by M. Shaunessy
“I want you to go there and extract any information concerning his expedition. Then when and if you find this power you will bring it to me.”
“But sir,” Drax argued, “I m a military commander not a…AHHHHH,” his head was in pain again as Mi’Tuk said to him
“You will do as you are told Drax. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes My lord,” he answered as the pain subsided, “But what do I do with Prince Xman? I am sure his people will be looking for him.”
“Xman?” The Emperor thought a sly smile covered his face. “He can be a valuable slave for us. As soon as you find this power, bring Xman to me. As for his rescuers, his people will not be foolish enough to attempt to cross us, but be on alert, just in case.” Drax nodded, “And Drax, don’t fail me again. Xata!”
Drax nodded once more, as the screen blacked out. He did not understand why the Emperor was so interested in an old failed expedition that happened thirty years ago, but he must obey him. He went to his COM and ordered Hiss to prepare a jump to into Hyper Flight.
At that same moment, the Condor trembled violently as Justin questioned, “What the?!”
“A couple of minutes eh?” Mike said as he quickly slowed down the ship out of Hyper Flight.
“Sorry,” Justin apologized.
Enormous asteroids were pelting them as Justin and Mike tried to avoid the huge space rocks. The Golden Condor flew through the small asteroid field like a twisting roller coaster car as the two pilots decide a place for their concealment.
“How about there?” Mike asked as he pointed towards a large asteroid, the size of ten football arenas, floating by. It has holes as big as the Condor a perfect fit Mike thought.
Justin replied, “Looks good to me.”
The ship then gradually hid in to one of the holes behind the huge rock and waited. Mike turned everything off except life support and flight controls. He did not want to activate the Condor’s force shields afraid that the Xatu might detect it prematurely. Justin finally worked the bugs out of the Ghost Shield and turned it on, hoping that it did not burn out or something. Tygla’s heart was beating fast as she was so nervous. Just then, the giant ship Hades emerged out of nowhere.
“There it is,” Mike said cautiously.
Justin added, “That thing is huge.”
As the ship passed, the team tried to look for the garbage disposal chute.
“It’s got to be around...” Tygla paused and saw it, “Look,” she pointed toward the back of the ship near the engines.
The door then slid opened slowly, “This is it, let roll,” said Mike.
“And prey that your anti-detection system doesn’t give us away,” Tygla pointed out as the ship thrust quietly towards the opening.
Tons of garbage debris poured out from the chute as the Condor tried to avoid the scraps left and right. The cockpit shook a bit as a small pieces of metal hit the ship. Then suddenly the engines stopped responding.
“Crap!” Justin cursed said as he tried to move his flight stick. “The controls won’t respond.”
Mike quickly attended the computer trying to figure out what went wrong. Then Tygla saw that the door was closing.
“Mike! Look! The door is closing,” she pointed fearfully a Mike looked up.
It was too late as the chute was sealed. Mike frowned not knowing what to do, but what made it worse was they heard the Hades’ engines rev up and in a second, it was gone. Tygla could not believe it, she have may lost her brother forever. She looked to Justin disapprovingly as so did Mike.
Justin looked back at them and said defensively, “This wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know something would clog up the engines. I’m sorry.”
“My brother could be dying right now and all you can say ‘I’m sorry?!’” Tygla said aggressively, “How could you? I thought you guys were good!”
“Settle down Tygla,” Mike assured her as she looked to him.
“Settle down?” She said agitatedly, “Mike, you promised me you can save him, and now this!”
“I know, don’t worry,” he said to her calmly “We’ll find him and that ship and try again.”
“You seem you have a lot of confidence. Don’t you?” She wondered, as she was calming down.
He nodded and said, “We still have that homing signal remember? All I have to do is patch it up in the computer and trace it.”
He pressed a few button on the key pad and a map of the galaxy appeared on a small monitor in front of him. He saw a small line getting bigger as he knew that was the Hades. It seemed that they were heading towards the center of the galaxy. Then abruptly the line stopped growing.
“Hmm, that’s odd.” Mike thought.
Justin asked, “What?”
“They stopped in the right between,” he paused and saw that the beacon disappeared.
“Right between where?” Tygla asked impatiently.
“The Crux and the Norma System,” he said disappointedly, “I lost the beacon.”
Tygla could not believe it. She frowned and started to sob. Mike looked to her not know knowing what to say. He just leaned over and hugged her.
“It’s going to be ok,” He softly comforted to her, “We’ll find him. That’s what we do.”
She looked up to him. Tygla thought that he is the sweetest person in the galaxy. She was about to kiss him when Justin cleared his throat. The both looked at him and broke their embrace.
“So how are we going to find that ship?” Justin asked.
Mike replied as he turned to his controls, “Well, we’re going to their last position before the beacon stopped transmitting. Maybe we’ll find answers when we arrive.”
