The felon has to vanish C1-2

The customs branch sees a spaceship entering our sector of space. we wish to board.

LON HAS TO VANISH

By Richard Edwards

C1

I am the captain of my ship; these are my thoughts as I write them here on this log. I go by the name of Janet Maletea. The ship is a cruiser-class starship called Hexus D. It has a formidable armament for a coast guard space vessel. I have inherited the ship through my work on it. the person I gained the ship from knew that my command would be good to with my crew. He felt that I would be able to allow the crew to act as they should with my guidance on them. I was diplomatic in my dealing with others. I see all things on my ship thanks to my putting jack into what ever sector of my ship I wish to veiw; also inside the shuttles I can see whatever they are seeing. If I am aware of this needing to be watched over. By the signal that my pilots have to alert me of this happening.

We were concerned that someone was moving into our sector. We had a suspicion that someone was bringing in something that could endanger our people. We did not see any of these items until recently. There was a suspicion that they would have come from some other region of space being brought in by people desiring to have us succumb to their produces that they were carrying with them. The ship had been in this sector watching over it to see if anyone had entered it. The spaceship has armaments as it is the coast guard branch of the confederation, to protect the people of from gaining their illegal merchandise or weapons. There have been rumors of a rebellion happening in our sector of space. This way why we have been trying to stop weapons from arriving in this sector.

We saw a space ship come into view, it looked large enough to pose a threat to this section of space, I did not see anything that allow us to understand where they were from. We sent out a message to them, but they did not respond to us.

"I want them to stop! Hard to port! Get in front of them!" I ordered as I watched the manta ray starship move across the scope. My order would put us right in their path. They would have to stop or plow into us or try go through us. It seemed odd that they had no other ships there to protect them from whoever would dare to attack them. It seemed odd that this ship did not an escort of other ships besides it.

Previously this space vessel appeared in our sector. HEXUS D had it on our radar scope. We began to move toward it. The craft we encountered entered our sector of space without any fanfare, HEXUS approached it. The ship did not do anything to acknowledge or seem to notice HEXUS. We were trying to raise it by using the communication systems we had on HEXUS. The vessel bore no identification on it to designate whose star system they were from, or what they were carrying on this vessel. I wouldn't mind being on one of them myself. It looked to be a luxury-class ship. It was shaped like a manta ray. We did not know why it was here. We tried to draw the attention of the captain of this ship there, but we were unable to draw any attention from them.

I said, "Raise the com."

The com tech has blond hair, she is lanky in build. She was determined to do these things herself, she is aware of what we are doing here. She is concerned with them being here. She is able to do this, she trusts the crew of our ship, she has been with us for years on end. She was wearing a skirt with a blue blouse, she looked at the Capt. Com. Sigmoind said, "Capt. Com raised!"

I said, "Send out a communique." I was wearing a black jacket, with a satin blouse and a thigh length skirt, I had a monocle on my right eye.

Sigmoind said, "Communique sent!" Sigmoind did this as I knew she would. However the ray did not notice this com. They in fact began to pick up speed after he did this. It was heading deeper into our sector. It was as if they were challenging us to do something about their flight here.

"Identify yourself. Where do you hail from?" Sigmoind asked, "No response!"

The helmsman Sand was very much aware of what had happened, he had just turned twenty years of age, just gained his position on the ship with a few years of experience with them and had black hair. He was muscular in build. His shirt was satin, and grey in color, he had a hook on his right hand. He started to do this by steering our ship into their path. This boat had begun to slow down. It did not stop. We moved toward it, then we prepared to use mines to stop it from moving any further into our sector. When we were where we should be to drop the mines into their path, we retreated as the mines were dropped.

"Drop mines!" I said as I saw it move away from the mines. That this would surely stop them from moving. The mines were drums filled with explosives attached to chains to more of them creating a net to stop the ship from moving any farther. The mines should have punctured the armor of the ship to bleed out the air. I was certain that they would stop.

Sigmoind heard no response from the ship that we wanted to stop. The ray began to quickly turn around as the canisters rolled into the space sector.

This suggested that they knew what these mines would do if they came in contact would explode as close as 15 meters away thanks to the sensors. There were chains attached to each to create like a net that fell a mile in length.

