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Fynor rushed back into his quarters and hastily sat in the chair at his desk, wincing in pain as once again he sat on his bobbed tail. There was no time for dealing with the damned thing, he needed to contact the Imperial Navy immediately. Marrin had rushed into the hanger minutes after he had returned to check on Gahn and Roger, bellowing about how the human had taken Captain Rels hostage on the bridge and that they were going to Sol. He had to stop himself from jumping for joy when it'd happened, instead following Marrin to the armoury and preparing the crew for a foray deep into "enemy" territory. Roger was going to deliver himself straight into the emperor's hands, and Fynor tasked himself with ensuring it happened.

He switched on his covert communication array, and quickly entered his credentials. The lynx tapped a claw impatiently on the desk while he waited for a connection to establish.

"Frank, do you have any idea what time it is?" came the annoyed voice of his handler as the smooth-skinned human appeared on the screen.

"I have something to report, George," he replied flatly.

"We just got your last report a few hours ago, has something changed?"

He smiled, baring his pointed teeth which caused George to shudder subtly, but enough for Fynor to detect. "Indeed something has, the man held captive on this ship has taken the captain hostage and we are now on our way to Earth."

"By the old empire!" George exclaimed, "I thought you said he agreed to work with the beasts, now you're saying he intends to deliver them straight to us?"

The lynx shook his head, "Apparently he really wants to return to Earth and refuses to believe it destroyed until he can see it with his own eyes."

"If he's really from Earth's past like you've reported he's going to be in for quite the shock then. How long until you reach Sol?"

"About two hours."

"Fuck, you could've given us a little more advance warning, Frank."

"There was no time, we weren't far to begin with and I had to play the part of quartermaster in preparing the ship for arrival in," he laughed, "hostile territory." He fixed George with a hard stare and his slit eyes narrowed, "I can disable all their weapons in an instant and this ship might as well be unarmed otherwise, will you be sending a navy ship to pick us up?"

"I'll see what I can do, but two hours, and this late at night, fuck, I'm going to have to promise a favour or two to Admiral Reimer. It's a good thing that the Emperor has heard of this Earth man and has already requested we devote resources to securing him. You've gotten half of the empire abuzz about it." George's expression turned deadly serious, "He better be the genuine article, Frank, Director Hunt said he'll have your pelt for a rug if this turns out to be a ruse on your part to get out of a bad assignment."

"I'm right, you'll see," Fynor responded almost fanatically, "I'll have Hunt's job and my humanity back when this is through. I must go now, the first officer is entirely too clever and I don't need to arouse his suspicions." He clenched his right fist and placed it across his chest while covering his face with his left hand. "My body and mind for the Emperor," a reference the intelligence operative's oath of service.

"May he use them to strike down all who oppose his will," came his handler's response before the screen went blank.

George leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, "Fuck," he declared aloud to the empty room around him. He got up, exited, and practically ran through the halls of the ENS Divine Might, hoping that he'd be able to catch Admiral Reimer awake.

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Roger looked away from the moving stars and back at Captain Rels, "So, time and space are bending around us, but we aren't actually moving?"

The deer nodded, "That is basically correct, though not the entire story."

"It all seems like something out of a sci-fi book or tv-show."

"TV-show?" The two had spent most of the past 3 hours talking. Roger had not been content to sit in silence and over the course of their conversation he had set the gun down, ignoring it. She had done him the favour of ignoring it as well and felt that a test of their respective speeds wasn't worth chancing death.

He nodded, "Yes, TV-show, television." Looking at her expectantly and continuing when he realized it was yet another word that she had never heard. "Usually short video recordings displayed on screens in homes for entertainment, news, or education. Do such things still exist?"

