The silence of space can almost be deafening.

The shuttle and remaining fighters travel toward their mother ship on a steady course and speed.

Tirana and her co-pilot are engaged in quiet conversation, all the while keeping track of the shuttle's movements. They don't know if Tosha will try to run or not, knowing she could never make a break for it in the out-gunned and out-matched shuttle. But still Tosha and her crew are under arrest and in a ship of their own, under its own power.

After all this excitement and as near death as they have been, Misha longs for Tirana's tender touch and the hot bath she knows they will soon share. It won't be long now she thinks as the soft twinkling of reflected light can be seen out the cockpit window. She knows that the light is home and can hardly wait to be there. She hopes the debriefing will be short and her encounter with Tosha very long.

In the shuttle, Marshal and Tosha are also watching and anticipating the return to the ship with mixed emotions and high hopes.

Marshal takes his arm from around Tosha and stands, slowly moving to where he can stand and look out the window of the shuttle. His view allows him to watch as the planet far below grows ever smaller. Yet he can see the distant flashes of light as the alien mother ships explode in a chain reaction from the power overload of the first ships exploding. A tear slowly forms and silently slides down his face.

Tosha slowly moves towards Marshal and puts her arm around him from behind.

"Shhhhhh, my Warrior. All will be well when we return home. You will see, we will be greeted as heroes."

Marshal turns to Tosha letting her see his tears. Then looking back at his world,

"It's gone Tosha," he tries to wipe his eyes and look strong again "It's all gone. How could anything live threw that?" tears continue to flow freely,"The blasts almost tore our ships apart and we were miles from the center of the blast. And even then, that was nothing compared to the second and third blasts I have watched." He tries to turn away again.

Tosha pulls him close, turning him towards her.

"Marshal, the world will be ok. You will see, we will go back once we rest. I know there will be more missions, there are always more." She then reaches up and placing one hand on each side of his face and kisses him deeply. She presses her body close to his and forces him against the cool metal wall of the ship. With one hand she undoes his belt and the black pants he is wearing, button by button.

Marshal kisses back. Pulling her closer to him, his hand slides down her back and down across her firm ass, he squeezes it. Then, with both hands, he quickly undoes the buttons on the front of Tosha's leather blouse, exposing her wonderfully excited breasts. Sliding his rough hands gently across them to cup them, he caresses them as though they were favored pets.

Tosha slides her hand into the front of his pants and just as she finds his…

The door opens and Marlin steps in; looking at the two pressing each other into the corner and in various states of undress.

"Um… Am I possibly interrupting something? If I am I can always come back later. But it seems…" His voice trails off as Tosha turns towards him, her breasts still exposed. Marlin steps back wide eyed and full of surprise. "Oh, Milady… He barely manages as he stumbles out the door.

The intercom breaks the silence. It is Tirana.

"We need for you to do a steady burn to pick up some speed. There is something approaching from behind us at a greater speed than we are now traveling. At our present speed and heading the object will over come us 22 sentons before we reach the protective shields of the home ship."

Static cuts the communicator off. Tosha glances to Marshal,

"What do you suppose it is?" She begins pushing buttons and flipping switches. The engine fires up and the thrusters are fully engaged. She maneuvers the aft camera and sensors until there is an image on the screen, it is faint and still too distant to make out clearly.

"Damnit!" she exclaims ."The aft sensors and camera must have been damaged in the fight to get off the planet. That thing is going to have to get a little closer before we can clearly see it."

The object is closing quickly; even with the shuttle picking up speed it's still gaining.

Marlin begins muttering to him self as he turns and starts walking down the hallway to the rear gunnery position. "I saw that thing get thrown at us from some of the scrap metal we passed out there." He opens the doorway to the gun and slides into the seat as if he had been doing it all his life. After buckling the seat belt, he presses the button that turns the seat so he can operate the heavy gunnery position and then fires at the oncoming object.

The particle beam is absorbed into this object.

