"Light the fires, Nova." Nova flips a switch and holds on to her hand controllers. Talking herself through the take-off as she goes.

"Dock clamps released, power initialised, Cap. Burn on engine one, in five, four, three, two, one." The engine comes online, and then one after another, until all four engines are burning gold and humming, the ship springs to life. More instruments light up as the power feeds the ships systems and the ship is rattling and shaking a fair amount. "Lift thrusters engaged, Cap. Hope I make this enjoyable." The ship leaves the ground gently and hovers about ten feet off the ground. In front of the Invictus, the Robur also floats like a feather, swaying from side to side a little.

"Follow the Robur out, Nova, nice and easy." Pace looking around in his auto-seat, which moves in the direction he looks.

Beep, beep, beep! "A message coming in, from Eve Thorn, sir. Shall I patch her through, Captain?" Nova, requesting an answer, turns to look at Pace.

"Yes, please do, Nova." A face flickers up before his eyes on a large screen, which they all can see and hear.

"Ah, Captain Pace, sorry I could not attend the take-off. I just wanted to wish you all a safe journey. Oh, and you will be following orders from the Robur, which is our lead ship in this endeavour. Captain Miles is a great captain, as Im sure you are aware." Pace, looking a bit confused replies.

"I thought this was a simple salvage operation; get as much resources as possible. I dont need to be led, Eve. I am more than capable on my own. Of course, we will a.s.sist the other ship, and vice versa, but we both hold the same rank." Eve is set on the Robur being lead ship and Pace gives up trying to argue with her after a few moments, and signals Nova to cut the feed to the comms. The screen goes blank. Paces plans have not changed any in the slightest, and he a.s.sures his crew of this.

The Robur drifts slowly out the s.p.a.ce dock, and slowly followed by the Invictus, the two ships head out of populated s.p.a.ce and each in turn thrust upwards into the ma.s.sive black expanse. Engines roaring like thunder, the people below look up in shock to see these two t.i.tan ships growing smaller and smaller as they go out of sight. The noise is deafening on the Invictus, and the forces are heavy on everyones bodies. The crew are shaken and b.u.mped around until all of a sudden, nothing. The air becomes still and the shaking stops, the engines are running so quietly they can hardly be heard at all. The windows go from a red colour to black, and billions of stars are able to be seen. Everyone scrambles out of their harnesses to their nearest window, to view a sight that is not seen that much. Everyone is standing taking in the view. There are so many stars to look at, something rarely seen on Foloss, due to the dust in the air. Many of the crew have been in s.p.a.ce before, but when they were children escaping Dalgen 9. Pace, Nova and Megan were the veterans at this, due to their pilot training, so after a while they sit back down, busying themselves on their consoles.

"Cap, the Robur has set a course and relayed it to us, shall we follow, sir." Nova lays in the course, knowing what Pace will say before he says it. With a simple 'yes from Pace, the ship turns to the right and the rear of the Robur is seen once more.

"Sam, be sure to scan the area when we get there. What is ETA?"

Sam pushes a lot of b.u.t.tons. "Yes, sir. About two days, sir, until we arrive at the destination. Sir, the area is in the middle of nowhere. It seems a little odd."

Pace walks down over to Sams console and looks at the star map. "Mm, I was expecting a planet or something. Keep your eyes peeled people, and lets get some rest, we have all been so busy the last few days, and thats an order." Pace turns to walk off the bridge, but pauses for a moment to listen to a faint sound of buzzing.

"Shush! Can you hear that? Its not the engines. A sort of a buzz. I cant quite place it." Pace pauses for a little while longer, still not knowing where the noise is coming from.

"Buzz, buzz, Pace baby!" Briggs laughs. The whole take-off was being watched on screen by the security team, via the flying spy that went unseen to the bridge crew. "I will bring him back now, sir." Tom looks on the screen and smiles at the little spy. He knows how useful it will be in the future, especially with this bunch of mad ones as crew. Briggs waits a few moments for the spybot to find its way back through the maze of wires and tunnels to their room, where it lands and recharges.

