Eventually we came out at a junction point. The area was a little brighter than the rest of the narrow shaft and we had space to brace ourselves against the walls. We had not spoken for many minutes and now seemed as good a time as any to assess the situation.

"Do you think we will ever find a suitable place to tap into their network, all this junk looks like it is part of the drive system?"

Kohlarn nodded in agreement and inspected the piece of equipment he was sitting against. "Yes. It does seem to have the configuration of some sort of power transfer system. Maybe we should open up one of the panels and have a closer look?"

"And probably get radiation burns in the process. Engineering is not your speciality, so please trust my judgement on these matters. Until we know more about what we are dealing with I'm touching nothing."

He seemed hurt by my brusque outburst so I gave him a gentle smile and started to head along the next part of the crawl space.

"Father wait! Off to your right there." He pointed to a smaller tunnel branching off the main one and leading away from us towards what looked like a small room. "Can we get through?"

It was a very tight squeeze, during which we had to discard the outer protective layer of our suits, but eventually we stood in a small cubical. On the walls were what appeared to be complex wiring diagrams showing interconnecting pathways and junction nodes.

"This is it!" I laughed. "Now I have to figure out what the hell we are looking at."

I had brought a small tool kit with me. With this I opened an access panel and began the long process of identifying the Valcrumny encryption codes and interpreting the computer language.

Another hour passed, this was slow and tedious for Kohlarn who waited patiently hunched up on the floor of the little room.

Eventually I had figured out all I could and knew it was time that we did something. "I think I've got it."

"You don't sound too sure?"

"Pass me the biotronic data uplink before I change my mind."

He lifted the small remote unit from the floor beside him and reluctantly handed it to me. In anticipation of this moment I had pre-programmed it with a sort of virus which would work it's way into the Valcrumny sensory systems and replace actual readouts with ones relating to an imminent attack by the Federation fleet.

The unit quickly down-loaded it's information and I reconnected the microfibre pathways which I believed ran to the central computer. "Now all we can do is wait and see what happens." I said, slumping down beside him on the floor. Neither of us had slept much for the past few days and we quickly sank into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile John and Elizabeth were in a bit of trouble...

They had made their way along the corridor until they found a service hatch leading to the atmospheric conduits which ran between the decks of the ship. From here they had climbed up to the crew level and investigated as many rooms as possible. It was obvious that Angie and the others were not in this section so they climbed further into the heart of the ship.

Eventually the rigours of the ascent, along with the heat and humidity, exhausted them both and they decided to look for a suitable place to rest, without risk of being disturbed. Up ahead they could see a large opening into what they believed to be an empty room.

Squeezing through an access tunnel they removed a covering hatch to discover a huge pit below them. The walls dripped with slime and the atmosphere had such high humidity that the floor was covered in a thick layer of mist.

This mist made it impossible for them to see the floor clearly and believing the room to be empty they lowered themselves down from the tunnel. It was too late to go back before they noticed that they were in fact in a large nest like structure. Hundreds of dormant Valcrumny covered the entire floor and there was no visible sign of a way out.

John tried to lift Elizabeth back up into the tunnel but loosing his footing on the slime covered floor he slipped and she fell backwards onto one of the sleeping green blobs.

The telepathic scream was so intense that it woke us instantly. Momentarily disorientated, Kohlarn prepared to reply to the terrified thoughts of Elizabeth which swept into our minds.

"Stop!" I grabbed his arm and shook him fully awake. "They have obviously run into trouble but we cannot risk giving ourselves away."

"But Liz is so desperate, she needs us."

"They all need us now, we must remain calm if we are going to help them at all."

He nodded agreement and we both tried to shield ourselves from the terror, pain and torment entering our minds.

Eventually it went quiet. "Do you think they are dead?"

"No. We would sense that I'm sure."

