The Communicator turned to the ruler caste and said,"Overlord? We have analyzed the Ma'Urishan course. They are running to the Forge of Heaven in the Balam system. ETA two days, eleven hours!" The Overlord looked at the lumbering Ma'Urishan ship in the center of the pack of pursuing Asuran ship which reminded the Overlord of hunting virprins chasing prey down on the plains of his home-world. He said,"Tell our allies, the Asura, to drop back slowly. If we press the Ma'Urishan to much ...even THEY will open fire in a hyperspace conduit! We have no need to risk our life for this prey. If they rupture the conduit..." The Communicator nodded, "By your command, Overlord!" He turned and did as he was instructed. the Asuran Battle-Cruisers dropped back slowly. The Communicator turned back and asked,"Overlord? What of the Forge of Heaven? What are our plans concerning it? if we come out near it and Balaam has it facing us...the result will NOT be favorable towards US! Also... why is that name familiar to me?" The Overlord nodded. "It's the planet where we lost one Asuran Battle-cruiser and one of our captured Ma'Urishan ships a couple of weeks ago. The loss of the Asuran ship wasn't a surprise, but the stolen Ma'Urishan ship was piloted by experienced Scourge! They would NOT have taken foolish chances! Their last message said they had detected an energy surge on the planetary surface that was unidentifiable!" The Overlord slapped the arm of his throne. "UNIDENTIFIABLE? To US? The humans of Balaam then defeated TWO Retrieval Units! THEN destroyed the disembodied ruler caste there! His report via the Retrieval Units before they were all destroyed was... UNBELIEVABLE! Multiple races and species living TOGETHER and CO-OPERATING? How is this thinkable? We never did that. Even the despised ALTHA-KROMMIUMS never did THAT! DAMMIT!" "Are you SURE he meant 'co-operating as equals' instead 'obeying their masters'? That IS unbelievable if true!" The Communicator was astounded to speechlessness. The Overlord nodded. "The universe is filled with endless mysteries! We adapt if we hope to rule it all. There is more troubling news about that system, though." "MORE TROUBLING THAN THAT?" The communicator almost screamed. The rest of the command crew looked over and then back to their duties. The Overlord said, "Our Probability Macroscope reveals a black line on Balaam." "The Great Enemy? It HAS been around four million years. We ARE due to be attacked. What else?" The Communicator didn't like how the Overlord fidgeted. Scourge NEVER fidgeted. "There was also a WHITE line to balance the Black!" The Overlord almost hissed it in fear and anger. The Communicator stumbled back, his hackles rising. "That is NOT possible! The race of Abel is gone! Their light is gone from the universe. The Great Enemy betrayed them and killed them all and banished their world into the stream of time beyond Hyperspace or Subspace! How can there be ANY...?" The Command crew stared and DIDN'T go back to their assigned tasks. Overlord waved a dismissal and said,"Tell the fleet to split into two groups on gate-out into the Balaam system. One group will herd the Ma-Urishan towards the dark-side of Balaam where the Forge of Heaven can't fire on it. The humans of Balaam will fire on the Ma'Urishan. They'll never even know why we used those ships to fool the Forge of Heaven into NOT firing on us!" "The second group of Asuran ships will assault the planet directly. We didn't plan to attack so soon without putting together a proper battle-group... however, watching the Asurans suffer losses will be invaluable intelligence for the rest of us. Communicator, tell the fleet." The Overlord got up and left the Command Center on the Scourge Ship. --TO BE CONTINUED!--