Chapter 10:
Uncertainty

	"Myst?" Kaitlyn said as she entered his quarters. "Myst, are you 
there?" She peered into the darkened room. "Is it okay if I come in?" The 
news of Dane's passing had brought her here in the hopes she could help him 
cope with his loss. However, she didn't know how or where he was. "Myst?" 
There was still no answer. "Computer, lights." The room was flooded with the 
soft, white light that filled everywhere else on the ship, revealing the 
solitary figure sitting on his bed. Myst sat there, his feline tail wrapped 
around his waist, his blue hair hanging in front of his face as he looked at 
a picture he grasped firmly in his hands. She hesitated before approaching 
him. "Myst, are you okay?"
	"Ten years," Myst said. "I served Dane for ten years." He chuckled 
sadly. "We always knew that D would go down in battle. But...never to such a 
cowardly attack. It seems unreal." He looked up at her.
	"I'm here for you," she said, sitting down on the bed next to him.
	He shut his eyes. "Dane was the greatest guy in the world. He'd go 
from our fearless leader to your poker buddy at the drop of a hat." He 
turned away to hide his tears. "He brought me into the Viper Sting after my 
parents were killed by the Raiders. He trained me, turned me into what I am 
today. He was like a father to me."
	Kaitlyn put her arms around him. "It's okay to cry."
	He let go of a sob. "D! No! I don't want to lose you!" He turned and 
started crying into her shoulder. "D!"
	She rubbed her back gently. "Shh...it's okay."
	"No it's not! I don't want him to die. I still have so much to learn 
from him. I cannot go through this without him." He sobbed once more. 
"Kaitlyn, what am I going to do?"
	"I don't know, Myst. But I do know this." She kissed the top of his 
head. "Mink is a good man. And so is Tobias. If anything, you will be able 
to get revenge for D's death. And everything that you would have learned 
from D, you'll learn from Mink or Tobias." He took a deep, jagged breath. 
She thought about it for a second. "Tell me, Myst, what would he say right 
now?"
	"Who?"
	"D."
	He sat up. "He would tell me to stop bawling like a baby. He'd say 
that Isthus was still out there and vengeance still needed to be wrought." 
He cleared his tears away. "He'd tell me to get back to work and to mourn 
him when we paid the Raiders back in full." He looked at Kaitlyn and gave 
her a kiss. "Thank you Kaitlyn."
	She blushed. "For what?"
	"For keeping my mind straight." He gave her a hug. "Thank you."
	She patted his back. "Anytime."

	Swift knocked on the door to the Elite Guard's barracks. "Guys," she 
called. "Are you in there?" She waited patiently for an answer. She wanted 
to see if everyone was okay. Eventually, the door opened up.
	"Hey Swift," Bomber told her. "How are you doing?"
	She blinked. "Bomber? You're actually conscious?"
	"Yeah. I guess the shock of losing a war hero, someone we fought along 
side for so long, so quickly slapped me back into reality."
	She nodded. "How is everyone?"
	"Hack's down on the bridge busy with his shift. Psycho's asleep. 
Wrench just went down to engineering to start his shift, and Crash is..." He 
fell silent.
	"Is Crash okay?"
	"He's still a little upset. Hasn't said a word since Mink made the 
announcement."
	She nodded. "I should talk to him."
	"If you feel it will make him feel better." He stepped aside. "But be 
kind."
	"I have no intention of being unkind." She stepped in and approached 
Crash. "Crash?" He looked up at her, eyes welled with tears and fur matted. 
"You okay?" He shook his head and hung his head. She sat down next to him. 
"What's wrong?" Again, he shook his head. "Crash..." She set her hands on 
his temple and shut her eyes...

