When the morning came bright and early - Karkast had three suns so the morning was indeed very bright - the captain came into our barracks.

“Wake up ladies, time to begin your duties,” Captain Hanson yelled.

We got ready as quickly as we could and met with the others just outside of the ship. I had to immediately put my sunglasses on to combat the bright light from the three suns. Two of them were larger, more yellow in color and higher in the sky than the third one, which had a more orange tint. My thoughts immediately returned to Yahn. I hoped that he was keeping himself hidden well enough so that no one would find him on a patrol. Once I had gotten over the ‘otherness’ of his appearance, I realized just how attracted I was to him. I knew that if circumstances were different, I would want to take the opportunity to get to know Yahn a little better.

"Alright everyone, I have your assignments for today. We have just a few days left to wrap up this operation, so we need to work fast. Our superiors want us to comb this entire region. Ok, let's start with James. I want you to cover the eastern sector."

I tuned out what the captain was saying after this because I was so angry. It was obvious that he didn't trust my judgment and I knew in my heart that it was because I was a woman. Crazy that we had come so far as the human race only to have the same old sexist problems rear their ugly head again.

“As for you, Private Hampton, you need to get your head in the game. I need someone to stay around here and clean up the ship, including the latrine. I want this ship to be shining when I return from my patrol. While you’re on cleaning detail, I want you to think about how you can focus your attention on the matter at hand,” he said.

"Yes, sir," making my lack of enthusiasm pretty obvious. Captain Henson glared at me for a second and then disappeared towards the south.

“I’m so sorry he did that,” Wendy said. “I’m going to report the sexism going on in this unit when we get back to Earth.”

“Thanks for being a friend,” I said.

“We girls have to stick together. We can’t let them walk all over us,” Wendy said.

“Agreed,” I said.

After everyone else in the unit had left for their patrols, I decided to walk towards the east where Yahn’s bunker was located. I felt compelled to protect Yahn because I knew how hotheaded and trigger happy James could be. I found James just outside of the rock-dwelling where Yahn's family used to reside. It was modest in size and rectangular in shape. Like the others, its rocky roof had been blown off and the floors were littered with boulders. I hid behind the rocks so that he wouldn't see me. Once he'd gone down the stairs into the dwelling, I crept up behind him. I wasn't sure what I intended to do if Yahn was there and James found him. I thought about causing some sort of distraction that would enable Yahn to escape, but I knew that there would be grave consequences for that once the captain understood what had happened. I began to wonder if I could actually shoot James if it came down to it. In my heart of hearts, I knew I would rather shoot James than let him harm Yahn. Then, there was the option of helping Yahn to escape once he was captured. All of these thoughts filled my mind as I crept along behind James.

James rifled through the belongings of Yahn's family, looking puzzled at all of the various objects there that were foreign to us Earthlings. I hid behind a device that looked to be some sort of transmission device, akin to a radio of sort. I accidentally stumbled over a metal box on the floor. James whirled around to see what was behind him.

“Who’s there?” he shouted. I was as still as possible in my hiding place. Just when he was about to discover me, I heard a sound coming from the bunker.

Yahn I thought.

James turned his attention towards this new sound. He took out his laser cannon and crept forward towards the entrance to the bunker. I did my best to follow him, staying behind the various pieces of furniture and unidentified devices in the room. Luckily there was a conveyor belt-type device that led down to the bunker. Karkastians used these instead of stairs. I had to wait until James turned the corner and was out of sight before I could descend into the chamber.

Once I was in the bunker, I hurried as quietly as I could into the room where I had met Yahn the previous day. There was no sound coming from the room, so I assumed that Yahn knew of our presence and was hiding. James crept forward, looking behind the objects in the room, his laser cannon still in front of him.

“I know there’s someone down here. If you’re still here and you can understand me, come out with your hands up. I am a soldier with the United States Earth Federation Army and you are under my arrest!”

My eyes darted around the room looking for any sign of Yahn. Then, I saw him hiding behind some octagon-shaped storage containers in a far corner of the room. James was slowly making his way towards Yahn. My mind began to race as I thought about what I should do. I knew I could yell out or make a noise to draw James away from Yahn, but I didn't have time to do so. I saw James get out his phasinator to prevent Yahn from turning into vapor.

James had made his way to the corner of the room where Yahn was hidden. Suddenly, James kicked the box out of the way revealing Yahn. Yahn had a laser cannon pointed right at James. James had a laser cannon too, but he hadn't had a chance to activate it before Yahn pulled his gun. Laser cannons had to be activated until they were glowing red, quite much the same way that a regular gun had to be cocked before it would fire.

