Rawlon continuedto stare in disbelief at the viewscreen.

"There are more T'kaan ships on my viewscreen...than there are stars," he whispered grimly. As Rawlon continued to watch the approaching fleet, Curja approached him and whispered excitedly in his ear.

The Admiral turned slowly to face Curja.

"Did I hear you correctly?"

Curja's desperate eyes spoke for him, as he repeated the dire message again. "We are vastly outnumbered, five ships to one. Our sensors do not lie."

"The MotherShip is on-line, sir. With an urgent message." Shouted a third officer.

Rawlon turned.

"We must retreat, Grand Admiral." Mother said matter-of-factly from the comm unit. "I have identified ships of both the T'kaan First and Second Fleets, along with the Third. We must recalculate our options in light of this new data. We did not plan for this scenario."

"All three T'kaan fleets are here?" Curja whispered in disbelief.

Rawlon slammed his fist into his palm as his dark eyes narrowed. He growled as confusion fogged his mind.

"Tarlog is demanding you, Rawlon," another Kraaqi officer shouted.

Rawlon nodded, feeling suddenly weary and old-and so very tired.

The Hrono's visage appeared on-screen. "Rawlon. We will be easily out-flanked. We do not have enough ships to stop their maneuver around the right wing." The Hrono admiral stared back as if in shock. "There are too many."

Rawlon nodded. "Order the retreat. And order the humans back." Rawlon paused. "Can our fleet complete the turn and make hypers.p.a.ce before the main fleets engage?"

Curja's hands flashed over his console, and he smiled. "Yes. Barely."

"Order it." Rawlon stared back at the viewscreen filled with T'kaan ships. Under his breath, he cursed.

Across the battle line, Kraaqi warships turned in solemn unison. Within seconds, the Hrono fleet began a similar maneuver.

Curja approached again. "The Mewiis Admiral is calling for you." Rawlon shook his head. Closing his eyes, he waved his hand to accept.

Admiral Saris appeared onscreen. "What are you doing? We came here to fight. Too many Mewiis children-too many Mewiis worlds-have already perished waiting for this day. If we do not make a stand here, the Mewiis home world will fall next."

Rawlon did not answer.

The Mewiis' eyes narrowed and her lips pressed into a thin line. "Do you run? Do you fear this enemy?"

Rawlon shook his head tiredly. "There are too many..." He began.

"There will always be too many!" Saris shouted.

The Kraaqi warlord sighed. "We must replan..."

"No. No more planning. Our fleet will stay! We will hold the left wing. We must stay with our original plan!"

"You cannot-not against these odds," Rawlon said. "You will be overrun within the hour."

"The Mewiis will not leave." She growled. "We stand between Mewiis worlds, Mewiis children. We draw the line here. We will fight here." Saris raised her fist at Rawlon. "Now!"

For the first time Rawlon understood the diminutive Mewiis race. But he did not answer, feeling a sudden shame inside his warrior's breast.

With an angry gesture, Saris's image disappeared.

"Fight bravely," Rawlon said absently. He had spoken the Kraaqi honorific given only to Kraaqi and their warrior brethren as they entered into battle.

Chapter Forty-Two.

The shields ofthe last T'kaan frigate attacking her buckled and it turned away disabled, but Mother had no time to finish the job. Already the swarm of T'kaan fighters attacking her had doubled, and her shields were dropping dangerously low.

"Kyle, form up with what's left of Jaric's wing. I'll join Becky," Mother ordered. "We are retreating with the Kraaqi fleet." "This can't be." Kyle snarled into his viewer. But he banked his ship sharply in compliance, not knowing what else to do in the face of the combined T'kaan fleets.

"We're already cut off," Jaric said with a hollowness.

"Then we fight our way through, just like the old days," Kyle snarled.

Rok's fingers squeezed the triggers and two T'kaan Scout fighters exploded in his sights. "The old days were not so good," Rok said as he turned to fight another T'kaan.

"MotherShip, this is Minstrel."

"Go ahead," Mother said.

"I am with the Mewiis on the left wing. T'kaan ships are bearing down on us, formation after formation.

The Kraaqi fleets are turning, retreating, but the Mewiis are standing firm. They will not retreat."

Minstrel's voice trailed off. "I am fighting the best I can alongside the Mewiis, but the T'kaan just keep coming."

Mother started to speak, but a dozen Hunter fighters suddenly leapt out of the darkness for her.

Focusing her processing power, she brought all of her main guns to bear and fired at them as she turned hard to avoid their fire. Ships exploded under her direct hits, and the Hunter formation broke up and retreated.

Another T'kaan formation now came into range to engage her.

In that instant, her sensors focused on Becky's ship. So near-and yet so far.

