Pretending to read his newspaper, Kester verified one last time that no one was around except the targets, then casually lowered his left hand and pointed two fingers at the ground. The four men across the street, hiding in the shadows between buildings, nodded. In the distance, Brog signaled back and rushed to join Zykon and Kerida.

Thirty meters to Kester's right, the street ended at the command base. Fifty meters in the opposite direction, where Brog had been standing, the street curved out of sight to the left. Another 50 meters beyond the curve, a smaller street split off at a T intersection.

Kerida and Zykon were waiting at the intersection. As soon as they saw Brog approaching, Kerida sliced open Zykon's right pants leg and quickly applied some red food coloring.

Zykon lay in the middle of the intersection and clutched his right leg. Brog and Kerida hid between buildings just a few feet away, and Brog activated his communicator twice.

As soon as Kester heard the two bursts of static, he sprang from the bench and rushed forward. Across the street from him, Stam, Fareek, Lako, and Pakab burst from their hiding places. Together, they jumped the four women walking down the sidewalk.

The Micronian females screamed loudly and put up one hellacious fight. The shortest one kicked Fareek right between the legs and he went down, his eyes bugging out and his face pale.

 

At the same moment, Brog and the rest of the diversion team were put to the test. Two cars came along about twenty seconds apart, approaching the command base. Each car came to a stop when its driver saw Zykon lying in the intersection, writhing in pain.

The drivers, both men, got out of their vehicles.

"Hey, buddy," the first one said. "You okay?"

Brog and Kerida rushed forward. "Oh, man!" Brog said. "We saw the whole thing! Some guy in a fancy sports car just hit him and took off that way!" He indicated the smaller street.

"Oh, my leg!" Zykon called out.

"Let me take a look at it," the second driver said.

Both drivers knelt to care for the "injured" man, unaware of the real crime taking place further up the road, just out of sight.

 

Despite the females' resistance, the team managed to secure their hands and gag them. Strack drove the stolen van out of its hiding place in an alley and pulled up alongside them. Lako climbed into the front passenger seat. The rest of the team piled into the back with their prisoners, and Strack calmly drove away.

The men covered the prisoners with a tarpaulin. Kester took out his communicator and spoke into it. "Prepare secondary target."

Strack arrived at the scene of the fake accident and rolled down his window. "What happened here?"

"Hit and run," Kerida said. "We need to get this guy to a hospital."

"We can take him," Strack said. The van's side door opened and Kester got out.

"You sure it's not a problem?" the second driver asked. "Because I can-"

"Nah, it's no problem," Strack said, as Kester helped Zykon into the van. "We're headed in that direction anyway."

"Mind if we go with him?" Brog asked. "We saw the accident. The police might want us to give a statement."

"Sure, hop in," Strack said.

"Hey, take care, guy!" the first driver said to Zykon.

Zykon waved his thanks. Brog and Kerida jumped in, the van door closed, and they were off.

 

The van's back seats had been ripped out. Everyone was packed together uncomfortably, the prisoners especially so.

Fareek pulled the tarpaulin away.

"My name is Kester," Kester said. "I'm going to remove your gags, but if you scream, I will replace them. Nod if you understand."

The four women looked at him with terrified eyes, but they were calm enough to nod.

Kester signaled to his team and the gags were removed.

To one of the prisoners, he said, "You, I know. You are Commander Lisa Hayes, second-in-command of the SDF-1." He turned to the others. "You three are unknown to me. You will state your name and rank."

"Don't answer him," Lisa said, then addressed Kester. "I am their commanding officer. Anything you need from them must come through me. I demand to know who you are and why you have abducted us!"

"Power posturing will accomplish nothing," Kester said. "I am in charge, and you will answer my questions, not the other way around. You are valuable to me, but these others are not. I will not hesitate to kill them if you do not comply."

"Very well, I will comply," Lisa said. "But I know you Zentraedi understand the chain of command."

"How do you know we are Zentraedi?" Kester asked.

"I was born at night, but I wasn't born last night."

Kester gave a small smile. He could tell that most of his team didn't get the clever wordplay, or at least, didn't understand why she would bother to phrase it that way. But Kester, of course, was a little smarter than they were.

"I appreciate your wish to retain your dignity and your command," he said. "Tell your subordinates to comply with my order."

"I want assurances that we will be treated as prisoners of war and will not be harmed."

"I promise all of you will be treated well as long as you comply with my demands. That's the best offer you'll get."

Lisa glowered, but said, "Tell him. Don't antagonize him."

The dark-haired one spoke first. "Kim Young. Ensign."

The small one who had nailed Fareek in the crown jewels spoke next. "Sammie Porter. Ensign."

The one wearing glasses said, "Vanessa Leeds. Lieutenant Junior Grade."

