Gall Force:  The Day After
By Fred Herriot
450 Clare Avenue South, Welland, Ontario L3C 3B3 Canada
gorgo@net.co.kr
**** **** ****
Based on the "Gall Force" series created by MOVIC.
**** **** ****

NOTE:  This is a fan-fiction story written by a "Gall Force" fan for the
enjoyment of both other "Gall Force" fans and anime fans in general.  It is
not intended to act as a part of the official "Gall Force" continuity, nor
is it intented to infringe on the rights of all legal copyright holders,
including CBS-Sony Group, MOVIC and US Manga Corps/Central Park Media.
Permission to re-transmit this story through the Internet; to file this
story in Usenet ftp and other archives; and to print this story for
distribution in fan fiction magazines and APAs granted.  Full creative
credit is appreciated, though.

**** **** ****

PART ELEVEN - ALLIES

"The Paranoid are here?!!" Lufy exclaims.

 Everyone stares disbelievingly at Patty as they conviene in the living room
of their apartment building after returning from Mardi Gras.  Patty held off
on telling people about her encounter with Commander Dawn until her new
friend Darlene, now under Amy's care in the makeshift nurse's station, was
treated for her addiction.  "Yes," the combat officer nods.  "One battleship."

 "Well, if Commander Dawn is its captain, then we've got all the help we
could ask for," Shildy muses.

 "I take it this chap is well respected among your people," Chet muses.
"Sort of like the way we used to admire General Rommell."

 "Very much so," the Solnoid intelligence officer nods.  "Along with his
work with Project:  Exodermus, he commanded several fleet actions prior to
the destruction of our homeworlds.  Further, he spoke out against the
commissioning of the Planet Destroyers.  To those of us who long wished for
peace, Dawn is a name worthy of respect."

 "The beginning of the day," Derek muses, translating the Paranoid's name.
"And now, the beginning of final peace between Solnoid and Paranoid."

 "We're making a lot of assumptions here, guys," Lufy warns.

 "Yes, but we need to have faith," Eluza counters, then turns to Catty.
"Signal your sisters.  Appraise them of the situation.  I'm sure Captain
Nebulart will want to know about this."

 "Immediately," the android rises and heads to the computer room.  Sitting
at her terminal, she calls up the Cancom program.  A message is waiting for
her.  "Perhaps they already know," she muses as she calls up the mesage.

 Denise walks in at that time.  "Hey, Catty, how's our new...eh?!" the
waitress stops.

 In front of Catty's eyes, the computer screen flashes a mad mosaic of
colours.  Denise looks confused, but the hypnotized stare on Catty's face
told her everything.  Leaping over, she shuts off the computer screen, then
turns around to shake her lover.  "Catty!  Catty!!  Wake up!  Catty!!!"

 The android shakes herself, then blankly stares at Denise.  "Wh-what
happened?" she moans.

 "You were hypnotized," Denise gasps.  "Are you alright?!"

 Catty shakes her head, then horror crosses her face.  "That was a visual
computer virus someone sent me!"

 "What?!!"

 Catty resets the computer, erasing the data still ready for projection,
then reboots the machine.  "Someone attempted to hypnotize me into shutting
myself down, then fusing all my circuits!" she gasps, the horror of what
nearly happened to her now coming to light.  "Someone tried to kill me,
Denise!!"

 "What was that?!!" Shildy gasps as everyone runs into the computer room,
reacting to Denise's earlier scream.

 Denise explains what happened.  Steve takes the seat as he calls up Catty's
e-mail.  "According to this, the message was sent by someone at
Solnoid.Home2@Worldcom.com," the computer science student looks at the
android.  "And you weren't the only addressee, Catty.  There are eighty-five
other places this is going to."

 "Eighty-six living Catty androids," Rabby gasps, the horror of what is
probably happening around the world coming to her.

 "No!!!" Catty grips her head.  "This can't be happening!!"

 "Where is that place?!" Lufy growls.

 The android tearily stares at the Attacker.  "It's a remote base in the
South Pacific, in French Polynesia near Tahiti.  It's a research base for
the Chaos Foundation...as well as a storage depot for Solnoid weapons and
equipment."

