"Heya Hooey." Hooey gave a quick hand wave of recognition without looking up from its panel on the bridge. Somehow this had become its territory now, and it single-handedly ran what normally had a crew compliment of about twelve.
Aara strode forward to her point of interest, "Captain's quarters." A small lift beneath her, really only a small circular platform, drifted downwards and came to a stop in the room below.
Aara cringed as she looked around the room. To her left was the captain's office. Slumped over his desk was the body of the captain. She would have to get a mechanoid bot in here to move the body. To the right was a door to the rest of his quarters but she was more interested in the desk. Aara picked up a few of the data pads he'd obviously been mulling over.
"What are you doing?"
She turned to see the lift coming to a rest a second time. Perrin was stepping off before it hit ground and eyeing her suspiciously, "Is it not enough that you're taking his position? Come to take the clothes of his back too?" Aara was taken back having not expected such hostility.
"I'm not trying to steal the Captain's position. I would never even think�"
"You seem to be fitting into his position well, moving about giving orders." His look was defiant.
"Orders? I haven't ordered anyone to do anything," Aara disagreed.
"I supposed that's why we're getting ready to initiate hyperdrive, at your command." Aara was speechless.
"Look," she explained, "we're initiating the hyperdrive to move the station as quickly as possible before anyone comes to get us. You agreed yourself, that our own government would probably want to wipe away any traces of the Arboreal's existance, not to mention the new race."
"I said probably," Perrin growled, "probably. I didn't say we should take the station and hide somewhere out of human space."
"Don't you think these are things you could have voiced earlier, perchance when we were discussing it?" She was angry at him herself. Why hadn't he said anything if he was so against their cause.
"You're an immigration officer," he accused, changing his tactic. So someone had been doing their homework.
"So?"
He crossed his arms, "So you don't have the foggiest idea about running a space station."
"That's why I have you."
"This is a secret government instillation and you want to turn it into some obsessed army base. We don't even have enough crew to fill the bridge."
"That's what makes it interesting."
Perrin shook his head, "We should have contacted the government."He turned back to the lift, shaking his head.
"Are you with them, or are you with us?" Aara asked, stopping him in his tracks.
"What?" he sounded surprised.
"It's a simple question."
He paused before responding, "I guess I'm taking long service leave. No, temporarily distracted."
He was hiding something, she could tell. She'd caught him off-guard, "You're hiding something. Are you still in contact with them?"
"No, no." Geykeng were awful liars.
"Bullshit. I want the communicator� now."
Finally he turned back to look at her, "No. I still don't know your intentions exactly. I reserve the right to contact them should I find your priorities aren't in the right order."
Aara's body tensed, "That's not fair and you know it."
"Don't worry, I'll give you a two week trial before I even look at it. Captain," he told her sarcastically. Aara groaned as the lift rose up and turned back to the slumped over form of the previous captain.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." She wondered what had happened to the quirkily cheerful Perrin she had met at the station Fortasimo during the press conference. What exactly were his own intentions on the Arboreal?
She watched the dead captain for a moment more before guiltily reaching forward to his wrist and sliding away the communicator. She redirected the one she'd taken from bridge crew earlier to the captain's and replaced it on her wrist. The alien device was still attached to the other wrist. She'd have to get it looked at sometime.
Aara caught the lift back to the bridge. Hooey looked up as she entered.
"Get clean up crew in there sometime," she told it grimacing at the idea. Hooey didn't seem perturbed.
"Right Captain. There's a prob.."
"What did you just call me," she interruped.
"Captain?" Hooey asked quizzically. Oh man, it had timing.
"I'm not the Captain."
"Then why are you wearing the WC?" Hooey pointed out. Aara rubbed it in embarassment.
"What's the problem," she changed the subject.
"Mak has finished up the repairs to the hyperdrive. All we have to do is wait for the Trez to get back from the fuel room and we can go."
"So what's the problem with that."
"The Trez should have been finished in the fuel room over an hour ago," Hooey explained, "Sensors show their life signs haven't been moving for nearly two hours. They're alive but.."
Aara shifted in surprise, "Well get someone down there."
Hooey cleared its throat uncertainly, "With all due respect, you don't know much about station's fuel do you."
"No," Aara admitted, "What is it?"
