Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Space Pirates, Allies and Aliens. Darryl Dean Wright
finally recognized it from a history book of long ago. “They built three of those ship - two of them in Vegas and one from New York. They were listed as money makers, and that one there was called, “Queen Elizabeth.” That ship is well over a century old! As far as anyone knew none of them exists today. It sure looks good.”
Derek said, “It is in awfully good shape for a ghost ship!” Then he said, “All of a sudden, it doesn’t feel kosher anymore.” Tim looked at him smiling and Captain Derek asked him to try and contact the ship. Tim said that he had already tried, but no answer.
Austen said, “The lights are on, but no one is home; this is damn strange!” He looked at his brother, and he was thinking out loud, “How does E.D. lose its communications?” He turned their search lights off of the large ship. He remembered that these ships were called luxury liners. He told Tim to be careful again.
Tim lowered the ship again. Since they had passed the ship, he was still moving to the right, but he brought it in a little closer. They came around the front so they could see inside the station’s large window.
Two men out of uniform except for their hats stood up and waved at the bridge of the One-Oh-One. Kirk entered the bridge as Austen and Tim were waving back. Austen said to Tim, “Regulations must be slack this far out. No uniform, long beard and that one there is wearing sunglasses … in space?” The one with the long beard wearing a leather vest stuck his hand on the window holding four fingers up.
Austen gave him thumbs up; he knew the man meant docking bay four. Tim kept on going while Austen put his hand over his ear more or less asking about their radio. The one with the shades put his two fists in the air, his right fist went up, and his left fist went down indicating that the radio was broken. Tim said, “Their radio is broke.”
Derek came up behind Tim and stuck his thumb up in the air and over his shoulder for Tim to move out of the pilot’s chair as Austen and Kirk sat down quickly and strapped in.
Derek sat in the pilot’s chair as Tim took Derek’s chair. Derek said, “I always wanted to do this,” as his left eye twitched and he laughed like a madman. He slowly pointed the One-Oh-One ninety degrees to starboard, and then slowly hit the thrusters till he aligned the airlocks up and brought the ship in delicately. “Hard seal, like a gentle kiss; lights green and I’m just that good!” Derek bragged. Of course he had over three thousand hours logged in flying Austen’s freighter.
Austen said, “Not bad, Bubba.”
Derek still bragging said, “I don’t know why they call it, ‘Hard seal’, because that was pretty easy!”
JR threatened, “Shut up!” He sounded irritated. He had been cooped up with his brothers too long.
The flight crew and JR left the bridge and walked into a barrier of loud and excited cheering! Everybody was happy to be there finally, but they had no clue as to what was about to happen next.
The cadets had made it; they were at the Jupiter Station facility. They were all in a hurry to leave the One-Oh-One to stretch their legs and walk more than ten feet at a time. They waited as Austen made his way to the hatch.
Austen looked above the starboard airlock to visually see the green light that should be on and lit to verify a seal. He knew it would be, but in space it doesn’t hurt to be careful and triple check everything. Everyone was crowding him as he opened the hatch.
Kirk realized that he had the android’s remote control in his hand, so he went back to the flight deck and set the thing down in the fifth seat. When he returned, he froze at the doorway entrance. He saw all of his crew with their hands in the air. He looked at his father who was waving one hand nonchalantly for Kirk to back up. Everyone was backing away from the hatch. Something was wrong! What was going on, he wondered?
A bald, big muscled pirate entered through the hatch. He was leading with a semi-automatic weapon. There were several raggedy looking pirates behind him, also carrying assorted fire-arms. They were fanning out around the cadets. The big leader had a fake Australian accent when he spoke, “Everyone just calm down and do as aye say, an ya might get out of dis alive! Now, who’s in charge round ere, eh?” He was looking at each cadet trying to figure out who was in charge on the boat.
All the cadets looked to Austen and Derek. Austen figured that his brother would speak up at the same time he did. He looked at Derek and nodded. Derek pretended to take a step forward as Austen did, but as Austen stepped forward, Derek took one step back by way of “Moonwalking.” Austen saw him in his peripheral vision and just sighed. He’d have laughed under different circumstances. So would've Derek, but he considered himself as a lover, not a fighter.
The pirates were certainly outnumbered, but they had the advantage with all their weapons. They ordered everybody to sit down. The bald pirate ordered two of his lackeys to search the rest of the ship and they took off.
Kirk had seen enough, so he picked up the android's remote, and then he grabbed his uncle’s gold helmet. He knew that he only had seconds. There was a clicking noise a second before the pirate entered the bridge. It was close, but the false panel was already closed when the pirate entered. The pirate started to leave when he heard something. Kirk’s heartbeat was racing as he put JR’s helmet over his head. The pirate moved forward with his gun leading the way to the front consoles. There was a low beeping sound; he tilted his head so his good ear could tell where the sound was coming from. It was the far right console where a light was blinking on and off. He could read a little bit, but it was slow going as he sounded out the jumbled letters; DISTRESS. He reached over and flipped the toggle turning it off. He smiled to himself when the noise stopped and the light went out. He left the bridge at the same time the other pirate came back from searching the back of the ship.
“They had a distress signal going off in the cockpit,” the cross-eyed pirate told the bald pirate. The pirate looked at Austen as Derek sighed knowing Kirk had gotten away and even turned the distress signal on. Good-boy, he thought.
The bald guy with earrings and tattoos asked Austen why his beacon was on. Austen improvised and smartly said, “When we hailed the station and didn’t receive a reply, we turned it on because it’s our S.O.P.”
“What the heck is a sop?”
Austen explained that S.O.P. means standard operating procedures. “We are by the book.”
Baldy said, “Well I am not!” He asked the little guy if he had turned it off, and the pirate shook his head yes.
The handful of pirates surrounded the seated cadets. The leader made the first row with the captains stand up and disembark the ship. “And no funny stuff! Oh I’ll have to take ya down, get it? got it? good!”
Austen whispered to Derek, “No brains.”
Derek whispered back, “No looks.”
Austen whispered, “No kidding.”
Austen was the first one off the ship while Derek slowed to take the rear of the line. When the bald guy left he yelled to his people, "Keep an eye on 'em." The cadets were marched down a corridor that had carpet on the floor and windows all along the outside of the hallway. Derek acted like a tour guide the entire trip. When they all arrived at the far door on the right, the pirate in the front of the line opened the hatch and went in first.
The cadets were highly trained in all kinds of scenarios, but nobody expected pirates. Still, their training kept them from panicking, or doing anything stupid. They trusted their captains to get them out of the situation.
There was another pirate in the room sitting in a chair; he pushed the control button to open up a large static free room. Through the see-through, unbreakable glass, you could see that it had been emptied out, and in exchange for the equipment was the entire station’s personnel.
Derek was the last one in, and as he was headed towards the makeshift prison, he noticed an airlock above the chair outside of the static-free room. When they were all in, the pirates locked the door, and then two of the pirates left the room. Derek said, “We’re here.” Other cadets were complaining