Introduction to the story...

Aara sighed and ushered a grumpy Ranthite from her office wishing fervently there were such a thing as a non-grumpy Ranthite.

"Next," she murmured to one of the guards holding back a long line of visitors waiting to board the space station Jamona. Aara returned to her office and shifted her things into place before quickly sending the Ranthite's application through with her seal of approval for his two-week stay.

The door to her office whizzed open and a giant spacesuit bobbed through. Aara barely blinked, she'd learned to expect the unexpected in her job - not that it was really that interesting. She was bored to hell.

The spacesuit wasn't quite unusual, but at the same time a different design to any she'd seen before. Whoever occupied the suit was unable to be seen behind the gray metal but the hiss of their breathing was slow and mechanical. Either they were unable to breathe the Jamona's environmentals or they were obsessed with disease to the utmost extremity.

"Identity card," Aara droned as the suit sat awkwardly in the chair on the opposite side of her desk. The silver gray metal head shook no.

"You don't have an identity card?" Aara exclaimed in surprise, that was unusual, "how did you get anywhere. Ok look, it's ok we can still process your application but it will take longer. You'll have to apply for an identity card now."

The silver gray metal head shook no.

"You don't want an identity card?"

The silver gray metal head shook no.

"Riiight, look all you have to do is help me fill in this application. Firstly I need to know your race, its right at the top. I'll also need your environment suit settings," she reached forward to take his wrist and look at the small box there. The creature whipped out a hand to Aara's neck and lifted her off her feet, choking her. Damn, it was her own fault, she'd forgotten one of the first rules of the trade in her surprise - Aliens in suits were usually touchy.

Aara spluttered, trying to reach for the big red emergency button on the desk side. She held onto the wrists of the silver metal suit, trying to pry the fingers away.

Suddenly she wasn't bored anymore.

"Let go," she gasped and somehow managed to kick the red button. Emergency lights flashed and a siren went off. The silver suit looked around in surprise, then threw her across the room as though she as the weight of a feather.

Aara crashed into the panel behind her and slid to the floor, fighting for consciousness. She heard the door to her office swish open and closed, then a second time.

"Are you alright?" One of the security officers peered over the desk as Aara rubbed the back of her neck.

"We have a nine one one escaped and definitely not approved intruder," she groaned, "I don't know where he, she, it was headed." The security officer nodded and slammed his wristbadge to communicate the situation.

"Nine one one, intruder alert." The sirens became a yellow wail and a batch of armed guards poured out of a nearby doorway into the corridors.

"I didn't see them come out of the office but we'll catch them, do you want help to sickbay?" he asked worriedly and helped Aara up.

"No I'm fine, I know my way." It was a lie. Her head throbbed and she was sure she was already forming a lump but they parted ways in the corridor. He was probably going to enter a formal report before joining the chase, if it wasn't already over. Only the flashing yellow lights gave her any indication that the hunt was still on.

Aara slowly made her way to the doctor. More guards tramped past in file and she wished she knew what was going on.

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

"Captain we have a tracker on the intruder. They're currently moving through section 31 corridor 59."

"Thank god, at least that's an unpopulated area," the Captain of the Jamona sighed with relief.

"Security forces are moving in on the region." The Captain nodded and beeped the leader.

"I want to know exactly what's going on down there Lieutenant."

"Of course sir, we're moving in now. This place is dark as, when was the last time someone dusted down here? Wait a minute, we can see something." There was silence.

"Lieutenant?"

"Yeah I'm here Captain. But there's nothing here. It's the other party. The place is empty."

"What?" The Captain turned to the officer beside him.

"It just blinked away, I don't know what happened!" the officer exclaimed.

"Well find out dammit!"

"Yes sir."

"Captain," the lieutenant called through the hand wrist communicator, "we have a problem, a ticking problem."

The Captain's mouth went dry; "I'm sorry what was that?"

"Good god. Suggest we immediately employ evacuation procedures." The lieutenant's voice was shaky.

The Captain immediately pressed the button. More lights flashed, this time pink, and a voice erupted over the loudspeakers, "Please proceed to the nearest escape module, do not panic, this is not a test." The voice was repeated over at its original sentence.

"Care to explain why I just did that lieutenant?" The Captain demanded.

"Captain, it's a K-49 moon destroyer, and its ticking down from ten minutes."

"Disarm it!"

"Captain, that's the problem. We can't."

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

"There you go, right as new, now don't go interviewing anymore violent aliens, promise?" The doctor moved away from the bed and Aara stood.

"Wish I could." Suddenly the evacuation alarms went off. Ringing loudly. Aara looked and groaned.

