Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Space Pirates, Allies and Aliens. Darryl Dean Wright
Chapter 4
ANDROID
Everyone knew what was going on, and they were watching the captains with some tall stranger and Kirk at the port side airlock trying to shoot the airlock corridor to hit its mark to the Cross’ airlock. Each time they missed it would take three minutes to recoil to try again … and again. They had to hurry before ED showed up.
Derek attempted it twice and missed both times. Austen was looking into the targeting visor. He had the airlocks aligned and squeezed the trigger. “Damn it! This is going to take forever,” Austen said through gritted teeth while some of the crew was laughing. As the corridor recoiled again, Kirk asked once again if he could try it, but the captains said, no.
JR was fed up with all of the waiting, so he moved forward, pushed Austen out of the way, grabbed the trigger and squeezed. The corridor wasn’t recoiled all of the way so it sprang forward slowly, and they held their breath. His brothers were upset with him, but he confidently pointed above the airlock to the red and green light, and magically the signal went from red to green. JR just smiled at his brothers. Austen said, “You lucky bastard!”
JR said, “It is simple; it's mind over matter, and if I don’t mind, you don’t matter!”
Derek said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” He pushed the button next to the airlock on the wall which turned on the intercom. “Tim, how close is E.D. now?”
The intercom filled with Tim’s voice, “Thirty-five minutes, Sir.” Then as a second thought Tim said, “By the way, the interruption in our sonar has stopped; the light has gone out. I can’t explain it.”
Austen said, “Someone must be alive and they know company is here. I still don’t want to chance it. If we could just communicate with them and find out if there is a hull breach. Derek and I will put our helmets on and check it out.” Kirk protested about that decision and was ignored. He wondered why someone else couldn’t do it. He always worried about his dad.
Derek went in first. There was a little slack in the corridor and it dropped down a couple of feet which made Derek fall down in slow motion. It didn’t really scare him, but he acted like the thing might disconnect and screamed like he was in free-fall in space. The only ones that could hear him were Austen and Tim. Austen heard it through his helmet and Tim heard it up on the bridge with the radio. Austen went through the hatch and Kirk closed it behind him. Austen then picked up the screaming captain. When Derek was back on his feet again, he was still screaming, but he was only joking around the entire time.
Austen yelled, “Open your eyes, ya big baby!” He turned him around and slapped Derek’s helmet.
Derek opened his eyes and said, “Oh, I seem to be alright.” Austen rolled his eyes and pushed Derek backwards, and Derek nearly fell again.
Tim in the cockpit knew Derek was just joking around. He said over the radio, “Flight deck to Abbott and Costello, you guys alright?”
Austen asked sarcastically, “Physically?”
Because of the suits and the slack in the corridor, it took five minutes just to walk fifteen feet, and Derek almost fell a couple of more times. It was easy to float in space, but not walk in space.
Austen knocked on the airlock with a large wrench that he had brought with him. Derek laughed and asked his brother if he brought the wrench as a weapon, or if he was going to fix their sink with it. Austen said, “You never know.”
Derek yelled at the hatch, “Anybody home?”
Tim said over their helmets, “You guys have to know I’m the only one who can hear you, right?”
Austen wasn’t going to wait anymore; he started turning the hatch until it opened. All the air in the corridor was sucked into the Cross and straight out the holes in the ship. Austen was holding onto the hatch and Derek was holding onto Austen.
When they entered the vacuum of the Cross, it was an eerie sight, and they found several bodies including Professor Cross. They had died from exposure, and it was an ugly sight to see. There was no life support. Austen picked up a sealed water pack and opened it. It immediately crystallized and floated away. This was how you checked for leaks in space, he thought.
Derek saw what his brother was doing and told him, “Really…that only works if there’s an atmosphere in the ship.”
They went up front and saw that life support was spent. Derek said, “Hey look, their radio is fine, Bro.” He pointed to the environmental console and everything was turned off or down.
Austen looked Derek’s way and said, “Curious.” Derek said that maybe it was micrometers. Austen agreed, and then he whispered to himself, “Nobody said that it was safe out here; what a waste.”
Derek said, “Yeah, it must have been quick, because nobody had their helmets on!”
Austen said, “I found the passenger list and the supply list. Everyone on the list is here, so who sent the S.O.S., and why did they stop? This ship’s inertia should have kept the ship moving.” Derek just shrugged his shoulders.
Tim, who was listening in on their conversation, said that someone was outside the ship that they were on and that the person had just jumped onto the One-Oh-One, and that E.D. had just hooked up to the ship, asking permission to board. “What do you want me to do guys?”
Austen knew it was just a courtesy. They would be coming in no matter what, so he told Tim to go ahead and let them in. “We’re on our way back, and tell the shadow to do his thing. Austen out.” He didn’t want to use JR’s name in case E.D. was listening in.
Derek wondered who, or what, was on top of the ship. A lot of scary movies started out this way, he thought.
They had checked the whole Cross ship out, so they headed back to their ship. E.D. had run through the One-Oh-One and did not find JR, and was waiting for the captains to return.
The captains took off their helmets when they returned and Derek spoke first, “We come in peace; don’t shoot.” He raised his hands and joined his crew being held by E.D. lasers. Kirk went to stand by his dad.
They refused to admit JR was on board their ship. Austen showed the E.D. officer his manifest of cargo. And it showed that the Cross telescope wasn’t on the list, and it showed the weight of two hundred and ninety pounds right on it.
Austen told him, “See, that’s where the confusion lies.”
Derek was thinking “lies” alright, but he said, “So that is where the extra weight comes from. We haven’t seen our brother in over two years.” That was their story and they were sticking to it.
The officer reported what the Houstons told him to his captain who commanded the Obama. Neither he nor his captain believed them so he said, “Search the ship again!” He pointed at two troopers, “You two check the Cross out.”
Derek said sarcastically, “Watch out for that first step.”
The captain of the Obama sent three troopers out their main hatch to search the outside of the two civilian ships themselves and to report back at once. They did just that. “They found someone,” the E.D. trooper said smiling at the Houstons.
Derek said in response to his smile, “You have something stuck in your teeth … it looks like a pubic hair.” The E.D. officer stopped smiling. The three troopers entered the Cross with their prisoner, and then all six of them came into the One-Oh-One. The Houstons looked at each other when everyone saw the sixth man who wasn’t wearing a space suit. They all gasped. Who, what, how? The "man" was mechanical in nature and nothing they had ever seen before.
Kirk said in awe, “Fractal! It’s an android!”
The android just stood there by the airlock with a blank stare on its face. A trooper told the android to move forward, but Kirk blocked the way and said a bit too loudly, “No way…and excuse me, but