Part 2: Ketzer       The shuttle landed in hanger 9 of the Resolute II . As the exit ramp touched the deck plates, the door to the passenger compartment opened. The shuttle's only two passenger's walked out into the hanger. Kaz noted that there was no one in the hanger. Which was most likely for the best, considering his companion was an alien. Shanita seemed to be very nervous the whole trip. Her eyes darted around the hanger as if probing for danger. Kaz leaned over to whisper in her ear, "No one is going to hurt you. Now calm down, your making me nervous!" "Sorry." said Shanita. Kaz lead her through the ship to his quarters. Along the way a number of people stopped and stared at Shanita. It made her noticeably uncomfortable. Upon arriving at Kaz's quarters, he opened the door and threw his belongings inside. After sealing it again he turned to talk to Shanita, "Next stop is the morgue. Are you sure you are ready for this?" "I appreciate your concern, Lt. Takagi, but I can handle it." said Shanita. * * *       The jungle was moist and hot. It was also absolutely teaming with life. For Sterling at least, that made it fascinating. He was kneeling near a tree at the jungle's edge when J.T. Marsh came up behind him. "Did you find something Sterling?" he said. "No, I was just noticing the diverse plant life. It is quite amazing that so many different organisms can live in such a relatively small space." noted Sterling. "I never really thought of it that way," said J.T. "I guess I just have too many bad memories about the place. We set out on foot tomorrow to find Ketzer. In the meantime, don't stray too far from the camp, people have been known to disappear." "Yes Sir." responded Sterling. J.T. turned around and went back to the tent they had set up. Their E-frames were parked all around it, like a western-style wagon train waiting for the Indian attack. Not far from Sterling, Remes, Erikson, and Worthington were talking as they sat around a camp fire. "I really hate this." said Remes. "But I thought you like green." teased Worthington. "I do. But there is such thing as too much of a good thing." replied Remes. "I'm not so sure that you could call this," Erikson raised his arm and motioned at the jungle around them, "a good thing." "Well you can have your green, too much of it as there may be. I, on the other hand, would prefer to see some good old Martian red." said Sue with self-satisfied smirk. "Normally I would contest that statement, but given our situation, I'm inclined to agree. This place gives me the creeps." said Mack. Sue nodded in agreement and Stan shrugged his shoulders. Erikson looked about the camp as Sue and Stan debated the point further. DeLeon, Torres and Marsh were gathered around the portable long range comm unit. Probably trying to get it to run in this dam heat. thought Mack. The comm unit was working fine when they got here, but moisture had gotten into the delicate circuitry and now they had to try to fix it without making it worse. Thrax, in the meantime, was standing watch. "How's it coming?" asked J.T. "Its not." grumbled Alec. He sat covered with wires and the various internal components of the comm unit. Torres shook her head, "We had it running five minutes ago, but then when we put it back together, it shorted out again." "The problem," announced Alec, "Is that the casing keeps getting wet with all this humidity. If we could keep it dry while we reassemble it, there would be no problem." "Perhaps I could be of assistance." They all looked up to see Sterling approaching. "I've heard your good with machines, got any ideas?" asked Alec. "Yes, reassemble the comm unit. I will keep the casing dry." Sterling placed a hand on the metal casing. A tell-tail glow emitted from his eyes and hand and the casing began to warm just enough to evaporate the moisture but not enough to melt it. Alec's eyes widened a little, "Neat trick." "It has its advantages." said Sterling. It took Alec fifteen minutes to reassemble the comm unit. After he placed it back into the casing, he gave it a try. It worked. Satisfied all was well, Sterling went to look for Nara. He found her near her E-frame, levitating upside down in the cross legged position. Her pony tail hung just inches from the ground. Sterling watched her for moment, trying to figure out what she was doing. "Is there something I can do for you?" asked Nara. "You knew I was watching?" replied Sterling. "Of course. You are kind of hard to miss." said Nara. "How so?" asked Sterling. "I heard you stomping over here, and since I'm downwind from you I could smell you too. How was that chicken sandwich you had for lunch?" Nara rotated her body right side up, but she was still floating a few feet off the ground. "It was good. That's very impressive." commented Sterling. "The floating?" questioned Nara. "And the demonstration of your heightened senses. How long can you stay like that? And how much weight can you lift?" asked Sterling. "Until I get tired and I don't know." replied Nara. She uncrossed her legs and dangled them towards the ground. She then brought herself gently to rest in front of her frame. "Oh. So any idea on how long it will take us to find this Ketzer?" asked Sterling. He was obviously trying to start a conversation with her. "No idea." Nara said flatly. "Oh." Sterling fell silent for a