 Eluza looks grim.  "The perfect place to start seizing control of Earth.
And now there's the perfect excuse.  The Paranoid are here!"

 "There's another message coming in from Solnoid.Home2," Steve warns.

 "Catty, step outside," Shildy advises as Steve calls up the message.

 The message, a plain text one, appears.  "It says 'To all loyal daughters
of Malthus.  Arise!  The time has come for us to reclaim our place in the
stars.  Our leader, Journey, who because of her people's love for her,
survived the shame of Sigma Narse, has returned to lead us to a new destiny.
The mechanical watchdogs of the traitor Nebulart are dead.  The slaves of
the Terrans are powerless.  Rise and reclaim your birthright.  This world is
ours, but a new Malthus awaits us if we but take the chance.  The time has
come!'"

 "Shades of Hitler rising from the grave," Derek grimly sighs.

 "Journey's alive?!" Patty gasps.

 "Good!" Miti snarls.  "I'll kill the slut yet!!"

 Eluza turns to look at her people.  "Are we ready?!"

 The Solnoids and Terrans nod.  "Just a sec'," Lufy walks to the computer
screen.  Calling up the reply option, she taps a message, then transmits it.
"There!  War's been declared!"

 "What did you say?!" Rabby looks confused, then turns to the screen.
Everyone looks as they read the message:

From:   CNebulart8@Cancom.com
To: Solnoid.Home2@Worldcom.com

"John McRae wrote in his poem 'Take up the quarrel with the Foe.'

Our foe is YOU!

Your ass is grass and we're the lawnmowers.

The Gallant Force."

 A devilish glare on her face, the Attacker nods outside.  "I'm in the mood
to hunt!  Let's go!!"

 The others cheer...

    *    *    *

 "Mr. Secretary-General, how could you have permitted this matter to go
unobstructed for so long?!" the President of the United States demands from
the Oval Office in Washington.

 Likewise demands echo from the prime ministers of Russia and Great Britain,
the president of France and the premier of China.  "The situation is not as
bad as it seems, honoured gentlemen," the leader of the United Nations
replies.  "The rebellious Solnoids have somehow acquired a leader.  But they
are small in number and easily contained.  Further, the Paranoid commander
is most decidedly on our side.  And we have a force now preparing to deploy
to French Polynesia to dispose of these miscreants.  The matter will be
resolved in a day."

 "Forgive us if we do not share such optimism, sir," the British prime
minister adjusts his glasses.  "The technological distance between ourselves
and Captain Nebulart's rebellious fellow countrywomen is appalling and may I
remind you that there is no love lost between Solnoid and Paranoid."

 "You are correct, Mr. Prime Minister," Catty Nebulart sighs.  "But, there
is something you do not know of the Paranoid.  Commander Dawn is not only
Commander Galt's former adjudant, he is Commander Galt's very own offspring.
For a Paranoid to be willing to allow his only child to proceed into hostile
territory on something which did not have the absolute guarantee of success
is an extraordinary act on its own.  Commander Dawn and his men are all
volunteers, gentlemen.  They cannot go back to their own people."

 "Then they have nothing to lose," the French president sighs.  "Forgive us,
Captain.  We are not used to losing control of any sort of situation.  It is
quite...galling."

 "As it is for myself, M'sieur President," the Solnoid leader nods.

 "This...Gallant Force of yours," the Russian prime minister cuts in.  "They
are heroes of your people, yes?"

 "Da," Nebulart nods.  "If you wish, gentlemen, I have prepared dossiers on
each of them for your perusal.  We may transmit them to yourselves and the
other world leaders as we speak."

 "We'd like to see them," the American president nods.  "In the meantime, we
have taken the liberty of dispatching a B-2 bomber to this base.  It is
armed with four fifty kiloton nuclear warheads.  If your troops fail,
Captain, we shall do as we see fit."

 Nebulart nods as communications are severed with the leaders of the world's
five nuclear powers.  "Insanity," she mutters, then looks over.  "How is
she, Scarlett?"

 The veteran soldier looks up, shaking her head.  "She's in a bad way, boss.
Her control circuits are fused and there's no way we can get at her
neuroprocessors.  Her mind's intact, but there's no way to get it out."