This craft fired a volley of cannon fire across our bow. Some of these shells hit my ship. On our gunnery deck. My ship rocked by the explosions. The lights dimmed, the crew were shaken. Reports came in about the ship's damage. we heard that there were some sections that were hit most heavily.

"Damage?" I asked as the board showing HEXUS's design.

"There were three sections damaged. With significant damage." Sigmoind said as she heard reports of damage to the ship.

"How much air did we lose! Send rescue parties!" I said. The damaged section saw bodies rise out of these sections.

"The hull of these sections crushed," Gunnery tech Gudtude stated. He was a gambler with his life; he usually played cards whenever he had half a chance to do so. He studied judo and karate and was quick with his hands, he has a lot of upper body strength as he looked at the board. He wrung his hands together, as tears spilled from his eyes.

"Seal the sections," I stated, "Return fire!"

The klaxons were wailing, the lights were now red in color. HEXUS was rocked was been hit with a huge tidal wave. My crew members slipped and slid away from their feet to fall upon the corridors and rooms. The crew was frightened by what has happened to the ship in this instance. But it was something that they could expect to happen if we were under attack. Which I believe we were.

"Battle stations!" I said as I sat down in my chair. My eyes were wide with surprise. No one was that stupid! To attack a coast guard vessel. These people will pay for that! I promise you that they will pay the price for daring to fire upon my ship.

We watched the ray begin to fire a burst of lasers on us. The beam hit our craft on the aft side. We began to take damage from this as well. I turned on the cannons to hit the vessel with a barrage as I did not see their weaponry until we fired upon them. The weaponry was concealed by armor that was up beside them to protect them from enemy attack. I spotted the weaponry on the ray. The cannons roared. The ray tried to take out the shells as they sped toward them. But a few got past them.

The vessel began to retreat from us. Picking up speed again. I knew I had to stop the craft from moving further into my sector of space. So, I said, "Hammer them with lasers."

"The radar system locked on?" Gutlute inquired as she looked at the radar com. Sand wore a baseball cap. His eyes were wide with horror, his face showed the blood vessels there as he saw the ship avoid the laser cannons.

"Locked on," Sand said, as he looked at Gutlute. His face wore a frown. He pointed a finger at the ship that was there. There was a glowing light on the craft. He smiled as the light appeared on it.

Sigmoind peered over at me and said, "No response?"

"Stop doing this!" Gutlute said as she watched the ship veer to the right to avoid the lasers from hitting it.

The dock took damage. Struck our ships. Our docks was hit. The dock took significant damage. A few shuttles were ablaze. Our people were occupied putting out the damage there.

"The targeting array." I stated as I looked at the screen.

"Target?" Gutlute asked as she looked at me.

"The bridge. The drives!" I stated.

"What do you wish to fire?" Gutlute asked as she looked at me, I imagined her trying to catch whatever she could to damage the ship attacking us. He saw pieces of their ship spill away from the vessel. Showing its damage done to it. Gutlude seemed at ease seeing this occur here.

"Torpedoes!" I screamed as I watched the scope. The ship shuddered as it accepted damage. I watched the torpedoes hit our ship.

The ship began to shudder, and shake. The team working on the fire on the shuttles.

"Number of torpedoes?" Gutlute said as she peered at the scope to her right on the bridge. Her hand shook as she touched the switch to engage the weapons. She was going to use on it.

"Sixteen!" I said.

"Fire now or on count?" Gutlute said as she lifted the covers off of the array. I wouldn't want to be there when this hellfire was used. The vessel fired their cannons upon us, but these shells missed us by scant a foot.

The crew was quiet. It was quiet as a grave is deep.

Gutlude watched the screen. She lifted up the covers on the weapon systems to use. She looked at me as I sat there watching the radar scope. I grit my teeth, tasted blood as it trickled into my mouth. I thought a moment, then decided what I would need next to come into being on their ship.

Gutlude wiped her brow to remove sweat from falling into her eyes.

"On count! One," I exclaimed as I sat down.

"Got it! One!" Gutlute said, as she lifted the firing cover, the switch would now be activated. Beads of sweat had begun to appear on her brow. She paused for a moment. Than I continued, "Two!"

Her finger was raised over the firing button.

