"NO!" I screamed coming up off the floor in a rage. Kibbeth took a step back and pulled Jevic with him. He pressed the Quantum Laser pistol directly against Jevic's head. Looking closely, I could see that the pistol setting was for 'max.'

"I don't think you better come any closer. My finger might slip," he said coldly. I held my ground, but seethed. This is not happening! This is my nightmare come back in real life. I looked into Jevic's eyes. I could see his fear. Hell, I could feel his fear.

"What do you want Kibbeth?" I said through clenched teeth.

"That's a much better attitude Cameron," Kibbeth started. "And just to make sure we understand each other ..." Kibbeth quickly aimed the Quantum Laser pistol and fired. Shane fell over screaming in agony with a huge gaping wound on his right leg.

"NOOO!" I screamed. I looked back at Kibbeth. He had the pistol resting on Jevic's temple. My tingling had risen to a level that I had never felt before. It seemed to course through my body. I could feel it with each beat of my heart. Then I felt it reach out toward Jevic. My eyes locked on Kibbeth. He sensed my rage and I sensed that he thought that maybe he had pushed me too hard. My tingling reached Jevic and touched him. As it did, I was immediately flushed with his fear. My tingling increased a notch. It continued to move in, around, and through Jevic. It consumed him.

"I assume that I have your complete attention now?" asked Kibbeth with a smile on his face. I narrowed my eyes and looked at him.

"You have nothing," I said flatly. He frowned. "I am not a violent person Kibbeth, but in your case, I'll make an exception."

"Do you understand that I am prepared to kill the love of your life before your very eyes," he said nastily. I just smiled at him. Calmness suddenly radiated through me.

"Do as you like, but your life will end Kibbeth. And it will end very soon," I said coldly. He took another step back, dragging Jevic with him. I moved toward him slowly.

"Stop! That's close enough," he commanded. I continued to move closer until I was just a couple of feet in front of him.

"Prepare to die Kibbeth. The evil in you has grown too strong. You no longer are working for the cause of the Talons. You're working toward your own personal lust for glory." He pressed the Quantum Laser Pistol hard against Jevic's head. "You better shoot now," I said. "But it will be the last thing you ever do. You'll rot in hell for eternity and that thought couldn't please me more." He just stared at me, not knowing what to do next. I narrowed my eyes and started concentrating. I centered all my hate directly between his eyes. I could see the drops of sweat on his forehead. Suddenly, he pushed Jevic toward me hard. It took me by surprise. I caught Jevic and held him, but Kibbeth escaped through the hatch.

"Y-you were gonna let him kill me?" Jevic stammered. I pulled him into my arms and hugged him tightly. God how I loved him.

"No baby, I would never do that. You were protected. My tingling had surrounded you and was protecting you. There's no way I would have let him hurt you."

"I thought I felt something, but I was too scared to realize what it was." A Quantum Laser shot barely missed us. I glanced to my right and saw Garen preparing to fire again.

"Down, now!" I yelled. We crashed to the floor beside Shane just as another shot rocketed by. I looked over at Shane, and then looked down at his leg. I stared at the wound on his leg and felt my tingling rise. I concentrated harder and to my amazement, the wound started to heal. Jevic and Shane watched as, in mere moments, it was completely healed. Shane reached down a rubbed the skin. He looked up at me.

"How did you do that? It's completely healed. There's no pain at all."

"I don't know," I confessed. "I really don't. I just felt my tingling rise and the next thing I know, you leg is healing."

"I knew there was a reason that I love you so much," Jevic said. He leaned over and gave me a quick kiss.

"I love you too, but there's a battle going on and we need to get back into it." We turned and slid over to the edge. Talon soldiers were back at the harmonizer control panel. I immediately started throwing blasts their way. They quickly scattered. Then a plan started to formulate in my mind. "Jevic!" I called out over the sounds of the battle.

"What Cameron?"

"What would happen if I destroyed the harmonizer?"

"I-I don't know. It could be real bad."

"I'm going to communicate with your dad and see what he says."

"OK." I concentrated on Paulik and called out to him.

"I'm here Cameron. Are you OK? I haven't seen you for awhile."

