Nova Wildstar's recon Cosmo-Tiger was streaking in drunkenly towards the main runway at a Pellian fighter base just north of the city of Perlana.

"Can't you get the landing gear to work?" demanded IQ-9.

"No. It's not responding to anything," cried Nova. "That's why I just dropped the missiles, recon pods and fuel tanks back in those foothills."

"So what are we doing?"

"You're such a genius, you figure it out," snapped Nova. "We're going to try to belly-land on that runway. If we make it, we'll have to get away from this plane before it blows. If not...well, even if you were an annoying adolescent pervert who never accepted my marriage to Derek, well...it was nice knowing you, IQ. Remember me well after they rebuild you and after they bury me, okay?"

"Nova, that's not going to happen!" cried IQ in honest grief.

"It might! Now, be quiet and let me concentrate on this landing..."

IQ went deathly quiet as Nova swung the ship around one more time. Off towards the right, she saw a group of people running up over a snow bank. It looked like two of them were firing at her plane.

Off in the far distance, she saw vehicles of some kind coming in. Some of them seemed to be firing at the group of people on the ground. It looked very chaotic down there.

If I make it, looks like I'm gonna land in the middle of a battle, thought Nova. Great. But my power's going out, and I'm losing control of this crate, she thought as she pulled up the plane's nose, reset the flaps and airbrake, and banged down with her right foot as hard as she could on one of the rudder pedals.

"Sandor, if you can hear me, this is Nova...I'm going down," she yelled into her hand mike. The red light went on...the transmission went out, but she never got a response, since a moment later, all power in the plane went out as the other engine quit with a small explosion and a big puff of black smoke.

The plane dropped like a rock, with its rear end hitting the runway first in a vast shower of sparks. Metal ground against the Pellian equivalent of concrete in a banshee-like scream as the plane skidded drunkenly down the runway. Only the ship's tendency to want to dig its nose into the ground slowed it at all.

A moment later, it skidded against its right wing and then tore it off. Nova gritted her teeth and cried out as the plane did a ninety-degree turn on its belly, skidding backwards into a huge bank of ice and snow that was piled up against the left side of the runway and coming to a stop with a huge bang. With the acuteness and total lack of pain usual for people caught in life-threatening situations, Nova looked back and noticed that the back of the plane was on fire. The fire soon swept over the gun turret where Jackson was strapped.

I can't get him out...if he wasn't dead already... he's doomed now. I've got to get out! thought Nova frantically. She began to struggle with her harness. Jammed! Oh, NO!

"Nova, why aren't you getting out?" asked IQ-9 as he slammed the canopy open with sheer brute force.

"My buckle's jammed!" she cried. "And the fire's getting closer! NO!!" she screamed as a hydraulic line ruptured in the cockpit Oil sprayed over her right side, leaving a sheen on her uniform. She screamed a moment later as a spark hit it and it ignited.

While Nova frantically slapped herself to try to put the flames out, IQ-9 reached up and over, pushing Nova to expose her burning right side. Moments later, foam from a fire extinguisher hit her side, putting the fire out.

Then, as Nova struggled a little, IQ-9 tore open the harness. He then grabbed a startled Nova under her left armpit, extending his hand over her bosom to her right armpit. Then, bracing her firmly, he lifted her clean out of her seat, put his right hand under her bottom, and then threw her as hard as he could manage.

Nova flew out of the plane and landed in a snowbank a few meters away. The landing wasn't too hard, but it left her with a bruise on her left side. She looked up at the burning plane and saw IQ-9 zipping out at high speed.

Guessing what would happen, Nova shielded her eyes. The plane exploded a moment later.

If it wasn't for you, IQ, I'd be dead now, she thought. Nova staggered to her feet, glancing at the right side of her uniform. It was a charred mess, and was hanging off in shreds in parts. Luckily, its fire-resistant properties meant that the exposed parts of skin she could see only seemed to have a few small blisters. The cold was more of an immediate problem right now...small amounts of snow were clinging to her partly exposed side, leg, and two smallest toes, all of which were showing through burned holes in her uniform, boot, and sock...and the air was uncomfortably cold.

Nova had just enough time to fall to her knees behind the snowbank as green energy bolts whizzed in. Ignoring the pain in her bare right knee as it hit the ice, Nova got under cover, got her Astro-Automatic unholstered in a second, and then began to return fire, opening the visor of her fogged-up helmet as she did so. Two Rikashans fell.

