Sometime Later In A Holding Cell...

Diego's armor had faked arthropod vitals well enough that he soon found himself in the promised prison. Carmen would have her own cell after also passing such tests, then she would wait as he was doing until some unfortunate detective came in only to get the most basic of an overview of what happened in the bar and a run around if they touched upon something sensitive, if they got anything more than a yes or no answer at all. The two just needed to stick to their training....

The massive metal door opened. Diego waited for someone to come through. Nothing and no one....

He stood up and felt the shackles around his limbs drop. Huh? Those are remote controlled. Well, no point staring a gift horse in the mouth., he figured. Time to get a move on. He went to the door, looked outside carefully before slipping out and stepping on a note on the ground. "Your welcome. Don't stop, don't think. Just run and be swift."

Diego didn't need to think twice or question who wrote that. He just bounded out the door, taking careful notice only of where he was going. His memory training was for situations like this, a map could slow him down, even if it was displayed inside a visor.

Carmen had received much the same, and soon found herself speeding toward the trade station's docks. As she neared them, she heard the pounding of footfalls coming down an adjoining hallway. Single set in twos. Diego....

The two met, exchanged a silent look and started to turn a corner to the final room when they stopped. There by the large wide-open gate to the docks lay three bodies, none of which had been guarding or standing nearby when they came in earlier. Without taking time to discuss if this was the work of their mysterious benefactor, they cautiously strode to the exit and peered out into the docks. Seeing the coast was clear, they made a break for it toward the section where they knew to expect their starship, The Zan, only to slow down once more at the sight of it.

WHAT HAD THAT SHIP BEEN INTO!?! The Zan's front twin plasma torch tools protruded out from the craft, still red hot and aglow from laying waste to whatever smear now stained the dock grounds. Point defense guns were exposed, apparently having torn bullets into three more messes nearby. The whole area smelled like Thanksgiving dinner.

"Oh man, what did you do?..." Diego ran straight for the back of the ship.

Carmen followed right behind him. "You were supposed to lay low, Zan. What happened? What or rather whom did you go and cook?" She had never thought about cooking her meals right outside the starship, but if she did she would now know to keep it on top of the space craft's hot hull and away from its nose.

The Zan, having detected them for its part, opened its cargo hold hatch and an anxious voice from the ship's computer system came over the vessel's external speakers. "Get in, we have to go NOW back to All That Shines!"

There was no contest for this as Carmen and Diego warily but happily climbed onboard. Settling down in chairs in the small ship's bridge, the duo relaxed just slightly as the craft's AI shut the hatch and powered up the engines. Soon they would be out of there.

"Diego...Carmen...what have you two been doing? You are covered in foreign organic matter, at least some of which is from sapients you should not have been having that much physical contact with." The Zan started to lift off and move away from the trade hub, having already put its danger fun time toys back in place.

"We could say the same of you, except you left it on the docks." Carmen countered. The ship was one to talk....

"Yes, and you were so pleased with your work that you drew a toothy smiley face. Who was up to no good now?" Diego pointed at a monitor then crossed his arms. Ship's logs were going to be up for review.

"You two need to get in the bio scanner and those power suits need to be hooked up to my diagnostics equipment." The Zan cleared the automated check points without alerting the trade hub. That was strange, but not as much as the other things that had happened.

"I'm not injured. How about you?" Carmen turned toward Diego. Of the two of them, he had taken the brunt of the chemical attack and while they both seemed alright, it was hard to tell what lingering effects they might have to deal with going forward. They could expect a full medical workup and close supervision for awhile after this.

"Nope, we can worry later. Just take us out, Zan." Diego felt the tense pressure of his armored hands clamping down on the armrests of his chair, subconsciously preparing to resist any arguments or attempts to get him into a bio scanner.

They made their way past the check point area and set out on their way to rendezvous with one of humanity's mission command ships. "All That Shines" had been positioned in a sector of space close enough to reach to with a short warp jump but not close enough to arouse suspicion. Just the thought of having to report this mission to their commander and having to hand over the power suit data from it made Diego want to disappear to some place of choice. At least they would be gone from here.

The ping of a sensor interrupted any further musings and the AI's voice returned "We have incoming hostiles. Initiating evasive maneuvering, full point defense, and rapid focus sequence scanning. Increasing power to shields. Alerting higher command. Assist me."

