The Eldar: Book One: Dispossession.

“Arghh”
The young woman Ducked beneath the windowsill and rolled away as a moment later a dark chitinous head appeared and looked around for the cause of the disturbance. Its three eyes scanned the area for a few moments and then, happy that whatever it was had passed on, The teacher returned to his galactic history lecture.
“Tiya,” where are you?” The voice, which issued from the girl’s slave collar, was a hissing bubbling discord, Tiya pressed a stud on the collar and spoke quietly as she walked down a slope of black grass back towards the port.
“I was just visiting the school Father,” Tiya said, trying to massage her injured neck, "did you have to use the collar?”
There was a tiny pause before a reply came.
“We must keep up appearances. You know what it's like out here…” Father replied. A moment later adding “I did use the lowest setting.”
It was almost an apology and Tiya for her part, almost smiled.
“I’m on my way to the market now,” Tiya said. “Just the usual?”
“And be quick about it,” Father barked before turning off the channel.
Tiya returned to the window keeping low.
"Legend would have us believe," said the teacher, pointing to a location on a galactic map, "that this is where the Eldar fought against the last eternal. While there is no evidence for the existence of the Eternals; the archaeological evidence for the existence of the Eldar is undeniable. though where they suddenly disappeared to 50,000 years ago, remains a mystery."

***

Tiya enjoyed the trip back to the market. Beneath an azure sky in which shone a violet sun, she ran. The valley around her was rich and the turf springy. Every now and then a white flower poked above the black grass. (Black that was to a human. The visual range of the natives was markedly different, and the colour the grass had to them, alas we have no word for.) High above her, strange creatures bobbed and weaved in the sky, as high as any earthly eagle and just as large, though to look at them up close you would think them the dark imaginings of a madman who had thought to cross a beetle with a dragonfly.
A clear path of blue stone led down to the market. Tiya preferred to run on the grass, She knew every bump and blade as well as a native, for she had been coming to Torisan for almost 20 years. Ever since Father had brought her. 
Around her, unseen for the most part was the residential district. The occasional hollow contained a window or door. The windows were mostly for visitors to Torisan. The natives were more comfortable living underground.
Tiya Slowed as she approached the market. It was a busy area and she disliked crowds at the best of times. 
She paused for a moment to make sure her collar was visible. They wouldn’t harm a slave.
As she walked she nodded to The natives she knew who would nod in return. But before long she was among others. Creatures from over a hundred worlds crowded into Torsion's famous market. A tall furry creature with more teeth than one would want to count snarled at her before spitting at the ground near her feet. As she went on the abuse became even less tolerable. Most of the languages she didn’t understand but some she did. ‘Murderer,’ they shouted at her ‘scum.’ 
Tiya was under no illusion that it was only the slave collar that kept her safe. She tried to keep her eyes on the ground and not let the words get to her. But each one was like a punch to the stomach. She was crying by the time she ducked into aunties store.
Though mere turf domes with doorways of various sizes from the outside. 
Inside the market stalls were clean and modern. Aunties was no exception. Except for the smell. The air was filled with a blend of a thousand herbs and spices from a thousand worlds. Some sweet some flowery, Some rotten or acidic, or sour like curdled milk. But in Aunties store they worked together in what seemed an almost magic balance.
Auntie was a chef, and more than that one of the best the planet Torisan had ever produced. It was said that just by looking at you she could tell not only what flavours would bring you the most pleasure and nourishment; somehow she would always manage to satisfy both. There was indeed some truth to these tales. Though auntie herself put it down to simple cooking and caring about her clientele. The girl who had just entered was one of those Auntie cared about the most. Seeing the tears rolling down Tiya’s face the old Torisan rushed over rapping two of her (let's call this particular Torison 'her,' To discuss the genders and sexuality of Torisons would need a book of its own, but Tiya had always felt, this one had a fiercely matronly if not exactly maternal spirit.) long bony arms around her while stroking her hair with the third. Like all Torisons, Auntie had a hard dark chitinous endoskeleton but whilst it was hard it was yielding and Tiya at once sobbed harder for she felt safe to do so. It was some time before Tiya's tears subsided, Auntie waved away the few customers who ventured in and as soon as she could, she closed the door. Her patrons could wait a while. Tiya was almost family.
Alone at last, The great chef held Tiya back at arm's length, looking her up and down. Auntie smiled, though if you didn't know it was a smile you might have thought she wanted to eat you. Where a human might expect a mouth below her three eyes, was a maw ringed with razor-sharp teeth
"Tiya sweetheart," the creature said, its voice was raw and scratchy but Tiya was used to it.
"Auntie" Tiya replied, sniffling back the last of her tears. Tiya had always called this creature 'auntie' as it was the closest she could get to her real name, which was impossible for a human to pronounce.
"I'm healthy, and business is no worse than usual," Auntie replied, "and you?"
"A little scared, it's busy today", Tiya tried to smile nonchalantly, which resulted in her looking like a sad-faced puppy who knew its owner was angry but wasn't sure why and hoped the smile would help matters but knew in its heart it wouldn't. It was a look born of experience, and it was a look Auntie had seen on Tiya before.
"Where’s Father?" She asked.
"He’s just finished trading," Tiya replied. Auntie was horrified 
"And he sent you to the market alone?" She said. "What was he thinking? It's not safe... Not for you."
"It's not his fault really," Tiya replied sadly," I wanted to visit the school..."
Auntie stroked Tiya's long, dusty-blonde hair with one hand, the other two were busy mixing unnameable items in a pot. "You must be careful darling; tensions are rising, even here... I take it Father wants the usual?"
"Please," Tiya replied "and I don't suppose..."
"I have that history course you've been after?" Auntie chuckled. "It came in last week. I can see you becoming an archaeologist one day, always been mad about history."
Auntie pulled a small crystal computer slug from a draw, whilst simultaneously stirring the contents of the now bubbling pot and patting Tiya's shoulder, her 3 eyes seemed to dance a dizzy waltz. Tiya often wondered what it would be like to have more eyes. Her own two seemed rather limiting, in her 20 or so years, she had met more life forms with no eyes than only two.
Auntie pressed the crystal into Tiya's hand and then poured the contents of the pot into a large container which Tiya could wear like a backpack. As she left Auntie gave Tiya a large cookie-like item, brown baked and sweet, Tiya grinned.
"Thank you auntie," Tiya said, "Father will pay up before he leaves through the dock authorities."
A small bracelet on one of Auntie's wrists beeped and she took a moment to look at it. 
"He’s paid up already," she replied, "tell him thanks for the tip. And to come with you next time... It’s not safe."
Tiya kissed Auntie on her dark bony forehead and made her way back to the shipyard. Though loaded down with her burdens, she happily munched on her biscuit, thinking about what she might learn on the history course. She was almost oblivious now to the dark looks and cruel words aimed at her.
A few minutes later she came in sight of the ship. It didn't have a name. Most ships had names, but there didn't seem much point in naming theirs. It’s not like they had much of a social circle.
The ship, seen at rest, looked like someone had designed an arrowhead in a sort of 'art deco' style. It was beautiful, to look at and yet fast and deadly. Three blades separated at the rear of the main body and rejoined at the nose like an arrowhead, but it was as if the designer had then not bothered to build the rest of the arrow and had stuck a gem where the shaft would connect. It was a kind of pewter colour, grey with a dull lustre. Here and there, copper-coloured pipes ran along the hull. The crystal structure at the rear was, at rest, a smoky grey; but seemed to hint of bright greens and purples deep in its foggy heart.
Underneath the ship, the cargo lift had been lowered. Two creatures stood in front of it, deep in conversation. One was a Torisan native, the white symbols painted on its three shoulders showed it to be a government official. The other was a Kharzan, a humongous crab-like creature. It had 5 legs, two on each side and one at the back, a gigantic carapace, copper coloured, stained and weathered, armoured its back. Underneath, it sagged like the back of a spider. Its head; just visible under the carapace had 9 eyes, a large central one, and 4 on each side of it. Below these eyes, there was a livid mass of 21 tentacles, at first glance, you could have been forgiven for thinking, due to their constant movement, that they were some kind of snakes, Medusa's famous hair would have paled in comparison. They were strong, long and whip-like; far better, the Kharzan believed, than the crude fingers many intelligences evolved.
On either side of the head were 2 great claws, one designed to grip and crush the other long and thin, designed to cut and pierce. Nature had here developed both the vice and scissors, though just now they were retracted, and hardly visible under the carapace.
As Tiya approached, she could hear the creatures talking. 
"I don't know why I bother," said the native, returning a handheld scanner to its belt, "In 20 years, I have never picked up even the slightest emission from your ship. Not even the normal stuff."
"You should be pleased." came the reply from the huge Kharzan.
"But if you would just let us spend a few days studying it...”
The native had made this plea many times before. And knew the answer before it came.
"No can do, I've told you (cough) we just adhere to the regulations."
The native looked doubtful, there was something about this ship, and he often wished he could get a closer look at it. 
"Well if that's the case," it said, "I wish more people were as considerate. You see that thing"?
It pointed across the shipyard, where a huge cube, at least 1000 meters to each side was descending. It belched out so much smoke and vapour, that one could almost imagine it was steam-powered.
"They come here," it continued, "two or three times a year. Make a fortune in rare gasses and elements, then lose over half their profits in environmental fines. They simply don't seem to care."
The Kharzan shrugged, (which was mostly done with its tentacles and is very hard to describe.)
"Well”, it said, “you get your coffers full at least."
The native sighed, "Would rather we didn't have to; you know how we feel about pollution... come on, just a quick look at your engines..."
"No can do, it’s against my religion, only me and my slave, are allowed inside" The Kharzan looked up as Tiya approached "Speaking of which, where have you been girl"? Tiya bowed low before it. 
"Forgive me Father." She said
"Get on board," the Kharzan growled, "and prepare for lift-off."
As Tiya scurried up the steps in the side of the lift, the Torisan leaned in close.
"Look I have nothing against the girl, but she's a human. You shouldn't let her out alone. Collar or not she is gonna get hurt."
Father climbed onto the lift and checking that Tiya was clear, pressed the control to ascend. The dock master stepped back and looked up grinning. Father was getting soft, and everyone loved Tiya, whatever they said about humans there was nothing wrong with her. 

***

The ship lifted silently off the ground, at about 400 meters the three blades disconnected at the nose to become arms which rotated clockwise about the body of the ship, whilst the gem at the back rotated anti-clockwise. Then the Nose pointed upwards and in the twinkling of an eye, it was gone.
The dock master chuckled to himself. He never tired of watching most ships taking off and landing. They were all beautiful to him, As long as they didn't pollute his beloved planet. With a sigh, he started to write a ticket for the ship next door.
Some thousands of miles above the planet, the ship moved into the shadow of a moon. It was important to Father that nobody ever observed them entering or leaving a system.
The Ships Bridge was a wedge-shaped affair. The thin end of the wedge pointed towards the ship's bow, and there was set a single seat, a touch-sensitive control panel, and floating above a large jelly-like display. 
Tiya busied herself over these; the rear was covered in webbing, like that of a spider but thicker. In it, sat Father, giving orders.
"Are we clear to jump?" he said.
Tiya concentrated on the display, which showed a detailed representation of the local system.
"almost," she said, "just waiting for a cruiser to land... By the way, Auntie said thanks for the tip." 
Father looked confused.
"I... I didn't leave her a tip..." he stammered
Tiya laughed, "You never have got the hang of sarcasm, have you? Hold on... Getting a large reading on the edge of scanner range... Moving very slowly... Massive reading. Must be dozens of huge ships..."
Father sat up, eyes wide and terrified. 
"That's human tactics," He cried, "Jump now. Random co-ordinates... What are you doing... Jump. JUMP NOW."
Tiya ignored him, fingers flying. 
"We have to warn them," Tiya said, her voice calm with forced concentration.
Auntie's face congealed into being on the jelly display and smiled.
"Tiya, Father. Good to see you. Is every..." 
"Get out... get out now. The humans are coming," Father shouted, "Tiya jump NOW!"
The arms of the ship span faster, the crystal glowed, and the ship faded out of existence.

