Adventures of Space Cadets 101: Space Pirates, Allies and Aliens. Darryl Dean Wright
bluffing, but why wouldn’t they want E.D. to come back? Maybe they did find treasure on that derelict ship.” He scratched his chin and said, “I don’t even think they know where we are … Cut engines, we will wait some more, and jam their radio!” Radar did what he was ordered.
Two earth days later, Kim and Terry had taught Morse code and sign language to anybody that didn’t know it. The One-Oh-One had an enormous computer system, and everyone except JR had laptops. The captains had told all of the cadets when they were back on Earth before liftoff that everyone was going to learn on the trip as much as they could stuff in their brains. Study all kinds of courses. JR refused classes so he was the only one that was bored - idle hands, idle mind … pranks!
JR asked his brothers how long they were planning on just sitting there? Derek looked to Austen and said, “At least he didn’t ask, are we there yet?”
Austen asked JR, “Why, you have a date or something?” and JR reached over and punched Austen in his chest taking his breath away. Austen had difficulty breathing, but he managed to say in between coughs that they did need a plan.
JR agreed, “Alright then, let’s do it!”
Noah and Will came onto the flight deck, and as they entered, Noah had finished their conversation by calling Will a geek. That got everyone’s attention. Noah asked what was going on, and his father filled him in. Noah said, “That’s bull!” The sixteen year old said to his dad, “You need to call back the Obama now!” He looked at his Uncle JR and said without any guilt, “I’m sorry Uncle, but they’ve already looked for you, so they probably won’t board us again, and even if they do, just do what you did last time. We need E.D. Besides, it is their job to protect us and arrest whoever did that to the Cross. I know that this is a Texas thing, but get over it!” Noah was too young, so JR thought about hitting Austen again, but he let it go.
Austen looked at Derek and said that they were responsible for the ship and crew. Will stepped up and said, “I concur, Sirs.”
Derek said smiling, “Out of the mouths of babes.” He looked to Austen and between the two there was an understanding. Austen nodded at Tim, so Tim turned around in his seat and started working the radio, and set into motion what he was ordered without words. JR wasn’t happy, but he also wasn’t worried.
Tim’s eyebrows turned up in frustration. He started touching every dial on the console, but it was no use. He turned to Austen and said, “No can do, Sir. They must be jamming or scrambling our transmissions. All thirty channels are nothing but black noise. It’s not a bad transistor because we just used it. Even E.D. checked it out.” Derek told him to run a diagnostic and calibrations test to check it anyway. JR looked at Noah and told him that he could always scream at the E.D. ship.
Will butted in and said, “There’s no sound in space, Sir.”
JR said that children shouldn’t be allowed on the flight deck! Noah gave his uncle a dirty look. JR said, “Don’t look at me in that tone of voice, Noahito.” This time he did hit Noah’s father for Noah’s actions.
Derek laughed and said to Tim, “We got what we could from the derelict. It is now slaved to our ship’s computer, so let’s go forward using their ship’s rocket fuel instead of ours. It’s not like they’re going to be using it now. When the snake shows its ugly head, we’ll separate and release. We’ll shove the Cross right up their bow!”
Austen told Noah and Will to go aft and tell everybody to put their helmets on and strap themselves into their harnesses just in case of bullet holes, but not to mention anything about bullet holes.
The bridge crew put their helmets on. Five minutes later Tim cut the gravity and gave Derek the go ahead sign. From his seat, Derek hit a program on the ship’s computer and the Cross’ engines ignited. The takeoff was similar to the launch from Earth. It took several minutes before anyone could move their necks. Once again some astronauts enjoyed the speeding up
Chapter 6
PIRATES
Radar said, “Here they come, Captain.”
Captain Oron bellowed, “It’s about time! Ahead full, load the forward two guns!” They had several armaments fused to the outside of their ship with oxygen tents encompassing all the barrels so that the guns would fire in space.
The ship started to move ahead slowly at first, but it was picking up more speed. The captain did not want to use his rocket fuel, so he only used his fission engine. He then ordered his helm, “Get in front of them!”
Captain Derek ordered Tim to lower the ship and keep the Cross up top when the pirate ship was in front of them. “Z-minus fifty-five feet once we figure out what their Z-axis is.” Kirk was doing the calculations next to his dad.
“Aye, Captain,” Tim responded.
Once they figured out exactly where the pirate ship was coming from, and it wasn’t easy, Tim lowered the ship fifty-five feet below the pirate ship’s plane. The pirate ship was painted with black reflective paint, very hard to see.
“Captain, we are directly in their path at a distance of twelve hundred kilometers and closing fast,” Radar said excitedly!
The captain ordered, “Fire! Reload and fire again!” One of the crewmates yelled, firing and reloaded.
“So far, so good, Sirs,” Tim Johnson said. Austen mentioned that the bad guys were probably riddling the Cross with more holes. Everybody held their breath hoping no bullet holes would enter through the front window.
Kirk was in the fifth seat in front of JR’s seat and he asked the adults, “What about the dead bodies? Salvage rights means we are responsible to do something with them.” He was looking to his father mostly for a response.
Derek answered his son, “We are responsible for everyone on this ship … except for your Uncle JR. We are not dragging those bodies to our ship, but when we launch the Cross at the pirate ship, trust me, everyone there will be cremated!” Kirk seemed satisfied with that plan although he was feeling sad about the situation.
As the two ships were on a chicken course and getting closer quickly, it was getting pretty intense on the flight deck of the One-Oh-One. Austen ordered the release of the Cross when they were only ten and a half miles from the Beowulf. JR flew to the back to release the locking mechanics at the airlock. Austen was sweating. “Now, kick in our rockets and change course twenty degrees to starboard! Give it an eight second count and kill it!” He crossed his fingers for luck.
“Captain, I am reading two separate signals now,” Radar said.
“What?” The Beowulf's captain demanded! “That’s my fuel they’re burning; why didn’t you tell me that derelict had moved?” He was spewing and furious with this surprise!
Radar trembled and stuttered, “I, I was focusing on our target, Sir. It took so long before it moved that I forgot about the other ship that was out there. I’m so sorry Sir.”
The captain was furious, but he liked Radar so he told him he’d kill him later. Radar thanked him for not killing him then, but he knew his time was limited.
The pirate at the helm of the Beowulf yelled out, “Eighteen seconds till collision, Sir.”
“Forty-five degrees to starboard, burn port rocket for three seconds, now!” The captain roared and held his breath. How did this backfire on him? He held on tightly to his seat because this was going to be close.
The Cross was going to barely miss the Beowulf, and as Tim was explaining that to the captains, all of a sudden the Cross exploded into tiny pieces, and the blast knocked out the power on the Beowulf to send it spinning into space! The captains turned to JR instantly as he showed them his remote detonator. “Just in case,” he said. Austen asked him when the heck he had had time to plant a bomb on the Cross. “When everyone was asleep last night and I was getting bored,” was his reply. They just looked at their older brother like he had just grown an extra head or something.
Tim