Looking about the bridge, he took inventory of the situation. Of the 6 officers and crew aboard the bridge, at least four were still alive. A quick glimpse of the internal sensors showed that, though the ships hull was on the verge of collapsing, both weapons and engines were available. He could maneuver and fight, but for how long?

"Captain Grogan", came a familiar voice from the navigation station,"enemy vessel has also sustained heavy damage but is holding off for the time being." The voice belonged to Groogash Kar'Chudka, Grogan's longtime partner and ally. There was no one he'd rather have at his side in a fight than the big, burly, yazirian. "Captain, they're just sitting there, probably hurt worse than us, let's finish this!"

Grogan quickly replayed the senario in his mind. They had been "dead-heading" (without cargo), back to Clarion station after a quite profitable run to Truane's Star. The crew had been looking forward to relaxing back on the station before they set out again. Then , while preparing to void jump through an uninhabited system on their way back to White Light, they had been attacked. The ship had appeared on all scanners as a harmless light freighter. It wasn't until it had come into visual range that the Talon's crew had dicovered their peril. A sinister looking, but unfamiliar, black ship. It had few running lights and was difficult to see in the blackness of space. But why would it attack an unloaded ship? If they were pirates they had the sophisticated detecting equiptment that would've told them the value of their target. The enemy's ship was small for a combat vessel, but still slightly larger than the Talon. It had attacked visciuosly, with little regard for the damage it was taking as it hamered his ship. The two ships had just passed each other , exchanging a volley of heavy weapons fire. Groo had brought the ship about, expecting the enemy to do the same. Instead, the other ship had simply continued on, stopping just inside visual range before entering a geosynchronous orbit around a small moon. And there it waited, seeming to taunt Grogan into re-engaging.

"Captain!! what the hell are you waiting for?! " Groo demanded in Gnarsh, a particularly slang form of yazirian. Groo would never question him openly in front of the rest of the human bridge crew.

"Sensor's! long range sweep! any contacts?", he glanced at Mcfarlane, his newest crewman, for a report, "Don't just sit there man, move his body and man his station!" Uneasily McFarlane did as he was told.

"N-no Captain, nothing....I ... wait!! Three contacts bearing 145 mark 7. Same vector and identification tags as before; light freighter's - unarmed."

"Unarmed my ass!, Groo, how long to re-plot our jump?"

"I have most of the calculations done, but another 20 minutes at least"

The two excanged uneasy glances. Knowing they'd never withstand the imminent attack, they were left with only one other option.

"Can we survive?"

" I don't know"

"Sound alarm and do it"

"All hands! prepare for emergency void jump! secure all stations!." The computer's animated voiced intoned.

" McFarlane! How much time 'till new conatcts intercept? And Groo, how long till EVJ?"

McFarlane saw the knowing gleam in Grogash's eyes and groaned, "oh no!, you're not gonna...sorry , captain...3 minutes to intercept."

"2 minutes 35 second to EVJ", Groo said through a devilish grin.

"Fire all assault rockets and that last torpedo!" With that order, the deckplates heaved as inertial dampers struggled to keep the ship from rolling. Like fighters flying in formation, the rockets led the torp straight into the first enemy ship, striking it portside near it's engine. The black ship seemed to lurch forward, then caved in on itself, silently exploding in a white and orange flash.

"Now! punch it!"

Talon groaned with the strain that only suddenly activated jump engivas can bring. Then, silence They had entered the void, and were safe, for now. Grogan glanced at the smal console in front of his command station. He punched the button for engineering. The vid-comm did not show the face of Ck'thulu, his cantankerous, Vrusk engineer, as he expected, instead he saw only smoke and occaisionally, he heard someone shouting."Damn! Groo, get down ther and see what you can do"

Leaping from his chair, Groo paused long enough to grab an emergency kit from the storage locker on the bridge, then ran out the rear exit door of the bridge.

Rising groggily, Larson struggled to her feet. " what the hell was THAT?, and where are we?"

"Good question, or rather ,where will we be?" McFarlane wondered aloud,"Damn fool thing, if you ask me, just punching the engines and going without calculating first... why if I was in charge..."