"Fire on three!" Gutlute said as she looked at me, as I grit my teeth and nodded.

"Three!" she said as she raised her thumb and brought it down to where it should be, once the torpedoes were away. She waited a moment, she saw the torpedo hit the drives. Our ship shuddered, the lights had gone down, but came up in an instant. We heard, "There's a fire in the drive system."

"Torpedoes launched!" Gutlute said as she hit the switch. The radar scope showed the torpedoes sail past the drive and what we assumed was the bridge.

Sand said, "Success! We, I believe, have their attention at the moment!"

The vessel began to turn toward us, we saw torpedoes leap from its belly to sail at us. They did appear able to fire at HEXUS' defenses. We smelled smoke and saw flames begin to crawl across the floor, there was a substantial loss of air in this section. We were concerned with their attack.

The gunnery deck began to take damage from this attack. It had taken an instant to allow the ship to return fire upon us. We saw weapons on the fore and starboard of their ship. Our ship was driven back. We heard voices coming over the com. "Fire has occured. Air is removed from the ship. Where it was struck."

The crew was occupied with trying to put out fires and sealing off the sections of the ship hit by its torpedoes.

"Torpedoes in tube?" I said as I put my hands behind my back and watched the radar scope.

"Yes! Captain," Gutlute said as she looked at the systems that were armed to defend the ship or attack another ship.

"Fire all!" ,I said. Watched her face as she hit the button.

"Fire eight torpedoes," Gutlude said and smiled. This has been done beforehand to have a ship listen to their request if they failed to do this.

"Has it hit?" I asked.

"Yes," Gutlute said as she waited to see the explosions, her targeting had been getting better at the moment.

Our ship was fired upon by the guns of the craft, they hit the targeting screens on my ship. If they did this a few more times we would be blind. I could not have this happen to us.

"Launch at the drives," I stated.

"Hit them!" , I said as I rubbed my hands together imagining I was grinding them into dust.

"Hard!" I said as I watched the ship become hit by them.

"Launched," Gutlute said as she grit her teeth. Punched the buttons to fire them.

"He did it. Captain," Sand saw that the volley arrive there.

"Just to tell them we mean business!" I said, smiled at Gutlute.

We saw on the radarscope the lights that emerged from the ship we were pursuing. It looked like eight as well. Were they willing to match us volley for volley? We did not know.

"Fire returned," Sand said as our ship was rocked by missile fire.

The ship's emergency system was created to protect us. The lights turned red. People began to move toward their seats in the ship or go to their beds. The troops raced to grab their armor and weaponry.

Gutlute smiled as she looked at us and grabbed the seat she was to be in. She hit the keyboard to bring up the choices of weapons they could use to defend themselves with. She asked, "Weapon choices?"

"Are there torpedoes in the tubes?" I said as I watched Gutlute sit down and put on her glasses. So she could see better, but I knew it was a ruse.

"In tubes, sixteen. Do you think that'll slow them down?" Gutlute said.

"Fire! I don't know but we are telling them that we're serious now!" I said as I watched the radar scope.

"Target?" Gutlute said as he speered at me as I sat there staring at the Sigmund's board which was lit up.

"Fire on the drives and cannons," I said as I wiped my mouth with my sleeve, seeing blood on the sleeve where it touched my mouth. I spat out some blood. I glared at Gutlude as she sat there awaiting my orders. She winced, seeing me do this. Her hands grew white as she held the targeting array where it should be to administer what I wished for us to do to their ship.

The other vessel fired on us. It hit the drive system as we hit theirs. HEXUS was harmed. The power went down on our ship for a moment. Gutlute punched in an activation code to bring the power back up. The enemy craft waited a few minutes, then fired their laser cannons on us. Their captain opened fire on us. Hitting our drives. Our ship shuddered and stopped moving. We suspected that there were eyes on their command bridge, but we were unable to receive any response from their ship.

So I advised, "Prepare to fire at the bridge." It will either stop them or they will die beneath our barrage of fire. They hadn't returned fire yet. Gutlute knew what to do. She had been trained to do this for years. The cannons were fired once.

"Identify yourself. Where do you hail from? What is your purpose in our sector of space?" Sigmoind asked over the com again.