"Looks like your visitor was a bit more violent than a simple head wound. Don't worry, when the station undergoes evacuation ejection, the Sickbay is the first to break off from the main body. Just stay here and we'll be fine." He smiled in a friendly manner.

"I can't," Aara said apologetically, "Excuse me." She pushed past. Aara had remembered she had that damned monkey to look after. He was probably bouncing off the walls of her quarters at this very instant. Fortunately they were only a hop skip and a jump from sickbay. She could make it in time before the separation procedures began and then grab an evacuation pod.

"Wait, I can't let you leave," the doctor tried and failed as Aara bounded past into the corridor. The push of panicking people was strong towards the evacuation pods but she pushed against it towards her quarters.

All those practices, she wondered, and yet one real event turned the station into a pool of hysteria.

A family screech rang out before she even made it back.

"Lambut!" Aara sighed, "You know I would never leave without you." The strange creature leapt across the crowd and landed with a thud on Aara's shoulder, putting her off balance for a moment.

Lambut was a Urmay monkey from, well Urmay, a distant planet supposedly uninhabited by intelligent life forms. Many concluded that the Urmay monkeys were in fact a developing nation, they were smarter than most. The bizarre mixture of creatures was comparable to a monkey cross with a cat. He was blue with a tabby pattern and ears but coat hair and general structure similar to a small monkey. His feet were a weird combination. Lambut also possessed flashing yellow eyes.

The crowd were not the only ones panicking. Lambut screeched again then clicked loudly, rolling off a whole line of Urmay speak.

"Calm down, we're getting out of here." Aara attempted to sooth her animal companion to no affect. People began to move away from her, hands to their ears to keep out the screeching noise. A pathway formed in front of her as Aara moved through the crowd of people, more desperate to get away from Lambut than they were to get to the evacuation pods.

Aara pushed away from the area, it was too crowded, and she knew of another area with evacuation pods that wouldn't be so. She grabbed a lift, mysteriously empty, and punched the buttons for one of the lower levels of the space station. These levels were relatively unused.

She realised that the intercom was now counting down from an unknown number.

"Four minutes fifteen," it greeted her on the lift and continued counting down.

"Three minutes forty nine," it goodbyed as Aara and Lambut burst out of the lift doors on the lower levels. Lambut got fidgety but his howling and screeching quieted down to chittering as Aara hauled herself down the corridor towards an evacuation pod.

There was a thump beside her and a strange groaning sound. Surprised, Aara could find no one to attribute the noise too.

To her left, a silver metal suit drifted into appearance. Aara blinked at it in surprise, it was the intruder. With the speed of light she gripped the nearest heavy object and hurled it at the suit.

It didn't matter, it didn't move anyway.

Sighing, she moved forward and hurled it up, dragging it down the corridor with her. She slammed her palm to the giant blue button and the gray door slid open to reveal the tiny chamber inside.

Lambut leapt in frantically and Aara followed, squishing herself into the tiny seat and clicking the safety belts into place. She hauled the suit creature in beside her; only just managing to squish it in before the door swooshed closed. She was cramped as hell.

"Pod shows abnormal life forms aboard. This evacuation pod is fitted for one life form only. Suggest immediate withdrawal." Aara ignored the warning and pushed the green button.

"Error," the pod warned, "this evacuation pod is fitted for one life form only. Suggest immediate withdrawal."

"Bugger off," Aara voiced her own suggestion and pulled back sharply on the joystick. The pod screeched, still attached to the external section of the space station. She bit back a long line of swear words, probably not completely dissimilar to Lambut's earlier Urmay lecture.

"Error," the pod crooned, "external structure will buckle. Suggest immediate withdrawal." The first error continued droning on behind the second.

"Override error and eject the pod!" Aara complained angrily, pulling back harder on the joystick. There was another horrible screech of metal on metal.

"This evacuation pod will comply," the voice agreed and suddenly the pod spurted forward leaving Aara's stomach behind. Lambut chattered angrily as he splattered forward across the panels, then rearranged himself to cling woefully to Aara.

"Open windows," Aara commanded the pod, maneuvering it in a broad circular direction and easing the control forward to slow the pod down. Two gray platforms slid away above the panels at her face so that only a glass like plate was in front of her face. The space beyond was revealed.

The space station was already in the middle of the splitting off of its evacuation procedure. A large chunk that was sick bay was slowly shooting away from the main hulk, which was currently separating into three pieces. The whole are of space was littered with evacuation pods.

In her haste to get away, Aara had maneuvered her pod well out of the way of the station. The whole of Jamona fitted into her small viewscreen.

