http://www.asstr.org/~srb
Don't read if under 18 or illegal in your little corner of the world, like you'll listen. This 
should appear only on my site http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/srb/www/ F3, Futanari 
Palace, and basically should be wherever Pal's stuff is. Also at the Grey Archive, and 
some other places they might end up, they know who they are. Any websites that want to 
host my story must have expressed written consent to do so. I will list all websites that I 
have granted permission to list my stories there. If you are reading this now and find this 
on a new website, then please email me at somerandombastard (at) yahoo (dot) com

This is copyright me, so don't call it yours. Feedback can be left here. I created all the 
characters, they are all fictional, and any relevance to anyone living or dead, is incidental. 
I created the entire fictional universe in which they inhabit, if you're interested in writing 
in this world than feel free to email me. I've pretty willing. 

BTW there is plenty of different portions which have been reused by numerous science 
fiction shows movies and books, including nanotechnology, rapid pregnancy, and various 
scientific mumbo jumbo, which I will try to keep to a minimum. (Bounce a graviton 
particle beam off the main deflector dish…)

THIS CHAPTER contains no sex


Chapter 25
Terra's Tears


Not far away now, a subordinate slowly ascended the stairs to her leader's office. She had 
watched vigilantly the events unfolding on the ships nearby. Most prominently, there was 
the child, pink and fleshy, he was the vision of everything that was wrong and weak with 
humanity, even to his own kind. Poisoning his own body with drugs, that his own people 
shunned. Unable to cope with his own problems like some infant, crying out. He was 
young, weak, foolish, and not heeding advice.

She didn't hate him, she didn't care enough about him to. But his leader did, and her duty 
was to follow her leader's orders. The leader felt him as though he was her very own 
child. To his people, she would be nothing more than a complete stranger, alien to him in 
more than one way. But her leader held her so close.

So close that he was now becoming a liability to their mission. They were given orders 
not to directly interfere, and they already had. She cared for him, visibly distraught over 
his own suffering. With every minute their goal became more difficult due to his 
involvement, and she knew that she had a higher duty. Not just to her leader but to her 
people, and if her leader were to become unfit for command…She didn't want to have to 
remove her leader from her position. She had worked for her during her entire career. So 
she continued to bend, allowing more and more aberrations in her attitude, and went on 
with the charade. Just so long as she didn't have to break.

She entered the door, an honor reserved for few others, and walked into her leader's 
office. She saw the blue light on her leader's face, showing the withered wrinkles, 
denoting her frustration and exhaustion. Her face had seemed livelier and happier not so 
long ago, yet another burden that the boy placed on her.

"What are the latest developments?" The leader asked.

"The boy…your child, he is still ill. It seems that the stimulants he was ingesting have 
been removed from the ship, and his body is flushing it from his system," the subordinate 
said.

"His status?" she asked.

"His body purging the toxins isn't his issue. He will manage it as well as his system can, 
and should return to normal, if he doesn't relapse. The more important issue is that he is 
still suffering from cancer, and they cannot attempt operation in zero gravity," the 
subordinate replied.

"How long until they arrive on the fourth planet?" the leader asked, trying to control her 
emotions. Her subordinate knew her too well.

"Very shortly, but there's another problem. The other ship," she said, waving her hand 
over the blue light of the room.

"What of it?" she asked.

"If it hasn't found them then they will if they continue along their current path," the 
subordinate answered.

"We have," The leader said, stopping herself.

"We cannot assist them," the subordinate said, preempting the notion.

"I, I know," the leader said dejectedly.

"The ship is a small support and transportation craft. It has two members, a commander 
and a pilot. They are out of communications range. The ship's crew consists of more than 
two dozen crewmembers and passengers. They would be outnumbered, and unable to 
speak to their people," she added.

The leader winced, looking at the ship on her screen. Could she only reach out and grasp 
her child from it, her sadness might someday be relieved. 

*

"So much for that T-bone steak, huh?" Julio said, leaning back in his chair. It didn't 
matter much, in the weightlessness of gravity. But it was a learned action, when he was 
letting the computer fly the ship, he would relax and lean back.

"That's just how it goes sometimes," Katherine said, trying to sound dutiful.

"I can't believe that pain in the ass General Blake is making us do more deep space 
exercises. And for what? Just because we happened to show up a couple hours late?" 
Julio kicked the metal terminal.

"Because we arrived late in our given objective of transporting Doctor Thomas Pope, and 
Lieutenant Kyle Byrne, on time," Katherine reminded him.

"Don't look at me, it wasn't my fault. I got us here as fast as we possibly could. You 
can't make a ship go faster than it's maximum speed. It's not my fault that the 
goddamned soldiers showed up late, ok?" Julio said defiantly. 

"The heavens do not move themselves for the whims of man," Kate said, waxing poetic.

"Yeah, whatever," Julio was bored and frustrated. And most importantly, bored.

"Well did you enjoy your time down on Mars?" Kate asked, trying to change the subject. 
The two of them had talked so much lately that they had run out of topics. She felt like he 
was a little brother…or worse, a husband.

"What time?" he asked resentfully. He didn't even have a full day on the planet. Just a 
simple debriefing and back he was for another go round. He couldn't even get his land 
legs back under him.

"So no wild and sexy parties then?" she asked with a grin. He had boasted about his 
intentions to celebrate some civilian debauchery. 

"No. I mean I could have gone to one, but I didn't get the chance to head out." Julio 
added.

"Yeah, yeah I'm sure that's what it was," Kate said with a grin. She did enjoy teasing 
him, probably far too much.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh nothing. I just got asked to four or five parties myself," she said, slowly turning her 
head to look at him, grin still on her face from ear to ear.

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in," Julio said with a false smile. 

"Well it's just a privilege…of…rank…" Kate said, looking at the monitor. The amused 
look on her face quickly changed to concern.

"What…" Julio said, checking out the exact same thing that his superior officer was. 
"What the hell is that?"

"I'm not sure, not yet. Long range sensors indicate…large transport vehicle?" Katherine 
had seen her share of derelict vessels in the past, usually on long range missions. "This 
shouldn't be here, this is a well traveled area of space, people used to use it to take 
pictures of the moons and the planet from this area."

"I can't say for sure, but it looks like…It's an old one for sure, looks like heavy 
equipment transport, out of date by eighty, maybe a hundred years, two hours away," 
Julio said, looking at it. He double and triple checked it. "It's moving!"

"What?" Kate asked, snapping her head at her helmsman.

"It's moving, see? You can see it's decreasing in it's acceleration!" he said excitedly.

"You're right, it is. Do we have any intelligence on any other ships or salvage operations 
running in this area?" she asked.

"Nope, already checked," he said, it was standard operating procedure.

"Alright, activate the transmission array for an outgoing communiqué," she said.

"One second," he flipped some buttons, and inserted his code to activate the ship's 
onboard communications. 

"Martian command, do you read me? This is Katherine Pierre, acting captain of the 
transport ship designated United Mars eighty two, requesting update of orders," she said. 
She waited, usually the response was instantaneous, even if it was nothing more than a 
simple acknowledgement and a wait to get her newest orders. "Repeat, this is acting 
captain Katherine Pierre, can you respond?"

"Nothing," Julio said, checking the star charts and the planet charts. "We're smack dab 
between the radiation belt and the planet. We can't communicate with them unless we 
change our course, and that will take us away from it. What's worse, is that the ship itself 
is sending out radiation of it's own."

"And if we move from it, it might see us or change it's own position. You have to be 
kidding me," she said, her mind trying to find some kind of reason for this. The first was 
naturally some kind of transport from Earth. While she had heard of Earth assisting the 
insurgency on Mars, she thought they were simply rumors, rumblings unofficially put out 
there to stir up some popular support. She knew that Smith enjoyed doing that, it 
muddied the waters and gave him the illusion of moral superiority over both Earth and 
the Resistance. But she didn't think that was it. It was then that she came to another 
conclusion. 

