Poison ***Part 1***

"Teal!"

"Run, Petra run!"

The noises surrounded Teal, causing her to wake. All she wanted was sleep, sleep was nice, it was dark, no sound....

But she was being yanked to her feet and made to run. "Move it, Teal!"

Grasf. That was Grasf. Jo Grasf, the guy who hated her because she got his position. Did he hate her? Would he risk his life for hers? But she cast these thoughts aside and ran. She remembered now. Her ground crew had attacked the Dominion's ground force. But they were prepared for them and her troop, Alpha Petra, had to retreat. They ran, and she fell down a hill. That's when Grasf yanked her up. She grabbed her mike. "I hate to interrupt your little tea party," she said, "But you guys have 150 panicking soldiers down here."

"I got crumbs jammed in my keyboard," came back the friendly jest. The soldiers started disappearing in flashes of transporter light. Teal, Grasf, and five other soldiers continued to run, the lessening shots evidence that they were losing the Dominion soldiers.

They stopped when they could run no longer. Teal collapsed. She couldn't talk or move or anything. Grasf was already administering oxygen to one of the other five soldiers. She could finally sit up.

She picked up her mike, which was hanging on her uniform by a chain, and said, "Got those crumbs out yet?"

"Teal where are you?" The voice wasn't joking now.

"Well let's see," she replied, looking around. "Looks like a planet. With trees. And sunlight."

"Teal this is no time to joke around," said the voice. "We can't find you."

Teal wasn't concerned. Yet, anyway. She stood up and looked around. "Should I wave my arms and jump up and down?"

"Teal now it's time to stop," another voice said. It was the Commander. Teal was worried now. "We can't get a fix on your position."

"Everybody stand real still," she said, and the group of six laughed a little. There was no answer from the mike. "Gee did we lose comm, too?"

"No, communications are fine," the Commander's voice came through. Then they confirmed what she had been suspecting all along. "They've set up a shield. We got everyone out but you seven."

"No, you guys are just sick of me and these guys'll disappear in the night, leaving me on this planet."

"Sounds like a good idea," Grasf said roughly. He wasn't as ok with what they were about to tell them as she was.

"You guys will have to stay on the planet until we can get an open lock on you," the Commander said.

"Hope you don't do it when we're going to the bathroom," a soldier muttered.

"I think your mike signal is so small, it goes through the shield unnoticed, so you don't have to worry. But our sensors can't pick you up."

Teal had a sarcastic remark for that one, too, but held her tongue.

"But that could also take days," Todd, the original mike operator, said.

The group groaned.

"Gee guys don't look so thrilled," Teal remarked. "A little nature never hurt anybody."

"The shield is letting things in, but not out," Todd told her. "We can transport a little bit to you but not a whole lot. And I can't guarantee where it'll land."

"Try putting it at the coordinates where you first started picking up soldiers."

"I was getting there, thank you."

So they started back. They reached the clearing where she had fallen, which was also the site where they first started getting soldiers. And there, waiting for them, was nothing.

"Ok so maybe it didn't work," Teal said.

Then something heavy landed on her head. Things were falling, all around. "Scatter!," she cried. They did. When the thumpings receded, they peeked out from their hiding places, laser guns ready. Teal was the first one to laugh. "I was attacked by a tent," she said.

"Mind getting our supplies a little closer to the ground next time, Todd?," she asked.

"Whoops," he said, laughing bashfully. "The field's messing up our sensors and I didn't want to transport them into the ground."

Each of the soldiers grabbed something. There were seven packs, each with replicaters on them, with food and clothes. There was also the tent, and an air warmer with a ten foot radius. When they were sacked up and ready to go, they all turned to Teal. "Todd. Look at some of the old maps that we have on this planet. Any caves we can wait this out in?"

"I'll check." A minute later her was back. "I'm transporting you the map."

"Heads up guys!," she said. They all laughed, with the exception of Grasf. "C'mon, Jo, lighten up," Teal said. "We're obviously going to be stuck together so you might as well get used to it."

He said nothing but looked up at the sky. Teal sighed and looked down. The map appeared at her feet. It was a small, one inch thick, 7 inch long, six inch wide black box with a small keypad and a screen that took up the top half.

When she pressed the red button, the map came up. "Ok, my leetle veecteems," she said in a mock evil voice. "You are now under my-"

"Skip the games, ok, Teal?," Grasf said angrily. "We need to get under cover."

