Summary: It is the year 3060. The earth has been taken over by the Imperials, who are now moving to other planets. Only one small army stands in their way...

The Resistance

Chapter One

Commander Xena Terrill's slim, tapered fingers curled around the edge of her command chair. This was her terrain.

"Tactical, prep engines for Z-space," she said coolly in her crisp British accent.

"Prepping engines," Captain Xalvadora "Xalva" James responded.

"Plot coordinates for Alpha I."

"Coordinates for Alpha I set."

Xena smirked. "Make it so."

"Aye, aye," Xalva said with a grin of her own.

Her fingers flew over the touch screen, tapping one last green button on the top of the screen. The gigantic plasma viewscreen, showing the stars slowly moving by as they were only on low power, turned completely black, then grey, then white, and finally data green, the color of Z-space. The bridge crew relaxed.

"Dismissed," Xena said.

The young bridge crew of the Liberty hopped out of their chairs and exited through the blast doors connecting the bridge to the rest of the ship. Only Xena and her extremely young Head of Science, Captain Xarles Black, remained. Xena put her hand on his shoulder.

"Black. You can go."

"I have to finish this report for Captain Terrill by 18:00," he snapped. "Her Z-space engines have been acting up and she'll kick my ass if she doesn't have this in time."

As he was only eight, eight years younger than Xena, his voice had not changed. He had, however, all the evidence on his face that said he had not been a child for a long time.

"Captain, why were you graduated from training so young?" Xena asked curiously. "What is your history?"

Xarles switched off his terminal and swiveled his chair to face her.

"My parents were killed when I was three years old during the Eighth Wave. I lived on the streets for six months, when Dr. Harris found me. She took me to Captain Hanner, who trained me until I was six, when I surpassed training by hacking into the Imperials' main computer and changing all the passwords. He graduated me and sent me into Science. I eventually became subhead. When Captain Anders died during the Battle at Beta XI two weeks ago, I moved up to head."

Xena raised her left eyebrow and leaned back in her chair.

"Impressive. I don't suppose you could hack into Datanet again?" she asked, referring to the Imperials' computer system.

Xarles shook his head. "They've updated all their systems since I hacked. They've got an impossible amount of firewalls and hidden viruses that would bring the Defynet, our system, down in an instant."

Xena's other eyebrow went up. "And if you had Joey Jackson to help you..."

"Joey Jackson?" Xarles gasped. "Joseph Daniel Jackson? The hacking genius? He's here?"

"The one and only. Science 13. Tomorrow at 1:00. He'll be here in a few hours. Now go take a break."

Xena left the bridge, smiling at the look of ecstasy on the eight-year- old's face. She got about eight steps before someone grabbed the back of her neck and tried to slam her forehead against the titanium wall. She twisted the hand and whirled. She yelped as she saw whose face it was that grinned at her.

"Hanner!" she yelled. "I could space you for that!"

"Oh, come on, sugar," Captain Alexander Hanner drawled in his Texas accent. "Your head's too hard to break."

"But yours isn't," she retorted.

He ran his fingers through her dark auburn hair. She put her hand on top of his...and snapped three of his fingers.

"Ow! What the-"

"Try that again and you will become the late Captain Xander Hanner."

"Oho!" he said triumphantly. "So I'm Xander now, aren't I?"

"What? Everyone else calls you Xander. Now go play with the kiddies before I do space you."

As she arrogantly marched down the hallway, Hanner called something to her.

"I've got a group of students you need to brief. 17:30, Shuttle Bay 1."

She glanced at a clock. 17:29. Swearing at the self-centered teen she had to use as her cadets' teacher, she broke into a run towards a nearby door. She punched a combination into a computer screen next do the door. It opened, revealing a group of frightened-looking children of about four wearing the same tight-fitting black uniforms she was, except instead of five stars on the breast pocket, there was only one. Cadets. This looked like a good bunch. Xena scanned the group, looking for a possible commander she could pick on. Her eyes zoomed in on an undersized boy who looked more two than four. She squinted at his name tag. Andrew Brent.

