As the space freighter immediately shot upwards amidst the ribbons of fire shooting down from the invading war ships, Janus recalled the previous few hours. The first inkling of anything amiss was when the space commission notified the Yanni Council that outposts on the outer planets were no longer sending signals. One station had sent an urgent message saying they were under attack before they were silenced. Then the just-opened Space Station, Yanno-1, the marvel of their science, reported identifying numerous space ships just passing the outer planet.

The stars suddenly appeared through the port window, as the freighter reached escape velocity. Janus recalled that fateful emergency council session in vivid detail

"What can we do? Who are they? What do they want? We have no weapons to defend ourselves!" The council members could not believe this was happening. They were a peace-loving people, never thinking in terms of an invasion. Then came the dire announcement from the space station.

"This is Ensign Basanni. I have just surrendered the station to the attackers to prevent further bloodshed to our crew. The carnage has been most terrible." There was the sound of a short scuffle then the council heard in a gruff menacing voice, "This is Commander Rasu-sen. We are here to take over your planet in the name of the Spectari. You can either deliver it peacefully or in pieces; it matters not to me."

Sometime later in the vast region of space in the Centauri Sector...

"Cease fire! ... Cease-fire! ... It's the Argosen!" Commander Rasu-sen hurriedly exclaimed to his weapons officer, belatedly recognizing the flagship of his own space armada on the tactical view screen. Rasu-sen knew the first volley of ion cannon shots were intended to cripple most unsuspecting vessel's engines and hoped the Argosen's defensive shields had been operating.

The forward view screen suddenly revealed the burly angry red face of Cho-sen, the Argosen's Captain, and Fleet Commander. "Are you out of your mind firing on us, Commander? You're most fortunate we had our shields raised!"

"But sir, why didn't you answer our battle standard hail for identification?" Rasu-sen nervously queried.

"Because our communications officer was not at his post where he should have been. He will be severely punished for his dereliction. Your firing was too precipitous. You barely allowed any time for a reply. We're supposed to be the only Spectari ship in this sector. What are you doing here?"

"We're following the trail of a flotilla of ships that fled Yantu when we invaded it. We know most of them weren't equipped to leave this sector so they must be hiding somewhere. How do you happen to be here, sir?"

"We're preparing to scan the next star system several parsecs away. Our astrogator says there've been significant c-levels of waves and pulses coming from that sector over the past millennia, so we know it's inhabited by some intelligence. Carry on your own mission and good hunting. Next time don't be so quick to fire. There was no immediacy to fire so quickly. We will notify you when we find a suitable planet."

The two giant warships broke off on their separate missions.

"Commander, we've been searching for many cycles and found no trace of them. How long must we maintain these long range scans?" Masori frustratingly spoke to his Commander, almost surely knowing the response, but feeling compelled to ask anyway. He had been with Rasu-sen on enough assignments to recognize his mood swings. The weapons officer knew the commander was still overcoming the shock at having fired on the Argosen and Masori too must bear some of that responsibility.

The dark-skinned commander of the battle cruiser swiveled his command chair around to his weapons officer, scowled with his nostrils flaring and shook his black-gloved fist, "As long as it takes, Masori as long as it takes. We almost had them the last time." The scowl deepened as he continued, "They cannot have disappeared. We know they weren't equipped to leave this system. They must be hiding on one of the outer planets or moons. Keep scanning. Something will show up. They can't hide from us forever."

"But sir, this is draining on the crew. Can't we at least return to their home planet to re-supply?

"And give them a chance to make good their escape? They will need to re-supply too and that is when we'll catch them."

Masori was not of the Spectari. He was a blue-skinned Rigelian pilot who had been press-ganged into the Spectari space fleet when his own home planet had been viciously invaded and conquered. He quickly learned the Spectari were a war faring people who felt they owned the cosmos. They never negotiated or bargained. They simply conquered and took what they wanted, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake. Masori pitied that next star system, for he knows from experience if whoever they are, are not prepared, they will have no chance against the mighty war fleet of the Spectari.