"Ok ok," she muttered. "A little test for our soldiers. If we need to hide, where would we want to go and what would we want to do when we got there?"

A soldier tentatively raised his hand. "Name?," she asked.

"Peters. Michael Peters. I think we would want a cave that has at least two or three entrances, that can be easily monitored, so that we can have an escape route, you know? And I would want to use a rock shield, so it would be harder for the enemy to find us."

"Very good, Peters. Well, my friends, let us move out."

She followed the map and it led to a medium sized cave, one able to hold them. There was a fresh water stream that was ok to drink, and another soldier spoke up. "Teal, ma'am? Wouldn't we want to test the water continuously so we always know it's safe to drink?"

"Very good," Teal said, nodding. "But do we have a tester we can set up to permanently monitor the water?"

"Well, not really, but we do have a damaged computer, and I can use the temporary tester and parts from the computer book and make it a permanent one."

"Go to it.

"And all of you, this is a survival mission. If you call me ma'am, you won't survive."

They all kind of laughed, which was a good sign. "I hate being called `ma'am' more than anything in the world. My name is Teal, so learn it. Understood?"

"Yes Teal!," they replied. She laughed and they moved in. The girl, Jessica Shelby, set about creating the water monitor. Teal noticed something. The way Peters watched her. Teal smiled. Cute. Puppy love. Or a little crush, anyway. Shelby reminded her of herself. She was only a few years older than the foot soldier at eighteen. Shelby actually almost looked like her. Teal had burgundy hair with greenish blue eyes. she was brought from her thoughts when Grasf touched her arm. "You need to make a POR."

Teal's face clouded and she pulled him away from the small group of soldiers. "Jo I don't think we need to. They're all very smart and who knows, we could get out of here tomorrow."

"Or two days from now. Or next week. Or next month. We could be found by the Dominion," Grasf said. "You need to make the report. What if someone gets bit by some strange animal or insect and dies?"

Teal knew he was right but always believed that creating the Pre-Obituary Reports were a guaranteed death sentence. "Ok, everybody, I need you to make a quick profile of yourselves for me in a Z-disc and get it to me in ten minutes, ok?"

They agreed without question. Soon she was placing a profile of each of them in her computer log.

She hated doing the Pre-Obits. They were so depressing. So she decided she wanted to go for a walk. She called one of the soldiers to come with her. Since Grasf was second in command, he had to stay and supervise (or baby sit, as he said). So Webster, Peters and Shelby came along. As they were walking along, they talked about the station and where they had been. They were about to cross a stream when Teal pulled her laser out. She had seen a movement ahead of them and suspected they were being followed. "Guys, when I say now I want you to run back to the Rock as fast as you can."

They had questions but no one asked. "NOW!!!," she said. They ran. She fell once, grabbing her neck. They went and helped her up. But no longer were they being followed. They could hear whoever it was crashing away from them. They slowed down and walked. Teal was walking funny, going off-course a lot. "Teal, are you ok?"

She was holding her neck and she had a funny look on her face. She stumbled once but didn't fall. Shelby and Peters automatically got on either side of her and Webster ran ahead to get Grasf, just as they had learned in their training sessions when a leader was hurt. Grasf met them when they were half way there, cursing under his breath. He stopped in front of her.

"Teal this had better not be some drill you're giving to test these guys."

Her reply was to collapse so unexpectedly that Shelby and Peters almost dropped her. They rushed her to the cave. Upon laying her out on an air filled bedroll, a small object fell from her collar. "It's a dart," Shelby said almost despondently after picking it up, feathered end first. "I'll bet you it has some sort of drug on it."

Teal woke up a few minutes later. "We've got to get out of here," she said, getting up.

"Tea, lay down," Grasf said.

"I'm not a dog," she said vehemently, glaring at him as she pushed him away. "I'm the leader and I said we're leaving. Pack your stuff up."

They glared at each other. They both knew he had the power to overrule her, say she was delirious, and take command. But if it turned out that she was fine when the whole thing was over, he could be charged with insubordination and even treason if someone was killed or hurt under his command after he took over.

The rest began packing their stuff up. Finally he did too. Teal sat down weakly by the water and took a long drink. She was pale and sweaty, with dark circles under her very dull eyes. They had lost their sparkle.

The water seemed to make her a little better. She got up and packed up what was left of her stuff to pack. The others, with the exception of Grasf, it seemed, all were worried about her.

