"Ah, Lieutenant Melton." Amaya said from her desk in the medical center. She let him hold the salute for about two minutes before returning it, pretending to be looking over reports.
"I'm very glad you made it to an escape pod!" He said as he stood at attention.
"We didn't." She said, looking him dead in the eyes.
"Oh, then how did you make it off the Heatseeker?" He asked.
"We were picked up by the Blazer." She told him. She pushed a datapad forward, to the edge of her desk. "Engineer Watts gave me the logs from the engine room of the Heatseeker during his repairs. He, and now I, would like to know why you were downloading logs while we were in a combat situation. Who were you giving them to?"
He quickly replied. "Ma'am, Commander Andrews of Zeta Station ordered me to get them for her."
"And is there a written record of this order?" She asked him.
"No, Ma'am." He said, sounding defeated.
"Have you transmitted them to her yet?" She asked.
"No Ma'am." He pulled the disk from his pocket. "Everything I downloaded is here, Ma'am." He said as he put it on top of the datapad on her desk.
Captain Norman and two of his security personnel walked up and saluted the Space Admiral shortly after he dropped the disk on her desk. "Reporting as ordered, Ma'am." the Captain said. She saluted them immediately.
"Captain," she said as she held out the datapad for him. He took it and immediately started reading it. She stood up from behind her desk. "Lieutenant Matthew Melton, I hereby dishonorably discharge you from the United Planetary Alliance for attempted theft from Citizens of the UPA, and cowardice of duty." She said in a formal tone.
Captain Norman ordered his men to strip the former Lieutenant of his rank, which they quickly did.
"Ma'am, I believe you are making a mistake!" He shouted as he tried to slap the guards away while they were taking his rank.
"You left a superior officer and a citizen of the UPA to die while you ran off to an escape pod." She told him. "You left me to die. “She looked to the Captain. "Captain Norman, I hereby order you to escort Matthew Melton to a transport and have him dropped off to the proper authorities on Beta, to stand trial for his actions. The cameras in the Heatseeker recorded everything, and the videos are saved to the datapad you're holding. Please pass it to the authorities on Beta."
"Yes Ma'am." He said as he nodded to his men. They immediately escorted their prisoner out.
"Captain, can you please take us to Zeta Station 1 after the transport returns? I will have words with Commander Andrews." She asked as she sat down.
"Yes Ma'am." He said with a crisp salute.
Chapter 19
It was two weeks since the Heatseeker and her crew left the Valor's hold in Beta sector. Dan couldn't remember a time when the ship had never been in such good condition. They had just crossed the UPA border into uncharted space when the UPA flagship appeared on their sensors.
"Captain." Belladi said as she pointed to the front window. "We're being hailed."
Dan tapped a couple buttons from his chair and Captain Norman appeared on a screen in front of them.
"Good evening, Captain Daniels." Captain Norman said from his own Captain's chair. As usual, his uniform was immaculately pressed.
Dan looked at his watch, not realizing it was evening already. "Good evening, Captain Norman. I'm impressed your ship can move faster than mine, given that I have the better engine." He said.
"You aren't the only one with an experimental engine, Captain Daniels." the other captain told him nonchalantly.
"What can I help you with, Captain Norman?" Dan asked.
"I formally request you land your ship in my cargo hold." He said as politely as he could. "I have a delivery for you."
"What kind of delivery?" Dan asked. This seemed highly unusual, for Captain Norman anyways.
"I was personally ordered by the Space Admiral not to tell you until you pick it up." Captain Norman said.
"What's to stop you from arresting us and confiscating my ship when we land in your bay?" Dan asked, clearly hesitant.
"These should be sufficient." Captain Norman said as he transmitted files to the Heatseeker.
Dan opened them immediately and found pardons for any and all actions up to this morning, signed by Amaya, and stamped with her official seal - which is impossible to fake, as far as he knew. "Very well, we'll dock as soon as possible." He said as he turned off the channel.
"What are you doing?" Watts asked. "It's clearly a trap!"
"I do not think it is a trap, the seals are official." The newly rebuilt Twang said from his station. "Captain Norman has a record of always following orders. It is also in his records." Twang said as he brought up the Captain's personal records showing the commendation for always following orders - from Amaya herself. She wouldn't trust her best ship to someone who wouldn't follow orders.
"Twang, take us in." Dan told him as he went back to reviewing Captain Norman's file.
It only took a few minutes for Twang to land the Heatseeker in the Valor's forward bay. Dan was armed with his pistol (Which had been found and promptly returned by Amaya), and his entire crew followed him to the cargo bay in the center of the ship. It was the only bay that had a ramp, and Dan didn't know what was being "delivered" to them. Once the light went green, Too’Zer opened the floor, and the ramp extended automatically. He noticed UPA officers lined up on both sides of the ramp, from the Heatseeker’s ramp to the middle of the very large landing bay. Dan looked around and thought they could fit at least five or six Heatseeker’s in this bay. The Valor had several bays this size, and one larger one.
He kept his hand on his pistol as he made his way down the newly formed aisle, garnering some bad looks from the officers lined up, and the two guardsmen flanking Captain Norman at the end of the aisle.
"Captain Daniels, thank you for coming aboard." The Captain said as he extended his hand.
Dan shook it quickly. "What are you here to deliver, Captain? We're eager to be anywhere but on a UPA ship."
"To be honest, I'd rather you not be here either." The Captain said, "but orders are orders."
