Captain Dan Saves Beta Earth

by Jeffrey Henning

  Amaya thought about it for a minute. "So you're saying my love for Trevor is strong?" She said with a small laugh. "I highly doubt that."

  "You obviously have feelings, otherwise you wouldn't have left the bridge so quickly." Belladi said.

  Amaya breathed out slowly. "I just don't want him to kill innocents when there's another way."

  "And yet you never gave him another option. You just yelled at him for the path he chose, but then you never gave him another option." Belladi counseled.

  Amaya stood up slowly and ran her hand through her hair. She stayed facing the heat-shielded window. "You're a good counselor, Belladi."

  "That is why I'm here, after all." Belladi said with a smile.

  "So, we need another plan." Amaya said. "And we need it fast, before our friend does something stupid."

  Chapter 8

  "All stations report in." Dan said over a ship-wide broadcast.

  "First Officer reporting in." Amaya said from the Captain's chair.

  "The missiles are ready." Too'Zer said over the speaker.

  "Engineering ready." Watts said.

  "We're ready too!" Bort and Dort said together over the speaker.

  "I am here, Captain." Belladi said.

  "The ship and I are ready, Captain." Twang said.

  "Twang, take the ship out of the sun's corona and follow the trajectory we projected." Dan told her.

  "Yes Captain." Twang said.

  The crew of the Heatseeker felt a push as the ship jumped forward and started exiting the sun on the far side of the station, away from the ships that were scanning for them. Twang expertly guided the ship on the projected path with a few pushes of propulsion from the new engine.

  "Nearing the first way point." Twang said.

  "Prepare to launch the missile." Dan said over the speakers.

  "Three kilometers and closing." Twang said.

  "Two kilometers and closing." Twang said a few minutes later.

  "One kilometer and closing." Twang said a few more minutes later.

  Dan kept his hand on the button to fire the missile. He was calm and collected.

  "Mark." Twang said.

  Dan pushed the button and fired the missile.

  "Missile away." Too'Zer said in his deep voice over the radio.

  "Prepare the others, just in case." Dan said as he watched the missile fly away from his ship. He was pretty sure it would be shot down before it reached the communications buoy.

  "Second waypoint reached, heading to third waypoint." Twang said.

  Dan felt the ship turn. He and Watts were the only ones who know when small course corrections were made. Perhaps it was his implants, perhaps it was just knowing his ship well enough. Either way, he felt the Heatseeker slow down before Twang spoke up.

  "Propulsion stopped. From this point forward the ship will drift towards Beta Station One." Twang said.

  "Twenty-seven minutes of drift, six minutes until the missile reaches its target." Amaya said.

  "Have the other ships changed course?" Dan asked.

  "No Captain." Twang said.

  "What are they waiting for?" Dan said. "He has to know we're here." he added. He watched the monitors carefully as the Heatseeker drifted towards the station. If they timed it just right, they should be able to take control of the defensive systems before they attacked him.

  "Coming up on the second buoy, Captain. Want me to launch the second missile?" Amaya asked.

  "Open the cargo bay doors and launch the second one." Dan told her. She had come up with a new plan right before they were about to exit the sun. The new plan had redundancies in it, in case they couldn't execute a part of the old one - and it ensured they wouldn't blow up the other ships unless they absolutely had to. There was a reason she was the Space Admiral of the United Planetary Alliance.

  "Cargo bay doors open, dropping the second missile." Amaya said as she pushed buttons on her console.

  "Connect as quickly as possible, Twang." Dan said as he watched the missile float out of the cargo bay via cameras on one of the monitors at Belladi's station.

  Dan watched his crew perform their missions flawlessly. It was surprising that none of the decided to bet on their survival. He knew he had the right crew, but he also knew that, even if they performed flawlessly, Kirk would blow them out of the sky. He looked around and made sure no one was watching him. Luckily, they were too focused on their missions. He quietly left the bridge and down to his quarters without anyone the wiser.

