The Scav Squad leader looked over at the Measure and asked, "What does the beam of darkness do?" The Measure growled, "It's NOT A BEAM OF DARKNESS! No one can broadcast 'darkness'. It's merely the dimming of light due to me causing a frequency shift in the photons passing through my Neutralization field. It's NOT darkness." Snowflake said, "Can I borrow that power? You look like crap" Measure shook her head. "No. It's a Naga ability. I am a Neutralizer. I'm suppressing the Scourge's ability to both draw power from that hyper-frame OR take over the ship's computer from his body. So he's forced to regenerate it instead. I am so very tired. Lime had best hurry up. I don't want to die here." Snowflake asked, "Draw power? From WHAT? For that matter, what is this column of energy without a source?" Measure blinked and swayed. After a moment, she answered in a slurred voice, "It's a hyper-frame. Much MUCH simpler than Driftware or Hyper-ware as my species call it. A Hyper-frame is a construct the is inserted into the higher levels of Hyperspace. Current flows from higher potential to lower. So it generates ENORMOUS energy without physically existing in this universe, other than as pure power. People with Hyper-Ware in them can charge themselves for better effect easier off this than other forms." Snowflake walked over to the alien monitoring station and reached out with her power of reflection and absorption and gave it a try. She was doing it slowly and carefully, until there was a loud bang. The power flowed like a river that she almost drown in. Lightning like arcs of electricity flowed into the console and grounded out in loud cracks into the metal walk-way. Snowflake broke away, as Measure growled, "Idiot! You could have exploded yourself!" Snowflake turned and glared at Measure and snapped, "Why are you so hateful and angry all the time?" "It's all I have. I hate my life. I hate my body. I hate not having legs. I HATE MY MOTHER!" The Measure ended in a hoarse scream and fell silent, swaying. Lime drifted down from the upper railing and fell to all fours. "I need to get you guys offa the ship...." Snowflake grabbed her before she fell. She said, "Lime let me borrow your power! Your nose is bleeding!" Lime was so exhausted, she only nodded. Snowflake reached out and took Lime's power into her. The sensory overload was unanticipated. She could feel everyone breathing, and read there,their health in breaths. Both Measure and Lime were completely exhausted and they kept on. Measure whispered, "I hate you and your family, Snowflake. I am so jealous. My mom was biological and she dumped me like a hot rock at the first chance like I was NOTHING. Nothing. And your mom is a MACHINE! She still had so much love in her to adopt Lime. She wasn't even the same SPECIES!" "I hate my cold Naga Species and their unfeeling hearts. Oh god...I miss Toxic so MUCH. She let me feel loved. I..." The Measure collapsed to the deck in a faint, her power drained. Snowflake was stunned by the Measure's admissions. She told the Scav man, "We're leaving!" The Scav, Davor exclaimed, "Thirty second delay! He's getting UP!" He grabbed the detonator off his belt and clicked the delay switch. Snowflake reached out with her new power and twisted time-space in a way that allowed her to teleport them all over to the Space-Battleship along side. She shouted, "GO!" It was waiting with it's Time-Space-Matrix-Distortion drives on stand-by. when her signal was given, it punched a hole in space and was in Hyperspace before the Asuran battleship exploded with unbelievable fury into a cloud of star-core hot plasma. Rose came over and asked Snowflake, "Why do you cry child?" Snowflake said, "I met someone who never knew joy. It hurt more than I thought, since it's a friend." Rose patted her niece on the shoulder. She said, "We'll help get the wounded to sickbay." --TO BE CONTINUED!--