**Action** "Playing metaphorical poker with the enemy"

In the Eniram Base
The Rescue team + Rescued team
 
"Well Captain, "Asked Phil to Nipples, "What now?"
 
"And as to what now - well, let's consider our choices, shall we?" Keto blurted, butting into the conversation.  "We either stay here and blast a seemingly infinite number of hostile aliens into little bitty pieces until our ammo runs out, whereupon they will kill you while I run away, or we all run away now.  Suggestions?"
  There was silence for a moment. The Captain was about to speak when Keto cut him off again.
  "Oh, and possibly stop that missile along the way, fine, have it your way," said Keto throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.  Unfortunately he forgot that he was holding a harpoon gun.  There was a thwack, and then a long pause.  "This is becoming repetitive," growled Jay, removing the harpoon from above his head and feeling a few more strands of hair removed, "Don't do it again!"  "If it's any consolation," replied Keto, "I promise to aim lower next time.  Come on, let's go!"
 
"Thanks you vey much Mr. Keto." Said Niples with annoyance that the doctor seemed to want to take over this mission.
Dirk hit Keto a few times, much to the Captain's annoyance. Ordinarily he would have made a mental note of Mr. Bell's insubordination in times of crisis for a pay decrease, or even a demotion. But as he would rather Keto be quiet, he forgot about it quickly.
 
Whitewolf turned to Niples. "We need to stop that missle, Captain; It's targetted for the Aeron base. And it seems that I've swallowed the abort keys.  Don't ask." everyoneturned and looked at him.
"Despite the Aerons trying to kill a few of my officers, I can't let them all be destroyed like this, it's just unethical." Admitted Niples."Stick your finger...claw down your throat," Jay said.  "That shouldbring them back up.""Or...."  The group all turned and looked at Dirk."'Or' what, Dirk?" Tara finally asked."Or Phil and I can try and disarm the missle from the silo.  Itshouldn't be too difficult.  We're both pretty capable, and I'vealready got a pretty good idea how their technology works from back inthe sub.""Unless White Wolf thinks that he can produce those keys for us, thatseems to be our only other alternative," Niples wasn't too happy withthe situation.  "Let's try and get to that silo and back out of hereas quickly as we can."
 
The team made their way through the base. Niples took the lead. He dispatched a team of Eniram soldiers in a calm, confident manner while his men and woman behind him sprayed weapons fire all over the corridor, shouting and screaming at their opponents.
They got to the missile silo with a few hours to spare. The missile was huge, the Blue Dwarf team looked up in awe as they stood at the foot of the towering weapon of destruction.
Dirk and Phil immediately pulled a panel off of the missile and started twiddling with the wires.
"5 hours to missile launch" gurgled a loud fishy voice over the base's tannoy system. Phil and Dirk bickered over which wire to cut.
 
"Hurry up!" Shouted Niples, who with Keto was guarding the door to the missile chamber. The others were checking out the rest of the chamber to make sure there wasn't any soldiers inside.
Niples calmly shot another Eniram, and hit another one with the butt of his weapon. Two more charged him, knocking hos gun out of his arms. The two soldiers surrounded him, and Keto just watched- providing as much use as a blow-up jacuzzi."One at a time please chaps." said Niples, his hands raised in fisticuffs as the two both jumped at him. He punched the one in front, knocking him back and quickly ducked, avoiding a blow from the second. While he was crouched, he pulled the humanoid fish's leg, causing him to trip over. Seymour could have kept the man down and punched him again, but he allowed the man the honour of getting back up. He preferred an honest fight after all.
The Eniram got up and tried punching the Captain, Niples dodged and cracked the soldier on the back of the neck hard. He went down.
"Is it the red or the blue?" asked Phil to Dirk.
"Pick one!"
Dirk cut the blue. The Eniram voice over the loudspeaker announced: "2 hours to missile launch"
"What are you doing?" shouted Niples.
Dirk cut the red. "10 seconds to missile launch." announced the voice.
"9...8...7...6"
"Put them back together, put them back together!" yelled Phil, who now was alive again didn't want his new body to be vapourised by a missile's engine blast.
Dirk quickly twisted the wires back how they were.
"5 hours to missile launch" announced the computer, they all sighed in relief.
 
"If you can't disarm the missile, then we'll just have to warn the Aerons. Maybe they'll have time to evacuate their base." said the Captain. Dirk and Phil nodded in agreement.
The team regrouped and headed back towards the Pheonix.
 
As they ran, an Eniram jumped out at them and caught Whitewolf's furry leg. He tripped and hit the ground with a thud. as he did, he hicupped and the missile abort keys flew out of his mouth.
Niples kicked the Eniram in the face and helped Whitewolf up.
"Quick, the keys!" yelled Jo, who noticed them skidding across the floor. She dived for them, but it was too late.
The Eniram second in command, who had translated for their supreme leader stood on the abort keys, snapping and breaking them with his heel until they were nothing more than broken pieces.
Niples walked up to the Eniram and puffed out his chest. "Get back to the Pheonix, all of you. If I don't come back then you must go without me and warn the Aerons about the missile."
 