I could see tears running out of control down the poor boys cheeks. Despite his appearance as a man he was still a vulnerable child to me. Thankfully John and Elizabeth were not harmed during this first encounter with the Valcrumny nestling. A senior member of the group sensing their presence in the nursery chamber arrived just as their A.E. suits were being dissolved from their bodies.

Realising that these intruders may be part of a Federation plot it dragged them from the chamber and carried them up to the containment area where Angie and the others were being held.

(So what have we here?) Sent the Valcrumny leader as John regained consciousness. (More telepaths sent to service our needs.)

It slithered over to where John lay and bent over him menacingly.

Elizabeth awoke and huddled close to John for comfort. (What will you do with us?) She asked hesitantly.

(I think you know what your fate will be.) It moved aside to reveal Angie, Gabkhan and Susan slumped on the other side of the dome.

Both their hearts sank, the pale limp bodies looked as though they had been dead for many hours. The Valcrumny leader sensing their thoughts moved over to a large piece of equipment standing in the centre of the dome. Turning a dial the lights around them dimmed slightly.

They could hardly believe it as the three seemingly dead corpses began to stir back into life.

(We do not kill our prey until we have drained their energy, dead flesh is useless to us.) It said, then slithered towards the wall. Passing through the force field with ease it left the room.

Angie:

They moved across the dome to kneel beside us. Elizabeth lifted my head gently into her lap, stroking the hair from my eyes she asked. "Are you all right?"

"Oh no, not you as well? How were you captured? Where are the others?"

John gave me a very subtle head shake which I understood to mean that it was best not to discuss these things openly. Stretching I stood up and looked around me. A Valcrumny guard had placed itself beside the door.

"So what do we do now?"

"Wait and see whether the Federation comes to get us I suppose." Said Liz plopping her self down on the floor exhausted from the ordeal of the past few days. "I'm so tired."

John taking this lead motioned for us all to sit down as well and huddle close. "Those things," he pointed across at the guard, "are deaf and blind as long as we do not use telepathy they cannot here what we say."

"Yes, but now that they know where you are they can scan your brain activity all the time. We can not take the chance of giving anything away by even thinking about the things I think you want to tell us." I looked at each of them in turn and they nodded agreement. "So we might as well follow Liz's suggestion and sleep while we can.

Stephen:

It started about thirty minutes later. The compartment where Kohlarn and I sat lit up like a Christmas tree. A humming sound slowly rose in pitch until we had to shout over it. "My programme has got someones attention." I scanned the alien equipment and tried to understand the patterns of power distribution as they flashed into life. "This shows power to the drive system, that is almost at full capacity, they must be about to jump into hyperspace."

"That's not what we want, we'll never be able to get off the ship if they are travelling at light speed." Said an anxious Kohlarn. "Can't you find some way of disabling the Hyperlight drive to slow them up a bit?"

I pondered over the patterns before me there was something very unusual about the power distribution network. Eventually I began to get an idea.

"Look at this." Kohlarn followed my finger as I traced out the unusual network. "There is a huge amount of power being shunted through this bypass junction to one of the upper decks. There seems to be no essential services in that area so why do they need so much power?" Without stopping to hear his suggestions I continued with my line of thought. "Unless they have some need to supply this room with huge amounts of energy for some other purpose. Perhaps to run an inhibitor unit of some kind."

At this Kohlarn became very excited. "Lets go then, we know where they are keeping mother now. They must need that large amount of energy to stop her escaping. The One can use vast amounts of psionic energy, I've been told. To keep her here must be very difficult."

He started to head for the tunnel back the way we had come.

"No wait! What will we be able to do when we get there? They obviously have them trapped inside some sort of impregnable force field. All we'll do is walk straight into a trap. I have a better idea."

He returned and watched intently as I busied myself rewriting the power control commands. The humming sound began to rise in pitch once again and a low vibration started to build up around us. "What have you done?"

"I'll explain later but now would be a good time for us to leave." Gathering up my equipment as fast as I could, we scrambled back along the tunnel.

