An Enemy . . .
Bent on Vengence.
A Commander . . .
With the will to Survive.
A Starship . . .
That holds the future.

His name is Saatori. He is the warrior supreme. Bent on vengence, hate and duty. He will carry out an act that will trigger an intergalactic war.

Her name is Janice Anders Daria, Commander of the Battlecruiser Pegasus. Honored hero of the Battle of Ghitai. She once fought to save a planet from invasion. Now she must fight again to save her own life.

The ship is called the Pegasus. It is the newest ship in the Earth’s fleet. A Battlecruiser prototype designed to fight to win. She has enough power to destroy the surface of a planet in days, enough fighters and bombers to obliterate any ship an enemy should attack with, and crew of highly trained specialists that would fight in land, sea and space.

Soon the events of the 4^th Millenium will come together in a clash that would shatter planets, spill blood and cause conflicts on hundreds of worlds. Soon the Battlecruiser will once again engage in battle against one of the most powerful enemies that humankind will ever face.

David Schleifer was born in Queens, New York in 1962. He was educated and raised in Miami, Florida. He studied eighteen years of Martial Arts under the Cuong Nhu system. He also was a practitioner of Kendo, Japanese sword fencing. Currently he is studying the art of Aikido under Wee-wow Sensei at Gold Coast Aikikai. He also studied and researched military and Navy tactics as well as Japanese History.

His writing career actually began in 1979 with the original concept draft of Battlecruiser. But after joining the Florida Romance Writers in 1987 did he really start to produce manuscripts. In 1991, David Schleifer received his Diploma for passing the Advance Novel Writing Workshop from the Writer's Digest School. David believes that writing is as much an art form as sketching or martial arts. Only by dedicating continuous determination will he be able to perfect his writing skills. Like any artist, he is never truly satisfied with his work, and so, he continues to produce newer manuscripts with the idea of advancing better with each new work.

Saatori!

Sector Unknown.

Rim Quadrant Between

The Earth Empire and

The Drazakian Dynasty

The doors of the bridge exploded. Pieces of shrapnel scattered across the bridge causing its crew to dodge. Captain Jacob Henderson of the freighter Gemini II turned to see Drazakian warriors, the elite specially trained Daakim, rushing onto his bridge. Henderson stood before his crew, a barrier between them and the Daakim. He contained his fear as the Daakim warriors moved around the semi-circular bridge. He watched as the disruptor rifles covered every man at his station. Out of the drifting smoke, armor blood red and stained with blackened streaks, stepped their officer. Henderson stood his ground and refused to budge, yet he felt his gut quivering. He looked over his shoulder, partly to avoid those orange pupils that stared down at him from the Drazakian face, partly to see how the rest of his bridge crew was doing. Then Jacob Henderson looked back at the Drazakian. The sheen of the Drazakii’s salamander-like skin glistened under the bridge lights.

"Listen," Henderson began, "I’ll give you whatever you want. Anything in the hold is yours." Henderson felt a chill running up his spine as the Drazakian leader smiled. Realization that the Drazakian could already take anything in the freighter’s hold was settling in on Henderson’s mind.

"I just want safe passage for me and my crew," he hastily added, "They’re just kids, really."

"Captain," the Drazakian leader hissed between sharp pointed teeth, "what I want you cannot give me." The Drazakian’s accent was clipped and harsh as he spoke basic. "I have need of your ship."

Henderson didn’t grasp the meaning. He watched the Drazakian leader pull his sidearm out of its holster, aimed and fired.

The bolt passed directly into Henderson’s head, the back portion of his skull and an ample amount of blood and brains scattered across the bridge’s command console. Saatori, the Drazakian leader, watched as the human carcass sagged backwards with a dull thump to the deck.

"Eliminate the others and dump their precious cargo," Saatori hissed. He could feel the rage in him as his mood stripes shifted to deep red, matching the color of his battle armor. "Vorpa, dispose of this garbage." Saatori nudged at the dead human Captain with his booted foot, "and set a course for the Capella system."

"Yes, M’lord," Vorpa replied, turning to relay the command. The other crewmembers of the freighter were still in surprised shock at the murder of their Captain. Two of them tried to run, twelve pulses fired. Twelve bodies joined Captain Henderson, their screaming pleas for mercy did not reach Saatori’s ear-holes as he turned and left the freighter’s bridge.