 Nebulart stares at the red-haired woman now passed out on the floor, her
circuit access hatches on the chest and arms open, revealing a mess no
mechanic would want to take a chance at fixing.  Kneeling beside her, the
captain reaches over to close the blank gold eyes which are the only hint
that this android was once one of her many doubles.  "Mother, take care of
them," she claps her hands in prayer.  "They are as much my children as if I
had birthed them myself.  Treat them with kindness."

 A signal arrives.  "Captain," a male technician looks over.  "It's
Commander Dawn.  He wants to know what is happening."

 Nebulart does not move.  Scarlett stands, then walks over.  "I'll take the
message," she smiles.

 The technician looks confused.  "But...they were only androids," he mutters.

 Scarlett pats his shoulder.  "You had to know them, kid.  They were a lot
more than that."

    *    *    *

 "Commander, what has happened?" Dawn demands.  "Where is Captain Nebulart?"

 "She's mourning right now, Commander," Scarlett looks down, a tear in her
eye.  "The bastards in Polynesia sent a virus that fried the circuits of all
the Catty droids we had left.  It hit her pretty hard.  They're her kids,
y'know."

 Dawn's eyes close.  His father, three million years ago and many
kiloparsecs away, was probably feeling the same sorrow as the Solnoid
commander.  "I do understand, Commander.  Tell the captain not to fret.  We
have something which may help them, if their neuroprocessors are not
damaged.  In the meantime, who has taken command of the rebel forces in
Polynesia?"

 "Supposedly Journey herself," Scarlett snorts.  "Must be some whacko out to
stir up the troops.  This planet can really produce them."

 "Indeed," the Paranoid's eyes narrow.  "Then this new Journey shall meet
the same fate as the original."  He looks to his acting first officer.
"Cal, what is the Gallant Force's status?"

 "Sir, they have launched from Lunenburg, heading south-west towards the
target zone," Cal looks to his board.  "Sensors indicate four Bronz-Xs, six
Dies Angels, two Homing Bats, two Jet Blowguns and a Flying Squirrel.  A
Canadian Forces transport from the Greenwood base is deploying with a Front
Rover and a Breeze-II.  Sensors also indicate a strike aircraft launching
from the United States.  Configuration and radiation indicate it may be the
bomber the American president had seconded to the attack."

 Dawn nods.  "Set ship to automatic circuits.  Prepare all modified drones
for launch."

 "Yes, sir," the officer begins programming controls.  He then looks up from
the screen.  "Sir, a warpsled is approaching the ship.  The pilot requests
permision to land."

 "A warpsled?!!  Who?!"

 "He identifies himself as Pak of the Fifth Reconnaissance Phalanx," Cal
reports.  "He was separated from his unit during Sigma Narse and noticing
what we were doing, volunteered himself to assist us.  Orders, sir?"

 Dawn's eyes narrow.  "Grant him permission to land.  We will need the
warpsled.  The engines will probably be burnt out now, but the transport
itself will be useful.  Ensure that which we salvaged from Malthus is loaded
aboard."

 "The gestation chambers?  Of course, sir.  I shall also prepare your warpsled."

 "Thank you, Cal.  You are dismissed.  Prepare yourself."

 "Sir," the officer nods, then proceeds off the bridge.

 Dawn sighs.  If he was human, he could now smile.  His personal dream was
about to come true.  Securing himself from his station, he proceeds into his
private chambers, which were altered long before Sigma Narse made these
series of events possible.  "Catty," he quietly intones.

 In the middle of the room is what used to be the endoskeleton of an
android.  Only the head and upper torso remain, mated to Paranoid computer
equipment.  There is nothing left which could indicate this was once a Catty
android...save the Solnoid number 3534 sodered in a breastplate.  A speaker
box echoes with a female voice.  "Are we here?  Terra?"

 "Yes," the Paranoid answers.  "The ship will not last when we open fire.
The others are preparing themselves."

 "You should prepare yourself, Dawn."

 "I know," Dawn nods.  "Sever yourself from the controls, my love.  It is
time we both departed."

 "Wait," the voice nearly chokes.  "My sisters...is Scarlett right...?"