"It's a test," she said, pointing at it on the screen. 

"Well it is giving off a ton of radiation," Julio acknowledged.

"Not just that, but what, is this the vanguard of a Terran invasion? A hundred year old 
hunk of junk ship with minimal weaponry, and on top of it it's hemorrhaging a ton of 
radiation. Not just that, but it's also moving towards Mars, and decelerating as though it's 
coming to land. And all of this after we piss off Blake, during the oh so important first 
surgical strike to get the doc and the redhead? Coincidence much?" Katherine asked, half 
trying to convince herself.

"Yeah…you're right. I bet he expects us to fuck this up as well," Julio said, rubbing the 
stubble on his chin as he thought.

"Now the question is how to approach the ship, and what the mission, if any, exactly is," 
Kate said, considering her standing orders. There were no specific orders about 
communicating with other ships, and standing orders were search, seizure, and capture of 
any enemy or civilian vessels and return it to Mars.

"Well we have to try to initiate contact, right?" Julio said. 

"Without any given orders we have to initiate contact, and board the vessel. Commandeer 
it, interrogate anyone on board, and return it to Mars. On time," Kate said with force.

*

Dreams haunted his mind, a terrible scene rooted deeply in reality. His body starved of 
nutrients, weakened by drug use, it finally collapsed and slept. Waking would have been 
a respite from the torturous reality that his subconscious was forcing him to deal with. 
His every moment under the influence of the reality altering drug had sought to avoid the 
truth, avoid the pain. But the scene, the fact repeated in his mind endlessly, so much so 
that he could no longer hide it, no longer keep his conscious mind from grasping onto 
that which is so concrete, so undeniable.

"Flynn's dead!" David's hoarse voice screamed, waking up from a terrible dream to a 
nightmarish reality. His best friend, his only real friend on this ship, was dead. His body 
was covered in cold sweat, however shivering from the horror. His mouth was dry, raspy, 
sorer than he could ever recall. Nevertheless, he wept deep from the center of his heart, 
the entirety of his soul lamenting the passing of Flynn. 

"Flynn…is…dead," his choked voice said, tears pouring through as if a dam had been 
torn asunder. His breathing blocked, strained as he wept. All of the grief, his inner 
sadness which he held inside, the pain and suffering which he had held in was gushing 
out faster and stronger than he could begin to contain. 

Flynn had expired, gone almost two weeks ago. There was nothing that could be done for 
him, nothing that could reverse his passing. The happiness and joy which he had given 
David, the friendship and fraternal support he offered, had been replaced. Not with the 
sadness, the aching pain that replaced death on an everyday basis. No, it was replaced 
with nothingness. David had tried to shut his death out, tried to act like it hadn't mattered. 
He had tried to force out the brotherly love that he held in his heart for Flynn had been 
forced out. That was what tore at his soul, because he did care for his friend. The 
suffering that he had placed onto himself was worse, and could not be ignored.

"Flynn is dead," he whimpered one last time, before the sobs became too great for him to 
speak for some time.

*

"Alright, coming up to the cargo bay now," Julio said, steering their smaller craft 
expertly. He was sure that he was on cameras now, his voice probably being recorded as 
well, and didn't want to disappoint.

"Still no response to our communiqué, their entire transmission array seems powered 
down," Kate said. She too was talking more for the record, rather than simply reminding 
him.

"Coming up on their docking bay. It's locked up tight, but we can use the manual locks to 
open 'er up," he said, moving in place.

"Since they're not answering their doorbell, we'll have to let ourselves in. Get it done," 
she said. Julio wasn't the only one trying to impress their superiors. It didn't take him 
long, but it was nerve-racking work, especially at speed. The locks weren't entirely 
designed to work like this, but it was still doable. Essentially he used one of the arms on 
the ship to insert into a hole, and use it to crank the door open.

"Their cargo hold is depressurizing quickly, good job," Kate said. He had managed to 
open the door and remove the air inside of the cargo without causing any kind of damage, 
a textbook maneuver. It was made simpler since they didn't need to open the entire bay, 
only enough to pilot their smaller ship in. The old cargo ships could easily accept larger 
than twice the size of their ship. 

"Bay doors are open enough to allow us in," Julio said, checking all according to 
protocol.

"Proceed, Ramirez, bring us in," Kate said. The old cargo ships weren't designed to keep 
people out. In the case of the ship taking damage, the ship was designed to be opened 
easily, so that repair and recovery crews could find any survivors, and transfer the heavy 
machinery. Only the newest generation of spaceships had actually been built with any 
kind of hostile notion in mind. Thus this ship had almost nothing in the form of 
protection or armaments. There was just an extremely thick shell on the forward decks, to 
protect against dust and small pieces of rock, which would cause considerable damage at 
their speed.

"Aye sir," he said, taking them in slowly. He was sure not to touch a single thing, he 
didn't even want to leave any dent or scratch. He checked the room, looking for 
somewhere to land. There wasn't any designated place to land, there were no open 
landing pads. He wasn't being meticulous. It was safer to find a pad to land. It would 
mean that he dock the ship on something, to keep it in place. Without gravity it would 
just float about in mid air. He moved it to the far end of the room, near the exiting doors.

"Can you interface with their computer system?" Kate asked, running her own scans.

"Negative sir, everything is offline. We're going to have to get in the suits," Julio said, 
suppressing a smile. It was fun for him to play soldier, acting like he was a real spaceman 
going into a hostile environment. His real job was just a ferryman. 

"All right, let's not leave them waiting," Kate said, getting out of her seat. The suits that 
they had to don weren't difficult to get into. What was difficult was sealing everything, to 
make sure that there was no chance that they would lose atmosphere and choke. Ten 
minutes later they were ready. 

"Both suits show integrity at one hundred percent," Kate noted, for the official record.

"I'm decompressing the atmosphere in here first, give me a minute," Julio said, a 
sensation similar to a slight wind as the air drained from their ship. 

"What do you think sir, weapons?" he added, motioning towards the armory, which was 
in fact the size of a small cupboard.

"Yes Ramirez, I don't think we're supposed to go out and hug them," she answered, 
looking over the only weapons on the ship. Two handguns, ten millimeter, fifty round 
ammo capacity with, with three back clips apiece. They weren't on a warship, and they 
weren't front line soldiers, but they would have to do.

"All good sir, ready to open 'er up" Julio said.

"Proceed," Kate said, as the two of them entered in the security code to open the door. It 
took a couple of minutes, because it was designed to be near impossible for anyone to 
hack into, and most importantly, designed to be nearly impossible for a single person to 
do. 

"All right Ramirez, you get going on closing the bay doors, I'm going to see what I can 
do to get their computers back online," Kate said, moving towards the door. Julio only 
grumbled a complaint as he went to do the grunt work, not wanting to voice a complaint 
that might be heard.

"Activating computer systems," Kate said, this was all too easy. It was like someone had 
simply turned them off. 'Wouldn't Blake have made it more difficult? Or is this not the 
objective?' she wondered aloud.

"Never mind Ramirez, step away from the bay doors. Preparing the computers to close it 
for us," Kate said, waiting for him to get to a safe distance. "Proceeding." The doors 
screeched and churned loudly, a thrumming noise that seemed to reverberate throughout 
the entire ship. 

*

Terra looked at the flower, and it's strange glow. She ran her fingers along the outlines of 
the delicate but beautiful scarlet begonia. She was happy to see it, but saddened at the 
same time. The flower had been her first real gift, from Tom. She had seen the flower as 
something wonderful, a reminder of life, and of the outside. It was something so 
beautiful, so meaningful now in the sterile and near dead vacuum of space.

But now it had a taint to it. She knew that she couldn't do anything, that she couldn't 
react to anything. Her flower was dying, and she didn't know how to fix it. Then David 
fixed it, and she was grateful. She was happy about it. He had seemed so mean, and so 
rough around the edges, but the work to fix the flower had been such a kind thing for him 
to do without question.