***

Aboard the earth flagship, an admiral, his white uniform crisp and neat, surveyed the white ships off his fleet from a white chair on a white bridge. His science officer approached him. 
"Sir, according to reports. This Torisan is a pretty advanced place. Wouldn't it be easier just to take control of the existing port?"
The admiral turned incredulously.
"What?" he exclaimed, "Humans, use some stinking alien rat hole? I think not. Wipe them out. Turn everything to slag, then we can really start work."
"Sir," the helm officer interrupted.
"What is it?"
"Beside that moon," the helm officer continued, "just for a moment, I thought there was something there... It's gone now... Probably nothing... I'm picking up ships trying to leave the planet." the helm officer turned back to his controls.
The Admiral pressed a switch on his seat 
"Now here this," his voice blared all over the fleet, "they're bugging out. Pick your targets and go... No survivors..."
He called the science officer over and whispered in his ear. 
"I want you to analyse the sensor log on that moon, full spectrum, gamma, x-ray, microwave, everything if there was something there. I want to know about it."
"Aye sir," the science officer saluted stiffly and returned to his station.
Out of the main viewport, which took up the front of the admiral’s bridge, the fleet could be seen breaking formation, the warships, which resembled massive gleaming trilobites, headed towards their targets. Some went after the few ships, which were desperately trying to flee the system. The rest screamed towards the planet, weapons blazing.
The admiral sat back in his chair and smiled as the first of Torsion’s cities started to burn.

Jumping is a strange phenomenon, by which you move from one point in space to another, this is done by, momentarily, slipping into a dimension where, well imagine that the Big Bang, which has expanded so far and fast in length breadth and depth, had in this dimension simply hardly expanded at all. In this dimension, almost every point in space was much much closer to every other point in space. Once in this dimension, you just choose which point you wanted to be in and returned. and the more powerful your jump engines, the more possible points to choose from and the further you could jump.
Now, To do this, you had to convert your mass to energy for a brief moment, the method used by just about every species in the known universe, was to bring your vessel as close to light speed as possible, (As you all know, nothing with mass can reach light speed, and if it could it would be turned to energy anyway.) and being close to light speed, made slipping through to this other dimension easier.
  Tiya's ship however was different, the spinning arms, could rotate so fast, that it allowed the ship to jump whilst, technically stationary.

***

Tiya left the engine room content that all was working normally; she didn't exactly understand how it all worked. Something to do with starlight and hydrogen. But she knew enough to see that everything was okay. The ship's computer could have told her as much and far faster, but Father had, many years ago, instilled in her the habit of checking it herself. Not that she had ever known the ship to have the slightest hiccup. But it was second nature now.
The engine room was not really what the name suggested. There was certainly no "engine". The drive room might have been a better description. It was a spherical room, containing a sphere which took up most of the space, leaving just enough room for a person to walk around. 
The sphere was translucent. Colours blended, clashed, divided and recombined in brilliant highlights and deep shadows. Anyone used to a conventional engine room would have been at a loss, to Tiya it was instinctual now, she had been on board as long as she could remember.
Happy that the ship was running at low power and was securely docked. Tiya made her way towards the outer hull, before leaving the main airlock she patted the wall
"Computer" she half whispered
"Ready" came the reply, emotionless and cold,
"See you soon," said Tiya.
The computer didn't reply. It never did. Tiya didn't even know why she bothered. But in all her years, the computer had possibly been, real or imagined, her closest friend.
A short tube connected the ship's airlock to Home Base. Even though you could tell at a glance that the two came from very different cultures. The airlocks fitted surprisingly well. As it happens, if you were to pick a random cross-section of galactic species, you would find that most of them would have docking ports which were compatible with each other. Partly this was because on average most species were between 1 and 3 meters tall. The other is that there were one or two space-faring companies which provided cheap ships and so spacecraft had become like the personal computer on earth hundreds of years ago. However, you built one, whatever it did or for whom, it paid to be compatible with all the others.
  One such company built ships out in the horse-head nebular. When a new species became part of the galactic community, they would inevitably hear about these Stella shipyards and upon hearing about them, they would immediately order some of their ships. They would then study these vessels and so the seeds of compatibility were sown. The company however did not lack in business, their prices were good, build quality was excellent, and aftercare was first class. And the societies who studied their ships, although getting a boost in their scientific understanding, which in some cases pushed them forward hundreds of years. 9 times out of 10, they also discovered that it was far cheaper to just go to Stella shipyards, and buy a fleet than to try and build their own, whatever you needed from cheep freighters, cargo ships, shuttles and star-liners, all the way to custom made pleasure yachts, they could do it. 
Stella shipyards, for all you're transport needs.

***

 "Home Base," Tiya thought, stepping over the threshold, where the artificial gravity of the ship gave way to the much weaker gravity of the base. "What a joke".
She was more at home on the ship, thanks to their mining and trading, they only got back here for about one week out of every 5, but it was nice sometimes to have a change of scenery.
Right now however she was feeling alone and ashamed, the face of Auntie, eyes wide with fear swam into her mind. She preyed that Auntie was safe and that the earth fleet had turned up on Torisan for peaceful reasons, but she knew in her heart it wasn't true. When did humans do anything other than kill? Even her own past was not free of death.
She had been with Father for several years when they had "acquired" Home Base. They had found an asteroid field in a far-flung system, which didn't appear on any charts. A quick scan revealed it to be the remains of a planet which hadn’t quite made it through the process by which planets form, such sites could provide rich pickings and having performed the usual checks, to make sure they weren't mining anyone else's patch, they started looking for rare elements. It wasn't long before they found a huge reading for gold, which as well as being useful in all sorts of technologies, was even used as currency by some cultures.
Unfortunately, the field had been home to pirates, who had set up false sensor readings and lain in wait. Three ships had opened fire on them as soon as they approached. The pirate ships were not much smaller than Fathers, and their crew must have thought they would have no problem over-powering their opponent.
Tiya hadn't even known the ship had weapons up until then. believing the mining lasers, which no captain would fear, were all they had. And yet with Father, her master and owner, shouting at her to jump the ship out of there, she found herself saying 
"Computer bring up offensive systems,"
Within moments, the three ships were little more than debris. To this day she wasn’t sure how she knew what to do. Father must have taught her when she was little. Father had guessed that the ships must have had a base nearby and after a search, they found a large asteroid, almost large enough to make a small moon, with a huge crack in it. Easily large enough for the ship to fly into. Inside the asteroid was a large cavern. Big enough for the ship several times over. On the far side, built into the very wall was the pirate base. It was roughly carved; the corridors were unadorned and purely functional. Chances were that it was originally owned by miners, whether it was abandoned, or was taken in a raid was anyone's guess.
Tiya had never told Father how much she regretted taking the lives of the pirates. Or how it bothered her every time they came back here. But it had all happened so quickly, it was like she had acted on some subconscious instinct.
She had barely made it to her quarters when Father’s voice came over the comm. system. 
"Girl, are you there"
Tiya walked over to the nearest wall communicator, she was always grateful that Father only used the slave collar in public.
"Yes Father"
"Are you off the ship yet?" said Father
"Yes Father"
"Have you unloaded the cargo?" said Father.
"Yes Father"
"You can take the evening off," and with a click the com line went dead.
Tiya's room was not much bigger than her quarters on the ship, the walls were solid rock, the bed itself carved out of the far wall, or maybe it was a shelf, who could tell. There was a computer console in the corner, through which she could monitor Home Base's systems. It had a slot to accept computer slugs, again showing that over the millennia, computability went hand in hand with prosperity, so that helped. Other than this, there was a shower which could use water or sonic, or a pleasant mixture of both, and a few spare jump-suits. Tiya kept most of her belongings on the ship, and there weren't many of them.
She decided to see if she could lose herself in the history course; it would pass time, and allow her to grieve Auntie in her own, insubstantial way. From the sound of Father, he was either getting drunk or falling sick and if it was the former, she didn't blame him, however much she was grieving, it would be much worse for him.
She expected that he would be a lot harder on her over the next few months. He had lost so much to humans, how could she expect him not to take it out on her?
Hours later Tiya finally passed out, the course program was still pumping out information loud enough to drown out the coughing, wailing and drunken cursing coming from down the hall.

For the next few cycles, (Tiya lived by Kharzan time, where a day was roughly 30 hours) Father was either inebriated, getting inebriated or passed out from inebriation. Surprisingly however, he wasn't hard on Tiya, he even thanked her once when so drunk he could barely move, he fell off his webbing and needed help getting back in. On the few occasions they were together, he told her repeatedly about how the humans had taken everything, that he was the last of his kind, and his home was now a cinder floating in space. 
"I was too late" he would say to her, again and again, "Too late, all gone, all dead... All dead.” He would keep repeating this, or words to this effect, until he passed out. Tiya found it hard to hear, though she had heard it all a million times. 
She loved the old Kharzan so very much; sure when she was younger he would be harsh, uncompromising, and verbally abusive, well he had treated her like the slave she was, but he was never really cruel. There were a few times, years ago now when he had got so angry and drunk she feared he would hurt her, and she did not doubt that at times he had wanted to. But he had never gone that far.
This time though she was really worried about him. He didn't get angry, he just drank. Eventually, not knowing what else to do, she pretended they were out of the foul concoctions of chemicals that had the effect on Kharzans, that alcohol had on humans. Even robbed of drink he refused to leave his room for a few cycles more. And Tiya was much relieved when eventually he called her to the lounge area, he sounded sober.
`However, upon reaching this communal area, Tiya was startled to see how tired he looked, his head seemed to hang slightly, his eyes took that little bit longer to focus and some of his tentacles, normally a vibrant red, now seemed a pale pinkish grey.
`"Tiya," he said as she entered, she had to wait for him to continue, as at that moment he had a massive coughing fit, "I need you to program a search pattern. I need you to 'cough' locate 'cough' a planet with a high sulphur concentration. And a network of caves in an uninhabited system." `Having said this he started coughing again. Tiya waited for him to stop and then asked,
"Why"?
Father tried to rise angrily but collapsed immediately, his breathing was laboured, and she had to wait a while for him to get his breath back.
"Just DO AS YOU ARE TOLD CHILD," he said, "It’s not too late to sell you to a mining colony or worse".
Tiya returned to the ship and spent the next few hours programming a search pattern. it would take them to some of the most remote stars in the galaxy. So few systems were entirely devoid of life. And fewer of these had planets that would be possible to land on, let alone having something which matched Father’s criteria. When Father said that it must be devoid of life, he meant it, nearly all space fairing races agreed to stay away from primitive intelligent life. Tiya and Father had both heard rumours that humans ignored that rule, but they both hoped it was not so. It was one of the few things that just about all species agreed on, even the few who allowed slavery. There was no political, galactic body or police, every civilisation worked on the principle of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Tiya didn't know, and had no real reason to enquire, as to whether Kharzans supported slavery. If she had, the reply would have surprised her; they didn't themselves practice it, but they had a number of trade partners that did. You see slavery out there is not what a human would call slavery. Indeed it is one of the most respected social economic systems there are. The repercussions for a company or individual abusing a slave are severe, and the penalties for a slave running away without due cause were dependent on how much they had worked. But could be equally severe.
This, in brief, is how it works.
So 'Mr. K' of Omicron Beta has just reached working age and decides to sell himself into slavery. 'Mutara Mining Inc', scan 'Mr. K' and see that he will be good for 50 years of work. They work out his living costs, food clothing and minimal leisure allowance, and work out that they will make, after expenses, 200,000 credits from his work, they pay Mr. K 50,000-75,000 (depending on job other circumstances.) credits, which is placed in a respectable slave bank, and which he will get upon retirement. (and which earns interest all the time he's working.) 'Mr. K' is secure in knowing he will be well cared for and looked after for his working lifetime, and can look forward to a very comfortable retirement. The mining company makes at least thrice their outlay usually far far more. Slaves are treated with much honour for their commitment, no slave-master would dare treat Tiya the way Father had. They could lose money and even their trade partners. A slave who left before their time, without good cause. Usually found that they fortified their bank account, would have nothing, and nobody would want to employ them. So things didn't end well there.
Some families had slave in the blood, the parents using their savings to educate and bring up the children, and the children buying out their parent's contract when they were old enough, giving their parents a few more years of retirement, often the companies would help with the cost of raising a child, for though the final choice lay with the child when it came of age. The stability and security offered by families who had been slaves for generations were valuable commodities. A slave from such a family could fetch a high price and could expect to be highly rewarded.
In short, there were few places in the cosmos where Tiya would have been worse off, in fact, the only culture which treated slaves or employees, worse, were the humans.
The word human comes from the word humane. It was a native of one of their continents who referred to his people as "human beings", the word stuck, though his people were all but destroyed and his lands taken and all manner of inhumane treatments forced upon them. What most other civilisations can’t work out is whether 'human' they refer to themselves as 'humans' with sincerity or ironically.

