The detective woke to a familiar face only a few feet away from his. He was being shaken back and forth and with every shake his head pounded. Despite being able to see it took him more than a few minutes to finally understand what was even going on.

"Detective, detective! Wake up, there we go, that's it. You hit your head pretty hard."

When his vision finally focused down and he took the time to recognize the face in front of him, he yelped in sudden surprise and tried to leap to his feet. However, his legs had other ideas, and he sagged hard towards the ground, his head pounding and nauseous.

Admiral Vir laid a hand on his shoulder, "Woah there hotshot take it easy. Gonna need you to stay still so I can take care of this."

He groaned and tried to swat the other man away, "You-!

"Didn't do this." HE said, grabbing the Detective by the wrist and holding it tight as he used his left hand, and a damp cloth to wipe blood from his head, "Think back a little and maybe you'll remember."

Confused by the man helping him, and his own throbbing head, he did his best to think back.

He remembered being outside the cells watching the cameras. He remembered dozing off in his seat a little.

And then it came to him.

He remembered being violently dragged off his chair and into the dark bak room, a hand over his mouth only to be set upon by the three escaped human prisoners. Things were so silent and so quick that it was hard to rationalize what happened. His eyes, still trying to focus, looked around the room and the wide open floor which constituted some kind of bar or club, with chairs and tables and seats, and a dance floor. However, everything was deserted as of now, and he was sitting back against one of the couches, his legs sticking out straight before him.

Admiral Vir leaned forward a bit, eyes narrowed in concentration as he parted the matted hair on top of the detective's scalp. The expression the detective had come to know, one of indignant, childish petulance, was gone, and in its place was a serious expression of worry and concern that made the man look nearly twenty years older than he was.

This was the man he had expected when he heard admiral, not the sass mouthing over talkative prisoner he had been trying to interrogate for the past day or two. Admiral Vir sat back on his heels, his expression serious still, but less worried now, "So, you got yourself whacked pretty hard. Luckily for you the bleeding stopped and the cut isn't too deep. Normally I would suggest finding a doctor to make sure you haven't badly concussed yourself, but considering the circumstances, we don't really have that option.

We? He thought with some incredulity repeating the phrase before he knew what he was saying, "We.... What do you mean by we. I am the detective and YOU are the suspect."

A little bit of the sarcastic childishness returned as the Admiral rolled his eyes to the heavens, "You are a pretty shit detective if you haven't figured out by now that I am on your side." Admiral Vir sat back on his heels, his one green eye staring the detective in the face, surprisingly devoid of any sort of malice.

"I'm going to be honest with you about exactly what happened, no sarcasm this time, no jokes. I was called into this planet as a consult to a murder." he held up a hand as the detective went to protest, "Yes, I know, I am no detective, but I was asked by the GA, so I went. When we got there we found a dismembered Tesraki body in the back of his shop, based on the tourist area and and violence of the crime, I determined that humans had done it. WHen I saw the missing limbs I immediately assumed this was some sick plot about trying to find exotic meat or something, but it turns out I was wrong on that front."

The admiral Stood and went over to toss the damp rag into a trashcan before returning, "I returned to our hotel room later that night with Krill and Sunny and sat down to compile a list of possible names. I found about twenty, but by the time I was done, it was already too late at night to do anything. I tried to sleep, but none came, so I left to go on a walk. Naturally my preoccupied mind let me towards the part of the city where those twenty names were registered.

It was only by luck that I ran into that alley at all. I couldn't let the Tesraki die, so I stupidly jumped in and nearly got my throat cut once or twice. I did knock two of them out and break the sternum of the other one." He patted the leg which the detective happened to know was mechanical, "I always forget how strong this piece of hardware is, but anyway, I called the authorities and the men were carted away. The Tesraki was fine when he left. I remember wrapping my jacket around him and carrying him out to wait for emergency vehicles. That was the last time I saw him. WHen we returned to the precinct the day after, was when you showed up and arrested me."

The detective sat, his head reeling slowly in confusion and suspicion, "But I saw the security tapes. That's not what happened."

"Can you guarantee those security tapes werent doctored. Were you the first person to have your hands on them?"