moment, realizing his attempt to be nice wasn't working. "Well, I, uh, sorry to bother you." Sterling hurriedly walked away from Nara and towards the campfire. She watched him go then turned to face Rita approaching. "That was smooth, why don't you just shoot him next time." she said sarcastically. "Good idea." retorted Nara. Rita placed her hands on her hips, "What's wrong with you? He is obviously still interested." "He's also under my command, that can complicate things." said Nara. "The war won't go on forever, Nara." replied Rita. "It just seems that way then?" Nara opened her frame and removed a sleeping bag. Rita just smiled, acknowledging the truth behind those words. "But still, he's nice, he's handsome, loyal, trustworthy, dependable and apparently willing to commit. Men like that don't come along everyday and if you're not careful, this one may slip through your fingers." Rita left to retrieve her own sleeping bag, leaving Nara to consider her words. * * *       "Well, here they are." Dr. Martin pointed at the examination tables, "These are all the alien bodies that we recovered. We thought they were all male, and at present have only had the time to dissect one of them." He pulled the sheet back so that only the head was exposed. Looking at Shanita, he asked, "Does he look familiar?" "I knew him, but he his not Jerico." responded Shanita. At that moment Dr. Martin's beeper went off. He picked it out of his pocket, noted a message on it and excused himself from the room. "We don't need him to do this." said Kaz, "Let's have a look around." Shanita nodded and walked up and down the isles of bodies. Kaz, in the meantime, stood transfixed by the alien corpse in front of him. "Shanita, do you feel fear when you go into battle?" Shanita cocked her head back and her lips contorted at an odd angle, the Eltorian equivalent of a scowl. "Of course I do, everyone does on some level when they go into battle. If they do not, then they lying or crazy." "I didn't mean to offend you. Its just I remember when these guys attacked, I even got a close up look at one, and he fought like he wasn't afraid of anything." Kaz remembered the incident and quivered just slightly. By chance he noticed a blood stained blanket covering the corpse in the far corner. The blood was red, not blue. Kaz walked straight for it. He knew what was there before he pulled the sheet back. He stared wide-eyed at the body. "Kaz? Are you alright?" Shanita fell silent when she saw the body. "This is him. This is the guy that torn my squad apart. He gave me a concussion, broke Bronski's knee, put Weston in a coma, and almost killed Lt. Burns. This is the guy that made me wonder if you ever feel fear." Shanita's eyes teared up. Kaz turned to look at her, "I'm sorry, that was insensitive." Shanita wiped her eyes with her hand. "It is not that." she said. "Then what is it?" asked Kaz. "That is Jerico." * * *       "Okay, that's far enough! Everyone take a five minute break!" J.T. slumped down on the jungle floor, staring across the narrow river in their path. Nara stood in front of J.T., she had been leading them through the jungle to the last place she had seen Ketzer. She stood with her back to the river, tapping her foot on the ground. "Again, J.T.? Didn't we just take a break?" she asked. "That was two hours ago, Nara. Not all of us have your stamina." J.T., Alec, and Rita sat huffing and puffing on the ground. The remainder of the squad was a short distance behind them doing the same, except, of course, for Sterling. He was just as eager to keep moving as Nara. "Since you have so much energy to burn, why don't try finding a way across that river." suggested Rita. "Yeah, then we'll start moving again." added Alec. Sterling put down his backpack and walked to where Nara was standing. He removed a 'T' shaped device from his belt that he always had with him. Grasping it by the top of the 'T' he pushed a button on top of it. A mini grappling hook shot out and secured itself on a sturdy tree across the river. With his other hand, he grabbed the line and gave a hearty pull. The tree was pulled from the ground and fell across the river, creating a sturdy makeshift bridge. He hit another button on the grappler and the hook let go of the tree and was reeled back into the grappler unit. Sterling reattached it to his belt, "May we proceed now?" Alec shot him a scornful look. J.T. looked at him and shook his head, "In five minutes, Trooper." Nara couldn't help but smile, "Nice try Sterling." * * *       "You are angry?" asked Shanita. Kaz had not said anything for several minutes. "No. Yes. I don't know." he said. "I see, at least I think so." Shanita said. Kaz looked at the body then back at Shanita, "He lead the assault on Charlie Five's shuttle. He ripped apart my squad, he is responsible for Ellen being killed!" Kaz slammed his fist on the exam table. Shanita had never seen him angry before, it unnerved her. "Who is this Ellen?" Kaz closed his eyes, "Ellen Wright. She was my girlfriend. I loved her very much." "I-I'm sorry." said Shanita. Kaz stared at her hard. Shanita saw something in his eyes she had never seen before...hate. He stalked towards door and stormed from the morgue. Shanita did not know what to do, she had lost her only friend. She leaned against the wall and slowly slide down it to the