***

Search parameters entered Tiya sighed, savouring the taste of the air on the ship. Despite the oxygen plant in Home Base, which was fuelled by a small forest under artificial sunlight, Tiya preferred the taste of the ship's air. 
"Computer," she said.
"Ready," came the reply, from everywhere and nowhere.
"Work out the quickest route to find a system with these search perimeters."
The computer was quiet for a few moments. Tiya, like most life forms, imagined that she could hear the fans spin faster, or some kind of mechanical hum, but of course, she couldn't.
"Parameters set;" the computer informed her, "fastest route will take 1.12 years to complete, allowing for working 20-hour days."
"Damn," Tiya replied, "Ok, given probability, how long before were likely to get a positive."
"Probability of a positive within 30 days," said the computer.
"Ok, now you’re talking" said Tiya and proceeded to transmit the data to Father,
"On my way, prep the ship to start in 20 minutes." his voice sounded shaky
'20 minutes?' Tiya though, 'Usually he would be onboard and ready in 5.' 
To waste time, Tiya rechecked the sensor dampers; they had reconfigured the pirate’s sensor fakers, to hide the base, occasionally over the years. Others had found the field, it did after all ring a star, but though there were rich pickings to be had, nobody ever gave Home Base even a first glance. It appeared, to other space farers to be made of the most boring rock in the known universe, they certainly didn't see the crack.
22 minutes later, Tiya's internal clock was unbelievably accurate; Father signalled that he was in his quarters and to start off. This was also out of character for Father as when on board he usually spent most of his time on the bridge, none the less, Tiya started the search.

Three weeks later, and bored beyond belief. Tiya lay in her bunk; she had been taking one of the tests in the history course and awaited the computer's evaluation.
"According to the criteria of the course," the computer announced mechanically "you achieved a pass rate of 98%". 
Tiya's head shot up, this meant she had got something wrong, which surprised her to a level some humans might have seen as arrogant, unfortunately, she had no frame of reference. "What did I get wrong?" she asked.
"Question 17," came the reply "What evidence is there for the existence of Eternals. You replied 'The collected legends of so many different cultures point to a shared experience,' The correct reply is 'none at all.'"
Tiya's mind must have drifted, she knew very well that the official view of the various scientific communities, (one of whom, a very respectful science academy from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, had supplied this course.) is that there were no 'Eternals'.
  The reasoning for all the legends, (according to the university's intellectuals) was simply that almost every culture, whilst primitive, invent deities to account for the things they can't explain, and that as these deities are usually immortal, this shared experience had led to the legends of the Eternals. As each race joined the space fairing community, their own legends were added to the mix."
However, this theory had never sat well in the back of Tiya’s mind. She always felt there was more to it.
"System scanned", the computer said, shaking Tiya out of her thoughts, "search parameters unfulfilled."
"How long till we can jump?"
"Power system at maximum jump distance in 3 hours."
"How many jumps till we reach the next target."
"Minimum of 4 jumps to nearest target."
With a sigh, Tiya got up and cleaned herself up. Her cabin had a sonic shower that she had fitted herself. She had always found the ship to be a bit odd. It had a large cargo bay, but only one sleeping quarter of a Kharzan size. And were it not for Father's nick-knacks it would look like a large, storeroom.
Other details used to confuse her, the corridors were wide, with curving triangular walls, very beautiful, however, the double doors were only just big enough for Father Squeeze through, she wondered if Father was a particularly large example of his species.
Also, it had no windows, what confused her wasn't so much that the ship had no windows, but that other ships did. Surely if the materials used to make the windows were as good as those used to make the rest of the hull, they would make the rest of the ship out of the same stuff and wouldn't need the windows. If it's not as good, they're putting their ships at risk. Tiya sighed; the universe was a strange place.
She made her way to the bridge, for no particular reason, everything she needed to do she could do from her room, but spending several hours on the bridge each day helped her feel like she was doing something.
As she passed Father's quarters she could hear him coughing and wheezing, she tapped on his door and getting no answer popped her head in. Father was slumped in a corner looking like a dead spider; his tentacles were ashen, one of his eyes milky. Tiya rushed over to him.
"Father," emotion overwhelmed her and her voice trembled, “We have to get you help, you're sick."
Father raised his head, it seemed as if he was pulling himself back to the present from some dark dream.
"Tiya?" He slowly raised a tentacle, draping it over her shoulder, "Tiya, Tiya, dearer than daughter... I'm so sorry, so sorry."
"You have nothing to apologise for," Tiya's throat seemed to want to close and she found the words hard. Emotions seemed to fight within her, though she didn't know why.
"Nothing?" said Father, "I have more to apologise for than you know."
"You’re just sick Father, you'll be better soon," Tiya stroked Father’s appendage tenderly "Can I get you some soup?"
Father pushed her away gently.
"I'm not sick sweetheart," he said, "I'm dying."
Tiya was stricken, but not surprised, somehow she knew this was no simple cold, she tried to speak but choked on her words. She had to calm herself and try again.
"'You can’t die," she whispered weakly "You're all I have."
"Hush now. There will be time for tears. But there is much that I need to tell you," he said, "Please sit."
Tiya sat obediently on the floor, cross-legged and facing Father.
"You recall how I acquired you?" it was a rhetorical question but Tiya answered anyway, like a dutiful child who was proud of learning her time's tables.
"You acquired me from Dorginan slave traders," she said," they were sending me to a mining colony, you felt sorry for me and, despite the harm humans had done you and your entire civilisation, you bought me. At many times my worth."
Father lowered his eyes.
"I lied," he said. 
Tiya's face was a study in ambivalence. Shock mixed with anger to be replaced by new levels of confusion. Eventually she simply said.
"What"?
Father took a deep breath, which resulted in a massive coughing fit. After a significant pause, partly to gather his strength and partly to gather his thoughts, Father began.
"I was doing routine maintenance on an old scout ship, in orbit around Kharzan, It was meant to be a short job, and its crew were enjoying some shore leave. I was testing the sensors when I picked up the human fleet. At first, I thought there was something wrong with the scanner. Then I recognised an attack pattern. We had heard rumours of an aggressive new species from far out in one of the spiral arms, but none of us expected an attack. I... I ran. I just jumped the hell out of there. I wish I had stayed behind, that I had tried to save someone. And it haunts me. I'm a coward. I heard news of the fall of Kharzan wherever I went, but nowhere did I hear of any survivors. I got depressed and more than a little paranoid. Started jumping as soon as I saw another ship, drinking heavily, wishing I had died with my people."
"I'm so sorry Father," Tiya burst out, emotion welling up.
"Hush now". Just then Father was hit by another coughing fit “Where was I…? I was at my wit's end. I jumped at random. Here, there. Eventually, I jumped into an empty sector, totally empty, somewhere north of the galactic plane. I drifted for some time; I had to watch my fuel out there. 
Not even enough starlight to recharge emergency batteries. I was drinking heavily when my sensors picked up 2 ships. One was adrift in space, I didn't recognise the design. The other was definitely a human ship, similar to the ones that killed my family, my friends... what they were doing that far out I do not know.
Father's voice faltered, the shame of his actions seemed to haunt him.
"What did you do Father"? Tiya asked.
"My hatred for those murderers stirred in me. I powered up my engines and firing what weapons I had, rammed into the warship. I shouldn't have survived but the warship was in the middle of its docking cycle, no shields. By chance one of my volleys had torn through its exposed airlock, igniting the human's oxygen-rich atmosphere. parts of the warship exploded from inside..., I saw some of them get out in space suits, they banged on my hull, begging for mercy, for help, without which, their air wouldn't last and They would slowly suffocate."
"Did you save them?" Tiya’s voice was hopeful.
Father continued, though his sad look was answer enough.
"I sat there for hours and watched the humans slowly die" he paused, a catch in his voice showed that whatever the Kharzan equivalent of crying was, he was doing it.  
"It was horrible." he said “I drifted in a daze; I felt no elation from my vengeance, guilt now mixed with my loss. Eventually, drunk, I passed out. When I came to I realised that having seen death up close, I did not wish to die. But my ship was disintegrating around me. My oxygen was almost gone. My jump engines were dead. I had manoeuvring thrusters. I looked at the derelict the humans were trying to board; remarkably it had remained largely untouched. I managed to dock and board the ship, this ship. It was so beautiful, and it seemed to be empty. I found the control room and tried powering her up. Everything seemed to work, but it would not allow me to do much more than turn the lights on and off. Then I found the stasis pod. It was already reanimating the occupant, a human. I wanted to kill it," Father took a deep breath. 
"And then," he said, looking up and meeting Tiya’s gaze for the first time in a long time. "And then you emerged, you had no idea who you were, or where you were, or why. And I couldn't do it…. I couldn't… I was hard on you I know. I saw those who wiped out my species whenever I looked at you. And that has made me harsh, but I have loved you as well. I'm sorry.… Tiya, say something please."
Tiya found it hard to believe that this creature, which had looked after her for the last 20-odd years, had been a guardian and teacher, was capable of such actions.
"I... I don't believe you" she said at last.
"Why do you think I get you to do everything on this ship"?
There was a moment of silence before Tiya replied "Because I'm your slave."
"No," Father sighed "it’s because this ship won't do a bloody thing I ask it to.”
Tiya sat there, head shaking in disbelief, 'how can this be?' she thought, 'Everything I know is a lie.'
  Father looked at her with love and understanding.
"You... "You need time" he said "and I wish I could give you more. But my time is nearly upon me. In happier days I would have gone to an egg cave and given my seed to make the next generation and my body to nourish them. But now I must look for a planet with a sulphuric cave at least."
Tiya nodded sadly as Father reached over in an attempt to give her a hug, "I do love you daughter" he said.
A tear sprung in the corner of Tiya's eye. She hugged Father back, and although part of her was angry with him. She stayed by his side until he started to doze again, she thought long and hard about his story and wondered. What she would have done in his place. Then silently she returned to the bridge, she had much to think about.