But now it was all tainted. She almost didn't want it. It was so difficult for her to deal 
with. David had called her a freak. He hated her because of what she was, because of 
what she had between her legs. She wanted to be over with him, wanted to be done with 
him, but couldn't.

"Did, did we hit something?" Terra asked, feeling some kind of shaking… or 
reverberating…something. 

"Maybe an asteroid or something," Nadia said warmly. She hadn't felt much of anything.

"Oh," Terra replied, sighing. She was bored, and emotional, and sad…but then 
sometimes really happy and cheerful. She didn't know how to sort out her emotions, 
which were flinging rapidly. She had become taciturn lately, so afraid that she might lash 
out, that she might get upset.

"Don't worry about it Terra. We're getting close to Mars, and we won't have to worry 
about spaceships anymore. At least until we're heading home," Nadia tried to cheer her 
up. It had been a bit of an ordeal for the last couple of days. Terra had become sullen 
almost all of the time. Initially she knew that the biggest issue was to overcome the 
feeling of guilt or shame about her body. It was made so much worse for Terra, since she 
didn't even know this type of thing existed. It was a relatively quick resolution, and then 
things turned towards the actual physical maintenance that Terra would have to begin. 
Weathering the emotional troubles was the worst so far.

But more than just being a doctor and helping Terra weather the physical and mental 
strife, Nadia had to be much more than that. Because of the absence of Terra's mother 
Kyle, Nadia had to assume a role as her surrogate mother. An odd situation for her, as the 
two had been lovers for almost a month now, ever since Terra's…unusual birth. It wasn't 
just being compassionate for a lover. She now cared for Terra almost as a mother. She 
held her close not just for her nearness, but to soothe Terra maternally. To be there when 
Terra had to yell, or needed to weep.

"Do you really think we can find mom?" Terra asked, thinking for a second. "And Tom?"

"Yes, I think we can find both of them easily enough. The problem is going to be getting 
them out. But I have a good feeling about this Terra. We're going to do this smart, and 
take our time, and not rush into anything stupid." Nadia was doing her best to paint this 
in the best possible light. 

"But what if we can't do it Nadia? What if we just can't get them? They might not even 
be there to get," Terra said, tears forming in her sullen eyes. "I just mean, can, can we 
even do this? It's gotta be almost impossible!"

"There, there Terra, just take it easy on yourself. We're going to do the best that we can," 
Nadia said, putting her hand on Terra's shoulder.

"But what if my best isn't good enough?" Terra said, breaking down into sobs again. 
"What if I can't save her!" she shouted.

"Terra, please, just, relax, you're going to make yourself sick," Nadia said, trying to rub 
her shoulder. Terra winced from the touch.

"I just, I'm, I'm sorry Nadia," Terra said, trying to hide her tears in her hands. "I need to 
go."

"Where are you going to go?" Nadia asked, watching Terra head for the door.

"I don't know," Terra said. "I just gotta go take a walk, I can't just sit here doing 
nothing!"

"Alright, don't be too long," Nadia said softly, watching Terra walk out the door. She 
sighed, hoping that Terra would find her own way. 

*

"What's the game?" Kate asked, looking at the computer terminal. She was thankful for 
their bio suits but hated dealing with the communications inside of it, and her breath 
steaming up the visor.

"I'm sorry sir?" Julio asked, taking his helmet off.

"This ship, it's so strange. It's like they shut off all different kinds of systems on purpose 
to make things more difficult to us. Someone went to a lot of trouble for this," she said, 
looking at the computer terminal.

"What do you mean?" he asked, stepping next to her.

"Okay, first off they're going fast, but slowing down? Why slow down at this kind of a 
rate? These cargo ships were supposed to be propelled by nuclear reactors, it's like 
having a Pagani and driving thirty miles on the autobahn. They could stop almost on a 
dime. Then the systems that are on, atmosphere, food supply, lighting, it's like they want 
us to find something," she said, going over each of the ships functions on and offline. 

"Or like someone is still living onboard. How long could people survive on one of these 
ships?" Julio wondered.

"Six months, a year maybe? Two at max? It's not a derelict, and it's not just sitting here. 
It's moving, it isn't as though ghosts set this thing out heading towards Mars," she said.

"Okay, but what's the point?" he asked.

"Then the stuff that's offline, communications, internal and external sensors, engines, the 
cargo bay doors, it's almost as though they're trying to make it impossible for us," she 
said.

"Or anyone else that might be onboard," Julio said, taking out his personal handheld 
scanner. "Whoa, what the hell is this?" 

"What is it Ramirez?" she asked, dutifully.

"This whole place is just pouring out radiation, like, like the nuclear engine went 
kablooey," Julio said, using a very technical term. "And these suits will not protect us 
from radiation."

"We knew that it was hemorrhaging radiation, but I didn't know it was this much. It must 
be the engine," she said, considering what her orders would be. 

"Sir, may I remind you that we only have so much time before we are to arrive back on 
Mars," Julio said. While he was as interested as anyone to play explorer, he didn't want a 
second reprimand on his record.

"Yes…" Kate said, trying to determine the best course of action.

"So…? I mean, orders sir?" Julio asked, returning to protocol.

"Alright, we're going to split up," She said, her voice full of determination and authority.

"Split up?" Julio didn't like the sound of that.

"Yes Ramirez, split up. We have a limited time and a large ship to investigate. We don't 
know if anyone is onboard and we have to determine the ship's status. I'll head towards 
the engine. Your duty is to locate the ship's helm and subdue anyone that you can. Stay 
in communication, and report in every ten minutes. Consider everyone a hostile target. 
You are authorized to defend yourself and use whatever means you deem necessary to 
achieve your goal. You see anyone, shoot first, ask questions later. But make sure there's 
someone to ask," she said with a nod.

"Aye-aye, sir," Julio said, checking his gun. Damn if he didn't feel like a man with it.

*

Sergio sat up, coughing thick and disgusting phlegm from his hoarse and sore throat. 
Another night of seeking for answers that would never come, another night of finding out 
who had hurt his ship, who had done the damage that made him question everything and 
everyone. 

He tried to collect himself, and put on his computer. It was the only one on the ship 
running, even now that they were so close. He had not only turned off all computer 
terminals throughout the ship, but had also intentionally limited the amount of power 
running through the computer system at any time, to help him narrow down spikes in 
usage. And possibly find something, or more importantly someone.

'Or another pile of nothing!" he said, smacking the side of the computer as it slowly 
loaded. His eyes grew wide as he saw what the warning messages, alerting him to what 
had happened. He looked at the computer, checking it three times before he would even 
allow himself to believe it to be true. 

'Someone has come aboard my fucking ship!' he was livid. He activated the entire 
security system, something that ate up a huge amount of energy to supply and transfer all 
of the information directly to his terminal. He had neglected to increase the power levels. 
However he was still below the power cap, and failed to realize it.

He expected an entire platoon of soldiers to be running in and out of his ship, but he 
couldn't find a single person out of place. His first instincts were naturally self 
preservation, and he had checked outside of his own room first. It wasn't just vanity, it 
was natural for them to go after the captain, if they knew where he was.

When he knew that his own hide was safe, he shifted the camera view to the cargo bay, 
and found the ship. He expected much more.

"One ship?" he snorted indignantly. "One fucking ship against me?" he inspected the 
ship, knowing that it was a small craft, which couldn't hold much more than six people at 
best. He was more concerned about it's mother ship. Without the external scanners, he 
couldn't see them, and he didn't even know how long it would take to activate them, let 
alone actually finding the ship.

He sighed, flicking from one camera to the other. The computer was able to recognize 
which cameras had movement on them, and could narrow down the views to that, but if 
someone was walking down a hallway, and turning around corners, they could easily 
active three or more in a short span. Each of the eight screens

He stopped the camera, as he saw someone. He activated and opened up the camera on 
the four center screens of his computer. The intruder was wearing a full outer space suit, 
made of black hard plastic. He recognized the Martian insignia, but more importantly, the 
gun. He examined the intruder for any other marks, or distinguishing features, when he 
was surprised to find that it was a woman.

