, though details still lacked.

They didn't need details though to see the dark spot, a blemish against the side of planet, where the colors from the blue and green below shifted and distorted around the edges. The distortion made it hard to tell, but as they watched, they could see the colors shift and move, the light changing as it found routes around a spot in space that just shouldn't exist...and even with the long distance shots; they could see the spot growing.

"There it is," Loftwyn whispered.

Dalarin glanced at him, then to sensors, "How big is it?"

"It's hard to tell Captain, our sensors can't measure it accurately...but from scale, it has to be at least a couple hundred meters across, and growing."

Dalarin looked to the screen, "N'Tanya, there it is...do you have any idea how to deal with it? The last time I saw one of these, it cracked a moon...on accident."

N'Tanya's gaze was off screen, apparently watching the feed from the probe sensor as well. She licked her lips and looked back to the screen.

"I don't know..." she finally said, "but we'll do our best."

*

The needle in her brain was probing deeper, and she could swear it was growing wider. It felt like it was splitting apart her gray matter.

Samantha ruthlessly suppressed her reaction to the sensation, though she dropped her head to the conference room table, where she was thankfully alone. She sped there immediately after they boarded the Dreamer where she could now see the video feeds relayed to them from the Driving Blow.

She could feel the wrongness of the black disc in space, though she still couldn't feel what, if anything she could do about it. She stared at it as it grew perceptively, her eyes fixed on one point. The black color had a twisted texture that somehow showed up against the bright color of the planetary background.

The hatch notification chimed, the only notice before it slid aside and N'Tanya walked into the room.

"What do you think," she simply asked quietly.

Samantha gritted her teeth and shook her head, "I don't know...it's different than before. I was the one generating the tear...or at least the machines in my head were, so I could contact the tear directly before it got too big. That..." she gestured to the disc, which according to relative measurements was already two kilometers apart, and still growing. "That is so much more powerful."

N'Tanya nodded, reached forward, and touched a control on the conference room table, turning on the ship's comms in the room.

"And you Kagi? How are you holding up against that thing?"

"It's...troubling captain," came the response over the speakers, "my previous exposure has made it more tolerable for me at this distance, but I don't know how well I will do if we get closer."

Samantha looked up to N'Tanya, "What about Dalarin, his people? What are they doing?"

N'Tanya shrugged, "What they could...their Pilots are not handling exposure to the rip well, and they've had to switch over to standard systems. This also means no Dreamspace jumps to escape...though not that they would, and leave the station and population here. They've tried the typical military thing...shooting at it, but as soon as anything touches the event horizon of the disc, it is either destroyed or distorted so badly there is no way they could target the center...even assuming that's where it originates."

Samantha licked her lips, "I can feel some kind of connection, captain...but if I try to use my systems even to nudge, it feels like I'm trying to move an entire moon. It's so dense...and I'm so far away."

N'Tanya looked sternly to Samantha, and then glanced up, "Kagami, are you receiving reports from the planet?"

"Yes captain."

"What's going on there?"

"They are already starting to see some effects, even with the rift at its current size. It is deep enough in their atmosphere that it is causing weather problems."

N'Tanya continued looking at Samantha, though she continued speaking obviously to the room, "If we don't do something, what do you think is going to happen?"

"Captain," Kagami started, gently, despite the artificial modulation, "the gravity distortion, this deep in the planet's gravity well eventually will start creating tidal forces the planet will not be able to tolerate. The planet will grow unbalanced, and the distortion's gravity, combined with the planet's spin, will likely tear it apart...eventually."

She nodded, "And until then?"

"Earthquakes, storms, probably massive destruction of the planet's crust leading to massive volcanic eruptions. They are trying to evacuate the population, but there are only so many shuttles, and there are many thousands of colonists on the service."

Samantha looked up from the table, she could feel the needle in her brain throbbing, but the tears she could feel trickling down her face overshadowed it.

"It, it's just too big Captain...N'Tanya," she pleaded, "I don't...you're asking me to come up with a miracle solution."

N'Tanya tilted her head to the side, "My people don't believe in miracles, as your people understand them. You have to do some things, no matter how improbable, no matter how impossible. Right now you seem like the only one with a chance to make this thing stop, so I am asking you to tell me if you can find the solution we need. I need that answer now, because if you do not think you can perform this 'miracle' as you call it, then I need to tell my cousin that, so they can abandon their rescue efforts."

"W...what?"

"When that planet starts breaking apart, it is likely going to destroy everything around it. Without Dreamspace drives, the only way our ships have a chance to escape with as many people as they've rescued is to leave now." She sighed, "We save as many as we can...but we have to save ourselves first."

Samantha looked at the screen, the black blot marring the beautiful colors of the planet below. She could already see the clouds starting to surround and gather around the growing disc as it expanded further into the atmosphere. It looked like an eye against the face of the planet, set on its gaze destroying all it could see.

Samantha swallowed hard and looked down at the table in front of her. She pressed against the needle in her head, using the circuitry in her head to enhance the feel of it. The needle was the presence in her brain of the 'wrongness' in the space outside, and she could sense the power as it grew. Samantha could sense something there, something at the core, surrounded by the black weight.

She licked her lips and looked up to N'Tanya.

"Don't call off the ships yet."

She glanced one more time at the view screen,

"I will figure it out, I promise I will." She spoke to the room, though she could almost sense N'Tanya nod behind her, followed a moment later by the sound of the room hatch cycling again behind her.

"So...how do I pull off a miracle," she wondered aloud.

"The goddess gives us everything we need to perform whatever task the universe requires," Kagami's voice replied, "We just have to have faith in our tools, and within the seat of wisdom given by our minds, granted by the goddess."

Samantha blinked, and then actually smiled slightly, "Kagami...I think your goddess may be a better provider then we thought."

*

"You are going to explain to me why this isn't a horrendously bad idea at some point, yes?"

N'Tanya looked askance at Samantha, who stood in front of the command chair, hands clasped nervously in front of her.

"I know...every time one of...us, plugged into a power source, it created one of those tears out there. But that was before Kagami worked with me. I am in control of the machines now. What I'm feeling out there," she gestured to the view screen, "is someone like me, but being fed power. I could close small holes using just me...but if I have any chance of closing that one, I need power, more power then whatever they're using to feed that."

N'Tanya closed her eyes a moment, while her lips tightened.

The rest of the crew was at their stations, but every one of them kept glancing at the view on the screen, of the blackness stretching against the backdrop of the planet. The hole was now dozens of kilometers wide, and the distortion around it seemed to be growing even faster than the tear itself. The clouds had formed a hurricane around the growing gravity distortion thousands of kilometers circle.

"So what makes you think that plugging yourself directly into the ship's reactors is even slightly a good idea, and won't just kill you?"

Samantha licked her lips, "I...I don't...but Kagami is plugged into the ship's systems, and she is able to manage the power."

N'Tanya smirked, "Yes...but she's not directly drawing from the reactor, she's controlling the ship, the ship's systems do all the actual work. You're asking to plug your brain directly into a power source something like a miniature version of the star over there," she commented as she gestured to the gleam of sunlight peeking over the curve of the planet.

"I...I know it's not exactly the same...but that's what this," she gestured to her head, "is supposed to do...take power and turn it into control. Before it was programmed just to break the seam between our universe and the Dreamspace...but I'm in control of it now, and I think I can use it to close a rip instead of opening one...if I get close enough."

