"What?," Teal said, leaning forward on her desk and rubbing her eyes.
"You're not going to like this."
"Shelby, dear, we're already losing to the Dominion. Again. Nothing could be worse."
"The way they're beating us could be."
"They're always a step ahead of us, anticipating our moves and tearing our best plans to bits. I already know all that."
"There's a reason that they're able to do that."
"What?," Teal asked, raising her head and looking at Shelby.
"You know how we had all these plans set up?," Shelby asked, inserting a viewing chip disk into Teal's 32 inch viewer. She went over to Teal's desk, sat on the edge, picked up the remote and said, "Lights off, computer."
She hit a button on the remote and a picture of a black electronic notepad came up. It had a bright red stripe along the top. "Do you remember what we put those plans on?"
"Yeah, I remember," Teal said. "So?"
"Well, check this out." Another picture came up, and a mini-slide show started playing. They were still frame photos, taken only seconds apart from each other. The images? Two figures meeting in a dark corner on a planet street, one handing an electronic notebook with a familiar red stripe on it to the other person.
Shelby could hear, no, she could almost feel the anger in Teal's voice as she rose from her seat. "Somebody betrayed us?"
"Not just any somebody, either," Shelby said softly. "Just watch."
As the pictures progressed, the figure who gave up the electronic notebook, started to turn. his face showed for three entire frames.
"Grasf?!?"
"Teal thudded back in her seat. The lights came on at Shelby's bidding. She looked at Teal's shocked face sadly.
"Grasf is a traitor to Team Twilight," she said quietly.
"No," Teal said softly, shaking her head.
"Teal, it's all right there."
"And how did you figure all this out?
Shelby hesitated, then, "Webbie suspected him first. He
found a copy of the plans in his quarters the other night when
he was waiting for Grasf to get out of the shower. You know, the
night we all went down to the planet."
Teal went and stood by her windows, looking out at the stars. "Webbie followed him that night, when we all split up to go our own ways, and he got the pictures. He said after Grasf walked away, the man got on a Dominion cruiser at the docks that are in the background."
She waited for Teal to make her decision, whether to believe her or side with Grasf. "My own fiancÚ," she said quietly, staring at the diamond ring on her left hand. Finally, after a moment, she said, "I want Grasf to come in here. I'll call you if I need you, but I think I'll be ok. Don't make him suspicious. I don't want him to be ready."
Shelby nodded and left.
Out on deck, she sidled up to Grasf in a quiet way. "Hey Grasf... your, uh, woman wants you," she said slyly, wiggling her eyebrows. Grasf smiled, turned and left. The smile instantly disappeared from Shelby's face. If Grasf had turned then and looked back, he would've seen the ultimate look of disgust on her face.
In Teal's office, Grasf walked up behind her as she stood at the windows, still looking out at the stars. He slid his arms around her waist and nuzzled her neck. "You called?"
"Do you love me Grasf?"
"Yes of course I do," Grasf said, slightly shocked. "More than anything. You know I do."
"May I ask you a question?"
"Absolutely."
"If you love me so much then why did you betray the Twilight Cruiser team?," she asked, still staring out the window.
His arms dropped from around her waist. He didn't answer for a moment. "What... what are you talking about?," he asked guardedly, placing his hands on her waist.
"Oh, you know exactly what I'm talking about," Teal said, pulling away and going to her desk. She picked up the remote from the desk and pressed play. The slide show began and when his face was shown, she paused it and said, " What do you think of that? Huh? What is that?"
"Teal, you don't understand what I was-"
"Doing? What you were doing? I see perfectly well what you're doing. Would you like to try and tell me exactly what that is that you're handing him? Should I zoom in so we can see it better?"
"Teal, let me explain-"
"No," she said furiously, her eyes burning, whirling and facing him. "I won't listen to you anymore. I listened to all your plans and strategies and everything you said and you turned on me. Not only on me, but on the team and your people."
She slammed her hand down on the security button. Webster and Peters came in, and they went right to Grasf. They each took and arm and started to pull him out. "Teal, no! Please, you have to listen to me!," he said, straining against Webster and Peters. She turned away. "Teal it's not the Dominion we're fighting!!"
"What?," she asked, turning to face him. The boys stopped.
"We're not fighting the Dominion," he said. He pulled his arms from the boys' grasp and took an electronic notepad out of his pocket. He tossed it on her desk. "On there is the entire explanation. There's also a list of all the ships that the Dominion has trashed. They said they were unusable and they sent them to a dump. The good side got hold of them and fixed then up and started using them. They also stole the database from the space dump that had all the serial numbers from the cruisers on it. The Dominion couldn't tell who was the good guy and who was who during the battles. That's how the good side began winning before we were called in.
"The good side called us in to help them out. The Dominion intercepted that message and then let it go through only after they captured the captain that sent it through. They started assembling cruisers that looked like ours, and disguising the current cruisers that they had. We thought that they were the good side and the people we were fighting are the Dominion. But it's not. That captain can only say what the Dominion wants him to say. They-"
"Why didn't you tell us all this before?"