Marshal had followed Marlin to the gun room and watched as the shot was fired.

"Direct…" his shout of excitement cuts off suddenly as the beam of energy does nothing. "This can't be good!" he says as he races for the front of the ship. "Tosha, you're gonna have to step on it! We have a big problem coming."

Tosha, still not redressed, looks at him wide-eyed.

"I am doing all I can. The thrusters are on max thrust and are on plane. In other words, we are running as fast as we can."

The two remaining fighters have separated from their joined position and are turning back to try to destroy the object too. Each of them firing at it in random order but nothing seems to even slow the black grey and red object. It gains more ground on the now at full power shuttle.

"TOSHA, EVASIVE ACTION NOW!" Screams Tirana into the communicator as she pulls back hard on her control stick making her fighter cut away at a ninety degree angle. The other fighter also cuts away quickly. But the shuttle is no match and is engulfed by the object.

"Where are we?" asks Marshal softly, watching the multi-colored lightening bolts flash past and threw the shuttle.

"This is Tirana to the shuttle, come in shuttle." short pause "This is Tirana to the shuttle, come in shuttle!"

On board the ship the princess fondly calls home, panic strikes.

The Captain paces the control deck.

"Where are they? What happened to the shuttle? Is there any sign of them anywhere?" his voice seems to crack a bit"Any debris?"

The Communication Officer is also calling to the shuttle, but all that is responding are the fighters.

"Captain, it seems they are lost." He flips buttons and switches frequencies but there is still no answer to his plea for them to report.

Tirana turns and begins an attack run back at the cloud. Just as she presses the trigger on her photon cannon, the cloud just disappears. The photon beams travel into the distance and darkness of space.

There is a bark on the communicator as the science officer cuts into the voice traffic.

"I am not positive, but…" he pauses trying to collect his thoughts and word it just right."I think we have a signature trail for the cloud. It is weak and fading fast. We have to move into warp as soon as possible. Call in all our outbound ships!"

The Captain keys his communicator.

"Tirana, bring your forces aboard immediately! We may have picked up a signature from the cloud and are preparing to go warp."

Frustrated but under orders, Tirana directs her fighter to the open landing bay of the mother ship. Once she enters the opening, the docking commander calls to the control deck.

"She is aboard! Launch warp drive!"

For an instant, everything stands perfectly still. Nothing moves at all, even the tiny droplets of water spewing from the fountain Marshal made for Tosha hold their motion. Then, in a blur of shadows and light, the ship is gone. The sound of a great vacuum could have been heard if someone were there to hear it.

Tosha removes the leather blouse as she feverishly tries to gain some control over the shuttle. She pushes buttons and checks diagnostics but nothing seems to respond.

Marshal watches her every movement, knowing how desperate the situation is. But also her extreme beauty captivates him.

After a few minutes, she looks up from the controls. Her eyes meet Marshal's, now it is her turn to cry. Tears roll from her eyes as she stands and moves close to her Love. She presses herself close to him. He holds her tightly as she crawls up onto him, wrapping her legs around him. Soon they are on the floor deeply involved in each others desires and needs.

"Captain, we seem to have lost the trail. What are your orders?" The voice tries to remain professional but the wavering of emotion echoes from underneath. The feeling of overwhelming loss fills the ship.

Misha opens the door to the large bath area. The lights are set to a nice soft glow as she lights the many candles and the single stick of Traserian incense. The tub is huge, large enough for two, maybe three grown adults to share it easily. She sets the water temperature on the dial and starts the tub's auto filling sequence.

