Author's note: Hello soon to be loyal (muahahahaha. . .) readers. This is my first online fic, and not all of it's mine! This is actually a collaboration between me and someone (who's not a fanfiction or author), who we will call MadMan, as that is the one internet alias he has given me that doesn't involve his name. We switched off writing different sections of this story, but I didn't separate the chapters so far on account of laziness. Have fun and please R/R! ^_^

Chapter One (written by MadMan):

Argele looked up and down the white, empty corridor. Seeing nor hearing anything but the constant hum of the ship, he quietly jogged down the long, bending corridor taking care to not let any of the many security cameras catch him. It wasn''t surprising that nobody was there. It was everyone''s time off from work, and everyone at this section of the ship were catching up on sleep.

"… new message coming up on my headset," a voice gradually came louder to Argele's ears.

"Well," a younger voice said. "What is it?"

The heavily reptilian accented voice answered back, "Someone attempted getting a look at the core of the ship." A gasp arose from his companion. "Yeah, we better try to find and capture him."

"Only if he''s on our patrol route!" the young voice laughed.

By now Argele could hear footsteps tapping clearly, and getting louder quickly. Without hesitation, Argele opened a black door to his right and dashed through. He let the door quietly close and then stopped and looked around.

"So many doors," he pondered, "Which to go through?". It was a circular, gray room with six doors leading in different directions. It was probably only big enough to fit seven humans in.

Bzzzt! Argele shot his head towards where the noise came from. A security camera attached right between the wall and ceiling had just caught sight of him, and was recording his presence.

"Crap!" Argele cursed under his breath. He quickly jump kicked off the wall toward towards the security camera. As he reached it, he ripped the camera right off the stand. Argele landed on the ground with a thud, and dropped the damaged camera on the ground.

"They''ll have to guess which door I go through now!" he laughed quietly to himself. Not stopping to think, he ran towards a door, which was yellow and on it was, the numbers and letters P9-08. The door closed smoothly shut behind him. Argele looked down. He was on a metal walkway only about five feet wide. Sixty feet in front of him was another door. Below him, about fifteen feet down was the floor. Three elves were looking at a huge group of screens appearing from security cameras. The room below him was quite small, and very bland except the huge pillars of power generators.

An idea clicked in Argele's mind, as he observed the white room. He jumped down, and rolled behind a pillar. Many years of training had finally paid off, as the security camera observers continued what they were doing.

"Hey!" one of the elves shouted, "security camera 43c just caught an image of a human."

"Maybe it's the one guy we've been told to look out for!" a second elf observed.

"That's the security camera that is in the room coming from that bridge up there," the third elf said, and they all looked up at the bridge, silently.

"Ha! He probably choose a door that'll get him caught!" one of them tried breaking the silence.

A false laughter almost broke the silence, but no one was in the mood for talking anymore.

Argele continued hiding behind the power generator until one of them caught an image of a guard scratching his butt, and laughter rang through the mall room. Using this time wisely, Argele snuck to the biggest power generator and pulled a lever.

Darkness immediately engulfed the room, as well as a large portion of the ship surrounding the security camera room. Before any of the elves could act, Argele sprinted towards them and took one of their stun guns.

"Where'd the electricity go?"

"My gun!"

"What the hell!"

Argele quickly silenced them all with three shots. Argele gave the gun back to the unconscious elf and not pausing, ran towards an exit.

Half an hour later, Argele finally arrived at his room. His three roommates were fast asleep. He breathed a sigh of relief and attempted to get to his bunk in the dark room. Once he got there, he didn't even bother to strip off his gloves, boots, or suit. He opened his mind to sleep and was quickly lost in a tumble of confusing dreams.

Chapter 2 (written by Nerdyboy42a)

Peregrin slowly rolled over, grumbling. The light in the room had been turned on, and had woken him up from the most beautiful dream. Which part of it had been beautiful is not currently suitable for print, however. Let''s just say it involved a member of the opposite sex.

"Ulch. Damn it! Autolocus, why the hell do you wake me up so early?"

"I need a friend. And besides, who else will be able to actually wake up Argele?" a reptilian accented voice responded.

"How come you can't wake him up?"

"No idea. I think he doesn't respond to my voice as well."

Peregrin finally opened his eyes. His roommate was standing over him, emerald green scales glistening in the light. Autolocus was wearing only a brown loincloth, his tail sticking out from underneath the back flap. Peregrin rolled to his hooves and stretched out his human half. His horse half's brown hair reflected the bunkroom's light beautifully. His brown tail flicked up and around, almost waking itself up.

"Come on, centaur-boy. Get Argele up or it'll be all our asses for being late to work!"