"I'm fine. Tell me something. What would happen if I destroyed the harmonizer?"

"Oh God, that could be bad, real bad. There's force generators that could unleash a horrific wave of energy. It could be devastating."

"Can you think of a better idea to bring this to a stop?"

"No Cameron, I wish I could, but I can't."

"Clear your men out Paulik. I'm gonna hit it hard."

"OK Cameron, I'll let you know when we're clear." All three of us watched from the observation deck as the Watcher forces started retreating. The Talons let out a cheer and pursued the Watchers out of the main engineering section. Suddenly it hit me.

"Jevic, where's Scott and Brandon?" I asked.

"I don't know Cameron. We were all blindfolded."

"Try to make contact with Scott. My tingling is rising for this. I don't have time."

"No problem." Talon forces had already gathered around the harmonizer control panel again. This time, I didn't hit them. I wanted more and more of them to gather. I looked down and saw Garen directly in front of the panel.

"Cameron! We're clear!" called out Paulik in my mind.

"OK, here goes," I said back. I looked at Shane and Jevic and nodded. They both nodded back. I looked down at the harmonizer and purposefully revved up my tingling. This needed to be a precision hit and it needed to be a hard hit. I literally started to get hot. Physically hot. I was sweating. The energy I was building up inside of me was getting hotter. The time to strike was now. I unleashed an incredible surge that blasted it's way down to the harmonizer. I scored a direct hit. At first, nothing happened. I mean ... nothing. I looked at Jevic.

"Well," he said.

"I hit it as hard as I could," I answered. That's when the whole complex slowly started to shake. I looked back over at Jevic and Shane.

"We better get outta here!" I screamed. They both nodded and we headed for the hatch. Shane took the lead. Jevic and I followed him down through the passageway. We were being thrown against the walls as the entire complex shook down to it's very core. We finally came out at the main passageway and started our way up. The shaking finally eased off, but I had a real uneasy feeling. The wind suddenly picked up in the passageway.

"We need to hurry!" I yelled. Shane was running with Jevic and I right on his heels. A roar slowly built up behind us. "Hurry! This is gonna be bad!" I yelled. We emerged from the hatch and immediately headed for the main level. A suddenly crashing sound made me turn and look back. Water smashed through the hatch and started filling the corridor.

"Quick, in here!" yelled Shane. We ducked into another hatch and Shane slammed it closed behind us. He quickly turned the locking gear to secure the hatch. We could hear the water rushing by. Thankfully, the hatch held and the swift current raced right by. "This passageway leads up to the main level. Hurry and follow me." I glanced at Jevic. He looked worried. I knew I was worried.

The main engineering section was shaking violently. Garen grabbed the harmonizer console for support. He glanced around and saw the terror in his men's eyes. Sparks suddenly flew out from the console and bolts of electricity raced up Garen's arms, quickly consuming his whole body. In moments, there was nothing left but his charred remains. His men started running for their lives, but the floor of the engineering section gave way and fell toward the ocean bottom. The sea swelled in and swallowed them up. In an instant, the whole of the Talon army was entombed in a watery grave.

Joel rounded up his men and headed up through the corridors toward the main level. They ran at full speed trying to escape the wall of water that pursued them. Joel directed them to the escape pods placed strategically throughout the complex. He called the shelters on his portable communicator ordering a full-scale evacuation. People were scrambling to escape the onslaught on seawater, now racing through the complex. Hundreds of Watchers were scrambling into escape pods and heading for the surface.

Joel and Paulik finally reached their own escape pod. They paused and looked back ... to take one last look at their home. The seawater was rapidly rising, moving into places that once were homes, living rooms, bedrooms and places of peace and relaxation. The complex shook violently again and was accompanied by a sickening sound as the entire structure slowly slid over to one side and crashed heavily onto the ocean floor. Joel and Paulik, both with tears in their eyes, quickly darted into the last escape pod and started their journey toward the surface. They could only hope that everyone got out.

The icy ocean water moved in rapidly and reclaimed what was once it's own, swirling and filling everything in its path. Destruction, devastation and hundreds of bodies were all that remained.

