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“It doesn’t look good, Tropo. It doesn’t look very good for the good guys...” her voice trailed off and consciousness wavered. Captain Tallie Talbot, formerly in command of the now dead Star-Guardian Mars, was pretty sure she was dying too.
She heard a far away voice. It was Tropo. Who else could it be, she reminded herself. Only the two of them were still alive of the original five who had made it into the life craft as the Mars blew up.
“Hold on, just hold on,” he was saying. His voice was confidant but weak.
She pried open one eye and looked over at him. He was lying prone on one of the couches across from her. His normally bright eyes were clouding up as she knew hers were too.
“Sure,” she said, closing her eye again and drifting off. Too weak to move, her mind raced between thoughts of starving or suffocating from lack of oxygen, and which would do her in first?
Finally, he stopped talking, and she drifted off, not knowing or seemingly caring if she would ever awaken again in this lifetime.
Maybe just a few minutes, or a few hours later, she wasn’t sure, something made her wake up. Her body jerked involuntarily, some thought or more likely dream causing an automatic reaction.
She rolled her head to one side, opened both eyes, and saw Tropo evidently asleep on his couch also. At least she hoped he was just asleep. Her eyes drooped shut again, only to pop wide open at some sensation she couldn’t quite describe to herself.
This time she thought she saw a slight reaction in Tropo as well. Her mind fought hard to clear the fog. Then she felt it again.
Wait a minute! Something was moving the life craft, rather clumsily yet gently, away from its programmed course.
Adrenalin coursed through her weak body as she realized there was only one thing that could cause this.
“Tropo! Tropo!” She tried to shout, but just like when you try to shout in a dream, nothing seemed to be coming out.
“Tropo!” she said again, this time a squeaky voice emerged from her dry throat. She reached over and grabbed the first thing she could, which happened to be his ear.
“What?” he more growled than spoke.
“Wake up. Something has latched onto us. I’m sure of it, our craft has been jerking for God only knows how long.” The more words that came out the clearer and stronger her voice became.
But he wasn’t answering. “Tropo!” She jerked harder on his ear.
His answer was a roar, which seemed to start deep inside him and build like distant thunder growing nearer.
“Don’t pull that big bad Sabretooth stuff on me! Check your screens. What do you see?”
His eyes snapped open, as if finally realizing what she was saying. Touching the controls, his couch folded upright into a sitting position as he focused his eyes on the little view screen.
“Just stars out there,” he said.
Tallie’s couch was now up in the same position, and she saw only the stars also.
Their screens were rotating through the 360 degree views outside their little craft. Stars, stars, nothing but stars. More stars, then, “Wait! Go back!” He touched the screen and froze it. Nothing was there.
“No stars, but something so close to block them all out!” she said.
“You are correct,” he said, and they stared at each other.
“But why don’t they contact us?” he asked, then his eyes widened, his tail flicked involuntarily. He knew the answer, and so did she.
Now the jerking of the life craft was more and more consistent, and finally they heard a clunk as they were landed on the inside of the larger ship.
The only problem was, it wasn’t one of their ships...