"It still seems alright," Aara murmured to Lambut, but at the exact instant she said it a flash of red erupted from the main structure.

Aara's heart raced. All the sections, mid separation, exploded into a billion pieces. Sickbay, almost directly above the explosion, was blasted into tiny fragments. The majority of the life pods were caught in the middle of the explosion; a few rocketed away from the force of the blast only to crash themselves.

Aara gasped.

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

"We're looking at a ninety percent destruction of the space station Jamona, is it true that this was caused by a K-49 moon destroyer, and if so, how is it possible such a device was smuggled onto the station?" The reporter tried to give her most serious `I care' look.

"At this time we cannot say for certain how such a device managed to get on board, we are currently investigating."

"But isn't it true that the Jamona, and many other human orientated space stations like it, possess scanning devices designed specifically to detect such devices."

"Yes, which is why.."

"Does this, then, present the probability that other space stations, like Jamona or less equipped, could possibly suffer a similar attack."

"We're fully aware of the situation.."

"Mr. Ramelari, is it true that a new species was salvaged from the wreckage and has been linked to the incident."

Mr. Ramelari was silent for a moment, "There is no conclusive evidence that." The reporter gave him a dirty look and walked off before he could finish.

Mr. Ramelari stopped the tape. Aara and Lambut looked up quizzically.

"Of course," he said, "we know that not to be true but we don't want to alarm the citizens of the one hundred and twenty two other space stations currently owned by the human race. Instead, we've organised a meeting between various important people, and the media, and it is at that venue that we will release our official statement. Ms. Ventari, as our find can be attributed to yourself, you have been reserved a seat at the venue and we will organise transport for yourself there immediately."

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

Aara entered the upper balcony of the official meeting regarding the space station Jamona. She could still see the explosion in her head in vivid detail, and it disturbed her immensely.

She drifted down the aisle to her terrible seat way at the back - she could barely even see anything that was going on. Fortunately the speakers platform was raised, so it was the lower floors that would have to stretch to see the most.

She sat down and unzipped her extra large bag allowing Lambut air to breathe. Animals weren't allowed.

"'Scuse me, coming through," a pushy reporter brushed past down the aisle on his way to a seat down the front. Suddenly he stopped and turned around to look at Aara.

He was Geykeng. No, a hybrid, half-human half Geykeng. He had brown hair the hung craggily around his face but was not long and he had typical purple Geykeng eyes. Whilst his general structure was human, there was a sort of Geykeng touch - finer but firmer features. His ears were also the slightly protruded stalks of the Geykeng. By his sudden turn, she guessed he was also slightly telepathic, or empathic, a trait not inherited by his human genes.

He plonked himself down into the seat next to her. Aara blinked at him.

"That's my seat," someone grumped in the aisle.

"Oh no, I don't think so, I think your seat is actually that one, see, down there," he pointed them to the seat that had previously been his, closer to the meeting before turning and giving Aara a broad cheeky grin.

"You a press monster too?" he questioned Aara when the other person had settled themselves down comfortably in his seat.

"No," Aara replied indignantly.

"Oh please excuse my rudeness, Perrin Thomas." He offered her a hand but she didn't accept it. He was press, and had probably picked up that she was a survivor of the Jamona with his abilities, wanting to take advantage of the situation. Aara had no intention of giving him the satisfaction of a story.

"Ah well, this should be good. They might finally tell us something eh," Perrin gave her a nudge.

"What, so you media folk can drool all over it and twist it into something it's not?" Aara wasn't a big fan of the media.

"Yeah," he replied a bit defensively, "something like that."

"Excuse me ladies, gentleman and neutrals alike," a speaker addressed the audience from the podium and immediately everyone sat up a little taller. A large rectangular box was standing beside the podium, currently covered.

"As you are already well aware of the Jamona tragedy, we do not wish to dwell today on the details of the incident. Rather we would like to address a rising concern as to its origins, and today we are forced to admit that the perpetrator was, in fact, not of any currently known species." Murmurs shot off through the crowd.

The speaker waved his hand towards the rectangle and it pivoted to display the silver metal suit Aara was so aware off. She had, after all, spent nearly two days up close and personal with the thing until rescuers had come to the Jamona. Evacuation pods didn't have enough power to move far. It was safer to stay in the same place.

"This suit was retrieved from an alien species linked to the Jamona explosion. The creature inside did not survive the incident and is currently under investigation and is not available for viewing. Eveidence suggests the cause of death is linked to massive weapon fire from the Jamona's security." Before he could continue, a thousand little red flashy lights appeared and an alarm started ringing.