Water came crashing down on us. The sound was so loud that we couldn't talk. I looked up and saw legs scrambling into a side passageway. Motioning for Jevic to follow, I pulled myself into the opening.

"Come on Cameron! There's an escape pod just along the passageway," Shane called out to me. I reached back and grabbed Jevic's hand pulling him into the passageway and out of the torrent of falling water. We all crawled ahead on our hands and knees and eventually came to a small room.

"DAMN!" yelled Shane in frustration.

"What?" I asked.

"The escape pod is gone," said Jevic just as water started to come into the room from the passageway we just exited. This didn't look good.

"What are we gonna do?" I yelled. Shane shrugged. I looked at Jevic. He said nothing and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in tight. No, it can't end this way. There's got to be something we can do. Shane came over and hugged us both. Here we stood with cold seawater rapidly filling the small room. There was no escape. Suddenly, the whole room started shaking. There was a terrible sound and the room shifted violently to one side, ending up on a forty-five degree angle. We all ended up in a heap in the cold water. I looked up where the escape pod had been. The inner door had slightly jarred open. I could see something hanging on the wall that looked like coveralls.

"Look, up there. What's that?" I yelled.

"Diving gear!" yelled an excited Shane. We all scrambled up toward the door as quickly as possible. Shane reached through the small opening and grabbed three suits. Jevic helped me with mine while Shane got into his. In no time flat, we were all suited up.

"How do we get out of here Shane?" asked Jevic, yelling over the roar of the incoming water, which was now up to our chests. Shane waved him over. Together, they started to turn a giant valve. As they turned it, the inner door of the escape pod bay opened wider. The water continued to rise and before we knew what happened, it had covered us. The room was completely flooded. Jevic and Shane continued to turn the value until finally, there was enough room for us to slip past the inner door. Once inside the empty escape pod bay, there was only one wall separating us from the outside undersea world.

"Cameron, can you knock a hole in the wall big enough for us to swim through?" asked Jevic telepathically.

"I-I don't know. We'll need a good sized hole and its real close."

"That's the only way out Cameron. You've got to do your best," he pleaded.

"OK, but get behind me and lets get back as far as possible." Jevic grabbed Shane and pulled him in behind me. We backed up against the farthest wall. "Here goes," I said as I started charging up my tingling. I concentrated on the center of the wall and threw out a blast. It poked about a foot wide hole in the metal. I held my arms out and around Jevic and Shane, keeping them back and tried again. I charged up my tingling even stronger and belted out a strong blast. It shook the pod bay violently. I quickly turned my face and covered my eyes. When I looked back, the entire wall was gone. Before us was the wide open ocean.

"Great Cameron!" cried Jevic. "Come on, let's swim to the surface."

"Wait Jevic," said Shane.

"What?"

"My suit indicates I have about ten minutes of air. What does your suit read?" Jevic looked at the indicator.

"Fifteen," he said. "It'll take at least a half hour to reach the surface. Cameron, look at the readout on the left side of your face shield. What does it say?" I looked and sure enough, there was what appeared to be a red LED readout.

"It says an hour and a half."

"You're suit is fully charged," said Shane. I suddenly realized the implications of the conversation we were having.

"NO! There's gotta be another way!" I screamed out in my head. I quickly looked around the ocean floor. About four hundred yards away to my left was the Talon flagship. "THERE!" I yelled. Shane and Jevic looked in the direction I was pointing. Then they looked at each other.

"There's probably Talon soldiers on board," said Shane.

"What do you want?" I screamed. "To die or be captured? Besides, I've got my tingling and I'm just about pissed off enough to take on an entire army of Talons. Come on, let's go!" I started out toward the ship. Shane and Jevic were close behind. There was virtually no current, so making our way there was easy. I could see a few bodies on the ocean floor next the to complex. It was our first opportunity to see the damage, and it was horrible. The whole structure had collapsed on one side. Air bubbles streamed out of the top, making their way toward the surface.

"The access to the ship should be at the bow, just under the bridge," Jevic said telepathically. We slowly made our way in that direction.

"How much air do you have Shane?" I called out.