He heard a sound over his earphones. He said, "Say again!"

Then he heard it, a woman's voice. It sounded sensual like a doxy's voice would sound. He imagined this woman, pleasuring herself as she said these words to him, "PLEASURE ME MATEY! Dorty is where we're from, star system D16. Please make me cum!"

"I see. What is your purpose in our sector of space?" Sigmoind asked as she looked at the scope above our heads. The ship was continuing to fly deeper into our sector of space avoiding the mines. We were worried about them attacking us.

"Advise them to stop and prepare to be boarded by us!" I said as I saw the ship retreat from where it was.

We then heard over the com, "We will allow you to board HEXUS. We will stop trying to evade you." the enemy stopped firing upon us.

Our soldiers boarded shuttle craft. We seemed nervous; we did not know what we were walking into. Was it a trap?

I walked into my cabin, took a seat beside the computer that was tied into the systems on the ship. Closed my eyes, tried to calm down. I put my feet into the lotus position. I tried to regulate my breathing. Put the sounds of the repair crew working on the spaceship to fix the ship out of my mind. Focus on the soldiers heading toward the shuttle crafts. I found one member I could join with.

The commander heard my voice as I spoke to her, I said,"I am coming with you. I need to know what they preparing to do to us."

I inserted the jack into my wrist. I found the personal who were boarding the shuttle. I knew that the commander would allow me to join her in her helmet.

I was with the crew of my troops as they walked toward the shuttle. I joined the commander in her helmet as they walked down to the shuttle. "I will be watching over the troops here!" I said into her helmet.

Salenda said quietly as he awknowledged my existance there,"You are here good to have you with me. Captain."

Our soldiers were heading to draw weapons out of the` armory, and ammo as well to arrive on the manta ray ship. To enter this ship, we did not know what we were walking into. The troops went down to where our shuttle crafts awaited their arrival there. The shuttles looked like a milk carton on its side, with only half of it visible there. It sloped down from the roof to the ground, on supports which numbered two. It could carry 13 soldiers at a time. These soldiers were armed to the teeth with weapons. Our commander would carry with him a pistol and a pair of handcuffs.



CHAPTER 2

The thirteen of us boarded the shuttle craft. I was with my crew as they entered the shuttle, through my wrist being attached to the computer to allow me to see what was going on with my crew being here. I was concerned with what the enemy would be willing to do by allowing us to enter their ship. There could be a number of things that they could to our shuttle abd crew who were aboard their ship.

The pilot knew what he was to do. He had been in combat with us for many years. He trusted his group of soldiers with his life as did they him. He looked at the ship as he left the docking bay, he looked across the area to see the three shuttles ablaze, he knew that he had lost three members of the crew of pilots. He was a gargantuan of man in scale.

Our commander Janice Salenda was bull headed, aggressive with her demeanor in dealing with people. She carried a laser pistol, and a set of handcuffs. She was a large women with gloves like a gorilla. She looked at the twelve of us as we boarded the shuttle. The troops carried semi automatic laser rifles along with their daggers.

First lieutenant Felix Soloman was quick with her mouth and was belligerent in her behavior with people outside of her unit. Short and easily adjutated her hair was cut short.

The other person who was second leiutenant Helen Meta, needing to wear glasses, having a pinky removed from her left hand. Her hair was to her shoulder. She had a thorn in her side in regards to anyone who dared to approach her thinking about doing her harm.

When our shuttle arrived at the docking bay. The bay looked as if it was abandoned. There were other ships there in the bay, these ships looked as if they had been accepting damage. It was as if there was no one on this ship. If we were to judge it by what we saw there. Some of the crafts were still ablaze, others were chard. A few were barely recognizible as vessels from the damage done to them. There were boxes strewn across the dock. There was set of windows above the dock to look over it.

“It looks as if, nothing has been done to make it appear as if they have taken any damage or were in the process of repairining it.” Salenda said, as she tried to access the situation here. They should have been occupied with repairing their dock, but they weren’t.

Looked around I said,”This makes no sense. They should have people here repairing the docking bay. Yet I see no one here. It is as if this is a dead ship. There was no way that they would not have sent someone here to repair it.” A chill crept across my back. My breathing was supported by the commander’s suit. I felt as if we were being watched by someone, but I could not see anyone there doing this.