"Yes, though vidfiles are usually just news or educational." Over an hour ago she'd finally become convinced that he was from the time and place he claimed, there was no way one could make up the sheer volume of things he'd told her. He had spoken of animals that were long-extinct and plants that no one grew. He told her about vast deserts, deep oceans, dense forests, and how every possible niche was filled with life. Earth truly sounded like the jewel world she'd been told it had once been and she had struggled to hold back tears upon realizing just how much less beautiful the galaxy was for its loss. No world compared, most colony worlds didn't even have a breathable atomosphere, and the ones that had life only had that which was brought to them. It had been unique amongst the stars, and the barren rock it now was betrayed little of its former majesty.

"Sounds boring, I always liked a good crime drama or space show." His smile was genuine, and he returned his attention to the viewport. "I still can't wrap my head around that we're not experiencing time-dilation, let alone travelling faster than light. Such things are the dreams of fiction, yet I'm witnessing it with my own eyes," returning to their current topic from the small aside.

"I cannot imagine what it would be like without faster-than-light travel. You said your people had achieved space flight, the thought of it taking hundreds of years to travel between two stars instead of days or hours is almost incomprehensible."

"We have some probes that have left the solar system, but only just so, and most have ceased functioning due to the time it's taken them to get there. There's talk of us landing on Mars by the end of the decade but no human has been further from Earth than the Moon."

"You mean all of you live on just one planet?" She stared at him in near disbelief, there was the occasional thing he spoke of that she found hard to swallow and the thought of humanity being limited to only one world was one of them. She knew they had started on Earth, but that they'd reached a population over ten billion before expanding out into their own solar system, made her wonder how they managed it.

"Yep, though it's been obvious that the Earth has been at capacity, so to speak, for awhile now. The greed of the superrich keeps us grounded, we haven't even been to the Moon in over 50 years." He took on a thoughtful look, "That may change one day though, and with it maybe we will begin to explore the stars."

So greed had ruled over humans thousands of years ago, as it still did today; it was an appetite that could never be sated and the driving force behind most of their evils. Captain Rels knew that most humans lived in abject poverty in order to support the wealth of a few, and it sounded like Earth society from Roger's time was little different. An indicator flashed on the console, she looked at it and said, "We are going to arrive in a few minutes, I should inform my crew."

Roger nodded before looking at the gun and then back at her, "I don't really need this, do I? It might sound strange but I really do believe violence is only necessary in extreme circumstances."

"You have accomplished your goal and soon we will arrive at Earth. I expect you to keep up your end of our bargain."

He picked up the gun, making her stiffen for a moment before she watched him place it on the ground and kick it over to her. "Consider it done," he said with a smile, "Thank you for again placing your trust in me despite my earlier actions, please don't betray mine."

She looked down at the thing, it looked like a pistol yet didn't at the same time, she picked it up and placed it on the console before responding, "We are already in enough danger as it is being here, you are now the least of my security problems, Roger." She pressed the button on her communicator, <<Marrin, what's your status? We will arrive in Sol in the next few minutes.>>

<<We have almost got the lift working again, Captain. Fenthik and I are preparing to rescue you and the crew is ready to defend the ship,>> responded her first officer, his voice calm in the way it was before battle. She knew he and Fenthik were likely prepared to sacrifice themselves in order to rescue her, thankfully it wouldn't come to that.

<<Roger has already surrendered to me, a rescue is not necessary. Keep working on the lift, I am going to need the two of you up here in case we come across an empire ship.>>

<<Why are we still going on this foolish trip if he's surrendered?>>

The man stood up and started to pace along part of the bridge. His eyes never stropped looking out of the viewport as if he tried to spot something from afar. Hope lit his face, and in that moment Captain Rels truly felt pity for him, something she found surprising.

<<I keep my bargains, Marrin, and this time Roger has kept his end by surrendering.>>

<<You'd risk all of us for the sake of a deal with a human?>>

<<He is like no human any of us have ever met,>> she gave Roger another look, hoping that this trip was going to be worth it in the end. Securing the his co-operation could lead to the rediscovery of lost technologies and having an old Earth human on the side of the Rukot would be a slap in the face to the empire. <<Keep working on that lift and get up here as soon as you can.>>

<<Yes, Captain.>>

The stars ceased moving at breakneck speed as the gravity wave abruptly dissipated, bringing the Teshar to a stop. Roger rushed to the viewport and stared out at the expanse of space in front of him. "Where is it?" he demanded, before a barren, brown, and blasted-looking world, lacking more than a tenuous atomosphere, rose into view as the ship turned towards it.

