Azari Yuler quickly entered the hatch and joined Baycorf in the cockpit of his carrier.

"All right, Baycorf" Yuler said. "You going to tell me what it is we're in such a hurry for?"

"A Union vessel – a pretty advanced one – has been hijacked by a bunch of reptilia" said as the craft sped off of the surface of Latildra. "I have a hunch of where it's going and don't think anyone else who can do anything about it will reach it in time."

"And you think we'll get there in time?"

"Of course" Baycorf said. "I know SPG paths that no living hominid knows anything about." Yuler looked at him incredulously.

"And how do you know about this hijacked vessel?" Baycorf turned slowly to look at him, and then turned back to look out the window.

"Let's just say I've kept my subscription to armada transmissions daily up-to-date and I read it frequently." Yuler scowled at him.

"I don't know why I just don't have you frozen again."

"Because I'm useful, not just to you but to your soon-to-be-former princess." Yuler didn't say anything else. The SPG picked up speed.

"Pretty advanced ride you have, here" Yuler remarked noticing the high rate of effective speed on the craft.

"This craft right here is called the Swordfish. It has a metaphysical SPG that gives you a higher effective speed and can safely navigate interstellar lanes normal ships can't. Grithmeer gave it as a gift to Aura Madeen to help her flee from elven intelligence."

"And how did you find it?" Baycorf turned to look at him again.

"I know where things are. I told you, I'm very useful." Yuler didn't say much else on their flight. It wasn't long before they arrived at the destination system and the planet came into view.

"This is Zenithala!" Yuler said surprised. "Why would they bring the ship here unless their goal is to trigger the nuclear barrage all over the surface?"

"It's a human-class ship, remember" Baycorf said. "The nuclear frigate's automated launch system probably won't go off if a Union ship gets near it." As they got closer, they could see that the nuclear frigate was completely in the clutches of the hydraulic payload arms of the large, hijacked ship.

"We've got to free that ship if we can!" Baycorf said hitting some buttons on the cockpit.

"You want to board that craft?" Yuler said shocked.

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"Absolutely. Do you think it would be wise to take away the very best card you hominids have to play against the reptiles?"

"I'm embarrassed to share the hominid clade with the race that created those awful weapons. Even the reptilia wouldn't think of creating weapons that do such devastation to their own habitat."

"Fine, then, you can wait in here." Baycorf seemingly effortlessly steered the ship right into an airtight dock that made the usually tricky act of boarding a hostile spacecraft disgustingly easy. He got up and opened the door of the Swordfish, then forced open a compartment on the other vessel's hatch with some wires, pulling one wire and plugging one into his bionic arm. The door to the ship's airlock came open without even a sound. Yuler reluctantly removed the straps from his body and followed him.

"Well, can't say I was expecting to see this" Yuler said surprised looking around as they walked in. There were bodies of reptilian hoplites in uniform lying all over the floor of the craft.

"Black Serpent warriors" Yuler said looking at the medallion on the left side of the chest of the lizards that had fallen over backwards on some passenger seating.

"These lizards were shot" Baycorf said closely inspecting one of the bodies. "Who could have done that?" All of the sudden, Yuler saw something in the corner of his eye and in one very fast and fluid motion drew his pistol and pointed it. It was a reptilian officer.

"Claws up" Yuler said. "And explain why it is that you guys hijacked this ship." The reptilia reached for his gun and even before Yuler could pull the trigger Baycorf pointed his bionic arm at the lizard and shot a long, white and misty stream at him, which knocked the reptilia over backwards.

"Wait a minute" Yuler said looking at him. "You're one of the stolen intellichines...with a reptroid exterior. That's why you're not sensitive to the cold."

"Yes" the lizard said, "and I don't know how the two of you managed to get here so quickly, but you will both be taken into custody when the royal forces arrive."

"What exactly are you doing?" Yuler asked him.

"I'm not going to tell you guys" he said. Yuler reached into the collar of his shirt and pulled out his dog tag.

"I have officer privileges in the armada" Yuler said. "You're supposed to obey elven officers. Now tell me what it is you're doing here."

"Fine" the reptroid said. "I'm here on the orders of her highness. I told the reptiles if they helped me I could hijack this ship and capture the nuclear frigate. Then we came here and took care of business and then I shot them. I freed myself and this planet from the humans holding it hostage at the same time."

"Zorthia asked you to do this?" Azari asked him.

"No sir, Avistra." Yuler donned a truly disgusted look on his face.

"Why would you do that?!" Baycorf said. "We've got to save the missiles!"

"Too late" the reptroid said. "I have dismantled the warheads and mixed the fissile material with a resin to create an inert mixture that will be very hard to separate. It's useless now."

"Do you have any idea what you've done?!" Baycorf sounding as upset as a gray could sound.

"Yes" the intellichine said, "restoring the legally and morally proper status of the elves as the landlords over the humans in outworld."

"You're about to the landlords over a war zone" Baycorf said quickly pulling something from his vest and throwing it onto the ground. The reptroid fell to the ground, limp. Baycorf walked over to the lizard, pulling his legs.

"Are you going to help me get him into the Swordfish?" Baycorf asked.

"You're going to steal armada property?" Yuler asked sounding appalled.

"It's Avistra's property now" the gray retorted. Yuler walked over and grabbed one of the arms. Even with their great strength, the body was quite heavy. The dragged the body into the passenger area and Baycorf strapped the body to the wall, and they were off.