"Two days until we find the wreckage. Now, we dont know if we will find any PD missiles floating around, but if we do, we need to get them on board a.s.a.p., without the others noticing. Of course, we should be at minimum safe distance when we fire our PD. We should expect resistance from the crew before we do, so no getting too close to these people understood." Tom is sat looking at his team, wondering if anyone will let him down, but thinking not, as he made great choices this time around.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

Rusty is a.n.a.lysing the engines power output and it seems very efficient indeed, but deep down Rusty knows he could tune it to make it go faster, if he had the parts. He taps in a parts list on his litepad and then looks at his gauntlet for a time check, before storing it back in his secret place, like the captain ordered. He heads towards the canteen with a recipe in mind for tonights dinner, only to be confronted by Pace, who tells him to sit at the table and wait for the security team to show their faces. Addressing the others, Pace is ready to make a stand against the security team tonight, and start off as he means to carry on. He fills the others in on his plan and they are all in agreement. They all sit and wait at the table patiently, until the security team arrives. The security team all walk in together, expecting hot food on the table, all laughing and joking until they see an empty table.

"Wheres the food?" says Shanks, upset with the bareness of the table.

"I dont know, you tell me. You were meant to cook tonight, so we should be the ones asking wheres the food. You have let the crew down and yourselves too, now we all go hungry until you cook for us. Thats right crew, eh?" Pace folds his arms along with the rest of the crew, all looking at the security team and waiting for answers and food. The pressure of their stares is beyond words.

"Like I said, we are your protection, not cooks." Interrupting Tom before he could go on, Pace reminds Tom how he let someone on the ship without Paces permission.

"Security is still to be seen around here, Tom. You lot expect to eat around here, so you will cook and thats an order, or you will face punishment for disobeying a captains orders!" Pace stands up and smiles.

"Dream on, Captain. Youre not really gonna get us to cook. We are the ones with the guns!" Laughing with the others, Briggs waits for Tom and his orders. Tom walks over to Pace and standing square on to him, he pushes Pace back a little.

"You can shove your orders, boy, and I await your lame punishment. Is it going to strike me out of the sky or something?" Slightly looking over his shoulders at his team, Tom is taken unawares by a sucker punch from Paces heavy metal hand, and is sent flying across the room at light speed and crashes to the floor. Toms team react like the trained troops they are and raise their gauntlets. The three of them are stood together at this point, but they are already met by the crew pointing their gauntlets at them.

Tom, standing back up by the doorway, laughs. "You are all fools. You are no match for my men. We have a stalemate I believe, and this time you wont get lucky with a sucker punch." Toms plans to rush Pace are short lived as a large darkened figure reaches into the room from the doorway, and Toms head has found its way into a large metal hand. Tom is lifted off the floor, crying in pain.

"You were saying, Tom? Have you met Anc yet? To some of your men he is a stupid robot, but you see he has many jobs around here too, just like the rest of us, and he just loves to throw things out as trash. So unless you want to float in s.p.a.ce, you will cook tonight and you will follow orders." The grip tightens on Toms head, almost crushing his skull, the blood rushing to his brain to try to protect it from the immense pressure. Pace continues, "Now give me your weapons and we will say no more." Tom agrees, waving his arms frantically and gesturing for his men to put down their weapons, before he pa.s.ses out, hanging there unconscious for all to see. "For insubordination and as Captain of this ship, I place you all under house arrest until further notice, understood." Toms men look in disbelief and silently agree with nods, before being escorted to the brig and locked in, along with the unconscious Tom.

"d.a.m.n it man, no supper now." Briggs bangs on the door after it closes.

Even Talia is locked in the same room now. "I lost sharing a room with a girl, instead of you smelly gits." She sits on the bunk, head slumped in her hands.

Anc returns to the canteen and waits for further instructions from Pace. "They are confined in the brig, sir."

Pace thanks everyone for their support, but all he has running through his mind is the crate, so he takes everyone down to the loading bay, and they all stand staring at the crate with worried eyes.

"We need to know whats inside this, and if its bad I want it off my ship." Pace starts to play around with the combination on the crate, not having much luck.