In a dark office, a darkly dressed man looked out over his city. The people below might believe they were independent, but they were all his, to order and use as he saw fit. The city outside was like all human cities, towers of steel, concrete, and glass fought for space on the skyline. Nature had been given a kicking here, many hundreds of years ago, and had all but given up. At this point, almost all food and water was imported, and almost the entire world, (With the exception of some really hard-to-reach places, like Tibet.) were part of cities which stretched entire continents. And even those few remaining oases wouldn't be around for long.
A console on his desk chimed for his attention, he loved his desk, beautifully carved from the last terrestrial oak. The species still existed now, on many of the worlds which supplied the human race with what it needed to survive. But on earth itself, like so much else, it was extinct. The man pressed a switch on the console and a face appeared, floating over the desk. 
"Admiral," the man said, nodding towards the hologram as he sat himself down.
"Mr. President Sir," the hologrammatic image of the admiral saluted "report on system KX31, previously known as Torisan..."
The president made himself comfortable in his leather chair. Made from the last cow on earth, "continue" he said after a brief pause.
"The planet is secured. We are routing out and eliminating the last of the...squatters..." The face of the hologram looked uncomfortable, though it was hard to say, the image was distorted through 120,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles, of quantum, entangled relays, which allowed the conversation to be almost live. Unfortunately with each relay, half the information was lost and had to be put back in a "best guess" fashion by computers. The alternative unfortunately would require a 100 thousand-year pause between question and answer.
"And?" the president yawned, he wasn't particularly tired, he just found the constant babble of his subordinates tiring.
"Well sir." the admiral began, sounding very much, had he been aware of it, like a child asking his parents if he could have money to go on a school outing, "The scientific staff are asking for permission to study the technology here. They're sure there is much that would be of aid to the human cause."
The president considered this for a few moments, "they have 24 hours, anything that can give us a military advantage they can investigate, otherwise destroy it all. I want that planet a staging point in 4 months."
The admiral swallowed, he loved his job, helping mankind take its rightful place as rulers of the galaxy; however, the president made even him jumpy. "There is one more thing sir. Our scanners picked up a ship which disappeared, it can’t have jumped, it was stationary, maybe some sort of cloaking device, but there impossible aren’t they?"
The admiral sent the data, and a moment later, a rough outline of Tiya's ship hovered above the president's table. "We tried to see if central intelligence had any matches on the design, but we were told that all information was classified and to contact you directly” There was a slight question in the admiral’s voice.
The president tore his eyes away from the data. "Admiral, this ship is to be captured if at all possible. Destroyed if not, however," the President smiled the sort of smile which made you wish he would please stop smiling. 
"Do TRY to capture it. it's a rather valuable prototype..."
  The admiral nodded and turned off communications. The president stared at the hologram of the ship a while longer, then. Called up the report of a certain mission some 20 years ago.

Several days went past on the ship with the pattern of life unchanging, Tiya was avoiding Father, and he knew it. She didn't know how to process the fact that she wasn't who she thought she was, the ship, which she always thought of as home, was by rights hers... if she wanted to she could kick Father out the airlock. Hell, he had threatened to do the same to her on plenty of occasions. She immediately felt guilty for thinking such a thing. After all, humans HAD killed his race, and he chose not to kill her on sight.
Tiya walked towards the bridge, taking in, almost as if for the first time, the beauty of the ship, the walls  
were a rich brown which seemed to glow slightly, the ship had no lights at all, light just seemed to come from everywhere.
"Tiya," Father's voice came over the comm. system, weak and wheezing, "I have managed to make it to the bridge, anything I can do?"
Tiya found herself turning round and heading back to her room 
"You rest," she called out, "I'll be up later." 
She didn't know why she was avoiding him. She just didn't know what to say.
She threw herself on her bunk, unsure what to do or think or feel. Who was she? She had sometimes in the past wondered who her real family was, but not with any lasting interest. Now it suddenly seemed more important. Who were they? Why was she alone in the stasis pod?
She daydreamed that maybe they had to go out in space suits for some reason, had put her in the pod as a precaution and something had happened to them...
"Computer," she called, surely the computer would know, why hadn't she thought of this before. "Tell me about my parents". 
  The reply was instant "The designation of 'Father' refers to the Kharzan currently occupying the bridge."
"Damn," Tiya was more confused than anything. "Ok... have there ever been crew other than 'Father' and me?"
Again the reply was instantaneous
"You are the only registered crew member"
Tiya was flummoxed, 
"Weird..." she said to herself and then decided to try a different tact.
“OK computer, how long was I in stasis"
"That information is classified" came the instant reply.
"Arghh", Tiya was scratching her head. "Can you tell me where or when the ship was built?"
"That information is restricted," came the reply once more.
Tiya started to feel that there was some conspiracy to prevent her from accessing her past, and as she was about to discover, she was absolutely right. Mulling it over, she muttered to herself 
"Why can’t I remember anything from before stasis?"
The computer however had no reason to think the question rhetorical.
"Memory downloaded and erased from subject upon detecting unauthorised boarding attempt." It explained.
This took a few moments for Tiya to digest 
"...what?" she said. The computer dutifully replied. 
"memory downloaded and erased from subject..."
   "Yes, I got that bit..." Tiya interrupted "OK, who ordered my memory wiped if we were boarded."?
The reply chilled her. "You did."
Tiya's mind reeled, how? Why? what the hell she thought, a thousand things flashed through her mind, and her pulse suddenly seemed to pump in her ears, it took a few moments to get her racing thoughts back under control.
"Can I get my memories Back?" she asked.
"Affirmative," the reply hung in the air...
"Ok, give me back my memories," Tiya said, she closed her eyes, expecting some revelation.
The computer seemed to hesitate a moment. 
"Please enter the security code." The computer replied. Tiya sighed, she should have known, that it wouldn't be as easy as that. 
"What is the security code?" she asked, expecting the worst.
There was no pause this time, as the computer confirmed what Tiya suspected. 
"that information is classified,"
Tiya pounded her fist against the wall, took a few breaths, and closed her eyes.
"let me get this straight," she said a few moments later, "You can't tell me who I am, where I came from, how long I've been out here, or why I was in stasis in the first place. All you can tell me is that for reasons you can’t explain, I ordered my own memory to be wiped and you won’t give it back unless I give you a password which I can’t remember because I ordered you to wipe my memory?"
"Affirmative" came the cold reply.
"I think one of us is nuts," Tiya said.
There was a short pause whilst the computer considered this. 
"Not enough data for prognosis"
"You said it sister," Tiya sighed. Mentally exhausted, she decided what she really needed was a nap.

"Tiya GET UP HERE QUICK, WE HAVE INCOMING" Father's voice blared through the comm. system.
Tiya sat up; her nap had passed into a deep and troubled sleep. She ran out of her room and towards the bridge, whatever her unsettling dreams were about, the memory of them had evaporated like the shreds of a cloud in a breeze. Tiya burst onto the bridge panting,
"What’s the situation?" she said, sliding into her seat. She could see what was going on sooner than Father could speak it. But it was the done thing to ask.
"Four ships entered the system, I think they're human," Father replied anxiously. Tiya looked over the data and checked their position, which was nestled under the rings of a gas giant, she relaxed slightly
"You can calm down," she said, "they won’t detect us, I don't think they're even looking for us.”
Outside, millions of miles away, a large ship struggled to accelerate, its long central spine was covered in cargo containers of various sizes. Giving it the look of a strange metallic, hairy and very sick caterpillar, the symbols on it showed it to be a human freighter, but its design was hundreds of years out of date. Smoke and fires were erupting from many of its cargo pods and parts of the main body. 
Far behind it, three of the huge white earth empire trilobites were closing in on it, their energy weapons lazily taking potshots at their fleeing prey. It was clear that they wanted to take their opponent alive and were concentrating their fire on disabling, not destroying their target. Tiya had to concede that they had some skill.
Within a few minutes, the old cargo ship passed Tiya's position, now listing heavily, Its main engine was burnt out, and wouldn't push the ship any faster, the ship wouldn't actually slow down either, thanks to the laws of physics, now it was merely a matter of time. Before the war ships matched speed and docked. Tiya waited until all three had parsed before acting. Her fingers flew over the controls and the ship powered up, 
"Good idea," said Father, "Jump us out of here". Tiya didn't look up,
"I'm not jumping Father,” she said.
The ship rolled out from under the rings of the gas giant, one of its arms cutting through the sea of icy particles like some kind of inter-galactic shark, gently Tiya glided into position behind the trailing warship
On the bridge Father was getting irate, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING GIRL JUMP OUT OF HERE". Tiya didn't reply. The screen showed the rear of the warship getting closer. "For the sake of all that matters," Father continued "if some humans want to kill other humans... let them"
  Angrily Tiya turned her chair round and met Father's gaze with steely eyes. "IF WE CAN’T HELP, WHAT'S THE POINT OF US"? Father, unable to meet her gaze looked away. She had just turned back to the controls when the ship lurched wildly, the ship's comm. system crackled into life.
  "This is the earth ship ‘Endeavour’ that was a warning shot. Stand down and prepare to be boarded."
Tiya's face hardened. "Computer", she said, "bring up offensive systems.”
A green light appeared at the tip of each of the ship's three arms, the spin increased until the lights were a blur. Then from each tip a thin beam of plasma, shot forward, creating a beautiful triple helix of livid green energy.
The shot reached its target and ripped into it, shredding the mammoth's shield generator in the first volley, and then, flinging the little ship under the belly of the beast, Tiya took out its weapons and engines. The other 2 warships, now aware they were in danger, turned about and opened fire. Streams of plasma filled the void, few of these shots however got through, the ship danced between the beams, almost as if it knew where the shots would Be and moved just enough to not be there when they arrived. 
 Tiya played over the controls, the closest warship, finding its weapons impotent, decided to ram Tiya’s craft head-on. A wall of white grew on her display, There was no way for Tiya to avoid it or hit any vital systems, and she doubted her ship would take the impact of the behemoth She had no choice, She fired full at the centre of the ships bow, the shields were not an issue. The warship's armour buckled and split, all in the space of a few moments, it was as if some mighty hands had ripped the warship in half.
Tiya had to keep her mind off the lives she had just brought to an end. Now was not the time. The ship juddered; Tiya was thrown forward over the console, and Father lay groaning on the floor, struggling up. The computer registered a huge impact to the aft, the single hit from a missile at close range had knocked out the shield, scrambled the rear sensors and damaged the ship's superstructure, blind, Tiya made a guess as to where the last warship was. The ship's arms flipped around, and now facing behind, unleashed themselves upon their attacker, the wreckage of which overtook them as Tiya brought the ship around.
The first warship had not been idle, they had repaired their engine and were heading away.
On the bridge, Tiya was helping Father back into his webbing. It was Father who noticed the state of affairs
  "They're getting away" he shrieked. Tiya looked back at the screen with little interest.
"So what?" she said "They're no longer," Father was prostrate
"If they get away, they will be back with re-enforcements"
"Damn," Tiya got back into her seat just in time to see the endeavour suddenly, stretch and fade, as it achieved jump speed.
  She was about to get up and inspect the damage when an alarm went off. The earth freighter they had tried to save, had listed into a decaying orbit around the gas giant, It had about two hours left, before it was crushed.
"Can we jump now daughter?" Father asked.
Tiya eased the ship around and made after the injured freighter. 
"I need to check on them Father," Tiya said, "they're in trouble."
"But what about me," Father said, "I don't have long". Tiya turned to face him.
"I know," she said, then walked over, and cradled his massive head, "I promise, as soon as I've checked they're okay, we can concentrate on finding your caves, but don’t we have enough blood on our hands? Let us help them!" Father, sighed and nodded his head,
"You're right," he said, "forgive a selfish old coward won't you." Tiya squeezed him warmly.
"I do Father," she said, "for everything; and I do love you."