'They send some cowering little blond girl to overtake my damned ship?' he thought to 
himself, wondering where she was going. He watched the screen intently, following her 
like a hawk. He wondered just where the Martian girl was going. She seemed to be 
heading down towards the main elevator.

He stopped his camera short when he saw Giselle. She was moving too, and he moved 
the one large containing the intruder to the side, and magnified the screen on the other 
half of his computer monitor. He watched her, recognizing the room that she was 
entering. It was only a minute later that the entire surveillance network went down.

*

Giselle had been nervous. It had started when she had sex with that…Yoshi. She didn't 
know what to call her, him, it, or whatever. She hadn't expected Yoshi to be a 
hermaphrodite, certainly not. But it made her lesbianism make more sense. Their 
lovemaking was her first in some time, and the first time in a long while that she had 
enjoyed it. She hadn't really considered herself a lesbian, however it wasn't her first 
lesbian experience. But their sex was intense, enough to give her an extra bounce in her 
step. 

However she was on edge for more reasons that that. She didn't want to have sex with 
Yoshi for fun, or just as a means to vent pent up sexual frustration. There were more than 
enough men on the ship that would fill that role, but none of them interested her enough. 
She didn't want to deal with the results of that kind of lovemaking, and she wasn't 
concerned with pregnancy.

No the reason that she had made love to Yoshi wasn't for pleasure. She had, largely 
through David's hearse and her own conjecture, come to believe that she might have 
found the secret behind the nanobots. Or perhaps a secret.

She didn't know what it was that they did. She couldn't tell whether they were some kind 
of bioengineered weapon, some panacea, or if they were just a simple cold remedy. 
That's why she had decided to undergo a full body scan, in order to find out just what, if 
anything, was running through her system. And what, if anything, it was doing.

She checked outside of the room one more time before opening it and going in. She felt 
paranoid, she could have sworn the camera was watching her. Most of the people on the 
ship loathed taking a scan, and she knew that she wouldn't have company. Nobody would 
elect to have one, and there were instances where no one would use the scanner for 
months at a time. It didn't take her long to set up the scan, but with her own apprehension 
about being caught it seemed to last an eternity.

Sergio had been grumbling about power usage ever since their reactor had gone critical. 
They were essentially running with only reserve power, and that wasn't going to last 
them forever. But she knew better than most, they had plenty enough power to get to 
Mars, not that they were more than a day or two away. The scanner only didn't use a 
great amount of power, but it did spike the power level at once during its use. It would 
spike, but she monitored the power usage, and it shouldn't interfere with any of the 
systems that she knew about. The refrigerators used up more electricity, because they 
were running twenty-four hours a day. Of course, naturally, they were much, much more 
important than this.

She sat in the chair, trying to calm herself as she activated the machine. She was 
surprised to see the lights flicker and dim almost into darkness. That was new to her. She 
quickly forgot about it as she felt the jarring sensation of the scanner. It was so difficult 
for her to explain, like having every inch of her skin crawl. 

Finally the machine stopped, and she could get up. She looked at the readout, deciding 
that she needed to copy it to her pad before she tried to decipher the difficult readouts. 
She was no doctor. She sighed, trying to shake off the odd feeling of the scan as she 
exited the room, making sure that no one saw her.

*

Julio Ramirez didn't know what to look for. Contrary to popular belief, just because they 
were in space, it didn't mean that they had some complex database containing every ship 
in existence. Nearly all ships were catalogued, but their small ship didn't have the 
information on this specific one. Not just that, but almost every ship had changed from 
the first time it left the planet to the end of its maiden voyage. Some were modified, 
others were refitted, and some were just junked. There were at least a hundred ships 
somewhere out there, their whereabouts unknown.

Julio had found…some floor. He had forgotten which deck he was on, but it didn't matter 
especially. He hadn't seen a single person, but for some reason, it felt like this place 
hadn't been abandoned yet. He couldn't discern why that was, but he still felt like it. He 
just didn't like wandering around aimlessly looking for that something. Or worse, having 
someone following him around, like a fly into a spider's nest.

Perhaps, under ideal conditions, a capital ship might be able to locate the helm of a ship. 
These however, were hardly ideal conditions. There was an obscene amount of radiation 
on the ship, almost certainly emanating from their engine's nuclear core. Nuclear 
radiation didn't just grow on trees. Whether it was critical or just in disrepair from 
neglect, it made scans almost impossible. A capital ship's sensors were more powerful, 
and were better adapted for a surgical scan. Whereas their smaller craft had weaker 
sensors, and his hand scanner was almost useless.

Ships weren't designed like they were in television, with a light and aerodynamic ship 
designs. That wouldn't matter in space, as there was no air resistance. And containing an 
easy to discern center of command just made for an easier target of opportunity. Most 
ships were designed for reality, and in reality, the engine room was usually more 
important than the helm. The helm was usually there for the captain to be pompous and 
change the course easily, without having to do the much more difficult work of 
calculating everything and actually running the engines. Everything could be run from 
the engine room, only buttons could be pushed from the helm.

He looked up, his eyes widening as he saw a pretty redheaded woman. While he was 
looking for people, and her beauty was striking, it wasn't what had taken his attention. He 
knew this woman…but from where?

"Hey," he said, his hand on his holstered pistol. He cleared his throat, wiping his mouth. 
He had taken his helmet off, he found it easier to see, and easier to breathe. 'Ok Julio, 
show time, let's get a medal.'

"Um, hi, do I know you?" Terra said, looking at his face. She didn't even notice the gun, 
nearly in his grasp. She was trying to understand what he was doing, more than anything, 
and why he was wearing the strange clothes. 

"Yes you do, you know very well that you do. Hands where I can see them!" he shouted 
at her. Terra looked at him, a bit confused, but complied, raising her hands, thinking it 
was perhaps something that she wasn't accustomed to doing. He seemed to be ordering 
her, and she didn't know what else to do but comply with his forceful demands. 

"Where did we meet? What's your name?" Terra asked, cocking her head slightly. She 
was pretty confused now, and she wished that Nadia were there to help her.

"Enough games Kyle. How did you get on this ship, and what are we supposed to do 
here? What is the mission!" he shouted. He was laying it on thick, making sure that 
whomever might be watching was getting a hell of a show.

"I, I, don't know any mission, I'm sorry," Terra said, nearly bursting into tears. She 
wasn't accustomed to this kind of talk.

"Bullshit Kyle, why else would they fly you back here in space? Tell me what you 
know!" he snarled, trying to sound like some big bad soldier. In the back of his mind he 
wondered why Kyle was acting so weak.

"Wait, Kyle? You, you mean my mom?" Terra asked, finally putting two and two 
together.

"What do you mean your mom? You're Kyle Byrne, she couldn't have a kid older than a 
toddler. Tell me what I want to know!" he shot back.

"Please, did you see my mom? Did you see Kyle? Please tell me!" Terra said, the notion 
of some contact with her mother, even by proxy, sent her emotions wild. She ran up to 
him. She moved quicker than he expected, more adapted to the environment than him. 
Terra grabbed onto the breast of his shirt, begging him for help.

Julio did not take it as a plea for help. He was acting like a soldier, and was being 
assaulted. Considering she was unarmed, he didn't feel the need for firearms. He lifted 
his arms up, knocking her hands away. She tried to grab him again, and that's when he 
decided to go into attack mode.

He punched her, a jab squarely in the face. It wasn't the force, or the pain, but the shock  
sent Terra reeling back. She had never been struck before. Tears, already welled in the 
corners of her eyes, began to pour. Julio wasn't done with her, he grabbed her arm, 
forcing Terra to her feet.

"What is the goddamned point of this? Tell me!" he shouted at her face.
 
"I, I don't, I don't I'm sorry, I don't know," Terra blubbered, choking on her own mucus.