"Attention on deck!" Someone shouted from the far end of the hangar. Everyone in the room came to attention - except Dan and his crew.
Dan knew there were few people in the UPA left who outranked Captain Norman, so he wasn't too surprised to see the Space Admiral herself walk towards them, followed by a few officers carrying what looked like three large duffel bags. She stepped in front of the Captain and saluted. He saluted her in return and took a few steps back. She turned sharply to face Dan.
"Hello Daniel." She said softly.
"Amaya." he said. "What's in the bags?" he said, looking over her towards the bags.
"My stuff." She said. "Permission to come aboard the Heatseeker." she asked.
Dan raised an eyebrow. "Why would you want to come aboard my ship, Amaya?"
"I've racked up quite a number of vacation days, and I was hoping you'd let me spend some of them on your ship." She said with a smile that could melt any man's heart.
"We're going into uncharted space." He told her. "It's doubtful we won't be back in UPA space for a few months, maybe even a year."
"Then it's a good thing I've racked up a lot of vacation!" She said with a wry smile.
"And here I was hoping for a ship full of credits." Dan said as he turned and walked away. His crew walked in front of him. Everyone seemed confused that someone would turn down the Space Admiral for anything, but after a few steps, Dan turned his head back towards Amaya and asked, "Coming?"
She smiled and rushed forward to walk next to him, her officers carried her bags a short way, until Too’Zer roughly took them. He carried all three with seemingly no effort.
"For a minute I thought you were going to leave without me." She said quietly.
"How could I possibly go into uncharted space without my First Officer?" Dan asked her as they hit the ramp.
&nbs
p; She smiled and followed him into his ship.
Epilogue
Kirk stood in the center of a large sphere. There was a walkway to the center, which ended in a small platform which he stood on. Little robots clung to the inside of the sphere, moving this way and that. Holographic monitors were all over the inside of the sphere, displaying events from all over the universe.
"Plan seven hundred four was a failure." He said out loud, coughing only a little bit as he did. "But we retrieved the data from Trevor for the upgrades. Prepare the surgical kits." He said. Little robots near his zipped across the walkway, opened the door and left.
"Trevor will be leaving charted space and venturing into uncharted space, leaving us an opportunity to implement plan eight hundred seventeen." He said quietly. He waved his hand and the sphere plunged into darkness.
He walked out of the room, his red eyes glowing.
Standalone Books
Dominating the Demon Within
Release Date: November 30th, 2014
Short Description: In the Three Lands, Angels and Demons can inhabit human hosts, should the host accept them. Angels are revered, while Demons are killed onsite. So when the Angel Aturah the Wise asks to travel with one of the last remaining magic users in the Three Lands, Grammard Poske can’t refuse. Soon into their journey, Grammard is abducted by a group of Demons. His only way to survive is to summon the Demon Paos into him. While Grammard and Paos battle over control of their shared body, Grammard discovers a plot for Demons to rule the world that has been in progress for over a century.
The Sellouts
Release Date: August 6th, 2015
Short Description: When you're a human with extraordinary powers and you take a job capturing humans with extraordinary powers, what are you? A Sellout, that's what!
For years, humans with extraordinary powers have been surfacing in the world, and for years, no one could match them - until one company started hiring them to police the bad ones.
Agent Matthew Hendrix, A.K.A. “Chancer”, works for TSO, a company contracted by the United States Government to capture and detain these “humans with extraordinary powers”. He thinks he’s saving people, but the people call him, and TSO Agents like him - those with powers - “Sellouts” for being paid to turn on their own kind.
Having the ability to change the luck around him, but not always being able to control it, Chancer inadvertently stumbles upon a plot that could threaten the entire world.
Can he and The Sellouts save the world?
The Avatar Series
Book 1: Death Trade
Release Date: July 8th, 2013
Short Description: John Ashkore has been the Avatar of Death for a little over 7 years. As Death’s helping hand on the mortal plane, he is frequently given tasks by Death himself. Only this time, the task is something John never expected, keeping someone alive instead of dead! The problems are: he must do this while fending off a psychopath who wants him dead, maintaining secrecy from the world, ducking the law, keeping one of Death’s clients alive, and above all - staying alive himself…
Book 2: Luck is Everywhere
Release Date: September 6th, 2013
Short Description: Helena Thompson has been the Avatar of Luck for a few years now, though all she's been doing is training. Finally, Lady Luck has given her a mission to accomplish in the real world, and it's only her Luck that's keeping her alive. Luck, and John Ashkore - the Avatar of Death.
With someone close to her trying to kill her, and unable to trust anyone but The Avatar of Death and his “Butler”, Stephan, she must find out who’s trying to kill her while proving to Lady Luck that she’s a capable Avatar of Luck.
Book 3: Death’s Judgement
Release Date: December 1st, 2016
Short Description: The previous Avatar of Death signed a contract which requires John Ashkore, the current Avatar of Death, to provide security in a trial between Avatars. Unfortunately, the Champion of Law who presides over the trial, falls ill and cannot continue the trial. John must now find a replacement while he and his friends come under attack from unseen forces, and all of them are still being hunted by the relentless FBI Agent, Lois Kine and her partner.
Other Books by Jeffrey Alan Henning
Other Books by Jeffrey Alan Henning:
Please visit: http://www.rikoun.com/library.html
Captain Dan Saves Beta Earth Page 12