Demarin was poised to strike Jessie, so I sprang into action. I looked around me and saw a young man with a jet pack. I didn’t have time to explain him why I needed it, so I took it from him and immediately swooped in towards Jessie. I could feel the wind of Demarin’s weapon as I grabbed Jessie by the hands and lifted off with her just in time. Demarin frowned at us while some of the Sarceastians booed. The majority of the Sarceastians were cheering for us. The Earthlings were going wild.

"Well, it seems like this match is just one rule violation after the next. I suppose both sides are even on this one," the announcer said.

We left the area as quickly as we could, making our way towards the Earthling dominated side of the colony where Jessie would be protected. Jessie had hoped that we would meet up with her parents once the duel was done; but now, they appeared to be gone. We were hoping to meet up with them and leave Dweardon as quickly as we could. I knew better than to think that Demarin would let that be the end of the business between him and Jessie.

Unfortunately, we were astonished to see another message blinking for us on our virtual reality device. Immediately, we both knew who it was from.

"Well, I see you took the cowardly road and fled the duel. I was going to let you up so that you could choose another weapon, but no, you had to flee the scene. Well, guess what? Deal making time is over. Now we're just going to do things my way. Your parents are back in my custody. Here is what you can do to save their lives: Turn yourself in to me and I will release them. In other words, your life or theirs- your choice. It's always nice to have options, isn't it? You can meet me on the top floor of the Royal Executive Hotel- it's a nice Sarceastian establishment. Not to worry, you won't be harmed- until I get a hold of you, of course. Hope to see you soon," he smirked and the message player turned off.

Jessie sat on the bed with her head in her hands and sighed.

“Well, there’s only one thing to do then,’ she said.

“You’re not thinking about actually giving yourself up to him, are you? We have several other options before us, other than one that will lead to a certain death,” I countered.

"What do you propose we do? I don't want to risk my parents being harmed. I should have known better than to think Demarin would play fair. First, he violates the rules of the duel and now he's gone back on our deal."

“What I propose is that we use the obvious resource that we are not considering.”

"What's that exactly?" Jessie asked quizzically.

“You have been surrounded by people who support you since we came here. Sure, there’s a few Sarceastians who are loyal to the executive that hate you, but their numbers are dwindling. We need to implore your supporters to see what information they can retrieve about Demarin’s whereabouts in Dweardon. If we can find him, we will find your parents,” I reasoned.

Jessie sat with her chin resting on her hand for a moment and then looked at me. “Why not- it’s worth a shot isn’t it? What do I have to lose now?”

“You have a lot to lose, but we will make sure that doesn’t happen.” I immediately put a message out on the messenger board of the united cyber network- this was a network of planets allied with Earth that shared a network that they could use to alert one another and stay in contact in case a united effort was required to defeat one enemy or another. I hoped that someone listening could get us information about Demarin’s whereabouts.

To all parties available for help, Private Jessie of the Allied Earth army needs your help. Private Jessie barely escaped being illegally executed by Demarin Goldarn who has kidnapped her parents. Now he wants to make a trade- her life for theirs. Help us to thwart Demarin's plan by giving us information about where Demarin is staying in Dweardon. We are reasonably certain that if we find him, we can find Jessie's parents.

A few messages of concern came up, but no one seemed to be coming up with any helpful information. It was time to contact the Sarceastians who supported Jessie as their liberator. We decided to go to the Sarceastian side of the colony to see what we could find out. When we got there, many of the Sarceastians pointed at her and whispered amongst themselves. One of them came up to her and bowed.

“Thank you, Jessie of Earth for what you’ve done for my planet,” he said.

“It was nothing,” Jessie answered.

"Actually, she could use your help right about now," I interjected. "Jessie's parents have been taken by Demarin Goldarn and we need to locate them or Demarin. Any information you can obtain for us would be greatly appreciated."

“Yes, I can find out this information for you. It’s the least I can do after what the two of you have done for me. I am most pleased to meet you, Yahn, the last of the Karkastians. My name is Feraka. I will send word out throughout all of Dweardon. You can bet that Demarin is very close by.” I exchanged codes with him so that we could communicate via the messenger board. We put the word out to every Sarceastian that was loyal to Jessie, and it didn’t take long before they retrieved the information we needed.

