Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Space Pirates, Allies and Aliens. Darryl Dean Wright
was challenging him, and Austen just smiled back. The officer called his captain, “Sir, we have a situation here.” The captain asked who was on the ship outside, and his answer explained what happened to the Cross, and that all hands were lost except for an android that the Professor had built.
Silence and then he continued, “That’s right, Sir. I guess it can’t speak. It must have been programmed for a worst case scenario. Their communications are fine. The situation is that the One-Oh-One has declared salvage rights. What do you want me to do?”
More silence, then he said, “No Sir, we’ve gone over this ship with a fine tooth comb, (Derek said to Austen that that was probably where the pubic hair came from) and there’s no sign of JR or any evidence that he’s been here. What are our orders, Sir?”
It felt a lot longer than it really was; the troopers were starting to get antsy. Their captain finally came over the radio, "We didn’t find what we were looking for; we can’t hold them without charges. Tell them we submit to their claim on salvage rights. You all can come back now.” The Houstons were glad that this turned out the way it did because it could have gone ugly.
Derek took a bow to all points of the compass as the troopers holstered their lasers while lining up to leave the One-Oh-One. Everyone cheered as the hatch sealed back up. Tim’s voice came over the ship’s intercom and let everyone know that E.D. was on its way back to Mars, and the crew cheered again.
Kirk and Will were checking out their new toy as Derek and Austen went back to the bridge. Derek said, “They did that so we would be stuck taking care of the bodies now … great.”
Will said, “There it is. Yep, he was programmed to do just what he did in case of a hull breach, so it must have been a hull breach.”
Kirk said, “Ah man, check it out. It has a remote control.” He unhooked it from the android’s left arm unit.
Austen and Derek were looking at JR on the bridge. JR said, “At least I didn’t have to kill anyone.”
Tim said, “E.D. didn’t find the hidden elevator behind the false panel in the back of the flight deck - easy as pie! They did check on our radio though.”
Derek asked JR if he had had to leave the ship. JR shook his head yes and said, “I figured they’d find the elevator, so I left and ran into that thing on the ship.” Austen asked him how it was that he didn’t get caught. JR smugly said, “They were all over the civilian ships, but I was hidden on the far-side of their ship watching them till they disappeared. I knew they entered the other ship with that thing, and when the ships separated I slid back down into the elevator. What is that thing anyway?”
Derek said, “It’s an android.” He still could not believe he made that statement.
JR said, “Great, that’s all I need is another noid like you two!”
Austen said, “Funny, I’m just glad that they grabbed it instead of you.”
Chapter 5
BEOWULF
Coming out of the asteroid belt, the pirate ship, Beowulf, was heading back to the Cross now that E.D. had left.
“Captain, should we shoot at the ship hooked up to our prize?”
Captain Oron, sitting in his chair said, “Patience, Little One, the bullets would just bounce off of their ship while they are stationary. We will have to wait till they fire their rockets. That way their speed combined with our speed and the bullets' speed will cut through them like a hot knife through butter! Besides, I need E.D. to be further out.”
When Beowulf was closing in on the Cross earlier, they had noticed two ships headed towards them quickly. Beowulf’s radar was enhanced; it was better than most E.D. ships. The pirates didn’t want to take Earth Defense on in a fight that could be avoided.
There were twenty-eight mean, nasty pirates on the ship. They would outnumber, cheat, or attack, innocent ships to kill and loot.
Pirates, space pirates, who could have imagined in this day and age? But it was a business these days, and business was good.
They were rebels and terrorists from the first colony on Mars, but no one knew that there were survivors, and that they and their descendants were the space pirates of the day. They had been living in space and on asteroids for over a generation.
Kirk onboard the One-Oh-One, had just pulled a bullet out of the android with needle-nose pliers. He looked at Will then ran up front with the evidence and asked his father if there were any firearms on the Cross.
All four adults turned to look at Kirk, and Austen answered, “No. Why?”
JR took the slug and said, “That is from an A.K.266.” Derek told his son that there were only two lasers onboard the Cross.
Tim was figuring out what the captains and their brother already knew. “You’re telling me someone took out that ship with a rifle?” He could not believe it.
JR said, “It looks like … why should we care?”
Austen gave his brother a disgusted look and said, “Maybe it’s not such a mystery how so many ships disappear out here in the frontier.” He took the slug from JR’s hand and looked it over.
Derek said, “This is a first.”
Austen said back to him, “Everything in space is a first, out this far, astronauts and a Neanderthal.” JR knew he had just been insulted so he stepped closer to Austen and frogged his arm, then he frogged Derek’s arm for laughing.
Kirk got them back on subject by asking them what they were going to do. Derek said that he was going to put some ice on his arm. Austen said, “I’ll get it, be right back,” and he left.
Derek then said to his son more seriously, “First, we’re going to take whatever we can off the Cross - food, water, and oxygen lying round, then we’re going to sit tight.” Kirk asked him why, but before he could answer his son, Austen was back.
Austen returned with two ice packs and said to his nephew, “Physics! If we don’t move, any bullets would just bounce off of us instead of breaching the hull.”
“Captain, it has been sixteen hours; how long do we wait?” The young pirate in Beowulf was getting impatient, and he was already getting on his captain’s last nerve. “There’s not going to be anything left on that ship but dead bodies.”
The pirate captain stood up, took two steps down from his chair and put his short beefy index finger into the mouthy pirate’s chest and said, “Dim-wit, no matter what they took off one ship, we’ll just take it off their ship when we kill them. If I hear one more word out of your whinny mouth, I swear I’ll put a bullet in your head … You got that?!” Silence came over the bridge like an orange sky over Nebraska right before a tornado.
Tim said, “Ready, Captains.” Austen nodded at him and Tim sent a compressed message to Houston Inc. back on Earth in Texas. Austen then told Tim to open a channel to whoever was out there.
“Open, Sir,” Tim said.
“This is Captain Austen of the One-Oh-One, to the pussies that kill like cowards. We know you’re hiding like chickens. We know that you have guns trained on us, and we know that you are very bad people!”
The pirates just stared at their captain who was fuming and wide-eyed mad.
“We have also called for the return of the E.D. ship to clear you out of the way.”
“Captain Oron, it’s true. They have sent a compressed signal to the E.D. ship. We have to leave and we have to leave now!”
The captain pulled out his sidearm and shot the loud mouth pirate in his forehead! He was dead before he hit the deck floor. “Anyone else want to tell me how to run my ship? It’s not like I didn’t warn him!” No one moved or made a noise. “Radar, can we still see the E.D. ship?”
The