"What the hell is that?" People began to stand from their seats in puzzlement.

"Evacuation procedure initiated," blasted over the intercom and Aara groaned.

"Not again."

"Ladies and gentleman, please proceed in an ordily fashion to the nearest evacuation pod," the speaker attempted to calm the crowd, "as soon as we know anything about the situation we will inform you."

"Unknown ship in orbit," the computer chanted as if on cue, "station security has been comprimised."

"It was a pleasure meeting you Ms Ventari," Perrin Thomas said from beside her as people began blinking away around her. Perrin lifted his own wrist to display a small box like object.

"You didn't think I was really here did you?" he told her quizzical expression before pressing a button and blinking away himself.

"Fricken cyber space," Aara swore. Now you could actually be there, without actually being there. That way you could get back to where it counted as quickly as possible. It only worked for stations with the right equipment however.

The room was still half-full, sirens blaring and people panicking. A total revisitation of Jamona.

Suddenly a large beam of red light penetrated the room, slicing down the centre and building up in intensity. Somebody was intent on ruining the meeting.

Aara looked around in terror; Lambut bounded out the bag to attach himself to her shoulder again. She'd never make it to a pod in time. This place was going to blow just like Jamona, she could feel it.

Then her eyes fell on the rectangular box. The suit was still inside. She remembered how protective the creature had been of the box at its wrist. She'd thought it had been environmental controls but what if it wasn't. The chances were slim.

She catapulted down the aisle and across the gap to the podium. Lambut shrieked as they crossed the gap between the two and landed on the podium. People were milling down the aisles, pushing frantically towards the doors.

Aara ignored them and reached forward, dragging back the environment suit. It was big enough to fit her twice over but if she was right, she didn't need the whole suit. She dragged the box at the wrist away from the whole and, unsure how it worked, placed it against her wrist.

Tiny claws whipped out and embedded themselves into her wrists. Pain sweeped over her but disappeared. Her wrist felt heavier, weighed down. Aara tugged at the box testing it, but it refused to give any leeway.

"Hold on tight Lambut," she warned and pushed a hand against the box. There was a whooshing sound around her as the red beam exploded and the space station faded away. Blackness faded in. Lambut was still clinging for dear life to her shoulder. Aara fumbled around the blackness and a door slid open revealing a lit corridor beyond. A whole bunch of gray suits were marching off in the opposite direction.

Aara gulped; somehow she'd managed to land herself, well, somewhere else. The panels and terminals were foreign. If they were anything to go by, she was on the alien's ship. A strange language filtered across the corridor and klaxons rang out. Aara wasn't certain if they were regarding her presence or not, but she didn't want to stick around to find out. She bolted down the corridor in the opposite direction to the suits and then slid to a stop. She knew a ship bay when she saw one and she saw one now. She was conveniently in the right place.

Aara buzzed through the closest door as a group of suits marched down the hallway towards her and pounded down a ramp towards a strange long ship that reminded her vaguely of an octopus or squid.

Once again, conveniently, the door to the ship was open. Aara threw herself into the ship, the suits pounding down the ramp behind her. She quickly thanked her immense stream of good luck and praised the forces behind it, hoping it wouldn't give up on her now. She muddled over the myriad of strange buttons and panels, trying to figure out what to do.

Lambut chattered and pressed a button. The ship door buzzed closed. Aara stared at him in surprise but Lambut ignored her and began pressing another series of button causing the ship to vibrate and then rise.

"You know how to fly this thing!?" Lambut chattered in response and the ship flung out smashing through the larger ships walls into space. The space in front of them flickered onto a screen in front. A similar one showed the space behind as they shot away from the main ship. Big and ugly and gray. A giant misshapen object that seemed to point out in all the wrong places.

A thousand tiny ships, identical to the one they had stolen, shot out from the mother in pursuit.

"It's not all over yet," Aara warned, "Where can we go." The ship blipped into hyperdrive, colours swirling around them. The hyperdrive flipped off and they were heading towards a large asteroid field.

"And they reckon you aren't intelligent," Aara murmured of her monkey like friend. Only three ships had been fast enough to follow them into hyperdrive and remained in pursuit. Lambut maneuvered the ship through the asteroid field with ease.

A large carrier appeared out of nowhere, lumbering along. Aara swore.

"Catch it," she told Lambut and immediately they were tugging the vehicle along behind them in the chase, slowing them down. They dodged downwards and away, flipping around, then heading directly for an asteroid.

