Floona's saucer surged out of the building-top hangar and hung in the air over the topside of City 64. She barked nervously, "Kenji! Mount and launch!" She heard a crackle, and a boom over the comm. Kenji's voice rattled, "Launching!" His old Thunderbolt VTOLIF leaped from the hangar in a hail of gun-fire. She flanked him on his port side and flew point. A bright flash sparkled in front of them as the city's air-defence weapons fired in front of them. A voice came over the comm,"Return and surrender immediately or you will be shot down! Beginning five count!" Floona shouted,"Abort-Abort! We have the Cure with us, and we are Buddy-spiked in the home-zone. Do not fire!" The voice said, "Four--Three..." Floona ordered,"Relative Inertial Frame UP! Shields UP! Kenji--punch IT!" The RIF generator hummed, and Floona pushed the throttle to the fire-wall. There was an immediate blue-shift before her, as the atmosphere disappeared behind her within less than a second. Kenji's fighter was slaved to her's for the initial test of the near-lightspeed drive, and she could see it's engine glow out of the corner of her right eye. She watched on her nav-readout as Balaam and Adamesh fell away behind them. Kenji said over comm, "Can you read me? We're at point NINE-SEVEN lightspeed! Holding steady!" Floona blinked and realized that people from Balaam have NEVER traveled so far, so fast in it's history. She stammered out, "Affirmative. I read you with some distortion. I'm picking up strain from your vessel. I'm going to decelerate until the strain eases up. Confirm?" Kenji read it back and said,"Confirmed. I'm picking up a distortion from five-o'clock low, pacing us!" Floona sighed, "Alien ship? Sensor ghost? Your transmission is degrading. You're shaking apart over there. Beginning deceleration." A huge alien star-ship appeared behind them almost instantly. Floona started to say something tactical to her wingman, Kenji, when all power died completely. She swallowed as zero-gravity seized her inner-ear. She didn't get a good look at the outside of it, as she and Kenji were swallowed into a huge hangar bay. She broke out machine-pistol and readied to sell her life expensively. Kenji did the same. --TO BE CONTINUED!--