"Excuse me, sir. May I take a look at that?" Sam bends down hear the crate and scratching his beard he takes over. "Umm seems simple enough, you just have to be gentle with it you see, like this." The combination has been bypa.s.sed and the lock opens. A strange coolant leaks out from around the edges where the seal is now broken. Sam lifts the lid, half knowing what they are going to find inside. There is a large missile device with coolant all around it. There are a lot of lights flickering on and off, and for a moment everyone is relieved to see what has been kept from them, and then the relief turns to fear. An impending doom has now raised its ugly head on their ship, which is now their home and it does not feel good at all.

"So Sam, do you know what it is? You seem to be at home with it." Asks Megan in a worried voice.

"Well in sort, Maam. Its a big bomb, and not good for our well-being." Sam jokes to make light of the situation. Taking a closer look, Sam reads the letters on the side of the missile, and says them out loud. "PD1! Oh my, this is not good at all. Its a Planet Destroyer, Im afraid. You dont see many of these around these days." Sam takes a step back away from the missile. Scratching his beard some more, he goes quiet. Pace closes the lid back down. He has seen enough of this dooms day device. In one way he will need to keep it on board, and another he wants it off his ship. What planet do they want to destroy is the question. He hopes it was not meant for home.

"Ok, I want their rooms to be searched. They could be hiding something of use to us, or plans to hinder us. Whatever it is, I want to know. Oh, I need you to monitor the brig, Megan, to make sure these suckers dont escape, and run around on my ship upsetting my crew." Pace winks at Megan before asking Sam to change the combination on the crate, but before he closes the lid back down, he puts the missile into another container, away from the original crate for safer keeping.

Chapter Twenty-Three.

The ship is on auto-pilot following the Robur, and everything is now quiet. The crew once again gather around and feast themselves on Rustys amazing cooking, and the security team is forgotten, and there is even laughter and joking at the table, which is so good to be a part of. It is surprising how separating negative people from positive people has a great refreshing effect, thinks Megan as she eats, looking at smiles all around. If she had it her way, she would have blasted them out of the airlock when they had the chance, but that was not for her to decide, besides Pace was doing an amazing job as captain and she was his girl and proud of him, which brought another smile to her face as she tucked into her stir-fry.

"So Cap, what are we going to do with that lot in the brig? We just gonna leave them there?" Nova speaks with half a mouth full of food.

"No, Nova, they may have their use yet, we dont know what to expect when we arrive at our destination. We could encounter blue skins or worse." Pace loads up his fork like a digger truck lifting a ton of muck, and loads it in his mouth along with a silent yum.

"Blue skins, never seen one, do they exist, sir?" Rusty enquires. Pace lifts up his shirt to expose the blue skin part of his body, never seen before by the crew.

"Does that answer the question, Rusty?" Pace chuckles a little then lowers the shirt once more, before sc.r.a.ping his plate for the remnants of the lovely food. He goes on to explain how he got his skin and his new metal arm and how it had changed his life in a big way. At first he felt disconnected with life and felt like a reject. He felt useless and dirty to have this alien skin. He had started to become accustomed to it now, and felt that it might be useful in the future, so all was not lost. After he finished the story, Pace decides to sit on the bridge and reflect on the day. Thoughts flash through his head and letting his mind just wonder, he drifts slowly off to sleep in his command chair.

Megan has decided to check in on the prisoners in the brig in the loading bay, to make sure they are snug. She walks closer to the cell and everyone seems to be alright, even Tom is now wide awake demanding to be let out and banging on the thick shielded transparent wall.

"Enough of that!" yells Megan. "Do you know how stupid you all look? All you had to do was follow a few house rules and all this could have been avoided without fuss." She shakes her head, and then checks on the door console. "We will see you again in the morning, and hopefully you will comply with the Captains orders, or it will be more time in the brig for you lot." She raises her eyebrows before turning her back and walking away, feeling hateful eyes staring at the back of her head. As she goes out of sight, Tom turns to his men and in a reluctant voice agrees that they should try to muck in with the others for the time being, until launch time at least. The words tasting sour on his lips as he speaks. For now they will just have to settle down and wait until morning without food.

Chapter Twenty-Four.

Rusty and Sam are now searching the room of the security team. They are carefully moving things to inspect the room, trying not to make it obvious that they had been in there, when Sam spots a small robot, charging its battery in the corner of the room, up near the air duct.

