Battle stations!

Before you and Elise can proceed to do anything else, the ship's alarm sounds, and the com suddenly hums to life. "Battle stations! All hands to battle stations! Captain to the bridge!"

"What in the devil is going on?" Elise says as she grabs her clothes, throwing them on as quick as possible. "Hurry and get dressed, you're with me!"

You do, and both of you quickly exit Elise's quarters and make your way to the bridge. Elise takes the center seat amidst all the action. "View screen on!" she orders. As it flickers to life, you can see what all the ruckus is about. Not one, but three Denivian slaver ships have the Swift Night surrounded. Elise looks around, quite worried. "Slavers!" she exclaims. "We've been caught with our pants down." She looks over at her young Telosian communications officer, Rin Su Dax. "Hail them. Let's see what they want. Maybe we can deal with them instead of fighting them this time."

"I'm hailing the lead ship now, Captain" the beautiful Rin replies as her fingers dance gracefully over her console. Meanwhile Elise is busy on the com talking with the engine room. "Can we make a hyper jump?" The engineer's voice crackles back "In a few minutes! The fuel mixture has to heat up. I told you we should have picked up that inducer on Optimus Prime!" Elise sighs and rubs her forehead. "Just do the best you can, chief. I'll stall for as much time as I can."

"I have the commander of the Denivian fleet, Captain" the purple haired, pink eyed Rin says. "He wishes to discuss terms of our surrender."

"Put him on screen, Rin" Elise calmly says. "Do it while we still have time."

"What are you planning on doing?" you ask Elise.

"Right now? stall for time" Elise whispers. "Talking is our best option right now. We won't win a fight, that's for sure. Sure we have defensive weapons, but I'm not sure how they'll fair against to Denivian shields. I know our shields won't hold off three attacking vessels. We have to buy time for the engines to come on line. Then, hopefully we'll catch them off guard, and slip into hyper space right under their noses."

The image on the view screen suddenly changes. Instead of three imposing slaver ships, the image of a blue skinned, horned Denivian appears. Elise rises from her seat, startled by the image before her. "Targ!" she exclaims. "What is the meaning of this?"

You get the impression there's something Elise isn't telling.

"Yes, my old friend Elise, it is non other than I" the Denivian grins a sharp toothed grin. His piercing yellow eyes seem to stare through you. His black beard, and black hair are wildly unkempt, and every facial expression he makes echoes his aggressive nature. "Don't bother trying to escape this time, Elise. We have you at quite a disadvantage. I learned that lesson the last time we met." He smiles evilly.

"Captain, three more Denivian ships have just dropped from hyper space" says the tactical officer. "They're taking up positions to our rear, over top of us, and underneath us."

Elise sighs heavily. "We surrender. What is it you want?"