Chiana and Shane rushed into helm. Chiana glanced back as the door slid shut and pulled a panel. She ripped out the wires and attached several of them to the control collar in her hand. She shoved the control collar into the hole behind the panel and chuckled a laugh as she skipped to the console.

"Host vessel signal," she muttered as she slammed her fist into a blinking light on the console. "Frell! We're headed straight for it!"

"What should we do?"

"Cut the ship," she muttered as she tore the console face off and began to cut wires with a jagged piece of metal. "I can rig this to make us look enough like space static until we get into ... that one, head for that." She pointed to a dark planet slightly off the helm screen. "We'll land and wait for them to leave."

"This rendezvous point seems to have plenty of places for hiding," Shane nodded as he keyed over several controls and the ship began to turn. "I don't think I know how to land this though. It's not going to do us much good to hide from the Nebari host vessel with Nebari on board."

"All we have to do is outlast the host vessel long enough for it to go away," Chiana muttered as she began to rewire. "Then we'll get off the ship before the others figure out a way to get in here."

"Then what?" He raised his brows as he looked to her. "We could be stranded on these moons for ages. I can't penetrate atmospheric interruptions enough to find anything that looks like this thing is even inhabited."

"That's why I'm sending a scramble Resistance can pick up," Chiana smirked as she crouched and pulled off a hatch into the belly of the console. "One problem at a time, we'll take care of the others when the host vessel leaves and leave on this ship without them back to Rashari."

"That sounds like you intend to kill them?" Shane wondered as he gazed up at the planet they were approaching surrounded in dark clouds.

Chiana smiled roughly as she yanked out a cord with a harsh jerk. "Ugnh! They'll look for us right? We can just sit tight, wait for them to look for us and run back inside. Especially if I have this ..." She quirked an eyebrow as she stood with a small connector shape and flipped it in the air.

"Whatever," Shane smiled. "If it works. We would be better off with some weapons of some kind."

"That too," Chiana smirked with a cut of her eyes to him as the Nebari began to pound on the helm door.

************************************

Streaks of blue lightning ran across the ship in the black clouds. The planet itself was black and barren. Chiana gaped at the massive bone structure of a Budong as they glided along the towers of its rib cage where streaks of the blue lightning continually jagged down them and across the half exposed back bone through the smote and silver sands of the surface. She flinched as Chadre, M'jak or Thar'na began to fire a pulse pistol into the door, gaping up as their ship began to glide over miles of the Budong's skull. It was bigger than any she had ever seen much less been on.

A small explosion exploded around the door. Chiana gasped, leaping back as Shane franticly grasped for anything resembling a weapon. He picked up a small pipe and ran for the door. Chiana followed, bracing her back against the wall as she raised the connector she had taken from the console like a dagger. The door pounded with someone's kicks, finally giving way and partially falling to the floor.

***************

 Chadre stepped into command helm. Shane swung the pipe, batting him as hard as he could in the nose. Chadre fell in a scream that became drowned in screeches of metal through out the ship as his blood splattered his face. Shane threw himself out of the way as pulse fire followed through the door. Thar'na and M'jak stumbled into command as the ship tilted into a nose dive. The front of the helm seemed to almost shatter in a massive blast that hollowed out the helm screen. Blue streaks of lightning invaded the command through the gaping hole. The air began to suck out through it into a dark nothing. Chiana leaped on Thar'na as they stumbled to the floor together and stabbed the connector into the woman's neck. Thar'na screamed as she rose up with Chiana and slung her. Chiana held on, slinging Thar'na with her into the junked mass around the hole into the outside.

Thar'na jerked her arm out of Chiana's grasp, swinging the butt of her weapon, striking her across the side of her face. Chiana's head swung back, a snarl on her face as Thar'na swung to hit her again. Chiana blocked and wrung her arm around Thar'na's, hitching her up by her shoulder and twisting Thar'na against the wall.

"Want some?" Chiana asked. "Have some!" She jerked hard, a loud pop snapping off as Thar'na's shoulder dislocated. Thar'na screamed, grasping on to the wiring around her. A long rod came loose in her hold, knocking her off balance but enough to get away from Chiana's hold.

"Nhhhyaaa!" Chiana screamed as she kicked Thar'na in her face, sending her entire body rocking back to sitting up on her knees. She lunged to grasp the connector out of Thar'nas upper shoulder to stab her again with it.

"You're done!" Thar'na bellowed as she came swinging up with the long rod in her hand and hurled it into Chiana's approach.

"No!" Shane screamed as he threw M'jak head first into a bulkhead. He snatched his pulse pistol from M'jak and whirled around to Thar'na. He drew the pistol up, gaping at the sight of Chiana and Thar'na nearly inside the large hull breech blast. The air was whipping around them. Thar'na was holding on to the end of the long rod, looking shocked as Chiana grasped tightly to it. She was staring at Thar'na wildly as blood seeped from her uniform where the rod pierced through her chest, through her back.

