Just a very short first part but I thought I'd post it anyway because it has a nice end point to it.
UPDATE:
Finished below ++++++
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The taut features, and penetrating gaze of the third eye only added to the Paranid's visage of ferocity while the combat armour simply focussed their minds that he was not here to engage in idle chat. He approached them with slow yet powerful strides, while Val and Tagor split up and clumsily moved in opposite directions. Val cursed the fact that they were still wearing their space suits, limiting mobility considerably. The tall warrior waved his gun. Not getting any reaction he pointed it towards Tagor. When still neither of the two stopped in their motion he pulled the trigger.
Val glimpsed Tagor's stunned expression when his body took the impact of the invisable energy pulse. With a sickening thud his body lurched sideways into the wall, the helmet cracking loudly against the wall before he fell face forward, unconscious, against the deck.
“Arox? I thought weapons weren't functional on the bridge?” Val shouted into her comms unit, eyes wide open.
“I did not consider the possibility that he had modified his rifle, sorry.”
“Great, my chances are improving by the mizura.”
The Paranid turned his attention towards Val. She reached the control panel and pounded on the keypad, hoping to find a quick listing for the environmental control.
“Could do with a little help here, Arox. Deactivate environmental control. Now.”
She turned around and looked straight at the impressive stature of the Paranid. Without thinking she activated the suit jets to get out of reach of his long extremities. Accidentally directing more energy to the left thrusters she shot spiralling into the Paranid, tossing him a few metres back and to the floor. The crunching sound on impact signalled the demise of her oxygen pack and was accompanied by a warning light on her wrist computer. Val cursed while the Paranid slowly rose to his feet.
Val tried to peel herself as quickly out of the damage suit as she could. The impact must have hurt the Paranid, as he moved slightly unsteady and slowly enough for Val to finish her task. In a hunched position Val waited for his next move. She would not have much of a chance, that much she knew. But perhaps he’d make a mistake that allowed her to get out of this situation alive. A kingdom for a weapon. Turning off gravity or life support in general was no longer an option. Now what?
For several long sezuras the two of them just looked at each other.
“Now what? Do I have to hurt you properly or are you going to surrender?”
The tall Paranid rose to full height and let out a laughter that had a close resemblance of rolling thunder then one of his multi-jointed extremities reached out for her.
Val instinctively ducked and glided to the side but her opponent’s motion was stopped by the buzzing sound of a force field. He tried to move back but no avail. Checking all directions the Paranid quickly found out just how confined a space he was in. Calling a number of override codes in Qarua, the old Paranid language of the High Priests, he tried to deactivate the force field. Arox responded in the same language and soon he conceded and his entire posture reflected his frame of mind. A certain victory had turned into a great failure. How could that happen?
Noticing the Paranid’s futile attempts and finally his resignation, Val relaxed and started moving around him towards Tagor who still didn’t move,
“Well thanks for that. You could have told me there are force fields in this room. I am sure Tagor would have appreciated that, too. How is he doing?” She addressed Arox kneeling down next to Tagor.
“You never asked. All you were concerned about were ways to get out. So I thought I’d see how courageous you really are with odds like these. Tagor has a few bruises and will have a bit of a headache but no other injuries.”
“Thanks for your confidence, I hope I didn’t do too badly.”
“Your action was quite surprising but at the same time also very stupid. How much of a chance did you think you’d have? In fact, I was almost curious to see how you were going to ‘hurt him properly’.”
“Who implied that I was thinking at the time? You haven’t seen me in my best days!” Val said with a smile, throwing herself into an attack pose she had seen in a pit fight a few jazuras ago. “If you'd turned off the environmental controls, like I asked, then he'd be breathing vacuum. Or do you want me to die here?”
“I have the distinct feeling, if you excuse term, that you do not wish this Paranid dead.”
“Why not?” Val looked quizzically at the tall alien. “Who are you and what are you doing on this station?”
Slowly removing his helmet, the Paranid looked at her.
Val took a step back. “Croma? How did you get here? And where the heck have you been all that time? I thought they hunted you down!”
"By the holy three dimensions. You are alive!" The Paranid moved towards her, raising his arms but was again stopped by the force field.
