that they shouldn't move, ducked and crept slowly in the direction from which the signal was coming.


If she didn't want to be seen, even a very keen-eyed observer would have to make an effort to spot her on flat terrain, and here the terrain was anything but flat. The secret scout therefore only noticed her when she was almost in front of him, gave a piercing scream and fled. After a few meters, Maiju caught him and threw him into the dust.


Immediately he stood again and glared at her belligerently.Maiju looked back cool and pejorative, leaving him in the dark while she appraised him: he had a long face with slanted eyes, long, narrow, leaf-shaped ears and a lot of matted, gray-brown hair on his head. This found its continuation in a thick mat on the shoulders and upper arms and around the hips. Out of it, in turn, protruded long arms, legs with high knees, like Maiju, and a long, flexible tail at the back. The former ended in clawed middle pieces between hand and paw, the feet had impressively long claws. Where there was no fur, the native had leathery, dark brown skin, and beneath it, hard muscles moved.


At the moment he was crouched on the ground in a tense position, ready to either flee or attack as soon as the slightest opportunity arose.


Maiju didn’t give him any but fixed him, didn’t let go of his gaze.


Soon it became uncomfortable for him, he ducked even lower, hissed: "Who are you?Who are the others? What do you want here?"


Maiju took her time to answer.


"We want your planet."


Another wild hiss. "And you think you can get it? What kind of nuts are you?" the last one had sounded almost amused.


Maiju would have loved to put a kiball through his stomach for it, but she just remembered. Should he calmly mistake them for impostors - if he thought they were harmless, he might lead them to his people.


She put on the offended expression of an exposed braggart and growled unbelievably: "You don't believe me, will you? You'll see how we get it!" to fall on your nose. When she got up again, grinning in silence, she heard a strange noise behind her: the local laughed.


That sounded so strange that Maiju almost started laughing herself, but she was barely able to resist it.

She turned around and glared at him angrily: "You dare to laugh at me? Well wait, that will pass you in a moment!"


Again she succeeded in an attack that failed, and again the unsuspecting man rolled with laughter.


A few more failed attacks like this, and he was absolutely certain he was dealing with a bungler.


"Tell me, are your buddies all as weak as you?" asked he.


Maiju crouched on the floor, breathing heavily, put on an insulted expression before answering: "I'm the second strongest!", With which she was even telling the truth this time.


"Well then you can't be very strong!"


> Poor madman! <


"You know what, give up the planet conqueror airs and come with me. My people haven't seen anything like that in ages!"


Yes! Now she had him where she wanted him.


As a precaution, however, Maiju played a bit of theater. If she'd agreed too quickly, it might have aroused his suspicions.

“Pah, why should we?” She put on an expression as defiant as possible.


"Because sooner or later you weak mates would die of thirst alone in the desert, for example!"


"Nope!"


An indulgent smile stole on the face of the local, as if he were speaking to a stubborn three-year-old: "Yes! And now don't play the great warrior here, but rather get your people! Before long it will be damn hot here when the sun reaches its highest level and then everything that lives has to disappear in the shadows! So hurry up! "


"Okay!" Maiju grumbled and hurried back to her command, deliberately stumbling once and falling lengthways.


> I haven't seen anything naive for a long time! <


They sat on the ground behind the large rock that the local had previously used as cover, only Turnus leaned against the rock.


"There you are again!" he received her impatiently."What did it take you so long for? It was weak!"


"And he still is." returned Maiju. "I got his trust by trickery - he wants to lead us to his people. To do this, however, we have to pretend we can't do anything or as if we were the last failures, otherwise he will become suspicious!"


"Tell me, who is actually in charge here: you or me?" Turnus' question came in such an icy tone that Maiju could literally hear the stone he was leaning against cracking from the cold. She bowed her head guiltily.


"You of course, Captain! I'm sorry!"


"Exactly. And as your captain, I demand that you obey me and not start any unauthorized actions! We will conquer the planet without a cumbersome puppet show, in the tried and tested way! So come on! We'll stay together this time!"