N'Tanya perked up and her eyes narrowed, "Close enough? How close is close enough?"

"Ummmm, I don't know...but I think close."

N'Tanya's lips tightened even more, and Samantha thought that if N'Tanya could somehow burn her and the hole on the view screen down to nothing with just her gaze, she'd probably do so in a moment.

"So...let me see if I understand you. You want me to hook you into the ship's systems, with a direct line to our reactor, and then fly our ship into that." She pointed at the screen, "and assuming we aren't completely and instantly obliterated, somehow find the source of it so you can maybe use whatever you've done to the circuitry in your head to close the hole that another someone with the same circuitry made because they have another power source of some unknown type."

Samantha gulped, "Ummmm...yes Captain that sounds about right."

N'Tanya wiped her hand over her face, "Kagami," she started, "I know how bad that thing feels to you, what's to prevent you from going catatonic as soon as we get near it?"

"I think with Samantha's help and reinforcement, I can remain in control Captain, it is why the goddess placed her here, I believe."

N'Tanya's lip quirked up at the corner, "I'm not sure I always share your faith Kagami, but at least you're confident about it."

N'Tanya touched the comms control, "Dunner...how soon could you have a set of pilot hookups ready to go in the reactor access chamber?"

Dunner's voice, normally calm came back startled, "Not long captain, I can swipe the one in the med-bay and probably have it hooked up in an hour...but why?"

N'Tanya shook her head, "Don't ask, even I'm not sure why I'm doing it, entirely. Just...get it done, ok?"

Samantha linked and looked up, a tentative smile on her face.

N'Tanya held up a finger, "Don't say a word," she started, before she touched another control on the console.

N'Tanya's voice rang out across the ships' decks as she turned on the full PA system.

"Attention all crew. We are about to do something extremely stupid, potentially suicidal, and extremely noble...all for no compensation. Everyone here had his or her own reasons for joining my crew, but you're all a mercenary pack if I've ever seen one, and I don't blame you if you want to get the hell out now while the getting is good...or even possible. The way that thing in space is growing I'm not sure you can escape, but if you want to try anyone who wishes to leave is free to do so. We have one hour to stock as many shuttles with emergency provisions and power, and send them on their way. None of you signed up to be heroes, or martyrs, so I hold no grudges if you take off. It's the smart thing to do...and if it weren't my ship, I'd probably be joining you. So make your decisions, and for those that decide the risk is too much, I wish you good fortune."

N'Tanya hit the PA control and sat back in her seat. She closed her eyes for a few moments. Samantha stood there, shifting from foot to foot, looking to N'Tanya quietly. She was just about to speak again when N'Tanya opened her eyes, her golden gaze meeting the human's brown-eyed one.

"I should have sold you all when I had the chance," the sardonic tone, and amused smile on N'Tanya's lips took the bite of her words, and Samantha couldn't help but smile in return as she replied.

"Maybe...but then who would have been around to show you your crusade?"

*

Out of the crew of over fifty, almost half of the crew chose to remain on the ship. True to her word, N'Tanya stocked enough medium shuttles with as much food, power sources, and oxygen as she could. The view screen on the bridge showed the shuttles burning away, their arc taking them out of the planet's orbit hopefully faster than the planet could break up.

Sires stood next to the bridge chair, her hand resting on it as she watched their engines burning brightly in the view, while N'Tanya rested her chin between her forefinger and thumb.

"I'm surprised as many of them stayed," N'Tanya said thoughtfully.

"Well, for some reason my captain, you seem to inspire some kind of loyalty. I just don't know how you do." Sires responded with a slight smile.

Rakarra and Nasir remained as well, in fact all the bridge crew remained, even the little Fitter, and Dunner.

Rakarra looked up from his console,

"Shuttles are away captain and clear, weapons are clear and ready...I don't know what they'll do against that, but they're ready to go."

Nasir looked up as well and touched the comm bead in his ear, "The evacuation of the planet is progressing for now...sounds like they have had some casualties, but they are managing."

N'Tanya nodded and touched the PA control. "Dunner, how much time?"

His voice came back almost immediately, "Almost there captain, we just have to get a couple more connections in place, and the throne will be ready for its Queen."

N'Tanya snorted, "If there is a Queen around here Dunner, it's me...just get our little princess set up as quickly as you can, the planet's not going to wait a large amount longer."

"Yes Captain."

*

"Yes Captain," Dunner said, then cut the connection.

He turned back to where Samantha was connecting a few more electrical leads from the chair to the main power systems. She'd caught on incredibly quickly, he thought, and they would have missed his estimated time by far, if she hadn't started performing the hookups nearly as quickly as he could.

"Watch that one..." he warned her though, "that's a main conduit, it is hot, and can't be turned off as long as the reactor is running."

Samantha snatched her hand back from the conduit she was about to disconnect and blushed deeply, "Sorry...sorry, I guess I haven't picked up everything yet then."

Dunner smiled and reached in; he detached one of the secondary power leads and plugged it into a socket on the diagnostic chair they'd practically ripped out of the med-bay earlier.

"Do not worry," he started in his slow, deliberate way, "you are doing well, I could wish for such talent in all of my apprentices."

Samantha tapped her temple, "It's this thing, the machines just make all the connections...easy. It's almost like I can see a circuit diagram in my head just by looking at the systems."

Dunner nodded, "Well, whatever it is, perhaps when this is over you can join me and we can see about getting this old girl tuned and running its best, yes?"

Samantha nodded again, "Deal," she then stepped back and looked over the chair, "what next then? I can't see anything."

Dunner patted the arm of the chair, "That's because there is nothing left...except you."

Samantha swallowed and looked over the chair, "I know this was my idea, but now I'm not so sure I want to sit in the chair."

Kagami's voice came across the PA system,

"Samantha, I know you have done well...but please hurry," even across the electronic systems Samantha could 'hear' the strain in her voice, "I could use your help, the distortion feeling is very intense."

Samantha nodded, now that she wasn't focusing on the chair, she could feel it too. The spike in her brain throbbed, and she quickly scrambled into the chair and sat back. "Ok, before I change my mind then...hook me up."

Dunner nodded and stepped forward. He touched a couple of controls on the chair. Immediately Samantha felt the chair shift and snug in, holding her securely, but gently. At the same time she could feel probes snug into the slots on either side of her neck with an audible snick that seemed to reverberate through her skull.

Dunner stepped into her field of view, holding a small diagnostic device.

"Power draw is normal," he started, his voice almost soothing, "nothing adverse happening to our systems that I can see. How do you feel," he asked Samantha quietly.

She licked her lips, "I'll tell you in a moment."

She closed her eyes and focused inwards, seeking the connection to the circuitry in her head. She drew on Kagami's training and let her senses extend outwards, to try to find the connections to the devices connected to her mind.

She immediately discovered that it was so much different from the little toy she and Kagami used for practice. Power practically thrummed through her entire 'body' and she found that she suddenly had eyes everywhere. Every corner of the ship opened to her mind. Every conversation, the feeling of air brushing through her 'body' as the air circulated through the ship. She could feel a dull heat as the engines remained at idle, she could feel the 'pressure' as radiation caressed across her exterior sensors, and as she extended her mind outwards, she found she could see outside, beyond the ship.

It was incredible; the blackness of space hovered in her mind, but overlapped was colors, images, impressions as her mind interpreted the sensory input from all the cameras that faced into space. She could also feel an...itch, as she realized that she was receiving signal from the drones they sent around the spacial distortion.

