After Floona's Trow fighter thudded to the alien deck-plates, she broke a cya-lume tube and shook it. Like a big fire-fly, it glowed dimly inside her cockpit. She wished she had been able to get more professional equipment before the flight, but hadn't had time. She worked the slide on her old-timey chemical projectile weapon, and checked the magazine. She frowned and shrugged in disgust. She didn't even have a proper weapon, just a copy of a weapon not used for over thirty-five hundred years. At least being a chemical powered weapon, it shouldn't be affected by the alien's dampening field. She cursed as she fumbled with the cya-lume when she hit the canopy release. She shouted inside her suit,"Do I have to use sticks to make fire,too? DAMMIT!" She fetched it from underneath the ejection seat, and scrabbled out onto the hangar deck. Having Trow eyes, she could see into the low ultra-violet and high-infra-red spectrum, so she wasn't completely blind. There was nothing in the visible light spectrum except a sickly green-black glow from the floor, so pale, she first thought it was reflections. She could just make out Kenji's old Thunderbolt VTOLIF fighter. To the right of it was a pale gray circle that might be a hatch or something. A green light came on, on some hatch-cover in the floor, as she approached his fighter. She found it strangely reassuring to recognize what some things were, even on an alien vessel. She clambered up to Kenji's canopy and banged on the ceramic window and waved the cya-lume. Kenji nodded and gave a thumbs-up. He pushed the canopy forward and climbed out. He pulled his blaster pistol and shook his head inside his helmet. No power for it. No radios, or air pumps or air-purification system. She had a thought and made motions for him to listen. She banged loudly on his fighter with the machine-pistol butt. She heard it dimly. There was SOME air, at least. Was it breathable by them? She looked around. She couldn't make out the walls well, just the weirdly glowing floor and ceiling...AND the pure gray circle. It was concave and was made of very small hexagons that seemed to flicker on and off in waves. She had some ideas, but was running out of time. She pulled him close til their helmets clicked. She shouted,"I'm running out of air. I'm going to sniff the air outside, if it kills me--well, hell. That gray thing over there might be the dampener, I'll find out." Kenji nodded and shouted back dimly,"Good luck! I wish I had at least a knife or something. Guess I'll use harsh language!" Floona gave a terse smile and nod and hyperventilated for a moment. She took a deep breath, and flipped up her visor. She shouted, "You have taken hostile actions toward us. Restore power to us or I will use weapons!" A deep voice like thunder rumbled,"Your weapons are worthless, Balaam creatures!" Floona sniffed a lot of ammonia and sulfurous smells in the atmosphere. She controlled her gag reflex and finished the last of her breath with a yell,"AND SOME BREATHABLE AIR,TOO!!" She flicked the selector to full-auto and emptied her clip into the gray circle from top to bottom of it. The flash was like lightning, and the gun-sound was like thunder as the circle sparked brightly and went out. A loud THUD went through the ship as the lights went out. Floona heard a loud chirping from her headset as her power came back on. She slapped the visor down and thumbed the emergency purge switch on her wrist. She held her breath and reloaded. Something as big as her fighter knocked her pistol away and lifted her into the air where many eyes examined her closely. She froze and thought furiously. When one eye came to close, she kicked it with deliberation. She slowly over the radio, "I can bite,too. If you surrender now, I won't bite you." --TO BE CONTINUED!--