Chapter 1

      Love, fear, hatred, joy, pain; these are the things one would feel if a moment in time were stretched to an eternity. More specifically, it is what one would feel if that moment existed between realities. Time is like any other physical constant, it obeys the rules that it sets for itself. But what happens when those rules are changed? Time can speed up, slow down, and even just stop. A moment can become a lifetime just as surely as a lifetime a moment. Such a drastic change in our fundamental understanding of the universe would be too much for just about any one mind. Space opens. Time resumes. Reality suddenly makes sense. Ironically, that is the moment Shanita chose to pass out.

* * *

      "E.T.A. to Venus?" "Sixty-three minutes, Sir." Kaz nodded and the pilot brought his attention back to the shuttle's controls. Kaz paused to glance out the window. He had a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was...off. There was simply no other way to describe it. Over the years Kaz Takagi had come to trust that feeling. "Keep your eyes open." "Yes sir."

      In the passenger section, Mandy Wang was busy reading over the file hard copies she had obtained from the Exofleet mainframe. Jared Mathison sat across from her, trying hard not to look bored. Unable to take the silence any longer, he spoke, "Interesting?" Mandy mumbled something close to 'yes' without looking up from her reading. "So what's it about?" "Right now I'm reading about warp field construction and maintenance. Are you familiar with it?" Jared wore a dissatisfied look on his face as he answered, "Not my field. Does it look like we got what we needed?" Mandy flipped a page of the stapled bundle she held. "I'll let you know when I'm done reading." Not the words Jared was hoping to hear. It meant he was back to thumb twiddling as his chief form of entertainment.

      The door leading to the cockpit swooshed open. Lt. Kaz Takagi entered the room and had a seat next to Jared. "How long till land fall?" asked Jared. "Sixty-three minutes." responded Kaz. Jared sunk in his chair. "Is there nothing to do on this tin can?" Kaz got up and walked over to the refresher console. He popped open a compartment next to the drink dispenser and rummaged around inside it. After retrieving what he wanted, he returned to his seat. He handed a rectangular case to Mathison. "Here." Jared opened the case and removed the game board inside. "Ivory or Ebony?" "Ivory." Jared balanced the board on the arm rest between them and began to set up the pieces. He wasn't very good at chess, but anything was better than the alternative.

* * *

      '(Report.)'
      '(I have found them, and I am in pursuit. Your orders?)'
      '(Wait until they begin their decent to the planet's surface. Then destroy the files they carry.)'
      '(Just the files?)'
      '(You may try to eliminate them if you wish. But you will not succeed.)'
      '(I...understand.)'
      '(Return immediately afterward.)'
      '(Yes sir.)'

* * *

      Jared moved his queen three squares to the left. Leaving a finger on the piece, he watched Kaz for any reaction. Unable to notice any, he removed it. Kaz casually captured the queen with his knight. "Check." Jared ran his fingers through his hair, frustrated by his thus far futile efforts to win. The cabin rocked slightly, knocking over a few pieces in the process. Kaz thumbed a switch at the end of his right arm rest. "What's going on up there?" The pilot's voice sounded worried as he responded, "We're being shot at, sir." Kaz jumped up from his seat and headed to the cockpit. "Mathison, stay with Wang."

      As Kaz settled into the copilot's seat he spied the enemy craft off the port bow of the shuttle. "I'm not sure what type of ship it is, sir." responded the pilot. Kaz glanced at the sensor readouts. "Looks like an ugly sloop. Probably armed to the teeth." "An ugly sloop, sir?" "It was a sloop class patrol ship originally. But its been rebuilt so many times and with so many different spare parts that it barely resembles the original design. They're popular with smugglers and traders. I take it you've never flown against one of these before?" "Uh, no. This is my first combat flight." The craft opened fire. The pilot froze a moment. "Bank right now!" ordered Kaz. The pilot jerked on the stick and shuttle made a lazy right turn. Several blasts struck the ship as the collision alarms sounded. "Transfer helm control to me now!" order Kaz. The pilot seemed grateful as he quickly obeyed. "Helm control active." Kaz gripped the steering column in front of him. "Give me a position on our bogey." "He's right behind us. He's firing!" Kaz rammed the column forward sending the shuttle into a dive. The outer atmosphere of Venus slammed into the ship. "He's still behind us." "Right where I want him." The proximity alarm sounded again. Kaz rolled left then flattened out, skimming the surface of the inner atmosphere. The shuttle was rocked violently by the maneuver. "Sir, are you sure this is wise? The ship can't take much more of this." "True." conceded Kaz. "But we'll last longer than our friend there. Uglies are better armed, that's for sure. But they're not the sturdiest things out there either. He'll have to break off from us our fly himself apart."