He turned towards her, his voice and face angered at the apparent betrayal, "What is this meaning of this? You said you'd take me to Earth!"

She sighed, "That is Earth," regret filling her voice.

"It's a barren ball of rock, how could it be Earth? Where are the oceans, the continents?" He studied the features of the world before them, "The ice caps?" Then he noticed them, the familiar shapes of North America's mountain ranges, the lines that criss-crossed the continent-shaped highlands between series of large craters which seemed distinctly absent from the low areas and were in locations that he knew. "The cities..." he whispered as he sank to his knees, unable to stop looking, praying that he was hallucinating.

It was at that moment the lift doors opened, revealing a heavily armed Fenthik followed by Marrin. They both rushed towards Roger until Captain Rels ordered them to stop with a gesture of her hand. Marrin looked up at the planet in the viewport, cursed, and looked away.

Roger started rocking back and forth as the weight of what he was seeing hit him as hard as the semi should have. He placed a hand on the viewport as if he though he could touch the planet before him as overwhelming grief forced itself upon him utterly and completely. His home and all that he cared about was gone, a forsaken wasteland remained in its place. Tears rolled freely down his cheeks and he began sobbing and reality took hold and forced him to face it.

The three Rukot looked at each other and then back at the human, they shared in his loss, though not to the same degree. Earth had been destroyed long before their own lives began, but it was still the homeworld of all known life in the galaxy.

"It's gone... it's gone..." repeated Roger again and again while he sobbed, his entire being filled with an anguish so profound it threatened to consume him. No more would he feel the breeze on a cool autumn night and listen to it rustle leaves or the dry heat of a hot summer's day in the desert; gone were the towers of glass and steel that were each a monument to progress and engineering; only long stretches of highways and rail remained, forever empty of the traffic they once contained. He didn't understand it, he'd just been there only a couple days ago, yet here was Earth, stripped of everything, even its life-filled oceans.

It seemed like hours went by before he calmed enough to hoarsely croak out the question, "Wh-what happened?"

Marrin looked at the Captain before returning his attention to Roger. He finally believed the man's story, no human he'd met had ever despaired over Earth's destruction, most viewed it as having been a stepping stone that had served its purpose and been punished for defying the empire. He spoke, though his voice wavered with uncertainty when he answered the question, "Orbital bombardment by the Imperial Navy."

Roger's head snapped in Marrin's direction, tearing his eyes away from the skeletal remnant of his home. "Im-imperial Navy? Why?"

"Earth's inhabitants dared stand up to the Emperor, and were punished severely for it," answered Captain Rels this time, a sad tone filled her voice.

"Can we land?" came the tentative question.

"No," she replied, "It is surrounded by an ablation cascade and even if the ship survived getting past that, the radiation on the surface would kill us within minutes."

"Kessler syndrome... I'll never set foot on her again, will I?"

"No," she looked at the short range comms console, noticing a flashing light indicating they were being hailed. She looked at Marrin and Fenthik, <<We've been found, it is time to leave.>> The ship shook as they watched shots of hot orange plasma fly past the viewport, coming from a ship that had appeared from behind the Earth.

"What's happening?" Roger's attention was drawn away from his sadness if only for a moment as he watched another volley of shots come from the other ship, causing the Teshar to rock violently, throwing him the rest of the way to the floor.

<<Captain, our gravity wave generator has been hit!>> exclaimed Marrin. There was not going to be a quick escape for them.

She pressed her finger to the indicator on the short range comms console and spoke in carefully pronounced English, "This is the civilian freighter Moondancer, ident code 3-0-A-N-4-P-3-C. Why are you firing on us?"