Sammie looked at her in surprise. "When the hell did you make LTJG?"

Vanessa was equally surprised. "Last month, remember? We had a party and everything!"

"She doesn't remember anything from that party," Kim said.

"Silence!" snapped Kester.

"Cannon fodder!" Zykon said in his own language. "They are dead weight! Let's get rid of them."

"No, for two reasons," Kester replied, also speaking Zentraedi. "First, I gave my word they would not be harmed if they complied with my instructions. Second, I have often seen these three walking with Commander Hayes. I decided against abducting Commander Hayes each of the previous two days because I wanted to take her alone, but when I saw them walking together for the third day in a row, I decided to take them along with her. If they work together on the bridge, these three may still possess vital knowledge despite their low rank."

"Our mission does not allow for more than a few prisoners!" Zykon said. "The more people we take, the harder it will be to escape this ship, and the greater the chance of discovery!"

"I am the leader, and our mission is what I say it is," Kester replied calmly. "And we will deal quite capably with all difficulties, and we will do so without complaint."

Zykon growled but said nothing more.

Although Lisa didn't understand their language, she could tell an argument with a subordinate had just occurred. If there was dissension in the ranks on Kester's team, perhaps she could use it to her advantage. She stared at the floor of the van, pretending she hadn't noticed the harsh tone of the exchange, but she had a strong feeling Kester knew perfectly well that she had.

A man's voice came through Kester's communicator, also speaking Zentraedi. "All is ready."

"Confirmed," Kester replied. "ETA two minutes."

 

Sitting at her desk with a pencil in her hand, Minmei stared at the paper in front of her and sighed.

Battle calls all of us to learn more,
as we yearn for
a new life.

Her agent, Vance Hasselwood, came into the office. "How's the new song comin'?"

Minmei barely raised her eyes to shoot him a laser glare. "No different than the last time you asked, ten minutes ago."

"Hey, I can't help it if I'm nervous. What's the problem? Anything I can help with?"

"Yes, there is something you can do to help."

"Great! What is it?"

"Leave me the hell alone when I'm writing songs!"

"Come on, Minmei. Really. What's the problem?"

She slammed the pencil down. "Dammit, Vance, if I knew that I'd have finished by now! It's a creative process, and it will take as long as it needs to take, and you are only aggravating the situation!"

"That won't pay the bills, honey. We promised your fans a new album in three weeks, and you haven't even written all the songs yet! I wish you'd let other people write some of your songs for you. This stubbornness to write them all yourself is going to be the death of us!"

Minmei stood up, stuffed the paper and pencil in her purse, and stormed out.

"Oh, what now?" Vance asked wearily, following her into the hall. He was grateful the building was empty except for them, so no one would hear them bicker like this.

"You've made me so angry I can't even concentrate any more!" She walked down the corridor in a huff. "So I'm just going to play in the studio for a while. I'll go back to writing the song when I cool down. If you continue to bother me, I'll just go home!"

Minmei entered the studio and slammed the door in his face.

Vance sighed. He wanted to go in after her and make her see sense, but they both knew he was completely at her mercy.

He walked away, wondering if it was too late to earn his accounting degree.

Close to tears, Minmei slammed her purse on the bench by the sound board and sat at the piano. This is the show business life I wanted so much! she thought bitterly.

After a few seconds, she took a deep breath and launched into the instrumental version of "It's You." The tempo was faster than usual, and she pounded on the keys.

"What pretty noise you make," the man said.

Minmei was so lost in her music that at first she didn't fully register that anyone had spoken. After a few seconds, she stopped and looked up to see two strange men standing beside the piano.

"Hi!" she said instantly, with a big smile. Damn! she thought. Fans got into the building! Smile and make them happy, give them an autograph, then gently tell them invading a recording studio without permission is not proper behavior. Don't agree to a photo with them unless they seem hostile.

"I'm beginning to understand why your music means so much to you Micronians," the man on the left said. He was the same one who had spoken before.

Minmei blinked. Micronians? she thought. Only the Zentraedi speak like that. These must be some of the defectors.

The man continued. "But unfortunately, we have to cut short your performance. Come with us."

Minmei's smile disappeared. "What are you talking about?"

"I am brigade leader Kester Hikolam, Zentraedi Army," the man said. "We are kidnapping you. Don't force us to become violent."

Minmei was aghast. "We give you asylum and this is how you repay us?"

Kester laughed good-naturedly. "You misunderstand. We are not defectors. We are not traitors. We are true Zentraedi. We infiltrated this ship to kidnap you."

"Me?"

"Come with us now, or we break your legs."

"Is this a sick joke?"

Kester spoke to the man beside him. "Break her left leg. Just below the knee."

The man stepped forward.

"No!" Minmei shouted and jumped up. "I'll come quietly! I promise!"