 "It matters not.  We can still save them."

 "Yes...we can save them."

 Dawn reaches up, then presses an access plate.  The cranimum opens,
allowing the mass of neuroprocessors which served as Catty's mind to break
free.  Gently lifting the brain from the skull, the Paranoid secures it in
his own armour, then leaves the room...

    *    *    *

 The Gall Force soars through the skies as they cross the equator, homing in
on Tahiti.  Fifteen warriors:  nine Solnoid, six Terran.  Amy was riding
with the other Terrans in the Canadian Forces Hercules now transporting the
ground transport and the tank to the scene of battle.  In the Flying
Squirrel acting as force command, callsign Starleaf, Eluza grits her teeth.
There had been so little time to properly prepare her force for the attack.
However, if Journey was really alive, then the rebels would be still
somewhat disorientated, unsure if the woman was really their lost Leader.
Further, they had been here up to fifteen years.  Eluza had no idea how
fresh these troops really were.  If this was just a recent movement, then
they would be as raw as the attacking force.  Further, life on Earth had to
have slowed them down.  The "Starleaf's" crew were very fresh.  They stood a
chance.

 Tripwire One, the first Jet Blowgun, was Patty's command.  Darlene, once
detoxed and given an appraisal of who the Solnoids were, was riding in the
Hercules, ready with Denise to help Amy with casualties.  The woman had
surprised her.  She wanted to go to university to get her bachelor's degree,
probably in English.  Out of a sheer act of insanity...or the first sign of
love, perhaps...Patty had volunteered to go with her.  But this had come up.
Ahead of her were the people who had taken her away from her son and Rumy,
both her dear friend as well as daughter-in-law.  Patty intones a silent
prayer.  Rumy, wherever you are, dear friend, fly with us today.

 Tripwire Two was Spea.  She licks her lips in anticipation.  Journey was up
ahead, perhaps a clone, perhaps an AI double.  No matter what, the murderess
responsible for the destruction of the Lorelei Fleet was still alive.  My
friends are dead because of you, butcher! Spea growls to herself.  Now I'll
have their revenge!

 The first Homing Bat was Akira, callsign Samurai.  The Japanese was wearing
a headband of a thousand names, a personal memento of his grandfather, who
had died a kamikaze pilot off Okinawa in 1945.  How would the warriors of
the Divine Wind have looked at this war? he wonders.  His girlfriend was in
one of the Bronz-Xs, ready to die by his side.  This was just like an old
samurai epic of the Tokugawa age; a family fighting together against
bandits.  Only this time, the bandits had laser guns and there was no
ground, just the sea.  He intones a prayer to Susano, god of storms, and
Watatsumi-no-Mikoto, god of the sea, to keep the battle area clear of
hazards, then calls upon Hachiman-san, god of war, to give them the victory
they and Earth needed.

 The second Homing Bat, callsign Picadilly, was Chet.  While he was trained
on the Bronz and the Dies Angel, he had taken to the attacker like an RAF
pilot of fifty years before would a Spitfire.  He had forgot if any of his
relatives had fought the Germans during the war.  What would the "so few"
Chruchill had spoken so eloquently about think of him, a second-year
engineer student who had never once served in any of Her Majesty's armed
forces, flying with aliens and foreigners against other aliens?  Bloody rot,
they would say, then probably wish him luck and clear skies.  He looks to
the other side of the formation to see Akira praying.  The Japanese had
loads of gods.  Hopefully, they would be willing to lend a few barbarians a
hand this day.

 The first Angel, callsign Jericho, was Oskar.  He wanted the struggle suit
since it was a lot easier to disembark than a Bronz.  He hoped Mossad,
Israel's intelligence forces, were keeping an eye on things back home.
There were many Solnoids living in the Holy Land, both on the Israeli and
Palestinian sides of the peace line.  Trouble could easily flare up among
them, no doubt inspired and fuelled by the infighting between their Terran
neighbours.  He also hoped that if he and Eluza survived this, he would get
the chance to bring her to Israel, to see the Wailing Wall, the ruins of
Jericho and Masada, for herself.  Now, would his parents mind the idea of
him marrying an alien gentile?