 	Crash's mind wasn't as complex as Tobias'. Where Tobias' mind twisted 
and turned in all directions possible, Crash's mind was merely a giant plane. 
He was sitting there, silent, unmoving, clearly upset. She approached him 
slowly. "Crash?"
	"He died fighting our sworn enemy," he said. "He died a warrior's 
death, even though it was to a coward." He looked up. "It still hurts, 
though."
	She knelt in front of him. "It'll be okay."
	He looked at her. "No it isn't. Now we'll have a bunch of trigger 
happy Viper Stingers gunning for every damn Raider out there. We've got too 
many dangerous people floating about."
	"Don't worry. Mink is a strong leader."
	"That may be true, but what about Terry?" She fell silent. "He's on 
Earth right now. When he finds out, all hell is going to break loose. We 
might not have a base to-"
	"Crash, stop worrying." She hugged him. "Everything will be okay. 
It'll be handled, if not by Mink, then by Tobias."
	"But I-" She leaned in and planted a soft kiss on his lips. He was 
shocked for a few minutes. "Swift?"
	"Please, don't worry anymore. I don't want to see you worry." She 
hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I don't want someone I care 
about to worry himself to death."
	"Swift..." He put his hand on her back. "You care about me?"
	"I care about you a lot." She shut her eyes. "I will always envy 
Samantha for getting Tobias' hand in marriage. But..." She sighed. "I think 
of you as my Tobias, Crash."
	He tensed up. "Really?" She nodded. "I...I don't know what to say. 
Except..."
	"Except what?"
	He gave her a hug. "I love you, Swift."

	She let her hands fall and opened her eyes. She said nothing, simply 
looking at Crash. He opened his eyes and smiled a little bit. She shut her 
eyes and hugged him. "I love you too, Crash," she whispered. She squeezed 
him tightly. "I love you."

                                      *******

	Terry sat straight up in his bed. His eyes snapped open painfully 
quick. "What the hell was that?" he asked in a whisper. He looked around. 
The room was dark. Vu and Shivana were on shift with Kari, he told himself. 
He didn't need to worry. And yet, he was sitting straight up in a cold sweat. 
"The hell?"
	Mallory slowly sat up from her slumber. "Terry?"
	He shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Mallory. Go back to sleep."
	She moved closer to him, putting her arms around his waist. "What's 
wrong?"
	"I...I don't know."
	She nuzzled his neck. "Bad dream?"
	"I think so. I don't know what it is, exactly, but I have a bad 
feeling."
	She quickly became fully aware. "What kind of bad feeling?"
	"I think something has happened to the Vipers." He looked at her. "I 
was awoken by the cries of our fellows." He hugged her. "I don't like this 
feeling, Mallory."
	She hugged him back. "It'll be okay, Terry."
	He let go of her. "Sara, where are Vu and Shivana?"
	"They are in the main control room," Sara responded.
	"Can you link us in an audio only communication?"
	"Gladly." A few moments passed.
	"This is Vu," a voice said.
	"Vu, this is Terry," he responded.
	"Terry! You're supposed to be asleep."
	"I know. Woke up in a cold sweat." He shook his head. "I'll explain 
another time. Have you discovered anything of interest lately?"
	"Well, we've discovered two fabricated satellites in orbit around the 
Earth. One of them is huge. We're assuming it's either a complex Isthus 
constructed to command his forces from or a large defense station."
	"And the other?"
	"About the size of your standard UPD relay satellite. We're trying to 
see exactly what it is."
	"Okay."
	"Any specific instructions?"
	He thought for a moment. "If and when you determine what it is, I want 
you to try to bounce a data stream off of it and see what happens."
	"Aye Terry. That all?"
	"Yes."
	"Okay. Vu out."
	"Communication terminated," Sara reported.
	"All right. Thank you Sara." He looked at Mallory. "Well, we should 
try to get back to sleep." He started to lay down again. Mallory quickly 
moved and put an arm across his chest. "Mallory?"
	"Just getting comfortable," she said with a wink. He smiled and nodded.

	"The end of your shift is in fifteen minutes," Sara warned some time 
later.
	"Damn it," Vu said. "We still haven't figured out what that smaller 
signal is!" He looked at the scans again. "Whatever it is, it's doing a 
number on our sensors. We can't tell if it's a satellite or space trash."
	"Calm down," Shivana said. "There's nothing we can do right now."
	"There's only one thing we can do to figure out what it is, and that's 
to bounce a signal off of it and see what happens." He sighed. "But how are 
we going to do that?"
	Kari smiled. "I think I might have an idea."
	Vu looked at her. "Really?"
	She nodded. "Sara, is the 'bot I had you prepare ready to be sent to 
the surface?"
	"Yes," Sara responded.
	"What are you suggesting?" Vu asked.
	"Quite simple. Sara explained that I could use the 'bots to send 
messages out into space. I was originally planning on sending a message out 
blindly in the vague direction of your fleet and pray they catch it. But 
since this opportunity has presented itself, we can use it to try to kill 
two birds with one stone."
	Vu nodded. "Sara, launch the 'bot."