***

As they approached, Tiya tried once more to raise communications.
"This is the privateer ship... Well, my name's Tiya. Can we help"?
There was no reply though the scans suggested the freighter's Com system was fine. Tiya lined up The Ship's docking port, which was in the blunt nose of the craft, luckily the docking tube from the ship was slightly bigger than the airlock on the freighter, so it was possible to get a good seal.
"Docking cycle complete," said the computer, viable oxygen atmosphere detected in other craft, however, toxin levels are rising"
Tiya left her seat and turned to Father, only to see him strapping his sidearm to his crushing claw.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" she asked. Father took a step towards the door.
"You stay here" he said "I'll go"
"What?" said Tiya, "you can hardly walk."
"If you go and something happens, I'm stuck here all alone, not that I'll have long, but however long I survive, I'll spend it wishing I had gone, and grieving for you. If I go and something happens to me, you can still get away.  It makes sense daughter". A tentacle touched her cheek, Father caressed her tenderly, and then before she could protest, Father was through the door.
"Good luck" she whispered.

The airlock door slid open. Father walked through and into the connecting tube, the airlock on the other end looked sound and it didn't take long to find the release panel, however, there was no power to it, a brief search and he located the emergency release, wrapped a tentacle around it and pulled. The door slid up an inch, breathing heavily, Father pulled again and again until the doorway was clear. Then he had to rest a moment, inside all was dark, a few emergency lights casting eerie shadows on the walls.
"I'm inside," reported Father as he made his way forward. Every now and then bright arcs of electricity from smashed and damaged systems lit up the corridors like lightning, allowing him to make out, briefly, the huge deeper darkness of the mammoth cargo pods. From some of them, a red glow far away highlighted the fact that parts of this metal titan were still on fire. Acrid smoke was starting to fill the corridors. Father was glad he had chosen to come, his physiology was far better at dealing with this sort of environment than Tiya's. Cautiously he made his way to the bridge, only to find it cut off, an emergency bulkhead had dropped into place. The freighter designers had installed tiny, robust port holes in the emergency bulkheads so that a ship's engineer could see what damage a section had sustained without having to put themselves at risk. With some difficulty, Father managed to get one of his eyes up to the port and looked inside, twisted metal and sparking cables were all that remained of the once-functional bridge. Through a huge rent in the upper deck, the beautiful, gently swirling cloud bands of the gas-giant, could be seen growing steadily larger as the two ships fell towards it.
"I have reached the bridge, what's left of it," Father reported, "No signs of life, power down, this place is a wreck."
"Confirm no life readings," Tiya's voice replied. "I'm picking up a power drain, the area it's coming from seems to be sensor shielded, can you go right 200 meters?" 
The general state of the ship seemed to improve as he made his way down the corridor, of course, Father realised, that if the section was sensor-shielded, it wouldn't have presented as a target to the warship. He couldn't help but wonder, what could be worth all this? Why had the warships been chasing a seemingly empty clapped-out old freighter? And why had it been running away in the first place if they were both from Earth?
"Ok," Tiya's voice crackled" turn left, and go 20 meters".
Ahead of him, Father could make out steady electric lighting. The main doors of this section were open, behind them, light streamed out from the large observation windows in hermetically sealed doors. Was this a medical unit? Inside the atmosphere looked clean. It took Father a few moments to release the locking mechanism, cargo pods were designed, of course, to be easier to open from the outside. Cautiously he edged through. It was one of the smaller cargo containers, Father's eyes blinked in the harsh neon light. The space was like a large metallic hall, filled with long rectangular boxes. He was about to go and investigate them when he noticed a computer console not from the door, as he moved towards it, a gun appeared. At first, it seemed to be floating above the console, but when it moved you could make out, just, a transparent tendril leading behind the console.
"Stop," came high high-pitched, tinny voice "Go back to where you came from. I don't wish to harm you, but I won’t let you damage my cargo."
"Fine," replied Father, "you have no power, and in about, 1.35 hours you will be crushed by the gas giant. Goodbye"
Another tendril darted up, moved around like a periscope and disappeared again.
"You are a Kharzan?" asked the tinny voice.
"Yes," said Father, slowly lifting his sidearm and aiming it at the console, “what are you?"  
"I'm Ejeb," the creature said as it moved into view from behind the console; rolled might be a better way of describing it. 
Imagine a drop of water rolling down a window; that's similar to the way Ejeb moved. Ejeb was a ball of clear liquid, roughly 3.5 feet high and leaning slightly more towards egg-shaped than a perfect sphere. It was, as Father saw, able to create whatever appendages it needed from itself at will, and it spoke by vibrating its entire surface, which is why there was no bass in its voice.
The two stood facing each other. Ejeb, of course, had no 'face', yet still, there was no way of mistaking it when it was looking at you. Eventually, it was Ejeb who broke the silence.
"Are you working for the human authorities?" Anger flared in Father.  
"HOW DARE YOU!" cried Father, "WE HAVE JUST DESTROYED YOUR PURSUERS AND ARE TRYING TO SAVE YOU."
"Father, what's going on?" Tiya's voice came over the COM link.
"Who is that?" asked Ejeb nervously,
"She is my sla...” Father stopped himself, "She is my daughter; Tiya, I have found a life form; it's holding a gun to me. I say we leave it."
"Hold on," Tiya shouted, "I'm coming, nobody shoot anybody."

Father and Ejeb stood in a stand-off, neither wishing to put their weapon down.
"So," said Father, trying to break the tension although his strength was failing him, "you can run the ship from here?"
"Yes I have routed all commands to this station via a secondary processor," said Ejeb, there was a brief pause, "You are dying." It continued. Matter of factually.
"I know," said Father, Anger returning to his voice.
"Have you a place to spawn?" the little creature enquired. This was too much for Father.
"How can I," he shouted, "your human friends have destroyed my race, I'm the last."
At that moment, Tiya Burst in, her throat raw from the smoke and vapour. She took a few deep breaths, which resulted in her having a coughing fit and having to take a few more.
"Ok, first things first," she said at last "put your guns down."
Slowly, Ejeb and Father lowered their weapons. All 9 of Father's eyes remained fixed on Ejeb.
"Right," said Tiya, "there is no way to repair your ship before it hits the atmosphere. I'm not sure it’s even salvageable. The fires are getting worse. I'm afraid you will have to come with us."
"I can’t abandon my cargo," Ejeb replied. "I will have to stay and do what I can."
"Why?" asked Father, "What's so valuable you would wish to perish along with it?"
Tiya wandered over to one of the metal boxes. Through a glass window in the lid, she could see a human body, its face seemed dead and lifeless.
"Look," said Tiya, "they're dead, you're not, what's the problem?"
"They're not dead," said Ejeb, "they are in hyper-sleep. They are refugees."
At that moment, Tiya and Father's COM links burst into life 
"Picking up several ships, they will be in firing distance in 20 minutes,' came the voice of the ship's computer.
"That does it," said Father, "we have to go." He took a step towards the door and collapsed against a bulkhead, the strain was too much. Tiya turned hurriedly to Ejeb.
"Are your jump engines working?" she asked.
"Yes," said Ejeb, "but there is no way to reach jump speed."
Tiya grinned and ran back to the ship. The fires seemed to be burning out; however, the smouldering made the air even harsher. As Tiya ran, she tried to calculate the freighter's size, mass, velocity, structural stability, range of its jump engines and many other variables. Reaching the bridge a few minutes later, she slid into her seat. Complex calculations appeared on the jelly display as her fingers flew over the controls. 
“Ejeb," she said after a few moments, "how's Father?"
"I'm fine," came Father’s gruff reply, "what are you doing girl?"
  "Ejeb," said Tiya "give remote control to me... thank you, now both of you hold tight, this will be a rough one."
The ship's arms began to spin, faster, faster, and the freighter already battered almost to breaking point, started to vibrate. 
"10%....15% " Tiya said.  
"What are you doing girl," Fathers’ voice came over the comm.
"I'm taking us home.....30%...35%..."
"This ship is too big to make it through the asteroid field, let alone the crack," Father had to raise his voice; the shaking now was unbelievable, Ejeb had created several tendrils and wrapped them around anything to hand. Father had managed to get his claws around the bulkhead supports and was doing, despite his ill health, a good job of crushing them.
"75%....I know Father," Tiya replied, "I'm going to jump us right inside the base."
"That’s impossible," screamed Father, "Nobody can make a jump that accurate, you're going to destroy us all."
"Well if you have a better idea, I'm afraid you're too late," called Tiya "99% here we go."
The ship's three arms were now spinning so fast, that they appeared to be a solid wall, the ships faded, flickered  
like a failing neon light and then with a sudden unexpected flash of light, the ships popped out of existence.

The Asteroid turned slowly, as did all the others; some slightly faster or slower, but, with few exceptions, they all span in the same direction as they slowly danced around their parent star. Just now, the huge crack, leading to the base lay in shadow, a momentary flicker, like lightning from deep inside showed up its features for a fraction of a second, heralding the arrival of ships. Large as the cavern was the freighter was dangerously close to filling it, Tiya, her own ship still connected, had managed to position the freighter so that a docking port on the opposite side Could connect to the base.
On the freighter Ejeb was concerned, 
"We are inside an asteroid" it squeaked. As it looked over its instruments.
"I know," Father replied. One of his larger claws was so entrenched in a bulkhead support; that he was having difficulty removing it.
"But," Ejeb continued, his pitch even higher "we are trapped, my ship is too big to get out"
Father, finally freeing his claw, sat back against the wall, breathing heavily. 
"Don’t worry," he said, "she got you in, she can get you out."
On the ship, Tiya sat back admiring her handiwork. Jumping directly into the base was something she had always wanted to try; she instinctively knew she could handle the calculations, though no other ship she knew of could have pulled it off.
However it had surprised even her that she had been able to pull the freighter through as well, it was lucky that the freighter's jump engine were substantial and working she reflected.  
  She allowed herself a few seconds to relax and then made her way back to Ejeb's cargo pod. The freighter was a lost cause, she needed to find Father's caves, and she needed to find out more about the refugees and this Ejeb, she had never seen anything like it, and she had seen many different species in her time, but sentient liquid? That was a new one.  
Reaching the airlock, she suddenly found herself collapsing against the wall of the tube, her emotions seemed numb, and she didn't know why. Maybe it was Father being close to death, the loss of Torisan, finding out her past was a lie, the people she had been forced to kill in the battle, or getting away, it all just seemed too much for her to cope with. 
It bugged her that, whenever in life or death situations, she acted on impulse and seemed capable of doing things she would not have believed possible, saving the freighter, jumping both ships, in a decaying orbit around a gas giant, travelling at thousands of mile
 An hour, into a chasm inside an asteroid, which itself was orbiting a star and moving at about 19 miles per second. 
She replayed that last thought again... 
What the hell?
In the past Tiya had always jumped outside of the asteroid field and then flown in. Because even if her ship was stationary, jumping into a moving object, would have ended with them smashing into the side of the asteroid. and yet somehow, somehow she couldn't quite remember, she had done it. That was impossible, simply impossible... wasn't it? Who the hell was she?
She found herself feeling the cool walls of the tube, taking comfort in the cold hard metal and the smooth plastics, it was real, something to anchor her.
A few minutes later she picked herself up, she felt strange and disorientated. She ran her fingers along the wall as she made her way back to Father like that contact was all that was keeping her connected to reality. She was in shock. 
It’s remarkable how some people can take so much, do so much, and the moment they are alone and safe, their minds just need to take a break. Her finger caught on a sharp piece of blown-out conduit, she gasped in pain and looked at her wound; it was a small cut, the sort even a small child at play would think nothing of. A tiny bead of blood welled and without thinking she put the injured digit in her mouth, sucked upon it gently and then held it up to the light. seeing that the blood had stopped she put her hand in her jump-suit pocket, and 
continued on her way, but somehow that simple act had grounded her again, for the moment all the questions which were increasingly plaguing her over the last few days, fled her mind. She was once again just Tiya and she had work to do.

