"I don't know about this, Kaz," Mika said, leaning into the cockpit and watching his older brother strap on the pilot seat's safety harness.

"Get in or get out," Kaz said. "We only have two hours left before dayshift starts and the Family wakes. I don't care to meet with our Captain Father until after we've gone flying.

"Young sirs," called a mechanic from the entrance of the flight bay, his words echoing in the cavernous chamber.

"Tell him we have clearance," Kaz ordered. "Or we'll never get out of here."

Mika looked back at the mechanic who was marching down the steel ramps, wrenches and cables swinging from his tool belt. Mika chewed his lip in indecision.

"Tell him, Mika. He'll believe you."

"We have clearance!" Mika shouted, and waved in what he hoped was a confident air.

The crewman nodded and returned to his own duties, disappearing down the corridor.

"That was close. Get in or it'll look suspicious."

After another moment of hesitation, Mika sighed and climbed into the cabin, swinging the door closed and locking it. Sitting down in the co-pilot's seat beside Kaz, he wrapped the safety harness around his lap and chest, tightened it and snapped the buckles shut.

"I still think we should take our own mini-cruisers. Father wouldn't mind that."

"Those minis are for kids," said Kaz. "It takes all day to destroy one asteroid with their mini-blasters. What fun is that? With Father's new spacecruiser and its mega-blasters, we'll have the power to pulverize any asteroid with one shot. Anyway, Father will be so pleased that all the space debris around the mothership has been destroyed, he won't be angry that we took his cruiser."

"All right, but I want to fire at them too."

Kaz nodded and started up the engine, taxiing across the flight bay to the docking bay and airlock chamber. Flipping switches and buttons on the control panel, he keyed on comm and addressed the Flight Control Personnel: "Lord Kazlin Brace here. Ready for take-off at Dock 1B. Spec Code 414A Flight 3."

"What code is that?"

"Shhh. I don't know. It sounds official, though, doesn't it?"

Mika rolled his eyes at Kaz's mischievous grin. Kaz was always taking advantage of their status within the Family and, much to Mika's disgust, Kaz usually got away with the wild schemes and misdeeds. Mika leaned back in his chair, feeling slightly uneasy. This spacecraft was ten times as powerful as their own little pods. Not only that, but it was also carrying the Sleeper missile, the Family's new massive bio-destruction weapon. There was still time for him to back out, but if he did he would have to face Kaz's derision.

Mika's stomach fluttered as they entered the airlock chamber and he wiped his sweaty palms on his thighs. Too late to change his mind now. He glanced at Kaz who was definitely in his element, a wide grin stretched across his face and eyes sparkling with excitement; Mika felt his own face probably looked green.

"Ambient condition check," Control announced. "Hold for hatch locks and threshold lights."

Bells clanged as the docking doors opened. Kaz started the engine and it roared to life, vibrating with bridled energy.

"Listen to that hum." Kaz reached out and patted the console. "This baby wants to go."

"Cleared for take off. Safe flight, Lord Kazlin."

"Waaahooo! Here we go!" Kaz said, and hurtled out of the airlock and into open space.

Mika grinned. His brother's enthusiasm for flying was catching. He watched Kaz steer them a good distance away from the mothership, then accelerate, zipping and spinning them through space with a speed that would have made their own minis seem like stationary objects. Kaz dodged and evaded small meteoroids and then headed for an asteroid twice the size of the spacecruiser.

"Kaz! Look out!" Mika said, closing his eyes and gripping his seat's armrests.

He opened one eye and wished he hadn't -- the asteroid loomed even larger in front of them. At the precise moment Mika thought they would crash, Kaz hit the glowing strike knob and a blast rang out from their craft, sending a missile smashing into the asteroid and ripping it apart. Mika sighed in relief as they whizzed through the resulting debris.

"Wasn't that great!?" Kaz said, as a hail of particles pinged off the hull. "Our minis couldn't do that with their pitiful fireworks."

Mika agreed. "Let me have a turn, Kaz."

"Wait. I'm not finished."

A half-hour later Kaz was still shooting asteroids.

"It's my turn," Mika said and reached for the controls.