"Noooo!" Shane screamed, firing the pistol as Thar'na stood with the end of the rod still in her hand and shoved it more into Chiana, pushing her out of the blast into the dark and blue lightning beyond.

Shane screamed as his wild shots finally hit Thar'na. He stormed to her body, firing into it again and again. He turned on M'jak and Chadre, continuing to fire as his mind drew blank with disbelief.

*******************************************

"Please, please," Shane cried as he stumbled his way through the labyrinth of the Budong skull. "Chiana ... "

He sobbed deeply, exhausted from the torture, the complete strife of the whole thing only to have Chiana just vanish like this. If she was wounded somewhere ... he had to find her. What ever it was he may find, he had to bring her back to Rashari.

"Chiana!" He screamed, his voice echoing through the oldness of the bone and caverns of cartilage beggining to petrify in most places. Dim glows of blue flashed from the constant lightning outside. Inside there were a few glows of green lights. He made his way into a large cave to them, finding them to be Negeltic crystals that were somehow containing light on their own. He came to his knees here, his face flushed with his tears and the pain of his wounds as he collected a few of them to search the darker areas.

He barely noticed the strange noises that continued through the rumbles of the lightning. They seemed out of place now, like a chattering of some animal. He froze, listening intently. There was the very faint sound of a scream.

"Chiana!" He bellowed as he ran again and suddenly met with free air under his feet. He caught his breath to scream as he landed through a pit into a musty pile of collected bone pieces and some kind of webbing that immediately stuck to him. He gasped for air, stumbling to stand on his feet again in a cluttered mess of the fragments and sticky cob web. The chattering seemed louder now. Another scream rang out in an almost metallic sound.

Shane scrambled on his hands and knees for the way out of the cavern, stopping short as it ended as a cliff edge into the greater cave that could only have been where the Budong had kept his brain. The size seemed endless with an entire small world of stalactites, Stalagmites and mineral deposits that had grown like knareled, Swiss cheesed mountains and walls. It was traced with sparkles of silvers from the black sands outside and shining Negeltic crystals.

The scream was louder here. Farther off in the rises below he saw some kind of silver motions though it could have been reflections from water. Water ...

He ran again, climbing as best he could through the little tunneling the bone offered to make his way very easily. His heart was pounding, pain and exhaustion taking over his earnest as he came out on a cliff edge again to see if he had gotten any closer to the sounds.

"Chiana!" He screamed again weakly, weeping in his frustration as he looked down, trying to comprehend exactly what it was he was looking at.

Across the rises below was a rather massive spider web. Chiana was caught along the edge of it, her head was drawn back, her legs mostly dangling as well. She looked lifeless, the long rod still impaled through her chest. The chattering rose again, another screech, but it wasn't her. Shane sat, running his hands through his hair as he cried. "No no no no!"

It barely registered to him there was anything he should do as he saw at least a dozen beings of a human form. They wore only kilts of black. They looked very humanoid except their skin was a metallic silver, their faces seemed almost a little more like Jaboan. They had long, straight gold hair, some tied back, some in loose mohawks like mains. The chattering rose again as they bared their mouths with rows of sharp metal teeth.

"Get away!" Shane shouted as he pulled up his pulse pistol. "Leave her alone!"

The creatures looked up at him in unison, gazing on him with large eyes that looked like complete mirrors. Their mirror eyes reflected the surroundings, flashing in reflective cast against the glowing Negeltic crystals and tongues of blue lightning that found its way into the skull and across grooves like a network above.

Shane fired the pistol lifelessly as four of the beings crouched on the strands around Chiana, snaking their near rat - like tails as their black, sharply clawed hands came over her arms and body.

"Get the frell away from her!" Shane screamed, crying as one of them eased in closer to her in his crouch and grasped the rod. The creature screamed the metallic screech as he hoisted into a standing position, yanking the rod and bringing it with him.

"Naaaaooo!" Chiana wailed as her head came up, her body doubling forward as the rod was pulled out of her.

"Chiana!" Shane screamed again as he nearly fell from the cliff edge. He grasped the side, looking down into the blackness below shadowed in the stalagmites and knarels as his pulse pistol went falling to it. It seemed like time was endless before he heard the sound of its landing.

Chiana drew limp again, her arm falling away from the web strands and dangling as the creatures crouching around her continued their strange chattering, one of them drew a frothing spittle into his mouth and down his face as he knelt over her and seemed to chew on her wound. Another grasped her up and began to do the same to her back. They pulled her along the web to its more netted parts, crouching around her again as they laid her down and began to strip her of her clothes.

Shane watched helplessly as one of them squatted to her naked form, bending her ashen gray legs up and across his thighs as his rat - like tail snaked up his back and then wrapped around her foot.

