Yoeke howled in protest. "Noooo! Not again. Blessed ancients why me?"

"Munaci's orders," Cratus said. "I offered, but he wants you to stay with Hal and help Widhbo."

"No one can help Widhbo. Surviving Widhbo is the trick."

"Sorry, Yoeke, Colonel's orders," Hal said. "You'll be the officer in charge now. Of course we'll have to get inside Widhbo's magiton body after we close in on the demon. Then Widhbo will teleport us all back to the Moz Lidule. Cozy huh?"

"Oh Hal. You don't understand. Widhbo nearly killed me the last time I was in there. He has an unfair advantage."

The sky glowed red as the Sagorian ship warped out of orbit and left.

"Come on. It's time to go. We'll be using the BakoNaat command center over next to the industrial complex. The BakoNaat are pulling out now too.

A whole fleet of BakoNaat turned the sky blood red as they left, gravity waves pulsing through the Lady Devora. Munaci came on the bridge.

"What are you rwo still doing here? Cratus, prepare to warp as soon as they leave," Munaci ordered.

"Please, you can't abandon me to this. It's punishment, isn't it? For losing the fight to Widhbo. I'll pay you back whatever you lost in betting, Colonel. Anything... "

"Stop your infernal whining, Sergeant, and disembark from this vessel immediately." Munaci snapped back.

"Come on, Yoeke." Hal said. "It'll be a lot more fun than riding with Munaci."

Widhbo teleported to the bridge. "Shield's up, Colonel. Is this my crew?"

"No. It is not your crew. Hal is our technical assistant and Yoeke's the commanding officer. You are to follow Sergeant Yoeke's orders to the last letter," Munaci said. "Do you understand?"

"Oh, Colonel, if I could just go back to my dimension, I'd leave you with this demon. But you can count on me, even though I won't gain a thing for all my trouble. A rank would be nice, but I understand it's not customary for aliens to have one. Perhaps Lord Anakron will see fit to reward me."

"We'll discuss your reward later."

"Please, let's just go and get this over with," Yoeke said.

"Do you want to come inside and teleport with me?" Widhbo asked.

"No. I won't be getting in there until I absolutely have to," Yoeke said. "When I can see the demon's eyes staring back at me, I'll consider it. I may decide just to go down with the planetoid. I'll get promoted to captain posthumously if I die in the line of duty. A pity you can't get promoted since you have no rank, Widhbo. I'm sure you'll get a nice pat on the back if you succeed or some honorable mention at the next council meeting if you don't make it."

"Come on Yoeke. We can take the transport," Hal said. "I mean, lead the way, Sergeant."

* * *

"Looks like they left the lights on for us," Hal said as he climbed up in one of the BakoNaat chairs. The chairs in the navigation station were more like padded stools, twice the diameter of those on the Lady Devora with a raised edge in back and a bar across the front for resting whatever sort of appendage one might have. "I'm hating these chairs already. No lumbar support," Hal complained.

"I like them just fine. They're a universal fit," Yoeke said jumping up on the one next to Hal.

"Yeah, one size fits nobody," Hal said. "Look at the controls. Simply press your paw, nose, toe, finger or tongue here. They're all toggle switches."

"Works for me," Yoeke said. "Where's Widhbo? Oh, why do I ask? I should be thanking the gods he's not here yet. Maybe he got his coordinates mixed up and teleported to another sector."

"No such luck, Yoeke," Widhbo appeared in a niche on the console. "We're all in for a treat. I just ran across Admiral Bethon in the galley."

"That's not funny, Widhbo," Hal said almost falling off his perch.

"It wasn't a joke, Hal."

"Bethon's still here? Why didn't he leave with the BakoNaat and Etaine?"

"I didn't speak with him. I put up my shield before he spotted me and left," Widhbo said. "I just love slipping around under everyone's noses."

"What were you doing in the galley?" Yoeke asked. "You can't eat anything while you're in your Magiton body."

"I can if I pull it in with me. I wanted to see what BakoNaat call food."

"I'm afraid to ask," Hal said.

"Don't. It's disgusting. Of course, the Admiral was making a big plate of the stuff. He's a reptile himself you know."

"Kind of hard to forget," Hal said, recalling how Bethon had picked him up with one claw and rent his vest.

"In any event, Yoeke, I guess that means you're not the officer in charge anymore," Widhbo said.

"Marvelous. I'll just break open some wine and nap through this little adventure."

"Fine with me," Widhbo retorted.

"Get ready guys, here he comes." Hal could hear Bethon coming down the hall. He could feel the weight of heavy footsteps transmitting through the platform.

Bethon entered the room in his voldarkan form.

Yoeke turned and sat up straight in his chair. "Admiral Bethon, we weren't expecting you, Sir."