"Tell me!" he shouted, smacking her in the face again, "What I!" he nearly screamed, 
striking her face "Want to know!" he snarled, throwing her back. Terra wept without 
control, wishing Nadia was there.

"I don't know!" she cried out, weeping openly. "I just wanted to know about my mom! 
Do you know my mo-oh-om?"

"Listen to me, if you don't tell me what you're doing here, I'm gonna really give you 
something to cry about," he said, wondering if it sounded too cliché.

*

David sobbed uncontrollably. He was angry, sad, so frustrated. It were as though a hole 
in his soul had been cracked open, and from it all manner of vile emotions had poured 
forth. His walls had broken down, his defensive drug able to protect him from himself 
had drained from his system. His body was purifying itself of the toxins while his mind 
was purifying itself of the negative emotions.

Voices, loud and dissonant roared outside of his room, but he cared not for whomever it 
was, and whatever petty small quarrels they had. He was wrapped up in his own torment, 
and had no room for anyone else's. 

He had now accepted it. It had been a struggle, but his battered psyche was able to accept 
the facts. Flynn was dead. There was no chance of him coming back, there was nothing 
that he could do, nothing he could say, that would affect anything. He was powerless. 
When he finally accepted it, he began to feel again. 

Unfortunately the only emotion he was feeling now was the incredible sorrow. He had 
tried to shut Flynn out, thinking that he could get through it. The drugs and the pain had 
numbed him to any feelings at all. The only bright spot was…her.

His sobbing stopped for a moment. What had at once been such a bright ray of happiness 
in his life had turned into pain when he discovered just what Terra was. Some kind of 
shemale, hermaphrodite, whatever she was. She had seemed so perfect, something so 
great. Beautiful, kind, compassionate, caring, she was like a child in her innocence. But 
then he had to go and fuck it up, all because of her… How could he get past the fact that 
she had a dick? 

"Shut the fuck up!" he screamed at the door, wanting, wishing the voices would pass, go 
away, leave him be in his own suffering, his own sadness. He slammed the door open, 
thrusting his head violently to find the source of the clamor. His heart softened as he 
stared at the face of her, Terra, sitting there, being assaulted by…

'Some piece of shit Martian fuck?' his snarled mentally. He wanted to dive in and choke 
the life out of the asshole. He had the presence of mind to go back into his room, and 
open one of the storage containers. Grasping onto a large metallic pipe he ran outside. 
Propelled by nothing more than a burning rage and the sadness that seemed to permeate 
around him, he struck. One strong and forceful blow with his pipe slammed into the jaw 
of the Martian bastard who had dared to cross him in his hour of mourning.

But this wasn't television, and the man wasn't down for the count after a single strike.

Julio grabbed onto his communicator, fumbling for the button to talk to Kate. "Kate, I 
got!" he managed to say before David's pipe fixed the communicator, smashing the 
machine to bits.

Julio had enough of this. He grabbed David's pipe, yanking the tool from the youth's 
hand. Terra watched with a combination of hope and horror. She wanted neither herself 
nor David to feel the pain of a beating.

"Okay, you want to be the hero?" he asked, throwing the wrench down the hallway.

"Fuck you!" David shouted, diving towards him. His body, still weak from a lack of food 
and the stimulants, moved against him with all of the fervor that the young man could 
muster. 

But it wasn't enough. He wasn't brawling against the poorly trained, out of shape, and 
elderly Sergio. Julio Ramirez was a trained military officer, and well educated in hand to 
hand combat skills.

He sidestepped David's attack, slamming his elbow down onto David's spine. The blow 
didn't crack his back, but sent him flying forcefully to the floor. David turned upward, 
only to see a fist flying at his face for a tenth of a second, landing squarely on his nose. 
He didn't have time to react, Julio's other fist found him again. Another blow, this time 
on his cheek, and David's vision went blurry, his entire world hazy. 

"What is going on here, answer my damned questions!" Julio shouted at him. David felt 
like he was seeing double, his mind struggling to see what he could not make sense of.

"Fuck you," was David's retort. He managed to kick Julio as hard as he could right in the 
crotch. It was a low blow, and even Terra winced. Julio fell to his knees, aching 
throughout his body. David dived on his back, wailing on him with as much fury as the 
youth could muster.

Terra tried to scramble away, but she was paralyzed by fear, and pain. Never had she 
been so scared, not even by David. The pain was bad, but she hadn't been seriously 
injured. She hadn't been hit, hadn't been struck in anger like this. She hadn't even seen 
something like this in real life before. And worse, now her hope, her only hope, was the 
boy who held the previous record for scaring her.

Julio regained his composure, throwing David off of his back. He punched him with the 
full force of his entire body directly in the youth's nose.

"Well fine, if you don't want to tell me," he said, watching David's body try to recover in 
the air. "Maybe she will!"

David let out a guttural groan, an animalistic rage overcoming his body. He dove towards 
Julio once more, this time with more control, more ferocity. But it didn't matter, Julio's 
quick right hook turned him flying as it slammed his nose. Julio fumbled for his weapon. 
David was teetering on the edge of consciousness, trying to get up, trying to fight the 
man. 

The sound of a ringing gunshot and the stain of blood filled the room. Grasping and 
grunts of pain as he looked down, seeing the blood gushing out from his leg. It had torn 
right through the quadriceps and cracked the tibia, sending the most pain he had ever 
lived to endure in his short but painful life. He grabbed onto his foot, trying to find some 
way to stop the blood from oozing about, gushing past his leg and floating around his 
head like a constant reminder of his injury, as if the pain weren't enough.

"Stay right the fuck there!" Nadia said, her gun trained on the unknown assailant. She ran 
up to him quickly, her heavy metal boot kicking his firearm and sending it flying.

"Terra, are you ok?" Nadia asked, looking at the sniveling and crying girl in the corner.

"D, David, he, is, is he," Terra said in between sobs.

"He's ok," Nadia said, looking at the boy lying on the ground. He just had a little bit of 
blood coming from his nose, and more than a couple of bruises. She couldn't say the 
same about Julio. She looked at him, whom she had just shot in the leg, he was the one in 
real pain here. She only wished she had a clear shot for his chest. 

"David!" Terra said, moving past the bleeding Julio, whom she no longer feared. She 
went up to David for a moment, before recalling their last meeting.

"Thank god she had a gun," David said, tasting the blood that was dripping from his nose 
and mouth. The vision of Terra was the last thing that he saw before his head dropped 
back and he lost consciousness.

*

"Goddamned fucking piece of shit!" Sergio roared, smacking the screen of the monitor as 
if it would help. He knew that the power was being drained, and that he would have to 
wait until Giselle was finished. But hitting something helped vent his frustration. 
Drinking too, and he decided that a drop of the creature wouldn't hurt, as he went on to 
consider things further.

'Giselle…what is she doing in there? I told her about the cameras, so she obviously 
knows. There isn't much on this ship that could drain the juice enough to black out the 
camera systems. Maybe if she activated the sensors? Why the hell would she even get a 
scan? She's not sick, I talked to her last night, and she even said she was feeling better 
than she had in a while... Did she do this on purpose?' Sergio wondered to himself.

'This is too much to just be a coincidence. We get this close to Mars, and then I ask her 
about her communications. Now we have Martians running about my fucking ship! That 
bitch has gone too far, disobeying a direct order. I'm still the captain of this ship!' he 
thought, taking a long drink and washing it down with another.

"Finally!" he said aloud, sitting up in his chair as the cameras came on. He continued to 
watch the flashing cameras, waiting for someone he didn't know. He stopped on the 
engine room, seeing her. 

"Stupid Martian bitch, thinks she can run about my ship like it's a fucking grocery 
store?" Sergio spat out. He dialed the number for Frank on his comm. 

"What do you want?" Frank asked, finishing off another meal. He actually liked the food 
onboard, but it had been a long time since he had eaten anything else.

"Frank you fat fuck, we have Martians running on this ship!" Sergio shouted.