"If you were in charge we'd all be long dead, now shut your hole, Weasel!", Larson shot back.

"Don't call me Weasel! you miserable..."

"That's enough, both of you", Grogan warned, then punching the vid-comm for the medical deck," Doctor, casualty report"

The screen flickered for a moment, then, the face of Frebo, the ships Dralasite surgeon appeared onscreen," It's bad Cap'n, but not as bad as it could have been.We lost four crewmen, and 2 are in need of a few days rest before they'll be back to active duty. Now if you'll excuse me...." The screen sputtered and then, with a signal buzz, Groogash appeared onscreen. Grogan knew right away t wasn't good news. "Captain, Ck'thulu says we're in it neck-deep. The void engines are frozen open at maximum power. We can't shut them down!!!!"

EPISODE 2

"Now listen, here Captain", clicked the old Vrusk engineer, " we've stopped the potential overload but I'm afraid the fission overlock interlay has frozen up. I have a team on it now, but It'll be another 10 minutes at least!"

"10 minutes! The longest Void jump on record is 32 seconds! Shut them down! I don't care how just do it!"

"It gets worse Captain", the Vrusk looked genuinely worried, something the captain had never seen before despite their many exploits together," In order to do this safely, We have to shut them down one at a time. Ordinarily, that's not a problem, but our dampers are just barely online and our port stabilizer is just about shot."

"Groo, give 'em a hand and report back to me when shutdown is complete."

"Aye, Captain"

Grogan slumped back in his command chair. As if things couldn't possibly gotten any worse, now this.

Back in engineering, Ckthulu and Groo worked feverishly to get the overlock free enough to permit shutdown. They, and the rest of the engineering crew rigged a small device that would enable them to shut the engines down with a series of small explosive charges. Of the ships 3 atomic fission engines, number two seemed to be the problem. It was running the hottest, as its intercooler had failed. Nevertheless, the engines had to be shut down in order, with precise timing, in order to slow the ship down enough to exit the void and not just slam to a stop faster than the dampers could handle.

Ck'thulu prepared to shut down engine one, and crewman Williams was up on makeshift rigging, high up near the ceiling on engine three. "Why does Groo always get the shit jobs?", the yazirian wondered aloud. Still, he resigned himself to his task and prepared to throw his switches when the signal came.

Over the comm, he heard Ck'thulu's clicking voice calmly announce that engine one was shutting down in 3..2..1. The ship kicked violently almost causing Groogash to lose his grip. He managed to hang on and shut his engine down. This time the ship shook so much so that it was hard to remain upright. Groo clung to the railing with his feet and shouted up to Williams ,"Now, human, now!" But something wasn't right, Williams was caught in his harness, the impact of the first two shutdowns had thrown him backwards and he hung by one ankle upside down. Engine three screamed, and the ship's deckplates felt as though they would crack under the strain.

Grabbing hold of the engine's support structure, Groo began climbing. He climbed near to the top of the engine just slightly above Williams, who was calling for his mother. He and Williams made eye contact for a brief second and the humans eyes grew wide with knowing surprise. WIth that Groo lept from the top of the engine housing, spreading his "wings" and gliding toward the shutoff control. He reached it with one hand and hit the proper switch. Finally, all that could be heard was the winding down of the engines, as they slowly halted. Groo scrambled up and freed Williams from his perch.

"Sorry, Mr. Kar'Cudka, I just couldn't hang on"

"Don't worry about it kid, we all make mistakes" Down below, he could hear Ck'thulu telling Captain Grogan that everything went "smoothly". Cranky ol' bug was probably angling for a pay raise. His comm buzzed. " Groo, get up here and figure out where the hell we are."

"On my way captain"

"Well, McFarlane, seems that circumstance has left you in the monitoring station, don't screw it up", Larson was saying just as Groo made it back up to the bridge," The captain wants a complete analysis of this system before we get moving again" It was clear from her tone that she just didn't think he could handle the job.

"Yes, sir", he said challengeingly, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Watch it, Weasel...."

