It wasn't easy for the Icarus to dock at the Star Flower, because the main airlock had been destroyed in the attack. Scarlett had to find the emergency airlock on the opposite side of the cruise ship and even then had to force the airlocks to connect properly.

When the two ships joined together with a thud, Byron and his women gathered to open the airlock. Chetaara, Scarlett and Byron had their weapons and Xana had her sword out while the door rolled open.

Smoke poured into the Icarus from the Star Flower. Byron coughed from the stink of burning plastic and metal.

He looked into the ship on the other side of the airlock, and could hear the groan of bending steel and crackle of flames.

He nodded to the other girls before making his way through the airlock. He kept his Scorpio pistol drawn and aimed in front of him, just in case the pirates hadn't all left the cruise ship.

He stepped through into a huge ballroom that looked beautiful, except for the damage. He had to stop and admire the area with lots of gold trim and marble statues.

Tables and chairs had once been arranged around an open dance floor, but the chaos had scattered and broken them. Some of the decorations had been smashed and set on fire, but what remained seemed pretty impressive. It reminded him of a scene from Titanic or the game Bioshock where a once beautiful area had been reduced to ruins.

"Quiet as shit," Scarlett muttered.

He nodded while walking forward. "Yeah. Chetaara, are you sure there are still people alive in here?"

She gave him a nod back. "Indeed, Master. The scanners indicated life signs not far from this very room. There must be someone--"

As if in answer to his question, lasers flashed across the room. A shot hit Byron, knocking his health down by ten points.

He looked up to activate his dropdown menu for his NRG implant. The cybernetic implant used an alien energy source to cause powerful effects.

ARM SHIELD

EFFECT: +25 ARMOR TO LEFT ARM

NRG COST=2

LASTS 30 SECONDS

COOLDOWN: 5 MINUTES

He only had one program to create an energy shield on his arm, but it came in handy. He used it to reflect the bolts away from the others, and fired his Scorpio pistol in the direction of the gunfire while the girls dove for cover behind a fallen table.

More shots rang out, scorching the walls around him as Byron dashed behind a huge statue of some sort of alien bird.

He peeked out, and he could see the health bars of five enemies pop up to float over what seemed like an orchestra pit.

Scarlett fired some shots at the enemies, but Byron waved for her to stop.

A deep voice called out from the pit. "Get back in your ship, you filthy pirates! You got what you came for! Keep goin' and we'll burn your heads off!"

Byron called back, "Cease fire! Cease fire! We're not with the pirates! We're here to help!"

The head of an alien poked up from the pit. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

"We're the crew of the Icarus. We picked up your distress call."

"How did you get in here? Where's Captain Jokah?"

Byron leaned out a little so the alien could see his face more clearly. He hoped that would inspire more trust. "She left the sector. I guess after she got what she wanted. But she left both our ships pretty banged up."

The alien stood up, and Byron recognized him as the white-skinned captain who had sent the distress call. He had a rifle still trained on Byron, so there wasn't any room for relaxing, though.

"How do I know you're not working for her?" The captain yelled.

The captain's rifle jumped out of his hands and flew across the room. It landed neatly into Byron's hands.

Byron looked at the women huddled across from him. Chetaara gave him a mischievous grin, telling him she had used her telekinetic power to get the gun.

The captain took a step back with a look of wide-eyed fear.

Byron held up the rifle over his head and faced the captain. "If I was working for Jokah, I wouldn't do this."

He threw the rifle to the ground in between them, and also threw his Scorpio pistol down next to it.

The captain narrowed his eyes. A long tongue flicked out to lick one of them. "Well, I suppose you would not."

He strode forward and four more of the aliens climbed out of the orchestra pit after him. "I'm Captain Ra-Lor-Kenn. These are my crew. Or what's left of them."

One of the crew members who was shorter and wore the same uniform shook his head. "It was a slaughter."

Byron lowered his head, still feeling the pain of his failure. He hadn't been good enough. "I'm sorry we couldn't save more of you. Where are the passengers?"

"We stowed most of them below decks where the armor and shields were heavier. We need to check and make sure they are okay."

"What did the pirates want?"

