"The Nietzscheans, way back when, destroyed most of the Acathla trees because they were one of the rare trees that produced a poison capable of killing a Nietzschean. In fact... oh Styrax, Trey, Amina, and Nuc, could you go with the androids?"

"What androids?" Trey asked.

The door to the hydroponics garden opened. Six of Andromeda’s androids stood waiting.

"I’m sorry, but we really don’t like spies. And we really don’t like it when Onnika decides to bomb Tarn Vedra and put this entire universe in jeopardy, so these androids will take you to the brig. Or you can stay here and we see just how the Acathla tree affects Nietzscheans."

Snarling, the chosen Nietzschean head out with the androids surrounding them.

"Well, now that they are gone, I have bad news about how Onnika is killing Gryphon Pride, not to mention, the entire Nietzschean race and the universe."

* * *

Tyr stood aside to let the people following him enter. "As acting security officer, I am in charge of everything in the armory except the nova bombs. Too bad we don’t have any of them now, but we do have these..." Tyr turns and fires two force lances at the five known spies. "Settle down all of you! Listen up; Onnika has betrayed you and your Ancestor. She has put not only the Gryphon Pride at risk but also every Nietzschean in this galaxy. Listen well and decide where you stand.

"I don’t plan to die."

The remaining Nietzscheans sat down and listened. Tyr outlined what they knew of Onnika’s plans.

"Either you are with us, or you are dead." By the time Tyr was through those remaining would have swum through space to attack Onnika. Quickly he assigned force lances to those who remained. As they left to change for the battle, Tyr let the androids into the room to clear the five bodies off the floor.

* * *

"Well, everyone I have good news and bad news." Harper yelled out.

His students turned from what they were doing to face him and waited.

"Well, first the good news," Harper pulls out a force lance. "We’ve kidnapped you. Now for the bad news. Onnika plans to kill the entire Gryphon pride. Now if you will all sit down, we can explain everything."

A young man stepped forward. "Ah, Turk, yes. We thought there might have been another spy of Onnika’s here. Now move one step forward and I’ll kill you. I don’t suggest anyone help him, wouldn’t be a good survival trait." Harper fired a shot near Turk. "Now do me a favor, open the door."

With a force lance in his face, Turk pressed the button to open the door. In stepped Tyr and his group. Smiling Tyr crossed the room, grabbing his lover’s neck, he kissed him deep. "Hurry up, Rommie says the Beagle is getting antsy. If these kids are as good as you say they are, we are going to need them." Tyr stroked a thumb over his mate’s lip and headed out.

Harper smiled and watched Tyr as he left. Turning around, he noticed his kids smirking. "Enough with the standing around and smiling. Time to get to work. We want this to be a very short battle. We are one ship; if this goes on for a long time we’ll be exiles. I don’t intend to exile you from your homes."

* * *

"Rommie. Call up the files on Onnika. Famira," Dylan turned to look at his relation. "I know you don’t really feel impelled to trust me, know this, I love Rhade. I love him so much Onnika tried to send me a clone of Rhade to tempt me, to use him to destroy me. Seduce me and I’ll do anything for him. It worked except he doesn’t want to destroy me; he understands why I must restore the Commonwealth. The Magog are massing on a huge worldship. It’s over twenty planets linked together with some sort of pipeline. There are billions upon billions of Magog in them. And they are coming; we managed to cripple them with our last nova bomb. But whatever is controlling them... absorbed the impact. A nova bomb, Famira. It slowed them down from getting here in a year to making them take two or three years, but they are coming. We can’t fight them, not alone. The Commonwealth must be brought back together if we... are to win. Read what Onnika was planning, then tell me how we can win without the Commonwealth."

Famira turned and started reading. With every minute her face grew more and more grave. "Ancestor... this is incredible. But you are right, I have no reason to doubt you, I will read these now. If what you say is true... then Onnika must be stopped and she will not stop unless you kill her. Can you?" Famira replied, her eyes cast down.

"To save my Pride, I can."

"Go fight, Ancestor, let me read." Famira turned from him and started to read again.

* * *

"They are ignoring us, Graha." The comms tech said.

"Very well, fire at them. A warning shot first, she wants the ship." Graha stated as he stared at the ship moving away.

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