On The Road Again.

Toma was skeptical of strongest part since family tended to think families abilites higher then what they were. But there was no doubt Jason was strong either way. "You seem to know a lot about space travel so what's the difference between Slip Stream and some of the others?"

Michelle thinks for a second "Well, a Slip Stream is a natural phenomenon that's hard to detect and even harder to safely use. It's Crazy easy to fall from the Slip Stream if you don't know what you're doing and there's a very good chance you'll slam into a planet or something at Extremely high velocities." she explains.

"Warp Drives are a bit more common. You use a Matter/Anti-Matter drive with a Deflector Dish to create a warp bubble or warp field and once you get your ship to a certain speed, you break the Warp Barrier and the ship Actually stops moving while the rest of the universe warps around you." she continues "The bad thing with Warp Drives is that they're a bit unstable. If the Matter/Anti-Matter containment breeches, the Warp Core will explode."

She thinks for a bit again "A Lightspeed Drive surrounds the ship in a special type of photonic particles that allows the ship to travel 186,000 miles per second. It's the safest way to travel, but by far the slowest." she says with a slight shrug.

"And finally, Hyper Drives." she says with a sigh "They open a gateway/vortex/portal into a strange dimension called 'Hyper Space'. It's a Very empty portion of 'Negative' space that significantly shortens the distance traveled from one point to another." she points out "The problem with a Hyper Drive, is that if it messes up, you could be stuck in Hyper Space and if you drift too far off the hyper space beacon, you'll be lost forever. Also, if your Hyper Drive malfunctions While entering a Hyper Space, the vortex could collapse and destroy your ship." she finishes.

Kate could understand all that, but technology didn't really interest her too much.

Ayda got the gist of it, she wished she..wait no she did. She pulled out a sketch book and scribbled a few notes down. Her memory came and went. "Did your dad teach you all that?"

Michelle shakes her head "No. I read up on all of that. I may not look it or act it at times, but I'm very smart." she says casually "I just don't like to give that impression because some might be intimidated by that." she points out.

Toma was listeningly idly as he ate before speaking up again. "That's their problem. I mean, as long as you don't act smug about it then its just a part of who you are. They'll always be those who don't like someone based on stuff without really knowing them. Heck, Ayda here is into that sort of stuff so gives you two something to talk about."

"..Sort of. I mean, I'm not all that good about it just yet." Ayda flushed a bit under the sudden spotlight.

"Says the girl who was tinkering with computer stuff since she was five." Toma patted her back. "You have a talent for it, so don't sale yourself short or compare yourself to anyone."

Ayda felt a bit better about that, turning to Michelle. "Um, maybe some time we could talk more about these kinds of thing some time."

Michelle shrugs "Okay. I got nothing else to do at the moment." she says. She didn't want to tell everyone that she Did get a bit smug at times. She thinks she's one of the best things to happen to Ki style fighting since her dad.

Ayda thought for a moment. "Uh..we'll that's the thing not sure what rto talk about either. How old were you when you first started? Training with Ki, that is."


Kate yawned slightly and stretched as she got up. "I'm gonna tag out for now. When things get rarring to go I'll be in my room. I usually meditate and such when getting ready to center myself."

Michelle thinks for a bit "Since I was about four. My dad always told me stories of his adventures and I got Hooked on them. I knew what it was that I wanted to do and he showed me how to fight. Then my Great Uncle showed me even more cool things to do and he's Very strong as well. Dad's never been able to beat him. Ever." she says.

"Five for us both, I think. I actually didn't care for it at first but it grew on me. You met Edgar, he was our main teacher then Kor from time to time." Toma said.

"Your great Uncle? What's their name?" Ayda asked slightly curious, even though she had no clue how strong Jason

Michelle shrugs "Well, he's not Really my Uncle, but he's a close enough friend of my family that he might as well be." she says Also, his name's Will. If he were on this mission with us, between him and my dad, the bad guys, no matter who they are, wouldn't stand a chance."

Toma could kind of see it. "Kind of like Kor and Edgar then. Not really a uncle or grandfather respectively but might as well be." He was almost surprised they hadn't requested to come along. "Does he live on earth?"

Michelle nods "Yeah. He's a very important person on Earth and needs to stay there. Otherwise I think he would be right here with us." she says with a light chuckle.

"-There's one thing I want to explain. Sorta misconception."

Kate was idly listening to Joseph as she sat down.

"You see, a lot of people think Alusarians are one of the naturally strongest races. But honestly, there are other races that have a higher base, growth rate or even super forms. It's not our natural power that makes us dangerous, its our potential. It's not always the person with the best genetics that wins. Just remember that for later."

Kate opened her eyes, she was mediating in her room. It was odd how sometimes old memories came back during those times. Having done enough for now, she decided to just lay down until she was needed again.

* *


"Is he like the king of earth?" Ayda asked excitedly, imagination going wild.

Toma chuckled. "Earth doesn't have true kings and such anymore Ayda. Or a unified government for that matter, just a bunch of them all doing their own things."

"Oh..."

Michelle thinks for a bit "Well, he's not the King of Earth, but he Is it's God." she says "He's got the title of Kami and he's the Guardian of Earth. He makes sure nothing bad happens to it." she explains.

The ship jerks slightly as they suddenly come out of the Slip Stream again. Michelle looks out of one of the windows "There's no Way we can be there already. We haven't even had our mission briefing." she says as she moves closer to see if she could see Anything and sure enough, she does.

She looks back to the others "Hey, there's  Another Ship out there!" she says to the others, sounding excited.