"Stop!" Shane shouted as he threw one of the Negeltic crystals he had collected at them. "Stop!"

Another creature crouched squat at Chiana's head, holding her captive by her arms as she contorted with a scream of pain and tried to sit up. She fell back against them, her head resting against the beings abdomen as she gasped for her breath, shaking until she fell into what looked like ceasures. A third crept up to her on his hands and knees, letting out a wild screech as his mirror eyes shined from the crystal Shane threw caught into the strands of the web. He drew the same frothing spittle across his mouth and took her head into his hands, drawing the substance into her mouth.

Chiana choked, beginning to sob as she lurched her head away from them and tried to struggle out of the grasp of the one holding her arms. He cradled her closer into him as the other at her legs grasped into her thighs to hold her. She contorted again, a deep groan of shock and agony escaping her. The creatures rang out their chatter more excitedly, the ones farther off drawing closer in near crawl.

"Please," Shane cried as he felt all the strength left in him collapse. "Chianaaaa!"

He gasped as hands grasped him as tight as a vice and hoisted him up like a small child. He cried out exhaustively as they jumped off the cliff edge with him. He grasped at them as they fell together, his hands reaching around a body even more iron hard in muscle than his own ever could be. They landed on the web as he looked up at the metallic silver face that held him and into the large eyes that reflected his own face back. He struggled to remain conscious, trying to pry out of the beings arms as Chiana screamed again, throwing herself back against the creature holding her arms. She seemed to give in, grasping at the beings arms as she tried to hide her face into his stomach and cried.

Shane managed to stumble away from the creature holding on to him, falling to his hands and knees. "Gha!" He choked as he saw the beginning roundness of an infants head entrapped in a vein coated film appear between Chiana's legs. He felt he might be sick, barely aware of the beings that came around him and began to strip him of his clothes to get to his wounds.

******************

nhfearme 
(10/16/01 8:53 pm)
The Question of Peace
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Shane is too weak to struggle against the steel glinting aliens. Still he tries. Stripped of his shirt they throw his face in the dirt as one of them proceeds to chew his infected wound. Aaaa! He screams more from fear of being eaten alive than from pain as his flesh is torn from his back. He groans. Unable to move Shane focuses his eyes. He glances to Chiana to see if she is even alive as she delivers her child. He cannot tell. The aliens surround her.

Suddenly pulse fire comes from the cliff above them. The beast stops chewing his back. The aliens scatter. Shane cannot turn over to see who is firing in the midst of them. The firing stops. There is a terrifying scream from the cliff then a body falls where Shane can see. It is Chadre. The beasts have hurled him from the cliff. He lay dead with his neck twisted nearly backwards. Shane looks again to Chiana. The aliens are gone, leaving her. She lay, perhaps dead. Chiana. Shane breathes her name as he crawls to her. He takes her hand. She is still warm. He touches her cheek and looks into her face. Chiana opens her eyes and turns her head to him, reaching toward him.

No, Chiana lie still. Dont move. Shane tells her.

My baby. Shane, wheres my baby? She asks.

Im sorry Chiana. Its gone. He embraces her. They took it.

***************
 
ChianaGray
(10/20/01 10:53 am)
The Question of Peace
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 "No," Chiana struggled away from him. "I just had him, I was holding him. Where - where did they go?"

She tried to stand, her legs beginning to shiver from the strain, too weak to bring her more than to her knees as Shane wrapped her in her gray coat. "Frell that!" Chiana jerked away from him, falling to her hands with a deep moan. "Get me to them, Shane. Get me to them."

"This way," he spoke gently as he helped her up, pulling her hands through the sleeves of the coat before he hefted her over his shoulder.

"That hurts," she grunted heavily as she grasped at the rim of his pants to try to release some of the pressure from her stomach. "Put me down."

He came to his knees in front of a hole gaping through one of the stalagmites the web strands connected to. She grasped at his back, looking to it with exhaustion wane through her eyes.

"Through here," he nodded. "Chiana, you've got to rest."

"No," she barely breathed as she shook her head. She grasped the side of the small tunnel mouth, trembling as she tried to get her legs to come with her. "I - I think I remember this ... don't I? J - J - Jerran ... "

She searched the darkness of the tunnel franticly as she gasped her breaths, her heart pounding. "Jerran! ... Jerran!"

"You ..." Shane swallowed, biting his lip lightly as he looked up at her, taking her arm gently. "You never told me you were pregnant."

"I didn't tell anyone," she swallowed as she rocked slightly over the tunnel entrance.

"He's ... kind of late," Shane wondered at her. "For your daughter's twin."

"Yeah?" She curved her head to him, tears streaming down her face as she glared into him. "Well, you're frelling nosy Shane."

"I'm - I'm sorry," he winced his eyes regretfully as she slid down to sitting, staring at him distantly as she rested her head along the grooved stone. "I just don't understand. I mean, you had Crichton's daughter, even if they say she is Phillip Shelan's, it seems more likely to me she is his."

