CHAPTER 11

Hamunaptra Resort

Earth, Sol Sector

The place was swarming with people in red/black suites. Monica Bleeth was watching all the commotion from her monitor. Commander William Riker was standing behind her, talking to the android.

She punched some control panels on her desk and the monitor flickered to show the Captain and the Princess walking along the corridor followed closely by Lt. Comm. Data.

"This is the recording of the incident, Commander." She said to Riker.

They watched in silence until the end where it showed Data standing alone in the room.

"I will take this, Ms. Bleeth. Thank you." He took the disk from her and tapped his comm. badge. A moment later both Riker and Data were beamed out of the resort.

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Once again, the recording was shown on a monitor. Only this time it was shown on a much bigger monitor that stretched from one side of the wall to the other. And these time they were more eyes watching the event with intense stares.

Admiral Jericho from Starfleet sat on the edge of the table. Beside him were Commander Riker and Lt. Data. On the other side of the table sat three magnificent figures. All three were Dnunians, wearing royal insignia on their clothes.

The first one was a slender and devilishly handsome man. He had long curly red hair that touched his shoulders. His hands were placed neatly above the table. His silver nails were sharp, yet neatly manicured. His skin was oddly soft for a man. His face resembled the Princes in many ways. From a glance, people could tell that they were twins. He was sitting nervously, his fingers tapping softly the table in front of him.

Beside him sat another Dnunian. He was bigger than Eryk, and taller. He had short light brown/reddish hair. He was not as handsome as Eryk, but from the line of his jaw one could see that this man was a hard and determined person. He had thin side burns on his face. His name was Janoj. The third in the line of the throne of Dnunia Empire.

Sitting beside him was the last royal member in the room. Prince Sharc, the fourth in line of the throne. He looked totally different from the other two. He was slightly taller and bigger than Eryk. He had brown hair that he cut very very short. His green eyes were somehow gleaming with something that could not be described. But if one looked at them for a while, they were very much soothing, if not almost hypnotic. He looked much more relaxed then the other two. He leaned back on his chair and crossed his legs. His one hand stroking his chin as he watched the recording.

General Gunn and 9 other Dnunian officers or bodyguards, no one really knew at that time, were standing behind the three Princes.

"Admiral Jericho," Prince Janoj addressed the Admiral as the recording ended, "How did she get the code to open the vault in the first place?" His voice was deep and full of authority.

Admiral Jericho looked at Commander Riker. He had no time to study the matter at all when the six Dnunian vessels arrived at the Headquarters.

Riker took over and explained, "According to the Director of the resort, Your Highness, the owner of Hamunaptra Resort gave the password directly to Princess Salvia in order to give her more access to every place in the resort."

"The owner." Prince Janoj merely said, demanding Riker to explain more.

"Yes, Your Higness. His name is Ardeth Bay VII, who is…" Riker barely finished his words when Prince Sharc suddenly cut in.

"Ardeth Bay? The Ardeth Bay from the Soul Foundation?" His voice was lighter than Janoj, but with the same tone of authority. He looked at his brother and winced.

"Eryk?" He asked further.

Eryk looked at him with a false innocent look. "Why look at me, Sharc. He knows. Troy knows." He motioned his head towards General Gunn. Sharc opened his mouth to answer back. He had been in the Thallonian Space to have a meeting with the former leader of the Thallonian Empire when he received a message to return and proceed to Earth. Luckily, the meeting had been successful so he had no difficulties in excusing himself to the former leader.

Janoj put his palm up to silence both of them. "We knew about him, Sharc. I’m sorry I missed to include that information in the subspace message I sent you to the Thallonian Space." He turned his attention back to Riker, "However, what I do not know is the whereabouts of this man, Commander. Why isn’t he present?"

Riker nodded, "He’s now at Rigel IV, Your Highness. I have sent some men to fetch him. However, since there was no information as to where he was having his meeting with his investors, it would take sometime to find him. Rigel IV is a big…"

"No excuse, Commander. I want that man in 2 hours. If your men are incapable of finding him, I will send my men." He signaled General Gunn to follow up his order. The General tapped his comm. badge to carry out the order.

Admiral Jericho held out his hands, "Your Higness, I hate to inform you that it requires 7 hours to travel from Earth to Rigel IV in warp 6. There is no…."

Janoj merely put up his hand to stop the Admiral from talking, "Use one of our ships, Admiral. They travel much faster than yours. I do not want any silly reasons that will hold up the investigation. Now I will send some scientists over to that place. Your science officers will help, Admiral."

The Dnunian Empire indeed had a much more advanced technology. They also had allies all over Alpha Quadrant and Beta Quadrant. Both UFP and Dnunian Empire were afraid to have a war between them. The strength in UFP lied in number, while for Dnunian it was their more advanced technology. They were obviously outnumbered. If a war should burst, both worlds would have been destroyed. Most likely would wipe out both civilizations and invite the third party to take over.

