Chapter Seven

Bright light above him. It felt warm here, protected.

*Am I dead?* Zachary wondered for a moment. No, if he were dead, he wouldn't feel this lousy.

A voice cut through the air. "I'm disappointed in you, Captain."

The Queen.

"Damn it all to hell," Zachary muttered.

The Queen didn't hear him, or pretended not to. "Though I have to admire your determination, especially in tricking the cameras. If I had caught you a half-hour later, there would have been no indication of your actions at all, and you would have been dead."

Zachary looked around, he saw he was lying in a regeneration capsule.

"You've lost quite a bit of blood," the Queen said neutrally. "My guards almost didn't reach you in time."

"I wish they hadn't," Zachary said bitterly.

The Queen raised an eyebrow. "Not much gratitude towards someone who just saved your life."

"I was committing suicide, remember?"

"I don't want you to die," the Queen said calmly. "I want you to live."

"Why?"

The Queen bent down and whispered chillingly in his ear. "That's not important, Captain. You *will* live."

She straightened. For a moment, Zachary saw something on her face. He debated saying anything about it, but decided to venture it.

"You're worried, aren't you?" he asked. "Worried that I'll still die on you."

"I am not worried," she snapped.

Zachary couldn't help it. His strength and better judgement were shot.

He laughed darkly. "Well, I'll be damned."

The Queen whipped around. The expression on her face looked completely wrong for her.

"What is so funny?" she asked, stressing every syllable.

Zachary grinned lopsidedly. "For a moment there, you were starting to *sound* like her."

The Queen's face turned into a mask of black anger. *Go ahead.* Zachary silently challenged. *Take my head off. Turn me into a Slaverlord. Run me through like you did to Niko. I stopped caring a long time ago.*

The fury was masked over again, turning blank and cold.

"I admire your attempt to manipulate me, Captain," she said evenly. "But it's not going to work. As soon as you are recovered, I'll put you in your cell and let you contemplate your actions."

The Queen abruptly spun on her heels and walked quickly out of the room. He could hear her quickened footsteps on the tiled floors.

*She's scared,* Zachary realized with astonishment. *I don't believe it.*

*She can't drain the crystal, and she was genuinely frightened when I told her how much she sounded like her...Is it possible that Eliza is her weak spot?*

The Queen was insulted and enraged. How dare that...that HUMAN claim...?! The Queen summoned her indignant rage and pulled out the large crystal from her pocket.

"Your mate has proven...most uncooperative, Eliza," she whispered. "Just as you have...Well, I'll show you *both!*"

Perhaps a long period alone was what the captain needed. Time to sit in silence. She already had the guard take away anything that could be used as a suicide weapon, and redid the camera. Oh, yes. Time to confuse him.

* * * *

But after three days, the experiment had defintitely taken a different turn.

"The cameras indicate, your majesty, that it is Captain Foxx's eightieth hour without sleep or food."

"A hunger strike," the Queen realized. "Suicide by a different means."

Orthallan mused. "He's almost Andorian. Stoic, humorless, and has such an aversion to captivity that he's more dangerous in the cell than outside it."

The Queen pondered the image on the screen.

"Shall I inform Delon to have the torture chamber ready?" Orthallan asked.

"There is a fine line with torture. Too much and the captive no longer feels pain and starts to enjoy it." said the Queen. "Perhaps it is time to try something else...Orthallan, I want to see Captain Foxx in my private chambers. Bring him to me when I send for him."

Zachary was brought to an unfamiliar part of the asteroid palace. The door opened, and Zachary was struck by the smell in the room.

A banquet. Fresh bread and vegetables, a turkey in the center. The smell brought back memories of holiday dinners. Sitting around the table first with his siblings while his mother nervously prepared everything.

And later, as he did the cooking himself, for a family of his own. He allowed himself to smile a little at the memories. Eliza was a wonderful wife, but she really couldn't be trusted in the kitchen.

"Come, Captain," purred the Queen, buttering a roll. "Sit down."

The Queen's guards pushed Zachary into the chair across the table from her. Zachary sat down, but made no further move.

"I read a little about human delicacies," she said. "And decided to try some. I must compliment your species. Gherkin cusine is terribly bland."

Zachary's stomach growled. It would be too easy to just grab the apple taunting him from the fruit bowl within reach.

"What is this," he asked. "Some sort of trick?"

"No trick. I've noticed that you haven't eaten in what is now eighty-five hours."

"I'm not hungry," he said, though it was far from the truth.

"Come now," said the Queen. "Do you really think I want a prize specimen like yourself pulling a hunger strike?"

"No," he said. "But I'm not eating."

The Queen put down the piece of bread she'd been holding. "Don't you appreciate what I've done?"

"I know what this is, your Majesty. You can make me wear the uniform. You can torture me. You can do whatever you like to me, seeing as you have every advantage here."

"I could easily kill you, even without the guards," she said menacingly. "Now, I demand you eat."

"You won't kill me," Zachary said quietly. "And you aren't about to put me in the Psychocrypt, either."

The Queen stood up. "Don't you dare talk back to me!"

"I'm tired of your threats, your majesty. Nothing you can do will hurt me anymore."

The Queen straightened, skeptical.

"You've taken my friends. You've taken my freedom..." Zachary's voice was dead, tired. Like an old man who was dying and resigned to it. "But you won't kill me because you can't completely conquer her, even though she's part of you."

The Queen almost looked surprised for a moment, then her mask of cold arrogance was back in place.

"That's where you're wrong," the Queen said.

Zachary stood and walked over to her. "Then, why can't you drain her crystal like you can the Gherkins?"

The Queen was furious, but Zachary managed to block her hand coming for his cheek.

"Why single me out to torment?" he said. "I thought that it was because I led the Rangers, but it didn't really make sense. I saw you with the crystal, your Majesty. That's when it all made sense. You can't conquer her, so you'll conquer me."

The guards rushed over to pull him away from the Queen. Zachary backed away, and bowed politely. "Good night, Highness." He passively held out his hands to the guards, and let them lead him out of the room.

The Queen smashed her fist into the table and shouted a curse in her native tongue. She pulled her cape around her and balled her hands into fists, her lavender skin growing scarlet with incoherant rage.

That...that...HUMAN!

She abrubtly turned and exited the room.

The Queen strode into one of her laboratories. "DAMN HIM!!"

She pulled the crystal from her cloak and put it on the platform. Locking the doors on all sides of the room (and making certain to check the airshafts), she sat in the elaboarate controler's chair of the device.

The dream machine slowly lowered from the ceiling as she vented her rage to the crystal before her.

"I don't care if you die. I don't care if he dies," the Queen hissed. "NO ONE challenges the Queen of the Crowns."

The machine activated at full strength, as the Queen pulled up all the rage and hate from even the darkest recesses of her mind. It was time to show that disobedient captain her full wrath.

The red light surged through her like the hate. Inside, she heard the life-force of the rebellious human woman scream in protest.

The Queen's guards dumped him on the bed. His face to the soft pillow, the self control was draining from him.

He must be a mess. It had been two days or was it three? He couldn't fall asleep. He had to stay awake. He couldn't defend himself if he succumbed to sleep.

He knew he should get back up from the bed. It was too dangerous of a temptation. Too comfortable.

His body was starting to betray him. God, he was exhausted. Three days with no sleep. He didn't know how much longer he could hold out.

"Have to stay awake," he muttered into the pillow. "She can't hurt me if I'm awake..."

