Benny Holm-Hansen woke up with a jolt at the sound of the phone ringing. His wife Anny next to him pushed him with an elbow and mumbled something unintelligible. Untangling himself from the duvet, he stumbled over to the communications panel on the wall. Pushing the button angrily he was prepared to curse out the person on the other end but stopped himself when he saw his grandson laid out on a stretcher, surrounded by medical personnel trying desperately to close up some of the larger wounds on his shoulders and chest.

"EIRIK!!" He exclaimed loud enough to wake his wife fully who turned over, and, as her eyes landed on the screen of her wounded grandson, she screamed.

"SILENCE!!!" The voice of the colonel cut through the scream and silenced her immediately.

"Granddad," Came Eiriks voice, groggy from pain medication. "The duel was a trap. They were waiting to ambush us. We showed them through. You don't fuck with a Terran without consequence."

"Eirik, what is this about?? Get to the point." Benny's voice was sharp and professional. He knew this call was not for nothing and it had to be important for Eirik to make it under these conditions.

"The Kloxna might declare war on the Terran government. Signe should have sent you some video recordings during the call. They contain the full, unedited video footage of the duel and my opponent's betrayal, including her threat of war upon our species. You have the power to prepare the defenses we need. Protect Terra. Protect our home!! And granddad. She made a promise to wipe my bloodline from the universe."

After the last sentence, one of the doctors cut off the call, but Eirik's last words were ringing in Benny's head. With a grimace, he reached out to start making the calls needed to prepare the government for a possible invasion scenario from the Kloxna empire. "They can try to wipe out our bloodline. Try and fail!!!" He thought to himself as the ring tone started up.

__________________________

After the Captain had been secured, the Terran troops had made a fighting withdrawal. A few had light wounds, but a single man had been too eager and overextended, resulting in him getting swarmed. He was dead before the team could get through the small horde of Kloxna guards.

They still managed to retrieve his corpse and it was quickly transported to the ship's morgue.

After Eirik had made his call and was being hauled away by Knud and his team, Las'Tai found herself with precious little to do once again. So, she decided to go to the ship's infirmary and wait with the command staff. The hours dragged on as they sat in silence, waiting for something, anything, to happen.

Suddenly, the door to the infirmary burst open and a haunted-looking Knud tumbled out and claimed a space on the floor by sliding down the wall to a sitting position. His face gaunt with fatigue, he held his open hand out towards Jesper and said, "Smoke".

Jesper fumbled with a pocket for a moment then held out a cigarette a little out of reach. "The Captain?" He inquired.

"Will live" Knud responded and received the cigarette along with a lighter. After lighting it and inhaling deeply, he continued, "He will wake up in roughly 16 hours. I suggest we all get some rest before that happens. Which reminds me.." He fixed Jeanette with an icy glare. "I thought we had discussed the Captain using the concentrate of Red Fly Agaric. You know how much it devastates the body!! It's a miracle I managed to pull him back to life. I had to revive the poor fuck twice! TWICE!!" His last word was shouted in her direction but Jeanette seemed unaffected.

"He demanded I have it ready. How could I defy him? The runes favor him, despite his constant lamenting about the gods. Not only did he sense the ambush and prepare accordingly. He also managed to hold himself in check until that Kloxna was wounded and exhausted. I have yet to experience him being severely wrong. Admittedly, he underestimated the size of the ambush, But almost everyone made it out alive. Except for that poor boy.."

"Don't change the subject!! You are as insane as he is sometimes!" Knud was getting red in the face as he was about to resume his tirade, but Jeanette cut him off. "Knud, your blood pressure."

Groaning in frustration, Knud pulled a pill bottle from his lab coat and swallowed a pill. "I'm going to bed. See you all in the morning." With that, he left them. The rest of them slowly trickled away to do their own thing. Secure in the knowledge that both her mother and Eirik were alive, Las'Tai decided to treat herself to the jacuzzi.

The warm waters were an exquisite experience. That Terrans had thought of building such things and added minerals to the water through bath salts and special filters, to a Kloxna, it was a wonder of the world. Not many knew that Kloxna scales changed when subjected to such water for extended periods. They became lighter in color, became shiny, and most importantly, became much harder. This didn't offer much in terms of offense, but In terms of defense, it was a major boon.

Sinking into the warm waters she finally relaxed for the first time since the duel had been announced.

___________________________

Benny looked up from his morning coffee at the sound of a message ticking in. It only contained 2 words. "He'll live"

"Bless that man," Benny thought to himself. Planting the doctor in his grandson's crew had not been an easy task, but it had paid off plenty of times at this point. He rose from his seat and stretched his tired body. Last night's call from Eirik had robbed him of any chance of sleep. He walked out of his house and headed towards that of his daughter. She needed to know what had happened. "Woe unto the being that had caused harm to Eirik when his mother found out. The kid did not get his rage from strangers." He thought as he prepared himself for what was to come.

___________________________

Eirik was dreaming. He was prowling through the darkness, weaving his way through some unknown area, hunting for something, but every time he got close, his prey moved further away or he was interrupted by shadows attacking him until the prey escaped. The growing frustration eventually lead him to rage and he charged forward blindly, trying to find ANYTHING to kill. But no matter how fast or far he ran, he could catch nothing. Eventually, the constant cycle of rage, hunt, frustration, rage, broke when his dream faded to black and he slowly opened his eyes,