"What's that?" yelled one of the troopers in his own language.

"The little spitfire is firing at us!" snapped his squadmate. "Take that, you un-veiled little pants-wearing whore INFIDEL!" he screamed as he returned the fire, meaning to send Wildstar straight to the Rikashan version of hell.

A moment later, Nova looked up. "Those troops look like the same kind of troops that were on the Westhampton Beach, " she said to herself. "They're not going to turn me into a statistic!" Nova gritted her teeth and pulled her trigger as fast as she could manage.

Two more bursts of fire streamed her way, but, to her utter shock, IQ-9 threw himself in front of the energy beams. They hit him, went through him, and he exploded screaming in a shower of sparks. His lights went insane in his dome as he fell apart, sparking with blue bolts of energy before he went dark and dead.

He...he sacrificed himself for me!.. thought Nova in surprise with her mouth open. Unbidden, tears ran down her face as she returned fire again with a loud scream, ignoring the bolts that blew around her. She also ignored the fact that her helmet was blown off a heartbeat later by a bit of shrapnel. She then ignored the sting as a flying rock nicked her cheek, leaving the nearby snow sprinkled red with a little of her own blood. She smiled grimly as she hit two, three, four, five more of the enemy troopers.

"That's right, run," she laughed to herself under her breath, wondering at the same time what this war was turning her into. I'm not usually like this...this vindictive…but what these troops are doing to innocent people makes me sick! she thought.

A moment later, a truck screeched up about two meters away. Surprisingly Terran-looking men, some Caucasian, some black, and all clad in grey uniforms tumbled out, returning fire towards the enemy troops with blue bursts of laser fire from rifle-like weapons that looked like carbines. To Nova's surprise, one of them ran right up to her.

Nova put her gun up. "You...stop right there" she hissed.

"No...friend, friend," he replied in Terran English as Nova's mouth went open. "We know who you are...thanks to Aliscea. Take this, it'll fire faster." he said, throwing a carbine towards her.

"Thanks," snapped Nova. "Now, please get your butt down!" she added.

The Pellian trooper nodded, and a moment later, a yellowish-green bolt hit him. He fell on top of Nova. She tried to push him away to get to her new rifle, but another yellowish-green bolt hit her in the shoulder. She fell down on top of him, stunned just as he was, not killed like some of the others. She felt and saw no more for several hours.

In the meantime, Sandor had landed back on board the Argo. He arrived just in time to see that Captain Wildstar had backed Bryan Hartcliffe against a bulkhead.

"She's MISSING?" he demanded.

"Yessir, and so is Angie!"

"When did you lose Lieutenant Wildstar?" snapped Derek.

"A minute after Angie was shot down, all right? And I was tryin' to dodge a missile! And it's your fault for stickin' her up there, okay?"

"Did you see her plane explode?"

"No, not Angie's...she's okay..."

"Not Angie's, you idiot...NOVA'S," roared Captain Wildstar. "Is the Lieutenant alive or dead?"

"Wildstar...her plane wasn't hit that bad," said Sandor as soon as he stepped in between Hartcliffe and Wildstar. "It wasn't Hartcliffe's fault, either. He and Nova were dodging two missiles when another got Nova in her six. Mrs. Hartcliffe was hit a moment beforehand. Both of them were transmitting as they went down, and I think both of them landed all right. Calm down...both of you," said Sandor while he gently but firmly pushed down the fists that Wildstar and Hartcliffe had extended towards each other. "Good. Now that you two have backed away from fighting over this...which makes me wonder if it was a good idea to have either of your spouses on this mission because both of you are so possessive of them…" said Sandor.

He ignored a scowl from his Captain and continued. "We've got to remember where we are and what they did. Nova and Angie were both able to send data to the ship, as I did. I'd suggest that we search for both of them as part of the landing operation. If they got down there all right, they'll have important intelligence about the planet and may even win through to Aliscea first."

"Sounds like an idea," sighed Wildstar. "Sandor, let's go on with the second phase of the operation. Conroy, let's get the Black Tigers out there to soften up those enemy positions. Then, at 1445, we'll send down that landing party. Hopefully...we can find Wildstar and Hartcliffe down there around those fighter bases."

Sandor and Conroy nodded, and then saluted and left. "What about me?" asked Bryan.

"Do your job, Mister. I'm still doing mine. By the way...I am sorry...about Angie."