"She is," Chiana sniffed, staring off at his chest. She wiped at her tears with a rough smile. "You can see it, in her eyes."

"But you're - you were still pregnant?" Shane shook his head. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me you were Lady Crichton?"

"I, don't - have time, for this." Chiana moaned as she turned her attention back to the tunnel entrance, looking down into it as she reached her hand inside and strained to push herself in. "Uuunnh! Dora was taken from me ... he cut me open and he took her! I got pregnant ... he's Scorpius' baby. I had Scorpius' child."

"Scorpius," Shane gaped at her. "Oh my God."

"Shra!" Chiana snapped as she turned on him, a growl escaping her as she narrowed her eyes into him. "I want - my children! I can't get down this FRELLING hole!"

"Yes mam," Shane whispered softly as he cradled her up and slipped her inside feet first. She grasped the back of his neck as she turned her eyes up to him.

"You didn't have to come for me."

"I know that," he smiled and then kissed her on her forehead. "I'll be right behind you if I hear a soft landing."

Chiana smiled ruggedly, letting out her breath as she let her fingers slip from his neck and began to slide down the tunnel.

************
 
nhfearme 
(10/28/01 2:25 am)
The Question of Peace
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Shane watches Chiana slip down the long tunnel. It is too slim for him to shimmy down. As he looks staring down the tunnel, the pain is too great. He feels dizzy, slipping into unconsciousness. Some time later, Shane wakes. Chiana! He yells down the tunnel. There is no answer. His bleeding has stopped, still he must rest to regain his strength. Finally he stands, his body stiff from pain, he looks carefully to see where the tunnel winds. He goes to Chadres corps and takes the weapon then looks for another way down, another way to find Chiana.

The budhong caverns are full of noises, echoes of his own footsteps send messages to his psyche that danger lies behind every corner, in every alcove. He tries to keep his mind on the direction of the bones, where to find her. He stops and listens to hear her, perhaps the babys cries, yet hears nothing but the drip of water.

Suddenly he is struck from behind, he goes sprawling across the smooth bone. Turning he looks up and sees a hair covered beast charging him. Shane quickly pulls the pulse pistol. The beast is upon him, knocking the pulse pistol from his hand and slashing his chest. Shane struggles for his life against claws and fangs. Get the frell off me! He screams and kicks the beast with all of his strength, knocking him into small cavern.

Shane quickly stands and grabs the gun. Looking into the cavern he sees the beast climbing up toward him to attack again. Frell! Shane aims high, firing, he clips its arm. The vicious hairy beast falls to the cavern floor and runs away. Shane looks after it. Chiana may be down there! I better follow. He carefully climbs down and tracks the beasts blood.

***************

 Shane follows the trail of blood through the bone cavern, cautiously looking around every corner not to fall victim to the beast if it turns on him again. Suddenly he hears a scream.

Chiana! He yells and runs in the direction of the scream. He enters a cavern and sees Chiana holding her baby tightly. The blue steel race surrounds her as the vicious beast that attacked Shane stands facing them. Shane enters behind the beast with the pulse pistol drawn. The Steel blue people now face Shane as well making threatening hissing noises and howls.

No! Shane! Put down the gun! They wont hurt you! Chiana shouts to Shane fearfully.
Maybe they wont but this hairy one will! Hes already taken a hunk of me with his claws. Shane tells her.
Then back away Shane! Let them deal with him. Dont let them see you as a threat. They already killed Chadre! Chiana warns.
Killed? Shane begins to back away. I thought he just fell. He says nervously watching to see what the beast will do then glancing at the blue beings.
Are you alright? Your baby? Shane asks readying himself to shoot any that rush her. As he falls into the shadows the beast begins to snarl at Chiana.

Shane swallows and holds bead on the beast, ready if it takes a step toward Chiana and her child. Just then the dominant steel blue being advances and snarls, throwing her arms up into the air, jumping and howling as the others growl and hiss noisily behind her. The beast lowers as though ready to pounce then suddenly jumps away and runs toward Shane. Shane presses himself against the wall to escape the beasts flight and watches as he disappears back through a dark opening in the bone.

Shane sighs with relief at the near miss of the beasts claws and fangs. He begins to slip the pulse pistol into this belt when suddenly a deep snarl heralds from the beasts retreat. Shane again pulls the weapon, this time turning the pulse to full. He gasps in horror as the beast emerges, charging him. Shane lifts the weapon and fires, missing. The shot whizzes next to the beasts head. The beast snarls and lowers to its haunches leaping to attack Shane. Shane quickly fires again, blasting a hole into its chest. The beast screams as it falls against Shane in its lunge. Its huge eyes stare into Shanes as it gasps out its last horrible growl to Shanes already fearful ears.