                                       *******

	"We have activity, Miss Julia," one of the relay station workers 
reported. "Sector Eight." Julia quickly moved behind him. She had drawn 
command duty for the relay station, which had been established to pick up 
any rebel communication. "Shall I bring it up on screen?"
	"Please," she said. The techie pounded away on the controls. The 
screen lit up, displaying a full overhead view of Sector Eight. There was a 
little blue blip in the middle of it all, identifying unknown activity. 
"Interesting. Do we have anybody in that area?"
	"We have a small patrol in that area. One of our boys commanding two 
humans."
	"It'll have to do. Contact them." She turned to a second screen. It 
lit up with the helmet camera of one of the humans out on patrol. 
	"This is Patrol Group Phi," the commanding unit said. "What can we 
do?"
	"Patrol, this is relay station Delta," she responded. "There is some 
unknown activity thirty meters to your west. Please go and check out what it 
is."
	"Understood. Patrol out."
	"Now we see what's going on. Put the helmet camera on the main 
screen." The large screen that dominated one side of the room turned on, 
revealing the view from the camera, as well as some of the human's 
statistics.
	"Patrol approaching area," one of the techies said. They all watched 
patiently as the scene turned into a little clearing. Standing there was a 
giant, metal soldier. It was staring straight at the sky. "Ma'am, I'm 
picking up a signal coming from that robot."
	"Can we intercept it?"
	He set to work. "I think I've...got it!" The room filled with a soft, 
peaceful music. "They're...transmitting music."
	"I don't understand. Do you recognize the music?"
	"Yes. It's an old band from the human decade of 1980. One of my 
personal favorite bands, I might add."
	She smiled. "When we finish this, give me the name of that band."
	"Gladly ma'am."
	"This is Patrol Group Phi," the leader responded. "We have an 
unidentified robot in our sights."
	"Patrol leader," Julia said. "Stand back and let your humans handle 
it."
	"Gladly." There was a momentary pause. "Boys, this is your chance. 
Destroy that."
	"Ah great," one of the humans grunted. "We do all the work and he's 
gonna reap the credit." A gun appeared on the screen. "Well, let's get it 
over with." The human started forward and fired. The robot, seemingly 
uninjured from the shot, turned and returned fire.
	"Switch camera view to our boy," Julia commanded.
	"On it," one of the techies said. The screen suddenly switched to the 
Raider's camera. It was just in time to see the robot turn and fill the gut 
of one of the humans with energy. The body slumped to the ground. Suddenly, 
a small reticule appeared on the screen. It zoomed in on the robot's head.
	"Just one shot," the Raider said. The robot opened fire on the human. 
"Gotcha!" There was a blast. The robot's head exploded in a flash of 
shrapnel. The reticule disappeared and the line of sight returned to normal. 
"Relay station Delta, this is what's left of Patrol Group Phi. Mission 
accomplished. Two human casualties on our side, but that's all."
	"No big loss," Julia said, a little half-heartedly. "Returned to base 
to pick up new patrol mates."
	"Aye. Phi out." The screen went blank.
	"Well, we did it," one of the techies said. "Now what?"
	She put a hand to her chin. "Who would have a robot out in the middle 
of nowhere and why would they have it transmit music?"