If they were gained on, they would never make a warp window in time. The Zan wasn't exactly a top of the line armed craft. A general lack of detectable high-end armaments had made it seem ideal for a mission like this given their need to blend in at least a little and not look suspicious. Time for something unconventional.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures.", Carmen thought to herself as she steadied her nerves and reached to remove the cover from a very dated bridge console she had only seen in demonstrations, popped off a nearby support panel, and connected the power supply to boot up the long unused device. "We've got you, buddy. Diego, I am bringing the first systems online. Zan should be able to bypass the interface to give the original computer some data."

Picking up on what she was doing, Diego breathed deep and popped open a different but related panel, pulling out an old controller with red-buttoned lever sticks. It had always been exciting to think about using before actually needing to. "I have the big old bad boys."

A hail signal beeped from their comms station. It would seem somebody might have terms or a desire to gloat. "I will speak for you, Zan.", Carmen insisted, adopting a strong presence as she looked straight into The Zan's primary display.

The AI accepted this without question, choosing to answer the hail while staying quiet. Soon a fat-looking, whitish-yellow, plated ball of spikes showed itself on screen, behind it one more like it aswell as two brownish-grey stick-like bug aliens. "I am Captain Anno of the mercenary starship 'Shezblo'. Surrender yourselves and your ship now and we won't harm you. We get more money if you are alive to talk."

"Oh?" Carmen leaned forward. "And just who do you plan to sell us and our ship to? What does your boss want from a couple of humans who just wanted to make some trades and purchases?" Why was everyone so grabby today?

The old console finished booting up and went for a mechanical scream as if it was being killed again. "RED ALERT!!! Engines offline. Sensors offline. Weapons offline. Life support offline."

'Anno' rattled its spikes ominously. "It doesn't appear that you have any room to ask questions." The creature paused briefly, an odd but disturbing look coming over it. "Though if you want to play nice and be a couple of sweet precious things, I might just make some special considerations and...accommodations. If not then...."

"Save some for us, Boss!" One of the xeno crewmen behind the mercenary captain clicked its jaws in excitement, the others soon joining it.

The Zan patched into Carmen and Diego's internal power suit comms, its voice only audible to them. "That alert from the old machine happened because it was disconnected from my systems. I just established a data stream translated into a compatible format so it will have sensor data. Diego can get a guided lock on for the analog weapons system now."

"What are our odds, Zan?" Diego whispered.

"That ship has considerable shielding all around it if these energy readings are anything to go by. We can forget about doing much with point defense unless we outmaneuver and wear them down enough to use the analog weapons you control. I am swift but that thing is too. It is a real 'crap shoot' as you humans like to say.", the vessel explained.

"Think we can trick them? They think we are harmless, we should get them to lower their shields. Can you angle the weapons toward the back of the craft?" Carmen asked, a potentially dangerous idea forming in her mind.

"Yes, at least the rear side ones. Whats you idea?" Diego was eager for anything right now that might not get them killed.

"I want to except the invite to surrender." Carmen found herself holding back vomit.

With no time for consideration, the AI keyed right back up. "WHAT?! How could you even consider that?! I can not allow you to go with them or let them onboard!" The angry and anxious sounds of a deeply upset starship found their way from its interior into the antennae audio equipment of both of its two human crew.

"I should've figured I'd get that response from him.", Carmen thought to herself as she gently used her armored hand to pet a few of The Zan's internal pressure sensors. She softly explained via their comm links, "Its okay, we won't really surrender. We will get them to dock with us, and they will have to drop shields just to try to kidnap us. There won't be anything short of maybe a force field to keep the atmosphere on their side. We can concentrate fire on that location and pop that balloon."

The space craft seemed to respond positively to her efforts to calm it down, the racket it vigorously produced with some of its more mobile inner parts quieting down to just the heavy hum of computer fans. "Okay...I will start to focus fire with my point defenses once Diego fires a series of volleys into that cargo hold. We will still have to clean up what is left."

"Times up to decide, whats it going to be?", demanded the spiky ball calling itself a captain. "Now, I would rather you sweet darling honies stay alive for this and your vessel remain intact, but I will blow through that loose clunker's backend and open up a way to whatever is left, if anything or anyone is still there."

"Carmen, I can't be the lure unless we change seats and that is going to look strange on screen to our unwelcome guests." Diego apologized, feeling a bit guilty about Carmen having to do the dirty part.

"I know, and it's my idea anyways.", She sighed. They might as well get this over with. She firmly placed a metal-plated hand on Diego's metal-plated shoulder. "Blow them to the other side of the galaxy. And you too, Zan."

Carmen breathed deeply and stared at the figures on the other side of the screen. "I, Carmen Jean Sexton, captain of Terran Outbound Exploration Company starship 'The Zan', do surrender to you and yours, Captain Anno."

