Captain Dan Saves Beta Earth

by Jeffrey Henning

  "We'll need to arm the weapons also." She said as she did so.

  "Why do we need weapons?" Belladi asked, a little confused. "Are we attacking the station?"

  "We may need to." She said as she plotted a course. She entered her new command codes to warm up the weapons.

  "I think I'm beginning to understand your plan." Belladi said as she moved to Too’Zer’s station, which had been set up for rapid targeting and firing.

  Amaya looked over to Belladi. "We only fire if absolutely necessary."

  Belladi nodded. She would be ready.

  * * * * *

  Watts ran out of the hallway into the first missile storage room, which was one deck below the engine room. The schematics he had memorized didn't show a floor below the engine room. Amaya had told him that was for security reasons - and they argued over the comms while they made a hasty retreat from the robots in the engine room. He had been closing all the airlocks between him and the ghost floor as the twins and he made their way to the missiles. This room only had a hundred of them.

  Free from the robots' harassment, he went to work on disabling the missiles - one at a time. It took about fifteen seconds per missile. He jumped on top of one, used his console and Amaya's command codes to power them completely off, then he would jump to the next one. While he did that, the twins followed up by removing the power cores, which was only behind eight screws and a panel. They stuffed the human fist-sized cores into their satchels as they went.

  When Watts finally saw what they were doing, he laughed, and asked, "You guys gonna' stuff sixty-four hundred cores into your bags?"

  Dort held one up. "Do you know how much these are worth?"

  Bort held one up too. "One hundred of these are worth more than the Captain's ship!"

  "The Heatseeker is priceless." Watts yelled to them. He was about eight missiles ahead of them now.

  "Plus, we have a bet to see how many we can get!" Dort yelled excitedly.

  They continued this way until they were done, and the twins' bags were full to the point of almost overflowing.

  Watts half-watched as they finished, while he used his wrist-console to plot their next course.

  "Incoming!" Bort yelled as he pulled his rifle up and started shooting the air vent in the ceiling.

  "Damn, run!" Watts yelled as he made his way to the only other exit. When the twins were both through, he slammed the button to close the door quickly, but it wouldn't close. "He's got control of the doors!" Watts said, attempting to use his console to over-ride the controls and close the doors. "We're locked out of the system! Amaya!" He shouted, but only heard static in his ear.

  Dort came up next to him and fired his rifle off a dozen times quickly, taking out the first small wave of robots.

  "They're behind us!" Bort yelled as he took up position at Dort's back, firing his rifle off as much as he could.

  "Well, we're screwed." Watts said as he pulled out two EMP grenades out of his bag and threw them both ways, one in the missile room, and one down the hallway. They went off in a shock of lightning, and some of the robots literally exploded. "Move!" He took off at full speed, alternating between two of his arms and his two legs.

  Chapter 13

  "You see Trevor? Your ship has left, and I will have your crew soon enough" One of the little robots said.

  Dan still held the grenade, though he lowered it to his side for the sake of comfort. "So far, my crew is safe." Dan said as he watched the videos of Watts and the twins running from the same little robots that were surrounding him. It wasn't hard to find the Heatseeker among the hundreds of videos Kirk had displayed for him - the ship was unique.

  "For now, but while they destroyed thirty-eight of my helpers - I have tens of thousands." The robot said. "And don't worry about your small ship. I'll destroy it in a little while." he said as three new holographic screens appeared above him. They each showed two very large ships moving from the edge of the star where he had left them towards the now, slowly moving, station. The last screen showed the Heatseeker, following the slow station, but maintaining a good distance. Dan noticed the shields were down. Amaya probably had all the defenses online - but he wondered if they would be enough to go against the station.

  "You think you can out-shoot the Space Admiral?" Dan said with a laugh. "She's been to every war college there is, she knows more about space strategy than your robotic head could even imagine!"