      The pilot glanced at the sensors. "You're right! He's running!" Kaz brought the weapons system on-line as he turned the shuttle around. "He's not running. He's just rethinking his strategy." The ugly climbed to a thinner layer of atmosphere. The reduced stress showed through as a sharp increase in speed. "He's gonna try and get directly above us, then dive bomb." announced Kaz. "How do you know?" asked the pilot. "Its what I'd do." The ugly quickly matched speed directly above the shuttle. The moment it began its shallow climb, Kaz pulled into a steep climb of his own. By the time the ship had looped around into a dive, Kaz had the shuttle facing head to head with it. The ugly opened fire. Kaz weaved in front of it for a bit then landed the shuttle's crosshairs over the ugly. He fired. While the shuttle took minor damage, the ugly took several shots towards its aft section. The craft registered its dislike of the abuse by blowing out a rear compartment. The ugly spun a bit, its orbit deteriorating. "That ought to do it for him." said Kaz. He pulled a bit on the stick, bringing the shuttle more or less parallel to a Venus orbit while allowing the tumbling craft to pass underneath it. The craft suddenly stabilized before passing below them, its forward guns aiming straight up. "He was playing possum!" yelled the pilot. "Brace yourself!" ordered Kaz. The ugly opened fire, raking the entire underside of the shuttle with blaster shots. The cockpit came alive with sound as alarms of every kind suddenly went off.

      "Weapons and sensors off-line!" screamed the pilot. "What about propulsion?" asked Kaz. "Main engines are gone, partial power to maneuvering thrusters!" "Great." muttered Kaz. The ugly was most assuredly turning around to finish the job it started. Which meant Kaz had about a minute to come up with something that would save their lives. "Take the controls!" yelled Kaz as he sprang from his seat. He bolted out of the cockpit and into the passenger compartment. "What the hell is going on?!" yelled Mandy, struggling to be heard over the blaring alarms. "We're under attack." answered Kaz. He looked to Jared. "Does the escape pod on this thing have a self destruct?" "What? No!" answered Jared. "Can you rig one up?" Jared unbuckled his safety harness and bolted to the engineering access hatch at the rear of the ship. Kaz helped him open the access panel on the floor. "The weapon systems on these types of shuttles use fusion batteries similar to e-frames. Remove it, set it to overload, and it'll cause something like an escape pod to go boom." Kaz frantically grabbed at a repair kit and tossed it to Jared. Do it, we only got about 30 seconds!" Jared set to work at removing the battery. "This will leave us without weapons!" "They're off-line anyway!" answered Kaz. "Got it!" Jared climbed out of the access hatch with the arm-long battery in hand. "Go stand by the pod and wait for my signal!" yelled Kaz. Jared nodded as he headed back up to the passenger section.

      The pilot was noticeably unhinged by the time Kaz got back to the cockpit. "Give me the controls and get me a position on that ugly!" The pilot quickly vacated his seat while pointing to a specific spot out the front viewport. "He's coming right at us!" "Thinks we're dead in space." "Well he's right!" yelled the pilot. "Sit down! We're not done yet!" Kaz activated the comm line. "Ready Jared?" "Standing by!" came the response. Kaz kept an eye on the ugly. He wasn't firing yet, which meant he wanted the kill to be up close and personal. Kaz used what maneuvering capability they had left to turn the ship so its left side was facing it. "What are you doing?" "With any luck he'll think we're trying to run." Kaz clicked open the comm. "Stand by." The ugly closed to 50 meters and began firing. The shuttle began to shake under the impact. "We're gonna die!" yelled the pilot. Kaz ignored him. "Stand by, Jared!" The gap closed to 20 meters. "We're losing structural integrity!" "Stand by, Jared!" The gap closed to ten meters. "Now!" In the rear of the ship, Jared Mathison flipped a switch on the fusion battery and tossed it into the escape pod. He quickly jabbed the button to seal it and pulled the release handle. "Pod away!" The shuttle jerked violently as the escape pod disengaged from it. The pilot of the ugly clearly saw the pod as an obvious attempt at distraction. It fired a couple of shots with the intent of destroying it. The pod exploded a mere eight meters from the ugly. "Brace yourselves!" Kaz knuckled down on the stick as the battery within the pod began to detonate. Suddenly, the small fireball that engulfed the pod became a very large fireball that threatened to engulf them both. The ugly attempted to pull up, but it was too late. The blast grabbed the ship and refused to let go. The shuttle fared no better. The wavefront of the blast flipped it around like a cheap credit. Kaz did his best to stabilize. When the blast subsided and the viewport finally stopped spinning, Kaz asked, "Did we get him?" "I can't see him." answered the pilot. Kaz flipped on the intercom, "Anyone see him?" "I got him. He's off our starboard side. Looks like he's about to make a hard landing planet-side." reported Mathison. "Shouldn't we finish him off?" asked the pilot. "With what?" asked Kaz sarcastically. "Oh...right." Kaz noted how Venus was suddenly getting closer. "Besides, we have our own problems." He opened the comm line again. "Strap in back there! We're going in hard!"