They had made their way to the lounge area on the base. Tiya's initial idea was to move the frozen humans onto the base, dump the freighter in a random star, come back, sort out Father, and then and only then to worry about Ejeb and his cargo. But she had to dump the freighter first. It was so unstable she feared it could blow and take them all with it.
However, getting Ejeb to play ball was hard. He wouldn't agree to unload the freighter, and getting information out of him was tiring. Despite the help Father and Tiya had rendered, Ejeb was reluctant to give much away.
"Why can’t you at least tell us where you’re headed." Father sounded like he wanted to give in.
"I have told you, I have promised not to give out my destination to anyone," it replied nervously, it rocked back and forwards, quite literally, shaking like a jelly.
"But," Tiya put in, “If we have to sort you out first, we need to know where to take you, your ship is dead, do you want to stay here forever?"
"Where is here?" Ejeb asked.
"Ha," coughed Father, "he won’t tell us what we need to help him, but he wants to know all about us." Father leaned close to Ejeb, though weak, he could still sound menacing. "We have put ourselves at risk several times and you won’t trust us? To hell with you."
Ejeb backed away, "But I promised."
Tiya sighed. This was getting silly. 
"Ok, well can you tell me this," Said Tiya, "Did you mean to jump into that system or was it random?"
"Random," Ejeb replied.
"Then how the hell how did those humans follow you?" Father put in.
"They have new technology that can scan you during transition and work out where you will jump to," said Ejeb.
This news hit both Tiya and Father hard. They would have been surprised, had they known it, that the old Kharzan and the young women were thinking almost exactly the same thing. 
They were imagining a future where white Earth ships policed every system, where genocide on a galactic scale was ensuring that only one species would survive; there would be nowhere to hide from them. And after they had made themselves rulers of the galaxy, then what? With no other civilisations to destroy, would they turn on themselves? Or would they turn their dark thoughts out across the unimaginable distances between the island galaxies? 
Tiya pulled herself back to the here and now.
"Could they have scanned us?" she asked, "Could they know where we are?"
"I do not believe so," Ejeb replied, "they were at least 20,000 miles out. As far as I have been informed, the scan needs to be a few miles away at maximum."
"So tell me this,“ Tiya said, sitting back in her chair, and trying to look relaxed. "With the Humans being the scourge of the galaxy, here you are with a hold full of them. So what's their story?"
Ejeb wobbled in a way which suggested a degree of reluctance mixed with resignation.
"Things for the Humans are not going well," Ejeb began, Father did not need any coaxing and was about to start shouting a torrent of anti-human abuse, but a look from Tiya silenced him.
"On earth," Ejeb said, “there is a total news blackout. The people are told that they are at war, and that power-hungry evil aliens are constantly trying to destroy them. Every citizen is watched; every communication is monitored and recorded. Anyone speaking out against the regime is arrested. At best, they are publicly ridiculed, shamed and then become social outcasts. At worst, public execution. They say this is to ensure lies and hatred can’t spread, but in truth, many are killed before they even reach trial. The regime also pumps drugs into all water and food supplies, keeping the population docile and suggestible. But even so, some would fight if they could, and for many years I have been getting refugees of Earth and its colonies."
"I believe you," it was Father who spoke, Tiya had to do a double take.
"Well," Father continued, "it's easier to believe than the alternative; that such a purely evil race managed to become this advanced without destroying themselves." 
Father noticed the dumbstruck expression on Tiya's face.
"Hey," he continued, "I'm not forgiving them, still wish they were all dead... sorry, but I do."
Father's Voice trailed off, He looked wretched. 
"Right that settles it," Tiya said after a pause. "Where were you taking them?" 
Ejeb said nothing, a slight, blue tint barely noticeable was all that showed his discomfort.
"look at it this way," Tiya said at length, "you can't stay here, your ship is so smashed it's a danger to us and needs to be dumped. Our ship is the only chance you have so... what are you going to do?"
Ejeb rolled backwards and forwards, pondering. 
"There is a refugee planet," it said after mulling things over.
"I will give you the coordinates when we are about to jump. But you will be pleased to know that it is populated by many species... Including..."
"Fine, whatever," replied Tiya, "as soon as Father is sorted, I will get you all there."
"We can do both," said Ejeb, "sul....um...my destination has exactly what he needs."
Tiya was not convinced. 
"Look, I'm sorry, but you haven't been straight with us and," she lowered her voice, noticing that Father was, once more sleeping heavily, "he wants an uninhabited system."
Ejeb rolled closer.
"Trust me please," it whispered, "he needs this one."
While Father slept, Tiya and Ejeb, one by one, manoeuvred the coffin-shaped hyper-sleep containers through the mangled innards of the freighter, through the connecting tunnel and into the ship's hold. Each of the strange semi-coffins had anti-grav, otherwise, they could have spent days dragging all 250 of them. As with any repetitive job, Tiya soon stopped noticing the deathly pale faces staring up through the glass panels. She definitely didn't notice the man with the close-cropped beard and even if she had, she would have been hard-pressed to have noticed the insubstantial, red pulsing glow emanating from the small item clenched in the man's fist.

***

In his tower, the President pondered the report of the endeavour. He hated failure and to lose two prime targets in one go... 
He pressed a sequence of buttons on his desk. Once again, the Admiral's hologrammatic form hovered above.
"Admiral," the President said, "I hope you have better news."
"Sir," the admiral replied, saluting. "We have picked up the tracer, it's coming from far further away than we would have thought possible. It will take a good few jumps to get there. Two of our best ships are heading there as we speak."
The President switched off the communicator and smiled.

Tiya and Ejeb slowly helped Father to the ship, He was fading fast now, and Tiya had to use the anti-gravity sled, usually reserved for moving cargo, to get him through the freighter and onto the ship.
"It’s ok," She whispered to him, as they negotiated a tricky bend, "I'm taking you to your caves."
One of his eyes swivelled to look at her; though she was unable to tell if he was able to understand her. She stroked his great head gently as, after much effort they made it to the ship's bridge. And as gently as they could, they manoeuvred him into the webbing.
"Ok I take it we're going to Sulstus," Tiya said to Ejeb as she slid into her seat. The little blob was taken aback.
"How did you know this?" It asked.
"Well you gave it away saying 'sul' earlier, it didn't take the ship long to work out which planet had what Father needed and began 'sul'" she explained.  
"How long will it take to get there?" Ejeb asked.
"Well, that depends on what we're doing with your ship. If I have to tow you about 3 jumps I would guess." She turned to the controls.
"Computer," she said, "how are we doing"
"Power systems recharged, auto repair has completed work on damaged systems and superstructure," it replied.
"Auto repair?" Ejeb asked.
"Don’t ask me how it works, it just does, if I didn't know better, I'd say this ship was alive." Satisfied with the readings Tiya turned to Ejeb.
“Now what are we doing with you're..."
An alarm sounded 
'Warning, two craft have entered the system,' the computer said and brought up a hazy image on the display, just visible on the edge of the asteroid field, 2 ships were heading towards them, unmistakably human.

***

Aboard one of the Human ships, its captain opened communications with the other.
"This is Captain Duccat to Captain Lucas," he said, I'm picking up the signal, dead ahead, but I'm not reading any ships. Are you having better luck?"
"Hard to get a fix with all the activity out here," Captain Lucas replied, "My navigator has programmed a course to take us through. Sending it now."
Captain Lucas's ship, the Hood, took the lead; weaving through the asteroids. Duccat’s ship, the Potemkin, however, was not as graceful. Its pilot was less experienced, and soon his ship sported a great many scuffs and dents where its hull was scrapped against giant rocks. Nonetheless, mile by mile, second by second, they were closing in.

***

Aboard the ship, Tiya was busy making calculations when Father lifted his head. 
"My box," he said weekly, "you must get my box,"
"I'm sorry Father," Tiya replied, "there's not enough time."
"Please," pleaded Father, "I can't go without it." 
Tiya looked at Father, limp and shrunken in the webbing. she didn't even know if he would make it to his caves, then she checked her instruments. She could make it, she knew she could. She turned and ran out of the bridge,
"What are you doing?" Ejeb's voice came from the Coms, "They will be on us in minutes."
But no reply was forthcoming, Tiya's mind was Bent on achieving her goal, she ran through the airlock and into the freighter, leaping over rouble, ducking under cables and bulkheads, her lungs bursting with strain, and as she ran a plan formed in her mind.

***

"This is Lucas to Ducatt, according to my systems. The signal is coming from deep inside that... Well. it's either a massive asteroid or a tiny moon."
"I'm reading the same" came the reply from the Potemkin, "use your eyes, something's not right here."

***

Tiya reached Home Base. The sudden change in gravity sent her sprawling, but soon enough she was running again. Finding Father's room, she hesitated for a moment. The old habit of not going in there was hard to resist. But taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door and rushed in.
"They're almost on top of us," Ejeb's voice echoed through the cold rocky recesses of the base.

***

"There," Captain Lucas pointed through her bridge's mammoth window, "Ducat there's a chasm that could swallow us both. Not picking up anything inside though, sensors say the chasm isn't there, they must have sensor dampers."
"Then that's where they are" Ducatt replied.

***

Tiya, box in hand ran through the freighter, she skidded around a corner and entered the cargo pod where they had discovered Ejeb. Running up to his computer console she hastily made some adjustments and headed, full pelt back to the ship.
"Computer" she half shouted, half panted as she ran, "as soon as I'm aboard and the airlock is closed, withdraw the transfer tube and jump."

***

The Hood reached the opening of the chasm, and searchlights along its hull showed the extent of this gargantuan shaft of rock. As first they, and then Potemkin entered within all was hushed. On the hoods bridge, a com officer broke the tense silence.  
"The signals gone," He cried.
Captain Lucas rushed over to his station, searching for the signal, but there was no sign.
"Ducatt are you reading this" she called out to her sister ship.
"Looks like they've found the spy." Duccat replied, "They must know we're here by now. Ready weapons and boarding parties."
Alerts bleared on the two ships, signalling the call to battle stations. Weapons systems came online; Humans ran to emergency stations, ready to deal with whatever may befall.
Ahead of them, the cavern opened up, and there, lit up by the invading warships search beams, was the freighter, still locked to the base.
"Lucas to ducat...no sign of the smaller ship, I'm going to try to dock wi...."
In the almost incalculably short space of time between Amy saying the 'I' and when the 'T' should have followed. The power systems of the freighter, already damaged beyond repair, and which had been set to full by Tiya on her rush back from the base, passed critical. The cooling rods in the antiquated nuclear reactor were unable to halt the cascade of built-up energies, safeguards failed, emergency system signalled their impotence to each other and in a flash of light, far brighter than the star around which it spun, the asteroid and everything within it became just so much h dust and rocks.