"That can either be good or bad..." Toma thought to himself.

"Is that why we stopped then? If so not sure what the deal is.." Ayda was a bit confused but had a idea.

Toma shrugged a bit. "It's not a concidence in this case so we'll probably see soon."

Jason comes walking into the mess hall with Lee "Toma, let's go. We're heading over to that other ship." he says.

Michelle springs up "Dad! What's going on? Are we going to get into a ship to ship battle with them?" she asks, sounding excited once more.

Jason shakes his head "No. There's no one aboard the other ship. We're going over to check out what happened. Kate's in charge until we get back." he says as he and Lee head out.

Toma didn't like the sound of that. We'll time to put his detective googles on and go from there. He stood up to go follow and Ayda got up slightly.

"Please be careful okay?" Ayda asked worriedly.

"Don't worry, I will." Toma replied back as he went to follow.

Once there, the ship seemed in decent running order. There was some evidence of weapons fire on the walls, like there was a struggle. Outside signs indicated the same thing.

Jason looks to Lee and Toma "Would you two see if you can find any clues on what happened here and to the crew? I'm going to check the main computer and see if I can't find anything about what happened in general." he says.

Lee nods and starts off. He was tacking it slowly as he puts his scouter on and taps it a few times, looking around "I see something. It looks like an energy signature of some type. Possibly a weapon." he cautions.

Lee was no fool. He knew that as strong as they were, there would Always be weapons that would pose a threat to them and from what he seen on sensor reading, this ship was well armed for it's size, so whatever happened here, must have been one Hell of a fight.

"Wonderful." Toma was looking around, nothing in particular he was just trying to get his mind going into detective mode. "I'm not seeing tons of bodies which leads me with a few ideas. I'm thinking most of the crew was captured, for what I don't know. Maybe slavers, but doesn't make sense with how many run. It would be a huge risk attacking a ship like this and if it got damaged they'd be in the ass end of nowhere. Sorta like already."

"Could be some other things to. But guess we'll see.."

Lee nods "I agree. If any of them were dead, even disintegrated, we would see signs of it." he says as he slowly rounds the corner where the weapon was. It was indeed a weapon, but it was a discarded weapon. Probably dropped in the fight.

Lee opens one of the doors on the crew quarters and pees inside "It's been sacked. I'm guessing anything of value's been taken. Just like the crew." he says. It still didn't explain why the ship was just drifting. One would think that whomever grabbed the crew would have wanted the ship as well.

"It's not making any sense. If it was just a group of say raiders or slavers they would have taken the ship as well. Even if they didn't care for it, it could replay and loss or damage taken from the mission. The ship is pretty decent in size, there has to at least be a few dozen here just from looks.."

Toma ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know. But who ever took them had to have a notably bigger ship then this one to not only capture the crew but ensure they had enough manpower to get the job done. That and being powerful enough."

Lee nods absently "There are two possibilities. One: They didn't want to take the ship for whatever reasons and Two: They Couldn't take the ship." he reasons "Though, whatever those reasons are, I really can't say." he mumbles.

Jason comes walking back "I think a little something had to do with the fact that this ship is powered by a Phazon core." he says.

This gets a shocked look from Lee "Are you kidding me? Making a ship powered by that stuff is a Very bad idea for Many reasons." he states "Well, I suppose that would explain why they didn't just destroy the ship and be done with it." he mumbles.

Jason nods "Correct, but that still doesn't explain what happened to the crew." he points out "Only why they left the ship intact." he says.

"They were taken by Zygerrian slavers." says a male voice from seemingly nowhere "They were going to take the ship, but I triggered a core overload and they left in a hurry." this mysterious person says.

The wall suddenly starts to move and change, forming into a rough humanoid shape, then it comes together and forms into a blue alien with ice crystals on his body "My name is Glacian. Why have you come aboard my ship?" he asks in a cold tone.

Toma was about to open his mouth, but decided against it to let Jason speak first. He, technically was the one in charge of this whole operation in the first place.

Jason, indeed steps forward "We received an automated distress signal and when we tried hailing, no one answered and we didn't detect any life readings aboard, so we assumed the ship was deserted." he says.

Glacian nods slowly "I suppose that's understandable." he grumbles.

Lee looks around "What happened here? Where is the rest of the crew?" he asks.

This seemed to make Glacian a bit upset "They were taken by Zygerrian slavers The only reason they didn't take either me or the ship, was because I was causing the Phazon core to overload to, hopefully, drive them off. Well, it worked, they left, but with the rest of the crew." he grumbles.

"And since I can't operate this whole ship by myself, once some of the main systems went offline, the ship went on auto pilot back to home for repairs." he explains, somewhat grudgingly.

Jason nods slowly "If you're willing to accept our help, we would be willing to help you get your crew back from those slavers." he offers.

There was no definite answer if he'd accept or not though while Jason talked to Glacian Toma was thinking of a few things. If the Zygerrian's managed to get deeper into their own turf with their new slaves, chances are they run into some more besides those taken on the ship. The problem was he wasn't sure if the ship they were could carry them all or not, and being far out getting into contact with his old man would be hard.

It was prudent that if anyone did rescue them, the quicker the better. Of course it was bad for all involved, but particularly young women and even children for reasons that should be obvious unless one was very naive. there were some very sick people in the slaver circles but that went without saying. Kor had a personal grudge against them, if for no other reason his own race had been enslaved once upon a time. Not that Toma was exactly fond of them either.

Luckily for Zygerrian's they knew which bee hive to kick and not kick or they wouldn't have still be around.