"What are you doing?" Lambut just chattered and pointed. A crack appeared in the asteroid and they slid inside, out of sight, and hopefully not to be found by the enemy. The ship's systems and lights cooled down as the power went down to minimal, hiding them. Aara sighed and relaxed a little, until a Dbren face splattered itself across the screen.

"What, may I ask, are you doing?" It was the owner of the carrier vehicle.

"We are being pursued by a potentially dangerous species, we rescued you," Aara explained only to receive a snort in response.

"Look I'm not carrying anything worth your interest, just let me go."

Aara groaned, "Check your sensors, you'll see what I mean. There were three of them in pursuit."

"I detect nothing, in fact, I'm mildly surprised to find I don't detect you either. If I couldn't see your strange and ugly vessel with my own eyes, I'd think it's not there."

"Well that explains that," Aara murmured, "Look you have to believe me." She squinted at the Dbren. The Dbren were well known for being neutral, in that they were neither males nor females. They possessed rounded bald heads and circular but flat ears plastered to the sides of it. They were tall and wiry with bulging eyes but apart from that, fairly close to human stance.

"What are you carrying out here anyway?" Aara enquired, "There's nothing out here worth carrying too."

The Dbren shifted uncomfortably, "Just, ah, strolling."

"You're hiding something." She couldn't believe it. When had the whole world mysteriously shifted into a mass of secrets.

"Don't be ridiculous." Dbren were awful liars.

"Let me put it this way, I have your ship under control until you do. We need somewhere safe to go."

"I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea." Lambut screeched loudly and the Dbren shoved its hands to its ears.

"Please, stop that!" it pleaded.

"If you don't tell me what you're carrying and where, I'll come over and investigate myself and bring my friend over with me," Aara threatened.

"I'm carrying weapons, dammit, weapons," the Dbren finally informed.

"Where to?" Where could it possibly want to carry weapons to out here?

"A space station. A secret government space station. It's nearby, I swear. I can take you to it, just stop that noise."

"Not now," Aara disagreed, "they could still be out there. We'll contact you again in three hours." She reached forward to press the button she thought would terminate the conversation.

"Three hours!" the Dbren faded away from the screen.

Aara turned back to Lambut, hands on hips, "You have a lot of explaining to do!" Lambut looked up through soulful eyes and chittered miserably, "Yeah right, like I'll ever fall for the `I'm just a stupid animal' look again." Aara turned away and slid down into the only chair present. She was so tired she quickly drifted off to sleep. Strangely, her head was pounding again.

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

Something hairy brushed her cheek and squeaked urgently. Aara groaned and opened her eyes to see Lambut's cheeky grin and twitching ears.

"Let me guess, it's been three hours." She stood and moved to the panel, feeling proud that out of the foreign ship she at least knew what one button did.

The Dbren's face filled the screen. It looked agitated, "By my calculations it's been three hours, two minutes and forty four seconds. What kept you?"

Aara blinked and rolled her eyes, "Ok we can go now. Heading?"

"I'm sending you the coordinates," the Dbren replied, "If you actually owned a ship I recognised I'd be taking your ship license number too." The alien ship started forward and Lambut went back to dancing across the controls. They exited the asteroid timidly dragging the carrier behind, but the aliens must have given up their search because they were nowhere around.

They crept along, exiting the asteroid belt and entering normal space. They'd only been travelling about fifteen minutes when Aara squinted at the panel to her left.

"According to this, it's just around the next bend, i.e. that planet." She gave the panel a strange look as they rounded the corner. Aara blinked in surprise again.

The station was there, for sure, surrounded by a miliad of tiny buggy ships identical to the one she traveled in now. They blasted at the station and its fighters buzzing angrily and the stations defense grid flickered wearily.

"I guess they got distracted from looking for me by bigger catch," Aara murmured. The red light above the communication button flashed and she pressed the button distractedly. The Dbren appeared on the screen mid- swear.

"Let's get out of here already!" it exclaimed, blinking clear eyelids.

"Send me a spider of your cargo," Aara interrupted, "I could use some weapons."

"Are you kidding, we can't take on them!"

"Shut up and do it." A readied spider launched from the carrier and attached itself to the hull of Aara's alien craft. Aara gave the craft wall a push and the spider spilled its contents inside. Aara sifted through the pieces in shock, there was some pretty heavy stuff there but most of it required to be built into the ships systems.

The two ships catapulted over the planet towards the plagued station and for a moment Aara wondered exactly how she'd gotten here. The alien crafts dodged out of her way as the moved in and she realised they recognised her as kin rather than enemy. She was still tugging the carrier.