"Umm, what do we have here then?" He reaches up and slowly lowers the robot down to eye level. He scratches his beard once more before noticing a needle type syringe, disguised as a sting, ready to deliver its poison. After a few moments of tinkering, he has taken the fluid out of the sting and leaving Rusty to check the room, runs off to the lab to a.n.a.lyse it. Rusty continues to look around, but finds nothing else out of the ordinary, so leaves the room how he found it and goes and checks on the engine bay.

Chapter Twenty-Five.

Sam looks through the microscope and figures out it is a sleeping toxin which would knock out a large human with no problem, so he replaces the toxin with sugar water and food colouring before returning back to the room and loading it into the robot, and returning it to its resting place. He thinks to himself that that security lot have met their match with this crew, and even if they agreed to help out on the ship they would all need to keep their eyes open as they just cant be trusted. After leaving the room he goes in search of the captain to find him stirring in his chair, so in a quiet voice he wakes Pace.

"Sir, are you awake, sir?"

Pace looks at Sam with sleepy eyes. "Yes, Sam, I was just resting my eyes for five, whats the matter?" Pace stretches his arms up and yawns.

"Sir, the crafty gits were planning on injecting one of us with a spy robot, sir. We found it in their room, sir, so I switched the toxin for sugar water, which will come as a shock when they try to use it to escape, or whatever they have planned." Sam crosses his arms with anger raging inside and continues to tell Pace that they were bad news and that they should get rid of them a.s.a.p. Pace explains that the other ships captain is a great friend of Toms and the crew of that ship and Toms lot could over-power them within minutes if they were to find out, so they need to get the security team on their side until the right time. When that would be was anyones guess.

Pace thanks Sam and tells him to get some rest and Sam makes his way to his room, where he ponders on how to use the toxin for something to their advantage. Pace decides to go and get a coffee and try to wake up a bit, as he plans to stay up a while. He b.u.mps into Megan on the way to the canteen. "Hi sweet," he says in a quiet voice, so not to be heard by anyone else.

"Oh, hi darling. You ok? Its been a tough day. Im so proud of you for standing up for us all today and taking no nonsense." Megan kisses Pace. She has missed his lips today and the closeness.

"I will only do my best, sweet, and we know they cannot be trusted whatsoever." Pace explains to Megan about the toxin and spy robot and pours two cups of coffee, before moving into the living room and sitting next to Megan on a sofa. The yellow lights on the coffee tables and up lighters are a cosy sight for sore eyes. "I want them to think all is good and that we know nothing, but be ready for a hostile take-over at some point. Until then we will give them a second chance. We know they will accept our terms for now, because they think we are gullible." Pace sips his coffee, but its too hot to drink yet. Megan agrees with Pace and the two lovers talk for a while drinking their coffee. They sit together, her hand on his knee, his arm around her shoulder, pulling her in close, her feet tucked beneath her. They are comfortable and relaxed, the stresses of the day flowing away from them.

Chapter Twenty-Six.

Unknown to the crew of the Invictus, a small ship is following them, several eyes watching their every move. Just out of scanner range, this ship lurks with something evil inside, something h.e.l.l bent on taking life and consuming it. This humanoid creature needs to find the right moment to strike. Its crocked blue fingers press b.u.t.tons, communicating with something terrifying hidden in s.p.a.ce, its four eyes monitoring several screens at once with ease. Small thrusters fire, as this small ship lands on a chunk of s.p.a.ce debris floating near the two unsuspecting ships.

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

A large resounding thud and an explosion rocks the ship, tossing Pace and Megan off their seat onto the floor. The ships computer sounds a collision alarm as they regain their footing and make their way to the bridge. By now everyone has felt this thud and are awake and making their way to their posts. Nova flies past Pace and Megan, as if she was floating along in the air. She is the first to be seated on the bridge. Frantically pressing b.u.t.tons and hooking her hands on her control sticks, she has found the problem. They have been hit by parts of a ship of some sort.

Nova manoeuvres the Invictus to dodge several large pieces of ship with ease, before being side swiped by a chunk that bounces off past the main windows of the bridge. "Oops, my bad!" Belts automatically fly around the waists of the seated occupants just in time, as Nova flips the ship upside down to avoid a large engine, before levelling out again.