"Not yet." Kaz shoved Mika away.

Mika fumed. It was just like Kaz to invite him along, but not share in the fun, and then expect him to be an equal partner in the consequences. If that was to be the case, there was no way he was going to be left out of having a turn at shooting the asteroids.

Mika waited until Kaz was heading for another asteroid, then he leaned forward, shoved Kaz's hand away, and pressed the strike knob himself. A missile shot out and pulverized the asteroid, scattering sparks and dust across the dark landscape.

"Cut it out, Mika," Kaz said, punching him in the arm.

Mika glared at Kaz. Rubbing his arm, he sat back and waited until Kaz had lined up with the next target. He reached forward to launch the missile, but this time Kaz was expecting him and jerked the missile barrel away from the target.

Mika scowled at his brother as the shot went wild, soaring off into space. And then watched in dismay as the missile glanced off an asteroid and careened towards the mothership, taking out two antennae, a solar panel and a heat deflector. He heard Kaz gasp beside him.

"You're in trouble now," Kaz said, smacking Mika in the head.

"It's not my fault! I'm telling Father that you..." Mika replied, emphasizing the "you" with a finger poke to Kaz's chest. "...aimed it at the mothership."

"You better not," Kaz said and swung his fist at Mika.

Mika grunted as Kaz's fist slammed into him. Before Kaz could hit him again, he unsnapped his harness to float out of arms reach from his bigger, heavier brother. Kaz, his expression grim, unstrapped himself and lunged at Mika, who fell back from the impact, but recovered quickly to grapple with Kaz. They tumbled and bounced off the cabin walls until Mika broke free and swung his fist at Kaz's head. Kaz ducked and shoved off the wall with his feet, slamming Mika into the control panel.

Suddenly alarm bells clanged. The spacecruiser shuddered and Mika watched in horror as the Sleeper missile shot out from the hold and streaked through space straight for the nearest planet.

"Oh, no! That's the planet that Father made radio contact with aliens."

"I know, you idiot," Mika said, and fended off another volley of punches until Kaz was distracted by a series of red dots moving across the vid screen.

Relief coursed through Mika. Five Starscouts, abandoning their routine flight maneuvers, raced after the Sleeper missile, firing their own sleek silver missiles in an effort to destroy the Sleeper before it reached its destination. If anyone could stop the Sleeper, it would be the Starscouts. The comm buzzed to life and Mika jumped, startled by the sudden crackling static of an incoming transmission.

"Lord Kazlin, you are not authorized for flight. Please reverse course and return to base immediately."

Mika opened his mouth to voice their assent, but Kaz interrupted.

"I didn't quite catch that. Transmission garbled." At Mika's questioning expression Kaz whispered, "I want to see what happens."

"I heard that, Kazlin Brace!" their Father's voice boomed over comm. "Return now!"

"Yes, sir!" Kaz said, but made no movement to turn the cruiser around and instead stood by the console screen and watched the red blinking blips slowly closing in on the Sleeper.

Mika floated to a window by the bulkhead and clenched his hands in frustration -- even though the gap had lessened, the fleet's missiles were still falling short. Mika groaned as the Sleeper entered the planet's atmosphere and turned into a yellow-orange ball of fire. An instant later -- impact. A flower of fire bloomed and spread across the planet's surface, petals of flame covering a third of the world while tendrils of jet-black biopoison drifted and spread with unfaltering, deadly surety.

"God's above! You destroyed the planet!" Father's voice exploded over comm. "You're both restricted to your quarters for the rest of this trip and I should ground you for life. It took us half the summer and three hyperspace jumps to get here. I swear, you're spending next summer with your mother. How am I going to explain this to..."

Mika clicked off the comm link.

"What'd you do that for?"

"He's going to yell at us again when we get home. I'd rather get yelled at just once. It's not like we did it on purpose."

Kaz grinned and ruffled Mika's hair. "You're all right, Mika."

Mika ducked away and grinned back, but then grew serious.

"I was looking forward to meeting the aliens," Mika said, watching the planet that was now almost fully encased in the swirling blackness. "It's really too bad about that pretty blue planet."