Tiya and Ejeb slowly helped Father to the ship, He was fading fast now, and Tiya had to use the anti-grav sled, usually reserved for moving cargo, to get him through the freighter and onto the ship.
"It’s ok," She whispered to him, as they negotiated a tricky bend, "I'm taking you to your caves."
One of his eyes swivelled to look at her; though she was unable to tell if he was able to understand her. She stroked his great head gently as, after much effort they made it to the ship's bridge. And as gently as they could, they manoeuvred him into the webbing.
"Ok I take it we're going to Sulstus," Tiya said to Ejeb as she slid into her seat. The little blob was taken aback.
"How did you know this?" It asked.
"Well you gave it away saying 'sul' earlier, it didn't take the ship long to work out which planet had what Father needed and began 'sul'" she explained.  
"How long will it take to get there?" Ejeb asked.
"Well, that depends on what we're doing with your ship. If I have to tow you about 3 jumps I would guess." She turned to the controls.
"Computer," she said, "how are we doing"
"Power systems recharged, auto repair has completed work on damaged systems and superstructure," it replied.
"Auto repair?" Ejeb asked.
"Don’t ask me how it works, it just does, if I didn't know better, I'd say this ship was alive." Satisfied with the readings Tiya turned to Ejeb.
“Now what are we doing with you're..."
An alarm sounded 
'Warning, two craft have entered the system,' the computer said and brought up a hazy image on the display, just visible on the edge of the asteroid field, 2 ships were heading towards them, unmistakably human.

***

Aboard one of the Human ships, its captain opened communications with the other.
"This is Captain Duccat to Captain Lucas," he said, I'm picking up the signal, dead ahead, but I'm not reading any ships. Are you having better luck?"
"Hard to get a fix with all the activity out here," Captain Lucas replied, "My navigator has programmed a course to take us through. Sending it now."
Captain Lucas's ship, the Hood, took the lead; weaving through the asteroids. Duccat’s ship, the Potemkin, however, was not as graceful. Its pilot was less experienced, and soon his ship sported a great many scuffs and dents where its hull was scrapped against giant rocks. Nonetheless, mile by mile, second by second, they were closing in.

***

Aboard the ship, Tiya was busy making calculations when Father lifted his head. 
"My box," he said weekly, "you must get my box,"
"I'm sorry Father," Tiya replied, "there's not enough time."
"Please," pleaded Father, "I can't go without it." 
Tiya looked at Father, limp and shrunken in the webbing. she didn't even know if he would make it to his caves, then she checked her instruments. She could make it, she knew she could. She turned and ran out of the bridge,
"What are you doing?" Ejeb's voice came from the Coms, "They will be on us in minutes."
But no reply was forthcoming, Tiya's mind was Bent on achieving her goal, she ran through the airlock and into the freighter, leaping over rouble, ducking under cables and bulkheads, her lungs bursting with strain, and as she ran a plan formed in her mind.

***

"This is Lucas to Ducatt, according to my systems. The signal is coming from deep inside that... Well. it's either a massive asteroid or a tiny moon."
"I'm reading the same" came the reply from the Potemkin, "use your eyes, something's not right here."

***

Tiya reached Home Base. The sudden change in gravity sent her sprawling, but soon enough she was running again. Finding Father's room, she hesitated for a moment. The old habit of not going in there was hard to resist. But taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door and rushed in.
"They're almost on top of us," Ejeb's voice echoed through the cold rocky recesses of the base.

***

"There," Captain Lucas pointed through her bridge's mammoth window, "Ducat there's a chasm that could swallow us both. Not picking up anything inside though, sensors say the chasm isn't there, they must have sensor dampers."
"Then that's where they are" Ducatt replied.

***

Tiya, box in hand ran through the freighter, she skidded around a corner and entered the cargo pod where they had discovered Ejeb. Running up to his computer console she hastily made some adjustments and headed, full pelt back to the ship.
"Computer" she half shouted, half panted as she ran, "as soon as I'm aboard and the airlock is closed, withdraw the transfer tube and jump."

***

The Hood reached the opening of the chasm, and searchlights along its hull showed the extent of this gargantuan shaft of rock. As first they, and then Potemkin entered within all was hushed. On the hoods bridge, a com officer broke the tense silence.  
"The signals gone," He cried.
Captain Lucas rushed over to his station, searching for the signal, but there was no sign.
"Ducatt are you reading this" she called out to her sister ship.
"Looks like they've found the spy." Duccat replied, "They must know we're here by now. Ready weapons and boarding parties."
Alerts bleared on the two ships, signalling the call to battle stations. Weapons systems came online; Humans ran to emergency stations, ready to deal with whatever may befall.
Ahead of them, the cavern opened up, and there, lit up by the invading warships search beams, was the freighter, still locked to the base.
"Lucas to ducat...no sign of the smaller ship, I'm going to try to dock wi...."
In the almost incalculably short space of time between Amy saying the 'I' and when the 'T' should have followed. The power systems of the freighter, already damaged beyond repair, and which had been set to full by Tiya on her rush back from the base, passed critical. The cooling rods in the antiquated nuclear reactor were unable to halt the cascade of built-up energies, safeguards failed, emergency system signalled their impotence to each other and in a flash of light, far brighter than the star around which it spun, the asteroid and everything within it became just so much h dust and rocks.

Tiya woke, to find that the desert night was chilling her. The sky was filled with many stars, and a large cloud of purple and crimson filled much of the sky. Sulstus it seemed, was close to a nebular. Indeed, from most of the Earth empire, it couldn't even be seen.
Rubbing her arms with the cold, Tiya made her way to the hospital tent. Father was sleeping peacefully and the colour had returned to tentacles. She was about to leave when she felt something touch her shoulder. She spun round to find Quarzic.
"I did not mean to startle you," he said, "Father has been calling for you. He hasn't woken yet, but he will. I was hoping to talk to you."
Tiya relaxed and together they went outside. Tiya sat on a rock not far from the tent, Quarzic followed and squatted nearby.
"Have you been together long?" Quarzic asked. His tone light.
"As long as I can remember," Tiya replied, "about 20 years I think."
"And has he been alone all that time?" Quarzic asked, his tone betraying some surprise.
"He has had me," Tiya’s voice sounded a little hurt.
"I am sure you were a great help," came the soothing reply, "do you know much of our society?"
Tiya was quiet in thought for a few moments. 
"He didn't talk about it much," she said, "to Be honest he thought he was the last, he was quite paranoid and angry."
Quarzic seemed shocked. 
"he never told you? He must be strong indeed." 
Quarzic paused for a moment, picking his words with care. 
"We Kharzans are a very social race; we are born with sometimes hundreds of brothers and sisters. We never go anywhere without there being a few dozen of us. We do not need intimacy for procreation like some species. We are not psychic; there is no medical reason for it. We just need each other. A Kharzan left alone for any length of time goes mad. There are several hundreds of us on Sulstus, and we feel lonely."
At that moment, the sun climbed over the horizon and it hit the hospital. Father awoke, calling out Tiya’s name.
Tiya and Quarzic rushed back. A Human doctor was fussing over him, but he was pushing her away. As Tiya entered, he looked from her to Quarzic.
"It... It wasn't a dream?" he asked. Tiya rushed to his side. 
"It’s not a dream Father," Tiya said, "they have caves here."
Father took a deep breath.
"yes," he said, "I can smell them. I am ready for my last walk. He climbed out of his nest looking almost as fit as Tiya had ever known him.
"Are there eggs?" asked.
"Many," Quarzic replied, "There are many layers, but you are the first male to enter the last stage since we came here. Your death couldn't come at a better time."
Tiya was shocked to hear Father’s death spoken of in such an out-of-hand way. But before she could chastise Quarzic, Father put a comforting appendage on her shoulder.
"That is how we speak of that which is to be," he said, "Oh Tiya, dearer than daughter, this is far better than I could have ever dreamed. Please walk with me."
Before they left, the human nurse approached. 
"Excuse me," she said, "What name should we put on your records."
Father looked at Tiya.
"Can you just record me as Father?" he said. The nurse looked to Quarzic who replied.
"It will be our honour," he said, "You are giving our people a new start."
With that, Father began his last walk. He needed no directions. He could taste the sulphur. Tiya held a tentacle as they walked towards some low cliffs in the early morning light. Behind them followed Quarzic and the nurse at a discrete distance.

***

The spy moved freely through the city. The people of this planet seemed not to expect treachery from within. It hadn't taken long to discover where the shield and defences were controlled from. 
Now he just had to wait for the perfect moment to strike.

***

Outside the cave, Father halted.
"Tiya, I must go on alone," he said.
Tiya was reluctant to let go. After a few moments she let her hand drop, she knew not what to say.
"I will call you for a last goodbye when my work is done," he said, and brushing a tentacle against her cheek, walked into the cave.
Tiya watched until he was out of sight, and then slumped to the floor.
"Are you ok?" Quarzic asked.
"I don't know," Tiya replied, "What happens in there?"
Quarzic seemed surprised "You don't know?"
"He thought he was alone, it didn't come up," Tiya said.
"Well we have two sexes, what I guess you would call females come here and lay eggs whenever they feel the need. The males however can only inseminate them when they are close to death. The older he is, the more eggs he can inseminate. Then he dies, and when the eggs hatch, there is a ready-made food supply close at hand."
Tiya's face was blank, the penny didn't drop.
"What food source"? She asked.
"Why Father's body of course," Quarzic replied.
Tiya looked horrified.
"That’s disgusting," she said.
"Well," Quarzic put in, "I understand humans bury their dead in the ground where it is no use to their offspring. That seems disgusting to me. We literally become our children, genetically and in their first meal."
Tiya had no reply for this. She managed a half smile; she had to admit it made sense. Suddenly Quarzic communicator buzzed.
"Commander Quarzic, this is Sulstus command, there is a fleet incoming, humans". The message ended.
"I must get to command," Quarzic said to Tiya, don't worry. Nothing can get through our..."
The sky crackled and the sun seemed to suddenly shine out a tiny bit brighter.
"damn," said Quarzic as Tiya started running to the ship.

In the capital, the bearded man kept to the shadows, the authorities, about now were discovering the murdered Sergeant and the smashed defence station. He hadn't been able to destroy the shield generator, or even understand where it was or how it worked. But it would be some time before they could get either the shield or the gun platforms working. And by then, it would be too late.