Angie:

We felt the ship shudder with the force of the explosion. The dome around us crackled as it tried to maintain integrity then faded to nothingness. For the first time in many hours my head cleared and I knew what to do.

We jumped to our feet as the green blob oozed across towards us. As it neared John he side stepped and ushered us all across the room.

(You do not seem to realise that there is nowhere for you to go.) Pathed the creature. (There are many thousands more like me to contend with just outside the door.)

Almost on cue, ten more Valcrumny entered and surrounded us. The leader spoke belligerently. (So the Federation has decided to fight for it's citizens, a grave mistake on their part, but of no consequence we will simply absorb the tremendous energy stored within the One and use it against them.)

At this the creatures advanced towards us.

Stephen:

Kohlarn and I emerged from the crawl way into a busy corridor. Stepping gently out of the access hatch we found ourselves among many Valcrumny who were headed towards an elevator entrance. There was no way of telling that we were headed in the direction we wanted to go but the forward flow of the aliens pushed us along with them. We were forced into the elevator and pressed ourselves against the walls as it filled. The ascent to the next level took a few seconds then we were moving forward again.

When the explosion came the Valcrumny froze in their tracks so abruptly that Kohlarn nearly bumped into the alien in front of him. For a few moments they were motionless then they began to spread out in new directions leaving us alone in the empty corridor.

"Thank god for that!" He said. "I was getting nervous that they would detect us. Why do you think they stopped?"

"Probably for some kind of telepathic instructions. They must think that they are under attack by now."

"What exactly did you do back there?"

"I took advantage of the unusual power flow through a junction that was not designed to take such loads. By re-routing energy directly from the drive system into that particular conduit the whole area overloaded. They will need extensive repairs before they can jump to hyperspace now. The explosion probably wrecked much of that section of the ship and could have even breached the hull." I felt a great sense of satisfaction and smiled broadly at him. "An added bonus is that it took out the systems in the whole section where they are keeping the others. With any luck the force fields and inhibitors keeping them subdued should be malfunctioning by now. If we can just get up to that level we can all escape together."

Kohlarn broke into a run. "Let's get going then."

Angie:

Now that the inhibitors influence had worn off and my headache had eased I realised that I had the power to stop these obnoxious creatures. I had never received the training but was aware that I instinctively knew how to summon the light. Holding my hand aloft a flash of psionic lightening ripped into the alien nearest to me. It's outer membrane dissolved and the fluid interior boiled away in an instant.

"That was amazing." Shouted John. Obligingly I lifted my hand again and blasted another Valcrumny. As I did so the door opened and ten more of the aliens entered to fill the places of those I had killed.

"Let's see if they can cope with this?" I said as I unleashed bolt after bolt of fire towards the aliens. As their numbers dwindled their advance slowed, they obviously realised that we were now strong enough to defeat them.

(Stay back.) I sent. (We do not want to kill any more of you, why don't you just agree to let us go?) There was no response from the aliens and their pace towards us quickened again. (I mean it.) I raised my hand but the threat had no effect. We stood huddled in the centre of the room.

Energy coursed through my body, I surrounded us in a protective psionic field, then focused a huge wave of energy outwards from our position to destroy everything in the room. Not only did the aliens disintegrate in an instant but most of the equipment melted into piles of molten metal.

When the energy pulse had subsided we all let out a sigh of relief.

It was Elizabeth who recovered from her shock soonest. "I never knew you could do things like that!"

"Neither did I until I actually did it." I shrugged.

Susan who had hardly moved throughout the fight hugged me so tightly that I could hardly breath. "Thank you Premier." She saw my look of disapproval then corrected herself "Thank you mother, I'm glad we had you with us."

Gabkhan moved over to the door and as it slid open he looked out into the corridor. "What can you see?" Asked John joining him. "Oh my god, hundreds more of the things have massed just outside. Do you think you can deal with them?" He turned towards me his face reflecting the intense fear that we all felt.