  "I've upgraded my implants since the program. I have all the knowledge that she has. I've memorized everything the colleges teach so that the UPA would be no challenge." the little robot said. It moved away from Dan and rolled over to Kirk's feet. Kirk raised his head and turned it back towards Dan a little. "The Drogant is on the station as well? Well played, Trevor, but he will be found shortly." Kirk said as the images flipped at high speed through every camera in the station. The images never stopped, even though Dan noticed the cycle had repeated itself.

  "It's a shame really, that all of your advanced technology can't find one little Drogant." Dan said with a smile. He hoped Too’Zer was making his way up here. "And the way the stars are moving, we'll be crashing into the sun in a few days."

  "Five days, three hours, and twenty-seven minutes, actually." The little robot said.

  Holographic windows appeared all around them showing the missiles.

  "What are you doing?" Dan asked.

  "Firing the missiles." the little robot said.

  "Are you forgetting about this?" Dan asked as he held up the grenade.

  "I don't forget anything, much like you. It's why we were recruited to the program."

  "Stop what you're doing, or I'll let it go." He said.

  "I calculate only a thirty-two percent chance that you'd actually do it." the robot said.

  On the screens, the missiles were lighting up, signaling to the two of them that they were about to be launched.

  Dan threw the grenade.

  * * * * *

  Too’Zer moved slowly through the station. For one, Drogants aren't runners. For two, he was avoiding any camera he saw, which meant going around. There were cameras almost everywhere. Some he was able to sneak under and around as they rotated, but others he wasn't so lucky with.

  He had made progress though. He was now one floor under the observatory without having been spotted - to his knowledge anyways. He knew this because no defenses activated. He knew his skin would shield him from the UPA scanners, but he wasn't sure about the technology that their enemy had. He moved as Dan taught him, silent and efficient.

  He knew the observatory deck was just an empty room with a glass dome at the top, leaving him nowhere to hide. Fortunately, when Amaya had gained control of some of the station, he had used the station's own scanners to determine the exact location of the robot-man, and his Captain. For the last twenty minutes, he had been removing ceiling tiles and placing explosives under where the robot-man stood, being careful to aim the blast away from the Captain.

  If he was lucky, the explosives wouldn't break the glass surrounding the dome.

  * * * * *

  "Space Admiral, I'm reading weapons signatures coming from the station. I think the missiles are being primed!" Lieutenant Melton shouted into the comms.

  Amaya changed her screens to confirm the missile's signatures he was seeing. "Enemy weapons hot! Prepare to target, and fire-at-will!" She said into the comms. "Watts! Come in!" She pleaded. They had lost communications with all their teams and haven't heard from them since. They still read their life-signs on the station though, so she knew they were alive. Dan was still in the observatory, and Watts and the twins were moving to the next missile locations - albeit slowly. He would never be able to remove the cores from all the missiles.

  "Space Admiral..." Melton said as he trailed off.

  "What is it Lieutenant?" She asked quickly.

  "The missiles are powered up but aren't leaving the station." He said from the engine room. "Is he going to blow himself up? I mean, that woul
d be okay for us, but not for Captain Daniels and his people, but if —" Amaya cut him off.

  "What are you up to, Trevor?" Amaya asked quietly.

  "Perhaps the Captain won?" Belladi asked.

  "Or perhaps the strike is coming soon." Amaya said as she started targeting the missile's power cores. "Let's hope this little ship can protect an entire planet." She said quietly.

  Chapter 14

  Watts and the twins were nearly finished with a room full of two-hundred missiles. Bort and Dort had stopped collecting power cores because their bags were overflowing - so much so that they kept dropping one or two every time they moved to the next missile. They didn't stop to collect them though, they just took the core from the next missile and replaced it.

  They were two missiles away when the hanger doors started opening.