"Have you ever thought about leaving without him?"

"No, and I don''t intend to start now!"

"Ugh. He went to sleep in his clothes again. Do you think he went on another data jacking escapade again?"

"But of course. He always does this."

"Fine," Peregrin took in a deep breath as he walked over to Argele's bunk, which was about ten feet away from his big comfy pile of hay on the floor. His hooves clip-clopped on the metal deck plating. After he reached the bed, he moved so that his horse posterior was about 3-4 feet away from Argele's bed. "You understand I take no responsibility for any property damage caused this action.

"Of course. It's all my fault."

And with that, Peregrin gave the hardest "donkey kick" he could, sending Argele's bunk (the top of the two, by the way) rocking. It hit the wall a few inches away, then rocked back and forth. During this, Argele woke up with a start, sat up, hitting his head on the ceiling, and fell out of the bed to the floor below, with an "Umph!" at the bottom as he hit the floor.

"Why the censored do you have to do that?!" Argele grumbled/screamed at them.

"Because you won't get up when Autolocus does it nicely. We should probably get ready for work now."

"What?" Argele moaned, half-dazed under a pile of sheets that had fallen on him.

"Get dressed, you fool!"

"Oh fine. You''re lucky you''re a centaur. You don't have to dress!"

"Well, I don''t have to wear pants, if that''s what you mean. I still have to wear the dumb-ass uniform's shirt."

"Well, yeah. And it makes you look like an idiot."

"Shut up."

They each walked off to their separate (but rather large) bits of the room for a moment. Peregrin donned the forest green (for the technological science crew) button-up uniform jacket, complete with brown shoulder pads. He shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably. Centaurs hated clothes that went beyond pendants and such, or simple bras for females. He also tied back his shoulder length dark brown hair.

Autolocus pulled on the same style of uniform, except it was light blue (for the security crew) and had straight legged pants w/ a hole in the back for his tail. He didn't bother to put the supposedly "needed" cloth bindings on his feet and ankles. They were stupid and served no purpose, not even preventing blisters (which didn''t happen to Argovi's, anyway). Argele pulled on much the same uniform, except there was no hole in the back of the pants and he also wore black boots and white socks.

"Come on, let's go. We need to have time to get coffee before we have to start working," Peregrin said.

"Ok," Argele and Autolocus responded at once. With this they filed out the door, Peregrin in the rear, into the white metal plated hall.

Chapter 3 (written by MadMan):

"Forty five! Forty six! Forty seven! Argele!" Argele continued looking straight. "If you''re sleeping while I''m training you, you are going to kicked off!"

"Yes, sir!" Argele responded respectively. "But I didn''t get much……" he was interrupted by his drill coach.

"I don''t give a damn about your lame excuses," he yelled, now standing right in front of Argele. "If you''re not putting 100% into your training, you shouldn''t be in the space fleet!"

"Yes, sir! I''m sorry sir!" Argele pretended to agree with his drill coach, "I won't do it again, sir!"

"Damn right, boy! Now, where was I? Oh well! We'll start the pushups over! One! Two! Three!" the drill coach walked around, counting along with our pushups. Every now and then, he would pick on someone, for some reason, whether it was that they were going to slow, or not trying hard enough. He would always threaten that he would kick them off the space fleet, and that would always make the person work twice as hard. It was considered a huge disgrace to get banished from it. It was hard to get on the fleet, but surprisingly few got kicked off.

During Argele's training he kept thinking about last night, and how he was so close to figuring out about what''s in the very center of the ship. Some say that there are scientists there, working on an army or bomb that could destroy an entire galaxy. Whatever it was, Argele couldn't help but wonder, and when Argele wanted to know something, he didn't care if what he did was illegal or not, as long as he got the information. Last night, he injected nanoprobes into his bloodstream that switched his gravity temporarily, and he was walking across the ceiling. Unfortunately, it had worn off early, and he fell and tripped an alarm. He had barely escaped them, and if he hadn't been in physical training, he never would have been able to escape.

That night, Argele, Autolocus, and Peregrin met back at their room.

"What do you wanna do tonight?" Argele asked jokingly.

"What do you want to do tonight?" Autolocus responded, laughing.

"I dunno. What do you wanna do tonight?" Argele asked back, stupidly.

"I dunno. What do…" Peregrin cut Autolocus short.

"Would you two just shut up? Every free night we always end up going to a nightclub, so why don't we just stop arguing and get going?" Peregrin shouted, getting annoyed at his friends' antics.

