I put on the clothes in the closet after I got out of the shower. I thought I heard voices else where in the ship. I walked towards the flightpit.

The view into space was replaced now by the face of Melissa

" . . . I'm glad you got her out okay." Mel said.

"I told you the mission would be successful." AL-E smirked.

"Mel?" I called.

"Bree! Hey girl! How's it feel to be a free woman again?" She asked.

"Excellent would be an extreme understatement," I smiled.

"I'm glad to hear it." She smiled back, "So, how's Dr. Rizens" Did you give that old geezer a heart attack?"

I hung my head. "I'm sorry Mel. Dr. Rizens didn't make it."

The smile disappeared off of her face. "Oh . . . well, I'm sorry to hear that. We knew that might have happened, besides he had heart cancer too. I'm sure he prefers what he got."

An awkward silence fell between us as we both remained silent for Dr. Rizens. Eventually I spoke.

"AL-E?"

"Yes Commander?"

"Where are we headed?"

"We are currently headed for the urban planet Gleasmore."

"You're coming to stay with me." Mel said.

"Gleasmore? That place is a little tough for you don't you think?"

"Well I don't live in the thug infested areas unlike you did last time you were here. So no, it's not too tough." She answered. "Besides, its a good place to get lost."

"Commander," AL-E interrupted in her version of a troubled voice.

"What is it?"

"A ship is using the communication link to pinpoint our position."

"Damn! Okay. Gotta go Mel."

"Alright Bree. I'll see you when you get here. Bye." She said.

The link closed and Mel?s image was once again replaced by the colorful swirl of hyperspace.

"Incoming tractor beam," AL-E warned

There was a rough pull on the Comet and I almost lost my footing. I pulled myself to the pilot's chair and secured my safety harness.

"Can we pull away from the beam?" I asked.

"No, it's too strong and they have a lock on us."

The was another pull on the ship. This one was much more powerful. The swirl of hyperspace stopped and the force had my safety harness straining to hold me in the pilot's chair as the Comet was snatched out of hyperspace.

"Fine, when we get sight of the other ship, scan their tags. I want to know who we?re dealing with."

"Of course Commander. I believe now would be the opportune time to retrieve the firearm from beneath your bed."

"Good idea." I said as I unbuckled my harness and walked back to the bedroom. Under the bed I found a fully loaded Drangonstinger and a digit card.

"AL-E? Is this card savings or credit?"

"Savings"

"Cool, how much is on it?"

"Well it fluxuates often because much of it is in interplanetary circulation funds, but there is about 2,365,000 digits sitting securely on standby."

I decided that I should put the card in the safest pocket I had: in my shirt.

Another pull on the ship almost threw me into a wall.

"Commander, the other ship is now visible from the flightpit." AL-E said.

I headed back to the flightpit. Outside I could see a severely burnt, patched, and re-patched freighter.

"So who are they?" I asked.

"Well, their tags indicate that they are from Rockflewer Steele Company."

I raised my eyebrow in surprise. "Why would a steel company mess with us?"

"Wait. Cross referencing tags with Rockflewer records. . . ah, that explains it. The ship is stolen. Which means it is probably being controlled by pirates now."

"I hate pirates," I growled.

"Yes, I know Commander."

"Okay, so how many guns does the Comet have?" I asked as I strapped myself back into the pilots chair.

"One main turrent" AL-E answered.

"Alright, how many auxiliary ones?"

"None"

"What?! How the hell am I supposed to fight pirates with only one turrent?!" I yelled.

"I recommend not engaging in fair combat," was her only response. I swear, for a computer intelligence that is hooked up to every computer mainframe in the galaxy, sometimes she could be so useless!

"They are hailing us Commander. If you speak to them they may recognize your voice and send word of your imprisonment." AL-E announced.

"Do you have access to any voice overlays?" I asked.

"Only one at the moment: the middle aged female" She answered."