"What's going on down there?," Todd's voice came through Teal's mike.

She pulled it up. "I got stung," she said. she drank some more water and said, "But I'm ok. For now. I'm moving us out of here."

"How is Grasf?"

"The jerk? Oh, he's fine. Just waiting to use his overrule power. I know that he wants to run the group. Take charge and be the man."

"Teal, he might have the opportunity. You know we left him behind on purpose."

"WHAT?!?!?!?," everybody asked at once.

"We knew that the Dominion was putting up a shield, so we purposely didn't transport either of you because we knew some would be left behind. We needed some one to supervise."

Teal dropped the mike. She didn't feel like talking. In fact, she didn't feel like doing anything right then. Just sleeping. But she knew the group was depending on her, so she stayed awake. They moved out.

They grabbed their stuff as fast as they could and went up into the trees, throwing dirt on the remains of the past night's fire and tossing the tent into the bushes. But the tanks passed them by. The group sighed in unison.

They left. The tanks picked up their signals and they had to run again. Teal ran about a quarter of a mile from the last campsite and then fell. She was too weak. She couldn't go any further. "Go on without me," she said to Grasf as he stooped to pick her up. "It's ok. Be the leader. I'm not going to make it."

But he picked her up and carried her with him, running. They found a valley with a small opening that would shield them for a while. They found a small village of cabins, uninhabited for what appeared to be a long time. They chose and entered a one room cabin towards the back of town, lasers drawn. It was empty, as expected, and Grasf laid Teal gently on the old bed. She was as white as could be and breathing heavily. Too heavily. They got her some of the water they had stored. They had used the replicater to copy the structure of the water in the cave because when she drank it, it seemed to repress the symptoms of whatever it was that she had.

"Teal, they purposely went after you, you know that?," Shelby asked, holding the canteen for her. "They went after the leader. They could've taken all of us. They probably were hoping to take you out and then Grasf. Then maybe they would take us hostage or prisoners and force us to tell where the base is hidden."

Teal nodded weakly as the water coursed through her body. "I haven't figured out what it is the Dominion had given you but I know the water is part of the cure," Shelby assured her.

Teal nodded her approval. "Then find that cure," she said. "Take... Webster and.... Peters . with you. The cure.... is in... this valley."

"What are you doing?!?!," the person at the mike cried. "Regulations clearly state that you never take medicine of any kind made from the foreign ingredients of a planet!"

"Screw your regulations, sir," Teal said, having some of her strength back. "I'm dying. And I'm turning my mike off."

"You never turn your mike off. You'll be fired," the Commander warned.

"It's ok," she said harshly, "I'm dying anyway."

There was a click at the station and the line went dead.

And Teal slept.

Hours later she was shaken awake by Grasf. the cabin was dark. It was night. The cabin was empty. Everybody was gone. "They're scavenging for you, Teal," he said to her confused look around the cabin. She sat up weakly and he gave her water.

"Why," she asked, taking a drink, "Didn't you leave me? It would've been obvious I was going to die in the autopsy, or even by the mike's recordings."

"I couldn't leave you."

She looked at him. The bright white moonlight slanted in from the window and put bars on his face. His eyes seemed to be almost glowing a bright green light in the moonlight. "What?"

"Are you losing your hearing, too? I said I couldn't leave you," he said, getting up and walking around. She flopped back on the bed. She was roasting.

"You hate me," she said, watching him as he stood at the open door, arms crossed, back to her. She saw him tense at that.

"I used to," he said. "When you beat me up outside the school."

She laughed a little. "You know I was positive I'd beat you?," he asked. "When you knocked me down that first time, I was furious. I was thinking `Even when I win I'll never live down the fact you knocked me down first."

"But then you lost."

"Yeah but no one ever mentioned it. I can still see you, from when I was lying on the ground, standing above me, fist still clenched and I hated you. I couldn't see your face but still... I hated you. I thought that they would dog me forever on being beaten by a girl. But nothing happened. You walked away and that ended it. well, some of it. I still didn't like you. Whenever you got something wrong, I was glad. When you got something right, I cursed you or was jealous and hated you even more when you got promoted and I didn't.