"Show me the weapon controls." Aara watched the other little vessels spurting long red rays from the tendrils at one end. Lambut flickered across and pushed a few buttons on the panel. The same ray sprung out catching another vessel off guard. It blasted into pieces.

Aara mimicked the actions, figuring out how to angle the beam on the run. Alien vessels exploded around them, others turned in confusion to pursue enemies only to find one of their own ships pulling a cargo ship along behind.

They ploughed through the defenses.

Lambut chittered urgently pointing to a screen and Aara followed his gaze to a splatter of almost unintelligible information. A moment later she realised she was looking at. It didn't matter that they were destroying alien craft every which was, the life signs on the station where blinking out faster than she could actually blink.

"What could be doing that," she murmured to herself, turning back to the screen showing the space outside and blasting another alien craft into pieces. She peered at the station looking for any signs of interference.

She found it. An ugly square object was attached to the side of the station. Aara suspected its design was similar to the spider's.

"What's that thing doing?" Pumps on the side were working over time, "Let's get a closer look." Lambut brought the ship around the side of the station for a closer look. The ship shook as it was hit and shuddered with the force. A few lights flickered but nothing beeped, flashed or exploded so Aara assumed it was alright.

"Get me a composition of the air in the station," Aara ordered, getting a feeling she had an idea. More information appeared on the left screen, she investigated it worriedly, trying to read the strange writing, "To hell with it, just blow the thing into space." She aimed at the square object and fired. It exploded away in a chunk.

Suddenly she noticed the communication light was flashing again. She pressed the button again.

"We've got a mother ship," the Dbren replied. His ship behind him looked pretty battered. Apparently he'd been copping most of the hits rather than Aara and Lambut which explained their good run.

"If we can destroy it I think that could give us a head start." He must have sent the coordinates because a picture of the ship flashed across the screen. Aara was disappointed to see it wasn't the same one she'd escaped from several hours ago. Instead of a big gray ugly blob it was just another giant squid shaped ship.

"I don't think we have the fire power," Aara broke the news.

"You're kidding right. Take another look at that stuff I sent you."

Aara turned around to look, "It's really not enough. I can't use most of it."

The Dbren rolled his eyes, "I sent you the friggen expensive stuff to be built into the station. I barely sent you a scrap of the explosive materials." Aara cottoned on to his line of thought.

"You're going to ram it! But what about you?"

"I'm squeezing myself into a spider as we speak," he told her calmly from the screen, "just keep any of the other ships from intercepting the course and blowing it up early." The screen went back to space. Aara felt like she wanted to panic. She had to concentrate on blowing up alien vessels, Lambut had to concentrate on piloting the ship and the Dbren expected them to bail him out of the spider before the air ran out.

The second spider attached itself to the other side of the rear of the vessel. The carrier rocketed forward on an intercept course with the mother ship. A thousand tiny ships broke of their attack of the station to pursue it. Aara fired, doing her best to miss the highly explosive ship.

"Pull out," she shouted at Lambut and the ship shot backwards as Dbren's ship splashed across the mother ship's hull. Explosions rocked the surface and at the same instant the ship went into hyperdrive, sucking in the little ships around it. The alien ship was on a full reverse course but it still battled against the sweeping current before popping free. Aara abandoned her firing and gave the wall in front of the second spider a push. The Dbren tumbled into the alien ship gasping for air desperately. Aara turned back. Lambut had turned the ship around heading towards the station. The last remaining alien ships fired half-heartedly but the station's grid was still working and picked them off. Lambut, remarkably, managed to dodge the dangerous beams bringing the ship into one of the docking clamps.

"Here," Aara slapped an oxygen mask into the Dbren's hands and handed one to Lambut. It was too big for his small face but he slipped it over his head anyway. The door to the alien vessel opened revealing a station corridor filled with a fine white mist.

Lambut spluttered but Aara grabbed him and held the mask firmly across his face. She bolted through with the Dbren following close behind. They headed in the general direction of the bridge, stopping to catch a lift on the way. The empty lift shot up towards the station's peak and opened out on the bridge. Dead officers littered the room, suffocated on whatever the deadly gas was.

"The air is already being recycled," the Dbren commented, peering at a panel, "the stuff is being ejected. The only reason it wasn't working before was because it was being pumped in at the same rate. We should be able to breathe the air in about twenty minutes."

Aara nodded, "Since you are familiar with it, secure the bridge. According to this there are still nine people alive, apart from us, on board." She called up the information on the life signs, "We've got four humans, two Trez, a Lumina, Raforman and.. A Kaat!" She felt that feeling of panic sweep over her again, "They've got a bloody Kaat on board!"