"I didn't think you'd believe me. I wanted to get all my evidence together and-"
"Take him away. I don't want to hear anymore of his lies," she said, turning to her windows. They took him out, struggling.
"Teal you have to listen to me! Teal please!!"
The doors slid shut.
Teal went to her desk and sat. She regarded the notepad for a moment and then picked it up. She turned it on, leaned back, and began reading.
Teal read it through the rest of the document and read it again and again.
She tapped her lip. Was this a hoax? Was this all conveniently put together by Grasf and the Dominion to fool Teal? Or was this for real?
Was there anyway to find out?
She wouldn't humiliate or disrespect Grasf be putting him on a lie detector.
So Teal decided to go aboard one of the "Dominion'sö ships that Grasf claimed was really a captured Dominion craft.
She transported easily. It was a temporary time of truce when each side stopped fighting and restocked or whatever. When she got there, instantly guns were pointed at this unexpected visitor, and she held up her hands. "Hey hey. I need your help," she said. They recognized the heroine leader of Team Twilight, and some of them lowered their weapons. But the captain shook his head. "You've betrayed your people. You're a traitor."
Teal shook her head. "No, I haven't. Well, not on purpose. We got a call a little while ago..."
She explained and gave then the evidence Grasf had compiled. "One thing we couldn't figure out is why Grasf didn't tell us. I just figure he wanted us to win as many battle as we could. But that also gives Team Twilight a bad rap."
The captain nodded. "Now that Team Twilight is in the right side, what are we going to do?"
"I don't know," Teal said, looking at her watch. "But my time here is up. The captain will contact us soon and I have to be there. We'll figure something out."
And she faded from sight.
Shelby was the one to come up with a plan. She told them, and they all nodded and agreed that it was the best one that they had come up with.
Grasf sat in his cell, head in hands, fingers tangled in his hair. He heard the brig's main door open and shut but didn't look up. It opened and shut again, and he was alone. He was thirsty. He didn't see her until he was all the way standing. She was sitting, knees up to her chin, ankles crossed, hands on ankles.
They stared at each other in silence. He found he was suddenly no longer thirsty.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
He didn't answer. "I went onto one of their ships. We have a plan to defeat them."
"What is it?"
"I can't tell you," she said. "I can only say be prepared for a rough ride."
He sat down on the floor, only feet from her, on his side of the cell shield. "Please, Teal."
"Tell me why you didn't tell us."
"Because...," Grasf said, rubbing his eyes. "I wanted us, the good side, to have a good start. You always have great plans and everything..... It was my turn. And if the Dominion found out, too, then you all could honestly say that you didn't know what was going on."
"Yes, Grasf, but if we had known, we would've been careful."
"And you would've wanted to Deal with the Dominion right away. You wouldn't wanted to blow them up. You're very impulsive, Teal, and sometimes that's great, and most of the time it helps. But it wouldn't work here. We had to take the Dominion apart piece by piece. If we would've blown them all up right there and then, you know we would have three times as many coming back at us. We would've been done for. But this way it seemed natural. They've been beat before and they wouldn't have noticed. Maybe it was unusual that we lost every battle, but that's not my fault."
Teal finally understood.
* * *
"Teal we're beginning now," Shelby said over the intercom. "Ok," Teal replied.
Shelby swung back to her console. The fleet of 'Dominion' ships, who were really the good guys, was closing in. They were informed vaguely of a plan that was being put into action. They started firing. The ship rocked.
"Team Twilight fired back, blowing a ship to bits. Suddenly the screen glowed white, and the Twilight ship rocked dangerously. Consoles showered sparks and the red danger lights began flashing. Teal burst in.
"What's the update?," she asked, running to her seat. Grasf followed behind her and to his console.
"They're using laser bombs, like we said to."
"Call the captain and tell him we'll be hanging back because of extensive damage. Then begin."
Shelby did so, and the other ships, the real Dominion, surged forward. Webster started picking the strongest ones out first, taking them down one by one. Since they weren't expecting this, the Dominion had all of their shields concentrated towards the fronts of their ships.
"Teal, what are you doing?," the imprisoned captain said, his face appearing on their screen.
"Fighting for my side," Teal said. "Go on, Shelby."
Team Twilight shot forward through the ships until they reached the real good guys. The ship swung up and over, turning to face the Dominion.
"Yeeee haa!," Teal said. "Goooo get 'em!!"
And each of the Dominion ships were blasted to pieces.
* * *
"Teal, I want to congratulate you on an excellent plan of action and its commencement," the leader of the squadron said. "Your excellent insight and wits won us back a star system."
"Thanks, but it was all Grasf. He created his own plan and carried it out on his own. We almost failed because of my impulsive behavior."
"Well, it's all well. Captain Areheart was removed from the ship before it was destroyed and he's returning to normal. The people of this star system are holding a party in team Twilight's honor, and are asking that you attend."
"Of course," Teal said, smiling and taking Grasf's hand. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."
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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