Captain Dan Saves Beta Earth
Captain Dan Saves Beta Earth
Jeffrey Alan Henning
Published by Rikoun Publishing
Copyright 2019 Rikoun Publishing
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
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Prologue
“I can’t believe you got hot dogs again!” Mary said as she shook her head while looking for a place to sit.
“What? They were a delicacy on Earth.” Robert told her as he scouted for a table as well.
“You’ve never been to Earth. No one has.” Sue told him as she caught up to him. She carried her orange Nutri-Slushi. “...and no one ever will - not with all the radiation from The Nuclear War.”
“You don’t think some of the old timers aren’t from there?” Robert asked as they finally found a seat next to the huge two-story windows. "Besides, there's only so many times a person can have a Nutri-Slushi before they go crazy."
Beta Earth Station 1, otherwise known as BES1, had a cafeteria that could seat over three thousand people while taking up two floors of the station. It had to seat that many at one time. When Beta Earth was first being colonized, people would fly up to the station two or three times a day to eat Colonization Rations – which were nothing more than dehydrated food packages. The United Planetary Alliance had nearly filled the station with them over forty years ago to ensure the new settlers could eat. Now the station is being used for science, as well planetary defense, since the planet had developed their cities. Since then, a company called 'Human Dietz' had made Nutri-Slushi, which was a drink that had all the nutrients a human would need in one day, served in a thirty-two-ounce cup. Since Nutri-Slushi originated on Beta Earth, the company provides them free to the station. Its headquarters are on Beta Earth.
“Say what you want about hot dogs, but they’re great!” Robert told them as he took a huge bite into one of them. Ketchup and mustard - made from the real recipes from Earth, dripped down his chin.
“Gross. You do know that hot dogs are made from meat manufactured by Rhino Meat, right? Those are the same people who breed horses in test tubes just to kill them for steaks.” Sue said with a yuck face. “I even looked it up in the archives. Horses were meant to be ridden, not used for steaks!”
“Oh, give it a rest. You always know everything when it comes from the archives, right?” Robert said, tearing another huge chunk off his hot dog.
“Come on Mary, a little help here? I know you’ve seen this particular archive. You were with me when I looked it up!” Sue asked Mary, but she was ignored.
“Mary?” Robert asked.
Mary sat staring out the window and hadn’t touched her own yellow Nutri-Slushi since she sat down.
Robert waved his hand in front of her face and said, “Hello, Beta Earth to Mary.”
She slapped his hand out of her face. “What is that?” She said as she pointed toward something in space.
“It’s called the sun.” He said, referring to the giant ball of blue fire. He didn’t bother to turn around and look out the giant two-story window.
Beta Earth was the only habitable planet in this system, out of six. It was the first planet the original humans found after evacuating Earth after the nuclear wars. According to what history was left, and it wasn't much, a country on Earth called Korea fired the first nuclear missile, which prompted the other countries on the planet to fire nuclear missiles. Somewhere in there one of the countries either misfired or deliberately fired on one of the bigger countries, leading to an all-out worldwide war. Billions died in the first strikes, billions more to radiation poisoning. A few thousand went underground and made a ship capable of leaving their now destroyed planet.
“Not that, you idiot.” She said as she moved to his side of the table. “That!” She yelled as she pointed past his head too small to a barely visible object.
“Not all of us has vision implants like you do. You tell us. What is it?” Sue asked as she came to stand next to Mary.
“It looks like a missile.” Mary said. The implants in her eyes had many uses, from scanning materials to zooming in on objects far in space.
Robert swallowed loudly. “If it were a missile, the defense satellites would have already blown it to smithereens.” He said, still working on the three hot dogs he had gotten.
“I’m telling you, it’s a missile.” She said as she backed away from the table. “I think we should get to somewhere safer.
“Nope, I’m finishing my hot dogs. They only serve them once a month!” Robert said loudly.
Mary backed away from the window. “I think I’m going to go to Operations.” She said quietly as she started to turn around.
“You know you don’t get paid overtime, right?” Robert said in-between bites. He wiped his chin with the sleeve of his uniform after he had finished one of his hot dogs.
“You won’t get paid at all if a missile hits the glass.” She said over her shoulder, finally walking away towards the elevators.
Sue stared out the window for a short time. “You know, now that I can see it, it kinda’ does look like a missile.” She said while squinting and moving her head back and forth, like she was trying to zoom in.
“Not you too.” Robert said shaking his head. “There are protocols in place. If anything hostile comes into visual range, then the alarms would go off, and the blast shields would come down quicker than you can say ‘It’s a missile!’ Seriously, sit down and eat.” He told her.
