by M. Shaunessy
Chapter 11
The New Expedition
“MICHAEL!” A fuming voice shouted, as Mike and Tygla awoke violently as Mike fell of the cot.
They looked up to see Justin chuckling. Tygla heart leapt when she heard him shout. She thought it was her bother again. She did not want him seeing that they had slept together. Mike also was scared out of his wits thinking it was Xman too ready to tear him to bits.
“Justin!” Mike cried angrily, “What the hell?”
Justin laughed, “Now we’re even.”
Mike did not know what he meant by that then he remember on Mota when he scared Justin like that.
“That was not funny Justin,” Tygla said furiously.
Justin grinned, “Sorry Tygla, was really aiming at Mike. How did you like my Xman impression? Pretty good huh?”
Mike got up slowly and asked Tygla, “Can I kill him?”
“Be my guest,” she said sarcastically.
Mike was not really going to kill him, well at least hurt him. Justin ran out of the ship as Mike began to chase him, but then Tygla stopped him.
“Mike don’t,” she said as she got up a bit agitated and cranky. “I’ll take care of him, just as soon as I get dressed.”
“Eh. Forget it. I deserved it,” Mike replied as Tygla looked at him curiously. Mike looked back and smiled, “I’ll let you get dressed in private.”
He turned and walked down the ramp as Tygla said, “Mike?” he turned once more, “Thanks for the wonderful night.”
“Anytime princess,” Mike smiled.
Once Tygla got dressed they met at the elevator, Tygla noticed that Xman and CRAIG was not around. Justin informed her that they took off earlier to meet the Rebirth to strategize a battle plan against the Hades. Xman also told Justin to inform Tygla that she should stay here until he would return, but Tygla protested, “What? You guys need me, and besides he said should, not have to.”
Mike did not like the idea of Tygla coming along. He did not want her to get hurt, or worse. Tygla then reminded them that she could take care of herself. Mike lost the short argument and agreed to let her come.
“Oh, one more thing Mike,” Justin said, “He also told me to tell you, if you let her come with us, and if anything bad happens to her, he’ll rip you lungs out.”
Mike looked to Tygla as they entered the shaft and said, “See, another reason you should not come.”
She looked at him not liking the sarcasm. The door closed and they ascended. They were going to Zumbee’s for a quick breakfast as Tygla said, “Oh Mike, he’s my brother he didn’t mean it.”
“Oh hey, when Xman awoke this morning, didn’t he get suspicions where I was?” Mike asked Justin.
His friend replied, “Don’t worry about that, I told him you were in the bathroom.”
Mike looked to him and smiled, “Thanks.”
“What are best friends for?” Justin smiled back.
It was not long before they ate breakfast that they were in their new ship, the Star Hawk. Mike and Justin sat in the cockpit as Justin pressed a blue arrow button. The ceiling door opened slowly and at the same, a large lift propelled them upwards. The lift brought them to Hanger 1. Justin turned on the systems to make sure that they were working.
Tygla finally got up to the cockpit, looked, noticed something, and said, “Just two seats?”
Mike replied looking to her, “Sorry about that Tygla. I guess this ship wasn’t meant for extra passengers. Why don’t you sit on that crate over there?”
Tygla brought the light metal box over behind Mike and sat as he started the engines up. It was a faltering start, but the crew finally got the Star Hawk off the ground. It flew out of the bay and into the depth of space. Mike told Justin the coordinates from his father’s memory stick as he tacked it in the computer. Justin placed his hands on the Hyper Flight control, heisted and said, “Here goes nothing.”
He pulled the controls down and waited. There were some whopping sounds and suddenly the stars became streaks of light as they disappeared.
Moments later, Tygla found Mike in the small lounge like area. She saw him with a portable data pad that he had found in the compartments on the ship. She sat down next to him and asked, “Whatcha reading?”
“I’m reviewing flight statistics again from my father memory stick.” Mike replied.
Tygla held him then asked, “Mike, I know that the Ghost Shield can get us pass Drax’s ship, but what are we going to do when we get there? Just sit and wait?”
“No,” Mike assured her.
“So what is the plan?”