We were on our way back to our room in the human settlement when Feraka sent a message to us.

Demarin has been located for you. He is staying near the Sarceastian docking location which is heavily guarded. I have received word that there is a space cruiser docked there. That’s where Jessie’s parents are. Demarin wants it this way so that he can leave with them at a moment’s notice if necessary. We will assist you in your endeavor to take back your parents. At the moment we are assembling participants who are willing to help. We will meet you at the Harbotian, a residence of Sarceastians that has no love for the executive or Demarin.

We were encouraged by the outpouring of support. We immediately made our way to the Harbotian. By the time, we got there, it was already beginning to fill up with Sarceastians who wanted to help. Some of them even brought weapons with them. Feraka came over to the table where we sat and smiled.

“I have assembled a hundred Sarceastians who want to help you. There are more on the way. We far out the executive guard so we should not have any problem getting your parents back now.”

"Thank you Feraka! You have done well. I think we should attack the docking area in two waves and attempt to gain control of the cruiser where my parents are being kept. The second wave of attack will wait in case there are more executive guard troops. That way we can be prepared in case there is a counterattack."

We agreed on a simple plan of attack and moved forward. Unfortunately, Demarin suspected that word would get out amongst the disloyal Sarceastians about the location of Jessie's parents. He had put the better part of his guard around the docking area. We crept up as quietly as we could and saw a multitude of guards marching up and down the walkway that led to the docking area. There were several cruisers and fighting ships docked there, but it became apparent very quickly which ship was being guarded the most. There were fifteen guards marching back and forth in front of a sleek black and white cruiser- it was the luxurious cruiser of a Sarceastian military leader. Demarin had to be keeping Jessie's parents in his own cruiser. We tried our best to organize a secret attack, but our troops were spotted by the executive guard immediately. Laser fire broke out and took out several of our men, mostly Sarceastians. There were members of the group from the Earth section of the colony that had joined our effort as well. The executive guard was holding back any takeover of the cruiser. We decided to attack them from several different locations at once, but again, they held their position. In fact, more executive troops were being sent and their army seemed to be growing. More and more of the executive guard were now moving towards the main bulk of our troop.

“We are going to back down further. There are far too many of them. If we don’t, they will overwhelm us for sure!” I called out to Jessie. She nodded in agreement.

"Pull back, everyone!" she called out as more laser fire broke out. I pulled Jessie out of the way of a laser blast at the last second. We ducked down and ran for shelter in a nearby cargo lifter. Lucky for us cargo lifters were laser proof. Unfortunately, they weren’t equipped with defense weapons. Many of the executive guards were shooting lasers at us, nonetheless. The lasers bounced off the lifter, but more and more guards poured in around us. I used the control mechanism to pick up a large hunk of scrap metal and hurled it at some of the guards. A few of them were taken out, but as a whole, it didn't make much of a difference. I turned the cargo lifter away from the direction of the docks to see how fast I could make it go. Unfortunately, cargo lifters weren’t designed to go very fast and the soldiers stayed with us. One of them attempted to climb onto it. I pushed him off with the huge metal clamps attached to the end of each arm-like appendage. The executive guard was now fully in control and the first wave of our attack had been sorely defeated.

I continued to move the cargo lifter away from the docking area and closer to where our second wave of fighters was poised to attack. The executive guard could not get our cargo holder's door to open and they could not penetrate its armor, but they continued to try. We looked like a giant beetle being swarmed by ants.

A couple of hover copters appeared and dropped atomizer bombs at us. I used the arms of the cargo lifter to deflect the bomb and it blew up just to the west of us, causing the cargo lifter to fall off of its feet and onto its back. The soldiers moved in all around us. At that point, there didn’t seem to be any escape. Demarin had us surrounded.

“Help us, Feraka! It’s time for the second wave of attack!” I spoke into the messenger. Not long after that, we heard the sound of Sarceastians and humans crying out as they fell upon the executive guard.

“We’re going to be alright now,” I said to Jessie who smiled at me.

“As long as you have good friends, you can get out of any jam,” she replied.

“Yes, as I said- there is no way you can fail with this much support from our allies. Now it is Demarin who should be afraid. Once his soldiers are defeated, he will be forced to surrender if he doesn’t slip out of our clutches again.”

“He is a rather slippery customer, isn’t he?” Jessie remarked.