                                       *******

	"It was successful," Kari said excitedly. "The music has been 
transmitted."
	Terry chuckled. "It did," he said. "And, more importantly, we were 
able to put a trace on it. Too bad the robot got destroyed." He looked at 
the screen in front of him. "But it was able to confirm what we were hoping 
to find out. That is a UPD satellite. How it got out here is beyond me, 
though."
	"What probably happened is simple," Vu said. "When Isthus bust up the 
wedding reception and revealed his plans, they put in an order to launch 
satellites towards Earth to monitor everything." He sat down at another 
control panel. "They might have been out before we even got here."
	"Interesting." He smiled. "The data transmitted went out into deep 
space, about where our guys would be coming from."
	"Then it must be what they're using to watch us." He tapped away at 
the computer. "We could use this to our advantage."
	"How? We can't be sending robots out constantly to send messages. They 
might wise up."
	"True. But we can use what we have to our advantage." Terry quirked a 
brow.
	"It's quite simple," Sara said. A map of Manhattan Island appeared. 
"With the addition of a large number of robot guards, as well as some of the 
human technicians up there, we could build and maintain a transmission 
tower."
	"So how would we pull this off? I mean, the free humans have their own 
agenda."
	"We could have it erected for the exchange of the robots, as well as a 
shipload of valuable processed materials."
	Terry nodded. "How are our mining operations?"
	"Going at optimal. We have enough raw materials to spare."
	"I like the sound of your idea, Sara. I will bring it up with their 
boss when the time comes." He looked at Vu. "Thanks for your time. I can 
take the shift from here. Go rest." Vu nodded silently and left the control 
room.

                                       *******

	"Tobias," Hack said. "We're...I don't believe this!" He spun in his 
chair at his control panel and looked to Tobias, who was sitting in his 
command seat at the center of the bridge. "We're receiving a transmission...
from Earth!"
	That quickly ended Tobias' conversation with Swift. He turned to face 
Hack. "Come again?"
	"Someone has managed to piggyback a message from Earth with our 
satellites." He tapped in some data. "It's a forty second sound clip. It is 
located in a region that had Raider activity at about the time the 
transmission ended."
	He nodded. "Play the clip." He leaned back in his seat and listened to 
Hack tap away at his control panel. Minutes later, he was standing up as a 
beautiful melody filled the room. "That's..."
	Swift stood up. "I recognize that," she said. "Tobias, isn't that your 
music?"
	"Yes. It is. Hack, do you know what transmitted that?"
	"I can always check."
	"Do it." He stepped a little closer to the helm, slowly swaying with 
the tune. "My god, could it be...?"
	"I've got it!" Hack interrupted. "It was transmitted by an automaton."
	He looked at him. "A what?"
	"A robot."
	A smirk came to his face. "Hack, I think we found the answer to one of 
our questions."
	"Which one is that?" Swift asked.
	He turned to her and smiled. "Terry and the others are all right." He 
started to his ready room. "We have to figure out some way of getting in 
contact with them. Swift, Hack, I want you to join me."

	They were silent for a few minutes. Tobias busily tapped away at the 
controls in his desk as he reviewed some data. "Think we could bounce a 
signal off of it on wide broadcast?" Tobias said, finally breaking the 
silence.
	"You mean bounce a signal off of the satellite so it's received on a 
global range?" Hack asked. He nodded. "Yeah, it could be done like that. 
Might blow the cover of our satellite, but it'd still work."
	"Well, I don't want to blow our cover. Anything else we can do?"
	"I dunno. I don't have the exact specifics for the unit."
	"I can put in a request to Larcris to send us the blueprints."
	"Do it. I need those schematics."