For several microts Shane stands in the shock of it. He cannot breathe. His arm is frozen, his finger still pulled against the guns trigger. His heart beats through his chest as the animal drops to the bony floor. It is several more microts until he hears Chianas voice Shouting for him. Shane! Shane! Her voice brings his mind back. He glances to the archway where she waits for his answer only to see several of the blue race watching him, looking at his kill in awe. Shane quickly slips the pulse pistol into his belt and holds very still. The dominant female looks him over carefully and sniffs him then pulls the dead beast from his feet and through the arch, dragging it beyond as Shane follows the band of them. He stands, covered in the beasts blood, watching until she disappears with the prize of his kill.

Chiana glances at Shane to be certain he is alright, and then with a contented smile looks back to her son. Shane looks to Chiana, watching in amazement. She sits naked in a placid pose holding her son; his pale skin appears pink next to her monochrome gray; his pitch-black hair stands out stark against her bosom as he nurses peacefully to her gaze.

***************

ChianaGray
(11/20/01 4:12 am)
Nothing Else Matters
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 D'argo landed inside of the eye of the skull. He stepped out side of the ship, looking up, his lips parted at the sight that aproached him from where they sat.

He unsheathed his qualta as Shane half carried M'jak to him, the Nebari male weak from his wounds. Chiana came behind them in her torn cloths, carrying her child close to her shoulder, patting his tiny back as he began to cry. D'argo blinked slowly as he took over M'jak, pulling him into Mokan's stealth fighter as Shane turned to Chiana and helped her inside. She sat in the cockpit with D'argo, saying nothing as they took off and left the planet.

"It will be a long way to Rashari," D'argo commented as he looked to her baby. "Is he ..."

"I'm not going back," Chiana muttered as she turned her eyes to D'argo quietly. "To Rashari ... I'm not going."

"Oh Chiana," D'argo sighed heavily.

"Call Mokan," Chiana nodded as she looked to him from the corners of her eyes unstraying. "Tell her we're pulling out."

**************

 "You can't just jump up and leave!" D'argo protested as he gaped at Chiana, following her into the living area of her grove estate. He looked to Mokan as he winced his eyes. "I have every intention of staying here to help Setig and Pagar protect the estates of Crichton's children! I have a place of my own here ... Mokan ..."

"Stay," Chiana nodded slightly as she looked to him, turning her gaze then to Mokan as Shane came down the stairs to the upper rooms with Jerran in his arms. "This isn't about the resistance anymore. I'm not staying here to wait for the next Nebari or PeaceKeeper to take a shot at me. I don't want to be here anymore, everything around here is ... John."

"After the Darkrai Setig and Pagar are to take with general Corrum ..."

"The Crichton estates will belong to Crichton with Setig and Pagar as his protectors," Chiana finished for D'argo as she cradled Dora. "So everything works out ... except that every enemy we've ever made will come walking through that door. I don't think so."

"Where will you go?" D'argo asked with a heavy sigh, tilting his head as he crossed his arms.

Mokan stepped to his side, touching his arm as she kept her gaze to the floor. "Anukrail jeshkru akray'osh."

"I know a place," Shane spoke quietly. "And it wouldn't be that difficult for the Scarren's themselves to continue to assure the estates are Cricthon's until I return with the skrail."

"Frell the estates," Chiana scowled as she hefted up a large bundle. "Do what you want. I'm leaving this dren, you can shove it down Crichton's throat. I've got my own things to worry about and I want him as much out of it as possible."

"Fine," D'argo growled. "I will inform Setig that we're leaving. He may want to follow."

"Follow me?" Chiana glared. "Into what?"

"Oh I know that look," Mokan shook her head as she took the bundle from Chiana. "Just put what you want in my ship. D'argo and I are going with you."

"Why?" Chiana asked. "Why don't you stay here where you two were trying to make something."

"You must be delirious," Mokan barely smiled as she touched Chiana's chin. "You want to make a pull from this joint? Fine, I'm from nomads, we've had better things we just disapeared from. Besides, we can always come back. I'm taking you if you're leaving, you knew that."

"Yeah," Chiana let out her breath as she rested her forehead on Mokan's shoulder. "I'm just - going ... on vacation."

Mokan smiled as she rested her hand on Chiana's head. "Right."

*************

 OOC: A quarter cycle later

IC:

Setig, Pagar and Corrum stood in the center arena of the Scarren court with their Skrail's. It was to be a brief battle, two arns but General Corrum wasn't making it easy for the two warlords to hold in even with both of them bearing a royal Skrail. If they could withstand Corrum for two arns they would become royal guards of Crichton's estate. By their Skrails Crichton would be recognized as true Scarren royalty according to the ancient tradition. One that was sure to change in its rules after this day with the scandal a lesser being as Scarren royalty posed, much less Pagar and Setig's Skrail's. If they failed this task they would be executed for having them.