“Look at this,” Mike said as she looked on the pad, “According to Uno’s scanner, while they were being transmitted, it detected a small moonlike green planet almost the size of Mars, right before it died. Now my guess is that’s where the power Xman was talking about. All we gotta do is land on that planet and find the power before the Xatu does. How hard can it be?”
“But what if something goes wrong?” Tygla wondered, “I mean, if Uno did not survive, what makes you think we would?”
“You let me worry about that, ok sweetheart,” Mike assured her as he touched Tygla’s chin, gave her a peck on the lips and smiled.
“I’m just worried of what might happen if we don’t make it back,” she said awkwardly.
“Tygla, I’ve been doing this kind of stuff when Justin and I left the orphanage,” said Mike, “I know what I’m doing. Hey, you trust me right?”
“Yes,” she replied smiling remembering last night when she asked that same question.
“Then trust my instincts, they are never wrong,” Mike assured her.
Maybe Mike is right Tygla thought. What could go wrong? Before they kissed again Justin entered and interrupted them, “Well, we got three hours before we get there. Mike, are you sure about this?”
“Are you having second thoughts too?” Mike questioned looking to him.
“No,” Justin replied, “I’m just thinking if this junk pile will protect us from the Empire's attacks, if they attack. And you promised Morgan that you return the Star Hawk in one piece, remember?”
“Don’t worry, if you and Morgan fixed this bird correctly we should be fine,” Mike assured him, “You did fix everything before we left, right?”
“Of course, I just wish CRAIG was here,” Justin thought.
“Well, you know there's only room in here for three,” Mike replied, “But don’t fret, he’s with Xman.” Justin and Tygla gave a worried look on their faces as Mike added, “Trust me, if we don't make it back, we still have the Thunder Claw and the Rebirth to dig us out, so we’re covered.”
It may reassure Tygla and Justin, but not himself. Something was not right, he did not know what, but he had a gut feeling that Drax had something up his sleeve. He did not know Drax personally, but he knew that was a devious humanoid. Justin looked at the screen on Mikes pad and asked, “What’s that?”
“Uno’s flight plan,” Mike replied. “I got it off of my dad’s memory stick.”
Justin smiled, “You finally decided to take look at that thing huh?”
“Yeah, and I think it will help us on this mission,” Mike said.
Back on Hades, Drax was growing impatiently. He needed to know what that power was and where it was coming from. From what Hiss told him, the negative energy was more powerful than three black holes put together. It was something that he wanted.
“Commander Hiss,” the scanning officer spoke, “We have found something.”
Hiss, after receiving the information, he and Lieutenant Tila hurried into Drax’s quarters and reported, “My lord, the sscanning officcer hass finally found sssomething intressting.”
“What?” Drax inquired.
“The scanners have found some old ruins in the tropical section of the planet,” Tila responded.
“Interesting,” Drax remarked. This could be what he was waiting for, “Very interesting. Assemble a re
con team. We’re going down.”
“On the planet?!” Hiss exclaimed, “Issn’t that dangerouss? You sssaw what happened when we got clossse.”
Drax replied, “Then we better find a way to use that negative energy to power our ships.”
“I’ll have the engineersss come up with sssomething,” Hiss replied.
“Good”
“Your team will be ready asss sssoon asss you’re ssset,” Hiss told him. Drax nodded.
“Do you mind if I joined the party?” Tila asked.
Drax smiled to her and answered, “Not at all my dear.” Hiss and Tila then went back to the bridge. Drax has heard of ruins on Earth that summoned great power. If this ruin can do the same, he thought of the possibilities.
The Star Hawk finally arrived at their destination. They were in micro sights of the planet, as the crew got set. Mike placed his hands over the cloning bar and push it slowly up as he remarked, “Here we go.”
Justin checked his computer and said, “Nothing happened.”
“Say what?!” Mike exclaimed as he and Tylga looked over. He then tried again and still it did not work. He was getting worried, so was everyone else. He looked to his friend, “I thought you said you fixed everything?”
“Mike what happened?” Tygla asked.
“I did!” Justin replied as he started to get up, “There must be loose wire I’ll get it.”
Mike blocked him with his hand and said friendly, “No I’ll get.”
He got up and as Justin wondered, “You sure?”