But he just didn't have the strength any more. And he was so alone. Maybe dreaming would be a comfort...even nightmares would help.

*Just a few minutes,* a deceptive part of himself was whispering. *Maybe if I close my eyes for just a few seconds...Sleep...you can sleep for a few minutes...*

Maybe he would be lucky and this would all be a dream...that's it. *Everything's a dream, Zach, just keep telling yourself that, and you'll be all right...Soon you'll wake up at BETA mountain.*

Against what was left of his better judgment, Zachary's eyes closed, and the dreams began...

...He found himself back at his home, back on Earth. Was he alone?

He heard laughter coming from the front room. Feminine...but it wasn't Jessi, it was...

Oh God...*Eliza...* Could it be?

He walked out to the front room. Eliza was eating breakfast, her blue eyes raking him over with amusement.

"You're a sleepyhead today. I was wondering when you'd get up, dear," she teased.

"Eliza! You're safe! You're here!" Zachary was astonished. It even *felt* real.

"Where else would I be?" she said, puzzled.

"I-" he started to say and stopped short. He walked over, next to her. She reached out and took his hand. Zachary shivered. It was real, solid.

*This isn't happening...I want it so badly to be true...*

He pulled her up out of her chair and into a crushing bear-hug. She was warm, solid...even the scent. "Oh God, this is too good to be true."

She was laughing, "Zachary."

Suddenly, Eliza's laughter changed. It became deeper and had dark overtones to it. The arms around him stiffened and grew icy, and she grew taller. He opened his eyes to find it wasn't Eliza, but a Slaverlord.

He gasped, and tried to shove the slaverlord away from him.

"Oh, no, *dear.*" said the Slaverlord in a twisted hybrid of Eliza's voice and the Queen's. "You're not home at all. You left me behind...and you call yourself a man of your word...Look at yourself!"

The scene wavered and shifted. Zachary felt nauseous.

He was back in his old home, eight years ago. He was a Ranger Lieutenant, living in Edmonton...What happened? Why was he here?

He was looking down into the eyes of the 8-year old Zach Jr. "She deserved it!"

Not fully realizing what he was doing, he answered angrily. "I told you NEVER to hit your sister!"

"I didn't hit her."

"I saw you hit her. You just told me she deserved it. Don't lie to me."

"But DAD."

Zachary looked down at his "son" in confusion... trying to figure out what was going on...

Dimly, Zachary realized that he was replaying an incedent...Oh, no. He had been out of patience. At work, everything had gone wrong. He was at wit's end, and Zach Jr's attitude had sent him over the edge. He felt his hand pull back. "You want to hit things?"

He then did something he swore he'd never do...

*Oh, God,* Zachary realized. *No. I didn't want to hit him...*

He pulled back with his left arm and sent a hard punch to the boy's face!

*No.* Zachary remembered. *That's not how it happened."

He seemed to be shifting back and forth from observing to pounding the boy. Over and over until the child's broken body had taken fatal damage.

Zach Jr.'s mutilated face looked up at him accusingly. "You lied. You swore you'd never hit me."

"This isn't how it happened."

*But it's what you thought...you had thought about this...In your anger and rage...you held it in your thoughts.* It was fully Eliza's voice now.

*No.*

*You *thought* it, Zachary,* she said, in a firm, yet oddly non-threatening way. *If only for an instant - you still thought it. That's all this place is. I know you better than you know yourself, darling.*

The scene shifted. He saw Eliza in front of him. Not the Slaverlord, but as a human woman. The voice coming from her, though, was that of the Queen.

"Hitting him was uncalled for!" she shouted at him.

"Eliza, he hit his sister. It won't happen again."

"It had better not!" she yelled at him. "I'll be damned if you start turning into..."

"That's enough," Zachary told her, despondant. "I never should have...How did I let my temper get out of line like that? I..."

He looked up and saw that Eliza was a Slaverlord again.

"You said you'd never hit him, Zachary," the Slaverlord hissed. "Remember...you said you'd never hit your kids..."

The scene shifted with a jolt that sent him falling into a nearby chair. Looking down at himsalf, Zachary realized what had happened. He was 15 again. He was back in that dismal house, wearing the flannel shirts he favored in winter, feeling the heat from the wood stove, squinting in its dim light, and hearing the grumbling and sound of a whiskey bottle being opened. The smell of sweat and alcohol.

He looked over, into the kitchen. Alan Foxx, his father, had poured himself another whiskey.

*Dad? But you died...*

Zachary got out of his seat. He had to get the hell out of here. Back to the present. Back to somewhere other than here if this is what he thought it was...

Alan Foxx lurched up from his seat and towered over Zachary, blocking the door. Zachary wasn't small, even as a teenager, but Alan was a huge man, and a very mean drunk.

"You aren't going anywhere. You don't mouth off to me, boy," he slurred. Zachary could smell the alcohol on his father's breath. He was weaving on his feet, and he began a diatribe against his son.

"You embarrass me, you know that. You ain't gonna amount to nothing..."

Zachary shivered. NO ONE, save Eliza, knew about this chapter. She'd caught Alan drunk. While he could still think, he cursed the Queen. Leave it to the old bitch to find these memories...leave it to her to use them.

"I'm going to amount to something," Zachary spat. "I've just applied to the Ranger academy!"

"Why, you know they won't want you either," Alan laughed again. "Buncha alien lovin' idiots. Whatsa matta, Zach? Don't think humans are good enough for you."

He punched Zachary in the jaw, sending him into the door so hard that his teeth rattled with the impact. "Who's helping you?"

Zachary put the back of one hand up against his bloody lip. "Mister and Missus Jackson."

Alan stumbled back and took another swig of whiskey. "I told you to stay away from them. You still seeing their daughter after I tell you no - after I make ya promise not to see that Eliza girl, you still go behind my back! Never keep yer promises, do you, Zach?"

"You can't make me, I LOVE her."

"Ha! Just what do you know of love, boy?!" Alan scoffed, taking a swig of liquor. "You'll fail her like you fail me. She ain't gonna stay with you..."

*Fail her...* Zachary thought. *He was right. The old bastard was right.*

"That's right, Zachary," the Slaverlord said in a parody of Eliza's voice. "You failed me! You not only failed me, you failed our children. You took away their mother!"

Zachary tried to move out of Alan's range, but Alan also shimmered and faded...the white shirt and pants turning into a Slaverlord's robes. "You're aren't going anywhere, SON..."

An abrupt, nauseating lurch...Onboard the *Phoenix*...*Oh, God...not this!*

"NO! I won't do this! Not again!" Zachary cried out. He wanted to escape this...wanted to run, but he was trapped in the nightmare.

The hyperlink radio blared, droning like a Crown Guard. "Humans have been taken...Humans have been taken..."

"Why did you let her die, Daddy?" Jessi asked angrily.

Zachary couldn't move. He looked around. Slaverlords. They were ALL Slaverlords. He had a hard time finding his breath.

"You could have saved her." Zach Jr. was staring at Zachary accusingly. "Coward...You left us all behind. She got us away."

"You ran!" Jessi hissed. "You didn't know or care if we were dead."

Zozo and Waldo were also there, glaring at him with disapproval. "You'll never amount to anything." Waldo said, sounding eerily like Alan.

Zachary couldn't seem to catch his breath. He was either sobbing uncontrollably, or he was having a heart attack. He didn't know which. He hoped it was a heart attack. He'd maybe die, and it would stop.