"But you were never mean to me. You helped me sometimes in the simulated battles but never told me. You beat the crap out of one guy who was talking about coming after me. I thought, at first, that you were just kissing up, to get me to be not mad at you. But then I realized I was being stuck up. You didn't want that, to have me not mad at you. Maybe you were just being nice or maybe that was your way of saying you were sorry. But I couldn't like you, not even as a friend. My pride wouldn't let me. That fight happened three years ago and I still couldn't like you."

"What made you?"

"When we first retreated and we were running, I saw you fall down that hill. For some reason it just hit me that you weren't perfect and you didn't try to be. You tried to do your best and you were vulnerable, just like me. So I couldn't leave you."

"Kind of like what I realized in the simulated battle rooms."

"What?"

"I always thought you were trying to be perfect and I couldn't stand you. I wasn't always secretly helping you. Sometimes I'd hurt your score on purpose. But during our third battle I saw the way the enemy was ganging up on you and how you were freaking out and that's when I realized it. For some reason it just hit me that you weren't perfect and you didn't try to be. You tried to do your best and you were vulnerable, just like me. And I helped you out."

He still didn't turn to look at her.

She laid back. Now that the truth was out, he was either going to say something or nothing would be said at all. And they waited for daylight that would bring the return of the five other soldiers and hopefully a cure for Teal.

"You can't," Grasf said flatly.

"Of course I can," she said scornfully. "I may not be a leader but I can still give her medicine."

"No."

"Yes I-"

"Nobody can give her anything!," Grasf suddenly yelled, looking up at them. He grabbed her and shook her once. "Not even me! She's dead, Shelby! Dead!"

It was then they saw the blood on the front of his shirt and the tears on his face and the pain in his eyes. "She died three hours ago."

"Oh no," Shelby said, backing up, her jaw open. "No!"

She ran up the porch steps and into the house, the guys following her. Her cry of anguish caused a fresh flow of tears to flow down Grasf's cheeks.

He slowly got up and went inside. Peters, who was now especially close to Shelby, was holding her tightly. Webster had his hand over his mouth and was shaking his head. Lee and August just stood there, stricken looks on their faces. And Teal lay there, not as pale as the past few days, but still. The blanket came up to her neck. Her face was peaceful. "At four she started coughing," Grasf said quietly. "At five it was worse. At five fifteen she was coughing up blood. I couldn't do anything. I tried calling you guys on the comm, on your computer books... but you never answered. She just told me to hold her. She wouldn't drink the water. So I held her. And at six, she..... was gone."

Shelby ran at him. "Why didn't you do anything? Why didn't you save her?" She began beating his chest, but soon she just stopped and he held her tight as she shook. Webster pulled a vial out of his pocket and looked at it.

"All this for nothing." he went over. Lee tried to pull him away but he shook him off and poured the thick green liquid in her mouth. Her skin was cold. Most of it seeped out o the corners of her mouth. Webster wiped it away.

"Let's get out of here," Grasf said. He took the mike off of her uniform, looked at it, but didn't turn it on. They left. They traveled to the middle of the valley, and there was a small oasis, with another empty house. Upon Teal's dying request, she wasn't buried. They locked the house up tight.

The new cabin was in much better shape than the last, although it was still as old. Instead of the outhouse in the back, it had a toilet in the house. But there was no running water in the house. The toilet was a hole that led to a deep pit, a natural underground sewer. The stream went right by the house. There was a watch set up to watch to see if the tanks would come. But they didn't. The mike was turned on and they avoided the question of where Teal was and why Grasf had the mike. The shield was far from close to being removed.

"As long as we're around that shield will remain up unless we take it out," Todd told them. "The generator is on the moon, and heavily guarded. We're working on it."

They turned the mike off. The next day they heard a curse from Webster. "What's up?," Grasf asked.

"I left my pack... back there," he said. "I really need it."

"She's probably... bad, now," Grasf said quietly. "Wear a mask to make sure whatever the Dominion gave her isn't coming off of her, ok?"

He agreed. He set out for the 20 minute walk at three o'clock.

At three thirty he came running back, pressing his distress horn like there was no tomorrow. The five ran out. Grasf caught him. "What's wrong?"

"They took her they took her she's gone," he said, his eyes roving wildly. They weren't prepared for this kind of thing, Grasf saw. They knew death but had never experienced it when it happened to a friend and this was just too much for them to handle. He couldn't risk losing a fine soldier. Grasf punched him.

Webster looked up from his position on the ground, not calm but thinking clearly. They all set out. The door to the cabin had been smashed to bits. The bed was lying half in, half out of the doorway. the table was overturned and the chairs were on their backs.