                                       *******

	"Report," Isthus said as Julia walked into his office.
	"Gladly, sir," she said, opening a file folder and placing it on his 
desk. "At midday, about 1500 hours by the human clock, Patrol Group Phi 
encountered one of those peculiar machines that we encountered when we took 
the human capital of Washington DC. It was transmitting something, though we 
are unsure what at this time."
	"Were we able to recover anything?"
	"We were able to recover some armor samplings and parts of the 
machine's hard drive. We've got our techs analyzing it's contents now."
	"And weapons?"
	"Set with a self-destruction program. It didn't explode, but it was, 
essentially, destroyed."
	"Bah! This has Lone Wolf all over it!" He turned to the big window 
that sat behind him. "Have troops make a raid on the free human colony."
	She stood up a little taller. "Sir, if I may speak freely."
	"Gladly."
	"Why not just conquer the colony?"
	He was silent for a few minutes. "Because, my dear, they serve a much 
bigger purpose to me." He looked at her. "It's none of your concern at the 
moment."
	She nodded. "Gladly, sir. I will have the results of what was on that 
hard drive piece when they decipher it." He nodded and waived her off. "Have 
a nice day, sir." He chuckled as she smiled and left. 
	He waited until the door was firmly closed before speaking. "You can 
come out now."
	"She hasss her own agenda," Khan hissed. "That isss not the sssame 
woman that beat the shit out of me in the bar."
	He sighed and shook his head. "Khan, do you know why I trust her more 
than I trust you?" He looked at her. "I trust her because she listens to her 
heart. You listen to your finger on the trigger of your gun."
	"And that'sss a problem?"
	"Yes. She's not impulsive. She won't jump head first into things like 
you have a habit of doing. That's more valuable than killing everything. We 
need the extra humans for labor, not body piles."
	Khan smirked. "Well, if you trussst her ssso much...why did you tell 
me your plansss for the colony and leave her in the dark?"
	He smiled. "Because this is the one thing that her heart will cause 
problems with." He laughed darkly. "You, on the other hand, would be 
fantastic for it."
	"Yesss...of courssse..." She moved closer to him. "I would be perfect 
for a great deal more, sssir..." She slithered onto his lap.
	He chuckled. "Of course, my ssslippery little ssserpent!" He nibbled 
on her neck, forcing a hiss of pleasure out of her.

	Julia returned to her office after the meeting. She moved to her desk 
quickly, ignoring the fact the lights were out and shutting the door tightly 
behind her. "Computer," she commanded. "Lights." The room was filled with a 
soft yellow light. She put the folder down on her desk and looked to see 
Allen sitting there, watching her with a smile. "Allen! What are you doing 
here?"
	He smiled warmly. "Just came to see you," he said. Since you weren't 
here, I decided to wait."
	"Oh..." She smiled slightly and collapsed in her chair.
	"What's wrong?"
	"Nothing wrong. Why do you say that?"
	He slowly rose. "Because you don't slump in your chair like that 
unless something is." She shut her eyes. "It's okay, you can tell me."
	"Isthus is planning something big with the free human colony. And he's 
being awfully evasive about it." Allen fell silent. "I don't like how this 
is going, Allen."
	"Do you wish to know the truth, Julia?" She looked at him and nodded. 
He sighed. "A bunch of guys have approached me. Apparently, they know that 
you don't like what Isthus is doing."
	She jerked painfully. "Then Isthus knows."
	"No, he doesn't. They agree with you totally. They've decided to keep 
quiet because, well, they know what Isthus would do."
	She nodded. "But why tell me this? Why not go snitch on me?"
	"Because I wouldn't be a friend then." He tossed a small notepad on 
her desk. "And I'm one of them."
	She picked the pad up and flipped through the pages. "These are some 
of Isthus' best men. You must be lying."
	"I lie to you not."
	"How can I trust you?"
	"Because it's true," a third voice responded. She looked to see a 
female red wolf standing there. Julia recognized her as one of the names on 
the list. "Julia, good to see you again."
	She smiled. "Good to see you too, Pandora. I take it you've heard the 
whole thing."
	"Yes. And as one of Isthus' elite, I am obliged to inform him." She 
smirked. "But as a woman of morals, I am keeping my lips sealed."
	"Good." She presented her with the list. "Can you assure me that these 
people are with me in my ideas?"
	Pandora gave it a quick once over. "Yes. Most of them are in a unit I 
command, so I've rubbed off on them."
	"Good."
	"Julia, you do know we will eventually have to defect." She nodded. 
"We have nowhere to go. We'll have to go talk to the free humans..."
	"Not yet. Let's wait to see what will happen." She sighed. "I hope 
this room isn't bugged."
	"Why?"
	"Because I don't think Isthus would appreciate me speaking the truth."
	"And that truth is?"
	"We might just have to wait for Lone Wolf. He might hear us out and 
let us defect." There was a period of silence amongst the room. "Am I not 
right?"
	"About waiting for Lone Wolf?" Allen said. "I think we may just have 
to do that."
	"No, I mean about the room being bugged."
	They all chuckled uneasily and gave the room a thorough search. Lucky 
for them, they turned up nothing.