"You're just a pitiful human! You're not even good for cannon fodder! I don't know why we Andorians thought you could help us." the nightmare Waldo continued.

"You failed your wife, you failed your children, and now you failed the Rangers!" The voice now was Niko, her battered form looking up at him just before the Queen's guard killed her. "I'm sorry, Zach. I tried..."

"I'm sorry I failed..."

"I tried and you failed me," Niko said.

The Slaverlords flanking him were Shane and Doc.

"You failed us..." accused Shane.

You broke your word," Doc admonished.

Shane's Slaverlord hissed. "Another failure. Another person paying for your mistakes."

"No..." Zachary whispered. "I fought...I..."

"DID YOU?" Shane yelled. "DID YOU REALLY?"

Then the Queen was in front of him, "You are a failure, Captain Foxx! Your team of 'Series-5' Rangers is gone. Two of them are now my servants, and the *dear* Niko is now dead!"

She grinned with smug satisfaction. "And now, YOU belong to ME, Captain Zachary Foxx. Your mind is now MINE!" the Queen smiled. It was not a pretty smile, and he was filled with dread....

He tried to run, but he was falling...falling. Back to that long corridor he'd seen in so many nightmares.

Eliza stood in the red light of the far end of the corridor, as he'd seen her in many other nightmares, arms open and welcoming...but the smile was ice cold.

"Come here, Zachary darling," Eliza hissed. "Come here and get what you deserve."

He was about to join her in the red light. Pain...The greatest torture souls feel in hell: In hell that they must live and cannot die...*facilis decendus Averno*...And in the lowest depth a lower deep...to which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven...Day of Wrath, that day of burning...Abandon all hope ye who enters here...

He got to the border, but a moment of lucidity siezed him, and he froze. *This is the Queen raping your mind! Don't look! Run!*

"NO!" he shouted in denial. "THIS IS ALL A DREAM!"

He turned away from Eliza, from the apparations...from Zachary Jr. and Niko, from the broken bodies, from the accusing faces, from the howls, the screams, the memories...from himself.

He just kept running and running, finally finding a place of total darkness, and hiding. At least in this darkness, the Queen couldn't harm him. At least here the nightmares wouldn't follow. The silence was opperessive, and he felt like he was swimming in rapids. Sooner or later, the darkness would claim him totally, but Zachary didn't care. Drowning in darkness was better than the endless torture of light.

He never even remembered waking up.

Chapter Eight

The bed seemed too big for Niko. Indeed, she seemed to have collapsed in on herself. Her breathing was shallow, and her forehead was almost painfully hot and dry. A rictus of anguish and mourning contorted her usually beautiful face. She was paler than the sheets she lay on.

Ariel's eyes burnt with unshed tears, and her stomach was tied in knots. *Ever since you got here, you've been acting like you want to kill yourself out of grief. Why can't you find it in you to live?*

"The fever is worse. At least she doesn't have pnumonia." Kahlen was exhausted and amazed. "Gods, we're lucky that the sentry saw her staggering about. She would have beed dead by morning."

Ariel wrung her hands in worry. "I should of sensed it, Kahlen. I knew she was bonded on some level or another to her friends. She told me that they were gone...I guess she wanted to join them."

Ariel didn't dare try to send a thought to Niko. Last time she tried, the poor girl failed to recognize her. All she got was an insane whirlwind, survivor's guilt being a prominent emotion.

To make matters worse, it was as if Niko's mind was one, raw and painful wound, with shards of glass for shields. Ariel tried not to think of how she'd found the girl, cowering and cold next to the bodies of her parents, trapped in a pile of rubble that had once been the family's home.

"The good news," said Kahlen. "If you can call it such, is that a good part of her is determined to live. She'll definitely make a full physical recovery."

The door creaked open, admitting D'Len once more. The rarely-seen sorceress was known for never showing worry or fear, but the look on her face at the moment showed a great deal of both.

"Mistress D'Len," Kahlen stood, almost at attention.

She spoke directly to Ariel. "Ariel, child. Your student - will she be all right?"

"The fever's gone down a little, but it hasn't broken," Ariel said.

"But," warned Kahlen. "Everyone MUST be fully shielded before coming into contact with her. Any kind of mental contact could be fatal at this stage."

"I understand," D'Len. "I came here to inform you both that when she does awaken, I will help her rehabilitation myself."

Ariel was somewhat puzzled, and mildly affronted. D'Len was the most ancient of the Circle members, but Ariel had trained Niko since childhood. "She is my pupil, Mistress. I know her gifts better than anyone."

"Ariel Dal'Elspeth," admonished D'Len. "This is not a time to question. Your pupil is deathly ill. You will certainly help, but what has been done to Niko is very old sorcery, and beyond what you've encountered."

"Yes," Ariel said reluctanly. "It would appear that way. What did this to her, Mistress D'Len?"

"Even I don't know," D'Len said flatly. "But I have my suspicions."

"Suspicions?" Ariel looked up from Niko for a moment.

But D'Len was already gone. Kahlen had left with her. Ariel looked down at her unconscious student.

"Oh, Niko dear, just *what* have you run into that has the Circle Elder so upset? You always wanted to travel on your own, but look what it has done to you."

She looked up at the door Kahlen and D'Len had vanished behind. "Something's very wrong here."

* * * *

Again, awakening...again remembering...and the awful pain.

The memories were a little clearer. she remembered Doc stuffing her into the shuttle, and starting the countdown. Just when he was so close to escaping himself, he was hit. He'd done it to save her. If he left her behind, then he would have gotten away...

She didn't have the strength. She couldn't save him...she couldn't save any of them... She lay limply back against the pillows, and let the tears flow down her cheeks.

*I've let them die...No, worse than death...* she thought. *Oh, Gods...The Queen.*

"Doc..." she sobbed. "I'm so sorry..."

She heard someone calling her name, ordering her to wake up. A grey-eyed face stared into her own. Hands steadied her shoulders.

"Niko, dear, *please* tell me what happened..." the voice begged her.

She looked at the face without recognition, lost in haunting memories.

The familiar voice jarred her out of her disorientation. "Niko, dear. Please, it's Ariel. You're going to be all right."

"Ariel?" She frowned. "How? Where am I?"

"You're on Xanadau," Ariel said, smoothing a lock of hair away from Niko's cheek. "You're safe."

"Oh, Ariel, it was awful. The Queen...I had to leave Doc behind...I let Shane get put in...and Zachary..." Her words didn't make coherant sense, but neither did much at the moment.

Ariel gathered Niko up in her arms and let her cry herself out against her shoulder, doing her best to comfort the distraught young woman. "It's all right, child. You're safe. Your shuttle came here, and you're all right."

"But, the team... they're NOT all right..."

"Your friends?" Ariel asked.

Niko nodded against Ariel's shoulder. "Oh, Gods. Doc and I made it to the shuttlebay, but he got hit with a stun blast. I couldn't drag him aboard the shuttle." She couldn't say anything past that.

"It's all right, dear," Ariel said. "You can rest."

"I can't... I have to go back and rescue them from the Queen!" Niko protested, and made another move to get up.

You're injured, Niko. You are staying here until you are well," Ariel said sternly. "If you left now, you wouldn't even make it out the door before you fell flat on your face." Ariel told her flat-out.

"I just can't leave them..." Niko tried to protest.

"Niko, you won't do them OR yourself any good if you try and rescue them now," Ariel tried to reason with her.