"That will have to work. Apply it then return the hail"

"Yes Commander. Opening communtications."

Everything went silent for a minute then a scraggely male voice came over the link.

"Well hello, how nice of you to accept my hail. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Captain Phlem."

I spoke into the Comet's mic, but Phlem heard my my words through the voice of some random woman.

"Phlem, I hope there is a good reason why you have disturbed my hyperspace travel.


"Well excuse me. You see I'm in the business of gathering resources of value." He explained

"Well there is nothing on this ship, so if you'll let me go . . ."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. You see the ship itself is quite valuable and would be a great asset to my fleet. So if you would just hand over the Comet, I will send my boarding party over and see to it that you get to the nearest spaceport safely." He offered

"Take that boarding party and shove it up you ion exhaust. If you want this ship you're gonna have to take it from me." I growled before I closed the communications link.

"Commander, once they have the ship, they will probably kill you." AL-E warned

"I know, that's why I'm not going to give them the ship." I replied. "Shut down all systems except life support. Lights, computers, engines, I want it all down."

"Yes Commander."

While AL-E did that I pulled myself into the maintainance area above.

"Shutting down Commander, I'm sensing three life forms on an incoming boarding ship. Good luck."

"Thanks" I whispered, unsure if she could even hear me.

A dreadfully strong sense of loneliness fell on me as once agaian, I was alone in the galaxy.

A series of clicks and hisses signaled the arival of the pirate boarding party. I silently listened to the footsteps as three individuals walked through my ship. I stalked one towards the living quarters. I waited till it pasted, then I quietly lowered myself to the floor. I crouched behind a door. When I the silouhette of a man walked past I took out the Dragonstinger. The figure fell to the floor with a thud. One down, two to go.

I quietly jogged over towards where I had heard another set of footsteps go. I heard the refrigerador open in the kitchen area. I crept towards the sound. I guess I was in a rush because I almost skidded out right infront of the guy. I jumped back, but it may have been too late. I felt his eyes going back over the area as he tried to determine whether he had seen something. He cautiously walked over to where I was standing. I slunk further into the shadows. He got to me and I swear he was looking directly at me! But he didn't trust his instincts. I very slowly shifted the Dragonstinger in my hand. As I said, he wasn't sure, so he turned and looked elswhere in the hallway. When he turned I stood and struck him hard on his temple. He fell to the ground and didn't get back up. Two down, one to go.

I made my way to the@#$%pit, where I had heard the last set of footsteps go. I was determind this time not to rush in like I had the last time. That was the kind of mistake that only works a few times. As I got closer I heard a man talking into a personal communications link.

"Yes sir,"

A unintelligibly low voice spoke back over the link. The man answered back.

"No, the power isn't cut, just turned off. No sign of her anywhere. I'm sure one of the guys is just having fun with her before we space her. Yes sir. You can deactivate the tractor beam now. No sir, I'm not telling you how to do your job. No sir. Yes sir"

He turned off the link and turned on the ship. The soft humming of the ship sounded . . . then all the lights came on. Luckily he didn't turn around, otherwise he might have seen me. Moments after the lights came on so did the computers.

"Artificially Living-Entity online" AL-E's voice came through out the speaker system of the Comet.

"Jeez! This thing has an A-L-E! No wonder the captain wanted it!" the man exclaimed. Apparently he was a big AI geek. He excitedly began pushing buttons on the control panel. I stood and prepared to strike him while he was in his frenzy, but just I got out far to be away from cover, but not close enough to reach him, he turned around and sneezed. He jumped back in fright and pulled his laser rifle from his back.

I had no choice but to put my hands up in surrender.

"W... who the hell are you?!" he asked as he held the gun shakily in his hands.

"Are you sure that really matters?" I asked back.

"Stop that! I hate that! Answering questions with questions, I hate that!"

