Denise had been checking all the instruments to know what kind of damage the ship had taken. Excluding the damage from the accident in drive space the ship did not take much new damage. Yalp had been working on the engines for the past hour and he had found the problem, but did not know how to fix it or what had caused it. That was the biggest problem, but Denise was also concerned because the external sensors were off line. This meant she did not know what was around them and that bothered her. She was working frantically when the internal sensors sounded an alarm. She could not believe it, what else could go wrong, someone or something had just opened an outside hatch. Now it was entering the ship. She quickly drew her pistol and started to where the hatch had been opened. As she got closer she heard she one yelling in a galactic common dialect. It was very old but she understood enough of it to know who ever it was, was saying,

"Hello, is anyone there?" Denise was still not sure whether she should answer, so she moved to where she could see the intruders but not be seen. The lights were still out in that section so the only light was from the open hatch. This made the people at least that is what they looked like, because all she could ready see was a couple of solutes. She decided she had nothing to lose, so holding her gun so it could be seen she stepped out where she could be seen. Then she said,

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Are you all right, we came to help if we could." Denise could now tell that it was a human mans voice that she was talking to. As she moved closer she saw it was a man and a woman and they seemed unarmed. She said again,

"Who are you?" After what seemed like an eternity of silence the man said,

"My name is Graham, Dr. Graham Winegarden. I saw your ship and thought you might need some help."

"Well your right about that we are in pretty bad shape. Can you get in contact with the Sol Union Base here in the system? We could really use there help." Graham nodded,

"Yes as a matter a fact I have all ready called them for this young lady, they should be answering me any time. She was marooned here also just a day or so ago." Denise looked at the young woman closely for the first time. She looked like she should be one of the passengers, not exactly the time you would find running around in pirate infested space. Denise turned back to Graham and said,

"We need to get to the large floating ship near here, because of the damage we have taken we can not handle any ruff weather." Graham smiled and said,

"The ship is called the Search for Utopia and you are all ready tied up to her." Denise breathed a sigh of relief, that was one thing off her mind. She said,

"Thank any god, finally something has gone right."

She holstered her gun and said,

"Where are my manners, may I offer you the hospitality of The Empress of Sol. We are a luxury liner and have one of the best Chefs on Mars." Both Graham and Martine looked at her as if she were crazy, after all Mars was about 2000 light years away. Denise smiled at there looks and said,

"It is a very long story and one that should be shared over a meal." She then lead them to the Captains mess so they could talk in private. They ordered a meal and sat down for a glass of wine. After a sip of wine the young woman who had been silent to this point said,

"This is an excellent wine it is very reminiscent of an Ontario Riesling." Denise smiled and said,

"That is because that is what it is."

"No don't you mean an imitation of an Ontario Riesling."

"No it is a real Ontario Riesling, here read the label,"and Denise passed her the bottle. Martine looked at it and said,

"This must be worth a fortune?"

"No and you will see why when I tell you my story." She then told them everything that had happened to the Empress since it had left Earth. At first both Graham and Martine had a hard time believing what they heard, but eventually Denise convinced them of the truth of her story. It did though take another bottle of wine. Once Graham was convinced he had many questions, most of which Denise could not answer. He also used his gauntlet to contact Utopia and get it to send out a message to any Union of Sol ships in the area. After a couple of minutes a message came in from the Cruiser Birmingham. They said the Cruiser will be at Dione in about three or four hours. Utopia forwarded the information to Graham and he told both Denise and Martine. Denise then said,

"I should go and inform the crew and passengers about the good news. If it would not be inconvenient could you come with me?" They went to the dinning hall and called everyone in, then Denise told them all the latest information and that help was on the way. Graham told the group that he had not gotten through to the Union of Sol base but it would just be a matter of time. There was a great sigh of relief form the crew and passengers and Denise felt more relief then she had in a while.

Yalp came in just after Denise had finished informing everyone and he told her he had the sensors back on line. She told him to start them up and see if anything else was in the area. Now that help was on it's way she did not want any trouble. Yalp stopped into Auxiliary Control on his way back to Engineering, he told them that the sensors were back on line. Connor and Linda at once started scanning the area. The scan did not really turn up anything interesting at first. Then something very large came into sensor range. At first he could not tell what it was or even if it was an animal or a ship of some kind. As the object got closer the readings became more clear and he found out it was an animal of some kind. It was huge, about 19.5 meters long and about 5.25 meters wide at it's thickest point. It was moving at tremendous speed right at them. Connor had never seen anything like this and he wanted to see want it looked like.

Connor turned to Linda and said,

"You stay here I am going up on the deck to take a look at this creature."

"Are you nuts? It is huge and what if it is looking for a meal?"

"It is probably a herbivore, we have not scanned enough food for a carnivore of that size to survive."

"Well be careful."

"So you do care," said Connor with his best smile and Linda just blushed. He made his way up on to the deck and looked through a pair of field glasses. Scanning the horizon but all he could see was mist. At the same moment Denise was sitting in the Captains Mess with Graham and Martine. They had come back after their meeting in the dinning hall. Graham's Gauntlet beeped and then an image of a Fraal was projected. It said,

"Dr. we have a problem. The sensors sweeps have attracted attention, there is a Levian on it's way."

"Ok you know what to do, I will stay here and help these people," and the image faded. Denise said,

"What is a Levian?"

"It is a large Reptilian creature that is at the top of Dione's food chain. They have no legs and are about 20 meters long. They have been known to capsize a small floating platform. With all the damage to your ship it might be able to sink it, but I am making it sound much worse then it really is. If it does not see anything that it thinks is food it will move off and not bother us."

"So what do we do?"

"Well no one should go out on deck, and all the windows bellow the water line should be covered. Are you doing any scanning of the planet right now?"

"Yes."

"Well stop it at once, that is what attracts them." Denise did not hesitate she called down to Auxiliary Control and Linda answered. Denise said,

"Stop all scanning of the planet at once."

"Yes," there was a pause then Linda said,

"What is happening?"

"The scans are attracting a large native animal of the planet. If we do not stop the animal could get aggressive."

"Oh no Connor is out on the deck trying to get a look at it."

"Call him in," said Denise. They waited for what seemed forever then Linda said,

"He does not have his Comm Link on."

Denise got up and Graham followed her. They headed for the hatch closest to Auxiliary Control and got there to find Connor with the field glasses up to his eyes looking for the Levian. Denise said,

"Connor get down here, if that thing sees you and thinks you are food it will attack the ship." At that moment they could all hear something breaking the surface of the water. Graham said,

"Don't move or it will attack." Connor froze as a huge head raised up out of the water. It was about eight meters long and about 4 meters wide. It's mouth look like it could swallow him and two friends all in one mouth full. The mouth was full of about half meter long teeth that looked to be razor sharp. Connor could feel it's hot steamy breath flowing over his body as the large white eyes looked over the ship. In Connor's mind time seemed to have stopped and his imagination was playing out all sorts of scenario's in his mind. After about five minutes the creature lowered itself back down into the water and was gone.