Kester held up his hand to stop him. "Excellent."

"Just...let me get my purse."

Kester lost his patience. "Now!" he shouted.

Minmei raised her chin. "I am a star," she said haughtily. "I don't go anywhere without my makeup." She walked to the sound board.

"Leave your purse here," Kester said sternly.

Minmei glared at him, and made a point of grabbing her pencil and half-finished lyrics and stuffing them into her pants pocket. "Zentraedi infiltrators, you say," she said calmly. "And just where would a bunch of Zentraedi infiltrators be taking me?"

"Back to our fleet, of course," Kester said.

Minmei's face paled, but she stayed strong. She glanced at the clock. "It's 4:14 PM. You don't have time to get away. I'll be missed when I don't show up for my 5:00 meeting. They'll come after me."

"You have no 5:00 meeting, and you're just stalling for time. Come with us now or we'll break both of your legs and drag you away."

"You're just going to kill me anyway, so why should I go with you?"

"We will not harm you. After we are through interrogating you, we will set you free."

"And why should I believe that?"

"You will find me an officer of my word. Really. For you have no choice."

Minmei slowly walked with them to the door. "Are we going back to your fleet immediately?"

"As fast as possible. I repeat, we will not hurt you. But if you scream, it will be the last thing you ever do."

They headed for the exit, Minmei shaking with every step but determined to remain calm and brave. She wondered where Vance was. She wanted to ask if they'd done anything to him, but they might not know about him, in which case she should keep her mouth shut.

"Why me?" she asked.

"You are the psychological weapon which has persuaded some of our army to defect," Kester said. "We want to know how you do it."

Minmei laughed, a short sharp laugh. "You people really are pretty stupid, aren't you?"

"Perhaps we are." Kester was completely calm. "Interrogating you will make us smarter."

"Doubtful. And how do you know whether or not I have a 5:00 meeting?"

"We have been observing you closely for approximately one week. We know your schedule."

Minmei's heart went ice cold. How could they have been watching me so closely and I never noticed?

They stopped at the building's front door and waited until a couple of people walking down the sidewalk had passed. When Kester saw no one about, he nodded to his companion. They each took one of her arms and opened the door. "Get in the van," he said.

The van was parked nearby. They propelled her towards it. Minmei knew the time to scream was now.

If she entered that van, she was doomed.

She tried to scream, but the moment she took a breath Kester moved like lightning. He had anticipated it. His hand clamped over her mouth like a vise. The van door opened, she was thrust inside, and the door closed.

Her chance was gone.

"Minmei!" a voice exclaimed in astonishment.

Minmei looked up to see Commander Hayes and three other young women in RDF uniforms staring at her in amazement. They were tied up.

Fareek tied Minmei's wrists together as the van pulled away. Although she was ashamed of her weakness, Minmei couldn't stop the tears.

 

Vance came knocking, carrying some donuts as a peace offering, but Minmei was no longer in the studio. Taking this as a good sign, he went to her office, but she wasn't there either. So, not a good sign.

Vance scowled and went back to the studio. Had the girl done anything?

He saw her purse by the sound board, then the blinking light on the sound board which indicated it was currently recording. That's odd, he thought. And it's wasting our tape!

He turned off the recording, then had a bright thought. Of course! Minmei must have been recording her progress and playing it back, and she just forgot she left the machine on! Let's see what our little prodigy has come up with.

He rewound the tape and pressed "Play."

"Zentraedi infiltrators, you say. And just where would a bunch of Zentraedi infiltrators be taking me?"

"Back to our fleet, of course."

"It's 4:14 PM. You don't have time to get away. I'll be missed when I don't show up for my 5:00 meeting. They'll come after me."

"You have no 5:00 meeting, and you're just stalling for time. Come with us now or we'll break both of your legs and drag you away."

"You're just going to kill me anyway, so why should I go with you?"

"We will not harm you. After we are through interrogating you, we will set you free."

"And why should I believe that?"

"You will find me an officer of my word. Really. For you have no choice."

"Are we going back to your fleet immediately?"

"As fast as possible. I repeat, we will not hurt you. But if you scream, it will be the last thing you ever do."

The sound of the door opening and closing, then silence.

By the time Vance heard the final words, his knees were knocking.

Practical joke! Please be a practical joke! He played the tape again.

It's no joke! Oh no oh no oh no oh no!

He frantically looked around, wondering what to do. Call the police! No, the police don't fight the Zentraedi, the army does. Call the army! What's the army's phone number? Why doesn't the army publicize their phone number? Wait, Minmei has a friend in the army. Her not-boyfriend. What's his name?

Vance raced down the hall to Minmei's office and frantically tore through the papers on her desk and in the filing drawer. Nothing. Hyperventilating, he looked around and spotted Minmei's list of friends and their phone numbers tacked to the wall.