"Very funny Sergio, but aliens might be more believable at this point. Wait until 
tomorrow, or maybe the day after." Frank couldn't help rolling his eyes. 

"I'm serious you fucking idiot! You have to stop this bitch this minute, do you fucking 
here me?" Sergio screamed into the comm line. He wasn't in the mood for bullshit right 
now.

"You're really serious?" he asked, leaning up.

"Yes I'm fucking serious, this bitch is going to the engine room. She's got a fucking gun 
too!" he said, pointing at his monitor as though he were proving it.

"Hey I'm not fucking with some armed soldier with just my looks," Frank said 
doubtfully, glancing at the door.

"Like you could screw anything. Frank, take John and come here and I'll issue the 
fucking guns myself," he said. He had kept the weapons stored in his room, for obvious 
security reasons.

"Why us?" Frank asked.

"Because I know I can trust you! Now stop asking stupid questions and get your ass 
down here!" Sergio was losing patience.

"Why don't you go deal with it?" Frank asked, getting up and ready.

"Because I have to deal with something else," Sergio said, flipping through the active 
cameras with one eye while he watched the Martian woman with the other.

"What the hell else could you be doing?" Frank asked.

"Enough goddamned questions! Every second we wait is another second closer they get 
to the heart of the ship! Get the fuck down here, that is a goddamned order. If you and 
John aren't here in two minutes I'll send the Martian bitch down to your room," Sergio 
said, calming himself down for a moment. He looked puzzlingly at the screen, wondering 
what had happened to David, Terra, and Nadia.

*

Katherine Pierre stepped as quietly as she could, looking down every hallway, every 
corner, and every spot that she could. She stopped, and activated her scanner again. The 
room, indeed the entire floor, and much of the ship itself were being bombarded with 
radiation from the inside. Her scanner was off the chart. Residual radiation blanketed the 
area, enough that she couldn't make any sense of the readings. 

At a further distance in the ship, she could tell that the radiation was emanating from this 
floor, and potentially this reactor. She couldn't tell what her goal was, but identifying the 
cause of the radiation and perhaps stopping it might just be what she was here to do. She 
continued on, checking the time. She still had plenty before the radiation would start to 
get to her. She didn't plan on being here for much longer. 

She tried communicating with Julio again. His communicator was dead. It wasn't even 
trying to connect, and she knew that she was alone. He had relayed his last position but 
that was over ten minutes ago. He was either captured, or dead. He could have silently 
communicated to her, and his comm line wouldn't have been down without being broken. 
That was the entire point, to know if it had been broken up, whether by explosion, 
damage, or simple malfunction.

'Come on Kate, get it together. It's radiation, it's not coming from the freeze dried 
meatloaf, it has to be coming from the nuclear reactor. This is a test, do you want to be 
sitting around at home all day baking cookies for the boys, or do you want to be one of 
the best? Get your head in the goddamned game!' she thought.

She continued walking towards the engine room. She looked cockeyed at the makeshift 
door. There was a complete door, normal in all respects. Yes it was steel and very sturdy 
looking. But it was left completely where it was, and right next to it was a cut out in the 
wall. She used the scanner once more, this was definitely the cause of it. Her radiation 
scanner was off the chart. She wondered whether this was the test itself, to see if she 
would go into it, whether she would have sent Julio into it, or if she would run back home 
to headquarters. She leaned down, deciding that she would check it out. 

Unfortunately she never got that chance. A powerful blow to the back of the head from a 
metal wrench incapacitated her quickly with one fell swoop.

"Well, that was pretty easy," John said, looking back at Frank who was still fumbling 
with his gun.

"Yeah, didn't even need this," Frank said, finally wrapping his hands around the gun.

"Not too bad," John said, kicking her over, to make sure she was out.

"Hell I'd do her," Frank added in.

"What, with Sergio watching?" John asked, pointing towards the camera on them. 

"I didn't mean that jackass!" Frank said, shaking his head.

"Probably the only chance you'd have with a looker like this is if she's unconscious," 
John grinned.

"Yeah, whatever," Frank put the gun down.

"Yeah fuck you whatever, I'm right," John shot back, laughing.

"Look, let's just get out of here. I don't want to wind up like Dave with a million types of 
cancer, ok?" Frank said flippantly.

"Yeah, still can't believe he bagged that redhead, atta boy." John praised. He grabbed 
Kate's body and locked her arms and legs up in plastic shackles.

"Really? I kinda like the Asian one a little more," Frank said, grabbing her unconscious 
body and carrying it towards the elevator.

"So did Giselle," John laughed. "Come on, we have to go pick up one more of these 
Martian shit heads."

*

If the conditions were better, Nadia might have been happy. She wasn't just sitting 
around in a chair, or floating about doing nothing. Now she had something to do, 
something that would keep her boredom. And not just some busy work either, her given 
profession, medicine.

But dressing a gun wound wasn't especially fun for her. Doing it in zero gravity wasn't a 
barrel of monkeys either. Then there was the natural guilt of having been the one who 
shot Julio. She didn't want to kill him, or even inflict pain really. To some degree it was 
against her Hippocratic oath. But she couldn't have allowed him to do what he had been 
doing, or what he might have done.

She had heard yelling, and swearing outside of her room. She walked to the door to find 
the cause, and her heart sank watching Terra being hurt. When she had returned from her 
room to grab the gun she had found David fighting against him. It was a rather futile 
struggle. And so she shot him in the leg to incapacitate him, as soon as she could. She 
could have blown his brains out earlier, but waiting to hit an arm or a leg prolonged the 
fight with David.

'David' Nadia sighed, looking at the boy. It was a brave, but foolhardy thing to do. 'The 
kind of thing a seventeen year old might try to do.' She shook her head. He had cracked 
his nose, on top of every other sickness that he had to deal with. He still looked like he 
was worse for the wear, and Nadia couldn't help but wonder about how bad he really 
was. What was wrong with his vital signs, his brain chemistry, and just everything in 
general?

Of course she had a groaning and screaming man in shackles in their infirmary to keep 
her wary. He didn't seem particularly dangerous right now, but she knew better. She was 
just thankful that the woman was incapacitated, although she didn't enjoy the manner 
with which they did it. Blunt trauma to the head wasn't a good thing for Kate to deal 
with, least of which in this ill suited infirmary.

This didn't seem like much of an infirmary to her, and certainly not a sick berth that was 
up to snuff. It wasn't just the décor, which was lacking. Walls that seemed filthy with 
dust, far from sterile. Perhaps most importantly, the room with the scanner in it was three 
floors up, and on the opposite half of the ship. Beyond that, there was next to no medicine 
of any kind. She had checked the entire stock of medical supplies in the cabinet. There 
were antibiotics, which had expired. Below them was nothing but bandages. There were 
three tables, which didn't serve much of a purpose without gravity. The only good they 
did was to restrain the two Martians, and David, with hard plastic restraints. She just 
hoped that they would last.

"Can I do anything else?" Terra asked, softly and sweetly to Nadia. She had been Nadia's 
dutiful nurse, there to give whatever help she could. Be it a simple bandage or cleaning 
blood, she made herself useful. Even without any medical training she was better than 
some nurses that Nadia had worked with. Nadia knew that it made her feel better to be 
useful, especially now.

"No, I don't think that there's much else that we can do, not in space," Nadia answered, 
smiling at Terra.

"How about a fucking painkiller, or do you Earth bitches like to watch a real Martian in 
pain?" Julio screamed. He was in terrible anguish, but being shot will do that.

"We don't have any painkillers," Sergio reminded him, for the millionth time. He sat to 
the side, watching Nadia do her job. He had been happy to have a real surgeon on the 
ship, to do the real work that need be done. "Be thankful she's helping you at all."

"She helped me to a fucking bullet in my leg!" he spat out. Terra winched at his words. 
Even restrained he frightened her.

"Shut up, or else you'll have a bullet in your other leg," Sergio threatened. 