"that's Wydell, dammit, and I told you not to call me that!"

"Oh, why don't you two get down to it already?",snarled Groogash,"honestly, I'll never understand these human mating rituals!!" Seeing that his astute observation had left them both speechless - Groo strolled into the captain's private quarter's, just off the bridge.

"Well, captain, what do you think?"

"You saw those stars, I don't recognize any of them. We're in a new system, beyond the edge of the Frontier. Fortunately, the computer is still up and running, though it'll take us several hours to figure out where we are;and, that's not all", Grogan turned his desk monitor to face Groogash, " All weapons and engines are offline, we have only short range sensors and maneuvering thrusters. There are at least 4 planets in this system, but we can't tell if there inhabited or not. I want you to get to your nav station, figure out where we are and how the hell we're gonna get back, assuming of course that Ck'thulu can get the engines up and running"

"Yes, sir, right away.", Groo said stiifly, and headed back toward the bridge.

Grogan was surprised at the yazirian's formality. He was used to it on the bridge, protocol and all that, but in private they usually shared the camradierie of old friends. Perhaps Groo was just worried and trying not to show it. He started to punch the vid-comm for engineering and thought better of it. Best to leave the bug alone, he works best that way. Instead he hit the comm signal for the bridge,"Larson, report to my quarter's immediately."

A few seconds later, she strolled in. He admired her lithe form. She looked like she would be the type that could please any man, but he knew that she covered it all with a tough front that was difficult , though he hoped not impossible, to get through. His attention did not escape her notice, though she pretended it did,"You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes, Shaunna, sit down. We've got a lot to do. Ck'thulu is got his team pretty much tied up with the engine repair and, he tells me we might not regain all weapons before the trip home. Meanwhle, external sensors are offline. I want you to take two or three of the bridge crew on an EVA. We know we took mostly hull damaage in the fight, and most of that was on the starboard side. See what you can do to repair any major damage. Use the hullbots if you have to, assuming they're not molten slag by now. And before you ask, yes, you have to take Weas...uh...Wydell with you."

She smirked at his slip-up but nevertheless was annoyed at having to take along that whining little runt. She just didn't trust him though she had to admit she was hard pressed to say why. She strolled onto the bridge; noticing several crewmen scattered about, soldering various circuitry and repairing bridge stations. McFarlane looked up as she approached and handed her his report on a portable vidpad.

"Best I could do. Our sensors are just now starting to realign themselves and it'll be another hour before they're fully focused. Though if you look at the outermost planet I think you'll see something interesting",Weasel said.

She took the pad and examined it,"What are they? asteroids?"

"As near as I can tell, they're ships. about 200 of them all grouped together in a high orbit. None of them have any power readings but there are 16 smaller objects that seem to move in between them in a semi- regular pattern. Can't figure out what they are without better sensors, but if they haven't noticed us yet, we're probably far enough out that they won't."

"Good work. now grab Paulson out from under that console", she pointed to where the communications officer was repairing a broken transceiver, " we're going EVA for hull repair."

"Terrific."

EPISODE 3

"Alright you two, lets get to work", ordered Shaunna," Paulson, take hullbot one and see how long it'll take to weld the plates of section nine. McFarlane, the secondary engine's support strut took several hits, asess the damage and see if the engine can handle the stress of another jump like the last one. It'll have to ,if we're ever going to get home." I will be working on the sensor array attached to the ship's underbelly. That way we can get a better look at those objects in orbit of the fourth planet. If they're ship's it'd be best to see 'em coming."

They nodded silently and set about their work. Shaunna examined the sensor array. From the looks of it, it hadn't taken a direct hit, but had been hit by debris from a nearby explosion. After about an hour's worth of spot welding and rewiring, the unit looked operational, though she'd have to check it out from the inside to be sure. The subtle vibration of her suits oxygen level warning system let her know that she had ten minutes of air left. She gathered her gear and began heading for the airlock. As she approached, she saw that McFarlane was entering and Paulson wasn't far behind.

Once they were inside and the airlock had been repressurized, they removed the bulky eva suits and headed back the bridge.

