Once Denise was protected by the mind shield, she quickly got the door open. The could see there were stairs leading down into the darkness. Thinking ahead, everyone brought a light of some kind with them and so down they headed into darkness. The stairs went on and on. Pogo said,

"Are we going to come out on the other side of the planet?" Denise, with her search light, just pointed to a door up ahead. They moved to the door and saw it was open just a crack. Connor moved up and gave the door a little push. It moved inwards, but swung back. Connor then gave it a slightly harder push. This time he could feel something leaning against the door. He turned to the others and said,

"There is something leaning up against the door. What do you think?" Pogo just shrugged and Denise said,

"If it were a trap, you would have set it off by now, so push away." Pogo moved up a couple of steps. Connor leaned up against the door and gave it a slow and steady push. At first it only moved as far as the first time, but then gradually it started to move in. When the door was open enough for a thin person to slip through Denise did. She signaled for Connor to stop as she looked around. The first thing she saw was what was holding the door closed. It was a body. It looked to be that of a small human, maybe five years old. It was dressed in some sort of battle armor and had a weapon beside it on the floor. Using her light she quickly searched the body. Stopping at once when she sees the object in its right hand. It is a small metal sphere about the size of a hardball. There is a large red button on top and a couple of holes with glass in them on each compass point. Denise quickly said,

"Don't open the door!" Connor must have misunderstood and gave the door a big push to open it all the way. Denise's life went instantly into slow motion. She watched as the little body got pushed forward and almost did a somersault. As it pitched forward the hand with the round object in it fell forward and out it rolled. She watched it roll, seeing each time it turned if it hit the big red button. First roll; no, it missed. The second also missed, as did the third; but the fourth was not so lucky. It caught the big red button and pushed it all the way in. Denise took in a large breath and held it for what seemed an eternity. Then a blinding white flash. When she finally got her sight back and was over the shock of still being alive, she noticed it. There, in front of her, was a hologram. It was of two humans. The first was female and just a littler shorter then the one up against the door. The other was obviously a child. They said something in a language that Denise did not understand or had ever heard for that matter. As she recovered from being alive, she realized this was some sort of photo album.

Connor and Pogo were standing in the door way looking past her with very strange looks on their faces. She turned around to see what they were looking at and was equally amazed. There, in front of her, were row upon row of what must be some sort of tank. The thing was they were so small. They had obviously been made for the smaller rae. Denise almost started to laugh, then thought how they had been wiped out at the hands of the Mind Ravagers and she got angry. She said,

"Spread out and see if we can find anything we can use." They moved out quickly and she looked back at the holographic image. They were small hairless humanoids. Their skin was more gray and transparent, but what caught Denises' attention was the child. It had the biggest, bluest eyes she had ever seen. They held the innocence that all children's eyes held and she could not help but think of her own daughter back on earth. In a whisper she said,

"I will get him for you." She then turned back to the room and said,

"Have we found anything yet?" Connor replied,

"I have an armory of small weapons, but nothing we can use." Pogo spoke

"I have two more doors but I can not get into them." Denise and Connor both converged on his voice and eventually were standing in front of a set of double doors. Denise looked at them and said,

"This just allows the tanks access to the surface. Let's check out the other door." They walked further down and came to a door with twelve symbols on it. Denise smiled because this is the type of door they were searching for. Vergus had given them a high security pass code that should get them past the doors. Pogo entered the code and the door silently opened. They were momentarily blinded when the door opened. When her eyes adjusted, Denise entered the room. It was obviously a control room for planetary defenses. In the middle of the room was a three dimensional image of the planet. As she moved closer she could see there were twelve satellites revolving around the planet. Denise turned to pogo and said,

"Will that information pad help us access this equipment?" Pogo looked at the pad for a moment before replying,

"It should. It has a remote link back to Vergus just in case we need more help."

"Good. Then I have an idea."

"Pogo smiled as he realized what Denise had in mind." He activated the pad and got in contact with Vegus. A mini hologram of his head appeared and Denise said,

"Vergus, we have to activate the planetary defenses. We are going to use the satellites to knock out Emperor Grackless. That way we do not have to destroy all the other wonders on this world. It will also get rid of most of the robots and cyborgs all at once."