Sue sat down opposite him and slid her slushi closer to her. She continued to stare out the window as the object slowly got closer and closer. She looked to the table next to theirs and saw that they were pointing to the missile too. She started to get worried as it came closer and closer. As it did, more and more people were looking and pointing out the window. Everyone knew there wasn’t a ship due for another two days, and all other ships were docked in the rings above them.
Robert noticed people coming over to the window as he finished his last hot dog off. He shook his head, stood up, and looked out the window. He saw what he was looking for quickly, it was a missile, larger than normal – the size of a one-man fighter in the bays. He held his wrist up and punched a few buttons on the console wrapped around his forearm.
“I thought you were on lunch?” The man asked as he appeared in a small hologram of only his head directly above the console.
“Rich, are you near a window on the Sun side?” Robert asked Rich's hologram head.
“Just a moment.” Rich said as he was obviously walking. The hologram head went up and down as he did so. �
��What is that?” he asked as his head moved up to get a better view.
“Looks like a missile drifting our way.” Robert said quietly.
“Did you call it in yet?” Rich asked.
“No, I was getting confirmation before I sounded any alarms.”
“I’m gonna’ go call this in.” Rich said.
“I’m going to get away from windows…” Robert said as he started walking to the lifts. He was met by others who were talking about the object floating towards them.
Alarms started to sound throughout the station. People in the cafeteria started screaming and rushing towards the lifts.
“It’s gonna hit!” Someone yelled.
“Come on… stupid lift!” Robert said as he watched the missile come so close to the window. He tapped the lift button furiously. He cringed as he watched the missile hit the glass with a thunk, waiting for the inevitable explosion – but none came. The lift still wasn’t back yet, so he looked past the crowd to see a grey splotch on the window where the missile hit. “What is that?” he asked out loud.
“Rob, are you still there?” Rich's hologram head asked.
He held up his console. “Yeah, why?”
“You need to get out of there. The blast doors aren’t coming down.” He said quickly.
“The lift isn’t here yet! And besides, the missile already hit and bounced off the window. Now there’s just a… puddle of grey on it.” Rob said as he wedged his way back towards the lift doors. He wasn't looking at his wrist console as he shoved past people.
“It’s not a puddle, they’re nano-sized robots, and they’re eating through the station!” Rich said.
“So, there was more than this one? Why didn’t we detect it?” He said as he heard a woman scream. Having to stand on his tippy-toes, he looked back at the window.
“It’s cracking!” someone yelled.
“That’s impossible, it’s twelve-inch reinforced polycarbonate thermoplastic. Nothing’s getting through that.” He said as he watched cracks form in the glass. He looked back to the lift. “Come on… come on…” He said quietly as he looked at Sue, who was frantically pushing the button on the far-left lift.
It was too late, the twelve-inch polycarbonate thermoplastic window shattered and exploded outward into space. Everything and everyone in the cafeteria went with it. Once the room was depressurized, it was as silent as the tomb which was now created.
The lift bell dinged twice, sending a message to those nearby that it had landed on the cafeteria floor.
* * * * *
Space Admiral Amaya sat behind her large desk on the upper floors of Beta Earth Station 1, going over some reports on the holoscreen in front of her. It wasn’t until she scrolled down did she notice something small coming towards the station. She looked out this window all the time, and she knew for certain that there should be nothing inbound today.
She held up her left arm and pressed a button. “Operations, this is Space Admiral Amaya.” She said aloud.
No one replied, so she got up and walked to the window. She noticed the object was moving slowly towards the station. The object was bigger than a typical missile, but smaller than a craft.
“Operations, come in.” She said calmly to her wrist-console. When she didn’t get a reply, she called someone else. “Defensive station, come in.” She shook her head as she watched it get closer.
Finally, she moved to her door and pressed the button to open it – but it didn’t move. She pressed it again and again, but it still didn’t move.
She noticed the object was almost at her window. She grunted as she rushed over towards the window and pushed the button that would lower the blast shields. They didn’t move either. She had a few minutes before the missile hit, so she opened the panel for the blast shield control and quickly pulled a cable out and plugged it into her console on her arm. She furiously typed on her wrist console and glanced up every now and again to see the missile coming ever closer.
The big green letters she was hoping for popped up on her console.
"ACCESS GRANTED"
She smiled as the computer finally spoke to her and she pressed one more button on the console.
“BLAST DOORS ENGAGING"
She unhooked the cable and headed back behind her desk, waiting for an explosion. She heard a feint thump against the blast shield, but no explosion followed.
Not caring to wait around to find out, she quickly moved back to her door and unlocked the panel to find a console cable. As she was moving wires aside, she heard a feint scratching. She looked back to the window and saw an orange glow coming from the metal on the blast shield. She dug quicker through the wires and kept looking over her shoulder.