Argele laughed, but Autolocus looked hurt. "All right, let's go now then." Argele looked at Autolocus, annoyed at his feelings getting hurt so easily, "Aww, tough it up Autolocus," Autolocus looked even more hurt. "Okay, I'm sorry." Argele checked to see if Autolocus had approved his apology.

"I forgive you,"" Autolocus' face brightened.

Peregrin snickered, "Wow! You don't hear an apology from Argele everyday, do you?". Autolocus cracked a smile, but Argele glared at Peregrin.

"Let's go, already," Argele got up and already headed towards the door, picking up his black coat along the way.

Chapter 5 (written by Nerdyboy42a)

"And here we are!" Argele exclaimed as they walked into the nightclub. Everyone was temporarily blinded by the strobe lights, as well as various colored spotlights. The club had a big main stage in the front, where a few floor to ceiling speakers were set up and blaring out a popular new techno song. Tables were scattered around the floor, and stopped abruptly before a huge dance floor next to the stage. The main bar was lit up by green neon lights around the edge of it. Aside from the stage and bar lights, the club was fairly dim.

Peregrin ducked as he went through the door. At 7 feet tall, he didn't fit through a lot of doors well. Autolocus came in right behind him. "So, what do we plan to do? Get drunk, have our girlfriends come?" Argele asked.

"Sorry, Autolocus, forgot that was a sensitive topic with you," he continued, "So, what will it be, guys?"

"I'll call our girlfriends. I know you'll get drunk and I think it's better to have a hangover with someone that'll be kind to you, and not throw you against a wall like me or Autolocus."

"Good point. So, I'll get the first round of drinks. Autolocus, what are you going to do?"

"I think I'll wander around, you know, look to see if I can find that future special someone."

"Ok, we'll see you in a bit," Peregrin said before turning to head to the back of the club, near the entrance, to use the vid-phone.

Argele walked over to the bar. The bartender looked up from the screen he was watching ("Ugh! Rob Schneider!" Argle thought). Argele ordered as the bartender took off his headphones.

"I'll take three beers."

"Any preferences, sir?"

"Uh, make it the average stuff. Merely good."

"Ok. Sir, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, shoot."

"Is the reason you're ordering the cheap stuff because your friends aren't around to see you do it?"

"Read my mind."

Meanwhile, Peregrin was calling up Aoweyn, his girlfriend. He punched in a few numbers into the keyboard in front of him and waited as it called her mobile. She then picked up, and her lovely face filled the screen. Her shoulder length blond hair covered her face for a second and then she brushed it back, revealing beautifully tanned skin.

"Hey, Peregrin! Call to ask me out?"

"Maybe. Depends on if you require good food for it to be a decent date."

"Is the food on this ship EVER good?" she shot back.

"Guess not. Listen, me and the guys are down at Radioactive, the nightclub. I was wondering if you wanted to come join us."

"Sure! Alcohol, a bunch of guys, one of which is my boyfriend, what could go wrong?" she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she did so.

"So you'll come?"

"Of course."

"Hey, before you go, do you know if where I can reach Kaylee?"

"Argele's girl? Of course. I called her a few minutes ago. She's at work, wrapping up a few things."

"Wrapping up a few things? It's 10:00 at night!"

"Well, she's a hard worker. Not sure what she's working on. . ."

"Hmm. I'll see you in a bit," Peregrin said, as part of her white equine half flashed on the screen, blond tail flicking around behind.

"Ok. See you, stud!" she said as she hung up.

"She knows I get all uncomfortable when she says that. . ." Peregrin thought.

Chapter 6 (written by Madman):

"Hey! Argele!" Peregrin shouted loudly, trying to make himself heard over the music. Argele fought through the crowd of dancers, and made his way towards the table Peregrin was sitting at, and eagerly waiting for the beer.

"So, are they coming?" Argele asked, putting down the beer glasses and sitting down.

"Yea…well, Aoewyn is coming, but you'll have to call Kaylee," Peregrin said managing to drink and speak at the same time, making a funny looking sight.

Argele cracked a smile and took out his phone. Riiiinng! Riiiing! Riiing!

"Hello?" a blond haired woman popped up on screen and then smiled, seeing Argele.

"Hey," Argele smiled. "Putting finishing touches on your nanoprobes?"

"Yes," Kaylee brushed her hair back, "I see you're at a bar. Well, I guess I'll have to come over, I did enough for right now. I owe myself some fun,"

"Great! I'll see you here!"

"Bye," Kaylee threw a kiss.

"Bye," Argele whispered, and they both hung up.