Vance snatched up the phone and dialed the number for Rick Hunter. Only as the phone was ringing did he remember he could have dialed the operator and reached anyone he wanted.

 

The prisoners watched silently as Fareek and Brog removed a pile of junked machine parts and a large piece of sheet metal to reveal a hole cut into a bulkhead. The hole was about six feet high and two feet wide, and it had not been neatly made; its edges were so jagged that a person squeezing through it without care wouldn't survive the trip.

Fareek and Zykon went through first. Kester nudged Minmei towards the opening.

"All that sharp metal is going to cut us," Lisa said. "You'll have to untie our hands so we can get through safely."

Kester said, "You are all in good physical condition, and your hands are tied in front of you, so you should have no problems with balance. Your hands will remain tied. Proceed."

Minmei carefully stepped through the opening and found herself in a disused section of the SDF-1. It instantly brought back terrible memories of the time she had been trapped in a similar part of the ship for two weeks. That experience had almost destroyed her, and in a strange way, it suddenly gave her hope. I survived that ordeal. I can survive this one, too!

Kester alternated sending through captives and captors so that at no time, on either side of the opening, would the prisoners feel they outnumbered their captors and thus be tempted to run or fight. Nor were they.

As she twisted her way through the opening, Lisa thought about intentionally cutting herself to leave some blood as a trail, but decided against it. It was such a long shot that the risk was probably not worth the reward. Only tracker dogs would have been able to pick up such a trail, anyway, and there had never been any animals on board the SDF-1.

Brog was the last one through. He reached back through the hole and awkwardly dragged the sheet metal back into place so that it once more covered the opening.

They descended further into the dark recesses of the ship, following pipes and conduits. Minmei was grateful she had chosen to wear pants and ordinary shoes that day. The other captives were still in their skirt uniforms and wore flat, functional shoes.

After about ten minutes they reached what was obviously the infiltrators' den. It contained cots, a fire pit, and three battle pods.

Strack climbed into one of the pods, and Kester pointed to it. "All prisoners will enter this pod."

Lisa said, "You'll have to untie our hands so we can climb-"

Fareek picked her up and handed her to Strack, who roughly grabbed her by the sides of her stomach and hoisted her up.

"Hey!" she shrieked. "Watch it!"

None of the Zentraedi replied. The women were unceremoniously manhandled into the pod, their protests ignored. Each woman's hands were tied to a ring near the floor, forcing her into an uncomfortable kneeling position.

While this was happening, the other team members climbed into the remaining pods, except Kester, who impassively watched the prisoners being loaded.

"You promised us we'd be well treated!" Lisa barked down at Kester.

"You Micronians are such babies!" he snapped. "We didn't hurt you."

From within one of the other pods, Kerida called down to Kester and spoke frantically in Zentraedi. Kester replied with a look of puzzlement on his face.

Lisa instantly took hope. Nothing so far had rattled Kester, so whatever news he had just received had to be something monumental.

Kester was thoughtful for a moment, then hopped into the pod containing the prisoners. He knelt next to Lisa.

"It seems your colleagues somehow know about us," he said. "Almost all of your fighter squadrons launched within the last ten minutes and are patrolling very close to the ship, as if they are waiting to catch someone leaving it. Now, how could they possibly know to do that?"

"You tell me," Lisa replied calmly.

"No, you tell me," Kester said menacingly. "I know our operation was not witnessed, so the only possible explanation is that you have some kind of communicator on you. You can either tell me where it is, or I will rip you apart to find it. I will give you no further warning."

"I have no such communicator. I have no idea how the army could know-"

Kester snarled and reached for Lisa. Sammie, Kim, and Vanessa screamed at him.

"I'm the one who told the army!" Minmei shouted.

Kester stopped and looked at her, his left hand holding the back of Lisa's neck, his right hand in a fist, poised to strike.

"When you kidnapped me, I turned on the recorder in the studio!" Minmei said. "All that talk about who you were and where you were taking me was being recorded! I even made sure to mention the time. By now, someone has discovered the recording. They'll have heard everything! You're finished!"

Kester and Minmei glared at each other for several long seconds. The other prisoners stared at both of them.

Finally, Kester released Lisa and stood, a small smile on his face. "Well done. I have obviously underestimated the civilian. It is a mistake I will not make twice."

"Surrender now and I promise you will be well treated," Lisa said.

"Surrender?!" Kester exploded, laughing at her. "What makes you think I'm going to surrender just because of a minor setback like this? You are all far too valuable to give up. It just means my people will have to send a battalion to retrieve us instead of a squadron as originally planned."

Grinning with the exhilaration of the upcoming battle, he hopped out of the pod and turned to face his captives.

"Buckle up, ladies!" he said. "It's going to be a bumpy ride!"