by John Migacz
CHAPTER 19
Keed put his Avant scout ship through its paces. With his new-found fame he thought it might be his last time in one and he had always wanted to push the envelope. He doubted anyone would reprimand “Keed the Kraken Killer.” Smiling, he wondered how to leak that title to the network-blinks without anyone knowing its origin. Maybe it wasn’t necessary. Someone would think of it – or possibly something better. His mind drifted as he tried to come up with a better moniker.
His scanner detected a large object moving into the sector. Its bulk was analyzed as too large to be a ship. Nothing to be alarmed about. There were many objects drifting in space, the result of some celestial accident or an orphan from an asteroid field. This object was on the edge of the quadrant and gave him the opportunity to test the acceleration and top speed of his ship. He gunned the thrusters, keeping the engines near the red-line the entire way.
As he neared the object, the scanner changed its analysis. It reported “asteroid” then “ice mass” then “planetary body.” His view screen showed a large cylindrical, rock encrusted mass moving at tremendous speed. Grinning, he rocketed his ship to catch the anomaly, pushing the engines into the red zone. He kept an eye on his acceleration, sure that he was setting some kind of record.
Alarm bells and blinking lights shocked him out of his race as his ship was scanned. It took him a second to realize that what he thought was an asteroid must be a ship. The layer of rocks and dust had just given it the illusion of a large asteroid. His shock lasted only a second as he punched his thrusters and sent a signal to the Reliant. Glancing down at his display he saw he needed ten seconds to get out of range of the Mol-ray. He knew he’d never make it. A twinge of regret for drinks never drunk and women never kissed coursed through his mind as harsh red light bathed his ship.