He quickly stuffed the device into his pocket and made his way to the engine room.
Chapter 4
“This can’t be right.” Lieutenant Melton said as he was monitoring the few logs he had access to.
“What are you on about now?” Watts asked as he dropped from the ceiling and landed behind him.
“It says here that the outside temperature is nearly five thousand degrees Fahrenheit!” He said as he pointed to the gauge on the monitor. “Clearly, the sensor is broken.” He added, thinking aloud.
“Probably not,” Watts said with a laugh. “We’re most likely parked near Beta’s sun.” He said as he grabbed a different arm attachment, jumped up to the pipes above him and swung his way back to the new engine.
“How is that possible!” He yelled at Watts as he swung away. “We should be melting by now!”
“Captain to the Engine Room – come in Watts.” The speakers blared.
Watts swung over to his console and pushed a button. “Captain, this is Watts, whatcha’ need?”
“How’s the new engine holding up?” Captain Dan asked.
Watts pressed a few buttons on the console and looked over the results. “Everything’s nominal, Captain.”
“Let me know if anything changes.” He told them.
“Roger that, Captain!” Watts yelled as he jumped up to the pipes on the ceiling and swung back to his work.
* * * * *
The Captain had ordered the blast shields closed throughout the entire ship to accommodate the heat from their location.
“Captain, according to the read-outs from the new engine, we can stay here indefinitely and not suffer adverse cooling effects from the life support systems which occurred with our previous engine.” Twang told him without looking up from his screens.
“Good, and the heat-to-energy conversion?” Dan asked from his Captain’s chair.
“Nominal. Though we may need to burn off some excess energy if we stay here more than twenty-nine hours, thirty-seven minutes, and four seconds.” Twang told him.
“Noted.” Dan told him. He pushed a few buttons on his wrist console, which was now plugged into the arm of his chair. “I’m seeing debris coming this way, any chance it’s Amaya’s LifePod?” He asked.
“No. I’m tracking her LifePod, it will be here in seven hours, twenty-six minutes.” Twang told him as he pushed buttons rapidly. “The debris floating towards us is part of the Renault, a human transport-carrier class ship.” He pushed a couple more buttons. “Interestingly enough, there is atmosphere in part of the ship – though no life signs are detected.”
“How long would we have before it burns up, if we were to dock with it I mean.”
“It’s currently moving extremely slow, I estimate we can dock for twelve minutes without leaving the UPA scanner’s blind spot of the blue sun.” Twang said.
Captain Dan pushed a few buttons on his wrist console. “Bort and Dort, head to docking port Bravo Two for a quick salvaging mission. Radio when you’re in position.” He announced to the ship. He looked up to Twang. “Twang, bring us into docking position.”
“Docking in one minute.” Twang said.
“Bort and Dort ready to salvage, Captain!” came their voices over the bridge speakers.
“Salvagers, when the door opens, you have nine minutes to grab what you can. If you’re not back on the Heatseeker in under nine minutes, you’ll be taking a trip into the sun in an unarmored piece of dead ship. Please try to grab the ships logs and any data you can on its destruction.” Dan said into the radio.
“Roger that Sir!” The `orts said over the radio.
The ship jolted for a second as Twang docked with the leftover Renault.
“Go!” Dan said over the radio as he remotely opened the door for his salvagers. He watched them enter the ship from the camera aimed at his airlock door.
“It’s hot in here Captain!” Bort yelled over his radio. Dan heard clanking in the background.
“Twang, crank up the air in Bravo Two.” Dan said.
“Done.” Twang said. "Also, by turning up the life support in that area, we have burned off a little excess energy - meaning we can stay here longer. I will rerun the calculations when life support is back to normal." He added.
Dan nodded as he watched as Bort and Dort carried crate after crate back to his ship. He tried to zoom the camera in on the tags of the crates, but the positioning was wrong.
“Eight minutes, Captain.” Twang said.