Ra-Lor-Kenn waved a hand towards the orchestra pit again. "We're not sure. They wanted to find one of our passengers, Bah-Tee-Fala. We tried to keep her hidden, but they were determined. They found her, took her into another room, and then came out and left. I guess they got what they came for. Is that right, professor?"

Ra-Lor-Kenn turned to the orchestra pit again.

An alien woman of the same species crawled out, and Byron had to pause. She had the same snow-white skin, but it looked stunning on her. She also had gentle white eyes and long flowing white hair that fell all the way to her curvy hips. She wore a white robe that did nothing to hide her full breasts.

Byron remembered the captain had called her Bah-Tee-Fala.

Before she could even speak, the woman collapsed onto the crumbling floor.

Byron dashed over to cradle her in his arms. "Ma'am? Are you alright?"

Her white eyes fluttered open. "They-they tortured me."

Now he saw that blood stained her robe. When the robe fell open, he could see bloody wounds on her arms and legs.

He beckoned at Chetaara. "Do we have a medkit?"

Chetaara hurried over to them. "No, but I can use my healing code. It will care for some of her injuries."

She held out her hands to Bah-Tee-Fala's chest and a purple light poured from her fingers into the alien woman.

As Chetaara sent the energy into the woman, Byron cast his eyes down at Bah-Tee-Fala. "What did the pirates want?"

The alien woman breathed slower as the healing energy faded into her. The wounds on her body began to close themselves. "They w-were looking f-for the Treasure of Dark Storm."

Byron gave Scarlett a glance, but the robot shrugged. He turned back to Bah-Tee-Fala. "What's that?"

"It's my own discovery. I'm an archaeology professor studying ancient pirate lore. Many years ago, a pirate captain known only as Dark Storm raided a starship delivering an incredible collection of artifacts. The artifacts had great historical value about the culture and history of many lost civilizations, but Dark Storm didn't care. He only cared that the artifacts were worth a fortune. Dark Storm stole the cargo and hid it on a distant world known only to Dark Storm's crew, and the captain crashed his ship intentionally to kill the crew to keep from sharing the treasure."

Scarlett whistled. "Wow, cold-blooded."

Bah-Tee-Fala sat up as Chetaara finished, leaving only a few bloodstains on her clothes. "To find it again, Dark Storm hid the map to the treasure in four data gems. The gems combined to form the key to retrieve the treasure. One of those gems was kept by the captain while the other three were hidden on opposite ends of the Galaxy. Each gem by itself is useless, but they point to the location of the others. Before he could make himself rich from the treasure, Dark Storm was killed by the families of his murdered crew and it was thought the gems were lost."

Bah-Tee-Fala looked down at her trembling hands. "In my research on the treasure, I found one of the gems unidentified in the collection of my museum. I was on the way to recover the second gem, and I thought the cruise ship would give me some anonymity. Somehow the pirates must have found out about the treasure and took the gem from me."

Xana brushed her green hair out of her eyes. "That collection is an important scientific discovery. We can't let it get taken by pirates."

Byron nodded. "I agree."

Bah-Tee-Fala looked up at Byron. "It's not just about treasure. It's said that one of the items in the treasure is the Eye of Omega, a powerful weapon that can destroy entire planets. If these pirates recovered the weapon, they could devastate the Galaxy."

"Even worse." Byron hooked his thumbs on his belt. "Bah-Tee-Fala, do you know where the next gem is?"

She pointed at her forehead. "Yes. I remember. The data gem stored a map with the next location."

Chetaara's ears flattened against the top of her head. "But the Black Thorn has a head start on getting to the gem."

The alien woman pressed her hands to her forehead. "Perhaps not. I had just finished decoding the gem before the pirates attacked. It will take them time to decode on their own, and that might be enough for us to get to it first."

Byron swept his gaze over Xana, Scarlett, and Chetaara. All three women gave him a nod.

Byron took Bah-Tee-Fala's soft hands and raised her to her feet. "Professor, we'll help you find the treasure."

OBJECTIVE COMPLETE

+1500 XP

+500 CREDITS

NEW OBJECTIVE: FIND THE LOST TREASURE OF DARK STORM

REWARD: 10,000 XP, 10,000 CREDITS