"The hullbot estimates that section nine will be patched and welded within the hour, sir", Paulson reported to Captain Grogan.

"And according to you, Larson, the sensor array is refocusing and will be up to full capacity once you reboot it's focusing computer. Well, McFarlane, you've been awfully quiet, what do you have to report?"

"We're not going anywhere, Captain", Weasel said the last word with just the slightest hint of sarcasm," The supprt strut I was sent to check out was structurally sound,but we've got another major problem. One of the ionizing energy conduits has been shattered, about a thirty foot long section has been vaporized, rendering that engine useless. Obviuosly , since we don't have that kind of repair material on hand, we're not going to be making any more jumps. I would suggest we concentrate on finding a suitable planet to settle down on."

"No, I don't think so, at least not yet. Let's get those sensors on a full sweep of the system, starting with that group of objects orbiting planet 4. Be discreet, I want to know if there's anyone here before we go announcing our presence.

"Yes, sir"

EPISODE 4

"Ships. Hundreds of 'em, I'd say." said McFarlane,"Negative life signs and power readings, except for those ...others"

"Other what?", demanded Groo, "have you any idea what they are?"

"My best guess is that they're some sort of robot sentry pods, 16 of them in all, they move slowly. I should be able to have some more data as soon as the sensors finish refocusing"

Ty and Groo walked away from the others and towards one corner of the bridge.They spoke in quiet tones.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yes, but what if whoever owns 'em catches wind of our little "salvage" plan? We're in no condition for another fight."

"So we'll take a shuttle, sneak around the guards, and "borrow" what we need. They''ll never know we were there."

"That's what you said at Theseus!"

"We won at Theseus , didn't we?"

"Grrrrr, that's not the point!"

Ty smiled at his old friend's growl. They had used the threat of the big Yazirian's "battle rage" countless times to avoid fights and even a few times to win them. He also knew he could count on Groo to get the task done.

"So, who's going?", this time it was Larsen just entering the bridge after a meal break,"I know something's up when he growls like that." She smiled warmly at the Captain, and made eye contact for just a moment too long.

Groo began," Well, we'll definitely need Ck'thulu, he'll know what's usable and what isn't, Shaunna, and myself."

"Oh no you don't ", grinned Ty, "you're not leaving me here, I'm going."

Larsen looked about the bridge and then ,quietly asked, "Well who's got command while we're away? Not Weas...uh ...not McFarlane?"

"I' may take risks but I'm not crazy. He wants this ship so bad he can taste it. Set the command path to lock out the engines if the ship head's for the edge of the system. I think Paulson will get a shot at the "Hot Seat", he said this last bit in a louder tone, causing Paulson so appear somewhat startled

McFarlane tried unsuccessfully to hide his embarrassment and dissapointment at not getting the temporary command. Leaving the ship in the hands of this inexperienced kid was intolerable. Grogan was a fool. He had survived this long only through sheer luck.But soon , very soon... McFarlane's thoughts drifted back to the bridge as the sensor panel beeped it's readiness. He glanced down at the datascreen,"Before you go, you may want to see this"

Larsen briefed Ck'thulu as they climbed into their space suits in the shuttle bay.

"Most of the ships are of unknown design, though a few do show at least some resemblance to known engine types, including , hopefully, ours. The sentry pods move in a timed pattern through the maze of ships; though they can move independently , if need be. We've seen one alter its course and reel in one of the ships that appeared to be drifting too near another. And we've seen one vaporize a small asteroid that got too close to one ships's stern. Hopefully, we can sneak between sentries and get close enough to a ship that'll have what we need.Groo, we'll even let you drive for a change"

"Hopefully? Hopefully? and tell me he didn't just say vaporized!", clicked the Vrusk engineer as he struggled with his fifth boot closure,". And you'e going to let him pilot? I knew I shoulda been a hovercycle repair tech! Damn bipeds! Always running faster than they have the feet for"

They all smirked at Ck'thulu's Vrusk metaphor.The old bug had a pretty unique way of speaking, having grown up an orphan on an mostly Yazirian pirate station.