"You!" she barked. The boy jumped. "Who're you?"

"Cadet Andrew Brent, Commander," he said sharply.

"Actually, you are a worthless turd," she said crisply. A few people giggled. "What are you laughing at?" They shut up immediately. She began pacing back and forth in front of them. "Maybe, once you're trained, you could graduate and become maggots." No giggles this time. "I see you're learning already."

She stopped in front of a tall girl with absolutely no hair. On her bare head were nasty burns that looked like they were from laser missiles.

"Do you know the Resistance's military hierarchy?" she snapped.

"You start as a cadet," the girl said nervously. "When you graduate, you are a private. From there you move to lieutenant. Then it's captain and if you're lucky, commander."

"Luck has got nothing to do with it," Xena said. "Becoming commander is all about skill, determination, perseverance, courage, and just the right amount of the ability to terrify the crap out of all you cadets. That last part I possess in abundance."

She smiled and permitted the cadets to laugh a little.

"From here, please follow the lit-up red stripe to your dormitory. Your class number is 13. My lucky number. If you make it through training, your ship, which is in construction right now, will be the Freedom. Understand this now. The Freedom will be a crucial ship in our overall plans to block and destroy the abomination that is the Empire. You will train hard or I will be onto you. Understand?" The cadets nodded. "Now, how many of your parents were murdered by Imperials?"

All but the bald girl and Andrew Brent raised their hands.

"Then you understand what I am talking about. You, girl, Avarielle Washington."

"Yes, Commander?"

"Where are your parents?"

"Imperial prisoners of war."

"And you, Brent?"

The boy looked uncomfortable.

"Imperial soldiers."

"So you ran?" Xena said with just a touch of approval in her cool voice. "Good for you. Cadets, you are dismissed."

The kids filed out of the room. Xena sighed and followed them, turning the other way at the first fork in the hall and punching a combination into a number pad next to another blast door. The doors to Engineering opened. Captain Xuxa Terrill, her twin sister, was stalking around the room, yelling at the privates under her command. Her first subhead, Lieutenant Tyce, and second subhead, Lieutenant Brown, were scurrying around trying to restore order while Xuxa screamed at them.

"Brown, you fool, that's the wrong number sequence! You screwed up the entire bloody equation! I don't care if you think White's hot; you can snog her once you've finished fixing my Z-space engines!"

Xena smirked at her sister as she turned.

"If you keep picking on your crew, they will hate you," Xena said, "and then they'll stop hating me."

"They don't hate you," Xuxa said distractedly as she ran diagnostics of her engines.

Xena rolled her emerald eyes. Xena and Xuxa may have shared a face, but there the similarities ended. Xena had loosely curly, dark auburn hair which reached her chin and emerald green eyes that were forever haunted and deep. Xuxa had golden blonde hair that reached her waist and was always kept in a braid and lordly deep blue eyes. They had much different techniques when they were angry. Xuxa showed anger and frustration by screaming at her workers and subheads, while Xena became cold when she was angry and worked harder when she was frustrated. That's why Xena was commander and Xuxa was still Head of Engineering.

"Where's Black's report?" Xuxa snapped. "I need it in twenty minutes!"

"I told him to take a break."

"You WHAT?!"

"He's eight, Xuxa!"

"When we were eight you were Head of Tactical and I was Head of Engineering!"

"And Black's Head of Science! That's no easy job!"

"Oh, and being Head of Engineering is a piece of cake?" Xuxa yelled hysterically. "The Z-space engines are only working at half power and we haven't got a clue why! I need that report! Once I have that report, your Z- space engines will be at full power again."

"Oh, so they're my engines now?"

"This is your ship."

"I believe a second ago, when you were screaming at your second subhead, you referred to them as your engines. You can't suck up to the queen of sucking up."

"You haven't got anyone to suck up to; you're the commander of the entire resistance!"

"And you think that's easy? I have to practically get down on my knees and beg for our funding! Do you know how hard it is to get diddly squat out of the renegade suppliers?"

