If Palamandry wasn't keeping silent, she could get a probability statistic, yet her mind was made up. "Brace for impact." The final seconds saw the two ships close in the blink of an eye, but nothing happened. By the time Ketty opened her eyes, they were hundreds of thousands of miles apart.

"They chickened out," Rayleen's shrill excitement left a ringing in Ketty's ear.

"Shield busting nano-bots away... about three seconds ago," added Belletine.

There was no time for Ketty to be irritated at Belletine for insubordination, in fact, she should be proud the weapons tech took some initiative. She scrubbed some speed and nosed the ship down in an inverted loop which brought them directly under the belly of the now fleeing ship. A quick barrel roll got her perspective right, then they could see the brown stain as the shields were being eaten away

"Enemy slowing to fighting velocity," said Rayleen. "It sure looks real, doesn't it?"

Out here Ketty was fighting for more than life. They were alone in the dark places of space, where the outcome of this battle would never be recorded if she didn't prevail. Her heart quickened when she realized deep inside this was real. She felt a burning from the necklace on her chest, then an invasion which she could only equate with rape. It ran much deeper than the synaptic interface of her neural network, rending her soul on an emotional level. And what she found there inside herself scared her more than anything ever had. The raw emotions of hatred that resided deep in the heart of every man and woman were living in her. The potential for evil, even to the point of self-extinction. Now she knew what it meant to be defiled, what it was like to live in Rayleen's body, if only for a minute. And she wanted to hurt someone bad. Her empathy surged up inside and she lashed out at the intruder, giving the equivalent of a punch in the throat.

Harazel!

He rummaged around in her emotions to distract her, even as she accelerated up under the belly of his alien ship.

"Multiple spread all weapons, and Belletine, turn off the weapons interlock, this is for real." The ship shuddered as missiles and torpedoes launched from multiple apertures along the body of the ship. In the nose, a massive Lepton Cannon began firing hyper-accelerated balls of electron starved particles. On impact, they would strip the basic building blocks of matter from their target, causing it to disintegrate.

"Incoming broadside," Rayleen bit her lip. "Brace for impact." A thousand small shark missiles struck at once causing the lights to dim as the infinite sponge moaned under an extreme overload. Acrid smoke filtered up from the overloaded circuits, the massive drive engine choked on the extreme energy rise, unable to cope with the so much power. The Collapse-core moaned like a beleaguered whale, stuffed beyond its design capabilities, it was on the verge of going supernova.

"The ship is falling apart," Rayleen whimpered. "Shields at twenty percent."

"Enemy ship is disabled, look!" Belletine gloated like a street thug. The entire rear section of Harazel's ship was floating into space like a cloud of gnats. The matrix of destroyed ship and congealing matter turned in swirling patterns of atomic back eddies.

"Finish him off, Arclight away," ordered Ketty. "Divert power from the reactor to the gravity lance, that should drain off the overload." She pushed the throttle forward with a vengeance, intent on destroying Harazel and everything he stood for. The intense bolt of energy probed the rancid sack hanging from the belly, splitting it wide open.

"We got him!" Rayleen said almost ecstatically, but she kept her wits about her. "Send out the tractor beam, we don't want him getting away." Belletine obeyed, incredulous she even knew there was one.

"You're in charge, Belletine," said Ketty as she pushed past the rest of her crew and stepped into the conference room just off the bridge. The necklace was sending jagged bits of information now, color blocks of alien memories, as if Harazel was trying a new tactic. One of sympathy where the Gort hunted and killed his entire family, leaving the bloody carcasses to rot in the hot sun, without even a prayer for the fallen or a thought of using the meat for food. Another memory block sucked her in, as if she was transported to the past where a thousand ships fled the Gort Subdivision, leaving behind chaos and destruction. The Baird disappeared into some remote system and the Gort covered up the entire affair, never admitting they had unleashed a menace.

Ketty let out a scream.

"Nooo!" The memories stopped, though she had to make a conscious effort to keep Harazel out. Tychicknu stood inches from her face, blinking to wipe the spit from his eyes, yet he was unflinching as ever. She just couldn't figure him out, which was a talent that came easily to her. She could always figure a bot out in the first few minutes of meeting them, but not Tychicknu.

"One day, you will tell me your story," Ketty stated flatly.

"When the time comes, the entire Galaxy will know my story, but now you need these." He stepped forward with an armload of weapons including Ketty's pistols which she strapped on immediately.

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