She downloaded the information to a wrist communicator of a slumped nearby officer and pulled it off his wrist before attaching it to her own. Something felt sinister about that. She brushed the thought away.

"Relax, it's locked up nice and secure," the Dbren replied knowingly, referring to the Kaat.

"Was!" The little blinky light indicated the Kaat was moving about in a large area, nowhere near any enclosure. They looked at each other silently then the Dbren dragged a large rifle from a locker at his feet.

"Take this, you'll need it. It something happens, I'll lock down the bridge." Aara nodded, accepted the weapon and headed back towards the lift.

The lift opened out onto the main corridor. The mass of dead bodies piled upon each other made her gag. It was the sight of the death, not the smell. There was no smell in an oxygen mask. Aara pushed through the mess, following the instructions on the wrist communicator to the largest group - three humans and the Lumina all together in the one place.

Before she even got there she guessed it was sickbay. The doors whooshed open revealing the three humans huddle up in the far corner. A security defense grid flickered around their corner indicating that the environment beyond was separated from that of the room. The short stubby Lumina was fiddling with a panel at knee height, trying to get it open. He was green and frog-like in features. A bald head, no ears and nubby digits, not to mention the gill slits at the side of his neck. Two long thin tubes protruded from these gills either side to a small box attached at the base of his skull behind the head. His air composition was slightly different from humans.

They all looked up as she entered sickbay. Aara recognised their uniforms. A brown haired male was the doctor, the skinny nurse had long black hair and Asian features whilst the third was wearing a white lab coat, a scientist. Her leg was in plaster. The Lumina wore a uniform identifying him as an engineer.

"There are more oxygen masks in that cupboard," the doctor said, indicating a locker to Aara's right. She popped it open and retrieved the masks before punching the appropriate button to released the defense grid. Quickly she passed out the masks.

"How many are left?" the doctor asked stepping towards her. He appeared unconcerned that he didn't know her. The nurse helped the scientist hop towards a bed and the Lumina swore in his own language, kicking the panel he'd been fiddling with. It burst open.

"Figures," he grumbled, "now that I don't need it."

"Apart from you, and my friends on the bridge, we've got five. One of them being a recently released Kaat." Aara glared at the doctor who fidgeted nervously as his only sign of disturbance.

"Where are they? We'll split up." Aara attached her wrist communicator with his and downloaded the information.

"You get the Raforman on deck eight," the doctor continued, "The rest are on deck two so I think we can get them all at once. Nurse Lateali and Ms Ingrid will stay here."

Aara breathed out slowly, "The Kaat is on deck seven."

"That's why you've got the gun. C'mon Mak." The Lumina grumbled and followed him out the door. Aara turned to follow, feeling her heart sink.

"Hey," Nurse Lateali stopped her, "Good luck."

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

Aara drifted nervously around another stack of crates in the cargo hold. The Raforman was supposed to be around here somewhere. Finally she spotted him, crushed beneath a pile of fallen crates. Only a few stray tendrils gave away his position at all.

She was barely sure it was a he.

"Aara," a voice piped up through her wrist communicator, it was the voice of the Dbren, she wondered how it had gotten her name, "the Kaat just entered your deck and is heading in your direction." I think it might have gotten hold of your location somehow. Be careful." Aara trembled.

"I'm stuck on a half dead, half destroyed secret government space station and being stalked by a Kaat," she murmured. It was the stuff of nightmares. The Raforman's tendrils quivered.

If a single person knew of only one other species other than its own, it knew the Kaat. They were the most feared species of all, tall bulky and probably stronger than superman. Probably twice as strong. Kaat's towered above normal head height and could crush just in a handshake. Kaat's were terrifying evils told to children to keep them being good. The worst thing was, Kaat's enjoyed war more than anything else did. Anything. Beer and sex included.

They were, however, remarkably human like visually. Their internal organs couldn't be more different though. Kaat's were hairier, with broad shoulders and a square jaw. They also had larger ears located closer to the top of their heads. To top it off they sported a long line of thorny protrusions from the base of their neck down their back and along the arms.

They must have made woolen jumpers a bitch to wear.

The Raforman groaned from its position and Aara skirted forward, hastily pushing crates out of the way. Raforman had a broad circulatory system adapted to a variety of environments. Whatever had been flushed into the station probably hadn't affected it as much as the crates had.

She pushed more crates off before discovering the source of the crash. A large beam had fallen from the ceiling across the Raforman, bringing the crates down with it. She sighed and put the gun down before pushing her hands under the beam, trying to lift it. She couldn't even make it budge an inch.