"We won't know until we try but I'd rather go down fighting than waiting here until they decide to come in and suck out my neural energy again."

We emerged into the corridor and the creatures retreated back from us.

"That's better, they seem scared of us now." Said Elizabeth.

Confidently I led the way up the corridor towards the throng of aliens. They parted to let us through. When we reached a junction with another corridor more Valcrumny pushed out and managed to separate us into two groups. Susan, Gabkhan and I looked around to see John and Elizabeth herded further down the other hall way. They tried to move closer but it was no good the gap widened.

Then it hit us, an intense pain swept through our bodies as the inhibitor was reactivated. Clutching at our heads and bent double, we noticed the sudden rush of the group of aliens towards us. I tried to fight the pain and raise my hand up above my head but it was useless. The aliens reared up and smothered us simultaneously.

Susan and Gabkhan screamed in agony as their flesh was dissolved off their bodies. I also felt the acid burn through my clothing and begin to eat away at my skin.

"Angie. No..." Stephen's anguished shout was the last thing I recall as I passed out.

Stephen:

Assessing the situation Kohlarn stopped in his tracks. He could see the Valcrumny split up the others and smother Angie, Susan and Gabkhan. My shout alerted John who pushed Elizabeth towards us.

"We must get out of here." He shouted. "There is nothing that we can do for them now."

I could not believe what I had seen. The bodies of my family disappeared below the aliens and were gone from sight. Then I felt John Shaking me back to reality.

"We must get out of here, they seem more interested in feeding than coming after us."

He was right, there were no aliens behind us and we returned back round the corner. I let them lead me along until we came to an engineering inspection hatch then we all climbed in and closed the entrance way.

We had wriggled along the narrow tube for a short while before my shock began to wear off and I realised what we were doing. Abruptly I stopped and looked Kohlarn straight in the eye. "Where the hell are we going? We can't just leave them back there. That is my wife, your mother, brother and sister you know, the least we can do is take what is left of their bodies with us." I awkwardly turned myself round and started back along the tunnel.

John grabbed at my foot. "Stephen no, there is nothing left of them for us to find. We have to get ourselves out of here." Ignoring his demands I pulled my foot free and continued heading away from them.

"Stephen please listen to us." Pleaded Elizabeth, but I was determined to go back for the bodies, alone if I had to. I continued towards the inspection hatch. As I climbed out into the corridor it was remarkably quiet. I walked back the way we had come and prepared myself for the terrible sight of their dissolved remains.

I was aware that the others had also emerged from the tunnel and were catching me up rapidly. Nearing the place where the terrible incident had taken place I closed my eyes to assess the situation. Could I bear to see the corpses of those I loved so dearly? Would I be able to struggle out of here with whatever remained? Elizabeth came to stand beside me and took my hand, thankful for her compassion I opened my eyes. There were no Valcrumny left in the corridor. Angie, Susan and Gabkhan lay almost untouched in front of me.

Elizabeth bent down. "They are quite dead but seem hardly injured at all." She sounded surprised so I joined her in the examination of the bodies.

Their skin was badly blistered by the corrosive Valcrumny slime which covered them and small amounts of congealed blood surrounded their mouths and nostril, but apart from this all of their features were still intact. This was nothing compared to what I had expected to find.

Elizabeth echoed my own thoughts. "They look quite peaceful, I expected their faces to be contorted by pain."

She glanced up as John and Kohlarn joined us. "We can discuss this later." John scanned the corridor ahead of us. "They might come back for the remains, please let's get out of here."

Kohlarn lifted the body of his sister and turned away from us. Tears streamed down his face once again as he walked back along the corridor. John and Elizabeth took Gabkhan between them and I held Angie in my arms. It surprised me that I felt no pain at her death and wondered whether this was a consequence of the Manyarnern joining. Together we left the area carrying our respective burdens.