  "Get out!" Watts yelled as he swung from the hanging lights in the low-ceiling room. He swung to the door they had come through, but it was closing too fast. He tried to use his wrist console to open it while cursing up a storm. "Amaya, if you can read me - I need help!" he shouted into the comms. He looked up to see the twins rushing to him, cores be damned as they fell out of their bags. "Strap yourselves down!" He yelled as he quickly unfastened his tool belt and ran it through one of the bars along the wall next to the door. The bars held the ordnance behind them in locked cabinets, he knew it was the strongest thing in the room - not that he had much choice.

  Bort managed to undo his belt and loop it around the same bar, but Dort wasn't even close to making it to them as the bay door opened. He tried to run as fast as he could, but without anything to hold him down, the equalization of pressure in the room flung him towards the bay doors.

  Then, he was hit by one of the three missiles they didn't remove the cores from as it left the bay, taking him into space.

  * * * * *

  On the observatory level, chaos happened all at once.

  First, the grenade Dan threw went off right next to Kirk, taking him and the majority of his robots out. Sparks started flying everywhere.

  Second, the floor beneath Kirk exploded upwards. The entire observatory was now a room filled with smoke and sparks. The explosion threw Dan back towards the elevator, and a couple pieces of shrapnel hit him in the left leg and left arm.

  Third, the communications came back, and Amaya was yelling that the missiles had launched.

  Fourth, Watts was shouting over the comms that Dort was sucked out of the missile hanger, and he and Bort were holding on for dear life.

  Finally, when Dan recovered from the explosion enough to lift his head, he noticed the missiles flying out of the station via the glass dome that covered the observatory. He also noticed a large crack forming. He did his best to crawl to the elevator, slammed the button to close the door a few dozen times, and slumped down against the side of it. He didn't care where it was taking him, as long as it wasn't floating into space.

  * * * * *

  In space, not only just over six-thousand missiles left the station, but the orbital defense platforms activated and were firing on everything that moved, including the station. Luckily there was a lot of debris still in the sector from Kirk's initial destruction - the lasers would target and destroy anything the size of a Lifepod and above. Eventually they would run out of debris and target the Heatseeker.

  "Fire everything!" Amaya said as she targeted and fired at as many missiles as the small ship could handle.

  Laser fire consumed the front of the ship. With two rapid fire laser cannons in the front, and two turret-mounted lasers on both the top and bottom of each wing, all six cannons were spewing red laser-bolts as fast as they could. Luckily, they had a new engine which provided enough power to keep up with all the laser fire.

  "The miss rate is twenty-seven percent and climbing!" Lieutenant Melton said over the comms.

  "Sorry!" Belladi said as she was furiously typing on Too’Zer’s console. She had to target each missile individually as the targeting computers were unable to keep up with the number of missiles that were being fired from the station.

  An explosion rocked the ship, nearly throwing Belladi out of her seat.

  "Target the closest ones first!" Amaya shouted. She was having trouble keeping up as well.

  While the missiles weren't directed at the ship, they were passing by as they were being shot and destroyed. Four flew by the Heatseeker.

  "There's too many!" Belladi shouted in frustration.

  "Get as many as you can!" Amaya shouted.

  "But those are going to hit the people on the planet!" Belladi cried.

  "We can only do what we can do!" Amaya shouted.

  The four missiles that had passed them turned into six, then ten, then two dozen. There were simply too many missiles to keep track of.

  "Oh my gods!" Belladi shouted as she continued to target and fire on the missiles. "We've failed!"

  "Not yet!" Amaya shouted.

  "What is that?" Belladi said as she kept doing what she could to. She noticed a very large sensor target appearing behind them.

  "It's the Valor!" Amaya cheered.

  Chapter 15

  The Valor was the flagship of the United Planetary Alliance. It was almost the size of Beta Earth Station. With a crew of five thousand, the station-sized ship had a compliment of five-hundred fighters, two mega particle cannons, seventy-four large laser cannons, forty-two small laser cannons, and the most advance shields the UPA has to offer.

  Amaya could fit dozens of Heatseekers in just one of the cargo bays of the ship.