The machines used to have ships arrive there, were not manned. The dock was cluttered with debries, we were barely able to find a spot to gain access to the dock with our ship’s scale.

A head of us was a doorway, which was open, it was large enough for one of the vehicles that would be used to carry the boxes about on the dock and it appeared that the area was lit up so we could see it. As soon as we walked through the door, it slammed shut. We were weaing out atmospheric suits, because they would not have atmosphere on the dock because the dock was not sealed. I and the commander were in the lead of our troops.

Salenda heard, “We have sealed the area so, we can allow you out of your suits to walk her in our ship. Can you give us, the readings that we will have to arrange for this to happen. We are a pleasure ship, so we try to make it acceptable to your atmosphere.”

“Thank you,” Salenda said as she walked into a huge hallway, there were lockers to our right and left thousands of them. The middle where we were the passage way was forty feet across, the ceiling was twenty feet above our head.

“It is done.” this voice said over Salenda’s comm.

“We can step out of our suits.” Salenda said, as she removed her flight suit. The rest of us did like wise.

It feels as if this a ghost ship. The quiet lay on our shoulder, pressing down on it crushing us. Was there infact a live crew here. The air smelled of flowers and the scent of grass growing in a feild. This seemed odd. Why have we not seen anyone here. The only way we knew that anyone was here was thanks to voice on Salenda’s com. It made no sense that we had heard this. We should have met someone on the dock.

I was afraid, but I looked at the atmoshpere on the dail of the suit that she had stepped out of the dail read the same as it was on our spaceship here. I could not shake the feeling that we were being watched as we went forward, but I couldn’t see who was watching we move.

“We are being watched!”

I know, but I don’t see how it is being done!” Salenda said as she looked about trying to see where this person was watching us.

We stripped down to our military dress. The dress weighed forty pounds, it consisted of a helmet, a jacket, pants and boots. We hung our suits in the lockers.

It was so quiet you could hear a mouse fart.

“The quiet is getting to me!” Soloman said, as he looked about trying to ease the feeling of fear that was getting to him.

The quiet hung like a body with a noose about its neck on our nerves.

The hallway seemed clear. The hallway ended at a doorway, which opened to allow us to enter a place where music roared, we saw bodies in various states of dancing going on, there were hundreds of people here. Some provogatively dressed, some were engaged in sex right there.

Nicole the security of their ship met us at a bar, she looked us over. She wore a scoop neck top which was silver in color. She wore a black sequined skirt, on her shoulder hung a submachine gun. She has crimson lipstick, and a faint hint of rouge on her cheeks, eyes had red eyeshadow. She lifted the sub machine gun up to point at the ceiling. Behind her was a bar with several dancers upon it in various states of dress. She said,”I am Nicole! Cheif of security here!”

I saw the people in the club, it looked like an adult club. There was something there for every one who was there. I wanted to findout what was happening here on this ship. Surely there was damage done to it, by our ship's attack on them. But I did not see any sign of damage done to it by my ship's attack. I was here thanks to jack that was inserted into my wrist.

There was music pouring from speakers. The club was crowded with people, some people were drinking, others were playing cards with chips on the table. Women and men were both with each other and the same gender as well as aliens. Some of these species had humaniod appearances as well. A few of these figures were wearing hoods. Some were provocativity dressed. It looked like most were here to hook up with someone here. The air smelled of drugs, perfume and cologne and alcohol. Some of these people caught a few of the soldier's eyes with their antics.

The music sounded good, heavy beat with rock overtone, I liked what I was seeing there. The bodies gyrating and shifting about, I smelled the booze that filled the air. "I won't mind shaking my bootie to the music that was playing presently." I said.

The commander flashed a quick smile as I said this. She whispered,"I don't think we have time to do this. Do we?"

"I suppose not!" I said.

“We would like to see your captain? And also to inspect what you are bringing here to our people in the planet's control. We have orders to search your ship. We would like to speak to him,” commander Salenda said as she looked Nicole over, and walked toward her with a sway of her hips.

Nicole lifted her hand to punch in a code to her captain on an object that looked like a card. She spoke into it, “There are some people are here to see you?”