"I do not have access to the planetary defense grid, so I cannot be of much help."

"Well, you can tell us where to start and translate the information on screen for us."

They got started and once they have all the equipment activated they run a diagnostics. This will take about fifteen minutes and they spend that time getting familiar with the controls. Connor helps Pogo as the controls are similar to what you might find on a ship and he was a weapons office before he was a pilot. When the diagnostics were finished, they find they only have three functioning satellites. They take control of them and practice moving and firing their weapons.

Yalp in the mean time was taking some readings of the reactor. He was amazed, the reactor was putting out enough energy that it could supply the needs of most planets. Yalp said,

"Vergus, do we have to hook you up or something?"

"No, I can draw the energy just as everything is set up. I can feel it already. There were aspects I had to shut down before that I now have reopened."

"Can you help the other group?"

"Yes, I believe I can, but only in supplying them with information."

Denise was maneuvering a satellite over the north pole so that Pogo and Connor could practice aiming and firing the different weapons the platform had. When all of a sudden every light on the control board light up for a second then went out again. She pulled her hands away and jumped back from the controls. The other two looked at her as if to say, What was that? She shrugged and moved back to look over the controls. She smiled and nodded for the others to look, the controls were now labeled in Galactic common. She moved up to the control panel and now knew exactly what to do. She could now control the satellite as if it were any remote control apparatus. She moved it around and gave Pogo a target to lock onto. She put the satellite through it's paces as if it were in a battle. Pogo said,

"I can not keep a lock on the target, your movements are to unpredictable for me and the computer." Denise looked at him, her look was one of great resignation and said,

"Ok, then I want you to read or hook up to or what ever it is that you do, with my mind. That way you will know what I am going to do and be able to react accordingly." Pogo looked at her and could see that she was very uncomfortable with the idea. Then he said,

"All right but it will take a few minutes to get it right."

"Well then lets get on with it," She realized she said that in a much to negative voice.

They then started to practice again. Denise would move the satellite in an evasive pattern. It took awhile with the three dimensions of movement, but after a number of dips, zips and flips Pogo started to get the hang of it. All of a sudden a yellow flashing light filled the room. At first no one knew what was going on then Connor said,

"Look at the map, we have incoming missiles. They all looked at the hologram and they could see a missile had defiantly entered orbit and was heading for the satellite. Then Pogo said,

"That is not our only problem," he pointed at another missile on the map, "We also have one heading for us." After watching it for a second it did look to be heading in their direction.

Denise jumped into action, she said,

"Connor, how long until that missile hit us?" He looked up at the holograph and said,

"About 5 minutes."She then turned to Pogo and said,

"How long until it takes out our satellite?"

"10 minutes give or take." Denise looked at the hologram of the planet and formed her plan. She said,

"Ok, move us closer to the base to protect it, but also keep us away from the other missile." Connor smiled as he saw what she had in mind, but Pogo still looked confused, so Connor said,

"We move around the planet in the same direction as the missile." Then the realization hit Pogo as well and a smile crossed his face.

They had the computer start a count down to when the missile would impact on the base. It started with only four minutes and thirty seconds. Denise moved the satellite to be over the base, when it was about halfway the computer said,

"Three minutes." Denise looked at all the information and turned to Pogo and said,

"You are only going to have about a minute and a half, so be ready. I will tell you when we are in range and you can start targeting."Pogo nodded and started working on his controls. Another warning light started to flash. This time it was on the hologram. Denise cursed,

"Great, we have another missile on an incoming course. Pogo we are now in range LOCK ON and fire." Pogo looked at her and said,

"Which one?"

"The one that is about to blow us into little pieces." He nodded and went to work. Denise said,

"Computer what is the time difference between the missile hitting the base and the one aimed at the satellite?" The computer was silent for a split second. Then said,

"The second missile aimed at the base will be here 10 seconds after the missile aimed at the satellite. Two minutes to impact."