Niko sighed, realizing that Ariel was not going to let her even think about it at the moment. She relaxed a little. "I feel awful."

"My dear, if 'awful' is the worst you feel right now, then you ought to be grateful," Ariel told her with a wry smile. She helped Niko lay back against the pillows, and said, "From what the healers tell me, you are even lucky to be alive."

Niko's eyes teared up again, "Lucky? no.... I don't think so, Ariel. The Queen...I don't know why. She just kept battering and battering...Don't know why..." she corrected herself. "No, I know why..."

Tears flowed freely down Niko's cheeks as she recalled the mental games the Queen had played with her...

"Child, why? What is it?"

Niko swallowed. "The Queen...The team and I...We were captured." The red-haired woman frowned. "The old witch just wanted to make us suffer, that's all. She...Gods, Ariel. She's like one of us...Energy control, Thought-Sense, FarSeeing...Only, she draws her strength by creating pain."

Ariel tried to comfort her, but didn't know what to say.

The healer, Kahlen arrived finally and Ariel motioned for her to come into the room.

She looked back at Niko and said, "You need your rest, child."

After a few days, Niko's fever broke, though portions of her mind still felt like broken glass.

Kahlen had advised her to stay abed for a couple more days, despite all Niko's protests to the contrary.

One afternoon, she was blearing awake from a bored nap to hear voices outside her room. Kahlen, and someone else. Niko couldn't sense anything, nor did she want to try.

Concentrating on the voice, she tried to think of where she heard it before.

The door creeked open, ad mitting a tall woman with lavender skin and garnet eyes. Niko shivered and drew back for a moment until she realized that this woman wasn't her attacker, but rather another of the same species.

The tall, ancient woman drew up a chair and sat down. Niko marvelled at the grace with which she carried herself, a grace that would have the best ballet dancers green with envy.

"Hello, Niko," the woman said gently. "You may not remember, but I am Mistress D'Len."

"As in the Master Sorceress D'Len? Why are you here? Ariel told me you never left the Old Castle...that you were there to protect artifacts."

"Lannon is doing that job for me right now," she said with a gentle smile. "But I'm glad to see you're awake."

"I don't know if I am," muttered Niko honestly.

D'Len nodded. "Yes, I know of your loss."

"It's not helping that everything, body and mind alike, feel like they're burning all the time. It just won't stop."

"You are injured on many levels, Niko. Which is why Ariel agreed to let me help you. Already, I've done what I can for you in healing-trance."

Niko closed her eyes and did an internal search. "It's like a lot of me's been amputated. I can't sense anything."

"That's to prevent you from hurting yourself or other people with a Gift gone out of control."

"I need to leave. The shuttle?"

"Was destroyed in the landing. I'm afraid that you have no way off Xanadau. In light of your injuries, the Council agreed with me to keep you here."

"Mistress," she said hoarsely. "I was carrying something, I think. A large red crystal...with a human face inside it if you held it to light...Where is it? I need to know..."

D'Len nodded solemnly. "Yes, you did bring some sort of artifact. A red shard of crystal." The healer's voice was quiet. "But I'm afraid that it shattered when the shuttle crashed."

Niko's face registered shock, then the worst pain. All warmth drained from her. Everything was thown into the chaos again.

D'Len gently brushed Niko's face. "I am sorry."

Niko's eyes closed, and hopless tears streamed down her face. "The crystal...he's gone. Oh, Shane...I couldn't..."

A dry cloth wiping the tears. "Survivors have a unique pain, Niko. He, and your other friends, are now one with the universe. They are, and always will be, part of your spirit."

"The pain won't stop, Mistress."

D'Len gave no answer. There was a long pause, as neither wanted to talk anymore. The old sorceress only watched in silence. Niko's body shook with sobs, but there was no sound. No sound at all.

After what seemed like forever, D'Len touched Niko's forehead.

"You are a twice-over survivor, Niko Dal'Ariel. You need to heal."

"My people...the humans..."

"This is your home, Niko, and we are your people," DLen said firmly before walking out the door, and closing it behind her.

All Niko could do was allow herself to mourn.

With the help of Kahlen, D'Len, Ariel, and a bevy of other healers, Niko managed to gain her physical strength rapidly. She still wasn't fully healed, though. Angry welts and burns still ached from the torture session she had at the Queen's palace, but that wasn't what ached the most. Her mind felt like it was in shreds, and her spirit still ached with terrible loss.

D'Len moved her to a chamber of the Old Palace, and drilled her on shielding day and night. Niko's shields were toughened to the point where she couldn't sense anything. In a way, it was like being locked up all over again. At least it didn't hurt.

Within a couple of days, Niko was driving herself to get up to walk. Soon, she had the strength to start running. Kahlen expressed concern at first, so the lessons and physical activity was kept fairly light until some of the nastier physical injuries healed, but the activity was enough to wear her out so badly that her rogue gifts couldn't cause trouble.

For Niko, it was the same routine day after day. Stone walls surrounding her when she woke up, learning how to put up walls in her mind to the point where she was mind-blind. Lastly, she collapsed into a hard bed, and miserable, dreamless sleep.

The only comfort she got was by running. Every chance she got, she would leave the Old Palace and just run as far and as fast as she could manage. Even that wasn't freedom, but it was the best she got.

One night, Niko came to the Old Palace quite late. D'Len was scratching something down in a large leather book, and didn't look up as Niko came in.

"You are late."

"Yes, Mistress," Niko answered. "I'm afraid I was running too far."

"You seem to be doing that a lot. Tell me why."

Niko was taken aback. She thought a moment. "I don't know. I just...it's like I have to run, to get out of all this."

"You mean," D'Len was looking up at her with sharp garnet eyes. "You want to run far from here. Part of you still wants to dash into oblivion with your friends. I'll have none of it, Niko."

Now, she was frustrated. "My mind's blocked. I'm cooped up in here all day. If you let me have spare time, why shouldn't I be able to run?"

"Your mind is blocked for a reason. You're dangerous, Niko, and danger must be caged until the danger has passed."

"And when will that be? A month? A year?"

"The blocks will be removed when I feel it safe to let them down," D'Len said harshly.

Niko had a sharp comment on the tip of her tongue, but D'Len had pulled herself to full height.

"You will stay here and spend the entire day to help me with the library. That ought to take your mind off running for a while."

"Mistress," Niko was starting to seethe.

D'Len came over and patted Niko on the shoulder. "Kahlen told you about the river. I don't want you to start dashing off like that. Grief is still too strong in you."

"I lost three people very dear to me. Why shouldn't I be grieving?"

"I can block your memories. You'll forget them."

Niko winced at the very thought. "No."

"The Circle did that to you when you first came here, you know," said D'Len. "When you were just a little girl..."

"I'm not a little girl anymore, D'Len," Niko said. "And I don't want to forget. I just want to leave Xanadau."

"And go where?" said D'Len.

"Earth, back to BETA," said Niko. "They're in danger."

"Does your Gifts tell you this?"

"No, common sense. When I was imprisoned, I heard things about an invasion. My people will die if -"

"We, on Xanadau, are your people, Niko. You renounce ties like that when you come here."

"I wasn't old enough to know what I was giving up," Niko snapped. "Is this how you and the other Circle Members keep everyone else here?"

D'Len held her ground. "No, because unlike you, they don't stray too far or get attached to the outside. Whatever goes on past this planet is transitory, and not our concern."

"Maybe it should be," Niko said. "Now, do you have anything else for me to do?"