“I have arranged to do this, take them to me,” Capt. Mexus advised over her com.

We marched toward where their captain was. The hallway was wide enough for ten men would march down the hallway with ease. We marched in units of two with my commander in the lead with Nicole. She did not trust her, she could be intending to kill us. She still had on her a sub machine gun. We hit a T junction with a huge identitation in the middle, with a lit panel and something that looked like a face would fit into it. Nicole lifted her right hand up to put it on the panel, and then she put her face into the indentation.

We saw a light appear on this panel and another light appeared in the mask like design. The indentation began to slide upwards. The area had twelve feet across open area. Inside we saw a silver light inside of it. There were five people here, one was standing upright.

“Why have you attacked my ship?” Captain Mexus snarled at the present moment after seeing us arrive there and she pointed her forefinger at us. She was talking to someone on her com. She looked at us as if we were the scum of the earth, her eyes short daggers at us. There was a scowl on her face. Her lips had black lipstick on them, her eyes had purple eye shadow on them, they were turquoise in color. After she brought her hand back to her body. She crossed her arms and rubbed the toe of her shoe on the floor of the bridge. She was facing us as we entered the bridge.

I wanted to step back a foot from her, she made me uneasy. Why did she not show any anger towards us. There was no sign of us having attacked their ship. There should have been signals inside that would tell them what we had done to them. Yet there was no indication that we had done anything to them. I saw for myself the damage we did to their docking system, but she did not seem to show any indication we did this. Why was she so calm. I would have been willing to kill us all in less than a heart beat. She would not be so peaceful. Was she on some type of drug that did this to her.

"Careful with what you want to allow them to understand. Why were there no sign of us doing damage to their ship. It looks as they hadn't taken any damage to the ship from us. There should be voices over the com telling them what was damaged by us. Yet it appears that they took no damage from us. That is not possible," I studied the capt. as she took no notice of us having done damage done to the ship. "I would most assuredly have taken the skin off my back for this damage having happened here. Why did she not show any sign of us having done this to her. Not a hair out of place."

I looked her over, I was surpised seeing her standing there. She was the captain of their ship. She looked at us; her eyes were wide, and the color drained from her face. Grit her teeth. She was lethal enough. She wanted to draw blood from us. No doubt. There was no sign of any damage done by my ship. I pressed my nails into my palm. Why did I not see anything that indicated this on their space ship.

Commander Salenda stared at her, this woman had three inch nails colored red. She was bald and had a network of wires on her head these wires that ran down her neck. She wore a sequenced silver dress with a deep plunging neckline to show off her ample cleavage.

Their chief of the security Nicole had led us here. Nicole put her hand on her submachine gun's handle. The people were frightened upon seeing us here. The personal on the bridge watched as if we were vagrants desiring to steal from them.

There were four armed soldiers there, three were women, one a male holding his sub machine gun at the ready. They looked as if they were not to be toyed with, Their eyes accessed everyone. They were wearing flak pants and no doubt flak jackets as well. They had brought up their weapons to point at us as we entered into their view of us. They were standing beside the people. They stared at us as they occupied the chairs here.

One had a network of electrical lines running from it to her head, there was a band with an inch in width the lines ran into the ceiling she had elbow length gloves that were silver in color. She wore a gown of sliver sequines.

Another had a green dress, that went to the floor. Her hands were upright as she looked at us, her hair was blonde. She was watching our ship, her hands hovered above what appeared to be their weapons systems. She looked over at us.

Why wasn't I hearing anything involving the damage done by my ship on theirs! There should be some response from her crew involving the repairs to her ship. It was if we were but a fly in a meadow. Nothing happened here! How could they appear so much at ease with us attacking them, what happened to our attack on their ship.

The room was thirty feet across in the middle was a chair where the helmsman sat, he had a hat on his head with several electrical lines attached to it going to the ceiling. Two other women were wearing gold shirts on before them were a panel with knobs on it to turn, There was a women sitting in front of a glass surface with mirrors on it. Their captain was on her feet.

Our Commander Salenda walked with Nicole, the woman we met with at the entrance to a bar here. Nicole was wearing a gold scoop neck shirt, with a thigh length skirt, the boots went to her knees. Her eyes were golden in color, her hair was black with gold highlights in it. In her hands she held a machine pistol, on her belt were grenades.