  * * * * *

  Dan connected to the UPA network quickly and zipped about Beta Station 1. He tried to access multiple systems at once using the same back doors that Kirk would use.

  He took over the life support systems and shut them down.

  He took over the lights and shut them down.

  He took over the weapons systems and fired every missile he could, which was sixty-four, all of them set to self-detonate about a kilometer away from the station - before he was caught.

  He appeared in the same room that he had talked to Kirk before.

  "And here I thought you wouldn't use your implants to hurt the United Planetary Alliance." Kirk said, standing in front of him like he had before.

  "I'm not, I'm using them to stop you." Dan said, resting him hand on his pistol again. He remembered he wasn't real, physically speaking, and moved it away.

  "You think turning off life support and the lights are going to kill me? Have you forgotten that I'm more machine than man? I don't need life support." Kirk said with a small laugh. "And sixty-four missiles? You do know this station contains sixty-four hundred missiles, right?"

  Dan didn't know that.

  "Why are you doing this, really? Do you just want to be in charge? Do you just want to blow stuff up?" Dan asked while he attempted to access other systems. Kirk was too good - he was locked out of all the weapon systems.

  "I want revenge for what they did to me - that's all." He said in his robot-like voice.

  Dan thought of another plan and tried to connect to some other systems. "You already killed all the people who did this to you, so your revenge plan is done." He said while moving about the station.

  "My revenge will be complete when the UPA has been completely destroyed."

  Dan accessed the station's engines. "You know you can never completely destroy the UPA, right? It's an ideal that people live - not just stations, ships, and people." Dan said as a distraction.

  "Yes, but those people holding those ideals will not be able to implement them if they have no ships and stations." Kirk said. Dan could almost see a smile under his hood.

  Dan implemented his plan slowly - he would need to keep Kirk talking long enough. "You can't stop progress. It will happen whether or not you destroy stuff, and you can't be everywhere at once."

  "I actually can be everywhere at once, thanks to the UPA. They leave a network of satellites wherever they go, and they have explored a large part of this galaxy." He said, arguing his point.

  "We've already been re-coding the satellites, and since they communicate with each other, you'll soon be locked out." Dan said, stalling. He needed to execute his plan before Kirk realized what he was doing.

  Kirk was silent for a moment. Dan feared he had discovered what he was doing. "You're lying. I'm connected to all of them, and there have been no code changes."

  "You'd have to do a diagnostic check on all of them to be sure. There's no way you could have done that so fast." Dan told him.

  When Kirk was silent for a minute or so, Dan implemented his plan - and was immediately yanked back to his bed on the Heatseeker.

  Chapter 9

  Dan woke up with a start. "What the hell did you do?" He yelled as he sat up and saw Belladi standing over him.

  "Twang put up a net around the ship that blocks all signals in and out." She told him.

  "Under who's orders?" Dan said as he moved to the edge of his bed.

  "Mine." Amaya told him. She stood in the doorway with
her arms crossed and a mad look on her face. "We had a plan." She told him.

  "Report." Dan told her as he stood up and immediately sat back down. Being yanked out of the network like that was a little dizzying.

  "Our plan is in effect. We are on course to dock with the station, though it appears to be moving now." She cocked an eyebrow at him. "What did you do?"

  "Implemented a backup plan." Dan told her as he shook off the dizziness. He stood up and Belladi took hold of his arm. "I'm fine." he told her as he waived her away.

  "You don't seem fine." Belladi told him. She put her hands up and backed away when Dan glared at her.

  "We had to adjust course," Amaya told him as she moved to the side when Dan stalked out of his room. He headed for the bridge. "He will notice an object changing course so close to the station." She added as he jumped into his seat on the bridge.

  "Doubtful. He's running diagnostics on all of the UPA satellites." Dan said as he pulled up the map on his chair's console.

  "Why would he do that?" Amaya asked.

  "I suggested he do it, as a distraction so I could crash the station into an uninhabited part of Beta." Dan said while examining the map closer. "Where are the missiles?"

  "The missiles that are going to do the exact same thing that you suggested to our enemy?" Amaya said asked with a sneer.