The response unsettled her, "This is Captain Young of the Imperial Navy ship ENS Retribution. We know who you are and that your ship is not named Moondancer, slave. You and your ship are the property of His Majesty, Emperor William and I order you in his name to stop your ship, surrender, and give up your captive."

She gave her first officer a wide-eyed look of terror and then resumed her role as Captain, barking out several quick orders. "Roger, find a seat and stay out of the way." <<Fenthik, return fire. Marrin, try to keep those shots from landing on us.>>

She couldn't help but shoot a glance at Roger, who looked terrified, and she thought for a moment that he had somehow contacted the empire and planned all of this. The deer realized almost as quickly that such a thing would've been impossible, he had not arrived with any long-range communication devices and while he was on the bridge he had made no attempt to use any of the consoles. She saw that Marrin and Fenthik also looked at him, prompting her to say, <<It was not him, he did not use the comms console since he came on the bridge, someone or something else has betrayed us. Resume your duties.>>

The ship shook again as more plasma shots connected and Fenthik threw up his massive paws, <<There go the weapons, Captain. We are as defenseless as newborn cubs.>>

<<We've been grappled by an energy tether!>> cried out Marrin, running their conventional thrusters at maximum despite the fact it appeared they were slowing down.

The Retribution continued to close with the Teshar. It was a truly massive ship, one of the empire's invasion carriers, and easily dwarfed the freighter. They saw one of its massive twin hanger bays opening. It looked as if Captain Young intended to scoop them right out of space itself, ship and all, and there was little they could do to stop it.

Captain Rels spoke over the communication console, her voice filling the ship, <<All hands to duty stations and prepare to defend the ship from boarders. If the humans want a fight, let us give them one.>> She had little hope that they would survive the coming assault, many of her crew had little battle experience or training since piracy was not common within the conglomeration and most had been born after the end of the last war.

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Once ENS Retribution swallowed up the Teshar like a whale eating a small fish the Rukot crew took up defensive positions with security teams at every airlock, not knowing where the humans intended to enter from. A great knocking sound echoed through the freighter as docking clamps locked it into place in the massive hanger and the sound had sent a murmur of fear through the ship. Many of the younger crew gripped their weapons tightly, as if somehow just holding them would protect them.

Fynor, still posing as quartermaster, stayed in the armoury with two security personnel, having been tasked with ensuring every last one of the crew was armed in some way and defending what few weapons remained. The lynx looked at the two guards, both nameless to him, one was a border collie armed with a relic of a plasma rifle, and the other was a rabbit, long ears twitching at the slightest sound and holding an equally old rifle with an awkwardness that bespoke his inexperience with the weapon. Neither paid attention to him as he decided which to take out first, settling on the collie and aiming his own rifle at the dog.

With a brief yelp and the smell of burnt fur the collie collapsed to the ground dead. This caused the skittish rabbit to swing around to face Fynor right as a second plasma bolt hit him square in the chest and he too fell to the ground, twitching as he died, eyes locked on Fynor as the light left them.

"Idiot animals," the lynx commented with a wicked smile before wrinkling his nose at the smell of burnt fur and flesh. He'd be glad to finally be rid of this far-too-sensitive nose. He stepped over the bodies of his victims and stuck his head out into the hallway, listening for a moment to confirm nobody had heard the attack. Satisfied that he was safe to continue he re-entered the armoury and removed a small cube-shaped device from inside one of the lockers, setting it on a desk. He then pulled out a second communicator from his pocket and depressed a button on it, "Captain Young, I await your orders, sir."

An imperious-sounding voice responded, "We will begin the assault shortly, have you disarmed the beasts' weapons?"

"Not yet, sir. I have rigged most them to discharge into whatever holds them. It should stun the animals, but only for a few minutes."

"Understood. What of the Earth human?"

"He is on the bridge with the Captain and a couple others, a wolf and a bear. I was unable to rig their weapons to stun them. The lift code to enter the bridge is 33801."