Setig had more on his mind as he fought to keep standing. Everything of Crichton's would be Corrum's if he failed, everything that had been his own that Crichton came into possession for defeating his and Pagar's former overseer. What was worse to him was his cursed arm. If it could be seen from the gloved armlets he wore now, he would be killed immediately for the weakness of the mutant, despite its new strength.

"Aaaahh!" Setig bellowed as he hit Corrum with the ball end of his Skrail in the chest, sending a shock through the general that almost brought him to his knees. The idea of Corrum falling to him exited his Scarren blood. He would not so easily become a general in the Scarren forces, but Corrum possessed more than ten warlords could gather in one life. The greed reflected in Pagar's own eyes ... but so did the knowledge of Scarren blood reflect in Corrum's. He was not a general for being a foolish man.

Corrum made his own cry as he swept his halbred like weapon at Pagar's knees and then turned on Setig, batting him in his rat-like muzzle with the ball end. Setig wobbled back, growling as tears blinded his eyes from the pain and added shock. Corrum growled as well, enjoying himself immensely as he forced Pagar back with several moves. Around them crowds of Scarren's began to roar as Corrum stood up straight and held his Skrail to his side. A horn blew then to mark the final Arn.

Pagar dropped to his knees, gasping for his breath as Setig took in a deep breath of relief, raising his eyes to the ceiling.

Corrum smiled, his teeth bared with satisfaction as the seven generals in ruling of the fight stood from their stand and quietly began to leave.

"We have the royalty!" Setig bellowed as he stepped up to Corrum.

"You cannot make the Crichton estates any safer," Corrum nodded as he grasped fore arms with Setig and then Pagar. "But the cost is high warlords. You must not forget this comes with something on your end you will produce."

"I don't think I understand," Setig narrowed his eyes as he looked between Pagar and Corrum. "You have not told me of plans?"

"What little I can say as your general," Corrum seethed. "Crichton's royalty also means that his wormhole technology, is Scarren territory. I failed to protect a prowler with this technology in my care ... I am crumbling to the mistake, which means you as well may fall down. The Nebari resistance is that of Lady Chiana. You see, we must be able to provide something in advantage to the Scarren forces worth your Skrail's gentlemen. That is all I need to say."

Pagar and Setig left him, joining into the small crowed that hailed their victory. Mokan stepped up to them, nodding her approval as she smiled.

"Mokan," Setig growled into his smile as he pulled her away from the beginning celebration. "I have not seen you for a long time ... Chiana."

"She's fine," Mokan assured him.

"Get out of my way!" Rygel shouted through the crowd. "There's nothing left to do now but - have a frelling party! Get going, what are you waiting for? The entire banquette is set up in Crichton's estate of course!"

"Frelling Hynerian!" Mokan glowered. "These barbarian's will run off with everything in site!"

"Mokan," Setig touched her shoulder. "Is Chiana going to return?"

"She's safe Setig," Mokan tried to assure him again but there was a solemnness in her eyes that made him uneasy. "C'mon, we'll celebrate your victory. Then we'll talk all you want."

*************************************

"The generator is running." Melak sighed, wiping his face with both hands as he sat back. "Finally. It's hard to believe we're going to use it to power the citadels on this planet."

"Whatever," Nerri shrugged as he sat on the desk and began to spin a small ident chip. "It's more than enough to continue setting up resistance here. I can't think of a better currency then maybe a life time supply of Negeltic crystals. Did they find out what was on Rashari's moon for this thing?"

"I'm almost afraid to ask," Melak smiled as he raised his brows. "Whatever it was these Rashari natives somehow managed to wipe out the Nebari who had been here about 300 cycles ago ... I'll hope, that whatever was on the moon is long gone."

"Well," Nerri looked at him with interest. "Maybe we should find out if it's still there now. This place is drowning in frelling Scarren's and PeaceKeepers."

"What, join the weapons society?"

"Melak," Nerri blinked slowly as he flicked the chip across the table into Melak's chest. "It really isn't going to matter if the contagion is activated, it'll be civil war our people think the one's they've frelled will win. Dwindle the populations enough to simply walk in and set up station for the wonderful mind frell. What are we going to be exactly, the haven of the universes, the new army of people who still make any sense ... Maybe, we can be strong enough that it never even gets to that."

"Fine, we'll look," Melak barely smiled as he blinked down at the chip in his lap. "But I seriously doubt if anything is there it will do anything for us as far as the contagion."

"Melak," Geyo spoke up as he entered the room, turning his gaze to Nerri. "Mokan is back on Rashari. She's going to Crichton's estate to the celebration of Setig and Pagar's success."

Nerri hopped off the table with a small smile. "Where did she park?"

***************

The small planet was made up mostly of rings of mesa's. Many of them were lakes or forests but others were filled with different sizes of villages. Inside a smaller ring Chiana walked along the edge of a village of dome shaped adobes and minor fortresses to a landing pad. Her eyes were filled with tears, holding comfortingly to Jerran as Shane walked quietly behind her holding Dora.

