U.S.S. Menxsis II

"Captain Mauken" Jennifer Hars the communicator/science officer says.

"Yes, what is it." Captain Mauken says as he comes down off his command chair.

"We got a bogey on our tail." Jennifer says.

"What configuration is it, does it have weapons, what classis it?" Captain Mauken asks.

" No know configuration or class, scan does say it has medium weaponry." Jennifer says.

" Go to battle alert one." Captain Mauken says.

" Captain the ship is firing, but at that range it can't help but miss. Jennifer says.

" That shot is coming right at us, activate deflector shield now." Captain Mauken orders. The ship lurches as the shot strikes home. A emergency alert that signifies a breached hull. Blast doors leading to that area close immediately, sealing it off.

"Captain, I'm registering a life form at the breach. Can't get a fix on what it is though." Jennifer says.

"Send Londen, and Laciteden to check it out. Tell them to arm up." the Captain says

" Yes sir." Jennifer says, then speaks into the intercom. "Lac, Londen, check out the breach in the hull, take weapons"

"Gotcha Jen, we'll head down there right away, and just in case we don't come back, love you." Londen says through the intercom.

"Yeah sure, just get down there its probably a malfunction." Jennifer says.

        Londen and Laciteden got their side arm's, and moved through the differant levels of the ship. They come to a blast door at the breached area, Laciteden types in the security code for the door and it slides open. They both know that the breach has been sealed up. That is so the repair crew can repair it from inside the ship. Right now there is no repair crew just a creature that is not quite human. It turns and looks at them, they gasp because of its looks. The creature launches itself at Laciteden grabbing him so fast that he doesn't know what hit him. Londen reacts instantly, he comes to bear on the creature and opens up with his weapon. The shots hit the creature, but just seem to disappear. The creature launches forth a spiked tongue from its mouth, punctures lac's head, Then to Londens horror starts sucking something out. Londen his held in a trance of horror, then breaks out and runs down the hall. As Londen runs down the corridor he pulls out his communicator and contacts the bridge.

                                                                    CHAPTER 2

" Do you see it any where." Grallan asked as he walked down the hall.

" No, I dont't even see a sign of it, but I can sure feel it." The officer answers.

        The second officer says " It looks like it's not on this level." They decide to check the next level of the ship, but when they approach the lift, a howl unlike any thing they have heard before. From around the corner comes the creature Londen had described. The creatures teeth where dripping blood, and its claws had bits of flesh in them. The thing charges strait at Grallans company. Grallan yells " Watch out!" and opens up with his A.K. on the creature. The officers, both in a panic fire there weapons wildly. Amazingly enough they actually hit something. The officers finally come out of there panic, They realize they wasted their entire clip of energy. One of the officers pulls out a extra and pops it in, he then starts towards the fallen creature. Grallan orders the officer to be careful. The officer looks down at the creature, and is shocked to find no wounds. Before any one can do anything the thing grabs the officer, and throws him hard against the wall of the ship.

        Grallan grabs the second officers arm and drags him into the lift. They hear a tremendous pounding on the door but they are already on their way up. While on the bridge of the Menxsis II , Captain Mauken restlessly paces the bridge. He seems really on the edge of his seat. The bridge door opens and Officer Grallen comes in. Grallen looks around the the bridge to each crew member. His eyes rest on Jennifer for a little longer than necessary,  then Grallen then proceeds to the captain.

        Grallen looks around again even though most of the bridge crew ignores him. Grallens eyes come to rest on Jennifer once more, he likes Jennifer a lot, but not in the way most men like her. His eyes caress the way her uniform is tight over her full, and firm breasts. He likes her extremely slim waist. She has very beautiful tanned legs. Her uniforms tight skirt only reaches just above her knees which is why he has such a lovely view of her legs. Grallen sighs, he would love to get Jennifer alone for just a while so he could do what he's come to fantasize about. Grallen thinks that Jennifer has the prettiest hair he has ever seen, it is a lovely light auburn color. Her face is delicate, she has high cheek bones, which sets off her emerald eyes. Her lips have a lovely heart shape. Grallen quickly comes to his senses when he hears the red alert sound. He sees Captain Mauken quickly start sending out orders. Grallen enters the turbo lift and leaves, he heads for his own battle station.

