Liz sat in her room staring out the window at the stars that speckled the sky. She thought about Max and Michael. She then thought of Maria and felt guilty once again. She wondered where she had gone. She was scared for her. The night was peaceful and Liz was thankful for that. A sound in another room brought Liz out of her silence. “Alex? Isabel? Is that you?” Liz got up and crept to the door and peaked into the other room. “Hello?” Liz ventured a little further trying to find the light, but never made it. As soon as she stepped into the room a hand found her mouth and covered it while the other hand was secured tightly around her waist. “If you be quiet and cooperate, I won’t make this hurt that much.” Liz panicked and decided that the best thing to do was to just not move. The man pulled out an orb and placed it on the ground, activating it. Isabel and Alex walked into the room just in time to see a man holding a struggling Liz disappear into the orb light. After they had left, the orb disappeared too. “What the hell?” Alex asked running to the spot that Liz was just moments before. “This is not good, this is not good at all,” Isabel repeated. “Ok, I vote we do a little research and see if we can find out anything. Um, I think that maybe it would be a good idea to try and locate Maria now,” Alex said. “I agree, the only question now is how in the hell do we do that?” *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* “Welcome to Dezny Station sir,” Brig Gen Cullers said. “Thank you,” Max said shaking his hand. “This is Colonel Michael Guerin, my vice-commander,” Max motioned to Michael. “Welcome,” Gen Cullers said again, “and this is my vice-commander Colonel Zilt Ortin.” Michael shook both their hands. “Well, I believe that we have a battle to strategize and a war to win, am I correct?” Max asked sounding as confident as ever. “I believe you are General,” Colonel Ortin said. The small group moved into a conference room and sat down. A large screen appeared in front of each of them. On it was a map of the galaxy that they were currently in several marks to show where enemy territories were. “How many battles have you had here?” Max asked. “We were transferred here two weeks ago. They initiate a battle almost every night, but usually they are not too intense and we don’t have any casualties or damage. For the first week and a half, we were not doing so well during these mini-battles, if you will. But, recently we required a new troop, Capt Smith. Wonderful fighter. Since then, we have won every battle,” Colonel Ortin reported. “Yes, General Lemark mentioned this Capt Smith. Sounds like a great soldier,” Max said. “So, do we know any weaknesses?” Michael asked trying to get back to the problem at hand. “There is only one and we do not know how to utilize it. The Freysians can not think for themselves. If their leader’s presence is lost, they are lost. They begin to panic and become confused. They are like lemmings, following to the end. Our only problem is how to get rid of this presence.” “Well, that’s easy, kill him,” Michael said. “We know that, but it’s harder than that. He is sealed in a room that is heavily guarded by soldiers, computerized security systems and shields. It is so guarded in fact, that we don’t know where in the station it is located.” “So, you blow up the whole station.” “We can’t. The systems they use here are nothing like the other stations. It is very advanced and no one has been able to break it so far. To get through the force field is impossible. Our life presence is obviously different than theirs. And they have used that to their advantage. Anytime any one of us try to go through the field, it’s goodbye for us. The force field is computed to kill anything with our presence signature.” “Whoa, sounds complicated,” Max said. “Why don’t we take a break and we can talk about this again tomorrow?” Max and Michael walked back to their quarters with their minds working overtime. This was a lot of information to process and they had no clue how to make it work. “General Evans!” a soldier came running up to Max and saluted him. Max returned the salute. “Can I help you?” “Yes sir, we just got a transmission from the Freysian leader. He wanted to speak to you, but refused to wait while we got you. He left a message for us to give to you. We have the recording, we feel that you should see it.” Max looked at Michael strangely and then they both followed the Sergeant to the communications room. The screen came up and the Freysian leader appeared on it. “I would like for you to relay a little message to my good friend Maxwell,” General Kirnz sneared, “let him know that Elizabeth is wonderfully delicious. I’m eating dinner now, but I can’t wait to get to dessert.”  The view was changed and on the screen was Liz tied up to a bed. “Hey at least I have enough decency to leave her clothes on,” the Freysian leader said, “at least for now. Tootaloo.” Max’s face was red with anger and his fists were balled tight. “Max, calm down, he is trying to fluster you. You have to take control, we will get her back.” “Michael, if he touches her, so help me God, he will die a slow and painful death and I will make sure of it.” *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* Maria was lying down in the room she was staying in. She sure did miss everyone. She looked out her window at the stars. She thought about going back to Alex, Isabel, and Liz many times. But, she knew that she couldn’t. She was on a mission now and she would complete it. She was afraid to fall asleep. Her dreams were too terrible. They kept her awake most of the night. She fell asleep, only to be awoken again by her alarm the next morning. TBC

Part 4