It put on it's best patient face, "This station runs on gaseous keylon5, otherwise known as Geykeng silver."
"I'm assuming that's bad in some way," Aara mused, "Wait a minute, that would be poisonous right?"
"Well, sort of. Breathe it in, it cools and hardens in your throat, generally bad. The only way we can send someone down is in an enviro suit and even those will start to degrade after about fifteen minutes. Scrape a hole into it and you're done for."
Aara sighed, "There's nothing else we can do."
"I'm sorry." Hooey's face wasn't even visibly disturbed. It gave it's own grimace half-heartedly.
"We'll wait a little longer," Aara decided and turned to leave. Hooey stopped her.
"That would be all fine and good, but long range scanners show ships have entered the area. They're still a few hours off, and we won't get identification for another hour, but who knows."
Damn. Was the world purposely against her? She bit her lip. Aara couldn't believe what she was going to say.
"I'll go."
"I can't let you do that," Hooey disagreed after a moment of silence.
Aara blinked in shock, "What. Why not?"
"It's a rule. Captain's don't go on suicide missions, or near suicide missions, or dangerous missions if they can help it."
"I'm not the captain," she argued.
"Look do we have to go through this again?" Hooey asked impatiently, "Who's going to pull these people together without you. I don't think there's one person here without a brain of their own."
"Don't be ridiculous. You're all intelligent people and.."
"And you don't know your way around the ship, and you haven't the foggiest idea about first aid for green glop." She hated that he was right. If something was wrong, she wouldn't know to do. Not to mention it would be more time efficient to send someone who could quickly move to the right place.
"We can't send the doctor, we need him," she mused.
"Right," Hooey agreed, "that's why you've got to send Nurse Lateali." It said it calmly as though it were the most natural thing to say.
"No," Aara shook her head, disturbed, "No I won't send someone else down there."
"Even if you aren't the captain, you are leading us. These duties come with leadership," Hooey pointed out.
Aara chewed it over, "Let me tell her, and I won't let her go until I've had opinions from everyone. I want a third option Hooey." Hooey went back to his business, whatever it was. Aara wondered how a simple carrier flier knew so much about bridge operations.
She left the bridge with a horrible feeling in her gut. She had to find another way.
The corridors downstairs were mostly empty of bodies now. The mechanoid clean up crew had been working over time. When they were finished, Aara would call a ceremony to remember the passing and eject their ashes into space.
The doors to sickbay opened. The doctor and nurse Lateali were fixing up what they could and getting things in order. They turned on her arrival.
"Suit up Soo, you're going on a journey to the fuel room," Aara told Lateali and bit her lip. It had come out all wrong.
"Pardon?" Soo responded.
"What?" the doctor demanded.
"The two Trez haven't moved since they went down there. We need someone to give them a shove on so we can initiate the hyperdrive," she sighed, "you're not to go down until my word, but I need you to start suiting up now." Nurse Lateali nodded slowly.
"You can't do that," the doctor argued, "I need her. It's not, it's not humane."
"I know dammit. But unless you have a better idea�" Aara's sentence drifted off.
He shoved a piece of medical equipment down angrily, "Send the Kaat. He's more expendable. He's just an experiment after all." It was a horrible thing to say and he knew it.
"He doesn't know anything about Trez biology," Aara told him gently, ignoring the previous comment.
"So I give him a free crash course before he goes down," Philip argued.
"Do we have an enviro suit to fit him?"
"No, it's alright Phil," the nurse interrupted the argument, "I'll go."
"I'm working on alternatives�." Aara told the doctor, "I don't like this anymore than you do."
"Aara," her WC piped up, it was Ingrid's voice. Aara lifted the communicator.
"What's up?" she asked.
"I've got bad news," Ingrid welcomed.
"Oh goody, my favourite type, and all at once. Christmas must be coming," Aara replied sarcastically.
"Corbin and I are in livestock bay," Ingrid explained, "We've got a hundred and thirty dead cattle and three hundred dead chooks over here."
Aara was puzzled, "I thought they were supposed to work on a separate system to the main environment."
"They are. There must have been a leak. What should we do?" She pondered the matter for a moment.
"What state are the Arboreal freezers in?"
