Doctor Blue reached out to touch Capitan Rose's right phased-array radar plate. She absent-mindedly knocked his hand away, and snapped in irritation, "DOCTOR! I called you over to make an observation and give an opinion. That is not on ME! My ears hurt, and are radiating waste heat and are red!" The doctor said tiredly,"Capitan--you don't have a good color, though you look obscenely relaxed. You should shut down for a complete regeneration!" The Capitan looked at him and back at her screen. She said,"Give me 300 more seconds. I already have most systems from my chest, down, shut down to conserve resources." At a scraping sound, the doctor looked under her command chair and looked back at her, asking, "WHAT are doing with your feet?" The Capitan put a hand on her right 'ear' and said, "I'm rubbing my feet together because they itch!" She turned to the helmsman and asked,"How long to the passage to the open sea? Also when do we get to the break-point for the fiber-optic cable?" Helmsman Comet checked and replied, "Four minutes to open water, three minutes-forty seconds to cable break." The Capitan addressed the submarine, "Ghost-Whale! I need your opinion,too." The sub had a pleasant woman's voice, who spoke coolly,"Of course, Capitan Rose. How may I aid you?" The Capitan said, pointing to a section of her screen,"Observe this recording from yesterday's shoot-down of that Trow fighter by the Trashtowners. This is enhanced. Notice this frightened flock of birds!" Doctor Blue and the sub's controlling intelligence watched as the flock flew toward the first flying city, named Refuge. They flew into an invisible object at least seven hundred meters wide and then fell dead from the sky. Capitan Rose said quietly,"No flicker. No detectable signature. I believe it is an alien ship. Eyespy2 spotted the vehicle's location twenty-three minutes ago. We have a lock on it. We have a nuclear missile aimed at Refuge. I propose changing targets and shooting the alien ship." The doctor looked shocked. She continued,"The hostile aliens are more of a danger than humans. We need to test the alien's technology more than send a message to the humans. Opinions?" Ghost-Whale said carefully,"I concur. You logic is sound. Humans would make a better ally. We are too weak to fight a war alone." Doctor Blue said sadly,"I also concur." Capitan Rose input the target change code and locked it down. She said sadly, "They attacked us all first. They're invaders. I hope this insures a better future for my son." The helmsman said,"Cable break confirmed." The clock clicked to zero and indicated missile launch. --TO BE CONTINUED!-- Media--same as previous