"Don't do this right now, please," Nadia said, pulling off the bloody sanitary gloves. Julio 
had been a pain in her ass to tend to. It wasn't just his defiance. That certainly didn't 
help, but it was because there were no painkillers, or anesthetics of any kind. She could 
understand the source of his anger, having been the one who shot him. But she was 
ethically bound to help him as well. She watched Sergio walk over to the still bound Julio 
and put some a plastic mouth protector in his mouth, used to protect people from biting 
on their tongue. She wished she had thought of it earlier. 

"So how will they be?" Sergio asked, motioning his head towards the two Martians.

"She'll be fine, but will wake up with a bitch of a headache," Nadia said, looking at the 
woman. She didn't like that she had to be hit to the back of the head like that. But of all 
the ways that she could have been incapacitated, it was one of the nicer ways to go. 
'She's lucky she's just got a bruise, and not a bullet wound, with two of Sergio's men'

"And the little girl over here?" Sergio said, mocking the suffering Julio.

"He is another story. He will need a lot of work to get his leg in shape. I'm going to have 
to set the bone for now so that it can heal, but someone is going to have to go back in 
most likely, and remove bone chips. His real pain is from the muscle being torn, which I 
can't do a thing about. I've stopped the bleeding, although he has lost a lot of blood, and 
the shock that set in didn't help. Never does," Nadia said, giving him the cliff notes. She 
could smell the reek of alcohol on the captain's breath.

"Can they be transported?" Sergio asked the real question he wanted to know the answer 
to.

"Yes, but where do you want to transport them?" Nadia wasn't quite sure of his game, 
especially after his interrogation earlier.

"We're close to Mars," was Sergio's short reply.

"Reentry will be rough for him," Nadia thought aloud.

"What, what about David?" Terra asked. She stood near the door, far away from the other 
five people in the small room. She was afraid of Julio, naturally, and of Kate by 
association. She just didn't want to be near David, not right now. Her feelings about him 
were so mixed up. And despite her best efforts, she knew that she couldn't do much of 
anything to help Nadia. She didn't even know what gauze was before today. So because 
she felt like she couldn't do anything, she simply stood in the corner, until she was 
needed.

"He'll be ok," Nadia said, craning her neck to see Terra. "His nose is gonna hurt, and 
he'll have a throbbing headache for some time. But the bone didn't break off; it was just a 
hairline fracture. Other than that, it's just going to be bumps and bruises. They'll be sore 
for a while, but will heal on their own."

"Ah he'll be fine in no time, just some bruises, eh boy?" Sergio said, nudging David's 
body. He hadn't planned on awakening the exhausted and beaten boy. 

"Wha…?" David groaned. He awoke to a world of hurt, always a confusing occurrence, 
but a familiar one for him. It wasn't the pain itself, but where it was from that was as 
confusing. Even more perplexing was the restraints.

"It's ok David, just calm down. You got in a fight, do you remember that?" Nadia asked. 
She had always found that jogging memory was the best way to help someone get up 
after injury. She had worked on her bedside manner.

"A fight? I…oh," David said, feeling his memories crash onto him like a wave on the 
ocean. He tried again to sit up, the bright light making it difficult to see the restraints that 
chained him to the chair. 

"Yes, in that fight he cracked your nose. It's just a hairline fracture of the skull really, and 
it'll patch up in no time. But for now, it's going to hurt, a lot, so just take it easy. Moving 
your head around quick is going to be the most painful, and I wouldn't advise scratching 
your nose either," Nadia tried to be as reassuring as she could, as her hands reached for 
the release on the restraints holding him in place. She felt Sergio's gruff and cold hands 
stop her.

"David, I need you to do something for me," Sergio said.

"You…Oh really? How about you fuck off?" David said, narrowing his eyes. The pain 
seemed to wake him up quicker than a cup of coffee.

"Look, David, they flew here on a ship. A real honest to god Martian ship, and I need to 
know the information on their computer systems!" Sergio said, watching Julio struggle 
against the bonds some more.

"Hey guess what? I'm relieved of duty. When I get to Mars I'll go to the court-martial, 
until then fuck off," David said, turning his face. He winced in pain and reminded himself 
not to do that again.

"David, there isn't going to be any court-martial. Just do this. If not for me, then for 
yourself, or the rest of these people," Sergio said, biting his tongue to have to ask for 
help.

"I'm not doing a fucking thing for you, and you can go fuck yourself and yourself, shit 
for brains, for thinking I would do anything to help you after what you did to me," David 
said coldly.

Sergio sighed, turning his body away from David. He looked at the one Martian, 
bandaged and whimpering against his mouth guard in the corner. He was scared now, 
Sergio bet he was still wet behind the ears. 'Little punk kid probably thought we were all 
sheep waiting for the slaughter.'

"They know my mom," Terra said to no one in particular.

"What?" Nadia asked, moving towards Terra as quick as the circumstances would allow. 

"He, he said Kyle, he thought I was my mom," Terra pointed frightened at him.

"How could he know your mother?" Sergio asked, confused as he looked at Julio's eyes. 
He could tell from the look that Terra was on to something.

"How…" Nadia's eyes grew wide. She knew that Terra noticed it from her own worried 
look. "It's ok."

"I, he…he knows my mom," Terra said, choking back tears. Nadia hugged her, trying to 
console the girl. She knew how hard everything had been to Terra.

"Fine, I'll do it," David said, his heart softening to the sound of Terra's tears, and the 
guilt of having caused some. "Just let me out of this!"

"Eh?" Sergio said, raising an eyebrow.

"I said I'd fucking do it, so let me out of this fucking thing before I change my mind!" 
David snarled. His heart hadn't softened for Sergio.

"I'm not going to hold him here," Nadia said, still embracing Terra. "If you won't let him 
out I will."

"Fine," Sergio said. The straps were a little more difficult than he was accustomed to, and 
his shaking hands didn't help. It wasn't entirely a fear of David's reprisal, but a 
combination of everything. A feeling of security and strength that had been pierced with 
the Martian boarding party. An underlying concern of whether they had actually found all 
of the Martians, or if there were someone still crawling in the ship. A personal knowledge 
that he couldn't find them if they were on the ship. A nagging worry that he did have a 
saboteur on the ship, and that she might be one of the few people that he had trusted. A 
need to begin issuing firearms, and to whom he issued them to. Who he could and 
couldn't trust. Now he needed help from the only person who had actually fought him, 
although Sergio had known that was his fault. He now needed someone who had a skill 
set that he lacked to help him. Someone who hated his guts, because he couldn't ask, 
couldn't expect the help out of the very person who he had to do just that, Giselle. 

And he hadn't had a drink in a while either.

David stood up, feeling the pain rush to his head as he arose. He considered strongly 
punching Sergio hard in the chest right now. Actually he considered punching him in the 
chest, grabbing his head, and slamming it against the bed, and then dropping his elbow on 
his head. But he just snorted at Sergio, narrowing his eyes, and turned towards the door. 
He walked mute to the door, ashamed of his own actions to look at Terra but too 
confused, too angry to say anything to the two women, who he noticed hugged like 
lovers.

"Thanks," Terra said, trembling slightly in Nadia's hands.

"I'm sorry," he said with a sigh, opening the door. He didn't expect to see Frank and John 
outside, holding weapons as if they were soldiers.

"There isn't much we can do for them right now," Nadia said, her hands still rubbing 
Terra's back. "Do you think you can leave someone in here to keep an eye on them? 
Someone who won't try to put a bullet in them?"

"Yes, I don't think they are going anywhere, not for a while. I'll send someone in a little 
bit," Sergio said, still amused.

"Hey, let me through!" came the oddly feminine voice from outside the room.

"Yoshi?" Nadia asked, breaking her hug with Terra to go outside the door.

"There you are. I came as soon as I heard. What the hell happened here?" Yoshi asked.

"A, we can talk about this later," Nadia said, glancing her eyes towards Terra behind her 
shoulder. 

"Are you both ok?" Yoshi asked, glancing towards David, who was slowly lurching 
down the hallway.