He entered the coordinates in the Hyper Flight system. Mike knew that the Hyper Flight engines must have been still working than the regular engines. The ship automatically repositioned itself, as Mike pulled the lever on the control panel. They were glad as the ship disappeared in the blackness of space.
Chapter 5
Showdown at Space Port 88
It was not long before the Hyper Flight system brought them to their destination where they lost the Hades. The area was dark and empty besides the faint of sparkling stars far away. Mike checked the computer and scanned the area for any sign of that ship and the beacon. At first he thought that the beacon must have malfunctioned and fell off. The computer stood in silence for a few minutes until it beeped. Mike zeroed in the signal and saw an object not too far from its scopes.
“You found something?” Justin asked him.
Tygla wondered hopefully, “Is it the Hades?”
“No,” Mike replied trying to figure out what the object is, “It too small to be the Hades.” He checked the star charts for reference and said, “It’s a space port,” Mike sighed in disappointment.
“Maybe they know where the Hades went to?” Justin Suggested.
Mike looked him, “That not a bad idea. Space ports can track ships in Hyper Fight for their data bases.”
Mike took control and guided their ship towards the signal’s direction. Even though the garbage clogged the main engines, he did not apply the air break thrusters as they glided smoothly towards their destination. Ahead they saw what appeared to be a large asteroid type rock that bared metal areas and showing tiny windows that lit up like a Christmas tree. There was also a tall steel tower on its pole that was shoved into the rock. On top of the tower held a large radar beacon that it safely light blinked every five seconds. As they got closer, Mike saw four bay hangers near its lower pole and adjusted the ship towards there.
The radio then came alive as a female voice announced dryly, “Welcome to Space Port 88, please give me your ship name, cargo number, and destination please.”
Mike answered her, “This is the Golden Condor, Captain Mike Tippin speaking. Uh, we are not a commercial ship, but we have some engine trouble. If you can let us land, so we can repair it that’ll be fine.”
“Please give me the ship’s coding number please,” she said
as Justin and Mike looked at each other.
Justin asked, “Do we even have a coding number for this ship?”
“Yeah,” Mike replied unsurely, “Somewhere around here.” He opened a storage box near him that contained valuable hardcopy documents on the Condor. Mike scanned though them and found the codes. “Got ‘em. You still there miss?”
“Yes,” she replied tiredly.
“33-290-6613,” he informed her
“Thank you, our tractor beam will safely guide you to hanger bay two.”
“No thank you,” Mike said as the beam guided the Condor towards the second hanger on the right.
Tygla never have been to a spaceport before. She saw two other older type ships in the hanger, a Borney Cargo ship and a small one seated cruiser. She also noticed some old model androids walking about attending to them. Once they docked, Mike advised Justin to secure the ship, as they did not trust anyone here, including the androids, but they did want them to unclog the engines. Once they as they exited the ramp, Justin asked a free android worker to help them out. He agreed as he went to work. The trio made their way deeper inside the station. They had do find someone was in charge, so they can obtain the flight schematics of the Hades. The station was more like mall, dirty and not kept. The deserted walkway had few Animuns and a couple of humans strolled through it. There were tiny shops and services strewn out, as peddlers were desperately trying to sell their wares. Justin even saw a Bar and Grill down a ways and suggested that they stop their first.
“How can you think of food in a time like this?” Tygla wondered.
“Hey you ever heard the expression, food for your thoughts you highness?” Justin shot back.
Tygla then suggested, “There has to be an InfoComp in this place we can use.”
“Justin’s right,” Mike agreed, as Tygla looking to him, not believing his words, “Bartenders know more than InfoComps, trust me. And besides I don’t think they are working in a place like this.”
As they entered the bar and grill called ‘Zumbee’s’, they saw a medium crowd with a few tables that were unoccupied. Laughter and hip rock like music filled the air. Then, a Felinis Wilden took noticed to Tygla and the two adventurers as he wandered over to them. His wild red and white fur looked raggedy as if he did not brush them in a long time. When he smiled, his teeth looked yellowish and his fangs looked dented.
“Hey babe,” he said to her as Tygla cringed in disgust as she smelled his fowl ale breath, “The name’s Morng, I’m the fastest gunslinger is these parts. Why don’t you lose these two humans and be with a real Felinis?”
She replied unbelievably, “Are you kidding? I’d rather be with a Slugton than with you.”
“Ohh, spunky, I like that,” he said smiling.
Mike then interrupted, “Sorry pal, she’s with me.”
“Oh yeah? Human,” he said annoyingly, looking to Mike, “I don’t see your name on her.” He then turned his gaze back to Tygla and grabbed her arm. “Come on babe, I’ll show you around.”
She tugged as his grip got tighter then Mike helped freed her. Morng’s face changed to a nasty expression.
“She said no,” said Mike sternly.
“You got a lot of balls human,” the Felinis Wilden proclaimed.