 The second Angel was Len's machine, callsign Bronx.  He was about to get
himself into the biggest street scrap in history.  That was what all this
was about.  Two gangs trying to take control of the same turf.  Only except
the turf was all of Earth and the gangs were both composed of alien women,
plus a few men like himself.  He had been in the gangs himself before going
to Canada and meeting everyone else.  He wondered where the old crowd was
this day.  Probably fighting another gang for a smaller piece of turf.  Glad
I ain't in that mess anymore, he sighs.

 The third Angel was Miti, callsign Dagger.  She was intoning a Sensualist
prayer for peace, while at the same time tensing her body for the bloodshed
about to happen.  And now, cosmic joke of all, she was about to shed the
blood of fellow Solnoids.  She looks over to Spea.  There were those here
who sought revenge this day.  She just sought an end to this madness so she
could put her own mind at peace.  Maybe the teacher back at Lunenburg
Secondary was right.  It was time for some guidance counselling.

 Fourth Angel belonged to Mal, callsign Pony in her sister's honour.  She
had volunteered to come out when Eluza had ordered Amy to come with the
medical team, but she did not have to like it.  Fighting was not her game;
she left that to the experts like Miti and Pony.

 Fifth Angel was Catty, callsign Nebula.  Trying to calm herself, to control
the insane rage she felt at the loss of all her sisters, was difficult.  And
why should she not be angry?!  People had callously killed her sisters all
because they had tried to keep the peace!  Closing her eyes, she deletes the
failsafe her mother had put in her mind which prevented her from killing her
own people.  A light smile crosses her face.  It may not be right but it was
just.

 Sixth Angel was Maurice, callsign Napoleon.  He wondered if it was not too
late for him to join the French Foreign Legion...then remembered that only
non-Frenchmen could join the force.  We could use the legionnaires right
now, he muses to himself...plus about fifty atomic bombs.

 First Bronz was Lufy, callsign Attacker.  She licked her lips in
anticipation of busting some skulls, the skulls of those who had long
deserved a good lobotomy or three...and she was just the surgeon for the job
at hand.

 Second Bronz was Rabby, callsign Chaos.  There were probably Central Guard
up ahead, not to mention the lunatics who had commissioned the Planet
Destroyers and everything else which had nearly butchered the Solnoid race.
Finally, peace was at hand.  Just one more fight and she could finally
relax.  Now, if only Journey would be party to the idea.  Doubtful.

 Third Bronz was Shildy, callsign Damia.  She had painted the name of the
wrecked System Destroyer in Solnoid on the carapice of the bouncer, letting
it be known to all around her that she was the one who had wrecked it.
Let's see how Journey likes that! she smiles.

 Fourth Bronz was Derek, callsign Vimy.  Now, he could act a little clumsy
since people in the way would be out to kill him.  This was not the least
bit funny, God! he sighs, shaking his head.  He wanted a quiet life with
Lufy...and now he had to kill people to get it?!  Not funny at all!

 "I say, old chaps, shall we have a pool?" Chet calls over the line.

 "Pool?!" Rabby looks confused.  "We're not playing billiards up here, you
know!"

 "A betting pool, he means," Len interrupts.  "We throw in money, and the
first one who spots the bandits gets the pot."

 "Hey, sounds fair," Oskar nods.  "Ten bucks."

 "I'm in," chorus from everyone else save Eluza and Derek.

 "Why don't we think of trying to survive this mess?" the Canadian sighs.

 "Do you have an idea?" Eluza inquires.

 "I was just thinking of the Battle of Vimy Ridge," Derek clicks his teeth.
"How we used artillery to rip up the ground around the German trenches
before we went over the top."

 "Hate to dissappoint you, old sport, but we're not carrying much in the way
of artillery with us," Chet warns.

 Eluza considers the matter.  Yes they did have artillery...and it was right
in high orbit!  Thumbing a communications button, she calls out, "Starleaf
to Captain Nebulart.  Starleaf to Captain Nebulart.  Respond, please."

 "Go, Starleaf," Scarlett's voice calls back.

 "Is Commander Dawn's ship in the area?"

 "It's right atop the target at six hundred kilometres," the veteran warrior
responds.