floor. She wrapped her arms around her knees and did something she had not done in years. She wept. * * *       "I have an idea" said Nara, "Why don't I scout ahead, I can take a short range comm unit with me." J.T. looked up at her from the ground, "I don't like the idea of you going off alone." "I can take care of myself." said Nara. "I know you can, but we work as a team or not at all." Nara looked at the rest of the squad eventually settling on Sterling. "What if I take Sterling with me?" J.T. mulled the idea over for a moment, "Alright, but you're restricted to five miles. Do not get any farther ahead of us than that." "Understood, J.T." She was about to call out for Sterling when she realized he was standing right next to her, ready to go. "Let me guess, you were listening." Sterling shrugged his shoulders, "It was the only interesting conversation going on at the moment." "Lets go." said Nara. * * *       That was stupid! thought Kaz. He let his anger get the better of him. Shanita was alone in an alien world. The only thing that she had come to trust was him, and in a few cruel moments he had taken that away from her. She was alone once more. Kaz looked back at the door to the morgue. He had been in the hall for 15 minutes. He wanted to run away, and never she her again. That was what his instincts told him, his old instincts. That is not what a man would do, that is what a kid would do. "I'm not a kid anymore." Kaz whispered to himself. He walked over to the door and opened it. He did not see her anywhere. Then he heard the sound of someone crying. He followed the noise and spotted Shanita sitting on the floor. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. Kaz said nothing. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her. She buried her face in his chest. "Can you ever forgive me?" "There's nothing to forgive, you weren't even there. I'm sorry for the way I acted." Shanita didn't say anything, she just allowed Kaz to gently rock her back and forth. The tears had stopped and she was smiling. * * *       Now this is more like it! thought Nara. She jumped tree to tree, making far better time than they had on the jungle floor. After a moment, she stopped on a branch to see if Sterling was keeping up. He was no where in sight. There was movement near her, she spun to see him land precisely behind her. "Is something wrong Lieutenant?" he said. They stood face to face separated only by few inches, "Um, No." Nara jumped down to the jungle floor. Sterling followed suit, alighting with barely a sound. He crouched down to look at a small lizard. He picked it up, watching it crawl over his gloved hand. "Such an interesting place this jungle." he said. Nara scanned the tree line, "Never seen anything like it, huh?" "I've only seen some of the homeworlds, some time on Mars, a little of Earth, and I've never seen Venus. But once the war is over I hope to change that." He took a closer look at the lizard on his glove and watched with fascination as it slowly but surly tried to get out of his palm. Nara watched him, noticing the almost childlike curiosity he displayed. "I'd like to show you Venus." she said. Sterling's head snapped up, he was too absorbed in what he was watching to hear her. "I'm sorry, you said something Lt. Burns?" Nara went back to scanning the jungle around them, "It was nothing." Sterling put his hand to the ground and allowed the lizard to walk away. "Lt. Burns, I..." Nara silenced him with a wave of her hand. "Do you hear that?" she asked as she drew her sidearm. Sterling did the same and listened. He turned so he was back to back with Nara, "They're all around us." "Uh-huh" replied Nara as she tried to find a target. This was all very familiar to her, "Its Ketzer." * * *       Dr. Martin brought a dead body into the morgue on a stretcher. It was covered with a white sheet. Kaz and Shanita were talking quietly in the corner when he entered the room. He positioned the body near a tray of freshly sterilized medical instruments. Remembering they were in the room, "Oh, how did it go?" "Fine. The one in the far corner was the one we were looking for." replied Kaz. "I see, do you want a proper burial?" ask Dr. Martin. "That is not necessary, we do not believe in such customs." answered Shanita. Kaz took note of the body, "What have you got there?" "You better brace yourselves." he pulled the sheet back to display a horribly burned human. The face was unrecognizable and the uniform was relieved of any distinguishing marks. "What happened?" asked Kaz. "Some maintenance workers found him in the waste disposal systems on level 7." replied Dr. Martin. "Are you sure it is a he?" questioned Shanita. Dr. Martin looked a bit embarrassed, "Well yes, um, you see if you look in his...genital area...it is quite obvious." Shanita suddenly felt embarrassed herself, "Um, yes, of course." Kaz in the meantime was inspecting the body. "How did he die?" "The burns are mostly superficial, so I don't think they killed him. The only really curious wound he has is right here" he pointed to the body's right temple, "Note the small puncture wound." This immediately attracted Shanita's attention. She pushed past Kaz for a better look. "Do you know something, Shanita?" asked Kaz. She carefully looked over the puncture wound, "It looks familiar. I suspect you will