"Hurry!" the Raforman urged through haggard breath.

"I'm trying," Aara responded through gritted teeth. There was a scuffle behind her and she turned to see the Kaat moving slowly towards her. Brown eyes seized her up. Aara immediately dove for the gun but he kicked it out of the way with a curious half smile. It skittered across the cargo hold. Aara began to back away as it moved forward. All she could think of was how much of great story her death would make in the after life. Yes, and then, of all things, they had a Kaat on board.

The Raforman's breathing became desperate and hazy. Aara stumbled back across the crates.

The Kaat bent forward. He slid his arms underneath the beam and heaved upwards. The beam moved as if it were a feather.

Immediately the Raforman bolted outwards, dragging his limp tendrils behind him and rushing for the door. He wore a white lab coat also, giving him away as a scientist.

"Please don't hurt me!" he whined to the Kaat pathetically. The Kaat snorted in disapproval and turned away as though the Raforman wasn't worth his attention. He considered Aara.

"Do you need help with anything else?"

Aara's mouth opened and closed like a fish, "But you're a. And they held you in captivity.. Aren't you. I mean don't you."

"Ill will is of no use to me, even if I was such an interesting experiment," he eyed the Raforman who shivered violently, "and I have no need to fight you when a more interesting enemy has arrived." A grin blossomed across his face. The Raforman shuddered.

"The air is breathable now," the Kaat continued. Aara decided to believe him and tore the mask from her face.

"Everyone," she called into her wrist communicator, "assemble in sickbay. It's time to figure out what we're going to do." They piped back their positive responses.

"We have a fighter, an alive one," the Dbren added, "he's docking, I've told him to meet us in sickbay too."

"Let's go then," the Kaat responded cheerily.

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

Aara reentered sickbay to find she; Corbin and Pok were the last ones to arrive. Pok was her horrified, slightly sarcastic tendril filled Raforman and Corbin the mildly amused Kaat. In Sickbay she met the rest. Doctor Philip Jenkins was a take control, remain calm sort of doctor. Mak, short for actually Mak-Mak, was the grumpy Lumina. Nurse Lateali's first name was Soo; she was more soft and nurturing. Ms Ingrid was also known as Ms Ingrid Walters and seemed a down to earth kind of person. The other two the doctor and Mak had picked up were there. The last human hadn't survived to be rescued, but the two Trez AKA green blobs name 1468 and 2305, hadn't really understood why everyone was suddenly perishing around them. As far as they were concerned the air had only become a little misty. In fast they claimed it was clearer than before.

The Dbren had arrived in sickbay moments before Aara and Lambut jumped with glee from its shoulder.

"Our two rescuers," Mak said sarcastically, "you know this person Hooey?" He questioned the Dbren.

"Hooey, your name is Hooey? Well at least now I have a name to the face," Aara commented.

"My name is not Hooey," Hooey replied, "my name is, however, unpronounceable by most species and over the years I have spent delivering to this station I have somehow been given the nickname Hooey."

"Huh," agreed Mak.

"Hooey it is," Aara patted it on the shoulder. The doors to sickbay whooshed open behind her and everyone turned to see the final survivor. Aara winced. She hadn't thought she could be surprised anymore.

"Perrin," she accused the reporter as if it were the most derogatory thing she could say. He himself was surprised and blinked at her as if his eyes must be deceiving him.

"What are you doing here?" Perrin and Aara asked simultaneously.

Perrin cleared his throat in embarrassment, "I work here."

"You're a reporter, you don't work here," Aara said in puzzlement.

"I'm not a reporter," Perrin disagreed, "I'm a secret agent." There was an awkward silence.

"Sorry," he added as an after thought.

Aara rubbed her forehead frustratedly.

"We'll send an encoded message to central command immediately then?" Pok asked, breaking the silence.

Corbin burst out laughing, "What do you think they'll do? Fly to your rescue. You secret government installation has been compromised, the best thing they can do is pretend it never existed, and the best way to achieve that is to finish it off."

They were silent.

"Is that true?" Nurse Lateali asked quietly.

Perrin sighed, "It probably is."

"So what are we going to do," Ingrid asked a little angrily.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do," Aara said, feeling something powerful blossom inside her, "first we're going to hold a ceremony for the passing of a great many honourable and loyal officers. Then we're going to clean up this station and get it moving - someplace obscure where even our own government won't find us. After that we're going to our bloody best to beat back at them - the fifteenth race I mean," she took a breath, "We're going to fight, and get whoever we can to our side, to fight back against the fifteenth race."

And that, my friends, was the beginning.