"Should be enough room," Ingrid agreed, "You wanna send some help to cart this. Even with mechanoids carrying it, we still gotta lift." Aara had to agree. One hundred dead cows was a big haul for most.
"Right, I'll see who's free. Be there ASAP."
"Righto." The communicator beeped out. Aara was already moving away through the doors of sickbay, leaving the doctor and nurse behind.
"Pok?" she beeped him on the WC.
"Mmmmm?" he replied distracted. He was in the science labs somewhere, looking at specimens, but that was the extent of her knowledge on what he was doing.
"Drop whatever you're doing and get to livestock."
"Huh. But I�"
"No buts. We got one hundred dead cattle to lift and you're gonna help lift the three hundred dead chicken." Her voice was noticeably an argument. Perrin was right, she had drifted into the position well.
"I'm a vegetarian," Pok complained, "a busy vegetarian."
"Drop it." He swore in his native language then the line dropped. Aara decided to let the language go, she was prone to words with similar meanings herself.
"Hooey, where's Perrin?" she asked. Perrin probably wouldn't be impressed with the job either but if they didn't get those animals to the freezers soon they'd pong like hell and end up wasted.
"On the alien ship," Hooey replied neutrally.
"What's he doing there?!" Aara exclaimed.
"Investigating, I think." She could virtually hear it shrug. "Alright, thanx." Aara changed course towards the docking bay. Perrin should have been doing something constructive, not indulging himself.

Aara peered through the doorway into the alien craft. Strangely enough, it was empty. She moved in frowning.
"Darn it Perrin," she said to herself.
There was a thump and more swearing. Perrin swiveled out from under a panel on a small sliding platform. He'd been under the front panel fiddling with the connections. A large smudge of greasy substance was wiped over his left brow.
"That's not Geykeng," Aara said with a raised eyebrow.
"When I work on a Geykeng station, I'll swear in Geykeng," he responded, wiping his hands.
"What are you doing in here anyway?" Aara questioned, putting her hands on her hips.
"Trying to figure out how this bloody things works," he replied. A crackle of blue electricity spat between his fingers and he shook them furiously before picking up the panel again and replacing it.
"What was that?" Aara said, indicating the blue crackle of electricity.
"What? Oh, I had a little mishap opening the panel. Is there something you wanted?" he replied.
"If you'd told me, I would have had Lambut show you and actually yes. We've got one hundred livestock to move to the Arboreal's freezers and thought you might like to help us." She kept up a fake smile.
"Not really," Perrin replied in disinterest, "I think I might hang around here a little longer." Aara gritted her teeth. Both of them knew she hadn't really been asking him but Perrin obviously felt like being difficult.
"Alright, well perhaps you can help me with a problem regarding the fuel room."
"Mmm, oh I wouldn't go there." He pressed a few buttons on the panel experimentally.
"That's it. That's all your going to offer?" Aara asked irritatedly.
"I'm busy," he replied just as irritated.
"You know a monkey can do that job." She stalked away. Come to think of it, where was Lambut?
Aara was still fuming when she realised she had no idea where the livestock were located on the Arboreal. Aara rolled her eyes, her thoughts moving back to Perrin. She really had been fooled by his cheerful attitude at Fortasimo. At least she didn't abandon the station she got stuck with.
Realisation swept over her and she changed her heading back to the bridge.
"Hooey," Aara called on her WC.
"Yeah?" it responded.
"Is Arboreal online?" The thought had struck her suddenly. In an odd way, Perrin had helped her after all.
"You're asking me if a secret government instillation is open for a billion hackers to stumble across." It was the closest she'd come to hearing amazement in Hooey's voice.
"Well ok. Does she had the capability to go online?" Aara pressed.
"Feel like blasting our presence to the government and anyone else out there listening? How bout we just plaster a big sign across our side saying, 'Oooh ooh, shoot me!'"
"Is that sarcasm I hear? Hooey I'm proud of you. Actually no. I thought the nurse and I could take a virtual tour of the fuel room," Aara explained to the communicator.
"Oh I'm on to you," Hooey responded sounding impressed, "We can go online, yes. You'd never know it for all our troubles but we're supposed to be high tech here. However I don't know that it's been tested before so this will be our trial run. I'll have to send a spider round the hull of the fuel room to get it included but I think it can be done."