Grasf shook his head. "We'll get you for this," he cursed the Dominion. "We'll get you."

Back at the cabin, Grasf finally relayed the news of Teal's death to the Commander. Then he turned the mike off. It was too easy to do that now. He didn't care anymore.

They sat out in the grass, which was relaxing because at the other cabin it was desert and no grass. They rested in the shade after that morning's work out and drank the water. They had nothing to do. They couldn't help the Commander with their escape. They had to wait. So they passed the time reminiscing about Teal.

"I remember when we first got caught here," Shelby said. "And Teal was telling us to stand still and everything and then jump up and down. She was so quick with those comments."

"And with her temper, too," Grasf said. "We both went to training camps when we were young. Three years ago we entered the station on the same ship, when we were 15. We were standing outside the school at a recess like thing and I said something smart about Teal being the only girl in the group. She heard me and came over. I called her green, to make fun of her name or something, and she got mad. `Look, the little girlie's gettin' mad,' I said, or something stupid like that. Next thing I knew I was on the ground, looking up at her. I was mad. I jumped up and swung at her. She ducked as if it were nothing and kicked me in the crotch. I doubled over and lay on the ground. When she walked over I grabbed her ankle and yanked, knocking her on her back. But she snapped her legs forward and was up in an instant. She said, `My mom always taught me not to kick a man when he's down.' And she kicked me, as hard as she could, in the crotch."

"I thought she said she'd never kick a man?"

"That what I said as she stood there, watching me cringe. It hurt so bad my eyes were running like faucets. And I asked her, `What about what your mother taught you?' And she said, `My mother was talking about men, not you.'"

The group laughed, and Grasf smiled. "It doesn't seem like much now, but when I was fifteen I had the biggest ego. And she hurt it. No, she didn't just hurt it she dashed it to the ground and dug her heel into it. Like she was trying to tell me that I wasn't the best that there was and I'd be quick to realize it."

"That's exactly why I did it," a voice from behind them said. "I was wondering when you'd realize that." They turned, lasers ready. But it was Teal.

Grasf got up and walked over, the shock on his face making her smile. "Did you think I'd be stupid enough to leave my favorite squad with an incompetent fool like you?"

He hugged her close. She hugged him bag just as hard. "You guys didn't miss me, did you?," she asked.

The next five minutes was full of Shelby's crying, and everyone else's questions.

"I'll tell, I'll tell," she said, waving her hand.

"Let me look at you," Grasf said, holding her chin in his hand. He skin was its normal color, oxygen filled and not pale at all. Her eyes had their glitter to them again. She kissed him, very lightly, very lightly, on the lips and then went over to the bottom porch step. "Story time."

The five soldiers sat around her, Grasf standing, arms crossed. "I guess Grasf has told you I started coughing and everything?"

They nodded. "Well, after that, I said to myself, `I want to sleep. I think I will.' Just like that. And I closed my eyes. I opened them again and I realized three things at once. One, it was light, two, I had this horrible taste in my mouth, and three I felt so much better I wanted to dance or something. But then when I got up I saw all your things were gone and I was locked in. I beat the door down with chair and then messed the place up. I didn't think you guys would leave me, then again I didn't know you thought I was dead, and I figured the Dominion got you. So I trashed the place in case they came back and I headed in the direction we had come in. Today I heard that distress horn and walked the long way around in case it was a trap. But then I saw you all sitting here when I finally arrived and I decided to come out."

"If you were sleeping why were you so cold? And why didn't the computer pick up vital signs?"

"Well if you used my computer, it's broken. It couldn't pick up a virus."

The six looked at each other. "You mean you didn't even try to get second guess?"

She shook her head and then added, "And I figure that the reason I was cold was because you guys are so warm."

"Huh?"

"Simple stuff. See, I was sleeping, and I was indoors, and I had been drinking water. You guys, however, had been up and moving in the heat and you, I hope, had been eating. So I just seemed colder. And besides the psychological effects. You found me `dead' or whatever, and your mind made me seem colder than I really was."

They all just shrugged. "So what now, Teal?," Shelby asked.

"Well, the Commander expects you to just sit around and wait for them to find you, but I have a better idea."

"Uh-oh," Grasf said. "I don't think I like what I see in those eyes."