"At ease, Sergeant. I wasn't expecting to stay, but Etaine insisted."

"Whatever for?" Hal asked.

"Why does Etaine do anything. Whatever idea strikes her at the moment," Bethon replied.

"I can't see any purpose in your being here," Hal said. "It's an unnecessary risk."

"I'm here to keep Etaine company. She wanted to observe our attack in person."

"You can't let her stay here, that's insane." Hal protested.

"There won't be much to see really," Widhbo said. "The guidance system will propel us straight for our target. The BakoNaat have developed a very sensitive device which detects gravitational pull from nearby objects of sufficient size to cause a space-time distortion, which our demon most certainly will. I just have to make minor adjustments to sight in on the demon's location. When things start to get exciting, we have to bale. I plan to pull Hal and Yoeke inside my magiton body and teleport back to the Moz Lidule. What's your exit strategy, Admiral?"

"We'll have to hitch a ride with you, Widhbo. Is that too much trouble?" Bethon asked tilting his head to one side,the smirk on his face framed by the voldarkan tusks. It was a bone chilling reminder of his true nature, evoking a groan from Hal.

"Not if you'll grant me one little favor," Widhbo said.

"And what would that be?"

"I want a rank, that's all," Widhbo replied.

"That's not protocol, Admiral," Yoeke complained. "I've explained it to him over and again."

"None of this is in the book, Yoeke," Bethon said. "If you perform well on this mission, Widhbo, I'll grant you a rank."

Yoeke looked up in disbelief, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and a paw dangling with a forgotten purpose.

"Yes! What will it be? Tell me," Widhbo insisted. "You must tell me."

"Tor Galaxy Star Captain."

"Huh... what? I've never heard of such any such rank," Yoeke said with a long sigh.

"It didn't exist until now. I created it just for Widhbo," Bethon said.

"That's a higher rank than Sergeant. That's all you need to know, Yoeke."

* * *

Etaine watched from the window of the command center on the planetoid. Bethon moved closer and placed a scaly voldarkan forelimb around her slim waist in a possessive embrace. "There's nothing more you can do, my dear. If this fails, we'll simply fall back and try another approach."

"You underestimate my power, darling. You always have," Etaine replied enjoying his attention and caressing his cheek.

"I admit I didn't see you full potential immediately, but it's not your responsibility to fix this. Let our military alliance deal with it."

"You're military alliance at present boils down to an erratic alien, an inexperienced human and a drunken garwolven. Hardly a sight to inspire confidence."

"They have their limitations, but we've thrown enough power into this planetoid to do the job. It's practically on automatic pilot from here on in."

"It won't work," Etaine stated flatly.

"You don't know that."

"I have reason to believe it won't," she said. "I've had visions of this very day. It doesn't end well."

“You shouldn't trust in fanciful daydreams, Etaine," Bethon said. "Pure nonsense and not becoming of a queen.”

“Don’t mock mem Bethon. The magi have had them too.”

“I don’t want you to see you get hurt chasing after some false prophesy," Bethon said and held her close to his voldarkan body.

Etaine faced him and drew her hand across the scales which plated his shoulder. “I live for this sort of thing. If you don’t want to hurt me, avoid things like Valorah in the future.”

“Why won’t you send her back then?" Bethon asked. "I told you it was all a mistake.”

“Why do you suppose?”

“I have no idea. To interrogate her about our relationship?” Bethon asked, his eyes betrayed his anger.

“I don’t need to. I know exactly what sort of relationship you had.”

“If you find her so upsetting, then why keep her?”

“I thought Kage would find her to be a pleasant diversion while I was spending time with you.” Etaine said and smiled. "It you don't return to your human form soon; I must change to compliment this ugly voldarkan I see before me."

“Are you testing Kage? To see if he’ll cheat on you?” Bethon asked. He morphed back into his human form before she could make good on her threat.

"No. I know he will," Etaine said with a flick of her forked tongue. "All men do. At least now I'll know who it is and how many there are."

"That's hardly fair Etaine. Kage is loyal and I would never have cheated on you if you hadn't left me in that way."

"Three girls. Really you expect me to believe... Oh, look. We're moving." Etaine said and went back to the viewing port.

The rockets fired so smoothly they hadn't felt the initial launch. Now fiery blasts from the exhausts could be seen surrounding them in the early twilight. The planetoid was being powered toward its destination. The acceleration was imperceptible. Bethon glanced over the instruments and saw the relative speed changing. So far so good. But they were heading toward a powerful enemy. His best simulator programs had not been able provide a reliable strategy or give reproducible odds. He dared not think of the consequences should their plan fail. The fact that Etaine was certain it would fail had caused even more misgivings. How could she remain so calm in the face of total annihilation?