The distortion was present as well, the pressure on her brain became both more intense, but more controllable, as her brain, with the help of her internal machines interpreted all the sensory images and input from the distortion and tried to translate it into something she could understand.

A moment later and another presence touched hers. A familiar, soft feeling of another conscious touched hers, she was aware of another body, in another chair, in another part of the ship, and she smiled.

Hello Kagami

Kagami's 'voice' filled her mind, and behind it Samantha could feel a mixed body response, stress from resisting the distortion's sensation, but relief at the contact of their minds, bridged across the ship's circuitry.

Hello, goddess blessed...it worked.

Samantha nodded, realized Kagami couldn't see it and smiled. She realized that she suddenly had a thousand 'mouths' as she found the speakers across the ship. She turned on the one in the power room where Dunner stood nervously over her body...an unusual sensation for her since she could see it from the third person through the room's camera.

"I think it worked Dunner...we're here now..."

Kagami's voice followed,

"Yes, we're both here."

Dunner nodded suddenly, an obviously star struck look on his face as he looked up to the ceiling almost reflexively.

"Wow, I've never heard of two pilots plugged into the same system...it's amazing. How are you feeling? I still don't pick up any unusual power drain or anything like that."

Samantha considered the question and reached out with her mind. She could practically 'see' the trails of power coursing through the ship, one set leading to her chair, and almost directly into her brain. Carefully, lightly, she 'tugged' on the power, and was relieved when she felt the ship respond and power course through her mental circuitry.

She did not feel that draw though, that second set of commands that sought to draw out all power from anything connected. She felt no rift forming inside her...all she could feel was the spreading rift out in space, though more clearly now she could feel something behind it, it was not all power, but there was power at the source.

This is most unusual...but not unwelcome. Kagami's voice chimed in her mind, I can feel you exert your control over the systems, like you were tugging on my own mind...but I feel no need to resist. Rather, I just feel like what you do is what I do...as though it were my own action as well.

I think...I think this might actually work. Samantha replied.

Then it is perhaps time to tell the captain.

*

"My engineer reported a little while ago, they should be ready to test the chair shortly."

N'Tanya had two views on her screen, one-half displayed Dalarin. His usual calm demeanor was definitely fraying around the edges, though with all the shouting of orders and status reports going on the background N'Tanya could imagine what was going on, as he coordinated the attempted evacuation of all of the civilians.

"You're plugging her in then? Are you sure that's the best idea?"

N'Tanya allowed a slight shrug of her shoulders, "It's the only idea we have...and if Kagami thinks she can control the systems, then I trust her judgment. How goes the evacuation, how is the planet?"

"Our scientists are starting to get a hold on the growth curve on the...distortion. They figure we only have another few hours before the planet starts breaking up."

N'Tanya blinked and leaned forward, "Why haven't you left then? That won't be much time to get you clear..."

Dalarin smirked slightly, "We're bound to get every last person we can off-planet. Our pilots are good, the ships are leaving orbit at the last second they can go with enough clearance to give the best chance at escaping."

N'Tanya tilted her head to the side, "It won't be enough though...will it?"

Dalarin shook his head, his smirk falling as he passed a hand across his face, "No...not by half."

"I suppose Kagami would say we need to have faith."

A voice cut across the conversation.

"We do not think that faith is misplaced, captain."

N'Tanya blinked. The voice had a weird double-tone to it, a chorus tone that was entirely different then Kagami's usual tones through the machines.

"Kagami? That's you?"

"Yes captain," the chorus voice replied, "and the young human, Samantha...we are joined through the ship."

Dalarin obviously could hear the voice over the comm link, as he looked just as startled as he looked back.

"Joined? What do you mean?"

"It is...unusual," the double-voice replied, "it is like we are reflections, or reverberations of each other. Our thoughts are separate, but our actions are together. Two minds governing a single body, the ship."

N'Tanya tried to hide her look of apprehension as she replied,

"You didn't tell me you were going to plug her in Kagami, I ordered you to notify me."

"We apologize captain. The chair connected successfully, and we decided not to waste any more time."

Dalarin glanced off screen and N'Tanya noticed him tapping a couple of commands, no doubt piping their feed to another station. N'Tanya wondered just who was going to go over -this- footage before she nodded.

"So are we ready? You are confident we can close the tear down?"

"Yes, we are...we will need to go into the distortion though. Even with all of the power behind the ship, it has grown too large for us to affect at this distance. We need (insert name here) to pilot us into the distortion though, we will be diverting all of our concentration to shielding the ship from the transition through that unnatural gateway to the dream."

N'Tanya looked at the growing blackness, around it the light shifted, twisted, distorted as it warped around the gravity created by the distortion.

She shook her head, "If anyone is going to pilot my ship through that, it is going to be me."

"As you wish captain."

"When are you ready?"

"Now...captain, before the distortion grows much more."

As N'Tanya nodded, Dalarin gestured. N'Tanya looked to him,

"Are you absolutely sure about this?"

N'Tanya nodded, "I think so cousin...I trust my ship and my crew, if they say we can do it, we can do it."

Dalarin looked off screen as someone handed him another pad. "I will let the rest know of your plan...how will we know if it works?"

N'Tanya smirked, "I get the impression you'll know cousin...and if it doesn't, well, it was a worthy run."

Dalarin tilted his head to the side and an uncharacteristically genuine smile crossed his lips. "It was indeed cousin. Good luck." He reached out and cut the connection.

*

Loftwyn looked up from his position at the other station, he'd watched and listened to the conversation, including the confounding, unusual double-speak from that pilot and the human.

"Do you think they have a chance?"

He asked quietly,

"I think my Cousin has never done anything she didn't believe had some chance, for better or worse..." Dalarin smiled, "and her record of long-shots has paid off so far. I would not go against anything she puts her will to..."

Loftwyn nodded, touched the console, and then turned his head to see the Dreamer hanging in space.

"Good luck."

He murmured in an almost silent undertone.

*

"One last systems check," N'Tanya called out.

She didn't sit at her accustomed chair, even though she could pilot just as easily from there as from anywhere else on the bridge. It stood empty in the main position, while N'Tanya had her hands across the panels in the main navigator's seat.

Lilanthe occupied the secondary seat; she wasn't crew, strictly speaking but she didn't leave when the others left, nor had she accepted the offer of a ride to Dalarin's ship.

"Are you kidding? This is going to be a one of a kind ride, there is no way I'm going to miss it."

That was that...she was using the secondary panel as a way to monitor and control the artificial gravity generators across the ships. The obvious distortions of light around the distortion indicated that the gravity around it was doing some unusual things, so with Dunner's consultation they determined the best way to counter that would be to hopefully micro-manage the gravity around the ship to counter the distortions.

Nasir and Rakarra were at their accustomed stations. Weapons were of course useless, but somehow the big cat in the gunner's seat was something of a soothing presence for N'Tanya. Nasir gave reports on the growing distortion, and the comm traffic on the other ships in brief snippets.

N'Tanya also hoped she would be able to make some sense of ...whatever they were going to pick up once they were inside the blackness.

N'Tanya stretched out and cracked her fingers, flexing them as if she were about to play a supremely large instrument.

She tapped the controls to the PA system. "This is the captain speaking. We are about to start our approach to the distortion. Everyone remain in your stations, you all know how it goes...stay close to the central shaft and sound off with damage reports. Everyone report in, ready to go, or not?"