  "Target all missiles and fire. Deploy as many fighters that have the upgraded code from the Space Admiral as are available." Captain Norman said from the bridge of the Valor. "No missiles make the surface."

  There were a bunch of "Yes Sir." from the thirty officers at various stations.

  "And someone hail that ship." the Captain added.

  The Captain stood from his chair and put his hands behind his back when the Space Admiral herself appeared on his oversize view screen.

  "Space Admiral Amaya, what are you doing on that tugboat?" He asked.

  "Trying to save the UPA!" She shouted. She was still firing at the missiles. "I'm glad you got my message!"

  "When the Space Admiral calls, we come." Captain Norman said nonchalantly. "We'll take it from here, Space Admiral. Feel free to fly into cargo bay one, so your ship isn't damaged when the station is destroyed."

  "You can't destroy the station, Captain." Amaya said quickly. "We have people on it."

  "Very well." He said. He issued orders to his officers to save the station and deploy infiltration teams to secure those on board.

  "No one gets hurt, Captain." Amaya added.

  "Of course." He tried telling her, but her communications dropped.

  "What happened?" He asked.

  "Sir, her ship was hit by a nearby explosion. I'm still reading three life-signs though." One of his officers told him.

  "Send a team to her ship before deploying to Beta Earth Station." He told the officer.

  "Yes Sir!"

  * * * * *

  Sirens were blaring on the bridge of the Heatseeker. Smoke started coming from a couple systems, and all but one of the lights went out. Only two of the stations were working, but one of them was flickering as though it was on its last leg.

  "Belladi!" Amaya yelled from her position on the floor. Unable to see, she crawled over to Too’Zer’s station to find her.

  Belladi groaned, giving away her position to Amaya, who finally managed to make it to her. Amaya crawled over her body, running her hands over it to find her hand.

  "Belladi! Are you hurt?" She asked with a cough, the smoke was becoming thicker, if that was even possible.

  Belladi moved her hand to her stomach slowly, taking Amaya's hand with it. When the hands stopped, Amaya felt something protruding from Belladi's stomach, and the wetness of what she assumed was blood.

  "Space Admiral!" Lieutenant Melton shouted as he ente
red the bridge. He was coughing and couldn't see anything in the smoke. "Space Admiral!"

  "Over here!" Amaya shouted to him. "Belladi’s hurt! Can you do something about the smoke?" She yelled to him as she felt under Belladi's back to see if whatever hit her went all the way through - thankfully it didn't. She grabbed Belladi's hands and pulled her towards the hallway. Belladi screamed in protest.

  "Lieutenant!" Amaya shouted.

  "The life-support is offline, I think! We need to get to the escape pods!" He yelled at her. He left her and ran down the hallway to the escape pods.

  "Lieutenant!" Amaya shouted again, but he was gone. She could barely pull Belladi out of the bridge as it was, and now the hallway was filled with smoke as well.

  She didn't know if she could make it to the escape pods.

  * * * * *

  After the two missiles they failed to remove cores from fired through the open hanger, it closed, dropping Bort hard to the floor. Watts hung from his belt, but he undid it and dropped hard to the ground as well. They were gasping for air as the room re-pressurized, it wasn't a fast process in a room this size. Until it had completely re-pressurized, the internal door wouldn't open.

  "Dort!" Bort said between breathes. "Dort..." He reached his hand towards the airlock.

  "Breathe... first... grieve... later..." Watts said as he gasped. He rolled onto his back as he tried to draw in as much air as he could.

  "Gonna’ kill... that guy!" Bort yelled as he slapped the ground. He closed his eyes - Watts could see tears coming out.

  After a few minutes of the room re-pressurizing, Watts was able to stand up, though he had to lean against the wall. "Sensors are back online..." Watts said as he tapped on his wrist console. "All the missiles have left the station."

  Bort stood up and cocked his rifle. He walked over to the door and punched the console to the right of it to open it. It didn't open. He screamed at it.