As Eli's gravity envelope was dissipating, signals from Plinth and his advance probe came streaming in giving him a load of information to sift through. The hostile alien ship had arrived, destroyed a new prototype ship the Glint had been testing and launched a small satellite that was repeatedly broadcasting a message of chirps and screeches that had yet to be translated. The Glint had sent him their best guesses as to where the ship was, and where it had destroyed the prototype. Thinking of what was available to him and how to make use of it, Eli began to input commands into the small probes he had crafted beforehand and set them on their way.

Each probe had a small crude Alcubierre drive and a mass to energy conversion device onboard. As they activated and warped towards their destination, the M:E converter would begin to consume the probe inside out. At the destination what remained of the probe would attempt to immediately reverse it's momentum with the Alcubierre drive, with the weakened internals from the converter this would cause a spectacular explosion several hundred kilometres in diameter and providing a brilliant splash of light to silhouette an unnaturally dark craft. Or so Eli hoped, as he watched the probes streak away to just behind where the Glint believed the undetectable ship to hiding. Activating his own repaired drive, Eli began his own warp to Gri'oux.

As Eli came out of the gravity envelope, so did the slower, smaller probes. They exited their respective envelopes in enormous trails of glowing debris, the light leaving momentary swathes of quickly dispersing hot gases over huge areas. Exactly what Eli wanted, he activated his sensor suite and looked for any spots of darkness in between him and the rapidly cooling gas.

"There you are!" He thought as a dark elongated splotch obscured some of the cooling gases on the infrared spectrum. As soon as he confirmed it he aligned the rail gun he'd kludged together when he was stranded with the location of the hostile ship. Knowing he would only have one shot, he fired, and sent a message directed toward the xeno.

"The Glint are friends of humanity and me personally, or rather they will be if I have anything to say for it, so get lost asshole!" He broadcasted, as the solid tungsten slug hit the amorphous exterior of the alien ship. With no results, for several minutes nothing happened to even show the ship had been hit by a slug of iron going millions of kilometres an hour.

Suddenly the alien ship seemed to change its react as if it was on a delay, and the clinging darkness on its hull dispersed into a giant nebulous cloud of, according to Eli's sensors, congealed dark matter which then dissolved into space. Now the alien ship was revealed in its full glory. A twenty three hundred metre long cigar shaped hunk of blackened metal and ruddy brown rock, bristling with spikes of the same oily metal that had littered the asteroid field Eli had only just left. At what could be assumed to be its front were two large pods with no discernible purpose.

Looking carefully, Eli couldn't make out any damage from his shot. Swearing to himself, he reversed his thrust and plotted a course to the opposite side of Plinth. The alien ship turned towards him, acceleration blurring its features.

Eli started his Alcubierre drive, powered with what little iron mass he had left in reserves, low power warnings blared across his view.

-----------------------

Saule awoke to a strange blaring,and chittering noise with a steady bright white light. He tried to rise but a wave of nausea and pain flattened him onto his back. The pungent smell of burnt fur and flesh assaulted his nose, he blinked moisture from his eyes and turned his head from side to side taking in the room around him. On his left he could see Stuhkey and Yors on a flat rectangular block of dark spongy material that conformed to the contours of their bodies, the block merged into the wall of the room beside a column of dark green chitinous material. Cables and hoses flowed from the column and connected with a bank of monitors and machines of the same insectoid design. On his right he could see the rest of the crew on similar blocks, everyone seemed to have burns and injuries on their legs and hands.

"Anyone else awake?" Saule gasped, the effort caused his chest to ache. None of the crew responded, but what appeared to be a terminal chittered in response, not much else happening. Several moments passed by before Saule summoned the willpower to get up. Getting off the block he looked around once more he could see an exit from the room, leading into a gloomy expanse. It wasn't until his feet hit the cool damp floor that it dawned on Saule, there was gravity when there shouldn't be any.

He made his way around to each crew member, trying to wake them and check their injuries. Everyone had nasty burns on their arms and legs, except for Flik. She was lying on her side, a large swathe on the back of her suit had burned and several spots showed open, oozing blisters around her spine. Saule checked her over slowly, she seemed to be ok but deeply asleep, like all the others.

Pausing to think a moment, Saule thought of where he could be, and what happened to Mad Dash. The last thing he remembered was being near the Human Beacon around Gri'oux. The warning lights flashing, bumping into Stuhkey, Riyn and Yors. Then the walls of the Mad Dash arcing purple energy through everything and everyone. After that he had dim recollections and fragmentary images of pale limbs hauling him into a dark tunnel.

He shuddered at the thought of those limbs. Saule made the internal choice to find out where ever they had been taken, and to make sure his crew lived through whatever happened. He limped over to Riyn, he briskly frisked him, and found a small service pistol. A glimmer of light emitted from his luminous eyes. He was armed now, thanks to the soldier/psychologist, and he planned to have some vengeance for the wounds inflicted on his crew. He staggered out into the dark hall, with no light but that from his naturally glowing eyes, to guide him.