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10: Aybabtu

Colonel Sarah Thorn and her troops, along with eight members of Feih's family who had volunteered for the mission slowly backed away from the large form that walked toward them from the devastated former secret entrance to the Soriss fortress of Aybabtu.

Less than a minute earlier Matt's sister had called for air support from the Alliance fighters after their advance was halted but stiff resistance from the fortress's defenders. When they informed her of the new attack in space and that they had to leave to support the fleet she saw Jason jump out into the crossfire from the enemy emplacements and watched in horror as the energy of the beams that struck him set off a chain reaction within his body that caused him to change into his full battle size Dorzeli-Prime form; over five times the size of an adult Dorzeli-ki. He roared out in pain and rage and retaliated with the combined power of his horn beams and plasma breath. This resulted in a massive explosion knocked everyone, including the Dorzeli, off his or her feet.

Sarah regained her footing several seconds later and heard screams come from the gaping hole in the fortress's wall where over three hundred, well dug in Soriss troops had once existed. She saw Jason's head near the ground in the middle of this destruction. She cursed under her breath, "Damned fool!" when the screams became muffled and ended. As if he heard her he raised his head and turned toward her.

Feih saw the same sight as her and her worst fears were realized by the large amounts of blood dripped from his jaws and she saw a familiar intensity in his eyes: for the first time in her life she knew what her prey felt just before the kill. Her shouted warning caused everyone to realize the amount of danger they were in; "He's gone feral. He'll kill us all if we don't leave now."

Sarah ignored her warning and moved into Jason's path. When he noticed that she had blocked his advance he stopped pulled back his lips and exposed his blood stained dagger-like teeth in a vicious snarl.

"Jason," she yelled, "Please stop. We are your friends. We are not going to hurt you."

He surveyed her sixty-plus member multi-species force under her command, hissed and opened his mouth.

Sarah used her comm-link to issue an order; "Everyone, drop your weapons, now!" The Alliance soldiers obeyed her without question.

Feih and her family responded in the only way they knew how; they dropped into submissive postures with their heads bowed toward Jason.

Daihas, the only one of them who had dared to look up, saw Jason's power horns charge with energy and an intense glow build in the back of his opened mouth. He cried out, "It's not working," leapt forward and surrounded Sarah with his body. Javfeis followed him a second later and stood in between his cousin and Jason. To everyone's surprise he closed his mouth and appeared to have become distressed by the sight before him.

Sarah saw this occur between Daihas' arms. Convinced that she could stop Jason she told him to release her so that she could try to calm her commander down, but she was interrupted by the Mendall soldier who manned the portable short-range sensors over her comm; "Colonel, I have multiple targets moving up the tunnel at high speed and I am getting an immense energy build up from near the top of the structure!"

"Oh my God," she cried when she looked up and saw an anti ship ion cannon deploy and swing toward Matt's position. She got on her brother's emergency frequency and cried; "Matt, get the hell out of there!"

Seconds later two streams of high energy passed each other over the battlefield. The ion cannon exploded as Matt's beam cut it in half and, to everyone's horror, the cannon's beam obliterated the entire hill were he was stationed.

Feih screamed and tried to run toward the smoke laden crater where her mate had once been, but was held back and wrestled to the ground by five of her relatives.

Jason, who had also seen the apparent death of his ambassador to the Dorzeli, gave off a deafening roar, turned toward the approaching enemy reinforcements and spread his wings to their widest span just as several high speed armored vehicles opened fire while others tried to turn around. He opened his mouth to its widest and exhaled.

Everything in front of him was either incinerated or vaporized in a spectacular display of pyrotechnics. Most on the battlefield would later report that they saw the results of his blast blow out of almost every opening across the face of the fortress.

Jason closed his mouth when he was finished, smiled then his eyes rolled up into his head and he fell forward. He resumed his human form seconds after he hit the ground.

Sarah ran up to him, ordered a stretcher team. When she found that his vital signs were strong she looked at the others and found their eyes transfixed on the Fortress' entrance. She turned and saw that the entire Soriss mobile force had been wiped out: no trace of the nearest units remained and only charred remnants were left of the ones further back in the tunnel. The voice of the soldier who had warned her of their enemy's approach alerted her to another potential threat.

"I have an inbound aircraft of unknown design approaching us from the east, about 50 clicks and closing. Its energy readings are off the scale."