"Engineering and power, ready." Dunner's voice came across. Despite it all, it sounded like he was just as calm as always, as if it was an every-day affair.

"We are ready," responded the chorused voice of Kagami/Samantha....which still sounded very odd to her.

A chorus of voices sounded across the ship, sounding ready from all stations.

N'Tanya nodded, and then looked over to Nasir, "Are the attachments clear?"

Nasir nodded, "All clear captain, it's just us."

N'Tanya smiled, "It's been a long time since we've really seen what this flyer can do...let's find out."

She touched a couple of controls, and the great engines flared to life.

The ship was no longer burdened with secondary hulls or attachments, it was in its most pure, stripped down configuration, a beautiful gleaming spindle of crystalline structured metal, metals flaring in the darkness. During the preparations, they'd moved as close to the distortion as they dared. They moved the ship to the edge of the atmosphere, outside the reach of the gravity distortion, but giving them as little lead up as possible. Without all the added mass from the detached sections the Dreamer was able to accelerate swiftly. It was always a fast ship, but now it was practically starlight itself it seemed. The ship twisted gracefully as the nose shifted towards the distortion, a great flame-driven dart flying across the night towards the black target marring the world below.

N'Tanya kept her eyes on the view screens below her. She knew that the visual input was deceiving, so she read the trajectory numbers and arcs as they grew and stretched across her display. She swore she could feel the thrum of the engines through the ship, though the gravity should make that impossible. It didn't matter though, she knew it...and she thought it felt like unbridled joy as the ship was in free flight for the first time in cycles.

Nasir's voice piped up from his console, "We're about to hit atmosphere Captain," he reported, "then we have 180 seconds to the event horizon, if the sensors are right....and 60 seconds to the gravity distortions."

N'Tanya nodded and spread her hands across the console. "Give me mark on atmospheric entry."

Nasir nodded, "Five...four...three...two...one...mark!"

By the time the Starlight Dreamer hit the atmosphere, it was going fast enough that the compression and heating effects flared into being almost instantly. Orange-red flame and plasma formed on the shockwave from the ships' passage through the thin layer of atmosphere. It did not slow down the ship though; the great engines kept pushing, accelerating faster, faster, until the flame stretched out behind the ship as if it were going to ignite the entire storm into one giant firestorm.

On the inside, the ship trembled; it vibrated now noticeably, the artificial gravity unable to keep up entirely with the massive forces and stress on the ship. If it weren't for the exceptional materials that made up the hull, no doubt it would have broken up almost instantly upon its entrance to atmosphere. Instead, N'Tanya's hands continued their maestro-like performance across the console, adjusting trim, changing their course and rolling slightly to make course corrections, to take them through the atmosphere in the route that will carry them past the worst part of the storm.

The gravity generators were not able to suppress the sounds of the storm though, not entirely. The firestorm around them roared, the sound grew louder and louder as the hull translated the sound of the air's fury over the violation from the ship's passage.

"Captain, Lilanthe, we're going to hit the gravity distortions...10 seconds." Nasir shouted over the thrum and roar.

N'Tanya nodded and spared a glance over at Lilanthe, "Get ready."

Lilanthe nodded and put her hands on the controls, watching the readings carefully.

It wasn't enough though; nothing could prepare them for when the ship slammed into the gravity distortions. It was like going from a rushing, but smooth river, to the rapids before a waterfall. The ship jerked hard, it slewed and twisted in a way that felt like there was no way it could sustain the movement, all while the atmosphere burned.

N'Tanya tried her best, she could feel it in her bones, and the ship was a bucking, living thing in her hands.

"I...I can't get a good enough handle on it!" Lilanthe shouted, "It's too random...too variable."

N'Tanya felt the ship groan and twist under her hands; the distorted gravity pulled the ship in many different directions at once.

"Well...guess!" She shouted back, "That's what you're good at, right, improvise..." N'Tanya suddenly saw a red flare on her console, and Dunner's voice came over the comm. He even sounded a little...wobbly as he reported in.

"C...captain, that was the port side wing, it was too much; it sheared off."

N'Tanya could feel the ship, it was starting to twist, and her readings showed her that with only one wing, the ship was beginning to corkscrew. She reached for a control to stabilize, but a sudden gravity ship slammed her, the entire ship sideways.

She rapidly hit the emergency controls and looked to Lilanthe, "Get some kind of control or we're not even going to get the chance to see if we die in that hole."

Lilanthe nodded and tapped out controls on the console, while N'Tanya accessed the emergency controls. A few command controls and the other wing detached and blew away from the ship, swept away in moments. Now they truly were a dart, no atmospheric control, just their engines as a way to control their course. N'Tanya licked her lips and shouted to the room,

"A little help you two!"

"We're sorry captain, we're doing all we can just to shield ourselves and get the envelope ready, this is not like a regular Dreamspace transition. If we do not hold this, we will be destroyed just as surely."

"I think I have it!" Lilanthe called out triumphantly as her hands danced.

N'Tanya quickly felt the slewing, twisting, and groaning of the ship lesson as the gravity generators started working and countering the distortions. She returned her gaze to the view screen, realizing that all of a sudden it looked the unnatural blackness filled the entire screen. The edges seemed frayed against the colors behind them, but then they too disappeared as the darkness loomed in front of them.

"Here we go captain...event horizon in three...two...one."

*

From Dalarin's perspective N'Tanya's ship, the dart of fire and light flared brightest, as the darkness seemed to surround it. In the briefest moment, it flared even brighter then the system's sun, and then it vanished into the seething darkness.

*

On the bridge, all movement stopped. N'Tanya couldn't feel the thrum of the ship's engines, the wind roar and fire ceased immediately, and the buffeting from the variable gravity smoothed into nothing.

The view screen showed nothing but blackness, and a couple of taps on the control panel showed that all the external screens showed the same thing. It was...different. Generally, Dreamspace jumps were near instantaneous when the pilot was going somewhere they already knew the route. On less certain routes, the jump might seem to take a few seconds, but no longer, certainly not long enough to get any good observation of the dimension outside the ship.

"I...is that it? Are we inside?" She started hesitantly.

Lilanthe, Rakarra, and Nasir looked around cautiously from their stations, still braced as if something would fling them from their stations at any moment.

Nasir's tail gave a swish behind him, and he parted, and closed his mouth several times, before he finally spoke up,

"The last readings that made anything resembling sense said that yes...we were just about to pass into the...tear."

He glanced down at his panel,

"Now I'm not getting...anything, no readings at all, it's like there is nothing outside the ship, no space, no energy, no...nothing."

Lilanthe nodded slowly, "Gravity is...non-existent...it seems. Our generators are functioning just fine, but they are reacting as if there were no other gravity influences at all....that's not possible, is it? Even in deep space, you're always under the subject of something."

N'Tanya looked up to the ceiling,

"Kagami? Samantha? Are you there?"

Rakarra growled slightly, an obviously nervous habit as he looked up as well, "Do you think they're..." he started.

N'Tanya held up a finger, silencing the comment from Rakarra, and then touched the comm control.

"All stations report, damage and injuries?"

Dunner responded first,

"Captain, both wing-scoops are gone completely, the second detached cleanly, but it looks like there's three sections on the opposite side breached...with the atmosphere shock, we have to consider these sections a complete loss."

N'Tanya nodded, realized he couldn't see it, started again,

"Anything else?"