  "Captain," Twang interrupted. "I'm reading multiple life forms on Beta Station."

  "What?!" Amaya asked.

  "Thirty-six life forms, seven different species." Twang noted. "They are being held in the brig, which as you can see," All the screens changed to blueprints of Beta Station. "The brig is located in the center of the station. Even as protected as the station is from external attack, they have a zero percentage of survival if the station crashes into the planet."

  "That's impossible, I checked the sensors." Dan told them.

  "The data doesn't lie, Captain." Twang said, showing the thirty-six life forms as dots on the blueprints.

  "But the data could lie, if someone knew how to manipulate the data." Dan said quickly and then stopped. He cocked his head. "I thought you put up a net around the ship, no signals in or out?" He asked as he looked at Twang.

  Twang typed furiously. "An interesting suggestion Captain," He told them as he kept typing. "It would appear the net I put up has been penetrated by our enemy." He turned his head slowly towards them, at an angle that no living being could accomplish. "Congratulations, Trevor."

  "If you knew what I did, why is the station still on a crash course for the planet with you still on it?" Dan asked.

  "Perhaps I want to kill all of my prisoners." Twang's body said.

  "You don't have any prisoners." Dan said. He closed his eyes for minute and all the dots disappeared from the screen. He opened his eyes and cocked his head at Twang. "So why are you really going to crash the station?" Dan asked.

  "Have you re-checked the trajectory, Trevor?" Twang asked him.

  Dan opened his eyes wide as he tapped a few keys on his console. "You bastard, there's millions of people in the capital!" He shouted at Twang.

  "Oh my gods..." Amaya said quietly as she looked over Dan's shoulder. She put her hand over her mouth.

  "I am the gods." Twang said. His head started twitching and then sparked, followed by smoke, came out of his metallic head.

  Watts immediately jumped over the stations to get to Twang. "Twang! Twang!" He said as he shook the robots head. He attempted to wave the smoke away but was unsuccessful. He immediately unbuttoned the shirt the robot didn't need while pulling a screwdriver from his belt.

  "Watts, what are you doing?" Dan asked.

  "Gotta' save him." Watts said as he quickly started unscrewing the plates over the robot's chest. He threw the plate off to the side, letting it clang on the metal floor of the bridge. He reached in with two of his hands and pulled wires out quickly. With his third hand he reached in and gently pulled out a translucent tube containing three square crystals. He looked up to Dan and gave him a dirty look. "You did this to him."

  "Twang was hurt by our enemy, Watts, not the Captain." Belladi said calmly.

  "Who wouldn't have entered our ship, entered Twang - if it weren't for the Cap'n." Watts said, still glaring at Dan.

  "We all signed up for this, Watts." Amaya interjected. "Even Twang."

  "What do you care, you aren't even part of this crew!" Watts yelled at her.

  "Enough!" Dan said as he stood up. "Twang can be fixed. You can fix him, Watts. The people on the planet cannot be fixed when the station crashes into them."

  "The station is only crashing into them because of you!" Watts shouted.

  "I was crashing the station into an uninhabited stretch of land, not the capital of the damned planet!" Dan shouted back.

  A beeping sound interrupted them all.

  "The missiles have delivered their payloads." Too'zer said loudly.

  Amaya and Belladi immediately took their stations, Amaya furiously typed while Belladi reported.

  "The authentication codes were accepted, software is installing on the satellites." Belladi said loudly.

  "Initiating backdoor." Amaya said, typing quicker.

  "Backdoor installed." Belladi said a few moments later.

  "Initiating replication protocol." Amaya said with a final tap on the keyboard.

  After a few moments of silence, Dan chimed in. "Is it replicating?"

  "Unknown." Belladi said. "The two satellites are definitely protected from Mr. Sparks and your implants, Captain, but I cannot determine if the new software has replicated to any other satellites in the network yet."

  "Amaya, if we don't own all the satellites in Beta, we're going to be blown out of the sector." Dan said.