D'Len thought for a few seconds. "I don't believe so."

Niko nodded and left the room.

She trudged up the stairs to her chamber, closing the door behind her.

The Circle had approved her tour of duty as a Ranger, but no doubt they only expected her to serve a term, then gracefully quit and return to the Motherworld. Everything was to be here. Spending your life off-world...

Could she think of anyone else who had done so? Sure, there were sabaticals - two years off to study other places, to travel.

Counting her years at the Academy, Niko had been living outside the Circle for almost six years.

*A Circle incomplete...* she thought, recalling something Ariel had once told her, *Always seeks to complete itself.*

Stone, cold stone, were the walls and floor and ceiling. One window, and a bed. Everything always felt opperessive here. Was it possible that she had just traded one prison for another? Or was it just some sort of latent death-wish asserting itself?

*D'Len's right. I am dangerous, but what's the real danger?*

She sat on the edge of the bed and stared out the window.

The door to the Old Palace creeked open, and Ariel walked in. One thing she had passed to her adopted daughter was a sense of bravery. Not much intimidated the mage, and she had no intentions to let much do so.

She closed the door behind her and climbed the stairs to the study. Opening the door, and walking in, Ariel walked right up to the desk.

"Good evening, D'Len."

D'Len looked up. "Ariel Dal'Elspeth, you know that the Old Palace..."

"Nothing ever said it was off-limits, D'Len. Normally, no one has any business in coming."

"What brings you here, Ariel?"

"It should be very obvious. I want to speak to Niko. It's been almost two weeks. I've even tried to mind-touch her, but the blocks are too great."

"The blocks are for her safety, and everyone else's."

"D'Len, the kind of shields you have on her are so thick that even I wouldn't be able to summon my Gifts through them. Niko needs to be trained with her Gifts, not have them amputated."

"And who are you to tell me how to teach a student?"

"I'm the person who's trained her all her life. I'm the person who knows her best on this planet, and for all intents and purposes, I'm also her mother."

D'Len was not amused. "I can see where Niko has developed her lack of respect."

"I taught her to think for herself," Ariel said. "And to question the things she's been told. If nothing else, I'm proud of her for that."

"Didn't Elspeth teach you reverence?"

"Elspeth taught me a great many things, but I'm afraid I was too old a bird when the Circle found me."

"We've taken older," said D'Len dismissively.

"Still, when you have people swear off their ties, most of them are too young to know what they were swearing away. At least I knew what I had given up. It's a fair trade to me, but to my student, it might not be anymore."

"Her love of machines...of war..."

"Niko does have an affinity for technology, true," Ariel countered. "But without it, you'd still be part of the MegaMind. For that matter, her friend helped to save your life. If she chooses not to forget him, then it's her own business."

"But can't she be content with sabatticals?"

Ariel pushed up her glasses. "D'Len, she's seen more than Xanadau. You and the Circle have, over the generations, become even more xenophobic. Hardly anyone ventures past the colonies. Quite sad, really."

"Even you, Ariel, are no exception to that."

"It's because I see no reason to. When Elspeth found me, I was already a well-travelled and well-educated widow. It was time for me to move on. I'd never had a child, though, so finding Niko was quite the blessing." She cleared her throat. "Now, where is she? You won't let her go see me, so I came to see her."

"She is resting."

"Never mind," said Ariel. "I'll go and find her myself."

Ariel turned and left abruptly.

Ariel wandered around the palace until she found a slightly ajar door, and walked in.

She found Niko sitting on the bed, staring out a window.

"It's still a cage," Niko said to no one in particular. "And I don't know what's worse, having everything burning, or being sealed up in the cold."

"Niko?" asked Ariel. "Is it safe to come in all the way?"

Niko brightened and sprung to her feet, she walked over to her mentor and gave her a great big hug. "Oh, Ariel. I was wondering when D'Len would let you come see me."

"I'm afraid I invited myself, Niko dear."

"What? Oh."

"I don't like this. In all my years on this planet, I've never run across someone as secritive, or as tight-fisted as D'Len. I think it's product of spending so much of her time locked up in this miserable place."

"I know what you mean," said Niko. "Everything feel like a prison, and she doesn't like it when I leave here."

"Odd," grumbled Ariel. "I've NEVER heard of a mentor putting restrictions on their students like that."

"Ariel," Niko said. "There is something wrong. D'Len is teaching me all of the shields, and no control exercises. They're too strong to let down now, and even if I did, I'd be just as bad as when I awoke. It just doesn't...feel right."

"No control exercises? Does she have you using your Gifts at all?"

"She won't even let me try to do something other than shielding. It's as if she doesn't *want* me to regain my Gifts."

"I know," Ariel said. "She is definitely hiding something."

"But what? And why?"

"That's something I'm afraid you'll have to find out on your own. You're more the detective than I am, Niko dear."

Niko smiled wryly. "I'll see what I can find out."

She stood and hugged Ariel good-bye, suddenly feeling more hope - and more determination than she had ever since arriving.

Chapter Nine

Hours later, after D'Len had fallen asleep, Niko went wandering through the Old Castle, up and down corridors she hadn't explored, and a few she had. With her days so tightly regimented by D'Len, she'd taken every opportunity to get out of the Palace.

It was time to stop running.

Upstairs and down, down hallways that felt like circles. Niko opened one door after another, to find them either sealed by magic, or holding nothing but stones, focuses, and other magical items. right now, she wasn't interested in anything but answers.

Finally, she came to a door that had been sealed by a strong magical lock. Niko looked down on her piece of vellum and made a note of where it was. There. Everything connected. She now had a rough map of all the places she could go in the Palace.

Niko walked back to D'Len's study, and opened the door, holding out the small lantern before her.

Books. Volumes of books. D'Len was always writing. there must have been several centuries' worth of archives in this room alone!

*Time for a little archeology...Start at the top layer, and escavate from there.*

What was she writing now?

The book on the desk. Niko turned to a printed page and read a random paragraph.

**Niko's shields are holding, and will continue to hold until the threat has passed. She's still expressing a wish to return, though it would be suicide. I must make every effort to keep her restricted to the Old Palace if possible. Her mind will be tightly controlled, and her actions closely watched until she's unable to pase a danger to Xanadau. My goal at this moment is to render her powerless...**

Niko looked up, and frowned. So D'Len had no intention of letting her restore her Gifts. But why? She couldn't be THAT much of a danger could she?

She leafed back to the first entry in the book.

**Jesset had the same drives. With Jesset, greed had been the motivator. In Niko's case, it is curiosity. Curiosity, however, could very likely bring about a repeat of the Scrounge, and the Great Battle. Xanadau cannot and will not weather this again. For the safety of all, I have decided to protect Niko from her own Gifts...**

"Jesset?" Niko murmured. "Who's Jesset?" The name sounded remotely familiar, but Niko couldn't recall from where.

Niko paged through more and more of the book. It kept making allusions that she was dangerous, and needed to be caged by either keeping her on Xanadau, putting her under tight shield or both. The reasons why were not stated, except as allusions to this "Jesset" person.

*But who was she?*

Grabbing a scroll from a dusty shelf, Niko walked to the door. She stopped and held her breath.

Footsteps. Far away...no right above her.

D'Len was awake. If that was the case, she'd be looking for anything disturbed on her desk. Niko arranged everything back the way it was carefully. She stole out of the room, clutching her lantern, map and the scroll, and running down the corridors with all the stealth as if she were dodging Crown Agents in Sorry End.