The team hesitated.
"Go!" demanded Niples. Whitewolf led them all past the Eniram soldier and back to the shuttlebay.
"You can't stop the missile now!" hissed the Soldier, who as he was second in command, will now be called (a) 'Number 2'.
"You can't just kill an entire race of people." said Niples, trying to reason with the man.
"You Aerons are our enemy, and we will conquer you once and for all! With the missile we will be the ONLY rulers of this planet."
"Look...we are not Aerons! We just came to this planet by accident and got caught up in all of this, in your petty war. Can't you people just live together, learn from each other... you never know, you might have a lot in common."
The Eniram spat and pushed Niples away.
"You will never understand. The Aerons are our enemy, it always has been, and it always will be until we destroy them all."
"You dont even know what they look like. I bet you dont even know what started the war!"
"Yes I do!"
"What was it?"
"I... erm.....I'm not telling you!"
"You don't know do you?"
"SILENCE!"
The Eniram punched Niples in the jaw, taking him by surprise. The Captain didn't like surprises like this, and felt the rage inside him boil. If the Enirams wouldn't listen to reason, maybe they would listen to THIS!
Number 2 didn't even see Niples move his arm, but before he knew it he had been embowed in the face and was flying down the corridor. He landed on his harpoon gun and the blade ripped through his chest with a sickening gutting sound.
 
Niples ran back to the Pheonix where everyone was waiting for him. Jay had already started the engine and lifted off as soon as the Captain climbed aboard. They dived through the underwater exit, and into the huge ocean outside.
 
***A little while later***
"We're nearing the Blue Dwarf now Captain." Said Jo, who was watching the Pheonix's radar screen. "All right then. We need to wrn the Aerons. Take us up into the sky Mr. Chrysler and see if we can distract any Aerons."
 
It just so happened, that at that moment the General of the Aeron Air Force was flying overhead in his command ship. He was just staring out of the window in his personal quarters, watching the clouds and the ocean below when he saw a Blue flying thing fly alongside his own ship.
He could see a smartly dressed individual inside beckoning him to pull over.
"Pilot.....?" he shouted to the other end of his ship. "What kind of ship is that? it's not...Eniram is it?"
"I dont think so sir." said the young Aeron pilots voice. "The Enirams don't have flying ships."
"Follow it." The General said.
 
Jay landed the Pheonix on the top of the partially submerged Blue Dwarf. The crew got out just as the larger Aeron ship landed next to them. Captain Niples' hair blew in the wind as he walked over to the Aeron ship. A hatch irised open and the Authorative-looking General walked out to meet him.
 
"I'm Captain Seymour Niples of the JMC Blue Dwarf." Seymour held out a hand for the man to shake.
"I am General Bluster of the Aeron Air Force... is this some kind of trick? Are you Eniram...this is some kind of Eniram weapon isn't it?"
"No, no, General. You've got it all wrong. We are Humans. We crashed on your planet a few weeks ago and just want to go home, through that Space-Gate."
Niples pointed to the land mass in the distance where the huge circular gate stood on top of the cliff.
"You used...THAT to come here?" asked the general in disbelief. "It was buit by an ancient civilisation... we did not even know what it was for..."
Niples wanted to hear more about the origins of the gate, but there were more pressing matters to take care of.
"We have been to the Eniram underwater city. They have created a missile capable of destroying your entire base... it will be launched in about ..."
"4 hours" said Zodar, checking his watch."
"...4 hours. I wanted to warn you so that you can evacuate your base in time."
 
"That is very noble Captain." said the General, stroking the feathers on his helmet. "However, we are too proud to leave our base, our home. But if you give us the location of the Eniram base then I will take a party to disarm the missile before it even launches."
 
Niples thought about it for a second. He turned to discuss it with Whitewolf.
"I think we should trade something in exchange for the information sir." said the hamster.
"Good idea." said Niples and turned back to General Bluster.
"We will exchange the information for a number of propulsion engines, enough to lift this ship out of the water and back through the gate." Niples said in a no-nonsense tone.
"But it will take many engines to lift this huge ship...." said the General.
"No engines...no information." said Niples forcefully.
The General sighed. "I will send the engines to you on Aeron transport ships."
"No tricks," Niples pointed a finger at the General. "We will not give you the information until the engines are delivered.
The two men shook on it and General Bluster walked back to his ship.
 
"Do you think he was telling the truth?" asked his pilot.
"About the missile, no. I just think he's hurrying us. But I do believe he has the co-ordinates to the Eniram base, that is why we are going to tell Aeron command to make sure OUR missile will be ready.  
 
<<Sorry so long, could everyone please post up to this point, and then about the Aerons bringing the engines. I think Katy Roskev and the engineers might need a hand strapping several huge engines to the sides of the ship- so any volounteers?>>
 *****************************************************Captain Seymour Niples, JMC Blue Dwarf   www.geocities.com/bluedwarf2000Lt. cmdr David "Onion" Ball, USS Endeavour   www.TheEndeavour.com*****************************************************Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."
 
Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989 --------------------------------------------------------------"Global warming could make England as hotas ibiza.... lets make it happen!"       (Ali G)---------------------