“Drop that weapon, Karkastian. This will not end well for you if you try something. My soldiers are combing this whole region and there will be no escape for you once you leave this place. If you try and stay here, you’ll starve to death. You had best drop your weapon and come with me now,” James said.

Yahn did not answer right away. He closed his eyes and tried to vaporize. He opened his eyes a second later, realizing that the device James held was keeping him from doing so. I would learn that most Karkastians would rather flee than fight or kill another being. This stood in direct contrast to what most Earthlings believed about Karkastians. Most of them were actually peace-loving creatures that lived in harmony compared with the chaos and disorder of human society.

"Ha! Nice try Karkastian, but you won't be vaporizing while I have this device pointed at you. You had best put that weapon down and come with me," James said as he began to push the activator switch on the laser cannon.

“I wouldn’t push that activator switch if I were you,” Yahn said.

"Oh so you speak English I see. Good, I'm glad it will be easy for us to understand one another. If you surrender right now then we will take you back to Earth and more than likely you will be allowed to live. If you kill me, my fellow soldiers will be more inclined to shoot to kill. You won't likely make it out of this alive."

“What if my men kill your first?” Yahn said.

I knew that Yahn was bluffing because he had already told me that there weren’t but a few of them left alive.

“So you’re saying that there are lots of you left alive on this rock?” James said.

“More than you have suspected,” Yahn said.

"Well if there are others, my fellow soldiers will find them and capture them. Your men are no match for ours!" James insisted.

I sat there in my hiding spot trying to figure out how I could help Yahn. I knew that I needed to create some kind of distraction, so I picked up a small metal tool that looked somewhat like a wrench and threw it into the opposite corner of the room, where Yahn was hiding. James turned his attention to the sound suddenly and Yahn took the opportunity to try and get away. However, James was only distracted for a split second before he turned his attention back to Yahn. Now that Yahn’s laser cannon wasn’t pointed at him. James lunged for it, and grabbed it away from Yahn. Yahn had nearly reached the conveyor belt when he heard the activator switch being pushed.

“Freeze Karkastian! This ends right now. You know you have really pissed me off. I could very easily blast you into the next sector and tell my captain that I didn’t find any survivors in this area. I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Any last words?”

I could no longer remain silent. I emerged from my hiding place, took out my gun and pointed it at James, pushing the activator switch. He heard the sound of my cannon charging up and turned to face me with the laser still pointed at Yahn.

“What the hell? Private Hampton what do you think you’re doing? You’re supposed to be cleaning the toilets,” James said.

“Someone has to keep an eye on you because you seem to have a problem with following orders as well,” I said.

James began to laugh.

“So you would risk being labeled a traitor for the rest of your life of this lousy Karkastian?” James asked incredulously.

“We are under orders to bring all of the survivors back alive, not blast them out of existence,” I insisted.

"I don't think you have the guts to follow through with it," he said, mockingly. "Go on and shoot- I'll give you five seconds and then I'm sending this creature to Karkastian hell!" he said. "One……" I could feel my hands trembling, making it hard for me to steady my weapon. "Two….." I could see James' laser glowing red as it became fully charged. "Three…" I could see the orange glow coming from my gun, letting me know it was fully charged. "Four….." I steadied my hand and aimed for James's hand.

In a flash, I fired the gun and James howled in pain as his weapon dropped to the ground and he clutched his hand. Yahn made his way up the conveyor belt and I followed behind him, keeping my weapon trained on James who was still distracted by his now useless hand.

“I’m going to get you for this, Hampton!” were the last words I heard as I followed Yahn.

“This way, I know of a crater where we can hide out!” Yahn said.

I turned around to see James emerging from the bunker. He had his injured hand wrapped up and was aiming his laser cannon using the other hand. He fired and I jumped behind a large boulder to avoid the blast. The rock was blasted into bits, so I ran as fast as I could to catch up with Yahn. We began to descend a rocky path down into a canyon full of craters. We disappeared into one of them before James could get another shot off. Yahn took me by the hand and guided me through a dark cave inside of the crater. We took several twists and turns until we came to a more open chamber. Again, I was impressed by the amazing formations on the walls and ceiling. A large dripstone on the back wall of the cave resembled a pipe organ, while another resembled a castle.

“We should be safe here for the time being. We can see anyone that comes into the chamber well before they see us,” he said. I sat down and took a deep breath, trying to process what had just happened.