She came to a stop at the end of the steps leading up to the pad, searching in earnest as Shane took Jerran from her. After a few moments Mokan came stepping around several ships. Behind her followed Nerri.

"Nerri!" Chiana shouted as she ran to him. She threw her arms around him, embracing him so deeply they nearly fell. Nerri laughed as he held her back, swinging her around off her feet. She laughed and cried into his shoulder at the same time before drawing back, holding his face in both her hands to get a good look at it. "It's you ...!"

"Look at you!" Nerri shouted excitedly as he grasped her wrists. "My God Chiana! I barely recognize you!"

Chiana laughed as she embraced him again, shutting her eyes into his shoulder, suddenly feeling complete again as if all her past and present was being reassured, grounded. "Nerri."

"There's so much to say little sister," Nerri smiled as he rubbed the back of her head. "You'll have to come back to the base with me. I can't stay here."

Chiana opened her eyes, sniffing back some of her tears as she rested the ball of her fist on top of his shoulder. She stepped back, beaming her smile as she looked into his eyes. "Let's just go into Mokan's ship okay? It's pretty windy here for - for the children."

Nerri jerked his head up, his eyes widening on the two bundles in Shane's arms as he approached. "What are their names?"

He stepped up to Shane sharply, taking Jerran into his own arms without hesitation as a smile slowly beamed across his face. "I'm an uncle ... can you believe this? Family Chiana ..."

"Yeah," Chiana laughed as she held on to Nerri's arm and gazed down on Jerran's pale face. "This is Jerran, the other one is Dora Lee."

"This is the last thing I expected." He looked to Chiana, his eyes sparkling. "I knew you had children but ... the last thing I had heard about you, you had been injured. I really started to worry when you disappeared after Nebari agents had tried to take you ... I had to come."

"I'm here," she smiled as she tilted her head.

"Uncle Nerri," he chuckled to Jerran as he began to walk with her back to the stealth fighter.

**************

"I've been working on an alliance Chiana," Nerri's eyes flashed with his excitement as he sat with her in the dining area. "I can't begin to tell you the advantages you've created for us on Rashari ... but this alliance, it's with hundreds of nonconformist colonies who banded together under Nebari our people just dismissed away."

Chiana's eyes widened, her brows raising with some surprise as she held Dora to her, patting her back.

"Nebari," Nerri chuckled. "We have more allies than you could possibly imagine with - the safety of higher officials in my care." He looked to her more seriously as he lowered his head. "Chiana ... they want me to do a very important mission for them, for all of us. I will have to leave very soon. I - I can't ask you to lead on Rashari ... but you're safe there sister. I want you to return, where I know you will be alright. The Resistance is established, our security a great deal more than Nebari agents would bargain for now."

"Nerri," Chiana smiled softly as she tilted her head to him, shaking her head slightly. "You told me once I couldn't be in the Resistance. I did it anyway, but - I didn't care about what I was establishing. You don't understand ... I wanted Scorpius. I didn't feel like anyone even cared if the contagion was a threat or not ... I ruined that for you. You got Rashari but - but I made PeaceKeeper's that wanted to be our allies, my enemy."

Nerri looked to her again, his eyes suddenly as piercing as ice. She froze, startled by the sudden fierceness that resided in her brother. "I know about your son Chiana. I know enough about Crichton. It wasn't Resistance, I don't want you to ever think that would be more important to me. Frell them."

Chiana half shrugged with a quirk of her eyebrow. "If they're on the recreation roster ..."

Nerri snorted as he shook his head. "Do you remember the Banik Ardenis? The slave who swore he was hearing prophecies from the plant harvests in the dwellek's mine to revolutionize..."

Chiana chuckled. "Oh! The Oracle of Dejik Spinach! I remember, Stark had nothing on that guy!"

"Hm," Nerri nudged his head. "He's the captain of a Banik controlled dredgnaut."

"Go frell, no way!"

"Better not catch your eema in the dwellek's now!" Nerri laughed.

Chiana rolled her eyes. "Oh what's manning his guns, the great mushroom army or the spindle roots brigade?"

Nerri smiled, beaming at her as he looked into her eyes. "Go home Chiana. You have one ... I know - I know you don't really care much about the wealth there for you. Estates, Resistance base, alliances. Why stay where there's nothing left going on?"

"It's not like that," Chiana defended as she turned her head away. "I'm kind of tired of dren going on for a while."

Nerri pursed his lips with a slight tilt of his head. "Well ... whatever you decide I want you to know this time I'm not going to wait for you to cut your own grade in the Resistance just to join it. Things would have been allot easier for you if I had thought by then it really was the best place for you ..."

"You were just thinking about me staying hidden," she looked to him solemnly, a soft sigh escaping her when she smiled. "Well I did that, now I feel like I'm being whispered into everyone's ear. Say, you got time?"