"But ... Captain, wouldn't it be much quicker if we allowed ourselves to be guided? The locals know where their settlements are, we would have to look for them for a long time!" Maiju wanted to change the mind of the captain.

"Oh, shut up! I don't need a guide to complete my missions!"


“But-” Maiju tried again, and immediately a red-hot ball of energy hit her in the stomach, accompanied by the scream: “Shut up!” She was pulled back, rolled over, and landed in the dust.


Without further comment, Turnus flew away, followed by his command and, a little later, the angry Maiju.


She had always believed that Turnus valued initiative, and suddenly he behaved as stubborn and stuck as a robot that could only perform a few specific actions. Why didn't he let her do what she thought fit? Surely he had to see that her suggestion was more promising!


A little ahead of her, Loé flew closer to Fir and whispered to him: "I have the feeling that our captain is afraid of his supremacy! As he just dumped Maiju, that meant quite clearly:" Don't you play yourself here, I'm still the command leader!""


"Right!" Fir whispered back. "But he made a mistake!"


"How so?"


"Well, I didn't want to draw Maiju's anger on myself!"


Loé said nothing more, but he thought his part. Fir too. So did the rest of the command.




They searched for a good two hours in the brooding midday heat of the apparently completely extinct planet. Maiju was getting more and more frustrated. Was Turnus really so stupid that he didn't want to postpone the search until night when he could imagine that no one would voluntarily expose himself to this heat? Apart from him, of course, because the hellish temperatures didn't seem to bother him at all and he let his command fly at an almost unreasonable speed.


Finally, as it had to come, Loé suffered heat stroke, fell like a stone and, although Turnus cursed and railed like a Chutakee witch, did not get back on his feet.


Not only out of solidarity with Loé, Maiju, Fir, Tiang and Tarkran also dropped as they stood and ignored Turnus' insults, which of course followed on from that.

It took Turnus a long time to come to the conclusion that not even Freezer would have been able to make his team stand up.


But then he also sank to the ground, in the shade, and was the first to scrape away. Tiang lay down near him and soon his regular breathing could be heard.


"Wretched slave driver!" Loé hissed, as soon as he was sure that his captain could no longer hear him.


"Why doesn't he get the idea to look at night?" Maiju contributed her opinion. "Who would be so crazy to walk around in that glowing furnace during the day?"


"Besides him? Nobody!"


“And shooing us around like he's trying to break a speed record!” Tarkran spat. "Hey, people - he sleeps deeply. Everyone dedicates a beam of energy to him, then we will have finally got rid of the problem of rotation!"


"Mutiny? Tarkran, please have your fuses checked!"

"But- hey, Maiju, this is our big chance! We will never get one like that again!"


Maiju shook her head.


"My opinion. Tarkran, you really have a few screws loose! You know what is deserting!" Fir wanted to get him back on the carpet.


Tarkran, however, eluded his argument: "Freezer will not chase us through the whole universe!"


"Oh yes!" Loé noticed softly from the background. His eyes wandered expressively to Maiju.


> If you only knew!

"He'll let us be followed everywhere, and when he finds us, he'll make an example of each of us who has washed himself so that the others don't get stupid thoughts! Otherwise he'll end up without soldiers!"


"Right. So forget it, Tarkran, and hold your breath!"


"All against one, huh?" grumbled the outvoted man. "But I shouldn't care!You are a bunch of cowards! "


Acting more offended than he was, Tarkran strutted off and lay down to sleep at a clear distance from the others.


They soon followed his example, only that they stayed where they were.


Maiju noticed again and again how unprotected they were here. There were no more rocks, at best large stones like the one in whose shadow lay Turnus and Tiang. Any being that was not completely blind could see them clearly within a hundred yards.


Nonetheless, she soon fell asleep because the heat had made her quite tired.




The freezing cold woke her. When she looked up at the sky, sleepy and frozen, she saw stars twinkling. The thick cloud cover had cleared and let the warmth of the day escape into space. The typical desert night cold prevailed.


Maiju sat up and tried to rub himself warm. She was taken aback by a strange noise.She listened and found Loé