He paused and then shook his head, "Well, no."

"And do you admit it is kind of weird for me to be arrested the day after the three men in the alley?"
"I mean a little."

"And based on all the research you have done on me, isn't this a bit out of character."

The detective paused unwilling to admit that he had been having some doubts. Sure he had been given a preliminary report of the Admiral's criminal history, but when he got a better look at it, most of his actions had been justified. In the Drev war, he had been a member of operation Steel eye, a drugged young man being taken advantage of by a system. During the first contact incident, his excitement had led to the discovery of aliens, though the bran had misinterpreted his enthusiasm as hunting. His return to the Drev home planet had involved him spending time to learn their language and about their culture. And his murder of the burg that had inevitably caused the war was an act in self defence, and he couldnt have known that spitting on the creature was going to kill it.

He sighed deeply, "Alright, you have a point.... But I still think your an annoying asshole."

The man smiled, "I get that a lot."

"Anyway point of the story is, I woke up to something last night and the cell was open. I think they were trying to frame me for your murder, but the Tesrak idetective came into help at the alst second, and told me to get out as soon as I can."

He supposed that made sense, and fit into his experience, "And what do you plan to do now? How are you going to get out of this. IF this is really a plot to frame you, and the department is involved, we can assume it comes from high up, with someone powerful enough to at least consider themselves above the law."

The Admiral paused, tapping his fingers against his knee, "Did you come here in your own ship?"

***
"You must find the admiral and the detective. Leave admiral Vir alive, but make sure the detective dies. In the meantime, I will take this evidence and present it to the GA council, they are unlikely to disbelieve video evidence of the crime."

The Kree sighed, but nodded, "It will be done.

At that announcement Sunny suddenly grabbed krill by his shoulder and hauled him back into the darkness just in time for the Kree to step out of the office followed by the Tesraki senator.

WIth one hand over Krill's mouth, Sunny pulled the two of them behind a very large potted plant, watching as the two made their way down the hall.

They had just disappeared around the corner, when Krill turned to look at Sunny, "Why didn't we jump them?"

Sunny turned to frown at him, "Because what were we going to do, threaten to eat him? Besides, no one would believe us, at least not here. I have a better idea."
"A better idea?"

"Just trust me"

***

Admiral Vir pulled his jacket up against the rain as they came to the launch field. It wasn't that far away from the department, so they had to keep a low profile, which was hard as two humans, though the cover of rain helped some. The Detetive checked around the landing strip and then motioned the admiral to follow him quickly. Adam did as told and hurried after him, until they came upon a little black/silver ship at the back of the lot.

Adam raised an eyebrow, "A rundi short cruiser, how did you manage to score one of these babies." he ran his hand along her smooth aerodynamic hull.

"A what? Oh this thing." He shrugged, "It was given to me for this mission."

Adam frowned, "This thing? You mean this work of art.

The man just stared at it, 'It's a spaceship."

"It is a shuttle that can warp! And you are calling it just a spaceship. It's one of only ten ships in existence like this. The Detective shrugged unimpressed, and Adam sighed long and loud, "You have no appreciation for the finer things in life. I bet you don't even know how to drive it."

"Its autopilot, why would I want to drive it?"

Adam put his head in his hands, "You're going to make me cry."

The door to the little ship hissed open, and the two of them climbed inside. The interior was almost as sleek as the outside, and Adam couldn't help but run his hands over the console and controls as he went to take a seat in the copilot chair as the other man sat down and began slowly flipping up pre programmed controls.

Adam sighed as the detective flipped through the instruction manual.

"Do you want to drive/" The other man snapped

"I thought you'd never ask." Adam retired, reaching out a hand for the controls.

Just then the two of them were blinded as a bright spotlight beamed down upon them.

"Admiral Vir, step away from the controls and come out with your hands up."

"Shit!"

The detective was just reaching out to power down the shuttle, when Adam reached forward, and flicked up the last few switches with lightning speed, turning over the engine and grabbing the controls.

