J'Khal glared at the two Exotroopers in front of him. He fought to keep his
anger in check, knowing that he had to remain calm and clear headed. However,
serenity wan't exactly one of J'Khal's virtues.

J'Khal let out a savage sound-somewhere between a growl and a roar-and spun,
planting his fist in Nikki's stomach. She dropped to her knees, gasping for
breath.

Elan knelt next to her, "Leave her alone! What did we do to you?"

"You," J'Khal said pointedly, "didn't do anything. Your friend, Miss
O'Connor, on the other hand, is on my $#!+ list at the moment. But she's not
here, is she?"

Elan put a hand on Nikki's shoulder, "I don't understand. Where <i>is</i>
Kristin? And what did she do to make you so angry with her?"

"You mean besides tricking me, thinking I'm stupid, lying to me, and, more
likely than not, ruining my life? Besides that, nothing!"

Elan stared at him in silent shock. He was raving like a lunatic. He put a
hand on Nikki's arm and helped her to her feet.

"He's mentally unstable," she said, still somewhat breathless. "They treated
him for mental problems before he joined the academy, and then again while he
was there. They said he was better..."

"I <i>am</i> better!" J'Khal yelled, startling the pirates who occupied the
bridge as well as the two Exotroopers. "I'm not crazy!"

"That's what they all say..." Nikki muttered under her breath. She was
rewarded with the back of J'Khal's hand across her face; knocking her to the
floor, unconscious. Elan knelt beside her once more, trying to wake her.

"You never did know when to keep your mouth shut, did you? I don't know what
Crow ever saw in you."

"Then you don't know her very well," came a low voice from the doorway.

"Crow!? What are you doing here?"

Crow looked worriedly at Nikki, laying bloody and unconscious on the deck. He
addressed J'Khal once more, "You graduated with honors, Khal; even got
assigned to the Resolute...what happened?"

"Simbacca made me an offer I couldn't refuse," J'Khal smiled maliciously.
"Why, don't you think I make a good captain?"

"I think," Crow said sincerely, "that you need medical help."

J'Khal, as though bored with the conversation, dismissed Crow and turned to
Kristin, "My dear Miss O'Connor, do you take me for a fool? Calling your
little Exo Fleet friends. It will do you no good; now I'll just have to turn
you all over to Simbacca. I was going to make your deaths quick and painless;
well, more or less painless. But you had to go and mess up my plans, didn't
you? Well, I can assure you that Simbacca will not be as merciful as I would
have."

Kristin's eyes glittered dangerously, "Ye lied to me, J'Khal. Yer not
workin' fer the Admiral, and ye had no intention of letting us escape. So why
bother with the lies, why not just kill us."

"Don't you see? I couldn't bear the thought of him killing you slowly;
torturing you for any Exo Fleet information you have that might be of use to
him. He wanted you alive; but if you'd tried to escape, I could have killed
you without any suspicion at all!" Kristin was glaring at him, still looking
pissed. "You don't know what they do to Exotroopers, especially women! I
couldn't let him hurt you, Kristin...not you."

By now, everyone, pirate and Exo alike, was staring at J'Khal, stunned
speechless. He, on the other hand, was staring intently at Kristin.

She had no idea what to say to him. He was a madman, but she couldn't tell
him that, he'd go berzerk. Okay, so he was already berzerk, but she had the
gnawing feeling that it could get worse...much worse. After all, if he could
get mildly annoyed and beat someone senseless, what would he do if he got
really pissed off?

"J'Khal," she began, "ye were a part of the Exo Fleet once. If that meant -
<i>means</i> - anything to ye, please let us go."

"I can't, he'll kill me..." J'Khal said, sounding genuinely scared.

"Come with us," Crow offered. "We can help you."

The pirate crew stood off to the side, watching the exchange with great
interest. None of them was sure whether to take out the Exotroopers or their
traitor captain. Most of them, however, were content to just watch...for the
moment.

"I don't need the kind of help the Exo Fleet will offer me. They wanted to
lock me up and throw away the key. They said I was insane!"

"You are!" Ross yelled, drawing everyone's attention, including J'Khal's.

"Kill them!" J'Khal yelled furiously, speaking instinctively, irrationally.

"No!" Crow and Kristin cried in unison.

But it was too late, the pirates fired and they had no choice but to defend
themselves or be killed. Crow ducked behind the captain's chair, firing on
the pirates with quick, accurate shots. He saw Kristin crouch low and fire
blaster shots at the communications equipment, which exploded in a small
blast of flames and sparks. It was hard to tell who was doing all of the
shooting, but the bridge had suddenly erupted into a huge spider-web of
blaster-shots. Luckily for the Exotroopers, most of them had gotten cover.
The pirates, on the other hand, were fairly easy targets. They fought
bravely, and quite well, he had to admit. But the fact that most of them were
standing out in the open didn't do much to aid their victory.

Kristin, having taken out their means of contacting back-up, turned her
attention to defending their party against the onslaught of gunfire being
directed at them. Her head throbbed with the noise of all of the shooting and
cries of agony. The stench of death that had settled over the bridge made her
physically ill, and she had to force herself to concentrate on the fight and
not her rebellious stomach.

The battle subsided some as the pirates were killed or wounded, but still the
firing continued. The pirates didn't seem to care that they were losing. They
continued the fight, despite their devastating losses.