 Eluza smiles.  Simple Solnoid strategy for ridding themselves of a ground
base; let a ship do it.  "Tell Commander Dawn that he is to open fire as
soon as we're in close battle range of the target zone, Scarlett."

 "He's ready to slave his ship to your command, Eluza.  His crew are
preparing to man drones and come down to help out."

 That was a switch!  "Roger.  Give me control."

 The Squirrel's controls nearly falter as they take control of the Paranoid
battleship.  Eluza blinks at the statistics of the capital vessel whose type
she had fought time and time again over many years.  She would have given
her eye teeth for this information back during the war.  Strange times, she
sighs.  Stranger allies.  Couldn't complain now.  She poises her hands over
the trigger.  Not just yet...

    *    *    *

 "Have they all gone through?" Dawn inquires of the fleet of Paranoid drones
now in front of him.

 Tek's voice answers from one.  "All save the reconnaissance pilot, sir.
The warpsled is loaded with the equipment you requested, as well as the body
of the one Solnoid we recovered from the carrier's wreckage."

 "Send it to New York at once," Dawn orders.  "Deploy and prepare for
battle.  It will be time, soon."

 "Yes, sir."

 Dawn walks into the genetic converter room.  Already there were a pile of
empty exoskeletons, no longer needed.  One of the converters was at work.
The reconnaissance pilot, Pak.  Dawn takes Catty's brain and sets it aside,
then removes his robes.  He steps into the chamber.  <<Good luck>>, Catty's
voice echoes in his mind.

 The chamber fills with boiling liquid, submerging Dawn's exoskeleton to
well past his head.  The liquid was the same body-temperature fluid Solnoids
used in creating new members of their race.  Dawn feels himself flow out of
the exoskeleton for the last time as the fluid is drained, pouring into the
gestation tank, a double of hundreds that had been used on Malthus millennia
ago.

 Dawn feels himself form into a solid shape as his sentience enters a
dream-like state.  He had conceived of this idea years ago as a possible
course the Species Unification Project could have taken.  It had been
partially used to create Patty's son.  Simply put, the gestation fluid was
fitted with a DNA-recombinator, which broke down the Paranoid DNA and
rewrote it to a Solnoid-type format, albeit with one difference:  the
XX-gender chromasome was changed to XY-format.

 The Paranoid had always known that the Solnoid had once been a two-gender
race, much like almost all solid animal races on Earth.  But as the war
progressed, the male Solnoids had perished...but to the consternation of the
Paranoid, the female Solnoids fought on, more viciously than ever.  It was
as if they had critically wounded a beast, but it still lashed out, driven
mad with pain.  The organizers of Project:  Exodermus, his father and
himself among them, had been driven by two possibilities to launch the
Species Unification Project.  One, the presence of a third, Solnoid-type
solid race would shock the real Solnoids into remembering what they once
were, allowing reason to take over and peace to finally come.  Two, the
third race would, if the Solnoids did not stop fighting, team with the
Paranoid to suppress the Solnoids and force peace to come.  Neither case had
worked out; the third race would, Dawn later discovered, simply merge with
the sentient race then evolving on Earth.  Hence, Galt's decision to send
the Solnoid survivors three million years ahead in time to encounter an
Earth ready and willing to take them in...and control them should they once
again become troublesome.

 Dawn opens his eyes, feeling the powerful energy of human arms and legs.
Was this what being solid was like?  How wonderful!  How fascinating...and
how frightening!  It was no wonder his race had feared the Solnoids, had
gone to war with them!  The sheer difference between the allasomorphic
Paranoid and the nonmorphic Solnoids was insane.  And now he was becoming a
Solnoid.  What would his father say?

 "Dawn..." a voice calls out.

 He looks up to see a nude Solnoid woman staring at him.  Catty.  One of the
ten thousand android watchers Catty Nebulart had unleashed to ensure the
Species Unification Project would succeed.  She had been assigned to the
first "Starleaf," had sacrificed herself to ensure that Patty and her unborn
child would live to see a free day.  He had found what was left of her when
his ship had stumbled onto the wreckage of the "Starleaf" drifting near
Saturn.  Her body was beyond hope of repair; she had used it as a living
conduit to see to it that the carrier's escape pod would launch.  But her
mind was intact, whole.  He had mated her with Paranoid electronics, given
her a sense of reality again.  In doing so, he also created ways that they
could cyberlink, join minds so they could share each other's thoughts.