"We're fine," Nadia said, leading Terra out to the hallway. She turned around and saw 
Giselle, and braced herself.

"What happened to you David? What the hell is going on here?" Giselle asked from a 
distance. David shook his head and pointed towards the infirmary. She dashed towards 
them, and it was enough for David to turn around. He hadn't considered why Giselle 
wasn't there.

"What the hell is going on?" Giselle asked, taken aback by being met with guns. 

"I'm sorry Giselle, but I'm afraid that I have to put you under arrest, for suspicion of 
treason," Sergio said, motioning towards John and Frank.

"Uh, are you…serious?" Frank asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Very much so," Sergio said, holding up a pair of handcuffs. 

"What the hell are you talking about?" Giselle said, stepping back.

"We have a pair of Martian visitors," Sergio kicked the door behind him.

"Martians? In the ship?" She forgot about the nonsense for a moment, immediately 
concerned.

"It's more likely than you think," Sergio said

"How the hell did they get aboard?" Giselle asked, wanting to go inside and interrogate 
them this minute.

"Yes, just how did they?" Sergio asked suspiciously, tapping his chin with shackles. 

"You think I had something to do with this?" Giselle asked incredulously. 

"Right as I located them with the cameras," Sergio said, stepping forward, his face into 
Giselle's own, "You disobeyed a direct fucking order and drained the power enough to 
give them a way out!"

"I…the scanner, I," Giselle hadn't planned for this. She stepped back, both figurative and 
literally.

"Cat got your tongue?" Sergio asked sarcastically.

"Look, Sergio, it's, it's not what you think," Giselle said, weighing her options in her 
mind. Whether she should confess, or keep quiet.

"Then what is it? How convenient is it that this happens out of the blue? What, did you 
come down with a cold last night? Lock her up." He handed the handcuffs to Frank, who 
apologetically looked at Giselle before stepping forward. 

"Wait, look, I can explain," Giselle threw her hands up to halt Frank. Ironically it only 
made his attempt easier.

"What is it then?" Sergio asked. 

"Look, I did take a scan today. But it's because of her!" she said, pointing towards Yoshi.

"What? I didn't do anything! I was sitting in my goddamned room and when I went to get 
something to eat, I found all the blood and eventually found out that everyone was here." 
Yoshi defended himself. He was more concerned about what he knew that she was going 
to say. "So don't try to pin this on me. Just lock her up, she's just stalling for time."

"She gave me nanobots!" she announced. The hallway stood still for a moment, as each 
person in the room digested it. To each person it meant something different.

"She…what?" Nadia said, in a low voice, easily upset. She looked at Yoshi's face, 
wanting to hit him as hard as she could in the family jewels. Yoshi didn't look at Nadia's 
face, trying to seem stoic.

"She gave me nanobots!" Giselle repeated.

"What are these nanobots?" Sergio asked, tired of nonsense. "And why should this 
matter?"

"Ask the doctor," Giselle nodded towards Nadia.

"They're theoretical robots that can exist inside of the cell of living tissue," Nadia said, 
trying to sound dismissive.

"And she gave them to you?" Sergio shook his head.

"It's not just that! These things have been theoretically possible for ages. They can be 
used to cure diseases, or create bio-weapons!" Giselle shouted.

"And just how did she give them to you?" Sergio was getting tired of this.

"She uh," Giselle hesitated.

"They fucked," Frank said, with an unmistakable grin on his face.

"What?" Nadia asked, feeling her heart stop, knowing that Giselle had found them out.

"You…you two had sex?" Terra asked, knowing that it was the ultimate no-no for the 
three of them, to share the nanobots.

"Ok, I've had enough of this," Sergio shook his head. "I'm not listening to any of this 
foolishness for another minute. Lock her up, we have more important things to do than 
listen to this nonsense."

"No wait," Giselle said, stepping back.

"For what? She gave you some fictitious robots inside of you? Come on Giselle, couldn't 
you have come up with something better than this? I don't care about who you sleep with 
or whatever little robots she gave you," Sergio said. He motioned towards Frank, handing 
him the handcuffs.

"Wait, she has a dick!" Giselle shouted.

"Wait, SHE has a dick?" David asked himself, suddenly frightfully concerned.

"She has a dick?" Frank asked, disgusted.

"What?" Sergio asked, stifling a laugh. "So now do you have a dick?"

"The nanobots, she has them, and she gave them to me! At least I think so. Listen to me, 
they can be a biological-weapon, or worse! That's why I fucked her! I needed to get 
myself a sample of the nanobots. They are communicable like a common virus, at least I 
think. I'm not sure. That's why I had to get a scan! So that I would know!" Giselle 
pleaded.

"You bitch!" Yoshi said, punching Giselle squarely in her breast. Giselle couldn't 
squelch a grunt of pain. She threw her hand up to block Yoshi's next blow. Her head was 
the logical target.

But Yoshi grabbed onto her hair, and yanked hard. His free arm reached around under her 
arm, pinning her body against his. Giselle was confused, to say the least. 'It's like she's 
fighting in a porn movie!' she thought, elbowing Yoshi hard in the side. It was enough to 
bounce him back, groaning at the pain in his ribs.

"Yoshi, stop!" Terra cried out, trying to get in the middle of it, trying to do something to 
stop the fight.

"Hold on, just, let them sort it out," John said, holding her back. He wanted to see how 
this fight played out.

Yoshi went low. He dived at her legs, trying to up end her out of instinct, more than 
anything else. But in space it wasn't as sound of a move, and Giselle just floated up, her 
legs pressing his arms against his chest as she unintentionally landed her crotch directly 
on his face. The men cheered.

The lack of gravity worked in Yoshi's favor too. Giselle was easy to throw off of him. 
She floated in air for a moment, trying to brace herself against anything, but Yoshi was 
quicker, slapping her hard in the face. He clutched onto her shoulder, digging his now 
feminine nails into her skin. All of it stung, but did no real damage.

Giselle's hard kick to his face did do real damage, jarring Yoshi for a second. Deciding to 
keep Yoshi at bay she kicked him once again, in the chest. Yoshi flew back, reeling from 
the force.

The crowd around them was equal parts drooling, equal parts cheering them on. Sergio 
was enjoying himself, he just wished he had a drink with his show. Even Nadia was 
caught up in the spectatorship of it all. She was angry at Yoshi and never liked Giselle, 
and watching them fight was easier than decking either of them, or both. The lone 
audience member who wasn't enjoying the fight was Terra, who had given up on 
stopping the battle, and watched. She wanted neither to win, just for them to end it.

Giselle went for the knock out blow. She kicked Yoshi near his head, grazing him by 
barely an inch.

Yoshi was quick. Wearing the magnetic boots helped. Planting one foot down in the 
ground, he kicked her hard, and square, into the crotch. Giselle groaned, falling down to 
her knees.

"They call that a cunt punt," he said to Giselle, walking away from her. "Lock her up." 
He instructed Sergio. Sergio just nodded towards Frank, who found it much easier to 
accomplish with Giselle so incapacitated.

"Wait," Sergio said to Yoshi. "I cannot allow you to go like this. For all I know you're an 
accomplice. I demand an explanation."

"Explanation? Fine, you want an explanation. Yeah, I'm a hermaphrodite. And yes I 
fucked her. That has nothing to do with any Martians or any other such nonsense. If she 
were so sure of herself, why wouldn't she just ask you already? She's just being an 
emotional woman," Yoshi said coldly, looking at Sergio. The adrenaline seemed to flow 
out of him just as quickly as it was pumping him up.

"Why should I believe you?" he asked.

"Why should you? I don't care. You're just here to get us to our destination. Earth paid 
you to be a ferryman. After that do what you please," Yoshi said. It hurt him to talk like 
this, especially after he found himself caring about Giselle. But she had hurt him, and he 
knew that he was allowing the emotions of his cycle affect his anger. 

"Sorry about fighting Terra," Yoshi said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Let's get 
going."

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