"I'm down to under a minute."

"OK guys, we've got to hurry." We made it to the access and found it open. Thank God. Shane went in first, followed closely by Jevic and I followed up the rear. Shane was already at the control panel punching in some codes. He was running out of air. The access panel slid closed and the water slowly started to recede. I went over to Shane and grabbed him by the shoulders, looking him in the eye. "Hang on," I said. He was gasping. The second the water cleared our heads I pulled his mask off. He gulped in the fresh air. I pulled my mask off and so did Jevic.

"That," gasp, "that was," gasp, "close," Shane managed to get out.

"Too close," I said. Jevic moved over to the door of the air lock and started working the control panel to open the inner door. I helped Shane over to the door.

"Ready?" Jevic said looking back at us. We both nodded. He punched in the last code and the door slid open. The dive room was deserted. We made our way in and got out of our suits.

"Let's go to the bridge," Jevic said.

"OK, but let's be real quiet. If there are Talons on board, they won't like to see us," Shane said.

"I'm ready for 'em," I said. With that, we started through the darkened corridors, making our way for the bridge. At every turn, we paused and checked. Still no one was to be seen.

"Freeze!" came a voice from behind us. "Nobody move a muscle." I suddenly heard sounds of a struggle behind me. Then the distinctive sound of a body hitting the floor. I froze like a deer in headlights ... afraid of what I would see if I turned around. Then Jevic walked by Shane and me, stopped and turned to look at us.

"You two coming or what?" he said. I quickly turned around and saw a Talon soldier on the floor, unconscious. Glancing back up at Jevic, I saw the smirk on his face slowly grow into a big smile. "What do you think I am? A big old wimp?" I couldn't help but grin back at him.

"Jevic, if anybody knows you're not a wimp, its me," I said as I put my hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's go to the bridge."

"I think you need to stay right where you are," said a strange voice from behind me. I turned around to see three Talon soldiers aiming Quantum Laser pistols directly at us. My tingling quickly rose and put up a shield to protect us. I narrowed my eyes on the middle soldier's weapon. This time, I decided to concentrate on 'heat.' I literally thought heat and the weapon immediately turned cherry red and melted. The soldier quickly grabbed his hand and screamed out in pain. The other two soldiers opened fire, but the Quantum pulses were deflected by my tingling's shield. I refocused my thoughts and concentrated hard on all three soldiers. In seconds, they vaporized. I quickly turned to my companions.

"Is everybody OK?" I asked.

"No matter how many times I see you do that, it still scares the shit out of me," said Shane.

"It scares the shit out of me too," I said. "Come on, let's get to the bridge."

"What about the guy I knocked out?" asked Jevic. Shane darted into a nearby door and came back out with a roll of something.

"What's that," I asked.

"Duct tape. It has two thousand and one uses, including tying somebody up," said Shane smiling.

Finally, we entered the command bridge of the Talon flagship. Shane walked over to a console and punched in a few codes.

"What are you doing?" asked Jevic. "You might set off an alarm." Shane grinned.

"We have these same controls ..." he paused and looked up. "Had these same controls in engineering," he said, correcting himself. "This is the ship's sensor control station. I'm scanning the ship for life forms." He peered at the readout for a moment and then his eyes lit up. "I'm only showing two other life forms. They're in the holding facility."

"The holding facility?" I asked.

"Jail," said Jevic. It took a second, but realization suddenly hit me and I turned to Jevic. It must have hit him at the same time.

"Scott and Brandon?" we both said.

"Your human friends?" asked Shane.

"Yeah, let's go check," I said heading for the door with Jevic on my heels. Then I stopped and turned back to Shane. "Do you know how to get there?" He held up a finger indicating for us to wait. He punched in some more commands into the console and a diagram of the ship popped up on the monitor. He studied it a moment and then turned to us.

"Got it, let's go." And out the door we went, once again making our way down the dimly lit corridors. We seemed to walk forever, going deeper and deeper into the bowels of the ship. Finally, we arrived. All of the cell doors were open except for one and it was locked tight.