* * *

      Professor Algernon paced in front of Nara Sterling's desk. "Must you do that?" asked Nara. "I'm anxious, surely you can sympathize." Nara placed the datapad she had been reading on her desk. "I suppose." Algernon quickened his pace. Nara watched him a bit, then turned her attention to the floor. "I'd like to get at least another year out of these carpets you know." Unable to keep the thought to himself any longer, Algernon blurted out, "When do you think they'll get here?" Nara sighed. "I'm sure they'll be planet-side before you know it."

* * *

      "I wanted to get back to Venus quickly, but this is ridicules." Kaz's copilot didn't say anything. He just kept jabbing at the controls, holding out hope that the main engines would come back on-line. Kaz chose to ignore him. The first space travelers used to coast through the Earth's atmosphere with nothing more than maneuvering thrusters and a prayer. After which, they would glide down to a surface runway. What Kaz was about to attempt was no different, in principle at least. He checked the shuttle's current position. The atmosphere of Venus faced the ventral side of their craft. Now all Kaz needed to do was bring the nose of the shuttle up a bit and keep it there. "Just hope the heat shielding can handle this." He looked to his terrified copilot. "Keep an eye on the outer hull temperature." The shuttle entered Venus atmosphere with a violent shake. "Temperature's rising!" announced the copilot. "That's to be expected. It may get hotter in here than it should though, because of all the damage to hull. Let me know when it gets dangerous." The nose of the shuttle began to glow a bright red. Without the aid of the main engines to slow their descent and some of the hydraulic systems that help steer the ship, the stick became sluggish and heavy in Kaz's white knuckle grip. The nose of the shuttle was dropping, despite Kaz's best efforts. He planted a foot to either side of the main console, wrapped his arms around the steering column, and pushed back with all the strength he could muster. The nose slowly came back up. "What's left of the outer hull is melting away!" yelled the copilot. It was to be expected. Shuttles weren't made to handle this sort of punishment. With the modern take off and landing systems they possessed, there was simply no need for it. Through the viewport, the surface of Venus came into view. The copilot opened the comm line. "Prepare for water landing!"

      After the shuttle broke through Venus atmosphere, Kaz had expected the ride to get a tad smoother. Luck, however, was not on their side as the shuttle proved difficult as ever to handle. The water covered surfaced seemed to pounce on the ship as it slammed into the surface. Like a rock skipping across the surface of a pond, the shuttle bounced back into the air only to come down again. This time it dug into the water's surface, flipping over as the right wing snapped off. The steering column jerked itself free of Kaz's hands as the nose plunged headlong into the water. Kaz took a moment to check himself for injuries. His copilot looked over to him. "Are we alive?" Kaz stared back. "I think so." He noted the cracked main viewport. Water was starting to dribble inside. "Not for much longer if we don't get out of here." They quickly unstrapped themselves, not realizing until it was too late that they were upside down. Kaz landed on his shoulder, the copilot on his back. "Let's go!" ordered Kaz. They opened the door to the passenger compartment just as the viewport cracked wide open. Venutian water flooded the cockpit in seconds. They found Jared Mathison already on his feet and trying to free Wang. She had apparently been knocked unconscious by the force of the landing. Kaz dug a blade out of the upturned refresher station. "You two get the emergency gear into the life raft! I'll get Wang!" The copilot opened at hatch in the upturned floor and removed a small transceiver, some rations, and a rectangular rubber object. Mathison worked at opening the ventral access hatch which was located just after the maintain hatch at the rear of the ship. The passenger compartment was already half flooded when Kaz managed to sever the first seat strap holding Wang in place. Mathison called from the rear of the ship. "Hatch is open!" The copilot wasted no time. He scurried out of the ship and onto its underside. He pulled a pin from the rubber object he held and it inflated into a yellow rubber raft. He dumped the supplies he carried with him into it. "Raft is ready!" "Go!" ordered Kaz. The copilot jumped into it and pushed off. Mathison hesitated. "What about you?" Kaz cut through another strap, releasing Wang into the water below her. She sprang up from it gasping for air. "I'll be right behind you! Now go!" Kaz brought one of Wang's arms over his shoulder and hoisted her up. Satisfied they would make it, Jared climbed out of the shuttle and dove into the water. The copilot helped him into the raft. Kaz reached the ventral hatch with water up to his waist. "Wait" mumbled Mandy. "The files!" "No time!" yelled Kaz. He gave her solid push upward and she landed on the belly of the shuttle. Kaz joined her a second later, carrying her into the water and then into the life raft.

      Kaz watched the shuttle disappear below the waves as Mathison worked the transceiver in an effort to bring help. Mandy passed out again and lay unconscious at the bottom of the raft. The copilot looked thoughtfully at the water around him before saying, "I need to get out of Exofleet."
On to Chapter 2