Hartcliffe looked at Captain Wildstar as if he had just grown another head. "Yeah. Sorry about Nova, too."

"Thanks."

Luckily, it was warm on Iscandar as the star Sanzar dawned in Gamilon's shadow. Almost anywhere else, Jonathan might have already died of hypothermia. Instead, he merely shivered a bit in his sleep as he dreamt a very strange dream.

In his dream, Jonathan was wandering a corridor somewhere. School? He thought. It looks like a school...but there's no daylight. Weird.

He looked down at himself. He looked a little bigger in his dream, and he was dressed in something that he guessed was a school uniform: it consisted of a burgundy blazer, white shirt, black shorts, a striped red and black school tie, burgundy knee socks, and brown sandals of some kind. The strangest part of his uniform, however, was the heavy belt that hung askew over his jacket; it had a Star Force belt buckle in brass, and at his right hip hung a brown holster holding an awesome Astro-Automatic!

"Cool," he said out loud as he undid the holster and pulled out the cosmo-gun. It was a little big for his hand, but he noted that his hand seemed to have grown a little. Scratching a little of his calf under the edge of one of his socks, he hunkered down around a corner as he heard a noise. 

Not too far away, something was snarling softly. Jonathan held back a gasp as one of the ugliest creatures he had ever seen came around the bend. It wore something like Rikashan armor, but if it was human...or even Rikashan...he was a monkey's uncle. The creature had a rough hide the color of an old wallet, and it seemed to have scales. Its face had small, piggish eyes, fangs coming out of its mouth, and a long scar ran down its cheek from its deformed-looking pug nose. "Varrskarrrr," it snarled in a deep, animalistic-sounding voice. "Where is it?" it hissed in Terran. "Where IS that thing?"

It had no shoes, but it had spectacularly ugly claws on the ends of its toes. It was swinging a huge mace...something that matched its height of three meters.

"I smell you, human," it rumbled, rounding the corner and staring down at Jonathan. "What's that ugly thing in your uggglly hand?"

Jonathan answered by squeezing the trigger of the Astro-Automatic. It went off at once, but the recoil threw him onto his rear end against a door.

The energy bolt hit the creature, grazing its hand. But, it only seemed to make it madder. It bellowed, swing its mace at Jonathan. Luckily, the boy dodged; the blow only smashed in the window of the door Jonathan was lying against.

Getting up, Jonathan ran backwards, firing wildly at the creature. The recoil knocked him down again, and the shot missed altogether this time. He had fallen near another door.

Suddenly, the door opened, and a pair of hands dragged Jonathan inside a room by the scruff on his jacket. The boy was thrown in a corner, and Jonathan then heard another Astro-Automatic going off. Something smelled horrible for a moment, and then heavy footsteps resounded down the corridor as the creature retreated.

Jonathan looked at his gun and then looked up slowly at his rescuer.

He guessed in about a second that his rescuer was female; she wore very feminine-looking white sandals. Looking up her legs, he saw a somewhat short above-the-knee blue plaid skirt, a dark school blazer not unlike his own, also with a Star Force belt over it, worn with a blue and black school tie, white shirt, and a gold pin of some kind in her shirt collar.

The face was shockingly familiar. Nova Wildstar.

"Ahhh...what are you doing here?"

"I think this is some kind of dream," said Nova in a puzzled voice. "I know your name is Jonathan; you're the boy I tried to rescue back on the passenger ship."

"What are you doing in my dream?"

Nova shrugged. "I know that you're on Iscandar...don't ask me how. You're really knocked out."

"What about you? Are you a figment of my imagination...mom?"

Nova started a little and then laughed. "Don't ask me what led you to say that...and don't ask me why I don't want to spank you for it, either. Seems a little funny...but it seems...right?"

"Are you on Pellias?" asked Jonathan.

"How'd you know that? Yes, I'm on Pellias. I'm knocked out, though. No...stunned. I'm in Aliscea's influence, you are under Queen Starsha's. There is not much time for me to tell you this. Aliscea says they're coming. In force."

"Who's coming?"

"Those who attacked you? Others? We have to try to get there, but it'll be a while. In the meantime, you have to learn how to hold that thing right. Like this," said Nova, who picked up the gun and put it in Jonathan's hand. "Keep it a bit loose when you fire it...and don't fear the recoil...okay?"