"Stand back," I said. I hit the lock with a tingling blast and it blew apart. The door opened slightly. Jevic pulled it open and we looked inside the dark room. Huddled in the corner, were two figures. "Scott? Brandon?" I said.

"C-Cameron? Cameron!" Brandon yelled. They jumped up and ran over and started hugging me. Jevic and Shane watched and grinned. I don't think I have ever seen two happier people than Scott and Brandon. As we all walked back toward the bridge, Jevic, Shane and I filled them in on what had happened. I was surprised by how well they understood. I guess when it comes to battle, whether its past, present or future, the consequences are the same.

When we walked onto the bridge, Shane walked to the center of the room and turned to face us.

"Gentlemen, welcome to the command bridge of a Colonial Cruiser Class ship. At ten thousand tons, she has a crew of just over a hundred, but can easily transport up to five hundred people. She features a full compliment of weapons, including Quantum Laser Turrets and torpedoes, plus there's three shuttle bays, state-of-the-art Mercurite Reactive Armour, fully operational masking capability, short and long range sensors, and light jump drives."

"So, what you're saying is this is one bad ass battleship?" asked Scott smiling.

"I guess you could say that." We settled down in the bridge and began to contemplate our next move.

"Where do the escape pods go?" I asked.

"They go straight to the surface," answered Shane.

"Then that's where we need to go," I said. "Can you run this thing?"

"Sure. Its pretty basic stuff."

"Great! Let's get up there and pick up survivors," said Jevic. "I hope dad and Joel are among them." I squeezed his arm and smiled.

"I'm sure they are baby. Don't worry." I tried to comfort him, but I was just as worried as he was.

Shane walked over to the command station and entered some commands. The lights came up and I could feel the engines powering up. Then he waked back over to the sensor control station. He called Jevic over and explained how the station worked. I'll have to give Shane the nod. He thought of everything. He explained that there still might be other Talon ships that might question the flagship's movements. When he sat down in front of the pilot station, he looked around the room.

"Everybody ready?" We all nodded. Shane turned back to the console, entered some commands and we started to move upward and then forward. Suddenly, a flashing red light appeared at another station.

"Somebody's out there," called out Jevic while peering at the sensor screen. Shane looked over at Jevic and his eye caught the flashing red light on another console.

"And that somebody's giving us a call," he said nodded toward the flashing light. "That's the communication console. Somebody wanna answer that call?" he asked grinning.

"I'll do it," I said walking over to the console.

"Push the button just under the flashing light and talk," Shane directed.

"What are you going to say?" asked Jevic. I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't know. What should I say?"

"Tell them we're going to the surface to look for survivors," suggested Brandon. Jevic grinned and Shane gave a thumbs up. I reached out and pushed the button.

"We're going to the surface to look for survivors," I said and then released the button.

"Who are you?" came a voice.

"Now what?" I asked. Brandon jumped up and joined me.

"Let me talk to 'em," he said. I stepped back and Brandon pushed the button.

"I'm just a junior officer. All our bridge crew's been killed," he said.

"Stop your engines. We're sending over a squad to help," came the response.

"Shit! Now what?" I asked.

"Somebody's going to have to man the weapons console," said Shane and he nodded toward another console. Scott jumped up and headed over to it. He studied it for a moment, and then looked up.

"Piece of cake," he said as he slid into the chair.

"Are you sure?" asked Shane.

"I've played enough video games to know how this works," Scott said confidently.

"That's good," said Shane. "Just remember that this is for real." Brandon pushed the communications button again.

"Fuck off Talon scum," he said calmly.

"Jevic, tell me where they are," called out Shane.

"They're about a thousand yards directly behind us." Scott grabbed the joystick on the console and zeroed in on the pursuing ship.

"Scott, the range on those weapons is only five hundred yards. I'd wait until we're within four hundred just to be safe," directed Shane. Scott nodded as Shane brought us around to an intercept course with the Talon Battle Escort.

"Nine hundred yards and closing," Jevic called out. "Eight hundred and the sensors show that they are powering up their weapons."

"Brandon!" called out Shane. Brandon looked up. "There's a console just to your left. It's the ship's defense console. You should be able to figure out how to put up the defense grid." Brandon sat down at the console and went to work.