She ordered, "All right, everybody inside," then pointed to Feih, who had become unresponsive to all attempts to communicate with her, and shouted to Daihas. "I don't care if you have to drag her ass in there, but I want her moving now!"

Feih became alert for the first time in several minutes, threw off her relatives and, with deadly menace on her visage, stalked toward Sarah. Her brother backed away but stayed within reach of his future mate.

She was within point blank range of Sarah, who had not moved from Jason's side, when she snarled, "My mate is dead and you dare to give my people orders?"

Sarah drew her side arm and shoved it into Feih's open mouth. "You may have just lost your mate, but I just lost a brother who I've known a hell of a lot longer than you." Tears began to form in her eyes when she slowly emphasized each of her following words; "If you don't want his sacrifice to be in vain you will tell your family to follow us in or so help me I will blow your brains out!"

Not only was Feih caught off guard by Sarah's display, but she was surprised that she knew the one of the two weak spots in a Dorzeli's anatomy that would guarantee a quick kill.

She backed away, closed her mouth and looked at Matt's sister with new respect and sorrow. "I'm sorry. I..."

"Apologize later." Sarah lowered her shaky weapons arm and in a calmer voice said, "Let's go finished this, then you can kill me." She turned and saw that many of the soldiers and Dorzeli had stopped to look at their confrontation. Her anger returned and she yelled, "What the hell are you looking at? You heard my orders. Move it!"

They all turned and ran into the tunnel: some of the wounded humans and Mendalls were carried by the Dorzeli.

When Daihas saw that the two soldiers that were ordered to carry Jason found that they could not lift him he walked over to r them and without warning and, with some unanticipated difficulty, picked up the limp form of their commander and carried him into the fortress.

Sarah cursed when she heard that the airborne object was now less than twenty-five kilometers away. She raised her weapon, aimed it at the ceiling above the entrance and, just as the last individual passed through the opening, fired. The blue beam it emitted shattered the entire structure causing it to collapse.

When she ran from the dust churned up by the falling debris she found herself once more face to face with Feih. Without any hint of her earlier anger she pointed at Sarah's gun and asked, "Where did you get that strange looking weapon?"

She put the solid light blue gun back into its holster: "I'm sorry but that's classified information."

Feih, not satisfied with her answer, refused to allow her to rejoin the rest of her company which raised tensions once more within the group. Sarah saw this and decided not to foster another confrontation; "Let's say I got it from a close friend." She looked at Daihas.

Feih looked at Jason's limp form and seemed to understand; "I didn't think it was possible."

Sarah glanced back at the collapsed entrance and explained, "He was able to fashion it from one of his shed horns. He's carrying the other one." She patted her holster. "They have some very interesting properties."

When she noticed Daihas' difficulty in carrying Jason she made sure no one else was close enough to hear then spoke to Feih in Dorzel. "At least after that big 'meal' he should have enough mass to be back to full power soon."

Her sister-in-law, found some solace in that news and smiled half heartedly. "So the rumors I heard about Dorzeli Primes are true."

"For him and his close allies yes."

Feih looked at Sarah and smiled. Then, to the bewilderment of those who had watched both of their near clashes, she picked up her sister-in-law, nuzzle her then followed the others down the dimly lit corridor.

They paid little heed to the remaining melted Soriss vehicles and the charred remains of their occupants as they made their way deeper into Aybabtu. Most noticed that the corridors were more than high enough for the tallest Dorzeli and were puzzled as to why they had not been confronted by more defenders as they neared their target. Several minutes later they came to a large pair of charred blast doors.

Feih placed Sarah on the floor where she called for Hatelo, who had been under guard since they left the main body of the attack force, to open the doors with her entry codes, but before the Soriss could do so Feih lunged forward and pinned her against a near wall.

Sarah ordered everyone to remain calm, turned toward the angry Dorzeli and in a calm voice said, "Feih, we don't have time for this."

She ignored the human and brought her face right up to Hatelo's, who choked back a scream "If," she growled, "this is a trap I will make sure you're my last meal." Hatelo nodded that she understood and Feih released her.

Escorted by two soldiers she walked to the door and entered her codes into the keypad and allowed its scanners to read her palm print and retinal pattern. At that same moment a distant explosion was heard.

The same soldier that had informed every one of the approaching aircraft identified its source; "That unknown has just entered the structure and will be here in two minutes at its present rate of speed."