"Alright, alright. Just calm down. I'm the captain of this ship." I anwered. He relaxed a little and stopped shaking so much now that I wasn't the evil spirit haunting this ship.

"You don't sound like her." He challenged.

"I guess those voice lessons came in handy."

"You're . . . hotter than I expected." He said absently as he looked me over a few times.

"Oh, yeah . . . the captian told me to space you." he said as if he had forgotten, but now remembered

"Are you going to?" I asked

"I . . . uh . . . kind of don't have a choice." he sighed as he raised his rifle to my face.

"Running termination program" AL-E announced. A compartment opened in the control panel. Sparks and lightning flew out and consumed the man. He gave out a horrible scream before Al-E reduced him to ash and a gun. I was left with my hands protectively covering my head.

"Scanning the Comet 3000 for other hostile beings." she announced as if she hadn't just killed a man. "Good work nuetralizing the others Commander." she smiled.

"I like you AL-E . . . but sometimes you scare me. And that's saying something." I said.

"What? He was attempting to kill you!" she pointed out innocently. I cautiously stepped over the ashes and accessed the control panel, very cautiously. I felt my eyebrow raise in dubiousness

" . . . besides, he said my name wrong." she finally admitted.

"So you cremated him?!" I asked.

"Would you not have done the same if given the chance?" she asked with genuine curiousity.

I sighed. I guess AL-E really did know me best.

"Don't worry about that. Right now we need to work on getting out of here." I said. "We need the fastest processes and path to the hyperspace gate. It should take them a while to fire up the tractor beam again. But if they find out what's gong on they're just going to shoot us."

"Right. Calculating minimum systems required for escape and arranging them in order for fastest departure." She said thoughtfully. "I've found it! I will. . ."

"Don't talk me through it, just do it." I cut her off.

"Yes Commander."

The Comet suddenly shot off into space past the huge freighter and I was slammed back into the pilot's chair. I scrambled to fasten my safety harness as AL-E flew the ship to some destination I couldn't see."

"Commander, the pirates are hailing us. They still think their men are in control of the ship."

"Ignore them. Let them think that the guys are just re-stealing the ship." I ordered.

"Yes Commander." She replied as the ship continued to zoom through space. I couldn't help but relax as we made our way away from the freighter. So far so good.

"They're opening fire!" AL-E warned. Sure enough, I heard the hissing of laser fire on the walls of the Comet. So much for relaxing!

"Shields are failing!"

"What?! Why so fast?" I half yelled.

"Their turrents are probably modified to do extra damage." She answered. "Engaging evasive manuevers!"

The Comet went through a series of turns, circles, dips, and dives as AL-E attempted to dodge the majority of shots as they poured like rain from the freighter, which by the way was chasing us now. However, freighters weren't designed for speed and the freighter very slowly fell behind us. Despite our speed, we still couldn't outfly the laser shots the frieghter shot at us. I could see now that I was going to have to upgrade her evasive flying programs.

"AL-E, you work on the hyper space gate. I'll fly."

"Yes Commander." she said with what may have been a touch of gratitude. "Converting to manual flight in 3...2...1"

Once again, as soon as I had control I put the Comet through complex moves that strongly decreased the amount of hissing from my ship. Moments later a blue circle was highlighted on the screen.

"Commander this is the hyperspace gate." AL-E informed me.

"I'm on it!" I growled. I made one last turn past the freighter and headed for the gate. I had to hold the ship steady as we reached the gate to avoid being launched straight into the wall of hypersace, a crash that always shattered a ship to pieces whether it was a single man scouter or a military grade mothership. Unfortunately the freighter took advantage of our stillness and rained dozens of shots into the Comet's hull. The loss of a certain noise that had mixed in with the Comet's humming alarmed me.

"Do we still have the engines?!"

"Yes Commander. Standby, entering hyperspace in 3..2..1" She counted down.

For the second time, I felt a wave of relief as the beautiful swirl of hyperspace flashed, then consumed the Comet.