Chapter 1--The Hunt

It's been about a year since Drako had left the lab, and I had missed him dearly. Jake has been agitated about something lately. To make matters worse, he's been taking it out on me and the young.

"If he didn't get away, we wouldn't have to deal with them!!!" Jake hollard, lashing me with his bull whip. "I'm still dying to know what idiot was on guard duty that night!!!"

The head admin of the project has been staying at the lab, ever since Drako got away. I didn't want to stop him. I wanted him to be happy. The admin is pissed, mainly because they may have to admit the "mistake" when they introduce us to the public. It was June 10, and only 10 more days before the introductions were to happen. Jake then stormed into the security office.

Shortly after, a couple of the head admin came to me.

"Mina," Sara said. "Are you alright?"

Sara was young, I'd say about 20. She had flowing blond hair. Probably one of the nicest ops I've met. She began to tend to my wounds.

"Jake seriously caused some harm." she stated. "These wounds are real deep."

I watched as she pulled out a med kit. She took out a damp t owlet as well, padding it on the wounds. It stung a little, and I sorta flinched.

"I'm sorry, Mina," she replied.

It was alright I knew she was only trying to help.

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The search for the captain had been difficult, and it still is. The Federation had all but given up hope. We began our search when we received word that he had escaped. That was six months ago. Diane was not willing to give up.

"Listen," Diane started her speech on the com. "We have all served under his command. We will not give up until either we find him, or we find his body. The NorthStar will fly under his command again, I can tell. So lets get it in gear and find him already!!"

The ship had been quiet since he left. The Renegades were no longer interested in the Federation, or the ship. We were in orbit at QueTal, a planet about 75 light years from Earth. It only took us about two hours to get back to earth, but apparently it was too late. Well, J-Mac's logic worked. The best way to hide, is to really hide. Hell, he was even hiding from us.

Our journey home didn't go unnoticed. They knew that we now knew of his escape, and that we were on our way back. Our guess was that they thought we knew where he was, so we were going to retrieve him. Little did they know that we had no idea where to start looking.

Even still, the Renegades were waiting for us when we arrived. Before I even had the chance to raise alerts, we were boarded.

"Security Alert..Renegades have boarded." I declared over the com.

3...2....1

"Dammit Pat," Diane yelled. "What happened."

"Ma'am," I replied. "The ships were cloaked, I didn't see this coming."

Just like clockwork. Hell, why do we need J-Mac back? She's just as bad, but of course I won't admit that to her.

"Where is he?" one of the Renegades, Dre, demanded.

"We do not know.." Diane replied.

"You do, and you're not telling us."

Ok now he had a blade to her throat. That was a bad decision, for him. I watched as Stephen teleported onto the bridge and quickly used psychic to pin the Renegades to the wall. Shortly after, a phaser appeared in his paw. He shot all of them dead, except for Dre.

"A message to your leaders." Stephen growled. "You will live, only to tell them that we have come to find our captain. When he is back on the bridge, we will fight to keep him, and anyone who dares to take him from us again, we will destroy them."

Stephen finished his message, and shot Dre in the gut. He then transported Dre back to a Renegade ship. Talk about anger issues, but of course, I'm keeping my micro-processors out of it.

Since this whole little issue, we have been trying to find J-Mac, with no success. Six months without any returns. I understood why Diane was itching to get in gear. We were gonna need a miracle to find him. Little did we realize how close that miracle was.