***

Tiya rushed onto the bridge and slid into her seat, in moments the ship was heading out of the atmosphere.
"This is Tiya to Sulstus command. What's going on?"
There was a pause and Ejeb came on. 
"We have been sabotaged," he said "We can’t get the shield up"
"Send what ships you can," Tiya said, "We'll slow them down."
However, her optimism was soon quashed as the computer bought up the results of its scans. 
'30 ships,' Tiya thought, but then an image of father and his progeny came to her mind and her will hardened.
"This is Commander Quarzic, Tiya we're approaching your position, what's you're plan."
"My plan? Umm, hang on," a look at her reinforcements and her heart quailed. "8 ships, is that all?"
"All we have with weapons" Quarzic replied, "and even they may be of little use."
The earth fleet, fearing no serious threat, started opening fire on the powerless defence platforms.
"Ejeb," Said Tiya, "how long before you can get the platforms online?"
"It will be a few minutes," said Ejeb, "I have a team working on it."
Tiya looked over her ragtag bunch of ships and noticed a huge cube, like the one she had seen on Torisan.
"Tiya to big cube, get behind me, I'll take down their shields, the rest of you, target engines and weapons. Don't waste time destroying them, we don't have it to spare, and it's not necessary, we're not butchers. Cube, you're going to be taking the flak so keep your shields pumped."
She turned her nose towards the Invaders as her comrades got in line behind her.
"Computer," She said, "bring up targets according to threat to planet Sulstus and gun platforms."
The small fleet leapt forward. As expected the enemies targeted the cube initially, Tiya's ship danced around the enemies, knocking out one shield after another, behind her, the rest were not finding things quite as easy. 
After the first 5 earth ships were neutralised, the enemy awoke to the real threat and targeted the ships in the cube's shadow. Tiya turned to help, only to find herself becoming a target. 
"Computer," she said "what are our odds." The computer was not encouraging. 
"Odds of winning, 200-1, odds of surviving 199-1."
Tiya noticed one of the ships at the end of line, start to burst into flame.
"Get out of there" she shouted, knowing in her heart that it had no chance. The plucky crew of the little ship, however, knowing for what they were fighting, aimed their craft at their attacker and crashed, flaming into its bridge.
"Power at 60%," the computer piped up, "shields have temporarily failed." The ship started to judder with the impact of too many shots to dodge.
"Ejeb where are those platforms?" Tiya cried out.
As if in answer to her prayers, the gun platforms burst into life, their powerful weapons raking the intruding fleets and turning the tide of battle. With a smile, Tiya swung around and re-entered the fray.

Abroad the earth flagship, a science officer approached the Admiral.
"Sir, there is no chance of victory now," he said, "they are too well defended."
The admiral pondered for a moment.
"Are the planetary shields still down?" he asked.
"Yes sir." The admiral smiled. 
"All ships, prepare missiles," he said, "aim for the planet."

***

From all but one of the remaining Earth ships, some 18 at least, missiles leapt towards the planet. The gun platforms were unable to get a fix on them. They were too fast.
"This is Tiya to all ships, disengage and go after the missiles."
As the ships broke formation, Tiya scanned the missiles. As she feared, just one getting through would make the planet uninhabitable for generations.
"50 Missiles remaining, power at 45%," the computer said as Tiya took out another.
"Can we get them all in time?" Tiya asked the computer.
"No," the machine replied.
Abroad the earth ship Excalibur, the Coms officer turned to the Captain. a short, well-knit, red-haired woman.
"Captain Ber," she said, "the admiral is asking why we haven't fired missiles."  
The captain was deep in thought.
"All hands, this is the Captain," she said, "I was sent here to take the planet, not commit genocide. Anyone who doesn't agree can take an escape pod and leave, helm, take down those missiles."
Two younger ensigns pulled out weapons but were cut down before they could aim at the Captain.
"How are we doing," she asked Coms.
"There have been a few firefights, and about 10% of the crew have abandoned ship, the rest of us are with you."
Captain Ber smiled grimly. She chose her crew well.

***

"20 missiles remaining. Power systems at 22%" the ship intoned, Tiya was getting worried. But before she had a chance to get a lock on the next, it exploded.
"19, 18, 17, 16, 13, 9" missiles remaining.
"This is Captain Ber of the earth ship Excalibur. Were defecting. Please do not fire on us."
"Can we trust you?" asked Tiya, as she took down another missile.
"If I wanted to destroy you," Ber replied, "all I would have to do is nothing."
"Fair point," Tiya replied, "Ejeb, stop the gun platforms targeting the Excalibur."
"Already done," came the tinny reply.
"Computer, how are we doing?" Tiya asked.
"2 missiles remaining" the computer replied, "hold...one missile remaining."
"Lock onto it," Tiya said.
"It is beyond weapons range." the computer informed her.
"How long before we can catch it?" Tiya asked.
"We will not reach it before it reaches the planet," the computer dutifully replied.
"Ejeb, where is that shield"
"The shield is coming on now," said Ejeb, "but it takes 2 minutes to power up."
"Damn, computer, how long until the missile hits the atmosphere," Tiya asked.
"1 minute 20 seconds," came the cold reply.
Tiya's fingers flew into a fury; she knew what she had to do.
"Computer cut power, everything, including life-support," Tiya instructed, "recharge for the next 60 seconds and then follow these instructions."
Instruction given, she jumped from her seat and started tearing down Father's old webbing at the back of the bridge. 
"Quarzic, Ejeb," she said, "just in case. Tell father I love him."
"What are you doing?" Quarzic asked.
"I'm going to jump the ship in front of the Missile. It will hit me and not the planet," she replied.
"But that's impossible," Quarzic said.
"Let’s hope not," Tiya replied.
The ship's arms span and the ship faded. A split second later a colossal explosion, only 2 thousand miles above the planet, proved her right.
Then a few seconds later, but far too late had it not been for Tiya, the planet's shields cracked into place.

***

Ejeb rolled back. They had done it, the shield was up. The earth ships were jumping out (Those that could). They had only lost one of their own ships and had a handful of casualties. The earth ships that couldn't jump were pleading for clemency. Quarzic would handle the negotiations. Right now though he had a saboteur to catch, luckily he could narrow down the suspects to about 250.
"Ejeb to Tiya. Well done." he called into the coms circuits, There was no reply, "Tiya....  Tiya?" Quadric’s voice came mournfully over the speakers. 
"she's gone," He said, "she saved us all, she stopped the last missile with her ship,"
Quarzic couldn't help but wonder if a ball of liquid could cry.

With a deafening ripping tearing noise, like reality being pulled apart, the ship faded into existence over the lush red forests of one of the southern continents.
Plasma fires, blue and green erupted along the hull. The arms were no longer spinning, one of them was bent. A huge hole in the hull nearby showed the ship's tortured innards.
The ship plunged towards the ground: the nose hit the treetops, which by luck pulled it up. Within moments, twisted branches and twisted metal lay together in a death-like embrace. The plasma fires scorched the local vegetation. By luck, the high water content of the red stuff prevented any forest fire.
The bridge was a shambles, the console unrecognisable, the room twisted. Smoke-blackened light streamed in from a gash in the wall. At the rear of the room, a single light shone, slowly blinking. Frozen air hissed as the stasis pod opened and Tiya stepped blinking into the light.
"I can't believe that worked," she said to herself, "Computer you still there?"
A single smashed speaker crackled into life.
"No thanks to you!" Tiya was taken aback. 
"computer?" she said, "You've never spoken like that before."
"You’ve never tried to destroy me before," it testily replied.
"Umm... sorry?" Tiya said, "How's the ship?"
"Don’t know," the computer replied. "My damage evaluation systems are damaged." Tiya felt very uncomfortable 
"Well, how about Comms?" Tiya asked.
"Yeah Comms are good," The computer replied. "look why don't you go, I'll pipe coms through to your collar and contact you when auto repair has something to report. We are going to need a few raw materials, but I reckon they owe us one."
Tiya smiled, maybe she could get used to a sassy computer.
"Sulstus command, is Ejeb there?" she said as she climbed out of the wreckage.
"Hello?" came a confused high-pitched voice.
"It’s Tiya, any chance of a lift?" she chuckled.
"You’re alive? How? Never mind," it said, "Father has been asking for you. I'll be right there, we have your coordinates." Tiya sat on the ship's nose awaiting Ejeb and feeling sad that even for a few moments she had forgotten about Father.

***

Within 15 minutes she was rushing back to the caves. The nurse strapped a respirator to Tiya’s face
"Fathers about 200 meters in. don't take the mask off; the sulphur content would kill you." Tiya looked downcast,
"I want to kiss him goodbye" she said.
"Well keep the mask over your nose and don't breathe through your mouth," the nurse, smiled warmly at her, "go in, take as long as you need, he's ready for you."
Tiya made her way through the tunnel-like entrance, artificial light was not allowed within, but in the utter darkness Before her, small points of light littered the floor. As she got closer, she saw in the glow that the light came from patches of large, translucent eggs. They glowed a bright orange, in some other areas she could make out dull, dark ones. 
After some searching, she found Father. He was crumpled in a corner. She rushed over and cradled his head.
"Father," she said, her voice cracking. "it's Tiya, I'm here." With some effort, Father opened 3 of his eyes.
"Tiya?" he said, "They said you couldn't come. But I held on."
Tiya tried to keep control of her voice, though her tears rolled freely. 
"It's ok," she said, "I'm here now."
Father managed to wave a tentacle towards a close patch of glowing eggs. 
“I have done well," he sighed, "you will have many brothers and sisters."
"I'll do what I can for them," Tiya replied. They were silent for a few moments then Father pulled out the treasured box he had demanded from the base.
"Take this," he said
"I don't think I can," said Tiya.
"You will need it, trust me" Father insisted, pushing it into her hands. "I'm sorry for everything," he said weekly.
Tiya pushed up the mask and kissed him long on the head. Then, replacing the mask she said.
"I forgive everything, you know that don't you? I love you Father."
"Thank you," he said, "I'm so proud of you... I feel tired... I'm going to have a little sleep, will you stay with me? Just in case? I don't want to be alone."
"Of course I will," Tiya said, trying to sound jolly. Then cuddled up close to his massive body as he draped his tentacles over her. A few minutes later, as if on some undetectable signal, she started sobbing uncontrollably.
She stayed there as long as she needed.

Several hours later, Tiya emerged, she was tired weak and dishevelled, Ejeb and the nurse were waiting for her. She passed them like a ghost and sat on a stone in the evening sun. Everything that happened between dawn and dusk; it felt like years. The nurse came over and took off the respirator, then she checked Tiya's vitals before handing her a ration bar and a water pouch. Quietly, her dead eyes staring into nothing, Tiya munched on the bar and drank the water. Her body was on autopilot.
"I'll be on the transport if you need me," the nurse said to Ejeb and walked away. Ejeb rolled over to Tiya.
He reached out a tendril, making a shape not completely unlike a hand and placed it on her knee. Tiya clasped it in her own hand, squeezing it tight. She was surprised at how cool and smooth and yet how incredibly solid it felt.
She looked down at Ejeb, thankful for the company.
"He is gone," she said and smiled half-heartedly.
"I understand his last walk was a success," Ejeb replied.
"Yes," Tiya replied quietly "Yes, there is likely to be a few hundred more Kharzans running around soon."
"That’s good news" said Ejeb "Tell me about Father."
Tiya smiled as she began to talk of their history together, the good and the bad, and though she knew it not, she rose up, and they went hand in tendril back towards the spaceport. They were about halfway there when the conversation took a turn.
”It sounds like he was hard on you. Especially in you're early years together," said Ejeb. Tiya found herself getting angry in Father's defence; she pulled her hand away from him.
"Of course he was hard, he was hurting, he thought he had lost his entire race and was stuck on a ship with me for the rest of his life." Ejeb still didn't seem to understand.
"look I get that he was upset, alone and angry," it said at last, "I understand he drank a lot to numb the pain, but, I don't understand why he took it out on you." Tiya, by now, was starting to get very upset. 
"How do you think it was for him? He did his best, but I was a constant reminder of all he had lost all his pain. Is it any wonder he was hard on me?"
Ejeb wobbled Back and forth.
Well frankly yes," he said, "I mean... it’s not as if you are human."

End of book one

Book two: Eldar - discovery, Will come if there is any call for it.