Misha moves away from the tub, and begins removing her uniform. The gun belt is the first thing she releases and places it on its hook next to the large dressing mirror. Next is the pilots' helmet. Her long ruby red hair falls softly past her shoulders. She watches herself as she slowly undoes her flight jacket from the top down The closures come undone for her with ease and soon are fully undone. She lets her arms down to her side and the armored jacket falls from her shapely frame. She then decides to sit and remove her tight high-heeled boots. She cannot contain the soft moan of pleasure from them finally being off her feet. The buckle to the belt in her flight pants is the next to go and is almost instantly followed by the buttons of her pants. They open revealing the skimpy and by no means military issue panty underneath. The tight pants are then slid down off her well-formed ass, past her shapely hips then fall suddenly to the floor. Misha cannot help but watch herself as she pretends Tirana is watching her. The buttons of her blouse are the next to become undone. One by one they are opened until the blouse itself hangs on her shoulders just covering her pert nipples. She walks from the mirror as she lets the blouse slide off her shoulders. The cool air in the room now adds to her excitement. Just as she begins to remover her tiny silk panty, she feels the hands of another aiding her. But she is not afraid. Her senses detect the fragrance of her lover and her body instantly responds to the touch only Tirana can wield.

Tirana presses her taut self against Misha as they enter the now filled and frothed tub.

Soft music is heard just above the sounds of two enjoying themselves and each other.

The Captain sits silent as he looks past the monitor and out the porthole. He is biting his right thumbnail absent-mindedly. Suddenly, realizing he needs to make a decision, he stands and walks to the front of the command center.

Give me the com." He pulls down on his shirt to make it crisp, wipes his hand across his hair in an attempt to make it look as though he has no worry.

The Communication officer waits for the signal and then presses the button that will put the Captain on every monitor and speaker on the ship.

The Captain clears his throat.

"This is your Captain speaking, if I may get your attention, please. Please stop what you are doing, if you are able to do so. The news I have…" he chokes up for a second, then gets a very stern look on his face. His jaws clench and he again clears his throat. "The news is grave, we have for the moment lost the princess to what appears to be an enemy of unknown origin. His voice cracks at that statement."But we are doing everything we can to retrieve her. I need everyone's help." His voice trails off as he once again fights back the emotion. Looking out the porthole again, he sees a soft glimmer of light. "Attention all decks! Attention all decks! We are going to make a full sensor sweep back to our point of departure." There is a cheer as the ships officers scramble to their posts and crew go to their appointed stations.
Marlin makes his way to the door and listens. He doesn't hear anything so he waves his hand past the sensor that opens the door and cautiously looks in. Marshal and Tosha are redressed and asleep. Tosha on Marshal's lap, resting her head on his shoulder as they sit in the pilot's chair.

Marlin walks up next to them and watches the monitor. The cloud has dissipated and they are in open space again.

On a not so distant planet, alarms are going off. The voice coming over the loud speakers says.

"DIESES ICR NICHT EINE DRILL! DIESES ICR NICHT EINE DRILL! EIN UNIDENTIFIZIERTES FAHRZEUG IST IN UNSEREN SPACE EINGETRETEN. WIEDERHOLUNG, DIE EIN UNIDENTIFIZIERTES FAHRZEUG IN UNSEREN SPACE EINGETRETEN IST! SCHIEßEN SIE RETRIVAIL SCHIFFE NOW AB!" (THIS IS NOT A DRILL! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! AN UNIDENTIFIED VEHICLE HAS ENTERED OUR SPACE. REPEAT AN UNIDENTIFIED VEHICLE HAS ENTERED OUR SPACE! LAUNCH RETRIEVAL SHIPS NOW!) Sirens whine and the sounds of battlements arming are heard almost across the entire planet.

In an office atop a grand tower, two men dressed in gray wool shirts and pants, with narrow brimmed hats speak to each other.

"Dies konnte das Zeichen sein, auf das wir gewartet haben. Das Zeichen, daß wir Elnord angreifen sollten und auch diese Welt erobern." (This could be the sign we have been waiting for. The sign that we should attack Elnord and conqure that world too.)

The second man paces, looking out the large plate glass window. He butts out his cigar on the fine hand polished desk.

"Oder dies konnten die begining des Endes für uns alles sein." (Or this could be the begining of the end for us all.)