"I hope it's not one of their new war mechs," pointed out Captain Greska Creduta, Sarah's Mendall liason. "We're not equipped to handle anything that powerful."

The sound of heavy mechinery brought everyone's attention to the door so no one noticed that Hatelo had returned to Feih until she said something to her in her native language. Before anyone could react Feih growled, grabbed her and lifted her toward her open mouth. Daihas, who looked saddened by whatever she had said, turned his head and looked away from the scene.

"Damn it!" Sarah also looked away and was thankful that the soldiers had kept their weapons pointed downward. "It's a trap captain." She looked up and saw that a handful of soldiers had gone through the still parting doors. "Get our people out of there now!"

"With all due respect, Colonel Thorn," began the taller female Mendall, "So far they've observed no threats and at the rate that unknown is moving it'll be here in less than ninety seconds. So we either fight it here or we go in and get the ship," she paused then smiled, "which my people have just spotted."

She also heard their report and rescinded her last command with the knowledge that Jason's orders were explicit when it came to the capture of the ancient Dorzeli ship; "Let's get in there, but be ready for anything."

She had barely moved forward when something landed next to her. She looked down and saw Hatelo crying at her feet. She looked up at Feih for an explanation.

She was very humble when she spoke. "I won't dishonor Matt's sacrifice by violating your promise to protect her." Sarah approved of her decision and ordered Hatelo's guards to help her up.

The shaken Soriss stood and thanked Feih for sparing her life. She frowned and said, "You should thank my new sister for your life along with my brother's love." She walked forward and entered the dimly lit chamber. Sarah, touched by her apparent adoption into the Desslat family, smiled and followed her in and ordered the doors closed as soon as the last member of her team entered.

As the two sections moved toward each other she received a report from the command post that two rearmed Cherrodons had entered the fortress in pursuit of the unknown entity. Satisfied that they would keep it busy Sarah turned her full attention to the vast dimly lit room before her. She saw that it was a multi-level hangar for the two destroyed cruisers and the fighters and that their target was at the far end of a long bridge that spanned the distance from what looked like its main hatch to the section of the hangar where the allies were now located; various cargo containers were scattered across the area.

The ship was huge and cigar shaped, as if it was conceived in the pre-space flight days of earth's mid-twentieth century. It sat upright upon what appeared to be four combined outboard engines that were attached to its aft section, which contained the main engine, by wing-like struts. There were also two short wings which protruded from its mid-section.

Its sheer size was the main source of everyone's astonishment as; at over three hundred and ten meters tall it would be second in size only to the Thresher Kone, a combined carrier-dreadnought, or one of the larger Soriss heavy cruisers. The green symbol over the entryway identified it as a Kroon vessel.

"At least they didn't get inside it," commented Feih when she saw that the ship's main hatch was still sealed.

Her brother, with Jason's unconscious form still in his hands, and Javfeis broke ranks and jogged toward the distant ship. She shouted for them to wait, but was cut off by a loud alarm that went off the moment the doors closed and locked. Then all communication with the outside was lost.

"We're being jammed," shouted Captain Creduta.

The entire hangar was illuminated with floodlights from all angles a second later.

They all watched in horror as the two male Dorzeli came under heavy laser and particle beam fire from all sides. Javfeis cried out in pain when his suit's shields were overloaded and collapsed. He fell to the floor as his suit and body became covered with severe burns from what seemed like hundreds of strikes. Daihas dropped to the floor and curled his body around Jason's just as his suit's protective barriers were overwhelmed. To her amazement Sarah saw that none of the many direct hits he received seemed to cause any further damage.

All of the members of the infiltration force backed towards the now shut doors as the gunfire stopped and was replaced by the ominous sounds of heavy machinery from the areas still unlit. Captain Creduta and the Dorzeli were the first to see what was causing them.

They watched as from the far edges of the hangar large four armed humanoid shaped mechanisms sped toward them on six wheeled platforms. The machines opened fire and cut down all those that had not found shelter among the scattered containers and damaged vehicles or were not behind any of the Dorzeli whose suits handled the weapons fire from their present distance.

Feih managed to see that, despite the high number of direct hits he continued to receive, Daihas somehow remained unharmed. But when one of the mechanized warriors ceased fire and charged at Daihas with a large circular blade she leapt from behind her cover and ran to intercept it.