Memories flooded back, and it was overwhelming for a moment.

*No, she couldn't stop...not now.*

Niko came to the door near the staircase. A forcefield was up. Niko looked on the scroll, and read the archane words.

Nothing, and the footsteps were getting closer.

She tried again, and the forcefield abated. Niko dashed up the staircase, and repeated the siblant phrase, blocking the way behind her.

It was a vast room - some sort of secret library. Niko concentrated, and tried to shield herself as best she could.

The footsteps beneath her came and went, fading away. She was safe - for now.

The library was large, filled with dusty treatises and books. Niko put down her lantern, and picked up a very large, dusty volume. She opened to a page.

**Jesset's study of the Black Arts was chronicled in a leather and vellum book. This book, *The Treatise of Power,* outlined the three guiding principles of her philosophy...**

Niko shuddered as she took in the overview of Jesset's twisted ideals. She always spoke of domination, of control, of taking power from others to feed one's self.

She had heard someone say these words before, but when and where?

*But how could she have been part of this world? Our strongest law is that one's mind belongs to one's self...*

Then again, D'Len was skating the fine edge of THAT philosophy. Niko frowned and read on.

**For her theft of lives, and violations of her homeworld's strongest law, Jesset was exiled from Xanadau, taking her followers with her. From that moment on, she was never to be spoken of.**

All the references were cryptic. Jesset was a Death-Mage, feeing on pain and suffering to create magical energy. While it was a quicker path to great power, Life-Magic from the Circle proved itself stronger.

Much of the book devoted itself to the varities of Death-Magic rituals and artifacts. Jesset's sword had sacrificed the blood of enemies. Machines and Death-Magic worked well together, a systematic destruction of organic flesh...

The anti-technology hatred in the book...Niko wrinkled her nose. By the standards in this book, her friends would have been condemned the instant they touched on Xanadau.

Unconsiously, she felt behind her right ear. There was an almost undetectable lump where the implant rested.

Almost every book here was some sort of writing about Death-Magic - including its history, its effects...

*Small wonder it's locked up so tightly, and kept a secret!*

Niko looked up. Out the corner of her eye, she saw...no, more *sensed* a red light. She put the book down, still open.

Turning around, she could see that there was a small stone shelf, displaying several bright red, hexegontal crystals. All but one were dead and cold. The one that still did hold life was...was...

She gasped as she touched it. The crystal itself was pure psychic energy, imprisoned by something so basely *evil,* that Niko was sickened to be in contact with it for very long.

In the dim light, she could see a face trapped in the crystal like a fly in amber. Niko let out a startled gasp and would have dropped the crystal if she dared...

*Goose!*

She picked it up, and just held the crystal in her hands, her hands lit by the faint, red glow eminating from it.

D'Len was lying to her. She'd been lying to her the *whole damn time!*

It had something to do with Jesset and her Death-Magic, and Niko *had* to know what it was exactly. There was more at stake here than satiating her curiosity.

If D'Len found her, though...

Niko snatched the book, and the crystal. Saying the incantation to let down the forcefield, and raise it behind her, Niko consulted her map for a second, and bolted out of the Old Palace as fast as her legs could take her.

She ran to where she instinctively felt safe - her old room in the Mages' Hall. Niko dashed up the stairs, and the chambers adjacent to Ariel's. Closing and locking the outer door, Niko sat on her old bed and tore through the book with a vengeance.

The purple and grey streaks of dawn had flooded through the window when Niko finished the book.

"It might not be true," she said. "But if it is...it makes sense...at the same time it doesn't. I only wish I had the missing pieces."

She put the book aside and picked up the crystal. No matter what...she would leave Xanadau. She didn't care if she died in the attempt.

The door bridging the two chambers creaked open, and Ariel gasped. Quickly recovering, she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

Niko didn't seem to notice her. A red crystal pulsed in her hands, and she stared at it, lost in thought, tears running down her cheeks.

She approached the bed, and sat next to Niko. The face on the crystal told Ariel all she needed to know. Niko wrote to her quite often, and she often talked about her teammates and friends. Ariel also was one of the few who knew about the love in her life...

And it was his face that stared at them from the crystal.

"It would appear that D'Len's been lying to us all."

"Yes," she says, turning to look at Ariel, and brushing the tears off her cheeks. "I have to re-integrate myself and get off this planet, or at least try everything."

"You'll die if you fight with your people."

"You let me risk my life as a Ranger. I am a Ranger, and if I'm to die as one, I'll die as one. No matter what the council says, I'm going back. I have to. I have to at least make the attempt to rescue my friends. I just can't leave them to the 'tender mercies' of the Queen. She's a Death-Mage, Ariel. That's why she was able to do what she did."

Ariel nodded. "I can tell you that Mistress D'Len is trying to keep you here. She even told me not to interfere with your rehabilitation." Ariel frowned. "It's no secret that there are a few people who fear you. You're quite formidable when you set your mind to it."

Niko looked up. "I've been reading a few things. I think that the Forbidden Chambers may have the answers I'm looking for. There's just something about the Legend of Jesset that I can't stop thinking about. I think it's...connected to all this."

"Child, if you go there, I cannot help you."

Niko closed her eyes and nodded. "but it is the only way. I have to accept my new Gifts. I can't stay on Xanadau." Niko's voice dropped. "I have to do this...I *want* to do this."

"I understand, Niko," said Ariel. "But I cannot help you if you want to explore the tower."

Niko stood up. "I understand, Ariel. I wouldn't ask you to go with me."

"In the meantime, Niko," said the elderly sorceress. "You need to get some rest. Not another word, now. Get under those covers and shut your eyes. Something like the Forbidden Chambers can exhaust me, so I know that you'll need every advantage you can get."

"But what if D'Len comes asking for me?"

"Then, my child, I will shield myself and I will lie."

"Thank you, Ariel," said Niko, getting settled, and taking Ariel's advice. "For everything."

Part Ten

Niko pulled the cloak tighter around her as she walked towards the Old Palace, and the Tower.

The Tower was a short distance away from the reamins of the Old Palace, as if it had once been attached, but the wind attaching the two had fallen away long ago. The dark stone colossus loomed above her menacingly, its battle-blackened exterior a sharp contrast to the polished white libraries and quarters of the New Collegum.

The night sky above her was cloudy, obscuring the view of the moons.

Niko squared her shoulders. Even if she didn't remember why she'd come, she remembered why she had to confront her doubts.

The spells in the book may have been born of Death-Magic, but the entire keep responded to it, and it was her only way in.

Speaking a short spell to disable the lock, Niko opened the door, and began to descend the stairs, back down to the Forbidden Chamber.

It was completely dark, save the small lantern Niko had brought with her. The steep steps were a good place for one to fall and break their neck. She took the descent slowly and cautiously. An ominous dread and fear started to well up, and tried to overwhelm her.

*An alarm,* she thought. *To prevent people from even *wanting* to come this far.*

Digging further into herself to go on, she fought the fear and dread, continuing down the seemingly endless flight of stairs.

Then, she realized. *The stairs ARE endless. I've passed this mark on the wall twice!*

Niko looked to her side, seeing only a dark descent.

*Here goes nothing,* she thought, and jumped.

She seemed to fall forever, finally hitting the stone floor with the grace of a cat. Niko smiled as she picked herself off the floor. At least her instincts were working.