"Right. Where do I suit up?" Aara asked. Not tested? Perrin must have gone online off-station to get to the Fortasimo.
"Sci lab four. Sending directions to your WC."
"Ok, get the nurse to meet me there." Despite it all Aara couldn't help but grin.
"Will do." Hooey broke the connection.
"I'll go too." Aara looked up to see Corbin and Ingrid.
"We've finished," Corbin explained.
"What already?" Aara looked astonished.
"And you think you're puny human cattle is big," Corbin shook his head in exaggeration, "they barely weighed�"
"A feather," Aara and Ingrid finished.

Soo, Aara and Corbin were suiting up in net-suits in sci lab four. Aara found it interesting that they were lighter and more comfortable than an enviro suit. Instead of an extra metal body, it was more like wearing brown leather and goggles.
Corbin had to frustratedly dig through the rack of suits before finally finding one that, while it was a tight squeeze, he just fitted into.
Aara slid arm band around until it sat in place then beeped Hooey, "How are we going?"
"Ready when you are," it told her. She looked around until she got nods from both Corbin and Nurse Lateali. They pulled the goggles down over their eyes.
"We're ready." There was a soft rumble and vibration through the station as it started up, then a floating feeling struck Aara's stomach. Before she could reach out to the lab bench nearby to steady herself, however, she found herself in a large dark room of gray smoke. Aara coughed a little and brushed the filth away. She wasn't really here, she didn't really need to cough. She realised Soo was watching her and gave a smile to indicate she was fine.
Now that they were online, the net suits they'd been wearing were no longer visible. It was as if they'd just decided to take a stroll through the fuel room.
Corbin cringed, "What IS that noise?" Aara and Soo looked at each other in puzzlement.
"What noise?" Soo asked calmly, inspecting Corbin with her eyes as though searching for visible signs that something was wrong with his head.
"That, high pitched screeching." Corbin's ears flickered aggravatedly.
"Why don't we follow it and find out," Aara suggested and Corbin nodded, pushing forward through the smoke. The room was full of large round silver bulges; reaction chambers, that had to be avoided due to their intense heat. Though technically the heat shouldn't disturb them, the group didn't know how they would affect their online status so they avoided them anyway. The fuel room hadn't been left out of the "online" status before by accident.
"Watchit," Soo warned Aara who gave her a perplexed look, wondering what she was talking about. Soo pointed downwards.
"The source of our noise?" she questioned Corbin, who bobbed down towards the giant green splat across the deck.
He rubbed his forehead in pain, "That's it." He stood up again and moved back a bit, visibly pained. Aara bobbed down instead, "I think it's our Trez," she murmured. Half of the green blob separated away and launched itself at Aara's face. She stumbled backwards, fumbling with the attack. Green blob filled her view but she could hear shouting of Soo and Corbin's heavy stumbling step.
The green blob spread itself around her neck so that, had Aara actually been there she would have been suffocating. There was a whack and a thump followed by a grunt.
Aara faught against the blob, reaching her arms around and pulling at it. She still couldn't see where she was and the force of the Trez was sending her stumbling about the room. Not a good idea with the reaction chambers around.
She felt herself being pushed down to the ground on her back. Bringing her legs up to join the force of her arms she gave and almighty push. There was a horrible sucking sound and then the Trez pulled away from her face and catapulted over her head. There was another splat.
Corbin was a little way off pulling himself up from a sitting position and rubbing his head. Soo was staring wide-eyed past Aara. Aara turned to see the Trez that had attacked her sliding down the side of a reaction chamber. It fizzled and crackled, turning an awful brown colour.
"And then there were nine," Soo murmured. The second Trez quivered at her feet but made no move.
"What the hell was that about?" Corbin growled. His face wasn't so pained, so Aara assumed the high pitch noise had subsided.
"I have no idea," Soo replied, "and their voice box's would evaporate in here so they are left outside. We won't know until we get back into the station, assuming this one cooperates." She glared at the quavering blob.
"Look at this," Corbin pointed at the side of another reaction chamber. A small glittering patch had formed on its side and the three of them blinked at it.
"Is that normal?" Aara asked as she and Soo crowded around the spectacle.
"Definitely not," Corbin replied, reaching out a hand to touch it.
