Capitan Rose had paused for several minutes to tend to giving orders about one of the downed pilots and her daughter, Slicey's, fragile mental state. Rose had never seen or heard of one the Cyclops suffering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder before. She had to order a full Mental Fault Diagnostic on her own adopted daughter. She wasn't in the best of moods when she finally got to the alien fighter over the nearly impassable terrain. Two of the prisoner/guests that had been left behind on the transport were cavorting with the alien? Snowflake, one of the triplets that included Slicey, sat at the gunner's console of the alien fighter. 518, the Scav man, sat next to her in the cockpit chattering at the alien creature intensely. Martya, the female Scav, was pulling on the alien's tail while she floated as if cut off from gravity. That wasn't the most extraordinary thing, though. She sang to the alien in a beautiful, bird-like tones and clicks, and the alien sang back in what must be it's native language. "WHAT IN HELL'S GOING ON HERE?" Rose didn't mean to shout, but thought it was so weirdly strange a sight, that she had to impose some control on the situation. Martya fell to the fighter's nosecone, almost dislodging the alien. Snowflake gestured to Capitan Rose to come over. 518 smiled broadly and pointed at Rose and addressed the alien,"Hey,Pazu! You're busted! This lady's in charge!" The alien turned and regarded Rose almost with comical surprise. "What lady? This...doesn't LOOK like a lady or anything female I know of!" Rose blinked and remarked,"I didn't come here to get insulted!" Pazu positively evil when he asked in an innocent tone, "Where DO you usually go to get insulted?" 518 and Martya chortled. Rose rolled her eye and snapped,"Apparently HERE! There is an inbound torch-ship with it's photon-drive pointed right at this planet! Can you do anything about it?" Pazu blinked and said,"I was on my way to City 64 to find a gunner. The Rahkoshan ship above us raised it's battle-shields about an hour ago. I can only assume that the Torch-Ship is PART of what's happening." Rose pondered for a moment. "Are you talking about a Jongwe ship interfering with the Torch-Ship?" Pazu shrugged in a human way and said,"Unknown. Martya is one of the Four Sisters. She's asking me for a ride in a real space-ship. The white Cyclops, Snowflake, knows how to use the Fire-Control console, and the Scav male has a very high probability index as well." Rose waved a hand and asked,"WHAT are you talking about?" Pazu looked over at Snowflake who was now flanked on both sides by 518 and Martya. Martya was nattering, "Whazzat? Coooooool! What's that do? Can I press that? Turn that on! WOW--that is SOoooo cool!" Pazu sighed,"I am a prisoner of Meta-probabilty, it seems. Martya is part of a weapon system designed to protect the planet and the human species from extermination. The weapon system uses Meta-Probabilty to stack the deck in human-kind's favor. Because I have a Star-fighter with four ACV on it, I've been recruited to save the planet." Rose asked in suprise,"Are you saying that you are taking Snowflake, 518 and Martya into space with you to divert the Torch-ship?" Pazu jumped into his pilot couch and the ship reformed around him to hold him snug. "Sounds crazier than shit, don't it?" Rose said," 'DOESN'T it?' I expected better language from an alien. Yes, it does sound crazy!" Pazu laughed as he had the cockpit extrude foam to cushion his three backseat aides. "HA! You ought to hear Martya cussing in MY language! That'd raise your hair. Or what ever. That ship is six light hours out at twenty-five percent of light-speed. We need to go now, if we hope to have any chance to stop it." Rose broadcasted a special message to Snowflake and said aloud,"Good-Luck." The cockpit sealed up and the ship leapt skyward. --TO BE CONTINUED!--