Xuxa flicked her sister off.

"Leave Captain Black alone," Xena said calmly. "He's got a big job for him tomorrow really early in the morning."

As Xena marched out of Engineering, Xuxa called to her.

"More important than preventing the ship exploding at the molecular level?"

"Yes!"

Xena heard the blast door shut behind her. Still privately fuming, she stalked off to her quarters. She tapped a button next to the door that notified the computer that someone was there.

"Are you a resident of the Liberty or a guest?" the computer asked.

"Resident."

"Please state your name and rank."

"Commander Xena Terrill."

"Password?"

"Alpha Phoenix 495."

"Please place your right hand in the gel pad for analyzing."

Xena obediently did. It took a few moments for the wide-spanning laser to scan her handprint and fingerprints. When it finished, the computer showed displayed a touch pad, into which Xena typed the word Blue. The computer then unlocked the door and opened it, revealing her reception area.

It was furnished with lots of comfy leather furniture and little, round, wooden tables. The next room in was her office, furnished in much the same way but with only one leather couch opposite a wooden desk, behind which was a spinning, rolling chair with leather padding. There was a to-scale model of the Liberty on the wall that displayed the locations of everyone on the ship. On the desk was a computer terminal, built into the desk, and a hologram projector just above it. Beside that were holographic pictures of Xena and Xuxa. One even showed their parents, Brenda and George Terrill.

Xena punched a button by another, smaller blast door, continued through the entryway connected to her office and was in her living room, furnished much the same as her reception area, but had a large, upright computer terminal with an attached hologram projector. The last room was her bedroom.

On the wall was another model of the Liberty, like the one in her office but smaller. There was a small computer terminal, too, built into the wall, above which was a small hologram projector. There was a comfy sofa chair and a blue queen-sized canopy bed with silk drapes around the sides. Above the head of the bed was a window, showing the green space outside in the icy cold place devoid of all air called space.

Xena undid her heavy steel belt holding her scanner, laser pistol, laser cannon, laser knife, and laser whip, yanked off her heavy black boots, and collapsed onto the bed. She was absolutely exhausted. If Xuxa came in here and decided to piss her off, she would be in very big trouble.

The computer bleeped.

"You have a visitor."

The intercom for her quarters switched on.

"Captain Xuxa Terrill."

"Damn!" Xena swore.

The sound of her sister picking the lock to her door reached her ears. The bleeps and lights said that she was using her laser knife. There goes the new lock.

"Hey, Cap'n," drawled a voice with a heavy Texas accent.

Xena sat straight up and glared into the face of her smirking captain.

"Hanner, you son of a-"

"Save insulting me into oblivion later, sugar," he said smoothly.

"What the hell are you doing in my personal quarters, Hanner?" she snapped furiously.

She stood and stalked over to where he stood. She was only 5'6", while Hanner was exactly six feet. Even so, she stared him straight in his brown eyes as she lectured him.

"Do you have any idea how many of my regulations you are breaking?" she snarled. "You are in a commander's personal quarters, her bedroom, without permission, you have impersonated an officer, and the sister of the commander nonetheless, burnt out a brand-new lock with a piece of crap las- knife-WHY ARE YOU SMIRKING AT ME?!"

For although she was glaring straight into his eyes, she could see a distinct smirk in the depths of those chocolate orbs. Stepping back a few paces, Xena folded her arms and scowled at him.

"What?" she snapped, sounding like a rebellious teenager, which, in truth, she was.

"Just thought you'd like to know," he said, still with that arrogant smirk, "that Joey Jackson's here."

"Already?" Xena said with a concerned frown. He was not expected for three hours at least.

"Yeah. He's got a couple of bumps and bruises..."

Xena was instantly alert, warrior's intuition beating a tattoo on the interior of her skull, already clasping her belt around her waist and pulling on her boots.

"How bad is it?" she asked briskly.

"He's been shot in the head," Hanner said, all traces of arrogance gone from his face.