Floona and Kenjii were taken in an elevator to another area of the Trayodashan vessel. It was brightly lit in the visual light spectrum and even had a window. They were relieved of their vacuum suits, and after a short while, a door opened and two short bandied-legged figures came in. Kenjii's mouth gaped open and Floona gasped in surprise,"DUERGAR-TROLLI! From Adamesh? HERE? How?" The one in uniform of the Adamesh Republic Marines said sharply," I am Colonel Xan of the Friggian Forces! This is my second, Lieutenant Xander. He has permission to remain in Space Armor by our hosts,the Trayodashan Transport Guild." "Shortly afterwards, We, the Duergar-Trolli, one time slaves of humanity contacted the Trayodashan in secret. We have spread ourselves to the stars, so no human will ever wipe us out." He was interrupted by Floona. "Hey, wow--great for you! Can I get my clothes back? What are you doing here, now?" Floona knew she sounded more abrupt than she wanted to be, but she was feeling more nervous now than earlier. Colonel Xan looked disgusted, and was interrupted by the gigantic alien who had almost crushed her ribs earlier, sliding in on a floating chair. The huge alien rumbled at Floona, "Analysis of Anti-Blight drug is successful. It will cure the BAD bad disease! Very glad things happen! We are happy." "ALSO! AND! FURTHERMORE! Analysis of two fighter craft complete! Little-Glowing-One was bluffing,great untruth with a lie about detonation device! Very great cunning cleverness! If was of my species of females, I, the great Capitan, would want mating with you! Clever-clever ,Little-Glowing-One!" It made loud chuff-chuff sounds and pounded on it's panel, and showed lots of needle pointed teeth. Floona made a guess and said, "I'm glad you liked it. I had to use what I had." The 'Great Capitan' bobbed his head. "Small and dangerous like Duergar-Trolli! No wonder Humans FORBIDDEN! They build you to be lesser than them. You very dangerous. Them VERY VERY dangerous liars! Human artifact from Adamesh is acting dangerous now! Trayodashan Seer says give to Little-Glowing-One to figure out!" Floona blinked in complete confusion at Kenjii. He shrugged and she made a face at him. The Duergar-Trolli and the 'Great Capitan' argued silently behind some kind of invisible sound-cloak for several minutes. Kenjii pointed out the window and said to Floona, "Hey, look! We're next to the glowing Rahkoshan contact ship and the human transport ship, TSF-1899811! I can almost see my house from here!" The Duergar-Trolli abruptly left the room. Kenjii shrugged again. Floona made another face at him. He laughed. The Colonel and his sidekick came back in with a small pyramidal object. Colonel growled at Floona, "Fine! See if you can figure this out! Hah! Good luck." He tossed to Floona as if it weighed nothing. She caught it and indeed, it weighed almost nothing. Perhaps a tenth of a gram if that much. She looked at it. It was smooth and cool like weightless glass. She wondered what Ahrini would make of it. She wondered if this had anything to do with mystery of that ship Ahrini and the others were searching for, the Challenger? Suddenly it flared into life and equations, flight paths, and planetary approaches appeared in her mind with a list of repair parts and where to find them. A tribe of people from 13,000 years before got on the Challenger with a golden android. A great war was about to start. They flied the Challenger through space to a planet...some kind of prison. The image of a bright blue planet burned itself into her mind. She dropped the artifact as it flamed into fine ash. She knew what happened to it. Something about a planet named Exile and then--She knew HOW to FLY that ship, too. The 'Great Capitan' asked,"Are your brain parts functioning?" She nodded. She said, "I need to get back to the surface! Now!" --TO BE CONTINUED!--