After a while without encountering any more Valcrumny we started to discuss a possible way of getting off the ship. "We cannot get through the narrow tunnels carrying them. Perhaps the aliens have left us alone on the ship and we will be able to go to the bridge and land it back by the Kalinar?" Suggested Kohlarn.

"Don't bank on it." I replied. "The inhibitor is still partially working they are probably just off repairing the Hyperlight drive the best they can, and don't think of us as much of a threat now that Angie is dead."

How easily the words left my mouth. Had I come to terms so quickly with this loss, or was I in denial clinging to hope of some kind of miracle? Whatever the truth, my own feelings took a back seat. I logically considered our plight and tried to figure out a suitable course of action.

"An escape pod!" Said Elizabeth suddenly. "This ship must have escape pods for the crew. If we can find one we can get inside and launch ourselves out into space. The Federation will then pick us up. Won't they?"

"I don't think that they even know we are out here." Remarked John. "But it's worth a try, at least we can drift in space for a while. That will be better than having another confrontation with them."

We had entered an elevator and the doors closed behind us.

"How do we work this thing?" I looked around for some kind of control panel then became aware that the elevator had already started moving. "Let's hope we come out some where useful and not in the damaged part of the ship."

It was quite some time before the tube shaped object stopped and opened it's doors. We peered nervously out into what appeared to be a large cargo bay. Shifting the weight of Angie's body over my shoulder, I led the way across the large expanse.

Around us were many storage containers and assorted pieces of equipment. Putting her down on a large box I considered what to do next. The others followed suit.

"Well, so far so good." Said John. "At least we don't have any more blobs to fight off. This is obviously the main cargo bay, I wonder how we get out of here?"

Elizabeth gave a deep sigh and sat down on a crate. "We can rest here for a while and formulate a plan. Stephen do you think you can tap into their computer again and find out what's going on?"

"Great idea." I started to look around us for a terminal or interface.

"That should keep him busy for a while." She whispered to John and Kohlarn. "I don't think that he is handling things very well."

"None of us are." Agreed Kohlarn.

I eventually found a display screen on the other side of the large room, at the top of a ladder, which led onto an upper gantry walkway. Looking over the railing I could see the others sitting together below me. The bodies of my family lay discarded upon the cargo boxes. A sudden burst of anger welled up inside and I screamed, then the agonising loneliness overcame me. I slumped down onto the metal gantry and sobbed uncontrollably for many minutes.

After a while I became aware that the wall panel was flashing. Regaining some composure I noted that the others had either not noticed my outburst or had chosen to ignore it. Feeling rather foolish at the selfish nature of my grief I stood to inspect the panel.

As some semblance of rational thought returned I found that I could decipher the information being displayed.

It seemed that the engineering section where the Hyperlight drive was housed had caught on fire and much of the crew had been dispatched to prevent it spreading into other parts of the ship. That accounted for the lack of Valcrumny in the corridors we had come through. The ship having lifted off just prior to the explosion was now moving under thruster power away from the moon towards the alien's home world.

I flicked through the menu options and found the access commands for their scanners and weapons systems. They were obviously aware that the virus I had down-loaded earlier was a ruse and had purged the false information from their systems. The weapons were charged and on full alert in case a real Federation attack occurred.

All of this information was useful to us but did not help me find a way off the ship. Then by accident I brought up a floor plan of the cargo area. Most of the items listed were totally foreign to me except one thing. I was sure that this gantry led into another compartment.

Leaving the others sitting where they were I went to investigate further. The next room was much smaller. Climbing down from the gantry I walked through tall stacks of cases and smiled as I rounded a corner to came face to face with a small exploration shuttle. This was our ticket out of here.

Running back the way I had come I quickly explained what I had found to the others. Picking up our burdens once again we made our way along the gantry and into the next compartment.