"A few panels broke loose during the worst of it, maybe a couple of blown conduits, otherwise we're doing ok. Power readings are showing steady..."

"And Samantha?"

"The chair's intact, but she's gone quiet...I can't tell if she's ok or not."

"Captain," Sires' voice cut in, interrupting the engineer, "There were a half dozen crew in those sections, I can't get anything back from them...I, I think we have to consider them gone as well."

She sounded aggrieved, and N'Tanya closed her eyes, sure, she'd lost crew before, but she couldn't help but think of what their last moments must have been like, either blown out into the wind to or burnt by the plasma of their passage. She hoped they at least died quickly. She licked her lips though and continued through,

"Can you get any readings on Kagami, or Samantha? They're not responding."

"I'm still getting their biorhythm feeds Captain; yes...they're alive, definitely...but under stress. In addition, their brainwaves are just...remarkable. I can see massive activity in the parts of the brain normally associated with dreaming, but they give all indications they are still conscious...I just don't know."

"Get to the Pilot chamber as quickly as you can Sires, I don't know what's going on, but I want you to support them any way you can."

"Yes Captain..." they replied, before the comms cut.

N'Tanya looked around, and then slowly sunk into her chair, letting out a harsh breath, "Well...we got them here...I guess we just have to have," she smirked slightly, "faith, that they know what to do next."

*

Samantha could feel the pressure, the twisting, an insistent wrongness twisting around her mind, but when she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in a great domed structure. Spires of gleaming crystal stretched from the base, dozens of meters high, forming a perfect support for the dome that rose above them. The dome itself seemed clear to her, but beyond was only darkness.

She shuddered slightly as she felt the presence in her mind...twist, and at the same time, the darkness beyond the dome seemed to shift and flow against the clear surface. She suddenly realized it was not space, but almost like tar, some kind of liquid blackness that was weighing against the clear dome.

At the center of the dome, standing at the exact base, was Kagami. She was naked, her arms stretched above her body, her expression one of furrowed concentration. Samantha felt another twist, and something brush against her mind, and Kagami winced. Samantha looked up sharply as something seemed to appear out of the tar darkness and bump against the clear dome...it wasn't something she could put a description to, but it was something of teeth, and hideous form.

Samantha quickly walked over to the center of the dome, only barely taking the moment to realize that she too, was nude. Kagami did not turn when she approached, but none-the-less Samantha felt/heard her voice in her head as the two met.

Thank the goddess you made the transition...I was not sure for a moment.

Where are we? Did we make it inside the tear?

I believe so...this is definitely the Dream...but it is all wrong, it is not supposed to be this turbulent. I feel like we are a bubble caught in a rushing river...trying to go upstream.

Samantha winced at another twist,

That must be the feeling of this place...flooding, I guess...into our reality.

Kagami nodded shortly, and gasped at the same time Samantha felt another something brush her mind. When she looked up she saw another form, this one heavier, larger, slam again into the dome. A small series of cracks spider webbed out from the impact point, only to vanish a moment later.

The predators...they are in frenzy, this is wrong for them too. It is as if they can sense the food on the other side of the tear, but cannot get there. They have never been this aggressive.

Samantha nodded and looked around,

What can I do? We need to get to the other dreamer, close the tear.

Kagami's expression crinkled in concentration,

Normally, I can shield the ship from the Dream, and move it at the same time...I cannot this time, I must spend all my energy keeping the currents and the predators out. I am not sure how long I can do this...you need to pilot the ship through the Dream. You must take it where we need to go where we can close the tear.

Samantha looked around at the blank dome,

I don't understand, how do I do all that?

We are in the dream...this is a place of mind...this is just my image of the shield I placed around the ship. You need to...to control your mind, and will us to go where you wish. Can you feel the other Dreamer in the darkness?

Samantha concentrated on the sensations coursing through her mind. She could feel the twisting blackness trying to overwhelm her, but she ruthless suppressed that sensation, as well as the sensation of another "thing" brushing against her, trying to find its way in. She dug underneath that, and soon could feel a pinpoint, something nestled down at the base of the darkness. A mind, one suffused with power, around which the twisting wrongness wrapped and pushed outwards.

Y...yes, I think I know where to go.

There was another shudder, another impact on the dome, and another crack. This one did not close as quickly though, the spider web edges blurring a bit before they retracted inwards and the impact site turned clear again.

Good Kagami began, and Samantha thought she could even feel the growing strain in the other woman's internal 'voice'. So visualize a way to get us there, and use your will to push...I will hold the bubble, you must provide the strength to go against the current.

Samantha nodded and concentrated a moment. She'd only seen a few pilots before, but her own idea of a control sprung to mind. Almost immediately the floor at the bottom of the dome shifted, the 'metal' turning liquid as it crawled up into the air. Pieces branched off, forming two vertical handgrips for pilot controls, while a third formed an old-fashioned lever throttle control.

Samantha looked back to Kagami, Now what!

Now get us there...quickly

Kagami replied, before another form slammed against the dome. It sent both of them stumbling. Samantha looked up and saw a leering, tentacled, toothy form on the other side of a rapidly spreading crack in the dome.

Get away! She "shouted" in her mind, and remarkably, a spike of crystal shot forth from the dome and impaled the creature it's grotesque body. At the same time she felt the machine in her head warm, she could feel power, external power come flooding in. Samantha concentrated and willed the crack in the dome closed, then turned back to Kagami.

She was on one knee, panting slightly, though she smiled as she looked up to Samantha,

I knew you were strong...but I do not think that was all you.

No, I am drawing on the ship, I think. Let me help...if I can.

Samantha stepped forward and drew Kagami up, then pressed against her.

She was acutely aware of their respective nudity, even if it was not real. She could feel the fur as if it was though, and she blushed for a brief moment before she drew in Kagami's sensory input.

Her body was taking real injuries from the conflict from the creature; she could see it as if she were another system. Samantha 'reached' in and soothed the soreness, directing her body to pump out more endorphins, more of the natural hormones meant to dull pain and encourage energy.

Thank you, Kagami said, obvious relief in her internal voice, but you must push us there quickly...I will not last forever, and the predators are becoming more and more aware of the potential meal here.

Samantha nodded and turned back to the controls she made with her mind.

She placed her hands on the controls and touched them. She immediately became aware of the impetus of 'movement' and smiled as she realized what she was seeing...icons, archetypes that represented her concepts.

She reached out and pushed on the throttle...which didn't move.

She blinked and pushed again, but it seemed stuck at 'stop.'

The current...push harder.

Samantha nodded and put both hands on the lever. She pushed hard...at the same time she felt the 'push' against the twisting darkness in her mind. She fought the resistance, she fought against the force, and at the same time, she activated the circuitry in her head, triggering it and sending it out into the ship, seeking the power she needed.

*

"Captain, reactor is spiking."

Dunner looked over the panels, and then looked back at the frail-seeming human girl in the chair. He'd seen her twist, writhe and wince in the chair over the past few minutes, but now she had a look of determination on her face.

He tapped the controls though, as he watched the power draw on the reactor spike arc upwards. 20%...30%...edging towards 50% of capacity, all going into that chair...and into that girl's brain.

The captain's voice came back over the PA system,

"Are we in danger Dunner? Is it overloading?"

"Not yet captain...but whatever they're doing, it's putting a lot of strain on the systems."