Waves of T'kaan fighters closed with the Kraaqi fighters that Becky led.

"They're everywhere!" Becky shouted.

The ship in Becky's sights exploded, but even as she looked up for her Kraaqi allies, she saw more of the three horned ships diving on her. Her fighter shuddered under direct hits and suddenly the shield alarm screamed-her shields were completely down. She kicked her ship hard over and dove away from them.

Without shields, she knew she was a sitting duck.

"I need some help here," Becky said with a surprising calm.

Kyle destroyed another fighter and tried to turn to help Becky. But two more T'kaan cut him off. As he twisted away, he saw her out of the corner of his eye. He watched the three horned ships even as they fired. Helplessly, he stared at the tracers as they streaked straight for Becky's unprotected ship.

The universe seemed to stop.

Jaric fired andturned, trying to find Becky's familiar ship. But his ship suddenly shuddered under moredirect hits. Jerking the controls he dove down and below the sudden hail of blaster fire. He tried to maneuver toward the dot that he knew was Becky's ship on his sensor screen. But he couldn't as his ship shuddered again with direct hits.

Jaric turned his ship away as he screamed his rage.

Mother's sensorspinpointed Becky's ship, and her merciless attackers. Even as she pushed her mighty engines and made them scream in protest, she was processing all possible attack vectors and deciding which would bring the most desired result-to save Becky. All her guns turned and focused on the targets attacking Becky, but they were out of her range.

Just out of reach.

Becky jerked hership hard and then stared into the laser lances coming for her. Straight for her.

"Mother!" She cried.

Mother raced towardthe sensor marker that was Becky, her engines straining past the red line. She bent every process to this one, great task-to protect her child, a job she was well equipped for, something she had done so many times. Something...

The sensor marker that was Becky's ship suddenly disappeared.

Mother was confused for the second time that day and her circuits began to overheat with intense activity. She started a Level Four diagnostic on her main sensors even as her guns belched death and destroyed the three horned fighters that had been attacking Becky's ship.

Within seconds, the diagnostics returned, completed. They were surprisingly clean as she raced past the blossoming explosions.

Mother quickly recalibrated her sensors and she scanned the area again. Still, she could not locate Becky's ship.

More alarms sounded inside her flickering, electronic soul.

She recalibrated her sensors a third time. It only took a few seconds, yet it seemed like an eternity. She continued to strain, to search... to search in vain for her lone girl-child.

When her recalibrations failed again, she began filtering out all ships, even Kraaqi, only searching for human configurations with her sensors. Only human ships.

Two ships appeared.

Mother's processors suddenly spiked into super-activity as she calculated all possible solutions to this inexplicable problem. Alarms screamed down her darkened corridors as displays flashed with streamingmountains of data. Her processors leveled off at one hundred percent utilization.

But the answer was obvious to her.

"Kyle. I am damaged," Mother said. "You must lead Becky and Jaric out."

But Kyle could no longer see in order to get away, not through the tears blinding his vision. And he could not answer Mother because of the lump that filled his throat.

Over the comm link Jaric cried out loud as he pulled his triggers, destroying the T'kaan ships that still dove at him in wave after endless wave.

Chapter Forty-Three.

Rawlon was furious; both with himself and the entire universe.

Kraaqi warriors did not run from battle- that single thought silently haunted him.

Here he was, Admiral of the greatest fleet ever a.s.sembled- his only order a general retreat, leaving the maternal Mewiis alone to fight the battle for him. Clenching his eyes tightly shut, he cursed himself.

Behind him, he heard the familiar steps of his First Officer approaching.

Rawlon's body jerked with shock as Curja screamed out loud just behind his head. With surprising strength, Curja slammed his fist into the console next to Rawlon's chair which caused sparks to erupt from the damaged electronics.

Rawlon's eyes met Curja's. Curja glared back with burning anger.

"Have the humans disengaged?" Rawlon asked, suddenly feeling a strange and sickening tightness in his stomach. But somehow he didn't want to know what Curja was going to tell him. He wanted him to leave; to order Curja to return to his station.

But he couldn't.

With a flash of insight, the age-old proverb went through his mind- 'Even a warrior fights the bitterness of tragedy to the very end. '

"The humans..." Curja began.

"Our brethren!" Rawlon shouted in anger, causing every head on the bridge to turn towards him. "Tellme of the humans-Brethren of the warriors Kraaqi."

Curja looked down, remembering the sacred honor that had been bestowed on the humans during the recently completed rite ofSa'DaK by Rok and the Band of the Stars.

"I will know," Rawlon growled ominously.

Curja looked up with a warrior's stoic gaze. He spoke with a sadness in his voice.

"The human female, the one called Becky, is dead. An honored death in battle."