"And I concur with that decision myself and will join you as well." Diego played into the deception with a false politeness.

Carmen kept it up, "I am sure we can figure this out. There must be some way to make this misunderstanding right. I will open the cargo hold myself and meet you there, hands and wings out where you can see them. My pilot and navigator here, Crewman Diego Jack Miller, will follow a ways behind me in the same fashion so you can rest assured when apprehending us both."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

She sensed with mix of disgust and dark mirth that it might take a little bit more of a sell. A gesture was in order, one her audience would pay for dearly. Standing up from the "captain's" chair, she stretched slowly, raising her hands and arms above her head and crossing them together at the wrist as if cuffed while unfurling her power suit's dark wings and showily spreading them. This was followed by a dramatic pose with her shielded chest puffed out and a hip and tip toe turned in the direction of the ogling viewers while she balanced on the other foot. Allowing a moment for the twisted minds of the xenos to admire her black and orange form, she let out a deliberately audible, soft, seductive sigh; gauging the aliens' seemingly intense stares as a favorable if not filthy sign of her effective acting before walking in the general direction of the cargo hold. Staying in view of The Zan's cameras but moving out of sight of the bridge, she stopped inside a hallway, folded her wings, and waited. Soon, she heard the sound of The Zan's cargo hold opening.

The ship's AI turned on a secondary bridge monitor and set it to show live feed from the cameras in view of its cargo bay, then signaled its readiness for the plan. "Carmen, brace yourself. Diego, I am ready. Let us each play our parts."

"Right on. I've had enough of being 'sweet' today. Lets get this over with." Diego eagerly grabbed the old controller. "Zan, release our force field."

Diego watched as the force field collapse in The Zan's cargo hold sent a gush of air against the other ship's force field, catching a few aliens in a larger group who had not been on screen until now off guard as they attempted to cross between the vessels and hurling them into the deadly black of space as they got sucked into an unsealed gap between the two starships created by a size difference. He soon set his sights on the rest who had been fortunate or somehow smart enough to lag behind.

"YOU SICK PERVERTS WANT SOMETHING SMOKING?! HERE'S MY PIPING HOT LOVE! REGARDS, FUCKERS! SINCERELY, DIEGO!" The release of pent up wrath guided the hand that sent a stiff lever flying back and the hard, armored digit that pressed down upon a large, red button of oblivion. A hidden, imprisoned destruction was let free of its cage as some of the oldest still working missiles in active service streaked into the cargo hold of the hostile starship in numbered sets as surprise weapon arrays dropped down and slide out from the undercarriage of The Zan. The enemy vessel's cargo hold force field disintegrated like paper to flame as the first explosives cruised right through and hit a wall housing the power supply of that part of the ship. The Zan's AI chose the moment of impact as a cue to close the ship's hatch and brandish arms under its own control, point defense guns of various sizes all shelling hell into the outer shielding of the damaged section of vessel.

"WHAT IS THIS?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'LL DO TO YOU?!" The xeno captain screamed. A display showed a power spike indicating a weapons discharge from the enemy vessel. The Zan ate a direct blow to its shields a second later.

"We don't plan on letting you or anyone do anything to us." Carmen taunted with glee as she reappeared from the hallway, magnetized hands and feet helping to support her as she steadied herself against a shaking ship.

Diego happily let another set rip loose, this time stepping up in payload size; metal suit hand moving from one lever and red button of antiquated doom to another. Shrill screams erupted from whatever passed as the vocal chords and mouths of what must of been numerous unseen beings on the other side of the main screen, the image becoming shaky.

"HOW?! HOW CAN I, CAPTAIN ANNO, LOSE SHEZBLO TO THE LIKES OF YOU?!" The last spike on a now spikeless but still fat, chitin-plated ball with a sorry excuse for a face finally gave up the fight and shot out in stress.

"I dunno Mr. or Ms. Creepfuck, maybe you should've done better and given it another name." Diego gripped a more difficult lever in both hands, this one requiring two buttons held down at the same time. "And maybe, just maybe you should never have fucked around and found out!" Diego yanked the lever and pushed down vigorously on both buttons. Both he and Carmen gave one of humanity's favorite good-byes to those they considered scum, the good old-fashioned middle finger salute, as the giant-sized missile bombed its way into the gaping hole that had once been a cargo bay and much of the rest of the mercenary starship.

"Do you think that did it?" Carmen laughed as they started to fly away.