"What the hell are you doing!" The detective yelled "You can't fly this thing manual, it's too fas-"

He punched the throttle, and they rocketed into the air, doing a tight barrel roll to the left narrowly avoiding the emergency shuttle and equipped high beams. The detective screamed, and then choked off as the G force slammed him back into his seat.

Adam caught their spin and leveled out, coming face to face with another three cruisers. Pulling back on the joystick with his left hand, they shot up vertically before he took them into a spinning vertical dive that had them cutting past the two shuttles, now spinning in confusion.

The Detective screamed again as they pulled out of the dive and back into a vertical climb. On the rear cameras, he could see the three shuttles meandering around in confusion, and thought they were out of the woods for a moment before another set of beams fell on them, and a sleek black ship, of a make he could not identify, fell in behind them.

He punched it harder, pulling into a tight backward loop. WIthout his flight suit the G forces behaved brutally causing his vision to blacken at the edges, but by tensing his belly and chest, he continued to force blood into his head. Off to the side, the G force had been to much for the Detective who was hit with a sudden bout of G-lock and passed out, flopping against his harness like a fish.

He pulled out of the dive just behind the pursuing shuttle, and then quickly cut up and left, pushing the ship to the extremes of it's speed. As they rose higher into the atmosphere there was an automatic cachunk as the atmospheric engine moved over to the compressed warp/funsio nengine.

The detective flopped around like a dead fish for a few more seconds before his head slowly rolled back upright. He looked horribly green.

"IF you throw up I swear to the Leviathan, I am going to kill you."

Behind him the little black ship was maintaining a distant pursuit with some difficulty.

Once out of the atmosphere and heading into high orbit, Adam reached down and engaged the warp.

The detective reached out a hand, "Wait!"

But it was too late, the universe around them began to spiral, folding over on itself and reflecting back the space like a mirror. The feeling was terrible like being folded in half or pulled apart as everything far away appeared close and everything close appeared far away.

Admiral Vir felt himself getting ready to pass out against the full power of an undampened warp his brain unable to fathom what he was seeing as space around them was compressed.

They came out with a sudden jolt that threw them against their seats jerking them forward and then back with a sudden halt.

The Detective groaned piteously where he was passed out in his seat Ad had barely retained consciousness, but shook it off as he reached out to grab the controls.

A soft dripping noise had him turning his head to the side, upon which time he grinned rather smugly and turned his head back to the front where the rundi planet, Irus, glowed like a blue and orange marble against the sky.
The Detective didn't wake up for a good few minutes, but when he did, he was soon followed by cruising and a face reddened by embarrassment, "Your first undampened short warp I take it?" Adam said grinning.

HTe man didn't answer.

Still grinning, adam laughed, "Don't worry, it happened to the best of us at one point. Most people aren't able to keep their bladder in check during thief first warp."

"You're an asshole, you know that."

"Well aware, but at least this asshole isn't sitting in a puddle of his own urine."
His merriment was shut up a few second later as their shuttle jerked violently forward, "Shit!" He yelled, forcing the ship back onto it's trajectory. He took a look at the back camera to see that, somehow, the other ship was still following them.

"Hold on to your hat!" He yelled, punching the throttle and rocketing them towards the blue surface of the planet.

THe Detective screamed again as they roared into the atmosphere at incredible speeds, fire licking up at the sides as atmospheric friction caught up with them. Adam knew what he was doing, he knew just how much power it would take to burnt through the hull or rip off her wings. Knowing his opponent had a less advanced ship, he hoped that they would either, overestimate their abilities or pull back.

And he was right, they did for a while, though not in time as a contingent of Rundi defence ships shot up after them demanding identification over the radio. He was too busy flying to respond, and the Detective could barely function as a human being. The other ship was swarmed, but Adam managed to pull them down into a tight inverted roll backwards and vertical before pulling up and rolling to the side.

The manuver was more than the rundi ships could handle and they lost him as they roared towards the planet.

The city was closer now, close enough that he could see the spires of the GA council chamber.

He soared over the launch filed.

"What are you doing!" The detective yelled

"We don't have time!" Adam snarled pulling back on the joystick and reversing the thrusters to come to a halt right over the open GA courtyard, WIth steady hands he lowered himself into the open plane as delegates divided out of the way. Guards ran from the outer edge and inward surrounding his ship.