Red lights started flaring across the board, while he watched the power draw crawl towards 60%,

"We're popping off conduits Captain; we'll need damage control teams to head off any potential fires. I'm closing down all non-emergency systems. Whatever those two are doing, they are going to need every ounce of power we can provide I think."

"Do it, I'll instruct all crew members to keep clear routes to emergency safe zones....not that I have any idea what to keep them safe from." She finished in a half tone, which Dunner barely heard.

"Aye Captain."

Dunner replied. He quickly went through the procedures, shutting down junctions, redirecting power flow, making sure that all other systems went through secondary batteries and conduit.

All the while, he watched the draw on the generator creep up slowly, ever so slowly.

*

It felt like clawing across the ground in hurricane force winds. Samantha pushed and pushed that speed lever, the machines in her mind flooded with the power they drew from the ship's generator. She was half-aware of alerts as her body, the ship, gave up the fight against overloads and excessive power draws. Panels blew out, and conduits overloaded, but it didn't matter.

All that mattered was that she could feel the bubble, the ship, herself getting closer and closer to the source of the flood, the wind, the darkness that twisted all around them. She grit her teeth, realized it was not real, did it anyway as she *concentrated* on reaching that little point in the middle of it all.

She could feel more of the creatures outside buffeting against the dome, and more and more they were leaving cracks that Kagami could not repair, not fully. Samantha also knew that if she lost her concentration on moving towards the center of the darkness to repair the cracks, to reinforce Kagami, that she would lose the fight and they would slide back again against the force.

_How are you doing?_She 'grunted' back to Kagami.

I am holding...but anything you can do to...speed things up...would be gratefully...appreciated.

Samantha nodded and 'pushed' harder. She could feel more components on the ship let go and burn out, but it didn't matter, she could feel the sudden progress, the sudden slipping shifting progress as she worked towards the center.

There was no sensation of movement, except in her mind. She thought she fought for what seemed like hours, against the pressure in her mind, against the force she could feel through her entire body. She knew, in her mind, that there was no such thing as distance in this space...but she could not help but feel the space between her and her target stretched on...and on, into an infinite plain of space, where there were no half-distance, no real distances ever reachable.

Until...suddenly...there was.

Samantha felt a particular twist...as if she was stumbling...and then suddenly she...the bubble, all of it was still, utterly, completely still.

She blinked as she realized the strain was gone.

Is that...are we...where?

I believe...we are in another bubble... Kagami replied tiredly, perhaps one generated artificially...by that

She gestured out of the dome, which no longer had blackness beyond it, but pure, uncolored, untainted, white.

Samantha looked outside the dome, and saw the dome was just a small structure in another bubble; this one looked transparent as well.

At first Samantha thought it was another dome, like theirs, but then she watched something come through from the swirling blackness outside the bubble.

It looked like a long eel-fish, but that was only a superficial comparison, as its jaw and teeth looked too large for its body...or was it? It was difficult, as even as Samantha watched it seemed to change and shift to defy her definitions.

At the center of the sphere was another shape...this one all too familiar, a gleaming grey metal pod just floating in the middle of openness.

Samantha could feel it in her brain, could feel that it was the source, it was exerting a huge amount of power to both create the bubble, and it was channeling that power through a mind, the mind pushing the torrent, the rift outwards further and further.

It appears their masters do not consider them as valuable as we do do. Kagami gestured to the pod.

As Samantha watched, the eel, toothed, thing, flowed around it, its jaws opened wide. It snapped inwards and ripped something into the whiteness of space.

Samantha couldn't tell what it was...

Is that...

I believe it is the mind of...whatever being they are using...

Kagami panted, her body easing a little at the brief reprieve.

I fear there can be nothing left, if the predators have been feeding from it. Whoever was in the pod is now only...I guess you would say a wedge. Keeping the tear open while the power and the machines widen it.

Samantha licked her lips, what do we do now?

Kagami frowned slightly and placed a hand gently on Samantha's back,

We end their torture...that is a physical thing...we use the ship, we destroy it.

Samantha nodded, swallowed, and sent her mind out, gently proving the ship's systems.

She soon found it, a bank of missiles that could likely serve as a way to destroy the pod. However, it looked like the earlier overload completely blew out the launching system.

I think we need the help of the others...

Kagami nodded,

Soon,

she replied and glanced up.

Samantha glanced up as well, and noticed that more of the predator things had come through the sphere walls. They were no longer going for the pod, either, they were starting to circle around the crystal dome, looking very like a distorted, twisted school of sharks surrounding a tasty bit of bait.

Soon,

Samantha agreed.

*

"Captain...we need your help."

N'Tanya had been staring at a shifting black view screen for some time now. It was hard to tell the passage of time, but they'd definitely been floating motionless in whatever space they were in for some time, during which she was unable to do anything but make sure the crew stayed put, while Dunner monitored a steadily growing draw on the ship's power systems. It was an unusual situation; really, she was not used to feeling useless as Samantha and Kagami did...whatever it was they did. So when the voice came through the speakers, sounding a bit distorted, perhaps she quickly snapped to attention.

"You need my help? Why? What do you need me to do?"

"We have found the source of the tear, and we are in a position to destroy it, but we are unable to launch a weapon to do so...I'm afraid our power needs to get where we are have damaged the control and power conduits to the launching systems."

N'Tanya blinked, "Those systems are not too far, we can repair them, but it will take some time."

"We don't have time captain...the creatures of the Dream are aware of us...Kagami is doing what she can, but we cannot keep them back forever. We need to fire one of the weapons manually."

Rakarra looked up and gestured quickly to get N'Tanya's attention. N'Tanya nodded to him.

"Captain...umm, pilots..." he started, "we can get to the launching system and prime a missile fast enough, but we closed all the weapon ports before we started, we had to get through the atmosphere." His ears flicked nervously as he looked to her, "Someone can open them, but they will have to go outside to do so..."

N'Tanya looked towards the camera at the room, "Can someone go out there without being killed?"

"We...believe so Captain, we are inside the rift now, so the space is calm...but whomever you send, do it quickly. We can push our protections only so far."

Rakarra picked up again, "We also can't detect anything, or see anything, how are we supposed to target the missile?"

Nasir's panel lit up with targeting data, which the Dacos looked at quickly then looked to the captain, "I can't tell you what they are firing at," he started, "But then, I can't even tell you where we are."

"Trust us, input that firing data into the missile, it will hit the target," came the dual voice from the speakers.

N'Tanya nodded slowly, considering, before she turned to Rakarra,

"Ok, get to the missile bay as quickly as you can. Get a launcher primed and set to fire with that targeting data."

Rakarra nodded and was out of his seat in a shot. He grabbed an emergency repair kit from the wall next to the door and was half-way out the door before he looked back.

"Captain...how are we going to get the weapon port open?"

N'Tanya allowed a grim smile across her lips,

"I think I'm going to have to go take a walk."

*

N'Tanya concentrated on her breathing, in...out...in...out. She kept her gaze down on the ship hull beneath her. The iridescent seeming gray metal beneath her was almost comforting as she carefully tied herself off and pulled herself, hand-over-hand across the ship's surface. It was faster than trying to walk with her power-suit's magnetics, and that way she also didn't have to look away from the ship.

When she stepped out of the airlock, her first glimpse outside in person had been vast, disorienting. Blackness stretched in all directions.