"Yes I am, despite the best efforts of my friends," she responded with a grin.
"I thought you were killed in the Dragonfire incident."
"I heard those rumours too, but that's another story. What are you doing here?"
"I stayed in outer regions for a few jazuras, then worked in southern Paranid sectors and was on my way to New Income when I found this station. My mistake to get closer look, computer went mad and I had to shoot it. Lost flight control and ejected before ship crashed into asteroid."
"How long have you been here?"
"Two tazuras, getting on the station no problem, but worried at first that computer affected just like ship and did not trust to turn on."
"No computers, no life support and only half a stazura of O2. A bad combination, I guess you took the chance."
"No, life support come on itself. Made bad smell in suit, needed to get out."
Val had listened quietly. “I think you can lower the shield, Arox.” With these words she moved fast towards the Paranid to hug him, only to be thrown back.
Bzzzz.
Slightly disoriented Val got up again. “You …”
“Sorry, I just could not resist the temptation.”
“Sod this temptation. I will have to remove a few lines of code from a number of your subroutines, if you keep going at this rate.” Val sulked.
Then she moved carefully towards Cromancketal. When there was no energy field stopping here, she flung her arms around his tall bony stature. “It is great to see you again. I already thought I had lost my family yet again.” A sole tear ran down her cheek.
Cromancketal carefully returned the embrace. He was no less moved. Val had always been like the daughter he never had after his wife died in childbirth many jazuras ago. This lively Argon person had brought so much light into his monotonous life. Not knowing how to deal with his wife’s death, he had resigned from the Paranid High Council and travelled anonymously through the universe until finally settling down on Trikala, the largest planet in Thuruk’s Beard, which was when he took over custody of the young woman he now held in his arms.
After a few long sezuras of silence Tagor started to move. Val walked over to him and helped him to get on his feet. “You should get out of your suit, life support is stable.”
Tagor took off his head and gave her a grin. “In front of an audience?”
“I can see you didn’t take major damage, good.”
“Oh, if you volunteer to be my nurse, I could find some injuries.”
“Let me introduce you to Cromancketal, he is the one who raised me.” She continued, pointing towards the tall Paranid who approached them slowly. Then Val continued. “And I know that he is extremely good at treating injuries. So he’ll be your doctor and nurse.”
Cromancketal bowed politely, a gesture that Tagor hesitantly offered in return.
“So what bring you here? Still run from Split or other clan?”
“Our jumpdrive misfired, instead of Lucky Planets we ended up here, I guess the control unit got fried by some less than friendly people. Whatever messed up your ship did the same to us, only I managed to fix it rather than resorting to extreme measures.”
“Ah yes, you always good with computers. Friend Sor t’Nkr always reported proudly.”
“Well, I can’t quite take all credit for it. Sor’s last masterpiece was an AI that is beyond everything else in the Universe, I believe. We did the job together.”
“Praise is gratefully recorded and logged. Playback reminder tag for nighttime subliminal messaging activated. Please go on.” Arox interjected.
“Hmmm, AI very strange sense of humour has. Perhaps you reprogram it to just comply to orders.”
Val laughed. Arox’ comment had to sound even more strange to a Paranid than to people of the other races. With their pride and self-centredness an AI that could properly interact was certainly the last thing they’d develop.
“Oh no, she is just right. Brightens up the boring long stazuras in space.”
“You is young friend of yours? Face familiar somehow.”
“Tagor is, well, ex-A.S.S. Somehow his cover got blown which, as you can image, made him seriously unpopular. And me being me, unable to stand back and watch a fight thought I would jump in to help. The trouble is I think I chose the wrong side and now I’m stuck with him. Actually it’s worse than that, he’s the son of Ban Danna and the Service think he’s K.I.S.”
“Son of Ban. That is how look familiar. You not look like father but I seen you at opening ceremony of this station. Security officer pointed out Argon that left early. I follow, hence not dead.”
“So you owe me your life then?” Tagor grinned.
“Not owe thing. Lucky coincidence only.”