He turned and threw open the doors running out into a wall of heat that battered against him without mercy. The guards froze in confusion as they saw him, and he took the moment to push past.

Behind him the detective staggered out onto the marble barely able to walk, moving about like he was drunk.

WIth a steady stride, adam made his way towards the council chamber.

***

"And as the presented evidence shows, Admiral Vir is a murderer." The Tesraki delegate announced shocked whispers rising up around him as they stared as the video footage, "In light of these events, I move to-"

At the end of the hall, a door onto the floor slammed open, and everyone turned in shock just in time to see a vrul and a Drev step onto the floor. The Drev was just about to open her mouth to speak when another door slammed open.

The entire delegation moved to their feet with shouts of shock and surprise as Admiral Vir stepped onto the floor, "I OBJECT!." he paused frowning, "Wait, that's for weddings isn't it."

The chairwoman stood, "Admiral Vir, What do you have to say for yourself."

Before he could say anything Sunny cut in, "He's being framed!"

The Tesraki counselor rose to his feet, "Lies, do you have proof?"

"Uh, well no."

"YES!"

Adam turned to sunny, shook himself and turned back to the delegation, "Er YES!" he turned his head to look at Sunny, "We do/"

She stepped forward, "I have evidence that admiral Vir was being framed, framed by." She turned and jabbed a finger at the Tesraki, "YOU." He stepped back in shock, and a muttering rose up around them.

"How dare you."

Sunny marched forward and past the guards, reaching up to hand something to the chairwoman, who took it and passed it to an assistant, who hurried over to insert the chip into their system.

A voice rose over the speakers, "Get out there, FIND HIM and make sure he doesn't ruin this for me. If this all works out, by the end of the month I will be chairman of the GA, and the humans will simply be an afterthought." said the Tesraki delegates voice.

Hundreds of eyes turned to look at him in open shock.

He stepped back hand raised, "I have no idea where this came from.

THe second Tesraki delegate stood a look of absolute rage on her face, "How could you!" she snapped, "How could you betray us like this."

He stammered, "But he, he escaped prison, he killed the detective!"

Just then, the doors at the end of the room opened up and the Detective came waddling into the room looking miserable and nauseous, but very much alive. Following him Came the Tesraki detective, hauling an unconscious Kree in his wake, who he dumped on the floor as soon as he made it to the center.

The Tesraki was looking a little more worse for ware, his ear torn, green blood staining his fur

He raised a hand and pointed a finger at the delegate, "The Admiral is telling the truth, he was framed, and THIS TESRAKI threatened my department to do it. I was scared at first as my family is in grave peril but I couldn't stand by and watch a good man be framed for selfish reasons." He turned to the delegation, "He is angry that the humans have taken so much Tesraki economic power, despite the fact that." he turned an accusatory eye on the Tesraki, "The average citizen has never been so well off. Because of human tourism, we are thriving. The only one's different are the corporations, and now this Tesraki would have it so we go back to the old days when the average citizen was poor and the elite ruled."

Sunny nodded, "There is more to that recording. We tracked it by following the a spy who was charged with making tampered video footage to incriminate Admiral Vir. You know him, you know him as a human who has always worked for the betterment of the GA. There is no chance that he could have done anything lie what they are saying.

There was a pause in the crowd for a moment, and then Lord Celzex stood, "IT is as I said, Admiral Vir would never do such a crime, and we have no reason to believe he would start now."

The Tesraki delegate snarled, though was almost immediately cold cocked in the face by the other Tesraki delegate as guards moved in from the sides of the room to detain the Tesraki and the Kree.

In the chaos Admiral Vir and Sunny were pushed to the side, pinned into a small corner.

She looked down at him, and he looked up at her.

"Thanks for having my back."

She smiled, "no problem, I've decided I want to keep your around for a while."

He grinned, "I hope you do."
He stretched up on the balls of his feet and she leaned down, their foreheads pressed against one another for a quick moment before disengaging and beng swept away on the tide of questions and confusion.