This wasn't the black of space though, with its familiar and comforting dots of light, from the blanket of the starscape wrapped comfortably around the ship. This blackness was wrong, it seemed to live and move on its own, and she could swear she saw bulges and swells appear almost like textures in the darkness. Her mind seemed like it was playing on her, but she could swear that she could almost _feel_things out there.

From those first moments, she'd kept her gaze resolutely down at the ship hull, while Nasir's voice guided her through her comm system.

"You're going the right direction captain...just a few hundred meters from the access port. You should see a sensor spire off to your right, when you reach that you're less than a hundred meters from the weapon."

N'Tanya nodded, realized Nasir couldn't see it, "I understand," she said between breath that sounded forced and harsh. She risked a glance upwards and spotted the spire, but she immediately regretted it as well. Normally not susceptible to vertigo, something about this unnatural blackness sent her mind spinning.

She risked another glance upwards and carefully, but forcefully pushed along the side of the hull. She aimed for the sensor spire, while she tried to stay as close to the ship's hull as she could. Kagami and Samantha had warned her that they could only keep her safe in almost direct contact with the ship, and she didn't want to risk pushing the safety zone.

She reached the sensor spire and wrapped her arms around it almost desperately, before she looked down the length of the hull again, "Nasir...I'm at the spire. Where do I go from here?"

"Ok captain, you're going to go fifty meters towards the point, and then turn spinwards and go another thirty meters, that should put you right at the weapon port."

N'Tanya turned towards the bow of the ship, where the spindle stretched down to a point at the very end. She licked her lips and reattached her safety line to the sensor spire and pushed off once again, doing a bit of mental math in her head so she could take the most direct route, forming the long side of the triangle towards the weapon port. As she drifted across the hull, she hit her comm again,

"Rakarra, how are you doing? Are you at the launcher yet?"

His reply came almost immediately,

"Yes captain, I have the warhead exposed, I'm programming the manual launch now. It'll take a little bit, but I should be ready to fire by the time you get the port open."

"Keep at it; I should have the weapon port opened shortly."

"Captain," the dual voices of Kagami and Samantha cut across the comm, "you need to get back inside as soon as possible after the launch. We don't know exactly what will happen when we destroy the source of this, but we doubt it will be good for you outside the ship."

"I'll do what I can, but first things first...I've reached the port."

She pulled herself to a stop along the hull, engaging her magnetics so that she could attach quickly, stopping her momentum almost immediately as she reached an uneven four-sided seam in the side of the hull, tapered towards the ship's point.

Dunner's voice followed on the comms, "All right captain, here is what you need to do. There will be a small panel on the spinward, aft corner of the port. Use your seam opener to open the panel...tell me what you see when you do that."

N'Tanya replied, "Affirmative," and pulled herself over to the corner of the port.

She spotted the panel quickly enough, and opened the tool case she snatched on the hurried way out of the ship. She pulled the magnetic seam opener and ran it around the panel's edge.

The panel disengaged silently and drifted up into the space around the ship. N'Tanya looked into the panel and let out a low curse,

"Dunner, the panels are fried. The status lights are all burned out, and I see singe markings around the edging." She carefully hit a couple of controls just to test, "and the controls are non-responsive."

"That was expected," Dunner replied calmly, "you should have a ratchet for the secondary gear mechanism. It will be underneath an access panel just below the control."

"Got it...opening now," N'Tanya replied as she opened the bottom panel.

Her lips were dry, and she licked them almost unconsciously as she reached back. She had to look down at the tool kit as she searched for the ratchet. When she looked back, something looked back at her.

Eyes...eyes around a leech-like sucker face, filled with outwards spiked teeth peered at her from _through_the ship's hull, right through the panel.

N'Tanya cried out and pushed away, almost instinctively. The power-armor assisted push sent her sailing away from the hull, the safety line carrying her in a graceful arc.

"Captain...captain...what happened?!?! Get back to the hull, we can't protect you there!" The dual voice cried out over the comm.

N'Tanya watched as the creature emerged. It was more than just the leech-mouth and teeth; it was huge, monstrous, distorted and twisted, it had a shape that defied reasonable explanation, with eyes and teeth. She couldn't help it, she could feel its hunger as she pushed away from the hull. As it emerged from the hull, it made towards her ponderously.

It wasn't alone, N'Tanya suddenly realized. She looked around, and free from the hull she could see more of the things in all forms. Long tapers, round, bulbous, deformed, they emerged from the darkness and seemed to 'swim' towards her.

"Captain...pull yourself in...get as close to the hull as you can! Don't look at them, just pull," the pair's voice commanded over her speaker.

She didn't even question. She grabbed the safety line and just pulled. She hauled herself in hand-over-hand as quickly as she could, while she kept her eyes focused on the hull. She refused to look around, even though the hairs at the back of her neck rose, and she could feel something as though it was right at her heels.

"That's it...faster Captain...flatten yourself against the hull and DO NOT LOOK."

N'Tanya gasped her breaths out as she used every ounce of power-assisted strength and practically slammed into the side of the hull. At that moment, she also engaged her magnetics in both her hands and feet, so her body stuck to the hull and she could press against it as closely as possible.

She felt it then, something horrible, something...slimy and wrong seemingly brushed against her mind. It probed, she could feel an intense hunger, a frenzy created by the tear, and a cold predatory intelligence as it explored something new...before it suddenly withdrew, and she could feel some kind of rage as it flew away.

"There Captain, you're safe...but you need to get to that port quickly now."

N'Tanya lay there, panting a few moments longer, before she reached back to the tool kit again and grabbed the ratcheting tool.

"All right...I'm returning...returning to the job."

*

Rakarra had the panel on the side of the missile open and frantically typed controls into the device's relatively dumb guidance systems.

Ship-to-ship missiles really weren't set up for advanced targeting, by the time a weapon built up enough momentum to prove a realistic threat to a ship it also had too much energy for anything resembling 'maneuvers'. As a result, most had bare bones targeting system. They had just enough processing power to take instructions from the main computer system and find a trajectory, and perhaps make a few minor adjustments in mid-flight.

He cursed as the weapon's computer came up with another 'trajectory invalid' error as he fed in the targeting coordinates.

"You stupid rothhic computer...work," he practically shouted at the machine as he tried once again.

The missile's sensors were minimal at best, but they still couldn't make any sense of the environment it was in, so it was rejecting all commands as invalid because it could not figure out a course through the space surrounding the ship.

"Rakarra, I hope you nearly have that warhead ready to go, I'm nearly done here." The captain's voice sounded over the ship's comm system.

"Just a moment captain, I'm having a little problem, but I'll have it taken care of shortly," he replied, while he stared at the panel.

"I hope you do, I don't want to be out here any longer then I have to be."

Rakarra suddenly grinned toothily...if the sensors couldn't make any sense of their trajectory well then...

He slammed his hand into the control panel, smashing the front panel for the sensor system. He winced at the pain and the bit of blood from the impact, but he had no time to waste fiddling with disassembling the system. He then reached in, extended his claws, and ripped out the handful of cables that attached the sensor system to the rest of the missile. A few fitful sparks met his sabotage, but he barely noticed as he went back and typed the targeting commands back into the computer.

A smile split his muzzle as a flashing Target Ready notification appeared on the missile's targeting panel.

"Captain...we're ready to fire whenever you are."

*

N'Tanya twisted the ratchet as quickly as she could without losing her grip, or her precarious balance on the side of the ship. She looked over as the weapon port drew back centimeters on each crank, but at least it was progress. She licked her lips even as she continued cranking. Even with the power-armor assist, it was tiring, and she could feel the burn in her shoulders as the panel opened with each twist.

