Captain Tkarro asked Neblae,"Toxic said it was trying to 'climb up to where we are'? Did she explain before Rose bundled her off to the base hospital to be put in a chill suit?" Neblae shook her brown head as Narchi hugged her. He sighed, "I'm just glad, you aren't on the injured list!" She turned to Captain Tkarro and said,"She has perceptions the rest of us just do NOT have, but she doesn't have the words to express it." Narchi said, "I'm just glad no-one died! We could have been TOAST!" Neblae said, "Don't mention TOAST! That thing was disgusting! Like burnt toast with hairy fungus growing on it. I just wish that Toxic could have killed it. It's retreated to ... SOMEWHERE we couldn't go." Measure slapped her hands together and exclaimed,"SUB-SPACE! We were in the top layer of SUB-SPACE! That explains a LOT! Like why it could be a living Hyper-frame breaker!" Dokka Tkarro looked blank. He asked,"What's sub-space again? I have trouble enough wrapping my mind around faster-than-light space of HYPER-space!" Narchi said with a thoughtful look. "It's mostly useless. There are as many layers of 'slower-than-light' as there are Faster-than-light dimensions. The lowest has time moving so slow, the big bang just happened and there is NO matter. The upper level of sub-space, time passes at a speed of twelve minutes for every ten minutes here. We need THAT like a hole in the head!" Measure spoke,"Oh,CRAP! Speaking of us getting holes in our heads..." She looked up as the Baraqwen suddenly dropped from the sky as the Naga cross-training corvette swept by overhead. She stood up from the Pelote court and walked over. The tension level jumped up to a palpable feeling. She stopped and looked at them. She said calmly,"My ship had detected an emergence from Sub-space here. Research into Sub-space is forbidden! What happened? Casualties have been seen being removed from here." Captain Tkarro gave her the prepared cover story. "A human terrorist faction set off a gas bomb with a psycho-active element. The Four Sisters used a seldom used ability to transport it away. They must have dumped it into sub-space. Is this a problem?" "I have a graviton accelerator device in my ship capable of causing a black-hole to swallow this planet and everything within eight light minutes. It will be deployed here. If another Sub-space emergence is detected, it will detonate." Her tone was cold, almost nonchalant. Dokka felt his blood run cold as he asked, "WHAT? WHY? You can't do that! We are a sovereign planet!" "A Sub-space emergence trumps THAT. I can call for a battle fleet to put the device in place, if I have to. I'm not allowed to comment on the reason why." She waved a hand in dismissal. Narchi remarked,"Does this have anything to do with the ancient,'Great Enemy' of the Althan-Krommiums? They came from sub-space didn't they? Neblae found reference to them in the ancient Nunera system." Dokka felt like he was falling when Narchi starting talking. It was a dangerous gamble. The Baraqwen nodded. "You are well informed. They send out scouts before their invasion. These scouts find weaknesses in time-space to pour through. They can possess people before they physically manifest in our dimension. They are over due to invade. They invade every four million years or so. Their armies can number into the trillions." Dokka felt his blood run cold. "What can we do?" "Destroy your system and run. The Sururin Enclave is ready to fight them if they re-appear. Let me know if they reappear. You won't have long before their invasion begins then." Narchi asked as she walked away,"Would you care if we did research on Sub-space in space away from a planet?" She said,"If it were the Great Enemy--you have little time. Do as you like." Their blood ran cold at her callous words. The ship moved over her and she leaped up into it. Neblae remarked,"We might be toast after all." --TO BE CONTINUED!--