"Woah," Soo held his hand back, "curiosity killed the Kaat. Apart from the reaction chambers, we don't know what that stuff is." He pulled his hands back.
"Let's get out of here," Aara suggested. Corbin and Nurse Lateali nodded enthusiastically.
Soo turned to the second Trez, "We're leaving now but we can come back if we have to. Immediately after you've finished up here, come and see me in sickbay." Aara wasn't sure whether the Trez's shudder was in agreement or disagreement.
"What about this?" Corbin asked, waving a hand at the sparkly find.
"If the doctor, or Mak, or the computer doesn't know what it is from my description we'll see what we can do about getting a sample," Soo replied. They both looked to Aara. She reached a hand down to her wrist and pressed hard. A moment later they were back in the sci lab, dragging the goggles from their heads and taking of the net suits.
Before Aara could do anything a whining voice spliced out from her WC.
"Had you actually paid any attention to my suggestions, we wouldn't be in this current mess," Pok complained.
"What mess?" Aara's forehead crinkled.
"I think," Ingrid's voice responded, "he's referring to the revived specimen." She must have been in the room with Pok.
"Specimen? Specify." Aara pulled off the rest of her suit and cringed.
"If you hadn't dragged me from what I was doing to carry cow carcasses, the Geykeng quail I was investigating would not have been able to escape into the Arboreal's systems when it resuscitated itself. Now, of course, we're stuck with a self-replicating pest crawling through the station's circuits."
"Huh?" Aara rolled her eyes and hung up her net suit on a nearby rack. Nurse Lateali raised her eyebrows and took her leave, doubtlessly on her way back to sickbay to await the return of the Trez.
"What he means," Ingrid explained across the WC, "is that in a very short time we're going to have very many quails infesting the station."
Aara sighed, "It's going to have to wait Pok, the station is getting ready to go into hyperdrive. We'll deal with it when the jumps are finished."
"But�" She cut him off, closing the channel. Corbin gave her an amused look.
"Is that your official position Captain?" he asked with a chuckle.
"I'm not the Captain," he murmured back instinctively.
"Then why are you wearing his WC?" Corbin replied.
"Hooey?" Aara ignored him, contacting the Dbren, "is the Trez moving now?"
"Yes, it is. I won't ask what went on down there, yet. It's left the fuel room, we're ready for hyperdrive."
"Great." Aara's body relaxed.
"But, umm, there's something else you might want to know."
Aara stiffened again, agitated, "What?"
"Perrin took the alien ship. He's already left communication range," Hooey explained.
"What!?" Aara yelled into the WC, "Why would he do that!?"
"I tried to stop him but he was going to punch a hole in the station. Said he wanted to take it out on 'a spin'."
"Nobody breaks through the station wall to go for 'a spin'!" Aara shouted outraged.
"He didn't break through the station wall," Hooey pointed out and Aara groaned.
"How many fighters do we have left?" she asked, rubbing her temples.
"Fourteen," Hooey replied.
"I'm going after him," Aara decided.
Corbin looked up and shifted his position, "No, I'll go."
Aara looked at him skeptically, "You want me to trust you with one of our last few fighters to get him, without blowing him to pieces, and bring him back. That's a bit of an ask."
Corbin leaned forward, "There are ships out there right now, drawing closer to finding us, intercepting us. We've got to initiate hyperdrive right now. You can't do everything yourself."
Aara was silent for a moment. She bit her lip.
"Alright," she agreed, "but if you don't come back, I will hunt you down myself. Corbin grinned and moved towards the sci lab entrance.
"And don't shoot unless you really, really must," Aara called after him in a stressed tone. Who was she kidding? If Perrin actually made it back, he wouldn't be in one piece. If by some miracle Perrin made it back, and in one piece, she'd tear him apart herself.
"Hooey get ready to initiate hyperdrive when Corbin breaks off," Aara told him and the little blue lights came on indicating the drive was building up power.
"Everyone hold on to your seats," Hooey called across the WC's and it was the last thing Aara heard before the world around span into a spiral of colours.

Next Time:
� What happens to Corbin and Perrin?
� What is that stuff in the fuel room?
. And what the hell came over that Trez?

Fifteenth Race Homepage

Evinar