"Captain...we're ready to fire whenever you are," Rakarra's voice came over the comm.

"Got it," she panted out as she gave another twist.

The port was nearly open, she gave it a few more turns and the panel slid back almost fully into the ship's hull.

"It's open now, what next?"

Dunner replied quickly, "The systems are going to want to close it automatically, as an emergency precaution...you need to lock the ratchet down, there should be a manual lock system that attaches to the ratchet."

N'Tanya nodded to herself and looked over the panel, "Got it," she said and reached in. A mechanical hook slid into place over the ratchet handle, locking it. She looked over to the missile port. The door held open, but even that glance showed N'Tanya the flitting shape of one of the creatures, darting back into the darkness.

"Ready to fire, I'm going back, but don't wait for me." She twisted and grabbed the safety line. She disengaged the magnetics on her boots and started pulling herself back along the line, towards the sensor spire.

"Captain, we can't fire while you're out there...you might get killed," the dual voice sounded in her head.

"I'll deal with it..." she panted out, keeping her eyes focused on the sensor spire ahead of her, "Rakarra, fire that missile, that's an order!"

"Y...yes captain...firing."

N'Tanya risked a glance back over her shoulder as a vibration came through the ship, felt through the safety cord. From the open weapon port the bright searing light of a non-atmospheric missile blazed into being as the missile left the rack and flew from the opening firing port. N'Tanya pulled herself while she tried following the path of the spark of light. It traveled across the expanse of twisting darkness; N'Tanya had no idea what, if anything was its target.

She reached the spire just as the missile reached its destination. A much larger light flared into being as it detonated, the critical mass of an uncontrolled fusion reaction in miniature blazed as bright as a sun for the briefest moment, blinding if it weren't for the instant polarization on N'Tanya's visor.

N'Tanya allowed the briefest smile on her lips and turned back towards the ship, when a thing of all teeth and unreality reared up right in front of her, and lunged forward.

*

The bubble shattered, and along with it any force that pushed open the tear, and kept the distortion, the zone where the two universes 'met' open. It felt like an ocean slamming into her brain, and Samantha could feel Kagami groan as well as she felt the sudden compressing pressure.

The creatures writhing outside the cracked, split dome suddenly went into a chaotic cloud of movement, half of them fleeing out and away to vanish into the Dream, the others suddenly battering against their dome, their shield with all their force.

Samantha could feel the strain on Kagami as she fought to keep the space up against the sealing tear and the renewed assault. Her heartbeat soared, her body tensed, and she could feel the muscles spasm against Kagami's will.

The salty taste of blood met her lips, and she suddenly realized it wasn't from her, Kagami had bitten through her lip or tongue against the sudden pressure.

What can I do?

Samantha projected frantically,

How can I help you?

I...c...cannot maintain this, and move the ship...you can feel it, this place is going to be obliterated when the tear collapses...you have to take us...elsewhere.

Samantha nodded as she could feel the corners of the tear fraying, curling inwards on it. Some part of her knew that somehow time was running slower, the tear should close instantly, from the outside perspective, but in the center, it seemed like she could watch it as 'reality' pressed inwards, compressing the tear into the middle, right against the Dreamer.

I've never piloted before! I don't know where to go, what do I do?

She reached out and grabbed the 'controls' she manifested before, but they seemed locked in stone, completely immobile when she tried using them as she did before.

You must, you must find the exit point...either a place you've been before, or a place with people who Dream....then, as before, you must...take us there.

Kagami gasped as another creature thrashed against the dome, which cracked even more widely. The thing started worming its way through the crack, Samantha thought she could see 'something' suddenly grabbed in a tentacled appendage...with a start she recognized it as a mind, someone she'd met on the crew! It appeared here as a pale light against the thing's being, and even as she watched it vanished into the thing's maw, the light extinguished.

Kagami moaned and gestured towards the crack, slamming it shut against the creature before it could reach through.

Find...minds...go to them.

Samantha could feel Kagami's body weakening under the desperate assault, the way it was triggering physical symptoms of strain and damage as she exerted her will to the Dream even harder.

Samantha twisted and looked out past the dome...at first she could only see darkness, that nearly insufferable pressure on her mind as the tear closed inwards and the space compressed further.

Wait...this is all a dream...a metaphor...I am thinking too literally...

she thought to herself.

She closed her 'eyes' and sent her mind into the Dream. She felt like she left her body, a creature of the dream, walking the other space for the first time. She reached the edge of the dome, and with a determined thought pushed through easily into the twisting darkness.

She could feel the space immediately battering against her, trying to twist her apart, rip her mind to shreds. A few creatures from the dome twisted away and approached. She focused on the image of herself, and on pushing back against the pressure. Almost distantly, she felt the ship hum, the power plant channeling power into her body, as her mind demanded it.

The creatures twisted away as she suddenly pulsed with light, pressing back the compressing transition space and giving her mind freedom to feel the Dream around.

She thought she could feel nudges...draws, something close...but she wasn't sure. Something more distant caught her attention, a spark in the night, something seemingly impossibly far away, but real. It drew her, and without even thinking, she returned to her place in the dome and pressed outwards against the compressing space with her will.

At first it felt as it did before, but worse, instead of pushing outwards, it all pushed inwards, trying to lock their dome, their ship in amber so it would destroy it when reality finally reasserted it. She gave up on the metaphor and pulled on the power of the ship directly. She ground her teeth and pushed outwards in a needle-like dart through the darkness to that light, that gravity she felt outside the dome.

Through her connection with the ship she could feel more conduits blow, more circuitry give up the ghost as it tried to carry power beyond its capability as she drew on the reactors harder and harder. She could feel the circuitry working with her mind, finally given reign to fulfill its purpose, albeit altered to her purposes, channeling the ship's power into her as the living conduit between Dreamspace, and the universe.

It felt like an almost physical break, and suddenly she could feel the generator give her complete access to the blazing energy at its core.

She couldn't help it, she let out an exultant laugh and slammed the dome around her and Kagami back in place, the cracks disappearing and going further, lances of pure crystal thrusting past to impale and blow away the predators. As she did she noticed one, just outside the dome, not focused on them, not focused on running, but focused on something else...some kind of prey...a mind.

Samantha cried out in horror as she realized the Captain never made it back inside, and with a concentrated thrust of power impaled the predator on a spear of crystal. It writhed and twisted as it fought, but another thought spread the spear into an extension of the dome, bursting the creature to pieces and enveloping the Captain in its protection. She could feel something there...but she was not sure what, and she did not have time.

She could feel the collapsing space growing close, so she wedged fingers of power into the needle-thin connection to the other place and ripped the connection wider. She could feel the pull and gave into it, propelling the ship, the crew, all of them into the connection through the Dream.

It felt like she flew, so fast...the gravity and light grew until it filled her mind. As she left it behind she could feel the dark space of the tear close in and the two universes separate as the tear slammed shut. It sent a pulse through the Dream; she was sure it sent one through real-space as well.

The pulse caught up with them, and despite her power, she was unable to shield against it completely. Kagami helped as best she could, but she was already worn, broken. The wave swept over them. She could feel the ship twist and warp as the Dream reality washed over it, and then they were there...the light and gravity surrounded them, and with a final push, she could feel Kagami's mind behind it, she let the Dream sweep away and the Universe replace it.

*