Sarah ordered a furious barrage of projectile and energy based ordinance to assail the Soriss weapons in order to cover Feih. That is when she and Captain Creduta saw that, although effectively shielded from their energy weapons, small arms fire did get through to the machines, but that the ammunition they had was not of a caliber high enough to do any significant damage. Then, from behind them, they heard a sound similar to violently boiling water. They turned and saw that the doors had turned white hot and were beginning to melt. They looked at each other and drew their side arms.

Feih avoided most of the incoming fire her suit could not handle and arrived just as the machine, as tall as she, prepared to strike at her brother. She jumped over his body, grabbed its blade arm and kicked at its head. She wrenched the arm out of its socket as the force of her blow sent the machine backwards to fall off the bridge. A second machine took the place of its brother and tried to shoot her, but she used the first one's arm as a club to smash its beam weapons.

It countered with its own blade and managed to nick her on her right arm just below her shoulder. When she recoiled from the pain her opponent struck her with another arm which knocked her backward so that she fell and slid into the body of her brother.

She was able to move out of the way to avoid her assailant's second strike, but she was not fast enough when one of its free arms caught her by her neck and its lower two pinned her legs to the floor. She wrapped hir strong tails about its torso, but was unable to break the machine's hold. When she saw it bring its blade arm up to deliver a fatal strike she closed her eyes and cried out Matt's name.

Sarah saw this and was about to launch herself forward when she and Captain Creduta received a warning over their radios to get down. They looked at each other in shock then jumped away from the doors just as they exploded inward. She looked up from her prone position and witnessed a sight that pleased her to no end.

Feih was startled when, instead of feeling the blade bite into her throat, she heard several rapid metallic impacts as well as what felt like pieces of metal fall upon her and grip upon her loosen. She opened her eyes and watched in fascination as various parts of her opponent flew away from its main body as if it was being attacked by invisible assailants. When its main body began to brake apart she removed her tails and kicked the remainder of the machine away from her, turned over and covered Daihas as best she could to protect him.

She watched in rapt fascination as one machine after another either exploded or was rendered non-functional. After the last blast near her was over Feih heard a cheer rise up from the soldiers and a victory roar from her family.

She raised her head to see what they were celebrating and was greeted with a sight that brought more joy to her than anything else had in her entire life. Her mate, Lieutenant Matthew Thorn was alive!

She called out in joy to him with the same love call she had used four nights earlier. He responded in kind and rushed toward her, and continued to fire his high speed cannon at any of the remaining enemy that tried to get close; spent cartridges trailed after him like spilled water as each round he fired struck what he aimed at. That was when Feih noticed something was very different about him.

When he arrived next to her she was shocked into the realization of what the strange appendages that protruded from his back were; "Matt, you have wings, but how?"

He held his brown wings close to his nude body, searched for more enemy and gave her a curt response to her inquiry, "It'll have to wait Feih. There're over a hundred more of those things coming and I'm almost out of ammo."

She ignored his disrespectful behavior and jumped up to embrace him, but stopped when additional explosions occurred around them. They turned and saw two Cherrodons unleash missile and laser barrages against enemy reinforcements while their shield powers protected the combined Alliance and Dorzeli force. Once the threat was eliminated they turned toward the couple and extended their shield over them and all the way to the ship in the distance.

"They won't be able to keep this up for too long," explained Matt, "We'll have to get into the ship now." He looked down and saw that Daihas looking up at him. He smiled and held out his free hand. "Are you all right?"

"No," he answered as he took Matt's hand in his. "I hurt all over and you've gotten bigger." Feih turned and realized that her mate was over a head taller than herself.

"And you are not going to ask about me?" Both Feih and Matt were stunned when Jason crawled out from under Daihas and stood up. "As you can see I'm a lot better now and your brother will be too." He turned back to the still prone Dorzeli and rubbed his snout which caused him to smile. "I absorbed the energy of the beams that hit him by using his body as a conduit so he'll be hurting for a while."

Matt looked at his mate questioningly. "I'll tell you about it later," was all she could say as she looked back at the body of her cousin.

Daihas released Matt's hand, crawled over to Javfeis' lifeless form, hugged it and gave off a mournful wail.

"I'm sorry Feih," said Jason, "but there was nothing I could do to help. If he had been able to touch Daihas...but he was too far away"

"I know," was all she could get out.