Mike replied not liking his tone, “Yeah? I don’t think you have any balls fur face.”
Morng growled as three of his friends stood up behind him, a hawk Avian, A Raccoonion and a Weaselin. It did not bother the trio at first, but Tygla got little nervous. Justin glanced over to a table and saw a bat-like Animun Vrampian took great interest in their situation. It did not bother him at first, but he knew that he could be working for Mama’Halb, so they had to be extra careful.
“You can talk trash, human,” he said sizing up to him, “Let’s see how fast you are with a blaster.”
Tygla looked to him then said to Mike, “We don’t have time for this Michael.”
“You’re right,” he said looking straight into Morng’s cat eyes, “Why don’t we take this outside?”
Morng smiled slyly, “My pleasure.” He and his gang passed Mike and his friends as Mike hesitated.
Tygla, did not believe this. She thought Mike was the kind of person who did not fight bullies. She continued to stare at Mike and said, “You don’t have to do this Mike. Really. I don’t need you to impress me.”
Mike turned to her and said, “I already impressed you Hon,” he looked up at the door as his opponent walked out, “This time it’s personal.”
She did not know what he meant by that. She hoped to ask him later, if he survives. They all left the bar and Tygla was afraid that her new love might get hurt or even worse. Mike and Morng were standing about twenty feet from each other as the crowd gathered around them in the walkway. Tygla and Justin were standing behind Mike as he just stared at his opponent. Morng stared back grinning, waiting to begin.
“Mike please,” Tygla pleaded again, as fear crept inside her, “Don’t do this I don’t want you getting hurt or worse.”
Justin added, “She right Mike, he’s not worth it.”
Mike ignored them as he started at the Wilden Felinis. Then the Hawk Avian stepped between the, eying them down and announce, “All right. The rules are simple. When I say draw…Draw.” He then stepped out of the way.
Both contestants were eying each other trying to sense what was inside each other’s mind. Mike had seen gunslingers do a showdown when he was at the orphanage by watching old Earth Westerns. He studied them wondering if he can be fast as they were.
Tygla whispered to Justin, “Has Mike ever done this before?”
“With a real gun?” Justin wondered and replied unsurely, “No. Not really.”
“Oh my god,” Tygla prayed as her heart started to race.
The Hawk Avian then asked them, “Ready?”
Mike and Morng moved their trigger hand slowly down to their guns. Mike gradually touched a button on the hilt as Morng thought he had taken the safety off his blaster. Both hands were steady as seconds became hours to Mike. He saw Morng twitched one of his fingers. Mike was starting to get nervous as sweat started to appear on his forehead and then…
“Draw!”
In an instant, it seemed to Mike that time had slowed to a crawl. Both men drew their guns and pulled the trigger, but who pulled it first? A laser pulse shot out from the gun as Mike’s bluish bolt hit Morng on the chest first. Morng’s shot averted from his target and hit Mike’s shoulder instead. Mike cried in pain as Morgon stumbled back and fell to the ground.
“Mike!” Tygla and Justin cried fearfully together as they grabbed Mike.
Suddenly, they heard two more shot as the crowd panicked and scattered. Morng’s goons also took off as Tygla looked up to see whom it was. She saw a tall lean man walk over. He was dressed in a very loose grey and tan jumpsuit wielding Winchester laser Rifle. He was also wearing an old dusty cowboy hat and brown leather jacket that has a star looking badge on it. His face was old looking as he had grown a gray mustache growing on it.
“All right! Break it up!” He announced as Tygla noticed his southern western accent, “What in tar nation is going on ‘ere?”
He looked at the gunslingers as two big and strong male androids came with him. His two friends were attending Mike as Morng groaned a bit and moved his body. Tygla could not believe that Morng was still alive. She thought Mike had surly killed him.
“Who are you?” Mike asked as he winced in pain. Tygla took a cloth from her hip bag and put pressure on the wound as Mike winced even more.
“Sorry,” she said as they looked to the gun wielding man.
The man looked to him and answered, “I’m sheriff in this station, stranger,” he looked to Morng as he ordered his Android deputies to help him up and asked, “Now, who started all this commotion?” Mike, Tygla, and Justin pointed at Morng as Morng did the same, “Well, it seems that I have to arrest the both of ya.”
“What for?” Justin asked.
“But sir,” Tygla protested, “We didn’t start it.”
“Maybe we should discuss this in my office then.” He suggested.
Chapter 6
The Stolen Condor
The sheriff led them to a little modern jail quarters down the shopping strip at the end of the walkway. Tygla wondered how Morng survived the shot, and Mike told her that he had his gun set on stun mode. He also told her while the sheriff escorted then, that he did not like to kill people for a stupid gestures like that. He just wanted to have Morng to learn a lesson. She was surprised and relived to learn that Mike was not a ruthless killer and this really impressed her.