        " Yes sir." Jennifer says, as she elegantly gets up out of her chair. Mauken has always been amazed with Jennifer, her calm and self assurance. In any situation she is calm, so calm that her face never anything  that her face never anything but self assurance. Jennifer is the kind of woman most men would fear, but often her beauty makes up for that in the eyes of most men. The Federation, for many years has been trying to get her to enter the Miss. Galaxy contest under the federations name, but she always refuses. Jennifer comes up to Mauken, and notices him studying her.

        Mauken comes out of his memory lane, and quickly steps into the turbo lift. He knows he was practically staring down Jennifer's throat. That makes him very worried that beauty could make him forget himself so easily. In the transporter room, everybody's tense. This will be their real look at a techarian. When the captain arrives with Officer Hars their tension visibly lessons. On a signal from the captain the transporter officer energizes the transporter.  The creatures that appear are humanoid, but with what looks like leathery skin, Their eyes are yellowish in color with heavy eyelids. Their bodies are lean and muscular. Each Techarian carries a weapon unknown to all of the people present.

        Jennifer followed the techarians and her own people up and down through out the ship, stopping only to pick up some weapons. Jennifer picked up her grandpa's old .45 colt. She inherited it from her father when he died aboard the I.S.S. Menxsis. She has kept it in perfect condition. She thought that if energy weapons aren't effective then maybe her old projectile weapon, which uses kinetic energy instead of laser energy, might have more effect on the creature than lasers. The Techarians had looked at her strongly when she had brought out her 45, almost like they thought she knew the answer. On deck 34, corridor E they found several dead bodies. All of them where mutilated almost beyond recognition.

" Captain Mauken, I should tell you that the Quartun beast gets stronger and smarter the more victims it eats. Do you know how many victims it has claimed?" Captain Quadrow asks.

        Jennifer felt very strange as the techarians eyes settled on her. She wanted to please him so much all of a sudden, and if this would make him happy, she should do it. Jennifer realizes that she is under some kind of spell, but is unable to resist. The small group moves on down the hall after checking on the wounded techarian and sending him to sickbay. Jennifer watches the techarian captain very carefully.

" I can only see one recourse, we must destroy your ship." Captain Quadrow exclaims.

" Jennifer, any damage to the ship." Mauken looks towards the science station with a questioning look on his face.

        Jennifer walks down the corridor to her room, she wonders how she would have react if that Techarian had followed through on what he had said. Being examined by one of those scaly creatures is not her idea of a nice time. Well their are probably worse things in life, although she is having trouble thinking of them at the moment. The door to her room opens and she goes in. Her room is most likely the most unusual room on board ship. Her walls are covered with strange items that she has collected through out the Federation. She has a large collection of old movies. One wall has a book shelf with a large collection of books both from earth and other planets, even though all books have been transferred to data disk. She collects old things with a passion. On another wall she has old weapons hanging up including, a Calvary sword, flintlock pistols, her 45' automatic, a spear, whip, flintlock rifle, cat of nine tails, and a knights sword. Jennifer walks over to her desk and brings up the newest novel she was reading. For some reason she feels very nervous. She can't explain it. Without realizing it she falls asleep at her desk.

        She is rudely awakened when her communicator goes off. "Jennifer report to duty station pronto, arrival at Omnicron in five minutes". Jennifer jumps up and responds immediately.  "I'll be there right away sir." finally realizing that it was Maukens voice on the communicator.  She stands up and brushes her uniform off, getting the wrinkles out then rushes to the bridge.  Jennifer enters the bridge just as the ship comes out of warp. She rushes to her station and scans the area. Coming up with nothing but the standard stuff, she sits back and enjoys the view, but making sure she keeps one eye on her instruments.