"Six hundred yards," called out Jevic.

"I'm powering up the weapons," called out Scott.

"Defense grid on line," called out Brandon. I sat down in the commander's seat and watched in amazement. I could make out the lights on the oncoming ship through the giant view port in front of us.

"Five hundred yards. They're in range!" called out Jevic. Then a bright burst of light came from the front of the ship. "They've fired and we're at four hundred fifty yards!" Our ship rocked violently from the hit, but we continued on course.

"The defense grid's holding," called out Brandon.

"Four hundred yards!"

"Fire Scott! Fire!" called out Shane. Scott zeroed in and fired. The Quantum Laser Turrets on the front of the ship blasted out thick red beams of pure Quantum Laser energy. Just for good measure, Scott fired again. Two more direct hits! We had damaged the ship. Shane swooped the giant Colonial Cruiser up and around behind the smaller Talon Battle Escort ship. Scott zeroed in and fired two more blasts. The Talon ship seemed to shudder for a moment, then exploded into a great ball of debris.

"Got 'em!" exclaimed an excited Scott. Shane turned sharply and nosed us up to avoid the wreckage.

"Way to go Scott!" I yelled. He turned and looked at me with a thumbs up and a great big grin. Shane continued to nose our ship upward.

"We'll be on the surface in about ten minutes," he said, finally relaxing in his seat.

"The sensors don't show anything else. I guess we're in the clear," said Jevic. I walked over to him and put my arms around him. We hugged tightly. I looked into those big beautiful eyes that I had missed him so much. He leaned forward and our lips met. We kissed passionately. I looked over and saw Scott and Brandon doing the same thing. Shane just sat in his seat and grinned.

"You guys need to get a room," Shane said. We laughed along with him, but then I went over and gave him a great big hug. The sight of his face when I first found him with his parents had etched itself into my memory. I was determined that he would not be left alone; that he would always have someone there for him; and right now, that person would be me. We settled back in our chairs and watched for any signs of the surface. We were all quiet. No words spoken. I guess each one of us was still trying to absorb everything that had happened. As the glow of the sunshine slowly started to get brighter, we started to get anxious, especially Jevic.

"Jevic, scan the surface. We don't want to hit anybody," said Shane. Jevic went over to the sensor station and scanned the surface.

"I'm showing multiple objects and lots of life signs," he said excitedly. "Move to the right a little and we should be clear of anyone." Shane maneuvered the ship slightly to the right. "That's good," said Jevic. Shane slowed us down and then we broke the surface. In front of us were hundreds of escape pods bobbing gently up and down.

"They're gonna think we're Talons," I said. Shane glanced over at me.

"You're right. We need to go up top," he said standing and heading for the door. We all got up and followed. A short way down the corridor, Shane opened a door. We followed him up the spiral staircase to a hatch that he easily opened. The bright sunshine streamed in. All of us were blinking, trying to adjust to the bright light. Shane crawled out first, and the rest of us followed. Jevic and I scanned the water looking for any sign of Paulik and Joel.

"There!" called out Shane. We both looked in the direction he was pointing. About two hundred feet away, we saw them. Joel and Paulik were standing in the hatch of their pod waving. We all waved back. Other people started to emerge from their pods and waved too. It was awesome! The recover effort proceeded and the former Talon flagship soon became the temporary home to hundreds of Watchers. Jevic grinned and pointed out to his right. I looked in the direction he was pointing. There in the middle of water bobbed a very disgusted Kibbeth. We quickly pointed him out to several security personnel and they set out to bring him in. When every survivor had been taken on board, the tally showed a significant loss of life. From a population of over twelve hundred Watchers, four hundred and eighty-six survived. The Talon force of over three hundred had been reduced to twenty-three. Those of us that survived counted our blessings. Those that didn't were remembered and eulogized.

All of the boys ... Scott, Brandon, Shane, Jevic and myself ... were asked to meet with the council. Paulik and Joel were there too. We each took our turns explaining everything that had happened that day. Finally, when Brandon finished his part of the explanation, Bauer slowly stood up. He looked at each one of us intently.