A sudden flickering of light around them drew their attention upward. "Their shield is collapsing," shouted Matt.

He used quick controlled bursts to pick off all of the snipers the second enemy fire resumed from the upper levels of the hangar.

Feih's sudden alarm cry brought his attention to a Soriss warmech that had made it past the Cherrodons and was almost upon them. He swung his gun around and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.

He prepared to use the gun as a club, and Feih readied herself to spring at their newest attacker as Daihas tried to once again protect Jason from harm but it was all unnecessary as in a flash of blue light the machine appeared as if it had been diagonally sliced in two. It exploded after another perpendicular strike from behind.

Stunned by this unexpected rescue they watched as a yellow glowing female Dorzeli-Ki walked through the flames of the wreckage toward them with a blue sword with an energy aura around it. Before they could recognize the individual another warmech charged at them.

She spun around and swiftly cut off two of its four arms before it managed to knock the weapon out of her hand with one of its remaining limbs. A look of recognition came to Feih and Matt's faces when they saw the sword's energy fade and return to its original blue curved shape as it flew over the edge of the bridge.

Their attention was brought back to the scene before them by the sounds of the battle which ended when the unknown Dorzeli female evaded additional strikes by the machine and rammed her right hand, claws first, into a semi-transparent shield in its chest. Its arms ceased to move and dropped to its sides.

They saw a familiar red substance on her hand when she removed it from the machine. She growled, jumped and round kicked the machine off of the bridge then turned to face them. She wore the same type of body armor as theirs except that it was the same golden yellow in color as her body.

Matt smiled then said, "Good timing sis."

Feih scented the newcomer and confirmed her mate's identification. "I suspected that there was something special about you that Daihas and Matt had kept secret from me." Feih bowed to her. "Thank you for rescuing us."

"You're welcome," replied Sarah just before she licked at the gore that covered her handt. Its smell told all of them that the machines were manned.

She closed her eyes as if to savor its taste then opened her eyes then mouth, but before she could say anything Matt cut her off with; "So help me Sarah, if you say that it tastes like chicken..."

The other two Dorzeli looked bewildered when Matt, his sister and Jason laughed. But in secret he wondered where and when she could have had the opportunity to have tasted Soriss blood as her expression showed signs that it was as familiar to her as a favorite wine.

"I knew you'd rescue us," cried Daihas from the floor.

Sarah walked over to him and helped him up. Once he was on his feet she placed a passionate kiss on his snout then explained her actions to Feih; "I had to maintain my secret for as long as I could so that I could be sure that those under my command wouldn't hesitate under fire if I changed in front of them." She turned and looked at Jason with displeasure. "I also waited until now because even this form would've been useless against him when he had his little 'episode' outside."

Matt eyed Jason with suspicion.

Embarrassed he explained his actions; "I felt that I had to do something to get us in here and I thought I could control my premature transformation if I absorbed the energy from the Soriss weapons, but I lost it." Matt was surprised to see him become saddened by what he had done. "If it wasn't for my sensing the Soriss cannon and the attack on you I don't know what I would have done."

Matt remembered to keep his anger in check and chose his next words with caution. "I knew no weapon you had could've caused as much damage as I saw outside."

"Never mind that now," interrupted Sarah. She turned and looked at the ancient craft before them, "At least it worked and we achieved our goal."

The sound of large, padded foot impacts approaching their position caught everyone's attention. They turned and saw Posk running toward them with many of the surviving soldiers hanging on to his battle pod and harnesses. He was followed by the rest of Feih's family and Bonn, who also carried healthy and wounded soldiers.

"We have major problems," he shouted from his direct cerebral translator when he skidded to a halt, almost sliding past the group. "The remaining warmechs are almost here and our power cells are drained."

The pod on his back opened and its controller, Lieutenant Commander Marion O'Hara, emerged. Posk laid down to allow him and the others safely off his body. At that same time Bonn arrived and took up a similar position.

"That's not the half of it," added the Thresher Kone's former science officer, "A Soriss heavy cruiser just broke through our lines and will be here in fifteen minutes."

Jason closed his eyes. A few seconds later he reopened them and looked to the two Cherrodons. "I've ordered all our remaining forces outside to retreat as far as they can and to take cover. Can either of you maintain your shields without powered assistance?"

"Only for a short time," answered Bonn. "Can't you help?"