“Salvagers, last call.” Dan said over the radio. He watched the twins carry in the fifth, and last, crate. “Twang, close it up and undock it.” He watched the airlock close and felt the ship undock.
“Done Captain.”
Dan got up and made his way to the airlock to check the salvage. When he got there, he saw that the twins were already checking them.
“You are not going to believe what’s in these crates!” Dort yelled as his bald head popped up over the top of the open crate.
Dan walked around the crate and looked himself, whistling when he saw what was inside. “DX-Seventy-Eight rockets.” He did the math quick. “Five crates of four is twenty rockets.” He said turning to the twins. “Nice work!”
“And this, Captain.” Dort said, pulling a small chip out of his wrist console and handing it to Dan.
Dan put it in his own wrist console and examined what it contained. “Logs from the ship. Looks like it was restocking the weapons platforms.”
“Yeah, the cargo bay was full of crates, too bad we didn’t have time to get them all.” Bort told him.
“Still, sixteen of these will go for a ton of credits. We’ll keep four, just in case.” Dan said with a wink. “Put one in the torpedo room, and the rest in the cargo bay. Make sure you tie them down, I don’t want them to explode if we need to make a hasty getaway.”
“I got this too!” Dort said as he held up some kind of whirligig.
Dan looked at it with a raised eyebrow. “Nice work?” He asked.
“Can I keep it?” He asked, almost begging.
“Sure…” Dan said as he turned around and left.
* * * * *
The next seven hours passed uneventfully. No salvageable parts of ships passed by, no word came from Beta Station, any of the weapons platforms, or Beta Earth itself. For the crew of the Heatseeker, it was worse than being in deep space – because they knew there was life nearby that could be visited, but they couldn’t get to it.
“Space Admiral Amaya’s LifePod is nearing our position. Time to intercept – four minutes thirty-seven seconds.” Twang finally announced.
"Are we betting on catching her?" Dort said. Bort elbowed him in the ribs while Belladi gave him an evil stare.
Dan had almost dozed off but came instantly awake at Twang’s voice. He ignored Dort's comment. “Raise the net in cargo bay one, and line us up.” He told Twang. He punched a button on the arm of his chair, opening the ship-wide communications. “Belladi, bring the gurney and medical cart to cargo bay one, but stay outside until it’s clear to go in. I’ll meet you there.” He pushed the same button, disabling the communications. “Twang, let me know when she’s secured in the cargo bay and it’s vented.” He said as he hopped out of his chair and headed to the cargo bay.
“Of course, Captain.” Twang said, but Dan barely heard him as he was halfway off the bridge.
Cargo Bay 1, the primary cargo bay on the Heatseeker, was accessible to the dorsal, or top, and the ventral, or bottom, of the ship. It ran through the entire depth of the ship, had doors on both dorsal and ventral sides, and had a large metal net in the middle for catching objects floating in space. This wasn’t the first time they had caught a LifePod, so they knew what to expect.
“Twang, keep the ship’s ventral toward the sun as much as possible, I don’t want to burn us to a crisp.” Dan said into his wrist console.
“Of course, Captain.” Twang replied.
Dan heard the cargo bay doors opening through th
e bulkhead and cringed at the grinding. “Gotta’ grease that when we get time.” He said to himself, and made a note in his wrist console.
Belladi and Too’Zer came down the hallway, Belladi pushing the floating gurney, and Too’Zer was pushing a floating box of medical supplies that was just about as large as the gurney and as tall as Belladi.
“Is the Space Admiral aboard yet, Captain?” Belladi asked.
“Soon.” Dan said as he watched the camera of the cargo bay on his wrist console. “Here she comes.” He held out his wrist so that the other two could watch, Too’Zer didn’t seem to care.
The LifePod floated into the cargo bay and was caught in the dead-center of the metal net. The net was designed to give a little in order to 'catch' things, and was also magnetized for instances liked this. Twang executed the catch perfectly, both locking the LifePod in the center of the net and closing the cargo bay doors at the same time. Dan and Belladi watched as the net was lowered, pulling the LifePod to the floor, which was made up of the ventral doors.