"Please join me," he said. Bauer walked through a doorway into the large common area of the ship where the majority of survivors were. The other council members, Joel, Paulik, and us followed. He walked to the front of the room and up to a small makeshift podium. Everyone calmed down to listen.

"Today is truly a sad day in our history. We have lost husbands, wives, sons and daughters, friends and companions. We grieve their loss, but their memories will warm our hearts for years and years to come. Our loss was not limited to lives for we have also lost our home. Our very existence was put to the extreme test today. Without the heroics of some of our youth and their human friends, things could be much worse." The crowd murmured at the mention of humans. Bauer smiled at us and waved us over. All five of us joined him at the podium. The crowd calmed down. "My friends, I want you to meet a very special group of people. This is Brandon and this is Scott. They are human, but they put their very lives on the line for us. They were imprisoned not once, but twice by the Talons. Still, they persevered. And over here is Shane. Today he lost his entire family, but he provided the technical expertise and the leadership to the group to get them through. And Jevic, Paulik's son, was held hostage with a weapon pointed at his head by his own uncle, who is Kibbeth, leader of the Talons." Another rise of murmurs rose from the crowd. "He stood by his companion and this group and never gave up. And then there's Cameron." Bauer pulled me up close and put his arm around my shoulder. He looked down at me and smiled. Looking back up, he continued. "Cameron is an amazing person. His heritage of a human father and a Watcher mother has blessed him with extraordinary powers. He only came to know of this a short time ago. In that short time, he has demonstrated not only his abilities with wonderful powers, he has demonstrated something he learned growing up as a human, and that's compassion. Cameron has continually put others first. He fought bravely against the Talons, killing many of them single handedly. The survival of the Watchers has been his priority with disregard for personal safety. I can't think of any better example of the Watcher belief that the humans will be good stewards of our planet. What this young man, in fact, all these young men did today is extraordinary and no doubt you will be hearing the details of it. But for now, suffice it to say that the majority of us owe our very lives to these young men." The crowd broke into a thunderous applause. Many people thanked us as we made our way out of the room. Scott and Brandon received a lot of handshakes and pats on the back. They were smiling broadly. We all made our way to the quarters we had been assigned. Shane headed toward his uncle's quarters after giving us all a big hug. I was sorry to see him go, but I knew that I had a very close friend in Shane. We followed Jevic down the corridor. Joel had given him directions to the quarters that we would share with Scott and Brandon. When we reached the door, Jevic opened it. We walked in and looked around. It was gonna be a tight fit. There was a small closet, a view port and two bunks.

"Looks like you two are gonna be sleeping together," I said. Scott smiled and put his arm around Brandon.

"Its not like we haven't before," he said as he smiled at Brandon. They kissed gently. I was so glad to see them both happy. I reached for Jevic and pulled him into a hug. We watched as the gentle kissing of our friends turned more urgent.

"I think we're going to go topside and watch the sun set. You guys wanna go?" I asked. They didn't even bother coming up for air. I looked at Jevic. He grinned and nodded for the door. We walked up to the top of the ship and sat down to watch the sun set. There were quite a few people there. I guess living under the sea, you don't get the opportunity to see a sunset very often. Joel and Paulik were there as well. It was the first time that I had seen them 'together.' Joel was sitting with his legs spread and Paulik sat between them leaning back on Joel's strong chest. They looked good together. Jevic and I sat in a similar position and I laid my head back on Jevic's shoulder. The golden sun slowly turned fiery red. I turned my head and looked up at Jevic. He looked down at me and our lips met. He is so wonderful. I looked over at Paulik and Joel and they were looking at us grinning. We smiled back.

As the horizon darkened, having swallowed up the sun, Joel, now in command, ordered the ship to submerge. As she slipped beneath the waves, we started a new voyage; a voyage of rebuilding, a voyage of continued discovery, a voyage to find a new home.

The Watchers is © 2003 by The Tarheel Writer.
    This work may not be duplicated in any form (physical, electronic, audio, or otherwise) without the author's written permission. All applicable copyright laws apply. All individuals depicted are fictional with any resemblance to real persons being purely coincidental.

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