A faint glow came from the far distance. Walking down another hallway, Niko came to a place where a door glowed with a magical lock.

She swallowed, and recited another spell she had found.

"By order of Sorceress and Scholar," she concluded it, "I demand you open."
The door remained closed. Niko was just about to turn away, when the door started to glow dimly, and open silently. Exhaling with relief, Niko walked inside.

The room was as tall as the High Chamber of the Temple, supported by columns of black marble, and a high, domed ceiling.

Stumbling a bit as her eyes adjusted to the dark, Niko found two small oil lamps. Using an old-fashioned tinder box, Niko lit the two lamps, and gasped at what their dim light revealed.

Ritual artifacts, rich tapestries, artwork with magical charge, bookshelves with leather-bound tomes and silk scrolls.

And, in between the lamps, Niko saw a stand with a large, heavy book, and a short, gold-edged sword. Everything in this room felt evil.

Niko picked up the blade, and felt its weight. It was light, but sturdy - a weapon designed for a woman's hand.

She pulled open the book. It was a chronology in some ancient language she couldn't really understand. She could puzzle out a few words, though, and started to try and read the rest.

It told the story of some sort of battle, and of Jesset. Niko read, but found herself frustrated by what she still failed to translate.

Keeping at it, she was able to translate a few sections.

**The most powerful of Jesset's spells was the ability to pull Life-energy and imprison it in a Death-magic artifact. Jesset found the crystals to be a more effective form of harnessing life-energy than that of the blood-sacrifice...*

Life energy? Crystal?

**At all costs, this must be stopped from happening again. The Artifacts must be entombed or destroyed, and protected above ALL OTHER laws of our planet. If another with the same powers were to emerge...dangerous...*

*Dangerous* recalled Niko. Yes, D'Len thought she was dangerous. It was clear now.

Niko's hand curled around the blade.

Midway through the heavy book, she heard the sound of a door being shut. Niko turned around to face Mistress D'Len.

"D'Len," Niko said, coming closer. "What is this place?"

"You aren't supposed to be here, Niko," D'Len said.

Niko kept her hand on the sword. "You didn't want me to know about this chamber. You also wanted to keep me from restoring my Gifts."

"You weren't supposed to ever use magic again," D'Len said, stunned. "Your shields...to use your Gift would only damage you now. Later on, after you've healed..."

"After I'm unable to summon them again, you mean," she said. "D'Len, I know why you want me under control, and I know why you've kept me from Ariel."

She pulled out the sacrificial blade, let the old sorceress get a good look at it, and then held it to D'Len's throat. "I know this world's dirty little secret. This blade belonged to the Jesset the Exile. She's the one who attacked me - the one who imprisons souls in crystal," Niko said.

D'Len didn't move, despite the knife just barely touching her carotid artery. "Yes, Jesset Dal'Kest is the one you call the Queen of the Crowns. Her full title is, by the way, Queen Jesset, Student of Kest, holder of the Crowns of Xanadau. You've done well, Niko Dal'Ariel, but all you've done is endanger yourself further."

"How so?" She wasn't about to move, either. It wasn't like she would murder D'Len, but she wanted answers, and wasn't going to back down unless she received some.

"How much have you read of Jesset Dal'Kest's writings?"

Niko quietly recited the three basic thesises of Jesset's writing. "The weak are destined to be ruled by the strong, and the strong are destined to rule the weak. The powerless are incapable of shaping their own destiny, and must have their fate shaped by the powerful," Niko took a deep breath. "And the superior gain their power from the life-force and labor of the inferior."

There was a long pause before D'Len's expression changed. She turned and sat on a pile of cushions.

Niko sat across from the ancient mage, hand still curled around the antique weapon.

"Tell me, D'Len," Niko ordered. "What happened?"

D'Len closed her eyes. Magic didn't work in this chamber, so there was only the dim light of the two small oil lamps Niko had lit, and those were hard on her old eyes.

D'Len explained, "Jesset was once the most gifted sorceress on Xanadau. She was also a brilliant scholar. Indeed, she was the very finest this world could produce. Her people were the species who once ruled this planet. As they were wealthy and prosperous, they had achieved technological prowess as well, and started to find and foster children of other species and other worlds to raise in their manner."

"So Jesset was a Teacher."

"Indeed, she held the powers of a Master. Of course, there were those among her people with more wisdom, and they were able to reign in Jesset. For you see, part of the reason she was such a great scholar and mage was due to her greed. She was obsessed with power and knowledge, and passed on the obsession to her students. In many ways, she was admirable."

Niko was stunned. She had never expected her attacker to be referred to with this much reverence.

"Jesset's obsession grew so slowly that no one noticed until it was too late. She started researching into ancient traditions - Dark Magic traditions. She secretly started to write her masterpiece - the Book we have sealed up here."

"And the knife was used for blood-magic?"

"Blood magic, and Death magic," D'Len admitted shamefully. "She had gathered around her a small circle of Dark Mages, and started to gain too much power. She also started to augment her magic with technology, enhancing her own Gifts through machines, controlling energy through weapons. She was powerful and charismatic as a soldier as well. I was once her student, D'Len Dal'Jesset."

Niko couldn't suppress the gasp that escaped her throat.

"Jesset had gathered her forces, and started to wage war against her enemies. Her intent was conquest. Once she had Xanadau, she could easily take the entire Galaxy. Many...many good sorcerers, and virtually all of her people, died out in the conflict. I was young, and still able to be saved. As a form of self-punishment, I stay here in the Old Palace, and guard my former mentor's works so that no one else can put them to use. When I die, Lannon will take my place."

"But Jesset was defeated?"

"Only by luck, and a few overconfident mistakes on her part. The victors punished her by exile. She and her followers were put on a single ship. Her books, ritual artifacts, and wealth were confiscated. But it was too late. Her civilization was gone, and only a few Scholars and Mages remained."

"And formed the Circle of Thought," Niko realized. "I had never known. Every student is taught that this world was colonized by the Circle. It's a lie."

"No," D'Len answered. "It is the truth, at least from a certain point of view, as are many of our Truths."

Niko's brow furrowed, and her eyes narrowed, but she was prepared to wait D'Len out.

"This world was devestated, sick, and dying. The Circle used their magic to restore it." D'Len opened her eyes, and added seriously, "And to hide it. We knew that if Jesset, or another like her, found this place, all that we had worked for would be destroyed."

"A reason not to allow outsiders in," Niko muttered. "And the reason that you wanted to render me harmless."

"You are powerful, Niko. Even as a small child, I knew that you had a great Talent, both as a Mage, and as a Scholar. I feared the worst for you. You could easily become another Jesset. Ariel also knew this, which was one reason why she hasn't taken on other pupils."

"My implant," she realized. "Technology enhancing my Mage-Gift. I never understood..."

"Not just the implant, Adept Niko, but your willingness to go off to fight battles. I saw in you what we saw in Jesset. If you turned to Evil, this entire world would be in danger."

Niko never took her eyes from D'Len. "You know that I can't stay here. There has to be a way for me to handle my Gifts, and not lose my mind."

"There is," said D'Len, "But it is very powerful, and very risky."

Niko stood, and stared down at D'Len. "Then tell me about it."

"In the Vault of Change, located above us, there is a secret Chamber. In there, lies a powerful shard from a metor that crashed into Xanadau ten thousand generations ago. We call it Chrysalis."

"Chrysalis?"

