The Raptor 104

As the transport pod carrying the precious green-haired twins moved away from the Raptor 650, the Black Vulture stood waiting with its hangar wide open, like black maws, waiting to swallow whole, the transport pod.

On the Raptor 650, the Emperor was pacing back and forth. His repeated tries to contact his sons had been blocked by the pirates who had jammed all their communications.

The only person who could get through to his own ship was Süren, and only because Altan was still maintaining dragon contact with the Raptor 650.

Unfortunately, since all frequencies of communication were monitored by the pirates, there was no way for Süren to blast out commands to do much of anything.

All he could do was tell them to maintain status quo, in hopes that he could bring them in as backup to whatever forces that could break through the blockade that had surrounded them.

Duke Erden stood with his hand around Gwendolyn's waist, not saying much. The tall thin woman was ethereal, as a queen should be.

She and the tiny blonde Crown Princess Candace were troopers! They were women, and yet, nothing fazed them! Even the little fifteen-year-old Princess stood defiant and unafraid next to Süren.

He was proud of them all. That was how the leading women of the galaxy faced challenges. Defiant and unafraid.

The Duke's eyes shifted back and forth, taking it all in. He had tried surreptitiously to contact his people, but it was also a futile effort. The pirates had jammed his communications with his people as well.

His men were all waiting on the Dragon Claw, thinking all was well on the Raptor 650. All the pirate ships surrounding the cruise ship should have tipped them off, but there was also the Emperor and the dragon King Süren onboard.

Who would dare do such a silly thing as threaten the both of them?

Who indeed.

Meanwhile, Candace stood frozen in her spot, intensely listening in on the dry and precise commands and orders that Slate and Dante were throwing out at their men. No wonder they could rule such a vast entity like the galaxy. They were like well-oiled war machines!

'Hang in there Baby Girl,' Slate murmured at Candace. 'We got you covered.'

'They dare threaten my wife…" Dante snarled. 'They are obviously tired of living.'

'You men do what you must. Don't worry about me.' She reassured them.

'Don't worry. You got Erenveil forces coming in thirty-two minutes.' Slate intoned with surety.

He was counting down every minute that was passing by with the cold calculating part of his brain that never forgot and never forgave.

It kept time along with the passionate bleeding part of his brain that missed his wife so much, he continued to keep the channel within her mind open so he could hear the sound of her heart beating and the rhythm of her breathing.

The Princes of Erenveil had been the general peace keeping forces throughout the galaxy for so long that the galaxy forgot something intrinsic about them.

They weren't called the Dark Princes of the Shadow Realm for nothing. They had once been the stuff of nightmares. They were the demonic visions that men of ancient past drew on cave walls and spoke of within their nightmares.

The images of their black leathery bat wings soaring through the deep dark night, of their large razor sharp fangs sinking into the throats of the unsuspecting victims…all these were very real.

They were about to get a taste of how real the Dark Demons of Erenveil were.

"Open up! Here we come!" Jared yelled into the microphone at the Black Vulture.

With a whoosh, the transport pod flew in through the open face of the Black Vulture and the maw closed in on itself.

Once inside, the twins exited the craft without fear.

A dozen men were waiting for them, with stun weapons drawn.

Jason and Jared held up their hands and smiled.

"We're the Erenveil Princes who are supposed to be marrying your two ladies." Jason grinned. "Do you really want to shoot at us?"

Jared snickered. "If you damage even a little bit, our beautiful male bodies, those two lovely ladies are going to kill you."

The leader of the group inclined his head.

"Princes. This way please." He turned and led the way, striding through the hallways of the Black Vulture with surety.

The twins followed the leader, with the remaining eleven following behind them.

'Will you take a look at this,' Jared laughed as he chattered through their shared mind space. 'This layout looks just like one of our ships.'

'That's because it is.' Jason sneered. 'This is one of our older Raptor models.'

He checked something on his wrist. 'It's the Raptor 104.'

Dante sniffed. 'Raptor 104 and Raptor 189 were stolen many years back from one of the raids that happened early on.'

'Well then I guess this makes it easy for us, doesn't it?' Jared laughed. 'All we need are the command codes. This ship should still be able to recognize its base commands.'

Dante laughed. 'I can give you five minutes of darkness. What you do with that five minutes will determine whether you are worthy of being considered my brothers.'

Jared sneered. 'We only need one minute.'

'Five minutes.' Dante announced. 'Starting in five, four, three, two, one…'

DARKNESS.

The onboard lights blinked out instantaneously across the entire ship.

There was the sound of scuffles and grunts as men went down thudding onto the ship floor.

Two minutes later, a tiny magic light glowed from one of the twins' fingertips. The twins were both standing upright while a dozen men lay prostrate on the floor at their feet.

'We got them all.' Jason breathed a sigh of relief.

Jared reached out with a finger and fired a pulse of energy at one man who was struggling to rise from the floor.

'Now we got them all.' He sniffed.

'Go to the lower engineering deck.' Slate took over.

The twins nodded and began running for the engineering deck. The layout of the series that started at 100 to 199 were all the same. This ship should be no different.

The ship was a multi-storied sprawling mega-plex of rooms and halls, but the twins were no mere decorative royal members. They had spent countless years decorating and designing the ships' living spaces.

In no time flat, they had found themselves within the bowels of the engineering complex.

'We're in Engineering.' Jared informed the brothers. He looked around at the almost empty space.

'There's hardly anyone on the command deck.'

'Running the ship is mostly automated.' Dante laughed. 'It's not the dark ages where you need someone to babysit the computers.'

'I think I see one guy at the main computer console.' Jason said.

'Good.' Slate answered. 'The ship has most likely been re-engineered, its codes redesigned many times over, but as long as we can gain access to the physical command console, we should be able to commandeer it from there.'

'We're here.' Jason shot a pulse of energy at the sole engineer who was sitting at the console. 'And we have access to the ship's systems console.'

'Good.' Slate said. "First thing you do is change the root password to something we know.'

'I'll use babycandace all one word.' Jared said as his fingers danced across the old-fashioned keyboard.

'That's fine,' Slate said. 'Disable all accounts so no one else can get in.'

'Done.' Jared said.

'Okay. Sit back and relax for about thirty minutes. One of my men has taken over with remote access and we will be driving that baby for now.'

'That's it?' Jason asked, crestfallen. 'That's all the excitement we get?'

'That's it. You guys did good.' Slate chuckled. 'Just sit back and chill.'