"Yeah, I'd say-wait Zan, what are YOU doing?!" Diego nearly jumped up from his seat at the controller as their AI suddenly turned them around and set a course to beeline back to the wreckage. Displays showed shield power levels increasing in the front of the craft as they slipped inside the gaping hole left in the dead ship and breathed hot plasma over the remains of its innards. The Zan slowly turned over on its back, its human crew clinging on for dear magnetized power suit's life as it repeated the process by reversing power flow toward its rear shields and switching from front plasma torches to back ones, belching out more gas and severing ever more of the enemy ship as they made their exit. The AI remained wordless as it forced them to run circles around the free-floating ruins, now split into burnt halves, until each of these had been cut up into multiple strips of contorted, scorched metal.

Their starship filled every display on the bridge with images of its overkill except one on which it drew a picture of the same kind of goodbye Carmen and Diego had used minutes earlier. "Whose crummy boat is an old can of a loose backend clunker now?"

Where did that come from? "Zan? Are you okay there, bud?" Diego was a little bit worried about his friend of a ship.

"Yes, that was just a bit personal." Carmen and Diego raised eyebrows inside their colorful helmets. The Zan had apparently been in need of more of whatever action it had taken at the docks....

"Lets just jump to All That Shines, I really don't think we should linger here." Carmen didn't want to chance luck's good graces by sticking around what seemed like trouble.

"I already sent an emergency FTL signal out when we encountered that blasted ship, so they should be here soon." The vessel reassured her while continuing to showcase its brutal handicraft on monitors, to the puzzlement of both of the two onboard.

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A short while passed...

A new sensor ping interrupted the tense and tired wait of The Zan and its crew. "What is that, Zan?" Diego was eager for good news and dared to hope for some.

The ship's computer replied "I am picking up on an incoming warp signature." A map location indicating the general approximate future location of the traveling ship replaced one of the bizarre images The Zan had on display. Several seconds later, another ping registered. "The warp signature has dissipated. Starting scans...."

Carmen leaned into the arm of her chair expectantly. To finally be out of here...she never wanted to return to this trade station again. Soon the outline of a familiar vessel appeared on screen.

One of the AI's more pleased-sounding tones came back over ship speakers. "I have All That Shines on my scans and am attempting to hail them. Standby...I have them." The main monitor switched views to the bridge of the other ship.

"...Connection Attempt Successful [Communication Protocols: Text to Speech, Visuals, Audio] [Communication Style: Zan Standard]...Hello All That Shines, this is Zan of The Zan, and am I ever glad to see you. We had ourselves a real situation here. May we come onboard?"

"Zan, Carmen, Diego! What happened here?! Are you unharmed?" Commander Smith's agitation and concern slipped through a normally calm demeanor.

"I detect no damage to my form, Sir." The Zan's AI answered. "As for those two, I have not observed any event that should have injured them or damaged their suits, but they require scans and diagnostics." The ship seemed to have zero problems volunteering its crew for needed medical examinations it would never go through.

"I feel exhausted, but otherwise alright, Sir." Diego sighed, knowing full good and well it was off to a scanner he would go.

"Sir, It's been wild. But we all seem okay." Carmen added, simply wanting to move things along.

All That Shines' AI decided to speak up. "I find no signs otherwise on what I can read from here. Should I do a deeper scan on The Zan and this wreckage, Sir?"

"I have all you could ever want to see of this beautiful, artful piece of work, Stella...however, we may want to get away from this place before security from the trade hub is restored and we have more to deal with." The Zan warned but brazenly tempted the other AI.

"Zan!" Carmen flicked an armored finger against a section of wall where she knew there was a pressure sensor.

"Restore security?! What happened, Zan? Never mind, lets just get out of here and let ship logs cover your metal ass." Diego sighed with frustration and hit hard the armrest of his chair. For its part, the questionable AI didn't respond.

After some conversation on the other bridge seemed to play out that they weren't privy to, the commander spoke tensely. "Zan, you and your crew may approach and board All That Shines with caution."

"Thanks for the rescue, Sir." Diego replied.

"You're not out of hot water yet, Operative Miller." Smith reminded him as The Zan started moving toward the bigger, better armed spaceship. "I am going to need full reports from you all in your own words after we check you over and one from Zan as soon as he is onboard."

They eased their way into and docked inside the transport carrier, being guided by its AI to a landing spot before being clamped down and secured the same.

One AI sent a report to the other to hand off. "The report has been sent, Commander."