                                       *******

	Myst tapped away furiously at the controls in front of him. The 
machine he was working at slowly powered up, a lens in one of it's cold, 
steel walls coming to focus on Tobias' face. "The machine's hooked up, 
chief," he said. "Ready to transmit."
	Tobias nodded. "Okay." He looked to the others that have gathered - 
technicians mostly. Swift, Mink, and Samantha had gathered as well. "It's 
been a month since we left, right?"
	"More like two," Mink said. "According to our data, Isthus has held 
Earth for four and a half Earth months." He nodded. "You sure about this? If 
we reveal that Terry and Mallory are on Earth-"
	"I won't reveal that we have operatives," he assured him. "I'll come 
up with some lie. Maybe I could say we've started dropping robot troops from 
very long ranges and have plenty more coming."
	Swift nodded. "It's believable," she said.
	"Ready to transmit when you are," Myst interrupted.
	"All right." He fixed his hair and stared into the crystal lens that 
was watching him. "Let's do this."

                                       *******

	"Julia," one of the listening post technicians said. "We've got 
problems."
	She quickly moved over to him. "What is it?"
	"Ma'am, we're receiving some interstellar interference." He pointed at 
the radar screen, which was starting to go static."
	"Do you know where it's coming from?"
	"Deep space. But that's a rough estimate."
	Deep space, she wondered. Could it be...?
	Suddenly, all the screens in the building went static. It remained 
like that for a few moments before it reformed into a human face.
	"No...that can't be..."
	"Is that Lone Wolf?" one of the technicians asked.

	Elsewhere, Allen was just sitting down to lunch. The entertainment 
screens that littered the dining hall were all static, which was common. He 
ignored it. Well, he ignored it until it reformed again as a human face. He 
slowly turned his attention away from his meal as it began to speak.
	"Greeting Isthus," it said. "You weren't expecting to see me again so 
soon, were you? Well, guess what, I'm coming for your sorry ass. That's 
right...I'm only two months away. Less than four for any humans listening to 
this. Pretty soon, I'll be shoving my new steel-toed boots up the side of 
your face.
	"You know those robot troopers that you've been fighting on occasion? 
They're ours. They've been spying on your people, sending us all sorts of 
valuable data. We know of the atrocities that you've committed. You will be 
repaid IN FULL for them."
	There was a loud, glass rattling roar out in the distance. "Uh-oh," 
Allen said, getting up. "Isthus is pissed."

                                       *******

	Terry and Mallory watched the images of Tobias on their screens 
intently. They, too, had received the communication and were chuckling at 
the thought of what Isthus was doing to himself. "Think he's shittin' 
himself?" Mallory asked.
	"Don't think like that, Mal!" Terry said with a wry grin. "He shit 
himself the moment he saw Tobias' face. This is only pissing him off."
	"Oh, and before I go," Tobias continued. "I must warn you. You've got 
a very pissed off group of Viper's Sting members out for your blood. Why are 
they after you, you ask? Well, let me put it to you this way. Right after we 
left for Earth, Dane Ulrich started to lead a couple of units to cleanse 
their homeworld from your forces. Two weeks after we left, four for all you 
humans, he met his end at the hands of a cowardly attack." He frowned. "Your 
cowards took one of our war heros, Isthus. Eye for an eye. See you in a few 
months." The screen returned to normal.
	Mallory shook her head. "No...D..." She looked at Terry. "The D is 
dead?" Terry didn't answer. He had his eyes fixed on the screen in front of 
him. She slowly rose and moved to his side. "Terry." She put her hand on his 
shoulder. She quickly pulled it back when she discovered he was, literally, 
burning hot. "Terry!"
	He looked at her. Tears were coming from his glowing yellow eyes. "D 
was the only I considered family, Mallory," he said, on the verge of a sob. 
"We're gonna start paying that SOB back for taking my family away."
	She fell into his arms and started crying. "Why?"
	"I don't know...but we'll get him back." He looked at one of the 
cameras Sara used to watch them. "I swear it."