"Keep her steady! You can do this, Nova." Pace has the utmost trust in her abilities as a pilot.

"You know it, Cap," replies Nova with a determined look on her face, full of concentration. "Its all therapeutic you see," she goes on to say, as she avoids more parts of spinning junk. Fast approaching them looks like a large section of ship with power. There are lights flashing on and off and its mostly undamaged.

"Looks like part of a t.i.tan ship to me. Take us in closer, Nova, there may be survivors." As Nova steers the ship closer to the hulk, a few smaller pieces of sc.r.a.p metal bounce off the hull, but it seems the worst of it is over, her arms now having a chance to rest a little.

"Where is the Robur?" asks Megan with a concerned voice. They all look out of the windows, searching for the other ship, only to spot it just off to the right, way out of harms reach.

"There, sir. They dont have a scratch. They could have messaged us to warn us." moans Nova.

"Closer, Nova, closer. I want on that section of ship. Fire grapples." Four large grappling hooks shoot out of the side of the Invictus, impaling the hulk and winching it closer to the ship. "Nova, you have the bridge. Seal the door behind us and keep your eyes peeled. We will take the security team with us." Pace grabs Megan by the hand and whisks her out the door, while telling Sam to suit up and meet them in the loading bay. Megan and Pace reach the brig after suiting up in there s.p.a.cesuits and they approach the cell.

"This ends tonight, Tom. Are you with me or against me? I have no time to waste on this anymore." Pace yells at Tom.

Tom, not liking being penned up in the brig, and not wanting to argue with Anc again, has a change of heart. He stands up and walks towards the cell door. "With you, sir. Point us to it and we will destroy it."

Pace opens the door and explains about the drifting ship that they are now latched on to, and that there may be survivors, and that they may meet blue skins if they were the ones behind this. Pace unlocks the cabinets containing weapons and armour for the team and wait while they suit up, which does not take long. The seven of them are ready to travel along the air lock tunnel, which has automatically attached itself to the other part of the floating t.i.tan. Sam unlocks the s.p.a.ce door and steps through into the ship with his gauntlet held at the ready, its light beaming through the darkness in this part of the deck. One by one, they enter and begin to search for survivors or things to salvage, each person automatically falling into the role they have trained for when searching for survivors. They move along to a section of the ship where the lights are flashing on and off. There are visible blood stains on the floors and walls, and parts of the ceiling and wires hang down in their faces like matted hair.

Tom is first to find a door which is marked 'Engine Room 1, but the room has been sealed from the inside. Tom signals to Shanks to burn a hole in the door so they could see behind. A few moments later, Shanks punches through and steps to one side. Talia steps through, activating a defence shield and with her gauntlet blaster at the ready. The security team enter one after one, and there is silence for a moment or two before Talia pops her head around the door making the others jump out of their skins.

"All clear, well kind off." She beckons them in the room. There is a half-eaten person on the floor and another slumped in a corner. Next to the engine core is a blue skin dead. It had been blasted to bits in a final attack on the humans. A large hole in the ceiling is visible.

"Must have been how it got in." Briggs points up, and then scans the rest of the ceiling before going over to examine the human remains for dog-tags or ID chips.

"Well, the core looks good and we could always use a few spares," explains Pace as he takes a closer look at the engine and its undamaged parts. "I knew it though, blue skins! I did warn you all that we may find them out here," says Pace. They continue on into the next room. Many dead lay here, butchered and torn. The security team scan the area for life forms and move on down the corridor. Megan, Sam and Pace search the litepads in the room, for any information they can get to help them understand what went on here.

"Shanks, Briggs, you check out that way. Talia and I will go this way. Meet back here without fail in 15 minutes, copy." Tom looks at the time, as do the others, before proceeding down the separate corridors.

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

Rusty is in the engine room, tinkering with a few valves, when he hears another thud. He pa.s.ses it off as a chunk of metal bouncing off the hull, before returning to his work. "Ill just tighten her up and bingo, shes a good one." Pleased with himself he leaves the room and goes to get a drink. It is going to be a long night and someone will have to operate the giant crane claw when they take salvage on board. Buzzing Nova, he asks her if she wants a drink and then starts to make two cups of tea.

Chapter Twenty-Nine.