The shuttle was very small, just large enough for us to lay the bodies down on the floor and huddle around the flight controls. "John, do you think you can fly this thing?" Asked a worried Elizabeth. "The Kalinar is usually computer controlled."

He sat down in the pilots seat and ran his hands over the controls. "This confirms our suspicions that this ship was not designed for the Valcrumny, they could never handle these manual systems with their shape and form."

"Yes, but can you get us out of here?" I said.

"Oh I can fly the thing easily enough it works on a simple liquid fuel based thruster system. See here this is the main accelerator, and here is the main firing mechanism. But getting us out of the cargo area is another thing all together, just look out there." He pointed out through the forward viewing screen at the large cargo bay doors. "Do you think they can be manually opened?"

My heart sank. In our enthusiasm we had all crowded into the little craft without realising that it was inside a cargo area rather than a launch bay. The doors ahead of us undoubtedly opened in some way but the mechanism would be controlled by the bridge.

"Anyway." He continued. "Even if we do manage to get them open the Valcrumny will immediately know exactly where we are and be able to pick us off with their blasters as soon as we clear the bay."

We all stood in silence realising the weight of the problem. Eventually Kohlarn broke the silence. He opened the shuttle door and climbed out then headed at some speed towards the cargo bay doors.

"Wait here." I said to the others as I followed him.

The bay was not as small as it had first seemed. I rapidly lost sight of Kohlarn as he ducked behind the storage crates. "Wait for me." I called stumbling as I tried to catch up. He had stopped by a particularly large container and was studying it's identification tag as I approached.

"What the hell came over you?" I demanded, gasping for breath. "You took off like a rocket just then." He hardly seemed to acknowledge my presence and continued to study the crates tag.

I also looked at the markings and it suddenly dawned on me that I had seen this script before.

"If I'm not mistaken," he said, "this is a Federation language, we studied it for a while when Gabkhan and I were at the academy last year." He bent down closer to the brightly coloured label. "See this, I think that it says danger from explosion."

We looked at each other and smiled. Then with all our strength started to pull vigorously at the lid of the crate. Some minutes later we had removed three containers of ionised trilithium disulphide.

"I wonder what they use this for? It's one of the most unstable compounds the Federation has ever manufactured." Said Kohlarn inspecting the seals on the containers.

"Yes, but when it's suspended in a barionetic particle beam it forms the major part of any ships artificial gravity system. Our problem is going to be how to ignite it."

John arrived to see what we were doing. "You two have been gone so long we started to worry." He looked down at the canisters at our feet. "What are you going to do with that stuff?"

Kohlarn chuckled "Make one hell off a bang." He said and carefully lifted one of the canisters towards the cargo bay doors. We followed him with the other two containers

Some time later we were all back in the small craft debating our next move. There were two plans of action under discussion. Firstly we could launch the containers towards the doors and hope that the shock as they hit would cause them to explode. The problem with this idea was that we would have to make some kind of launching device and this would take many hours. Secondly we could fire a blaster at them. There was a small hand held unit that Elizabeth had discovered in a locker at the back of the shuttle. This idea also had it's problems. The blaster had such a short range that one of us would have to go outside and risk being hurt or worse sucked out into space as the doors were breached.

I was mulling over the possibilities as I eagerly chewed at some emergency rations, also found by the ever practical Elizabeth in her search of the small vessel. Realising that none of us had eaten for many hours, and feeling out of immediate danger here in the shuttle, we had all relaxed just a little.

The idea came to me as I thought about the Valcrumny around us busily trying to extinguish the raging fire in their engineering section.

"Why don't we use Pyrokinesis to ignite the liquid?" I suggested.

"Don't be silly, then they will know exactly where we are." Replied John.

"Yes, but it will be too late by then the nearest Valcrumny is many levels away from this part of the ship. By the time any of them can get here we will be long gone. Anyway once we breach those doors they'll know of our location anyhow so what difference will a few more seconds make?"