"No. My little tantrum used up all the reserve energy I had and it'll take almost thirty minutes before I can..." Jason paused and a worried look came over his face, "...assimilate what I took in before I passed out." He turned to Feih, "You'll have to get the ship open. It's our only hope of surviving this situation." He next addressed the group as a whole. "Get as close as to the ship as you can."

"But what about Javfeis' body?" complained Daihas, "We can't leave him here."

"I won't." .Jason walked over to the body and placed both hands on it just as his body took on a blue glow. Before anyone could move Javfeis' body took on the same brilliant color, lost all visible detail then flowed into Jason's human form as if it had been liquefied. The second Jason returned to normal he stumbled and sighed, "Still not enough." He looked up at the stunned faces of those around him and explained. "I can only do that near the point of the return of my powers and with a willing or dead Dorzeli." He looked to Feih. "I promise to return his intact body to you once this is over."

She and Daihas nodded in reluctant agreement while Matt and the others remained stunned.

"Was this a form of the cannibalism Feih had told me about?" thought Matt.

Sarah spoke up and broke his concentration on what had just happened. "I have an idea, but we'll have to remove Posk and Bonn's pods first."

Jason gave his okay and Matt help his sister disengage Posk's then Bonn's pods from their mounting brackets and as they placed the second one on the floor he could not help but ask over their private frequency, "Did he just...?"

"No, not yet; he just absorbed Javfeis' energy and he'll be able to reintegrate him later if we survive this. Has he continued his rampage from before none of us would've been here now." He swallowed hard and tried not to think about what could have happened and was helped when he felt someone caress his wings as Sarah ripped the door from the pod and reached inside.

"How did you get these?" asked Feih.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. All I remember was setting my main gun's automatic fire control and trying to run away when the hill was hit and the explosion overtook me then severe pain." He turned and yaked the door off of the second pod and reached inside. "The next thing I knew I was airborne and flying away from the battle using these," he spread his wings and wrapped one of them around her and looked into her eyes, "I didn't even think about doing it; I just knew I had to get back to you so I turned and headed back here." He found what he was looking for smiled and yanked out a long cylinder similar to the one his sister had just pulled out of the other pod and handed it to her.

Sarah took it from his hand; "So that was you on our sensors?

"Probably; when I found that the entrance had collapsed I got angry and felt an incredible new energy build up inside me. I focused and concentrated in on the rubble and I felt that energy flow through my horns and strike and destroy it." He glanced at Jason and saw him smile and nod his head. "By the time I found the door to this hangar these guys had already caught up to me." Matt stroked Bonn and Posk's necks. They responded by leaning into them with a look of contentment on their faces. "We used most of the energy we had left to blast them open. The rest you know."

Feih looked at Jason, "I thought only a female Dorzeli Prime could change someone into one of their own kind?"

"That's true," he answered, "But I can give some limited abilities for short periods of time. That's why Sarah was able to use my shed power horn as an energy weapon and remain unharmed when she penetrated that warmech's cockpit. Like her powers Matt's wings will soon disappear and he'll return to his normal size and abilities."

"That's a shame," stated Feih as she gently caressed them. A churr of pleasure came from his throat. "They're so lovely."

Bonn and Posk stood, looked back at the far end of the bridge and growled. This alerted everyone to the approach of another wave of warmechs.

"Matt," yelled Sarah, "Help me get the other spare oxygen packs out."

They reached into the pods and tore out the other insulated cylinders. She took all four and ran over to the railing on the far side of the bridge jammed one of each type of cylinder between the rail and the floor then repeated the act on the near side. She completed her task just as the first enemy device appeared on the far end of the bridge.

She ran back to the others and yelled, "Okay, let's get out of here." They all ran to the ship's unopened airlock.

Upon arrival Feih placed the palm of her hand onto a recessed panel next to the hatch and the door slid open to reveal a large cylindrical chamber with an inner door set perpendicular to the outer one. She ushered in as many as could fit.

Matt looked at Jason and asked, "How did she do that?" as he was somewhat puzzled that the ship had recognized the palm print of someone who had never been in it.

"This ship must respond only to Dorzeli life signatures," answered Jason. He pointed to a pile of ash no one had yet noticed underneath it. "That could've been me if I tried to open it while I'm in human form." He looked at Feih and smiled.

Feih grinned as the door closed, "All Dorzeli on this planet were taught from a young age about this ship and how to work it."