find that his brain has been destroyed. I've seen this done before." Dr. Martin grew serious, "Then you are saying this is the work of an Eltorian?" "What I am saying is that we need to find out who this man is in order to stop an assassin from eliminating his target." * * *       "They're coming." said Sterling. "Tell me something I don't know." replied Nara. "I am not sure what you know." answered Sterling. Nara spotted movement in the trees to her left. She raised her weapon and fired. In the woods, something fell over and stopped moving. "Nevermind, I think I got one. Just be ready for anything." They heard a voice from the woods, "Excellent advice, Nara. I admit, I am surprised to see you again, but I was never one to let an opportunity slide. You and your interesting friend will have to be my guests." Nara recognized the voice instantly. She answered quickly, with anger dictating the words. "I'll never be a 'guest' of yours again! Do you hear me?! Ketzer, you sick bastard!" The response came not in words but action as Ketzer's minions began to attack. They came from all sides. Nara starting firing. She hit five creatures as they ran towards her, all of them head shots. As they fell, five more came up to take their place. Behind her, Sterling was having a little more success. He had taken eight down, seeing more on the way he flipped a switch on his pistol and the end of the barrel widened. He concentrated and a characteristic blue energy was released in a large burst from the barrel. The creatures heading for him tried to dodge but the blast was too wide. It disintegrated the five or so in front, followed by the six more behind, and so on until it cut its way through the entire group stopping not even for the forest as it knocked over trees and burned foliage. The release made a loud booming sound that attracted Nara's attention. She looked over her shoulder and noted the devastation, "My God!" Sterling heard her cry out and he spun to look in her direction. That is when he saw the creatures Nara had turned away from bearing down on her, "Lt. Burns, behind you!!" Nara turned around too late as one of the plant creatures grabbed her gun arm. She tried to shake him off, but another grabbed her free hand. A third was coming at her full force with his fist. She tapped her power, and the creature's momentum increased and was redirected to connect with its companion holding Nara's arm. The resulting impact knocked that creature down and freed Nara's arm. She promptly jabbed the one standing in font of her to stun it. She then reached for the one holding her gun arm and hoisted in the air by the neck. At the same time she brought her left leg up and delivered a side kick to the creature she had jabbed. It put him down but not out. In the meantime, Sterling had managed to clear out another three sections of rain forest. Nara was about to toss the last creature when she suddenly felt weak. Her knees buckled and she dropped her assailant. The ground began to spin. Medusa! Nara couldn't see her and had no way to stop her. As Nara came to her knees, a number of plant creatures took the opportunity to beat her senseless. She felt an impact to her stomach, and then her back, the last one she remembered was the one that hit her in the back of the head. Sterling had just taken another contingent of Ketzer's creatures out when he saw Nara fall. "Nara!!!" he screamed. He saw the creatures pick her up and begin to carry her away. He ran forward, crouched down and sprung in the air, executing a somersault in mid-air. He came to earth again in front of them. "Put her down, now." A voice answered him from the woods, "You would be better served to worry about yourself." Sterling lost his balance a little and felt dizzy, but he stayed on his feet. His prowess suffered though as three plant creatures grabbed him, one from behind, and one on each arm. They managed to relieve him of his weapon. Sterling went down on one knee as a number of other creatures piled on. Sterling couldn't figure out where the mental attack was coming from, all he could feel was the various punches that landed on his body. That's when he heard a voice, "Subdue him, as the master commands." It came from ten feet to his right. Amidst the tangled mess of bodies Sterling smiled. Medusa watched in horror as energy erupted from the mass of bodies. Ketzer's creatures were thrown in different directions, each of them burned badly. Those that managed to hang on, were killed outright and laid around the epicenter of the blast, where Sterling was standing. He quickly drew his grappler and fired it at Medusa. It anchored to her shirt and he pulled hard. Medusa flew forward. All Sterling did was hold out his fist and Medusa smashed into it, knocking her unconscious. He looked at the remaining creatures that held Nara, "Put her down, gently, and I will let you live." At this point, the creatures knew they were outclassed. They also knew a good offer when they heard it. They promptly put Nara on the ground and proceeded to run in the opposite direction as fast as their legs could carry them.       