"Right...don't fear the recoil...mom. Funny, my mother never knew stuff like this."

"Maybe...someday...I'll be?"

"You'll be what?"

"Maybe someday, you can call me mom for real," said Nova. "Let this be your school for now. You have a lot to learn."

At that, Nova kissed Jonathan on the cheek. "Take care until we meet again, Jonathan. Sure is weird, seeing you in my dream. And why am I in my old high school uniform?" she murmured, looking down at herself for the first time. "Take care..."

"You too," said Jonathan tearfully as everything went dark.

Jonathan came to long enough to discover that he was in a bed somewhere. A soft hand was wiping a cool sponge against his forehead as he moaned, "Come back...please...come back..."

"You need rest," whispered a dulcet, highly cultured female voice somewhere in the shadows above him. He vaguely made out a slender face framed in long dark reddish-blond hair before and a hand clad in a purple sleeve of some kind before he went back to sleep.

"Who are you?" asked Jonathan.

"A friend," said the soft voice. A moment later, Jonathan fell asleep again. He heard and saw no more.

Nova Wildstar herself came to about a moment later. She was in a bed, but the air hitting her bare shoulders above the covers was cold. Very cold.

"I'm freezing," she murmured. "Where's my clothes? And where am I?"

"Gone, except for your underthings, which you have on," said a gentle female voice. "As for the answer to your second question, welcome to Pellias, Nova Wildstar. At last, I get to meet one of you Terrans face-to-face. You look just like us."

Nova's eyes opened, and a face came into focus. With a shock, she realized the face looked just like...

...her own?

"Who are you?"

"You mean you don't remember? Poor thing, the shot must've really scrambled your mind. Luckily, I was able to work on it a bit. Nova Wildstar, I am Lady Aliscea of Pellias. Isn't this odd? I was waiting for Paul Rosstowski, and you showed up first. Hope that means you're not going to go through Shalinskar with me."

"What's that?"

"Long story. Just like destiny stuck you and the Captain together, destiny has stuck Paul and I together. If it wasn't for Mother's orders that I must remain here until the End, I'd go up to the Argo, meet Paul, hug him to death, and incidentally take you up there with me to be with Derek. Wouldn't it be a riot if you showed up on the bridge in your underwear?"

"Lady, you'll do no such thing," said Nova, a little unsure whether or not she should treat Aliscea like the royalty she seemed to be or like a kid sister. Despite her black dress (which Nova observed, seemed to be black velvet) and sparse but formal-looking jewelry (pendant and a small bracelet, both of silver), Aliscea's mannerisms seemed less lofty and high-born than those of Starsha or Trelaina. Strange, she seems younger than Trelaina...thought Nova.

"I am...but only by about a year or two," said Aliscea in response. "I'm twenty."

"HUH?" cried Nova.

"Your thoughts...no control, whatsoever. You give off ideas like steam for me to pick up. But, I'm being amiss," said Aliscea in a more formal manner. "I'm sorry. It's been a while here since I've had a lady close to my own age to chat with. I'm forgetting you're not one of my ladies-in-waiting, Nova. You act so much like Berenice did...it's shocking. Well...enough of that."

"What happened to Berenice?' asked Nova.

"Killed, along with the others. The Creator TAKE that Ekogaru! He's the one who caused all this pain to us! But, I'll tell more later on. Right now, you are to get dressed...there are clothes over there...and armed."

"Armed?"

An explosion shook the building they were in. "We're on an airbase. That explosion was caused by one of your Black Tigers. They're bombing Rikashan positions not far way from us. Soon, your troops will come. You have to be prepared to help us and join up with your own people, and the Gamilons."

"The Gamilons?" said Nova.

"Yes, they're here, too. Luckily, we're all on the same side. Aliscea got up off the bed (as Nova wondered how Aliscea walked around bare-legged in this freezing room) and tossed a bundle of white clothing at Nova. "A warm uniform, a scarf, boots, and a carbine. You'll look just like one of my ladies-in-waiting before this is over with," said the Lady with a slight smirk. "I'll leave you alone to dress...."

"Wait. What about that dream I had...with the boy in it? Is he really...?"

"Yes, Jonathan's on Iscandar. He's being looked after well. Anyway, I shall be going now. Give my love to Paul if you see him before I do."

And, at that, Aliscea simply vanished. At that, Nova's mouth fell open.

Strange place...was all that Nova could think before she got up to face the cold room.