"The empire thanks you for your service, Operative Lenox. You can expect a commendation for this if all goes well, maybe even a promotion."

"My mind and body for the emperor."

"The assault teams are ready, stun the crew."

"Yes sir."

Fynor set the communicator down beside the cube on the desk and spoke to the dead rabbit, its lifeless eyes still staring at him, "May he use me to strike down all who oppose his will." He depressed a button on the cube, a victorious look on his face.

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<<Captain! We've been betray->> came the cut off cry over Captain Rels' communicator. She pressed a button on it and demanded, <<What is happening?>> only to receive no response. Her questioning gaze turned to Marrin, <<Something is wrong.>>

The wolf looked down at his console, pressing several buttons on it before looking back up at her, <<Captain, no one is responding and I have no reports of boarders.>>

<<Internal scanners show humans entering the ship through airlocks 2, 7, and 18, Captain.>> Added Fenthik, before continuing in a tone of utter disbelief, <<They're... walking right past the crew!>>

"Human! You've lead us to an ambush and delivered us into slavery!" Marrin bellowed angrily as he launched himself at Roger, pinning the man against the viewport of the ship, claws around his throat, threatening to tear it out at a moment's notice.

"I-I-I don't know what's going on!" Roger cried, his hands desperately prying against the much-stronger wolf's paws.

<<Marrin! Put him down.>> Captain Rels ordered cooly. <<This not the time to revenge yourself against an innocent man.>>

<<Innocent!? He forced you to take us here at gunpoint!>>

<<When could he have contacted the Imperial Navy? You saw his reaction to Earth, how could he have known about any of this? His were the actions of one desperate to return home and understandable.>>

Roger continued to struggle against Marrin's grip, gasping out, "I can't breathe!"

Fenthik rose and put a paw on the shoulder of the raging first officer, <<Brother-in-arms, the Captain is right. Look at him, he's as confused by this turn of events as we are.>>

<<Our lives are over, all for the sake of showing a worthless human that his home is gone.>> Marrin released Roger, who dropped to the ground in a pile, gasping for breath. <<What about our homes? What about Ganmur!?>>

<<This is no time to lick old wounds, Marrin. We must keep the humans from taking the bridge,>> responded the bear, fixing his friend with a hard stare.

<<We should have spaced him and his trash when we had the chance, mark my words, he is responsible for all of this. There must be a beacon or something in his possessions.>>

<<We can sort out the what-ifs and should-haves later, right now I am ordering you to take up defensive positions while->> Captain Rels began, her voice cutting off as the door to the lift opened, revealing several armed humans with their weapons levelled right at them. "Surrender the Earth human to us now, slaves." came the cold order from one.

Fenthik roared, unable to reach his weapon he charged at the humans with his teeth and claws, <<I am no man's slave!>>

Roger cowered behind a console as several concussive blasts rang out, hitting the bear, and then both Marrin and Captain Rels. It was then that he noticed his handgun, forogtten about and laying a couple meters away on the floor near the captain.

The last thing Captain Rels saw before unconsciousness took her was Roger tucking his gun into a pocket and the deer wondered if she really had been tricked when he winked at her as the world went black.

"Roger Keene?" the same man who had ordered the Rukot to surrender him asked.

"Yes?" He responded, standing up and looking down at Captain Rels, silently promising the deer that he would do what he could to help them escape. He'd had no part in their capture, and the talk of them being slaves was distasteful to him, he wished that fate upon no one.

"We have orders from the Emperor himself. We're here to rescue you, please come with us," said the soldier, in a voice that sounded friendly on the surface, but Roger detected the threatening undertone.

He gave the man a forced smile, "My thanks. Now, take me to your leader." He just couldn't help himself and bit his tongue to keep from laughing hysterically at the terrible pun in such a dire time. He felt that he couldn't trust these people who had attacked the Teshar, but he also felt like he had no option but to go with them. He walked over to the armed men, casually feeling the handgun in his pocket and hoped they wouldn't notice it.