“What are friends for, come on Tygla, I might need your help,” he said as they left the cockpit.
They went down to the lower level into the engine room and went over to a box on the wall where the cloaking device was. He opened up a panel and looked inside. He have found the problem, a wire did come loose while they took off. “Can you hand me that soldering gun over there?”
Tygla went over to the tool chest and not knowing what tools are which, she grabbed something quickly and gave it to Mike.
“Uh, this is a screwdriver sweetheart,” Mike acknowledged, “I asked for a soldering gun. Its right next to pliers, it looks like a laser.”
“Sorry,” Tygla said embarrassingly, as she handed him the gun, “I’m new to all this.”
“It’s ok, you’ll learn,” Mike said as she smiled.
Mike then took the disabled wired carefully without shocking himself in one hand and he held the soldering gun in his other. He asked Tygla to hold the solder material as he melted it on the wires. Sweat began to drip from his forehead, but whipped it off as he was done.
“It was just a loose wire. TRY IT NOW JUSTIN!” he yelled.
Justin pushed the bar up then they heard wobbling sound and he check the display, he acknowledged, “We got it!” Mike and Tygla raced back into the cockpit and Justin said, “Just like my favorite burger, it disappears faster than the eye.”
Mike snickered at his comment and thrust the ship forward to full speed. They saw a green and dismal planet before them. They also saw the huge star behind it. Justin looked at his scopes and saw the star was a super red giant class. He added that they were a few thousand miles away from it. As it got bigger, Mike saw the Hades just to the right of it. He held his breath and wished that his plan would work.
“I hope the Empire doesn’t find us out,” Justin remarked.
“Well, just keep on jamming their frequency with your Ghost Shield,” Mike retorted, “and we’ll be fine.”
Meanwhile on the bridge of the Hades, the scanning officer noticed something weird on his display. For a second he thought he saw another ship in the scopes, but the blip disappeared.
“Captain?” The officer said curiously, “Our long range sensors just picked up a small space craft, and then all of a sudden it disappeared.”
Captain Tah, wonder if that was Xman returning just as Drax predicted. He walked over and asked, “Hyper Flight?”
“No sir, no energy trail was detected,” the scanning officer replied.
“Check the readings, including life signs,” Tah commanded, “He will not hide when I am around.”
The officer looked to his screen and typed a few hexagonal keys. The readings came back as little to zero percent.
“Nothing sir,” he said to Tah.
Tah did not like this. What game was Xman playing this time? He then thought what it if he had new anti-scanning system in his ship.
“Check any energy discharge,” he ordered.
The officer nodded and went back to work, he pressed a few more buttons on his console and saw that there were some energy partial discharged. He told Tah and he was pleased. No one can pull the wool over his eyes, he thought.
“Arm all weapons and fire on that partial discharge,” Tah commanded.
The Star Hawk was just passing the huge menace battleship quietly hoping that all goes well. They saw another ship, a Xatu shuttle actually. It departed the hull and headed to the planet. Mike commented that it was probably was Drax and they did have not much time left. Suddenly, without warning, the Hades’ gunners started to fire on the rustic ship as it headed for the planet below. One the laser bolts hit the back of the ship damaging the engines a bit. The Star Hawk was going out of control. Suddenly, the lights and power suddenly turned off. Justin tried pushing buttons and switches like a maniac, but the controls were dead. Mike tried to maneuver the ship, but his flight stick would not cooperate with him. It was as if someone turned the power off on the entire ship.
“Where’s our power!” Justin exclaimed.
“I don’t know! Just brace your selves for emergency landing! Tygla hold on to something honey!” Mike warned as Tygla grabbed the back of Mike’s chair and screamed franticly.
The ship fell like a shooting star in the sky as it was on fire. It laid a trail of smoke longer than the planet’s equator. Mike pulled the flight control bar to manual analog drive. He had to maneuver the ship so it would not melt them and destroy the ship. He pulled the flight stick back as far as it went with all of his strength. The hull rattled and started to heat up. Mike tried, but they crashed landed in a heavily dense forest, and then it skimmed across a large swampy pond where it sat and sizzled. Fortunately, the crew in side was alive. Mike was impressive that hull didn’t crack. Mike moved a bit but he was going unconscious.