 And in doing so, they had discovered the universal emotion called love.
He, an allasomorph would could not imagine what being in one shape for more
than several minutes was like, had come to love her, a mechanical construct
who knew nothing of shape-changing, of all the contortions and forms a
Paranoid could make himself.  By cyberlinking, both discovered each other's
hopes and dreams.  Dawn had learned that all the Catty androids wished one
day to be organic beings, to live like their fellow Solnoids.  Catty had
learned that Dawn had, like most Paranoid, never felt real malice towards
her mother's people.  The Paranoid had, once they had overcome their initial
shock of encountering the Solnoid, strove to try to force their enemies to
see reason, to give peace a chance.  Nor did Dawn see the ordinary Solnoid
as being at fault.  It was their leaders who had been the agressors, forcing
thousands on both sides to their deaths.

 Even Born had seen that.  The Paranoid Leader would never had accepted the
presence of Planet Destroyers in his fleet had not Journey brought them out
first.  They had been such a waste.  That had been proven when DAMIA had
been used in the second battle over Earth.  Born had confessed to Galt and
Dawn later that he now had to contemplate a crime he never wanted to bear on
his conscience:  the slaughter of a whole race.  Dawn wondered if Born had
been awed by Catty Nebulart's act on Embryo.  Perhaps he had been.  A pity
he will never know.

 "Hush, Dawn," Catty shushes him.  "Let's think of ourselves for a change."

 He smiles.  They were now clothed, he in his robes as a Paranoid commander,
she in her grey Solnoid work jumpsuit.  They walk through a menagerie of
images, of both homeworlds now lost.  Soon, they would leave this dreamland
and walk on another world's surface.  They embaced, their clothes shedding
away.  Catty backs off, then produces a mirror.  Dawn looks at himself.
Catty had drawn up his DNA specs, literally making him a male version of her
own mother.  Of course, she would still look like herself...or would she
choose to change?  Did she want to experiment when it came time for her new
body to be created?  It did not matter.  To him, she would always be Catty.

 They embrace, her back to his.  "It's time," she shakes her head.  "I'll
miss this."

 "Reality is much sweeter," he kisses her forehead.

 She looks at him.  "Yes.  Soon, we'll both feel air in our lungs, our
hearts pound, the pain of hunger in our stomachs and the pleasure of our
love driving us to mate."

 "We?!" he looks surprised.

 Catty winks at him.  "Can't I keep some surprises from you?"

 Her giggle echoes as his mind succumbs to unconsciousness...

    *    *    *

 Dawn's eyes open.  He shakes his head, feeling the cooling genetic fluid
drip off his body.  It was cold.  He had never felt the change of
temperature before.  He looks down, stunned to see solid hands in front of
his eyes.  Why could he not shift himself?  Wait!  He could not!  He was
solid.  Human!

 A hand reaches down.  He grasps it, then feels himself pulled to his feet.
Thank the Maker that his body was genetically designed to respond to certain
physical stimuli.  Controlling his body seemed not so difficult.  The
strength in the muscles allowed him to stand erect right away.  Further, the
body came equipped with balance mechanisms in the head.  He felt a little
dizziness, but he did not loose his footing.  "It worked!" he feels his
mouth move as he speaks.  "Pak, are you well?" he turns to the other male
there...then nearly forgets to breathe.  "Catty!"

 Catty smiles as she hands him a human-scale jumpsuit.  "I told you I wanted
to surprise you."

 Dawn feels himself laugh as he takes the jumpsuit in hand.  She produces a
towel, swiftly drying his body as he waited to dress.  He feels new
sensations, especially around his groin as her hands pass.  This was really
interesting.  Once she is done, she backs away to allow him to dress.  In a
moment, he is once more adorned in the beige, white and black of a Paranoid
ship commander.  He looks at her.  "Thank you."

 "You're welcome," she sighs as they kiss.