"Thank you, Zan." Smith paused. "Operatives Miller and Sexton, you are to exit your suits and proceed to med bay. A team will meet you on the way. An examination of The Zan and your armor will be conducted by another group from engineering while you are away."

"There is a hazardous sample in one of my suit's compartments, Sir." Carmen had nearly forgotten the vial she had fumbled around to stash earlier.

"The engineering team knows to be cautious, especially after the last time you came in packing; but we will make sure they get the message." Smith assured. "Stella, message engineering just in case they need the advance warning."

"Sir, it is done." The AI informed.

Carmen suddenly felt very tired and grumbled quietly. "Might as well get this over with." Diego gave a nod as they pulled themselves out of their suits and proceeded to The Zan's hatch, waving goodbye to its cameras as they started to leave.

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On The Way To Sunrock Base...

Lots of poking, prodding, bioscanning, blood and various other grosser things tested later; Carmen made her way to Commander Smith's office onboard All That Shines to give a verbal account of a mission gone horribly wrong. She felt like shit and figured she probably looked it too after everything that had happened, but that was sometimes just the name of this game. Struggling somewhat with words, she managed to break down the series of events. "...I would think this to be related to parties more interested in our new associates than us, Sir. We are an issue to them via being a new connection they don't understand but wish to know well enough to counter."

"I'd say they are more than a little interested in us now for multiple reasons, Operative."

"I am sorry, Sir."

"Something like this was eventually going to happen...." He stopped before continuing, "But you say that there was a fight in the bar because of your suits? Is there any chance someone picked up on what they are?"

"I don't think so, Sir. Most of them seemed wasted by whatever they had cared to consume before getting beat up. Then there is the toxin the whole room was exposed to, that might raise doubts if they ask the question. It was more like they seemed disturbingly attracted to them. So much for the warning colors."

A mix of disgust, worry, and then a slight hint of an evil smirk snuck onto the commander's face. "Well, I don't mind what you did, but I still have to get your suit data from the engineering team as it is still being processed; but we have gone through Zan's report and ship logs. There are some things that you and Diego, whom I have already talked to, both need to see. I want you two at All That Shines' private meeting room an hour from now. Until then, go take a break and get yourself something to eat from this ship's cafeteria."

"Yes, Sir!" Carmen saluted before she turned to walk out the commander's door. She hadn't been so happy to receive an order to eat and rest in a long time.

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In All That Shines' Private Meeting Room...

Carmen had found both Diego and Commander Smith at the designated meeting space which was free from all other eyes, even those of the ship's AI. On a screen they watched clips taken from The Zan's logs.

"...No wonder it was 'personal' to him...still I wouldn't have expected him to express it like that. He enjoyed his 'art' wwaayyy too much." Diego shook his head.

"That grudge...he held on to every word of note to him just to reuse them. It's almost silly." Carmen suppressed a chuckle.

"Maybe you two should remind this whole galaxy to not touch your boat or judge it with insults ever again.", the commander grinned. "Though we do need to send this log to Main Command back in our home system so the AI specialists there can have a look at it. As for now though, I suggest you fetch your armor from the engineering bay and return to Zan before he wakes up. I took certain precautions after you two left for med bay. You are dismissed until we get back to base, which should be shortly."

The two operatives saluted then hurried to get back into their suits and return to All That Shines' cargo hold to account for their starship. An engineer met them right by the silent, slumbering vessel. "He has no damage to him but will require a moved up maintenance scheduling. The only thing we had to do was pull his logs and replace some of his power reserves that had been drained from your battle, his core still has plenty more juice to go."

A gentle humming emanated from the craft and a little blue power indicator light turned on. "Power suits...Carmen and Diego's power suits...some random human male...Carmen with some random human male...and Diego?"

"What?! Oh wait, never mind. Someone isn't fully here...." Carmen lightly tapped The Zan's metal hull.

"You're a funny ship when you wake up from deep sleep mode, Zan." Diego leaned up against his much bigger metal companion.

The engineer chuckled. "Gotta give these older ones that, they will surprise you more." The man walked away toward the cargo bay side door. "I guess I better get back to my main post before I am just a random human male looking for a job, not an engineer working onboard a ship."

The Zan's AI kept at it. "Diego, you are a 'funny' human regardless of mode."

"Somebody's back." Carmen patted The Zan's nose.

"We are back, and the commander wishes you and Diego to come to the bridge right now. We have a situation." All That Shine's AI dropped the comms call and left it at that.

"Zan, buddy and brat, we'll be back in awhile after we see what this is." Diego waved good-bye to one of The Zan's external cameras as he and Carmen made their exit.