"Some," he nodded.

"Good," she narrowed her eyes with a wry smirk. "Moya's gone and Rygel is eventually going to run back to his territory with the flax ... I want a command carrier."

"Gunned by mushrooms?" Nerri raised his brows.

"Ahhhhh, nope!" She chuckled. "I wanna snurch us something we can station where ever we like ... I got a few good reasons."

"Alright."

"I want to go in," she nodded.

"In mission?" He eyed her. "What about being tired of dren happening?"

"What're you gonna do hand it to me?" She breathed as she searched his eyes. "I could buy it Nerri ... or ask the Scarren's for one. I want to be sure it's something that is our own we can run between here and red moon all we like ... or run into other territories. Buying would be a junk ship nobody wanted, a Scarren ship - I don't think so."

"I know exactly what ship I'd like that to be," Nerri nudged his head. "There's a small matter of some intel there I'd like to have my hands on."

Chiana's eyes brightened as she turned her head as if to hear him better. "Yeah?"

**************

General Edail Othen stepped out of his ship onto the deck of the Rashari gammak base landing bay. He held to his case of belongings, his crystal blue eyes turning to his captain, Delain Crais as she stepped out of the transport with a team of seven.

"Begin immediately," he ordered. "I want everything on this entire planet for the last two cycles. I want PeaceKeeper's involved with this for questioning by the end of the day."

"General," an officer aproached them. "I was not made aware you would be arriving."

"General Othen," he nodded. "Are you the captain of this gammak base?"

"Yessir," she confirmed as she remained standing at attention with two guards at her sides. "Captain Jerrian."

"I see," Othen narrowed his eyes. "Your rank is lieutenant in my records."

"I was promoted after the loss of the former captain in a base attack, General. If you will come with me sir for a security check..."

"Good, continuing to tighten ship I see," he smiled as he followed them to a small palm scanner. He put his ident chip in and placed his hands. He raised himself again as the scan cleared him, nodding again to Jerrian as he motioned to it. "Now Captain, if you will oblige me."

"Sir?"

"Your rank confirmation, Captain." Othen stated without straying his eyes from her.

Jerrian put her chip in, her brows creasing as her rank was confirmed.

"Your hands," he smiled. "Captain."

She let it scan her hands, removing her chip sharply when it cleared her. "Permission to ask what this is about, General."

"Denied," he returned as he looked at her guards. "I want everyone on this base to be sent through the same identity check. Raise the alert level to code prymas two. There will be no more outside transmissions from this base without my specific clearance. I want everyone who is not scheduled for vital duty confined to quarters."

"Sir," Jerrian spoke up again. "Code pyrmas two - our data bases will be under arrest."

"Correct observation, Captain," Othen called out as he continued into the base with Delain. "Every Rashari gammak base is being locked down for investigation and inspection. You have your orders."

"Yessir I do," Jerrian narrowed her eyes on his back.

************************************

Mokan's stealth fighter rested along a pad close to the Resistance base on Rashari.

"You must stay here with your children," D'argo insisted as he followed Chiana along the narrow path towards the base. "You can't take them with you and you can't just run off on a dangerous mission with children to take care of."

Chiana smiled with a small shake of her head as she continued walking. "I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?" He challenged softly. "You didn't want to come back at least for a while but when Nerri shows up you're willing to jump up and run across the galaxy for a frelling carrier! Chiana, it is time you have taken the responsibility to your estates and the raising of your children instead of risking your life!"

"Me risking my life?" She asked as she glanced to him. "Like being kidnapped from Shane's adobe by Nebari agents? How did they know I was even there hu? Resistance could use - a carrier! I'm gonna help them get it. That's what I've known best being Resistance, D'argo. Nobody else around here can get something like that and what if we get one from the Scarren's they start feeling like we owe them something else?"

D'argo growled. "If I had known you were going to do something like this I would have claimed the Ractara'jin as my war prize!"

"Really?" She gaped at him wide eyed.

D'argo closed his eyes slowly with his irritation, knowing it was more sarcasm from her than it was genuine surprise as her anger began to show in her eyes. She turned her head away from him sharply and continued walking a little faster.

"At least have this Shane stay at the dell with the children!"

"My children are staying at the Resistance base until I get back," Chiana spoke calmly to the narrow path. "End of discussion, D'argo. You wanna stay? Help yourself!"

She paused, looking up at the base entrance as Nerri came walking out of it. He smiled as he hugged her, Melak following shortly behind.

"He's arrived." Melak stated.

Nerri sighed as he pulled back from Chiana and shook his head regrettably. "I - I've got to go Chiana. You've nothing more to worry about, I promise. You will find allies among the PeaceKeeper's in a matter of time, when more operatives have moved in. Will you give that much patience?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"It will be wonderful here," he smiled. "Our first base."