Dan waited for the light above the cargo bay door to turn green before he rushed into the room. He barely heard Twang telling him it was okay to proceed over his wrist console as he rushed over to the LifePod and quickly scanned the exterior for damage. He noticed the impact absorbing foam immediately and quickly began the unlocking procedures.
“Too’Zer, get the crowbars.” Dan yelled over his shoulder as he unlatched the seven latches around the top cover.
Once it was unlatched, he and Too’Zer began prying the top cover away from the foam. It was slow work as the foam was designed to adhere to the surfaces around the occupant to keep them protected from the harshness of space.
“Captain.” Belladi said as she held out a metal tube with a spray nozzle on one end.
Dan nodded as he took it and jammed it under the cover. Once he had pried it under he released the tube’s contents, it dissolved the foam almost immediately. As it dissolved, Too’Zer grabbed the lid and lifted, grunting as the lid finally came away from the pod. He tossed it to the side as Belladi rushed over to the side of the pod with an injector, stabbing it quickly into the Space Admiral’s arm.
Dan watched for seconds, which seemed like eons, until Amaya finally started breathing on her own. Her eyes fluttered and she moaned a little bit. Dan leaned down and patted her face. “Amaya,” He said quietly, over and over.
Amaya’s hand shot up to grab Dan’s hand when she finally came to. “Dan?” she said wearily. Her eyes locked on his and she smiled warmly.
“You’re safe now.” He said as he nodded to Too’Zer.
The rocky giant reached under Amaya, and very delicately lifted her out of the pod and placed her on the gurney.
“We’ll take her to my quarters.” He said as he started pushing the gurney before Belladi had a chance to lock the monitors in place.
Belladi had to rush to keep up with him, running back and forth from the medical box to the gurney, setting up three separate life-support monitors and barely locking them into place before Dan rushed the gurney through the small door to his quarters. Once there, he ignored the fact that the sensors were still scanning her and lifted her from the gurney to his bed. He sat next to her and held her hand as Belladi came over with an IV and hung it up on the wall next to Dan’s bed. She proceeded to pull out a catheter and injected it into the vein in the arm Dan wasn’t gripping. She taped it up and set the IV to push fluids into Amaya.
“She’ll need three bags of fluids, maybe four, depending on how long she was in there.” Belladi said as she set out four bags of saline on Dan’s bedside table.
“Thank you, Belladi.” Dan said quietly.
She held up three injectors. “This one is a vitamin shot, give it to her after the first bag. The second is to help her sleep if she wants it.” She told him.
“And the third?” Dan asked.
“The third is to wake her up, but I don’t recommend it so soon after stasis.” Belladi told him. “It could kill her.” She added quietly.
“Thank you again, Belladi.” Dan said softly as he looked the Space Admiral over.
Belladi slipped out of the room quietly, Dan didn't bother to watch her go. He sat on the bed next to Amaya for the next four hours, only standing up to stretch occasionally, and to check in with Twang on the bridge, who reported nothing of note since picking up the Space Admiral’s LifePod.
He watched her rest, and immediately regretted ever breaking things off with her. She was the most attractive, smart, and funny person he had ever met. His mind thought back to his short time with her before he was interrupted.
“Dan?” Amaya said with a croak when she finally awoke. She blinked rapidly and glanced around. “You finally got me into your bed…” She said, smiling a little.
“Amaya!” Dan nearly shouted and leaned down to hug her. She groaned in pain and Dan immediately sat back up. “Sorry.” He said quickly.
“I suppose I’ll let it pass.” She said with another of her lovely smiles that mesmerized Dan. When he didn’t say anything, she asked, “Can I get up now?”
Dan quickly let go of her hand and stammered. “Yeah, of course. Just… slowly.” He said. He leaned down again and helped her sit up. “How do you feel?”
“Like I was just in stasis.” She said as she steadied herself into a sitting position. “I hate stasis.” She said quickly.