"First lets freak out the command center," Teal said, holding out her hand for the mike.

Up at the command center, Todd was sitting despondently at the mike control center, watching the light. Teal, gone? It seemed impossible. She and he were like brother and sister. He understood her joking manner, why she was always making smart comments. That's why he liked being the mike and transport control person, although several times he'd been offered a promotion. He liked to be able to keep track of his `little sister'. She meant a lot to him, more than words could say, and now that she was gone, he didn't know what to do with himself. Suddenly the light for the mike came on. "Hello down there," he said disheartedly.

Instead of hearing Grasf, he heard a lilting laugh that faded into a haunting song. But to Todd it was the sweetest, most welcome thing to his ears. "Teal!," Todd cried, jumping to his feet. People all the way at the other end of the room heard him and stood up, also. "Teal you're ok!"

"And very much alive," she said, laughing.

"What happened?"

"Long story. I'll explain when I get back. You didn't I'd really leave you, did you?," she asked.

"Yeah, I guess I did," he said sheepishly. Now people were crowded around the table, and the Commander walked into the room and came over at a brisk walk, wondering what in the world was going on. Todd turned to him with the happiest look on his face the Commander had ever seen on anybody. "Teal's alive!," he told him.

"Teal?," he said into the mike.

"You bellowed?," Teal's sweet laugh came through.

"What happened?"

"I'll hold an assembly for you on the reliability of the vital sign detectors one our computers when I get back, ok?"

"What?," the Commander asked, confused as he heard a little laughing in the background.

"Don't ask," Teal said. "But I have an idea that the shield may be coming down sooner than you think."

"Teal don't do anything stupid," the Commander said, but the mike light had already gone out.

On "one", things began appearing two to three feet above the ground and dropping. Then it stopped and Teal whispered, "Thank you Todd."

"How- What just happened?," Grasf asked, and was immediately sorry because she replied, "Well gee, Grasf, it looks like things just appeared out of no where, what do you think?"

"Ha ha, Teal," he said, rolling his eyes. "How did you know this was going to happen?"

"Because I know Todd like the back of my hand." Then she turned her mike on. "Gracias, senor."

"De nada, mi amiga."

She switched the mike off. "This is the thing. He knows that I'm planning something," she said, walking over to what looked like a rectangle guitar case. "And he doesn't know what, but he knows I'm going to need some kind of protection."

She opened the case to reveal a full-sized laser assault gun. It was capable of roasting the cabin they were in plus the area of grass around it and a little more. "If we go down we won't go without a fight."

"Teal, what are we attacking and why?"

"Remember how we faked them out before, by saying our shield base was on another planet? Well, I think that we may be subjected to the same thing right now. I believe that the generator itself is on this planet, and we're going to find it and beat it at it's five corners."

"Five corners?," Peters asked.

"Yes. The east corner, the west corner, south corner, north corner, and top."

"The top isn't a corner," Shelby scoffed.

Teal raised her eyebrows. "Is so. Says me. This is this the plan. We've got seven rifles, that's all we need. I don't think that the base will be heavily guarded, because remember how we ran whenever the Dominion showed up? Well, I think that they think we have no weapons."

"Why don't we tell your man Todd to send us an army or something?," Grasf asked.

"Number one, he's not my man, and number two, anymore people transported here would be noticed. They would know that we have weapons and guard the base and give up the facade of the thing being on the moon and then we'd be in for it because they'd slaughter us."

Grasf looked at her. What had happened in the cabin that night or what they had said or anything, it was all gone. He was hating her again, hating her for being right, hating her because he couldn't come up with a better plan than she did and hating her because he hadn't thought of all this before. She turned away, anger burning in her heart. Was he so totally ignorant? Did she have to get sick or hurt or fall down for him to see her as an equal? To respect her? To like her? Did it really take her downfall, near-death or extreme pain for him to see and do all this?

She handed out the rifles, and they threw the cases into the water, where they sank to the bottom. Teal refused to let any of them shoot because it could attract unwanted attention.

They set out. They traveled for three days, covering their tracks, eating only what they wanted, as usual, but then instead of throwing it out, they would keep the leftovers in a bag carried by Webster.

On the fourth morning, they woke up to see Teal and August gone. They came a few minutes later while the other five were eating their breakfasts, Teal's face beaming with excitement. "We found the base. Almost no guards and easy, with great hiding places with in range. It's too easy."

