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Rose woke with a start. She rubbed her head, trying to clear it of all those foggy dreams. And looked around. It was still the middle of the night. At least, on the sleep schedule she was used to, it was. But then the ship shook again.

"Maybe that's why I woke up." Rose said to the thin air, and decided to go see what was going on.

Leaving her room, she almost tripped when she felt the ship shudder again. She walked the rest of the way with one hand on the railing. It only took her a few minutes to get to the bridge, and the sight startled her.

"I'm telling you, we need to get somewhere else, now!" Taran yelled at ANTIE-D.

"Negative. I received confirmation from the Nerissa Altsoba that they are on their way here to provide assistance. We hold our position."

"In the middle of an asteroid belt?" Taran asked increduously, pointing out the front windows, where yet another huge chunk of reddish brown rock floated in front of them.

"Yes." replied ANTIE-D, still looking back at Taran while sitting in the pilot's seat, and manuevering the ship around the moving rocks.

"And risk getting crushed?" Taran asked again. He really didn't understand this bot's logic at all.

"My piloting skills are highly proficient. And this option is still better than waiting out in open space."

"Rrra!" Taran growled. "How can this be better? We could get smashed to smithereens any minute now!" Taran yelled back at ANTIE-D.

"That is only one possibility, with a probability of only about 40%. However, if we leave this belt, and continue any farther into our course, there is an 85% chance that we will be picked up on galactic scanners, and then the Narpathians will find us. There is a 94% chance that if they find us, we will be shot down, a 5% chance that we will be boarded, and only a 1% chance that we will survive. If we are boarded, we will all die." ANTIE-D looked over at Rose. "They would use me for scrap, if that sounds better to you." Over the last day, Taran had been trying to find out the extent of humanity in ANTIE-D, and had had open volatile discussions with ANTIE-D about sentient beings and what constitutes life.

Taran shook his head. "And why can't we just back out of here without going further forward?" he asked, as if that had been the most rational idea yet.

ANTIE-D looked down at her consoles, and did not answer.

"Well?" Taran shouted. ANTIE-D looked up.

"Then we will be sucked into a gravitational pull that I've been picking up with unknown origins." she looked back down at her panel. "I have already classified it as not being a black hole, but it could be a dark planet."

"A dark planet?" Rose asked, curious.

"A dark planet is a planet that is still forming. It has finally gotten the properties that start the gravitational center, but it is not yet fully formed. Does not have enough mass of its own. It sucks things out of space and they melt into the molten surface of the planet, slowly addidng to its bulk. We could forever be a part of a new planet. Of course, " Taran added, as if this was only a small setback, "we'd all be dead. The temperature of the planet would fry us before we hit it."

Rose laughed. "Well, is that all?" she asked. "Then I say we let ANTIE-D float us around the asteroids a bit longer. Until this Nerissa ship... I assume it is a ship? until this ship shows up to help us through."

Both Taran and ANTIE nodded, as if suddenly, Rose was in charge. blue muttered wildly in her head, and something occured to her.

"Now," she said, turning around, "I'm going back to bed. Don't wake me unless it is important. Taran, don't bother the pilot. She needs all her concentration."

Taran started to open his mouth, as did ANTIE-D.

"I know, she can multi-task. It won't break her concentration. But Taran is only mortal, and needs to find something else useful to do for now." With that, Rose went back to bed. "Huh." Rose mumbled. "Interesting."
blue piped up. 'I told you it was our ship. It was Mom's, so it is actually yours. Which makes you the captain.'
Rose smiled. "Which means they have to follow my orders." she said softly, and then yawned. Five minutes later, Rose was fast asleep.