The others nodded in immediate agreement at this plan and chewed at the disgusting dehydrated rations more vigorously.

John sat in the pilots seat and depressed the ignition button. The retro's fired instantly and the little ship lifted a few metres up into the air. We linked our minds and reached out to feel the chemical composition of the trilithium disulphide. Exciting the atomic structure it began to rise in temperature. With each passing moment the molecules became more excited and eventually it reached the critical point of ignition. There was a huge explosion and the shock wave hit the cargo bay doors wrenching them from their mountings and exposing the compartment to space. The crates and containers around us were pulled out into the void some knocking against the hull of the shuttle as they passed.

"Now!" We all screamed in unison and John hit the rocket thruster controls. The craft lurched forward towards the gaping opening and quickly passed the skin of the secondary hull. The stars ahead of us were bright and as we circled around the curve of the ship we could clearly see the Valcrumny home world below us.

The pounding in my chest warned me that I had been holding my breath for many minutes as we made our slow exodus from the cargo bay. Gasping for air I turned to John. "Can't we go any faster? They must have realised what is happening by now."

This comment seemed hardly necessary as a flash from the Valcrumny blasters passed too close for comfort past our port side.

"Try to stay close to the hull, and swing round behind them." Suggested Kohlarn. "They cannot fire at us if they do not have a suitable angle."

"Or if they risk hitting parts of their own ship." Added Elizabeth.

"Will you all shut up. I know what I'm doing." John took the small craft towards the rear of the Valcrumny vessel travelling as close as he dared to the surface of the ship. Once we were well past the scope of the main blasters, which were mostly forward facing, we let out a sigh of relief.

"Let's hope that the problems with their drive system prevents them from following us." He said as we moved off into open space. The little ship was pitifully slow in it's progress and we could all see the Valcrumny ship manoeuvre so that the blasters faced towards us again.

There was a brilliant flash of light and the particle beam caught the rear of the craft. The stabilisers failed instantly and we fell down as the ship tumbled out of control towards the planet surface. John fought with the flight controls and eventually regained some stability. But it was too late the Valcrumny ship was on top of us and the shuttles thrusters were dead. One more shot and it would all be over.

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed "We're sitting ducks."

Then the miracle that I was hoping for actually happened. Between us and the Valcrumny ship another vessel slowly materialised as it left hyperspace and rejoined our space-time continuum.

This ship was in direct line of fire with the Valcrumny ship and took the blast that was meant for us on it's flank.

The communications array flashed and reaching past an astonished John I answered it. A large humanoid face appeared on the viewer. "Loftori of Paldrin at your service. My crew have come to repay the debt of life owed to the Manyarnern premier."

(I know who that is.) I pathed.

Speaking to the viewer I thanked Loftori for his assistance and warned him that the Valcrumny were particularly sore losers and he had better get his ship out of their line of fire.

"It is too late for that I am afraid." He said calmly. "The direct hit has already breached our rather weak structure. This ship is not designed for battle. But, as I said, we are here to repay our debt to you and we will shield you all from their aggressive intentions as long as we can."

The viewer went blank and we were all stunned as we watched the Valcrumny blasters rip into hull of the Paldrinian ship once again. From our viewpoint we were helpless as we drifted out of control towards the surface of the world below us. We watched the Paldrinian ship as it slowly turned to face directly towards the pursuing Valcrumny vessel.

"They're going to ram it!" Exclaimed Elizabeth. She buried her face into my shoulder unable to face the destruction before our eyes.

The scene played out in silent slow motion. The Paldrinian vessel neared the Valcrumny ship which frantically tried to blast it from it's collision course. Then both ships were engulfed in flame as their respective hulls breached at the point of impact. The ball of flame was quickly extinguished in the empty void of space, but the shock wave spread out and threw our small craft further into the reach of the Valcrumny home world's gravity field.

As the huge planet took up the whole vista before us, we braced ourselves for the impending impact...