“I know something of it.” He said, referring to his time under UPA control.
“Sorry… I didn’t mean— “
“I know. It’s okay.” He told her. He held up his wrist console and told Belladi to report to his room.
“Belladi… the Pluaggi?” she asked. “Why did you call her down?”
“She’s currently the best medic I have on the ship. She’ll need to clear you before you leave the bed.”
“Oh, come on Daniel.” She said as she tried to get up - and fell right back onto the bed. “Okay, I see your point.”
Dan just smiled at her. When the buzzer on the door rang, he walked over and opened it for Belladi.
“Captain, how may I help you?” She asked.
“I need to you check the Space Admiral over before I allow her to get up and roam the ship.” He told her.
“Very well.” Belladi said as she walked past Dan and over to Amaya,
When she started asking questions that Dan thought were a little too personal for him, he decided to leave and headed up to the bridge.
Chapter 5
“Captain, I’m hearing some strange signals.” Twang said abruptly, cocking his head to the left.
“What kind of signals?”
“Unknown. They are unlike anything I’ve ever heard before.” Twang said as he cocked his head to the other side. “It is as though they are calling out to UPA equipment. Some of my sensors are attempting to respond on their own.”
“Turn off your sensors, and anything else that tries to respond from the ship!” Dan said quickly. He tapped on his wrist console, furiously trying to shut down his UPA systems. His ship was fully customized and didn’t have many UPA systems that weren’t modified by Watts, but most of his weapons systems were still untouched UPA systems.
After a few minutes, Twang spoke again. “Captain, I’ve had to turn off some of my functions, such as sound and signal receivers, and some motor functions. On the ship, I’ve had to turn off the water filtration units, the food storage units, stabilizers ship-wide, and the systems we have scanning the UPA network.” Twang said.
“What exactly are you scanning the UPA network for?” Amaya said as she slowly entered the bridge. She was wearing a hydration vest – which was exactly as it sounded. It was a vest that carried a saline and oxygenated liquid which was absorbed through the skin via the skin-tight vest. This was one was a bit small, even for Amaya’s five-foot nothing frame – so it left little to the imagination as far as her curves went.
“We’ve got bigger problems.” Dan said, tapping on his wrist console. Luckily, the ent
ire crew had wrist consoles which were upgraded by Watts and Twang.
“Like what?” Amaya asked as she took one of the seats in the back. Belladi entered shortly after and took her normal position on the other side in the back.
“Whatever caused the UPA systems to be taken over is reaching us here.” Dan said, still typing on his wrist. “Some kind of signal we’ve never seen before.” He said as he put it on the large monitor in front of the bridge.
The screen showed an analog wavelength of varying size and complexity. Underneath it, there was code scrolling by at a fast rate.
“The protocol analyzer is having trouble distinguishing some of the characters in the code, so it’s replacing them all with a block of black instead.” Twang said without looking up from his station.
“This is the signal that’s attacking the UPA?” Amaya asked as she stood up and walked towards the large front monitor.
“Yes.” Twang said.
“You’ve seen it before?” Dan asked.
“Yes.” She said softly. “And so have you.” She added.
“I’ve never seen code like this.” Dan told her, stopping what he was doing.
“Mr. Twang, can you please filter out all the blocks?” She asked.
Twang looked to Captain Dan.
“Do it.” He said.
Twang moved his head forward again, his monitors flickered with changes as he typed, and the code on the big monitor changed.
“Now invert it.” Amaya said.
Twang's monitor changed, and the code changed again.
Dan stood up at once. “That’s impossible!” He shouted.
“You know this code, Captain?” Belladi asked from the back of the room.
“Yes.” He said, looking at Amaya. “It’s the same one that emanates from me.”
* * * * *
Watts, Too’Zer, and the twins entered the bridge moments after Dan’s declaration.
“What do you mean, it’s the same signal that emanates from you? Humans do not emanate signals.” Belladi said.
Captain Dan Saves Beta Earth Page 5