“Right boys. Talking about Luck, something we’ve had preciously little of recently, we need to fire the burners and leave some vapour. But first, Crom you stink, Tagor you’re not much better and I need a shower. Anyone suggesting we all go at the same time had better think about spaceflies! And I am sure Ban Danna is desperately waiting for the data he requested. Arox, how are you getting on?”
“It will still take quite some time. All major functions are under my control and I have established security measures to ensure it remains like that. My program can run now independently, in fact, it has done so for the past 20 mizuras. In the meantime I have established a relay link via the South gate that should allow us to receive progress updates.”
“Busy little bee. Excellent, so let’s get going.” The three of them made their way to the hangar, squeezed themselves into the small cockpit of the scout ship and left the station.
++++++
“Welcome to my cosy home. You can take residence in one of the apartments over there; your choice. Clean yourself up and pop over once you are done.”
While Cromancketal made himself comfortable in his new home, Tagor and Val relayed the gathered information of the Khaak to Ban Danna. A comparison to Val’s first visit indicated a slight increase in the number ships present, among them two more of the large class, assumed to be destroyers or carriers, perhaps a combination of both. This was indeed bad news, as it meant that there had to be more Khaak sectors close by. Val left further investigation to Ban Danna who had confirmed that the Goners appeared to be close to developing a modified jumpdrive that could jump to certain coordinates, making it possible to jump ships into the Khaak sector, be it for scouting or combat. Apparently a Boron corvette had already been equipped with a prototype.
“Right, what next?” Val thought aloud, after closing the communication to the admiral.
Tagor pondered for a short moment, and then responded, “Perhaps it is time to decide what to do with your prisoners.”
“Prisoners? Oh right, these chaps are still in our improvised detention room. What do you reckon we should do with them? Let them go? Hand them over to the authorities?”
“Well, you are in need of good pilots, if you can persuade them to work for you rather than to try to kill you, you’d have a formidable squad at your disposal.”
“The thought crossed my mind. I will, however, have to spend some time writing some code that prevents them from firing at friendly targets, i.e. us. Shouldn’t be too difficult. They could guard Red Glow and if Croma feels like it, he could be in charge of the station. I shall ask him when he is done cleaning himself up. Let’s see what’s on the news.”
The President’s End incident was still topic worth of headlines. By the sound of it, Argon and Boron patrols had managed to clear the sector of any Khaak presence. However, so far nobody appeared inclined to build new stations.
“How safe do you reckon it’ll be to build a station in that sector?”
“If you have the means to guard it, reasonably. But looking at the destruction these bugs have caused, I’d say you are currently inadequately equipped. The question you need to raise is, why did the Khaak clear the sector and then leave? They could have easily taken position there. Sure, it wouldn’t be too easy to hold but if not to get a foot into our sectors, why did they come for a visit in the first place?”
“Perhaps they were just probing our strengths and weaknesses? Would be interesting to see a battle analysis of the massacre.”
“Comparing our exposure to this species and the battle data available from the President’s End event,” Arox entered the conversation “only our heavy fighters and scout ships are able to stand their grounds in a one to one combat situation. Medium fighters as well as capital ships have a very hard stance. I have calculated a number of tactics that could lead to a victory in a capital ship fight but generally speaking, they are superior. However, all these calculations are purely theoretical because we have not had a single instance when a Khaak ship appeared alone. They travel in groups, making a fight hard.”
The door opened and Cromancketal entered the room. The plain white cloth that he had artistically wrapped around his impressive stature created an aura of noblesse around his appearance. He gave a slight and respectful bow that Val and Tagor returned.
“What stand there with wide open eyes? You never have seen Paranid warrior wrapped in bed sheet?”
“Well, to be completely honest, no.” Tagor chuckled. “I have to admit, though, I have never seen anybody who can carry off a bed sheet like you do.”
Val burst out laughing. “Sorry, you really look great, just don’t ever tell anybody again you are wearing a sheet.”
“So what you next plan to do?”
“Haven’t decided yet. What are your plans? You are most welcome to stay here with us but I presume you had a reason for coming back to the core sectors?”
“Paranid on way to Rhonkar with message but no ship no more. So difficult to get there. You can give lift? After that no plans, can stay with you.”
“I am sure we can get you to Rhonkar, no sweat.”