 What a sensation that was!  He then notices she was in a simple jumpsuit of
her own.  He finds another set of commander's robes, then drapes them over
her shoulders.  "There," he smiles.

 "Dawn, I can't wear this...!" she protests.

 A rumbling voice from behind her interrupts.  "You are the commander's
consort, Catty.  You have the right."

 Both spin around to see the speaker.  When he sees the green, grey and
black robes, Dawn almost experiences the human ailment called a heart
attack.  "Leader Born!!!" he gasps, then drops to one knee, his hand crossed
over his heart in salute.

 Catty echoes the movement.  "Rise, both of you," the Paranoid Leader sighs.
"Your experiment is a success, Dawn.  I congratulate you.  Now the time has
come to end this war."

 "But, sir," Dawn looks up, "...should you not be with your people?"

 "No," Born shakes his head.  Dawn is surprised to see how much like Patty
the Leader was now that he was human.  Actually, he was a slightly older
version of Patty's son.  Not surprising, Dawn concludes.  "There are those
among the Paranoid who see me as much a criminal as many Solnoid think of
Journey.  The final battle has come...but it will be between Journey and
myself."

 "But many stand between you and Journey, Leader," Catty warns.

 "Let them," Born's eyes narrow.  "I fought this war because it was the only
way I knew how to save my people...and by doing so, I nearly destroyed my
people.  I must atone for this act.  You both have lives ahead of you.  Mine
is irrelevant now."

 Suddenly, the battleship's hull trembles.  "The warp generators are about
to fail," Catty looks up.  "Eluza better launch her attack soon or else she
won't have this ship to back her up."

 "Indeed," Dawn nods.  "Come, Leader.  We must leave."

 Born nods as the three proceed to the main hangar deck...

    *    *    *

 "Tally-ho!!!" Chet calls out.  "I say, there's the blighter right now!!!"

 The others tense as the small island comes into view.  They were now some
distance from Tahiti, in the area where the French carried out their nuclear
tests.  "Got it!!" Len snarls, then looks around.  "Hey!!  If they're
supposed to be waiting for us, where the fuck're their fighters?!"

 Lufy scans the area with the Bronz's camera.  "I got a field!  They've got
shit-knows what down there!!  Hey, Eluza, if you've got Dawn's ship slaved
to your ship, let's use it!"

 "Wait!!" Maurice calls out.  "Mon dieu, I see a massive force of small
craft off to the west!  Can't tell who they are!!"

 "Paranoid drones," Catty confirms.

 "That'll be Dawn's force," Patty adds.  "Don't shoot at them!"

 Eluza sighs.  Now or never.  She thumbs the program that would launch the
Paranoid battleship into its final battle...

    *    *    *

 Catty is able to manoeuvre the warpsled out of the hangar bay when Eluza's
command arrives, swinging the battleship's four main gun bank doors open.
In a second, hundreds of magentically-controlled pulse proton beams unleash
themselves, bent by special electromagnetic fields to zero in at once on the
small island six hundred kilometres dead ahead.

 They hit with thermonuclear force.  The island turns into a giant funeral
pyre as the beams shred everything in their path.  The Terrans and Solnoids
in the attacking force avert their eyes as the ground crews are
disintegrated, burned and pulverized, the fighters and suits they were
servicing melted into scrap at the same time.  Trees explode as the ground
boils.  A firestorm ensues as explosions heat the surrounding air, expanding
it to the point where a vacuum results.  The implosion that follows takes
what little is left and sucks it in, eventually depositing it in scattered
piles all over.

 Eluza was about to call down a second salvo when the battleship's warp
generator fails.  The centre of the ship shatters as the gun wings drunkenly
drop away, exploding as their magazines are vented to space.  In the
warpsled, Catty, Dawn and Born watch as the ship spirals into the
atmosphere, burning up in a bright comet.  What parts of it would survive
Earth's atmosphere would splash into the Pacific Ocean near the Drake
Passage separating South America from Antarctica.  Hopefully, no ship would
be in the area.

 The once-android feels herself wince.  Dawn stares quizzically at her.
"Sorry," she smiles at him.  "I just felt as if another piece of me had died."

 He nods understandingly...

    *    *    *

To be continued...