Argele closed the phone and put in his jacket. He started to sip his beer, when he noticed his beer was the only one left. Nobody was in the five wooden chairs next to him. Oh well, Autolycus won't even know that Peregrin had his beer, Argele thought. He stood up, and looked around the bar. Sure enough, Peregrin was there, trying to get beers, so Autolocus wouldn't realize he had been robbed a drink. Argele sat back down and relaxed, listening to the music, which was now ending a new punk rock song. Autolocus would come back offended by this song, but hey, Argele thought, if nothing happened that offended Autolocus, this world would be totally different.

Argele started to drift off in his own thoughts, when a constant Argele! Idiot! slowly awoke him.

"Argele," Peregrin was saying, "Idiot!"

"Huh?" Argele looked around, Autolocus was snickering and Peregrin had ordered enough beers to keep a man happy for a week. "What the hell is this?" Argele laughed, "you gonna get stoned out of your mind?"

"Yea, right," Peregrin snorted, "me, get stoned out of my mind?" "That has never happened and never will. I've told you again and again centaurs don't get drunk anwhere nearas easily, we have a bigger mass," Argele glanced at Autolocus, eyebrows raised, smiling, "and," Peregrin continued, "we don't get addicted as easy. Not like you humans, who can't stop smoking, or sniffing or whatever the hell you do these days,"

"Hey, here come your girlfriends," Autolocus moaned, and became a dark blue color.

"Dude! You can still hang out with us," Peregrin reassured Autolocus.

"Just don't goddamn annoy us!" Argele looked serious, and then broke out into laughs.

"Hey! Don't be an assho-" Peregrin started, but then realized his girlfriend would hear, and stopped, but briefly glared at Argele.

Chapter 5.5 (written by Nerdyboy42a. There wouldn't even be a break here except to denote an author change):

"Hi guys!" Aoweyn exclaimed as she came to the table, moving a chair to another table and folding her legs under her to sit flank to flank with Peregrin.

"Hey you guys," Kaylee said, sliding smoothly into a chair beside Argele. "Hey, what's wrong with Autolocus? His betraying his emotions to us again, and it doesn't look very happy."

"He went fishing in the sea again and none of the fish are biting," Peregrin explained, albeit a little cyptically.

"Oh, poor guy," Aoweyn said to Autolocus, who was now blushing a deep red, which, because of his species, covered his whole head and rill, which was sagging.

"Ok, let's stop talking about this, we're embarrassing him," Kaylee said.

"Ok. Hey, do any of you guys want to go dance? I'm all ready for it!" Aoweyn exclaimed joyfully.

"Yeah, sure," Peregrin said and got gracefully to his hooves, his bare chest showing of his muscles as he did so. He had the muscles of a gymnast, toned, powerful and not bulky.

"I think I'll just stay here," Autolocus mumbled.

"Suit yourself!" Argele said, as he and the rest of the group headed toward the dance floor in front of the stage.

Autolocus sighed and scanned the room for any girl he might be interested in. He hoped he would get a genuine nice girl too, not just some sleazy bar chick. Not many of the former came to nightclubs without dates, however, so he figured his chances were one in a hundred that he'd find someone he was truly compatible with. He sighed and looked across the room, staring at the crowd as he sipped the beer.

"Mind if I sit here?" a beautiful (for a sound, at least) voice asked from behind him.

Autolocus turned around and beheld the most beautiful Argovi female he had ever seen in his life. Her emerald scales glistened beneath a brilliantly sparkling blue dress. "S-s-s-ure," Actolocus stammered akwardly. I hope she's not a prostitute. Wait! Isn't this that girl from Peregrin's department? What was her name. . .

"Hi! My name's Gwendolyn! I haven't seen you around before. Wanna talk?"

"Y-y-y-eah. S-s-s-ure. Want a beer?" Autolocus asked, gesturing at the pile of unopened beers that Peregrin had left at the table. It shouldn't be a problem if a few are missing. He can never drink them all anyway. Autolocus remembered the fridge in their quarters, used mainly for all of the extra beer. It would empty slowly until another trip to the nightclub. He had given up storing much else in there long ago.

"Thanks. You're kinda cute. What do you want to talk about? Do you know anything about the history of Earth?"

"The planet all of the humans come from?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"I know a good amount. What did you think of the Romans?"

"Great water pump systems. They also. . ."

* * *

"Hey, Kaylee, wanna go back and rest at the table for a while?" Argele said.

"Uh. . ." Kaylee paused, looking back at the table. She saw a beautiful female Argovi slide into the seat beside Autolocus. He was blushing a crimson red in a manner of seconds. Wow! He's getting a chance at love, or at least a new friend. We better give him some time."You know, I think I'm up for a few more songs," she said, whipping her hair around playfully.

"Ok. Whatever you want." Argele said, as the next song, an oldie by Blink-182, started. They began to dance.