I was worried seeing her standing there. She smiled at us, it was as if we hadn't done anything to her or her ship. I felt a chill creep within my soul as I stood there watching her address us. We had better not let 'er do anything to our shuttle.

The escort of our guards walked behind them with an escort of their own soldiers there, armed with laser rifles and and daggers. Nicole smiled and winked at the capt. of their ship.

"What is the meaning of this happening to us?" Mexus said as she glanced at the soldiers brought to her bridge. She allowed the coast guards soldiers to walk onto the bridge, the soldiers noted that there were members of the ship.

So they brought their security unit with us. Their soldiers wore flak jackets, helmets with visors carrying sub machine guns with them. They looked to be soldiers at the moment they were watching our troops as we arrived on the bridge of their ship.

"We had asked you to stop and allow us to board your ship. Did you not hear us say this over your com.," Salenda said as she stepped toward Mexus. She stared at the woman standing there. There was something odd about her appearance.

"We did not hear your call. Your signal was breaking up over the com.," Mexus said glaring at her and the soldiers she brought a board the ship. Mexus was standing upright with her head held high. Back as straight as a board. Confident as could be she stood there looking at us.

"I see?" Salenda said as she tried to figure out what had happened here. She knew that they had covered all the signals boards where radio coms happened. So, they should have heard us as they arrived in our sector, She whispered into her com, praying that the signal could be received on our own ship. I heard the voice over my com. I knew that the captain of the other ship would be upset to have us board her.

"Why did you fire upon our weapon systems and the drives," Mexus said there were antennaes protruding from her brow as she cleaned her long taloned nails with an emery board watching us with eyes wide.

"We had to stop you from moving any farther into our sector of space," First Lieutenant Solomon said as his eyes narrowed approaching her. His finger was resting on the rifle's trigger, the gun was held at the ready. His barrel was pointed right at Mexus.

"Put down your weapons," Salenda said as she made a motion with her own hands to lower our weapons to have them to be held by the butt of the rifles as she watched the enemy soldiers do like wise.

"We only want to talk to you to see if you are not carrying any contraband," Salenda said as she brought her hand down on Mexus wrist. On her hip rode a laser pistol.

"Sure be my guest. Take all the time you need to explore my ship!" Mexus said, she seemed at ease to allow us to explore this ship. Her eyes narrowed to dots.

She laughed as the coast guards began to walk down the passageway.

####

While we were doing this, another member of their ship silently slipped onto our shuttle craft in the docking berth.

This member was Mayeast who was dressed in full length bodysuit, with a firearm and a dagger on the belt along with a block of explosives that she was wearing. On her back was a tank that was feed into her mouth.

She was tall, her hair was in bob and was red as a rose's petals is. Mayeast moved in silent as a cat arrived. Slipped up the ramp to gain access to our ship. She stole onto floor of the shuttle craft.

The door was open to allow the admittance of the soldiers back to the shuttle craft as she entered she saw to her left and right seats that my crew rode on to be here. and the middle was a door through which she believed the pilot would be.

There was circle with pin in it to keep it attached to the door. She could see the outline of the door, there was rubber barrier between it and the other segment that made up the hull of the shuttle.

So, the pilot Waldof should be safe from the people who boarded the ship. He had an alarm put on the ship to see if anyone had boarded the ship. He knew she was there inside the shuttle, he heard her try the door. It did not open. He thought she would go away.

Mayeast slipped toward the door where Waldof was. She tried the door, it didn't open. She lifted a block of explosives to put to the door. She stepped aside, and let the explosion rip through the door. She avoided the resulting debris that was flying from there toward the seats where the occupants would sit. It would no doubt kill whoever did this. If they hadn't thought to leave the shuttle as it went off there.

Waldof was wearing a flight jacket, and helmet which were bullet-proof. He lumbered to his feet and stepped to the right. The explosion was directed to the middle of the helm. The G stick and the windshield took quite a bit of damage from this. He reached for his belt to pull out a laser pistol. He stood there pointing at his pistol at the open door way to the cabin.