“Paranid not sweat.”
“Me neither, I perspire, if anything.” Val laughed. “Is it very urgent or can we get some sleep first?”
“You can sleep while I deliver message. Be back when you wake up.”
“Sounds like a plan. Arox, can you take Croma in the corvette to his destination?”
“Of course I can.”
“Hmm, no doubt you can, would you please?”
“Departure at your leisure, oh warrior in bed sheet.”
Cromancketal looked perplexed while Val and Tagor had a broad grin on their faces. He then turned around and headed for the door muttering in Qarua.
Val’s grin grew even wider. “Energise.” Suddenly the tall stature of the Paranid vanished in a light blue haze, as Arox transported him aboard the Jaguar. “Oh, he is so cute, isn’t he?” She asked Tagor.
“Not sure if you still say that when he seeks revenge.”
“He won’t, Croma absolutely adores me. I always used to try to get him to lose his temper but never succeeded. He is amazing.”
“Amazing is indeed the correct description for his patience. I cannot imagine how he can’t get annoyed with you at times.”
“Shush Arox, nobody asked you. Bad girl.”
Tagor had to smile. No doubt, Arox was correct, it’d take a lot of patience not to lose it sometimes around her. Yet, he could also understand Croma, Val was adorable.
*
The sleek silhouette of the Dragon class corvette was hardly visible against the dark backdrop of the sector. Although being the preferred sector defence ships, there was still only a small number of them to be seen. The black of this one set it apart from the usually silver livery.
“Scan ship for life signs.”
“No life sign onboard, my lord.”
“No life signs? Who in his clear mind leaves a ship without crew in space? We will send them a message they shall not forget. Charge weapons and ready three Hornet missiles.”
After a few sezuras the weapons officer reported back. “Weapons charging and missiles ready for launch.”
Bring ship closer to target, but do it in a non-suspicious way.”
The corvette approached its target in a gently arching trajectory. A self-confident grin circled the lips of the captain. Destroying that ship would make an impression on his enemies, and not only a financial one.
“My lord.”
“What does he want?” The tone of his voice reflected his annoyance. Why could subordinates not simply do what they were told and shut up?
“There was an energy spike onboard the other ship.”
“Like what?”
“I am not certain, somehow I cannot get a clear reading. It could be starting engines or charging weapons for all we know.”
“He should not waste any more time then. Battle stations. Open fire and launch missiles.”
His command was music in their ears. Revenge at last. Every single member of the crew had been waiting for this moment. And now the opportunity was given, presented on a golden platter.
The corvette turned slightly to bring the target into the line of fire of the turrets, then it stopped. A moment later green plasma streaked out.
“Launch missiles!”
Just when the first plasma bolts were about to hit the target, it moved. Like pushed from an invisible had, the ship strafed down. In quick succession it launched three missiles that locked on to the approaching Hornets. Three large explosions light up space between the two ships.
“Shields at 40%! Target moving.”
The surprise attack had backfired, quite literally. Beads of sweat formed at the captain’s forehead. Not again. This time he would not let them get away.
An unequal battle commenced. Although both ships were Split corvettes, it soon showed that they had underestimated their opponent; dramatically underestimated. Whoever piloted the other ship appeared to know every single one of their moves. After the initial shots from the turrets, no other chance presented itself to rake that ship with plasma. On the contrary, it managed to regularly bring its own turrets into a firing position.
“Shields at 23%. Starboard missile tube malfunctioning after direct hit.”
“Switch to Massdriver for front mount. Fire every missile we have.”
Desperate times require desperate measures. Firing all missiles would do nothing but buy them time, perhaps an opportunity to get some shots in. But in the end, chances would not vastly increase. A Dragon corvette could outrun all missiles that could do it some damage.
It came worse. With unbelievable precision the turrets pick off every single missile launched against that ship. In less than a mizura they were all gone and again his ship was taking a beating.
“My lord, we cannot sustain this for any longer.” Ra t’Knk looked around. Fear was the main expression on the faces of his men. He had failed them again, betrayed by his own self-confidence, the apparent chance to deal a major blow. Yet again he had underestimated his opponent. What should he …
Cant wait for more. 
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