  Amaya looked up, then to Dan. "Why haven't we been blown out of the sector yet?" She asked. She looked at everyone in turn - no one answered, and she stood up. "Why haven't we been blown out of the sector yet?" she asked again, this time staring at Dan.

  "He wants me alive." He replied.

  "Why though? Why would he want you alive when you're the only thing standing in his way?" She asked him. She sounded like she was trying to work it out for herself.

  "He's lonely, how the hell would I know?" Dan said without looking at her. Instead, he looked the opposite direction. "Belladi, how long until we dock with the station?"

  "Eight minutes, thirty... ish... seconds?" She replied, unsure.

  "You don't have an exact time? If you're off by anything, the ship will crash into the station." Dan said as he tapped on his own console.

  "I'm sorry Captain, Twang was following our progress. I'll have an exact trajectory momentarily." She said apologetically while typing on her console.

  "What are you doing?" Amaya asked as she looked at Dan.

  "Continuing on with the plan. Except now we need to redirect the station's trajectory. The rest of the plan stays the same." Dan said as he tapped his console. "We should be able—"

  Amaya cut him off. "No Trevor! Our mission now is to destroy the station before it crashes into the New Geneva." She looked over to Belladi. "Has the backdoor replicated to the sector defense satellites yet?"

  Belladi tapped a few buttons on her console. "No, First Officer." She replied.

  "As I've said, we continue on with the plan." Dan said.

  "No, we won't. How many escape pods does the Heatseeker have?" She asked.

  "Eight." Watts said. "But you aren't driving my engine room into the station." Watts told her while pointing one of his fingers at her. "I'm in for the Captain's plan, so long as she goes onto the station with him." He said while pointing a finger at Amaya. "Can't trust she won't try to blow up my engine room." He said without looking at Dan.

  "Belladi, you have command." Dan said as he stood up, grabbed Amaya by the arm and dragged her down the hallway. She barely put up a fight.

  Chapter 10

  "What the hell is your problem Amaya?" Dan said a little too loudly after he closed the door to his
quarters.

  She balled her hands into fists and put them on her hips. Dan thought that if she wasn't so short, she may have been imposing. "I'm in charge here Captain, not you! It's up to me to save those people on the planet before they are all murdered by this sicko."

  "A sicko the UPA created." Dan said as he looked out his floor-to-ceiling window. Now that the heat shields were no longer needed, they had retracted into the hull. He watched space debris fly by.

  "I didn't create him, Trevor, I had just become the Space Admiral." She said, defending yourself. "I did the right thing..." She trailed off.

  Dan turned around. "I have no doubts it was the right thing at the time, Amaya."

  "At the time?"

  "Well, if I knew then what we would become, I would have asked you to just destroy us like you destroyed the project." He told her.

  "You can't mean that?" She asked. Her fists slid down, and opened, with one of he now open hands moving to her stomach. "You really can't mean that?"

  "What good has come from either of us?" He asked. "We're both killers. I'm a damn smuggler slash killer, Amaya - you know that!" He shouted at her. He took a moment and calmed down. "You should have killed us."

  She walked the short distance to him and took his hand. "You are not a killer, Trevor." She said while squeezing his hand."

  "You know so little about me, Amaya." He told her. He pulled his hand away and turned his back on her. "You left when you found out I was a smuggler. You didn't stay to learn the rest of it."

  "Then tell me the rest." She said. "Tell me all of it."

  "There's no time, Amaya." Dan said as he spun around. He looked at his watch. "We have only a few minutes before we need to board the station."

  "Our best shot is to blow it up." She said as she tried to look him in the eye.

  "Yes, but not using my ship as the explosive." He said as he tried to walk past her, stopping short. "It's all I have..." He said quietly, and then left for the docking area.

  * * * * *

  Dan always wore his pistol on his hip, but Too'Zer handed him one of the rifles after he finished putting on body armor under his coat. He took it and checked the battery. "New plan." He said to Bort and Dort. "I want you to find a way to change the trajectory of the station to keep it in orbit."