And it was. It was like a bad ending to a great story. Teal took the north end, Grasf the south, Lee the east, Shelby the west, and Peters the top of the building, where there was a satellite dish. Webster and August took the two separate satellite dishes that were each a football field's length away from the base. Teal had them open the comm links on their computers so that she could count down and they all shot at the same time. She opened the comm link on her collar mike. "Get ready to witness an extraordinary event, Commander," she said, instructing them all to go to the view screen.

"Ready," she said. Seven rifles went up to seven shoulders.

"Aim," she said. Seven eyes sighted seven sights and seven fingers went to seven triggers.

"Fire," Teal said, and seven fingers pulled back. Seven laser beams shot out and hit seven targets. There was an explosion. Teal's laugh raised above the sound of falling debris as the sky suddenly became even bluer as the shield disappeared.

Todd ran to the control panel and hit a few buttons and Teal and her crew were transported immediately to the ship. The first person that Teal looked for was Todd. She ran to him and he caught her and swung her up and around and gave her the tightest hug he could.

"Before we tell anything," Teal said, "We're getting showers."

Todd obligingly transported them to their quarters. They all got their ten minute showers (extended to fifteen minutes as they all scrubbed), and then they buzzed to be transported to the mess hall. They ate prepared food and talked and laughed. With each other. Teal and Grasf noticed this together, although they didn't realize it. All their friends came over, they were surrounded, but the conversation seemed to revolve in the group of seven. Todd was included too, because of Teal, and that was it. No one, not even the people surrounding them, noticed it.

"I'm actually getting sick of all this niceness," he said to no one as he walked into the work out room.

"I agree," Teal said. She was bench pressing and she finished her set and sat up. Sweat gleamed on her brow. She wore a black tank top and shorts with a sweat band to keep her burgundy hair out of her eyes. They regarded each other for a moment. "The kids'll never be the same again," she said, laying back down on the bench. "They're in their own group now, and even though they'll have their friends, but they're in their own secluded circle."

"I know what you mean," he replied, laying on the bench next to her. "But I don't think they see it yet."

"I personally think that they never will," she said, shrugging.

Grasf thought about that for a moment. "I hate it when you're always right," he said gruffly, sitting up and moving the pin down a few holes.

"Grasf, did it ever occur to you that I don't mean to be this way?," she asked, not looking at him. Instead of laying back down, Grasf watched her. "Did that night in the cabin mean anything to you? Are you so totally ignorant?," she continued, not looking at him, voicing her thoughts from those several days before. "Did I have to get sick or hurt or fall down for you to see me as an equal? To respect me? To like me? Did it really take my downfall, near-death or extreme pain for you to see and do all this?"

"What?"

"There you go again, being totally ignorant. Should I go over there and smash my fist against the stack of weights so you can see me bleed and then open your heart? The only time you've been nice to me the whole time we were on that planet was when I was hurt or in danger. When I fell, you helped me. When I was shot with the dart, you helped me. When I was dying on the bed in the cabin and I started coughing up blood and you held me and after I `died' you whispered `I love you' and I couldn't say I loved you too because I was fading out you helped me."

There was a silence for a moment. "You heard that?," he asked quietly.

"Yes, I did, and that's what kept me going. But when I saw that hating look in your eyes when we got the rifles, I couldn't believe it."

She continued pressing and after a moment he lay down and began, also. They did this in silence. Slowly Teal's face returned from a burning red to its normal pink and she calmed. She don't know where she got the courage to do it, but she just told the man she loved the way she felt and it was out and now it was his turn again, as in the cabin. But this time she wouldn't fall asleep and she wasn't dying.

She finished pressing and went and excersized her legs. She heard him get up behind her and leave the room. She shook her head. The guy was impossible. But when she got back to her quarters, there was a message waiting for her on her message board. She waited until after her shower to read it.

It was a dinner invitation. To her. That night. From Grasf. She sent a confirmation message to his message board and set her alarm and slept until half an hour before the given meeting time. She dressed in a semi formal dress, a plain black one with a white blouse tied at the waist. She met him at their table and he presented her with a rose. He walked her to her quarters after a wonderful dinner, and Teal had decided before dinner, while she was dressing, that he was only going to show affection at times like this and didn't want to end the evening because she knew the next day he would be his old mean self. Or so she thought. As they parted and she opened her quarters doors, he pulled her to him and kissed her. Then he turned and left.