"BLAST DOORS COMPROMISED." The room told her.
She risked a look back to see a grey puddle coming through the small hole it had made in the blast doors. She figured she only had a minute or so before it made its way through the window and the room depressurized.
She cursed and gave up on the door controls. Running across the room, she pulled on one of the model ships that lined the wall and a wall panel slid open to reveal a LifePod. LifePods were one-person emergency vehicles designed to fly short distances and enter planetary orbits. There was also an impact absorbing foam and a gas that could put a person in stasis so as to conserve oxygen.
She stepped in and faced the window. The LifePod’s transparent door shut quickly, but she didn’t push the button to engage the drop just yet. She waited for a few seconds and watched as the room depressurized and everything not bolted down flew straight towards the window. The items all failed to go through the small hole the grey puddle made, but they would try until the room was the same pressure as space.
She sighed at the loss of a perfectly good office and pushed the eject button. The LifePod descended down it’s tunnel at an extremely fast pace. The distance between the lights flashing was the only way she knew she was moving. The inside of the LifePod was designed to make it feel like a person wasn’t even moving. The LifePod shot out of the end of the tunnel and quickly changed course for Beta Earth.
"MANUAL COURSE CHANGE INITIATED" The LifePod told her.
“What?” She said as she moved her arm up and pulled a cable from the side of the pod. She plugged it into the socket on her left side. It was a bit cramped, but luckily the transparent door had a display built-in. She would still have to type on the console on her wrist, but at least she could access the ships commands. She tapped a few keys, trying to get to the navigation system.
"MANUAL COURSE CHANGE ACCEPTED."
"ENGAGING THRUSTERS TO CORRECT COURSE."
“No, no you don’t.” She said as she finally got into the navigation system. She attempted to change the coordinates, but the screen only showed a big red 'ACCESS DENIED.'
The LifePod’s thrusters engaged and turned the small ship towards its new destination. She saw the wings extend from the side of the ship.
“No, we’re not going that way.” She said as she frantically typed on her wrist-console.
The small ship’s thrusters finally stopped, sending the ship towards its new destination. She tapped her wrist-console a few times and turned on the camera on the nose of the ship. She swore.
"INITIATING PASSENGER STASIS MODE."
She swore again and start typing as fast as she could. Every time the LifePod told her 'ACCESS DENIED', she cursed at it.
Green gas started coming out of a vent near her head. She held her breath as long as she could while typing faster and faster. Her vision blurred, and her eyes started to sting from the gas, and she typed faster until she just couldn't take it anymore. She finally let out the air in her lungs and sucked in the gas. She had time for one more command and entered it before the gas started its effects.
"DESTINATION: BETA SUN"
"ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL: TWO DAYS, SEVEN HOURS, FIFTY-TWO MINUTES, AND THREE SECONDS."
She drifted off to sleep.
"PASSENGER IN STASIS." The Li
fePod told no one.
"INITIATING IMPACT ABSORBING FOAM."
A light green foam filled the compartment around her as the ship silently headed towards its destination.
* * * * *
The cloaked man stood in front of a display of hundreds of cameras, the displays floated in the air around. He watched them all at the same time. He watched as Space Admiral Amaya floated towards the sun. He watched another camera showing people from the cafeteria floating out of the window. He watched as his nano-robots herded all of the people in the station to the cargo holds - waiting for the moment to eject them into space.
“Master, we’ve done it! Beta Earth Station One is ours!” a little black box told him from near his left foot.
The cloaked figure didn’t even move.
“Initiating self-destruct. Master, please, I can serve you better!” The little robot said. Wheels came out of the bottom of the box and it rolled away from the cloaked figure. “Self-destructing.” It said right before it exploded.
Another little black robot wheeled over to the place of the previous one. The only differentiating feature was the serial number on the bottom.
“I’ve done it. Beta Earth Station One is mine, not ours.” The cloaked man said with a metallic voice.
“Yes Master. You have done it. Beta Earth Station One is yours, Master.” The little box said after changing its programming.
“Initiate viral attack on the defense satellites.” His Master told him.
“Yes, Master. Initiating virus attack on defense satellites.” The little box said. It rolled away almost immediately.
“Soon, the United Planetary Alliance and her people will pay.”
Chapter 1
“Powering down Quantum-Ohm Engine in three, two, one - now.” Said Lieutenant Matthew Melton, the Human United Planetary Alliance, or UPA, scientist-in-charge of the Quantum-Ohm Engine project. He looked up from the hologram projection that his wrist-console displayed to see the lights on the new engine fade to nothing. “You are clear to start up the old engine.” He said to the Heatseeker’s mechanic, Watts.
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