Sterling began to walk over to the unconscious Nara, suddenly he darted to his left and launched himself into the air above the tree line. He came to rest thirty feet from his previous position and face to face with Ketzer. He swiftly grabbed him by the throat and hefted him in the air, "Dr. Ketzer I presume?" Surprise faded quickly from Ketzer's eyes and he spoke, "That is correct. Sterling, isn't it?" Sterling lowered him to the ground, "That's correct. I have some questions for you." Ketzer smiled, "Do you now, and what makes you think I will answer them?" Sterling began to morph into his Eltorian form as he spoke, "Because I think you would like to see a living specimen of your prize DNA source." Ketzer's eyes widened, Sterling released him. "I trust I have your undivided attention?" "That you do, my boy." Ketzer's hand reached for something behind his back, Sterling's hand darted after it. Ketzer yelped in pain as his hand was nearly crushed. Sterling brought Ketzer's hand around into full view, it had a injection unit in it. He carefully extracted it from Ketzer's hand. Holding it in his own, he melted it to dust. "No games Ketzer. You are not dealing with Exofleet, you are dealing with me. I want to know where you got the DNA you used in Nara's serum and if I do not like the answer - if I detect even a hint of a lie - I will start removing limbs, starting with this one." He grabbed Ketzer's right wrist and placed his other hand on his shoulder and pulled the arm taught. Ketzer winced in pain, but said nothing. Sterling's left hand began to glow and Ketzer's right wrist began to dissolve. "Alright, I will tell you!!! I swear it!!!" he screamed. "Start talking." said Sterling not easing up on the arm or the wrist. The story quickly spilled out of Ketzer. "A few years ago, when I first came here, I found a small ship. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. There was a body inside the ship. I took a few samples from it and have be tinkering with its genetic structure, trying to find a way to get it to bind to human DNA a key points. What I gave Nara was the culmination of that research." Ketzer continued to struggle and moan as the burn on his wrist got more severe. "And where is this ship?" asked Sterling. "There is a river two miles North of here. Find it and follow it from the shore until you reach the rapids, that is Southwest for about five miles. The ship is two, maybe three, miles due South from that point." Sterling released Ketzer's arm and grabbed his neck with his left hand, he held his right hand in front of Ketzer's face and it soon began to glow blue. "I told where to ship is!!" said Ketze,r making no attempt to hide the fear in his voice. "I know you did, but if you lied to me, I will find you where ever you hide and I will kill you." Sterling reverted back to his human form. "This is punishment for what you did to Nara and to remind you of my promise every time you look in the mirror." Sterling brought his hand over the right half of Ketzer's face. As his skin burned away, his screams filled the jungle. * * *       Sterling cradled Nara in his arms. Some of her hair fell over her nose, causing her to twitch. Sterling carefully brushed it away. Nara's eyes began to open and Sterling came into view. "Are you alright?" he asked. Nara's eyes looked around and she began to sit up as she answered, "Yeah, I'm okay." She was sitting next to Sterling, shoulder to shoulder, facing the opposite way. She noted the destroyed jungle, "What happened?" "They're gone. I killed most of Ketzer's creatures and the rest ran away." answered Sterling. "What about Ketzer?" asked Nara. "I caught him and forced him to tell me where he got his DNA. We don't need to go after him any more." Nara looked at him with a certain glare in her eye, "You just let him go?" "With a warning." "And you think that will work? Or for that matter he told you the truth?" Nara was getting more frustrated. "I had just killed most of his followers and destroyed several sections of rain forest. When I caught him, I changed to my Eltorian form and threatened to rip his arms off. He was far too scared to lie to me." explained Sterling. "Oh" Nara again noted the charred earth around them, "Speaking of that, where did you get that gun?" Sterling pulled out his sidearm, "It is not really a gun. It has all the internal workings of one, except a power source." Nara put two and two together, "Your the power source." "That's right. The handle is made of a composite superconducting metal, I channel my energy into it and it is released through the gun." Nara took a closer look at the weapon, "That's very clever." Sterling smiled and put it away. "You know, when I saw those things overwhelm you, it really scared me." He was staring Nara in the eyes as he spoke, "I thought I might lose you. I guess I'm just glad you're alright now." Nara suddenly noticed two things. One, Sterling and she were mere centimeters from kissing. And two, she was gradually closing that gap. Neither of them seemed to mind. "Lt. Burns!!" A voice yelled out from the distance, Sterling and Nara instinctively snapped away from each other. Like the child who had almost been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. They stood up and Sterling pointed to Alec DeLeon in the distance. Nara waved and called out, "Over here!" Alec sighted them and started toward them, the rest of Able squad followed him. Sterling shook his head, muttered to himself something about bad timing, and thought, Mental note: Kill Alec DeLeon. On to Part 3