Thus, both knew that if they should live in the Milky Way Galaxy together, they should put aside their arrogance and learned to respect others. It seemed that this way had worked for centuries. And now, with this incident lying on the table, they were forced to try harder to keep the peace between them. The Dnunians seemed to hold back their anger. The lost of their beloved sister must have had a big effect to their state of emotions. The Admiral could see that the three Princes often clenched their fists in an attempt to restrain their emotion bursts. The Admiral did not like their tones at all. He did not like the way they ordered him around either. But if they were trying that hard, he should too. The peace between the two worlds was above all else.

Admiral Jericho sighed, "Yes, Your Highness, certainly."

CHAPTER 12

Hamunaptra

Egypt, 1933

Salvia turned to Captain Picard. "There are too many of them." She said in Dnunian language. Surprisingly, the Captain answered her with the same language. He usually spoke in English, then the universal translator would translate it to Dnunian language. She had had no idea that he could speak Dnunian.

"Your Higness, do not do anything unless they attack us." He said.

"What? What did you call me?" She asked in amazement.

The Captain ignored her question, instead he was checking on his tricorder. "According to the reading, we are now on the beginning of the 20^th century. The year is 1933. I won’t hurt nor kill anyone if I were you. Who knows that one of them could help us go back to our time."

Salvia turned his head to the warriors again. "You have your point there, Captain. How do you know who I am? General Gunn must have informed you…."

"Princess, it’s non of importance right now. We have a much more important matter at hand." He motioned to the warriors who suddenly drew their blades.

Salvia looked around and suddenly freaked out. She had never been in a battle before. She was scared. She instinctively pressed the button on her G-Belt. Dnunia was a massive planet. The mass was 15 times more than Earth, causing the gravity 15 times heavier. A human that was transported to the planet without being kept in an adjusting chamber would die instantly. All the bones would crash under the gravity. Dnunia was the biggest class M planet known in the whole Milky Way. As a race of space travelers, Dnunians had invented a Gravity Belt that enabled them to adjust the level of gravity required by the planet they visited. This prevented them from hurting other people by mistake. Without the G-Belt, a Dnunian on earth was 15 times stronger then any human. They could fly and float in Earth atmosphere. One pat on a shoulder would end a human life.

Salvia checked her G-Belt and found that this place had the same gravity level as Earth. She pushed some buttons to reduce the adjustment by 2 points. Making her twice stronger than the average men on this place. She didn’t want to get killed, yet she couldn’t let them got killed either. So she assumed that reducing the level by two points would be enough to protect herself and the Captain without killing this barbarian-looking people. She pushed some more buttons to activate her armor, just in case these people had some kind of phaser guns instead of just blades.

Suddenly the Captain shouted to the men on horses, "We mean no harm!" He said in English, hoping that one of these people could understand him.

Ardeth was surprised to hear it. The horses were still restless. He tried his best to keep his steady. But some of his men were having difficulty controlling their horses. Suddenly some of the horses became wild and started to run forward.

Salvia was surprised when she saw five men on horses charging forward towards them. She quickly leaped forward. Because of her G-Belt adjustment she leaped quite high and as graceful as a ballet dancer she swung her legs on the air. She kicked one of the riders off his horse and before landed back on the ground she managed to throw one punch to another rider, knocked him off to the ground. The Captain fired his phaser to stun the other 3 riders.

Ardeth was too stunned to see the development of the situation. Before he could call back his men, some of them already charged forward to attack, not knowing the reason why the first 5 men had launched the attack in the first place.

More and more Med-jai came charging. Picard hid behind a rock, firing his phaser on a wide spread, taking down 5 to 6 men at once. He knew his phaser would need to be recharged sooner or later. He hated the thought of it so instead he managed to stun more and more people the best he could.

Salvia fought bravely. She leaped and hopped like a grasshopper, sending the riders flying off their horsebacks. Their blades couldn’t penetrate her armor, so the Captain need not worry about her safety. His position in this matter was more fragile. He didn’t have anything to armor himself against their blades. Sometimes he could hear bones breaking as Salvia kicked and punched the riders. Picard had seen Dnunians fighting before, but he had never expected that the spoiled Princess could fight bare hands better than his chief security officer who was a Klingon Warrior.

Ten minutes had passed and the red light on his phaser was on, signaling him to recharge. The Princess seemed to get fatigued. More and more blades were clanking against her armor and she didn’t leaped as high and as fast.

Ardeth checked on his men who were down. They were all alive. Those who had been hit by the laser gun was beginning to regain consciousness. This man had not lied when he said he meant no harm. They were fighting in defense.

"Stop Fighting!!! STOP!! STOP!!" he shouted in Arabic. Some of his men who heard his commands shouted to the others. In one minute they all ceased their attacks and retreated.

Salvia stood side by side with Picard. Her chest was heaving up and down heavily. This place was so hot and she was exhausted.

"We mean no harm." Picard shouted once again to the men in black robes.

One man moved forward. His face too was covered by black material. He got down from his horse and walked towards them, removing the black cloth covering his mouth and nose.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" He said in a deep and familiar voice, demanding explanation.

As he approached closer, both the Captain and the Princess could only say one word in a chorus.

"ARDETH BAY?!"