"Here they come," cried out one f the remaining soldiers.

They turned and saw the machines charge down the ramp with many more from the sides of the chamber toward the bridge.

"I put in as many of the others as I could along with Daihas so that he can work the inner lock." She looked at the oncoming menace and growled, "We'll never get everyone inside before they get here."

"Then we'll have to delay them with my plan." Sarah turned to Feih, "What's your best distance?" She looked at the cylinders and nodded her understanding of Sarah's plan, but regretted that they were out of her range. Sarah growled, "Then we'll have to get closer."

"No we won't," stated Matt with a grin.

Feih stared at him and wondered what he could do now that most of his extra powers were gone, but Sarah seemed to know what he was about to do when Posk and Bonn erected an un-enhanced shield around them just as the first shots from the enemy arrived. Each impact caused grimaces of pain on their faces, but they held their ground.

Matt stepped up to the shield's edge and formed a narrow channel at the front of his mouth.

Sarah smirked, "The one thing he was always able to beat me at when we were kids."

Matt, through the narrow channel made by his tongue and lips, spat out the unique chemical mixture that was required for the task. It ignited in the oxygen rich atmosphere and made contact with the first cylinder. He swung his head and hit the second cylinder with his napalm-like stream.

The first cylinder exploded just as the first machine closed in on its position. The second cylinder exploded less than a second later and engulfed it in a hellish inferno as well as caused serious damaged to the bridge's structure.

A cheer went up from behind him as the airlock re-opened to allow the remaining Dorzeli, humans and Cherrodons to seek shelter inside.

Feih laughed when she saw him lick at his lips in a panic: some of his fire had prematurely ignited. "You'll have to teach me that trick,"

"Damn!"

Sarah's curse caused them to turn and see that the lead machine had somehow survived the blast and had made a path for the others.

She crouched down and shouted to her brother, "Get everyone inside and get that ship out of here." Then, in a softer tone of voice said, "I'm very proud of you Matt" then launched herself at full speed toward the enemy.

Despite her order he tried to follow her, but was restrained by Feih. "She's made her choice. Let her go." With a surge of effort he broke his mate's hold just as his sister neared the first machine.

She ducked under its weapons fire then jumped at the last second and did a handstand on its "shoulders", but instead of coming to a stop she continued forward until she had flipped completely over it and landed between it and the others that were trying to get by the flames.

Before they had a chance to react, she turned, seized the machine and, with more ease than most thought possible, threw it into its onrushing brethren. The force of the impact was so great that their shields collapsed. She summoned up what power she could and shot a white hot plasma beam from her mouth into the pile up she had caused. The multiple explosions that resulted knocked her onto her back and destroyed what little remained of the bridge's structural integrity.

Matt watched the remains of the bridge tilt to one side and his sister slide off of it and fall to the bottom of the launch bay over one-hundred and fifty meters below.

Feih and the Cherrodons jumped into the airlock and begged Matt to follow. His horns, wings and the jewel around his neck glowed brightly when he turned toward them and snarled "Don't close that door." He turned back and launched himself into the air and dove after Sarah.

Feih smiled to herself and said, "Finally."

Amazed by his bravado Sarah reached out to Matt as he approached her through the tumbling debris, but her eyes widened in horror when she saw his wings flicker in and out of existence.

He redoubled his concentration and his wings stabilized just as he grabbed her arms less than thirty meters from the floor. He pulled her up, cradled his sister tightly in his arms and channeled all of his remaining power Jason had granted him into a single downward pulse from his wings. In a bright flash of yellow light and a loud explosion they rocketed back up toward the ship's airlock. Sarah looked down and saw that the area where her brother had almost touched down now resembled a meteor strike.

Startled by a cry of pain from him she looked up and saw that his wings had disappeared, but, before they could begin to fall, Feih and the two Cherrodons grabbed and pulled them inside the air lock where they tumbled backward into a disorganized pile. The soldiers already inside had pressed themselves against its walls so they would not be crushed by the several tons the four bodies represented.

Sarah disengaged herself from the others, sat up and, as the door closed, stared at her brother in mock anger. "You disobeyed my direct orders mister. Consider yourself on report." She heard a deep growl from Feih, turned and saw that she was prepared to spring at her. Her ears went back in submission; "Please Feih, I was only kidding."

Feih showed her teeth in a broad smile, said, "I know," then leapt at her.