"To accept the light of Chrysalis," warned D'Len, "Is to accept the possibility of total change. It can heal you - or it can destroy you. Any way the ritual of Chrysalis is performed, you will not emerge the same."

"How will I be different?" Niko asked.

"No one can say," said D'Len. "But you will change in ways you never dreamed of or expected. You may even lose the very memories you seek to regain. You could very likely lose your life."

"If the ritual is successful?"

"Then your Gifts will fully awaken, and your mind will be healed."

Niko looked down at the blade still in her fingers. "If it is the only possibility to re-integrate myself, Mistress, then I'll take the risk." Her lips curled into a wry smile. "I seem to recall an old saying - 'no guts, no glory."

* * * *

Walsh looked down at them. Most of the pilots, technicians, engineers, and crew were hardly older than children. Fresh young faces. Would they live a full life? How many of them would die quickly, in battle? How many more would wither in a Psychocrystal?

"I have only a few words," he said. "As I hate speeches."

A few titters of laughter down on the flight deck.

"As you know, I was one of the first people to ever be commissioned as a Galaxy Ranger. I have spend a lifetime serving my planet, and later, the League of Planets. Today, our beloved League, and for the humans I see here, our species, is threatened by an alien evil."

He continued, his eyes fixing on the variety of blue and white Ranger uniforms in the crowd.

"You have all taken an oath to protect and serve this League, and tomorrow you will. Many of you will not return, but you will be remembered. The battle we face will determine the fate of billions of people. Kiwi and Andorian, as well as human. When you take to your posts, remember this. You're fighting for your parents, your friends, your lovers, your spouses - even your children, born and yet-to-be-born."

Walsh could hear the almost-inaudible whine of Nagata's repulsorlift unit next to him. It was very comfortable to have his old friend nearby at a time like this.

"There was an old saying on Earth that I heard as a cadet. It was the motto of the Texas Rangers, who you could call the ancestors of our Galaxy Rangers - 'A small man can whip a big man if the small man is in the right and keeps a'comming.' We're fighting for the innocent, and maybe if we keep a'comming, we won't prove those old Rangers wrong."

A thunderous applause went up from the crowd as Walsh stepped down from the podium. He silently went off down the corridor.

Commander Joseph Walsh toured the flight decks of the *Babylon,* as was the tradition - the captain touring the ship one final time before a hopeless battle, taking in every detail because he'd never see it again. It was going to be a slaughter tomorrow when they arrived, and he'd already resigned himself to it. Even worse, Walsh couldn't shake the chilling feeling he got listening to Zachary's final, eerie message.

*Might have been better if he died,* Walsh thought *It would be better for them if all four died.* he thought.

Walsh looked through the porthole, out to the streaking stars. He wondered what they were going to find when they reached the Queen's Graveyard. There would be an armada waiting for them, but it was either strike now, or lose everything. By the time the Queen got any kind of footing, they would be too decimated to fight back.

The only hope now was this suicide run. Kill them before they killed you. Walsh winced. The last time he heard those words spoken was back at Wolf Den. It was the particularly brutal mentality of many of his Supertroopers. Ryker Killbane in particular had embraced it wholeheartedly. A few others, including Shane Gooseman, had come to question it.

How ironic that the Supertroopers were to be feared and hunted because they brazenly stated and embraced the very philosophy that stood the last, best hope of saving the League.

*I know this will be a defeat, but will it be a slaughter?* he thought sadly. BETA had rallied as many forces as they could, but the Queen had the defensive advantage.

That cryptic message he'd received from Captain Foxx was definitely fueling his visions of BETA crumbling, and humans being marched into the Psychocrypt by the millions. He could still see the chilling look on Zachary's face every time he closed his eyes, and the voice was burned into his memory.

*Goose and Doc are Slaverlords...Niko has been killed...I saw her die. The Queen is keeping me alive for reasons I do not know. She is planning to invade. She has eighteen battlecruisers at least...Do not attempt to rescue me...and tell my children that I love them.*

Zachary had sent the message under the code "Black Arrow" - Abandon all hope for rescue and consider the mission a complete failure.

Just how much time was left for humanity, Walsh wondered. The *Babylon* alone had thousand men and women from every planet in the League joining him on this. There were ten battleships, a few dozen light cruisers, and assorted smaller vessels - over eighteen thousand troops. He would know their fates all too soon...

It took him a few moments, but he realized that he was letting his fears get ahead of him.

*Stop this,* he told himself. *You don't know what's going to happen. For all you know, the message from Captain Foxx *could* have been faked.*

He took a deep breath. And heard the small whine of a repulsor unit come up behind him.

"Joseph?" asked a synthesized voice.

He didn't turn around, knowing who it was.

"Owen," Walsh asked his old friend. "Have we come so far, only to lose everything now?"

"That, I cannot say," Nagata replied. Walsh somewhat missed the faint German accent Nagata had before the "incident" at Wolf Den that left the old scientist's body beyond repair. It would have been somewhat more comfortable to be talking to a human right now. Still, beggars couldn't be choosers, especially not now.

Walsh shook his head and wondered aloud. "What the hell are we walking into?"

"You are doing the only thing you can," Nagata said. "I do not think that you are being foolish. Based on the information we have, a pre-emptive strike that does heavy damage to Crown Forces would buy the League some time."

"Some time," Walsh said. "Could mean two decades or two days."

"Two days for humanity are better than none."

"We have no intelligence of the area, of her defenses, or her strength. The advantage the League has on the Queen is in the speed of our hyperdrives. We can outrun

her, but for how long? Plus the fact that the Queen knows whatever our Rangers know by now." Walsh sighed. "It would have been easier if they were dead, Owen."

"Yes," Nagata agreed. "It would have, but life's not easy, Joesph. It never was, nor will it ever be."

"There are some days, Owen, where I almost agree with that xenophobic, idiot senator. He always said that we'd get into a mess like this someday. He'll go the Psychocrypt with a smug grin on his face, I'll bet."

"Joseph," warned Nagata. "We can only hope for the best. The best case scenario here is we can devastate her forces."

Walsh suddenly smiled recalling a conversation in his office, "Waldo once said something very true about Wheiner, and I have to agree with him."

"And what was that?" asked Nagata, the synthesizer conveying a bit of the old German's humor.

"It was about MindNet. When I explained that the device could possibly control intelligent life, Waldo said something about it being fortunate that Senator Wheiner would be safe."

The colors inside Nagata's brain globe flashed a rainbow of colors for a moment. It was his way of laughing. Walsh chuckled, his mood lightened for the moment.

Walsh sobered, his face became serious again, but not as grim looking as it had been before.

Maybe it won't be a total loss," Walsh commented wryly. "I'm almost tempted to give Wheiner to the Queen just to get rid of him."

"I would pity the Queen," Nagata said dryly. "But, no doubt he would be even more of an annoyance as a Slaverlord. We must hope that it does not occur."

Walsh shook his head. "You're right, Owen. We have to keep hoping. Even if this battle doesn't go well."

"It is hope, perhaps more so than gunships and hyperdrives, which has kept humans alive so long in this universe."

Walsh turned around. "Thank you, old friend. I forget that sometimes."

"You are not facing this alone, Joseph."

Walsh said nothing, but nodded. No, he had over a thousand men and women facing this horror with him, and that was just on the *Babylon.*

And somewhere, out in the unknown, were four Rangers - two hopefully dead, two as good as dead. Walsh could only pray for everyone under his command.

And as soon as Nagata whizzed away, leaving him alone, pray he did.