Teal walked into her quarters in a daze. That daze was gone immediately when she saw the letter on her bed. No one was allowed in her quarters with out her permission unless they were higher authority. Since these were only her service quarters, they were allowed too, anyway. If these had been personal quarters, they wouldn't be allowed in.

She snatched the letter up and tore off the end.

		Ms. Teal Watkins-

	Due to circumstances that I'm sure you are aware of,

	you are being discharged from Alpha Petra and the station.


					Formally,

					John Heathers

					Capt. John Heathers

She went straight to her former crew members' quarters and showed them each the letter. She went to Grasf last. He was as angry as she was. Soon seven very irate soldiers were storming up the hall to Capt. Heathers's office. Commander Freed, the Commander who had spoken to her through the mike, and Todd were both there. Todd looked mad and sad and worried all at the same time (how he managed that was beyond Teal) and Freed was just... well, just Freed. No expression. Yet.

"What're your doing here?," Teal asked them.

"I was notified about your dischargment an hour ago," Freed said, "and I brought Todd along to try and contain you."

"Fat chance," Teal said, crossing her arms. The doors slid open and Teal strode in, followed by Freed, then Grasf and Todd, side by side, then Shelby and Peters, then Lee and August, then Webster. Teal stood at ease in front of Heathers's desk, hands clasped behind her back, feet straddled and firmly planted.

Heathers sat at his desk, calmly writing on an electronic tablet.

"Permission to speak," she said, not even able to control the poison in her voice.

"Did I give you permission to be at ease?," Heather's asked, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow. They saw the flinch he tried to control when he met her eyes.

"I didn't ask," she said. "What I will ask is why I'm being discharged. Captain."

"You turned off your mike, Teal," Heathers said. "And may I remind you that although you have been discharged from Alpha Petra and the station, I am still your commander and you still are required to ask permission to stand at ease."

Still staring him directly in the eye, she laid the ultimate test upon Freed. "Commander. Permission to remain at ease."

"Permission granted," Freed agreed without hesitation. Teal now knew he was on her side. She focused on Heathers again.

"I got them out of there safely. None of them were injured. If it weren't for my actions your stupid little asinine fleet would still be attacking a decoy base and we'd still be on the planet's surface."

Heathers stiffened with an almost angry look and the rest stiffened with worry. Teal was about to lose her job. "Ms. Watkins. I hired you to be on my station because I knew you were tough and you could handle any situation with force. But that force is not to be used on me."

"I don't care if you hired me for a good lay," Teal said. "The fact I got these soldiers out of there alive and not even injured purely justifies what I did."

"And I don't expect that tone of voice to be used on me, or the language. And, as I said, I hired you to be on my station because I knew you were tough and you could handle any situation with force, but you are required to do that within the rules."

"I got them out of there."

"You were required to do anything within your power to get them out. You failed." He was almost ignoring what she was saying. "And furthermore, I cannot attribute the fact that the soldiers getting out in perfect health to you. You have here the best six soldiers in the station. Their health was by no means attributed to you. If you had died, they would've been fine."

Teal's hands flew out from her back and clenched at her sides, teeth ground. She wasn't going to give up. "Sir if she goes then you don't lose one good soldier, you lose seven."

That was Shelby. "Did I give you permission to speak?"

"Commander, permission to speak," Shelby said sarcastically.

"Granted," Freed said fleetingly.

Heathers was losing control of the situation. He couldn't order Freed to leave, because he was Teal's direct commander, and had to be present at her dischargment. He couldn't tell the others to leave because one of two things would happen: somebody (probably Teal) would throw a fit, and Teal would leave, or two, he would be alone with Teal, excepting Freed. That wasn't the best thing. He had seen Teal in action both on the station and off and she was unpredictable.

"Anyone who will stand with Teal step in line." Immediately there were six people lined up with her. Heathers shook his head. "I'm sorry to have to do this. All of you are discharged."

"Commander, permission to leave," Teal seethed.

"Granted."

Bio:
"I'm a 17 year old senior, and I've been writting stories ever since I was in the fifth grade. I live with my mom, dad, and two sisters (there's a third in college) and next year I'll be in college. I've written over 72, and my friends and sister love them and ask for more all the time. But I know my stories aren't all that great and I would love e mails telling me what you thought of my story, whether good or bad."

Krazy Kat can be e-mailed at: meerkat37@hotmail.com

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