Mayeast began to step into the cabin. She saw the face of the pilot who was wearing a respirator, with a helmet on his head. The pilot lifted his weapon up to fire at her. She reached up on the frame of the door. She swung from the supporting beam that made up the door's frame. She drove her feet into his stomach.

He fired his pistol as he fell backwards into the Joystick and instrument panel. He swung a fist at her as he regained his footing. She toppled to her feet as she swung backwards from catching him in the stomach. The air was driven from his lungs by this blow.

The laser beam cut into her arm. She lost her balance and fell onto her back. The arm was with the humorous bone was cut in half. The rest of her arm hung from the frames brace. Waldof was aware of what he was doing. He fell backwards back into the helm. Waldof lifted his wrist up to his mouth, he whistled.

She rolled out of his hand’s path. The hand missed her. She swung out her opposing leg to sweep his feet out from under him, it caught him there. He crashed into the chairs where the crew would sit. Waldrof glared at her, he swung a heavy right at her head. She was unable to avoid the hand going there.

Her head was driven back. Her left eye was bleeding, due to this fist catching her there. Blood washed out of her arm to shower them both in its wake. She wiped her eye with her gloved hand. She hauled back her left and drove it at him, he blocked her fist as it flew toward his head. He winced as he began to try and gain the upper hand with his mitts.

She began to dance backwards as his fists caught the air where she was the instance beforehand. She tumbled backward, she drove her right foot into his throat. He staggered back, he grasped hs throat as she put her right foot down on the floor. He fell to his knees. Blood spilled from his mouth into the respirator.

I heard this through the com on board our coastguard spaceship. Something was a miss. I looked through Salendar's eyes to see Mexus as she stood there looking at the commander.

Waldor knew what was the danger that we faced upon going onto the other ship. She did not know who signaled us.

I waited a few minutes to find out where this signal had come from. "Where do you think, this signal is from?" I asked.

“The shuttlecraft!”, Salender said in a whisper.

I shook my head, opened my eyes, I felt a mite dizzy. I slowed my breathing down and tried to clear my head from all the sounds I was hearing in the commander’s head. I began to focus again on the calm again. When it grew quiet, I punched into the computer the designation of the shuttle craft's pilot there.

I saw him standing there, throwing a fist at this woman who was bleeding from a laser pistol damage to her. She was faultering, she fell to her knees.

When he reached out to grab her, his hand went through as if she had turned to air. He looked at his hand that had just went through her. He shook his head trying to understand what had happened to her.

The woman still lay there.

I did see the woman being able to move through his grasp. It did not make sense. Waldof knew he felt his hand striking her and her hand and boot catching him with his body. So, she should be tangible, yet she was not tangidble. At the present moment.

Our soldiers began to run back toward where our commander was on this ship's bridge. Weapons held at the ready, we brought our visors down. So there would be no way to lose our concentration of what we were doing, The helmet showed where the heat was on another body. It seemed odd that the crew of this ship. Didn't have any indicators where their heart and internal organs were. The heat was coming from where the blood vessels would be on a human body, but not on the major organs, it did not make sense, that these organs were not visible through their visors.

The enemy had begun to step out of our path as we hurled ourselves back to their bridge. Some of them had their eyes opened wide in alarm, as was their mouths. Some of them followed them back to where they were headed toward the bridge. The enemy stayed out of our path. They simply watched us race to where we had come from on the bridge.

"What is the meaning of this?", Mexus asked as she saw our soldiers return to where the bridge was. Mexus' troops had left the bridge we believed that they had gone to where they were supposed to be when not in danger.

When he had got the air into his lungs.

"Where to?" , Jacks asked. Salenda shot him a smile.

"Shuttle craft! Someone has attempted to commandeer it!" Salenda stated.

The troops raced off down the passageway to regain their ship. The other personal on the ship watched them barrel down the passage way. When we arrived Waldof looked at us. His eyes were wide in amazement.

Nicole joined us in this run to the shuttle craft. When she arrived there she saw what had happened to her soldier whom Waldof stopped and asked, "Why have you done this to her?"

"Because she was resisting arrest, and tried to kill me!" ,Waldof said as he walked toward Mayeast laying on her back. Blood was pooling beside her ribs.

"I had to use force to stop her. Didn't you know this was happening?" ,Waldof said as he was helped to his feet.