They headed toward the largest of the Talon's 3 shuttles. This one was the largest, originally designed for intership cargo loading, it had come in handy for several "less-than" legal transactions.

"Oh great, we've gotta take Big Betty, don't we. Bad enough you want to go barging in there to swipe parts, but hey! let's take the biggest, slowest, unarmed shuttle we can!"

Close to outright laughter Ty said, "Listen, old friend, weapons here will do us no good. If those things see us , there's a good chance they'll gang up on us. And I don't think even the Talon could handle all 16 of 'em..." To himself Ty thought "but maybe up close ,with hand weapons, maybe pry open a panel if we had to..."

"Now you listen here, don'tcha go knockin the Talon!, ya larvae! I was there th' day she was bulit and let me tell you a thing or two about..." Ck'thulu was still rambling as they strapped themselves in. Groo gave one final glance around the passenger area before ordering the ship's bay doors to open. Big Betty gave a little lurch, then eased out into space as Groogash hit all thrusters to full power and headed toward the group of silent ships.

The shuttle had barely cleared the bay when McFarlane bolted from his station and walked briskly toward the bridge's exit.

"Just where do you think you're going?", demanded Paulson, as he walked over to McFarlane.

McFarlane brought himself within an eyelash of the young officer's face, "Listen, whelp, you may be in charge now, but question me again, and I'll slit your whining little throat." He said it in an almost sinister whisper, causing Paulson to take a half-step backward, then more pleasantly, "Mr. Paulson, I'm going to engineering to...retrieve something and to recheck the power grid for the sensor array. That is alright isn't it?" The switch was startling to Paulsen, who stammered, "F-fine, carry on, Mr. McFarlane."

As he heard the bridge door close behind him, McFarlane picked up his pace, walking briskly, but not enough to be noticed by the rest of the crew. Shortly he arrived at his destination, a small , little used room marked surveillence.

There was little conversation as the shuttle drew closer to the ship "junkyard" as Ck'thulu had called it. , In spite of his jovial nature,Ty knew how risky this was, and just how much was riding on their success. He checked his equipment once more: grappling cables, self-adjusting wrenches, laser cutter. He even checked his rocket pack's directional actuators for the third time before he felt Shaunna's reassuring grip on his sleeve," We'll be fine."

"I know - I'm worried about the ship...I shoulda had you..."

"Paulson will handle it and he can handle ol' Wydel the Weasel too if he has to."

"Guess you're right - thanks"

She smiled as Groogash slwed the shuttle to a crawl. He stole a quick look at Ck'thulu who was using a portable sensor to scan several of the dead ships for compatability.

"That one - off to the left, I can't be sure , but it looks to have the right type of supplies, and the ship next to it, no, not that one", said Ck'thulu pointing to the datascreen," It apparently was some kind of warship because its showin all kinds of weapon readings"

"Groogash could put the shuttle between them and we could split up to gather supplies", Groo suggested.

"Alright, Shaunna, you and Ck'thulu go after the ionizing conduit we need and don't forget the outer casing insulation, we'll need it if that thing overheats. Groo and I will check out the warship and see what we can scrounge up.Questions?"

"How have so many bipeds prospered while being so foolish?" , clicked the bug, in as much of a "wise-ass" tone as he could manage.

"I'd rather be lucky than good, my friend. Ok Groo, the sentry is passing, get us in between the ships - now!"

Groogash eased the shuttle into position just behind the passing sentry and brought the shuttle to a stop in the shadow of the bigger ship.

They gathered their gear and entered the ship's airlock, attaching helmets and holsters as they went. Ty punched a code into a panel on the side of the airlock and took out four laser pistols. He handed one to each member of the party,"Take these, just in case. If one of those things sees us, and you have no other choice, blast at it, and hope the others don't come charging in to the fray."

"Great advice, in other words, try not to die", joked Groo.

"You've been hanging out with the bug too much, Groo. Alright, Let's go"

They waited a few seconds for the airlock to depressurize, then silently the two teams headed for their respective targets. "And hopefully", thought Grogan, "towards a way home."