Crow heard a cry of pain and turned to find Unholy clutching his right leg, a
fresh blaster wound visible just above his knee. Crow searched the bridge for
the pirate who'd shot his teammate...and found him. J'Khal stood about ten
feet in front of Dyvim, and not a foot away from him were Nikki and Elan. He
was smiling, his blaster still aimed in Unholy's direction. Suddenly, his
eyes were fixed on Crow and his smile widened.

J'Khal kicked out, catching Elan across the back of his head with the heel of
his boot. Elan crumpled to the floor next to Nikki. J'Khal then raised his
blaster, aiming it at the young woman laying before him. His expression was
contentious, as though he were daring Mengele to fire at him.

Crow glanced at Kristin and, after an almost imperceptible nod from the exo
tech, did the last thing J'Khal would have suspected. He dropped his blaster
to the floor. "Throw down your weapons!" he ordered.

The rest of the Exo Fleet members hesitated briefly. Vouriot looked to
Kristin and waited for her to confirm the order. In the end, all of them
tossed their blasters to the floor near Crow's.

"I knew you weren't as stupid as you look, Crow....I mean that. It wouldn't
take much to be less dumb than you look, though, would it? What's up with
your eyes, anyway? That's just wierd."

Crow bristled, "Thanks, Khal...it was good to see you again, too."

"Was? You get to see me from now until we meet up with Simbacca. We can catch
up on old times."

Kristin frowned, "I thought ye said ye weren't gonna turn us over ta
Simbacca."

"I've changed my mind. You deserve to die slowly and painfully for what you
did to my crew. All except for you," he said to Crow. "I want to kill you
myself."

"You were the one who gave the order to attack," Crow reminded him bitterly.

"I was provoked," J'Khal replied, causing Crow to shoot a venomous look in
Ross' direction.

"J'Khal, it doesn't have to end this way..." Crow began.

"Yes, Crow, I'm afraid it does..." J'Khal raised his blaster, aiming for
Crow's head.

J'Khal's sudden scream of agony tore through the silence, startling the
occupants of the bridge. Blood ran down his leg as Elan twisted the knife
he'd buried in his thigh moments before and J'Khal cried out in pain once
more, dropping to his knees, his weapon clattering to the floor. Crow and
Kristin had their blasters in hand and trained on the pirates before the
rogues even knew what had happened. Swenson and Conrad retrieved their
weapons and moved to cover J'Khal; who was still moaning in agony and
grabbing at his injured leg.

"Are you okay?" Crow asked Elan.

He yanked the 6" blade that he'd pulled from Nikki's boot out of the pirate
captain's leg and looked toward Mengele, "Fine, except for a bit of a
headache."

Crow returned his attention to the pirates, who had dropped their weapons and
put up their hands in surrender. "What about Nikki?"

"I don't know," Elan replied honestly, kneeling over his fallen comrade.
"She's breathing, but she's still unconscious."

One of the med techs was bandaging Unholy's freshly cleaned wound; the other
moved to kneel beside her, checking her pulse and breathing. He pushed her
hair from her face and examined the damage, "It may take some time, but she
should be fine."

Crow winced at the sight of Nikki's battered face, thinking to himself that
she was probably better off unconscious. "Will he be okay until we can get
him to Dr. Rhodes?" Crow asked the med tech bandaging Unholy's leg.

"Fine, it's not as bad as it looks," the young man replied.

"Well, it sure feels as bad as it looks," Dyvim mumbled under his breath.

Crow turned to Kristin, "So, what do we do with them?" he nodded toward the
pirates.

"I've heard that, when there were still pirates sailing the seas on Earth,
they'd ransom their prisoners," at Crow's skeptical look, she continued, "or
set them adrift in a lifeboat." She raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

Crow nodded slightly, "Ross, Swenson and Conrad; I want the three of you to
round up all of the pirates-check the rest of the ship as well-and put them
into the escape pods. Make sure you take all of their weapons and check them
for anything that they could use to call the rest of the Pirate Fleet. But
leave him here," he ordered, nodding toward J'Khal.

The three troops nodded and began navigating the pirates from the bridge.

"Alain, go with them, they might need your help," Kristin said.

Vouriot nodded and followed them from the bridge.

"What do we do with him?" Kristin asked in reference to the pirate captain.

"It's your mission, Lieutenant O'Connor," Crow moved to kneel beside Nikki,
picking her up. "It's completely up to you," with that, he left the bridge.

Kristin looked at J'Khal critically for a few moments, then raised her
blaster, "Elan, call the Normandy and let them know we'll be on our way as
soon as we take care of things here. The rest of you get the frames prepped
and ready to go."

"What about J'Khal?" Elan asked.

"I'll take care of him," Kristin responded coolly.

When the rest of them had gone, Kristin moved to stand directly in front of
J'Khal, "Stand up."

"I can't, I think I'm crippled for life!"

"I said," Kristin fairly growled, "stand...up!"

J'Khal stood shakily, shifting most of his weight to his good leg.

"I didna appreciate that ye played me like a two dollar fiddle. And I don't
think I'll ever fergive ye fer what ye tried to do t'us..." she hesitated,
turning away from him and exhaling slowly, "but even you don't deserve to
face Simbacca's wrath."

She spun back toward him, letting her fist fly...the crunch of his nose was
satisfying, despite her intense dislike of violence. "That was fer Nikki and
Elan. Now, get yerself out that door before I change my mind and send ye home
ta face yer merciless leader."